One of the most important aspects when dealing with a Potentially Hazardous Object (PHO) is the accurate determination of its dynamical state. In particular, the determination of orbital and rotational perturbations is important to propagate accurately the heliocentric orbital path of an asteroid or a comet, and to be more precise in the impact risk determination and related uncertainty containment. The paper discusses the analysis and study of the motion of an irregularly-shaped celestial body, with particular attention to its complex three-dimensional rotational dynamics: the rotation state, nutation and precession motions are considered while modelling. All perturbations, relevant to the case of study, are included in the dynamical model, from the classical to the more complex, such as the Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP), the third body gravitational effect (presence of the Sun), the YORP effect and the internal dissipation of energy. In addition, particular attention has been paid to accurately model the shape of the asteroid: simple spherical models demonstrated to possess low accuracy when the asteroid or the comet is not spherically shaped. Irregular shapes represent, indeed, one of the most important aspects to compute the disturbances affecting the dynamics of these objects. The study has been performed by considering different characteristic shapes for typical irregular bodies: from the quasispherical, to the dog-bone and the elongated shapes. The perturbations due to external sources are modelled numerically. The sources of disturbances are then ranked and different criteria to propagate rotational motion have been derived depending on the shape of the observed asteroid. Even if the simulation results have been verified on selected asteroids dynamics, the presented methods and approach apply to the dynamical propagation of any kind of asteroid or comet.


This paper summarizes the first conclusions arising from an analysis of parasite diversity in blood samples collected during longitudinal surveys conducted in Senegal. Parasite typing was carried out using a PCR‐based molecular analysis of allelic polymorphism. The parasite populations circulating in the village of Dielmo during periods of intense transmission (when the inoculation rate was 0.5–1 infective bite/night) are characterized by a considerable allelic diversity of the MSP‐1, MSP‐2 and TRAP loci. A large proportion of blood samples contained several MSP‐1 or MSP‐2 alleles. In asymptomatic carriers, the complexity of the infections (number of alleles and genetic diversity of these alleles) was age‐dependent. In children, the trend was for a reduced complexity during clinical episodes. Molecular typing showed that successive clinical episodes experienced by children were caused by genetically distinct parasites. Longitudinal analysis of asymptomatic carriers indicated that in the absence of transmission, the same parasite types were carried for long periods, while rapidly changing profiles were observed during intense transmission season. The consequences of these findings on our understanding of acquired anti‐parasite immunity in humans living in endemic are discussed.


All conclusions about some psychological characteristics or content must derive from relations of social, or better yet, epochal changes and structure they create. General agreement - admittedly biased and without access to a constant fact which is not close to any transitional movements - that the times are unstable - does not end with a precise understanding of how much would that instability reflect on the formation of a stable character. It could be said that this particular level of structuration, which connects 'the external' and 'the internal', is consistently absent in most theories. This especially applies to our central self, our consciousness, the authoritative part of us that sets standards and has been wrongly equated with universal truths, general principles and something that is considered to be common to all people. All complexity of formation of the superego, as the lastly formed instance that is also responsible for the sense of duty or the sense of moral obligation, has always been a result of the current form of structuration and has always been realized, more or less, as a distorted memory of certain, quite determined, events that a subject was overwhelmed with. If we listen to our own tendencies toward instability, we will not fall into the trap which is often present when describing ourselves, i.e. the belief that we have 'a real self', common to all human beings, whose requests are more important than requests of all others. However, outside of dynamic psychology, it would be difficult to understand how Lacan's 'split entity' could ever have 'a real self' whose requests are, especially concerning morality, more important than all other requests. Human nature has most easily been introduced into the norm by those ideals that had insisted on denial, and are located in the ego ideal. When 'ideals' moved, usually behind a screen of freedom and urge for individualization, the pleasure returned to nature in the form of ego ideals that knew the answer to the question, 'What is good for a man's life?' It is, as a reality principle, located in egocentric context, but no longer as an individual excess, but rather as a general, universal truth. Individualism, as the supreme value, has allowed different people to keep different views on what is a good life. While the ego ideal extolled people to make a compromise in which, of course, they had to forgo nature for the sake of culture, ideal ego approves all bypasses of the law if it is good for the subject. It could almost be said that the system of ego ideal, which is valued less and less, makes values as they are. There is no degradation whatsoever because cancelling of differences and boundaries leads to uniformity where the difference between the right and wrong is reduced to personal good. 'An inner voice' that dictates duties to the subject and indicates where good and evil are in opposition as pure or impure, was suspended. Ideal ego is not an ally of the law because it does not care for the subject's well-being. Unlike it, the ego ideal was giving satisfaction by its realization. No matter how strange it might seem, the highest value in a man (moral values) is most deeply associated with the lowest, with his pure nature. Therefore, it is difficult, if not impossible, to answer the question, 'What is my true self?' to a man who wonders what it is human nature. For psychoanalysis, it is hard to accept that naive 'clear understanding of self' and own values, which starts from Plato. And that was particularly difficult when, instead of compensated narcissism in the ego ideal, he continued his life in the ideal ego.


