This paper reports the results of two experiments in which sunflower plants were grown from seed to seed in small pots to utilize greenhouse space efficiently. We used small plastic pots (9.0 × 8.6 × 9.0 cm) filled with approximately half a liter of potting soil in a temperature-controlled greenhouse with a light : dark cycle of 14 : 10 h. In the first experiment, 100 F2:5 plants were grown on a two-square-meter bench in the greenhouse during the winter of 2007. Ninety-eight of the 100 plants survived to maturity and produced an average of 62 viable seeds with a range of 36 to 102 seeds per plant. In comparison to the plants grown in six-liter pots, we observed that all the plants grown in the small pots had a significant decrease in plant size such as height, head diameter, and number of seeds per plant. The plants grown in the small pots flowered on average 9 days later than those in the large pots. No significant difference was observed for germination rate between the seeds harvested from small and large pots. In the second experiment, two oilseed and two confectionery sunflower inbred lines were grown during the summer of 2007 to confirm the observations from the first experiment. The results were essentially the same as those observed in the first experiment. For number of seed produced per plant, an average of 13.0 to 42.2 seeds were obtained per head for each of the four lines grown in small pots, with no significant difference observed between oil and confectionery sunflower. Thus, our results suggest that it is possible to produce viable seeds from plants grown in small pots. This method should be useful for efficient line advancement in the greenhouse for breeding and genetic studies.


In 1945 thirteen volumes, or fragments of volumes, written on papyrus were found by chance near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. It appears that they had come from the library of a gnostic community and together comprised 49 works, written in Coptic and most of them unknown. None of the works included in the discovery has been so much discussed and has created so much interest as The Gospel according to Thomas. It is in fact a great collection of Logia, a harvesting of 114 "Sayings of Jesus" together with a prologue which stresses the esoteric character of the sayings and attributes their recording and preservation to the apostle Didymus Jude Thomas. Many of the sentences are identical with the Logia of the Synoptic Gospels or are closely related to them. Other sayings on the contrary are extracanonical. Among these are certain "agrapha" which were already known or can now be recognized in ancient or medieval literature from patristic, gnostic, Manichaean, or even Catharist sources. Finally, the collection comprises many Logia which are quite new and have never before been seen. This reprint of the original 1959 edition presents the Coptic text based on a minute examination of the manuscript, together with as faithful a translation as possible.


In this short reflection paper, I will set out to explain how and why Sweden breaches EU data protection rules. I will start by providing a brief overview of the EU data protection framework to paint the background picture. Thereafter I will discuss the scope for derogating from the obligations set out in the GDPR and thereby test the Swedish exception and show that it is not proportionate and undermines the purpose of the GDPR. Subsequently, I will discuss why some core fundamental rights of EU law should not be possible to derogate from, when as in the Swedish case it seems to boil down to economic question of who gets to own the data. I will conclude by linking the question of the right to data protection and why licenses should not give companies a carte blanche to publish personal data about people in Sweden to the question of market access. There is an imbalanced relationship here, to use the internal market vocabulary, with Swedish people having all their private data published online while other EU states do not do that. Likewise, there is an external dimension here: the data is available on the internet globally and therefore third countries also access it.


Monolayer culture of kidney cells and ex vivo and in vitro experiments using model organisms are commonly used in studies of renal development, yet it is unclear how these correlate with human kidney development in vivo. Recent research aimed at engineering new kidneys from dissociated renal cells demonstrates that it is feasible to generate multiple nephron segments, resulting in a three-dimensional, miniature kidney like structure, albeit with poor overall structural organisation than a normal kidney. This has been done predominantly using cells obtained directly from mouse embryos within the first two days of kidney formation, and it is not thought to be possible to use older murine organs. In theory, it should also be possible to generate neo-kidneys using human renal progenitor cells from fetal kidneys; however, these can never be obtained early enough to correspond to the mouse stages that are normally used. Here, I not only show that dissociated renal cells from older embryonic mice are able to generate multiple nephron segments, but also that human fetal kidney cells are able to produce typical nephron elements. Dissociated renal cells from older embryonic mice not only generate structural elements resembling normal kidney tubules and glomeruli but they also have anion uptake capacity as might be seen in vivo, illustrating functional capacity. Human fetal kidney cells generated from gestational ages between 10 and 16 weeks were additionally able to produce apparently typical nephron elements. Some inter-species differences were observed in the morphology of the ureteric buds, with fewer branches found in the human compared to the mouse, along with an obvious difference in the expression pattern of CALB1+ cells. However, the human cell-derived neo-kidneys expressed functional anion and cation transporters. This thesis demonstrates that organotypic renal structures with functional ion transporters can be generated from human fetal kidney cells. This provides us with a novel approach to understand and examine nephrogenesis and, essentially, to model kidney disease from a human perspective.


The date, 18 December 2009, left the world perturbed, as global leaders failed to reach consensus on a legally binding climate deal in Copenhagen. Since Bali 2007, much work had been done on preparing for a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate deal. Accordingly, the non-binding Copenhagen (political) Accord was concluded paving the way for further talks in Mexico in 2010. However, the African continent maintained that it had received a raw deal. This paper presents the African Group's climate position and analyses the implications of the Copenhagen Accord for the continent. The paper also presents a way forward for Mexico and beyond. The conclusion urges African governments to hold onto the gains of Copenhagen 2009 and to continue pushing for a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate deal.


Relational query optimizers have traditionally relied upon table cardinalities when estimating the cost of the query plans they consider. While this approach has been and continues to be successful, the advent of the Internet and the need to execute queries over streaming sources requires a different approach, since for streaming inputs the cardinality may not be known or may not even be knowable (as is the case for an unbounded stream.) In view of this, we propose shifting from a cardinality-based approach to a rate-based approach, and give an optimization framework that aims at maximizing the output rate of query evaluation plans. This approach can be applied to cases where the cardinality-based approach cannot be used. It may also be useful for cases where cardinalities are known, because by focusing on rates we are able not only to optimize the time at which the last result tuple appears, but also to optimize for the number of answers computed at any specified time after the query evaluation commences. We present a preliminary validation of our rate-based optimization framework on a prototype XML query engine, though it is generic enough to be used in other database contexts. The results show that rate-based optimization is feasible and can indeed yield correct decisions.


Urbanism is an emerging phenomenon and international predictions demonstrate that more than half of the increasing world population will live in cities by 2050. Interdisciplinary studies try to develop smart and eco-friendly solutions in order to enhance urban living. This paper validates that the eco-city urban modeling emerges radically and concerns an ideal paradigm for sustainable urban development. After comparing alternative methods for eco-city modeling, this paper attempts to assess the sustainability of ystem dynamics the eco-city with the System Dynamics (SD) simulation-based technique. A holistic SD methodological framework is proposed, as a means to assist decision-makers, local governments and managers designing and adopting effective policies for monitoring and assessing the sustainable performance of eco-cities. This framework is formed and tested with two case studies respectively and useful findings about the efficiency of the eco-city modeling are generated. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


In this paper, a ZigBee-based sensor network is realized and evaluations are carried out in order to clarify the fundamental performance of this sensor network. Life recording and management system is introduced as an example of ZigBee-based sensor networks, and the system is introduced into mobile WiMAX network in Azumino city in order to solve some medical problems in local cities. The following evaluations are carried out: first one is an evaluation of the effect on communication time by interference of same frequency band signal, second one is a comparison of power of ZigBee signal with power of wireless LAN signal and third one is an evaluation of relationship between throughput and distance. Moreover, in this paper, examples of recorded data are shown, and the effectiveness of this system is clarified.


Carbonate reservoirs can exhibit heterogeneity in terms of porosity, permeability, fractures, vugs and wettability. This heterogeneity affects well performance, completion and reservoir management development decisions. Although extensive logs are run for the petrophysical evaluations in these formations, the use of advanced wireline formation testers (WFTs) can greatly aid in reservoir description. WFT not only can identify hydrocarbon bearing formations but also plays a vital role in fracture characterization and calibration of fracture models.
 Advanced petrophysical logs were used to identify potential pay intervals, while high resolution image logs to delineate fractured zones and static fracture parameters, such as dip, azimuth and aperture. It has been shown that fracture dynamic properties, such as conductivity, can be quantified via pressure transient analysis using wireline formation tester in addition to fluid analysis. In this paper, WFT data was used to understand the pressure behavior of naturally fractured reservoir containing a network of discrete finite-conductivity fractures.
 The study presents results obtained from advanced logging suite that was run to characterize complex low porosity and low permeability carbonate reservoir where natural fractures provide primary pathways of fluid flow. Advanced wireline formation tester with straddle packer and fluid analyzer were used to test potential intervals. Two out of several intervals were enabled to flow, identifying mobile gas. The pressure transient response confirmed the complexity of reservoir and dominant contribution to flow regimes from fractures in these two intervals. Dynamic fracture properties were characterized through pressure transient analysis and were integrated into fracture model. On the other hand, flow could not be established in number of other intervals indicating tight matrix and no flow contribution from fractures, leading to calibration of geological models.
 The novelty of approach is the use of wireline formation tester not only to measure formation pressure and acquire downhole samples but to characterize dynamic fracture properties to calibrate fracture model.


Industry-academia collaborations are in continual flux. The changing role of academics is reflected in the interaction between industry and academia. In this article, we examine how meetings as a genre are used to establish and alter the roles and identities of participants. First, interactional analysis shows that a meeting set-up revolving around academic presentations confirms an old role division between collaborators where academic contributions are vulnerable to undervaluation. Second, we found that so called "leading individuals" show critical discourse awareness that allows partners to reposition themselves in relation to each other. They use interactional strategies to create a joint purpose, empower participants to jointly realign, and motivate them to openly share progress. This results in a power shift where academics feel free to pursue their agendas. With this article, we try to understand how the choice of linguistic features shapes social and interpersonal relations in industry–academia collaborations by focusing on open innovation as a socially contingent process.


