The intraoperative hemorrhage is the most life threatening complication during a liver resection, reason why the intraoperative vascular control represents one of the key points in the liver resection. This work presents the liver vascular exclusion without caval occlusion technique and also studies the first cases operated in University Surgery Clinic Nr. 1, Targu Mures, Romania. LVE consists of an association between hilum occlusion by Pringle manoeuvre and selective clampage of the three hepatic veins. Once achieved, the technique allows resection without blood lose and no special cautions, a continue clampage of 60-90 minutes being useful for the reconstruction of the possibly harmed or resected structures during the hepatectomy. The indications of the technique are voluminous center located liver tumors, multiple liver tumors, tumors in contact with hepatic veins or with hilum bifurcation. University Surgery Clinic Nr. 1 Targu Mures's experience in this technique began in 2005 consists in 8 cases. Preoperative diagnosis were: 2 right liver voluminous benign tumors (hemangiomas), 5 cases of colo-rectal metastasis and one resection for metastases of gastro-intestinal stromal tumor. Postsurgery evolution was very good with an average hospitalisation of 6 days. Mortality rate and morbidity were zero. We strongly recommend the use of LVE technique for selected cases of difficult liver resection, LVE being one of the most advanced techniques of liver resection.


The low-temperature annealing properties of deposited silicon oxide films in wet N2 have been explored. It has been found that the interfacial properties of MOS structures are optimised by a 400 degrees C anneal, but temperatures around 600 degrees C are required for the physical properties of the oxides to be substantially altered.


Marcel Gauchet argues that whatever impulse previously gave rise to religion is now fully translated by the values of representative politics, empirical method, future orientation and productivity as an end in itself. The good and productive citizen replaces the dutiful Christian. His foundational thesis is twofold: (a) religion is the surrender of human autonomy to a power other than human beings, issuing in a hierarchical social structure thought to be given by nature; and (b), paradoxically, religion has at the same time been the impulse to move away from religion. Christianity in particular is "the religion to exit from religion", propelling society, particularly in the West, toward a disenchanted world-view, one that is non-supernaturalistic and implies non-hierarchical social arrangements. In recounting his argument, I conclude by agreeing with (b) but disagreeing with (a). I suggest that what Gauchet terms "religion" is better thought of in terms of Sartre's concept of "bad faith". In this project, Sartre's – and Gauchet's – concept of human freedom in terms of the power of "refusal" may well be complemented by the understanding of the person as empowered through interpersonal solidarity. I argue that this supplies a corrective to Gauchet's interpretation of Christianity, and, further, is a reason to move away from his liberal idea of the state as neutral towards religions. As the secular and humanist re-articulation of religious traditions, the democratic state of its nature challenges rival interpretations of those traditions, whether fundamentalist or reductionist.


Thoracolumbar vertebral fracture incidents usually occur secondary to a high velocity trauma in young patients and to minor trauma or spontaneously in older people. Osteoporotic vertebral fractures are the most common osteoporotic fractures and affect one-fifth of the osteoporotic population. Percutaneous fixation by 'vertebroplasty' is a tempting alternative for open surgical management of these fractures. Despite discouraging initial results of early trials for vertebroplasty, cement augmentation proved its superiority for the treatment of symptomatic osteoporotic vertebral fracture when compared with optimal medical treatment. Early intervention is also gaining ground recently. Kyphoplasty has the advantage over vertebroplasty of reducing kyphosis and cement leak. Stentoplasty, a new variant of cement augmentation, is also showing promising outcomes. In this review, we describe the additional techniques of cement augmentation, stressing the important aspects for success, and recommend a thorough evaluation of thoracolumbar fractures in osteoporotic patients to select eligible patients that will benefit the most from percutaneous augmentation. A detailed treatment algorithm is then proposed. Cite this article: EFORT Open Rev 2017;2:293–299. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.2.160057


The Protein Structure Prediction (PSP) problem is one of the modern most challenging problems from science. Simplified protein models are usually applied to simulate and study some characteristics of the protein folding process. Hence, many heuristic strategies have been applied in order to find simplified protein structures in which the protein configuration has the minimal energy. However, these strategies have difficulties in finding the optimal solutions to the longer sequences of amino-acids, due to the complexity of the problem and the huge amount of local optima. Hyper heuristics have proved to be useful in this type of context since they try to combine different heuristics strengths into a single framework. However, there is lack of work addressing the automated design of hyper-heuristics components. This paper proposes GEHyPSP, an approach which aims to achieve generation, through grammatical evolution, of selection mechanisms and acceptance criteria for a hyper-heuristic framework applied to PSP problem. We investigate the strengths and weaknesses of our approach on a benchmark of simplified protein models. GEHyPSP was able to reach the best known results for 7 instances from 11 that composed the benchmark set used to evaluate the approach.


The electronic and vibrational free energies of the b.c.c., f.c.c. and h.c.p. phases of iron are calculated by ab initio band structure methods. The electronic and pV contributions to Gibbs energy show a non-linear dependence with temperature and play an important role for the h.c.p.-b.c.c. phase stability. The b.c.c. phase is found to be stable at low pressure. For large pressure, an upper limit of the magnetic entropy is estimated. It lowers Gibbs energy of the b.c.c. phase, but with all energy terms, h.c.p. included, remains stable at all temperatures.


We find that a stock price fall in itself induces individual investors to buy the stock. That is, individuals neglect the negative information that may be attached to a stock price fall. Our identification strategy uses two distinct events which generate fictitious price falls. The first is the mechanical stock price adjustment on ex-dividend dates. The second explores the so-called left-digit effect, the well-documented empirical fact that individuals disproportionally focus on left digits when evaluating numbers. Our results contribute to the understanding of why people trade.


Background Osteoporosis is a common complication of aging. Alternatives to pharmacologic treatment are needed for older adults. Nonpharmacologic treatment with low magnitude, high frequency mechanical stimulation has been shown to prevent bone loss in animal and human studies. Methods The VIBES (Vibration to Improve Bone Density in Elderly Subjects) study is a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial of the efficacy of low magnitude, high frequency mechanical stimulation in 200 men and women aged 60 years and older with bone mineral density T-scores by dual X-ray absorptiometry between —1 and —2.5 at entry. Participants are healthy, cognitively intact residents of independent living communities in the Boston area who receive free calcium and Vitamin D supplements. They are randomly assigned to active or sham treatment and stand on their assigned platform once daily for 10 min. All platforms have adherence data collection software downloadable to a laptop computer. Adverse events are closely monitored. 174 participants were randomized and will be followed for 2 years. Almost all active subjects have attained 1 year of follow-up. Bone mineral density is measured by both dual X-ray absorptiometry and quantitative computed tomography at baseline and annually. The main analysis will compare mean changes from baseline in volumetric bone density by quantitative computed tomography in active and sham groups. Adherence and treatment effect magnitude will also be evaluated. Secondary analyses will compare changes in two biochemical markers of bone turnover as well as longitudinal comparisons of muscle and balance endpoints. Results The VIBES trial has completed its first year of data collection and encountered multiple challenges leading to valuable lessons learned about the areas of recruitment from independent living communities, deployment of multiuser mechanical devices using radio frequency identification cards and electronic adherence monitoring, organization of transportation for imaging at a central site, and the expansion of study aims to include additional musculoskeletal outcomes. Conclusions These lessons will guide future investigations in studies of individuals of advanced age. Clinical Trials 2010; 7: 354—367. http://ctj.sagepub.com


Cleistogamy, a breeding system in which permanently closed, self-pollinated flowers are produced, has received increasing attention in recent years, but the last comprehensive review of this system was over 20 years ago. The goal of this paper is to clarify the different types of cleistogamy, quantify the number of families, genera, and species in which cleistogamy occurs, and estimate the number of times and potential reasons why cleistogamy has evolved within angiosperms. Cleistogamous species were identified through a literature survey using 13 online databases with references dating back to 1914; only those species well-supported by floral descriptions or empirical data were included in the data set. On the basis of this survey, we suggest the use of three different categories of cleistogamy in future studies: dimorphic, complete, and induced. Based on these categories, cleistogamy in general is present in 693 angiosperm species, distributed over 228 genera and 50 families. When analyzed on a family level across the angiosperms, the breeding system has evolved approximately 34 to 41 times. Theoretical investigations indicate that the evolution of cleistogamy in taxa may be influenced by the presence of heterogeneous environments, inbreeding depression and geitonogamy, and differential seed dispersal, as well as by various ecological factors and plant size. Cleistogamy will undoubtedly be discovered in additional species as the reproductive biology of more taxa is examined in the future. Such information will be invaluable for understanding the selective pressures and factors favoring the evolution of cleistogamy as well as the evolutionary loss of this breeding system, a subject that has received little attention to date.


The enzyme aromatase controls the androgen/oestrogen ratio by catalysing the irreversible conversion of testosterone into oestradiol (E2). Therefore, the regulation of E2 synthesis by aromatase is thought to be critical in sexual development and differentiation. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that experimental manipulation of E2 levels via the aromatase pathway induces adult sex change in each direction in a hermaphroditic fish that naturally exhibits bidirectional sex change. Our results demonstrate that a single enzymatic pathway can regulate both female and male sexual differentiation, and that aromatase may be the key enzyme that transduces environmental, including social, cues to functional sex differentiation in species with environmental sex determination.


