This paper investigates how a consumer's utility and consequent optimization are determined by his/her natural endowments – self-awareness, imagination, conscience and free will. It focuses on such general utility that is a function in the dollar value of consumption, the number of hours spent on waged work and a particular value-belief system. For the third variable, we examine that it encourages the consumption of commodities and devalues waged job; it reinforces minimal commodity consumption; and it demands a non-standard optimization. While uncovering how an individual's marginal utility from commodity consumption or waged work varies respectively with different variables, such as non-waged incomes, etc., this paper demonstrates that when an individual decides on how much commodity is to be consumed and how much labor output is to be supplied to waged work by maximizing the corresponding utility, the person's utility and his/her method of optimization are exclusively defined by his/her value-belief system.


In a function that takes its inputs from various players, the effect of a player measures the variation he can cause in the expectation of that function. In this paper we prove a tight upper bound on the number of players with large effect, a bound that holds even when the players' inputs are only known to be pairwise independent. We also study the effect of a set of players, and show that there always exists a "small" set that, when eliminated, leaves every set with little effect. Finally, we ask whether there always exists a player with positive effect. We answer this question differently in various scenarios, depending on the properties of the function and the distribution of players' inputs. More specifically, we show that if the function is non-monotone or the distribution is only known to be pairwise independent, then it is possible that all players have 0 effect. If the distribution is pairwise independent with minimal support, on the other hand, then there must exist a player with "large" effect.


Dengue virus NS1 is a glycoprotein of 46-50 kDa that is conserved among flaviviruses, associates as a dimer to cell membranes and is secreted as a hexamer to the extracellular milieu. Recent evidence showed that NS1 is secreted efficiently from infected mosquito cells. To explore the secretory route of NS1 in mosquito cells, infected cells were treated with brefeldin A (BFA) and methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MβCD). The results showed that MβCD, but not BFA, significantly reduced the release of NS1. Moreover, silencing the expression of caveolin-1 (CAV1; a key component of the caveolar system that transports cholesterol inside the cell), but not SAR1 (a GTPase that participates in the classical secretory pathway), also results in a significant reduction of the secretion of NS1. These results indicate that NS1 is released from mosquito cells via an unconventional secretory route that bypasses the Golgi complex, with the participation of CAV1. In agreement with this notion, differences were observed in the glycosylation status between secreted NS1 and E proteins. Classical mechanics and docking simulations suggested highly favoured interactions between the caveolin-binding domain present in NS1 and the scaffolding domain of CAV1. Finally, proximity ligation assays showed direct interaction between NS1 and CAV1 in infected mosquito cells. These findings are in line with the lipoprotein nature of secreted NS1 and provide new insights into the biology of NS1.


This series is devoted to original philosophical work in the foundations of ethics. It provides an annual selection of much of the best new scholarship being done in the field. Its broad purview includes work being done at the intersection of ethical theory and metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. The chapters included in the series provide a basis for understanding recent developments in the field. Chapters in this volume explore topics including expressivism about gender, inferential expressivism, moral worth, moral and aesthetic testimony, and normative supervenience.


This was written and sent to the Newsletter editors of Division I in June 1982. Two board meetings and three TAB Op Com meetings have been held so far this year, in addition to countless other IEEE related meetings, telephone calls, and piles of correspondence. I seem to be averaging 30 pieces of incoming IEEE mail per week excluding journals, Transactions, magazines, newsletters, SPECTRUM, The Institute Proceedings, and Potentials. What I'll try to do in these occasional columns is filter the data I receive from these various sources; but it is not clear what type of filter should be used. Obviously, an all-pass filter is out since you don't care about all Institute activities. I'm not too excited about some of them myself, but I should at least be prepared to sample everything. My filter should have some low-pass qualities, since many very high bandwidth activities cannot be adequately reported in a timely fashion, as I'm only producing three or four reports to you per year. Indeed, it is probably the long term, low frequency information which is most relevant, so I shall emphasize this.


The physical basis oj crop identification/discrimination and estimating its yield using spectral data is described. State-of-the-art crop inventory has been summarised. Development of methodology for acreage. condition assessment and yield forecasting using RS data are discussed. Results obtained for major crops in India using digital data from the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite-FA are presented. The pre-honest estimation of wheat, rice. cotton. sorghum. oil seeds and mulberry are promising and demonstrate the capabilities of remotely sensed data from IRS-l A and other satellites. These studies relate to the chosen districts in Andhra Pradesh. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal with wide variations in soils. climatic conditions and management practices. Limitations of the techniques are indicated and scope for improvement has been outlined.


This study examined the progression of impairments in heat dissipation as a function of age and environmental conditions. Sixty men (n = 12 per group; 20-30, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, and 55-70 yr) performed four intermittent exercise/recovery cycles for a duration of 2 h in dry (35°C, 20% relative humidity) and humid (35°C, 60% relative humidity) conditions. Evaporative heat loss and metabolic heat production were measured by direct and indirect calorimetry, respectively. Body heat storage was measured as the temporal summation of heat production and heat loss during the sessions. Evaporative heat loss was reduced during exercise in the humid vs. dry condition in age groups 20-30 (-17%), 40-44 (-18%), 45-49 (-21%), 50-54 (-25%), and 55-70 yr (-20%). HE fell short of being significantly different between groups in the dry condition, but was greater in age group 20-30 yr (279 ± 10 W) compared with age groups 45-49 (248 ± 8 W), 50-54 (242 ± 6 W), and 55-70 yr (240 ± 7 W) in the humid condition. As a result of a reduced rate of heat dissipation predominantly during exercise, age groups 40-70 yr stored between 60-85 and 13-38% more heat than age group 20-30 yr in the dry and humid conditions, respectively. These age-related differences in heat dissipation and heat storage were not paralleled by significant differences in local sweating and skin blood flow, or by differences in core temperature between groups. From a whole body perspective, combined heat and humidity impeded heat dissipation to a similar extent across age groups, but, more importantly, intermittent exercise in dry and humid heat stress conditions created a greater thermoregulatory challenge for middle-aged and older adults.


Ideas from causal set theory lead to a fluctuating, time dependent cosmological-constant of the right order of magnitude to match currently quoted "dark energy" values. Although such a term was predicted some time ago, a more detailed analysis of the resulting class of phenomenological models was begun only recently (based on numerical simulation of the cosmological equations with such a fluctuating term). In this paper we continue the investigation by studying the sensitivity of the scheme to some of the ad hoc choices made in setting it up.


The structural and functional domains of a general transcription initiation factor, TFIIF (RAP30/74, FC), have been investigated using various deletion mutants of each subunit, both in vivo and in vitro. An in vivo assay showed that the N-terminal sequence containing residues of 1-110 of RAP30 that is located close to a sigma homology region interacts with a minimum sequence of residues 62-171 of RAP74 to form a heteromeric interaction. Reconstitution of in vitro transcription activity by deletion mutants of RAP74 clearly indicated that both N-terminal residues 73-205 and C-terminal residues 356-517 are essential for full activity, the former interacting with RAP30, thus complexing with RNA polymerase II. From these data, the functional significance of domain structure of TFIIF is discussed in terms of its sigma homology sequences and complex formation with RNA polymerase II in the initiation and elongation of transcription.


Introduction: Biochemical analysis of pleural fluid are the first step in differentiation of pleural effusions (PE) into exudates (E) and transudates (T). Therefore, new parameters have been used to improve the accuracy of diagnosis. Free oxygen radicals (FOR) are known to produce damage in many biological tissues. FOR exert their cytotoxic effect by causing lipid peroxidation which is believed to be responsible for the exudation of fluid into the pleural space.

Aims: Based on this idea, the aim of this study was the determination of malondialdehyde (MDA), as the final product of lipid peroxidation in pleural fluid (MDAp) and in serum (MDAs) and pleural fluid to serum MDA ratio (MDAp/s); and to compare our results with other well established criteria.

Methods: We analysed 52 patients with PE who were classified as E(32) and T(20) by Light's criteria. MDA was measured by spectrophotometric method with TBA.

Results: Our results showed significant increase of MDAs level in both groups of patients: E (7.27±1.29 μmol/L) and T (7.75±0.89 μmol/L) in comparison with control group (5.10±0.87 μmol/L) p<0.001. MDAp level in E (5.16±1.28 μmol/L) was also significantly increased than in T (2.67±0.61 μmol/L), p<0.001. Similarly, MDAp/s ratio was significantly higher in E (0.72±0.17 μmol/L) than in T (0.34±0.05 μmol/L) p<0.001. Using a cut-off value (0.4) for MDAp/s ratio (sensitivity 95% and specificity 90%) effectively separated E from T.

Conclusion: Based on these results we can conclude that determination of lipid peroxidation products may be useful in diagnosis-differentiation of pleural effusions into E and T. It is of significance for the correct treatment of patients.


Detection of atrial fibrillation is done by checking the variations in the period of the heart rate, if a patient has atrial fibrillation then the period between each heart beat will vary. A light-based sensor can be used to detect these variations in heart rate; this is done by using Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor which is non-invasive. The sensor consists of a LED with a photodetector and is able to detect the variations in blood volume or blood flow in the body and directly correlates to heart rate. The detected signal needs to be amplified and filtered as the signal contains a lot of high frequency noise as well as low frequency motion artifacts. The benefits of compact low-cost Wi-Fi module can be harnessed to develop a wireless continuous heart rate monitoring system enhancing possibility of atrial fibrillation detection.