Background : Treatment options are limited for patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) CML who are resistant or intolerant to both imatinib and dasatinib. Nilotinib is a potent and highly selective BCR-ABL kinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of Ph+ CML patients in chronic (CML-CP) or accelerated phase (CML-AP) who are resistant or intolerant to prior therapy including imatinib. Here we report the updated results evaluating the safety and efficacy of nilotinib in patients with CML-CP who were either resistant or intolerant to both imatinib and dasatinib therapy. Methods : Nilotinib was dosed at 400 mg twice daily with an option to dose escalate to 600 mg twice daily in patients with inadequate hematologic and/or cytogenetic responses or disease progression. Results : A total of 37 patients (median age 62 years) with CML-CP were included in the analysis. The median time since first diagnosis of CML was 86 months. The median duration of prior imatinib therapy was 40.6 months with 84% being imatinib-resistant and 16% imatinib-intolerant. The median duration of prior dasatinib therapy was 6.6 months, with the majority of patients (65%) being intolerant to dasatinib therapy and 32% of patients were dasatinib resistant. Approximately half (51%) of the patients discontinued dasatinib due to grade 3/4 laboratory abnormalities or adverse events (AEs) and 32% discontinued due to disease progression. The median duration of nilotinib exposure was 218 days (7.3 months; range 43–723 days) and 65% of patients remained on nilotinib at the time of data cut-off. In total, only 4 (11%) patients discontinued nilotinib due to AEs and 9 (24%) discontinued due to disease progression. For CML-CP patients without complete hematologic response (CHR) at baseline, 81% achieved CHR with nilotinib treatment. The median time to first CHR for patients with confirmed HR was 1 month. Major cytogenetic response (MCyR) was achieved in 38% of patients with median time to first MCyR being 1 month and median duration of MCyR being 9.7 months. Complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) was achieved in 18% of patients. Estimated 1-year overall survival was 97%. The most frequent drug-related non-hematologic AEs on nilotinib were rash (22%), nausea (16%), and pruritus (14%). Newly occurring or worsening grade 3/4 hematologic laboratory abnormalities included neutropenia (38%), thrombocytopenia (24%), and anemia (5%). Other common grade 3/4 biochemical laboratory abnormalities included elevated lipase (24%), hyperglycemia (11%), elevated alanine aminotransferase (8%), and hypophosphatemia (8%). Brief dose interruptions were sufficient to manage most adverse events. Conclusions : Nilotinib is highly active in heavily pretreated CML-CP patients who failed both prior imatinib and dasatinib therapy. Importantly, most patients in this study were previously intolerant to dasatinib, and discontinuation of nilotinib in this study was uncommon. These results support nilotinib's significant efficacy and favorable tolerability profile demonstrated in earlier trials with nilotinib as second-line therapy for the treatment of CML-CP. The frequency of adverse events among these heavily pretreated patients is low and similar to patients who failed imatinib only.


Historically, language is an indispensable guide both to theoretical scientifi c ideas and to real actions. Any language embodies a theory of meaning , a logic, a classifi cation of experience, a conception of perceiver, knower and agent and their objects, and an apprehension of existence in space and time. We need to ask how language conditioned scientifi c thinking and was in turn altered by it. We may distinguish three levels: those of the structure of a language itself, of general conceptions of the nature of things expressed in it, and of particular theories . (Crombie : –)


This paper examines the impact of trade liberalisation in particular, and of economic deregulation in general, on economic growth and employment generation. The rapid growth of ready-made garment industry - and, to a lesser extent, that of export-oriented shrimp production - are discussed as evidence of direct beneficial impact of increased trade openness. Besides, trade liberalisation also indirectly contributed to stimulating other parts of the economy, thus contributing to pro-poor growth.


Sea clutter amplitude is often modeled as a compound random variable Z=AX, where A is a positive valued random variable and X has a Rayleigh distribution. The K and discrete Rayleigh mixture distributions arise from this model using a gamma or discrete distribution, respectively, for A. In certain applications, successive values of A may be correlated. If this correlation is modeled as a finite Markov process, Z is described by a hidden Markov model (HMM). Amplitude only and phase coherent detection statistics are derived from the HMM models using locally optimal and likelihood ratio techniques, respectively. The performance of these algorithms are compared with CFAR and Doppler processors using radar data.


This report documents the evaluation of the methodologies used in the travel surveys done in five urban areas in Texas in 1990 and 1991. Based on those evaluations, specific recommendations are made in the areas of sample size estimation, survey methodologies, data specifications, survey instruments, etc. Surveys evaluated include household surveys, workplace surveys, special generator surveys, external station surveys, and truck surveys. Several travel data gaps are also identified where current survey efforts are not sufficient in terms of providing data for their estimation or modelling.


In plasma spraying, the dynamics of droplet deformation and cooling on the substrate determines the geometry of the resulting splat, the porosity formation and the quality of contact between the splat and the underlying layer, thereby controlling the properties of coatings. The process of splat formation depends on the droplet velocity, size, molten state, chemistry and angle of impact, and on the substrate material, roughness, temperature and surface chemistry. This paper concentrates on investigating the way the droplets impact onto the substrate. A fast-imaging camera is used to observe the impact of plasma-sprayed alumina droplets on cold and hot substrates. Three modes of impact are observed: splashing, deposition or rebounding. A droplet is said to splash when it disintegrates totally or partially into secondary droplets after impacting onto the surface while it is said to deposit if the liquid material spreads and solidifies on the surface with a minimum splashing. The results are expressed in dimensionless form as a correlation between the impact mode and the Sommerfeld parameter K. The latter quantifies the importance of the particle parameters at impact (temperature, velocity and size) and viscous and surface tension forces. It is found that, when K is higher than 57.7, the splashing mode prevails as already found in a variety of different fields for droplets impacting on surfaces.


Within the context of the rapid solidification of metals, an experimental investigation has been undertaken in order to elucidate the fundamental mechanism behind the 'spontaneous grain refinement' phenomenon; in which abrupt transitions between coarse columnar and fine
equiaxed grain structures are observed with increasing solidification velocity. A melt fluxing technique has been employed to undercool and rapidly solidify a Cu-8.9 wt.% Ni alloy and a Cu-3.98 wt.% Ni alloy. This method permits in situ high-speed imaging of the recalescence front, allowing the solidification velocity to be calculated and studied as a function of undercooling. A B2O3 + Na2SiO3 glass flux has been identified as the optimal composition for use in the melt fluxing of Cu-Ni alloys, and undercoolings of up to 240 K have subsequently been achieved. Light microscopy, SEM, EBSD and XRD pole figure analysis has been performed
on the as-solidified samples in order to study the evolution of microstructure and texture with increased undercooling/solidification velocity. An extended transition in growth orientation, from -oriented at low undercooling to -oriented at high undercooling, has been observed in both alloys. At intermediate undercooling, competitions between the two growth
orientations are observed to give rise to mixed-orientation microstructures, a novel form of the dendritic seaweed structure and multiple twinning. In the high-Ni alloy, this mixedorientation regime appears to coincide with the low undercooling grain refinement transition, subsequently driving a recrystallisation and recovery process. In the low-Ni alloy, however, the mixed-orientation regime does not coincide with the grain refinement region, and grain
refinement in this instance occurs via a dendrite fragmentation mechanism. Dendrite fragmentation is also observed to drive spontaneous grain refinement at high undercooling in this alloy. By contrast, at the largest undercooling achieved in the high-Ni alloy, a partially grain refined sample has been obtained, in which the majority of the substructure consists of dendritic seaweed –suggesting that seaweed is the most likely precursor to spontaneous grain refinement in this case. Thus, three separate grain refinement mechanisms have been identified in the two closely-related alloys; the selection of which appears to be dependent upon the original growth structures present, which are in turn determined by the closeness of
the competitions between differently-directed anisotropies. It is suggested that the addition of Ni to Cu either increases the strength of the kinetic anisotropy, or decreases the strength of the capillary anisotropy (or both); leading to a closer competition between the two at higher Ni concentrations, thereby accounting for the differences in microstructure and subsequent grain
refinement mechanisms.


Background: Significant clinical experience has been gained after five years from the approval of omalizumab in Spain. Objective: To describe patterns of use of omalizumab in current clinical practice in Spain. Methods: Retrospective, multicenter, study based on medical records from patients treated with omalizumab between Jan-2006 and Sep-2011. Results: 464 patients (63.8% female, mean age 45.6±19.3 years) were included. Omalizumab was mainly prescribed for the treatment of asthma (84.5%), followed by chronic urticaria (5.6%), food allergy (5.2%), atopic dermatitis (2.4%) and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (1.7%). The disease was severe in 76.7% of cases. During the year before omalizumab was started, asthma patients required an average of 2.7±3.7 emergency visits and 0.4±1.2 hospital admissions with a mean stay of 10.8±11.2 days. Mean number of unscheduled primary and specialized care visits were 3.5±3.9 and 1.8±2.3 respectively. The average lost working days was 7.9±22.3. The main reasons to start omalizumab treatment were the lack of efficacy with conventional (93.1%) or alternative therapy (22.0%), and the appearance of adverse events with other drugs (18.5%). Modifications of omalizumab dosage/frequency were detected in 17.5% of cases. Overall efficacy of omalizumab was rated as good/excellent in 64.4%. Efficacy was evaluated on the basis of clinical improvement (87.7%), disease control (77.6%), reduction of exacerbations (72.2%) and quality of life (33.4%). Conclusions: Severe asthma was the main indication for omalizumab prescription, albeit other serious and long-standing immunological diseases were identified. Omalizumab is a good therapeutic option for all the evaluated indications.