This paper aims to develop a framework model of a business intelligence system for mapping exports of the creative craft industry in West Java. The main problem is the lagging of the craft industry exports due to the lack of responsiveness in capturing export opportunities. In addition, the absence of a business intelligence system in the craft industry to analyze export mapping in the global market is why this study is important. The research methods used in this literature are data collection and consolidation, identification of information needs, and business intelligence framework design. The data studied in this study are primary data related to export sales of handicrafts in West Java in the form of exporter data, export commodity data (HS code), export trade transactions, export destination country data, and the total value and volume of exports. The proposed model is a BI framework for mapping the creative craft industry exports and the stages of the BI implementation process. Based on the results and discussion, the proposed BI framework design can provide a framework for implementing a business intelligence system to analyze the export mapping of handicraft products in West Java, Indonesia.
Keywords: Business Intelligence System (BIS), decision support system, mapping analysis of craft product exports, craft business indicators


The marketing strategy to be engaged with customer of an Islamic bank must be concerned with its ability to gain a competitive advantage and establish a strong competitive position without neglecting an Islamic business ethic. Customer engagement (CE) in Islamic bank does not take any matter of competing on product and prices, but rather in stressing quality of the services they provide appealing customers conscience. This research attempts to enhance understanding of CE related in its role to increase the quantity and loyalty of Islamic banks customers with the Islamic business ethics point of view. This is a qualitative research that develops customer engagement concept that relevant to be applied in Islamic banking by collecting some of CE theories regarding the CE approach through relationship marketing and analyze them with Islamic business ethic overview. CE in Islamic banking has to be relied with Sharia's law. The main point of CE in Islamic banking is not only to have a good relationship with the customer and be a brotherhood, but also to reach the Islamic banking purposes.


This document amends the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Residential Care regulations to update the standards for VA approval of facilities, including standards for fire safety and heating and cooling systems. This rule also establishes a 12-month duration for VA approvals and would authorize provisional approval of certain facilities. Finally, this rule eliminates the statement of needed care requirement and clarifies that it is the care providers at the facility that determine the services needed by a particular veteran.


Idiopathic arterial calcification of infancy is a rare autosomal recessive disease, characterized by deposition of calcium along the internal elastic membrane of arteries, accompanied by fibrous thickening of the intima which causes luminal narrowing. Here we are reporting a case of idiopathic arterial calcification of infancy in a Saudi female newborn of non-consanguineous pregnant woman who had polyhydramnios. The newborn baby had severe respiratory distress, systemic hypertension and persistent pulmonary hypertension of newborn. She was admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where she was ventilated and proper treatment was provided. Molecular genetic testing was positive for mutations of ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase1 gene which is reported in 80% of cases of Idiopathic arterial calcification of infancy. The baby died at about 5 month of age because of myocardial ischemia and cardiorespiratory arrest. Idiopathic Arterial Calcification of Infancy should be considered in any newborn who presented with persistent pulmonary hypertension of newborn, severe systemic hypertension and echogenic vessels on any radiological study. Calcifications of large and medium-sized arteries are important diagnostic finding.


The effects of copper (Cu), pentachlorophenol (PCP) and benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P) on swimming efficiency and embryogenesis of Chaetogammarus marinus were examined. Swimming stamina against a pump driven head flow of water was significantly impaired at concentrations of 15 µg Cu l -1 , 40 µg PCP l -1 and 20 µg B(a)P l -1 . Development of in vitro cultured embryos was signif- icantly impaired by 20 µg Cu l -1 , 20 µg PCP l -1 and 20 µg B(a)P l -1 . Cu and PCP extended the period of embryogenesis by 4 to 8 d while embryos cultured with B(a)P hatched at the same time as controls but were significantly smaller. Specific stages in the embryos' development were affected by each pollutant. Stage 1 was resistant to these effects but Stages 2 to 4, in which the embryo undergoes development of the germinal disc, dorsal organ rudiments, cordal furrows, appendage rudiments and segments, eye and heart, were all prolonged in toxicant-exposed treatments. The time taken for Stage 5 of embryogenesis was generally reduced in pollutant exposed embryos. The results indicate that both swimming stamina and embryogenesis in C. marinus may be used as sensitive bioassays for toxic effects in estuarine areas. In the case of Cu, the assays are responsive at environmental con- centrations periodically experienced at some locations on the Humber estuary, United Kingdom. The swimming stamina assay has the advantage that it reflects the competence of the animals over a range of integrated physiological processes while the embryo assay has the advantage that effects at this level may reflect population level responses to pollution.


Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) was closely related to high metastatic risk and mortality and has not yet found a targeted receptor for targeted therapy. Cancer immunotherapy, especially photoimmunotherapy, shows promising potential in TNBC treatment because of great spatiotemporal controllability and non-trauma. However, the therapeutic effectiveness was limited by insufficient tumor antigen generation and the immunosuppressive microenvironment. Methods: We report on the design of cerium oxide (CeO2) end-deposited gold nanorods (CEG) to achieve excellent near-infrared photoimmunotherapy. CEG was synthesized through hydrolyzing of ceria precursor (cerium acetate, Ce(AC)3) on the surface of Au nanorods (NRs) for cancer therapy. The therapeutic response was first verified in murine mammary carcinoma (4T1) cells and then monitored by analysis of the anti-tumor effect in xenograft mouse models. Results: Under near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation, CEG can efficiently generate hot electrons and avoid hot-electron recombination to release heat and form reactive oxygen species (ROS), triggering immunogenic cell death (ICD) and activating part of the immune response. Simultaneously, combining with PD-1 antibody could further enhance cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration. Conclusions: Compared with CBG NRs, CEG NRs showed strong photothermal and photodynamic effects to destroy tumors and activate a part of the immune response. Combining with PD-1 antibody could reverse the immunosuppressive microenvironment and thoroughly activate the immune response. This platform demonstrates the superiority of combination therapy of photoimmunotherapy and PD-1 blockade in TNBC therapy.


We studied the interaction of ondansetron with positive inotropic agents, including serotonin (5-hydroxytryptophane, 5-HT), noradrenaline, 4-aminopyridine (4-AP), calcium chloride, or with reserpine in isolated electrically driven rat atria. Concentrations of 5-HT ranging from 1 to 64 microg/ml increased atrial contractions in a dose-dependent manner. The inotropic effect of 5-HT in the right atria appeared to be weaker than that in the left atria. Ondansetron (30 microg/ml) depressed the positive inotropic effect of lower 5-HT concentrations . This effect was thought to be due to the local anesthetic action of ondansetron or its agonistic interaction with inhibitory imidazoline receptors on the sympathetic nerve endings that reduce noradrenaline release. The positive inotropic effect of 5-HT was abolished almost completely by cyproheptadine (2 microg/ml) and was reversed only partially by pretreatment with reserpine (1 or 3 mg/kg). This result was considered as evidence for the participation of pre- and post-junctional 5-HT2A receptors and the involvement of the sympathetic nervous system in the positive inotropic action of 5-HT in rat atria. Experiments with atropine (1 microg/ml) in atria from reserpine-pretreated rats revealed that the parasympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system is not involved in the inotropic action of 5-HT. Ondansetron (30 microg/ml) tended to increase the positive inotropic effects of noradrenaline, 4-AP, and calcium chloride, which were partially significant at certain concentrations. This result might be due to the activation of both pre- and post-junctional 5-HT2A receptors or due to the inhibition of noradrenaline reuptake into the sympathetic nerve endings through the activation of imidazoline receptors. From these findings, we conclude that the positive inotropic effect of 5-HT in the electrically driven rat atria seems to be mediated primarily by its interaction with 5-HT2A receptors, which are likely to be found on the pre- and post-junctional structures. Other mechanisms that might be involved in this relation are also discussed.


The increasing availability of open data resources provides opportunities for research and data science. It is necessary to develope tools that take advantage of the full potential of new information resources. In this work we developed the package for R istacr that provides a collection of eurostat functions to be able to consult and discard the data that Eurostat, including functions to retrieve, download and manipulate the data set available through the ISTAC BASE API of the Canary Institute of Statistics (ISTAC). In addition, A Shiny app was designed for a responsive visulization of the data. This develope is part of the growing demand for open data and ecosystems dedicated to reproducible research in computational social science and digital humanities. With this interest, this package has been included within rOpenSpain, a project that aims to promote transparent research methods mainly through the use of free software and open data in Spain.


The symposium ParaFPGA focuses on parallel techniques using FPGAs as accelerator in high performance computing. The green computing aspects of low power consumption at high performance were somewhat tempered by long design cycles and hard programmability issues. However, in recent years FPGAs have become new contenders as versatile compute accelerators because of a growing market interest, extended application domains and maturing high-level synthesis tools. The keynote paper highlights the historical and modern approaches to high-level FPGA and the contributions cover applications such as NP-complete satisfiability problems and convex hull image processing as well as performance evaluation, partial reconfiguration and systematic design exploration.


Reversible DC power-supply systems with thyristor inverters are described. Design principles applicable to and technical difficulties encountered by the reversible DC power-supply system are discussed. To give an example of application, the power-supply system of Kobe Metro is described in detail, together with principal designs, solutions adopted to overcome the technical difficulties and some operational results. Some more examples of application in Japan are referred to as further experiences of the system. The designs described are supported by service experience.


A summary of the research work carried out in our Laboratory, concerning the analysis of nonlinear optical waves guided by complicated planar/cylindrical structures, is reported here. The following configurations are chosen as representative examples: a) a scheme of successive non-Kerr nonlinear planar layers and b) a fiber waveguide consisting of successive nonlinear cylindrical layers. The methodology is based on the resonance technique and is simple and easily programmable on a small personal computer. The nonlinear media considered are of the general type (non-Kerr media) including the more complicated but realistic case of saturable media. A representative set of numerical results obtained by this method is demonstrated.


A single term expression in the form of a Power law with two unknown coefficients is proposed. It explains fairly well the energies of ground bands in even-even nuclei in the A = 150-200 region. The index b and the coefficient a in this expression are fairly constant independent of the level spin, below the back bending energy. Variation of average a and b with Z and N, and with the valence nucleon pair product Np Nn is also illustrated and agrees with general expectations.


