The application of vehicle ad-hoc networks (VANETs) has brought huge potential to the development of intelligent transportation systems. By traffic event reporting, traffic efficiency can be significantly improved. However, people usually lack the motivation for reporting traffic events or driving violations, because once the identity of the reporter is leaked, he or she may be tracked by malicious attackers or be retaliated by violators. However, if the reporter is anonymous, it is difficult to guarantee the accuracy and authenticity of the reports. In order to solve this contradiction, a mechanism that combines certificateless message authentication and blockchain incentives is proposed in this paper. A certificateless message signature algorithm is designed to provide the anonymity and non-repudiation for traffic-related message reporters. Simultaneously, an adaptive t-threshold multi-signature mechanism is introduced in our scheme. Similar to crowdsourcing, it requires multiple participants to witness the authenticity of the message together. Aggregation signature verification improves message authentication efficiency. A trust currency called TCoin is introduced to motivate reporters' enthusiasm for participation in intelligent transportation. The security analysis and simulation results show that our scheme is secure and effective in the intelligent transportation system.


ABSTRACT In this paper, I propose and defend a structural ownership condition on moral responsibility. According to the condition I propose, an agent owns a mental item if and only if it is part of or is partly grounded by a coherent set of psychological states. As I discuss, other theorists have proposed or alluded to conditions like psychological coherence, but each proposal is unsatisfactory in some way. My account appeals to narrative explanation to elucidate the relevant sense of psychological coherence.


This paper suggests a CPS/INS navigation computer architecture that can be applied to small satellites. In order to implement a CPS/INS navigation system on a small satellite, the extreme environment in space such as radiation, micro-gravity, vacuum, etc. must be considered. In addition, a real-time processing ability is required for the CPS/INS navigation system since the formation flying of multiple small satellites is the ultimate goal. The developed navigation electronics utilizes a PowerPC-type MPC860T that has space environment heritage, and a pair of Atmega128s that has been implemented in KAUSAT-2 and has completed the space environment verification tests. The navigation algorithm is designed to work in VxWorks environment, ported in MPC860T.


This paper makes an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance on empowerment of women. A cross-sectional research on 115 women in the State of Tamil Nadu, India through a structured questionnaire was conducted. Population of study is women who are associated with Self Help Groups (SHG's). These women are married and have at least one child. Exploratory factor analysis is used to study the indicators of women empowerment. Results reveal that indicators of women empowerment are household economic decision making, legal awareness, mobility, economic security and family decision making. Five hypotheses are developed to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance on empowerment of women for mentioned five indicators. Paired samples t test is used to know the difference in women's perception before joining microfinance program and after joining microfinance program. The findings of this study reveal that microfinance is a powerful tool in enhancing women empowerment for its all indicators like household economic decision making, legal awareness, mobility, economic security and family decision making.


This study focuses on how Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) can best be used by Brunel University students to enhance their learning. The study considers the impact that different levels of interactivity have on the memory and understanding of the students. In particular, it considers the use of interactive self-assessment questions (ISAQs) as a mechanism to help them learn from an eLearning system. One mechanism that has been employed for over four years is the use of a bespoke multimedia eLearning system available over the Web to first-year undergraduates. A common feature of many eLearning systems is the use of ISAQs to allow students to evaluate their grasp of the material with a view to revisiting it if they feel it necessary. However, ISAQs are time-consuming to develop and implement. This case study considers whether the incorporation of ISAQs has a measurable impact on learning as indicated by their performance in tests. © 2010, IGI Global.


Some Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing operation models over asymmetric networks have several shortcomings that may affect system and network performance: data transmission paths are highly redundant wasting a lot of backbone bandwidth, the download throughput in a node may be limited by the the upward bandwidth of other nodes; TCP performance is deteriorated due to the blocking of acknowledge packets on the upward channel. These shortcomings severely impair the efficiency of P2P file sharing as well as network performance. These problems are further complicated by the voluntary nature of P2P: peer nodes are fairly unstable. For similar reasons, when such P2P file sharing paradigm is moving to wireless networks, it may suffer from even worse performance degradation due to many reasons such as lower link reliability, lower bandwidth, and the impairment of TCP protocol. This paper analyzes these problems mainly from topology and protocol viewpoints and proposes some solution approaches to alleviate some of these problems.


In the proposed paper, a novel types of genetic algorithms are used as a global optimization method to seek the geometry of ultra-band discone antenna with Koch motive. The global optimization method is real codes genetic algorithms SPX-PNX used for accurate results of optimization. For accurate and wideband computation, time domain method in CST MW Studio is used. The antenna is optimized for two basic parameters: wideband impedance matching and directivity pattern of the antenna.


A new European Community Directive, dealing with Ex equipment, will shortly be published, giving the opportunity to review the standard safety concepts (EExd, e, p, etc.). According to the European Council statement, the safety degree is based on the number of independent defensive measures (barriers) adopted to reduce the likelihood of an undesired event occurrence. Moreover, the safety designation will require an increasing assumption of responsibility by the motor manufacturer. Consequently, a better understanding of the causes related to an explosion and the actions that must be taken to avoid it occurring are both necessary. Explosions can be caused by incendive sparking originated in the air gap during starting, or due to current transfer at undesired joints or corona discharges on contaminated end-windings in high voltage motors. The paper covers the performance of corona suppressing systems (CSS) in aggressive environments, where a heavy degradation may lead to undesired effects as the inception of high magnitude surface discharges. The methodology used to evaluate the actual condition of CSS during ageing progression is based on detection of partial discharge (PD) patterns. The results of an accelerated multistress ageing on wound "motorettes" are reported: the partial discharge amplitude distribution (PDAD) technique is found quite effective to detect problems. Taking into account the energy related to the PD, the hazard of explosion is also considered.


In 90 workers of the petrochemical industry occupationally exposed to a mixture of petroleum derivatives, including 60 persons exposed mainly to phenol and 30 to toluene, the metabolic activity of the liver was examined using the antipyrine test. In both groups of subjects, an increase of antipyrine clearance in saliva was observed. Occupational exposure to lipophylic derivatives of petroleum seems to induce the function of liver microsomal enzymes.


A sensitive biomarker of malaria infection would obviate the need for placebo control arms in clinical trials of malaria prophylactic drugs. Antibodies to the 42-kDa fragment of merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP1(42)) have been identified as a potential marker of malaria exposure in individuals receiving prophylaxis with mefloquine. We conducted an open-label trial to determine the sensitivity of seroconversion to MSP1(42), defined as a fourfold rise in enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) titer, among 23 malaria naïve volunteers receiving mefloquine prophylaxis and 6 controls after Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite challenge. All members of the control cohort but none of the mefloquine cohort developed patent parasitemia. Four of six controls but zero of the mefloquine cohort seroconverted to MSP1(42). We conclude that malaria infection during suppressive prophylaxis does not induce antibody response to the blood-stage antigen MSP1(42) in a malaria-naïve study population.


Purpose
Based on the resource orchestration perspective, this study aims to explore whether and how strategic supply management (SSM) affects firms' operational performance (OP) and innovation performance (IP).

Design/methodology/approach
Survey data comprising 404 valid responses are collected from traditional manufacturing firms in China. Confirmatory factor analysis confirms the reliability and validity of the measures. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping are used to test all hypotheses.

Findings
SSM improves firms' OP and IP. Furthermore, supply base resource mobilization (SBRM) and supply market resource mobilization (SMRM) have partial mediating effects on the relationships. SBRM has a greater effect on OP, while SMRM has a greater effect on IP. In addition, these two types of resource mobilization form different mediating paths between SSM and firm performance, and environmental uncertainty positively moderates this relationship.

Originality/value
With the development of national innovation strategies such as the "Made in China 2025" plan, the Chinese manufacturing industry aims to move from low-cost manufacturing to innovative and high-quality manufacturing. The study's findings further emphasize the role of purchasing and supply management in external resource management. In addition to demonstrating the differential effects of heterogeneous resource mobilization on OP and IP, different mediation pathways through external resources mobilization are identified in the relationship between SSM and firm performance.


Abstract This research developed a new ideal point-based item response theory (IRT) model for multidimensional forced choice (MFC) measures. We adapted the Zinnes and Griggs (ZG; 1974) IRT model and the multi-unidimensional pairwise preference (MUPP; Stark et al., 2005) model, henceforth referred to as ZG-MUPP. We derived the information function to evaluate the psychometric properties of MFC measures and developed a model parameter estimation algorithm using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed model, we conducted a simulation study under various experimental conditions such as sample sizes, number of items, and ranges of discrimination and location parameters. The results showed that the model parameters were accurately estimated when the sample size was as low as 500. The empirical results also showed that the scores from the ZG-MUPP model were comparable to those from the MUPP model and the Thurstonian IRT (TIRT) model. Practical implications and limitations are further discussed.


Detecting oriented objects along with estimating their rotation information is one crucial step for analyzing remote sensing images. Despite that many methods proposed recently have achieved remarkable performance, most of them directly learn to predict object directions under the supervision of only one (e.g. the rotation angle) or a few (e.g. several coordinates) groundtruth values individually. Oriented object detection would be more accurate and robust if extra constraints, with respect to proposal and rotation information regression, are adopted for joint supervision during training. To this end, we innovatively propose a mechanism that simultaneously learns the regression of horizontal proposals, oriented proposals, and rotation angles of objects in a consistent manner, via naive geometric computing, as one additional steady constraint (see Figure 1). An oriented center prior guided label assignment strategy is proposed for further enhancing the quality of proposals, yielding better performance. Extensive experiments demonstrate the model equipped with our idea significantly outperforms the baseline by a large margin to achieve a new state-of-the-art result without any extra computational burden during inference. Our proposed idea is simple and intuitive that can be readily implemented. Source codes and trained models are involved in supplementary files.