Media video learning is one of the innovations commonly used as a medium of learning mathematics. This study aims to develop a medium of learning mathematics through software program Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 Blender 3D assisted in learning mathematics. Research and development method using ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation). Data collection techniques used are questionnaire validation experts and questionnaire responses of students. The results obtained research and development is a media-based video learning Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 in learning mathematics. Validation is done to the experts with the results of the material experts earned an average score of 3.4, validation by media experts 3.76 as well as valiadation by linguists 3.61 each result on very reasonable criteria. While the product test results on a small scale test scored an average of 3.50 and a large-scale test obtained an average score of 3.40 with each criterion is very interesting. Based on this, the Microsoft Powerpoint 2016-based mathematics video with Blender 3D is feasible and very interesting to use as a medium of mathematics learning.


— A microscopic theory for curved antiphase domain wall motion in ordered structures leads to a prediction that velocity is proportional to mean curvature. Unlike previous models, the velocity is not proportional to domain wall free energy. Experimental results on domain growth in ordered FeAl alloys over a range of temperatures, times and compositions, are consistent with the theory. In the vicinity of the critical temperature where domain wall free energy tends to zero, domain growth is not slowed. Introduction. — Antiphase domain boundaries are a non-equilibrium feature of real ordered alloys. Since there is a positive excess surface free energy associated with these boundaries, they move by diffusion in such a way that the total area of the boundaries is reduced. A long-standing phenomenological theory of interface motion [1-3] states that interfacial velocity is proportional to the thermodynamic driving force, the proportionality constant being a positive quantity called a mobility. The thermodynamic driving force in this theory is the product of the local mean curvature of the boundary and the excess surface free energy per unit area of boundary. A feature of higher-order transitions in ordering alloys is that the antiphase boundary energy approaches zero as the critical temperature is approached [4, 5]. Thus, the phenomenological theory of interface motion would seem to indicate that as the critical temperature for ordering is approached, antiphase domain growth should become very sluggish. In this paper, a new expression for interfacial velocity will be derived using a microscopic model. The excess surface free energy per unit area does not appear in this new formulation, and hence, the behavior of systems near critical points is more clearly represented. Application of the new result to the problem of macroscopic antiphase domain growth leads to a simple experimental test of the theory. Microscopic theory. — The kinetic equations of continuous ordering reflect the fact that the order parameter r\ is not a conserved quantity. If the free energy is not at a minimum with respect to a local variation in r\ there is an immediate change in r\ given by dr\ SF 5 ? = K ^ (1) where dFjStj is the variational derivative of the free energy of the system with respect to a local change in r\, and a is a positive kinetic coefficient. In a non-uniform system [5] bF\br\ = dFjdri 2 K VTJ (2) where dF/drj is the rate of change in free energy for uniformly ordered systems and 2 K Vr\ is the gradient energy contribution in a system in which r\ is varying spatially. We obtain for the time dependent problem


SUMMARY This paper proposes a robot navigation scheme using wireless visual sensors deployed in an environment. Different from the conventional autonomous robot approaches, the scheme intends to relieve massive on-board information processing required by a robot to its environment so that a robot or a vehicle with less intelligence can exhibit sophisticated mobility. A three-state snake mechanism is developed for coordinating a series of sensors to form a reference path. Wireless visual sensors communicate internal forces with each other along the reference snake for dynamic adjustment, react to repulsive forces from obstacles, and activate a state change in the snake body from a flexible state to a rigid or even to a broken state due to kinematic or environmental constraints. A control snake is further proposed as a tracker of the reference path, taking into account the robot's non-holonomic constraint and limited steering power. A predictive control algorithm is developed to have an optimal velocity profile under robot dynamic constraints for the snake tracking. They together form a unified solution for robot navigation by distributed sensors to deal with the kinematic and dynamic constraints of a robot and to react to dynamic changes in advance. Simulations and experiments demonstrate the capability of a wireless sensor network to carry out low-level control activities for a vehicle.


