Purpose: To determine the perceptions of nurse practitioner and physician preceptors towards student nurse practitioners focusing specifically on what preceptors expect from student nurse practitioners at the beginning and at the end of the clinical training experience, how each views the student nurse practitioners as compared to medical students at various years in medical school, and the preceptors own faculty experience. Results: The overall adjusted response rate for the survey was 58% (94/161). Nurse practitioner and physician preceptors found student nurse practitioners to be at an expected level of practice when starting clinical experiences in a primary care setting in these areas: completing a history, adjusting med doses, diagnosing common problems, determining treatment meds and teaching about home care responsibilities. Nurse practitioner and physician preceptors thought student nurse practitioners were weaker than expected in the areas of generating differential diagnoses and prioritizing differentials. Nurse practitioner and physician preceptors differed in their comparison of beginning student nurse practitioners to medical students in different years of training with physician preceptors viewing student nurse practitioners as comparable to first and second year medical students where as nurse practitioner preceptors viewed them as comparable to third and fourth year medical students. Conclusion: Remarkable similarity exists among nurse practitioner and physician preceptors around expectations for clinical skill development for their student nurse practitioner trainees. Some differences do exist around views of how student nurse practitioner trainees compare in the clinical setting to medical students in different years of medical school. Regarding faculty experience each group of preceptors values their precepting experience. Enhanced orientation and faculty development efforts may be of value in clarifying roles and responsibilities among nurse practitioner and physician preceptors when working with student nurse practitioners.


In the present work, we assessed the contents of rare earth elements (REEs), including yttrium and scandium, in rhizomes and leaves of the widespread seagrass Zostera noltei Hornemann 1832 and in the nearby sediments from the Black Sea coast. The total REE content in the sediments was found to be much higher than in Z. noltei. The order of decrease in the major REE contents in the sediments and the seagrass rhizomes was identical, except for La and Y. La was the most abundant in the sediments, and Y in the rhizomes. The contents of all REEs in rhizomes of Z. noltei were 1.5–10 times higher than in the leaves. The highest difference in the REE contents was found for the minor elements (Sm–Lu). The translocation factors for Sc and the minor elements (excluding Tb) from the sediments to the rhizomes and from the rhizomes to the leaves turned out to be pairwise equal, which indicates the similarity of the REE translocation mechanisms. Comparing our results with the literature data, it is possible to conclude that the seagrass Z. noltei does not have an advantage in the REE accumulation over marine macroalgae. At the same time, large coastal deposits of this seagrass after storms allow us to consider it as a possible source of REEs in the future.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the main aspects of ant-nest corrosion failure mechanism of a Cu tube in heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) installations and analyze the possible root causes through various case studies presented.

Design/methodology/approach
Failure investigation process includes mainly stereo-, light optical and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for elemental microanalysis, as the main analytical techniques for material characterization and root-cause analysis.

Findings
The investigation findings, obtained from corrosion products' analysis in conjunction to metallographic evaluation in transverse sections, illustrate the principal characteristics ("fingerprints") of ant-nest (formicary) corrosion mechanism.

Originality/value
This paper which deals with the presentation of applied failure analysis/case histories' investigation, summarizing the main aspects of an important and insidious type of Cu corrosion, taken place in HVAC installation systems and, on the other hand, presenting a complementary analysis of the chemical processes involved in the progressive failure mechanism constitutes an integrated approach, aiming to become a concise contribution to this subject.


Acquisition of MRI and histology in the same ex-vivo tissue sample enables direct correlation between MR and histologically-derived metrics. Here, we analysed immunohistochemistry images of human visual cortex, anterior cingulate and hippocampus to produce stained area fraction maps for myelin, neurofilaments and microglia. We performed voxelwise correlations between MR parameters (FA, MD, R2*, R1) and histology maps to generally characterise the strength of relationships. We then used partial correlation to identify the unique variance in MR parameters explained by each histological feature, and multiple linear regression to explore how well multiple microstructural properties can together explain MR parameters.


. The creative game has its history, but it remains one of the urgent problems of modern pedagogy. Being the leading activity, containing the prerequisites for the formation of the most important psychological growths, the game is lagging, giving priority to educational activities. According to the authors, there is no unified approach to understanding the essence of the game, its motives, miscomprehension of its importance and enormous developmental potential, the attitude of adults to game as an unnecessary activity. The authors see the solution to this problem in the development of teachers' professional competence in pedagogical support of children's game, or gaming competence. The teacher, as a key subject of the educational process, needs to have a system of professional knowledge, game experience, personal qualities to make optimal conditions for the children's game development, as well as the strive for self-development and creative growth. The article presents a project of methodological support for teachers, including four thematic modules, and implemented based on modern educational technologies. The probe results of this project drove to the conclusion about the effectiveness of improving the gaming competence of teachers by competently building the content and technologies of methodological work in a kindergarten.


Many people may not be aware of the extent of Kurt Kyser's collaboration with mineral exploration companies through applied research and the development of innovative exploration technologies, starting at the University of Saskatchewan and continuing through the Queen's Facility for Isotope Research. Applied collaborative, geoscientific, industry-academia research and development programs can yield technological innovations that can improve the mineral exploration discovery rates of economic mineral deposits. Alliances between exploration geoscientists and geoscientific researchers can benefit both parties, contributing to the pure and applied geoscientific knowledge base and the development of innovations in mineral exploration technology. Through a collaboration that spanned over three decades, we gained insight into the potential for economic uranium deposits around the world in Canada, Australia, USA, Finland, Russia, Gabon, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Guyana. Kurt, his research team, postdoctoral fellows, and students developed technological innovations related to holistic basin analysis for economic mineral potential, isotopes in mineral exploration, and biogeochemical exploration, among others. In this paper, the business of mineral exploration is briefly described, and some examples of industry-academic collaboration innovations brought forward through Kurt's research are identified. Kurt was a masterful and capable knowledge broker, which is a key criterion for bringing new technologies to application—a grand, curious, credible, patient, and attentive communicator—whether talking about science, business, or life and with first ministers, senior technocrats, peers, board members, first nation peoples, exploration geologists, investors, students, citizens, or friends.


Abstract The effects of physical parameters on the total dissipation of Gibbs energy inside migrating ferrite/austenite interfaces have been re-investigated using Odqvist's solute drag model. It is shown that the mobility of the ferrite/austenite phase interface and the diffusivity of niobium in the interface have a strong effect on the Gibbs energy dissipation. As the phase interface mobility was recently reassessed, it is clear that the Gibbs energy of niobium segregation and the diffusivity of niobium in the interface must also be reassessed. In this paper both parameters are reassessed in the Fe–C–Nb system using new physical parameters and experimental results from ultra-low carbon steels.


A new carrier distribution function is derived to describe the the thermodynamics of carriers within localized states with a broad energy distribution. With the aid of this function, several luminescence behaviors, i.e., (1) fast redshift of peak positions at low temperatures; (2) decrease of full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) of luminescence band at low temperatures; and (3) blueshift of peak positions at high temperatures, frequently observed in above material systems can be explained. Finally, the model is employed to fit the experimental data of cubic InGaN thin film grown on GaAs. A good agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical fitting is obtained.


We propose a hand gesture recognition technique using a convolutional neural network applied to radar echo inphase/quadrature (I/Q) plot trajectories. The proposed technique is demonstrated to accurately recognize six types of hand gestures for ten participants. The system consists of a low-cost 2.4-GHz continuous-wave monostatic radar with a single antenna. The radar echo trajectories are converted to low-resolution images and are used for the training and evaluation of the proposed technique. Results indicate that the proposed technique can recognize hand gestures with average accuracy exceeding 90%.


This study was carried out to enhance the stability and activity of polygalacturonase (PGase) purified from Kluyveromyces marxianus IFO 0288. Gums such as xanthan gum, guar gum, and locust bean gum were capable of increasing the catalytic stability and activity of the PGase. At 30℃, the rate constants for the inactivation of the PGase with xanthan gum, guar gum, and locust bean gum were estimated to be 0.0003 min -1 , below 0.0001 min -1 , and 0.0001 min -1 respectively, whereas control was estimated to be 0.0082 min -1 . The yield of the maceration reaction catalyzed by the PGase for the production of carrot single cells increased by 13% in the presence of guar gum, where the relative enzyme activity supplemented with guar gum was two-fold greater than that of the PGase alone.


BACKGROUND
Family-centered maternity care is an approach based on mutually beneficial partnerships between health care providers and families. It offers new ways of thinking about the relationship among childbearing women, their families, and health caregivers. This study was designed to identify health care practices that promoted or limited a family-centered philosophy.

METHODS
A qualitative design, using reflexive interviews and focus groups, investigated the perspectives of 34, primarily African American women who used maternity services at a large urban hospital; some women traveled from rural areas for delivery. Inductive data analysis was conducted on the transcribed audiotapes of the interviews and groups.

RESULTS
Barriers to family-centered maternity care were categorized as issues in coordination of services among health caregivers, patient-health caregiver relationships and systems, and access to services. Facilitators of family-centered maternity care were identified as perceived response to high-risk patients, health-related support outside the hospital, and special resources. Narratives, or personal stories told by the women, were used to illustrate barriers and facilitators.

CONCLUSIONS
Education about family-centered maternity care is vitally important for health caregivers. In clinical situations, each childbearing woman and her family should be treated as if they are extraordinary. In this way, practitioners can alter routines that cause the woman and her family to lose individualized care.


