The Qilian orogenic belt in the northern Tibetan plateau connects the Altaids to the north with the Tethyan orogenic system to the south and occupies a key tectonic position in the evolution and assembly of Asia. The belt con- tains a wide range of subduction-accretion-related petrotectonic units. The Early-Middle Devonian Laojunshan con- glomerate, deposited unconformably upon Cambrian-Silurian strata along the northern margin of the North Qilian terrane, contains a record of the late Paleozoic tectonism of the Qilian orogen. Its provenance and tectonic setting are critical in understanding not only the tectonic evolution of Tibetan plateau, but Paleozoic global reconstructions as well. The composition of clastic conglomerates and heavy mineral assemblages of sandstones suggests that coeval mafic, felsic, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks were the main sources. The geochemistry of volcanic clasts and paleocurrent and paleogeographic data suggest derivation from subduction-accretion complexes in the North Qilian terrane. The geochemistry of siltstones and mudstones indicates that the Laojunshan conglomerate was derived from an arc and accumulated in an active continental margin. Geochemical data of granitoid clasts suggest that they were de- rived from Ordovician-Silurian subduction-related magmatic rocks. Mafic and ultramafic clasts, chromite, and magne- tite decrease upwards in the stratigraphy whereas metamorphic, sedimentary and granitoid clasts, and garnet increase. These data imply that mafic rocks were the predominant source during initial deposition. Regional studies suggest that the North China plate subducted southwards and produced subduction-related arc magmatism along the southern margin of the North Qilian terrane during the Early-Middle Devonian. Therefore, we interpret the Laojunshan conglomerate as a fore-arc basin fill.


Takayasu arteritis is type of vasculitis that usually affects the aorta and its major branches. While coronary involvement is seen infrequently, treatment strategy is less clear. Here, we report a case of a 45 year-old woman with Takayasu arteritis who underwent a Y-graft coronary bypass surgery four years previously. We present the long-term follow-up this patient, with a literature review. and we discuss treatment strategies.


These research findings emerged from a year-long series of workshops for professional doctorate candidates at Middlesex University. The workshops used autobiographies, biographies, novels, journalism, poetry and essays from the 18th to the 21st century to stimulate discussion and learning in relation to each candidate's style, tastes and context support the development of writing skills appropriate to doctoral practice knowledge. Outcomes included bridging academic, reflective and professional writing; deepening critical thinking and expression and understanding and practising critical autobiography – all of which are core components of professional/practitioner based doctorates.


Lameness in sows is an emerging disease condition with major effects on animal welfare and economics. Yet the direct impact on reproduction results remains unclear. The present field study investigated the impact of lameness and claw lesions throughout the reproductive cycle on (re)production results of sows. In five farms, a total of 491 group-housed sows were followed up for a period of one reproductive cycle. Sows were assessed for lameness every time they were moved to another area in the farm. Claw lesions were scored at the beginning and at the end of the cycle. Reproduction results included the number of live-born piglets, stillborn piglets, mummified fetuses and crushed piglets, weaning-to-oestrus interval and the presence of sows not showing oestrus post weaning, returning to service and aborting. Sows that left the group were recorded and the reason was noted. A mean prevalence of lameness of 5.9% was found, although it depended on the time in the productive cycle. The highest percentage of lame sows (8.1%) was found when sows were moved from the post-weaning to the gestation stable. No significant associations were found between lameness and reproduction parameters with the exception of the effect on mummified foetuses. Wall cracks, white line lesions, heel lesions and skin lesions did have an effect on farrowing performance. Of all sows, 22% left the group throughout the study, and almost half of these sows were removed from the farm. Lameness was the second most important reason for culling. Sows culled because of lameness were significantly younger compared with sows culled for other reasons (parity: 2.6 ± 1.3 v. 4.0 ± 1.8). In conclusion, the present results indicate that lameness mainly affects farm productivity indirectly through its effect on sow longevity, whereas claw lesions directly affect some reproductive parameters. The high percentage of lame sows in the insemination stable indicate that risk factor studies should not only focus on the gestation stable, but also on housing conditions in the insemination stable.


In this paper a sliding mode control algorithm for cable suspended loads subject to acceleration and velocity constraints is presented. The algorithm guarantees the reaching phase elimination. Moreover, it ensures fast and monotonic system error convergence to zero without violating the acceleration and velocity constraints. The proposed method employs a time-varying switching line. At the initial time t=t0 the line passes through the representative point of the system in the error state space. Afterwards, the line moves with a constant velocity and a constant angle of inclination to the origin of the space and having reached the origin it stops moving. By this means insensitivity of the system with respect to external disturbance and model uncertainty from the very beginning of the control action is ensured. Parameters of the line are selected in such a way that the integral of the time multiplied by the absolute error (ITAE) is minimized.


The comparative reactivity method (CRM) was developed more than a decade to measure OH reactivity (i.e., OH loss frequency) in both laboratory and field studies. However, accurate OH reactivity quantification remains challenging under real ambient conditions, especially for OH reactivity measurements in high-NOx (e.g., > 10 ppbv) environments, as ambient NO enhances the regeneration of OH radicals in the CRM reactor. To solve this problem, we design a new and improved CRM reactor (ICRM) and add NO into the system continuously so that the HO2 radical concentration is suppressed. We confirmed the appropriate level of NO by determining the maximum decrease in the pyrrole level caused by regenerated OH radicals from NO+HO2. RO2 radicals induced by volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the ICRM reactor were also found to react with NO, which led to the regeneration of OH radicals and thus the underestimation of OH reactivity. This effect was quantified by the calibration of representative VOC species at different NO levels, and the correction coefficients obtained were used to correct the measured OH reactivity. All these efforts resulted in reducing the uncertainty of the NO-artifact correction by at least an order of magnitude compared to the original CRM system. Additionally, these technological improvements also considerably reduced the systematic errors from pyrrole photolysis in the original system. A new operation mode was proposed for the ICRM, which is able to avoid the interference resulting from OH radicals produced by photolysis of residual humidity and save time for ambient measurement. The ICRM system was employed in a field campaign to measure OH reactivity and performed well with ambient NO levels ranging from 0 to 50 ppbv, which are typically observed in the urban and suburban atmosphere.


Classic crystallization describes a burst nucleation followed by a layer-by-layer atom deposition. The non-classic crystallization refers to particle mediated crystallization process. Different crystallization routes lead to the formation of diverse structured materials. Here we report a rational synthesis of silver particles by selecting the crystallization routes. Silver particles were synthesized by a solution reduction approach. The crystallization routes were regulated by adding amino acids to stabilize silver ions which leads to the decrease of the reduction rate. Without amino acids, silver dendrites were largely formed. With the addition of amino acids, flower-like (low concentration of amino acids) and spherical silver (high concentration of amino acid) particles were synthesized. Three kinds of amino acids were tested and the similar results were obtained. The time-dependent characterization on the evolution of silver particles showed that silver dendrites were formed by the classic atom deposition while the other two morphologies were formed by the combination of classic and non-classic crystallization. The silver particles synthesized were evaluated for ethylene epoxidation and the dendritic particles demonstrated a high selectivity.


Locking mechanism is a popular concurrency control mechanism in distributed computing and database system used to ensure data integrity by prohibiting concurrent conflicting updates on shared data objects. The response of traditional locking is slow, so it can't be used as concurrency controlling strategy for real-time distributed collaborative systems. In this paper, we proposed a responsive fine-grain optimistic locking concurrency controlling algorithm based on relative position for consistency maintenance in real-time distributed collaborative systems. In this algorithm, reading lock and editing lock are taken into account. Moreover, the start position of locking region and the position of operation are relative, and they are not transformed into absolute position until operations are sent to cooperative sites or locks are added into LT. Additionally, the locking granularity can be selected by editors optionally. And any coeditor can edit in advance before his/her requested lock is confirmed. If the request is confirmed, the previous operations go into effect, or else undo these previous operations. In the end, this algorithm is used in our cooperative editing system, and we can find that the possibility of undo the previous editing operations because of locking conflict is very little. So this concurrency controlling algorithm has virtues of quick responsiveness, unconstraint collaboration and nice data consistency maintenance etc.


Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is capable of establishing an efficient symbiosis with a wide range of rhizobia, nevertheless, the inoculation of this legume is under used due to lack of information on the bacteria naturally established in soils and the agronomic and economic viability of the practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diversity and the symbiotic efficiency of peanut rhizobia from a Planosol under different vegetation covers (native vegetation, sugarcane cultivation and fallow after sugarcane cultivation), located in Zona da Mata, Northeast of Brazil. A total of 177 isolates were obtained from  peanut nodules, most of them having the characteristic of rapid growth and acidification of the Yeast Mannitol Agar (YMA) medium. The isolates obtained from soil samples with native vegetation cover showed higher relative abundance, higher species richness and greater uniformity of morphological groups of rhizobia. Eighteen isolates were evaluated for their ability to nodulate peanuts, of which 13 have been authenticated and submitted to evaluation of symbiotic efficiency in pots with  soil. The isolate 23M  showed the best symbiotic performance in pots with soil. In the field, plants inoculated with the isolate 23M showed better performance than non-inoculated plants, in addition to a grain yield (kg ha-1) similar to that of plants inoculated with recommended bacteria or receiving 200 kg ha-1 N.

 Key words: Bacteria of legume nodules, biological nitrogen fixation, diversity, grain legume, sugarcane field reform.