Despite the great progress made in food transportation, goods are still being thrown away before they even reach consumers. One of the main reasons for that is inadequate monitoring of transports. With growing demand for both fresh and frozen products, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure adequate conditions, mainly appropriate temperature and humidity. This need for better monitoring puts more pressure on those responsible for transport. We designed a mobile monitoring of food transport using a single device, which is nowadays within everybody's reach - a smartphone. GPS location of the device will be used to retrieve temperature and humidity data using web services. A mobile application running on Android operating system will allow users to monitor and store data of each transport, analyze critical points in transport, and report abnormal events. During development, we focused on implementation of a transparent user interface that gives the user a relevant information about the transport and issues real-time alerts, when conditions are sub-optimal.


The political strategy of forum shopping is an under-researched but highly relevant concept for understanding the dynamics of global governance. Forum shopping involves actors seeking to realise their policy objectives within preferred policy arenas on the basis of an arena's particular governing characteristics. We examine the forum shopping behaviour of the key states, business and non-governmental groups in regard to three policy issues: labour standards, intellectual property rights, and chemicals regulation. Our preliminary analysis is centred around the questions of why actors forum shop, the circumstances in which forum shopping enables actors to succeed in promoting their interests, and the impact of forum shopping on the effectiveness of global governance. Our cases suggest an arena's membership, issue mandate, decision making procedures and enforcement capacity are the key characteristics that shape actors' arena preferences. Another important implication is that a multi-arena global governance system comprised of duplication and overlap in issue mandate (rather than large multilateral single issue arenas) may be beneficial for advancing actors' policy agendas. The overarching goal of the article is to spark more systematic research into the often practiced but under-theorised phenomenon of forum shopping.


CONTEXT
Suboptimal endometrial thickening is associated with lower pregnancy rates and occurs in some infertile women treated with clomiphene.

OBJECTIVE
To examine cellular and molecular differences in the endometrium of women with suboptimal versus optimal endometrial thickening following clomiphene.

DESIGN
Translational prospective cohort study from 2018-2020.

SETTING
University-affiliated clinic.

PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS
Reproductive age women with unexplained infertility treated with 100mg of clomiphene cycle days 3-7 who developed optimal (≥8mm; n=6, controls) or suboptimal (<6mm; n=7, subjects) endometrial thickness.

INTERVENTIONS
Pre-ovulatory blood and endometrial sampling.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Endometrial tissue architecture, abundance and location of specific proteins, RNA expression, ERαbinding.

RESULTS
The endometrium of suboptimal subjects compared to optimal controls was characterized by a reduced volume of glandular epithelium (16% vs 24%, P=0.01), decreased immunostaining of markers of proliferation (PCNA, ki67) and angiogenesis (PECAM-1), increased immunostaining of pan-leukocyte marker CD45 and ERβ, but decreased ERαimmunostaining (all P<0.05). RNAS-seq identified 398 differentially expressed genes between groups. Pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes indicated reduced proliferation (Z-score= -2.2, P<0.01), decreased angiogenesis (Z-score= -2.87, P<0.001), increased inflammation (Z-score= +2.2, P<0.01), and ERβactivation (Z-score= +1.6, P<0.001) in suboptimal subjects. ChIP-seq identified 6 genes bound by ERα that were differentially expressed between groups (P<0.01), some of which may play a role in implantation.

CONCLUSIONS
Women with suboptimal endometrial thickness after clomiphene exhibit aberrant estrogen receptor expression patterns, architectural changes and altered gene and protein expression suggesting reduced proliferation and angiogenesis in the setting of increased inflammation.


With continuous improvement to network information, information communication channels become richer and more diversified, which provides strong technical supports for individualized teaching. At present, individualized teaching has huge influence on educational circles. On this basis, this paper analyzes the connotation of individualized teaching and relevant advantages. Moreover, this paper also proposes design and implementation strategies based on network individualized teaching.