The effect of hyperthermia on some adenohypophyseal hormone levels (prolactin, growth hormone, adrenocorticotropin, thyrotropin) in plasma was studied. The levels of prolactin increased significantly (310%) during Finnish sauna. The growth hormone levels increased slightly, whereas the levels of adrenocorticotropin and thyrotropin were unaltered. The increase in prolactin levels during hyperthermia resembled the changes in the levels of prolactin which have been found during stress and exercise.


firstname.lastname@example.com,firstname.lastname@example.com,email@example.com. Abstract Piezoelectric energy harvester converts mechanical vibration into electrical energy via piezoelectric effect. Geometry of the energy harvester play vital role in scavenging energy from vibration. Therefore six different geometries are simulated. The voltage produced by the energy harvester has to be either stored in a storage unit like capacitor/battery or it should be transferred. Voltage produced by energy harvester is ac and it is rectified and then regulated using buck converter. In a buck converter application, it is desired to obtain a constant output voltage v (t) = V, in spite of disturbances in vg (t), iload(t) and in the converter circuit parameters. To obtain constant output voltage a compensator device of the system is designed by using series compensation. The stability of the closed-loop Buck system has been greatly improved by using series compensator.


Sensor-based coverage problems have many applications such as patrolling, search-rescue, and surveillance. Using multi-robot team increases efficiency by reducing completion time of a sensor-based coverage task. Robustness to robot failures is another advantage of using multiple robots for coverage. Although there are many works to increase the efficiency of coverage methods, there are few works related to robot failures in the literature. In this paper, fault-tolerant control architecture is proposed for sensor-based coverage. Robot failures are detected using the heartbeat strategy. To show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, experiments are conducted using P3-DX mobile robots both in laboratory and simulation environment.


This is the first volume in a multi-disciplinary series devoted to making recent research in Austrian studies available to an international readership. Articles include work on Peter Altenburg's fabricated photographs and unpublished sketches, Karl Kraus's Oscar Wilde, the Austrian Women's Movement, Schnitler's collection of press-cuttings and the writings of Kraus, Freud, Wittels and Irma Karczewska. Review articles assess the latest work on Wittgenstein, Herzl and Freud's Jewish identity. The work should interest academics and graduate students in European history and culture, Jewish studies, European literature and the hisory of psychology, as well as literary critics, cultural historians and the general reader interested in German language culture.


In the modern society, it is necessary to consider the neighborhood identity which plays a critical role in socialization and human-orientation of the urban structure. The social events in residential regions of cities which are known as the urban living cells are very determinant in residents' liveliness. Therefore, the current research studies the neighborhood identity and the sense of attachment in urban residents. This research is a survey study, during which required data were collected using a questionnaire and an interview. After data had been collected and encoded, they were analyzed with statistical softwares. The statistical population of this study includes five municipal districts of Tehran (i.e. Tajrish, Navvab, Moniriyeh, Rahahan and Bahar). Sample size was calculated using the Cochran formula. Thus, 300 people were determined as the statistical population. According to the findings of this study, the age of people is an effective factor on their attachment to their neighborhood identity. Furthermore, those people who are more satisfied with their neighborhood have a stronger attachment to their neighborhood identity and as a result, these neighborhoods are essentially safer. The native inhabitants, compared to the non-natives, have a stronger attachment to the neighborhood identity. Those who have a stronger sense of attachment to the place participate more actively in the activities related to their neighborhood. Residents' attachment to the neighborhood increases by the increase in the safety of the residential areas. Besides, the satisfaction of the urban performance affects on the attachment to the neighborhood identity. This will be effective on the increase in social interactions and liveliness of these neighborhoods.


Significant research efforts are currently centered on effective mechanisms of cell loss control and congestion control for ATM networks. This paper presents TAP (trusted and active PDU transfer); a new architecture and protocol for ATM networks that provide assured transfers to a set of privileged VPI/VCI. The architecture proposes a new extended AAL type 5 (EAAL-5), manages the privileged connections and offers an improvement in the performance when network connections cause some cell loss by taking advantage of the idle time in the traffic sources to do the retransmissions of CPCS-PDU-EAALS. We propose a new and trusted protocol that uses NACK mechanisms (using backward RM cells), and which is supported by active ATM switches equipped with dynamic memory to store trusted native EAAL-5 PDUs (DMTE). The active architecture presents the resource management agent (RMA) to manage the retransmissions of PDUs between active switches, and the early packet discard agent (EPDA) to recover PDUs internally within the active switches. Several simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the mechanism that recovers the congested PDUs locally at the congested switches with better goodput in the network. Also, the senders are alleviated of negative end-to-end retransmissions. The simulations, using on/off sources, analyse point-to-point, and also point-to-multipoint connections using objects, threads, synchronizations and distributed processes implemented in the Java language.


Spectral based heuristics belong to well-known commonly used methods for finding a minimum-size bisection in a graph. The heuristics are usually easy to implement and they work well for several practice-relevant classes of graphs. However, only a few research efforts are focused on providing rigorous analysis of such heuristics and often they lack of proven optimality or approximation quality. This paper focuses on the spectral heuristic proposed by Boppana almost three decades ago, which still belongs to one of the most important bisection methods.
It is well known that Boppana's algorithm finds and certifies an optimal bisection with high probability in the random planted bisection model -- the standard model which captures many real-world instances. In this model the vertex set is partitioned randomly into two equal sized sets, and then each edge inside the same part of the partition is chosen with probability $p$ and each edge crossing the partition is chosen with probability $q$, with $p \ge q$. In our paper we investigate the problem if Boppana's algorithm works well in the semirandom model introduced by Feige and Kilian. The model generates initially an instance by random selection within the planted bisection model, followed by adversarial decisions. Feige and Kilian posed the question if Boppana's algorithm works well in the semirandom model and it has remained open so far. In our paper we answer the question affirmatively. We show also that the algorithm achieves similar performance on graph models which generalize the semirandom model. On the other hand we prove some limitations: we show that if the density difference $p-q \le o(\sqrt{p\cdot \ln n}/\sqrt{n})$ then the algorithm fails with high probability in the planted bisection model. This bound is sharp, since under assumption $p-q \ge \Omega(\sqrt{p\cdot \ln n}/\sqrt{n})$ Boppana's algorithm works well in the model.


With the growth of technology, researchers are paying greater attention to automated floor cleaning devices in order to make mankind's existence more comfortable. The concept is gaining traction in developed countries, although it is still unpopular because to design complexity, machine costs, and power tariff running costs. A manual floor cleaning machine is proposed in this project. Early in the day, a floor is cleaned with a broom that is controlled by a human hand. This requires a continual movement of the human hand, which is exhausting and time demanding. The goal of this project is to provide a modernised procedure for wet and dry floor cleaning. This equipment is capable of cleaning floors in both dry and wet conditions. It also has a dust storage box. It was decided to create a prototype model that uses a DC drive powered rotary brush with pneumatic controlled dust shifting to assist users in removing waste and maintaining a clean and hygienic environment, thereby avoiding health inequalities and safety concerns for both workers and the general public.


I review weighted distribution theory and applications in observational studies where biased data arise. Recorded observations will be biased and not have the original distribution unless every observation is given an equal chance of being recorded. G. P. Patil and C. R. Rao in 1977 wrote "Although the situations that involve weighted distributions seem to occur frequently in various fields, the underlying concept of weighted distributions as a major stochastic concept does not seem to have been widely recognized." The same quote is applicable today. Our profession is missing an opportunity to provide structure and understanding to a collection of isolated statistical methods for analysis of data from observational studies. Specifically, I present applications in study of wildlife and fish populations that should motivate undergraduate and graduate students of statistics who have an interest in environmental issues.


42 hour-old chick embryos receive intraencephalic injections of a radioactive Actinomycin D solution. The autoradiographic study of the embryonic head after treatment shows that the injected solution remains in the encephalon. In order to avoid some diffusion of the solution in the surrounding territories, it is necessary to take care of the encephalic inner pressure. These experiments allow to a better approach of studying the influence of Actinomycin D upon the embryonic head morphogenesis.


A novel dual-band metal skin UHF radio-frequency identification tag antenna for 866/915 MHz applications is proposed, which is suitable for attaching to metallic objects. To achieve long read ranges within dual band on an ultra-thin substrate, the antenna is designed with two patch arrays printed on a flexible substrate polypropylene for low-cost production. The prototype antenna is fabricated and tested with the commercial tag chip by dual-port connection. The experiment results show that it has similar radiation patterns for the dual band and the read ranges are 3.5 and 3.6 m for 866 and 915 MHz, respectively, when it is mounted on a metal plate.


Insomnia is a subjective experience of difficulty in falling asleep and/or maintaining sleep accompanied by the impairment of daytime social functioning due to insufficient sleep quality or quantity to meet normal physiological needs.It has chronic damage to all the human body systems and is the most common sleep disorder.The main mechanism for the occurrence and maintenance of insomnia is the hyperarousal hypothesis,and microarousal,as a cortical arousal,is also involved in the formation of the hyperarousal mechanism.The mechanism and clinical significance of microarousal were reviewed and summarized in this paper in order to guide the clinical work.


The background of this research is the ability of solving the problem of mathematics of vocational high school students who are still relatively low, to improve this capability required research using cooperative learning method type AIR. The formulation of this research are: (1) How the application of cooperative learning model type AIR can improve problem solving a learning model AIR. Method of this research is classroom action research, to class student XI in one of the Vocational Schools in Sukabumi, which is 35 students. Instrument used is written test I - III, and nontest journal, observation sheet and questionnaire of attitude scale. The material in this research is Limit Function. The result of this research are: (1) the mathematical communication ability of students increases in line with the ongoing learning by using AIR type cooperative model, (2) Application of AIR type cooperative learning model can improve students' mathematical problem solving ability; (3) student activity in learning with using AIR type co-operative model obtained improvement, student's response to learning model of positive AIR type cooperative.