We investigated the diffraction properties of slanted anisotropic gratings originating from a photoinduced molecular reorientation of polymer-dissolved liquid crystal composites doped with trace amounts of an azo-dye. The diffraction efficiencies of the holographic gratings were strongly dependent on the incident angle and polarization state of the probe beam. In order to explain the properties, a model of the periodical reorientation distribution is presented, considering the relationship between the polarization state of the pump beam and the molecular reorientation of the material. The optical properties of the structures were simulated by employing the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The simulation results showed good agreement with the observed diffraction properties.


What motivates firms to adopt environmental management practices is one of the most significant aspects in the contemporary academic debate in which the review of the existing literature yields, with an obvious contextual bias toward developed world, contested theories and inconclusive findings. Providing a unique model that brings together the individual and organizational levels of analysis on firms' adoption of environmental management practices, this study aims to provide a new insight from the context of developing world. Data from 158 Red Sea hotels reveal two identifiable dimensions of environmental management—planning and organization, and operations—that can be explained as originating from different values. Whereas organizational altruism is a powerful predictor of both dimensions, managers' personal values and organizational competitive orientation are only relevant to environmental operations. The evidence also indicates that contextual variables such as chain affiliation, hotel star rating, and size are important to explain hotels' environmental management behaviors.


Three field trials with cabbage var. Market Prize were established at the Isabela Substation, AES-UPR, to evaluate the susceptibility of Plutella xylostella to various insecticides. Dosages recommended by the manufacturer were used for the first two applications in the first trial, and some double dosages were included in an attempt to get at least a 90% control of the larvae population. For the other two trials, recommended dosages and the effective higher dosages from the first trial were compared. Significant differences were obtained with methamidophos (2.34 L/ha), permethrin (0.234 and 0.468 l/ha), and fenvalerate (0.35 L/ha) for controlling the larvae. Control figures for those four treatments were 97.8, 100, 100, and 99.9%, respectively. Methamidophos, acephate, and naled controlled over 90% of the larvae only with double the recommended rates. Chlorpyrifos at 1.17 L/ha was ineffective, but at its higher rate controlled 80 to 90% of the larvae. Diazinon, methomyl, dimethoate, and endosulfan even at their highest rates were ineffective for controlling the larvae. The number of larvae increased after each application of these insecticides. The greatest numbers of marketable heads were obtained from plots treated with permethrin, fenvalerate, and methamidophos at the highest rate for each.


At its meeting on October 15, 1970 the Executive Board approved the following statement on marijuana, which was prepared by the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and is published on the recommendation of the Academy's Council on Child Health and Committee on Youth:
 (1) Young people view the inclusion of marijuana as a narcotic, with all its attendant severe punitive connotations, as another example of hypocrisy and lack of justice in America today.
 (2) As marijuana is not considered a narcotic but rather a hallucinogen and does not produce addiction as such, it is inappropriate to continue to have this drug subject to the narcotic laws, i.e., the Harrison Narcotic Act.
 (3) The penalties for possession and being in the presence of marijuana are severe in terms of their immediate and long-term effect on the individual. This opinion is based on the nature of the drug and the cultural circumstances associated with its use. Possession and being present should be changed from a felony to a misdemeanor.
 (4) However, marijuana, as a potentially harmful drug, should not be legalized in any amount at this time. Legalization, if ever, should be deferred until a maximum degree of research and study on the matter can be accomplished.


Since the "reform and opening-up" policy issued in 1978, China has experienced
great changes during the past three decades. Characterized by the rapid growth of
GDP, the national economic development has changed from planned command
economy to a decentralized market economy. As the experimental city, Shenzhen's
development not only adopted the transformation of the economic development model
but also brought about the rapid urbanization process. Under this condition, the
municipality faced great pressure to finance the city construction if only depended on
conventional ways. Therefore, the municipality, learned from Hong Kong, introduced
the public land leasing system to capture the land value and thus to finance the
construction of infrastructure and public facilities. Together with a series of relevant
national reforms, the primary land market and real estate market have been reformed
as market-driven system in Shenzhen. Nevertheless, along with such improvement, the land price and newly-built
commercial housing price have continuously been in an upward trend, which incurs
great social criticism and friction. In this case, this research is both exploratory and
explanatory to find out the influence of implementing public land leasing system as an
important instrument of land value capture in China. In addition, it also highlighted
the difference between the three market-oriented public land leasing modes.
According to the context, it put forward the hypothesis that the public land leasing
system would increase the land price and further the newly-built commercial housing
price. Besides the verification, this paper also deeply explained the reasons and its
meanings. The methodologies used in the paper are single-case study and error correction model.
For the case study, Shenzhen was chosen due to its well maintained database and
representative experience of implementing public land leasing system. Comparison
between closing land price and standard land price was the main quantitative way to
analyze how the system affects the land price in primary land market. And the
statistical model was used to tell the individual influence of the three different modes
of public land leasing system on the housing price variation.
The date used was collected from the Shenzhen statistical yearbook and Shenzhen real
estate yearbook with the triangulated information from real estate agencies. Interview
with the experts from the Institute of Shenzhen Real Estate Research and developers
provided the most of the qualitative information about the context. The findings and results firstly showed that public land leasing system can manifest
the market value of land and thus has been an effective way for the municipality to
capture the land value and finance the provision of public service and urban
development. While on the other hand, such a system improved the transparency of
land transferring process and the efficiency of land resource allocation. However, it
tended to raise the land price in primary land market either due to the strengthened


The principles of fault simulation and fault grading are introduced by a general description of the problem. Based upon the well-known concept of restricting fault simulation to the fanout stems and of combining it with a backward traversal inside the fanout-free regions of the circuit, proposals are presented to further accelerate fault simulation and fault grading. These proposals aim at parallel processing of patterns at all stages of the calculation procedure, at reducing the number of fanout stems for which a fault simulation has to be carried out, and at taking advantage of structural characteristics of the circuit. An experiment with a set of benchmark circuits demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed approaches.


An increasing and a decreasing sequence of pressure head, h0, values were applied with the tension infiltrometer
(TI) to determine the corresponding hydraulic conductivity, K0. The pressure head sequence is expected to influence the K0
results given the hysteretic nature of the hydraulic conductivity relationship. The objective of this study was to evaluate the
influence of the selected pressure head sequence on the hydraulic conductivity of a sandy loam soil measured by a
multipotential TI experiment. Twenty experiments were carried out by applying h0 values varying between -150 and +5 mm
(site A). The h0 values ranged from -150 to -10 mm in another 20 spots (site B). Both wetting and drying values of K0
corresponding to h0 = -150, -75, and -30 mm were calculated for each experiment using the measured steady-state flow rates.
At both sites, higher K0 results were obtained with the descending h0 sequence than with the ascending one. The deviations
between the two sequences were more noticeable in site A (deviations by a factor ranging from 2.1 to 3.3, depending on h0)
than in site B (deviations by a factor ranging from 1.0 to 2.2), and the values decreased as h0 increased. For most of the
considered type of site/pressure head combinations, the differences between the K0 results were statistically significant
(P = 0.05). In all cases, the coefficients of variation of the K0 data obtained with the two sequences differed at most by a factor
of 1.2, suggesting that the applied h0 sequence did not affect appreciably the relative variability of the K0 results. It was
concluded that the dependence of the K0 estimates on both the pressure head sequence (ascending or descending) and the
highest value of h0 used within a descending sequence experiment may be neglected for a rough hydraulic characterization
of the selected area. However, both factors should be maintained constant in order to obtain truly comparable K0 data from
different experiments.


OBJECTIVE
To systematically evaluate the comprehensive effect of subglottic secretion drainage (SSD) on patients with mechanical ventilation (MV) in intensive care unit (ICU).

METHODS
The randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) comparing SSD (intervention group) versus non-SSD (control group) in adult patients with MV in ICU was collected through the databases such as the PubMed database of the National Library of Medicine, CNKI, Wanfang database and the Chinese journal of science and technology database (VIP). The subjects were ICU patients with MV, and the retrieval time ranged from January 2006 to December 2016. Two reviewers independently screened the studies according to the inclusive and exclusive criteria, extracted the data, and assessed the quality. Then RevMan 5.3 software was used for Meta-analysis. Sensitivity analysis was performed using Stata 11.0 software. Funnel plot was used to analyze publication bias.

RESULTS
In the 1 004 documents obtained from preliminary screening, a total of 13 studies involving 2 052 patients were enrolled after excluding duplicated documents and literature did not meet the inclusion criteria, with 1 021 patients in intervention group, and 1 031 in control group. Meta-analysis showed that compared with control group, the application of SSD in patients with MV could contribute to the reduction of the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia [VAP; risk ratio (RR) = 0.54, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 0.46-0.64, P < 0.000 01], the duration of MV [mean difference (MD) = -3.29, 95%CI = -4.53 to -2.05, P < 0.000 01] and length of hospital stay (MD = -4.27, 95%CI = -7.36 to -1.18, P = 0.007) were shortened, while there was no significant difference in ICU or hospital mortality rate between the intervention group and control group (RR = 0.89, 95%CI = 0.73-1.09, P = 0.25). The sensitivity analysis for studies enrolled in Meta-analysis of MV duration showed that individual research results were stable through step remove of the included literatures and combined calculation of the remaining literature value, suggesting that individual research results were stable, and would not have a significant impact on the overall results. The results of the funnel analysis showed that there was a symmetry in the inclusion studies, and no significant publication bias was found.