The association of streptococcal sore throat with guttate psoriasis is well established, but its association with psoriasis vulgaris is not yet clear. This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the department of Dermatology and Venereology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh from June, 2012 to February 2013 with the intention to ascertain whether streptococcal throat infections are more common in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis. Antistreptolysin O (ASO) titre and culture for β-haemolytic streptococci was done among thirty four patients with chronic plaque type psoriasis and same number of normal healthy controls. Raised ASO titre was found in 26.5% of patients with psoriasis vulgaris and 11.8% of normal healthy controls (p>0.05). Culture of throat swab for streptococcus β-haemolyticus was positive in 20.6% of psoriatics and none of controls. Laboratory evidences of streptococcal throat infection are more common in patients with chronic plaque type psoriasis. More clinical trials to see the e_cacy of anti-streptococcal therapy and tonsillectomy in plaque psoriasis should be carried out. Bangladesh Med J. 2015 May; 44 (2): 102-104


The study examined the effect of the choice of reference method on the functionality and reliability of calibrations in near-IR (NIR) spectroscopy intended for measuring the fat content in raw cow's milk. The fat content in the milk samples was evaluated using methods according to either Röse-Gottlieb or Gerber. The same samples were then subjected to analysis on an Antaris FT-NIR spectrometer. Using a partial least-squares algorithm, calibration models were created for both methods from the values measured. The calibration models show very good values of standard error of calibration: 0.133 for the Gerber method and 0.095 for the Röse-Gottlieb method. These calibrations were subsequently used to analyze 30 new samples of cow's milk of undefined fat content, and the differences in the values were evaluated using statistical paired t-test to a median value at a probability level of α = 0.05. No statistically significant differences were found. It was revealed that the reference method used for calibrating the device evaluating the fat content in raw cow's milk has no effect on the functionality and reliability of the calibration model.


To the Editor. —While Dr Koo and colleagues 1 should be complimented on their report of diarrheal disease outbreaks on cruise ships, the issues they note extend well beyond the civilian cruise ship industry. United States Navy aircraft carriers are quite different from cruise liners, but diarrheal disease outbreaks occasionally occur that can have military significance. After a visit to a North African port in 1988, a study from the USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) supported the significance of onshore food-borne sources. 2 They detailed the impact on the ship's medical requirements and personnel availability. After a port visit in the Mediterranean in 1991, the medical department of the USS Forrestal (CV 59) treated more than 750 cases of diarrheal disease in a crew of 5000. 3 Another ship in the company treated 15% of the crew for diarrheal diseases, though no cause was established for either ship. During


Human genome epidemiology (HuGE) uses systematic applications of epidemiologic methods to assess the impact of human genetic variation on health and disease. In the past ten years, human genome epidemiology has made great progresses along with advances in genomics technologies, which make it possible for the examination of genetic variants in a large sample size at a sufficiently low cost. Genetic association study in population provides a powerful approach to identify variants or genes associated with disease of interest by comparing distributions of genetic variants between affected and unaffected individuals. A critical question remains that these findings from genetic association studies are not consistently reproducible, possibly due to false positive, false negative or true variability in association among different populations. Before 2006, only few low penetrance variants outside the HLA locus had been discovered to be reproducibly associated with disease susceptibility based on the candidate gene approach[1]. With the application of high throughput genotyping technology, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have emerged as a powerful tool for investigating the genetic architecture of complex diseases without a prior hypothesis about a particular gene or locus. In the GWAS approach, several hundred thousand to more than a million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are assayed across the whole genome in a large sample size of thousands of individuals[2]. To date, GWAS have led to the discovery of thousands of loci that are associated with different kinds of human diseases or traits. These findings have advanced our current knowledge of genetics of complex diseases, and provided new insights into identification of therapeutic targets and developing targeted interventions[3]. Given the advance in association study of complex diseases, especially for cancer, in the current issue, two reviews have been invited to comment on the progress of HuGE on head and neck cancer[4] and bladder cancer[5].

The SNP chips used for GWAS are designed to provide better coverage of common SNPs, which, however, may be incompetent to interrogate all common variants for certain regions and have very limited potential to capture rare and low frequency variants[6]. Such variants may hardly be focused on using available genome-wide genotyping technologies. To date, only a small fraction of disease hereditability could be interpreted by known susceptibility loci. For example, more than 40 prostate cancer susceptibility loci have been reported; however, these only account for approximately 25% of the familial risk of the disease[7]. In this regard, genetic association studies should direct more efforts at the variants around genes/regions already implicated in disease pathogenesis. Functional variants in such genes/regions represent particularly impressive candidates. Several reports in this issue demonstrate the necessity and importance of association studies based on functionally candidate genes for variants associated with disease susceptibility or prognosis[8]–[10]. Of course, these findings, in the absence of replication, need to be validated in other studies with independent samples. Nevertheless, we suggest that more efforts should be taken on regions identified as relevant to diseases through GWAS using a targeted region approach, which has been shown as an efficient and cost-effective screening for rare and low-frequency polymorphisms to expand the disease variance explained[11].