Forty three staff members present on 18 booths for intensive Pulse Polio Immunization were interviewed anonymously during the first round of the programme on 24th October, 1999 to find out their problems likely to affect successful implementation of the programme. The observation revealed some of the problems such as long distance between residence and the booth (46.5%), difficulty in locating the booth (72%), lack of training (90.7%), improper meals (69.7%) and lack of toilet facilities (37.2%). Suitable modifications should be made in light of the observations to secure full support of the staff for success of the programme.


We contribute to the existing literature on factors influencing sustainable product consumption behavior by (a) employing actual supermarket sales data from over 300 outlets in England covering up to 18 million customers, and by (b) examining two products that can both be labeled as sustainable but have very different market positions: organic milk as a typical niche product, and free‐range eggs which (based on market share) can be seen as a mainstream product. Our study has looked into the influence of factors such as deprivation and race, which have not previously been looked into. The results partially confirm previous research, which is mostly based on self‐reported behavior, identifying both price and deprived catchment areas as barriers but green attitudes as a facilitator while more affluent people purchase organic milk. What is new from our work is that convenience stores have a negative influence and for organic milk, older families and those aged 25–44 years have a positive influence. Crucially, we identify clear differences between purchasing behaviors regarding niche and mainstream products in our analysis: while purchases of organic milk can be predicted by a wide range of sociodemographic factors, this is not the case for free‐range eggs. Here, besides price and green attitudes, there are no other influences on behavior. The results of our study can therefore provide fresh insight into the debate around recent attempts to mainstream sustainable product consumption.


In experiments designed to measure human cell survival sith +/- 2 percent accuracy it was found that low doses (21 to 87 rad) of gamma-rays inactivated the colony-forming ability of cultured human cells with a probability of 0.00226 +/- 0.00012 per rad. There appears to be no threshold for the lethality of radiation to human cells in vitro.


First published in 1991, Andrew Louth's The Wilderness of God considers some of the different forms taken in Christian history by desert spirituality. A second edition appeared in Zoo3 (London: Darton Longman & Todd, 2003. f9-95pp. 166, ISBN 0-23 2-5 z497-1). The text is essentially unchanged, although the author notes in a new Preface that a decade of reflection on the emerging ecological and geo-political issues obliged him to review his original conception of the book. Much, no doubt


Aseptic foremilk samples (about 15 ml) were collected biweekly for four samplings and then monthly throughout lactation from 35 does in three herds on Dairy Herd Improvement test. Bacteriology, direct microscopic somatic cell counts, and cytospin differential cell counts were performed on all samples. Milk yield was obtained from monthly Dairy Herd Improvement records. Thirty-nine percent of udder halves were infected, and coagulase negative staphylococci were the most frequent isolates (201 of 205). Somatic cell counts were influenced by lactation number, stage of lactation, and intramammary infection. Also, infection of one udder half increased somatic cells in the corresponding uninfected mammary half of the same animal. Cytoplasmic particles were not affected by stage of lactation or by intramammary infection but were greater for goats in first lactation. Milk yield was influenced by lactation number, stage of lactation, and intramammary infection.


We show the ability of calcium barium niobate as a nonlinear material to produce conical second harmonic generation in a broad frequency range. The nonlinear properties of this system are based on the broad sized microdomain distribution appearing naturally in the as-grown crystal. The large angular deflection obtained for conical second harmonic generation allows considering this system as a nonlinear prism with variations in the second harmonic generation angle as large as 35° in the wavelength range of 430–660 nm.


Research on forecasting is effectively limited to forecasts that are expressed with clarity; which is to say that the forecasted event must be sufficiently well-defined so that it can be clearly resolved whether or not the event occurred and forecasts certainties are expressed as quantitative probabilities. When forecasts are expressed with clarity, then quantitative measures (scoring rules, calibration, discrimination, etc.) can be used to measure forecast accuracy, which in turn can be used to measure the comparative accuracy of different forecasting methods. Unfortunately most real world forecasts are not expressed clearly. This lack of clarity extends to both the description of the forecast event and to the use of vague language to express forecast certainty. It is thus difficult to assess the accuracy of most real world forecasts, and consequently the accuracy the methods used to generate real world forecasts. This paper addresses this deficiency by presenting an approach to measuring the accuracy of imprecise real world forecasts using the same quantitative metrics routinely used to measure the accuracy of well-defined forecasts. To demonstrate applicability, the inferred probability method is applied to measure the accuracy of forecasts in fourteen documents examining complex political domains.


Perceived price fairness is an important predictor of relationship quality, trust, satisfaction and loyalty of customers visiting restaurants. Although several studies on customer satisfaction and loyalty have been done, little is still known about customer satisfaction and loyalty regarding perceived price fairness in Kenyan rated restaurants. The main objective of the study was therefore to examine the relationship between perceived price fairness on customers' satisfaction and loyalty at rated restaurants in Nairobi and Coastal region. A cross sectional survey study was used in recording the information that is present in the population. Simple random sampling method was used in selecting 345 customers used in the study. The target population included all customers visiting the selected restaurants. Structured questionnaires were used in acquiring relevant information from customers. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (linear regression analysis) were used in analyzing the objective. The results indicated significant relationship between perceived price with satisfaction and return intention (p< 0.05), leading to the rejection of the hypotheses.  Majority of the customers were found to be satisfied with all dimensions of perceived price which implied that satisfaction of perceived price fairness led to return intention of customers in the rated restaurants. The study suggested that the restaurant managers should improve on both perceived value and price. They should also ensure that the set prices are not more than the prices of their competitors of the same standard. Investment on staff training was also suggested.


Chromosome translocations are gross chromosomal rearrangements that have often been associated with cancer development in mammalian cells. The feasibility of drastically reshaping the genome with a single translocation event also gives this molecular event a powerful capacity to drive evolution. Despite these implications and their role in genome instability, very little is known about the molecular mechanisms that promote and accompany these events. Here, at the molecular level, we describe 10 morphologically and physiologically different translocants ensuing from the induction of the same bridge-induced translocation (BIT) event in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have demonstrated that, despite their common origin from the integration of the same linear DNA construct, all 10 translocation mutant strains have different phenotypes and the ability to sporulate and regulate gene expression and morphology. We also provide insights into how heterogeneous phenotypic variations originate from the same initial genomic event. Here we show eight different ways in which yeast cells have dealt with a single initial event inducing translocation. Our results are in agreement with the formation of complex rearrangements and abnormal karyotypes described in many leukemia patients, thus confirming the modellistic value of the yeast BIT system for mammalian cells.


In respect to the continuous effort for the protection of the environment, new legislation regarding the reduction of ships' sulphur emissions has been introduced. Within the year 2008, the Marpol Annex VI (Regulation 14) was reviewed and new sulphur emission limits were set. Since 2012, the new global sulphur limit is 3.5% m/m while within the year 2020 the limit will be 0.5% m/m.
The aim of this thesis is to present the new legislation regarding the sulphur emissions and the consequences of the new limits on the sustainability of shipping. Shipping companies in 2020 will have to choose among the use of low sulphur fuel oil (0.5%), if it's available, or alternative fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the scrubber installation. Choices considerably increase their cost. Furthermore, the creation of the new fuel oil 0.5% sulphur content is a challenge for refineries having to apply new techniques within a short period of time. The shipping companies will have to select, according to their future goals, the best solution.
All the aforementioned issues will be investigated, so that all the advantages and disadvantages of the various solutions, being available at the shipping industry, will be mentioned.


Four experiments examined the chemical composition, intake, dry matter (DDM) and organic matter (DaM) apparent digestibilities and rates of disappearance from nylon bags of hand-separated leaf and stem fractions of straw from four genotypes of barley: Arabi Abiad, Beecher, C63 and ERfApam. In experiment 1, 900 g leaf from each genotype was offered to three or four wethers together with 200 g soya-bean meal (SBM), and in experiment 2 the leaf from the same four genotypes was offered ad libitum with 200 g SBM. In experiment 3, 500 g stem from Arabi Abiad and Beecher was offered with 100 g SBM to six wethers in two groups. Experiment 4 measured the rate and extent of disappearance of the leaf and stem fractions from nylon bags incubated in the rumen of wethers. The genotypes had widely contrasting morphological characteristics. Stems contained about half as much ash and crude protein as leaves and differences within fractions lvere smal,. The leaf and stem fractions of the two-rowed barleys Abiad and Apam contained less modified acid-detergent fibre than the six-rowed Beecher and C63 genotypes. When leaf was offered u'ith SBM, both restrictedly and ad libitum, the DDM and DaM of this fraction were similar between genotypes (P > 0.05) and in experiment 2 the intake of leaf was also similar between genotypes (P > 0.05). The apparent digestibility of stem differed significantly between Arabi Abiad and Beecher in experiment 3 (P < 0.05). Significant differences were apparent between genotypes in the extent and rate of disappearance of leaf and stem from nylon bags after 48 h incubation in the rumen. ---~


PURPOSE
To evaluate riboflavin/ultraviolet-A (UVA) as an adjunct treatment for infectious keratitis.

METHODS
This prospective, dual-center, interventional case series included cases of infectious keratitis that were treated by instilling riboflavin 0.1% solution for 30 minutes to saturate the cornea, followed by exposure to 365-nm UVA light (3 mW/cm(2)) for 15 to 45 minutes, with continued instillation of riboflavin. Eyes continued on standard antibiotic treatment. The primary outcome measures were the times to resolution of the infiltrate and the epithelial defect.

