Summary Shallow-marine carbonate sediments occur in three settings: platforms, shelves and ramps. The facies patterns and sequences in these settings are distinctive. However, one type of setting can develop into another through sedimentational or tectonic processes and, in the geologic record, intermediate cases are common. Five major depositional mechanisms affect carbonate sediments, giving predictable facies sequences: (1) tidal flat progradation, (2) shelf-marginal reef progradation, (3) vertical accretion of subtidal carbonates, (4) migration of carbonate sand bodies and (5) resedimentation processes, especially shoreface sands to deeper subtidal environments by storms and off-shelf transport by slumps, debris flows and turbidity currents. Carbonate platforms are regionally extensive environments of shallow subtidal and intertidal sedimentation. Storms are the most important source of energy, moving sediment on to shoreline tidal flats, reworking shoreface sands and transporting them into areas of deeper water. Progradation of tidal flats, producing shallowing upward sequences is the dominant depositional process on platforms. Two basic types of tidal flat are distinguished: an active type, typical of shorelines of low sediment production rates and high meteorologic tidal range, characterized by tidal channels which rework the flats producing grainstone lenses and beds and shell lags, and prominent storm layers; and a passive type in areas of lower meteorologic tidal range and higher sediment production rates, characterized by an absence of channel deposits, much fenestral and cryptalgal peloidal micrite, few storm layers and possibly extensive mixing-zone dolomite. Fluctuations in sea-level strongly affect platform sedimentation. Shelves are relatively narrow depositional environments, characterized by a distinct break of slope at the shelf margin. Reefs and carbonate sand bodies typify the turbulent shelf margin and give way to a shelf lagoon, bordered by tidal flats and/or a beach-barrier system along the shoreline. Marginal reef complexes show a fore-reef—reef core—back reef facies arrangement, where there were organisms capable of producing a solid framework. There have been seven such phases through the Phanerozoic. Reef mounds, equivalent to modern patch reefs, are very variable in faunal composition, size and shape. They occur at shelf margins, but also within shelf lagoons and on platforms and ramps. Four stages of development can be distinguished, from little-solid reef with much skeletal debris through to an evolved reef-lagoon-debris halo system. Shelf-marginal carbonate sand bodies consist of skeletal and oolite grainstones. Windward, leeward and tide-dominated shelf margins have different types of carbonate sand body, giving distinctive facies models. Ramps slope gently from intertidal to basinal depths, with no major change in gradient. Nearshore, inner ramp carbonate sands of beach-barrier-tidal delta complexes and subtidal shoals give way to muddy sands and sandy muds of the outer ramp. The major depositional processes are seaward progradation of the inner sand belt and storm transport of shoreface sand out to the deep ramp. Most shallow-marine carbonate facies are represented throughout the geologic record. However, variations do occur and these are most clearly seen in shelf-margin facies, through the evolutionary pattern of frame-building organisms causing the erratic development of barrier reef complexes. There have been significant variations in the mineralogy of carbonate skeletons, ooids and syn-sedimentary cements through time, reflecting fluctuations in seawater chemistry, but the effect of these is largely in terms of diagenesis rather than facies.


The easy-to-use tools in Springshare's LibGuides help you organise web pages, improve students' research experience and learning, and offer an online community of librarians sharing their work and ideas. Editors Dobbs, Sittler, and Cook have recruited expert contributors to address specific applications, creating a one-stop reference. Readers will be able to create subject guides that achieve the full potential of LibGuides with advice on such topics as: Learning from the best-a showcase of 28 LibGuides with exceptional design and pedagogy Collaborating with faculty to embed LibGuides in course management systems Creating a customised look to your LibGuides with design flair and enhanced functionality Getting ready for smart-phone users with a plan for the mobile web Setting up Google Analytics on a LibGuide site Teaching with LibGuides


This paper aims to illustrate and discuss the importance of packaging attributes in the wine market. A survey was conducted in the north of Italy to assess how different attributes affect the probability of choosing a bottle of Prosecco wine. Two hundred face-to-face interviews based on a structured questionnaire were administered in Milan and Padua supermarkets to elicit preferences. Each respondentranked three new bottles of Prosecco wine and expressed the importance of different packaging characteristics in its choice.Product attributes include Label's form, Label's colours, the Label in its entirety, the Writing "Prosecco", the Band on the bottle's neck and the Bottle's shape. The interviews allowed us to recognise the bottle customers found the most attractive, and rank-ordered logistic regression was able to disentangle whichpackaging characteristic led to their decision.


Obesity and its metabolic complications like insulin resistance and type II diabetes with their continuously increasing morbidity and mortality represent a challenge for global health care (1). Yet, detailed mechanistic understanding of the pathogenesis of obesity and its metabolic complications as well as effective treatment options are still lacking. Inflammation is considered to have a pivotal role in the development of metabolic diseases (2–5). Obese adipose tissue shows hallmarks of chronic inflammation, with the involvement of T-cell subsets like Th1 and Th2 and regulatory T-cells (4–6), macrophage subsets (classically and alternatively activated macrophages) (7), but also other immune cells like mast cells (8). These immune cells, their cell-cell interactions, and their interactions with adipocytes have been found to alter adipose tissue function, thereby affecting insulin resistance and obesity. However, the exact immune cells and molecules involved, as well as the interplay between the different cell-types are still unclear (9). Especially T-cells have been proven to be important in the development of insulin resistance and obesity (4, 5). Recently, obesity has been associated with T-cell accumulation in adipose tissue, which apparently precedes the appearance of macrophages (3, 10). Surprisingly, Rag-/mice, which lack Tand B-cells, gain more weight, exhibit more visceral adiposity and have a more disturbed insulin and glucose tolerance when fed a high-fat diet than their wild type counterparts (4). Reconstitution of CD4+ T-cells improved their glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity and lessened weight gain. These counterintuitive results can be explained by the shift in T-cell subsets: CD4+ reconstituted Rag-/mice exhibited a strong increase in the Th2 subset (4). Along this line, other papers show a detrimental role for CD4+ T-cells, especially the interferon γ-producing Th1 subset (6). These data suggest that CD4+ cells of the Th2 phenotype gradually fail to withhold the ever-expanding pro-inflammatory Th1 population, leading to a progressively pro-inflammatory environment, thereby promoting insulin resistance and obesity. In addition, Nishimura et al. showed a pivotal role for CD8+ T-cells in macrophage recruitment and tissue inflammation in obesity, indicating that also CD8+ T-cells have an essential role in initiation and propagation of adipose inflammation (3). T-cell proliferation, activation and subsequent adequate function of antigen presenting cells (APCs) require co-stimulation (11, 12). One of the co-stimulatory molecule dyads recently associated with obesity are the tumour necrosis factor (TNF)and TNF-receptor family members CD40L (CD154) and CD40 (13, 14). CD40L-CD40 interactions play a substantial, multifaceted role in immunity and inflammation, and are far more ubiquitously expressed than expected (15, 16). Not only are CD40L-CD40 interactions required for CD4+ cell proliferation and activation, and for inducing proper APC-function, they also induce endothelial cell activation, subsequent monocyte migration, as well as macrophageand smooth muscle cell activation, characterised by the production of chemokines, cytokines and proteolytic enzymes, and are therefore involved in a Correspondence to: Esther Lutgens Institute for Molecular Cardiovascular Research (IMCAR) Pauwelsstraße 30 52074 Aachen Germany Tel.: +49 241 808 0580, Fax: +49 241 808 2716 E-mail: email@example.com


Objectives: The current work was carried out to determine the relationships between live weight, carcass traits and the offal components traits in Holli, Fulani, Sahoue, North and South indigenous chicken ecotypes of Benin. Methodology and results: 260 indigenous chickens of which 52 cockerels of each ecotype were slaughtered at 24 weeks old and used for carcass and offal composition study. Data collected were live weight, carcass weight, Carcass yields and the weights of breast, thigh-drumstick, wings, back, liver, gizzard, heart, tarsi, neck and head. It comes out from this study that in North chickens, except heart weight and carcass yields, slaughter weight was highly and positively correlated with hot carcass weight, breast weight, thigh-drumstick weight, wing weight, tarsi weight (P<0.001; 0.62 ≤ r ≤ 0.99), weakly and positively associated to the heart weight (P<0.05; r = 0.44) but negatively correlated with the carcass drip loss (P<0.01, r= -0.51). The breast weight was moderately and positively correlated with gizzard weight (P<0.01, r= 0.61) while the thigh-drumstick and wing weights were highly and positively associated with gizzard weight (P<0.001, 0.67 ≤ r ≤ 0.78). Similar relationships were also observed in Holli, Fulani and Sahoue ecotypes between live weight, carcass traits and offal components except carcass yields and the weights of heart, liver, head and tarsi. Contrary to North, Holli, Fulani and Sahoue chickens, heart weight and liver weight in South chicken weren't associated with the other carcass traits. However, the drip loss was negatively correlated with all other carcass traits evaluated in all chicken ecotypes. Holli and Fulani chickens were characterized by higher live weight, hot carcass weight, carcass yield, breast weight, wing weight, rest of carcass weight, neck weight, head weight, tarsi weight, thighJournal of Applied Biosciences 69:5510 – 5522


The thrust of this study was to determine the barriers faced by voters with visual impairment in the electoral and voting process in Zimbabwe. The study was carried out in five provinces of the Zimbabwe. The qualitative research paradigm was used. The interpretive research design was used in line with the research philosophy identified. Opportunity sampling procedures were utilised and data were generated using interviews. The study established that voters with visual impairment feared for their lives because law enforcement agencies did not provide safety guarantees in the event of politically-motivated violence erupting. It also established that contrary to provisions of the constitution, privacy was not provided for in the voting process. The study also found out that where voters with visual impairment needed assistance, the choice of who should assist them needed to come from them, and not any other person. Specialised assistance during voting was also not forthcoming. The study also revealed that the only voting format used which is normal print is not disability-friendly. Existing legislation on electoral issues was found to be not comprehensive enough. Some polling stations were not easily accessible. The study recommended comprehensive needs analysis and the introduction of alternative voting formats such as Braille, enlarged print, magnification sheets, and computer-based software was long overdue. Law enforcement agencies should guarantee the safety of voters with visual impairment in the event of political violence breaking out. In addition, electoral authorities should also revisit the issue of privacy during voting. Lastly the need for comprehensive electoral legislation catering for voters with visual impairment was required.