Minimal processing and storage of leafy vegetables are limited by several quality challenges despite numerous research interventions. Some studies have assessed pre-harvest and postharvest effects on quality of raw material and sometimes also on quality and shelf-life of the resulting processed product, however, the information on effect of the processing steps on its quality is lacking. This study, assessed the effect of operation modes, processing steps and storage on the nutritional, sensorial and microbial quality of minimally processed rocket leaves and cut lettuce. Rocket leaves and Lettuce (Iceberg and Romaine lettuce) samples were collected during processing from 4 and 2 processors respectively, by sampling the product flowing after each main processing steps (from raw material to washing drying and packaging). In addition processors belonged to Italy (Puglia) and USA (California and Arizona), and particularly 2 processors for rocket leaves and one for cut lettuce (Iceberg lettuce for Italy and Romaine lettuce for USA). Processors differed in their mode of operation and mainly by washing plant and design, type of sanitizer used and drying equipment. The effect of operation modes were evaluated on different quality attributes. For experiments in Italy, Total soluble solids (TSS), Titratable acidity (%TA), pH, Total phenols (TP), Total antioxidant activity (TAA), Ascorbic acid (AA), Dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA), Total vitamin C (Vit. C), Mesophilic count (MC), Psychrophilic count (PC), Yeast and molds (Y&M) and aroma volatiles of products after each processing step, including storage at 5 oC, were evaluated. For the experiments conducted in the USA, the effect of operation modes was evaluated on TP, TAA, MC, PC, Y&M, glucose, sinapic acid and ferulic acid (rocket leaves) as well as chlorogenic acid and p-Coumaric acid (romaine lettuce), with RT-PCR confirmatory tests for screening total bacteria.
Results obtained from common steps and quality attribute were evaluated with a 2-Way ANOVA design and random effect, and by applying a multivariate clustering technique in order to detect variation due to different processors and processing steps. Moreover results of each processor were individually analyzed for each processing step. Results showed that raw material quality influenced final product quality. For rocket leaves irrespective of location, the washing and sanitization steps increased phytonutrients properties of leaves (TP, TAA, AA, Total Vit. C sinapic and ferulic acids), inducing a reduction of microbial counts (MC, PC, Y&M), except for one case (processor C) where cross-contamination occurred. The washing steps that significantly increased TP also influenced the release of stress related volatiles (2-Methyl furan, Benzaldehyde, Dimethyl sulphide and (Z)-2-Penten-1-ol), for- Processor A whereas for Processor B, the stress related volatiles decreased (mostly aldehyde and sulphur compounds) when the increase in TP was not substantial during washing. Generally this increase was not affecting the overall nutrient content of the final product since a further oxidation was then induced by the drying steps (spin or tunnel drying). Passive MAP storage caused increase (p≤0.05) in DHAA, Y&M with high level ketone, sulphur compounds and aldehyde indicating early senescence where more stress was induced during processing, but did not significantly affect other phytonutrient, an increase of antioxidants was
observed, most probably as a defence response to the growth of PC and Y&M which also induced an increase of the production of benzaldehyde, methyl thiocyanate and dimethyl sulphide.
For lettuces, operation modes and processing steps of processors of iceberg and romaine caused a decrease in both phytonutrients and microbial counts (MC, PC, Y&M), but with some differences. The cutting of iceberg lettuce induced the release of alcohols, aldehydes and dimethyl sulphide while the cut surface of romaine had increased levels of all microbial counts probably from a contamination of the cutting equipment. In both cases nonetheless, the washing steps reduced the emission of volatiles and microbial counts respectively. Active MAP storage for 3 days in the case of iceberg lettuce led to a decrease in AA, DHAA, but a rise in TP, TAA, MC, PC, Y&M and volatiles already identified after drying. Moreover, microbial counts remained lower than that of the raw material prior to processing. Glucose content increased in Romaine lettuce after cutting but decreased during further processing. TSS, %TA and pH were not considerably affected by the processing steps.
A further study on the effect of the drying conditions on quality of rocket leaves after storage was also carried out. Temperature, belt speed and time were regulated to achieve two air-drying treatments leading to a residual surface water reduction below 2%, namely T-A (33oC, 0.022m/s and 5.37mins) and T-B (40oC, 0.026m/s and 4.45mins). Air ventilation was maintained at 100% in both treatment combinations. Raw material prior to processing was sampled and tested for sensory and microbial quality, while rocket leaves soon after the drying (achieving residual surface moisture of 1.9%-T-A and 0.4%-T-B), were directly packaged in polypropylene film bag (passive modified atmosphere) and stored for 5, 9 and 15 days at 5oC. The stored samples were analyzed in triplicates for colour changes, TSS, pH, %TA, Total chlorophyll (TC), Total Vit. C (AA and DHAA), TP, TAA, sensory quality, MC, PC and YM no major significant differences between T-A and T-B drying treatment during the storage period were observed. Passive MAP packaging and cold storage temperature minimized quality changes over time. Slight higher water surface of rocket leaves from the treatment at the lowest temperature (T-A), may have affected microbial and tissue disintegration in storage inducing the production of 2-Ethyl furan, but without inducing sensible variation in sensorial quality. Phytonutrients were also maintained during the storage period, with the exception of TC which reduced by 9.43% and 13.27% for T-A and T-B and TP which reduced by 4.32% for T-A. MC and PC reached the limit for spoilage after 15 days of storage while yeasts and molds growth exceeded the limit for spoilage after 9 days.
These results suggested that the treatment at 40 °C and shortest time should be preferred in order to increase process productivity, allowing to maintain lower residual water without inducing any thermal degradation.
It can be concluded that minimal processing steps, the mode of operation of different processors, the type of product and storage conditions influenced the final product quality at varying degrees. Generally the washing reduced microbial counts, inducing a stress that in whole rocket leaves favoured an increase phytonutrient, while in cut lettuce as also in consequence of cutting a more pronounced oxidation was observed. All these finding contributed to fill the existing gap between physiology of cut tissues and general knowledge about the impact of processing operations on quality of the final product, by increasing the amount of detailed information which can be available for processors.


The research problem had its origin because of the uneasiness of the researchers about the diversity and complexity of the problems related to the participation at work, hard to be always explained via objective elements. This understanding of the problem guided the option for a quality featured study based on Qualitative Epistemology (GONZALEZ REY, 2005), and the analysis were substantiated from the meaning of the subjective sense (GONZALEZ REY, 2003, 2005). The objective of this article is to analyze the treasury server subjective senses in the light of the participation at work. The theoretical reference is the subjectivity theory in Gonzalez Rey's (2003, 2005) historical-cultural perspective, which proposes a subjectivity conception from a man's historical-cultural comprehension, a theory that breaks with the dichotomy between social and individual. It was associated national and international studies about participation at work, such as O'Donoghue, Stanton and Bartram (2011), Zani and Spinelli (2010), Neves and Castro (2010); Palgi (2006), Cox, Zagelmeyer and Marchington (2006), Demo (1988), Coutinho (2006) and Leal Filho (2009). The adopted concept of participation is associated to the ways and means by which workers and directors of an organization can influence their destinies (MOTTA, 1999).The subjects researched are seven tax auditors from the Secretaria de Estado da Fazenda do Espirito Santo (Sefaz). The data collection took place in four empirical moments between July 2009 and February 2010. The interpretations exposed relevant subjective senses in each of the subjects researched in the light of the participation at work, and also in the light of: ideological points of view; family core and self-esteem; the new and changes; formality and family. The outcomes made possible the identification of remarkable elements of the social subjectivity prevailing in the institution, highlighting: control based culture; miscomprehension between friendship and professional relations; lack of participation space. In the end, measures were suggested in order to better the institution-worker relation and the participation of workers at work, gaps and limitations in the study, and future questions for a future study were also approached.


The Go programming language offers a wide range of primitives to coordinate lightweight threads, e.g., channels, waitgroups, and mutexes — all of which may cause concurrency bugs. Static checkers that guarantee the absence of bugs are essential to help programmers avoid these costly errors before their code is executed. However existing tools either miss too many bugs or cannot handle large programs. To address these limitations, we propose a static checker for Go programs which relies on performing bounded model checking of their concurrent behaviours. In contrast to previous works, our approach deals with large codebases, supports programs that have statically unknown parameters, and is extensible to additional concurrency primitives. Our work includes a detailed presentation of the extraction algorithm from Go programs to models, an algorithm to automatically check programs with statically unknown parameters, and a large scale evaluation of our approach. The latter shows that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art.


An international symposium entitled Chemical Carcinogenesis, Mutagenesis and Teratogenesis: a Tribute to James and Elizabeth Miller was held in Toronto, Ont., July 19, 1994. This symposium theme was discussed in the presence of James Miller, 79 years young, who with his wife, Elizabeth Miller (1920-1987), are considered to be the pioneers of this medical and environmental toxicology research field. It is generally believed that the susceptibility of an individual to chemical carcinogenesis or teratogenesis varies considerably depending upon their genetic makeup, diet, lifestyle, and their environmental exposure. One goal of the research discussed at this symposium was an examination of the role of the enzymes involved in the metabolic activation and detoxification of carcinogens and teratogens. The interindividual variabilities in the levels and activity of these enzymes could contribute to the susceptibility of the individual to chemical carcinogens or teratogens. At the symposium evidence was presented indicating that theta-class glutathione (GSH) S-transferase levels activate dihalomethanes and could therefore initiate the carcinogenic response to butadiene and 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane. The dramatic genetic polymorphism of this class of GSH S-transferase could thereby contribute to the individual's susceptibility to these carcinogens. Similarly, the GSH S-transferase and GSH levels in the embryo and yolk sac that are determined during organogenesis could also be important factors in determining the susceptibility of the embryo to teratogens. The levels of cytochrome P450 1A2, aromatic amine N-acetyltransferases, and sulfotransferases could also determine the susceptibility of the individual to carcinogenic arylamines. Accordingly, an Ames tester strain was described that was genetically engineered so as to express both aromatic amine N-acetyltransferase and human cytochrome P450 1A2. This should prove useful for predicting which arylamines are likely to be carcinogenic to humans. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may also prove useful in inhibiting the cytochrome P450s that activate the nitrosamines found in tobacco smoke suspected to cause lung cancer. Finally, the sulfotransferase isoforms involved in the metabolic activation of carcinogenic arylamines were identified.