Mobile devices allow users to keep ubiquitously connected to the internet. Consequently, they change the reception of information by faster access, greater timeliness, and new media usage contexts. At the same time, many traditional media organizations already produce content for mobile websites and apps in line with cross-media strategies. Reflecting severe structural changes in the journalism market, they are hoping to manage the digital transition successfully by mobile publishing, (re)gaining especially the digital natives. Referring to the media repertoire approach, we examine the role of mobile devices on two different levels. First, from a technical point of view, we consider the platform repertoire of mobile internet users for information. Focusing on the use frequency of online (computer, mobile devices) and offline media (printed newspaper, television set, radio set), a quantitative study (N = 498, face-to-face inter-views) reveals six different user types. Second, we examine the new medium's use for information purposes by drawing on the unique specifics of mobile devices compared to other media. Results show that the new medium is frequently used for information due to its particular qualities. Third, we look at the users' selected mobile news sources from an institutional perspective. Our results indicate that, although new online-only providers are of a certain relevance to mobile internet users, traditional journalism's content dominates the mobile information repertoire.


This article explores the teaching of English poetry in two Gauteng high schools, one a suburban, former Model C school and another in Soweto. Both schools are attended predominantly by Black learners for whom English is not their first language. Nine in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with educators at the two schools. The choice of poems, pedagogy and assessment emerged as important themes in making poetry relevant and educational in South African schools. Writers from similar backgrounds, with common "race" or class-based identities, helped make poetry relevant, but were no guarantee that learners would relate to these poets. Teaching poetry was described as an intimidating experience both for learners and educators, resulting in many teachers retreating to the safe space of a defined set of teaching practices focused on figures of speech, literary devices and a line-by-line analysis of the poems. While some intentions existed to teach poetry in a way that encouraged a range of interpretations and possible answers to assessment questions, the standardised matric examination shaped pedagogical practices, as educators wanted to support learners to excel. These findings are interpreted in a post/decolonial context where a range of disparate "Englishes", identities, learners and histories exist, and neoliberal education policies and practices increasingly standardise assessment processes, with implications for the teaching and learning of poetry.


This paper reports the development of a model to meet challenges in geochange research and management activities. This model is an extended framework that will work to achieve integrated use of environmental data like desertification, land degradation, deforestation etc to extreme events such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, or tsunamis, especially when information from different sources is heavily heterogeneous and even contradicting. It utilizes the technique of web mining, text mining, data mining, combined mining and human experience knowledge with opinion mining for creating a knowledge base of geochange featured with outsourcing and localization. All knowledge from each part is warehoused, mined and managed in knowledge base through a knowledge management platform [12]. Developed model provides an interface to the user to retrieve knowledge; send feedback on the basis of actions suggested to cause mining and other features of framework. The first part of the paper covers work [15] related to integration of information that has been done to achieve integrated use of information available on web, especially when information from different sources is heavily heterogeneous. The second part defines architecture and functioning of developed framework powered with features like cross platform, cross architecture, localization etc. The third part provides an overview and critical analysis of developed framework like experimental results, pseudo code, data structure etc.


Simple Summary Elemental and stable isotope analyses are useful and common methods for wildlife diet studies, e.g., for characterizing diets and trophic relationships. However, little is known about the potential applicability of these techniques to address other aspects of feeding ecology. Here, we evaluated whether faecal elemental (carbon and nitrogen) and/or isotopic values (δ13C, δ15N) can determine variations in the amount of food intake. Overall, elemental analyses and δ15N values failed in reporting significant differences, but preliminary outcomes support the potential use of faecal δ13C values as an indicator to detect short-term slight food intake changes. The results of this work provide, for the first-time, reference data for interpreting faecal elemental and isotopic patterns in free-ranging wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus), as well as new insights into the additional applicability of isotopic analysis in feeding ecology studies. Abstract The analysis of carbon and nitrogen elemental (C, N) and isotopic compositions (δ13C, δ15N) in faeces are considered reliable methodologies for the study of diet in wildlife. Here, we tested the suitability of these techniques to detect variations in the amount of food intake. We captured wild wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) with Sherman live traps where bait access was initially free, and later it was experimentally limited inside by four different devices to cause intended variations in the amount ingested. The total C and N (%) and stable δ13C and δ15N isotopic values were determined for the bait and in mice faecal samples. Faecal values were lower than bait ones except for N, likely due to animal matter ingested before capture. No significant differences in total C, N and δ13C were found due to individual traits. However, breeding males showed higher δ15N values than breeding females, probably due to differences in energy and protein demands between both sexes during the breeding season. Only δ13C detected food intake variations (≥2 g). Despite further research being needed, these results initially support the potential of δ13C to provide information on the amount ingested, thus being useful to complement trophic ecology studies.


PURPOSE
Triacylglycerol (TAG) lipolysis increases in diabetic hearts. However, it is not known which pathway for lipolysis catalyzes this process. Thus, using 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), we determined whether TAG lipolysis in diabetic rat hearts requires acid lipase or neutral lipase activity.

METHODS
Rats were given IP injections of 110 mg streptozotocin (STZ)/kg. Forty-eight to 72 h after this treatment, all rats exhibited ketotic diabetes. The hearts of these ketotic rats were isolated, perfused isovolumically, and analyzed using 1H-MRS.

RESULTS
The content of methylene protons (CH2)n--and otherfatty acid protons, measured using 1H-MRS, increased in hearts isolatedfrom STZ-treated compared to untreated rats. This increase in heart--(CH2)n--was directly related to the chemical content of heart TAGs. If isolated diabetic hearts were perfused with either glucose or glucose plus the acid lipase inhibitor methylamine, then heart content of TAG, measured as (CH2)n, decreased at rates of approximately 130 nmol TAG/gdw/min throughout a 55-min perfusion. If diabetic hearts were pretreated with the neutral lipase inhibitor diethyl-p-nitro-phenylphosphate (DNPP) and perfused with glucose, then heart TAG content, measured as (CH2)n, did not change during perfusion.

CONCLUSIONS
1H-MRS can detect the TAG and the net lipolysis of TAG in diabetic rat hearts. Net TAG lipolysis in diabetic rat hearts requires neutral lipase.


From ASP.NET MVC to DDD, developers have been taking a fresh look at their coding practices and moving to new, cleaner, designs that bring power and elegance to their code. The CQRS and Event Sourcing patterns have become more and more popular over the last two years. Their focus on simplicity and rejection of complex layered architectures has struck a chord with developers increasingly embracing new patterns and practices to revolutionise the way they code. From ASP.NET MVC to DDD developers have been taking a fresh look at their coding practices and moving to new, cleaner, designs that bring power and elegance to their code. After a brief gestatory period CQRS and Event Sourcing, like ASP.NET MVC before it, are now beginning to move into the mainstream. The Microsoft Patterns and Practices group have created a roadmap for CQRS support and the influential Alt.NET community (responsible for nHibernate development) have already begun actively using the patterns to good effect in large-scale projects. The technologies star is most certainly in the ascendent. Pro CQRS and Event Sourcing with ASP.NET MVC gives you practical, no nonsense guidance in both how the patterns work and how they can be applied to your projects. During the course of the book we develop a fully working ASP.NET website that shows CQRS working seamlessly in consort with MVC to provide an robust, yet elegant, code framework that emphasises function and simplicity. What youll learn What the CQRS and Event Sourcing patterns mean for the way you develop How to apply the patterns to ASP.NET MVC applications and other projects Which of the pre-existing CQRS frameworks is right for you How to evaluate CQRS patterns for consistency and performance Proven tips for migrating your existing work to use CQRS and Event Sourcing Who this book is for This book will interest readers wanting to see how the future of .NET code is developing. It will be of particualar interest to ASP.NET MVC and DDD developers.


Agricultural landscapes comprise much of the earth's terrestrial surface. However, knowledge about how animals use and move through these landscapes is limited, especially for small and cryptic taxa, such as reptiles and amphibians. We aimed to understand the influence of land use on reptile and frog movement in a fine-grained grazing landscape. We surveyed reptiles and frogs using pitfall and funnel traps in transects located in five land use types: 1) woodland remnants, 2) grazed pastures, 3) coarse woody debris added to grazed pastures, 4) fences in grazed pastures and 5) linear plantings within grazed pastures. We found that the different land cover types influenced the types and distances moved by different species and groups of species. Reptiles moved both within, and out of, grazed paddocks more than they did in woodland remnants. In contrast, frogs exhibited varying movement behaviours. The smooth toadlet (Uperoleia laevigata) moved more often and longer distances within remnants than within paddocks. The spotted marsh frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis) moved out of grazed pastures more than out of pastures with coarse woody debris added or fences and were never recaptured in plantings. We found that most recaptured reptiles and frogs (76.3%) did not move between trapping arrays, which added to evidence that they perceived most of the land cover types as habitat. We suggest that even simple fences may provide conduits for movement in the agricultural landscape for frogs. Otherwise, most reptile and frog species used all land cover types as habitat, though of varying quality. Reptiles appeared to perceive the woodland remnants as the highest quality habitat. This landscape is fine-grained which may facilitate movement and persistence due to high heterogeneity in vegetation cover over short distances. Therefore, intensification and increasing the size of human land use may have negative impacts on these taxa.