ABSTRACT Definitions of authorized users in license agreements not only dictate who is allowed to access licensed resources, but also define who can be considered part of an institution's user community. Researchers engage in collaborative research, sometimes holding multiple affiliations that, at times, may extend beyond a definition of authorized user. This paper examines how libraries play a role in supporting or inhibiting collaborative research by exploring a strategic partnership between the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to further collaboration related to atmospheric research and climate studies. While the goals of the partnership sought to enhance research and collaboration through access to licensed resources, the authors found that the paywalled model of access through license agreements, authentication, and access and discovery methods has complicated the effectiveness of creating a collaborative research environment.


PostgreSQL is a database management system, used in many different applications throughout the industry. As databases often are the bottlenecks in the performance of applications, their performance becomes crucial. Better performance can either be achieved by using more and faster hardware, or by making the software more efficient. In this master thesis we do a performance analysis of the PostgreSQL database server from the perspective of compiler optimizations, file systems and software prefetching. We will also show how a data structure used in PostgreSQL can benefit from manually introducing software prefetching, as it is hard for the compiler to predict cache misses and insert prefetching instructions in a profitable way.


Direct immunofluorescence was first used successfully for the staining of Leucocytozoon caulleryi of different developmental stages, such as the 2nd generation schizont and merozoite, gametocyte, zygote, ookinete, and sporozoite. Fluorescent antibody of IgG nature prepared from sera of chickens over a period from the 21st to the 100th day after sporozoite inoculation was used in this experiment. The cross reactivity on different developmental stages of L. caulleryi in the direct fluorescent antibody test suggested that antigens common to different developmental stages, or shared antigens, might exist, as well as specific antigens so far well-known. The fluorescent intensity of oocyst sporozoite, and schizont contents was apparently lower than that of any other stage. This evidence might be elucidated by the antigenic incompletion.


Background Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) has been shown to ameliorate early ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury after activation by tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ). However, despite macrophage-associated inflammation being a distinguishing feature of I/R injury, the precise roles and mechanisms of Nrf2 in macrophage-associated inflammation are still poorly understood. Methods I/R and hypoxia/reperfusion (H/R) models were constructed in vivo using rats and in vitro using the H9C2 rat cardiomyoblast cell line, respectively. The effects of TBHQ on myocardial damage under oxidative stress were assessed using apoptosis and cell cycle assays, as well as echocardiography. The Jaspar database was used to identify the C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (Ccl2) gene promoter as a possible binding site for Nrf2. This interaction was validated by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), immunofluorescence staining, and western blot analysis. Transwell migration assays were used to examine the migration ability of the recruited macrophages. Results The Nrf2 activator, TBHQ, induced phosphorylation of Nrf2 and promoted the secretion of Ccl2 by myocardial microvascular endothelial cells. The secreted Ccl2 induced the chemotaxis of M2 macrophages into the injury site and triggered the secretion of anti-inflammatory factors including interleukin (IL)-10 and tumor growth factor (TGF)-β1 by M2 macrophages, thereby reducing early myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury (MI/R). Conclusions Activation of Nrf2 alleviated oxidative stress during myocardial ischemia and reperfusion by inducing the secretion of anti-inflammatory factors.


With increasing use of mobile phones, exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) in the high-frequency band associated with mobile phones has become a public concern, with potentially adverse effects on cognitive function in children and adolescents. However, findings regarding the relation of RF-EMF and cognitive function in children and adolescents have been inconsistent due to a number of study design-related factors, such as types of exposure and outcome measures, age of participants, and the era of study conduction. The present literature review focused on these possible factors that could explain this inconsistency. This review identified 12 eligible studies (participants ages 4 to 17 years) and extracted a total 477 relations. In total, 86% of the extracted relations were not statistically significant; in the remaining 14%, a negative relation between RF-EMF and cognitive performance was detected under limited conditions: when (1) RF-EMF was assessed using objective measurement not subjective measurement (i.e., questionnaire), (2) participants were relatively older (12 years and above) and had greater opportunity of exposure to RF-EMF, and (3) the collection of cognitive function data was conducted after 2012. Given that 86% of the extracted relations in this analysis were not statistically significant, the interpretation should be approached with caution due to the possibility of the 14% of significant relationships, extracted in this review, representing chance findings.


Concept similarity measure aims at identifying a degree of commonality of two given concepts and is often regarded as a generalization of the classical reasoning problem of equivalence. That is, any two concepts are equivalent if and only if their similarity degree is one. However, existing measures are often devised based on objective factors, e.g. structural-based measures and interpretation-based measures. When these measures are employed to characterize similar concepts in an ontology, they may lead to unintuitive results. In this work, we introduce a new notion called concept similarity measure under preference profile with a set of formally defined properties in Description Logics. This new notion may be interpreted as measuring the similarity of two concepts under subjective factors (e.g. the agent's preferences and domain-dependent knowledge). We also develop a measure of the proposed notion and show that our measure satisfies all desirable properties. Two algorithmic procedures are introduced for top-down and bottom-up implementation, respectively, and their computational complexities are intensively studied. Finally, the paper discusses the usefulness of the approach to potential use cases.


We present an alternative definition for the Goussarov-Habiro filtration of the Z-module freely generated by oriented integral homology 3-spheres, by means of Lagrangian-preserving homology handlebody re- placements (LP-surgeries). Garoufalidis, Goussarov and Polyak proved that the graded space (Gn)n associated to this filtration is generated by Jacobi diagrams. Here, we express elements associated to LP-surgeries as explicit combinations of these Jacobi diagrams in (Gn)n. The obtained co- efficient in front of a Jacobi diagram is computed like its weight system with respect to a Lie algebra equipped with a non-degenerate invariant bilinear form, where cup products in 3-manifolds play the role of the Lie bracket and the linking number replaces the invariant form. In particular, this article provides an algebraic version of the graphical clover calculus devel- oped by Garoufalidis, Goussarov, Habiro and Polyak. This version induces splitting formulae for all finite type invariants of homology 3-spheres. AMS Classification 57M27; 57N10


Wear tests are performed for a variety of reasons: to gain an understanding of the wear process, to determine the effects of variables, to characterize materials, and to select materials for specific applications. Selection of test rigs and procedures is only difficult where simulation of an application is necessary. Under these circumstances it is necessary to consider the important variables which affect the wear process; primary consideration should be given to the surface temperature. Many types of test rigs are available to make such evaluations. The development of a standard wear test is considered to be urgently needed.


The study adopts the self-made questionnaire of 0 - 3-year-old children's demand for child care, investigating 6564 families with 0 - 3-year-old children in G province by means of cluster probability sampling. The survey shows that most parents' willingness to care is not strong, and the acceptable monthly cost of care is mainly within 2000 Yuan. The main reason for choosing care is to let children receive professional care and education. The main reasons for not choosing nursery are that families can take care of themselves; parents are most concerned about the safety of nursery institutions and the professionalism of the staff; they prefer to choose public nursery institutions. Therefore, we should actively construct a multi-level and multi-level care service system to better meet the demand of care services of 0 - 3-year-old infants.


We show strong evidence for the absence of a finite-temperature spin glass transition for the random-bond Ising model on self-dual lattices. The analysis is performed by an application of duality relations, which enables us to derive a precise but approximate location of the multicritical point on the Nishimori line. This method can be systematically improved to presumably give the exact result asymptotically. The duality analysis, in conjunction with the relationship between the multicritical point and the spin glass transition point for the symmetric distribution function of randomness, leads to the conclusion of the absence of a finite-temperature spin glass transition for the case of symmetric distribution. The result is applicable to the random-bond Ising model with ±J or Gaussian distribution and the Potts gauge glass on the square, triangular and hexagonal lattices as well as the random three-body Ising model on the triangular and the Union-Jack lattices and the four-dimensional random plaquette gauge model. This conclusion is exact provided that the replica method is valid and the asymptotic limit of the duality analysis yields the exact location of the multicritical point.


Graphene oxide (GO), single-walled carbon nanohorn (CNHox), and nitrogen-doped CNH (N-CNH) were functionalized with fluorinated poly(ethylene glycol) (F-PEG) and/or with a fluorinated dendrimer (F-DEN) to prepare a series of assembled nanocomposites (GO/F-PEG, CNHox/F-PEG, N-CNH/F-PEG, N-CNH/F-DEN, and N-CNH/F-DEN/F-PEG) that provide effective multisite O2 reservoirs. In all cases, the O2 uptake increased with time and saturated after 10-20 min. When graphitic carbons (GO and CNHox) were coated with F-PEG, the O2 uptake doubled. The O2 loading was slightly higher in N-CNH compared to CNHox. Notably, coating N-CNH with F-DEN or F-PEG, or with both F-DEN and F-PEG, was more effective. The best performance was obtained with the N-CNH/F-DEN/F-PEG nanocomposite. The O2 uptake kinetics and mechanisms were analyzed in terms of the Langmuir adsorption equation based on a multibinding site assumption. This allowed the precise determination of multiple oxygen binding sites, including on the graphitic structure and in the dendrimer, F-DEN, and F-PEG. After an initial rapid, relatively limited release, the amount of O2 trapped in the nanomaterials remained high (>95%). This amount was marginally lower for the functionalized composites, but the oxygen stored was reserved for longer times. Finally, it is shown that these systems can generate singlet oxygen after irradiation by a light-emitting diode, and this production correlates with the amount of O2 loaded. Thus, it was anticipated that the present nanocomposites hierarchically assembled from components with different characters and complementary affinities for oxygen can be useful as O2 reservoirs for singlet oxygen generation to kill bacteria and viruses and to perform photodynamic therapy.