This paper concerns maximal flows on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ traveling from a convex set to infinity, the flows being restricted by a random capacity. For every compact convex set $A$, we prove that the maximal flow $\Phi(nA)$ between $nA$ and infinity is such that $\Phi(nA)/n$ almost surely converges to the integral of a deterministic function over the boundary of $A$. The limit can also be interpreted as the optimum of a deterministic continuous max-flow problem. We derive some properties of the infinite cluster in supercritical Bernoulli percolation.


Abstract This work discusses a snowfall detection approach for high-latitude regions that is based on a combination of passive sensors to discriminate between snowing and nonsnowing areas. Two different techniques have been developed to compute the probability of detecting a snowing event. The first technique is based on a logistic distribution to represent the probability of snowfall given the predictors; the second is a Bayesian technique not requiring any hypothesis as to the shape of the probabilistic model. The spaceborne Advanced Microwave Sounding Units A and B (on NOAA-16) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (on Aqua) have been collocated and used for the estimation. Products from the spaceborne cloud-profiling radar on CloudSat are used as truth to calibrate and validate the proposed approaches. A comparison with a well-known rain-rate model, developed by the Remote Sensing and Estimation Group of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is also presented, showing that both pr...


Aerobic rice system is the most promising irrigation water saving technology, but is highly impeded by severe weed pressure. Weed control using same herbicide causes
development of herbicide resistant weed biotypes and posing serious problem in weed management. This study was conducted to determine the most efficient selective rice herbicides under aerobic culture system while also considering the economics of the chemical weed control method through determination of critical period for weed control (CPWC). Two CPWC experiments were conducted from
November 2007 to March 2008 at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Seberang Perai, Penang, Malaysia. The study was realized by investigating the durations of weed interference and weed-free period which
respectively determines beginning and end of CPWC. Results showed that by using a local aromatic rice variety, MRQ74 in aerobic rice cultivation, its rice yield would be
severely impaired if weeds were not removed from 17 to 53 days after sowing (DAS). An acceptable yield loss at 5% could be gained if weeds were controlled from 11 DAS until harvest at 74 DAS. Meanwhile, CPWC study on an aerobic rice nursery line, AERON001 had significant competitions from 13 to 75 DAS for a 5% acceptable yield loss, and from 29 to 40 DAS for a 10% acceptable yield loss. The screenings of selective rice herbicides were conducted during off season (April –July 2008) and main season (November 2008 – February 2009) to evaluate fourteen and eight herbicide treatments, respectively. Weed free control and weedy check
treatments were also included in both trials. The trial used a randomized complete block design with three replications in the off season, and four replications in the main season. Twenty five weed species were found in the aerobic rice field but two species (Eleusine indica and Digitaria ascendens) seemed to be dominant. Based on
the weed control efficiency, weed index values, and net benefit economic analysis, it was shown that the herbicide combinations of Propanil/Thiobencarb (1.2 kg ai ha-
1/2.4 kg ai ha-1) followed by Bentazone/MCPA (0.6 kg ai ha-1/0.1 kg ai ha-1) or Cyhalofop-butyl + Bensulfuron (0.1 kg ai ha-1 + 0.06 kg ai ha-1) followed by Bentazone/MCPA (0.6 kg ai ha-1/0.1 kg ai ha-1) or Pendimethalin (1.0 kg ai ha-1) followed by Cyhalofop-butyl + Bensulfuron (0.1 kg ai ha-1 + 0.06 kg ai ha-1) followed by Bentazone/MCPA (0.6 kg ai ha-1/0.1 kg ai ha-1) or Pretilachlor + Pendimethalin (0.375 kg ai ha-1/0.75 kg ai ha-1) followed by Bentazone/MCPA (0.6 kg ai ha-1/0.1 kg ai ha-1) could be the possible alternative for effective and economic weed control in rice under aerobic system. Based on these results and CPWC, the abovementioned selective rice herbicides should be applied at or before 11 DAS followed by sequential application by latest 43 DAS to maximize aerobic rice yield and minimize weed biomass.


Recent economic dynamics in southern Europe have been influenced by multifaceted processes with important spatial outcomes. Construction industry has been one of the productive sectors with the most relevant crisis-driven changes in Greece, probably the most affected country in Europe. With the aim to provide a quantitative analysis offering a comprehensive knowledge of regional-scale dynamics in construction industry during expansion and recession times, the present study investigates spatial variations over 2003-2015 in the value of new dwellings, supplemented with other indicators of building activity (number of permits, average building surface, number of floors), at the scale of Greek prefectures. A data mining framework based on principal component analysis and non-parametric correlations with background socioeconomic indicators was developed to identify spatial patterns in building activity during economic expansion (2003-2009) and crisis (2009-2015). According to building permit data, the average value of new dwellings' per surface area increased in a spatially-heterogeneous fashion across the country, with a substantial difference in growth rates between the two investigated time intervals. During expansion, new dwellings' value increased across the country with a slight decline in two regions and a considerable growth in one region. During recession, new dwellings' value decreased in one region and increased markedly in four regions, being relatively stable in the rest of the country. In 2003, the highest values of new dwellings were spatially associated with economically-dynamic districts characterized by agglomeration economies, upper urban functions, and transport accessibility. With crisis, the spatial distribution of dwellings' value was more heterogeneous and not associated to specific background factors, with the highest increase observed in accessible rural districts and coastal areas with tourism specialization. Further investigation on the role of economic cycles in house value spatial trends is particularly required for designing effective post-crisis development measures.


We examine how reputation concerns induce a multinational to partly withhold its entry into a developing country under weak intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement. Equilibrium IPR violations are shown to arise only in the presence of such concerns. Holding constant a multinational's incentive to innovate, better IPR enforcement encourages entry, but reduces social welfare. The multinational's incentive to innovate may be inversely U-shaped in the strength of IPR enforcement. If timed properly, however, stronger IPR enforcement can foster innovation without compromising social welfare. Testable implications concerning observable IPR violations are derived.


Often recognized for its advocacy on behalf of African descendants, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church has been silent on issues regarding anti-Haitian sentiment in the Dominican Republic. By tracing the historical connection between Black America and Haiti in the nineteenth century and recounting the twentieth-century history of the AME Church in the Dominican Republic, this article explains how an institution created in defense of racial equality could inadvertently facilitate its own silencing. Using archival research, ethnography, and interviews, this article critically analyzes narratives that distance Dominican African Methodists from African Americans and Haitians. It argues that such silences in the AME Church are the result of the church's social marginalization in the Dominican Republic, African American leaders' habitual neglect of the AME Church's Dominican branches, and the assimilation of Black Anglophone migrants into Dominican culture.


Background Feedback is the cornerstone of effective clinical teaching [1] allowing students to improve by reinforcing good practice and improving poor practice. The ability to take a clinical history is a key skill required to practise effectively as a doctor. The four week Rheumatology and Orthopaedic placement for the University of Manchester medical students requires them to take a minimum of 12 case histories, at least four of which must be presented to clinicians to obtain feedback. Objectives To review quantity and quality of feedback on clerking obtained by 4th year Manchester Medical students as a part of Rheumatology and Orthopaedic placement. Methods A questionnaire survey of 4th year medical students studying Rheumatology and Orthopaedics at the University Hospital of South Manchester was performed to review clinical history taking and feedback during this module. It consisted of 13 questions designed around the four levels of training evaluation described by Kirkpatrick's evaluation framework [2]. It was given to three cohorts of students on the day that they completed their Rheumatology and Orthopaedics block. Results 43/64 (67.2%) of students responded to the questionnaire, of which 21 students (48.8%) either agreed or strongly agreed that it was easy to find patients from whom to take clinical histories during the placement. However, 18.6% of students reported not achieving the minimum of 12 case histories required. 32.6% of students agreed that it was easy to identify staff from which feedback could be sought, and 44.2% received feedback for at least four clinical histories. The majority of the students (81.4%) agreed that feedback was useful. The content of the feedback that was evaluated in the first two cohorts of students varied greatly, with very few students received feedback covering positive and negative comments as well as ways to improve (Orthopaedics 19.2%; Rheumatology 31.7%). Feedback varied in length of time with 58.1%taking less than five minutes, 25.6% lasting 5–10 minutes and 11.6% lasting 11–15 minutes. Conclusions Our survey demonstrates that there are some issues with the current system for facilitating student history taking, and obtaining feedback on this. The vast majority of feedback received is perceived as useful. Over half of students are not achieving the amount of feedback that they should receive, hence students are potentially missing out on an important opportunity to improve their clinical performance. Considering the results of this survey the authors plan to develop an intervention to try to increase the quality and quantity of feedback given, similar to the feedback postcard project being piloted in Edinburgh [3], which seems on track to improve both the quality and quantity of feedback during clinical placements. References Cantillon and Sergent Giving Feedback in clinical settings BMJ 2008;337:a1961 Employing Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Framework to Determine the Effectiveness of Health Information Management Courses and Programs. Rouse D. Perspect Health Inf Manag. 2011(spring);8:1c Feedback Postcards Project. 2016. Feedback Postcards Project. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.eemec.med.ed.ac.uk/pages/feedback-cards.[Accessed 27 January 2016] Disclosure of Interest None declared


Background Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common cutaneous malignancy and usually has a benign coarse. Rarely, examples of aggressive and neglected types of this tumor are seen. Objective To present an interesting and dramatic example of how some people neglect their tumors and how devastating the sequelae can be. Methods We report a 58-year-old man with an extensive BCC and signs of cranial nerve involvement. Results The patient had a large, infected ulcer on his scalp. He also had skull bone destruction, osteomyelitis, mastoiditis, cranial nerve paralysis, and radiographic features of the skull base and upper cervical soft tissue involvement. Pathologic studies revealed an infiltrating form of BCC. Conclusions If left untreated and neglected, as in this case, BCC can become inoperable and complicated.