RESULTS
Forty patients aged 14 to 86 years were enrolled. Seven (18%) eyes had a previous keratoplasty. Bacterial species were identified in 24 eyes, fungal in 7, protozoan in 2, viral in 1, and no organism in 6. The maximum infiltrate diameter ranged from 1 to 12 mm and the epithelial defect diameter was 0 to 8 mm before treatment. In 6 cases (2 bacterial, 3 fungal, and 1 without growth), the keratitis did not resolve successfully and the eye received a penetrating keratoplasty (PK). In 1 eye with prior PK, the infection resolved following treatment, but a regraft was required to address perforation of the PK incision.

CONCLUSIONS
Riboflavin/UVA should be avoided in eyes with prior herpes simplex but otherwise posed no obvious safety risk in this series and appeared to be most effective when the infection depth was limited. The success rate was higher for bacterial infections than fungal infections. Randomized studies against antibiotics alone are needed to further evaluate efficacy.


The use of procalcitonin (PCT) has grown over the past decade with increasing reliance on the test to rule out bacterial infection. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of children <18 years old hospitalized at a tertiary care children's hospital from 2017 to 2019 who had PCT testing performed during their admission. Of 4135 PCT levels collected on 1530 children, 982 (23.7%) were diagnostically low and 1993 (48.1%) were diagnostically elevated. Pediatric intensive care, with 6% of total hospital patients, obtained 41.4% of tests. Thirty-one (2%) patients had an average of 27 PCT levels per patient, accounting for 20% of all tests. Many children had symptoms for which testing is not indicated (eg, skin complaints). The differences in PCT testing by service, inappropriate patterns of repeat testing, and testing performed in patients for whom it is not indicated may identify targets for diagnostic stewardship.


Nonylphenol is an emerging organic contaminant released into the environment by anthropogenic activity. Nonylphenol is a mix of 211 branched-chain isomers collectively referred to as nonylphenol technical equivalents (NPTE), with the main isomer being 4-nonylphenol (4-NP). These isomers are capable of interfering with developmental and physiological signalling in humans, as well as numerous other terrestrial and aquatic species. Its presence has been documented in sediment and water bodies worldwide, including Aotearoa New Zealand. Due to the current limitations of environmental monitoring, researchers are becoming increasingly motivated to develop alternative techniques for detecting contaminants. Aptamer-based biosensors are of interest as their low cost, ease of use and quick analyses times meets the requirements for frequent monitoring. Aptamers are synthetic DNA molecules which provide the molecular-recognition element to biosensors. This is derived from their ability to fold into complex three-dimensional structures and form non-covalent bonds with their target molecule. Aptamers are developed through an in vitro process called systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX).
The aim of this Masters study was to generate aptamers that bound single (4-NP) or multiple (NPTE) nonylphenol isomers. To achieve this, two SELEX experiments were performed against each target molecule(s) using a modified version of traditional SELEX methodology with additional counter- and negative-selection steps. Within each SELEX experiment, stringency was increased at each round in the form of Tween 20 detergent, starting at low (0.01% v/v) or high (0.1% v/v) concentrations to determine their effects on the libraries being enriched with sequences that bind either 4-NP or NPTE. Real-time PCR was used to monitor DNA quantity across selection rounds. Following this, four libraries were sequenced using Illumina sequencing and analysed using an aptamer-specific bioinformatics pipeline. The targetbinding ability of ten candidates from each library were determined using an existing characterisation technique utilising gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Prior to characterisation, due to the nature of the target molecule, preliminary studies were conducted to assess the effects of three organic solvents on the AuNP assay.
The results of this study demonstrated that the higher stringency conditions led to reduced DNA quantity and overall fewer unique sequences in the final library. Bioinformatics data demonstrated that the top clusters in libraries with sequences enriched for 4-NP under high stringency conditions, compared to low stringency conditions, contained a greater range of unique sequences. Overall, more clusters were found in the NPTE library following high stringency selection compared to both 4-NP libraries, though it is unclear whether this was derived from non-specific binding. Results from the AuNP characterisation assay showed no aptamer candidates bound to either 4-NP or NPTE, although an additional common characterisation method should also be used. Given that no aptamers were identified to bind any of the nonylphenyl isomers, the effects of stringency conditions and multi- or singletarget SELEX on aptamer characteristics could not be assessed. However, some insights from this work including the effect of detergent concentration on library populations and the use of solvents in the AuNP assay may be used to advise future experimental design for small molecule aptamer development.


BACKGROUND
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a disease with a mortality of 9.56%. Although SARS is etiologically linked to a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and functional cell receptor has been identified, the pathogenesis of the virus infection is largely unclear.

METHODS
The clinical specimens were processed and analyzed using an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in-house. Further investigations of target antigen included reviews of phage display technique, rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technique, protein expression and purification, Western blotting validation, serological and immunohistochemical staining in postmortem tissue.

RESULTS
A type of medium or low titer anti-lung tissue antibodies were found in the sera of SARS patients at the early stage of the disease. Human long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE1) gene endonuclease (EN) domain protein was one of the target autoantigens and it was aberrantly expressed in the lung tissue of SARS patients. Anti-EN antibody was positive in the sera of 40.9% of SARS patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Human LINE1 endonuclease domain was identified as a putative target of SARS-associated autoantibodies, which were presented in the serum of SARS patients and may be involved in the pathogenesis of SARS.


ABSTRACT The EBNA1 protein of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) plays several important roles in EBV latent infection, including activating DNA replication from the latent origin of replication (oriP) and activating the transcription of other latency genes within the EBV chromatin. These functions require EBNA1 binding to the DS and FR elements within oriP, respectively, although how these interactions activate these processes is not clear. We previously identified interactions of EBNA1 with the related nucleosome assembly proteins NAP1 and TAF-I, known to affect the replication and transcription of other chromatinized templates. We have further investigated these interactions, showing that EBNA1 binds directly to NAP1 and to the β isoform of TAF-I (also called SET) and that these interactions greatly increase the solubility of EBNA1 in vitro. These interactions were confirmed in EBV-infected cells, and chromatin immunoprecipitation with these cells showed that NAP1 and TAF-I both localized with EBNA1 to the FR element, while only TAF-I was detected with EBNA1 at the DS element. In keeping with these observations, alteration of the NAP1 or TAF-Iβ level by RNA interference and overexpression inhibited transcriptional activation by EBNA1 in FR reporter assays. In addition, EBNA1-mediated DNA replication was stimulated when TAF-I (but not NAP1) was downregulated and was inhibited by TAF-Iβ overexpression. The results indicate that the interaction of EBNA1 with NAP1 and TAF-I is important for transcriptional activation and that EBNA1 recruits TAF-I to the DS element, where it negatively regulates DNA replication.


Vascular anomalies are very common in children and encompass a wide spectrum of diseases. Many vascular anomalies can be mistaken for infantile hemangioma (IH). In addition, there is a variety of rare disorders including benign and malignant tumors that may mimic IH and other types of vascular anomalies. Understanding the clinical features, natural history, and typical clinical course of different types of vascular anomalies is essential in order to make the correct diagnosis and guide management. Radiologic imaging plays an important role in establishing the diagnosis; and when the diagnosis remains in doubt, a biopsy performed by a surgical specialist with expertise may prove to be lifesaving.


Voxelization algorithms that convert a 3D continuous line representation into a discrete line representation have a dual role in graphics. First, these algorithms synthesize voxel-based objects in volume graphics. The 3D line itself is a fundamental primitive, also used as a building block for voxelizing more complex objects. For example, sweeping a 3D voxelized line along a 3D voxelized circle generates a voxelized cylinder. The second application of 3D line voxelization algorithms is for ray traversal in voxel space. Rendering techniques that cast rays through a volume of voxels are based on algorithms that generate the set of voxels visited (or pierced) by the continuous ray. Discrete ray algorithms have been developed for traversing a 3D space partition or a 3D array of sampled or computed data. These algorithms produce one discrete point per step, in contrast to ray casting algorithms for volume rendering, which track a continuous ray at constant intervals, and to voxelization algorithms that generate nonbinary voxel values (for example, partial occupancies). Before considering algorithms for generating discrete lines, we introduce the topology and geometry of discrete lines.


In multi body simulation (MBS) using flexible bodies, damping is an important model input to be able to predict the response of a structure with sufficient precision. The purpose of this
thesis has been to estimate the structural damping of an experimental setup and implement the estimated damping into MBS-models of the setup.

In this thesis the modal properties in terms of natural frequencies, mode shapes and modal damping of a chassis frame with a number of attached components are identified through
physical testing. The experimental setup is modeled in the MBS software MSC Adams using both flexible and rigid bodies coupled together, a total of three different models are created.
Two with different modeling of the bolted joints in the setup and one where components are modeled as separate flexible bodies and coupled with joints. The modal properties of the
models are compared to the identified modal properties of the setup.

The simplification in modeling of the bolted joints results in small differences in modal properties of the model compared to more detailed modeling of the bolted joints. Modeling of
components as separate flexible bodies results in lesser consistency compared to identified modal parameters, making it more difficult to mimic the damping of the experimental setup.

For each of the models a damping function is suggested and implemented,based on the identified modal damping of the physical system. Simulation is then performed, comparing the
different models ability to predict the pseudo damage relative to the physical system.

The suggested damping functions shows improved ability to predict pseudo damage for Components attached to the chassis frame. The prediction of pseudo damage on the frame side
members and cross members is less sensitive to the choice of damping in the MBS-model. Parts of the modeling procedure as well as the implementation of identified damping shows room for improvement and further studies are recommended.