Grafting typically offers a shortcut to breed tree orchards throughout a multidimensional space of traits. Despite an overwhelming spectrum of rootstock-mediated effects on scion traits observed across several species, the exact nature and mechanisms underlying the rootstock-mediated effects on scion traits in cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) plants often remain overlooked. Therefore, we aimed to explicitly quantify rootstock-mediated genetic contributions in recombinant juvenile cacao plants across target traits, specifically cadmium (Cd) uptake, and its correlation with growth and physiological traits. Content of chloroplast pigments, fluorescence of chlorophyll a, leaf gas exchange, nutrient uptake, and plant biomass were examined across ungrafted saplings and target rootstock × scion combinations in soils with contrasting levels of Cd. This panel considered a total of 320 progenies from open-pollinated half-sib families and reciprocal full-sib progenies (derived from controlled crosses between the reference genotypes IMC67 and PA121). Both family types were used as rootstocks in grafts with two commercial clones (ICS95 and CCN51) commonly grown in Colombia. A pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction (A-BLUP) mixed model was implemented to quantify rootstock-mediated narrow-sense heritability (h2) for target traits. A Cd effect measured on rootstocks before grafting was observed in plant biomass, nutrient uptake, and content of chloroplast pigments. After grafting, damage to the Photosystem II (PSII) was also evident in some rootstock × scion combinations. Differences in the specific combining ability for Cd uptake were mostly detected in ungrafted rootstocks, or 2 months after grafting with the clonal CCN51 scion. Moderate rootstock effects (h2> 0.1) were detected before grafting for five growth traits, four nutrient uptake properties, and chlorophylls and carotenoids content (h2 = 0.19, 95% CI 0.05–0.61, r = 0.7). Such rootstock effects faded (h2< 0.1) when rootstock genotypes were examined in soils without Cd, or 4 months after grafting. These results suggest a pervasive genetic conflict between the rootstock and the scion genotypes, involving the triple rootstock × scion × soil interaction when it refers to Cd and nutrient uptake, early growth, and photosynthetic process in juvenile cacao plants. Overall, deepening on these findings will harness early breeding schemes of cacao rootstock genotypes compatible with commercial clonal scions and adapted to soils enriched with toxic levels of Cd.


Introduction: This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between the effect of sunitinib and immature microvessels which are not covered by pericytes. Materials and Methods: This study involved 29 patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who took sunitinib after radical nephrectomy or biopsy due to metastatic RCC. Associations among clinicopathological factors, responses to sunitinib, and patient survival were reviewed. CD31 was used to stain endothelial cells, and anti-α-smooth muscle actin was used to stain pericytes. Immature vessels were defined as vessels that were positive only for CD31 staining. A high pericyte coverage was defined as a rate of pericyte coverage above 40%. Results: Partial responses, disease stabilization, and disease progression constituted 51.7, 10.4, and 37.9% of cases, respectively. Nine cases had a low pericyte coverage (31.0%). In the high-pericyte-coverage group, the number of metastatic sites was smaller (p = 0.003). The overall response rate to sunitinib was greater in the high-pericyte-coverage group than in the low-pericyte-coverage group (p = 0.027). The median overall survival and the median progression-free survival were not significantly different between the high- and low-pericyte-coverage groups. Conclusion: In the high-pericyte-coverage group, the overall response rates to sunitinib were higher, and the numbers of metastatic sites were smaller.


In Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling presents to readers a foreign world in the familiar setting of England with a wide array of characters who have a wide variety of names. Harry Potter is challenging for translators who must translate character names while maintaining a balance between the foreign and the familiar, as does Rowling. Rowling's work is identified as a piece of 'kiddult' literature where it is directed at both adults and children. Additionally, Rowling is described as winking at adults through her use of allusions in character names. Some translators argue in favour of localizing all character names in the target language while others argue for the direct transfer of names from English to the translation. This paper argues in favour of a balance between localization and direct transfer (or globalization) in the translation of texts like Harry Potter. After a comparison of the literature, a translation model is presented to aid translators in establishing a balance between localization and direct transfer by providing specific situations in which it is advisable to translate character names and when it is advisable to directly transfer character names into the translation.


The surrogate light chain, composed of the VpreB and the lambda-like proteins, plays a critical role in controlling the early stages of B lymphocyte development. The lambda-like locus, located on the q11. 2-q11.3 region of human Chromosome (Chr) 22, contains three genes (14.1 Flambda-1, and 16.1) among which only the 14.1 is functional. This gene contains three exons, whereas the others lack exon 1. We have isolated in fetal liver a transcript of the Flambda-1 gene that contains the exon 3 sequence and a long non-Ig related sequence upstream. We show that this sequence resulted from the splicing of three new exons located telomeric to the Flambda-1 gene, highly homologous to beta-glucuronidase exon 11 (Chr 7), to the ABR exon 8 (Chr 17), and to an Expressed Sequence Tag (EST), respectively. We also show that this chimeric transcript is expressed in cells or tissues from various origins. This composite gene structure appears to be a new example of human genome flexibility, which can be explained by mechanisms such as exon shuffling and which results in the emergence of new transcription units inserted in regions involved in translocations.


Though pharmaceutical polymers were widely used in inhibiting drug recrystallization via strong intermolecular hydrogen and ionic bonds, the improved drug stability was achieved at the cost of the drug release rate or amount in the drug-in-adhesive transdermal patch. To overcame the difficulty, this study aimed to increase drug loading utilizing a novel drug-ionic liquid (drug-IL) strategy and illustrate the underlying molecular mechanism. Here, naproxen (NPX) and triamylamine (TAA) were chosen as the model drug and corresponding counterion, respectively. In addiiton, carboxylic pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) was chosen as the model polymer. The drug-IL (NPX-TAA) was synthesized and characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and proton nuclear magnetic resonance. The miscibility between NPX-TAA and PSA was assessed using microscopy study, X-ray diffraction, fluorescence spectroscopy, and solubility parameter calculation. In addition, molecular mechanisms of crystallization inhibition were revealed by FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, DSC, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and molecular docking. Finally, the release pattern of the high load patch of NPX-TAA was evaluated using in vitro drug release and verified by a skin permeation experiment. The results showed that drug loading in PSA was increased by 5.0 times, which was caused by the synergistic effect of strong ionic hydrogen bonding (the decreased intensity and blue shift of the O-H peak of COOH in PSA) formed between NPX-TAA and PSA-COO- and normal hydrogen bonding (red shift of the C═O peak in PSA) formed between NPX-TAA and the carbonyl group of PSA. In addition, -NH+ of TAA was confirmed as the molecular basis of ionic hydrogen bonding through new peak appearance (binding energy: 400.0 eV) in XPS spectra. Moreover, high drug release percent (80.8 ± 1.8%) was achieved even at high drug loading compared with the control group (72.4 ± 2.2%). Thus, this study introduced an effective drug-IL method to enhance drug loading capacity and illustrated the brand-new action mechanism, which provided a powerful instrument for the development of a high drug loading-high release patch.


Aggregation of data from multiple sensor nodes is usually done by simple methods such as averaging or, more sophisticated, iterative filtering methods. However, such aggregation methods are highly vulnerable to malicious attacks where the attacker has knowledge of all sensed values and has ability to alter some of the readings. In this work, we develop and evaluate algorithms that eliminate or minimize the influence of altered readings. The basic idea is to consider altered data as outliers and find algorithms that effectively identify altered data as outliers and remove them. Once the outliers have been removed, use some standard technique to estimate a true value. Thus, the proposed data aggregation algorithm operates in two phases: removal of outliers and computation of an estimated true value from the remaining sensor data. Extensive evaluation of the proposed algorithms shows that they significantly outperform all existing methods.


A new technique for obtaining frequency-dependent magnitude and phase information across an optical channel is presented using tunable allpass optical filters and a detector with a small bandwidth relative to the full channel width. This technique has application to optical monitoring of intersymbol interference distortions, including chromatic and polarization-mode dispersion effects, and thus can provide vector information for input to the control of adaptive optical filters. A method for generating a test signal spanning the spectrum of a modulated data signal without introducing intersymbol interference is discussed. This technique can also be used to characterize an optical pulse source and does not scale in complexity or cost as the bandwidth of the source increases.


Geophysical methods have been adopted to characterize a site whose soils and groundwater had been contaminated by nonaqueous-phase liquid (NAPL); the hydrocarbons were found in both residual form and as a free phase above the water table. The geophysical survey was aimed at improving the knowledge of the hydrogeological setting of the site; we wanted to estimate the soil heterogeneity and the hydrogeological parameters (porosity, water content, and hydraulic conductivity). We also wanted to assess the effect of the water table fluctuations on the interaction between the groundwater and the residual NAPL. The geophysical investigation was conducted using geoelectrical, electromagnetic (frequency domain), and georadar methods; data calibration was conducted using borehole geochemical logs. The presence of residual NAPL in the silty and sandy material was confirmed by a remarkable increase of the attenuation in the georadar energy and by peak of induced polarization response. The hydrocarbons have been detected in concentrations of more than 1000 mg/kg (1000 ppm) at a depth of 5 m (15 ft) and in concentrations of 3000 mg/kg (3000 ppm) at a depth of 6 to 8 m (18–24 ft).


Academics are increasingly being urged to blog in order to expand their audiences, create networks and to learn to write in more reader friendly style. This paper holds this advocacy up to empirical scrutiny. A content analysis of 100 academic blogs suggests that academics most commonly write about academic work conditions and policy contexts, share information and provide advice; the intended audience for this work is other higher education staff. We contend that academic blogging may constitute a community of practice in which a hybrid public/private academic operates in a 'gift economy'. We note however that academic blogging is increasingly of interest to institutions and this may challenge some of the current practices we have recorded. We conclude that there is still much to learn about academic blogging practices.


A functional graph is a digraph describing the action of a function on a set. The endomorphisms of such graphs are of interest in group theory: the centraliser of an element of the semigroup of all mappings of a set into itself coincides with the set of all endomorphisms of a digraph corresponding to this element. In this study, the functional graphs with a countable set of vertices are considered. We introduce the notion of lineals and calculate the cardinality of the set of endomorphisms of functional graphs which are not lineals.