This research comes to deny the saying that Arabic poetry in the seventh century AH had weakened or apathy, especially since this time period was fraught with serious political events that led to the fall of the Abbasid state, and to accompany this fall was many dangers on the aspects of social, political and literary life in the Arab world. Thus, we find that there is a revival for many poetic purposes, including asceticism, mysticism, describing nature in cities and others, in addition to this, prominent poets appeared in this regard, including Al-Busairi, Ibn Al-Farid, Shams Din Al-Kufi and others who enriched the literary life in their collections and the hunt for their poetry.


We examined the role of CPOM as food and/or habitat for lotic meiofauna in Wolf Point Creek, a recently formed stream in Glacier Bay, south-eastern Alaska. Meiofaunal communities in the stream substratum and those colonising mesh bags containing leaf or plastic substrata were compared on 3 occasions during the summer of 1997. mANOVA indicated that the communities of the stony and mesh bag substrata were significantly different but there were no significant differences between the communities occupying the plastic or leaf substrata. Measures of FPOM and biofilm were significantly higher on the leaf than on the plastic substrata. The responses of meiofaunal densities to date and substratum type were taxon specific. CPOM availability in this recently formed stream has had a marked impact on the meiofaunal community; densities increased significantly with CPOM enhancement and its main role appeared to be as habitat. This finding differs from those of similar studies on lotic macroinvertebrate communities. Future increases in allochthonous inputs and stream retention in Wolf Point Creek (following vegetation succession) will lead to an increase in meiofaunal densities. It is likely that the establishment of the riparian zone adjacent to new streams formed following press disturbances will be a significant influence in the succession of resident meiofaunal communities.


We present an improvement of the schedulability analysis technique for distributed hard real time systems that allows us to increase the maximum schedulable resource utilization. Since the improvement affects only the analysis technique, there is no additional implementation cost for the application itself. The improvement in the analysis consists of calculating a lower bound for the best case response time of tasks and messages, in order to reduce the estimated jitter in the activation of subsequent tasks and messages. This reduction of jitter implies reduced worst case bounds for the response times, and thus allows us to increase the maximum schedulable utilization. The paper explores two different ways to calculate a lower bound on the best case execution times. The paper also shows the results of simulations that we have carried out, in which we found that we could increase the maximum schedulable limit of the different resources by approximately 5% more utilization.


Honey contains a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants. The vitamins found in honey include niacin, riboflavin and pantothenic acid; minerals present include calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. In addition honey contains a variety of flavonoids and phenolic acids which act as antioxidants, scavenging and eliminating free radicals. Honey has had a long history in human consumption, and is used in various foods and beverages as a sweetener and flavoring. It also has a role in religion and symbolism. Medicinal importance of honey has been documented in the world's oldest medical literatures, and since the ancient times, it has been known to possess antimicrobial property as well as wound-healing activity. More than 1,400 years ago, honey is described as a source of healing in the Quran and it is also mentioned as one of the foods of Paradise.


: We present a new consistent truncation of D = 11 supergravity to D = 4 N = 2 minimal gauged supergravity, on the seven-dimensional internal Riemannian space corresponding to the most general class of D = 11 solutions with an AdS 4 factor and N = 2 supersymmetry. A truncation ansatz is proposed and its consistency checked at the level of the D = 11 Bianchi identity, bosonic equations of motion, and supersymmetry variations of the gravitino. The general class includes an N = 2 AdS 4 solution dual to the conformal, low-energy physics phase corresponding to a mass deformation of the M2-brane field theory. A consistent truncation recently constructed on this particular geometry is recovered from our formalism.


Heart failure is a leading cause of death worldwide. While heart transplantation is the most successful treatment for end-stage heart failure, the scarcity in donor hearts has ushered in the use of alternative therapies, such as the left ventricular assist device (LVAD). This patient population may present with low frequency, but they require disease-specific management. Learners may fine-tune these principles in a safe learning environment, such as a medical simulation lab. Here, we present a case in which a patient with a LVAD sustained serious traumatic injuries.


Besides genetic disorders, dysregulation of epigenetic machinery has been proved to play a crucial role in human carcinogenesis, and the histone methylation/demethylation process has been considered as one of key regulators for this event. However, the roles of these alterations in cancer progression have not been well characterized in endometrial cancer. The aim of this study is to elucidate that one of methyltransferases, enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is a novel target of anti-cancer therapy in endometrial cancer. We demonstrate that EZH2 plays pivotal roles in human endometrial cancer. To confirm these roles, we performed the expression profile of EZH2 in 11 endometrial cancer cell lines and 50 clinical endometrial cancer specimens, under informed consent and approval of our ethics committee. In addition, we performed the functional analysis of EZH2 using endometrial cancer cell lines. The expression Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that EZH2 is aberrantly overexpressed in endometrial cancer cell lines and clinical samples compared with immortalized endometrial cell line and normal endometrial tissues (P Our results suggest that dysregulation of EZH2 plays an important role in the growth regulation of endometrial cancer cells, and further functional studies may affirm the importance of EZH2 as a promising therapeutic target for endometrial cancer. Citation Format: SHINYA OKI, KENBUN SONE, KATSUTOSHI ODA, AKIRA NISHIJIMA, MAKOTO TAKEUCHI, CHUWA AGAPITI, KAYO ASADA, CHINAMI MAKII, KEI KAWANA, YUTAKA OSUGA, TOMOYUKI FUJII. The histone methyltransferase EZH2 is a novel target of anticancer therapy in endometrial cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 969A.


With the increasing in spectrum occupancy and demand for high bandwidth for evolution of complex radio access network, the need to explore the advantages of millimetric wave band has become imperative. The advantages of the band are: large spectrum availability, high frequency re-used potential, small antenna and equipment size. In this paper, a new-hybrid approach is used to convert rainfall from flve-minute integration time to one-minute integration time for the calculation of rain attenuation. The paper also provides information on cumulative distributions, seasonal variability, and worst month of rainfall rate for the islands. Consequently, relationship between average year (AY) and average worst month (AWM) are obtained.


Abstract. Let dμ be a probability measure on the unit circle and dν be the measure formed by adding a pure point to dμ. We give a simple formula for the Verblunsky coefficients of dν based on a result of Simon. Then we consider dμ0, a probability measure on the unit circle with l Verblunsky coefficients (αn(dμ0)) ∞ n=0 of bounded variation. We insert m pure points to dμ, rescale, and form the probability measure dμm. We use the formula above to prove that the Verblunsky coefficients of dμm are in the form αn(dμ0)+ ∑m j=1 zj cj n +En, where the cj 's are constants of norm 1 independent of the weights of the pure points and independent of n; the error term En is in the order of o(1/n). Furthermore, we prove that dμm is of (m+1)generalized bounded variation a notion that we shall introduce in the paper. Then we use this fact to prove that limn→∞ φ ∗ n(z, dμm) is continuous and is equal to D(z, dμm) −1 away from the pure points.


Hippocampus can store spatial representations, or maps, which are recalled each time a subject is placed in the corresponding environment. We consider the problem of decoding the recalled maps as a function of time from multi-cellular recordings. We introduce a functional-connectivity-based decoder, which accounts for the pairwise correlations between the spiking activities of neurons in each map and does not require any positional information, i.e. any knowledge about place fields. We first show, on recordings of hippocampal activity in constant environmental conditions, that our decoder efficiently decodes maps in CA3 and outperfoms existing methods in CA1, where maps are much less orthogonal. Our decoder is then applied to data from teleportation experiments, in which instantaneous switches between environmental conditions trigger the recall of the corresponding maps. We test the sensitivity of our approach on the transition dynamics between the respective memory states (maps). We find that the rate of spontaneous state shifts (flickering) after a teleportation event is increased not only within the first few seconds as already reported, but the network also shows a higher instability level for on much longer (> 1 min) intervals, both in CA3 and in CA1. In addition, we introduce an efficient Bayesian decoder of the rat full trajectory over time, and find that the animal location can be accurately predicted at all times, even during flickering events. Precise information about the animal position is thus always present in the neural activity, irrespectively of the dynamical shifts in the recalled maps. Significance Statement Hippocampus can store spatial representations (maps), which are retrieved everytime an animal is placed in the corresponding environment. Decoding maps from the instantaneous activity of recorded cells is crucial to track the fast hippocampal dynamics e.g. in response to changes in sensory inputs, but is difficult, especially in CA1 where maps are much less orthogonal than in CA3. We show that functional-connectivity based decoders, which exploit only the pairwise correlations in the recorded cell activities, are accurate both in CA3 and CA1. Our decoder allows us to investigate map retrieval in experiments, where environmental cues are suddenly switched, and could be, more generally, applied to identify brain states in other areas even in the absence of sensory correlates. 1 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/073759 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Sep. 6, 2016;


In a LAN, Internet access should be managed well for a better user experience. Those using a larger share of the bandwidth may be restricted during peak hours to enable others to use the Internet. This can be viewed as a problem of classifying the users based on their Internet usage into normal and high categories, following which control policies may be applied. For this purpose, a proxy-based mechanism has been proposed for classification of users according to the share of their Internet access. The advantage of this approach is that users sharing the same computer can be distinguished by the proxy server and appropriate control policies can be exercised. To understand user behaviour, data is collected at the proxy server in a campus LAN. Machine learning algorithms are then used to learn and characterise user behaviour. In particular, Naive Bayes' and Gaussian Mixture Model based classifiers are used. It is observed that the algorithms are able to scale in that users are clustered into two different groups. Performance evaluation on a held out data set indicates that users can be accurately distinguished 94.96% of the time. The algorithm is also practical since the time consuming task of model building need be done only once a month offline, while the daily task of classification may be accomplished in a period of 20 mins for GMMs. It has also been shown how the user behavior of the two groups of users may be characterized. This would be a useful aid in the design of policies and algorithms for Internet access control.