Highly stereoselective dithiocarbonylation of propargylic mesylates with thiols and carbon monoxide has been developed by the use of tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) as the catalyst at 90 degrees C in THF. The reaction affords the corresponding dithioesters in good to excellent yields. For some secondary and tertiary propargylic alcohols with a terminal or internal triple bond, the reaction stereoselectively produces E-dithioesters as products. The dithiocarbonylation is believed to proceed via allenylpalladium and allenyl ester intermediates, and the high stereoselectivity might be rationalized by a mechanism where nucleophilic attack of a Pd(0)L(n) species on the allenyl sp carbon occurs from the less hindered side of an alkyl substituent.


CONTEXT
The precise function of sleep in animals and human beings is still unknown, and any sort of physical, social or psychological variation may change the normal sleep-wake cycle.

PURPOSE
This research aims is to determine the sleep disorders (SD) for each of the three trimesters of the pregnancy comparing them to the pre-pregnancy state (PG).

METHOD
SD were investigated in three hundred pregnant women 11- to 40-years-old through with a brief clinical interview based on directed questions. One hundred pregnant women were considered for each trimester.

RESULTS
The rate of pregnant women with insomnia increased by 23% in the 2nd trimester (p< 0.005); the rate for excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) by 15% in the 1st trimester (p<0.003), 55% in the 2nd trimester (p<0.001) and by 14% in the 3rd trimester (p<0.002); the rate for mild sleepiness increased by 33% in the 2nd trimester (p<0.002) and by 48% in the 3rd trimester (p<0.001); the rate for specific awakenings increased by 63% in the 1st trimester, by 80% in the 2nd trimester and by 84% in the 3rd trimester (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION
SD were more frequent during pregnancy comparatively to PG state, mostly at the expenses of EDS and specific awakenings.


The sensing of abiotic stress, mechanical injury, or pathogen attack by a single plant tissue results in the activation of systemic signals that travel from the affected tissue to the entire plant, alerting it of an impending stress or pathogen attack. This process is essential for plant survival during stress and is termed systemic signaling. Among the different signals triggered during this process are calcium, electric, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and hydraulic signals. These are thought to propagate at rapid rates through the plant vascular bundles and to regulate many of the systemic processes essential for plant survival. Although the different signals activated during systemic signaling are thought to be interlinked, their coordination and hierarchy remain to be determined. Here, using a combination of advanced whole-plant imaging and hydraulic pressure measurements, we studied the activation of all four systemic signals in wild type and different Arabidopsis thaliana mutants subjected to a local high light (HL) stress or wounding. Our findings reveal that in response to wounding systemic changes in membrane potential, calcium, ROS, and hydraulic pressure are coordinated by glutamate receptor-like (GLR) proteins 3.3 and 3.6, while in response to HL the respiratory burst oxidase homolog D-driven systemic ROS signal could be separated from systemic changes in membrane potential and calcium levels. We further determine that plasmodesmata functions are required for systemic changes in membrane potential, calcium, and ROS during systemic signaling. Our findings shed new light on the different mechanisms that integrate different systemic signals in plants during stress. Significance statement The ability of plants to transmit a signal from a stressed or wounded tissue to the entire plant, termed systemic signaling, is key to plant survival during conditions of environmental stress. At least four different systemic signals are thought to be involved in this process: electric, calcium, reactive oxygen and hydraulic. However, how are they coordinated and whether they can be stress-specific is mostly unknown. Here we report that different types of stimuli can induce different types of systemic signals that may or may not be linked with each other. We further reveal that hydraulic waves can be actively regulated in plants in response to wounding, and that proteins that regulate plasmodesmata pores play a key role in systemic signaling.


Two emerging trends are impacting both universities and corporate training programs: virtual learning and diversity. Virtual Learning Teams (VLT) learn by solving intellectual and cognitive tasks that require the sharing and utilization of information to achieve learning objectives. VLT members are separated by spatial distance and do not have the same opportunities to communicate as do traditional learning teams. Compounding the operational challenge of establishing and maintaining VLT member relationships is the fact that their members are often non-traditional students who tend to be diverse in terms of demographics, work experience, and beliefs compared to traditional teams. Naturally, this creates challenges in facilitating social integration. One way in which social integration may be enhanced is through leveraging the very communication technology that VLTs are reliant upon. Results of our study provide insight into how communication technology can support learning.


This article presents a study on the adequate application of blast furnace slag to replace quartz sand in cementitious self-leveling mortar. The results show that the strength of mortar decreases slightly, because slag sand can drag in some air bubbles which can form holes in the harden mortar. And compared with quartz sand, its compression strength loses only 4.6 % on 28d age. the proportion of 75 % slag sand and 25 % quartz sand was the best proportion as coarse filler.


Failure to adequately maintain vegetation within a power line corridor has been identified as a main cause of the August 14, 2003 electric power blackout. Such that, timely and accurate corridor mapping and monitoring are indispensible to mitigate such disaster. Moreover, airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) has been recently introduced and widely utilized in industries and academies thanks to its potential to automate the data processing for scene analysis including power line corridor mapping. However, today's corridor mapping practice using LiDAR in industries still remains an expensive manual process that is not suitable for the large-scale, rapid commercial compilation of corridor maps. Additionally, in academies only few studies have developed algorithms capable of recognizing corridor objects in the power line scene, which are mostly based on 2-dimensional classification. Thus, the objective of this dissertation is to develop a 3-dimensional classification system which is able to automatically identify key objects in the power line corridor from large-scale LiDAR data. This dissertation introduces new features for power structures, especially for the electric pylon, and existing features which are derived through diverse piecewise (i.e., point, line and plane) feature extraction, and then constructs a classification model pool by building individual models according to the piecewise feature sets and diverse voltage training samples using Random Forests. Finally, this dissertation proposes a Multiple Classifier System (MCS) which provides an optimal committee of models from the model pool for classification of new incoming power line scene. The proposed MCS has been tested on a power line corridor where medium voltage transmission lines (115 kV and 230 kV) pass.


A prism-pair interferometer for a spectrum lamp was developed for precise measurement of the refractive index of a prism of optical glass. Previously we reported the prism-pair interferometer with a He-Ne laser light source, resulting in a measurement uncertainty of 1.1×10⁻⁶. However, most of the refractive-index values managed by optical glass manufacturers are conventionally measured with spectrum lamps. We have optimized the prism-pair interferometer for spectrum lamps and implemented a signal-processing technique from Fourier-transform spectroscopy. When the refractive index is measured, the wavelength of the spectrum lamp is simultaneously calibrated by part of the interferometer, so that the resulting refractive index is traceable to a national standard of length. The combined standard uncertainty for a refractive index measured with the e-line (546 nm) of a Hg lamp is 6.9×10⁻⁶.


Reliability analysis of two radioreceiver chains architecture were performed in order to choose the solution with the highest value of Mean Time Between Failures and minimize faults in the system, with the consequent lower maintenance costs. Located the most stressed devices from a climatic-environmental point of view, we decided to monitor their real thermal solicitation in order to evaluate the proper reliability performances varying temperature and the possible degradation of the critical subsystem and consequently of the entire chain. The design for reliability approach proposed in this research for the reinstrumentation of the Northern Cross Radiotelescope could be an useful aid for the design of the international SKA Telescope. Since it will be extremely large (1 square kilometre) the maintenance costs, related to the reliability, become an important parameter to evaluate. This research activity was developed in partnership with the Istituto di Radioastronomia, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, in the context of the Square Kilometer Array Design Study supported by UE FP6.


FAULKNER, HAROLD U. The Decline of Laissez Faire, 1897-1917. Vol. VII in "The Economic History of the United States." Pp. xiv, 433. New York: Rinehart & Company, 1951. $6.00 trade; $4.50 text. Professor Faulkner, with his habitual thoroughness and balance, has given us an admirable account of a period of singular significance. More than most junctures in American economic history a study of the period from 1897 to 1917 enables us to understand previous tendencies and to appreciate the force of subsequent developments. This volume, like others in the series to which it belongs, demonstrates the advantage of portraying the growth of our economic life by stages. This method combines, in great part, the benefits of the specialized monograph and the generalizations of over-all treatments without the disabilities of the minute study or the summary view. The span of twenty years, properly chosen for dominant character, permits the blend of time and topic which is most revealing and gratifying to the student. The particular course of change is not disembodied or isolated from the broad