In this paper, we study Nash tracking game problems with preview for linear continuous-time systems over finite time intervals. We introduce cross-coupled differential Riccati equations (CDREs) to give solutions of the tracking problems with multi-players. Corresponding to the coupled properties of the CDREs, the forms of preview compensator dynamics are cross-coupled. In this paper, we focus on the derivation of the necessary conditions for the solvability of the tracking problems by variational approach.


Since many years, semiconductor industry and public research have studied intensively organic materials, especially conductive polymers. The polymeric semiconductors combine the photoelectrical properties of inorganic semiconductors with the large-scale, low-cost technology of polymeric 'plastic' materials. Besides products such as organic light emitting already available in the market, many applications are nowadays in development: electronic circuits based on organic transistors, biosensors, gas sensors, photovoltaic cells... In our study we are interested in the realization of new photosensitive sensors based on Distyryl bithiophene structure (DS2T). The thin layers of DS2T were deposited by two ways: thermal evaporation and Inkjet printing. The responses of the realized cells were studied according to the power illumination of a white light source.


ABSTRACT Many viral fusion proteins are primed by proteolytic cleavage near their fusion peptides. While the coronavirus (CoV) spike (S) protein is known to be cleaved at the S1/S2 boundary, this cleavage site is not closely linked to a fusion peptide. However, a second cleavage site has been identified in the severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV) S2 domain (R797). Here, we investigated whether this internal cleavage of S2 exposes a viral fusion peptide. We show that the residues immediately C-terminal to the SARS-CoV S2 cleavage site SFIEDLLFNKVTLADAGF are very highly conserved across all CoVs. Mutagenesis studies of these residues in SARS-CoV S, followed by cell-cell fusion and pseudotyped virion infectivity assays, showed a critical role for residues L803, L804, and F805 in membrane fusion. Mutation of the most N-terminal residue (S798) had little or no effect on membrane fusion. Biochemical analyses of synthetic peptides corresponding to the proposed S2 fusion peptide also showed an important role for this region in membrane fusion and indicated the presence of α-helical structure. We propose that proteolytic cleavage within S2 exposes a novel internal fusion peptide for SARS-CoV S, which may be conserved across the Coronaviridae.


This study was designed to investigate the suitable proportions of cowpea that can be used to improve the nutrient content of sorghum and also to ascertain the effect of fermentation on the sample blends. The raw and fermented sample blends were analyzed for microbial load, proximate composition, mineral and anti-nutrient contents. The microorganisms isolated were Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, B. polymyxa, B. licheniformis, Lactobacillus fermentum, L. acidiophilus, L. plantarum Streptococcus lactis, Aspergillusf lavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, Mucor mucedo and Rhizopus nigricans. Moisture content of unfermented sample blends ranged between 0.75 and 1.07% while that of fermented blends ranged between 26.96 and 42.65% respectively. Unsupplemented cowpea recorded the highest level of ash content before and after fermentation but crude protein increased after fermentation. Unsuplemented cowpea recorded the highest level of protein content. Cowpea: sorghum (7:3) also had a significant amount of protein when compared with sorghum: cowpea (8:2). Carbohydrate content reduced after fermentation while anti-nutrient content reduced significantly after fermentation process. There was significant increase in protein content of sorghum supplemented with cowpea, and a drastic reduction in the anti-nutrient content of all the fermented sample blends. Therefore, it can be concluded that sorghum supplemented with cowpea, then fermented for 72 h could be recommended for improving the protein quality of sorghum.

 Key words: Sorghum, fermentation, anti-nutrient, Lactobacillus fermentum, cowpea.


Heading objectives: Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is an antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) that may involve any organ. Rarely, clinical manifestation of inflammatory changes may resemble tumours, which, combined with untypical ovarian localization, may cause misdiagnosis and treatment delay. Case report: In this paper, we present the case of ovarian tumour-like lesion being the first manifestation of GPA and mimicking ovarian cancer. Conclusion: In case of a patient presenting with a tumour of untypical features, differential diagnosis should include inflammatory processes, including vasculitis. (Sarcoidosis Vasc Diffuse Lung Dis 2020; 37 (2): 179-183)


Objective: To perform the correlation between the preoperative tomographic evaluation of patients with calcaneal fracture diagnosis and the access routes of choice, as well as the synthesis materials used.Methods: We reviewed 19 medical records of patients between 23 and 56 years old who underwent calcaneal fracture surgery from 01/01/2014 to 12/31/2015. We evaluated the mechanism of trauma, side, Essex-Lopresti classification, Böhler and Gissane angle in the pre- and postoperative period, Sanders tomographic classification and type of osteosynthesis performed. Angular measurements served as a reference for radiological analysis of the quality of the reduction. Results: 90% of the cases were of joint depression, the other 10% considered extra-articular. The preoperative Böhler angle varied between 5 and 40°, and between 10 and 38° in the postoperative period, and 55% of the fractures had an angular reconstruction considered good (between 20° and 40°). Gissane's angle, on the other hand, varied between 110 and 170° in the preoperative period, and 102 and 132° in the postoperative period. In the tomographic analysis, Sanders IV classification was predominant (65%), followed by type IIIBC fractures (20%), and fractures type I, IIA and IIIAB (5% each). Osteosynthesis with plate and screw was the most used method (89.47%). Conclusion: Correct use of existing diagnostic imaging resources through radiographic and tomographic results provides the possibility of better preoperative planning in the intra-articular fractures of the calcaneus. However, in this study, there was no difference in the access route and synthesis according to the tomographic classification. Level of Evidence III; Diagnostic Studies; Study of Non-Consecutive Patients.


The interdependences of preparation conditions, magnetic and crystal structures, and magnetocaloric effects (MCE) of the MnFePGe-based compounds are reviewed. Based upon those findings, a new method for the evaluation of the MCE in these compounds, based on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), is proposed. The MnFePGe-based compounds are a group of magnetic refrigerants with giant magnetocaloric effect (GMCE), and as such, have drawn tremendous attention, especially due to their many advantages for practical applications. Structural evolution and phase transformation in the compounds as functions of temperature, pressure, and magnetic field are reported. Influences of preparation conditions upon the homogeneity of the compounds' chemical composition and microstructure, both of which play a key role in the MCE and thermal hysteresis of the compounds, are introduced. Lastly, the origin of the "virgin effect" in the MnFePGe-based compounds is discussed.


We present a constructive theory for solving the Nevanlinna-Pick problem with a degree constraint. The theory relies on convex optimization, and the method generates all solutions with degree less than the number of interpolation conditions. The degree of the interpolant relates to the dimension of the feedback control system or of a modeling filter, depending on the context for the particular application.


A 27-year-old man with a 10-year history of recurrent episodes of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia underwent an electrophysiologic procedure. The baseline sinus cycle length was 860 msec, and the atrial-His (AH) and Hisventricular (HV) intervals were 80 and 45 msec, respectively. A narrow QRS-complex tachycardia was induced by atrial overdrive pacing. The cycle length of the tachycardia varied between 280 and 350 msec. A single ventricular depolar-


Two experiments were carried out to examine the hypothesis that organization in rehearsal is a necessary condition for organization to be found in recall. In Experiment I, a continuous memory (CM) task was used to interfere with organized rehearsal as learners were forced to rehearse sequentially. In Experiment II, a serial recall procedure was used to limit organized rehearsal. Learners were partitioned into 6 groups. Half of the learners were given a categorized list (C), and half were given a list of unrelated (U) words. Within list conditions, one-third received a third trial output shift from serial-recall (SRS) to free-recall, one-third received a free-recall (FR) task, and one-third received a third trial output shift from free - recall (FRS) to serial-recall. In Experiment I and Experiment II respectively, organization in the recall of the continuous memory (CM) group and of the SRS-C group exceeded the expectations of a random model. Mean recall differences between groups in Experiment II were not significant except when contrasted with the FRS groups. The usual facilitation effect with categorized word lists (C) over unrelated word lists (U) was observed though this trend was much weaker than ex pee ted and reversed itself in the third trial output shift in the FRS groups. These results were interpreted as indicating that overt organized rehearsal is not a necessary condition for organized recall. Learners appeared to organize and recall at comparable levels regardless of the presence or absence of input constraints.


Sport psychology studies have shown that goal orientation may be affected by gender. According to Duda and Nicholls (1992) goal orientation has two categories, task and ego. Male and female players have portrayed varying goal orientation towards sport. Most studies have shown female players to be more task oriented while their male counterparts have portrayed ego-oriented traits. Additionally, goal orientation has been found to affect satisfaction of players towards sports. Task oriented players have been found to affect satisfaction ofplayers towards sports. Task oriented players have been found to be more intrinsically motivated while ego oriented players have been found to be extrinsically motivated. The study involved 134 players from 12 teams in division 1 (48.5%) and division 2 1 (51.5%) of Kenyan National Volleyball League. The study included both male (46.3%) and female (53.7%) players. Sampling of the teams was done randomly from the two strata of division 1 and division 2 of Kenyan National Volleyball League. Goal orientation was measured suing the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire .


A continuous flow synthesis of menthol starting from citronellal catalysed by scrap catalytic converters is reported. The reaction was conducted in a tandem system connecting in series two catalytic systems, the first having Lewis acid properties (favouring the cyclisation of citronellal to isopulegols) and the second having hydrogenation catalytic activity (catalysing the hydrogenation of isopulegols to menthols). A Lewis acid catalyst was prepared by supporting iron oxide nanoparticles over a waste material, i.e. the ceramic core of scrap catalytic converters (SCATs) via a microwave assisted method. Most importantly, SCATs, containing low residual noble metals content, could be directly employed in the second step as hydrogenation catalyst. The reaction was performed studying the influence on the yield and selectivity to (-)-menthol of various reaction parameters (T, p and flow rate). Operating with the best reaction conditions (at 0.1 mL min -1 flow rate and at 373 K and 413 K for cyclisation and hydrogenation steps respectively) a conversion of ˃ 99% of (+)-citronellal with 77% final yield to ( − )-menthol was obtained.