A non-perturbative theory of the scattering of electromagnetic waves from rough interfaces is described. Materials with very short in-plane length scale are modelled as precipitates of clusters of random size. This model results in a rough layer interface with the roughness autocorrelation determined by the probability laws for cluster sizes, the centre-to-centre distance and the surface density of clusters. By specifying these probability laws and varying their parameters we can model the different layer growth mechanisms that depend on the microstructure of clusters.


of steam to repel any invasion of water; but they seem to overlook the fact that when once the critical pressure of water is attained, there will either be no steam, or the steam will be compressed to the same volume as the liquid water at the critical temperature. If the critical pressure be exceeded, the steam will be still more compressed. As the critical pressure of water is only 200 atmospheres, the moderate ocean depth of 1100 fathoms will suffice to overcome any expansive force that water or steam may exert; and at the greater oceanic depths, fire and water would be impotent to resist the pressurecontrol. One thing I notice is that though petrologists reject the penetration of rocks by water under tremendous pressure, they gaily assume the free penetration of ' country rocks' by gases and liquids! They obviously will not allow the sauce for the goose being used for the more powerful gander. A. It. HUNT.


Background There are only limited data on patients with diabetes undergoing transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) in real-world settings. Previous data indicated patients with diabetes to have a worse prognosis. This study sought to evaluate safety and efficacy of TEER in patients with diabetes in a real-world cohort. Methods In this monocentric study 340 consecutive patients with severe primary and secondary mitral regurgitation (MR) undergoing TEER were included. Immediate results of the procedure, intrahospital and one-year outcome were compared between patients with and without diabetes. Results Diabetes was present in 109 patients (32%). Patients with diabetes were younger (77 y (71, 81) vs. 79 y (74, 83); p = 0.003), had more often ischemic cardiomyopathy (68% vs. 48%; p<0.001), previous coronary-artery bypass graft (35% vs. 20%; p = 0.002) and arterial hypertension (89% vs. 75%; p<0.001) compared to those without diabetes. Baseline NYHA class, type of MR (primary vs. secondary), left ventricular dimensions and function (ejection fraction: 37% (28, 50) vs. 40% (29, 55); p = 0.10) as well as severity of MR were not different between both groups. Success of the procedure (95% vs. 95%; p = 0.84), intrahospital mortality (5.5% vs. 4.8%; p = 0.98) and one-year follow-up regarding all-cause mortality (24.2% vs. 23.0%; p = 0.72), hospitalization for heart failure (37.4% vs. 31.0%, p = 0.23), NYHA class (p = 0.14) or MR severity (p = 0.59) did not differ between both groups. Conclusion Our real-world data suggest that TEER seems to be similarly safe and effective in patients with severe MR and diabetes compared to those without diabetes.


Attribution theory deals with how and why people form an opinion about the reasons for an event or observation (Winkler 2010). This theory is based on the idea that perception is the foundation of human understanding, sensemaking, and behaviour. This theory claims that people develop explanations for the behaviours of others, similarly to how scientists try to understand the world. The theory asserts that people's opinions are formed based on how they perceive the behaviour and the reality surrounding it. This explanation, the attribution, is based on how the observing person perceives a cause for the actor's behaviour.


The compressive creep curves of Mg-4Al-5.1Y-2.5LPC alloy in T6 condition were tested under different stresses and temperatures using an electronic creep testing machine. The results show that the stress exponent of Mg-4Al-5.1Y-2.5LPC alloy at 250°C is 3.38, indicating the creep mechanism of Mg-4Al-5.1Y2.5LPC alloy is dislocation climb. When the creep stress is 117.1MPa, the creep activation energy (Q 200-250°C) of Mg-4Al-5.1Y-2.5LPC alloy is 145.7 kJ/mol, approximately being equal to self-diffusion activation energy of Mg, which also shows that the dislocation climb plays an important role in the creep process of Mg-4Al-5.1Y2.5LPC alloy.


This paper focuses on generalization of learning classifier system (LCS) and explores the method for reducing the time of generalizing conscious rules that have the real number. For this purpose, we pay attention on exemplars (i.e., good examples) and, propose exemplar-based LCS (ECS) that extracts useful exemplars as generalized rules by deleting unnecessary exemplars (some overlapping exemplars) as much as possible. To validate the effectiveness of ECS, this paper applies it to the cargo layout optimization problems. Intensive simulations have revealed the following implications; that (1) the gap between a center of gravity of HTV and its actual center is minimized by ECS in comparison with the other cases that employ 2000 exemplars and the randomly selected exemplars; (2) ECS can minimize the gap with the small numbers of exemplars (i.e., less than 2000 exemplars); and (3) such effectiveness of ECS is maintained even when the predetermined range of the match set is varied, which show the robustness of ECS against the parameter setting.


_____________________ © 2023 Hosting by Research Parks. All rights reserved. A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 04 Apr 2023 Received in revised form 03 May 2023 Accepted 24 Jun 2023


In a randomized, phase II trial, we evaluated the effectiveness of continued chemotherapy with epirubicin/ ifosfamide versus unmaintained treatment interruption in advanced metastatic breast cancer. Three hundred fifty-seven patients were enrolled and 331 were evaluable for response. Complete response was achieved in 25 patients (8%) and partial response in 121 patients (37%). Pretreatment status correlated significantly with response (complete and partial response). While 54% of unpretreated patients responded, only 42% of the patients responded who had been pretreated with adjuvant chemotherapy and 33% who had been pretreated in the metastatic stage of disease; 69 patients (21%) had disease progression. Of 11 patients pretreated in both the adjuvant and metastatic setting, only two responded. Toxicity of treatment was mild, with leukopenia being the treatment-limiting factor. Thrombocyte levels were not altered significantly by treatment. Thus, there seems to be room for dose escalation using granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. There was no considerable cardiotoxicity, central nervous system toxicity, or cystitis observed. The low rate of cardiotoxicity appeared to be related to dose fractionation of epirubicin. After randomization of patients to treatment interruption versus continuation of chemotherapy, a longer relapse-free survival was observed for patients who continued chemotherapy (mean relapse-free survival, 2+ months); however, this did not translate into prolonged survival. The cumulative scores of toxicity and quality of life parameters showed increasing superiority for treatment interruption. Therefore, a strategy of treatment until maximum response and subsequent treatment interruption seems to be superior to treatment continuation.


A left peripheral focus and a wh-element cannot co-occur in main interrogatives in Italian, whereas they can marginally co-occur in indirect questions. Moreover, the acceptability of the relevant configurations is further modulated by the grammatical function of the focal element, with a focalized indirect object more acceptable than a focalized direct object. In this paper we establish these generalizations experimentally through a controlled acceptability experiment. We discuss the theoretical underpinning of the observed pattern by tracing back this unusual kind of main-embedded asymmetry to plausible principles regulating the interface properties of focus and wh-constructions. We then extend the comparative dimension to Japanese. We propose that certain intervention effects observed in the literature may be amenable to the same explanatory ingredients at work in the incompatibility between focus and whin Italian; moreover certain apparent cases of double cleft in Japanese are analyzable as involving a single focus constituent, thus supporting the universality of the uniqueness of focus.1


We report on a high-peak-power vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) quasi-array emitting at approximately 980 nm. The quasi-array is composed of four tightly packaged single emitters connected in series. The external quantum efficiency of large-aperture VCSEL was improved by optimizing the current distribution, and single emitters with a 62 W peak power were developed as the basic building block of this quasi-array. More than 210 W peak power is demonstrated from a ~2.2 × 2.2 mm2 quasi-array at a current of 110 A under 30 ns and 5 kHz pulsed operation. This is the first report on a hundreds-of-watts VCSEL module consisting of single emitters.


One-third of agricultural businesses in the European Union are Romanian. Most of these are small-scale and serve as subsistence farms. Larger operations produce mainly grain and sunflowers. Romania is the largest exporter of grain in the EU. Historically, the rural regions were a guarantee of stability for the ruling regime. Since the rural population was dependent on the goodwill of the bureaucracy, the farmers are easy to manipulate in elections. Today, the number of people working in agriculture is decreasing. Rural regions are beset by structural problems such as over-ageing and migration. In the past, the rural population moved to the cities. In recent years, however, they have mainly decided to leave the country to work elsewhere, initially as seasonal labourers, and then as permanent employees.


A crucial division of linguistic labor is that among metalinguistic labors. Who is authorized to speak about language, how, and where? Language ideologies not only ascribe different functions to different languages; they also ascribe different sorts of metadiscourse to speakers of (or about) those languages. Drawing from archival and field work, this article traces the ways particular Soviet and post-Soviet institutions and actors modeled and regimented metapragmatic discourses, specifically through stage and screen practices and representations that hypercontextualized utterances in Romani. They became so hegemonic that, in public arenas, Romani speakers spoke only about nonreferential functions; only in less well broadcast contexts (and mainly with other Roma) did they articulate metalinguistic and metareferential discourses. These practices reverse and contrast with the mainstream metapragmatics of Russian. Language ideologies commonly rank codes and metadiscourses; this case illuminates not only that they do so, but also how they do so, and it suggests what their social effects may be.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the mechanism of apoptosis after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats and elucidate the role of GM-1 by detecting the expression of Fas mRNA and apoptosis in hippocampi.

