Covid-19 causes illnesses ranging from mild to severe symptoms. By May 15, 2020, in Aceh there had been 17 positive cases of Covid-19, with the death of one person and the recovery of 13 people. Blacksmith workers work without using PPE, do not wash their hands regularly and there is no health promotion from the local health center regarding ways to prevent Covid-19 in the workplace, so these workers are at risk of contracting Covid-19. This study aimed to determine the effect of health promotion on knowledge and attitudes about Covid-19 among blacksmith industry workers in Pangur Village. This was a pre-experimental study with a one group pretest-posttest without control group design. The sample consisted of workers in the blacksmith industry with a total of 25 respondents recruited through total sampling. Data were collected through a questionnaire which was prepared based on the Covid-19 guidelines and had been tested for validity and reliability. Univariate and bivariate data analyses were carried out and the dependent t test was used. The results demonstrated that 84% of the respondents were male, 68% were aged >30 years, and most had been working in the range of 6-10 years. According to the findings, there was an effect of health promotion on the knowledge and attitudes about Covid-19 among the blacksmith workers in Pangur Village (p-value = 0.0001). Blacksmith industry leaders are therefore advised to carry out health promotion programs for workers related to increasing knowledge about Covid-19 during the pandemic by using lecture methods and group discussions on how to prevent Covid-19 transmission on a regular and scheduled basis.
Keywords: Covid-19, knowledge, attitudes, health promotion


Abstract Paradoxically, loss is the only unconditional possession possible in elegy. A deep understanding of this phenomenon is to be found in long prose forms and lyricism of contemporary Australian writers. Turning the history of literature – from the Medieval to the contemporary – into a body of work more relevant to our ecological plight, in Kinsella's corpus genres are consequences of textual events operating within an organic totality. This totality deconstructs the reference point for elegy: loss as the condition of thought and experience. Sidestepping while matrixially reconfiguring traditional and experimental forms of writing, Kinsella's engagement with genre exemplifies not only the undoing of the codes that constitute all possible readings of a text; it is an implicit critique of speech acts that tend to "fix" life into static nouns, reflecting our culture's ideology of appropriation of nature. Within a critical counterpoint to appropriation (namely, possession), Australian writing can be read as both urging readers to remain alert to pastoral precedents yet avoid projecting genre onto texts. To some extent, elegy has been decolonised in Australian pastoral.


For real-world driver drowsiness detection from videos, the variation of head pose is so large that the existing methods on global face is not capable of extracting effective features, such as looking aside and lowering head. Temporal dependencies with variable length are also rarely considered by the previous approaches, e.g., yawning and speaking. In this paper, we propose a Long-term Multi-granularity Deep Framework to detect driver drowsiness in driving videos containing the frontal faces. The framework includes two key components: (1) Multi-granularity Convolutional Neural Network (MCNN), a novel network utilizes a group of parallel CNN extractors on well-aligned facial patches of different granularities, and extracts facial representations effectively for large variation of head pose, furthermore, it can flexibly fuse both detailed appearance clues of the main parts and local to global spatial constraints; (2) a deep Long Short Term Memory network is applied on facial representations to explore long-term relationships with variable length over sequential frames, which is capable to distinguish the states with temporal dependencies, such as blinking and closing eyes. Our approach achieves 90.05% accuracy and about 37 fps speed on the evaluation set of the public NTHU-DDD dataset, which is the state-of-the-art method on driver drowsiness detection. Moreover, we build a new dataset named FI-DDD, which is of higher precision of drowsy locations in temporal dimension.


The article presents various techniques to treat unaesthetic facial veins, such as periorbital, temporal, reticular veins, which pass from the neck through the angle of the lower jaw up to the temporal region, etc. Particular attention is paid to the use of the transdermal long-pulsed neodymium laser; clinical examples with photographs of areas of interest that were taken before and after treatment within 1-6 months are presented. The authors describe in detail the basic principles on the use of transdermal lasers in aesthetic medicine. It is concluded that the treatment of unwanted reticular veins with the long-pulsed neodymium laser has a number of advantages compared to other treatment methods.


In order to study domestic wastewater influence on secondary metabolite in thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) under field condition, this experiment was carried out in Iran. In the field, 15 lysimeters having thyme (T. vulgaris L.) were used, where 1 to 5 lysimeters wereirrigated by domestic wastewater and primary drainage water was accumulated. 6 to 9 lysimeters were irrigated by primary drainage water and then, were accumulated by secondary drainage water and we have irrigation 10, 11 and 12 lysimeters by secondary drainage water. In order to compare plants characteristics, in 13, 14 and 15 lysimeters were irrigated by agronomical water. The secondary metabolite in thyme 3.4% increased under irrigation by secondary drainage water into irrigation by agronomical water. The findings may give applicable advice to medicinal and aromatic plants researchers for management and concern on water strategy and estimate of irrigation carefully for increase of quantity and quality yields in medicinal and aromatic plants farming.

 Key words: Domestic wastewater, essential oil yield and Thymus vulgaris


A self-organized In0.53Ga0.47As/(In0.53Ga0.47As)2(In0.44Al0.56As)2 quantum wire (QWR) laser was grown on a (775)B InP substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Well lattice-matched and flat cladding layers were grown at a rather high temperature (595° C). Lateral confinement potential was induced by a nano-meter scale interface corrugation of InGaAs/(InGaAs)2(InAlAs)2 with an amplitude of 2 nm and a period of 40 nm. A 50 µm × 500 µm stripe-contact QWR laser with uncoated cleaved mirrors oscillated with a threshold current density (Jth) of 1.2 kA/cm2 and a lasing wavelength of 1370 nm at 250 K under pulsed current condition.


We discuss second-order complex Padé approximants which give a systematic approach to time-domain modeling of dispersive dielectric functions. These approximants, which also reduce to the classical Drude, Lorentz, Sellmeier, critical points and other models upon appropriate truncation, are used to compare frequency domain (FD) versus time-domain (TD) simulations of local optical responses and the transmission-reflection spectra for a plasmonic nanostructure. A comparison is also made using auxiliary differential equations (ADE), and second order recursive convolution (RC) formulations embedded in finite-difference, finite-volume, and finite-element time-domain solvers.


Individual grains of polycrystalline silver have been electron-irradiated at 473 K in a high-voltage electron microscope. The growth behaviour of interstitial-type dislocation loops is used to determine the anisotropy of the threshold energy for atom displacement Ed( omega ). Local minima of the threshold surface of 13-14 eV are found in the (100) and (110) directions. Apart from these minima a large area of low E2( approximately=17-19 eV) is found around (110) and a smaller region around (100) (19-20 eV). Ed(111) is only slightly higher than Ed(100) and Ed(110). The anisotropy of the threshold surface of silver is much more similar to that of Cu than that of Au, in spite of the fact that the ratio of ionic radius to interatomic distance is similar in Ag and Au. This result is discussed in terms of the electronic structure of Ag and Au and its influence on the propagation of replacement collision sequences.


OECD Guidance Document 75 (2007) outlines a test method to assess effects of plant protection products
(PPPs) on honeybee brood under semi-field conditions. The assessment of bee brood development is
conducted by mapping cells containing eggs and following their development until emergence. Evaluated
parameters are: brood termination rate (BTR), brood compensation index (CI) and brood index (BI). Due to high
variability of BTRs within treatments and high control mortality in a number of studies no definite conclusions
regarding effects on brood were possible in the past and studies needed to be repeated (Pistorius et al. 2012).
To address this variance, effort was taken by ICP-PR and AG Bienenschutz to improve the method by further
analyzing current and historical data considering possible influencing factors (Pistorius et al. 2012, Becker et al.
2015) to give recommendations for future testing. The main findings were that reliability of the test method
was questionable and that further method improvement and data evaluation was required. Therefore in this
paper data evaluation of studies conducted between 2014 and 2017 is carried out and potential key
parameters influencing outcome of studies are given.
To evaluate the improvement of the OECD 75 test method following the recommendations from 2015, a data
analysis of 86 studies conducted in Germany, France, Spain and US was performed. The mean BTR value in the
control group was 30.2% for studies conducted in Germany (mean of 61 studies), 19.4% in France (mean of 3
studies), 41.8% in Spain (mean of 5 studies) and 50.6% in US (mean of 17 studies). Results from Spain and US
displayed higher BTRs in control compared to data from Germany. Evaluation of BTRs for Germany displayed
only a slight improvement (historical value of 32.9%).
Analysis of data shows a limitation of options to improve the method as no main driver for high variability of
BTRs in the control group was found. The cause for low precision may be multifactorial and driven by "caging
effect". There are alternative test methods available to observe bee brood development, without confinement
in the tunnels, under field conditions (Oomen et al. (1992), OECD GD 75 field test design). Therefore it is
necessary to investigate differences between these open field methods and semi-field testing with regard to
routes of exposure, residues in brood and brood mortality, to choose the most reliable and adequate testing
method assessing potential effects of PPP on honeybee brood development.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between English language proficiency ( as measured by the English language GPA the student obtains from his/her secondary school ) and academic achievement ( as measured by the student's GPA from the examination in the first semester ) of undergraduate students in Somalia. Sample size of 100 students was selected from SIMAD University students, especially faculty of business and accountancy final year students. Both primary and secondary date was used in order to answer research questions. Questionnaire and content analysis were used as a research instruments. It has been identified that there are other factors, other than English language proficiency, that affect students' academic performance, the results revealed that English language proficiency has insignificant positive relation with their academic achievement and that there is an insignificant impact of English language proficiency on student' academic achievement. Based on these findings, it is recommended to give a special attention to the students' preparation for post secondary studies, improve students' study skills and the overall factors that determine students' academic achievement.