Cursing is not uncommon during conversations in the physical world: 0.5% to 0.7% of all the words we speak are curse words, given that 1% of all the words are first-person plural pronouns (e.g., we, us, our). On social media, people can instantly chat with friends without face-to-face interaction, usually in a more public fashion and broadly disseminated through highly connected social network. Will these distinctive features of social media lead to a change in people's cursing behavior? In this paper, we examine the characteristics of cursing activity on a popular social media platform - Twitter, involving the analysis of about 51 million tweets and about 14 million users. In particular, we explore a set of questions that have been recognized as crucial for understanding cursing in offline communications by prior studies, including the ubiquity, utility, and contextual dependencies of cursing.


A Flory-Huggins type lattice approach is used to describe theoretically a heterogeneous mixture composed of an ionic liquid (IL) and a nonionic liquid (nIL). It is analyzed, how the behavior of the system depends on the difference in the affinities of the cations and the anions to the neutral molecules (i.e., on the "amphiphilicity" of the IL with respect to the nIL). It is proved that if the difference in the affinities is not large, two macrophases coexist in the mixture; if the difference exceeds a certain threshold value, the mixture becomes microheterogeneous: depending on its composition, it can turn either into ion clusters dispersed over the phase having low concentration of ions, or into clusters of neutral molecules dispersed over the phase having high concentration of ions. If the system is not close to the critical point, the ion clusters can be only small: the maximal ratio of their diameter to an ion diameter is of the order of ten; however, the clusters of nonionic molecules can be large, if the difference in the affinities has a certain value. It is predicted also that cavities can nucleate inside an IL, and clusters of ions can appear in a saturated vapor of an IL.


A two-dimensional Particle in Cell code with Monte Carlo collisions (PIC-MCC) (XOOPIC) is used to model breakdown of a Ne/Xe gas in one and two cell plasma display panel (PDP) systems. The priming pulse for a three electrode AC PDP is simulated in order to address various issues concerning the optimal geometry and breakdown voltages as well as to avoid poor operating characteristics such as neighbor discharges and cross talk.


Objectives: The study was aimed to investigate the relationship between plasma transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) expression and the characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Five hundred and seventy-one patients with HCC were subjected. Plasma TGF-β1 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at diagnosis and compared in accordance with clinical and radiological characteristics. Results: Plasma TGF-β1 levels were significantly higher in the diffuse infiltrative type (n = 159) than in the nodular type of HCC (n = 412; 3.94 ± 0.34 vs. 3.79 ± 0.29 log10 pg/ml; p < 0.001). They were much higher in patients with portal vein thrombosis or extrahepatic metastasis than in those without (3.88 ± 0.34 vs. 3.81 ± 0.29 log10 pg/ml, p = 0.008; 3.94 ± 0.35 vs. 3.82 ± 0.30 log10 pg/ml, p = 0.013, respectively). Also, plasma TGF-β1 levels showed a positive correlation with the size of HCC (r = 0.014, p < 0.001). Additionally, plasma TGF-β1 levels were inversely related to the survival periods (p < 0.001). Conclusion: TGF-β1 was overexpressed in invasive types of HCC and it may be involved in the rapid progression of HCC.


What does the implementation of 'SDG 13 Climate Action' mean in practice and what is needed to achieve this? Reaching this goal not only depends on science and technologies, but maybe more so on human behaviour and collaboration between stakeholders across different levels and scales. This report summarises and visualises the main outcomes of an international seminar organised by Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation in November 2016. The seminar was structured around four core themes which are key to achieve Climate Action: Governance, national-local disconnect, incremental versus transformational change and climate finance.


This paper discusses, from economic and enforcement perspectives, unilateral conduct aimed at foreclosing the entry of generics. We assume, in line with empirical evidence, that before the entry of generics, competition takes place among originators mostly through non price instruments and in particular, promotion. The entry of generics for one molecule introduces head to head price competition for that molecule and changes competitive interactions among the originators that remain patent protected. First, we develop a model in which competition takes place through price and promotion and analyse the consequence of unilateral conduct preventing the entry of generics, thus prolonging the status quo. We find that that the extent to which this conduct reduces consumer welfare (if at all) depends on whether promotion enhances the utility of users and whether promotion also involves business stealing. In order to provide some guidance for enforcement, we characterise the competitive outcome that prevails before entry in terms of consumer welfare. We find that unlike what happens with price competition, common indicators of performance such as the number of firms, the level of concentration (for a given number of firms) and the intensity of rivalry might be negatively associated with consumer welfare. As a consequence, the foreclosure of entrants might lead to welfare losses even when the status quo involves intense non-price competition and low concentration. Finally, we consider how unilateral conduct towards generic entry can be dealt with in the current enforcement framework. In the Servier and Paroxetine cases, the foreclosure of generics has been framed as an abuse of a dominant position held by the originator before entry, in spite of evidence of non-price competition. We show that it would be preferable to frame the conduct as an abuse of the dominant position that the originator holds in the molecule market as a consequence of its patent. In such a framework, the dominant position is instrumental in making exclusion feasible.


Background Studies investigating neurocognitive impairment in subjects with eating disorders (EDs) have reported heterogeneous patterns of impairment and, in some instances, no dysfunction. The present study aimed to define the pattern of neurocognitive impairment in a large sample of bulimia nervosa (BN) patients and to demonstrate that neuroendocrine, personality and clinical characteristics influence neurocognitive performance in BN. Method Attention/immediate memory, set shifting, perseveration, conditional and implicit learning were evaluated in 83 untreated female patients with BN and 77 healthy controls (HC). Cortisol and 17β-estradiol plasma levels were assessed. Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory – Revised (TCI-R), the Bulimic Investigation Test Edinburgh (BITE) and the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) were administered. Results No impairment of cognitive performance was found in subjects with BN compared with HC. Cortisol and 'Self-directedness' were associated with better performance on conditional learning whereas 17β-estradiol had a negative influence on this domain; 'Reward dependence' was associated with worse performance on implicit learning; and depressive symptomatology influenced performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) negatively. Conclusions No cognitive impairment was found in untreated patients with BN. Neuroendocrine, personality and clinical variables do influence neurocognitive functioning and might explain discrepancies in literature findings.


Elderly patients with hip fracture experience high morbidity and mortality, and are often undertreated for pain. Acute pain management in the elderly is challenging, with physiological frailty, medical comorbidities and cognitive impairment commonly compounding pain assessment and treatment. Guidelines outlining current best practice for acute pain management in the elderly now exist, but evidence suggests that practice remains variable and there continues to be scope for improvement. We conducted a narrative review of the literature to examine the challenges of acute pain management in the elderly, and to evaluate evidence for the role of regional nerve blocks for acute pain associated with hip fracture in the elderly. There is consistent evidence that regional nerve blocks can effectively reduce pain associated with hip fracture, providing rapid‐onset, site‐specific analgesia that is more effective than standard systemic analgesia alone. There is also moderate evidence that nerve blocks may contribute to reduced rates of delirium, and some suggestion of reduced length of inpatient stay, morbidity and mortality, although limited evidence is available. Fascia iliaca blocks are emerging as a block of choice, with evidence they can be safely and rapidly administered under ultrasound guidance in the acute setting, by both trained medical and nursing staff, with good effect. Ideally, comprehensive pain protocols for elderly hip fracture patients are required, that integrate evidence‐based fascia iliaca block use, timely and repeated pain assessment, and multidisciplinary orthogeriatric patient care.


The effects of polyadenylic.polyuridylic acid [poly(A).poly(U)] on in vitro proliferations of thymus and spleen cells from C57BL/6 mice were investigated. Mice were injected intravenously with 30 micrograms of poly(A).poly(U) or placebo. Two days later, thymus, spleen and peritoneal cells from these mice were prepared and cultured in pooled or non-pooled conditions. Cell proliferations were assessed by the technique of incorporation of tritiated thymidine. It has been revealed that the in vitro proliferations of thymus and spleen cells as well as the productions of interleukin-1 by peritoneal adhering cells and interleukin-2 by spleen cells were significantly enhanced in the cultures of cells from poly(A).poly(U)-treated mice. These enhancing effects were observed only in the cultures of pooled cells from mice whose genetic homogeneity is suspected. Furthermore, thymus cells from poly(A).poly(U)-treated mice acted as strong responder cells but not as stimulators in one way mixed cultures. Thus, the enhanced cellular responsiveness may be mediated by the increased production of cytokines and antigen recognitions of thymus-derived cells following activations via the adjuvant effect of poly(A).poly(U).


This giant dish collects submillimetre wavelengths JCMT converts extremely weak radio signalsinto new information about our Solar System, interstellar matter, and star birth in distant galaxies. The telescope's 15-metre dish is made of 276 adjustable aluminum panels held in place by a massive support structure. A giant Gore-Tex veil protects the dish from dust, wind and sunlight.


A series of acyclic omega chain conjugated diene analogues of enisoprost were synthesized and evaluated for gastric antisecretory and diarrheagenic activities in comparison to enisoprost and a previously identified cyclic dienyl analogue. Several novel approaches to the cuprate reagents involved in the synthesis of the series are described. From this SAR study, it appears that both the conjugated diene and the overall space filling characteristics of the omega chain are important components to the pharmacological profiles and selectivity of these compounds and that a cyclic structure is not required.


One of the challenges in programming distributed memory parallel machines is deciding how to allocate work to processors. This problem is particularly important for computations with unpredictable dynamic behaviors or irregular structures. We present a scheme for dynamic scheduling of medium-grained processes that is useful in this context. The adaptive contracting within neighborhood (ACWN) is a dynamic, distributed, load-dependent, and scalable scheme. It deals with dynamic and unpredictable creation of processes and adapts to different systems. The scheme is described and contrasted with two other schemes that have been proposed in this context, namely the randomized allocation and the gradient model. The performance of the three schemes on an Intel iPSC/2 hypercube is presented and analyzed. The experimental results show that even though the ACWN algorithm incurs somewhat larger overhead than the randomized allocation, it achieves better performance in most cases due to its adaptiveness. Its feature of quickly spreading the work helps it outperform the gradient model in performance and scalability.