OBJECTIVE
To observe the specific cellular and humoral immune responses after immunization with recombinant adenovirus Ad5F35-LMP2 in rhesus monkeys.

METHODS
Sixteen rhesuses were immunized with Ad5F35-LMP2 through intra-muscular injection in three groups: high dosage group (1.5 x 10(10) TCID(50)/rhesus), medium dosage group (1.5 x 10(9)TCID(50)/rhesus), low dosage group (1.5 x 10(8)TCID50/rhesus) and the last group was control (PBS 4 ml/rhesus). They were totally immunized three times at intervals of one month. The EBV-LMP2 specific cellular immune responses were tested during the 0, 4, 8, 12 weeks by Elispot after immunization respectively. And the titers of anti-LMP2 antibody were tested by EIA at the same time.

RESULTS
EBV-LMP2 specific cellular and humoral immune responses which were induced by recombinant adenovirus Ad5F35-LMP2 can be found in all the three dosage groups. The potency of immune responses was related with the dosage of immunization. Higher dosage elicited more potent immune response.

CONCLUSION
The recombinant adenovirus Ad5F35-LMP2 could elicit LMP2 specific cellular and humoral immune responses in rhesus.


Novel NiMoO_4-integrated electrode materials were successfully prepared by solvothermal method using Na_2MoO_4·2H_2O and NiSO_4·6H_2O as main raw materials, water, and ethanol as solvents. The morphology, phase, and structure of the as-prepared materials were characterized by SEM, XRD, Raman, and FT-IR. The electrochemical properties of the materials in supercapacitors were investigated by cyclic voltammetry, constant current charge–discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The effects of volume ratio of water to ethanol (W/E) in solvent on the properties of the product were studied. The results show that the pure phase monoclinic crystal NiMoO_4 product can be obtained when the W/E is 2:1. The diameter and length are 0.1–0.3 µm and approximately 3 µm, respectively. As an active material for supercapacitor, the NiMoO_4 nanorods material delivered a discharge specific capacitance of 672, 498, and 396 F/g at a current density of 4, 7, and 10 A/g, respectively. The discharge specific capacitance slightly decreased from 815 to 588 F/g with a retention of 72% after 1000 cycles at a current density of 1 A/g. With these superior capacitance properties, the novel NiMoO_4 integrated electrode materials could be considered as promising material for supercapacitors.


ABSTRACT Breeding for tolerance to iron (Fe) toxicity in rice (Oryza sativa L.) is hindered by lack of a suitable screening technique. In the culture solution methods used to date, a major difficulty has been maintaining an excess level of iron concentration in order to reveal toxicity symptoms. Experimental results showed that this problem was solved by lowering the solution temperature to around 20°C, at which leaf discoloration in susceptible cultivars became more pronounced. At 20°C Fe uptake was increased from a threshhold content of 300 mg/kg of dry weight of shoot for toxic symptom to more than 1000mg/kg in susceptible and in tolerant cultivars. Concentrations of other related minerals in the plant tissue, i.e., potassium (K) and phosphorus (P), were not affected by the low solution temperature itself but by Fe content, which can be inferred on the basis of their response curves to the excess Fe treatment. Using the proposed screening method makes it possible to obtain reproducible results in screening a large number of plants or breeding lines.


Detection of aromatic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is important for monitoring occupational hazards, industrial safety, and environmental applications. Here, we present a new in-situ-synthesized carbon dot – aerogel matrix and demonstrate its application for sensing aromatic VOCs. The composite aerogel exhibited high specific surface area and pore diameter, enabling efficient adsorption of the organic vapors. In particular, the excitation-dependent luminescence emission properties of the carbon dots were retained upon embedding within the aerogel host, and provided a sensitive transduction mechaeywords:


The life and work of Lamennais (1782‑1854) have been a continuous source of abundant historic research. They were interpreted in the most diverse and contrary fashions although no movement, either internal or external to Catholicism, ever laid claim to them. This research often only partially hides the fascination and fears conjured up by Lamennais's life rather than his work. This production and the myths that stem from it can therefore be read under this perspective: a man whose destiny tirelessly questions the functions of spiritual authority in modern societies and its relation to authority itself. If these are indeed the preoccupations of the "Master of La Chênaie", one may thus wonder to what extent the successive reinvestments have contributed to freeze the virtualities of the first half of the 19th century and furthermore to the movements present within contemporary Catholicism. In this regard, the analysis of the historiographic production calls for a new analysis of the success of a work and the influence of a man that reveal the anxieties of an era in search of a new government of minds – an issue that finds its roots in the French Revolution and wanes with the consequences of the failure of the Second Republic.


The Fermi-LAT observations of SN 2023ixf, a Type II supernova in the nearby Pinwheel Galaxy, Messier 101 (M101), presents us with an excellent opportunity to constrain MeV-scale Axion-Like Particles (ALPs). By examining the photon decay signature from heavy ALPs that could be produced in the explosion, we improve the existing constraints on the ALP-photon coupling by up to a factor of $ \sim 2 $ for masses $ m_a \lesssim 3 $ MeV, with the exact value depending mostly on plasma properties of the collapsing core. This study demonstrates the relevance of core-collapse supernovae, also beyond the Magellanic Clouds, as probes of fundamental physics.


We examined the regulation of cellular retinol-binding protein (CRBP) mRNA and protein expression in human skin in vivo by all-trans retinoic acid and all-trans retinol. Treatment of human skin for 24 h with all-trans retinoic acid (0.1%) or all-trans retinol (1.6%) induced CRBP mRNA 5.5-fold (p < 0.01, n = 10) and 5.7-fold (p < 0.01, n = 5), respectively, compared with skin treated with vehicle or sodium lauryl sulfate (used as an irritant control). In vitro translation of poly A+ RNA from all-trans retinoic acid, all-trans retinol, sodium lauryl sulfate, and vehicle-treated human skin demonstrated that the observed increased CRBP mRNA in all-trans retinoic acid- and all-trans retinol-treated skin was able to direct increased (2.3-2.9-fold) CRBP protein synthesis. Riboprobe in situ hybridization revealed that CRBP mRNA was uniformly elevated throughout the epidermis and in dermal cells after all-trans retinoic acid treatment of human skin. Western analysis revealed that CRBP protein was elevated 3.2-fold (p < 0.01, n = 6) and 3.0-fold (p < 0.01, n = 6) after all-trans retinoic acid treatment of human skin in vivo for 24 and 96 h, respectively, compared with vehicle- and sodium lauryl sulfate-treated skin. In addition, functional CRBP levels measured by [3H]all-trans retinol binding were elevated 1.9-fold (p < 0.01, n = 6) and 3.5-fold (p < 0.01, n = 6) at 24 and 94 h, respectively, after all-trans retinoic acid treatment, compared with vehicle- or sodium lauryl sulfate-treated skin. Gel mobility shift analysis revealed that retinoid receptors in nuclear extracts from human skin formed a specific complex with a DNA probe containing the retinoic acid response element in the mouse CRBP gene. Monoclonal antibodies to nuclear retinoid receptors demonstrated that predominantly retinoic acid receptor-alpha/retinoid X receptor-alpha heterodimers bound to the CRBP retinoic acid response element. These data demonstrate that CRBP expression in human skin in vivo is regulated by exogenous all-trans retinoic acid and all-trans retinol.


Several important advancements in the integration of energy storage into microgrids have fueled a lot of research and development over the last ten years to achieve the global decarbonization goal by 2050. The effective integration of the energy storage system in the microgrid is essential to ensure a safe, reliable, and resilient operation. Nevertheless, the utilization of energy storage in microgrids brings several issues, including poor power quality and intermittence characteristics. To address these concerns, appropriate energy storage controllers and optimization schemes are required to manage and optimize the power efficiently and securely. Although various research works have been performed and published over the years, the analytical assessment of energy storage controllers and optimization schemes integration into microgrids has not been carried out yet. Thus, this paper presents a comprehensive analytical evaluation of energy storage controllers and optimization schemes in Microgrid by recognizing and evaluating the highly influential 110 manuscripts using the Scopus database within the year 2010-2021. The analytical analysis emphasizes the current research trends, keyword evaluation, research classification, country analysis, authorship, and research collaboration. The paper also discusses and compares 24 controllers and 21 optimization schemes in the highly cited 110 manuscripts. Besides, critical discussion and assessment are conducted over 15 emerging subject areas. The constructive analysis identifies the existing limitations and research gaps in the selected 110 papers. By analyzing the existing issues, this manuscript provides several guidelines and suggestions for future improvement. This survey will help to deepen the development concepts to achieve improved power quality, economic prosperity, energy savings, and increased efficiency towards sustainable operation and management in the microgrid.


Presence of noise in the labels of large scale facial expression datasets has been a key challenge towards Facial Expression Recognition (FER) in the wild. During early learning stage, deep networks fit on clean data. Then, eventually, they start overfitting on noisy labels due to their memorization ability, which limits FER performance. This work proposes an effective training strategy in the presence of noisy labels, called as Consensual Collaborative Training (CCT) framework. CCT co-trains three networks jointly using a convex combination of supervision loss and consistency loss, without making any assumption about the noise distribution. A dynamic transition mechanism is used to move from supervision loss in early learning to consistency loss for consensus of predictions among networks in the later stage. Inference is done using a single network based on a simple knowledge distillation scheme. Effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated on synthetic as well as real noisy FER datasets. In addition, a large test subset of around 5K images is annotated from the FEC dataset using crowd wisdom of 16 different annotators and reliable labels are inferred. CCT is also validated on it. State-of-the-art performance is reported on the benchmark FER datasets RAFDB (90.84%) FERPlus (89.99%) and AffectNet (66%). Our codes are available at this https URL.