This study evaluated the effect of xylanase supplementation (with or without), feeding method (dry or liquid), and feedstuff (corn distiller's dried grains with solubles [DDGS] or wheat middlings) on apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of GE and nutrients, intestinal morphology, ileal and cecal pH, and VFA concentrations. Sixty-four growing pigs (25.87 ± 0.38kg initial BW) were blocked by BW and sex and randomly assigned to 8 dietary treatments. Within each feedstuff, diets were fed either liquid or dry, without or with xylanase (24,000 birch xylan units/kg feed), for 16 d. Diets contained 3.32 and 3.19 Mcal/kg ME for DDGS- and wheat middlings-based diets, respectively. Pigs were fed restricted at 3 times maintenance ME requirements. Liquid diets were prepared by steeping DDGS or wheat middlings with water (1:3, wt/vol) with or without xylanase for 24 h followed by mixing with a basal ingredient mixture and water to achieve a final ratio of 1:2.5 (wt/vol). During steeping of wheat middlings, some fiber degradation occurred. When xylanase was added in dry wheat middlings diets, AID of GE ( < 0.10) and NDF ( < 0.05) increased compared with dry wheat middlings diets without xylanase (64.50 vs. 54.67% and 52.88 vs. 31.69%, respectively), but supplementation of xylanase did not impact AID of GE and NDF when liquid wheat middlings diets were fed. Xylanase in liquid DDGS diets increased ( < 0.05) the AID of NDF compared with liquid DDGS diets without xylanase, but xylanase did not affect AID of NDF in dry DDGS diets. Xylanase in wheat middlings diets improved ( < 0.05) ATTD of GE and N compared with wheat middlings diets without xylanase (80.37 vs. 78.07% and 80.23 vs. 77.94%, respectively). However, there was no effect of xylanase in DDGS diets. Pigs fed DDGS diets had greater concentrations of butyrate in the cecum ( = 0.001) than pigs fed wheat middlings diets (27.6 vs. 20.4 mmol/L). Pigs fed DDGS diets with xylanase had deeper crypts ( < 0.05) in the jejunum than pigs fed DDGS diets without xylanase (98.20 vs. 86.16 μm), but xylanase had no effect in pigs fed wheat middlings diets. Results suggest that liquid feeding and xylanase supplementation had limited potential to enhance nutrient digestibility in pigs fed DDGS-based diets. However, xylanase supplementation in dry wheat middlings-based diets improved the AID of NDF and ATTD of GE and N, but liquid feeding as pretreatment did not further enhance the nutritional value of wheat middlings-based diets.


The effect of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) on osteoblastic cell proliferation was investigated using osteoblastic clone MC3T3‐E1 cells cultured in serum‐free medium. PGE2 at 2 μg/ml increased the number of the cells by 2 days after its addition. PGE2 raised the level of DNA synthesis in a dose‐related fashion after a constant lag time, the maximal effect being at 2–10 μg/ml and the level about fourfold over that of the control at 36 hr after its addition. However, at low doses (below 0.2 μg/ml), PGE2 rather depressed DNA synthesis. Isobutyl methylxanthine counteracted the stimulation of DNA synthesis by PGE2, and forskolin depressed the synthesis, which was inversely correlated with increasing intracellular cAMP content. These results indicate that an increase in cAMP content inhibits DNA synthesis. In addition, 2′,5′‐dideoxyadenosine did not negate the stimulatory effect of PGE2 on DNA synthesis, suggesting that PGE2 increases DNA synthesis, probably via a pathway different from the adenylate cyclase/cAMP system. Moreover, at a high dose, PGE2 stimulated both the production and degradation of cAMP; the elevationof cAMP content was rapidly depressed by the stimulated degradation system. Consequently, thestimulatory effect of PGE2 on DNA synthesis would be released from the inhibition by cAMP, resulting in an increase in DNA synthesis. Taken together with data from our previous reports, these results indicate that PGE2 enhances both the proliferation and differentiation of osteoblastic cells in vitro, which are probably mediated by two different second messengers dependent on the concentration of PGE2.


Abstract
Background: Surface and drinking water is routinely analyzed for physicochemical parameters and indicator bacteria.
However, the presence of indicator bacteria may not necessarily be equally indicative of the presence of pathogens.
Objective: In this study, the physicochemical and bacterial indicator of water quality parameters were compared with
the occurrences of waterborne bacterial pathogens from water and sediment samples of Lake Ziway, Meki and Qatar
Rivers and drinking water system of Batu (Ziway) Town.
Methods: Seventy eight water and sediment samples were collected from April through November 2013 and analyzed
for physicochemical parameters, indicator bacteria and pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio cholera,
Vibrio spp., E. coli O157:H7) using standard methods.
Results: The study showed that 97 to 100% of samples of sediment and surface water, 38% of the reservoir and 63%
of tap water samples were contaminated with indicator bacteria. The highest proportion of pathogenic bacteria was
detected from the lake sediment (52.7%), followed by Meki and Qatar Rivers sediment (50.0%), lake water (40.4%),
Qatar (33.3%) and Meki (26.7%) River water, tap water (4.8%) and none from reservoir water samples. Vibrio
cholera, Vibrio spp, Salmonella and Shigella were commonly detected from surface water and sediment samples
(48.9%), whereas, E. coli O157:H7 was limited to a few sources (3.3%). With respect to the microbial loads, the
highest count of 4.20 log CFU/100 g of indicator bacteria was detected from river sediments and the lowest count of
0.42 log CFU/100 ml from reservoir water. Differences in concentration of indicator bacteria were statistically
significant (P<0.0001) between sample sources. Spearman rank correlations show some indicators and
physicochemical parameters were significantly correlated with the presence of bacterial pathogens.
Conclusion: The present study showed that surface and sediment samples have high load of indicator bacteria and
harbored different pathogenic bacteria. The detection of indicator bacteria in 38% of the reservoir and 63% of the tap
water samples was indicative of the inadequacy of the treatment and post contamination of water in the distribution
system. Fecal coliforms were significantly correlated with Salmonella and Shigella; E. coli with Shigella, and
Enterococci with Vibrio spp. of surface and sediment samples. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2014;28(2):116-125]


A subthreshold fuzzy logic architecture is proposed which includes floating-gate devices acting as nonvolatile analogue memories. The use of floating-gate devices which are embedded within the architecture reduces the size and power consumption of the system. Using the proposed subcircuits, a system containing 75 rules can be implemented in less than 5 mm/sup 2/ while consuming 500 /spl mu/W. The system is, therefore, suitable for integration within a smart sensor, an application area in which low-power consumption and compactness are potentially critical.


Mesoporous organosilica materials with different contents of bistrialkoxysilyl imidazolium salts in the framework were synthesized by a one‐step synthesis. Textural characterization of the materials confirmed that the morphology and surface properties of the imidazolium‐bridged organosilicas depended critically on the amount of organic groups in the framework, whereas solid‐state NMR characterization showed that the imidazolium fragments were integrated covalently into the framework. Further reaction of these materials with Pd(OAc)2, followed by reduction with NaBH4 yielded palladium nanoparticles stabilized in the mesoporous organosilicas. The stabilizing effect of the imidazolium cations and the mesostructure contributed to the high activity, selectivity, and stability of the palladium nanoparticles and allowed olefin hydrogenation under mild reaction conditions.


This study examined how agriculture in six southwestern states might adapt to large reductions in water supplies, using the U.S. Agricultural Resource Model (USARM), a multiregion, multicommodity agricultural sector model. In the simulation, irrigation water supplies were reduced 25% in five Southern Mountain (SM) states and by 5% in California. USARM results were compared to those from a "rationing" model, which assumes no input substitution or changes in water use intensity, relying on land fallowing as the only means of adapting to water scarcity. The rationing model also ignores changes in output prices. Results quantify the importance of economic adjustment mechanisms and changes in output prices. Under the rationing model, SM irrigators lose $65 in net income. Compared to this price exogenous, "land‐fallowing only" response, allowing irrigators to change cropping patterns, practice deficit irrigation, and adjust use of other inputs reduced irrigator costs of water shortages to $22 million. Allowing irrigators to pass on price increases to purchasers reduced income losses further, to $15 million. Higher crop prices from reduced production imposed direct losses of $130 million on first purchasers of crops, which include livestock and dairy producers, and cotton gins. SM agriculture, as a whole, was resilient to the water supply shock, with production of high value specialty crops along the Lower Colorado River little affected. Particular crops were vulnerable however. Cotton production and net returns fell substantially, while reductions in water devoted to alfalfa accounted for 57% of regional water reduction.


Antiarrhythmic drugs currently recommended in the American Heart Association's Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) guidelines for the treatment of cardiac arrest have not been proved in controlled clinical trials to improve survival in patients with ventricular fibrillation (VF) or pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VT). Intravenous amiodarone is a promising agent for the treatment of VF and VT. Based on available evidence, amiodarone should be considered for use in patients with shock-refractory ventricular arrhythmias.


Background:Comparison of air versus saline for loss of resistance technique (LORT) in combined spinal epidural labor analgesia (CSE) has not been evaluated, and neither has the relation between CSE characteristics (the presence/absence of initial spontaneous clear fluid return or upon aspiration) and spinal/epidural analgesia outcomes. The authors hypothesized that there is no difference in the spinal analgesia success or epidural catheter efficacy between using air versus saline LORT for CSE. Methods:A total of 360 patients were randomized to air or saline LORT for CSE. Primary outcome was spinal analgesia success as defined by verbal pain score of no more than 3 at 15 min after spinal dose administration. Secondary outcomes were CSE characteristics, catheter replacement, and average hourly epidural drug consumption. Results:Results from 345 patients were analyzed. Spinal analgesia success, epidural catheter replacement, and drug consumption were not different between using air or saline LORT and were also independent of the presence/absence of fluid return on aspiration if initial spontaneous fluid returned to the spinal needle. However, epidural catheters inserted in absence of initial fluid return had a significantly higher catheter replacement rate (28.6%) than the 4.1% among those with initial fluid return (P < 0.03). Conclusions:Spinal analgesia success rate and epidural efficacy are independent of whether air or saline is used for LORT during CSE. Practice of aspiration for fluid after observing initial fluid return may be unnecessary because this practice does not alter spinal/epidural analgesia outcomes. However, epidural catheters inserted with the absence of initial fluid returned to spinal needle may pose a high failure risk.


Developers, like all modern knowledge workers, are frequently interrupted and blocked in their tasks. In this paper we present a contextual inquiry into developers' current strategies for resuming interrupted tasks and investigate the effect of automated cues on improving task resumption. We surveyed 371 programmers on the nature of their tasks, interruptions, task suspension and resumption strategies and found that they rely heavily on note-taking across several types of media. We then ran a controlled lab study to compare the effects of two different automated cues to note taking when resuming interrupted programming tasks. The two cues differed in (1) whether activities were summarized in aggregate or presented chronologically and (2) whether activities were presented as program symbols or as code snippets. Both cues performed well: developers using either cue completed their tasks with twice the success rate as those using note-taking alone. Despite the similar performance of the cues, developers strongly preferred the cue that presents activities chronologically as code snippets.