Background: E-tutoring by means of a digital portfolio offers personal guidance in a context in which regular face-to-face contact between supervisor and student is difficult. However, implementing e-tutoring in practice is not always straightforward. Aims: This article investigates the conditions for successful e-tutoring of electronic portfolios. Method: A combination of three methods is used: our own experience with e-tutoring, interviews with 14 tutors using an e-portfolio and the answers on questionnaires by 107 students. Results: We present 12 tips to increase the chances of successful e-tutoring when using electronic portfolios. Conclusion: E-tutoring by means of electronic portfolios can be a feasible alternative in contexts in which face-to-face tutoring is difficult.


Worthy of celebration is the contribution made by Itumeleng Mosala (hereafter Mosala) to the Black Methodist Consultation, the theological community in Southern Africa, and the Black Consciousness Movement. This article attempts to give theology its world, feet and hands in the person of Mosala. The article departs from the narration of the history of Mosala. It locates Mosala within township life and Old Testament scholarship. Furthermore, the article searches for suitable and effective weapons of intellectual struggle in light of Mosala's life. The aim of this article is to celebrate the indelible footprints that Mosala made as he communed with black people.


Moreover, either in principle or in practice, houses or clans in eastern Indonesia may sometimes be involved in symmetrical marital exchanges. In consequence, I find figures 1 and 5b a gross over-simplification, in places technically incorrect, and probably very misleading. Finally, there is the assertion of methodological integrity. This "is an essay about 'Us ' meeting 'Them'" (p. 26), in which the author is mercifully happy to seek accuracy, while abhorring objectivity. Given such lofty claims, the vagueness of some of the statements and the mis-use of the comparative method is surprising. The book opens, for example, with a description of birth ritual which, while incorporating the device of direct selective quotation from fieldnotes which one supposes is deemed to confer privileged authority then proceeds to generalise and interpolate commentary. What are we to make of this? Are the generalisations derived from the extracts presented? Are there other notes on the same subject of which this is a distillation, or have secondary sources been employed? Is there garbling going-on? I am not sure. I mention these things only because the author herself has made a virtue of a particular kind of integrity: the claim to inside knowledge. Surprising also, in view of this, is the selfconscious stylishness of the text. We must "not import alien ideas" (p. 238) says Professor Errington, while all the while "snorkeling" texts (p. 12) and making much of elaborate ethnocentric culinary metaphors involving souffle pans and cookie trays. If even this author errs, perhaps there is no alternative. Behind all the pretension we have here in literary terms an undeniably well-written book by an author with a lively imagination, who is clearly nobody's fool and much taken to meditating with effect on the seminal ideas of others. There are important insights, and no doubt her confident models of "centrist" and "Eastern Indonesian" societies will get some mileage. But as ethnography it is fatally partial and inconsistent in terms set by the author herself. At the general level, at which it purports to have some relevance, it repeats a number of anthropological commonplaces while actually telling us little that is new.


Almost all companies listed in ASEAN country capital markets have dropped their financial performance since the accounting year of 1997. In Indonesia, more than sixty per cent of companies listed in Jakarta Stock Exchange did not or did not dare to publish their mandatory annual financial statements to avoid publishing their poor performance. The similar situation has also been felt by other ASEAN country capital markets. The question that was relevant to be raised: are the poor financial performance of companies listed in the ASEAN country capital markets caused by the sudden crisis or by long experience of poor financial performance? This study intents to answer the above question, whether the crisis or longtime of poor financial performance caused the company financial problems. Samples were taken from companies listed in four major capital market of ASEAN, namely: Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Pooled time series data consist of 132 data included in the sample for three year periods of 1993, 1994, and 1995 for 44 companies. The parametric and non-parametric statistic methods q/"t-tests, Wilcoxon Ranks Sign Test, MANOVA, and Friedman K-Samples were used to test the hypothesis. The results indicate that Thailand has the weakest financial performance, followed by Indonesia, Singapore, and then Malaysia, when they are compared to the empirical standards of financial performance. This study used The standards of financial performance that were introduced by Beaver (1966 and 1968), Altman (1968), and Zmejewski (1984). Intuitively, this study concluded that the poor financial performances have already long been suffered by companies listed in ASEAN country capital markets before the monetary crisis. The crisis has just opened the hidden problems.


The standard routing technique that was developed for satisfying low power IoT application needs is RPL which is a protocol in compliance with 6LoWPAN specification. RPL was created for addressing the issues and challenges of constrained and lossy network routing. However, RPL does not accomplish efficiency with respect to power and reliability altogether which are definitely needed in IoT applications. RPL runs on routing metrics and objective function which determines the optimal path in routing. This paper focuses on contributing a comprehensive survey on the improved objective functions proposed by several researchers for RPL. In addition, the paper concentrates on highlighting the strengths and shortcomings of the different approaches in designing the objective function. The approaches built on Fuzzy logic are found to be more efficient and the relevant works related to these are compared. Furthermore, we present the insights drawn from the survey and summarize the challenges which can be effectively utilized for future works.


The aim of this paper is to present a fuzzy method for classification and recognition of separated handwritten characters. Linguistic expressions describing the individual characters are derived from a fuzzy model of a set of character samples. A small scale application of the method in which 26 lower-case cursive characters written by 30 different writers were analysed yielded 64% recognition rate. The method was also used to implement a character recogniser in a system for off-line recognition of cursive handwriting. In such a context, thanks to the use of a dictionary and a grammar parser, the recognition rate (at character level) rose to 96%.


Gene expression is regulated by the complex interaction between transcriptional activators and repressors, which function in part by recruiting histone-modifying enzymes to control accessibility of DNA to RNA polymerase. The evolutionarily conserved family of Groucho/Transducin-Like Enhancer of split (Gro/TLE) proteins act as co-repressors for numerous transcription factors. Gro/TLE proteins act in several key pathways during development (including Notch and Wnt signaling), and are implicated in the pathogenesis of several human cancers. Gro/TLE proteins form oligomers and it has been proposed that their ability to exert long-range repression on target genes involves oligomerization over broad regions of chromatin. However, analysis of an endogenous gro mutation in Drosophila revealed that oligomerization of Gro is not always obligatory for repression in vivo. We have used chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq) to profile Gro recruitment in two Drosophila cell lines. We find that Gro predominantly binds at discrete peaks (<1 kilobase). We also demonstrate that blocking Gro oligomerization does not reduce peak width as would be expected if Gro oligomerization induced spreading along the chromatin from the site of recruitment. Gro recruitment is enriched in "active" chromatin containing developmentally regulated genes. However, Gro binding is associated with local regions containing hypoacetylated histones H3 and H4, which is indicative of chromatin that is not fully open for efficient transcription. We also find that peaks of Gro binding frequently overlap the transcription start sites of expressed genes that exhibit strong RNA polymerase pausing and that depletion of Gro leads to release of polymerase pausing and increased transcription at a bona fide target gene. Our results demonstrate that Gro is recruited to local sites by transcription factors to attenuate rather than silence gene expression by promoting histone deacetylation and polymerase pausing.


Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an end-stage event in a complex pathogenesis of macular degeneration, involving the abnormal growth of blood vessels at the retinal pigment epithelium driven by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Current therapies seek to interrupt VEGF signaling to halt the progress of neovascularization, but a significant patient population is not responsive. New treatment modalities such as integrin-binding peptides (risuteganib/Luminate/ALG-1001) are being explored to address this clinical need but these treatments necessitate the use of intravitreal injections (IVT), which carries risks of complications and restricts its availability in less-developed countries. Successful systemic delivery of peptide-based therapeutics must overcome obstacles such as degradation by proteinases in circulation and off-target binding. In this work, we present a novel dendrimer-integrin-binding peptide (D-ALG) synthesized with a noncleavable, "clickable" linker. In vitro, D-ALG protected the peptide payload from enzymatic degradation for up to 1.5 h (~90% of the compound remained intact) in a high concentration of proteinase (2 mg/mL) whereas ~90% of free ALG-1001 was degraded in the same period. Further, dendrimer conjugation preserved the antiangiogenic activity of ALG-1001 in vitro with significant reductions in endothelial vessel network formation compared to untreated controls. In vivo, direct intravitreal injections of ALG-1001 and D-ALG produced reductions in the CNV lesion area but in systemically dosed animals, only D-ALG produced significant reductions of CNV lesion area at 14 days. Imaging data suggested that the difference in efficacy may be due to more D-ALG remaining in the target area than ALG-1001 after administration. The results presented here offer a clinically relevant route for peptide therapeutics by addressing the major obstacles that these therapies face in delivery.