In addition to the issues discussed above, rare variants, epistasis, epigenetics and genotype-environment interactions may also contribute to the missing heritability[12]. As compared with the identified common variants by GWAS (in general, minor allele frequency is more than 5%), rarer variants that are poorly detected by available genotyping arrays. Structural variation, including copy number variants (CNVs), inversions, translocations, microsatellite, repeat expansions, insertions of new sequence, complex rearrangements, and short insertions or deletions (indels), may also account for some of the unexplained heritability and are poorly captured by existing arrays[13]. In the current issue, Wang et al[14] explored the landscape and impact of a new form of genomic variation, run of homozygosity (ROH), on lung cancer. ROH is a continuous or uninterrupted stretch of a genomic sequence without heterozygosity in the diploid state, which is poorly investigated to date. Using an existing GWAS dataset including 1473 lung cancer cases and 1962 controls, they identified a new region at 14q23.1 that was consistently associated with lung cancer risk in Chinese population[14], suggesting that ROHs may be also responsible for the unexplained familial risk of diseases. Nevertheless, the epistasis or gene-environment interaction may contribute to a large percentage of disease variance. However, it is still difficult to detect them in the current status of epidemiological study design, exposure assessment, and methods of analysis. Long term environmental exposure assessment will be more important in the future epidemiological study design.

Beyond doubt, genetic association studies, especially GWAS, have made a great progress in elucidating genetic factors underling complex diseases. However, there are still several barriers to overcome. GWAS-identified SNPs may point to functional variants but are unlikely themselves to be the causative variants, since there will often be several variants in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD) that show more or less equivalent evidence of association for any given signal of association. Extensive sequencing of the identified region followed by a well-designed fine-mapping study in multiple populations may be helpful to narrow an association signal to potentially causative variants[15]. Furthermore, much additional work is needed to determine the functional basis for the observed associations.

Particularly, the potential for variants identified in GWAS to predict the risk of complex diseases has been anticipated, but the usefulness of translating these fundamental genetic findings into the bedside remains debatable[16]. Nevertheless, there are already a number of benefits of such genetic prediction over classical non-genetic models. For instance, genetic risk prediction is more stable over time than traditional risk factors, as a person's genetic sequence is absolutely constant throughout their life. Recently, Sun et al.[17] reported that genetic score calculated by genetic variants discovered through association study is an objective and better measurement of inherited risk of prostate cancer than family history, which can be obtained without a laboratory test but influenced by family size, age and survival status of male relatives, recall ability, family communication, and prevalence of the disease in populations. With increasing numbers of discovered genetic variants that can be used as biomarkers in future genetic risk prediction, we believe that identification of a proportion of a high risk population may be feasible for target diagnostic, and preventive and therapeutic interventions for complex disorders.


The epithelial cells along the small intestine of the sucking rat display specific receptors for IgG. These permit the uptake and transcellular transport of IgG, usually presented in milk, from the gut to the bloodstream. Antigen already combined with IgG may also gain access to the bloodstream by this route, but no data exists to show whether this could be sufficient to immunize or to induce tolerance in the young rat to a future exposure to antigen. Monoclonal IgG1 antibody to horseradish peroxidase was used in order to quantitate such a transfer of antigen, using the electron microscope and also studies with radiolabelled antigen and/or antibody. It was found that much less intact antigen was transferred to the bloodstream than would have been calculated from the quantity of antibody transported. Also, IgG1 combined with antigen was more likely to be broken down intracellularly than free IgG1. This was compared with the transport across rat hepatocytes of monoclonal polymeric IgA anti-horseradish peroxidase. The transfer of polymeric IgA from blood to bile was the same whether or not the IgA was complexed with antigen. However, as for the IgG system, less antigen was transported intact into bile than might have been expected theoretically.


Some nonlinear models are presented for modeling and analyzing IMPATT high-power pulse diodes. These models are suitable for analyzing different operating modes of the oscillator. The first model is a precise one, which describes all important electrical phenomena on the basis of the continuity equations and Poisson´s equation, and it is correct until 300 GHz. The second approximate mathematical model suitable for the analysis of IMPATT diode stationary operation oscillator and for optimization of internal structure of the diode. The temperature distribution in the semiconductor structure is obtained using the special thermal model of the IMPATT diode, which is based on the numerical solution of the non-linear thermal conductivity equation. The described models can be applied for the analysis, optimization and practical design of pulsedmode millimetric IMPATT diodes. It can also be used to evaluate the thermal behavior of diodes, to correctly select the shape and amplitude of a supply pulse, and to design various types of high-power pulsed millimeter IMPATT diodes with a complex doping profile with improved characteristics.