Anastomoses were prepared on the superior mesenteric artery of rats with invagination technique. The healing process was monitored by scanning electron microscopy. After the thrombotic and degenerative signs of the first three days, significant endothelial regeneration was observed by the end of the first postoperative week. Consequently, the denuded media surface was covered by endothelium by the 3rd week.


A transparent and compact pseudospark prototype was built to analyze the physical processes of pseudospark breakdown. It allows accurate measurements of the current and gap voltage during the collapse of the switch impedance. This led to a surprising result-the pseudospark impedance follows the same time-evolution law as the high pressure spark-gaps. However, electronic collision processes are of a different nature. A crude theoretical model based on plasma relations is proposed to solve this contradiction. This model shows how the current is controlled by the azimuthal magnetic field it induces. However, discrepancies still remain. A more sophisticated distribution of the field and current lines is assumed and investigated in a companion paper. >


Purpose
Global brands are attracted to emerging markets because of increasing wealth among their middle classes. However, amid increasing levels of consumer financial stress in many emerging markets, evidence points towards increased preferences for domestic products. The purpose of this paper is to examine the psychological constructs that mediate and moderate the relationship between reduced perceived financial well-being (PFWB) and domestic product purchases.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a model drawing from three theoretical perspectives: consumer stress and coping, consumer information processing and social identity theory. Hypotheses are tested via structural equation modelling and moderated mediation analyses using data from a survey of Brazilian consumers (n=1,043).

Findings
Results show that the positive relationship between reduced PFWB and domestic product purchases is partially mediated by perceived value of global brands and frugality descriptive norm. Further analyses demonstrate that consumer confidence moderates the mediating effects of perceived value of global brands and pro-social consumer ethnocentrism on the relationship between reduced PFWB and domestic product purchases.

Research limitations/implications
The antecedents of domestic product purchases identified in this study indicate opportunities for marketers of domestic and foreign products to respond to reduced PFWB, especially in relation to pricing, branding and communications. Future research should examine implications of PFWB on different populations, including other emerging markets, developed markets and lower-income consumers.

Originality/value
This study contributes to international marketing literature by examining the hitherto unexplored influence of reduced PFWB on domestic product purchases.


The Life Insurance sector was privatized in India with an objective of bolstering the social security system and enhancing Insurance Inclusion' amongst the vast population of the country. But the private companies are commercial organization. The policies related with these life insurance companies, have always been an imperative issue for concerned stakeholders considering the corpus of fund and the underlying objective of the fund. After a decade of privatization of the insurance sector it becomes imperative to study the performance of private companies and their contribution to the economy. There is a need to study the investment pattern of private life insurance companies and the trends in their performance individually, as well as against the industry. The given research is an empirical effort to analyze the performance of life insurance companies in India in the post insurance liberalization era.


Everybody took photos of Prince William when he first arrived at the University of St Andrews. Crowds of photographers came to the little Scottish town next to the sea and took pictures of this new student - the nineteen-year-old grandson of the Queen of England. But nobody photographed Kate Middleton on her first day at the university. She moved in quietly, ready to begin her studies in art history. She was just an ordinary student with an ordinary future in front of her. Or was she?


Intracellular nutrient metabolism, particularly the metabolism of essential amino acids (EAAs), is crucial for cellular functions, including energy production and redox homeostasis. An EAA deficiency can lead to cellular dysfunction and oxidative stress. This study explores the mechanisms underlying cellular responses to EAA starvation, focusing on ROS-induced DNA damage and apoptosis. MC3T3-E1 cells were subjected to EAA starvation, and various assays were conducted to assess cell proliferation, survival, DNA damage, and apoptosis. The antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) was employed to block ROS formation and mitigate cellular damage. Gene expression and Western blot analyses were performed to elucidate molecular pathways. EAA starvation-induced ROS generation, DNA damage, and apoptosis in MC3T3-E1 cells. NAC administration effectively reduced DNA damage and apoptosis, highlighting the pivotal role of ROS in mediating these cellular responses during EAA deficiency. This study demonstrates that EAA starvation triggers ROS-mediated DNA damage and apoptosis, offering insights into the intricate interplay between nutrient deficiency, oxidative stress, and programmed cell death. NAC emerges as a potential therapeutic intervention to counteract these adverse effects.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used in many application areas including health, agriculture and gaming. New advances in sensor technology make it pertinent to consider sharing a deployed WSN infrastructure by multiple applications, including applications which are designed after the WSN deployment. The state of the art technology can provide the opportunity to build an economic business model for application area such as smart home, health care etc. Currently building a smart home is a costly affair because of the involved infrastructure cost. In this paper we propose a VSN based business model for Smart home which supports efficient resource utilization through sensor virtualization and also minimizes the energy consumption through sensor scheduling.


A field study was conducted to examine if time of adoption (i.e., purchase innovativeness) was systematically related with use innovativeness, product involvement, and extent of product usage. The results showed that early adopters had significantly higher use innovativeness and product involvement as compared to the early majority. Although usage variety was higher for early adopters, no significant differences were found in usage frequency between the two groups. Use innovativeness and involvement mediated the relationship between purchase innovativeness and usage variety. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


In an effort to investigate the molecular basis of growth discordance in embryos that experience the same uterine environment, we compared telomerase activity and apoptosis in placental trophoblasts obtained from growth discordant twins. Between January 2003 and February 2005, placental tissue from twenty pairs of twins was obtained within thirty minutes of delivery. Eleven cases were classified as growth discordant, with birth weight discordance greater than 20%. Nine cases comprised the control group, with less than 20% discordance. Telomerase and apoptotic activities in placental trophoblasts were analyzed by ELISA and immunoblot. Statistical significance was analyzed by a paired t-test, chisquared test, and ANOVA (SPSS ver 11.0). The average growth discordance was 26.8% in the growth discordant group and 14.4% in the control group. There were no significant differences in maternal age, week of gestation at delivery, parity, or chorionisity between the two groups. In the growth discordant group, the larger twin showed significantly higher telomerase activity (p < 0.01), whereas no significant difference was observed in the control group (p = 0.36). In addition, there was no definitive correlation between telomerase activity and the degree of growth discordance in the larger or smaller twins (R = -0.521 and -0.399, p = 0.15 and 0.25, respectively). The apoptosis proteins Bax and Bcl 2 were detected in both the larger and smaller twins in the growth discordant and control groups. There was no statistically significant difference in Bax expression between the larger and smaller twins (p = 0.25 and 0.92, respectively) for either the growth discordant or the control groups. Bcl 2 expression also showed no significant difference between groups. In conclusion, a tendency toward reduced telomerase activity and increased apoptosis was discovered in placental trophoblasts of the smaller growth-discordant twin, possibility resulting in delayed fetal growth.


Abstract By investigating how properties of a finished paper product are related to different process variables as well as pulp characteristics throughout the fiber line, the understanding of the process will increase. In this paper we investigate the correlation between some key paper quality parameters and five tunable process variables, along the entire fiber production line. A full two-level factorial experiment has been conducted, where five factors were varied. The factor settings were based on a laboratory replica of a specific kraft mill's paper product. The mill replicate was then used as a center point in the factorial design and appropriate levels of the factors were set based on these center points. Several experimental runs could be simulated via a Monte Carlo approach making it possible to get a reliable estimate of the significance of each factor effect. Analysis of the results shows that there are interaction effects present between variables, and that these interaction effects can be utilized to achieve similar paper properties using different variable settings.


The management of the car the water exposes to some serious crisis and problems such as inadequacy of water, The lack of access to the clean and health water, The quality of controlling the water sources, The disruption in the management of water sources, decreasing the financial source, The lack of Knowledge in the decision makers, and The security of the society being exposes to the danger considering the happened problems and crisis, different methods of managing the water sources such as The management based on the supply of water, the integral management of water sources and effective ways has grown up by passing of time. For the present time, safe guarding the water sources is one of the aims of the regimes of water sources management in agriculture, as one of the biggest consumers of water sources, The management of water sources is performed in two parts of supply and demand and according to the available limitations, special attention is paid to the of consumer's request.


A tool that enables the use of active learning, as well as the incorporation of word embeddings, was evaluated for its ability to decrease the training data set size required for a named entity recognition model. Uncertainty-based active learning and the use of word embeddings led to very large performance improvements on small data sets for the entity categories PERSON and LOCATION. In contrast, the embedding features used were shown to be unsuitable for detecting entities belonging to the ORGANISATION category. The tool was also extended with functionality for visualising the usefulness of the active learning process and of the word embeddings used. The visualisations provided were able to indicate the performance differences between the entities, as well as differences with regards to usefulness of the embedding features.