The widespread use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has raised concerns about the human health and ecological effects of CNTs released into the environment. Bacteria play an important role in bioremediation and waste treatment, and their enzymes are mostly responsible for the degradation of contaminants. However, there are still only a few reports about the bacterial degradation of CNTs, and evidence showing the involvement of bacterial enzymes in CNT degradation with their mechanisms has never been reported. The purpose of this study is to clarify whether CNTs can be degraded by bacterial enzymes. In this study, the degradation of oxidized (carboxylated) single-walled CNTs (O-SWCNTs) by mt2DyP, a dye-decolorizing peroxidase of Pseudomonas putida mt-2, a common soil bacterium, was investigated. After incubation of O-SWCNTs with recombinant mt2DyP and its substrate H2O2 for 30 d, the optical absorbance and Raman spectra revealed the degradation of O-SWCNTs. However, inactivation of the enzyme was observed within 60 min of the start of incubation, suggesting that the degradation of O-SWCNTs occurred nonenzymatically. The inactivation of mt2DyP was accompanied by the release of iron, the active center metal, and degradation of O-SWCNTs was significantly inhibited in the presence of diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid, a chelating agent, indicating that O-SWCNTs were degraded by the Fenton reaction with iron released from mt2DyP and H2O2. The same phenomenon was observed with P450, which is also a heme enzyme. Furthermore, we investigated the contribution of the Fenton reaction to the O-SWCNT degradation by horseradish peroxidase (HRP), which was reported to enzymatically and rapidly degrade O-SWCNTs. Our results revealed that the degradation of O-SWCNTs in the presence of HRP is also mainly due to the Fenton reaction, with negligible enzymatic degradation. This contradicts the report showing enzymatic degradation of O-SWCNTs by HRP but supports the subsequent report quantitatively showing very slow transformation of O-SWCNTs by HRP. The current results emphasize that the Fenton reaction, which has received little attention in CNT degradation by heme enzymes, must be taken into consideration and will contribute to the development of a simple disposal method for CNTs, utilizing the Fenton reaction with bacteria/bacterial enzymes and H2O2.


We present new ATCA 17- and 24- GHz radio images and ESO- NTT optical spectra of the radio- loud Seyfert galaxy IC 5063, the first galaxy in which a fast (similar to 600 km s(-1)) outflow of neutral hydrogen was discovered. The new radio data confirm the triple radio structure with a central, unresolved flat- spectrum core and two resolved radio lobes with steep spectral index. This implies that the previously detected fast outflow of neutral gas is occurring off- nucleus, near a radio lobe about 0.5 kpc from the core. The ionised gas shows highly complex kinematics in the region co- spatial with the radio emission. Broad and blueshifted (similar to 500 km s(-1)) emission is observed in the region of the radio lobe, at the same location as the blueshifted Hi absorption. The velocity of the ionised outflow is similar to the one found in Hi. The first order correspondence between the radio and optical properties suggests that the outflow is driven by the interaction between the radio jet and the ISM. However, despite the high outflow velocities, no evidence is found for the ionisation of the gas being due to fast shocks in the region of the outflow, indicating that photoionisation from the AGN is likely to be the dominant ionisation mechanism. The outflow rate of the warm ( ionised) gas is small compared to that of the cold gas, similar to what is found in other radio galaxies. The mass outflow rate associated with the Hi is in the same range as for " mild" starburst- driven superwinds in ULIRGs. However, in IC 5063, the AGN- driven outflow appears to be limited to the inner kpc region of the galaxy. The kinetic power associated with the Hi outflow is a small fraction (a few x 10(-4)) of the Eddington luminosity of the galaxy but is a significant fraction (similar to 0.1) of the nuclear bolometric luminosity. In IC 5063, the observed outflows may have sufficient kinetic power to have a significant impact on the evolution of the ISM in the host galaxy.


The anatomical structure of vegetative organs of Scutellaria amoena was studied by anatomy and fluorescent microscopy approaches. Results show that the primary xylem is diarch. The Casparian strip and starch grain can be clearly observed in the primary structure. The distribution of prothenchyma is beside the vascular bundle of the stems and leaves. The prothenchyma groups in the more mature stem tissue are arranged into a ring. And the study of histological lacalization of flavonoids which has used the method of histochemistry shows that the pericycle and phloem in perennial root, and the parenchyma cells of epidermal and cortical in the stem and leaf, are the places where flavonoids is mainly accumulated. And the histochemistry results demonstrat that the color of relevant tissues in roots is deeper than in stems and leaves. The difference of anatomical structure between S.amoena and S.baicalensis is also discussed. The result shows that the mixed groups of prothenchyma are arranged in a relatively small area, but not into a ring in S.baicalensis. The thickening of the cell wall is not strongly. Prothenchyma is not found in the leaf of S.baicalensis, and the difference of histochemistry between these two shows that the content of flavonoids in S.amoena is higher than that in S.baicalensis. Therefore it is necessary to strengthen the comprehensive development and utilization on the endemics species S.amoena.


We consider a dynamic spectrum access system in which Secondary Users (SUs) choose to either acquire dedicated spectrum or to use spectrum-holes (white spaces) which belong to Primary Users (PUs). The trade-off incorporated in this decision is between immediate yet costly transmission and free but delayed transmission (a consequence of both the possible appearance of PUs and sharing the spectrum holes with multiple SUs). We first consider a system with a single PU band, in which the SU decisions are fixed. Employing queueing-theoretic methods, we obtain explicit expressions for the expected delays associated with using the PU band. Based on that, we then consider self-interested SUs and study the interaction between them as a non-cooperative game. We prove the existence and uniqueness of a symmetric Nash equilibrium, and characterize the equilibrium behavior explicitly. Using our equilibrium results, we show how to maximize revenue from renting dedicated bands to SUs and briefly discuss the extension of our model to multiple PUs. Finally, since spectrum sensing can be resource-consuming, we characterize the gains provided by this capability.


Copper plays essential roles in biology, but abnormal interactions are damaging. Reliable quantification of copper-protein interactions will underpin the molecular understanding of copper nutrition and toxicity. We have previously established two high affinity probes, Bathocuproine disulfonate (Bcs) and Bicinchoninate (Bca) anions, that are capable of in vitro quantification of Cu(i) binding with affinities from pico- to atto-molar concentrations. Quantitative probes are required for Cu(i) binding of lower affinity for proteins and peptides typically associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The present work evaluates two classic Fe(ii) ligands Ferene S (Fs) and Ferrozine (Fz) as quantitative probes for Cu(i). Both react with Cu(i) quantitatively to yield well-defined complex anions [Cu(I)(Fs)2](3-) (λmax = 484 nm, ε = 6700 cm(-1) M(-1)) and [Cu(I)(Fz)2](3-) (λmax = 470 nm, ε = 4320 cm(-1) M(-1)). These complexes are sensitive to aerial oxidation (E1/2∼ +0.36 V vs. SHE) and to substitution by other ligands (e.g., Cl(-), MeCN). However, they can be protected effectively under anaerobic conditions by suitable reductants and an excess of the free probe ligands. Formation constants β2 were determined by two approaches: direct metal ion titration and ligand competition. They provided estimates which differed by ∼3 orders of magnitude. The sources of these differences were examined carefully to consolidate the affinities of the two probes to a unified standard (10(15.1) M(-2) for Fz and 10(13.7) M(-2) for Fs). It is apparent that application of direct metal ion titrations to quantification of Cu(i) binding affinities is problematical and should be avoided. The four ligands Bcs, Bca, Fz and Fs in combination form a set of versatile probes for ligand competition experiments and are capable of detecting and differentiating an extended spectrum of Cu(i) binding affinities from nano- to atto-molar concentrations. Selected examples of quantification of weaker Cu(i) binding in proteins and peptides are provided, including that of an amyloid-β peptide.


In this paper we present an algorithm for finding a minimum dominator coloring of orientations of paths. To date this is the first algorithm for dominator colorings of digraphs in any capacity. We prove that the algorithm always provides a minimum dominator coloring of an oriented path and show that it runs in $\mathcal{O}(n)$ time. The algorithm is available at this https URL.


Pre-trained code generation models (PCGMs) have been widely applied in neural code generation which can generate executable code from functional descriptions in natural languages, possibly together with signatures. Despite substantial performance improvement of PCGMs, the role of method names in neural code generation has not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, we study and demonstrate the potential of benefiting from method names to enhance the performance of PCGMs, from a model robustness perspective. Specifically, we propose a novel approach, named RADAR (neuRAl coDe generAtor Robustifier). RADAR consists of two components: RADAR-Attack and RADAR-Defense. The former attacks a PCGM by generating adversarial method names as part of the input, which are semantic and visual similar to the original input, but may trick the PCGM to generate completely unrelated code snippets. As a countermeasure to such attacks, RADAR-Defense synthesizes a new method name from the functional description and supplies it to the PCGM. Evaluation results show that RADAR-Attack can reduce the CodeBLEU of generated code by 19.72% to 38.74% in three state-of-the-art PCGMs (i.e., CodeGPT, PLBART, and CodeT5) in the fine-tuning code generation task, and reduce the Pass@1 of generated code by 32.28% to 44.42% in three state-of-the-art PCGMs (i.e., Replit, CodeGen, and CodeT5+) in the zero-shot code generation task. Moreover, RADAR-Defense is able to reinstate the performance of PCGMs with synthesized method names. These results highlight the importance of good method names in neural code generation and implicate the benefits of studying model robustness in software engineering.


Purpose: To determine the values of the internal diameter in conical-shaped glass volumetric instruments using height measurements, without needing to measure the wall thickness of the volumetric container, which will allow calculating the contribution to the uncertainty of volume measurement due to the adjustment of the meniscus.
Methodological design: The proposed method approximates volume by a series of truncated cones bounded by instrument graduation lines. The series of truncated cones thus defined is subject to comply with a geometric restriction. Then, for the graduation lines of the volumetric instrument that did not adhere to the constraint, a power regression model allows approximation of the value of the internal diameter.
Results: The proposed approach could be used as an alternative method to determine the internal diameter of glass conical volumetric instruments in cases where using a vernier caliper or optical comparator is not an option, either because the geometry of the conical instrument does not allow it or because higher cost instruments are not available.
Research limitations: Only two types of conical volumetric instruments were tested: an Imhoff cone and a centrifuge tube, with scopes of 1 L and 100 mL, respectively, from only two commercial brands of laboratory glassware. The volume of the tip of the instrument was modeled up to the first graduation mark, always as a semi-ellipsoid of revolution.
Findings: Comparing the direct measurement of the internal diameter of the volumetric instruments with an optical comparator, there is an average relative error below 10 %, with a maximum value below 20 % for the two different conical glass instruments studied.