CONCLUSIONS
SSD did have effect in reducing the incidence of VAP, shortening the duration of MV and length of hospital stay, while there was no significant effect on reducing mortality rate. Effective use of SSD is an important measure to prevent VAP. It is necessary to objectively evaluate the clinical effect of SSD.


This document constitutes an outline specification for a new tracer for Prolog, the design of which has been guided by an evaluation of the relative strengths and weaknesses of a number of existing Prolog tracers. The new tracer, known as the `Textual Tree Tracer' (or `TTT' for short) will produce a `sideways tree' representation of the execution of a goal, using only textual output, i.e. it will not require the use of any specialised graphics. Its key features include the following: a compact and yet very informative basic form of output, which distinguishes clause matching events, and several different goal failure modes; clear display of the structure of computation and the flow of control, via the use of a tree representation; extensive use of default controls to limit the quantity of trace output produced; the facility of retrospective inspection of earlier parts of the trace, in order to obtain more detailed information; and a specialised `database window' which facilitates correlation of the trace with the source code, and shows dynamically any changes to the database resulting from the assertion or retraction of clauses.


Parametric bodies reproduce the actual shape of human body parts and should be convenient for general users to change size to judge the visual fit of clothes on-line. In this study, three parametric bodies(i.e. I, C, D ) were compared to verify the accuracy of the provided body dimensions and reproducibility to a target model. To compare reproducibility, the 20s female standard virtual model developed for an apparel industry by Korean agency for technology and standards is used. The investigation of existing parameters showed that the numbers and kinds of parameters provided by each program were different with some errors in notation; in addition, some of virtual body dimensions went beyond the maximum allowable error. The result of changing each parametric body to the 20s female standard body showed that D, C, I in order produced better reproducibility for body dimensions. There were different levels of protrusion and concavity in the virtual cross sections and virtual longitudinal sections despite the small differences in body dimensions and cross sectional areas; in addition, some parametric body was not bilateral symmetry. The results of this study can be used as basic information in the standardization of a virtual model used in a virtual garment program.


MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine; commonly referred to as "Molly" or "ecstasy") is a synthetic compound, structurally and pharmacologically similar to both amphetamines and mescaline. MDMA differs somewhat from traditional amphetamines in that it is not structurally similar to serotonin. Cocaine is rare and cannabis is consumed less frequently than in Western Europe. Heroin is the drug of choice for the poor in Bucharest, Romania's capital of two million people, and alcoholism is common in villages where more than a third of the population lives in poverty. By far, the most popular drugs are Legal Highs (Romanians call them "ethnobotanics"). All of these drugs have significant effects on cardiovascular function that contribute significantly to adverse events. Most adverse cardiac events occur in young adults and are potentially reversible. Poisoning among patients aged 17 years and over was commonly seen in the Emergency Departments of a large tertiary hospital in the city centre, accounting for 3.2% of all patients. In a third of the poisonings, more than one substance was used. Intoxication with ethnobotanicals was the most frequently observed, followed by use of drugs from the amphetamine group. The majority of patients presenting to the Emergency Department were male. Therefore, this study suggests further research on hazardous alcohol consumption and drug abuse.


Due to their unique optical property, low toxicity, high hydrophilicity, and low cost, sulfur quantum dots (SQDs), an emerging luminescent nanomaterial, have shown great potential in various application fields, such as sensing, bioimaging, light emitting diode, catalysis, and anti-bacteria. This minireview updates the synthetic methods and sensing/bioimaging applications of SQDs in the last few years, followed by discussion of the potential challenges and prospects in their synthesis and sensing/bioimaging applications, with the purpose to provide some useful information for researchers in this field.


Intellectual property can be best termed to be the creative work of the human intellect and its extrapolations. The driving force for its protection is to promote the progress of science and technology, arts, literature and other creative works and to encourage and reward creativity. Nations give statutory expression to the economic rights of creators in their creation and to the rights of the public in accessing those creations. The contribution of intellectual property is sine qua non for the industrial and economic development of a nation. It is pertinent to argue that the prosperity achieved by the developed nations is, to a large extent, the result of exploitation of their intellectual property. Intellectual Property Right allows people to assert ownership rights on the outcomes of their creativity and innovative activity in the same way that they can own physical property .Competition Policy on the other hand, is regulatory in nature, it aims at creating a market place filled with healthy competition, it aims at ensuring a really free and competitive market and to assure consumers low prices and high quality that flows from the effective competition. In order to achieve the aforementioned, it is necessary to curb abuse of market power. The process of competition has to be supported by regulations which preclude any attempt at subversion of free trade and competition. Competition cannot be left unfettered in the belief that it will drive out unfair trade practices. By enactment of a competition policy, the government takes the responsibility for assuring competition among private firms without otherwise interfering in their price and output decisions. Intellectual property rights create monopolies, while a competition law battles monopolies. The convergence of these two domains opens up scope for redefining the way things work in the present market place in a developing economy such as India. These two domains complement each other when examined through their convergence, but at the same point this convergence needs to be monitored and regulated so as to prevent abuse of such market place position and ensure free markets.


The Full Law Analysis Scattering System Hub (FLASSH) is an advanced code which evaluates the thermal scattering law (i.e. TSL, S(α,β)) for thermal scattering cross sections and resonance Doppler broadening. The ability to accurately capture these two key cross section features is dependent on accurate, high fidelity TSL evaluations. FLASSH 1.0 provides advanced physics capabilities resulting in an improved, generalized TSL to most accurately represent the lattice dynamics within any material. This improved TSL will allow for consistent analysis in both the thermal and epithermal energy ranges. The features for TSL analysis are packaged within the FLASSH GUI for easy user interface along with data output in many file formats including ENDF File 7 and ACE files.


Maize is the dominant cereal crop produced in the US. One of the main fungal pathogens of maize is Fusarium verticillioides, the causative agent of ear and stalk rots. Significantly, the fungus produces a group of mycotoxins - fumonisins - on infested kernels, which have been linked to various illnesses in humans and animals. Nonetheless, durable resistance against F. verticillioides in maize is not currently available. In Texas, over 2.1 million acres of maize are vulnerable to fumonisin contamination, but understanding of the distribution of toxigenic F. verticillioides in maize-producing areas is currently lacking. Our goal was to investigate the genetic variability of F. verticillioides in Texas with an emphasis on fumonisin trait and geographical distribution. A total of 164 F. verticillioides cultures were isolated from 65 maize-producing counties. DNA from each isolate was extracted and analyzed by PCR for the presence of FUM1- a key fumonisin biosynthesis gene - and mating type genes. Results showed that all isolates are in fact F. verticillioides capable of producing fumonisins with a 1:1 mating-type gene ratio in the population. To further study the genetic diversity of the population, isolates were analyzed using RAPD fingerprinting. Polymorphic markers were identified and the analysis showed no clear correlation between the RAPD profile of the isolates and their corresponding geographical origin. Our data suggest the toxigenic F. verticillioides population in Texas is widely distributed wherever maize is grown. We also hypothesize that the population is fluid, with active movement and genetic recombination occurring in the field.


The recent achievements in mobile technology and wearable OS makes possible to create comfortably wearable and very capable smartwatches. They have many different sensors and powerful hardware combined with general purpose OS and all this available for reasonable price. It makes it ideal device for elderly care. Monitoring the elderly's basic health condition is very straightforward, but using smartwatch as an indoor localization device, monitoring the motion activity, recognizing the typical motion patterns of wandering is not simple. Even those watches are really capable devices, they are not equipped with direct indoor localization sensors and we would like to avoid installing special equipment's, markers, transmitters in the home of elderly. Using only a commercially available smartwatch hardware for indoor localization is a challenging task, several filtering and data processing algorithms needs to be combined in order to provide acceptable indoor localization function. The algorithms, their connection and fine-tuning methods are explained in this article.


The article examines the use of "soft power" tools used by Iran in relation to Kyrgyzstan. The analysis of the evolving fundamental concepts of Iranian foreign policy in Central Гарбузарова Е.Г. Вестник РУДН. Серия: ПОЛИТОЛОГИЯ. 2020. Т. 22. No 1. С. 22–31 30 СОВРЕМЕННАЯ ВНЕШНЯЯ И ВНУТРЕННЯЯ ПОЛИТИКА ИРАНА Asia allowed us to trace a shift in the Islamic Republic's international priorities in the region. Objective logic prompted the Iranian leadership to move from "exporting the Islamic revolution" to the pragmatic model of pursuing its national interests. Iran has consecutively incorporated soft power tools into its foreign policy activities in Central Asia. Given the pressure from the sanctions imposed by the United States, Iran attaches particular importance to improving the effectiveness of its soft power in order to expand cooperation horizons with the outside world. By the end of the 20th century, Iran's leadership had already laid the foundations of its cultural diplomacy in the region, which mainly served to promote influence through the export of cultural values. The Iranian approach to soft power in world politics is based on the principles of reciprocity between different civilizations and peaceful coexistence of all countries and peoples. Through the Persian language, philosophy, literature and poetry, Iran influences the population of the Central Asian region, mainly the peoples sharing certain features with the Turkic-speaking world. Iran's cultural and educational activities in Kyrgyzstan have demonstrated noticeable dynamics: the spread of soft power of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kyrgyzstan is carried out through cultural institutions and educational projects. Despite the fact that Kyrgyzstan is culturally more inclined towards the Turkic world, the experience shows that Iran's cultural values also find support among the population of the republic.