Since the middle of the last century, fundamental rights protection in the United States has largely been the domain of the federal government, and primarily its Supreme Court. Under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees "due process of law," the United States Supreme Court has assumed for itself the role of defining fundamental rights even if such rights are not specifically enumerated in any constitutional text and requiring all states to abide by such rights, a concept referred to as "substantive due process." It has also "incorporated" the Bill of Rights in the federal Constitution against the state governments, even though such rights historically only bound the federal government. These doctrinal developments were likely mistakes, at least if Americans purport to be bound by the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to their Constitution. "Due process of law" was not a substantive guarantee of unenumerated rights or against unreasonable legislation. In antebellum America, judicial courts did review local or municipal legislation to ensure reasonableness, but not the legislation of the states themselves except in narrow circumstances. Many American scholars believe that the "privileges or immunities" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, instead of the due process clause, is what was intended to incorporate the Bill of Rights against the states and transfer fundamental rights protections to the federal government. This, too, is likely incorrect, as that clause was likely a guarantee merely of equality, leaving it up to the state governments otherwise to define and regulate the content of civil rights. This account, if correct, suggests that the Fourteenth Amendment, while guaranteeing the fundamental right to equality, otherwise respected the principle of subsidiarity even in the protection of fundamental rights, and provides insights for the ongoing European debate over fundamental rights protection.


Ischemia/reperfusion contributes to the hepatic injury in resection and transplantation of the liver. However, the precise mechanisms involved in hypoxia stress remain to be clarified. Pro‐inflammatory cytokines including interleukin 1β (IL‐1β) induce a gene expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and produce nitric oxide, which exerts either a cytoprotective or toxic effect. In this report, we found that hypoxia and heat markedly inhibited the induction of nitric oxide production stimulated by IL‐1β in rat cultured hepatocytes. Both treatments also abolished the induction of iNOS protein and mRNA. However, hypoxia could not prevent either degradation of an inhibitory protein (IκBα) of nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) or translocation of NF‐κB to the nucleus, whereas heat inhibited both of the IκBα degradation and NF‐κB translocation. Transfection experiments with iNOS promoter construct revealed that hypoxia as well as heat significantly inhibited the transactivation of iNOS gene. Further, a hypoxia‐response element located in the promoter was not involved in the inhibition of iNOS induction by hypoxia. These results indicate that hypoxia and heat suppress iNOS gene induction at the transcriptional level through different mechanisms. Reduction of nitric oxide production under hypoxic conditions may be implicated in the cellular damage or protection during hepatic ischemia/reperfusion.


Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important food and cash crop in Ethiopia; serving, as a food security crop due to its nutrition content, wider adaptability and early maturing behavior. However, the yield of the crop is constrained by a number of factors. Among which unspecified seed tuber size and limited availability and distribution of improved varieties are among the important limiting factors. A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of seed tuber size on growth and yield performance of potato varieties at Agarfa, Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training College experimental field during 2017. The treatments consisted of three potato varieties (Gudenie, Jalene and Kellacho) and three seed tuber sizes (25-34, 35-45 and 46-55 mm). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with a factorial arrangement and replicated three times. The results showed that, seed tuber size and varieties significantly affected phenological parameters, stem number, leaf area index, stem density, marketable, unmarketable and total tuber yield, shoot fresh and dry weight, underground fresh weight, and medium weight of tuber size. Leaf number, and underground dry weight and tuber size were significantly affected only by seed tuber size. Varieties and seed tuber size interact to influence plant height, leaf area, number of tuber per plant, dry matter concentration and harvest index. Gudenie and Jalene produced the highest total tuber and marketable yields. Large seed tuber size (46-55 mm) produced higher marketable tuber yields than medium and small tuber sizes. In conclusion, Gudenie variety and large seed tuber size showed superior performance both for tuber yield and tuber dry matter concentration compared with the remaining varieties and small tuber size. Therefore, farmers are encouraged to produce Gudenie or Jalene variety with the use of medium to large seed tuber size for potato production.

 Key words: Agarfa, Gudenie, Jalene, potato, seed tuber size and tuber yield.


Under the sponsorship of the Gas Research Institute, two high-efficiency (80-percent) gas furnaces, sized 37 percent and 103 percent over design heat loss, were tested at two unoccupied contemporary research houses in the Washington, D.C. area. The research houses were moderately furnished to approximate conditions of occupancy for a family of three. Presence of occupants and use of appliances were simulated. Performance of the furnaces was characterized on the basis of indoor comfort, dynamic response to changing indoor/outdoor conditions, energy consumption, and efficiency. Such characterization will provide a basis for comparison with new or prototypical systems to be tested during future heating seasons.


In Reply. —The VA trial found that hydrochlorothiazide therapy had greater antihypertensive efficacy than did propranolol therapy, particularly in blacks. This point has been shown before, 1 though the agents have been shown to have virtually identical potency in other populations. 2 In clinical practice, there is little to choose between them or other antihypertensive drugs in their ability to reduce BP, although most find that elderly persons and black hypertensives respond less well to β-blockers alone. 3 As to the potential arrhythmogenic risks of diuretic-induced hypokalemia, this remains the most logical reason for the higher coronary mortality-mostly sudden deaths—in the MRFIT patients who received more intensive, high-dose diuretic therapy and who had abnormal ECGs on entry into the trial. Additional evidence for the arrhythmogenic potential of diuretic-induced hypokalemia has come from the ongoing Medical Research Council of England trial of therapy for mild hypertension. 4 A significantly higher frequency


Synthesis of phthalocyanines with asymmetrical substitution on the periphery is often difficult due the problems in purification of the phthalocyanine mixtures obtained. Using a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based support with a Wang-type linker, we have developed the synthesis of monohydroxylated, oligoethylene glycol substituted phthalocyanines utilizing an amidine-base-promoted phthalonitrile tetramerization reaction. The use of a hydrophilic support allows symmetrical phthalocyanine product formed in solution to be readily and completely removed by washing while leaving the "AB3" product on the support. Acid cleavage with 10% trifluoroacetic acid provides the pure unsymmetrically substituted Pc. This method was applied to several metallo Pcs. Additionally, methods to avoid premature reactions on-resin that give A2B2 products are provided.


An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed by using a synthetic polypeptide (SP) whose sequence was derived from the structural region of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Results of several coded panels of sera obtained from volunteer blood donors and patients with apparent non-A, non-B hepatitis and/or hepatitis B virus used in this ELISA were compared with those of a commercially available first-generation C-100 ELISA (using nonstructural HCV antigens), an experimental second-generation C-200/C-22 ELISA (using both structural and nonstructural HCV antigens), and recombinant immunoblot assays RIBA-I and RIBA-II. In the majority of cases, the results obtained with the HCV-SP ELISA correlated well with those obtained by RIBA-II and C-200/C-22 ELISA. In contrast, many samples that were repeatedly reactive in the C-100 ELISA results were nonreactive with RIBA and HCV-SP ELISA. In addition, HCV-SP detected HCV-specific antibody that appeared within a month of infection and coincided with the earliest increase in alanine aminotransferase. In summary, we have developed an ELISA based on a structural HCV synthetic polypeptide, HCV-SP, that has high specificity and sensitivity and is capable of detecting specific antibodies in the acute phase of HCV infection.


We propose a unified growth model linking technology, education investment across genders, and fertility to explain, for 20th century developing countries: (i) the demographic transition, (ii) the improvement in gender equality in education, and (iii) the transition to sustained growth. The mechanism comprises three components. First, technological progress reduces housework time through the creation and diffusion of labor-saving home appliances freeing women's time for childrearing and labor-force participation. Second, as housework time decreases, households invest relatively more in their daughters' education given its higher return due to the initial imbalance thus improving gender equality in education and increasing the opportunity cost of childrearing. Third, the narrowing of the education gender gap increases average human capital, accelerating technological progress. This reinforcing loop results in the transition to a new fertility regime and accelerated economic growth. We provide the empirical confirmation of the model's predictions using data from developing countries in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.


Tungsten probe is the most important part of a probe card, which is widely used for the performance test of wafer chips. Electro chemical etching becomes an exclusive choice for mass production of the tungsten probes. In the mass production, not only the shape of the probe but also the shape distribution of machined probes is important. A new method is proposed for the mass production of the tungsten probes. Tungsten wires are separated by a distance, and dipped into electrolyte. The dipping rate is controlled to shape the probes. Several experimental tests are performed to study the machining characteristics. From the test results, machining parameters including electrical conditions and anode position showed significant influences on the shape, repeatability, precision and quality of sharp tips.


Each vocal gesture creates each different vocal style. The voice therapist helps the comedian to find all his vocal styles and teaches him how to switch from one to another quickly, while maintaining the integrity of each vocal configuration.