METHODS
After creating the model of Marmarou cranio-cerebral trauma and offering GM-1 therapy, we observed the expression of Fas mRNA and apoptotic cell death using in situ hybridization and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin in situ nick end labeling (TUNEL) technique.

RESULTS
Increased expression of Fas mRNA and increased apoptotic cells in hippocampi after TBI were observed. GM-1 could decrease the expression of Fas mRNA and apoptotic cell death.

CONCLUSION
The increased expression of Fas mRNA may be a noteworthy cause of apoptotic cell death after traumatic brain injury. GM-1 may play a protective role by way of decreasing the expression of Fas mRNA and apoptotic cell death.


Background: Oxidative stress is involved in the hypocontractility of visceral artery to vasoconstrictors and formation of hyperdynamic circulation in cirrhosis with portal hypertension. In the present study, we investigated the effect of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on the mesenteric artery contractility in CCl4-induced cirrhotic rats, and the roles of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) desensitization and RhoA /Rho associated coiled-coil forming protein kinase (ROCK) pathways. Methods: The mesenteric artery contraction to norepinephrine (NE) was determined by vessel perfusion system following treatments with apocynin, tempol or PEG-catalase. The protein expression of α1 adrenergic receptor, β-arrestin-2, ROCK-1, moesin and p-moesin was measured by western blot. The interaction between α1 adrenergic receptor and β-arrestin-2 was assessed by co-immunoprecipitation. Results: Pretreatment with apocynin or PEG-catalase in cirrhotic rats, the hydrogen peroxide level in the mesenteric arteriole was significantly decreased, and the dose-response curve of mesenteric arteriole to NE moved to the left with EC50 decreased. There was no significant change for the expression of α1 adrenergic receptor. However, the protein expression of β-arrestin-2 and its affinity with α1 adrenergic receptor were significantly decreased. The ROCK-1 activity and anti- Y-27632 inhibition in cirrhotic rats increased significantly with the protein expression unchanged. Such effects were not observed in tempol-treated group. Conclusion: The H2O2 decrease in mesenteric artery from rats with cirrhosis resulted in down regulation of the β-arrestin-2 expression and its binding ability with α1 adrenergic receptor, thereby affecting the agonist-induced ROCK activation and improving the contractile response in blood vessels.


The transportation sector is one of the major energy consumers in most energy systems and a large portion of the energy demand is linked to road transport and personal vehicles. It accounted for 32.8% of the final energy consumption of Croatia in 2011 making it the second most energy demanding sector. Because of their higher efficiency, a modal switch from conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles (EVs) has the potential to greatly reduce the overall energy demand of the transport sector. Our previous work has shown that a transition to EVs in a combination with a modal split from air and road to rail transport can reduce the energy consumption in Croatia by 99 PJ, which is approximately 59%, by the year 2050 when compared to the business as usual scenario. The goal of this paper is to model the hourly distribution of the energy consumption of EVs and use the calculated load curves to test their impact on the Croatian energy system. The hourly demand for the transport sector has been calculated using the agent-based modelling tool MATSim on a simplified geographic layout. The impact EVs have on the energy system has been modelled using EnergyPLAN.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and a transactional leadership component (management by exception‐active), and fulfillment of the basic needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on cross sectional data from 661 employees who completed validated questionnaires such as the the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) and the basic need satisfaction at work (BNSW). The data were analysed using structural equation modeling in AMOS 18.0.Findings – The results show that both transformational leadership and the transactional behavior management by exception active are significantly related to fulfillment of the basic needs. Significant regression weights of 0.50 (p<0.01) 0.46 (p<0.01), and 0.21 (p<0.01) from transformational leadership to relatedness, autonomy and competence were also found. Negative and smaller paths were revealed from management by exception to relatedness (=−0.12, p<0....


Russia would hardly expect much value to be added by the Kazakhstan Chairmanship of the OSCE in 2010. It would not expect much harm either. This made the overall balance of supporting Nazarbayev's bid positive to Moscow which found it better to honour rather than to deny (or to allow others to deny) it. The Kremlin must have been struck, however, by the manifested readiness of Astana to seek a successful Chairmanship by engaging not only (and not predominantly) with Russia but particularly with the US and the European nations. As a result Astana's approach towards the OSCE sharply contrasted the toughening rhetoric of Russia. However, while having little leverage to either persuade or punish Kazakhstan's policies, the Kremlin has also little choice next year but to avoid spoiling relations with Astana by denying it a successful Chairmanship.


This paper presents the "Gestor de Coevaluación Orientado a Grupos" (GCOG, Co-evaluation Manager Focused on Groups) for Moodle, a software tool to support peer evaluation when the students are organized using Moodle's groups and groupings. The main functionalities of this Moodle module are: a view to edit of co-evaluation questionnaires, a view to show those questionnaires adapted to each group, a view to answer questionnaires, and an action to publish results for each student into the Moodle's grade book. This module saves time when creating activities and calculating results. It is available at the virtual campus for the student to complete the evaluation of their peers from anywhere. It has been used effectively for teacher-student joint assessment of various courses of the Computer Engineering Degree in 2011.


A 54-year-old female patient with a congenital ventricular septal defect (VSD) was admitted to the authors' hospital for an investigation of mild fever of four months' duration. Her history revealed pulmonary valve endocarditis contracted 18 years previously. Echocardiography revealed an echogenic mobile mass on the pulmonic valve that caused mild regurgitation, while blood cultures were positive for Streptococcus viridans. The patient was administered ceftriaxone and gentamycin, and had an uneventful clinical course. She was advised to undergo surgical closure of the VSD in order to avoid any recurrence of endocarditis.


Regeneration of the central nervous system (CNS) is one of the most important research themes in neuroscience and neuroengineering. It is essential to replenish the lost neurons and to establish appropriate functional neuronal networks using pluripotent stem cells. Little is known, however, about the properties of stem cell-derived neuronal networks, particularly under the differentiation and development processes. In this work, we cultured P19 embryonal carcinoma cells on microelectrode arrays (MEAs). P19 cells were differentiated into neurons by retinoic acid application and formed densely connected networks. Spontaneous electrical activity was extracellularly recorded through substrate electrodes and analyzed. Synchronized periodic bursts, which were characteristic features in primary cultured CNS neurons, were observed. Pharmacological studies demonstrated that the glutamatergic excitatory synapses and the GABAergic inhibitory synapses were active in these P19-derived neuronal networks. The results suggested that MEA-based recording was useful for monitoring differentiation processes of stem cells. P19-derived neuronal networks had quite similar network properties to those of primary cultured neurons, and thus provide a novel model system to investigate stem cell-based neuronal regeneration. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 94(4): 9–19, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10325


Our recent focus on the "lost antibiotic" unguinol and related nidulin-family fungal natural products identified two semisynthetic derivatives, benzguinols A and B, with unexpected in vitro activity against Staphylococcus aureus isolates either susceptible or resistant to methicillin. Here, we show further activity of the benzguinols against methicillin-resistant isolates of the animal pathogen Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging 0.5–1 μg/mL. When combined with sub-inhibitory concentrations of colistin, the benzguinols demonstrated synergy against Gram-negative reference strains of Acinetobacter baumannii, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MICs of 1–2 μg/mL in the presence of colistin), whereas the benzguinols alone had no activity. Administration of three intraperitoneal (IP) doses of 20 mg/kg benzguinol A or B to mice did not result in any obvious adverse clinical or pathological evidence of acute toxicity. Importantly, mice that received three 20 mg/kg IP doses of benzguinol A or B at 4 h intervals exhibited significantly reduced bacterial loads and longer survival times than vehicle-only treated mice in a bioluminescent S. aureus murine sepsis challenge model. We conclude that the benzguinols are potential candidates for further development for specific treatment of serious bacterial infections as both stand-alone antibiotics and in combination with existing antibiotic classes.


From the beginning of the eighties papaverine was well established as the drug of choice for diagnosis and management of vasculogenic impotence. In the second half of the eighties decade many authors referred on experimental use of PGE1 in erection disease. PGE1 has been showed a safe and effectiveness drug. During the period September 1989-October 1990 at our Institution 98 pts. with erectile disorders were managed by I.C.I. with PGE1. Out of 98 cases 88 had success. Prolonged erection occurred in 4 pts. (4.2%). 10 pts. showed only tumescence. So there are been treated by I.C.I. with combined papaverine and PGE1 with better results. No side effects were formed in 10 pts. managed by self-injection of PGE1.


One-pot processes for the synthesis of benzo[b]furans from 1-aryl- or 1-alkylketones using nonprecious transition metal catalysts have been developed. Regioselective iron(III)-catalyzed halogenation of the aryl ring, followed by iron- or copper-catalyzed O-arylation allowed the synthesis of various structural analogues, including the benzo[b]furan-derived natural products corsifuran C, moracin F, and caleprunin B.


Electromigration (EM) in Ag nanocontacts (NCs) was observed in situ on an atomic scale using simultaneous measurements of electrical conductance and mechanical stress. The in situ observations showed that the critical bias voltage of EM was 45 mV. As the bias voltage was increased to 100-200 mV, the NCs broke and gaps with distances of 1.3 +/- 0.8 nm were obtained for NCs having widths smaller than 6 nm. When the bias voltage was further increased to 200-300 mV, the gaps expanded to more than 3 nm, regardless of the NC width. It was found that the nanogap distance could be controlled to fit specific molecular sizes by appropriately selecting the bias voltage and NC width.