This study assessed the efficacy of a new dose reduction regime in fluoroscopically guided electrophysiology (EP) procedures, which included diagnostic electrophysiological investigations, radiofrequency ablation, and biventricular pacing. A modified dose regime for fluoroscopy was implemented in one of our cardiac electrophysiology laboratories. The x‐ray system was programmed with a hierarchy of three fluoroscopy doses, and therefore image quality and settings. The default (lowest) dose mode was not expected to be suitable for all patient sizes or for the entirety of all procedures. Staff raised the dose level in a stepped manner as and when required to optimize the imaging requirements of the procedure. Phantom studies indicated that the low dose mode provided adequate image quality for visualizing EP catheters, while significantly lowering patient skin dose. In 52 clinical cases, questionnaires were used to assess the subjective clinical image quality. The mean image quality score for the low dose setting was rated between "adequate" and "good." The fluoroscopy dose level was raised from the lowest level for 6% of the total fluoroscopy time. Procedural Dose Area Product (DAP) meter readings were analyzed for patients prior to (n = 85) and after (n = 150) the implementation of the low dose regime and showed an overall reduction in DAP rate of 74%. The hierarchical dose regime proved to be acceptable in routine clinical practice for EP procedures, leading to significant reductions in patient doses.


Once the guilty verdict has been determined, a judge will follow guidelines based upon the current laws instituted to determine the final sentence. Guidelines found within our current justice system have been found to be too easily affected by bias, which may lead to possible Eighth Amendment violations and thus, ironically, injustice. The question presented asks us to consider: are the current guidelines encouraging and allowing injustice within our justice system?


Introduction. In the conditions of anthropogenic pollution of water, environment-safe drugs and implementing of immunomodulatory drugs are becoming increasingly common. Schemes of their use in fisheries are being developed. The article presents and analyzes the potential use of biologically active additives (BAA), namely probiotics, prebiotics and yeasts, both domestically and internationally produced, in terms of their effect on the fish body.
Materials and methods of research. Search for literature data on the use of biologically active substances in fish farming, namely probiotics, prebiotics and yeast.
Research results. Considering the negative impact of prophylactic and therapeutic use of antibiotics in aquaculture, the use of dietary immunostimulants has been proposed as an alternative to antimicrobial drugs. In this sense, functional dietary supplements, including pre-, probiotics and yeasts, are receiving increasing attention as an environmental strategy to improve fish health.
Probiotics are the objects of comprehensive scientific research and an important product on the world market. The use of probiotics as biocontrol agents in aquaculture is increasing. The benefits of such additives include increased nutritional value, inhibition of pathogens and enhanced immune response by increasing white blood cells and phagocytosis. They improve the quality of the growing environment, protect fish from biological hazards, and modulate physiological processes that ultimately contribute to the health and welfare of fish in aquaculture. Probiotics also enhance growth performance and feed utilization in aquatic animals by increasing the activity of digestive enzymes.
The beneficial effects of prebiotics are due to by-products resulting from the fermentation of intestinal commensal bacteria. Among the many health benefits attributed to prebiotics is the modulation of the immune system. They directly enhance the innate immune response, including activation of phagocytosis, neutrophils, alternative complement system, and increased lysozyme activity.
Another environmentally friendly product that has been proposed as a dietary supplement is yeasts. Research on yeast products in fish diets has focused on their role in nutritional and functional supplements that contribute to the immune responses and gut health of fish.
Conclusions. Various studies of pro- and prebiotics in fish have shown the following results: effects on growth, gut microbiota, resistance to pathogenic bacteria and parameters of innate immunity such as alternative complement activity (ACH50), lysozyme activity, natural hemagglutination activity, respiratory burst, superoxide dismutase activity and phagocytic activity.All the above studies demonstrate that the addition of nutritional supplements to feed, such as immunostimulants, is an alternative method for the prevention and control of various diseases in aquaculture.


Adult snapping shrimps Alpheus heterochelis (Say) have paired asymmetric claws consisting of a major or snapper claw and a minor or pincer claw. An unusual condition of bilateral symmetry consisting of paired snapper claws arose spontaneously in several snapping shrimps by transformation of the pincer to a snapper in the presence of an existing contralateral snapper claw. Transformation in the external morphology and fibre composition of the closer muscle was completed within two intermoult periods in the majority of cases where true symmetry was achieved and once established became permanent. Thus snapping shrimps, which are by nature solitary, when continually exposed to each other in the laboratory may transform their pincer to a snapper without any trauma to the existing snapper claw.


Inequality in health research in Sub-Saharan Africa existed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic because of the dearth of research resources. The onset of COVID-19 has exacerbated inequality because of the changes in workplace settings. This study presents an insight into the extent of inequalities during the first year of COVID-19 using citation data of Sub-Saharan African countries' COVID-19 research. Citation data of all the 46 Sub-Saharan Africa countries was collected from Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed. After data cleaning and removal of duplicate records, collaboration type and publishers' country information was coded. Author processing charges of the Open Access articles were obtained from publishers' websites. CiteScore data was collected using Publish or Perish software and Scopus CiteScore report. Only 13.4% of the publishers are in Sub-Saharan African countries, and 21.14% of the articles were published in Sub-Saharan African journals. USA (20.92%) and the UK (13.73%), and India (6.21%) house the highest number of publishers. Publishers from the Netherlands (30.72%), the UK (24.23%) and the USA (14.81%) published the highest number of journals. The CiteScore of journals and mega journals published outside Sub-Saharan Africa was five and twenty-five times more prestigious than those published in the region, respectively. More equitable research practices that will recognize local authors from Sub-Saharan Africa as lead authors in studies about or in Sub-Saharan Africa and journals that are published in the region as a choice for important research may reduce the imbalances as observed in this study.


The paper aims to emphasize the specific detection of bacterial strains using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The assay is based on the specific binding of polyclonal antibody anti-E. coli tagged with FITC to E.coli and monoclonal antibody anti-Ps. aeruginosa tagged with Alexa Fluor 647 tagged to Ps. aeruginosa and on subsequent enzymatic immunological demonstration of the conjugated enzyme. In this experiment, the negative control was the Salmonella enterica strain. The two antibodies had no interaction with the negative control, instead, they were specific for E. coli and Ps. aeruginosa strains. When both strains were in the same well, the fluorescence intensity given by the presence of E. coli was 2.3 times higher than that given by Ps. aeruginosa, and the intensity of fluorescence decreased if there are both bacterial strains in the wells.


Introduction:Lymph node status is one of the most important clinical parameters of breast cancer. Axillary lymph node dissection and sentinel lymph node biopsy have considerable morbidity associated with them and a method to accurately predict lymph node positivity would be clinically useful. To date, no gene expression signature has been established that is capable ofestimatin lymph node positivity. Our aim was to develop a new predictor using a large set of patient samples and compare its performance to known clinical variables. Methods: An integrated database was constructed using publicly available Affymetrix microarrays with known lymph node status. The patients were divided into the four molecular subtypes of basal, luminal A, luminal B and HER2 positive using the St. Gallen criteria and the gene chip based gene expression data of estrogen receptor, HER2 receptor and MKI67. ROC analysis was performed for each gene within each subtype. Then, the top 10 genes of each list were combined, and using the expression data of these 40 genes across all patients, Manhattan or Euclidean distanceswere computed to calculate the distance between each sample. All the patients were ranked, and lymph node status was defined by using the proportional lymph node positivity of "x" nearest ranked patients. Multiple regression was performed to compare the classification using the gene expression data to known clinical variables. Statistical significance was set at p Results: The database includes 2756 patients, of whom 983 are lymph node positive. To optimize the classification, different number of genes (all/top100/top40) and different number of closest patients (x = 1/2/5/10/25/25/100/250/500) and two different distance metrics (Euclidean and Manhattan distance) were assessed. The best performance was achieved using the top40 genes with Manhattan distance to the 100 nearest patients. This setting reached a sensitivity of 0.70, specificity of 0.73 and accuracy of 0.72 across all patients. When compared to ESR1 status, HER2 status, MKI67 expression, grade, size, and agein the multiple regression, only the gene-expression based classification (1.56E-31) and size (1.7E-24) were significant. Discussion:We have established a pipeline capable of determining lymph node positivity using the gene expression data of 40 genes. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P4-03-03.


Deep aquifer monitoring is a challenge in terms of representativeness of the sample. Such monitoring is often done when pumping is
not adequate due to: 1) too deep water table level, 2) no willing to add disturbance to the aquifer (low recharge rate) or 3) too difficult
management at surface of discharge waters. Deep sampling may rely on the use of sampling bottles but these have a fixed volume
and need to lower and to remove the bottle each time a sample is needed.
Ball check-valves and pressure gas drive samplers have been developed to overcome this bias such as the US U-tube system. Here
we present investigations with a system developed by the BRGM (GazOGaz, patent FR1259214), relying on similar functioning but
having more flexibility in the use. Such a system allows the collection of a virtually unlimited volume of water at any depth in the water
column.
Nevertheless, there is a frequent question about the use that may be done of waters collected using deep sampling. Site managers or
public authorities wonder about the comparisons that can be made with samples obtained using classical pumping methodology.
The present survey has been designed in that objective. By carefully describing physico-chemical parameters along the water column
and by performing both in-situ deep sampling and pumping at fixed depth, characteristics of waters existing in 2 boreholes located
near Castres (Tarn, France) are investigated in details with specific focus on the dissolved elements. Conclusions on how deep
sampling may be used and useful for aquifer characterization are presented together with the limits of applicability of such a sampling
procedure.