Neuregulin 4 (Nrg4) play important roles in the pathogenesis of obesity-associated disorders, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study aims to investigate roles of Nrg4 in the pathophysiologic mechanism underlying the progression of tubulointerstitial fibrosis (TIF) in diabetic nephropathy (DN). In present study, Nrg4 is under-expression in serum and renal tissue of diabetic nephropathy rats. In present study, Nrg4 attenuate renal function injury, tubulointerstitial fibrosis, inflammation and suppress the expression levels of advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) in vivo and vitro. Furthermore, the results reveal that Nrg4 ameliorates fibrosis and attenuate the expression of AGEs and inflammation via TNF-R1 signaling instead of TNF-R2 signaling in HK-2 cells. In conclusion, these results revealed that Nrg4 may effectively ameliorates TIF and attenuate the expression of AGEs in DN through TNF-R1 signaling instead of TNF-R2 signaling. We have provided evidence indicating that Nrg4 possesses therapeutic effect on TIF in DN.


VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE: LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD. Sandra J. Adams, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Agriculture, the number one private industry in Virginia, contributes $52 billion annually to Virginia's economy and supports 415,000 jobs. Though Native Americans grew crops and instructed the Jamestown settlers in New World agricultural practices, farming in Virginia is dated to 1614, the year of the first tobacco exports to Europe. Virginia has made and continues to make incredible contributions to the development and modernization of agriculture. George Washington was a pioneer in crop rotation and his meticulous recordkeeping led to many agricultural innovations. Thomas Jefferson's introduction of new agricultural products and new growing practices had an effect on American agriculture that endures to this day. Other famous agricultural products and innovations include Cyrus McCormick's development of the mechanical reaper; Fragaria virginiana, the first cultivar of the modern strawberry; country hams and Virginia style peanuts; Crassostrea virginica, Virginia's native oyster that was noted in the journals of Captain John Smith and today has made a dramatic comeback from near extinction; and famous animals such as Secretariat and Elevation the bull, the progenitor of 10 percent of the world's Holstein population. To remain viable in the future, Virginia agriculture must make a profit, care for the planet in new and different ways, utilize new technologies such as gene modification and gene editing, grow food in new places and educate the public about its production methods. Concerns for the future include fear of genetically modified organisms, a growing distrust of traditional production methods and attempts to over regulate them, public acceptance of new technologies, and the ways we will feed a world population of more than nine billion by the year 2050.


The aim of this paper examines the effect of financial constraints on cash flow in Tehran stock exchange from 2005 to 2010. Sensitivity of cash flow is defined as "the ratio of changes in cash reserves to the changes in operating cash flows". This study is an applied, regression-descriptive research. Using three distinctive criteria of company size, payout ratio, and the ranking of the company, companies are classified divided, categorized into two categories of companies with financial constraints and companies without financial constraints in order to test the two hypotheses of study. Based on obtained evidence, the hypotheses were rejected. The research results showed that financial constraints do not affect sensitivity of cash flow.


A noise reduction technique to cancel wideband and sinusoidal noise in noisy speech is proposed. In actual environments, the background noise frequently includes sinusoidal noise, for example ventilating fan noise. Therefore, it is important to reduce sinusoidal noise. We have proposed a noise reconstruction system (NRS) with adaptive line enhancer (ALE). However, the quality of the enhanced speech is remarkably degraded. In order to solve the problem, we propose a new noise reduction system which uses two types of ALE and a noise reconstruction filter (NRF). First, the two ALEs estimate the speech components. However, since two ALEs cannot estimate the unvoiced sound, the quality of the speech enhanced by the two ALEs is inadequate. Thus, the NRF is used to improve the noise reduction ability. The NRF accurately estimates the background noise from the signal occupied by the noise components, which is obtained by subtracting the speech enhanced by the two ALEs from the noisy speech. The enhanced speech is obtained by subtracting the reconstructed noise from the noisy speech. Finally, the cascaded structure of the noise reduction system is proposed to improve further the quality of the enhanced speech.


Abstract The use of isopach or contour plans for geological surfaces as the basis for fault interpretation of coal data, even when a dense drilling pattern has been applied, is often unsatisfactory. These plans tend to 'smooth' or underemphasize the effects of faulting, making assessment of the likely fault pattern difficult. Within the surpac2 Software system a series of modelling tools is available to assist with this interpretation process. An appropriately oriented grid is overlain on a digital terrain model (DTM) of the geological surface in question to regularize the data. The dip between data points is calculated, and a model of dip change created using the DTM method. A new contour model, which highlights trends in dip change, is produced, clearly showing likely fault traces and throw. This model may be sectioned to illustrate more graphically the disturbed and undisturbed areas. The fault model is then used as the basis for interpretation, to be compared with other models of the geology, and known local and regional faulting trends. Use of the macro facilities within surpac2 allows a series of surfaces to be rapidly analysed to build up a picture of likely fault continuity and pattern within the succession. Once the fault pattern is established, it can then be used elsewhere in surpac2 for further modelling and evaluation. Application can be simple, such as the formation of boundaries of faulted areas for estimation of mineable coal resource. More complex modelling can be achieved by interaction between geological surfaces and the fault surfaces defined by the interpretation process. A complete model of the faults and their impingement on the coal and associated layers is formed, for further use within the surpac2 design tools.


Previous experiments suggest the critical central role of the neutrophil (PMN) respiratory burst in the prevention and containment of disseminated candidiasis. A rise in cytosolic free calcium concentrations ([Ca2+]i) has been documented as an early event after PMN stimulation which is involved in the subsequent genesis of microbicidal and inflammatory respiratory burst products. [Ca2+]i were therefore determined in individual PMN, loaded with the fluorescent calcium probe fura-2 as they attached to and spread over serum-opsonized or unopsonized Candida albicans hyphae, particles that are too big to be completely ingested. After contact between hyphae and PMN, the PMN rapidly spread over hyphal surfaces. Although both opsonized and unopsonized hyphae stimulated similar magnitudes of peak median increases in PMN [Ca2+]i, the kinetics of responses differed; median [Ca2+]i peaked within 1 min after contact with opsonized hyphae versus 4 min after contact with unopsonized hyphae. Moreover, a detectable calcium transient did not invariably follow contact and spreading of each individual PMN over a hyphal surface. In contrast to patterns seen after stimulation of PMN with opsonized zymosan, in which [Ca2+]i is greatest in the periphagosomal region, there was a more uniform distribution throughout the cytoplasm in PMN stimulated with the noningestable hyphae. These alterations in the early patterns and timing of PMN stimulation may reflect analogous differences in subsequent events which control the efficiency and specificity of microbicidal responses to uningestible hyphae and which also determine whether host tissues are damaged by the generation of toxic PMN activation products.


The developments that characterized the global knowledge economic arena resulted in an increase of interest in human capital, and competition shifted towards the accumulation of competent minds who are able to adapt the accumulated knowledge to serve both society and the state and use it to enhance their presence in the competition towards hegemony. Accordingly, the importance of universities in training and rehabilitation increased, after their importance in scientific research, because of their pivotal role in the system of knowledge production and linking them to the growing needs of development, and; thus, in supplying economic and social sectors with a qualified individual to run the reins of life in its local and global dimensions. It has become necessary, in light of the expansion of the use of modern technologies and their control over people's lives and their dominance over the forms of their practice of them, for the university to turn into an institution that serves what is expected of developments in people's social system and in their ways of living, and to provide sample, practical, and direct services to society in various fields of life, in an effort to solve its problems and driving its progress by providing it with human energies capable of leading it. In accordance with the idea of a university that produces human capital, which carries the philosophy of a positive impact on the movement of society, and the realization of full achievements of scientific and technical development so as to be more involved in meeting people's needs for development, change, progress, and the practice of life effectively and competently. Since human groups tend to make use of the most of technical and technological knowledge that dominates the form and mechanisms of practicing life, both in present and future times, to manage their interests with a click button on a tablet, or a lock button on a computer Third Millennium University is required to adapt quickly to serve this, and to qualify capable human framework to put it all into practise. Within this framework, the present paper attempts to answer the following questions: How does the university transform from a knowledge-producing university into a field to adapt it to serve people and society? How does the university contribute to providing society with the human competencies that employ knowledge accumulation to produce it, and; thus, making the accumulation of efficient human capital its first message? In light of the university's practice of its formative role, which is planned for it in the immediate and future terms?


In this work various amount of phosphomolybdic acid (PMo) were immobilized on amine functionalized SBA-15 and used as heterogeneous catalysts in the epimerization of glucose in aqueous solution. 13.3PMo/NH2-SBA-15 exhibited the best catalytic performance with a glucose conversion of 34.8% and mannose selectivity of 85.6% within two hours at 120 °C. The activation energy of 80.1 ± 0.1 kJ·mol−1 was lower than that of 96 kJ·mol−1 over the homogeneous H3PMo12O40 catalyst. The catalytic activities of 13.3PMo/NH2-SBA-15 for the transformation of some other aldoses including mannose, arabinose and xylose were also investigated.


A mesoscopic spin valve is used to determine the dynamic spin polarization of electrons tunneling out of and into ferromagnetic (FM) transition metals at finite voltages. The dynamic polarization of electrons tunneling out of the FM slowly decreases with increasing bias but drops faster and even inverts with voltage when electrons tunnel into it. A free-electron model shows that in the former case electrons originate near the Fermi level of the FM with large polarization whereas in the latter, electrons tunnel into hot electron states for which the polarization is significantly reduced. The change in sign is ascribed to the matching of the electron wave function inside and outside the tunnel barrier.