Gifted students in regular classrooms have fewer opportunities to develop activities that are based on their characteristics as learners and address their needs; however, many of them spend most of their school time in these classrooms. The results presented here were part of a 2-year qualitative project that analyzed 12 Chilean gifted students' lived experiences in regular classrooms by exploring the factors that foster and hinder their learning through the use of photos, focus groups, and interviews. The results showed students' discontent with the national curriculum and teaching practices related to rigidity, lack of meaning, and unchallenging assessments. Nevertheless, positive experiences were reported related to teaching strategies, especially when they add novelty and move away from traditional approaches. Waiting experiences were common, but were often seen by students as opportunities for creative production. Methods for engaging gifted students in their learning are highlighted.


Abstract On the basis of previous research, we predict that Mediterranean grasslands should show larger-seeded annuals in: (1) more-arid grasslands; (2) more-fertile soils; (3) less-grazed grasslands; and (4) grasslands with lower intensities of seed predation by ants. To test these predictions, we set 29 sampling units of 50 m × 50 m in a 1000 km2 grassland area in Central Spain, and characterized them according to the former factors. We then recorded annual vegetation using ten quadrats of 20 cm × 20 cm in each sampling unit. Seed size at the community level was described using six variables: (1) mean seed mass; (2) standard deviation of seed mass; (3) weighted mean seed mass (by species frequencies); (4) proportion of small-seeded annuals; (5) proportion of medium-seeded annuals; and (6) proportion of large-seeded annuals. Most climate variables (mean annual temperature, length of the summer drought, water balance and mean annual precipitation) correlated with seed-size descriptors, showing that large-seeded annuals increase in warmer and more-arid communities. Mean seed size was modelled as a function of mean annual temperature and grazing pressure. According to this model, warmer and less-grazed communities tend to show a smaller mean seed size. These results confirm the importance of seed-size descriptors at the community level in Mediterranean grasslands, and the role of climate and grazing as major drivers in these communities. Conversely, hypotheses about soil fertility and seed predation by ants were not supported by our results.


During the 1980s, terms such as interagency or multi-agency cooperation, collaboration, coordination, and interaction have became permanent features of both crime prevention rhetoric and government crime policy. The concept of having the government, local authorities, and the community working in partnership has characterized both left and right politics for over a decade. The U.S. National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals in the U.S.. Circulars 8/84 and 44/90 released by the U.K. Home Office, and the British Morgan Report-coupled with the launch of government strategies in France, the Netherlands, England and Wales, Australia, and, more recently, in Belgium, New Zealand, and Canada-have all emphasized the importance of agencies working together to prevent or reduce crime. This paper draws upon recent Australian research and critically analyzes multi-agency crime prevention. It suggests that agency conflicts and power struggles may be exacerbated by neo-liberal economic theory, by the politics of crime prevention management, and by policies that aim to combine situational and social prevention endeavors. Furthermore, it concludes that indigenous peoples are excluded by crime prevention strategies that fail to define and interpret crime and its prevention in culturally appropriate ways.


he object of this paper is the variant of quasi-standard language, i.e. the variant of the perceived standard language formed by the young generation of the Aukštaitian area. The aims of the study are to examine whether the assessments made by respondents representing the Aukštaitian area suggest the presence of such a quasi-standard and, if they do, to provide the characterisation of this quasi-standard variant on the basis of the collected data. The data of the study consists of eight audio texts-stimuli which represent six Lithuanian regiolects (A and D represent Southern Aukštaitian; B and E represent Žemaitian, C represents Northwestern Aukštaitian, F represents the western part of Eastern Aukštaitian, G represents Southwestern Aukštaitian, while H represents the eastern part of East Aukštaitian) and the responses to two questions in the questionnaire designed according to the principles of perceptual dialectology which ask the respondents to rate the similarity of the audio text-stimulus to the standard language. The study demonstrated that the respondents perceived texts-stimuli B and E (representative of the Žemaitian dialect) as the least similar to the standard language. Texts-stimuli H (representative of the eastern part of East Aukštaitian regiolect), A and D (representative of East Aukštaitian regiolect), on the contrary, were seen as the closest to the standard language. Since the ratings of these texts-stimuli in the respondents' assessment were substantially higher in comparison to the rest of the texts-stimuli, the results suggest the existence of a quasi-standard. The analysis of respondents' motives of giving high scores to audio texts-stimuli A, D, and H demonstrates that the morphological and lexical characterisation of the quasi-standard of the young generation representing the Aukštaitian area is only fragmentary. The most prominent are phonetic features, namely: more open and more closed pronunciation of vowels i and u, shortening of unstressed long vowels o, u, and i, lengthening of the stressed short vowels u and i, correct accentuation and non-reduced endings. Based on the analysis carried out, it is possible to assume that the quasi-standard variety formed by the young generation representing the Aukštaitian area consists of some tertiary phonetic features of the eastern parts of East Aukštaitian and South Aukštaitian regiolectal zones, norms of standard language pronunciation, shortened verb forms typically characteristic of dialects and standard language and mixed lexis (containing that of standard language / dialects / borrowings).


Our paper explores the economic conditions that lead third p a ties to intervene in ongoing internal wars. We develop a formal model that ties to gether some of the main forces driving the decision to interfere in a civil war, incl uding the economic benefits accruing from the intervention and the potential costs asso ciated with such choice. We predict that third party interventions are most likely in c vil conflicts where the country at war harbors a profitable industry as a consequence of its high levels of peace-time production and state strength, while the opposi tion forces' strength reduces the likelihood of intervention. We also present novel empirical results on the role of valuable goods, i.e. oil, in prompting third party mi litary intervention in contexts of high state stability, by using a dataset on intrasta te conflicts on the period 1960-1999.


* From an address delivered at the Institute on Religion and Public Education, sponsored by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in New York, May 7, 1952.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To increase knowledge about the nature, frequency, and quality-of-life (QOL) effects associated with taste changes after chemotherapy.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional, descriptive.

SETTING
11 outpatient urban and suburban oncology centers.

SAMPLE
284 adults who had received at least two chemotherapy cycles.

METHODS
Patients completed a taste change questionnaire and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General, and nurses collected demographic and disease-related information. Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlations, chi-square, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance were calculated.

FINDINGS
Taste changes were frequent and at least moderately severe for many patients, who often reported dry mouth, decreased appetite, nausea, and vomiting. Cisplatin and doxorubicin were the agents most likely to be related to severe taste changes and to have caused greater distress from taste changes, which also were associated with decreased QOL. Oncology nurses and physicians rarely discussed taste changes with patients, who often tried changing the ways they seasoned their food.

CONCLUSIONS
Taste changes are a frequent and significant problem for patients receiving chemotherapy and have negative effects on patients' QOL. Oncology nurses and physicians typically do not offer self-management suggestions to patients. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE: Repeated-measures research may provide a clearer understanding of chemotherapy-associated taste changes over time. Studies to examine strategies suggested from this and other research as well as clinical literature may determine which self-care interventions are most useful. Nurses should inform patients that taste changes may occur following chemotherapy, provide self-management information, and assess for related problems that could increase chemotherapy morbidity.


This article interrogates the premise that the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2013 (SPAD Act) serves victim interests in Northern Ireland. It draws on theoretical literature from the fields of transitional justice and victimology as well as empirical data relevant to the act, to critically evaluate the practical outworkings of the SPAD Act as distinct from the politically charged rhetoric that accompanied its initiation and passage. In doing so, the article contends that the SPAD Act moves political disagreement over the issues of victimhood and wrongdoing in Northern Ireland onto a formal legislative footing. The article critiques the terms 'innocent victim' and 'justice' within the confines of the SPAD Act debate and argues that the narrow and divisive approach to these concepts has created both a post-conflict hierarchy of victimhood and a hierarchy of perpetrators that sustains and fuels disagreement over the past in the North of Ireland.


On-time departure performance is important for airlines that seek the highest satisfaction of their passengers. The main component of achieving on-time departure is being able to complete the turnaround operations of an aircraft within the scheduled time. To address this problem, the present paper examined planning and scheduling of turnaround operations in the low cost airline industry. A mathematical model, named 'TurnOper_LP' was developed for a low-cost Turkish airline to identify the critical path of turnaround operations and the optimal turnaround time. The results of the model in terms of optimised turnaround times are then analysed and an example of schedule of turnaround operations is presented.


Abstract A practical method is developed for calculating stresses and velocities at depth using field measurements of the geometry and surface velocity of glaciers. To do this, it is convenient to partition full stresses into lithostatic and resistive components. The horizontal gradient in vertically integrated lithostatic stress is the driving stress and it describes the horizontal action of gravity. The horizontal resistive stress gradients describe the reactions. Resistive stresses are simply related to deviatoric stresses and hence to strain-rates through a constitutive relation. A numerical scheme can be used to calculate stresses and velocities from surface velocities and slope, and from ice thickness. There is no mathematical requirement that the variations in these quantities be small.


The effect of steam for the catalytic fast pyrolysis of cellulose with ZSM-5 was studied in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor. Irreversible and reversible changes due to steaming were identified. Steam caused dealumination, a loss of total acidity, an increase in the zeolite-crystal size, and agglomeration of particles. For runs both with and without steam co-feeding, these irreversible changes caused lower yields for aromatics and char/coke, and higher yields for methane and unidentified products. In addition to irreversible catalyst changes, steam co-feeding was also found to reversibly lower yields of aromatics, char/coke, and identifiable oxygenate species, increase yields of CO and methane, and not change the overall yields of CO2 and olefins.