The symposium was organized under the auspices of the Working Party on Chromatography of the Royal Flemish Chemical Society (KVCV). It was sponsored by 35 companies and by the National Fund for Scientific Research (NFWO, Brussels). Four workshops preceded the symposium; moreover an instrument, book and supplies exhibition, product seminars and tutorial, created an ideal forum for the 310 registered participants from about 35 countries from all over the world.


Five charge-transfer salts based on the combination of anionic FeIII and CuII bis(dithiolene) complexes containing nitrile groups with [M(cyclam)]2+ (M = Ni, Cu) cations, namely, [Ni(cyclam)]2[Cu(dcbdt)2]2·4DMF (1, dcbdt = 4,5-dicyanobenzene-1,2-dithiolate, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide), [Ni(cyclam)]2[Cu(dcdmp)2]2·4DMF (2, dcdmp = 2,3-dicyano-5,6-dimercaptopyrazine), [Cu(cyclam)]2[Cu(dcdmp)2]2·4DMF (3), [Cu(cyclam)]2[Fe2(cbdt)4]2·4DMF (4, cbdt = 4-cyanobenzene-1,2-dithiolate) and [Ni(cyclam)]2[Fe2(cbdt)4]2·4DMF (5), were prepared and characterised by X-ray diffraction and magnetisation measurements. The crystal structures of 1–4 were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which revealed that the cyano groups from dithiolene complexes fail to coordinate the metal ions in the cyclam units. Instead, they are coordinated by solvent molecules or by dithiolene S atoms and cyclam N–H groups, which participate in hydrogen bonds to the nitrile and sulfur moieties in the anions.


We present a flexible approach to the identification and estimation of causal objects in nonparametric, non-separable models with confounding. Key to our analysis is the use of `proxy controls': covariates that do not satisfy a standard `unconfoundedness' assumption but which are informative proxies for variables that do. Our methods are presented in sufficient generality that they apply to both cross-sectional and panel models. Our identification results motivate an easy-to-implement nonparametric estimation method. Under our identifying assumptions the estimation problem is `well-posed'. We describe the estimator and derive convergence rates. When applied in panel settings our methods provide a novel approach to identification with non-separable general heterogeneity and a fixed time dimension. In the panel case, observations from different periods serve as proxies for unobserved individual heterogeneity and our key identifying assumptions follow from restrictions on the serial dependence structure of the data and latent variables. We apply our methodology to two separate empirical settings that respectively showcase the cross-sectional and the panel implementations of our approach. We estimate causal effects of grade retention on performance in a range of cognitive tests using cross-sectional variation in the data and we estimate a structural Engel curve for food using panel data.


International student migration remains an under-researched field in migration studies, and this is especially true of return migration. This paper analyses students from Slovakia who have studied in the UK, both on degree courses and language/vocational courses, and have subsequently returned to their country of origin. It analyses their motivations, their acquisition of human capital in the UK, and the extent to which they have been able to realise individual welfare gains after returning to Slovakia. Their evaluations of their experiences are highly positive, with substantial numbers also reporting improvements in their jobs and incomes, even following relatively short stays abroad. The study emphasises the importance of the specific competences acquired by the students, rather than broad skill categories, or qualifications. It highlights the value attached to language competence, in particular, but also to learning, attitudinal and interpersonal competences, as well as networking. The paper concludes that there is a need to pay more attention to individual social biographies when understanding the relationship between migration and learning. At the same time, it also stresses structural parameters to individual agency, including the specific economic conditions in a transition economy, and the market value of competence in English as a world language. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In recently, it is demanded development of manufacturing techniques for machining of various mechanical parts. Therefore the development of turning is one of the important manufacturing techniques. In this study, an experimental shape in tapered groove turning was suggested, and the turning process was investigated by analyzing cutting speed, feed rate, tapered angle, depth of cut. The surface roughness and cutting force change in the workpiece was measured. From the results, the optimum machining conditions are obtained by design of experiments.


The serialized novel in the Pałuczanin newspaper from Żnin 1927–1939In the history of the Polish press of the interwar period, a provincial publishing center located in Żnin, in Pałuki region, played a major role. In the 1930s, Żnin was home to a dynamically developing press company, offering high-circulation titles of nationwide coverage Moje Powieści, Moja Przyjaciółka. The first step towards the creation of the future Publishing House of Alfred Ksycki was the establishment of the Pałuczanin newspaper in 1927, which formed the basis for subsequent publishing initiatives. The periodical, including a few supplements, was edited in accordance with the principle of "everything for everyone", and signalled the upcoming era of mass press. One of the ways of acquiring new readers, was the printing of novels in episodes, which started already in the first issue of the newspaper with a mini rural novel by Stanisław Kluczek, a folk writer of sensational historical novels. The newspaper featured 30 other popular novels from authors associated with the region Wanda Brzeska, Jan Andrzej Kraśny, Alojzy Kuzio, Franciszek Ksawery Tuczyński, but also those known from 19th-century French newspapers Émile Richebourg, Jules de Gastyne. The article presents the characteristics of all the titles published through the newspaper.


Article history Received: 24 August 2020 Accepted: 24 September 2020 Published Online: 30 September 2020 The present paper analyzes different demographic variables to reach the result of how population become aged in different parts of Asia. Policies and planning of population during the past decades have contributed to more life expectancy, leading to the aging of population in countries like Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and to some extent Iran. Population in some countries aging without needs gradually emerging, being met. People usually at the age of seventy and over lose their normal strengths and potentialities. Many of their capabilities are lost. They gradually become dependent on other younger age groups. Western countries usually have made better policies and plans earlier, and because of that, their aging people have better immunity as far as their health, social and economic conditions are concerned. Many aging people in Asian countries are concerned about their needs during the age of 70 and over. Decline in birth rate is the most important factor positively affecting the aging of population after a few decades has passed. The same happened to Japan, China, South Korea etc. Many Western countries started narrowing their birth rates in the nineteenth century, whereas Asian countries started that since around 1950. Earlier, women used to give birth to 7-8 children, in which half or more of them died in infancy, and the rest who survived, had to face malnutrition, shortage of education, child-labor from the age of 7-8, maternal fatality of mothers and many more unfavorable conditions that affected their lives. While the average age of marriage is between 2629 in the West, it is usually the age of 20 or below within many developing countries.


This paper first discusses the relationship of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and 2-dimensional PCA (2DPCA). For 2DPCA eliminating some covariance information which can be useful for recognition,and needing more coefficient for image presentation, a The face recognition method of the two-direction variation of 2DPCA (TDV2DPCA) is proposed, which makes use of more discriminant information in the variation of 2DPCA , and reduces the coefficients for image presentation in the way of two direction dimensionality reduction. The experiments on both of ORL and FERET face bases show improvement in recognition accuracy, fewer coefficients and recognition time over 2DPCA, and this algorithm is also superior to the BD2DPCA and PCA in terms of the recognition accuracy.


Cetuximab (Erbitux®) in combination with irinotecan is the most promising combination in heavily pretreated patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Efficacy of this combination was confirmed in the pivotal BOND I study. The aim of the present study was to evaluate efficacy and toxicity of a combination regimen of cetuximab and irinotecan but in contrast to the BOND I study all patients had previously received 5-FU, oxaliplatin and irinotecan and all had progressed during or shortly after completion of treatment. Before January 2005 salvage therapy with cetuximab and irinotecan was not used in Denmark. The Danish government had initiated a national programme for patients with advanced cancer and according to this programme the National Board of Health may approve and finance experimental treatment. From January 2005 to September 2005, 65 consecutive patients were treated with cetuximab (weekly) and irinotecan (each 2 or 3 weeks) at three university hospitals. Median age was 57 years (23–78), and median performance status was 1 (0–3). Response rate was 20%, median TTP was 5.5 months and median OS was 10.4 months. Response and survival was significantly correlated with severity of skin toxicity. Toxicity grade 3 was rare (skin toxicity 8%, diarrhoea 10%, nausea 3%, vomiting 3%, fatigue 8%). Salvage therapy with cetuximab and irinotecan is effective in patients pretreated with irinotecan, and oxaliplatin and in a general population the results from the BOND I study was confirmed.


In order to determine the relevance of a given item to a query, most modern search ranking systems make use of features which aggregate prior user behavior for that item and query (e.g. click rate). For practical reasons, when running A/B tests on ranking systems, these features are generally shared between all treatments. For the most common experiment designs, which randomize traffic by user or by session, this creates a pathway by which the behavior of units in one treatment can effect the outcomes for units in other treatments, violating the Stable Unit Treatment Value Assumption (SUTVA) and biasing measured outcomes. Moreover, for experiments targeting improvements to the behavior data available to such features (e.g. online exploration), this pathway is precisely the one we are trying to affect; if such changes occur identically in treatment and control, then they cannot be measured. To address this, we propose the use of experiments which instead randomize traffic based on the search query. To validate our approach, we perform a pair of A/B tests on an explore-exploit framework in the Amazon search page: one under query randomization, and one under user randomization. In line with the theoretical predictions, we find that the query-randomized iteration is able to measure a statistically significant effect (+0.66% Purchases, p=0.001) where the user-randomized iteration does not (-0.02% Purchases, p=0.851).


In networked control systems, because of limits on communication rates, control waveforms are frequently piece-wise constant with limits on rates at which they can switch levels. It is, therefore, natural to expect event-triggered control switchings to perform more efficiently than time-triggered ones. This article verifies the validity of this supposition. A method for designing good level-triggered control schemes is obtained by reducing the continuous time problem to one in discrete time. Then, by numerical procedures, the performance of the level-triggered scheme is computed for comparison with that of the periodically switched control scheme.