【The present study was an attempt for systematic data conversion between FDM and FEM in order to evaluate the thermal stress distribution during quenching process. It has been generally recognized that FDM is efficient in flow and temperature analysis and FEM in that of stress. But it induced difficulty and tedious work in analysis that one uses both FDM and FEM to take their advantages because of the discrepancy of nodes between analysis tools. So we proposed field data conversion procedure from FDM to FEM in 3-dimensional space, then applied this procedure to analysis of quenching process. The simulation procedure calculates the distributions of temperature and microstructure using FDM and microstructure evolution equations of diffusion and diffusionless transformation. FEM was used for predicting the distributions of thermal stress. The present numerical code includes coupled temperaturephase transformation kinetics and temperature-microstructure dependent material properties. Calculated results were compared with previous experimental data to verify the method, which showed good agreements.】


Plant cells either die by "accident" (traumatic cell death) or by "design" (programmed cell death; PCD). There is clear evidence that cell death during plant development and interactions with the environment involves PCD (in Gray and Johal, 1998). K. daigremontiana reproduces asexually by forming plantlets from leaf indentations which fall to soil and convert into adult plants. In nature, its entire plant body except leaf-plantlets senesces as consequence of floral differentiation or stressful environmental conditions. At unit gravity, PCD precedes plantlet detachment from the mother-leaf, leading to an abscission scar after plantlet fall. Earlier experiments have shown that leaf-plantlet formation and asexual reproduction increased with short duration hypergravity treatments and decreased in simulated hypergravity (Pedroso and Durzan, 1998). The present experiments were designed to determine if and what type of cell death occurs following gravitational changes, and the sequence of events leading to it. Our study shows that changes in gravitational environment cause a burst in nitric oxide, followed by a sequence of events that may ultimately led to programmed cell death by apoptosis.


Research over the last decade has led to tremendous advances in the characterization of the transcriptional networks involved in the initiation and maintenance of the shoot apical meristem (SAM), as well as the factors involved in the formation and development of leaves by this organ. However, one aspect of the SAM that has received rather limited attention is the fact that it is characterized by being heterotrophic, in contrast to the majority of cells and tissues immediately derived from it which rapidly undergo differentiation to form photosythetically active, autotrophic organs. This clear physiological and biochemical distinction of the SAM from the surrounding tissue raises interesting questions as to what controls the transition from heterotrophic to autotrophic growth, the nature and sequence of the metabolic events that must occur on this transition, as well as basic questions as to the potential interaction of development and metabolism in this small but essential organ of the plant. In this review, an overview is provided of present knowledge in this area, as well as some recent data that provide an insight into the potential intertwining of metabolic and developmental mechanisms during leaf initiation.


Membrane vesicles, a group of nano- or microsized vesicles, can be internalized or interact with the recipient cells, depending on their parental cells, size, structure and content. Membrane vesicles fuse with the target cell membrane, or they bind to the receptors on the cell surface, to transfer special effects. Based on versatile features, they can modulate the functions of immune cells and therefore influence immune responses. In the field of tumor therapeutic applications, phospholipid-membrane-based nanovesicles attract increased interest. Academic institutions and industrial companies are putting in effort to design, modify and apply membrane vesicles as potential tumor vaccines contributing to tumor immunotherapy. This review focuses on the currently most-used types of membrane vesicles (including liposomes, bacterial membrane vesicles, tumor- and dendritic-cell-derived extracellular vesicles) acting as tumor vaccines, and describes the classification, mechanism and application of these nanovesicles.


Mutations in mitochondrial genes are primary causes of multiple inherited disorders, especially affecting tissues with high aerobic energy demands such as the eye, brain, heart, and skeletal muscles. Such mitochondrial diseases are untreatable, have poor prognoses, and relevant animal models are few. Here we microinjected into the mouse blastocyst an adeno-associated virus (AAV) that we redirected to mitochondria to deliver the mutant human adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase subunit 6 gene (m.8993T>G) responsible for Maternally Inherited Leigh Syndrome, a neurologic disease renowned for causing rapidly fatal encephalomyelopathy in childhood or Neuropathy, Ataxia and Retinitis Pigmentosa in adults. Mice bred over six generations exhibited hallmarks of the human disease with one or multiple systemic symptoms including early death, paralysis, hunching, vision loss and seizures. Necropsy revealed spongiform encephalopathy, retinal degeneration, and cardiomegaly. Intravenous injection of a mitochondrially directed AAV serotype 9 vector containing wild-type ATP6 after disease onset, conferred prolonged survival and reduced paralysis. When administered prior to disease onset, all treated mice survived, and visual and motor function improved. These results support further development of gene therapy strategies involving intravenous delivery of mito-targeted AAV9.


This study empirically investigates the role of employees' perceptions of CSR in improving their green behavior in the hospitality industry. In addition, this study investigates the mediating role of employee well-being and the moderating role of hotels' environmental strategy in this relationship. Empirical analysis is performed in a cross-country setting using evidence from Pakistan and Italy. The study model is tested through PLS-SEM using survey data of 485 hotel employees. Findings from the overall sample and country-specific samples reveal that CSR is positively and significantly related to employee green behavior. Moreover, employee well-being serves as a significant mediator in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee green behavior, while hotels' environmental strategy significantly moderates this relationship in the overall and country-specific samples. These results suggest that paradoxically, though the selected countries have different tourism implementation levels, economic development, and cultures, the employees' perceptions of CSR and its effect on their green behavior do not vary significantly across both countries.


The Dental education sector has witnessed a lot of innovations in the past decade. Technology has played an important role in achieving this revolution such that the student can pursue the learning process at any given time and place beyond the geographical limits. The most frequently used approach is the concept of blended learning, which is an amalgamation of face-to-face and online modes of education. Thus, its role in ensuring the learning process to students all over the world despite the COVID 19 pandemic is innumerable. Hence, this review was conducted to explore how different dentistry fields have adopted this approach as a useful tool to impart dental education. The PUBMED database was used to retrieve the articles about the same using the search terms "Blended Learning" AND "dental education". The majority of the studies showed a positive response and a higher level of satisfaction in comparison to conventional teaching. However, certain studies also indicated no significant improvement in knowledge compared to conventional methods. Conventional methods will definitely continue to be the mainstay as certain themes cannot be dealt with otherwise. In such cases, blending online as well as traditional methods would give beneficial results while preserving the feel of the live personal interaction. © 2022. All Rights Reserved.


The writing and reading of obituaries is something of a national obsession in Iceland. In recent years certain changes have become evident in the ways in which Icelandic obituaries are constructed. It is our aim here to describe obituaries in Iceland, emphasising in particular the recent changes they have undergone. We put these transformations in the context of wider changes to death and grief in Iceland and point out the prevalence and acceptance of spiritualism in the country. We conclude by evoking recent anthropological writings on memory and forgetting and speculate on the implications changes in obituary writing have for the ways in which identities are constructed in Iceland.


Diet is known to affect inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the optimal nutritional therapy during a severe flare is uncertain. The goal of this study was to describe variation in nutritional practices across Europe, between professions, types of hospitals and healthcare systems, as well as between ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD).

 A novel questionnaire comprising 17 questions, of which 5 concerning demographic data, was distributed digitally in the ECCO Congress 2022 and via the ECCO country representatives. In the comparisons of categories (e.g., countries), only categories with at least 25 responses were considered, and Chi-squared test was used.

 The survey was completed by 313 participants. Table 1 summarises their main characteristics.
 Physicians and dietitians were most commonly responsible for determining nutritional therapy for IBD inpatients (Table 2). The commonest form of nutritional therapy was oral nutritional supplements (ONS) on top of easy to digest food. Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) was used by 10% of respondents for UC patients and 7% for CD. Almost a quarter of respondents reported less than 25% of patients being assessed by a dietitian in the first 3 days of a flare. Energy intake, stool frequency and inflammatory biomarkers were the commonest factors to determine when to change nutritional therapy. No specific nutritional screening tool was used by 45% of respondents.
 There was significant variation between different European countries and healthcare professions for all the outcomes measured (p<0.050). However, in 7 of total 12 questions the variation between professions was only caused by variation in selecting the "I don't know" alternative. When countries were grouped by healthcare index (HI), countries with high HI showed higher proportion using ONS on top of easy to digest food in CD (p=0.008), being more likely to use a specific nutritional screening tool for assessment (p<0.001) and using more approximate nutritional monitoring in UC instead of reporting all intake (p=0.002). Moreover, nutritional therapy management did not vary according to hospital type (university versus general), apart from criteria of changing nutritional therapy in CD (p=0.021) and monitoring intake in UC (p=0.046).
 During the first three days of a severe flare, a diet consisting exclusively of ONS was significantly more frequently used for CD than UC (p=0.018, Figure 1). Otherwise, similar nutritional therapy strategies were reported for CD and UC including using TPN to a similar extent.

 Country is the main determinant of differences in nutritional practice across Europe. Diet consisting exclusively of ONS is more common during a flare of CD than UC.


While implementing the idea of multiuser diversity for a scheduling scheme in a real time Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system, one is immediately confronted with two issues: fairness and delay. In the ideal situation when users' fading statistics are the same, the total capacity of the system as well as the throughput of individual users are maximized. In reality, the statistics are not symmetrical; there are users who are closer to the Base station (BS) with a better average Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). To improve the throughput, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) of multiple packet-data users should be maintained maximum while preserving the fairness. The main contribution of this research paper is the real time implementation of two novel EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) based Multiuser Scheduling algorithms such as EVM based Strict priority scheduler (ESPS), EVM based Round robin scheduler (ERRS). The proposed EVM based algorithms are evaluated by implementing it on the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) based WARP (Wireless open- Access Research Platform) board. Resources were allocated depending upon EVM. Almost the two proposed schedulers gave good performance with and without AGC (Automatic Gain Control) in terms of PDR and fairness. ESPS had a resource starvation of best-effort traffic with low delay when compared to ERRS.