In this paper, we propose a novel approach to secure communication based on spatiotemporal chaos. At the transmitter end, the state variables of the coupled map lattice system are divided into two groups: one is used as the key to encrypt the plaintext in the N-shift encryption function, and the other is used to mix with the output of the N-shift function to further confuse the information to transmit. At the receiver end, the receiver lattices are driven by the received signal to synchronize with the transmitter lattices and an inverse procedure of the encoding is conducted to decode the information. Numerical simulation and experiment based on the TI TMS320C6713 Digital Signal Processor (DSP) show the feasibility and the validity of the proposed scheme.


A role for the outer-membrane-associated LapA protein in early biofilm formation by Pseudomonas fluorescens WCS365 has previously been shown. This paper reports that lapD, a gene located adjacent to the lapA gene, also plays a role in biofilm formation. A mutation in lapD results in a conditional biofilm defect in a static assay - this biofilm phenotype is exacerbated when biofilm formation is assayed in a flow-cell system. Furthermore, a lapD mutation shows a partial defect in the transition from reversible to irreversible attachment, consistent with an early role for the lapD gene product in biofilm formation. LapD is shown to be localized to the inner membrane of P. fluorescens. The data show decreased LapA associated with the cell surface, but no apparent change in cytoplasmic levels of this protein or lapA transcription, in a lapD mutant. A model is proposed wherein the role of LapD in biofilm formation is modulating the secretion of the LapA adhesin.


Predation by fish (rainbow trout and perch) on the invasive gammarids Dikerogammarus villosus and Echinogammarus ischnus and the natives Gammarus fossarum, Gammarus roeseli and Gammarus pulex was investigated under different substrate conditions (gravel, large stones, fine sand) in laboratory experiments. Gravel and stones (coarse substrates) should provide refuge for gammarids while sand (fine substrate) should offer little refuge. One additional set of experiments was run without any substrate to investigate the risk of gammarids to fish predation in the absence of any refuge. When, in mixed-prey experiments, combinations of native and invasive species were exposed to fish predation, fish (both trout and perch) ate many more native gammarids than invasives under conditions of coarse substrate. However, fish (trout) ate the same quantity of native and invasive gammarids under conditions of fine substrate but relatively more of the invasive D. villosus when no substrate was present. Single-prey experiments, which were conducted under conditions of stony substrate, supported the results of the mixed prey experiments in that the native G. pulex was eaten by fish somewhat more frequently than the invasives D. villosus and E. ischnus. However, the native G. roeseli was eaten as frequently by fish as were the invasives. Further experiments, where substrate affinity and activity of gammarids was tested, showed that invasive species were less active than natives and that invasives (in particular D. villosus) displayed a high affinity to coarse substrate. The results suggest that when native and invasive gammarids co-exist in rivers where gravelly or stony bottom sediments prevail, native species suffer higher losses due to fish predation than the invasives. In rivers with sandy sediment the advantage of low predation risk for the invaders vanishes. The results further suggest that the high predation risk of natives originates from their high activity and that differences in predation risk between native and invasive gammarids during their coexistence may have contributed to the decline of natives in large rivers of Southern Germany.


Abstract The management of displaced proximal humerus fractures has evolved toward humeral head preservation, with treatment decisions based on careful assessment of vascular status, bone quality, fracture pattern, degree of displacement, and patient age and activity level. The AO/ASIF fracture classification is helpful in guiding treatment and in stratifying the risk for associated disruption of the humeral head blood supply. Nonsurgical treatment consists of sling immobilization. For patients requiring surgery, options include closed reduction and percutaneous fixation; transosseous suture fixation; open reduction and internal fixation, with either conventional or locking plate fixation; bone graft; and hemiarthroplasty. Proximal humerus fractures must be evaluated on an individual basis, with treatment tailored according to patient and fracture characteristics.


Healthcare personnel can provide patients with adequate skills to self-manage disease and treatment in everyday life by therapeutic patient education (TPE). TPE is an inter-professional and inter-disciplinary domain shared by different professionals. In this context pharmacists can also give their contribution by teaching patients the appropriate use of prescribed medications and the management of related clinical risks. To better accomplish this delicate task, pharmacists need specific pedagogical training. In this context, the pharmacist can be a precious therapeutic resource to patients by playing a key role in helping them to cope safely with disease and treatment.


An innovative architecture to support multimedia service over an avionic environment is described. The focus is on the access protocol definition towards the satellite link. In particular, two different techniques are proposed for the return link: per aircraft technique and per connection technique. The functional architecture for both the techniques is described. The merits and drawbacks of the two protocols are highlighted by means of software simulations.


The development of large scale virtual reality and simulation systems have been mostly driven by the DIS and HLA standards community. A number of issues are coming to light about the applicability of these standards, in their present state, to the support of general multi-user VR systems. This paper pinpoints four issues that must be readdressed before large scale virtual reality systems become accessible to a larger commercial and public domain: a reduction in the effects of network delays; scalable causal event delivery; update control; and scalable reliable communication. Each of these issues is tackled through a common theme of combining wall clock and causal time-related entity behaviour, knowledge of network delays and prediction of entity behaviour, that together overcome many of the effects of network delays.


A serological classification scheme for Neisseria gonorrhoeae was used to investigate the epidemiological associations between gonococcal serotype and other bacterial and host characters. Six hundred and fifty clinical isolates of non-penicillinase producing N gonorrhoeae from the Praed Street Clinic, St Mary's Hospital, were included in this study. The strains collected represented 41 serovars, although 485 (75%) of the 650 strains belonged to five serovars. Strains of serovar IA-1/2 were commonly isolated from the cervix and tended to be sensitive to penicillin and moderately resistant to erythromycin. Strains of serovar IB-1 showed bimodal patterns of susceptibility to both penicillin and erythromycin and were obtained equally from all anatomical sites. Strains of serovar IB-2 were isolated more often from the rectum and were associated with homosexually acquired infections, whereas those of serovar IB-3 were sensitive to erythromycin and were rarely isolated from the rectum. Strains of IB-5/7 were more resistant to penicillin and erythromycin than strains of other serovars. The serological classification of N gonorrhoeae is thus a powerful tool that may be used to study biological characteristics of the gonococcus, such as susceptibility to antimicrobials and site tropism.


Impaired memory and cognitive function are the main features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Unfortunately, currently available treatments cannot cure or delay AD progression. Moreover, the blood–brain barrier hampers effective delivery of treatment to the brain. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the impact of intranasally delivered luteolin on AD using bile-salt-based nano-vesicles (bilosomes). Different bilosomes were prepared using 23-factorial design. The variables were defined by the concentration of surfactant, the molar ratio of cholesterol:phospholipid, and the concentration of bile salt. Results demonstrated optimized luteolin-loaded bilosomes with particle size (153.2 ± 0.98 nm), zeta potential (−42.8 ± 0.24 mV), entrapment efficiency% (70.4 ± 0.77%), and % drug released after 8 h (80.0 ± 1.10%). In vivo experiments were conducted on an AD mouse model via intracerebroventricular injection of 3 mg/kg streptozotocin. We conducted behavioral, biochemical marker, histological, and immune histochemistry assays after administering a luteolin suspension or luteolin bilosomes (50 mg/kg) intranasally for 21 consecutive days. Luteolin bilosomes improved short-term and long-term spatial memory. They also exhibited antioxidant properties and reduced levels of proinflammatory mediators. They also suppressed both amyloid β aggregation and hyperphosphorylated Tau protein levels in the hippocampus. In conclusion, luteolin bilosomes are an effective, safe, and non-invasive approach with superior cognitive function capabilities compared to luteolin suspension.


Current interpretations of kidney function in terms of a coarse filter followed by a fine filter have difficulty explaining why the glomerulus does not clog. I propose, as an alternative, a semiquantitative hypothesis that assumes that the size-selective property of the glomerulus is a consequence of the limited fraction of space in the glomerular basement membrane (a concentrated gel) into which macromolecules can permeate. The glomerular epithelial cell slits and slit diaphragms are assumed to impose substantial resistance to liquid flow across the glomerulus without acting as a molecular sieve. Calculations based on gel behavior show that proteins cross the glomerular basement membrane mainly by diffusion rather than by liquid flow, whereas water crosses entirely by flow. Thus, diffusion provides most of the protein, whereas flow provides the diluent. As a result, the single-nephron glomerular filtration rate (GFR) becomes a prime factor in (inversely) determining the concentration of proteins in early proximal tubular fluid. Because the reabsorption of proteins from the tubules is a saturable process, the gel permeation/diffusion hypothesis readily accounts for the albuminuria observed when single-nephron GFR is substantially reduced by severe pathological decreases in slit diaphragm length, such as occur in minimal-change nephrotic syndrome in humans, in animals treated with puromycin aminonucleoside, or in humans or animals with mutations in the gene coding for nephrin. My hypothesis predicts that albuminuria will ensue, even with a normal kidney, if the single-nephron GFR falls below ≈50% of normal.