Recently, there have been calls to move the obligation and responsibility of social justice from the margins of the workplace to the center, building a more radical Human Resource Development (HRD). The purpose of this article was to leverage bystander intervention and ally development to discuss the cultivation of social justice in the workplace. One of the principle contributions of this article is its potential to situate the onus for social justice as the work of everyone in the workplace, and as a part of every practice, policy, and decision. We contend that bystander intervention and ally development are necessary tools to implement social justice initiatives that can address issues at both the interpersonal and systemic levels. Everyone is invited to participate in this work.


Recent developments in sequence-to-sequence learning with neural networks have considerably improved the quality of automatically generated text summaries and document keywords, stipulating the need for even bigger training corpora. Metadata of research articles are usually easy to find online and can be used to perform research on various tasks. In this paper, we introduce two huge datasets for text summarization (OAGSX) and keyword generation (OAGKX) research, containing 34 million and 23 million records, respectively. The data were retrieved from the Open Academic Graph which is a network of research profiles and publications. We carefully processed each record and also tried several extractive and abstractive methods of both tasks to create performance baselines for other researchers. We further illustrate the performance of those methods previewing their outputs. In the near future, we would like to apply topic modeling on the two sets to derive subsets of research articles from more specific disciplines.


In this study, gelatin microspheres containing diltiazem hydrochloride (DTZ HCl) were prepared by the polymerization technique using glutaraldehyde as the cross-linking agent. The prepared microspheres were examined for its practical yield, drug content, and release kinetic. The study also includes the effect of processing variables on the result of evaluation. The shape and surface topology of prepared microspheres of various formulations were spherical as investigated by SEM studies. Pure drug and the drug polymer mixture showed similar peak in FTIR study which indicated no interaction between drug and polymer. From dissolution study of formulations, it was concluded that the formulation containing high amount of hydrophobic polymer gave high sustaining effect i.e. 8 hrs. So, the present work successfully achieved the objective of designing of controlled release microspheres of DTZ HCl.


Mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar emits pulses of sound from an underwater transmitter to help determine the size, distance, and speed of objects. The sound waves bounce off objects and reflect back to underwater acoustic receivers as an echo. MFA sonar has been used since World War II, and the Navy indicates it is the only reliable way to track submarines, especially more recently designed submarines
that operate more quietly, making them more difficult to detect.
Scientists have asserted that sonar may harm certain marine mammals under certain conditions, especially beaked whales. Depending on the exposure, they believe that sonar may damage the ears of the mammals, causing hemorrhaging
and/or disorientation. The Navy agrees that the sonar may harm some marine mammals, but says it has taken protective measures so that animals are not harmed.
MFA training must comply with a variety of environmental laws, unless an exemption is granted by the appropriate authority. Marine mammals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and some under the Endangered
Species Act (ESA). The training program must also comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and in some cases the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). Each of these laws provides some exemption for certain federal
actions. The Navy has invoked all of the exemptions to continue its sonar training exercises.
Litigation challenging the MFA training off the coast of Southern California ended with a November 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court said that the lower court had improperly favored the possibility of injuring marine animals over the importance of military readiness. The Supreme Court's ruling allowed the training to continue without the limitations imposed on it by other courts. (pdf contains 20pp.)


This Letter of Intent describes LUXE (Laser Und XFEL Experiment), an experiment that aims to use the high-quality and high-energy electron beam of the European XFEL and a powerful laser. The scientific objective of the experiment is to study quantum electrodynamics processes in the regime of strong fields. High-energy electrons, accelerated by the European XFEL linear accelerator, and high-energy photons, produced via Bremsstrahlung of those beam electrons, colliding with a laser beam shall experience an electric field up to three times larger than the Schwinger critical field (the field at which the vacuum itself is expected to become unstable and spark with spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs) and access a new regime of quantum physics. The processes to be investigated, which include nonlinear Compton scattering and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production, are relevant to a variety of phenomena in Nature, e.g. in the areas of astrophysics and collider physics and complement recent results in atomic physics. The setup requires in particular the extraction of a minute fraction of the electron bunches from the European XFEL accelerator, the installation of a powerful laser with sophisticated diagnostics, and an array of precision detectors optimised to measure electrons, positrons and photons. Physics sensitivity projections based on simulations are also provided.


SUMMARY: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) should be considered in the differential diagnosis in dogs presented with clinical signs of congestive heart failure (CHF), which includes dyspnoea and abnormal breadth sounds, cough, tachypnoea, tachycardia, arrhythmia, electrocardiography (ECG) abnormalities (P wave & QRS complex), syncope, pleural or pericardial effusions, ascites and/or dependent oedema, with other signs, such as, depression, exercise intolerance, inappetance and muscle wasting. DCM could be easily suspected by measuring the vertebral heart score (VHS) in a thoracic radiograph and confirmed by echocardiographic findings of poor myocardial contraction, low ejection fraction, left ventricular (LV) fractional shortening (<16%) and/or histology of myocardium.


The temperature (25–120°C) and frequency (10 Hz–1 MHz) dependent dielectric relaxation spectra of different ferroelectric liquid crystals are found to show interesting scaling behaviour. Considering relaxation frequency (νmax) as the scaling frequency, the imaginary part of the dielectric constants (e″) of the ferroelectric liquid crystals are found to follow the universal scaling formula , i.e. when (e″/e″max) is plotted as a function of (f/νmax), the scaling behaviour of a ferroelectric liquid crystal can be represented by a single master curve irrespective of film thickness, bias field and temperature; e″max is the maximum value of e″ at the frequency νmax and m is a parameter ∼1.


Background/Objectives: This paper is investigated the trend of researches on absorptive capacity through search of Scopus Database by using text mining technique for academic theses related to absorptive capacity.
Methods/Statistical analysis: This study used Text Mining Technique, discovering hidden meanings in big data such as extraction of information from large volume of documents or finding linkages, classification, clustering and summarization by using the method of NLP.
Findings: As a result of analysis on the keywords related to absorptive capacity, most frequently used words were 'capacity' followed by 'absorptive', 'knowledge', 'firm', 'innovation', 'study', 'performance', 'research', 'results', 'model', 'effect', 'development' and 'technology' in descending order. Absorptive capacity is the very core of current convergence era, many studies are expected to be conducted related to absorptive capacity in the digital transformation era.
Improvements/Applications: The trend of researches on absorptive capacity and related studies in the leading academic thesis database, Scopus, and drew out and analyzed 20 keywords.In the future, related researches will be continuously conducted as well.
 Keywords: Big Data, Absorptive Capacity, Text mining, Trend, Scopus, R.


BACKGROUND
A variety of diseases have been associated with hyperactivation of protein kinase C (PKC) enzymes such as cancer, diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular and central nervous system disorders. There is a dire need to selectively inhibit these enzymes by synthesizing new potent inhibitors. Balanol, a fungal metabolite belonging to the PKC inhibitor family, is especially included in this aspect. Tremendous effort has been put towards the synthesis of balanol by different research groups.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this review is to provide a detailed description of synthetic approaches adopted for the synthesis of key fragments of balanol (azepane and benzophenone). All the factors that resulted in excellent yield and high enantioselectivity have also been mentioned.

CONCLUSION
It has been shown throughout this review that the synthesis of hexahydroazepine and benzophenone cores of balanol was achieved by employing a variety of important key steps with commercially available starting precursors, which make this total synthesis more valuable. Moreover, this article provides ideas to the synthetic as well as pharmaceutical chemists for the synthesis of (-)-balanol and its analogues.


Molecular self-assembly commonly suffers from dense structural defect formation. Spontaneous defect annihilation in block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly is particularly retarded due to significant energy barrier for polymer chain diffusion and structural reorganization. Here we present localized defect melting induced by blending short neutral random copolymer chain as an unusual method to promote the defect annihilation in BCP self-assembled nanopatterns. Chemically neutral short random copolymer chains blended with BCPs are specifically localized and induce local disordered states at structural defect sites in the self-assembled nanopatterns. Such localized "defect melting" relieves the energy penalty for polymer diffusion and morphology reorganization such that spontaneous defect annihilation by mutual coupling is anomalously accelerated upon thermal annealing. Interestingly, neutral random copolymer chain blending also causes morphology-healing self-assembly behavior that can generate large-area highly ordered 10 nm scale nanopattern even upon poorly defined defective prepatterns. Underlying mechanisms of the unusual experimental findings are thoroughly investigated by three-dimensional self-consistent field theory calculation.


The fifth‐order short pulse equation models the nonlinear propagation of optical pulses of a few oscillations duration in dielectric media. In particular, it models the propagation of circularly and elliptically polarized few‐cycle solitons in a Kerr medium. In this paper, we prove the well‐posedness of the classical solutions for the Cauchy problem associated with this equation.


In 1961 the "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs" was adopted by the United Nations to explicitly address the need for narcotic drugs to curtail suffering and keep the distribution of these drugs in the control of health professionals. Fifty years later, neither goal has been reached for a variety of reasons. Governments have avoided putting in place systems to assure adequate supplies to relieve the suffering of those with severe pain, drug enforcement agencies maintain restrictive regulations and physicians are intimidated by threats of legal action if their prescribing patterns do not conform to arbitrary standards. There is a shortage of pain control consultants and the training for most health care providers is deficient when it comes to the management of chronic pain. Some of the regulatory barriers have been successfully addressed through advocacy efforts and the expertise deficiencies improved through targeted educational programs.