BACKGROUND
The treatment of comminuted unsalvageable radial head fracture remains controversial. Open reduction and internal fixation with metallic plates and screws are hard to achieve. Conventional techniques include radial head resection and arthroplasty. Both methods have inevitable complications. The purpose of this retrospective study is to prove the feasibility of treating unsalvageable radial head fractures with absorbable polylactide pins.

METHODS
A total of 17 patients with severely comminuted Mason type III radial head fractures were treated with open reduction and internal fixation using polylactide pins and 23 with metallic plates and screws. Patients receiving both modalities were followed-up for a mean of 24 months (standard deviation SD: 2.6). Radiographic analysis was conducted 2, 30, 60, and 120 days after surgery. Measurements of range of motion (ROM), disability of arm shoulder and hands, Mayo elbow performance score, and Broberg and Morrey elbow score were recorded, with treatments compared using a Mann-Whitney U test.

RESULT
By the time of last follow up, All fractures in both groups healed successfully. The duration (134 min SD:21 min to 131 min SD:19 min) and blood loss (121 ml SD: 25 ml to 124 ml SD: 27 ml) during surgery of polylactide pin and metallic implant group have no statistical differences. The MEPI score (91 SD:7 to 94 SD:9), the Broberg and Morrey score (93 SD:3 to 93 SD:5), the DASH outcome measures (4.5 SD: 3.0 to 3.7 SD: 3.5), the range of motion also shows no statistical differences. Complications were infrequent and did not cause disability in both groups. All patients were satisfied with the surgical outcomes.

CONCLUSION
Polylactide pins can feasibly treat severely comminuted radial head fractures, which usually are considered unreducible. This technique provides an optional treatment plan in addition to resection or arthroplasty, especially for young patients that refuse that form of treatment.


Abstract Objectives Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest source of added sugar, and the largest single source of calories, in the American diet. Consumption of added sugars is a dietary factor linked to risk of chronic disease, including obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and cardiovascular disease (CVD). One of the metabolic fates of glucose, particularly in individuals with metabolic syndrome, is conversion to other sugars and polyols. Recently, the polyol erythritol was identified as a product of glucose in humans and other mammals. Excitingly, elevated circulating erythritol can predict T2DM and CVD development up to 20 years before disease onset. The relationship between diet and erythritol synthesis is unknown. We hypothesized that high sugar intake may promote erythritol synthesis from glucose. The purpose of this study was to determine if sugar in drinking water increases circulating erythritol in mice. Methods We fed 8-week-old C57BL/6J mice a high-fat diet with 60% fat-derived calories for two weeks. Mice were randomly divided into two treatment groups: water, or water with 30% sucrose (w/v). After two weeks of treatment, we recorded body weight, food and water intake, and fasting blood glucose. Fasting plasma erythritol and non-fasted urine erythritol were measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). All data were analyzed using an unpaired t-test. Results After two weeks, we found that urine erythritol was 50% higher in mice treated with sucrose compared to water controls (p < 0.05). As expected, mice treated with sucrose water consumed more total calories and calories from carbohydrates than controls (p < 0.01 and p < 0.0001, respectively). There was no difference in body weight or fasting blood glucose between groups. Contrary to our expectation, there was also no significant difference in plasma erythritol between groups. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that erythritol synthesis and excretion are elevated in response to sugar in drinking water. This suggests that erythritol synthesis may be a mechanism to dispose of glucose during caloric excess. Funding Sources This work is supported by the Education and Workforce Development Predoctoral Fellowship from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.


A case of Pyoderma gangrenosum with two different abdominal sites in a female patient suffering from colonic Crohn's disease is presented. Local trauma on the midline scar of an incisional hernia and around the stoma were the possible triggering factors. Despite the major abdominal wall defect and an infected parietal collection, steroid therapy was very effective without the need for surgery.


Background

To examine the association between dietary nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, total fats, saturated fatty acids [SFA], monounsaturated fatty acids [MUFA], polyunsaturated fatty acids [PUFA], and cholesterol) and various serum liquids in Chinese adults.
Methods

As a part of Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study, 46,285 Chinese participants were recruited. Dietary nutrients from various foods were computed using the Chinese Food Composition Table databases. Blood were collected to test total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C).
Results

42,054 participants in PURE-China study were included. Mean TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, and TG were 4.68 ± 0.99 mmol/L, 2.63 ± 0.76 mmol/L, 1.36 ± 0.33 mmol/L, and 1.55 ± 1.09 mmol/L in our study, respectively. Subjects consuming higher proteins were more likely to have higher TC, TG, LDL-C (all Ptrend<0.001). High carbohydrate intake may play a role on reduction of TC (Ptrend<0.001), TG (Ptrend=0.031), LDL-C (Ptrend<0.001) and HDL-C (Ptrend<0.001). Higher fat intake was associated with increase of TC, LDL-C, and HDL-C (all Ptrend <0.001). Unlike SFAs and MUFAs, those consuming higher PUFAs are likely to have higher TG (Ptrend<0.001), but have stable LDL-C (Ptrend=0.136).
Conclusions

High carbohydrate intake could decrease significantly various liquids, while high-fat and high-protein intake might have harmful impacts on profile of serum liquids. Subjects consuming higher SFAs and MUFAs were more likely to have higher levels of TC and LDL-C, but the intake of PUFAs has no influence on LDL-C level.


Abstract This paper analyses the contradictions in the Swedish school organisation between the intentions of an implemented integration of pupils with disabilities, and the actual dramatic increase of pupils enrolled in special units. The study is a multiple case study of the functions and conditions of special support in differentiated educational settings (such small teaching groups, special units, cooperation classes) based on interviews with special educators and observations in three schools with such differentiated groups in the county of Stockholm. None of the studied groups were homogeneous, but most of the children in them had in common some kind of vulnerability. The potential or actual reactions of teachers and peers in the regular settings seem to be a common criterion for placement in the differentiated setting. Psycho‐medical diagnoses were not always a prerequisite for enrolment in the special units; they were not always accurate and they were not sufficient to get special support. Problema...


The gene oculocutaneous albinism 2 ( oca2) is crucial for the proper development of color pattern in fish, and eye, hair and skin color in humans. When this gene is mutated (not functioning) in humans, albinism occurs, which makes those affected by this disease more susceptible to skin cancers caused by ultraviolet beta induced damage to DNA. Within zebrafish (Dania rerio) there are three cells which produce pigment: brown/black melanophores, iridescent iridophores, and yellow xanthophores. When oca2 is mutated the zebrafish exhibit a decrease in the number of melanophores but an increased number of iridophores. This result suggests that the oca2 gene is involved in regulating iridophore production. The goal of this experiment was to determine the mechanism by which oca2 influences the production of iridophores. It was determined that oca2 is not involved in regulating the number of iridophores at initiation ( cell fate choice). This result may suggest that this gene is rather involved in regulating a second means for controlling cell number by cell division. To address this question, cell division assays will be completed over the summer to determine how iridophore cell proliferation is impacted when oca2 is mutated. Further understanding the mechanisms by which this gene regulates pigmentation within zebrafish will grant a better understanding of the importance and function of this gene within humans ..


Automatic evaluation metrics are essential for the rapid development of open-domain dialogue systems as they facilitate hyper-parameter tuning and comparison between models. Although recently proposed trainable conversation-level metrics have shown encouraging results, the quality of the metrics is strongly dependent on the quality of training data. Prior works mainly resort to heuristic text-level manipulations (e.g. utterances shuffling) to bootstrap incoherent conversations (negative examples) from coherent dialogues (positive examples). Such approaches are insufficient to appropriately reflect the incoherence that occurs in interactions between advanced dialogue models and humans. To tackle this problem, we propose DEAM, a Dialogue coherence Evaluation metric that relies on Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR) to apply semantic-level Manipulations for incoherent (negative) data generation. AMRs naturally facilitate the injection of various types of incoherence sources, such as coreference inconsistency, irrelevancy, contradictions, and decrease engagement, at the semantic level, thus resulting in more natural incoherent samples. Our experiments show that DEAM achieves higher correlations with human judgments compared to baseline methods on several dialog datasets by significant margins. We also show that DEAM can distinguish between coherent and incoherent dialogues generated by baseline manipulations, whereas those baseline models cannot detect incoherent examples generated by DEAM. Our results demonstrate the potential of AMR-based semantic manipulations for natural negative example generation.


Quantum mechanics, devoid of any additional assumption, does not give any theoretical constraint on the projection basis to be used for the measurement process. It is shown in this paper that it does neither allow any physical means for an experimenter to determine which measurement bases have been used by another experimenter. As a consequence, quantum mechanics allows a situation in which two experimenters witness incoherent stories without being able to detect such incoherence, even if they are allowed to communicate freely by exchanging iterative and bilateral messages.


The article contains results of the studies of the visual analyzer, cardio-vascular system and central nervous system, as well as prevalence and structure of morbidity with temporary disability among the major professions in diamond processing. It was established that resulting from a complex of labour factors (hypodynamics, forced posture at work, overstrain of the sight, monotony) the working capacity was falling down in the shift dynamics, fatiguability was rapidly developing with concomitant decline in health state indices, thus necessitating the introduction of preventive measures.