The present report is based on an analysis of the evolution of 720 cases of Polycythaemia vera treated with pipobroman and 624 cases treated with hydroxyurea. General modes of treatment are identical for the two drugs, consisting of initial therapy at relatively high dose aimed at obtaining complete remission and maintenance therapy essential to conserve the improved clinical status. Both types of treatment must be adapted to suit the patient. Complete remission is achieved in 95 to 100% of cases with pipobroman and in 80 to 90% of cases with hydroxyurea. Incidents which may occur during initial therapy include cytopenia, more frequent and severe under treatment with hydroxyurea, rare transitory digestive troubles and cutaneous and mucous eruptions. Subject to control of the blood cell count every three to four months, maintenance therapy may be continued for many years and while the time lapse is as yet insufficient for hydroxyurea, resistance to pipobroman does not appear to develop even after more than 20 years of treatment. Although neither of these two drugs entirely avoids the occurrence of acute leukaemia which appears in 5 to 8% of subjects irrespective of the duration of therapy, on the contrary to observations in patients treated by bleeding alone, myeloid splenomegaly with myelofibrosis is rare and develops in no more than 2% of cases. The frequency of visceral cancers is not increased by either drug. Provided Polycythaemia vera is maintained in complete remission, thrombotic accidents occur no more often than in a normal population of the same age bracket.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Abstract International relations theory has had a trust revival, with scholars focusing on how trust can enhance interpersonal cooperation attempts between leaders. We propose there is another type of trust at play in world politics. International system trust is a feeling of confidence in the international social order, which is indexed especially by trust in its central unit, state persons. System trust anchors ontological security, and its presence is an unstated assumption of the international relations trust scholarship. In this paper we conceptualize system trust. We illuminate its presence by flagging the production of state personhood in a familiar case in international relations trust scholarship, the 1985 Geneva Summit between Reagan and Gorbachev. Interpersonal and system trust perspectives highlight different aspects of the same summit. The juxtaposition suggests new lines of research into the production of state persons in diplomacy, the relationship between interpersonal and system trust, and the impact of the rise of personalistic/patrimonial leadership on diplomacy and international order.


This report stats that income gaps among countries are largely explained by differences in productivity. By raising the capital/labor ratio and rapidly assimilating technologies across a wide range of activities, China has increased factor productivity manifold since 1980 and joined the ranks of middle income countries. With the launch of the 12th FYP, China has set its sights on becoming a high income country by 2030 through a strategy combining high levels of investment with rapid advances in technology comparable to that of Japan from the 1960s through the 1970s, and Korea's from the 1980s through the end of the century. The report concludes that the best bet is an innovation system anchored to and drawing its energy from a competitive national economy. Technological progress and the flourishing of innovation in China will be the function of a competitive, globally networked ecosystem constructed in two stages during 2011- 2030. Government technology cum competition policies will provide impetus in the first stage, but success will hinge on the quality of the workforce, the initiative and policies of firms, the emergence of supporting services.


The heterodifunctionalization of alkenes is an efficient method for synthesizing highly functionalized organic molecules. In this report, we describe the use of anodically coupled electrolysis for the catalytic chloroalkylation of alkenes-a reaction that constructs vicinal C-C and C-Cl bonds in a single synthetic operation-from malononitriles or cyanoacetates and NaCl. Knowledge of the persistent radical effect guided the reaction design and development. A series of controlled experiments, including divided-cell electrolysis that compartmentalized the anodic and cathodic events, allowed us to identify the key radical intermediates and the pathway to their electrocatalytic formation. Cyclic voltammetry data further support the proposed mechanism entailing the parallel, Mn-mediated generation of two radical intermediates in an anodically coupled electrolysis followed by their selective addition to the alkene.


The paper asks in retrospect whether the end product has justified the time-consuming task of incorporating spoken data in the corpus underlying a new six volume dictionary of contemporary Danish, • what way has the inclusion ofspoken language affected the overall appearance, which parts ofthe vocabulary are particularly affected, and was it altogether worth the effort?


In this study, we focus on the federated learning (FL) based tactical edge network platform to cooperatively operate computation-hungry tasks as efficiently as possible. Based on the incentive of FL model training, each individual device makes offloading decisions for their tactical tasks in resource-constrained network environments. According to the ideas of two different bargaining solutions -weighted average solution and constant elasticity substitution solution - edge server and IoT devices work together in a coordinated manner to approximate a well-balanced system performance. Therefore, we can reach an agreement while exploring the mutual benefits to leverage a reciprocal consensus between different viewpoints. The main novelty of our approach is to investigate the dual-interactive bargaining process based on the interdependent relationship between IoT devices and the tactical edge server. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that jointly considers different bargaining solutions to handle tactical edge-assisted task offloading services. Based on the numerical simulation, it is demonstrated that the proposed approach can increase the system throughput, device payoff and device fairness up to 10%, 15% and 20%, respectively, in comparison with existing protocols.


The objective of this experiment was to determine whether source of supplemental alpha-tocopherol fed to periparturient dairy cows affects neutrophil function and vitamin E status of the cow and the neonatal calf. Starting 14 d before anticipated calving and continuing until 14 d post-parturition, cows were fed diets with no supplemental vitamin E or with 2,500 IU/d of vitamin E from all-rac alpha-tocopheryl acetate or RRR alpha-tocopheryl acetate. All-rac alpha-tocopherol contains equimolar amounts of all 8 stereoisomers, whereas the RRR contains only the RRR isomer. Concentrations of alpha-tocopherol in cow plasma, colostrum, milk, and blood neutrophils were greatest for the RRR treatment, intermediate for all-rac, and lowest for cows fed no supplemental vitamin E. The concentration of alpha-tocopherol in plasma of newborn calves was very low and not affected by treatment but after 6 feedings of their dam's colostrum or milk, concentrations in calf plasma followed the same treatment pattern as cow plasma. The number of bacteria phagocytized was greater by neutrophils from cows fed all-rac vitamin E than for the other 2 treatments, which resulted in a greater number of bacteria being killed. For cows fed all-rac vitamin E, the RRR isomer comprised about 20% of the alpha-tocopherol consumed but approximately 60% of the alpha-tocopherol in plasma and milk. This enrichment was caused mostly by an almost complete discrimination against the 2S isomers. Because all-rac alpha-tocopherol is 50% 2S isomers, these data suggest that 1 g of all-rac tocopheryl acetate is equivalent to 0.5 g of RRR tocopheryl acetate.


The parameter energy link loss between the source of the transmitter and the load of the receiver is used to evaluate the performance of a ultrawideband (UWB) radio system. The rigorous calculation of the link loss in a UWB system requires a complicated full transient solution for the transmit and receive antennas. However, after involving suitable approximations, the optimization problem is converted to finding a maximum generalized eigenvalue problem. For the special cases of two similar small antennas (dipoles and loops), an analytical method for calculation of the elements of both matrices is developed. These expressions are derived assuming that the receiver load resistance is given, while the transmitter voltage excitation is represented in terms of an orthonormal system of Gauss-Hermite pulses. Appropriate numerical results are presented for two short dipoles and two small loops


Type I Interferon (IFN) and all-trans retinoic acid (RA) inhibit cell proliferation of squamous carcinoma cell lines (SCC). Examinations of growth-affected cell populations show that SCC lines ME-180 and SiHa treated with IFN-beta undergo a specific slower progression through the S phase that seems to trigger cellular death. In combination treatment RA potentiates IFN-beta effect in SCC ME-180 but not in SiHa cell line, partially resistant to RA antiproliferative action. RA added as single agent affects cell proliferation differently by inducing a slight G1 accumulation. The IFN-beta-induced S phase lengthening parallels the increased expression of PML, a nuclear phosphoprotein specifically up-regulated at transcriptional level by IFN, whose overexpression induces cell growth inhibition and tumor suppression. We report that PML up-regulation may account for the alteration of cell cycle progression induced by IFN-beta in SCC by infecting cells with PML-PINCO recombinant retrovirus carrying the PML-3 cDNA under the control of the 5' LTR. In fact PML overexpression reproduces the IFN-beta-induced S phase lengthening. These findings provide important insight into the mechanism of tumor suppressing function of PML and could allow PML to be included in the pathways responsible for IFN-induced cell growth suppression.


Purpose: This study was done to present guidelines for deciding appropriate times for measuring blood pressure (BP) in patients with neurological disorders who had surgery due to brain damage. Method: It was a repeated measures-experimental research on time variants in BP after nursing care. SBP (Systolic BP) and DBP (Diastolic) were measured every 2 minutes up to 5 times using an EKG patient monitor. Measured data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and paired t-test. Results: For suctioning, there were significantly higher differences for SBP averages after 2 min. (138mmHg, p<0.01) and 4 min. (133mmHg, p<0.01) compared to before suctioning (120mmHg). For position change, there were significant differences in SBP averages after 2 min. (136mmHg, p<0.01) and 4 min. (130mmHg, p=0.01) compared to before changing position (121mmHg). For position change followed by suctioning there were significant differences in SBP averages after 2 min. (136mmHg, p<0.01), 4 min. (136mmHg, p<0.01) and 6 min. (125mmHg, p=0.003) compared to before the interventions (121mmHg). Conclusions: Results indicate that there are significant differences in SBP and DBP over time during nursing interventions, suggesting clinical measurement of BP after 6 min. or 8 min. be done for patients with neurological disorders in neurosurgery clinics.