. Scalar modifications of gravity have an impact on the growth of structure. Baryon and Cold Dark Matter (CDM) perturbations grow anomalously for scales within the Compton wavelength of the scalar field. In the late time Universe when reionisation occurs, the spectrum of the 21 cm brightness temperature is thus affected. We study this effect for chameleon-f(R) models, dilatons and symmetrons. Although the f ( R ) models are more tightly constrained by solar system bounds, and effects on dilaton models are negligible, we find that symmetrons where the phase transition occurs before z ⋆ ∼ 12 could be detectable for a scalar field range as low as 5 kpc. For all these models, the detection prospects of modified gravity effects are higher when considering modes parallel to the line of sight where very small scales can be probed. The study of the 21 cm spectrum thus offers a complementary approach to testing modified gravity with large scale structure surveys. Short scales, which would be highly non-linear in the very late time Universe when structure forms and where modified gravity effects are screened, appear in the linear spectrum of 21 cm physics, hence deviating from General Relativity in a maximal way.


Coronene was encapsulated in single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) by vapor‐phase filling at high (450 °C) and low (385 °C) temperature and by nanoextraction from supercritical carbon dioxide. The presence of coronene inside the tubes was demonstrated indirectly via the formation of double‐walled nanotubes (DWNT). To this end several subsequent annealing steps were applied and monitored by Raman spectroscopy. Our results show that the encapsulation is successful with all three methods. However, high‐temperature vapor filling produces adsorbed dicoronylene, the dimerized form of coronene, as a side reaction. In order to avoid dicoronylene contamination, we suggest to use low‐temperature methods for the production of coronene‐filled carbon nanotubes.


Accurate geophysical reservoir characterisation in complex geologic environments remains a challenge. In particular, conventional methods of amplitude inversion assume that amplitudes in the seismic image are correctly located and can be inverted to elastic parameters from which a true representation of rock proper¬ties can be derived. However, complex geology, often com¬bined with limitations imposed by surface seismic acquisition geometries, can lead to inadequate illumination of subsurface targets, which can have detrimental effects on the amplitudes and phase of the migrated image.
Conventional amplitude inversion techniques do not compensate for these amplitude and phase variations. Consequently, imprints of various non-geological effects and a complex overburden will manifest themselves in the results of seismic inversion, leading to less reliable estimation of acoustic and elastic parameters.
An additional challenge to accurate amplitude inversion in complex geologic environments is that depth imaging is normally required to obtain a reliable image of the subsurface, while current amplitude inversion techniques are usually implemented in the time domain. This difference in approach between the imaging and inversion steps can compromise the fidelity of the attributes derived from seismic inversion.
In order to improve consistency between structural imag¬ing and rock property estimation, a technique has been developed to perform amplitude inversion directly in the depth domain. The inversion workflow uses point spread functions to capture and correct for space-, depth- and dip-dependent illumination effects resulting from the acquisition geometry and complex geology. The amplitude inversion is performed in the depth domain and the output is a reflectivity image and associated acoustic impedance volume corrected for illumina¬tion effects, thus creating more consistent and reliable imaging products and rock property attributes from depth-migrated datasets. This article presents the application of the depth domain inversion workflow to a long-offset full-azimuth (FAZ) dataset from the Green Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) (Letki et al., 2015).


One of the main options for carbon mitigation identified by the IPCC is the sequestration of carbon in soils. In this paper we use statistical relationships derived from European long‐term experiments to explore the potential for carbon sequestration in soils in the European Union. We examine five scenarios, namely (a) the amendment of arable soils with animal manure, (b) the amendment of arable soils with sewage sludge, (c) the incorporation of cereal straw into the soils in which it was grown, (d) the afforestation of surplus arable land through natural woodland regeneration, and (e) extensification of agriculture through ley‐arable farming. Our calculations suggest only limited potential to increase soil carbon stocks over the next century by addition of animal manure, sewage sludge or straw ( 15 Tg C y–1), but greater potential through extensification of agriculture (≈ 40 Tg C y–1) or through the afforestation of surplus arable land (≈ 50 Tg C y–1). We estimate that extensification could increase the total soil carbon stock of the European Union by 17%. Afforestation of 30% of present arable land would increase soil carbon stocks by about 8% over a century and would substitute up to 30 Tg C y–1 of fossil fuel carbon if the wood were used as biofuel. However, even the afforestation scenario, with the greatest potential for carbon mitigation, can sequester only 0.8% of annual global anthropogenic CO2‐carbon. Our figures suggest that, although efforts in temperate agriculture can contribute to global carbon mitigation, the potential is small compared to that available through reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions by halting tropical and sub‐tropical deforestation or by reducing fossil fuel burning.