The hopeless yet determined resistance of American and Filipino forces against the Japanese invasion has made Bataan and Corregidor symbols of pride, but Bataan has a notorious darker side. After the U.S.-Filipino remnants surrendered to a far stronger force, they unwittingly placed themselves at the mercy of a foe who considered itself unimpaired by the Geneva Convention. The already ill and hungry survivors, including many wounded, were forced to march at gunpoint many miles to a harsh and oppressive POW camp; many were murdered or died on the way in a nightmare of wanton cruelty that has made the term "Death March" synonymous with the Bataan peninsula. Among the prisoners was army pilot William E. Dyess. With a few others, Dyess escaped from his POW camp and was among the very first to bring reports of the horrors back to a shocked United States. His story galvanised the nation and remains one of the most powerful personal narratives of American fighting men.Stanley L. Falk provides a scene-setting introduction for this Bison Books edition. William E. Dyess was born in Albany, Texas. As a young army air forces pilot he was shipped to Manila in the spring of 1941. Shortly after his escape and return to the United States, Colonel Dyess was killed while testing a new airplane. He did not survive long enough to learn that he had been awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor. Stanley L. Falk is a former chief historian of the U.S. Air Force and professor of international relations at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He is the author of numerous works, including "Bataan: The March of Death".


standard having been fixed, it is now possible to rely on such findings as are published in the paper under present review, The findings, which have already been adumbrated in previous work. are surprising, for the tissues examined showed that intense changes were most pronounced in the fundus region. becoming less and less evident towards the pylorus. while the Brunner's glands of the duodenum appeared quite normal. Meulengracht remarks that he should have expected that the. gastric changes would extend well into the pyloric region, thus compromising its action, His summary is arresting and provocative: "1 believe that two facts have been established, (1) that the antianrernic factor of the stomach is produced by the pyloric gland organ, but (2) that a histologic investigation shows that the pyloric gland organ is relatively intact in pernicious anremia.' So far as can be proved at present both these statements are true. and the task of reconciliug them now remains ns a problem for the students of expet-imental medicine. The writer suggests various posaihilittes. There may he quantitative changes not yet revealed by qualitative examinations. 'I'his does not seem verv feasible. Then the functional efficiency of the gl~1l1ds might be impaired without changes being apparent in their anatomical appearance, as judged by the methods at present available. The parallel of diabetes. with its inconstancy of JJO.~t mortem lesions in the insular tissues of the pancreas. snggests itself. There is some slight evidence that a functional insufficiency may be present, since the total bulk of gastric fluid has been reported as being reduced. Then again, there may be lacking Rome hormonal stimulus necessary for the full action of the pyloric gland to take place: and finally Meuleugracht points out that it is possible that processes in the intestine are wholly 01' in part responsible. It is curious how scientific problems which appeal' at first sight simple become more complex as investigation proceeds. When Whipple and his associates first' carried out their work on simple blood regeneration, they little thought how vast would be the ramiflcations of their research, and for that matter nobody today can prophesy whither this most fascinating work may lead.


Camphor poisoning is uncommon. Cases with a fatal termination have been reported.1Recovery following the ingestion of 450 grains (30 Gm.), and death from the ingestion of 18 grains (1.2 Gm.) is reported. Benz,2Haft,3Blair1and Cottrell4report recovery after the ingestion of varying amounts of camphor in oil. Osborne5says: "It is difficult to cause poisoning in the human unless the amount is excessive, then respiratory depression and convulsions might be caused." Stevens6says: "Toxic doses first produce excitement, nausea and vomiting, delirium and epileptiform convulsions, then coma and collapse." Neither text states that the outcome may be fatal. Recovery without sequelae or complications seems to be the rule; however, in Cottrell's4case very definite evidence of cerebral irritation continued for several days. Of the later reports in the literature, camphor in oil is universally the preparation ingested. The earlier


India's fifteenth general election took place in five phases during April 16, 2009 and May 13, 2009, which witnessed 59.7 percent of the 714 million electorate voting. Coming 57 years after independent India voted to constitute its legislatures at both the levels, it indicated a number changes that voting behaviour has undergone in these years. The decline of the one-party dominant system brought about an era of coalition politics in national politics. State/Regional parties gained in prominence. This essay goes beyond looking at shifts and swings in voting behaviour in this election, contextualizing them in larger context of national politics as well as in the context of changes in the party system since independence. This seventh general election of a new era of Indian politics that has shaped in the past two decades, has witnessed a reassertion and strengthening of the Indian National Congress in particular and national parties in general, a plateauing of the state/regional parties, rise and stabilising of electoral volatility and strengthening of the larger national party in coalition politics despite cohabitation problems. The essay also contextualizes the elections and its results in the context of weakening of institutions in the country.


The subpolar North Atlantic (SPNA) experienced extreme cold during 2015, an event often called the "cold blob". The evolution of this event in the Community Earth System Model version 1 Decadal Prediction Large Ensemble (CESM1-DPLE) hindcast initialized in November 2014 is compared to observations. This CESM1-DPLE hindcast failed to predict cold conditions during 2015 despite already cold SPNA initial conditions and despite having high sea surface temperature skill in the SPNA in all other years. The goal of this paper is to understand what led to this prediction failure in order to provide insight for future decadal prediction efforts. Our analysis shows that strongly positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) conditions during winter and spring 2015 likely sustained the cold blob but were not simulated in any CESM1-DPLE members. We examine the rarity of the 2015 event using the CESM1-DPLE's uninitialized counterpart, the CESM1 Large Ensemble (CESM1-LE). Results from the CESM1-LE indicate that the exceptional state of the observed NAO in the winter of 2015 is at least part of the explanation for why this event was not encompassed in the CESM1-DPLE spread. To test another possibility — that deficiencies in the initial conditions degraded the prediction — we performed additional hindcasts using the CESM1-DPLE protocol but different initial conditions. Altering the initial conditions did not improve the simulation of the 2015 cold blob, and in some cases, degraded it. Given the difficulty of predicting this event, this case could be a useful testbed for future prediction system development.


On-line analyzers can provide accurate and timely information for process control and monitoring. Statistical Process Control (SPC) techniques can be effectively utilized to support the development and maintenance of these tools. The D6299- 10 ASTM standard details how on-line analyzers should be validated. The applicability of this standard is demonstrated through the analysis of industrial data collected from an on-line gas chromatograph. The results confirm that automatized SPC can effectively improve the reliability of advanced process control systems.


Global oral health goals to achieve by the year 2020 by FDI/WHO/IADR (2003) emphasized the importance of promoting oral health within groups and populations with the greatest disease burden. This is especially important for people with disabilities as they typically experience greater levels of oral disease. These groups are often underserved and experience high levels of unmet need for dental care, with the oral disease they experience often remaining untreated. Most dental care for people with disabilities is not complex and can be provided in primary care and community settings, by a dental workforce with the relevant attitudes and competencies.


Alternatives to the current buy-back of water entitlements by the government in the Murray Darling Basin are assessed using multiple criteria based on the western U.S. experience, real options theory, scenario analysis and policy adoption criteria. This analysis suggests the following benefits of incorporating temporary water trade and buying entitlements gradually over a twenty-year period: incremental structural adjustment; increased flexibility and efficiency; enhanced environmental flows and increased irrigator willingness to participate. However, the inclusion of temporary trade will probably involve: i) more complex institutional arrangements; ii) different types of transaction costs as environmental managers and irrigators learn how to interact in the market; and iii) an increase in the direct costs of the scheme.


Endor provides a technique for studying the resonance properties of nuclei coupled to paramagnetic centres. I shall be concerned with nuclei for which the effects of coupling are large compared to those of relaxation. In the absence of paramagnetic centres, identical nuclei will be on speaking terms with one another and give rise to a phase memory time T2n. Interaction with lattice phonons gives rise to a spin-lattice relaxation time T1n. If a small quantity of paramagnetic centres is introduced into the lattice, the behaviour of those nuclei close to the centres will be modified. Interaction with these centres will prevent the nuclei from being exactly on speaking terms with the bulk of the lattice nuclei and would effectively lengthen T2n but leave T1n unaltered in the absence of relaxation of the centre. However, the behaviour of these nuclei is primarily determined now by relaxation of the paramagnetic centres for which the equivalent relaxation times T1e, T2e are considerably shorter. The extent to which the nuclei sample this relaxation depends upon the strength of the coupling. If the latter is mainly dipolar, T1n will be shortened to ca. T1e(vn/A)2, where vn is the nuclear resonance frequency and A the interaction parameter. T2n is also shortened with 1/T2n' = 1/T2n + K/T1e. K is a constant of order unity depending upon the details of the relaxation. The shortening of T1n arises from transitions induced by A Sz(t) I± (in the usual notation) while the contribution to 1/T2n arises from the finite lifetime of the nuclear energy levels imposed by the relaxation of the paramagnetic centre.


The modelling of the integration of various cognitive skills and modalities requires complex and computationally intensive algorithms running in parallel while controlling high-performance systems. The distribution of processing across many computers has certainly advanced our software ecosystem and opened up research to new possibilities. While this was an essential move, we are aspiring to augment the field of cognitive robotics by providing Aquila 2.0, a novel hi-performance software architecture utilising cross-platform, heterogeneous CPU-GPU modules loosely coupled with GUIs used for module management and data visualisation.


In this paper, a novel H.264 multiple description technique is proposed. The coding approach is based on the redundant slice representation option, defined in the H.264 standard. In presence of losses, the redundant representation can be used to replace missing portions of the compressed bit stream, thus yielding a certain degree of error resilience. This paper addresses the creation of two balanced descriptions based on the concept of redundant slices, while keeping full compatibility with the H.264 standard syntax and decoding behavior in case of single description reception. When two descriptions are available still a standard H.264 decoder can be used, given a simple preprocessing of the received compressed bit streams. An analytical setup is employed in order to optimally select the amount of redundancy to be inserted in each frame, taking into account both the transmission condition and the video decoder error propagation. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique favorably compares with other H.264 multiple description approaches.