In the brain of epilepsy patients, sudden and unusually intense bursts of electrical charges are occurred repeatedly. So, epilepsy patient experiences seizure. Seizure shows various frequency and precipitating factor and has a prodrome. Also, epilepsy patient present various behavior pattern during seizure. If the biting injury occurred during seizure, there would be pain, infection, defect of soft tissue and esthetic problem. The dental management of self-mutilation includes preserve methods of using appliances such as lip bumper or soft mouth guard and radical methods such as extraction of all teeth or orthognathic surgery. A case of epilepsy patient with self-mutilation of mento-labial sulcus is presented. She was treated successfully with soft mouth guard.


Changes in erythemal and total shortwave due to variations in geometrical and atmospheric factors
have been analyzed and quantified. The ozone, aerosol and water vapour effect on solar radiation has
been obtained using radiation measurements at different fixed solar zenith angles. The results have
showed a negligible effect of ozone on total shortwave radiation, and a stronger attenuation provided
by aerosols in the erythemal case.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA sulfate (DHEAS) may function as neurotrophic or neuroprotective factors to protect central nervous system (CNS) neurons against a variety of insults, including excitotoxicity. The present study evaluated the pharmacological effects of DHEAS in a reversible spinal cord ischemia model.

METHODS
DHEAS was administered (50 mg/kg IV) 5 or 30 minutes after the start of occlusion to groups of rabbits exposed to ischemia induced by temporary (15 to 60 minutes) occlusion of the infrarenal aorta. The group P(50) represents the duration of ischemia (in minutes) associated with 50% probability of resultant permanent paraplegia.

RESULTS
The P(50) of the vehicle-treated control group, when behavioral analysis was assessed 18 hours after aortal occlusion, was 28.8+/-2.0 minutes. Neuroprotection was demonstrated if a drug significantly prolonged the P(50) compared with the vehicle-treated control group. Treatment with DHEAS at 5 minutes significantly (P<0.05) prolonged the P(50) of the group to 36.8+/-3.9 minutes. In addition, the DHEAS effect appeared durable, because a significant difference between the control and DHEAS-treated groups was still measurable at the 4-day time point. At 4 days, the P(50) of the control group was 26.1+/-2.2 minutes, whereas the P(50) for the DHEAS-treated group was 38.6+/-5. 9 minutes. DHEAS was not neuroprotective if administered 30 minutes after occlusion. In addition, the GABA(A) antagonist bicuculline abolished the neuroprotective effect of DHEAS.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study suggests that neurosteroids may have substantial therapeutic benefit for the treatment of ischemic stroke.


Progesterone is essential in the luteal phase whereas luteal oestradiol may play only a permissive role on the endometrium. However, a rapid decline in oestradiol concentrations around the mid-luteal period may compromise the endometrial integrity leading to poor IVF outcomes. A retrospective analysis of 763 women aged <40 years undergoing their first IVF cycle and having < or =3 embryos replaced was undertaken. In cycles receiving human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) for luteal support, 25th, 50th and 75th centiles of the ratio of day-of-HCG oestradiol to mid-luteal oestradiol (oestradiol ratio) were 1.8, 2.8 and 5.0 respectively. Hormonal parameters were not different between pregnant and non-pregnant cycles. The outcomes were similar irrespective of the oestradiol ratio. Progesterone supplementation was used instead when the HCG oestradiol was >18 000 pmol/l or there were features of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Pregnancy rates of these hyperstimulated cycles were 16.7 and 11.4% per cycle respectively when oestradiol ratio was < or =5.0 and >5.0. This difference did not reach statistical significance. Our results could not find an adverse outcome in cycles showing a rapid decline in oestradiol during the mid-luteal phase.


The increased risk and prevalence of lacunar stroke and Parkinson's disease (PD) makes the search for better experimental models an important requirement for translational research. In this study we assess ischemic damage of the nigrostriatal pathway in a model of lacunar stroke evoked by damaging the perforating arteries in the territory of the substantia nigra (SN) of the rat after stereotaxic administration of endothelin-1 (ET-1), a potent vasoconstrictor peptide. We hypothesized that transplantation of neural stem cells (NSCs) with the capacity of differentiating into diverse cell types such as neurons and glia, but with limited proliferation potential, would constitute an alternative and/or adjuvant therapy for lacunar stroke. These cells showed neuritogenic activity in vitro and a high potential for neural differentiation. Light and electron microscopy immunocytochemistry was used to characterize GFP-positive neurons derived from the transplants. 48 h after ET-1 injection, we characterized an area of selective degeneration of dopaminergic neurons within the nigrostriatal pathway characterized with tissue necrosis and glial scar formation, with subsequent behavioral signs of Parkinsonism. Light microscopy showed that grafted cells within the striatal infarction zone differentiated with a high yield into mature glial cells (GFAP-positive) and neuron types present in the normal striatum. Electron microscopy revealed that NSCs-derived neurons integrated into the host circuitry establishing synaptic contacts, mostly of the asymmetric type. Astrocytes were closely associated with normal small-sized blood vessels in the area of infarct, suggesting a possible role in the regulation of the blood brain barrier and angiogenesis. Our results encourage the use of NSCs as a cell-replacement therapy for the treatment of human vascular Parkinsonism.


Modern control systems are limited in their ability to react flexibly and autonomously to changing situations by the complexity inherent in handling situations where many variables are present. We present an architecture based on a combination of agent programming and hybrid systems for managing high level decisions in such systems. Our preliminary case study concerns satellites maintaining geo-stationary orbits. This case study suggests that the complexity of the code of such a system increases much more slowly in the face of increasing complexity of the scenario, than in a more traditional approach based on finite state machines over controller options.


Protease nexin‐1 (PN‐1) is a protein proteinase inhibitor recently shown to be identical with the glial‐derived neurite‐promoting factor or glial‐derived nexin. It has been shown to promote neurite outgrowth in neuroblastoma cells and in sympathetic neurons. The present experiments were designed to further test the hypothesis that this activity on neuroblastoma cells is due to its ability to complex and inhibit thrombin. It has been suggested that PN‐1 :thrombin complexes might mediate the neurite outgrowth activity of PN‐1. However, the present studies showed that such complexes, unlike free PN‐1, did not promote neurite outgrowth. The neurite outgrowth activity of PN‐1 was only detected in the presence of thrombin or serum (which contains thrombin). PN‐1 did not affect the rate or extent of neurite outgrowth that occurred when neuroblastoma cells were placed in serum‐free medium. Retraction of neurites by thrombin was indistinguishable in cells whose neurites had been extended in the presence or absence of PN‐1. The neurite‐promoting activity of PN‐1 was inhibited by an anti‐PN‐1 monoclonal antibody, which blocks its capacity to complex serine proteinases. The plasma thrombin inhibitor, antithrombin III, stimulated neurite outgrowth but only when its thrombin inhibitory activity was accelerated by heparin. The neurite outgrowth activity of both antithrombin III and PN‐1 corresponded to their inhibition of thrombin. Together, these observations show that PN‐1 promotes neurite outgrowth from neuroblastoma cells by inhibiting thrombin and suggest that this depends on the ability of thrombin to retract neurites.


HIV prevention efforts across sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly focused on engaging men, for their own health and that of their partners and families. We examined whether and how HIV risk and protective factors are changing among men in Durban, South Africa—a country with a substantial HIV burden. The study is part of the Population Council's implementation science research portfolio on the DREAMS Partnership, a large-scale initiative to reduce new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women and their partners.


The parent sheet selection in TWB designing is largely dependant on the effect of parent materials parameters on formability of TWBs. Experiments and FE simulations were performed to study the effect of material parameters of TWB's parent sheets such as t (thickness ratio), k (strength factor of materials), n (strain hardening index), r (anisotropy index) on LDH and weld-line movement of TWB. Orthogonal experiments and range analysis were used to analyze the sensitivity on effect of different parameter on LDH and weld-line movement. The results show that LDH of TWB decreases with increasing ration of stronger sheets parameters to weaker ones, and the rate decreases gradually; in contrary, weld-line movement increases and the increasing rate decreases gradually. Furthermore, different parameters make various contributions to LDH and weld-line movement of TWBs and the effect degree of each parameter changes with different thickness ratios.


ABSTRACT Rahnella aquatilis, a rare enteric gram-negative rod which is infrequently isolated in immunocompromised patients, was isolated as a causative organism of sepsis in a 26-year-old immunocompetent male patient. The contaminated intravenous fluid was confirmed to be the source of the organism.


The relevance of this paper refers to the importance of developing future teachers' professional competences and ability to integrate the information and communication technology in their own work.  The aim of this paper is to examine the preschool teachers' attitudes of the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in preschool institutions. The research was based on quantitative (descriptive analysis and factor analysis) and qualitative research methodology which included the analysis of relevant literature and a survey conducted among the preschool teacher at the preschool institution in Pula (Croatia). The results have shown that there is no statistically significant difference in the positive attitude to the use of ICT in preschool institutions between preschool teachers younger and older than 35, i.e. both show a positive attitude to the application of ICT in preschool institutions. The paper materials may be useful in the preschool institution for integrating digital knowledge into teacher's work to contribute to the quality of preschool children's education.