Instream limestone sand application is used at many sites in Pennsylvania to neutralize acidic stream water resulting from acid deposition. However, questions remain about the effectiveness of limestone sand in the treatment of acid waters, such as reduced contact time at high flow, remobilization of aluminum, and adverse effects on macroinvertebrates. A 1‐year evaluation of limestone sand application to Bear Run, an acidic stream in southwestern Pennsylvania, was begun in 1999. Another nearby acid stream, Linn Run, served as a control. Water quality during baseflow and episodic acidification events, along with fish and macroinvertebrates, were monitored to evaluate impacts of the sand application. Hydrogen ion (H+) concentration and total dissolved aluminum (TDA) were significantly reduced, and acid neutralizing capacity was significantly increased downstream of the limestone sand application compared with the upstream site on Bear Run. These parameters at the downstream sites were also different (∝ 0.10) from the comparable sites on the control stream. TDA and hydrogen ion concentrations were significantly decreased (∝ 0.10) compared with concentrations before the sand application to Bear Run but not on the control stream. No fish were present upstream of the sand application site, and only a few fish were found downstream at the mouth of Bear Run. Standing crop, number of taxa, and Shannon‐Weaver diversity index values indicated that macroinvertebrate populations were negatively impacted 300 m downstream from the sand application and improved at the site 1,600 m downstream. Although water quality was improved on Bear Run, benefits to macroinvertebrates depended on downstream location, and fish populations did not show improvement.


Introduction. Thromboembolic syndrome is a dangerous complication of atrial fibrillation (AF). Left atrial appendage (LAA) is the most frequent location of the thrombus formation in AF. Enlargement of the LAA, special anatomical forms of the appendage are accepted as a risk factors of the LAA thrombosis.Aim: to assess the revealing macro-/microthrombosis LAA in dependence of the morphological form of the appendage in autopsy.Methods. 85 cadaveric hearts were investigated. LAA was measured in three dimensions, the anatomical form of the LAA were estimated by Wang et al. classification. Histological investigation of the LAA slices was made in Hematoxylin Eosin colouring.Results. Macrothrombosis was revealed in 4 LAA. Microthrombus in the LAA were revealed in 46 (54,1%) specimens. We did not find statistical significance between frequency micro thrombosis of the LAA and morphology of the appendage (p = 0,3) with the trend to revealing more microthrombus in anatomic form of the LAA «chicken wing» (65% of this morphological type). Analysis of the diseases died patients showed absence AF in 54,3% cases of the LAA microthrombosis group. AF was diagnosed only in 16 (45,7%) cases in stroke group with revealed micro thrombosis in the LAA.Conclusion. The investigation did not show statistical significance between the anatomical form of LAA and revealing of appendage microthrombosis. Possibly, there is a common pathomorphological process of the LAA thrombosis independence of the AF presence. Further trials are needed to confirm this consumption.


Background: Unchecked and unregulated transport of biohazardous material is a serious risk to the population and the environment. More importantly, packaging and knowledge of transport requirements and regulations is essential among personnel preparing and dispatching biohazardous shipments. To ensure safe transport practices among biomedical staff, regular training sessions are required but are not frequently carried out. We report on pre- and posttest knowledge among clinical laboratory and biomedical staff from southern Pakistan after such training. Methods: A basic questionnaire developed from the International Air Transport Association Dangerous Goods Regulations was prepared and administered to 36 participants in two different workshops carried out in April 2016 in Karachi, Pakistan. Questionnaires were administered before (pretest) and after (posttest) the practical training exercises to test comprehension. Scores from each participant were entered in MS Excel. Normalized learning gains (NLGs) were calculated for each participant. Results: Participants demonstrated lack of baseline knowledge of transport regulations and procedures for biohazardous material. After a full-day training session comprising lectures, demonstrations, as well as hands-on application of triple packaging requirements for refrigerated, dry ice, and ambient temperature shipments, the average NLG for 36 participants was 0.7 ± 0.3. Conclusions: Our results show that baseline knowledge of biosecurity and transport guidelines among laboratory personnel in southern Pakistan is poor. Moreover, hands-on workshops can be instrumental in increasing knowledge and understanding of these guidelines among personnel and should be conducted regularly.


CO2 transfer conductance from the intercellular airspaces of the leaf into the chloroplast, defined as mesophyll conductance (g m ), is finite. Therefore, it will limit photosynthesis when CO2 is not saturating, as in C3 leaves in the present atmosphere. Little is known about the processes that determine the magnitude ofg m . The process dominatingg m is uncertain, though carbonic anhydrase, aquaporins, and the diffusivity of CO2 in water have all been suggested. The response ofg m to temperature (10°C–40°C) in mature leaves of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv W38) was determined using measurements of leaf carbon dioxide and water vapor exchange, coupled with modulated chlorophyll fluorescence. These measurements revealed a temperature coefficient (Q10) of approximately 2.2 for g m , suggesting control by a protein-facilitated process because the Q10for diffusion of CO2 in water is about 1.25. Further,g m values are maximal at 35°C to 37.5°C, again suggesting a protein-facilitated process, but with a lower energy of deactivation than Rubisco. Using the temperature response of g m to calculate CO2 at Rubisco, the kinetic parameters of Rubisco were calculated in vivo from 10°C to 40°C. Using these parameters, we determined the limitation imposed on photosynthesis byg m . Despite an exponential rise with temperature, g m does not keep pace with increased capacity for CO2 uptake at the site of Rubisco. The fraction of the total limitations to CO2uptake within the leaf attributable tog m rose from 0.10 at 10°C to 0.22 at 40°C. This shows that transfer of CO2 from the intercellular air space to Rubisco is a very substantial limitation on photosynthesis, especially at high temperature.


Forecasts guide decisions in all areas of economics and finance and their value can only be understood in relation to, and in the context of, such decisions. We discuss the central role of the loss function in helping determine the forecaster's objectives and use this to present a unified framework for both the construction and evaluation of forecasts. Challenges arise from the explosion in the sheer volume of predictor variables under consideration and the forecaster's ability to entertain an endless array of functional forms and time-varying specifications, none of which may coincide with the 'true' model. Methods for comparing the forecasting performance of pairs of models or evaluating the ability of the best of many models to beat a benchmark specification are also reviewed.


Investigations have been made on obtaining of nanosized powders of titanium carbide (TiC) by carbothermal reduction of a precursor prepared by sol-gel process. Two methods of precursor gels fabrication of TiC were used: Ti (IV) chloride, ethyleneglycol and citric acid (series A) and Ti (IV) n-propoxide, saccharose and acetic acid (series B ). The resulting xerogels are calcined under flowing argon at different temperatures ranging from 800 °C to 1400 °C with holding time from 0.5 h to 10 h. TiC nanopowders were obtained with the specific surface area of 30 m 2 /g – 200 m 2 /g and the size of TiC crystallites of 40 nm – 45 nm. Only the TiC phase has been found by the XRD analysis, but the presence of also some oxygen and free carbon depending on synthesis conditions has been found by chemical analysis. For compacting investigations with spark plasma sintering (SPS) method (1800 °C, heating rate of 100 °C /min and dwelling time of 5 min.) TiC nanopowder (SSA of 88 m 2 /g, containing 72.7 wt. % Ti, 6.6 wt. % O, 20.5 wt. % C total and 7.2 wt. % C free ) was used. The sintering begins at 1150 °C, but change of density ends at 1650 °C. The density at this temperature reaches only 89 % of the theoretical and does not rise until 1800 °C. This is probably due to the presence of free carbon in investigated sample, retarding sintering. A significant decrease of admixtures has been observed in ceramic material during sintering. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.18.1.1346


The initial-value problem of the one-dimensional wave propagation in a homogeneous random medium is treated by means of the "Laplace transform," based again on a group-theoretic consideration introduced in the preceding paper. We first define the "Fourier transform" of a random process regarded as a function on the translation group associated with the homogeneity. The inverse "Fourier transform" then gives a general representation of a nonstationary random process generated by a stationary process. Similarly, we define the "Laplace transform" of a random process vanishing on the negative coordinate axis as well as the "Laplace transform" of its derivatives. The one-dimensional wave equation together with the random initial values can be directly treated by means of the "Laplace-transform" technique and is solved approximately in two Gaussian cases where the random media are represented by the well-known O-U (Ornstein-Uhlenbeck) process and by the ${Z}_{0}$ process having zero spectrum at the origin. Various statistical parameters associated with the solution can be calculated from the stochastic solution by the averaging procedure. It is shown that the behavior of the average wave is quite different between the two cases and that the result is in agreement with that of the preceding paper. The average of the absolute square of the wave is also calculated using the stochastic solution, and its range of validity is discussed by comparing with the previous results.


Objective: To assess the effect of an outpatient comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation (CCR) programme on cardiac risk factors and quality of life among low risk cardiac patients. Method: Retrospective review of 240 low risk cardiac patients who were enrolled into an eight-weeks CCR programme (Phase II), followed by an 18-months CCR maintenance programme (Phase III) in Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital from 2011 to 2015. Short Form 36 (SF36), exercise test time (ETT), resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP), resting heart rate, fasting blood sugar, cholesterol profile (total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglyceride), weight, waist circumference (WC) and smoking status were recorded at baseline Phase II enrolment (P1), at the end of Phase II (P2) and Phase III (P3). Results: of the 240 patients enrolled, only 182 patients (75.8% retention rate) completed at least 60% attendance of CCR Phase II programme and entered into CCR Phase III maintenance programme. At the end of Phase III, only 122 patients had complete dataset for analysis. There were statistically significant differences in SF36 scores (71.9±18.4 to 77.3±17.0; p=0.001) and ETT (8.4±2.7 to 9.8±2.9; all P<0.001), Fasting blood sugar (p=0.029), total cholesterol (p=0.001), HDL (p=0.001), LDL (p=0.007), trygliceride (p=0.034) and waist circumference (p=0.026) between all time points (P1-P2-P3). However, these differences on post hoc analysis were attributed to outcome measure improvements which were only seen after completion of Phase II (P2) and were maintained only in SF36 scores and ETT with significant improvement in HDL levels after Phase III (P3) of the CCR programme. Conclusion: This is the first cardiac rehabilitation efficacy evaluation in Brunei Darussalam. Our study showed that an eight-weeks Phase II CCR programme can significantly improved quality of life measures, exercise test time, biochemical parameters and waist circumference in low risk cardiac patients with sustained improvements in the quality of life measures and exercise tolerance when combine with a 18 months Phase III maintenance programmes. Further implementation of a short supervised period of Phase II in between Phase III may help improve compliance and maintain outcomes.