The accessory submandibular glands in four species of bats were examined by electron microscopy. These four species represent two independently evolved lineages. The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosis, is a Neotropical phyllostomid species, whereas the false vampire bats of southeast Asia, Megaderma lyra and M. spasma, and the heart-nosed bat, Cardioderma cor, of East Africa are megadermatid species. These glands show extreme deviation from typical salivary gland histology: their secretory endpieces are in the form of follicles and their ducts lack the cytological details that permit identification of diverse duct segments. Despite their unusual histology, the secretory endpieces in M. lyra, M. spasma, and C. cor consist of secretory cells that conform to typical secretory cell morphology. In contrast, secretion by follicular cells in T. cirrhosis involves unusual cytoplasmic bodies, and their mitochondria frequently have intracristal crystalloids. Ducts in all four species consist of simple cuboidal to columnar epithelium without basal striations. Follicles and ducts in all four bats are surrounded by numerous myoepithelial cells and are heavily innervated by hypolemmal nerve terminals. Despite their widely separated geographical ranges, all four bat species consume frogs and other vertebrates. Frogs and toads often possess toxic cutaneous glands that provide a chemical defense against predation. It is postulated that the unusual accessory glands in the four frog-eating species secrete toxin-neutralizing salivary factors. The follicular form of the endpieces permits storage of preformed saliva and their coterie of myoepithelial cells and hypolemmal nerve terminals facilitates the sudden and rapid expulsion of saliva into the oral cavity during the consumption of noxious amphibians.


The objective of this study was to analyze food habits and carbohydrate contribution intake from sago consumption in Kepulauan Meranti regency Riau Province. The study design was cross sectional study through interviews and filling out FFQ and food recall questionnaires, also measurement of body mass index from 181 subjects with inclusion criteria are sago consumption, aged 35-80 years, and undiagnosed with diabetes. The results showed that there were 71,16% participant have been consumed sago more than 10 years and consumed sago 1-6 times a week,  about 173,7±88,3 g/day. Subjects with normal body mass index (BMI) were more than 50%. There were significant correlation between energy and carbohydrate intake with BMI. Frequency of sago consumption have significant correlation with carbohydrate and fat intake, nor with sago consumption. The significant correlation between the carbohydrates contribution from sago to amount of sago consumption (g / day), frequency of sago consumption / month, the frequency of sago consumption in the last month, amount of total energy intake, carbohydrate intake and protein intake, with a value of p = 0.000 at the level of α = 0.01. In conclusion, sago consumption minimal 1-6 times a week could be contribution to keep the BMI in normal range if consumed at the amount of 173,7±88,3 g/day.


This study extracted Artemisia capillaris Thunberg with distilled water and ethanol to investigate its antioxidant effect. We then investigated the possibility of producing nanofibers by an electrospinning process by adding the extracts to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The electrospinning method used a PVA concentration of 12wt.%, an applied voltage of 10kV, and a tip-to-collector distance of 15cm. Total polyphenol and total flavonoid contents were measured to verify the antioxidant activity of Artemisia capillaris Thunberg extracts (ACEs). The total polyphenol content of the distilled water extract and the ethanol extract were measured as 218.47 and 271.26mg/g, respectively, and the total flavonoid content of the distilled water extract and the ethanol extract were measured as 141.68 and 34.98mg/g, respectively. As the content of the ACEs in the PVA nanofibers increased, the Diameters of the nanofibers and the uniformity of the diameters decreased. The electrospinning process was fabricated in a relatively uniform form without beads, and the diameters of the nanofibers that were produced ranged from 340 to 390nm. The results of FT-IR, XRD and DSC analyses confirmed that the ACEs were well mixed with the PVA molecules and were electrospun.


In this study the influence of 5.4 MeV alpha-particle irradiation on the performance of a Si photovoltaic detector, designed for system positioning, was investigated. The responsivity of the detector at 900 nm was reduced from for the unirradiated detector to for a detector which was irradiated with an alpha-particle fluence of . Using deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and current-voltage measurements the influence of alpha-particle irradiation on the defect and electrical properties of the detectors was monitored. The electro-optical characterization was performed using an optical characterisation test station. From this preliminary investigation it would seem that alpha-particle irradiation definitely degrades the spectral response of a system-positioning photovoltaic detector. This irradiation introduces electron and hole defects in the bandgap, which have a detrimental effect on the electrical properties (reverse leakage current, dynamic resistance and ideality factor) of the junction.


Experimental and theoretical studies of the MHD flow interaction around aerobodies [9,10,1624,26,30,31] in a hypersonic ionized air stream are presented with comments on potential application for flow and flight control for advanced aerospace vehicles. The current work is a continuation of past efforts by the authors' directed at characterization of MHD flow field interaction over/around several different basic geometric configurations with mutually orthogonal magnetic field and velocity vectors. Experimental results from tests conducted with wedge models in a hypervelocity MHD accelerator driven wind tunnel facility with ionized air flow at an MHD interaction parameter, Su, of 0.1.are presented. Distinctive MHD influence on the flow structure around the wedge was confirmed in experiments. Experimental and numerical simulations with a wedge configuration that is representative of a hypersonic inlet are reported. The potential for use of MHD interaction to adjust the oblique shock system to achieve an on-cowl lip condition when flight operation is off-design was demonstrated. Supporting analysis work has achieved correlation with experimental observations and provides a means to project MHD interaction effects to full-scale hypersonic vehicles subject to real atmospheric flight.


I aim to understand how the act of becoming an organ donor impacts whether it is permissible for a family veto to override an individual's wish to donate. I argue that a Consent Model does not capture the right understanding of donor autonomy. I then assess a Gift Model and a Promise Model, arguing that both fail to capture important data about the ability to revoke one's donor status. I then propose a Promise Acceptance Model, which construes becoming an organ donor as accepting a promise the state makes to you to use your organs. This model, which implies that family vetoes are impermissible, captures the data other models struggle to accommodate.


Diuresis renography and pressure flow studies were performed in 14 patients with unilateral hydronephrosis. Based upon the results of intravenous pyelography, typical symptomatology, and the outcome of surgical treatment, all patients were found to have upper urinary tract obstruction. It was therefore possible to calculate the sensitivity of the two tests. Obstruction was found at the pressure flow studies in 7 of 14 patients (50%), while an obstructive pattern was found at diuresis renography in 12 of 13 patients (92%). Due to a very low glomerular filtration rate, diuresis renography was equivocal in 1 case. Based upon these results, diuresis renography seems to be superior to pressure flow studies in cases with upper urinary tract obstruction.


Learning activities is an educational process which has various ways and can give the impacts of student's learning English abilities. In fact most students find some difficulties specially in mastering English lesson at school.  The different views about learning in educational process are met in the kind of initial conclusion that education is a process of preparing the young generation learning to live out and fulfill their destiny more effectively and efficiently. Some of the ways to make students are able to master an English lesson is by presentation method and students learning skill. The research has the following objectives: to determine the effects of presentation method on student abilities; to determine the influences of students' learning skill to students' abilities; to determine the effects of presentation method and student skill to students English abilities.  The result obtained that the value of  tcount is greater than ttable by calculating the Fvalue of 7.976. Medium Ftable  (0,05) N = 30 is equal with 2.92. So Fcount > Ftable or 7.976 > 2.92. Therefore, H0 is rejected and Ha is accepted. It can be concluded that the method of presentation and student learning skill together give positive impacts toward student English ability. From the summary table is obtained the value of Rsquare of 0.371. This means that the two independent variables X1 and X2 together can influent of 37.1% and the balance of 62.9% affected by other factors that are not observed by the researcher.


The efficient use of energy is gaining importance globally. Reducing consumption is only one of the benefits. Economic incentives could be used to shift the energy demand and reduce run times of equipment. The standardized definition of energy management systems describes only a system structure without consideration the algorithms or strategies for system efficiency improvement. In the paper the main structure, concept, and basic control schemes for dynamic energy management system is presented. It takes into account a dynamic usage of renewable energy sources, stationary and mobile storages and controllable loads.


The phyB-401 mutant is 103 fold more sensitive to red light than its wild-type analogue and shows loss of photoreversibility of hypocotyl growth inhibition. The phyB-401 photoreceptor displays normal spectral properties and shows almost no dark reversion when expressed in yeast cells. To gain insight into the molecular mechanism underlying this complex phenotype, we generated transgenic lines expressing the mutant and wild-type phyB in phyB-9 background. Analysis of these transgenic lines demonstrated that the mutant photoreceptor displays a reduced rate of dark-reversion but normal Pfr to Pr photoconversion in vivo and shows an altered pattern of association/dissociation with nuclear bodies compared to wild-type phyB. In addition we show (i) an enhanced responsiveness to far-red light for hypocotyl growth inhibition and CAB2 expression and (ii) that far-red light mediated photoreversibility of red light induced responses, including inhibition of hypocotyl growth, formation of nuclear bodies and induction of CAB2 expression is reduced in these transgenic lines. We hypothesize that the incomplete photoreversibility of signalling is due to the fact that far-red light induced photoconversion of the chromophore is at least partially uncoupled from the Pfr to Pr conformation change of the protein. It follows that the phyB-401 photoreceptor retains a Pfr-like structure (Pr *) for a few hours after the far-red light treatment. The greatly reduced rate of dark reversion and the formation of a biologically active Pr * conformer satisfactorily explain the complex phenotype of the phyB-401 mutant and suggest that amino acid residues surrounding the position 564 G play an important role in fine-tuning phyB signalling.