This paper addresses the spheroidal (i.e. coupled bending-stretching) and toroidal (i.e. torsional or equivoluminal) elastic vibrations of thick-walled, spherical bodies of revolution by means of the three-dimensional theory of elasticity in curvilinear (spherical) co-ordinates. Stationary values of the dynamical energies of the spherical body are obtained by the Ritz method using a complete set of algebraic-trigonometric polynomials to approximate the radial, meridional, and circumferential displacements. Extensive convergence studies of non-dimensional frequencies are presented for the spheroidal and toroidal modes of thin-walled spherical bodies of revolution. Results include all possible 3-D modes, i.e. radial stretching, combined bending-stretching, pure torsion, and shear deformable flexure through the wall thickness (including thickness-shear, thickness-stretch, and thickness-twist). It is shown that the assumed displacement polynomials yield a strictly upper-bound convergence to exact solutions of the title problem, as a sufficient number of terms is retained. Since the effects of transverse shear and rotary inertia are inherent to the present 3-D formulation, an examination is made of the variation of non-dimensional frequencies with non-dimensional wall thickness, h/R ranging from thin-walled (h/R=0⋅05) to thick-walled (h/R=0⋅5) spherical bodies. The findings confirm that the variation of the spheroidal frequencies increases with increasing h/R and mode number, whereas the variation of the toroidal frequencies decreases with increasing h/R and mode number. This work offers some accurate 3-D reference data for the title problem with which refined solutions drawn from thin and thick shell theories and sophisticated finite element techniques may be compared. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Compensatory growth of organs after loss of mass and/or function is controlled by hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), but the underlying regulatory mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we show that the transmembrane glycoprotein CUB domain-containing protein 1 (CDCP1) controls compensatory renal growth by acting as a critical regulator of HGF signaling. In MDCK cysts, HGF induces the temporal upregulation of Src and its scaffold CDCP1, and the ablation of CDCP1 abrogates HGF-induced morphological change and cell growth. Mechanistically, upregulated CDCP1 recruits Src into lipid rafts to activate STAT3 associated with the HGF receptor Met, resulting in the upregulation of downstream factors required for HGF functions. In vivo, CDCP1 is upregulated in the renal tubules after unilateral nephrectomy, and the ablation of CDCP1 significantly suppresses compensatory renal growth by attenuating Met-STAT3 signaling. These findings demonstrate that CDCP1 controls HGF-induced compensatory renal growth by integrating Src and Met signaling, and provide new insights into the regulatory mechanisms underlying the multifaceted functions of HGF during regenerative growth of various organs.


The supply and the management of the energy are particularly at the centre of our daily concerns and represent a socio-economic priority. Indeed, while cars use fossil fuel as the main source of energy for over a century, the depletion of the oil reserves and the necessity to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions, stimulate the development of electric vehicles. Therefore, one of the main challenges for the coming decades is the development of new technologies for the storage of electrochemical energy.


I saw these two cases with Dr. William Sharpe at the New York Polyclinic Hospital. Both were cases of skull fracture involving the base, with a secondary mastoiditis and meningitis, and in one case a brain abscess. REPORT OF CASES Case 1.—History. —A man, aged 43, white, cab driver, with negative family and past history, fell from the seat of a hansom cab, Oct. 31, 1917, and was picked up unconscious, bleeding from both ears. Physical Examination. —He was well developed and well nourished, and was plethoric. He was still unconscious and bleeding from both ears. The blood was mixed with cerebrospinal fluid. He was in a state of shock, and spinal puncture revealed blood under marked pressure. The reflexes were exaggerated, especially on the left side. The Babinski reflex was present in the left foot. There were no convulsions and no twitchings. Ophthalmoscopic examination revealed marked edematous changes,


Abstract The proteoglycan aggregate of the cartilage is composed of aggrecan, link protein (LP), and hyaluronan, providing resistance to compression in joints and cartilage structures. To further understand the function of LP during the process of chondrogenesis and bone formation in zebrafish, we cloned the zebrafish cDNA for hyaluronan and proteoglycan link protein 1 (crtl1/hapln1) and examined the expression of the gene during embryogenesis using in-situ hybridization. crtl1/hapln1 expression is first observed in the adaxial cells at the bud- stage. Throughout somitogenesis, crtl1/hapln1 is expressed in the sclerotomes, floor plate, and hypochord. In addition, crtl1/hapln1 is expressed in rhombomeres 3 and 5, pharyngeal arches, telecephalon, otic vesicles, and pectral fins. During chondrocranial/skull formation, crtl1/hapln1 expression is highest at around 4 dpf and is colocalized with aggrecan in the cartilaginous arches and with dermacan in the dermal bones.


The UK Library and Information Science (LIS) Research Coalition was established in 2009 as a three-year project by its founding: the British Library, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, JISC, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, and the Research Information Network. Its broad mission was to facilitate a co-ordinated and strategic approach to LIS research across the UK by: • bringing together information about LIS research opportunities and results; • encouraging dialogue between research funders; • promoting LIS practitioner research and the translation of research outcomes into practice; • articulating a strategic approach to LIS research; • promoting the development of research capacity in LIS. Through its work the Coalition strengthened links between LIS researchers and LIS practitioners, and between research and practice. By bridging the gap between LIS research and LIS practitioner communities, the Coalition encouraged research-led practice, to enable librarians and information scientists to: • exploit existing LIS research for improved decision-making in services delivery; • enhance the value of prior work by capitalising on the significant investment in earlier studies through reuse; • demonstrate the value and impact of library and information services to individuals, citizens/society and specialist user groups, and thus secure future investment in services delivery; • derive job satisfaction through intellectual stimulation, enjoyment of learning, career progression, leadership development, and pride in enhanced work practice that engagement in research brings. The Coalition had a particular interest in supporting practising librarians and information scientists, both in how they can access and exploit available research in their work, and in their own development as practitioner researchers. For researchers and practitioners alike, the Coalition provided a formal structure to improve access to LIS research, and maximise its relevance and impact in the UK. The resources that the Coalition brought together on its web site at http://lisresearch.org were intended to save researchers and practitioners time in identifying and accessing relevant material to support their engagement with research. These resources are still well-used. The Coalition's advocacy work sought to persuade services managers of the need to support research initiatives and improve the recognition of research knowledge within the LIS professions. The Coalition also supported projects that focused on specific goals to support LIS research in the UK, notably to develop a formal UK-wide network of LIS researchers (Developing Research Excellence and Methods – DREaM), and to determine the factors that increase or hinder the impact of research project outcomes on practice (Research in Librarianship Impact Evaluation Study – RiLIES). In this presentation Hall will discuss how the LIS Research Coalition tackled the challenges of LIS research at a national level between 2009 and 2012 and reflect on the longer term impact of the project.


Phosphate fertilization is a common practice in agriculture worldwide, and several commercial products are widely used. Triple superphosphate (TSP) is an excellent soluble phosphorus (P) source. However, its high cost of production makes the long-term use of crude rock phosphate (RP) a more attractive alternative in developing countries, albeit its influence on plant-associated microbiota remains unclear. Here, we compared long-term effects of TSP and RP fertilization on the structure of maize rhizosphere microbial community using next generation sequencing. Proteobacteria were dominant in all conditions, whereas Oxalobacteraceae (mainly Massilia and Herbaspirillum) was enriched in the RP-amended soil. Klebsiella was the second most abundant taxon in the RP-treated soil. Burkholderia sp. and Bacillus sp. were enriched in the RP-amended soil when compared to the TSP-treated soil. Regarding fungi, Glomeromycota showed highest abundance in RP-amended soils, and the main genera were Scutellospora and Racocetra. These taxa are already described as important for P solubilization/acquisition in RP-fertilized soil. Maize grown on TSP and RP-treated soil presented similar productivity, and a positive correlation was detected for P content and the microbial community of the soils. The results suggest changes of the microbial community composition associated to the type of phosphate fertilization. Whilst it is not possible to establish causality relations, our data highlights a few candidate taxa that could be involved in RP solubilization and plant growth promotion. Moreover, this can represent a shorter path for further studies aiming the isolation and validation of the taxa described here concerning P release on the soil plant system and their use as bioinoculants.


AbstractPerformance Beyond The Binary:Towards An Intersectional And Intersexual Theatrical DiscourseMy research is rooted in post-structural feminist, intersectional, and queer theories. This thesis seeks to ignite a discursive dialogue about the sociopolitical reinforcement of the western gender binary in the theater. By drawing on political theories that highlight gender as an anti-essentialist product of culture (a social construct), I seek to discuss my methodologies of adapting these theories for the stage. From a post-structural view, gender is a network reinforced by larger institutional systems. After discussing the many institutions that which contribute to the preservation of the gender binary, I will offer 'intersexuality' (as reappropriated from its medical etymology) as a discursive intersectional approach to theater. I am interested in theater's role in the production of identity and of new meaning. In analyzing forms of transgender and gender variant resistance on stage, I hope to posit theater as an organizer of political resistance off stage. Ultimately I will provide case studies from Santa Cruz Shakespeare's Hamlet and from UCSC's The Odyssey, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Zoot Suit, that employed subversive artistic choices in order to navigate the gender binary. Expounding on techniques like genderswap casting, nonbinary acting, and cross-gender casting, I assert that artists who take an intersectional and intersexual approach when representing gender on stage, can mobilize audiences to think more critically about gender beyond the binary off stage.