In Indonesia there are many E. coli resistant amoxicillin-clavulanate exist, and the fundamental causes are the hyperproduction of TEM-1 β-lactamase enzyme and or IRT (Inhibitor Resistance TEM). This research is aimed to observe the alteration of nucleotide gene order which causes the alteration of β-lactamase amino acid enzyme order in the fourth isolates clinical E. coli sensitive to amoxicillin-clavulanate. Plasmid that success isolated from the fourth E. coli amox-clav S and four E. coli amox-clav R are used as the template for the amplification of β-lactamase gene through PCR technique. Nucleotide sequences directly determined by using automatic DNA-sequencer.As the result it is found out that all nucleotide in all gene very homology to TEM-1 β-lactamase gene. The comparation analysis of nucleotide gene sequence from sensitive and resistance of amoxicillin-clavulanate shows inform of nucleotide difference over 1 until 3. Two of them located in regulation area and down stream of early translation and also the area of enzyme code, and the resistance happens because the mutation influences gene expression level. One of them located on the area enzyme code and the resistance happens because of the very often use of amino acid codon. While the other do not have any alteration in its nucleotide gene and the resistance that is happens may be caused by the mutation in other area, such as porin gene or amplification gene. All nucleotide alteration in the area of enzyme code does not cause any alteration on amino acid enzyme sequences.In conclusion : The effect of the exposure of amoxicillin-clavulanate in vitro can cause alteration E. coli from sensitive to resistant amoxicillin-clavulanate, and the alteration is caused by the alteration of nucleotide sequences but this does not cause any alteration in β-lactamase amino acid enzyme sequences.. Keywords : E. coli, Resistant amoxicillin-clavulanat, Nucleotide β-lactamase gene sequences


Background: Growing evidence indicates that heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is up-regulated in malignancies and subsequently alters tumor aggressiveness and various cancer-related factors, such as high glucose (HG) levels. HO-1 expression can be induced when glucose concentrations are above 25 mM; however, the role of HO-1 in lung cancer patients with diabetes remains unknown. Therefore, in this study we investigated the promotion of tumor cell invasion and the expression of metastasis-associated proteins by inducing the up-regulation of HO-1 expression by HG treatment in A549 human lung epithelial cells. Methods: The expression of HO-1and metastasis-associated protein expression was explored by western blot analysis. HO-1 enzymatic activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and TGF-β1 production were examined by ELISA. Invasiveness was analyzed using a Transwell chamber. Results: HG treatment of A549 cells induced an increase in HO-1 expression, which was mediated by the HG-induced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Following the increase in HO-1 expression, the enzymatic activity of HO-1 also increased in HG-treated cells. Pretreatment with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) or with phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt inhibitors attenuated the HG-induced increase in HO-1 expression. HG treatment of A549 cells enhanced the invasion potential of these cells, as shown with a Transwell assay, and increased metastasis-associated protein expression. However, HO-1 siRNA transfection significantly decreased these capabilities. Conclusion: this study is the first to demonstrate that HG treatment of A549 human lung epithelial cells promotes tumor cell invasion and increases metastasis-associated protein expression by up-regulating HO-1 expression via ROS or the TGF-β1/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.


High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a DNA-binding nuclear protein, actively released following cytokine stimulation as well as passively during cell injury and death. Autophagy is a tightly regulated cellular stress pathway involving the lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic organelles or proteins. Organisms respond to oxidative injury by orchestrating stress responses such as autophagy to prevent further damage. Recently, we reported that HMGB1 is an autophagy sensor in the presence of oxidative stress. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and loss of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1)-mediated oxidative stress promotes cytosolic HMGB1 expression and extracellular release. Inhibition of HMGB1 release or loss of HMGB1 decreases the number of autolysosomes and autophagic flux in human and mouse cell lines under conditions of oxidative stress. These findings provide insight into how HMGB1, a damage associated molecular pattern (DAMP), triggers autophagy as defense mechanism under conditions of cellular stress.


The point of departure for this analysis is Bjørndal and Lindroos (2012), who developed an empirical bioeconomic model to analyse cooperative and non-cooperative management of Northeast Atlantic cod. In their analysis, only constant strategies were analysed for noncooperative games. In this paper, non-constant strategies are considered. Moreover, the fishery in question is characterised by cooperative management. What may happen in the real world, is that one nation breaks the cooperative agreement by fishing in excess of its quota. Often, it takes time for the other agent to detect this and respond. In this paper, we allow this kind of delayed response into a two agent non-cooperative game so that, if country 2 exceeds its quota, there will be a time lag before this is detected by country 1; moreover, there may also be a delay until country 1 is able to respond. Results show that the outcome critically depends on the length of these two lags as well as initial conditions. 1 We thank Nils Arne Ekerhovd Stein Ivar Steinshamn for comments. SNF Working Paper No. 23/13 2


The objective of this study was to investigate the antioxidant and antiobesity activities of various color resources extracted from natural plants such as, clove, persimmon, gall nut, amur cork, gardenia, safflower, and annatto. Total phenolic content was the highest in gall nut extract (2,441.45 mg/kg) followed by clove extract (1,346.48 mg/kg). DPPH, and ABTS radical scavenging activities and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were also higher in gall nut extract. α -Glucosidase inhibitory activity (IC 50 ) was highest in persimmon extract (22.83 μ g/mL) followed by gall nut extract. α -Amylase and lipase inhibitory activities were also higher in persimmon extract (49.45% and 61.01%, respectively). Lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells was lower in persimmon, clove, and annatto extracts (81.54%, 83.36%, and 85.70% at 20 μ g/mL, respectively). Triglyceride content in 3T3-L1 cells was lowest in clove extract (66.11%) followed by persimmon extract (88.88%). The results of this study suggest that gall nut extract has the highest antioxidant activity, whereas persimmon and clove extract show the antiobesity activities by inhibition of digestive enzymes and fat accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells. These extracts are useful materials for the development of antioxidant and antiobesity functional foods.


Four groups of intravenously maintained rats were infused with 0, 5, 20 or 80 micrograms/rat/day of peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY) for 3 days. After 3 days the rats were injected with 1 mg/kg of vincristine in order to arrest cells entering metaphase and were killed 2 h later. The gastrointestinal tract was removed, weighed and fixed. Samples of small intestine and colon were stained, microdissected and the mean number of metaphases per crypt determined. No significant effect on intestinal tissue mass or the 2-hour collection of metaphases was observed. It is concluded that PYY is not trophic to the gastrointestinal tract.


Herbal medicine practice in Nigeria is currently attracting serious attention from the scientific and industrial community. The World Health Organization supports the use of herbal medicine provided they are proven to be efficacious and safe. This review attempts to discuss in detail the components of herbal medicines, pros and cons, drug-drug interactions and its role in the primary health care system.


There are a number of approaches to studying medication-taking behavior. Self-report measures have the benefits of being cheap, easy to administer, non-intrusive, and able to provide information on attitudes and beliefs about medication. Potential limitations to self-report are that the ability to understand the items, and willingness to disclose information, can affect response accuracy and, thus, questionnaire validity. A computerized systematic search of the PubMed databases identified articles on scales for medication adherence measuring using the MeSH terms medication adherence, compliance, and persistence combined with the terms questionnaire self-report. Adherence scales have identified mostly in the last few years (2005-2012). One of the main sources has been article (Lavsa et. al) which evaluated literature describing medication adherence surveys/scales to gauge patient behaviors at the point of care. Articles were included if they evaluated or reviewed self-reported adherence medication scale applicable to chronic diseases and with a good coefficient of internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha (alpha)). Articles that contained data about self-report medication adherence scales use were included. A total of about one hundred articles were identified. Of those articles, 20% (20 of 100) were included in the review because of their relevance to the article topic. This article describes various self-report scales by which to monitor medication adherence, their advantages and disadvantages, and discusses the effectiveness of their application at different chronic diseases. There are many self-report scales for measuring medication adherence and their derivatives (or subscales). Due to the different nature of the diseases, there is no gold-standard scale for measuring medication adherence. It can be nevertheless concluded that the nearest to gold-standard is the Medication Adherence Questionnaire (MAQ) scale by Morisky et.al. but we found better internal consistency reliability in some other scales.


Electrohydrodynamic jetting behaviors of liquid menisci were analyzed experimentally by three-dimensional optical shadowgraphic tomography. The tomographic algorithm was developed after a series of multiplicative algebraic reconstruction techniques updated the object's intensities by using a cubic cosine basis function to determine the weighting coefficients of the projection matrix. The algorithm was evaluated initially by using a synthesized three-dimensional droplet phantom. Three-dimensional reconstructions of several jetting modes were built based on three images of projection data captured by three high-speed cameras, which were positioned at an offset angle of 45° relative to one another.


Structured light scanning is a noninvasive, accurate, and cost‐effective 3D imaging technique, but due to reflection issues is yet to be utilized for tool mark analysis on fresh bone. During imaging, reflection from shiny surfaces, such as greasy bone, disrupts image formation. This study tested the David SLS‐1 scanner's ability to image saw marks and explored six strategies to reduce reflection by [1] dulling the surface or [2] altering the projected light. The surface was dulled by freezing, talcum powder, dulling spray, or compressed air. The projected light was altered with a diffuser or limited to single pattern‐coded. Results demonstrated that the resolution was insufficient for capturing minute details of striae. All six tests failed to reduce reflection sufficiently to produce complete images, but projecting vertical pattern‐coded light showed the most promise. Future research is required concentrating on enhancing resolution and exploring the role of pattern‐coded light in reducing reflection.


ABSTRACT The new organic arsenical R7/45 is a rapidly acting and very potent anthelmintic against adult Brugia pahangi in jirds. Against adult worms implanted into the peritoneal cavity 5 subcutaneous (SC) injections at 2·5 mg/kg of R7/45 killed 100% of adult worms. A single dose SC of 20 mg/kg was 100% effective and 10 mg/kg 76% effective against adult worms. When jirds were autopsied at different times after treatment at 20 mg/kg SC 89% of worms were dead within three days. R7/45 was not active when given by stomach intubation. Pretreatment of jirds with R7/45 had no effect on adult worms subsequently implanted into jirds. R7/45 was highly active against third and fourth stage larvae of B. pahangi in jirds.


Between growers there is discussion if a (controllable) gap above the central path of the greenhouse is needed to extract the surplus of heat and vapour in a greenhouse equipped with artificial lights and Ventilation Jets. Based on this discussion, this research was started at a tomato greenhouse with artificial lights to analyse the impact of this gap. To determine the effectiveness of this gap, the air flow through the Ventilation Jet was measured with an air flow measurement device, the air flow through the gap at the central path was determined using air velocity sensors and horizontal temperature differences were measured with wireless temperature sensors. Based on this study we can conclude that: (1) at this grower the measured flow of the Ventilationjet at 2 closed screens (6.7 m3/m2/hour) was much lower than expected (12 m3/m2/hour); (2) the impact of the gap at the central path was small (a maximum of 2.8% of the incoming air through the Ventilation Jets left the greenhouse through this gap), the gap at this grower is this not needed since almost all air leaves the greenhouse through the screens and; (3) in case that the artificial lights were switched on and both screens were closed, large horizontal temperature differences of maximum 2.7°C occurred.