In wood chip boilers, CO emissions can be reduced by improving the control over the combustion process. To minimize emissions and optimize efficiency, the excess air ratio, the primary and secondary air distribution systems, and the fuel feed rates must be adjusted to maintain stable combustion. An extensive series of wood combustion tests was performed in a grate automatic 180 kWth boiler. The level of influence exerted by wood parameters, such as the origin, particle size, and moisture content, and combustion parameters, such as the excess air ratio, air distribution, and boiler load, were studied. The most important characteristic of wood with regard to CO emissions is the moisture content. The combustion tests with both types of wood chips and sawdust show that the CO emissions and excess air ratio decline when the fuel power increases. The direct relationship between the excess air ratio and the level of power facilitates the optimization that minimizes the CO emissions. The control system must be based on a fluctuating O2 concentration in the exhaust gas by varying the excess air ratio relative to the power demand. The excess air ratio needed to implement the optimal conditions should be between 2.0 and 2.5 at 100 kWth, between 1.9 and 2.1 at 135 kWth, and between 1.7 and 1.9 at nominal power.


Simplified dynamics models have been widely adopted to reduce the computational complexity of motion planning for legged robots. However, not much research has been conducted on the collision avoidance for a simplified dynamics model. To contribute to this problem, we present the collision-backpropagation based obstacle avoidance method (CBOA), in which we employ the gradient flow of the collision cost to optimize the trajectory, thus avoiding collisions with obstacles. Our experiment shows that the CBOA reduces the collision rate of planned trajectories by up to 15.89 times compared to a previous implicit collision avoidance method.


Research on the vegetative propagation of Rhizophora mucronata using hypocotyl cutting sistem was carried out at Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University. Histological analysis of adventitous shoot was done at Biotechnology and Tree Breeding Laboratory, SEAMEOBIOTROP. Three types of hypocotyl cutting (complete hypocotyl, top part of cut-hypocotyl and bottom part of cut-hypocotyl) were induced using 6-BAP hormones at 0 and 500 ppm. Adventitous shoot of bottom part of cut-hypocotyl appeared 140 days after planting. Shoot from complete hypocotyl and top part of cut-hypocotyl grew earlier than adventitous shoot from bottom part of cuthypocotyl. Hystologycal analysis of adventitous shoot showed the existance of primary meristem, stipule and leaf primordia. The growth of complete hipocotyl was higher than both of top part of cut-hypocotyl and bottom part of cut-hypocotyl. There was no effect of hormone induction on the shoot growth of them.


his paper reports on design strategies for critical and experimental work that remains constructive. We report findings from a design workshop that explored the "home hub" space through "imaginary design workbooks". These feature ambiguous images and annotations written in an invented language to suggest a design space without specifying any particular idea. Many of the concepts and narratives which emerged from the workshop focused on extreme situations: some thoughtful, some dystopian, some even mythic. One of the workshop ideas was then developed with a senior social worker who works with young offenders. A "digital social worker" concept was developed and critiqued simultaneously. We draw on Foucault's history of surveillance to "defamiliarise" both the home hub technology and the current youth justice system. We argue that the dichotomy between "constructive" and "critical" design is false because design is never neutral.


Abstract The aim of the present investigation was to study the frequency of pulp revascularization in therapeutically reimplanted incisors as well; is its relationship with the following factors: width of apical foramen, duration of extra-alveolar lime, storage conditions and postoperative administration of antibiotics. Out of 72 immature teeth (width of apical foramen 1.1–5.0 mm) the pulp was revascularized in 13 (18%), while in 88 mature teeth (width of apical foramen 1.0 mm or less) no revascularization occurred. Among parameters tested statistically in immature teeth, a significantly increased frequency of revascularization (p < 0.05) was only found in teeth reimplanted within 45 minutes after avulsion, when compared with teeth reimplanted after a longer extra-alveolar time, and in mandibular incisors when compared with maxillary incisors (p < 0.01). All teeth in which revascularization did not occur exhibited a periapical radiolucency and/or external inflammatory root resorption.


In this paper we present our views on intersubjectivity and intersubjectification with reference to case studies on adjectives, hedges, tags, honorifics, etc. Building on Diessel's notion of "joint attention" and Traugott's approach to intersubjectivity, we propose a distinction between three types of intersubjectivity: attitudinal, responsive, and textual. We evaluate and propose formal recognition criteria to operationalize this essentially semantic typology, such as left versus right periphery and prosodic features. In addition, we address the issue of directionality between subjectification and intersubjectification. Rather than seeing subjectivity as a prerequisite for intersubjectivity, we argue that in our typology intersubjective meanings of constructions may diachronically precede subjective ones.


In this discussion intended to complement existing studies of Facino Cane, it is argued that Balzac's short narrative is the product of a persistent reflection on storytelling and on the status of the composition as writing. Balzac is shown to make extensive reference to a range of other texts including Les Mille et Une Nuits and Dante's Inferno, while his representation of the blind musicians is shown to relate similarly to a prominent literary and graphic tradition that begins with Montesquieu and takes in, for example, L.-S. Mercier, E. de Jouy, and contemporary Parisian guidebooks. There follows an examination of the distinctive play on proper names and of the way the text is generated by a select number of associative chains. It is claimed that the perceptible ambiguities of the composition stem from this self-reflexive and ludic art of improvisation.


Background:  Research implicates psychological factors in low uptake of lung cancer screening. We developed and psychometrically tested a standardised measure of these psychological determinants in preparation for a prospective, longitudinal cohort study of screening uptake. Methods:  Leventhal's Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation of Health and Illness provided the theoretical framework to generate the initial item pool. Items were refined during expert review and cognitive interviews which tested for face validity, redundancy, acceptability and comprehensibility. An online survey piloted the refined pool with 1500 current and former (quit ≤ 15 years) smokers aged 55–80. The response distributions, internal reliability and factor structure determined the final retained constructs. Regression analyses examined these constructs' associations with screening intention, smoking status and demographics. Results:  The final measure included seven factor-derived subscales (consequences, personal control, treatment control, illness coherence, emotional representation, behavioural response and appraisal, risk perception) with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.59 to 0.91 and four single-item questions (response efficacy for smoking cessation, treatment intention, perceived stigma and lung cancer survival). Most constructs were associated with smoking status and screening intention (p's < .05). Conclusions:  The Self-Regulatory Questionnaire for Lung Cancer Screening (SRQ-LCS) is an acceptable, reliable and valid measure for investigating the psychological determinants of screening uptake.


Manufacturing businesses in today's market are facing immense pressures to react rapidly to dynamic variations in demand distributions across products and changing product mixes. To cope with the pressures requires dynamically integrated manufacturing systems (DIMS) that can manage optimal fulfillment of customer orders while simultaneously considering alternative system structures to suit changing conditions. This paper presents a multiagent approach to DIMS, where production planning and control decisions are integrated with systems reconfiguration and restructure. A multiagent framework, referred to as a hierarchical autonomous agent network, is proposed to model complex manufacturing systems, their structures, and constraints. It allows the hierarchical structures of complex systems to be modeled while avoiding centralized control in classical hierarchical/hybrid frameworks. Subsystems interact heterarchically with product orders to carry out optimal planning and scheduling. An agent coordination algorithm, operating iteratively under the control of a genetic algorithm, is developed to enable optimal planning and control decisions for order fulfillment to be made through interactions between agents. This algorithm also allows the structural constraints of systems to be relaxed gradually during agent interaction, so that planning and control are first carried out under existing constraints, but when satisfactory solutions cannot be found, subsystems are allowed to regroup to form new configurations. Frequently used configurations are detected and evaluated for system restructure. The approach also enables Petri-net models of new system structures to be generated dynamically and the structures to be evaluated through agent-based discrete event simulation.


Mobile ambient air quality monitoring is rapidly changing the current paradigm of air quality monitoring and growing as an important tool to address air quality and climate data gaps across the globe. This review seeks to provide a systematic understanding of the current landscape of advances and applications in this field. We observe a rapidly growing number of air quality studies employing mobile monitoring, with low-cost sensor usage drastically increasing in recent years. A prominent research gap was revealed, highlighting the double burden of severe air pollution and poor air quality monitoring in low- and middle-income regions. Experiment-design-wise, the advances in low-cost monitoring technology show great potential in bridging this gap while bringing unique opportunities for real-time personal exposure, large-scale deployment, and diversified monitoring strategies. The median value of unique observations at the same location in spatial regression studies is ten, which can be used as a rule-of-thumb for future experiment design. Data-analysis-wise, even though data mining techniques have been extensively employed in air quality analysis and modeling, future research can benefit from exploring air quality information from nontabular data, such as images and natural language.


Soils are considered as an important source for NO emissions, but the uncertainty in quantifying these emissionsa worldwide remains large due to the lack of field experiments and high variability in time and space of environmental parameters influencingNOemissions. In this study, the development of a relationship forNOflux emission from soil with pertinent environmental parameters is proposed. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to find the best non-linear regression between NO fluxes and seven environmental variables, introduced step by step: soil surface temperature, surface water filled pore space, soil temperature at depth (20.30 cm), fertilisation rate, sand percentage in the soil, pH and wind speed. The network performance is evaluated each time a new variable is introduced in the network, i.e. each variable is justified and evaluated in improving the network performance. A resulting equation linking NO flux from soil and the seven variables is proposed, and shows to perform well with measurements (R2 = 0.71), whereas other regression models give a poor correlation coefficient between calculation and measurements (R2 ≤ 0.12 for known algorithms used at regional or global scales). ANN algorithm is shown to be a good alternative between biogeochemical and large-scale models, for future application at regional scale.


Abstract We present a comparative evaluation of different classification algorithms for a fusion engine that is used in a speaker identity selection task. The fusion engine combines the scores from a number of classifiers, which uses the GMM-UBM approach to match speaker identity. The performances of the evaluated classification algorithms were examined in both the text-dependent and text-independent operation modes. The experimental results indicated a significant improvement in terms of speaker identification accuracy, which was approximately 7% and 14.5% for the text-dependent and the text-independent scenarios, respectively. We suggest the use of fusion with a discriminative algorithm such as a Support Vector Machine in a real-world speaker identification application where the text-independent scenario predominates based on the findings.