In a display device (301), in order to improve the visibility by changing a size for displaying character or patterns on a display screen in accordance with a distance from a user viewing the display screen, a text-containing image generating unit (305) generates a character image indicative of a character train to be presented to a user, a graphic image generating unit (306) generates a pattern image indicative of patterns to be presented to a user, a measuring unit (303) measures a distance between a display screen on which a displaying unit (302) displays the image and the user, a enlargement/contraction ratio acquiring unit (304) acquires a pattern enlarging and reducing rate that increases as the measured distance becomes large and a character enlarging and reducing rate that gently changes at a rate that is less than the pattern enlarging and reducing rate, and a control unit (307) gives the pattern image, the pattern enlarging and reducing rate, the character image and the character enlarging and reducing rate to a displaying unit (302) and makes it display them.


Purpose: Inherited retinal dystrophies (IRD) are a heterogeneous group of retinal diseases leading to progressive loss of photoreceptors through apoptosis. Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is considered the most common form of IRD. Panel-based testing in RP has proven effective in identifying the causative genetic mutations in 70% and 80% of the patients. This is a retrospective, observational, single-center study of 107 RP patients who had undergone next-generation sequencing-based targeted gene panel testing for IRD genes. These patients were inspected for common phenotypic features to arrive at meaningful genotype–phenotype correlation. Methods: Patients underwent complete ophthalmic examination, and blood was collected from the proband for DNA extraction after documenting the pedigree. Targeted Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) was done by panel-based testing for IRD genes followed by co-segregation analysis wherever applicable. Results: Of the 107 patients, 72 patients had pathogenic mutations. The mean age of onset of symptoms was 14 ± 12 years (range: 5–55). Mean (Best Corrected Visual Acuity) BCVA was 6/48 (0.9 logMAR) (range 0.0–3.0). At presentation, over one-third of eyes had BCVA worse than 6/60 (<1 logMAR). Phenotype analysis with the gene defects showed overlapping features, such as peripheral well-defined chorioretinal atrophic patches in patients with CERKL, PROM1, and RPE65 gene mutations and large macular lesions in patients with RDH12 and CRX gene mutations, respectively. Nummular or clump-like pigmentation was noted in CRB1, TTC8, PDE6A, and PDE6B. Conclusion: NGS-based genetic testing can help clinicians to diagnose RP more accurately, and phenotypic correlations can also help in better patient counselling with respect to prognosis and guidance regarding ongoing newer gene-based therapies.


The constitutive relation of single crystal copper based on atomistic potential is implemented to capture the nonlinear inter-atomic interactions. Uniaxial loading tests of single crystal copper with inter-atomic potential finite-element model are carried out to determine the corresponding ideal strength using the modified Born stability criteria. Dependence of the ideal strength on the crystallographic orientation is studied, and tension-compression asymmetry in ideal strength is also investigated. The results suggest that asymmetry for yielding strength of nano-materials may result from anisotropic character of crystal instability. Moreover, the results also reveal that the critical resolved shear stress in the direction of slip is not an accurate criterion for the ideal strength since it could not capture the dependence on the loading conditions and hydrostatic stress components for the ideal strength.


Efficiency of anti-emetic properties of metoclopramide and dexamethasone was compared. Both drugs were administered to 22 patients with newly diagnosed untreated previously Hodgkin's disease during ABVD therapy. Number of vomiting episodes, nausea intensity and everyday patients' activity on the day of cytostatics administration were evaluated. Metoclopramide prevented vomiting in 55% of patients while dexamethasone in 65%. This difference was statistically insignificant. Patients' everyday activity was statistically significantly more frequently normal in patients receiving dexamethasone in comparison with placebo and decreased in patients receiving metoclopramide. Therefore, patients preferred dexamethasone.