The right to be forgotten (RTBF) is motivated by the desire of people not to be perpetually disadvantaged by their past deeds. For this, data deletion needs to be deep and permanent, and should be removed from machine learning models. Researchers have proposed machine unlearning algorithms which aim to erase specific data from trained models more efficiently. However, these methods modify how data is fed into the model and how training is done, which may subsequently compromise AI ethics from the fairness perspective. To help software engineers make responsible decisions when adopting these unlearning methods, we present the first study on machine unlearning methods to reveal their fairness implications. We designed and conducted experiments on two typical machine unlearning methods (SISA and AmnesiacML) along with a retraining method (ORTR) as baseline using three fairness datasets under three different deletion strategies. Experimental results show that under non-uniform data deletion, SISA leads to better fairness compared with ORTR and AmnesiacML, while initial training and uniform data deletion do not necessarily affect the fairness of all three methods. These findings have exposed an important research problem in software engineering, and can help practitioners better understand the potential trade-offs on fairness when considering solutions for RTBF.


We study the optimal control problem in stochastic queueing networks with a set of job dispatchers connected to a set of parallel servers with queues. Jobs arrive at the dispatchers and get routed to the servers following some routing policy. The arrival processes of jobs and the service processes of servers are stochastic with unknown arrival rates and service rates. Upon the completion of each job from dispatcher un at server sm, a random utility whose mean is unknown is obtained. We seek to design a control policy that makes routing decisions at the dispatchers and scheduling decisions at the servers to maximize the total utility obtained by the end of a finite time horizon T. The performance of policies is measured by regret, which is defined as the difference in total expected utility with respect to the optimal dynamic policy that has access to arrival rates, service rates and underlying utilities. We first show that the expected utility of the optimal dynamic policy is upper bounded by T times the solution to a static linear program, where the optimization variables correspond to rates of jobs from dispatchers to servers and the feasibility region is parameterized by arrival rates and service rates. We next propose a policy for the optimal control problem that is an integration of a learning algorithm and a control policy. The learning algorithm seeks to learn the optimal extreme point solution to the static linear program based on the information available in the optimal control problem. The control policy, a mixture of priority-based and Joint-the-Shortest-Queue routing at the dispatchers and priority-based scheduling at the servers, makes decisions based on the graphical structure induced by the extreme point solutions provided by the learning algorithm. We prove that our policy achieves logarithmic regret whereas application of existing techniques to the optimal control problem would lead to Ω(√T)-regret. The theoretical analysis is further complemented with simulations to evaluate the empirical performance of our policy.


| Oocytes of the antral follicles are bathed in extracellular fluid, which is termed follicular fluid (FF). Follicular fluid is synthesized from a transudate of blood plasma and from secretions of follicular cells. Oocytes in antral follicles persist in meiotic arrest until surge of luteinizing hormone and then start maturation.This suggests that follicular fluid before LH surge might contain meiosis inhibiting factor(s). Hence, inclusion of follicular fluid or cumulus cells or synthesized follicular component(s) during in vitro maturation of oocytes is expected to affect maturation of oocytes and development of the resulting embryos. Follicular fluid components might change during estrous cycle according to follicle size and/or animal nutrition. Concentration of follicular fluid components such as amino acids (AAs), meiosis activating sterol (FF-MAS), hyaluronan (HA), midkine (MK), carotenoids, antioxidants, urea, hormones and others is changed with follicles size and/or animal nutrition and effect on maturation of oocytes and development of the resulting embryos in vivo and/or in vitro. The present review article reviews and discusses these effects.


This dissertation analyses female dangdut and tarling dangdut performers' intersubjectivities and their dispositions towards issues of Islam, sexuality and morality in contemporary West Java. I explore performers' lived embodied experiences of being female dangdut and tarling dangdut singer-dancers and show what these experiences reveal about their dispositions on these very issues. Sexuality, morality and Islam have come to dominate public debate in Java and the sexualised performances of female dangdut performers have played an important role in these debates. Such debates and discourses are often very remote from the performers' actual perspectives and experiences as singer-dancers. In such debates, female performers and their erotic performances have been mostly subject to conservative moralising discourses, and feminist discourses of exploitation or empowerment. These discourses, but also the existing academic literature on dangdut and its female performers, have neglected the diverse lived embodied experiences of performers and the meanings that they themselves ascribe to their participation in dangdut and tarling dangdut performances. I focus, though not exclusively, on an aspect of dangdut that brings people's bodies together in particular performance situations that involve bodily movements and interactions in ways that appear highly transgressive to the normative gaze. I have called these situations and interactions nyawer encounters. Nyawer is a Javanese and Sundanese cultural practice usually related to wedding celebrations and circumcisions where money, rice, coins, slices of turmeric and tektek (a roll of betel vine leafs filled with the extracts of a betel nut such as lime and tannin) are thrown on the bridal couple or child. Nyawer reveals the approval and endorsement from the community toward the couple or child. In the context of dangdut performances, nyawer involves handing over or throwing money to the performing singer-dancer. Taking dangdut performances in Jakarta and the villages on Java's north coast as locations for a situated inquiry, and using existential phenomenology as a guiding research approach, I show that it is necessary to consider the role of embodied cultural knowledge, the importance of the responsiveness of bodies to one another and dangdut's aesthetics for an understanding of the performers' participation and engagement in performances, and nyawer encounters in particular. I explore what role the embodied involvement of performers and dancing audience members play for the performers' lived experiences and how bodily empathy, affect and dangdut's aesthetics allows an understanding of dangdut's erotic nature beyond merely moralist conservative and feminist judgments.


In this study, a crafted zirconocene complex on rGO@Fe3O4 as a novel magnetic nanocatalyst was synthesized and then characterized using FT-IR, SEM, EDX, VSM, ICP-OES, TGA, BET and MS analyses. Next, catalytic activity of the prepared nanocomposite rGO@Fe3O4/ZrCp2Clx (x = 0, 1, 2) towards successful reduction of aromatic nitro compounds to arylamines using N2H4·H2O (80%) was investigated. The examined nanocatalyst also showed perfect catalytic activity for reductive-acetylation of aromatic nitro compounds to the corresponding N-arylacetamides without isolation of the prepared in situ amines using the N2H4·H2O/Ac2O system. Furthermore, acetylation of the commercially available arylamines to the corresponding N-arylacetamides was carried out by acetic anhydride in the presence of the rGO@Fe3O4/ZrCp2Clx (x = 0, 1, 2) nanocomposite. All reactions were carried out in refluxing EtOH as a green solvent to afford the products in high yields. The obtained results exhibited that the nanocomposite of rGO@Fe3O4/ZrCp2Clx (x = 0, 1, 2) showed a great catalytic activity in comparison to rGO and rGO@Fe3O4 as the parent constituents. Recovery and reusability of rGO@Fe3O4/ZrCp2Clx (x = 0, 1, 2) were also examined for 8 consecutive cycles without significant loss of the catalytic activity. This establishes the sustainable anchoring of the zirconocene complex on the surface and mesopores of the rGO@Fe3O4 nanohybrid system.


Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican Library: Catalogue. Compiled by the staff of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem; edited by Benjamin Richler; paleographical and codicological descriptions Malachi Beit-Arie in collaboration with Nurit Pasternak. Citta del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2008. xxvii, 678, 66 p., [8] leaves of plates. ISBN: 978-88210-0823-8. 120 Euros.


Infant mortality is a powerful indicator to measure the health and social status of a
country. The purpose of this study is to identify the important factors that in
uence
the infant mortality of Bangladesh. Moreover, this study suggests the government and
the policy makers to improve the health and social sectors for reducing the country's
infant mortality signicantly. To investigate the important factors of infant (below 12
months) mortality of Bangladesh, data is used from the \Bangladesh Demographic
and Health Survey (BDHS) 2011". Cross-tabulation, simple and multiple logistic
regression techniques have been used to explore the predictors of infant mortality.
Cross-tabulation and simple logistic regression analysis suggest that parental educa-
tion, infant sex, vitamin A dose received, household toilet facility, number of antenatal
visits, type of person giving care on mother before birth, birth order, tetanus injection
before and after the pregnancy, birth type and type of person giving care on mother
and infant after the birth have signicant attention on infant mortality. For instances,
risk of infant mortality 20%, 30% and 70% lower among the mothers having primary,
secondary and higher education than those having no education respectively. Risk
of infant mortality 52% and 81% lower among the mothers having tetanus injection
than those having no tetanus injection before and after pregnancy respectively. On
the other hand, multiple logistic regression analysis explore that father's education,
infant sex, delivery by cesarean section, vitamin A dose received, place of delivery,
type of person giving care on mother before birth, birth order, tetanus injection after
the pregnancy, birth type and type of person giving care on infant are signicant risk
factors of infant mortality. Finally, these analyses have special attention on educa-
tion for all, improved health services for infant and mothers to decrease the country's
infant mortality.


In REACH regulation there is a category of substances called special preparations, to which alloys belong. In the assessment of special preparations not only the bulk composition of an alloy, but also the way the constituent metals are bonded in the chemical matrix, shall be taken into account. The surface of the alloy may limit the ability of constituent metals to be released from the matrix and thus affect the toxicological profile of an alloy. Therefore, the surface characteristics and the release rates of metals shall be taken into account. Finnish Institute of Occupational Health has been carrying out REACH-compliant chemical safety assessment of ferrochromium in collaboration with International Chromium Development Association. Ferrochromium is composed mainly of chromium and iron with small amounts of other metals, e.g. nickel. Since almost no studies have been published on the health effects of ferrochromium, the assessment of ferrochromium should be based on its constituent metals. An approach used in this study included the use of data on surface composition and release of metal constituents from ferrochromium. The chromium oxide surface layer limits the release of nickel and other constituents from ferrochromium and affects the toxicological profile. As a result it can be concluded that ferrochromium alloys can be likened to chromium metal and stainless steel when assessing their health hazards. Thus, the risk assessment can be based largely on existing human, animal and in vitro toxicity data on chromium metal, chromium(III)oxide and stainless steel. By referring to this data, it was possible to make conclusions on health hazards of ferrochromium without need to carry out any new toxicity tests.