The ASTRI Mini-Array (MA) is an INAF project to construct and operate an experiment for the study of gamma-ray sources emitting up to the TeV spectral band. The ASTRI MA consists of nine Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes that will be deployed at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife, Spain). These telescopes will be an evolution of the two-mirror ASTRI-Horn telescope, successfully tested since 2014 at the Serra La Nave Astronomical Station of the INAF Observatory of Catania. Each telescope will be equipped with the new version of the ASTRI Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) Cherenkov Camera. The ASTRI-MA will be monitored and controlled by a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system which consists of different software subsystems. One of these is the Cherenkov Camera Supervisor (CCS) that controls each Cherenkov Camera. Its main functionality is to realize an interface between each Camera and the central SCADA software. The CCS provides the services to control and monitor the Camera through the Alma Common Software (ACS). This is a framework based on object-oriented CORBA middleware, which gives the infrastructure for the exchange of messages between distributed objects and system-wide services. The CCS is based on the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC-UA) protocol, a platform-independent service-oriented architecture. This work presents the design and the technologies used by the ASTRI Camera team to implement the CCS. It describes architecture and functionalities starting from the definition of the use cases and the system requirements.


Regenerative flow compressors are dynamic machines
capable of producing high heads at very low flow
rates. With comparable tip speed, they can produce
heads equivalent to that of several centrifugal
stages from a single rotor. They have found many
applications for duties requiring high heads at low
flow rates but the compression process is usually
with very low efficiency which is their major drawback.
Even though there are several factors that can be
considered to improve the efficiency of these
machines in this book various models will be
developed with different blade and flow channel
geometries to investigate their effect on performance.
Details of CFD analysis on the models of the
compressor, using a commercial software "FLUENT", are
presented. And based on simulation results of the
different models a blade and channel geometry that
gives significant improvement on performance is
suggested.


Background/Aim: Left ventricular aneurysms are complications following acute myocardial infarction. Left posterior left ventricular aneurysms occurring in a submitral position constitute a minor entity, and those leaving the mitral apparatus intact are extremely rare. Case Report: Herein, we report the case of a 58-year-old patient with a past medical history of coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction with a giant left posterior left ventricular aneurysm with moderate mitral valve incompetence. Results: The patient underwent myocardial revascularization and, through a transaneurysmal approach, successful endoventricular pericardial patch wall reconstruction with no impact on mitral valve competence. Conclusion: Whenever the mitral valve is not affected, a trans aneurysmal approach with endoventricular pericardial patch in association with myocardial revascularization represents a safe and reproducible approach with good functional outcomes.


We searched for the $CP$-violating rare decay of neutral kaon, $K_{L} \to \pi^0 \nu \overline{\nu}$, in data from the first 100 hours of physics running in 2013 of the J-PARC KOTO experiment. One candidate event was observed while $0.34\pm0.16$ background events were expected. We set an upper limit of $5.1\times10^{-8}$ for the branching fraction at the 90\% confidence level (C.L.). An upper limit of $3.7\times10^{-8}$ at the 90\% C.L. for the $K_{L} \to \pi^{0} X^{0}$decay was also set for the first time, where $X^{0}$ is an invisible particle with a mass of 135 MeV/$c^{2}$.


An experimental investigation of the flow generated by a homogeneous population of bubbles rising in water is reported for three different bubble diameters (d = 1.6, 2.1 and 2.5 mm) and moderate gas volume fractions (0.005 ≤ α ≤ 0.1). The Reynolds numbers, Re = V0d/ν, based on the rise velocity V0 of a single bubble range between 500 and 800. Velocity statistics of both the bubbles and the liquid phase are determined within the homogeneous bubble swarm by means of optical probes and laser Doppler anemometry. Also, the decaying agitation that takes place in the liquid just after the passage of the bubble swarm is investigated from high-speed particle image velocimetry measurements. Concerning the bubbles, the average velocity is found to evolve as V0α−0.1 whereas the velocity fluctuations are observed to be almost independent of α. Concerning the liquid fluctuations, the probability density functions adopt a self-similar behaviour when the gas volume fraction is varied, the characteristic velocity scaling as V0α0.4. The spectra of horizontal and vertical liquid velocity fluctuations are obtained with a resolution of 0.6 mm. The integral length scale Λ is found to be proportional to V02/g or equivalently to d/Cd0, where g is the gravity acceleration and Cd0 the drag coefficient of a single rising bubble. Normalized by using Λ, the spectra are independent on both the bubble diameter and the volume fraction. At large scales, the spectral energy density evolves as the power −3 of the wavenumber. This range starts approximately from Λ and is followed for scales smaller than Λ/4 by a classic −5/3 power law. Although the Kolmogorov microscale is smaller than the measurement resolution, the dissipation rate is however obtained from the decay of the kinetic energy after the passage of the bubbles. It is found to scale as α0.9 V03/Λ. The major characteristics of the agitation are thus expressed as functions of the characteristics of a single rising bubble. Altogether, these results provide a rather complete description of the bubble-induced turbulence.


The story of Latinos in Appalachia, when told, is dominated by the plight of migrant workers drawn to meat processing factories or agricultural work, with very little attention paid to Latino entrepreneurship in Appalachia. However, the first generation of migrant workers inspired a surprising collateral entrepreneurial effect: a raft of small businesses owned by (and focused on) the new Latino population surged into small town Appalachia. These businesses, which include restaurants, tiendas, pastelerias, and tortillerias, not only serve the growing Latino population, but also have a tremendously positive effect on local and state economies. These businesses hire employees, rent previously unused commercial space, increase the local demand for goods and services, and provide much-needed tax revenue. The phenomenon of Latino entrepreneurship is an unmitigated positive for small towns that have otherwise experienced great difficulty in producing and promoting small business activity.

This Essay focuses on the economic effect of Latino-owned businesses in Appalachia and concludes with some strategies that might help support these businesses, including providing Spanish translations of local and state business forms (e.g., formation documents, annual reports, etc.), simplifying state business entity and licensing regimes, and changing the requirements for the visa program based upon business investment.


The purpose of this study is to investigate integrity policies of five top public universities in Malaysia. To collect the data relevant policies as well as any other related information about plagiarism management processes were retrieved and downloaded from the university websites. Then the policies were coded and analyzed based on Australian university integrity policies of five core elements of exemplar. The results indicated that policies of Universities A, B, and D are easy to locate and access. Universities A, B, and C apply both punitive and educative approaches to address plagiarism. They also provide a clear outline of the responsibility for academic integrity which must be borne by the students and the staff of the universities. The study highlights the exemplar of five core elements in Malaysian university integrity policies and may serve as reference for universities interested in developing a holistic integrity policy.


The effects of porphyran-chungkookjang on cytotoxicity of human normal cell line (BJ) and human cancer cell lines (AGS and HT-29) were examined. Porphyran, which was prepared from laver (Porphyra yezoensis), decreased the viability of the cancer cells, however, it did not affect the viability of normal cells. Porphyranchungkookjang was prepared by the addition of 5% (w/w) porphyran into chungkookjang which was fermented by starter, Bacillus subtilis DJI. The cytotoxicity effects of the chungkookjang and porphyran-chungkookjang were evaluated with MTT assay. The methanol and the water extract of porphyran-chungkookjang at 1.0 ㎎/mL showed 23~38% decreases in proliferation of cancer cells (AGS and HT-29). However, the methanol and the water extracts of porphyran-chungkookjang did not inhibit the growth of normal cell. Moreover, the methanol extract of porphryan-chungkookjang at 1.0 ㎎/mL showed 1.2~1.5 fold higher anticancer effects than that of the chungkookjang.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report a case of contact lens-related Pythium insidiosum corneal ulcer. Methods: The authors conducted an interventional case report. We report the clinical presentations, histopathologic findings, and treatments of a patient with P. insidiosum keratitis associated with contact lens wear. Results: A 22-year-old Thai woman presented to our clinic with a nonresponsive, progressive corneal ulcer of the left eye. Slit lamp examination showed a large central ulcer measuring 5.4 × 5.2 mm with underlying dense stromal infiltrates surrounded by subepithelial and superficial stromal opacity in a reticular pattern along with radial perineural-like infiltrates. Histopathologic examination revealed broad, branched, thin-walled nonparallel hyaline hyphae with rare septates consistent with P. insidiosum. The corneal culture confirmed the diagnosis. The infection recurred after multiple therapeutic penetrating keratoplasties. Enucleation was eventually performed to eradicate the infection. No definite report of contact lens-related P. insidiosum keratitis existed in the literature. Conclusion: Pythium keratitis may present with central ulcer and radial keratoneuritis similar to acanthamoeba keratitis. Contact lens wear can be a risk factor for this infection. Increasing awareness, early diagnosis, and intervention may improve the prognosis.


We studied 30 large debris fans along the Alaska Highway between the Alaska-Yukon boundary near Beaver Creek and the south end of Kluane Lake to document late Holocene and historic debris flow activity and to evaluate the hazard that debris flows pose to the highway and other infrastructure. We used dendrochronology and tephrochronology to date surfaces on the fans and to estimate debris flow recurrence. All of the fans are paraglacial landforms of largely latest Pleistocene and early Holocene age. Debris flows continued to occur, probably at a diminishing rate, during the middle and late Holocene, but have only left an irregular carapace of deposits on the early Holocene fans. The White River tephra, which is about 1,200 years old, occurs across the surface of most of the fans, indicating that few debris flows and floods have escaped existing channels of streams on the fans. We conclude that future debris flows, like those that have occurred on nine fans in the past few decades, will mostly be restricted to present stream crossings.