The aim of our research was to determine what conditions teachers create for their pupils in primary schools in education with regard to inclusion, and how they verbalize and evaluate these conditions themselves. Our objectives were to verify the Czech version of the Framework for self-evaluation of conditions of education 2007 questionnaire (modified version of the British original "Index for inclusion". The research applies mixed design (quantitative and qualitative approach). From the qualitative analysis, we obtained information about which criteria of the inclusion are evaluated as the best, worst, and the criteria among which the biggest differences exist. For the qualitative analysis, we obtained a set of arguments for the sub-criteria which justify their ratings and also an idea about how to improve the conditions for inclusion. The presented results show the complexity of the current process of the transformation of Czech schools with respect to implementing the ideas of inclusion in the real life of schools and the differences among schools.


In October 1988, Algeria began a process of transition from authoritarianism. Political reforms were introduced, on the surface, to facilitate the process of transition, but in reality to ensure the survival of the incumbent regime. The reform of the electoral system played a significant part in this survival strategy. Between 1989 and 1997, Algeria witnessed the adoption of three distinct electoral systems as the authorities sought ways to give a facade of democratisation while manipulating the rules to suit their purposes. This paper looks at the Algerian transition, asks why the Algerian authorities switched from one system to another, and assesses the impact of the three different electoral systems that the country has experienced.


This paper presents the experimental analysis of air flow vortex propagation through porous screens. This study is conducted by a new and unique experimental setup for velocity measurements and visualization of air vortex interaction with porous screen. A custom-made, high-precision vortex generator provides a variety of velocity profiles for vortex generation with an unprecedented level of precision. The flow fields are captured with the use of a fog generator and a high-speed CCD camera. The porous screens are constructed out of acrylic rods with various orientations, thickness, and porosities from rod separation. The results presented in this paper show the effect of porosity and air injection velocity on the behavior of air flow (separation, accumulation), and the transport phenomena of vortex flow while interacting with porous screens. keywords: porous media, vortex flow


Currently the operators in the telecommunications market present offers of subscription to the consumers,and given that competition is strong in this area, most of these advertising offers are prepared to attract and / or keep customers. For this reason, customers face problems in choosing operators that meet their needs in terms of price, quality of service (QoS), etc..., while taking into account the margin between what is advertising and what is real. Therefore, we are led to solve a problem of decision support. Mathematical modeling of this problem led to the solution of an inverse problem. Specifi-cally, the inverse problem is to find the real Quality of Service (QoS) function knowing the theoretical QoS. To solve this problem we have reformulated in an optimization problem of minimizing the difference between the real quality of service (QoS) and theoretical (QoS). This model will help customers who seek to know the degree of sincerity of Their operators, as well as it is an opportunity for operators who want to maintain their resources so that they gain the trust of customers. The resulting optimization problem is solved using evolutionary algorithms. The numerical results showed the reliability and credibility of our inverse model and the performance and effectiveness of our approach.


Wildlife trafficking, along with other green crimes, receives little attention from the criminological community. This study provides further knowledge of this black market, and exposes the structural harms that are associated with it, by examining the illegal trade in falcons in Russian Far East. The structural harms proposed here are that wildlife trafficking, and the illegal raptor trade in particular endangers the environment, is cruel to animals, and threatens national and human security because of its connection to other dangerous illicit activities. Through semi‐structured interviews, trade statistics, and online news sources, a framework is developed as to who is involved, how it is occurring, and where it is taking place as well as possible ways in which to curb this activity.


Kidney-related disorders affect millions of people worldwide. A survey of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients showed that the burden of kidney diseases is increasing every year. The global burden of disease (GBD) study 2017 ranked CKD as the 12th leading cause of deaths worldwide. Hence, identification of the causes of kidney diseases, development of accurate diagnostic methods and novel therapeutics is highly relevant. Model organisms that faithfully recapitulate human diseases play important roles in understanding the disease process and provide valuable ground to find their cure. Zebrafish is an excellent model to study the development, pathophysiology and molecular aspects of human kidney diseases. In this review, we summarize various genetic and experimental manipulations that can be carried out in zebrafish to better understand the pathophysiology of human kidney diseases. We suggest that these methods will be helpful in the development of potential therapies to treat kidney diseases.


For fine-grained human perception tasks such as pose estimation and activity recognition, radar-based sensors show advantages over optical cameras in low-visibility, privacy-aware, and wall-occlusive environments. Radar transmits radio frequency signals to irradiate the target of interest and store the target information in the echo signals. One common approach is to transform the echoes into radar images and extract the features with convolutional neural networks. This article introduces RadarFormer, the first method that introduces the self-attention (SA) mechanism to perform human perception tasks directly from radar echoes. It bypasses the imaging algorithm and realizes end-to-end signal processing. Specifically, we give constructive proof that processing radar echoes using the SA mechanism is at least as expressive as processing radar images using the convolutional layer. On this foundation, we design RadarFormer, which is a Transformer-like model to process radar signals. It benefits from the fast-/slow-time SA mechanism considering the physical characteristics of radar signals. RadarFormer extracts human representations from radar echoes and handles various downstream human perception tasks. The experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art radar-based methods both in performance and computational cost and obtains accurate human perception results even in dark and occlusive environments.


A FORTRAN program to simulate the operation of infinite servers queues is presented in this work. Poisson arrivals processes are considered but not only. For many parameters of interest in queuing systems study or application, either there are not theoretical results or, existing, they are mathematically intractable what makes their utility doubtful. In this case a possible issue is to use simulation methods in order to get more useful results. Indeed, using simulation, some experiences may be performed and the respective results used to conjecture about certain queue systems interesting quantities. In this paper this procedure is followed to learn something more about quantities of interest for those infinite servers queue systems, in particular about busy period parameters and probability distributions.


Rampant fake news on social media has drawn significant attention. Yet, much remains unknown as to how such imbalanced evaluations of self versus others could shape social media users' perceptions and their subsequent attitudes and behavioral intentions regarding social media news. An online survey (N = 335) was conducted to examine the third person effect (TPE) in fake news on social media and suggested that users perceived a greater influence of fake news on others than on themselves. However, although users evaluated fake news as socially undesirable, they were still unsupportive of government censorship as a remedy. In addition, the perceived prevalence of fake news leads audiences to reported significantly less willingness to share all news on social media either online or offline.


Today, mobile multimedia systems that use the H.261 / 3/4/5, MPEG-1/2/4 and JPEG standards for encoding / decoding video, audio and images are widely spread [1–4]. The core of these standards is the discrete cosine  transform  (DCT)  of  I,  II,  III  ...  VIII  types  [DCT].  Wide support  in  a  huge  number  of  multimedia applications of the JPEG format by circuitry and software solutions and the need for image coding according to the  L2L  scheme  determines  the  relevance  of  the  problem  of  creating  a  decorrelated  transformation  based  on DCT and methods for rapid prototyping of processors for computing an integer DCT on programmable systems on a FPGA chip. At the same time, such characteristics as structural regularity, modularity, high computational parallelism,  low  latency  and  power  consumption  are  taken  into  account.  Direct  and  inverse  transformation should be carried out according to the "whole-to-whole" processing scheme with preservation of the perfective reconstruction  of  the  original  image  (the  coefficients  are  represented  by  integer  or  binary  rational  numbers; the number of multiplication operations is minimal, if possible, they are excluded from the algorithm). The wellknown  integer  DCTs  (BinDCT,  IntDCT)  do  not  give  a  complete  reversible  bit  to  bit  conversion.  To  encode an image  according  to  the  L2L  scheme,  the  decorrelated  transform must be reversible and implemented in integer  arithmetic,  i. e.  the  conversion  would  follow  an  "integer-to-integer"  processing  scheme  with  a minimum  number  of  rounding  operations  affecting  the  compactness of  energy  in  equivalent  conversion subbands. This article shows how, on the basis of integer forward and inverse DCTs, to create a new universal architecture of decorrelated transform on FPGAs for transformational image coding systems that operate on the principle of "lossless-to-lossy" (L2L), and to obtain the best experimental results for objective and subjective performance compared to comparable compression systems.


The three experiments relating to the pathogenicity of Phytophthora cactorum to beech and other forest tree species were carried out. The experiments were aimed to confirm pathogenicity of the pathogen, to compare its pathogenicity with the other Phytophthora species isolated from woody plants in the Czech Republic ( P. gonapodyides, P. cambivora, P. citricola s.l., P. cinnamomi, P. citrophthora), to confirm its substrate specificity and diverse pathogenicity to common forest tree species (common beech, pedunculate oak, sycamore, small-leaved lime, black alder, common ash) and to determine the influence of excessive watering on the stem canker development. We found out that the tested isolate of P. cactorum was more effective to the host than isolates of P. gonapodyides and P. cambivora. The isolates of P. cinnamomi and P. citrophthora caused the largest necroses. It emerged that all tested tree species were susceptible to P. cactorum. The most susceptible tree species were sycamore and common beech. The most resistant tree species were common ash and pedunculate oak. The existence of substrate specificity of the pathogen was unequivocally con - firmed. It was found out that the water stress could play an important role in the bark lesion development. We found out important differences in lesion development in different periods during growing season (June, September).


Spirostanol saponins are a class of steroidal saponins with many pharmacological activities. The structural complexity of the spirostanol saponins presents a daunting challenge in separating their 25 R/S diastereomers. Using two CHIRALPAK IC columns coupled in series, six 25 (R/S)-spirostanol saponin diastereomers from the Trigonella foenum-graecum L. seed were successfully separated using supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) for the first time. In addition, three 25 (R/S)-spirostanol saponin diastereomers were isolated into their respective individual isomers. The structures of the isolated isomers were unambiguously confirmed by NMR analysis. The SFC method development strategy and its associated underlying principles presented in this paper are generally applicable. SFC is a viable addition to the natural product research toolbox, especially for stereoselective analysis and purification.