The study investigated the current distribution of the larger grain borer (LGB),  Prostephanus truncatus , in five states of South-western Nigeria; Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, Ondo and Osun by visual observation of maize stored in cribs and using the synthetic aggregation pheromone of LGB as baits in survey traps for twenty days. The highest mean number of LGB was trapped in Ogun state, followed by catches from Lagos, Oyo, Ondo and Osun states respectively. The mean number of LGB trapped in Ogun state was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than mean catches in other states. In all the locations, the number of borers caught in the traps declined with days after the activation of the pheromone. In the crib survey, P. truncatus was not observed in any of the twenty cribs sampled across the states. However, other stored product insects were found in descending order; Sitophilus zeamais (L.) (60.0%), Oryzaephilus surinamensis (Motsch) (40.0%), Tribolium castaneum (Herbst.) (35.0%), Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Steph.) (25%) and  Rhizopertha dominica F. (5.0%). Concerted efforts should be directed at preventing further spread of LGB in Nigeria, especially in Ogun and Lagos states that showed high presence of the borer. Keywords: Prostephanus Truncatus; Aggregation pheromone; Survey tra; Cribs; Distribution


Purpose: There is increasing evidence that altered microRNA expression is associated with tumor progression and survival in cancer patients. We tested if the expression of specific microRNAs was associated with prognosis and disease progression in early-stage lung adenocarcinoma. Experimental Design: The expression of miR-21, miR-17, and miR-155 was measured by quantitative RT-PCR in tissues from 317 non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients that originated from Maryland, Norway, and Japan. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis evaluated associations of microRNA expression with cancer-specific mortality and disease-free survival. Results: Elevated miR-21 (HR 2.06, 1.13–3.75), miR-17 (HR 2.00, 1.10–3.61), and miR-155 (HR 2.37, 1.27–4.42) was associated with worse cancer-specific mortality in the Maryland cohort. These were evaluated in two additional cohorts and only miR-21 was associated with worse cancer-specific mortality in the Norwegian cohort (HR 2.78, 1.22–6.31) and worse relapse-free survival in the Japanese cohort (HR 2.82, 1.57–5.07). More advanced stage tumors expressed significantly higher levels of miR-21 compared with TNM stage I tumors. TNM stage I patients were evaluated separately and high levels of miR-21 was associated with worse cancer-specific mortality (HR 2.16, 1.11–4.21) and relapse-free survival (3.40, 1.57–7.36) independent of other clinical factors. Conclusions: This is the first study to report that increased miR-21 expression is associated with disease progression and survival in stage I lung cancer. This suggests that expression of miR-21 may contribute to lung carcinogenesis and serve as a therapeutic target or early-stage prognostic biomarker for lung adenocarcinoma. Clin Cancer Res; 17(7); 1875–82. ©2011 AACR.


In this paper we report on the results of a present day climate simulation over the European region using a Regional Climate Model (RegCM) nested within a General Circulation Model (GCM). Precipitation and surface air temperature results over different European subregions are compared with observations and with results from previous simulations by Marinucci and Giorgi [1992] and other modeling groups. Based on a number of measures of simulation skill such as monthly and seasonal biases and spatial correlations, the RegCM performance is substantially improved compared to that of Marinucci and Giorgi [1992], it compares well with that of other recent experiments and it is better than that of the driving GCM. Seasonal precipitation and surface air temperature biases over European subregions of 105–107 km² size are mostly in the range of ±25% of observations and ±2°C, respectively. These biases appear to represent the level of accuracy characteristic of present regional modeling systems over Europe at the seasonal and regional scale.


The effects of metapramine (R.P. 19,560) on dopaminergic and cholinergic activities were mainly studied in the rat striatum. Metapramine, contrarily to apomorphine, is devoid of in vitro affinity for dopamine receptors and does not modify in vivo, the utilisation of dopamine in the striatum. Moreover, metapramine does not modify the increase of dopamine utilisation induced by thioproperazine, a neuroleptic of the phenothiazine family. Consequently metapramine is devoid of direct or indirect effect on nigrostriatal dopaminergic system. Metapramine, like dopaminergic agonists, increases acetylcholine levels in the striatum. Moreover metapramine is inactive in cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Metapramine partly or completely antagonises the decrease of acetylcholine levels induced by two neuroleptics of the phenothiazine family (thioproperazine and prochlorperazine), by reserpine or an association of reserpine and alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine. Metapramine which possesses a clinical antidepressant efficacy could be indicated for correction of extra-pyramidal side effects induced by neuroleptics or observed in parkinsonism.


The Equality Act 2010 introduces a new equality duty requiring public authorities to show due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; advance equality and foster good relations across all the protected characteristics. The Act defines harassment as 'unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic' which violates a person's dignity or creates 'an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment'. This briefing uses British Crime Survey (BCS) data to understand the different equality groups' expectations about being insulted and their experience of intimidation, threats, violence and crime. It also analyses the experience and reporting of hate crime, that is, crime motivated by the offender's attitudes to the victim's age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or disability compared to other crime not motivated by prejudice. The briefing finds that there is widespread expectation of being insulted or intimidated in public places amongst most minority equality groups. Younger age groups, men, and lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) respondents are more likely to report being a victim of crime, and experiencing threats or deliberate use of violence than older age groups, women and heterosexual respondents. Ethnic minority groups are more likely than White groups to report being a victim of crime, but the Mixed and White groups are most likely to experience violence. People over sixty, ethnic minority groups and LGB respondents are most likely to report experiencing crime motivated by the offender's attitude to their identity. Victims of hate crime are more likely to inform police of such incidents than victims of otherwise motivated crimes.


Nature of the work undertaken: Most studies of the 'developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis' have related early weight and height measurements to later life outcomes, but few have considered head size. I study the association of early head size and growth with adult cognitive and cardiometabolic outcomes, and intergenerational outcomes, using the New Delhi Birth Cohort (NDBC). This was set up in 1969 in New Delhi, India and enrolled 20,755 married women in the reproductive age-group resulting in 9,169 pregnancies whose anthropometric data, including head circumference were collected from birth till early adulthood at defined time points. I develop and compare suitable statistical models and advise on the choice of method for analysis of such data. Contribution to subject knowledge in the area: Head size and disproportion of head size relative to other body measurements at birth, and childhood head growth were unrelated to either educational attainment or blood pressure, and therefore early head size is not an indicator of early life programing in this population. Improving childhood nutrition and promoting linear growth up to age 2 years may be important for higher adult cognitive development. Contrastingly, becoming a heavier adolescent is associated with an increased risk of adult hypertension. Similar associations of early life maternal and paternal head growth with next generation birth weight suggest that they result from genetic factors which are non-modifiable or persisting environment between generations. Understanding the environmental factors influencing brain growth might help increase next-generation birth weight. Conditional and spline approaches provide similar goodness of fit in my data, and associations of head growth with the different adult outcomes were similar. Conditional growth modelling is suitable for studies with a small number of body measurements per individual, while spline models might be better for datasets with a larger number of measurements.


A growing number of modern computer vision applications like object recognition, collision avoidance and scene understanding demand accurate and dense 3D representations of their environment. To improve existing procedures for 3D data acquisition this paper proposes a novel method for sensor combination on a stereo and a Time-of-Flight camera system. By calibrating the two sensor systems to each other, valid measurements from the 2.5D Time-of-Flight sensor are converted to disparity guesses within the stereo system. The disparity guesses from the Time-of-Flight data constrain the correspondence search results from the stereo matching algorithm. It is empirically shown, that the proposed method effectively enhance the results from stereo vision, especially in structureless areas where stereo correspondence search fails. The method is evaluated on the camera system of the service robot Care-O-bot® 3.


Gear mesh stiffness (GMS) is a principal factor in understanding a dynamic behavior and estimating a health condition of the gear system. Lots of methodologies have been proposed to estimate GMS in normal and abnormal states. However, most of them are performed in an analytical way, therefore experimental studies are limited. Moreover, previous experimental studies have limitations that they were only performed either in a static state or for a normal gear. In this study, we develop a methodology to estimate GMS of a rotating gear in faulty states, root crack and spalling. In the procedures, we employ transmission error (TE) which is defined as the difference between rotation of input and output gear. The methodology proposes the concepts of relative stiffness to remove the effect of low frequency component from shaft motion and variability of individual teeth, and corrected stiffness to exactly estimate GMS of cracked gear. Meanwhile, the study proposes a differentiating algorithm of gear faults between root crack and spalling considering the failure mechanisms of each fault. The developed algorithm is validated measuring the TE from a test-bed of a spur gear. Consequently, the algorithm has differentiated the gear in root crack and surface failure, and estimated the GMS of the gear in faulty states.


Abstract Primary synovial sarcoma arising in the anterior abdominal wall is rare and is a rare extra-articular tumor site. It should be considered in the differential diagnosis of anterior abdominal wall masses. It is a rare malignant mesenchymal tumor. It commonly occurs in adults in the extremities in close association with joint capsule, tendon sheaths, bursae and fascial structures. Synovial sarcoma is derived from multipotent stem cells, which can differentiate into mesenchyma and epithelial structures. Three subtypes are described histologically -biphasic, monophasic, and poorly differentiated synovial sarcoma. We report a case of a 40-year-old male patient presented with swelling over the anterior abdominal wall on the right side in the lower abdomen for 1 month which was rapidly increasing in size. An ultrasound followed by computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen were performed for knowing the extent of the tumor. Immunohistochemistry was suggestive of monophasic synovial sarcoma.


The morphology of pollen grains of the 06 species of tribe Acacieae (Mimosaceae) belonging to one genus were investigated using scanning electron microscopic (SEM) and light microscopic (LM) approach. Lactic acid acetolysis method was used for (LM) while non‐acetolysis for (SEM). The species were examined for the both qualitative and quantitative palynological features. Qualitatively the pollen was studied for the shape, exine sculpturing, pollen shape, and pollen type. Oblate spheroidal shape of pollen was observed in Accacia modesta. Subprolate shape in Accaca nilotica. In Accacia farnesiana, prolate pollen was examined while prolate spheroidal in Acacia tortilis and spheroidal pollen grains were studied in Acacia catechu, respectively. Pollen exine sculpturing of the studied tribe possesses novel variation. Foveolate, reticulate, foveolate‐psilate, faint reticulate, fossulate, perforate, and scrabate exine sculpturing were noticed. Colpi were absent in all species. Excessive variation was observed in both qualitative and quantitative character of pollen. SPSS software was use for the quantitative measurement of the pollen grains. The current study will be helpful for the identification of the problematic species and phylogenetic studies of family Mimosaceae.