The purpose of this paper is to provide a structured and cost-oriented process to determine risks associated with nuclear material and other security interests. Financial loss is a continuing concern for US Department of Energy contractors. In this paper risk is equated with uncertainty of cost impacts to material assets or human resources. The concept provides a method for assessing the effectiveness of an integrated protection system, which includes operations, safety, emergency preparedness, and safeguards and security. The concept is suitable for application to sabotage evaluations. The protection of assets is based on risk associated with cost impacts to assets and the potential for undesirable events. This will allow managers to establish protection priorities in terms of the cost and the potential for the event, given the current level of protection.


OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to draw a comprehensive picture of the pharmaceutical wholesale sector, outlining its socio-economic importance compared to different distribution systems such as short-line wholesaling, direct sales from manufacturers, Reduced Wholesale Arrangements (RWA) and Direct to Pharmacy (DTP) arrangements. Its role is considered from an economic, effectiveness and, most importantly, a public health viewpoint with qualitative and quantitative methods, focusing on France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. METHODS: First, data has been sourced from annual GIRP and IMS-Health statistics; second, a systematic literature research verified the empirical findings; third, an online-questionnaire was directed to pharmacies. Further data have been sourced from a questionnaire, addressing GIRP-full-member associations and wholesale companies (return rate 86%). RESULTS: On a weighted average, pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers in the observed countries alone pre-finance € 10.2 bn over a period of 41 days the entire medicine-market and secure the cash-flow of the social-insurers (Germany: € 2.60 bn for 38 days; Italy: € 2.27 bn for 68 days; the UK: € 1.48 bn for 36 days; France: € 1.28 bn for 22 days; Spain: € 969.76 m for 27 days; the Netherlands: € 399.09 m for 30 days on average). On average, pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers are bundling products of 18.28 manufacturers per delivery. The process costs would increase by € 164,922.43 to € 171,510.06 per year, if there were no pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers. These additional costs would have to be paid by manufacturers, pharmacies and finally by patients. Regarding the satisfaction with different distribution models, the results of the online-questionnaire show that pharmacists in the observed countries are very satisfied with the distribution through their pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers have an important and unique position in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Special functions like the pre-financing of the entire medicinal product market, or the guarantee of the continuous supply of all medicinal products verify these findings.


The concept of a "crude democracy"—that is, a democracy fostered, supported, or sustained by oil wealth—is counterintuitive. Political scientists, policymakers, and pundits often assert that where oil or certain other natural resources are bountiful, democracy is not. Rulers of many resource-rich countries, from the Arabian Peninsula to the former Zaire, appear to have had great success in consolidating stable authoritarian polities; elsewhere, conflict over the distribution of resource revenues has seemed to promote political instability or even civil war but certainly not democratic regimes. In the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, for example, though some observers hoped Iraq's petroleum could be harnessed to pay for reconstruction and then to finance a stable democracy, other analysts worried that conflict over the division of oil revenues would inflame sectarian and regional tensions and ultimately undermine the prospects for democracy. The experience of many other resource-rich countries contributes to a pessimistic evaluation of democracy's chances in countries rich in natural resources. Commenting on the apparently robust association between oil wealth and autocracy, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman pronounced a "First Law of Petropolitics" in the pages of the journal Foreign Policy : "The price of oil and the pace of freedom always move in opposite directions in oil-rich petrolist states" (Friedman 2006).


A growing number of Communicating Geographic Information Systems (CGIS) have been developed since geographic libraries for programming languages such as Java have been marketed. In order to facilitate the design of customised GIS applications a visual object oriented method named OMEGA has been introduced. It is based on visual extensions of UML. In this paper, an extended version of OMEGA is proposed to model distributed geographic systems.


By using the numerical simulation for the temperature field in the metal organic vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor by induction heating, it is found that the temperature distribution in the conventional cylinder-shaped susceptor is nonuniform due to the skin effect of the induced current, which makes the temperature distribution of the wafer nonuniform. Therefore, a novel susceptor with a ∧-shaped slot is proposed. This slot changes the mode and the rate of the heat transfer in the susceptor, which improves the uniformity of the temperature distribution in the wafer. By using the finite element method (FEM), the susceptor with this structure for heating a wafer of four inches in diameter is optimized. It is observed that the optimized susceptor with the ∧-shaped slot makes the uniformity of the temperature distribution in the wafer improve by more than 85%, and a good uniformity of temperature distributions is kept under different wafer temperatures, which may be beneficial to the film growth.


We report an analysis method for inverse presumption of brain current dipoles from the brain magnetic field. By the numerical evaluation simulation code based on the genetic algorithm, one current dipole was presumed at less than 5 mm spatial resolution in all areas such as the parietal region, the temporal region, the frontal region, and the occipital region of the head. In addition, by the shifting aperture method, which excels in the visualization of the continual spatial distribution, several current dipoles could be visualized separately.


This study aims to analyze and explore phenomenological elements that appear in small-scall art museums with spatial concepts, such as top and bottom, depth, movement, and experienced space on the basis of Merleau-Ponty de la perception.` Therefore, small-scale art museums may be regarded as an ideal space that can be analyzed with Merleau-Ponty`s phenomenological theory since they should provide viewers with various spatial experiences in a limited space, breaking away from spatial limitations beyond appreciation of artworks. As research subjects, the range of art museums was limited to ones whose designs architectures or interior designers participated in out of all the small-scale art museums constructed after the 1990s, when the concepts and directing methods of spatial experience elements started being applied to art museums. Small-scale art museums chosen as cases were analyzed with Merleau-Ponty`s spatial concepts explained earlier, and this study drew conclusions for each one. The significance of this study is that the results of this study can be used as efficient materials to reflect phenomenological elements on planning future small-scale art museums through further studies on various small-scale art museums.


Summary
DNA extracted from frog virus 3 has a GC mol fraction of about 0.56. The mol. wt. of the DNA is about 100 × 106 (97 × 106 by neutral sucrose gradient sedimentation; 102 × 106 from renaturation kinetics). Analysis by neutral sucrose sedimentation indicated that the DNA exists as a single heteroduplex in the virus particle. Alkaline sucrose gradient sedimentation indicated that single strand alkali labile interruptions probably occur in both strands of the heteroduplex. Renaturation kinetic analysis also indicated that about 7% of the genome contains repeated sequences. Quantitative analyses of DNA—DNA homology showed no sequence homology between frog virus 3 DNA and the DNA extracted from iridescent virus types 2, 6 or 9. This lack of sequence homology reflects the markedly distinct profiles on acrylamide gels of the structural polypeptides of frog virus 3 and the iridescent viruses.


A new conservative theory in Britain and America has altered the terms of political debate, not only among conservatives, but also among liberals, social democrats, and socialists. In this book, Robert Devigne explores how this conservative thought-in particular the work of the British political philosopher Michael Oakeshott, the American Leo Strauss, and their followers-is responding to the challenge of postmodernism, to the pervasive loss of civil traditions, morality, and authority in contemporary societies. Devigne argues persuasively that new British and American conservative theories are not merely variants of economic liberalism, but also embody a search for new authoritative political and civil relations, each attempting to modify society's future course with outlooks significantly different from those of their conservative predecessors. He shows that while both theories are responding to similar political problematics, their origins in different political philosophies have contributed to distinct constitutional doctrines and political objectives. Devigne explains how these separate outlooks and goals are rooted in different views on morality, authority, democracy, liberty, justice, community, and religion, and in distinct preferences toward economic, social, and foreign policy. Throughout the book, Devigne situates both theories' positions among the central debates of political philosophy and compares each theory to dominant British and American political outlooks of the past.


The cGAS-STING pathway is the major cytosolic DNA sensing pathway to induce downstream innate immune responses against viral infection as well as tumorigenesis. Recently it has been demonstrated that cGAS-STING pathway takes central stage in the immune sensing of tumor. STING activation induces the production of type I interferons (IFNα and β) and pro-inflammatory cytokines that collectively stimulate tumor antigen cross presentation to CD8 T cells and primes the adaptive immune response against tumor. In order to evaluate the potential of STING agonism to activate the anti-tumor immune response, we developed GSK532, a novel cyclic dinucleotide (CDN). Unlike cGAMP, the endogenous CDN ligand for STING, GSK532 potently activates STING both in vitro and in vivo. In vitro functional assays demonstrated the ability of GSK532 to induce cytokine responses in a panel of human PBMC samples with various STING haplotypes. Furthermore, GSK532 was shown to activate STING orthologs from preclinical species including cyno, minipig, dog, rat and mice. GSK532 demonstrated high stability in human whole blood with minimal degradation observed over 52 hrs. When dosed intratumorally, GSK532 induced a strong anti-tumor effect in the CT26 murine syngeneic model in both the injected (primary) and uninjected (distal) tumors. The cured mice were resistant to rechallenge with same tumor cell line indicating the involvement of an adaptive immune response. Further evidence of the development of anti-tumor adaptive immune response comes from the observation that the efficacy of GSK532 was significantly attenuated when CD8+ T cells were depleted in the murine model. Consistent with the anti-tumor efficacy, pharmacokinetic analysis demonstrated high exposure and long retention of GSK532 in both injected and distal tumors and pharmacodynamic studies showed induction of IFNβ and several inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IL-6, etc) in both tumors. Currently, GSK532 is being progressed towards clinical investigation. All studies were conducted in accordance with the GSK Policy on the Care, Welfare and Treatment of Laboratory Animals and were reviewed the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee either at GSK or by the ethical review process at the institution where the work was performed. Citation Format: Jingsong Yang, Michael Adam, Jim Clemens, Katrina Creech, Jess Schneck, Kishore Pasikanti, Jean-Luc Tran, Devika Joglekar, Chris Hopson, Scott Pesiridis, Joshi Ramanjulu, Yiqian Lian, Jerry L. Adams, James Smothers, Axel Hoos. Preclinical characterization of GSK532, a novel STING agonist with potent anti-tumor activity [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5554.