There is ample evidence that native and non-native listeners use lexical knowledge to retune their native phonetic categories following ambiguous pronunciations. The present study investigates whether a non-native ambiguous sound can retune non-native phonetic categories. After a brief exposure to an ambiguous British English [l/ô] sound, Dutch listeners demonstrated retuning. This retuning was, however, asymmetrical: the non-native listeners seemed to show (more) retuning of the /ô/ category than of the /l/ category, suggesting that non-native listeners can retune non-native phonetic categories. This asymmetry is argued to be related to the large phonetic variability of /r/ in both Dutch and English. Lexically-guided perceptual learning in non-native listening 21


Exercise is known to provide many physical and emotional health benefits whereas physical inactivity can lead to physical deconditioning and deterioration of health. While older adults could benefit from physical exercise, many do not engage in regular physical activity. Gardening can be a source of moderate or vigorous physical activity; however access to private space for gardening may be problematic for this population. Thus, a pilot project was undertaken to examine what effect, if any, a community gardening activity at a senior center might have on the level of functional health, depression, and physical fitness for independent-living elders. This study employed a quantitative one-group, pre-test/post-test design to evaluate each of those areas. The sample consisted of six participants drawn from attendees at a senior center in upstate New York; all participants were ambulatory and lived in private homes or apartments. There was a general trend toward lower, improved, scores for most Dartmouth COOP Functional Health Assessment Charts at the post-test and most notably for Social Activities (p = .046). In addition, mean scores for Total Emotional Score (p = .042) and the Geriatric Depression Scale decreased from the pre-test to the post-test indicating an improved level of function, and the Six-Minute Walk Test increased indicating a greater distance walked and improved function. Community gardens located in senior centers represent ideal opportunities for health professionals including recreational therapists to collaborate with local agencies to encourage healthy lifestyles for older adults. Recreation therapists are particularly qualified to provide the leadership necessary to assist older adults in the development of community garden programs.


A man presented at 27 years of age, the first signs of a progressive neurological and mental deterioration which eventually lead to his death at 37, from an intercurrent pulmonary infection. He was a severe alcoholic. The pathological examination of the brain revealed patchy demyelination and deposits of crystalline material, resembling so called calcifications. The biophysical examination showed the presence in the brain and other organs, of aluminum and phosphorus in all deposits, sometimes associated with iron, sulfur and calcium. Nothing in his past history suggests any contact with aluminum. Presumably this is a case of "generalized aluminosis", with the main clinical and pathological features manifesting in the central nervous system.


We thank Prof. Robert Schmid for comments on our paper "a new trace bound for a general square matrix product." After thorough thought, we also think theorem 2 of the paper "a new trace bound for a general square matrix product" has no good practical value. We want to clarify that in our paper, we mainly improve the recent results about the trace bounds for the product of two arbitrary real square matrices. Therefore, the title and abstract of our paper do not explicitly refer to Riccati equations. Hence, theorem 2 is only a simple application of the estimated trace bounds.


This study aimed to investigate the product attributes of Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise shop at Tamini Square Mall at Pinang Ranti. It covered brand attributes, product packaging, labeling, supplementary services and product warranty. This research used qualitative descriptive research method. The data collected used some techniques of data collection as interviews, observation, and documentation. The subjects in this study were product attributes of KFC shop, and research informants were 3 staffs of the store. The results of this study indicated that the product attributes as a major stimulus that affects the effectiveness, cognition and behavior of consumers. Consumers evaluate these attributes in relation to their own values, beliefs and past experiences. The marketing efforts and other information also affected the buying decision and the costumer satisfactory level. The research realized that the product attributes have been run properly, although there are still obstacles in the promotion, but it does not affect the activities of product attributes performed. The research suggested that the physical packaging messages should be delivered in tantamount shape and unique form. So,  the people who receive the message will be more interested and grow their interest to buy KFC products again and again.


This paper describes the use of different methods for semantic similarity calculation for predicting a specific type of textual coherence. We show that Random Indexing can be used to locate documents in a semantic space as well as terms, but not by straightforwardly summing term vectors. Using a mathematical translation of the semantic space, we are able to use Random Indexing to assess textual coherence as well as LSA, but with considerably lower computational overhead.


Age is a critical risk factor for many diseases such as thrombosis, cardiovascular diseases, cerebral vascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's disease [1–10]. Although its importance has been shown clearly by many epidemiological studies, literally nothing is known about its molecular mechanisms of action. Physiological systems are controlled by homeostatic mechanisms, maintaining them within small tolerable fluctuation ranges. Various internal or external insults, stresses or pathological conditions affect the homeostatic conditions. Importantly, homeostatic conditions of physiological systems are not constant with age, but continue changing slowly with age [11–13]. Such physiological changes may play a critical role either additively or synergistically in the initiation and development of many age-dependent diseases. To explore the little-understood molecular mechanisms of age-dimension homeostasis, we first focused our study on the blood coagulation system, our model physiological system for the study (Fig. 1). This led to the first discovery of the molecular mechanisms of age-related gene regulation and therefore of homeostatic regulation of physiological systems. In this article, we review recent advances in this newly emerging research field.


Singaraja is the second largest city after Denpasar in Bali. The magnitude of the potential of the region both trade and services, agriculture and tourism in Buleleng Regency has given a very broad impact not only on the economy but also the use of land. Economic development in the city of Singaraja cause some effects such as population growth, an increasing number of facilities (social, economic, health, and others), as well as changes in land use.Changes in land use have a serious impact on the environment in the city of Singaraja. The development of urban areas of Singaraja has given the excesses of increasing the land conversion. Suburb dominated by wetland agriculture has now turned into buildings to meet the needs of shelter, trade and services as well as urban utilities. This study was conducted by mean to determine how changes in land use from agricultural land into build up land during twelve years (period of 2002 - 2014) and the prediction of land use within the next 12 years (period of 2020 and 2026). Prediction of land use changes will be done using spatial simulation method which is integrating Cellular Automata (CA) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which analyzed based on land requirement, the driving variable of land use changes (population and road) and the inhabiting variable of land use change (slope steepness and rivers).Keywords : Land Use Change, Land Use Change Modeling, Celullar Automata, GIS


Atomic absorption spectroscopy studies were carried out on single crystals with x up to 0.67. The composition increases monotonically with increasing Al:Sb atomic ratio in the solution. The composition is not in proportion to the ratio Al:Sb, i.e. the rate of the increase reduces as x increases. Electron-beam microprobe X-ray microanalysis has certified uniformity of the composition of mu m order. Photoluminescence spectra have been measured at 80K. The spectrum usually has two peaks. The higher energy peak is mainly in the small x region, while the lower one becomes dominant as x increases. As the concentration of Al increases the spectrum shifts towards the higher energy region, and simultaneously the half-value bandwidth of the spectrum becomes broader and the intensity drastically decreases. The broadening may be ascribed to fluctuation of energy state due to perturbed disorder arrangement of group III atoms in the lattice. The peaks are concluded to be due to pair recombinations between impurity levels; Si-donor and residual acceptor for the higher energy peak, and Si-donor and Si-acceptor for the lower energy peak.


The aim of semantic image understanding is to reveal the semantic meaning behind the image pixel. This thesis investigates problems related to semantic image understanding, and have made the following contributions.

Our first contribution is to propose the usage of histogram matching in Multiple Kernel Learning. We treat the two-dimensional kernel matrix as an image and transfer the histogram matching algorithm in image processing to kernel matrix. Experiments on various computer vision and machine learning datasets have shown that our method can always boost the performance of state of the art MKL methods.

Our second contribution is to advocate the segment-then-recognize strategy in pixel-level semantic image understanding. We have developed a new framework which tries to integrate semantic segmentation with low-level segmentation for proposing object consistent regions. We have also developed a novel method trying to integrate semantic segmentation with interactive segmentation. We found this segment-then-recognize strategy also works well on medical image data, where we designed a novel polar space random field model for proposing gland-like regions.

In the realm of image-level semantic image understanding, our contribution is a novel way to utilize the random forest. Most of the previous works utilizing random forest store the posterior probabilities at each leaf node, and each random tree in the random forest is considered to be independent from each other. In contrast, we store the training samples instead of the posterior probabilities at each leaf node. We consider the random forest as a whole and propose the concept of semantic nearest neighbor and semantic similarity measure. Based on these two concepts, we devise novel methods for image annotation and image retrieval tasks.


: This review provides data on the design of antiretroviral drugs based on nucleoside analogs. About 30 drugs were approved for the treatment of HIV-infected patients over 25 years. Seven nucleoside drugs are inhibitors of HIV reverse transcriptase and clinically used in combination with inhibitors of other viral enzymes, integrase and protease, and non-nucleoside inhibitors of reverse transcriptase. Toxicity of nucleoside drugs and approaches to obtaining of safe anti-HIV drugs are discussed. The results of developing of domestic anti-HIV drugs are presented. The future prospects of anti-HIV investigations are considered.


The effects of six common reducers and four common intensifiers have been studied on a high contrast positive emulsion, a fine-grained panchromatic negative emulsion, and a high speed negative emulsion. It was found that reducers generally injure resolution, cutting reducers most of all, although the simple persulfate reducer improves resolution at low densities. Intensifiers vary according to no general rule, and some have little effect on resolution. Most of them are somewhat deleterious at low and medium densities, the silver intensifier being least so, but all improve resolution at high densities. No evidence was found for Scheffer's statement that a rinse in Farmer's reducer will dissolve the resolved portion of the image without much affecting its density.