Aberrations in reproductive fitness may be a harbinger of medical diseases in men. Existing data suggest that female infertility is associated with autoimmune disorders; however, this has not been examined in men. As immune surveillance and hormonal factors can impact male fertility and autoimmunity, we sought to determine the association between male infertility and incident autoimmune disorders. We analyzed subjects from the Truven Health MarketScan claims database from 2001 to 2008. Infertile men were identified through diagnosis and treatment codes. We examined the most common immune disorders, which were identified by ICD9 diagnosis codes. Men diagnosed with an immune disorder at baseline or within 1 year of follow‐up were excluded. Infertile men were compared to vasectomized men (i.e., men who are likely fertile) and to age‐matched control (10 : 1) group using Cox regression analysis. A total of 33,077 infertile men (mean age of 33 years), 77,693 vasectomized men (mean age 35), and 330,770 age‐matched control men (mean age 33) were assembled with a total follow‐up of 1.49 M person‐years. Overall, immune disorders were rare in the group with the individual conditions occurring in <0.1% of men. However, infertile men displayed the highest risk of many conditions. Infertile men had a higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis compared to both vasectomized men (HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.19–2.05) and age‐matched controls (HR 1.29, 95% CI 1.02–1.62). Additionally, this higher risk was seen in general immune disorders (under which systemic lupus erythematosus is categorized) compared to vasectomized men (HR 3.11, 95% CI 2.00–4.86) and age‐matched men (HR 2.12, 95% CI 1.52–2.96). This same risk trend was seen in psoriasis, when compared to vasectomized men (HR 1.28, 95% CI 1.09–1.50) and age‐matched controls (HR 1.20, 95% CI 1.04–1.37). A similar trend was seen in the analysis comparing infertile men and vasectomized men in developing multiple sclerosis (HR 1.91, 95% CI 1.10–3.31) and Grave's disease (HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.10–1.92), as well as the higher risk of infertile men compared to the age‐matched group at developing thyroiditis (HR 1.60, 95% CI 1.02–2.52). The current analysis shows that infertile men have a higher risk of developing certain autoimmune disorders in the years following an infertility evaluation. Specifically, infertile men had higher rates of developing rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, thyroiditis, and Grave's disease. Given these findings, further research should focus on confirmation of these associations and elucidation of the pathways between fertility and immunity.


This study examined issues related to students' participation and online absenteeism among students at Zimbabwe's universities during COVID-19 induced online teaching and learning. More specifically, the study examined some of the ethical issues related to students' participation and assessment during online learning in selected universities in Zimbabwe. The study also examined some of the strategies that can be adopted to optimize students' participation during online learning to make online learning a more honest and interactive endeavour. To fully understand the challenges related to participation and online absenteeism, the study extrapolated the perspectives of students and academic staff who had adopted online learning since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was a mixed-methods study, employing a descriptive-analytical approach which utilised three main methods of data collection. Firstly, semi-structured questionnaires distributed electronically among participants in the selected universities were used to collect research data. Secondly, follow-up online focus-group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to elicit participants' views on some of the ethical challenges posed by online learning and possible strategies for dealing with the challenges. Finally, follow-up telephone interviews were also conducted with lecturers with the same objective as the FGDs. The study's population consisted of 110 students and 77 academic staff randomly selected from six universities in Zimbabwe. Two of the selected universities were privately owned and four were public universities. The study showed some of the technological and pedagogical issues regarding students' participation and strategies for optimising students' participation during online learning. The study also shared some of the ethical challenges that arose from the adoption of online teaching and assessment systems and the policy, resource and training interventions needed to make online learning more interactive, while at the same time safeguarding academic integrity. The findings of this study, therefore, have implications for universities, learners and academic staff if online learning programmes are to be successful. Firstly, universities for instance, need to ensure that students and academic staff have the prerequisite technological resources to ensure that optimal active learning takes place. Secondly, to address the shortage of resources, universities should ensure that their libraries migrate from physical to digital libraries. Universities should also ensure that both academic staff and students receive the necessary training to access these digital libraries and the services they offer.


Hand-held cell phone technology has been around for quite some time, however when Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, the widespread adoption of smartphones took off. Smartphones allow users to communicate via talk, text and video; access personal and work e-mail and the Internet; run applications; make purchases; manage bank accounts; take pictures - and for many of us are an integral part of our everyday (The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 2018). Smartphones are "essentially tiny computers, we reach for these devices when we first wake up, bring them with us into the car, and often keep them with us during our most private moments (The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 2018). Many users rarely turn off their smart phones.


Power electronic loads are being connected to the distributed power plants through power electronic converters and these power electronic converters and loads are the source of harmonics and reactive power which affects the performance of the power system network. Switching compensators called Active filters or active power line conditioners brings an effective alternative to the conventional passive LC filters as they can compensate for several harmonic orders, and are unaffected by major changes in network characteristics, avoiding the risk of resonance between the filter and network impedance and are compact and robust compared with traditional passive compensators. The aim of this work is to design shunt active filter to mitigate and alleviate the harmonics and reactive power issues with controller based on different theories under unbalanced and distorted regimes. In this paper a control method for active power filter using Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) is compared with other control techniques.


Given their sessile nature, it is critical for the survival of plants to adapt to their environment. Accordingly, plants have evolved the ability to sense seasonal changes to govern developmental fates such as the floral transition. Temperature and day length are among the seasonal cues that plants sense. We recently reported that VIN3–LIKE 1 (VIL1) is involved in mediating the flowering response to both cold and day length via regulation of two related genes, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) and FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM) , respectively.


Studies on fandom show an Anglo-Saxon bias and most of them take gender, age, sexuality and class as the key to understand fandom. Following globalisation theory, this study argues for the importance to include locality as an explanatory category. Comparing fans of local stars - Hong Kong pop star Leon Lai and his Dutch counterpart Marco Borsato - this study finds striking differences. In general, while the Dutch fans see Marco as an ordinary human being, the Hong Kong fans characterise Leon as an extraordinary worker. The different characterisations, the authors argue, are informed by the dominant discourse on being ordinary, emotionally honest and humanitarian in the Dutch society at large, as well as that on being more than ordinary, hardworking and proud in the Hong Kong context. Music fandom is interpreted as a way to produce locality, to provide a sense of home.


Testicular morphometry, gonadal and extragonadal sperm reserves of rabbit bucks treated with Human Menopausal Gonadotrophin (Menogon®) were studied. Twenty-four crossbred rabbit bucks weighing 1.3-1.6 kg at 15-17 wk were randomised into 4 treatment doses of 0 (control), 7.5, 15.0, and 22.5 I.U. in a completely randomised design with 6 bucks per group. A vial of Menogon® was reconstituted in 1 mL of physiological saline solution and administered intramuscularly at 72 h intervals for 56 d prior to commencement of sample collection. Parameters evaluated were ejaculate concentration, testicular morphometry, gonadal and extragonadal sperm concentrations. Results for ejaculate concentration (86, 110, 186, and 135×106/mm3) revealed a significantly (P 0.05) affected by the treatment. Testicular morphometry results showed that paired testis volume (cm3), testis circumference (cm), ductus deferens length (cm) and epididymal length (cm) were significantly (P<0.05) different, with a progressive increase that corresponds to increased Menogon® administration. High and positive correlations (P<0.01) were observed between testis weight and gonadal sperm reserves (r=0.99) and body weight and gonadal sperm reserves (r=0.99). Similarly, correlations between epididymal weight and epididymal sperm reserves (r=0.85), testis weight and ejaculate concentration (r=0.97), body weight and ejaculate concentration (r=0.96), body weight and testis weight (r=0.97), testis volume and ejaculate concentration (r=0.97), testis volume and gonadal sperm reserve (r=0.91), testis volume and testis weight (r=0.96), and testis volume and body weight (r=0.90) were positive and significant (P<0.05). Taking all the reported results into consideration, controlling the amount of Menogon® administration at 15.0 I.U. for rabbit bucks could be a promising approach to regulating testosterone synthesis and secretion, thereby affording a potential method of enhancing fertility.


This paper presents an alternative approach to image segmentation by using the spatial distribution of edge pixels as opposed to pixel intensities. The segmentation is achieved by a multi-layered approach and is intended to find suitable landing areas for an aircraft emergency landing. We combine standard techniques (edge detectors) with novel developed algorithms (line expansion and geometry test) to design an original segmentation algorithm. Our approach removes the dependency on environmental factors that traditionally influence lighting conditions, which in turn have negative impact on pixel-based segmentation techniques. We present test outcomes on realistic visual data collected from an aircraft, reporting on preliminary feedback about the performance of the detection. We demonstrate consistent performances over 97% detection rate.