Rationale Vitamin D deficiency has been implicated as a pathogenic factor in sepsis and intensive therapy unit mortality but has not been assessed as a risk factor for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Causality of these associations has never been demonstrated. Objectives To determine if ARDS is associated with vitamin D deficiency in a clinical setting and to determine if vitamin D deficiency in experimental models of ARDS influences its severity. Methods Human, murine and in vitro primary alveolar epithelial cell work were included in this study. Findings Vitamin D deficiency (plasma 25(OH)D levels <50 nmol/L) was ubiquitous in patients with ARDS and present in the vast majority of patients at risk of developing ARDS following oesophagectomy. In a murine model of intratracheal lipopolysaccharide challenge, dietary-induced vitamin D deficiency resulted in exaggerated alveolar inflammation, epithelial damage and hypoxia. In vitro, vitamin D has trophic effects on primary human alveolar epithelial cells affecting >600 genes. In a clinical setting, pharmacological repletion of vitamin D prior to oesophagectomy reduced the observed changes of in vivo measurements of alveolar capillary damage seen in deficient patients. Conclusions Vitamin D deficiency is common in people who develop ARDS. This deficiency of vitamin D appears to contribute to the development of the condition, and approaches to correct vitamin D deficiency in patients at risk of ARDS should be developed. Trial registration UKCRN ID 11994.


Life test, total dose and proton irradiations were performed on silicon-based bipolar phototransistors. A high radiation sensitivity was observed together with abnormal fluctuations of phototransistors collector current during life test. In an attempt to solve this problem, a failure analysis was conducted. Mobile charges located in the photobase passivation layer were found to be at the origin of these fluctuations and are probably also related to the high radiation sensitivity of these devices. Based on the obtained results a new device selection method for space application is proposed.


This study measured service quality of Korean restaurants using SERVQUAL in Parasuraman et al.(1988) and DINESERV in Stevens et al.(1995), compared validity and reliability in measurement items by each scale. Self-administrated questionnaires were completed by 332 undergraduates and data were analysed frequency, factor, reliability and correlation with SPSS and Amos program. Major results of this study can be outlined as follows: First, in the items that were measured with SERVQUAL and DINESERV, totally 5 factors of tangibility, empathy, reliability, assurance, and responsiveness were elicited equally in each, as service quality in Korean restaurants. As a result of comparing validity and reliability, the explanatory adequacy in SERVQUAL was 72.188%, which is higher than 69.802% in DINESERV. Confirmatory factor analysis also showed that SERVQUAL`s adequacy is higher than DINESERV in all aspects. Second, in the perceived service quality in visitors of Korean restaurants, the reliability showed the highest mean value among 5 service quality dimensions in both of SERVQUAL and DINESERV.


The success of antineoplastic chemotherapy in head and neck carcinoma is limited by the insufficient primary chemosensitivity of the tumor and/or the decrease of drug efficacy in the course of treatment. As regards cisplatin (CDDP) this phenomenon of chemoresistance may be closely associated with glutathione (GSH) metabolism since GSH is responsible for the detoxication of active CDDP hydrolysates. In the human squamous carcinoma cell line HLac 79, selective inhibition of GSH synthesis by buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) led to enhanced CDDP chemosensitivity both in vitro and in vivo. Using the colony-forming assay GSH depletion of HLac 79 tumor cells of more than 90% (Table 1) resulted in a dose modifying factor of 2 (Table 2). Combined treatment of HLac 79 tumor-bearing nude mice with BSO and CDDP brought about significant increase in mean survival time (p less than 0.001) as compared to the CDDP-treated group. The possible role of BSO as chemosensitizer is discussed.


In this study, the most widely Russian wheat was used in Iraqi which similar to the characteristics of most of the cultivated Iraqi cultivars for use in this study. The chemical composition, rheological properties were estimated using modern and old technical. The aim of this work to study the effect of some hydrocolloids to improve the characteristics of Iraqi bread (Simon). Conduct a survey of the most important hydrocolloids used in bakery processing (pectin, carrageenan, sodium alginate, xanthan gum, guar gum and carboxy methylcellulose) to choose the best and add it to some bakery products. The best percentage of selected hydrocolloids was chosen according to the previous study of the sensory evaluation. Use of the hydrocolloids (xanthan gum, carrageenan and guar gum) and choose the best ratios for the hydrochlorides mentioned 0.75%, for carrageenan and guar gum, and 0.2%, for xanthan gum, based on sensory evaluation and economic assessment tests. Iraqi bread (Simon) was manufactured with the addition of some hydrocolloids in the above mentioned percentages. Quality attributes of iraq bread (Simon) were evaluation by chemical analysis, microbial safety tests, strength tests for product tests were carried out at the beginning of manufacturing and during storage at room temperature 25±2°C until the product begins to corrupt. The obtained results showed that the using some hydrocolloids were improvement in the technological characteristics of iraqi bread product under study, the most important is to increase the shelf life to 8 days compared to products manufactured in the Egyptian and Iraqi market that the validity period approximately exceed three days. Therefore, recommend to use the following hydrochlorides (xanthan, carrageenan and guar gum) in the commercial range in the manufacture of product.


To understand the algorithm that supports the human brain's language representation, previous research has attempted to predict neural responses to linguistic stimuli using embeddings generated by artificial neural networks (ANNs), a process known as neural encoding. However, most of these studies have focused on probing neural representations of Germanic languages, such as English, with unsupervised ANNs. In this paper, we propose to bridge the gap between human brain and supervised ANN representations of the Chinese language. Specifically, we investigate how task tuning influences a pretained Transformer for neural encoding and which tasks lead to the best encoding performances. We generate supervised representations on eight Natural Language Understanding (NLU) tasks using prompt-tuning, a technique that is seldom explored in neural encoding for language. We demonstrate that prompt-tuning yields representations that better predict neural responses to Chinese stimuli than traditional fine-tuning on four tasks. Furthermore, we discover that tasks that require a fine-grained processing of concepts and entities lead to representations that are most predictive of brain activation patterns. Additionally, we reveal that the proportion of tuned parameters highly influences the neural encoding performance of fine-tuned models. Overall, our experimental findings could help us better understand the relationship between supervised artificial and brain language representations.


In India, it is highly essential to concentrate on the various developmental activities which are yard sticks for the degree of heights of development in term of technology and economy. The main objective of this work is to assess the potential impacts which have taken place during the 2-laning of State highway from Padubidri to Karkala. Many number of small Panchayaths, Towns are in this areas. The collected base line environmental details of land could be taken as a base data prior to the study. The potential impacts both positive and negative such as climatic condition, land resources, water resources, air quality, flora, community facilities, cultural properties and social environment were collected and analysed. However, the temporary impacts may occur and hence suitable mitigation measures should be made. It could be observed that there, improve accessibility and connectivity, reduce vehicle operator and maintenance cost, facilities to road works, improve quality of life and faster travel could be carried out. To reduce the air impacts and noise impacts in future, more plantations of trees on road side and development of green belts could be carried out.


This article presents a summary of some experimental results obtained on a 1.4 MW CHP engine. Tests concern the effect of H2 and CO addition to the natural gas at the engine inlet. Hydrogen and CO were obtained through the partial oxidation of methane.A honey-comb Platinum based catalyst was used for the partial oxidisation of methane. Part of the natural gas main stream was deviated and mixed with air to supply the catalyst. Catalyst output (mixture of H2, CO, H2O, CO2, N2 and methane) are then mixed with the main stream of natural gas supplying the engine.Two different tests were conducted, the first one is an operation under a constant average combustion chamber temperature and the other one is an operation at a constant NOX level in the exhaust gases.Results showed a decrease of about 10% in NOX emissions when operating under constant combustion chamber temperature (this temperature is the average temperature of the four strokes inside the cylinders); and a slight increase of engine efficiency for a constant NOX emissions level.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Abstract:  We reviewed the literature on accessibility and outcomes of organ transplantation in individuals with mental retardation (MR) and on the prevalence of organ donation in this population. Six centers have published outcome data on renal transplantation in 34 individuals with MR. The one‐ and three‐yr patient survival rates were 100% and 90%, respectively. The studies reported good compliance with post‐transplant medications due to consistent support from family members or caregivers. The outcome studies for liver and heart transplantation among these individuals are limited. The literature on organ donation in individuals with MR is mostly concerned with legal issues. The courts generally permit organ donations when such is in the best interests of the donor.


Objective
To investigate the surgical technique and effectiveness of anatomical posterolateral complex (PLC) reconstruction in treating severe posterolateral knee instability using Y-shaped allogeneic Achilles tendon.