Abstract Fuel cells (FCs) are among the more efficient solutions to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. Based on the conversion of the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electrical energy, a typical FC produces a voltage of 0.7 V under load. The potential is highly increased by placing the cells in series to obtain a stacked cell. Among the types of FCs, the polymer electrolyte membrane FCs (PEMFCs) are developed mainly for transport applications, because of their low impact on the environment, high power density and light weight compared with other types of FCs. Phosphoric acid (H3PO4) doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes are widely used as efficient electrolytes. The performance of a (high temperature, 130–200 °C) HT-PEMFC depends mainly on the amount of H3PO4 in the solid polymer membrane. The strong autoprotolysis of H3PO4 is responsible for the high proton conductivity also in the anhydrous state. In this study, the H2OH3PO4 system is investigated in the temperature range 60–150 °C with varying water vapour activity at constant atmospheric pressure. Main purpose is to gain more insights into the kinetics of the equilibria in the H2O-H3PO4 system, which influence the fuel cell performance. Density, water content, electrical conductivity and activation energy are determined by exposing H3PO4 solutions for sufficiently long periods to controlled gas atmosphere in order to reach near-equilibrium conditions. The coexistence of ortho- and pyrophosphoric acid is analysed and higher condensed species are also considered. A new setup fully made in quartz is designed and developed to mix the phosphoric acid solutions in a climate chamber. The experimental results are compared to literature data to validate the developed setup and the methodology.


While secondary compounds are produced by plants in low abundance, these bioactive compounds are essential to human survival for their medicinal applications. These same compounds are crucial to plants, having evolved as defense mechanisms against herbivory. Chief among the theories of plant responses to herbivory, the Optimal Defense Theory (ODT) hypothesizes that plants will allocate defenses in direct proportion to the risk of a particular plant part to herbivory and the value of that part in terms of loss of fitness to the entire plant. Through insect damage assessments and antimicrobial assays, this study investigates the correlation between herbivory and medicinal activity and whether or not the within-plant ODT is followed in three ethnobotanically useful Malvaceae species, Thespesia populnea, Hibiscus tiliaceus and Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. All three plant species demonstrated an inverse relationship between herbivory and medicinal activity. Variation in secondary composition data from both insect damage assessment and antimicrobial tests supported the ODT.


Canine infectious laryngotracheitis virus, an adenovirus designated CAV-2, induces numerous changes in the nucleus and cytoplasm of canine kidney cells (MDCK). The following features could be observed on ultrathin sections examined in the electron microscope: a shift of the nucleolus towards the nuclear membrane and a compression of the latter by the virus particles; the release of virions into the cytoplasm following the tearing or evagination of the nuclear membrane; the attachment of virus particles onto the numerous microtubules of the infected cell. Microfilaments appear to be involved into the vectorial movement of virus particles towards the cytoplasmic membrane in the final phase of infection.


Over its thirty-five-year history, Internet Mail has changed significantly in scale and complexity, as it has become a global infrastructure service. These changes have been evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, reflecting a strong desire to preserve both its installed base and its usefulness. To collaborate productively on this large and complex system, all participants need to work from a common view of it and use a common language to describe its components and the interactions among them. But the many differences in perspective currently make it difficult to know exactly what another participant means. To serve as the necessary common frame of reference, this document describes the enhanced Internet Mail architecture, reflecting the current service. This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF Contributions published or made publicly available before November 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process. Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other than English.


cases. If one considered the wide limit and depth of these invading cells, one at once realized that it became a very much more difficult matter to give them the full dose, and if they did not receive the full dose the cells would be stimulated and more harm would be done than if they had been left severely alone. There was another point: No matter how heavy the first dose might be, there was probably a stimulating action on the tumour cells for the first few days before the degenerative effect took place, for it seemed reasonable to assume that fractional doses and the earliest effects of multiple doses were stimulating. The moral of all this might seem to be that heavier dosage should be given, but there was another factor which probably had to be taken into account, namely, the question of the lymphocytes of the blood. It appeared from the results of experimental workers that the continual bombardment of the lymphocytes by full doses of X-rays, such as in treating malignant conditions, destroyed them and in this wav lowered the body resistance to the malignant infection. It thus seemed likely that X-ray dosage could not be indiscriminately, increased even with increased filtration on account of this action on the blood. With regard to the Hampson technique for treating ringworm of the scalp: It had been his fortune some years ago to follow Dr. Hampson at one of the hospitals where a very large number of ringworm cases were treated by X-rays and he had found his method quite practicable, though he would not go so far as to say that he would adopt it inl preference to the standard target-skin distance.


Maintaining skeletal muscle functions by controlling muscle metabolism is of utmost importance. β2-Adrenergic receptor (β2-AR), which is expressed in skeletal muscle, is a member of the G-protein-coupled receptor family that plays a critical role in the maintenance of muscle mass. In the present study, using luciferase reporter assays in β2-AR-expressing HEK293 cells, we discovered several food factors that exhibited agonistic activity at mouse or human β2-AR. Osthole, gramine, and hordenine were identified as both mouse and human β2-AR agonists, whereas berberine was identified as a mouse β2-AR agonist only. Additionally, intramuscular injection of gramine or hordenine in mice facilitated gene expression of several cAMP response element binding protein targets, which is thought to result in increased skeletal muscle protein synthesis. This study provides evidence that several food factors might exert potential health effects on skeletal muscle by enhancing cAMP signaling through the activation of β2-AR.


This paper proposes a neuro-rough model based on multi-layered perceptron and rough set. The neuro-rough model is then tested on modelling the risk of HIV from demographic data. The model is formulated using Bayesian framework and trained using Monte Carlo method and Metropolis criterion. When the model was tested to estimate the risk of HIV infection given the demographic data it was found to give the accuracy of 62%. The proposed model is able to combine the accuracy of the Bayesian MLP model and the transparency of Bayesian rough set model.


Some X-linked genes necessary for spermiogenesis are specifically activated in the postmeiotic germ cells. However, the regulatory mechanism about this activation is not clearly understood. Here, we examined the potential mechanism controlling the transcriptional activation of the mouse testis specific gene A8 (Tsga8) gene in round spermatids. We observed that the Tsga8 expression was negatively correlated with the methylation level of the CpG sites in its core promoter. During spermatogenesis, the Tsga8 promoter was methylated in spermatogonia, and then demethylated in spermatocytes. The demethylation status of Tsga8 promoter was maintained through the postmeiotic germ cells, providing a potentially active chromatin for Tsga8 transcription. In vitro investigation showed that the E12 and Spz1 transcription factors can enhance the Tsga8 promoter activity by binding to the unmethylated E-box motif within the Tsga8 promoter. Additionally, the core Tsga8 promoter drove green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression in the germ cells of Tsga8-GFP transgenic mice, and the GFP expression pattern was similar to that of endogenous Tsga8. Moreover, the DNA methylation profile of the Tsga8-promoter-driven transgene was consistent with that of the endogenous Tsga8 promoter, indicating the existence of a similar epigenetic modification for the Tsga8 promoter to ensure its spatiotemporal expression in vivo. Taken together, this study reports the details of a regulatory mechanism that includes DNA methylation and transcription factors to mediate the postmeiotic expression of an X-linked gene.


The haematopoietic factor erythropoietin (EPO) has recently been recognized to play a physiological role in the brain and other tissues. The EPO receptor is present in the glomerulus, mesangial and tubular epithelial cells in the kidney. We have reviewed the experimental use of EPO in animal models of acute renal failure. EPO attenuates the dysfunction and histological changes associated with ischaemia-reperfusion injury, with a reduction in apoptotic cell death. EPO has also shown benefit in animal models of systemic shock and cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. In vitro studies have shown that EPO has direct effects on proliferation and cell death in proximal tubular epithelial cells. There is increasingly strong experimental evidence that EPO may be of therapeutic use in acute renal failure, and clinical trials should be undertaken to determine its clinical applications in this field.


Calcium oxalate is one of the most problematic scale salts occurring in pulp and paper production processes. Calcium oxalate scaling in a paper machine system often leads to disturbances in the process, production losses due to downtime needed for cleaning, as well as impaired paper quality. This literature review gives a summary of current knowledge and recent research on oxalic acid and calcium oxalate formation especially in mechanical pulping. Methods for oxalate analysis, as well as possible ways to control and monitor the scaling in the process, are also discussed. Finally, possibilities to utilize oxalic acid and calcium oxalate in the process are briefly reviewed.


While the science classroom primarily remains a site for knowledge acquisition through teacher directed experiences, other sites exist outside of the classroom that allow for student generation of scientific knowledge. These sites provide opportunities for linguistic and social interactions to play a powerful role in situating students' science learning experiences. Augmenting students' formal school science experiences with informal experiences outside of the classroom enables them to intersect their personal knowledge with canonical disciplinary knowledge. This allows for conditions of practice that are more relevant to the students. In this study we introduce the notion of acts of authentication to examine the nature of students' linguistic and social activities in an informal setting—a regional robotics competition. These acts of authentication are a) participating in talk (including everyday); b) participating in productive disciplinary engagement (by co-constructing and critiquing knowledge); and c) being a member of a community of practice. We used Critical Discourse Analysis to examine students' and mentor's dialogic language to gain insights into the nature of their robotics experiences. Our findings indicate that the robotics experience offered rich opportunities for students to engage in acts of authentication. Our study offers conceptual insights into how the culture of the robotics activities both constructs and is constructed by the linguistic and social experiences of the students and their mentors. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 268–295, 2015