Introduction : Invasive cancer of the uterine cervix (ICC) is a leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. ICC incidence and mortality rates are especially high among women from Appalachia. In addition to lifestyle and social-behavioral factors and HPV infections, hereditary predispositions may mediate cervical cancer risk. Polymorphic alleles within the Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGFB) signaling cascade, an important regulator of epithelial cell growth, have been implicated in modifying cancer susceptibility. The contributions of these factors within a gene-environment model have not been well characterized in Appalachian ICC patients. Hypothesis : High-risk genomic variants of TGFB signaling pathway components will be overrepresented in Appalachian women diagnosed with ICC compared to their healthy Appalachian counterparts. Methods : A case-control study was conducted with 163 cases, women diagnosed with ICC, and 842 controls, women with normal Pap tests from Appalachia Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Inclusion criteria were (i) women residing in Appalachian counties who were ≥18 years, (ii) spoke English, (ii) not cognitively impaired, (iii) able to provide informed consent. Three distinct groups were considered, representing (i) prevalent invasive cervical cancer cases, (ii) newly diagnosed invasive cervical cancer cases, and (iii) healthy controls. Targeted genomic variance analysis of 9 SNPs (rs1800469, rs1800470, rs3917200, rs7034462, rs11568785, rs868, rs1042522, rs750749, rs1800566) and a polymorphic repeat variant was conducted on blood DNA. Behavioral and environmental factors were collected using a comprehensive, self-administered questionnaire completed at the time of enrollment. Characteristics between cases and controls were compared by a two sample t-test, assuming unequal variance for continuous variables and by Fisher9s exact test for categorical variables. Associations between disease status, polymorphism and behavioral or environmental characteristics were estimated via multivariable logistic regression. Results : Never smokers with TGFB1 rs1800469 overdominant allele types A/A-G/G had 0.4 (95% CI: 0.22-0.73, p=0.003) times the odds of cervical cancer compared to never smokers with A/G genotype. This effect was not observed in ever smokers (interaction p=0.02). While there was a suggestion of an increased risk of cervical cancer for never smokers with TGFB1 rs1800469 recessive A/G-A/A genotypes compared to G/G non9A genotype CD83 dominant T/T compared to C/C-C/T, or overdominant C/C -T/T compared to C/T alleles, there were no strong interaction effects identified. The effect of dominant TP53 rs1042522 allele type (C/C C/G versus G/G) differed by smoking status. There was a significant 3-fold increase in the odds of cervical cancer (aOR: 3.1, 95% CI: 1.1-8.5, p=0.03) for never smokers with TP53 rs1042522 G/G compared to never smokers with C/C-C/G genotypes. A similar increase was not observed in ever-smokers (smoking status by genotype interaction effect p=0.02). In codominant types, there was a similar increased adjusted odds (aOR: 3.65, 95% CI: 1.21-11.0, p=0.021) of cervical cancer for never smokers with G/G genotypes compared to never smokers with C/G genotypes. This effect was not observed in ever smokers (interaction effect p=0.06). Conclusions : Genetic susceptibility may contribute to the overall cervical cancer risk associated with the Appalachian population, especially among non-smokers. Inclusion of additional demographic and social-behavioral features, as well as other genetic events, may further define this evolving cervical cancer risk model. Citation Format: Thomas J. Knobloch, Steve Oghumu, Marta Sears, Zhaoxia Zhang, Blessing Ogbemudia, Joe Perrault, David Cohn, Cecilia R. DeGraffinreid, Bo Lu, Juan Peng, Erinn M. Hade, Michael A. Schiano, Byron C. Calhoun, William McBee, Jr., Jamie Lesnock, Holly Gallion, Jondavid Pollock, Mack T. Ruffin, IV, Christopher M. Weghorst, Electra D. Paskett. Inherited alterations of Transforming Growth Factor Beta signaling components in Appalachian Cervical Cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B57.


In vitro diagnostics (IVDs) are medical devices for carrying out a test using human specimens such as urine or blood. Examples of these products are pregnancy tests, tests for determining the level of glucose or cholesterol in the blood, and tests that determine the blood group. To ensure that these products are safe and effective in use, the manufacturers must go through a procedure before the IVDs may be sold. The current legislation contains two lists on which IVDs are subdivided into a medium-risk and a high-risk category. IVDs that are not on these lists are automatically classified as low risk. An example of an IVD with high risk is an HIV test, whereas a blood collection tube or a pregnancy test has a low risk. A more stringent market authorisation procedure applies for IVDs with a high risk level and additional approval by an external party, a so-called notified body, is required. For low-risk IVDs, manufacturers may carry out the licensing procedure themselves. This system with lists is no longer sufficient. It has therefore been changed in the new European legislation for IVDs, which comes into effect in 2022. The risk of IVDs is then determined according to rules and subdivided into a cascade of four categories. Examples of factors that determine the risk are severity of the disorder tested for and possible consequences of an incorrect test result. Research carried out by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has shown that this means that many more IVDs will end up in a higher risk category (84 instead of 7 percent). This means that the number of IVDs for which the manufacturer requires approval of a notified body in order to obtain market authorization will be much greater.


Topicality. The new product technology development requires special attention to the raw materials which is used. Promising for processing and valuable in its composition poultry meat is not adapted to standard technologies and production modes and requires careful study. The study of these factors will expand the range of food meat products and provide the consumer market with high quality poultry products .Purpose and research methods. The purpose of the research is to develop the technology of a new raw all-muscle product from poultry meat of guaranteed quality. The methodological basis of the research is a comprehensive approach both when setting tasks for the production of meat products, and during the conduct and analysis of research results.Research results. The course of changes in samples (control and experiment) during production of crude all-muscle products on physicochemical, microbiological, organoleptic indicators has been investigated. It was found that in the process of production in all samples there was a change in chemical composition, which was associated with a decrease in the quantitative moisture content and an increase in dry matter – protein, fat and minerals. On day 11, the moisture content in the test sample was lower by 9.3% than in the control. A similar dynamics of decrease was observed for pH and water activity throughout the production time of the product. The required, safe level of water activity (0.816) was achieved on the 11th day of drying-fermentation. In the test sample, the amount of lactic acid microflora gradually increased and at the end of the drying process was 1.3 times higher than at the beginning of fermentation. The safety of the test product was determined in the absence of BGKP. On the 11th day of manufacture in the prototype BGKP were absent, in the control - on the 14th day. According to organoleptic parameters, the product using bacterial preparations had a significant number of advantages over control.Conclusions and discussions. The influence regularities of non-traditional raw materials (poultry meat, functional taste and aromatic ingredients and bacterial preparations on the process of production of raw whole muscle product based on poultry meat) have been studied. It has been established that their complex application contributed to the intensification of production processes and the manufacture of a safe product of guaranteed quality in 11 days.


This book is most suitable for second-year undergraduates on electronic engineering courses with some experience of electronic design using discrete devices, but might also be of interest to graduates from other disciplines who require clarification of the many terms and concepts used by IC designers. Readers should be aware that the field of IC design is changing rapidly, so some of the topics covered (particularly the CAD tools) may quickly become dated. However, this is a potential problem for all texts on the subject, and is not restricted to this book. Those aware of this limitation will find this a useful addition to their library. S. J. HARROLD Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, UMIST


The occurrence of perineal hernias in dogs during routine clinical surgery is frequent. The coexistence of rectal diseases that go undiagnosed or are not correctly treated can cause recurrence and postoperative complications. The objective of this report is to describe a surgical technique for treatment of rectal sacculation through lateral resection in dogs with perineal hernia, whereby restoring the rectal integrity.


Abstract : In this paper a surrogate electrochemical lithium-ion battery model, presented and discussed in (Di Domenico et al. - CCA, 2008) and (Di Domenico et al. - JDSMC, 2008), is parameterized and validated through experimental data by a 10 cell 37 V 6.8 Ah liion battery pack. Following past results (Zhang et al., 2000; Smith, 2010), the model is based on an approximate relationship between the electrode-averaged Butler-Volmer current and the solid-electrolyte interface concentration of a surrogate single particle for each cell electrode. Equally-spaced radially-discretized diffusion dynamics of the surrogate single particle for the positive electrode are then used to emulate the lithium concentration evolution in the cell. The surface concentration of the surrogate single particle, defined as surrogate Critical Surface Concentration (sCSC) is then used to predict the cell terminal voltage. The resulting model is as compact as an equivalent circuit model but its underpinnings are lumped lithium-ion diffusion dynamics. A few parameters of the lumped lithium concentration dynamics are tuned using an iterative optimization procedure with continuous and pulsed current profiles. The single particle lithium concentration profile and the surface concentration are then estimated using a 4th order Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and the voltage predictions are compared with data.


A series of new organosoluble and optically transparent poly(ether imide)s (PEIs) were synthesized by the polycondensation of trifluoromethyl substituted and phthalimidine cardo group based bis(ether amine), 3,3-bis-[4-{2′-trifluoromethyl 4′-(4″-aminophenyl)phenoxy}phenyl]-2-phenyl-2, 3-dihydro-isoindole-1-one with different fluorinated and non-fluorinated aromatic dianhydrides (2a–e). All the PEIs were well characterized by elemental analysis, NMR, FTIR spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The synthesized PEIs showed moderate to high inherent viscosity 0.41–0.61 dL/g and excellent solubility at room temperature in different organic solvents. All the transparent yellow films showed cut-off length upto 425 nm. They exhibited high tensile strengths upto 98 MPa, excellent thermostability upto 554°C for 5% weight loss, high glass transition temperature upto 327°C, and water uptake value less than 0.6%. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


In this hard-hitting and explosive book, reforming parliamentarian Leo Abse presents a remarkable analysis of Tony Blair. Originally published in 1996 to critical acclaim and a storm of controversy, the author has completely revised and updated it to scrutinise Blair's premiership years. In a powerfully penetrating and forthright investigation of Blair's pysche, Abse deploys his psychoanalytical scholarship to consider the forces and influences that have driven Blair. He examines the house of secrets in which Blair was reared, where the promiscuous grandmother forever cast a shadow, where the illegitimate stricken father - authoritative, ambitious and politically unstable - dominated the household, and where death unfairly invaded the family domain. Abse goes on to show how the traumatic events of Blair's childhood left him a loner, an estranged man who sought to resolve his private dilemmas in rock music and religion and then, belatedly, in politics.