Methods
The clinical data of 12 patients with Fanelli type C chronic PLC injury with severe posterolateral knee instability who met the selection criteria between June 2013 and August 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 9 males and 3 females, with a median age of 34.5 years (range, 18-57 years). The average time from injury to surgery was 10.5 months (range, 3-24 months). All of them were multi-ligament injuries and were treated with anatomical reconstruction of Y-shaped allogeneic Achilles tendon. The posterior and varus stress X-ray films were used to measure and calculate the difference of posterior displacement of tibia and difference of lateral joint opening distance between bilateral knees to evaluate the backward stability of LCL and knee joint; the knee flexion 30° tibial external rotation test was used to calculate the difference of tibial external rotation angle between bilateral knees to evaluate the stability of knee external rotation. The knee function was evaluated by the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) 2000 subjective and objective scores.

Results
The operation successfully completed in 12 patients, and there was no vascular and nerve injury during operation. The operation time was 2.5-3.5 hours, with an average of 2.7 hours; the intraoperative blood loss was 20-100 mL, with an average of 55 mL. All patients were followed up 13-41 months, with an average of 28.1 months. At last follow-up, the difference of posterior displacement of tibia, the difference of lateral joint opening, the difference of tibial external rotation angle between bilateral knees, and the IKDC2000 subjective score, the objective scores of tibial external rotation and knee varus significantly improved when compared with those before operation ( P<0.05). The knee joint of 1 patient with anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, and PLC reconstruction was stiff at 15 months after operation, and the range of motion of the knee joint was 10°-80°. After arthroscopic release, the range of motion of the knee joint was 5°-120°, the reconstructed ligament was stable. In the other patients, the knee flexion angle was normal in 2 cases; 9 cases had knee flexion limitation of 5°-10°, with an average of 6.4°; no knee extension was limited.

Conclusion
Anatomical PLC reconstruction using Y-shaped allogeneic Achilles tendon can effectively treat Fanelli type C chronic PLC injury with severe posterolateral knee instability and improve the knee joint stability.


Genetic assimilation results from selection on phenotypic plasticity, but quantitative genetics models of linear reaction norms considering intercept and slope as traits do not fully incorporate the process of genetic assimilation. We argue that intercept-slope reaction norm models are insufficient representations of genetic effects on linear reaction norms, and that considering reaction norm intercept as a trait is unfortunate because the definition of this trait relates to a specific environmental value (zero) and confounds genetic effects on reaction norm elevation with genetic effects on environmental perception. Instead we suggest a model with three traits representing genetic effects that respectively (i) are independent of the environment, (ii) alter the sensitivity of the phenotype to the environment, and (iii) determine how the organism perceives the environment. The model predicts that, given sufficient additive genetic variation in environmental perception, the environmental value at which reaction norms tend to cross will respond rapidly to selection after an abrupt environmental change, and eventually become equal to the new mean environment. This readjustment of the zone of canalization becomes completed without changes in genetic correlations, genetic drift or imposing any fitness costs on maintaining plasticity. The asymptotic evolutionary outcome of this three-trait linear reaction norm generally entails a lower degree of phenotypic plasticity than the two-trait model, and maximum expected fitness does not occur at the mean trait values in the population.


To determine whether nitroglycerin is just as effective as nifedipine in lowering the blood pressure in excessive hypertension and hypertensive crisis, two groups of 20 patients received in random sequence either 1.2 mg of nitroglycerin sublingually or a 10 mg nifedipine capsule, which was chewed and swallowed. The blood pressure fell after 5 min in the nitroglycerin group from 211/122 mm Hg to 171/95 mm Hg and after nifedipine from 210/118 to 185/102 mm Hg. The greater effect of nitroglycerin results from faster absorption through the oral mucosa than through the small intestinal mucosa where nifedipine is primarily absorbed. After 15 to 20 min a satisfactory reduction in blood pressure was reached in both groups: 157/91 and 158/92 mm Hg, respectively. After 30 min the heart rate in the nitroglycerin group had decreased from 83 to 80/min, but in the nifedipine group it had increased from 84 to 90/min. The reduction in blood pressure persisted up to 6 h. No significant difference in side-effects was determined. Since a hypertensive crisis is usually accompanied by left-ventricular failure, pulmonary edema or angina pectoris and infarction, and nitroglycerin has been definitively shown to positively influence these conditions, preference should be given to nitroglycerin in the treatment of hypertensive crisis.


Peer learning in teaching is a common method which makes students share their problems and learn from each other. It is often used to increase studentsunderstanding and level of deep learning. In this study, the peer learning concept has been applied to a laboratory exercise and a comparative study has been performed. The study consists of two cases, a reference group, which performed the exercise in a traditional way, and a peer learning group, which performed the exercise in a modified way. In the peer learning group, the students were encouraged to ask each other for help and an additional presentation was added in order to further increase the interaction between students. The outcome was evaluated through classroom observations, a questionnaire, and a short knowledge test. The results show that the peer learning approach had different positive effects. When the students were instructed to ask each other for help, there was an apparent change in the studentsbehaviour. The students in the peer learning group were more active and more creative compared to the reference group. They also had better results on the knowledge test and were more satisfied with the exercise. This demonstrates that small changes to an existing laboratory exercise can increase the understanding, involvement and creativity of the students. In this case, this was also achieved without an extended workload on the teacher.


Congenital aphantasia is a recently characterized experience defined by the inability to form voluntary visual imagery, in spite of intact semantic memory, recognition memory, and visual perception. Because of this specific deficit to visual imagery, aphantasia serves as an ideal population for probing the nature of representations in visual memory, particularly the interplay of object, spatial, and symbolic information. Here, we conducted a large-scale online study of aphantasics and revealed a dissociation in object and spatial content in their memory representations. Sixty-one aphantasics and matched controls with typical imagery studied real-world scene images, and were asked to draw them from memory, and then later copy them during a matched perceptual condition. Drawings were objectively quantified by 2,795 online scorers for object and spatial details. Aphantasics recalled significantly fewer objects than controls, with less color in their drawings, and an increased reliance on verbal scaffolding. However, aphantasics showed incredibly high spatial accuracy, equivalent to controls, and made significantly fewer memory errors. These differences between groups only manifested during recall, with no differences between groups during the matched perceptual condition. This object-specific memory impairment in aphantasics provides evidence for separate systems in memory that support object versus spatial information.


The isolation, crystallization, and partial identification of potato factor II, a stimulator from the chemically neutral fraction of potato extract, is described. The compound was originally found to stimulate elongation of dwarf peas grown under red light, a gibberellin bioassay. It melts between 137 degrees and 139 degrees . In paper chromatography it migrates to R(F) 0.62 in isopropyl alcohol: ammonium hydroxide: H(2)O (10:1:1, v/v). Based on infrared and NMR data, it does not contain a lactone ring and possibly possesses an amide radical and an OH(-) group, as well as many methylene radicals. Potato factor II may be similar to certain of the fatty acid derivatives previously reported to stimulate growth of excised sections, but it is unique in that it stimulates growth of intact plants. This effect points to the need for completely separating neutral from acid gibberellin-like substances when the latter are assayed on dwarf peas.


Abstract The paper focused on the estimation of aboveground biomass and its carbon stock in the vegetation cover on the territory of the High Tatras twelve years after a large-scale wind disturbance. Besides biomass quantification of main plant groups (i.e. trees and ground vegetation) we considered plant components with special regard to carbon rotation rate. The measurements were performed on two transects each containing 25 plots sized 4 × 4 m. Height and stem diameter of all trees on the plots were measured and used for biomass estimation. To quantify the biomass of ground vegetation, six subplots sized 20 × 20 cm were systematically placed on each plot and the aboveground biomass was harvested. The plant material was subjected to chemical analyses to quantify its carbon concentration. The study showed that while the wind disturbance caused dramatic decrease of carbon stock, young post-disturbance stands with abundant ground vegetation, represented large carbon flux via litter fall. Twelve years after the wind disturbance, the trees contributed to carbon stock more than the ground vegetation. However, the opposite situation was recorded for the carbon flux to litter that was related to the dominance of annual plants in the above-ground biomass of ground vegetation. The carbon stock in the biomass of young trees and ground vegetation represented about 8,000 kg per ha. The young stands manifested a dynamic growth, specifically the aboveground biomass increased annually by one third. The results confirmed different carbon regimes in the former old (pre-disturbance) and sparse young (post-disturbance) stands.


This article explores how various political, social, and environmental factors helped to shape the face of taijiquan in the art's birthplace, Chenjiagou. By looking at the impact of the some of the major historical Chen taijiquan figures and examining the social context within which they operated, we can better understand the system's evolution. Research included a number of visits to Chenjiagou, where the author interviewed some of the leading Chen Style teachers, as well as an examination of published literature in the fields of both taijiquan and wider political and economic commentaries. Literature included both historical records and up-to-date studies. In spite of outside intrusion, great social and economic hardship, and inevitably changing lifestyles, Chenjiagou has managed to hold onto its martial traditions and looks set for a bright future in the twenty-first century.


Abstract This paper presents a model that connects phonotactic exceptionality to perceptibility, more specifically to functional load and acoustic detail. I identify two patterns in exceptionality: lexical exceptions and phonotactic vacillation, where the former is restricted to specific lexical items, while the latter affects two contrastive sound categories as a whole. Through the example of Hungarian word-final phonotactics, the Model of Perceptual Categorization associates these two patterns with different functional load and acoustic properties of contrasts, that lead to two categorizational malfunctions. On the one hand, phonotactic vacillation is a result of a frequent failure to categorize ambiguous tokens: low functional load coinciding with little acoustic difference. On the other hand, lexical exceptions are systematic categorizational mistakes brought about by salient categories – in this case distributional generalizations are hindered by interference from mislabeled tokens.