Fatty acids covalently bonded with other molecules have been implicated in many important biological processes. We describe here a rapid approach termed isotope-coded fatty acid transmethylation (iFAT) that integrates extraction, transmethylation, and isotopic labeling into a single step with the aid of ultrasonic irradiation for comparative analysis of fatty acids by mass spectrometry. In this approach, samples without any prefractionation were mixed with a methanol solution of 0.5 M NaOH and an n-hexane solution. The intense wave shocks and cavitations generated by ultrasonic irradiation not only speed the alkaline-catalyzed transmethylation reaction but also facilitate the simultaneous mass transfer of fatty acid methyl esters into the top n-hexane extraction phase that was injected into a GC/MS system. By using commercially available d(3)-methanol, we were able to compare the intensity of labeled and unlabeled methyl esters and their corresponding fragment ions. The detection limit can be down to the picogram level. Major advantages of the iFAT strategy are summarized in the following: (1) Efficient heterogeneous reactions. Solid samples such as dried cell lysates or detergent-resistant fractions can be readily transformed and analyzed with the aid of ultrasound irradiation. (2) Accurate quantification of fatty acids. Evaluation of the completeness or losses of transformation reactions across lipid classes has been hampered due to a lack of suitable methods. Isotope labeling can be used as an internal standard for accurate comparison of the fatty acid composition in different cell states. (3) Reduced interferences from complex biological context. The iFAT strategy not only differentially labels fatty acids in different samples, but also volatilizes those molecules, and thus, they are isolated from the bulk background and analyzed by GC/MS. This proposed approach has been applied to quantitatively determine the fatty acid composition in plant oil and in budding yeast cell lysates and detergent-resistant fractions. It should provide a widely applicable means for quantitative comparison of the fatty acid composition in cells and tissues.


We study transport through a quantum dot in the fractional quantum Hall regime with filling factors ν=2/3 and ν=5/2, weakly coupled to the leads. We account for both injection of electrons to or from the leads, and quasiparticle rearrangement processes between the edge and the bulk of the quantum dot. The presence of neutral modes introduces topological constraints that modify qualitatively the features of the Coulomb blockade (CB). The periodicity of CB peak spacings doubles and the ratio of spacing between adjacent peaks approaches (in the low temperature and large dot limit) a universal value: 2∶1 for ν=2/3 and 3∶1 for ν=5/2. The corresponding CB diamonds alternate their width in the direction of the bias voltage and allow for the determination of the neutral mode velocity, and of the topological numbers associated with it.


. Group homology spectral sequences are used to investigate K 3 of truncated polynomial rings. If F is a finite field of odd characteristic, we show that relative K2 of the pair (F[Il/(lq), (tk)), which has been identified by van der Kallen and Stienstra, is isomorphic to K 3 (F[Il/(l k ), (I)) when q is sufficiently large. We also show that H 3 (SL Z[tl/(tk); Z) = Zk-l EB Zj24 and is isomorphic to the associated K3 group modulo an elementary abelian 2-group.


This study aims to determine the description of self-awareness and faking behavior in employee job interviews. This study uses a qualitative research method with a case study approach. The main subjects in this study were 5 people with the following characteristics: employees who have just worked for less than one year. The results showed that the subject showed a different picture of self-awareness and faking behavior in several aspects. Subjects are able to understand themselves, set life and career goals, build relationships with others, build diversity values, be able to balance their own needs with job demands, and develop self-control over appropriate stimuli. Meanwhile, in faking behavior during job interviews, subjects tend to prioritize physical appearance during the interview, ability to communicate and cover up negative self-images during the interview.


The nematode communities of four different micro-habitats in an unpolluted first-order stream were investigated over a 13-month period in a study of the sediment and the biofilms on dead wood, macrophytes and leaf litter. Nematode abundances, biomass and secondary production were analysed, together with the species composition, proportion of feeding types and diversity of the nematode communities of the micro-habitats. Differences between the investigated micro-habitats in terms of seasonal variations, species composition, proportion of feeding types and diversity were expected. The annual mean values of nematode abundance, biomass and secondary production differed significantly between the micro-habitats. Abundances were highest on dead wood, whereas biomass and secondary production were highest in sediment. In the sediment and on leaf litter, nematode abundance and biomass showed pronounced seasonal patterns. The largest contribution to the total secondary production of the stream was from sediment nematodes. In total, 108 nematode species were detected in the micro-habitats during the 13-month study. Comparisons between them revealed differences in nematode species composition. The annual mean species number was significantly higher in sediment and on leaf litter than on dead wood and macrophytes, whereas the annual mean Shannon-Wiener index was significantly higher in sediment than at all other micro-habitats. All micro-habitats in the studied stream, as well as the stream as a whole, were dominated by nematode species belonging to the deposit feeders. Our study clearly showed that the composition of nematode communities from different micro-habitats within a single stream reach can differ markedly.


. The article presents the results of research on the project "De-velopment of organic agriculture based on advanced methods and technol-ogies", with its integrated system approach, models of market organisation, process control of biological function and development of rural areas. The article substantiates the need to develop the concept and programs of organic agriculture in the regions of the Russian Federation in relation to the Altai Territory on the basis of a cluster approach with the development of biointensive technologies, mechanisms and methods of its development.


The audience that turned out for Coetzee's Nobel Lecture in Stockholm in December 2003 must have wondered what on earth the new laureate thought he was doing. Instead of the customary distillation of a life lived for or through literature (in 1991 his countrywoman Nadine Gordimer had offered "Writing and Being"), Coetzee chose to read an odd little story ostensibly narrated by Robinson Crusoe - a character, as everyone knows, from a trilogy of novels published in the early eighteenth century. But those who had followed Coetzee's novelistic career might on reflection have recognized "He and His Man" as a reprise of some of the writer's most abiding concerns, most notably through its staging of a phenomenon that appears to be present - like a genetic defect, an original sin - in each and every act of writing and interpretation. Following Foucault and others, I have chosen to characterize this phenomenon as catachresis (Latin : abusio; English : "misuse"), although at times a variety of other terms - such as displacement, slippage, figuration, allegory - insist on their utility for accuracy's sake and will be employed. While it is true that this is by no means the first time that this aspect of language has been remarked, it is also true that, insofar as every instance of it is unique and not identical with any other, the term "catachresis" is itself a catachresis. Thus neither its staging in "He and His Man" nor the reader's response to it - although the latter is, in a sense to be elaborated below, essentially otiose - involve simple repetition.


ABSTRACT Zhu, X., 2020.Optimization design of public space structure in coastal cities based on interactive design. In: Guido Aldana, P.A. and Kantamaneni, K. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Coastal Management, and Marine Science Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 104, pp. 751–755. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. With the rapid development of urban space and the increasingly acute traffic problems, the quality of coastal urban public space cannot be paid enough attention. In order to better solve the above problems, this paper designs and proposes an interactive design based optimization design method of coastal city public space structure. This paper analyzes the research background, research content and purpose, research scope and research methods, then mainly defines the concepts of urban coastal area, urban public space and coastal urban public space, and expounds the classification, constituent elements, characteristics and development overview of coastal urban public space. At the same time, combined with the analysis of domestic and foreign practical cases of coastal area public space development. This paper summarizes the experience of planning and construction of public space in coastal areas, and provides reference for the research and optimization of public space in coastal cities. Finally, combining with the interactive design method, this paper analyzes the macro and micro elements of the coastal city public space, and puts forward the optimization idea of the coastal city public space. Through the specific simulation experiment data, the superiority of the design scheme is verified comprehensively.


Using modern irrigation methods such as border irrigation is one way for an optimum usage of water. Potato, for this study, was cultured in a farm located at Kermanshah faculty of agriculture to evaluate the efficiency of border irrigation. The culture potato was the Agria variety and the applied treatment were 50, 75, and 100 percent of potato plant`s water requirement. Tapes were 12 m and the distance of levees was 75cm. Plant`s water requirement was determined by the evaporation pan method and the use of crop coefficient. Comparison of the product performance, efficiency of water consumption, hemispheric wetted volume, and moisture distribution skill were the evaluation indexes. Results showed that maximum product performance related to the 100 percent treatment was 34.455 tons per hectare; it was, for 75 and 50 percent treatments, 25.938 and 19.168 tons per hectare, respectively. Water use efficiency for 100, 75, and 50 percent treatments was 3.59, 3.55, and 3.53 kg of potato tuber for consuming 1m of water. Comparing the product performance in SAS software, treatments were classified in different groups; significant difference was observed between them. [F. Ghasemi Sahebi et al. Effect of water stress on potato product in the drip irrigation (T-Tape). International Journal of Agricultural Science, Research and Technology, 2011; 1(2):95-98].


In the present study we compare the metabolic activation of coal tar, as measured by the production of both DNA adducts and oxidative DNA damage, with that of a single carcinogen that is a constituent of this complex mixture in human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC). We find that a significant level of DNA adducts, detected by 32P-postlabeling, are formed in HMEC following exposure to coal tar residues. This treatment also results in the generation of high levels of oxidative DNA damage, as measured by the production of one type of oxidative base modification, thymine glycols. The amounts of both DNA adducts and thymine varied considerably between the various coal tar residues and did not correlate with either the total amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) or the amount of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) present in the residue. Fractionating the residue from one of the sites by sequential extraction with organic solvents indicated that while the ability to produce both types of DNA damage was contained mostly in a hexane-soluble fraction, a benzene-soluble fraction produced high levels of reactive oxygens relative to the number of total DNA adducts. We find that the total amount of PAH or B[a]P present in the coal tars from the various sites was not a predictor of the level of total DNA damage formed.