This article presents a review of coordinated control strategies, stability analysis, and fault management for dc shipboard microgrids (dc-SMGs). As an emerging application, the dc-SMG lacks a comprehensive summary of the control schemes. Considering the specific load profile in ships, this article discusses the coordinated control strategies of diesel generators and energy storage system. Depending on the maritime conditions, different operation modes are switched by the energy management system. Due to the presence of high-bandwidth controlled constant power load converters, negative impedance instability is induced. Meanwhile, the pulsed loads in dc-SMG may affect the voltage stability significantly. Small-signal and large-signal stability analysis can be used to evaluate the effect of these two types of loads. In the aspect of the shipboard protection system, this article presents the specific requirements of dc-SMG based on the standards. Lacking "ground" in ships, solutions in designing the grounding system for dc-SMG is described. Besides, the short-circuit fault management consisting of fault detection, fault isolation, and reconfiguration in dc-SMGs are summarized. Finally, the existing commercial dc ships are presented and compared to demonstrate the developing trends.


Urban environments are among the most challenging scenarios for car-following systems, since pedestrians may interfere with the platoon unexpectedly. To address this problem, this paper proposes a cooperative system using vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian communication links. A fractional-order control-based cooperative adaptive cruise control benefits of communication for tighter inter-vehicle distances, while pedestrian communication is fused with LiDAR sensing to allow the detection of occluded pedestrians. The prediction of the pedestrians' trajectories is used to perform a speed reduction or an emergency braking that interrupts the car-following yif necessary. Whenever a platoon decoupling occurs, a gap-closing maneuver is executed so that the ego-vehicle rejoins the platoon in a string stable way. The complete system was tested on experimental platforms at inria facilities, providing encouraging results and demonstrating the correct performance of the integrated systems.


AACR Annual Meeting-- Apr 14-18, 2007; Los Angeles, CA

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PSA is an important biomarker for diagnosis of and prognosis assessment in prostate cancer. We have previously demonstrated that calcium-independent PLA2 (iPLA2) controls the secretion of PSA and inhibition of iPLA2 causes apoptosis in LNCaP cells. Addition of the PLA2 product arachidonic acid or its eicosanoid derivatives had no discernable effect on iPLA2-mediated apoptosis in LNCaP cells. However, addition of PSA together with iPLA2 inhibitor restored survival and addition of neutralizing antibody to PSA resulted in apoptosis. Addition of neutralizing antibody alone to LNCaP cells is sufficient to cause activation of caspases, indicative of apoptosis. Based on these data, we hypothesized that PSA plays an autocrine role that affects the survival of prostate cancer cells. Since the PI3K/Akt pathway plays a major role in prostate cancer cell survival, we tested whether PSA could activate the PI3K/Akt. Investigation of PSA signaling by western analysis shows that PSA causes the activation of Akt through phosphorylation at both Ser-473 and Thr-308 in LNCaP cells in a dose and time-dependent fashion. Phosphorylation of Akt was initiated within 2 hr by PSA at concentrations between 200 and 700 ng/ml and incubation at 3 hr required 25 to 200 ng/ml PSA. Treatment with PI3K inhibitors LY294002 and wortmannin in combination with PSA completed inhibited Akt activation. These data indicate that PSA participates in autocrine signaling that contributes to the regulation of survival of prostate cancer cells. While PSA is one of the best biomarkers for the early detection of any cancer, its effect on patient survival is under question. A role for PSA in cancer progression could explain its minimal impact on patient survival while acting as an early warning signal for the disease.


Immunotherapies are becoming a promising strategy for malignant disease. Selectively directing host immune responses to target cancerous tissue is a milestone of human health care. The roles of the innate and adaptive immune systems in both cancer progression and elimination are now being realized. Defining the immune cell environment and identifying the contributions of each sub-population of these cells has lead to an understanding of the immunotherapeutic processes, and demonstrated the potential of the immune system to drive cancer shrinkage and sustained immunity against disease. Poorly treated diseases, such as high-grade glioma, suffer from lack of therapeutic efficacy and rapid progression. Immunotherapeutic success in other solid malignancies, such as melanoma, now provides the principals for which this treatment paradigm can be adapted for primary brain cancers. The central nervous system is complex, and relative contributions of immune sub-populations to high grade glioma progression are not fully characterized. Here, we summarize recent research in both animal and humans which add to the knowledge base of how innate and adaptive immune cells contribute to glioma progression, and outline work which has demonstrated their potential to elicit anti-tumorigenic responses. Additionally, we highlight Neuropilin 1, a cell surface receptor protein, describe its signaling functions in the context of immunity, and point to its potential to slow glioma progression.


The focus of the research is the development of the subject "Islam and Religious Moderation" in Islamic Education study program at IAIN Kerinci and learning tools, namely Rencana Pembelajaran Semester (RPS, Semester Learning Plan) and course syllabus. In conducting the research, the research and development (R&D) approach is used as a basic reference for developing lecture programs through observation or survey methods, trials and classroom actions. From the results and research analysis, it can be concluded that in the development of a course there are several things that must become the product of development including the course structure, RPS, syllabus, and course-teaching materials of course. In terms of the development of the Islamic and Religious Moderation course based on the Merdeka Belajar – Kampus Merdeka (MBKM, Independent learning – Independent campus) program, theoretical and practical analysis of the guidelines, instructions, and implementation of religious moderation and MBKM is needed. The product development courses are further refined through validation by curriculum and religious education experts and theoretical validation through journal articles of international repute as comparisons.


The survival rates of the staghorn coral Acro pora muricata and the branching coral Pocillopora dami cornis were examined using 6 transplantation techniques to evaluate the effectiveness of direct transplantation of coral fragments vs. fragments grown in nurseries before transplantation. (n=150 fragments per technique). The study was conducted at Sungwan beach, Koh Laan, Pat taya City, Chonburi Province for a period of 33 weeks (September 2009 to May 2010). In A. muricata, the high est survival rate (82.0%) was shown by those fragments which were nursed on the midwater nursery before trans planted on iron plate, followed by those which were di rectly transplanted on iron plate (survival rate of 64.7%), and those nursed on iron fish home nursery before trans planted on iron plate, (survival rate of 59.3%). In P. damicornis, the highest survival rate (72.7%) was shown by those fragments which were nursed on the iron fish home nursery before transplanted on iron plate, followed by those which were nursed on midwater nursery before transplanted on coral ball (survival rate of 64%), and those directly transplanted on coral ball, (survival rate of 46.7%). According to survival rate, budget, time frame and manpower, the most effective method was direct transplantation on iron plate.


Abstract : The energetic materials (RDX, TNT, DNTs) are possible sources of groundwater and surface soil (1 ft) contamination at DoD training and testing sites. RDX, in particular, is more mobile than the other compounds in groundwater. Phytoremediation is an inexpensive, self-sustaining treatment technology that may be suitable for prevention of contamination. Phytoremediation of energetic materials (RDX, TNT, DNTs) requires basic knowledge of the transformation pathways of the energetic materials for several purposes. Selection of high-performing native plants, engineering plants with enhanced transformation capabilities, identifying the fate of transformation products in the plants, and designing the external variables to operate a more effective phytoremediation process are all dependent on a knowledge base of the genetic structure, enzymatic structure, and biochemical reaction pathways. This project used Arabidopsis thaliana as a model plant system to perform genetic and biochemical studies to assist in the identification of the genes, enzymes and pathway structure of metabolism of energetic materials. The strategy involved selection of mutants resistant to the energetic compound, and then genetic and metabolic characterization of the mutants. However, as a prerequisite to this strategy, two types of Arabidopsis thaliana mutant libraries, T-DNA insertion and Enhancer (4X)-trap, were generated and screening assays for resistance to TNT and RDX needed to be designed and implemented. Furthermore, uptake and metabolic fate studies of Arabidopsis thaliana exposed to RDX, TNT, and DNTs were necessary as controls to compare with the mutants. Thus, these prerequisite studies alone contributed to the tool and knowledge base on transformation of energetic materials in this genetically powerful plant system. Knowledge of phytotoxicity effects of plants to TNT and RDX from prior literature was used as an aid to design.


One of the primary functions of the law of federal jurisdiction is to allocate cases between state and federal courts, and by common consensus that body of doctrine is a mess. The doctrine is overly complex, often indeterminate, rests on the mutable concept of parity, and frequently fails to respect the state or federal "interests" in having a case adjudicated in state or federal court. The root of the problem, this article argues, is the problem of "either-or": the almost universal understanding that a case should be litigated in a state court or a federal court, but not both. The suggestion here is that the law should adopt a different - or "multi-jurisdictional" - approach, meaning that when appropriate cases should be litigated in both the state and federal court systems. Although this suggestion sounds novel, one of the central points of the article is that multi-jurisdictional solutions are familiar and pervasive, examples being collateral review and certification procedures. The article identifies a small list of state and federal interests that achieve broad consensus, then explains how these interests can be used to allocate cases to state and federal courts, utilizing multi-jurisdictional solutions when necessary to accommodate competing interests. The article demonstrates how a set of deep principles operating under the surface doctrine already allocates most cases in this fashion, and suggests reform when such is not the case. The article concludes by explaining why the multi-jurisdictional approach is appropriate, in the face of arguments about resource expenditures.


Photoacoustic (PA) spectroscopic technique has become a popular tool for trace gas detection and is especially suitable for in situ measurement of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) decomposition components in gas insulated switchgear (GIS). However, the concentrations of SF6 decomposition components are generally very low and the resulting PA signals are too weak to be accurately retrieved with traditional methods. In this study, we proposed a Lyapunov exponent based chaotic oscillator algorithm to retrieve the weak PA signals of SF6 decomposition components. Retrieval of weak PA signals from strong noise background was achieved for both simulation and measurement perspectives. The results were compared with those based on phase-locked amplification technique. Both simulation and measurement results concluded that the proposed chaotic oscillator algorithm is superior to the phase-locked amplification in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and stability. Since most trace gases have weak absorption signatures in the atmosphere (below 1%), this study can provide valuable insights in dealt with such weak signals in remote sensing of atmosphere.