Background: PARP1/2 inhibitors (PARPi) are active anti-cancer agents in BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers (BRCA) with advanced breast or ovarian cancer. However, not all BRCA-tumors respond to PARP blockade, and eventually all develop acquired resistance. Little is known about clinically relevant mechanisms of PARPi resistance in BRCA-breast cancer. Here, we sought to identify biomarkers correlating with primary and acquired resistance to PARPi using PDX derived from both the early disease and the metastatic setting. Methods: We have developed a panel of PDX from patients harboring germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, namely from 12 primary and advanced breast cancer and 1 high-grade serous metastatic ovarian cancer (HGSOC). The antitumor activity of the PARP1/2 inhibitor olaparib as single agent (50 mg/kg) was assessed in all models. To study the mechanisms of acquired resistance, the olaparib-sensitive PDXs were exposed to olaparib for >100 days, until individual tumors regrew. The tumor9s capacity to repair DNA double strand breaks was estimated by quantification of the BRCA1 and RAD51 nuclear foci in the S-phase of the cell cycle. We investigated the correlation between the tumor9s BRCA1/RAD51 foci formation and sensitivity to olaparib, and also identified potential genetic modifiers of PARPi sensitivity by targeted sequencing. Results: Four out of 13 PDX (31%) treated with single agent olaparib exhibited tumor regression or disease stabilization. Nuclear BRCA1/RAD51 foci formation correlated with PARPi resistance in six BRCA1 PDX models investigated, either with primary or acquired resistance. No reversions in BRCA1/2 mutations were identified as the mechanism of olaparib resistance. We identified four potential genetic modifiers of PARPi sensitivity and the corresponding validating studies will be presented. Conclusions: Among our BRCA PDX, reactivation of HR functionality is a frequent event that is associated with PARPi resistance and seems to occur through mechanisms other than secondary mutations in BRCA1/2 in contrast to what it has been reported for HGSOC. Citation Format: Cruz C, Bustos Ld, Gris A, Palafox M, Castroviejo M, Llop A, Morancho B, Diez O, Gutierrez S, Caratu G, Prudkin L, Bruna A, Caldas C, O9Connor MJ, Rubio IT, Arribas J, Baselga J, Cortes J, Serra V, Balmana J. PARP inhibition in breast and ovarian patient-derived tumor xenografts (PDX) harboring germline BRCA1/2 mutations unveils mechanisms of primary and acquired resistance that restore homologous recombination (HR). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2015 Dec 8-12; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-07-05.


This letter presents the phase-shaped binary transmissions (PSBT), which allow to bridge more than 200 km in the linear regime over standard dispersive fibers. These transmissions are based on /spl pi/ phase shifts occurring in the middle of some "0" hits inside a binary sequence. An analytical explanation is given. This letter also explains why 2-intensity level duobinary transmissions, which are a particular case of PSBT, were able to bridge experimentally up to 243 km.


To the Editor.— Doxorubicin (adriamycin) an antitumor antibiotic, 1-3 is used widely in the treatment of childhood and adult tumors and leukemias. Its reported toxic side effects include alopecia, hematopoietic depression, nausea, vomiting, mucosal ulcerations, weight loss, urticaria, electrocardiographic changes, and fatal and nonfatal cardiomyopathy. Recently, we have noticed an additional side effect of this drug, an increase in melanin pigmentation in the nails, nailbeds, phalangeal, and other dermal creases, as shown in the Figure. These changes appear six or more weeks following initiation of doxorubicin administration and have been observed more frequently in black than in white children. Of 13 black children who received doxorubicin alone or in combination with other agents for six weeks or more, five showed increased pigmentation in the nails and nailbeds; three of these five children also had changes in the interphalangeal and palmar creases. In 39 white children, increased pigmentation was seen in


The influence of short-term storage and spray- and freeze-drying of fresh microalgal paste on the stability of lipids and carotenoids of Phaeodactylum tricornutum was investigated. Furthermore, the effects of storage time (14 and 35 days) and condition (vacuum packed vs non vacuum packed, -20 °C vs 4 °C vs 20 °C) after spray- and freeze-drying were studied. Total lipid content, free fatty acid content, carotenoid content and degree of lipid oxidation were measured. No effects of spray- and freeze-drying and subsequent storage were found on total lipid content, except for short-term storage of the fresh microalgal paste, which led to pronounced lipolysis and therefore a lower total lipid content. Freeze-dried microalgae were found to be more susceptible to lipolysis upon storage than spray-dried microalgae. On the other hand, spray-dried microalgae were more susceptible to oxidation than freeze-dried microalgae, possibly due to breakdown of protecting carotenoids upon spray-drying. Hardly any effect of storage condition was observed for any of the parameters tested.


This report presents the results of an investigative effort that focuses on a first step toward providing a distributed framework for Linda system processes. In particular, we discuss the restructuring of the kernel "process" to support Tuple Space access through UNIX socket calls, rather than through shared memory primitives based on semaphore usage. A description of the restructured system and the rationale for such restructuring is presented first. Most intriguing, however, are the latter sections that discuss the ramifications and insights gained from our particular approach to system redesign, i.e., the unnecessary serialization of Tuple Space access, redundant memory copies, being victimized by the UNIX scheduler.


. Predicting the response of hydrologic systems to modified driving forces, beyond patterns that have occurred in the past, is of high importance for estimating climate change impacts or the effect of management measures. This kind of predictions requires a model, but the impossibility of testing such predictions against observed data makes it still difficult to estimate their reliability. Metamorphic testing offers a methodology for assessing models beyond validation with real data. It consists of defining input changes for which the expected responses are assumed to be known at least qualitatively, and to 5 test model behavior for consistency with these expectations. To increase the gain of information and reduce the subjectivity of this approach, we extend this methodology to a multi-model approach and include a sensitivity analysis of the predictions to training or calibration options. This allows us to quantitatively analyse differences in predictions between different model structures and calibration options in addition to the qualitative test to the expectations. In our case study, we apply this approach to selected conceptual and machine learning hydrological models calibrated to basins from the CAMELS data set. Our results 10 confirm the superiority of the machine learning models over the conceptual hydrologic models regarding the quality of fit during calibration and validation periods. However, we also find that the response of machine learning models to modified inputs can deviate from the expectations and the magnitude and even the sign of the response can depend on the training data. In addition, even in cases in which


Being more knowledgeable about the negative impacts of massive exploitation and misuse of land and natural resources, and how they potentially endanger their life and home, today's housing consumers has become more conscious of nature and concerned with damages happening to it. The immense construction of conventional house which is aimed at fulfilling people's demand on residence in Malaysia is claimed to inevitably result in chronical damage to environment for it employs high number of labours and produces large amount of carbon dioxide into the air. Therefore, the Green Home concept is introduced to sort out the problems without reducing energy, air quality, space and natural recourse. Nevertheless, the concept itself is still new for people in Malaysia and will take time and effort to understand and accept. This study is to reveal the level of people's understanding of this Green Home concept as well as its primary components and implementation procedures in Malaysian housing industry.


Political parties in Northern Ireland recently used a divisor method of apportionment to choose, in sequence, ten cabinet ministries. If the parties have complete information about each other's preferences, we show that it may not be rational for them to act sincerely by choosing their most-preferred ministry that is available. One consequence of acting sophisticatedly is that the resulting allocation may not be Pareto-optimal, making all the parties worse off. Another is non-monotonicity – choosing earlier may hurt rather than help a party. We introduce a mechanism, combining sequential choices with a structured form of trading, that results in sincere choices for two parties that avoids these problems. Although there are dif.culties in extending this mechanism to more than two parties, other approaches are explored, such as permitting parties to make consecutive choices not prescribed by an apportionment method. But certain problems, such as eliminating envy, remain.


The authors first introduce the background of 3G mobile communication systems and its simulation, after that, a new analogous simulation method is introduced to improve the authentication of computer software simulation result. The new simulation method is then compared with traditional simulation method and is further illustrated with two 3G mobile communication system applications. Finally, the authors analyze the performance of this new simulation method and provide a comparison between the analogous simulation result they derived from the simulation example on 2.5G mobile communication system and the test result of an actual 3G experimental system, which was constructed in Nanchong, Sichuan province, China. The simulation system also contains a Web based platform enable operating over the user friendly interface


* Introduction to Fashion - The Evolution of Fashion - Fashions: 1900 to the Present - The Powerful Consumer - Ever-Changing Fashion and Its Acceptance - Fashion in the Global Marketplace - Careers in Fashion * The Producers of Raw Materials - The Textile Industry - Furs and Leather * The Fashion Merchandise Industries - Apparel: Womens, Mens, and Childrens - Intimate Apparel - Fashion Accessories - Details and Trimmings - Cosmetics and Fragrances - Home Fashions * Designing and Manufacturing of Fashion Apparel and Accessories - Fashion Forecasting for Designers and Manufacturers - Elements and Principles of Design and Developing a Fashion Collection - Apparel and Accessories Manufacturing * Merchandising Fashion - Resident Buying Offices and other fashion Information sources for retailer - the Fashion retailer - Advertising, Special Events, Publicity and Visual Merchandising


The TaqIB polymorphism in intron 1 of the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) gene is associated with plasma CETP concentration, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and coronary artery disease (CAD). These associations are generally thought to arise from linkage disequilibrium between TaqIB and (an)other functional polymorphism(s). To identify putative functional sites, we investigated phenotypic associations of TaqIB and four tightly linked polymorphisms (novel -2708G-->A and +784CCC-->A, and previously identified -971G-->A and -629C-->A) in 709 males with CAD (REGRESS). In addition to genotype analyses, a novel method to estimate haplotype effects was used to examine the individual and joint effects of these DNA variants on CETP concentration and HDL-C. All polymorphisms were associated with CETP concentration and HDL-C, except for -971 with HDL-C. Stepwise regression and haplotype analyses indicated that only -629 was independently associated with HDL-C. Similar analyses additionally indicated that -2708 and -629 were independently associated with CETP concentration, whereby the most frequent alleles acted in a cumulative manner. Nonetheless, detailed haplotype analysis revealed that a 3-polymorphism haplotype model consisting of -2708, -629 and -971 explained the variation in CETP concentration best. The involvement of -971 could be due to interaction effects that were observed between -971 and both -629 (P<0.001) and -2708 (P=0.047). In conclusion, the TaqIB polymorphism is not instrumental in determining CETP or HDL-C levels, but is a marker for the -629 promoter variant. Our analyses, furthermore, indicate that the -2708 and -971 polymorphisms are likely to play a role in determining CETP concentration.