Treatment of univentricular hearts remains restricted to palliative surgical corrections (Fontan pathway). The established Fontan circulation lacks a sub-pulmonary pressure source and is commonly accompanied by progressively declining hemodynamics. A novel cavopulmonary assist device (CPAD) may hold the potential for improved therapeutic management of Fontan patients by chronic restoration of biventricular equivalency. This study aimed at translating clinical objectives towards a functional CPAD with preclinical proof regarding hydraulic performance, hemocompatibility and electric power consumption. A prototype composed of hemocompatible titanium components, ceramic bearings, electric motors, and corresponding drive unit was manufactured for preclinical benchtop analysis: hydraulic performance in general and hemocompatibility characteristics in particular were analyzed in-silico (computational fluid dynamics) and validated in-vitro. The CPAD's power consumption was recorded across the entire operational range. The CPAD delivered pressure step-ups across a comprehensive operational range (0-10L/min, 0-50mmHg) with electric power consumption below 1.5W within the main operating range. In-vitro hemolysis experiments (N=3) indicated a normalized index of hemolysis (NIH) of 3.8±1.6mg/100L during design point operation (2500rpm, 4L/min). Preclinical investigations revealed the CPAD's potential for low traumatic and thrombogenic support of a heterogenous Fontan population (pediatric and adult) with potentially accompanying secondary disorders (e.g. elevated pulmonary vascular resistance or systemic ventricular insufficiency) at distinct physical activities. The low power consumption implied adequate settings for a small, fully implantable system with transcutaneous energy transfer. The successful preclinical proof provides the rationale for acute and chronic in-vivo trials aiming at the confirmation of laboratory findings and verification of hemodynamic benefit.


OBJECTIVES
Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are unique subset of glycolipid-reactive T lymphocytes with potent antitumour characteristics. This study was planned to understand Th-like cytokine profiles of iNKT-cell subsets and modulation of their functions in response to glycolipid ligand and tumour cell lysate (TL).

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Cytokine profile of iNKT-cell subsets was evaluated from the peripheral blood of eight oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients by flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), while antitumour activity of iNKT cells was measured by methyl tetrazolium salt assay.

RESULTS
CD4(+) (CD4(+) CD8(-)) iNKT subset from OSCC patients showed significant (P < 0.01) expansion and higher IL-4 production following activation with α-GalCer-pulsed DCs, while CD4(-) CD8(-) double negative (DN) and CD8(+) (CD4(-) CD8(+) iNKT subsets produced IFN-γ predominantly. iNKT cells showed significantly (P = 0.02) increased secretion of IFN-γ and enhanced cytotoxicity to KB and SCC-4 tumour cells in response to α-GalCer and TL-pulsed DCs.

CONCLUSION
It appears that mutual balance/ratio of iNKT subsets may be important for their effector functions. Selectively expanded DN and CD8(+) iNKT cells with α-GalCer and TL may be a better candidate vaccine for iNKT-cell-based adoptive cancer immunotherapy.


Requirements management and traceability have always been one of grand challenges in software development area. Studies reveal that 30-40% of software defects can be traced to gaps or errors in requirements Although several models and techniques have been defined to optimize the requirements process, ensuring alignment and consistency of elicited requirements continues to be a challenge. All software engineering standards and methodologies recognize the importance of maintaining relationships among the software elements for traceability. We have leveraged the structured relationships among the requirement elements to come up with an approach to systematically carry out consistency analysis of requirements for software systems. The framework has multiple models: a multi layered requirement model, a configuration structure to link and track the requirement items, a consistency analysis method to identify the inconsistencies in the requirements and a consistency index computation to indicate the level of consistency in overall requirements of the software system. This approach helps to validate the requirements from both completeness and correctness perspectives and also check their consistency in forward and backward directions. The paper outlines the framework, describes the encompassing models and the implementation details from pilot of the framework to an industry case study along with results.


This Country-Level Effectiveness and Accountability Review (CLEAR) examines the efficacy of microfinance aid in Madagascar, based on an objective analysis of donor assistance for the sustainable development of financial systems targeting the poor. The three levels of the financial system are the micro level (e.g., retail institutions), the meso level (e.g., apex, technical service providers), and the macro level (e.g., regulations and policies). At the micro level, there is a large number of stakeholders, and an increasing interest of banks and private investors, including a predominant stake by the Decentralized Financial Systems (DFS), as well as major roles by the local Savings Institution and the Post Office. At the meso level, there is a supply of services such as auditing. Finally, at the macro level, coordination and supervision exist, and a specific legal framework on microfinance is in place. Notwithstanding, microfinance in Madagascar remains weak, and, concerns suggest DFSs carry structural weaknesses at various levels. Additionally, it is specified services in support of microfinance are still rare, and its quality it debatable. Professional organizations need to be strengthened, particularly as lack of reliable information on financial results is concerned. At the macro level, supervisory and coordinating agencies rely on limited means, whereas the legal framework is not fully supportive. Risks suggest potential market disruptions resulting from subsidies and interest rate hikes, an implication by which the Ministry of Agriculture not always agrees with the Microfinance National Strategy. Finally, the judicial system does not rely enough in favor of the development of the financial sector.


. Salmonella species were isolated from Nworie River and then tested against several antibiotics to include; Gentamycin, Streptomycin, Amoxycillin, Kanamycin, Oxacillin, Ofloxacin, Imipenem, Ciprofloxacin, Aztreonam and Ceftazidime. Salmonella isolates obtained from the river were resistant to at least three different antibiotics. All isolates were resistant to Amoxycillin, Oxacillin and Iminipem showing a 100% resistant rate, while showing sensitivity to Ciprofloxacin, Aztreonam, Gentamycin, Ceftazidime, Kanamycin, Streptomycin, and Ofloxacin at sensitivity rates of 71.4%, 7.1%, 77.1%, 11.4%, 44.3%, 48.6% and 78.6% respectively. The antibiotic-resistant Salmonella species were further tested against the aqueous, ethanol and acetone extracts of Vernonia amygdalina leaf, stem and roots to assess their antibacterial potential at a concentration of 100mg/ml. Aqueous extracts of the leaf, stem and roots showed no activity against antibiotic resistant Salmonella isolate, while the ethanol and acetone extracts showed activity rates of 20% and 17% for roots, 14.3% and 12.9% for stem, and, 15.7% and 11.4% for leaf. The results from this study further confirms the antibacterial potentials of Vernonia amygdalina against antibiotic-resistant bacterial isolates.


The absolute configuration of the conformationally flexible six membered ring system 2-methyl- and 2,6-dimethyl-l,4-cyclohexanedione monoethylene acetal was determined by comparison of measured and calculated CD spectra. The rotational strengths were calculated by means of the CNDO/S-method assuming R at the stereogenic center. The results were compared with the predictions made by the octant rule. The enantiomerically pure material was synthesized via the corresponding SAMP- and RAMP-hydrazones.


Joint destruction and tissue responses determine the outcome of chronic arthritis. Joint inflammation and damage are often the dominant clinical presentation. However, in some arthritic diseases, in particular the spondyloarthritides, joint remodeling is a prominent feature, with new cartilage and bone formation leading to ankylosis and contributing to loss of function. A role for bone morphogenetic proteins in joint remodeling has been demonstrated in the formation of both enthesophytes and osteophytes. Data from genetic models support a role for bone morphogenetic protein signaling in cartilage homeostasis. Finally, this signaling pathway is likely to play a steering role in the synovium.


A new type of overlay coplanar waveguide (CPW) structure, "inverted overlay CPW (IOCPW)" is developed using micromachining techniques to provide easy means of airbridge connection between the ground planes, as well as to achieve low losses over wide impedance ranges. Measured IOCPW showed less than 1 dB/cm loss at 50 GHz over a wide impedance range from 25 to 80 /spl Omega/. It also offered low effective dielectric constant, and insensitivity to the substrate losses. Wide impedance ranges and simple process steps make IOCPW a promising uniplanar transmission line medium for mm-wave monolithic applications.


Aim. To estimate the influence of anesthesia type on the inguinal hernia rate surgery complication rate, considering the hernia type. Methods. 276 patients aged 35-65 years treated for inguinal hernia (history of hernia from 3 months to 3 years) from 2007 to 2011 were analyzed. The surgery was performed using local anesthesia in 146 patients (first group) and using epidural anesthesia in 102 patients (second group); 28 patients underwent surgery using general anesthesia (third group). A combination of 4 mL 10% lidocaine, 20 mL of 7.5 mg/mL ropivacaine solution and 60 mL 0.9% saline were used for local anesthesia in patients of the first group. 2% solutions of lidocaine and ropivacaine were used for epidural or spinal anesthesia in patients of the second group. Results. Mean surgery duration was shortest at the first group — 50.5±1.2 min. Mean surgery duration at the second group was 73.2±2.2 min, 61.8±5.0 min — at the third group (р 1,21,3=0.003, р 2,3=0.017). Mean activation terms were 4.2±0,1 hours for the patients of the first group (local anesthesia), 20.3±0.2 hours — for the patients of the second group (epidural anesthesia), 10.5±0.2 hours — for the patients of the second group (general anesthesia). Postoperative pain measured by visual analogue scale occurred at significantly shorter terms after the surgery and was more intense for the first 3 days in patients of the first group. The pain intensity elevated gradually in patients of the first group starting from the second day after the surgery, pain lasted significantly in the second and third group patients compared to the first group. Complications were registered in 15 (10.3%) of the first group patients, in 12 (11.8%) of the second group patients and in 5 (17.9%) of the third group patients (р 1,2=0.836; р 1,3=0.237; р 2,3=0.525). Conclusion. A combination of analgesics solutions based on their pharmacologic features and two-phase vasoactivity ability has shown good analgesic effect at local anesthesia. The type of anesthesia determines the duration of surgery and the rate of post-surgical complications as a consequence.