This study examines the overly debated and controversial issue of
environmental degradation in Ogoniland, an oil rich community in Niger Delta
Nigeria, with specific reference to Gokana Local Government Area as a case
study. Due to a combination of factors, this area has been subjected to serious
ecological crisis and a severe distortion of the natural environment and its
bio-diversities including Fauna and Flora. The clean-up programme of the
United Nations Environmental Projects (UNEP) in this area notwithstanding,
the outcome has been far from impressive thus suggesting a major setback
in the United Nations' agenda for the areas. Thus, this study examines
the Multidimensional variables and factors to the environmental crisis in
Ogoniland within the framework of state, non-state and community actors.
Methodologically, this work adopts a secondary, qualitative and descriptive
method of data collection and analysis. The research method used in this
study is based on the analysis and interpretation of secondary data collected
from online sources and analysis of past works. Hence, secondary data will
be analyzed using the content analysis technique. Drawing from the Critical
Moment Analysis of political ecology and the heterodox political ecology
approach, the study concludes that the impasse regarding Ogoni land
environmental cleanup is not just the lack of political will but also nongovernmental
factors and activities that have cashed in on the situation in
the Niger Delta to drive and pursue personal or corporate goals and interest


This paper deals with the design of air-to-water heat pumps dedicated to the replacement of old oil boilers. Based on the future building regulation to be issued in France in 2012 for old building refurbishment, the allocation for heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation, and hot water will be of 80 kWh/m2.yr. One of the concerns of the current heat pump technology using either R-407C or R-410A is the high global warming potential of those refrigerant blends. The research project presented in this paper aims at defining new refrigerant blends capable to replace R-407C in those air-to-water heat pumps. The refrigerant blends, which have been modeled and tested, have GWPs varying between 200 and 600 kg CO2 kg-1. Several refrigerants have been simulated using REFPROP 8. One has been selected and tested on an air-to-water heat pump developed at the laboratory. Energy performances of this blend are similar to those of R-407C.


Fundamental principles underlying computation in multi-scale brain networks illustrate how multiple brain areas and their coordinated activity give rise to complex cognitive functions. Whereas the population brain activity has been studied in the micro-to meso-scale in building the connections between the dynamical patterns and the behaviors, such studies were often done at a single length scale and lacked an explanatory theory that identifies the neuronal origin across multiple scales. Here we introduce the NeuroBondGraph Network, a dynamical system incorporating both biological-inspired components and deep learning techniques to capture cross-scale dynamics that can infer and map the neural data from multiple scales. We demonstrated our model is not only 3.5 times more accurate than the popular sphere head model but also able to predict synchronous neural activity and extract correlated low-dimensional latent dynamics. We also showed that we can extend our methods to robustly predict held-out data across several weeks. The extracted effective connectivity agreed with the neuroanatomical hierarchy of motor control. Accordingly, the NeuroBondGraph Network opens the door to revealing comprehensive understanding of the brain computation, where network mechanisms of multi-scale communications are critical.


As a response to an increasing threat of infectious diseases in the globalised world (e.g. SARS, H1N1 influenza, Ebola, MERS, Poliovirus), the World Health Organization adopted a reinvigorated version of the International Health Regulations in 2005. The regulations empower the WHO Director-General to proclaim a public health emergency of international concern and issue temporary recommendations of health measures to states parties. However, although the regulations and related health measures inevitably touch upon human rights of affected individuals, the regulations contain but a few allusions to the international human rights framework. The aim of this article is to include the international human rights regime in the system for the fight against infectious diseases under the regulations.


Throughout their evolution, plant nucleotide-binding leucine-rich-repeat receptors (NLRs) have acquired widely divergent unconventional integrated domains that enhance their ability to detect pathogen effectors. However, the functional dynamics that drive the evolution of NLRs with integrated domains (NLR-IDs) remain poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of an NLR locus prone to unconventional domain integration and experimentally tested hypotheses about the evolution of NLR-IDs. We show that the rice (Oryza sativa) NLR Pias recognizes the effector AVR-Pias of the blast fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. Pias consists of a functionally specialized NLR pair, the helper Pias-1 and the sensor Pias-2, that is allelic to the previously characterized Pia pair of NLRs: the helper RGA4 and the sensor RGA5. Remarkably, Pias-2 carries a C-terminal DUF761 domain at a similar position to the heavy metal–associated (HMA) domain of RGA5. Phylogenomic analysis showed that Pias-2/RGA5 sensor NLRs have undergone recurrent genomic recombination within the genus Oryza, resulting in up to six sequence-divergent domain integrations. Allelic NLRs with divergent functions have been maintained trans-species in different Oryza lineages to detect sequence-divergent pathogen effectors. By contrast, Pias-1 has retained its NLR helper activity throughout evolution and is capable of functioning together with the divergent sensor-NLR RGA5 to responds to AVR-Pia. These results suggest that opposite selective forces have driven the evolution of paired NLRs: highly dynamic domain integration events maintained by balancing selection for sensor NLRs, in sharp contrast to purifying selection and functional conservation of immune signaling for helper NLRs. Significance statement Plants have evolved sophisticated defense mechanisms to fend off pathogens. Plant nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptor (NLR) proteins play crucial roles in detecting pathogen molecules inside plant cells and mounting defense responses. Here, we identified the Pias gene from rice, which encodes the NLR pair Pias-1 "helper" and Pias-2 "sensor." These proteins function together to detect the pathogen molecule AVR-Pias of Magnaporthe oryzae and defend against rice blast disease. Pias is allelic to the previously reported Pia gene. A comparison of Pias/Pia alleles among Oryza species showed that Pias/Pia helper is evolutionarily and functionally conserved, whereas the Pias/Pia sensor shows highly dynamic evolution, with various host domains integrated into similar positions, allowing it to detect a wide variety of pathogen molecules.


The developments in citizenship in India that took place in 2019–2020 witnessed intervention from women belonging to minority communities who have emerged as forebears of resistance to the authoritarian-masculine imposition of citizenship as religious exclusion in the form of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019. The article revisits the women protests against the Act through the lens of 'acts of citizenship'. The Shaheen Bagh protests, as these are called popularly, have been studied mainly as Muslim women exhibiting their defiance against a draconian law adversely affecting them. I argue that these protests can be interpreted as acts of citizenship where women spearheaded demonstrations against the Indian state to withhold their rights of citizenship as 'activist citizens', asserting the constitutional value of respecting diversity and democratic citizenship, thereby demonstrating 'constitutional patriotism'. The article contributes to the ongoing debate on gendered citizenship in India providing an alternative approach, moving away from the popular binaries of 'cultural diversity' and 'cultural nationalism'.


Presbyopia is a ubiquitous visual disability of the aging eye, affecting an estimated 1.04 billion people globally. Given the prevalence, an increasing emphasis has been placed on the development of novel treatments for the surgical correction of presbyopia. In fact, more than half a dozen modalities are available, or in development, for the refractive surgeon to choose from depending on the patient's needs. Worldwide, corneal inlays, presbyopia-correcting intraocular lenses (PCIOLs), conductive keratoplasty, presbyLASIK, intrastromal correction with the use of femtosecond technology (INTRACOR), and scleral modifications are available for this emerging subspecialty. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the surgical procedures and related devices currently in use or in development for the treatment of presbyopia.


Summary: Seventy-three cysteine (cys) auxtrophs of Proteus mirabilis strain 13 were arranged in six transductional groups. Members of these groups had nutritional requirements similar to Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli cys mutants. The chromosomal topography of the P. mirabilis mutants resembles that of S. typhimurium and E. coli cys mutants in that they are not arranged in an operon and cysB mutants are co-transducible with tryptophan markers. The P. mirabilis cysG auxotrophs may be equivalent to S. typhimurium cysI and J mutants which have similar nutritional requirements. In P. mirabilis cysG is closely linked to cysC and the S. typhimurium cysC, D, H, I, J cluster may also be present in this organism. The P. mirabilis cysE mutants, which are co-transducible with an arginine gene cluster, seem to lack O-acetylserine sulphhydrylase activity.


Many reinforced concrete structures in Japan are aging. A reasonable and durable design by the numerical analysis is necessary to extend the service life of concrete structures. Based on the above background, this paper is applied the macrocell corrosion rate analysis model whom authors proposed to the members with a joint. First the model is constructed. The input data is an anode polarization curve, a cathode polarization curve, a polarization resistance, and an electrical resistance of mortar. On the other hand, the output data is a total corrosion current. Next, an analytical value is compared with the experiment value while using the mortar specimen that imitated the patch repair part. As a result, it can be cleared that the model is appropriate. Finally, the effect of the macrocell countermeasures method with the spray of the silane type surface penetrant on the joint is verified by this model. Thus, it can be confirmed that when the electrical resistance at the joint is large, the corrosion rate becomes low analytically.