A field study was conducted to determine seasonal root biomass, root spatial distribution and water use efficiency (WUE) in milkvetch (Astragalus adsurgens Pall.), sainfoin (Onobrychis viciaefolia Scop.), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and Lespedeza davurica (L. davurica) grown in semiarid region on the Loess Plateau, northwestern China. Soil core method (O9 cm) was used to determine root biomass in April, September and November in 2005. For each species, root biomass vertical distribution was measured down to 150 cm in increments of 0 - 20, 20 - 40, 40 - 60, 60 - 90, 90 - 120 and 120 – 150 cm for inter-rows, between plants and at the center of plants respectively. Roots were distributed throughout the profile with a high concentration at the top and decreasing with soil depth. Root biomass was mainly concentrated in 0 – 60 cm strata between rows and between plants of each species while at the center of plants it mainly distributed in 0 – 20 cm strata. Except L. davurica whose root biomass reached the maximum in September, root biomass of the other three legumes reached the maximum in November. Shoot biomass continued to increase from April to November for all the four legumes. In November, the root biomass for milkvetch and alfalfa accounted for about 2.93 and 2.30% of the total biomass (root plus shoot) respectively, while in sainfoin and L. davurica it accounted for 6.00 and 4.44% respectively. There were significant differences between the four legumes in WUE, and the order was same as shoot biomass, ranked as  milkvetch>alfalfa>sainfoin>L. davurica. The seasonal and yearly high shoot biomass and low proportion of root biomass resulting to low root : shoot ratio may explain the significantly higher WUE of milkvetch and alfalfa in comparison to sainfoin and L. davurica.


The molecular structure of the title compound at 123 K, C12H9F3N2O, presents a rotationally disordered CF3 group. Hydrogen bonds between the amide NH group and the N atom of the isoquinoline form a chain in the b-axis direction. The packed structure forms alternate layers of isoquinoline and amide groups parallel to the ab plane.


Paired tympanic membrane and rectal temperatures were compared for 103 female fallow deer (Dama dama) after short-term anesthesia to determine if tympanic temperature was a reliable indicator of hyperthermia associated with handling stress. Each deer was restrained in a drop-floor chute, anesthetized by i.v. injection of xylazine hydrochloride and ketamine hydrochloride, and removed from the chute. After a short procedure was completed, i.m. antibiotics and i.v. yohimbine hydrochloride were given to each deer. Temperature measurements were obtained during recovery from anesthesia, approximately 10 min after initial restraint. Mean tympanic temperature (38.6 degrees C +/- 0.7 degrees C; range 37.4-40.8 degrees C) was significantly lower than mean rectal temperature (40.1 degrees C +/- 0.8 degrees C; range 37.5-42.0 degrees C) [corrected]. One animal had rectal and tympanic temperatures of 42.0 degrees C and 40.8 degrees C, respectively, but regained normal body temperature after cooling measures were applied. Tympanic membrane temperature measurement may provide a method for evaluation of body temperature by separating retained body heat caused by exertion from critical elevations in core body temperature associated with clinical disease or capture stress.


We show rotationally summed and rotationally inelastic differential, integral and momentum transfer cross sections for electron scattering by SO2 in the 3-30 eV impact energy range in the static exchange approximation. Our results were obtained with the Schwinger multichannel method with pseudopotentials, including a first Born approximation to describe the influence of the molecular permanent dipole moment on the scattering cross sections. The rotational excitation cross sections were obtained through the adiabatic-nuclei-rotation approximation. Our results show good agreement with available experimental and theoretical data. The rotationally inelastic cross sections were found to be very large.


In order to optimize production of fermented tomato juice, suitable lactic acid bacteria were selected, and the changes in constituents during fermentation were investigated. Fermentation and sensory evaluation showed that Lactobacillus bul garicus IAM-1120 and L. helveticus JCM-1120 produced a preferable juice among ten strains of lactic acid bacteria. These two strains produced much lower diacetyl and acetoin than the other strains in tomato juice that contains a high level of citric acid. These results suggested that the minimal production of these compounds from citric acid as well as sugar was an important factor for selection of bacteria in preferable fermented vegetable juice. Moreover, a decrease in hexanal, a representative aldehyde in tomato juice, appeared to contribute to taste improvement after fermentation. The nutritional requirements for amino acids, vitamins and bases for the growth of the two bacterial strains were also characterized.


Rab GTPases constitute a family of small GTPases that regulate a variety of membrane trafficking events in all eukaryotic cells by recruiting their specific effector molecules. Recent accumulating evidence indicates that members of the mammalian Rab small GTPase family are involved in certain physiological and pathological processes. In particular, functional impairments of specific Rab proteins, e.g. Rab38 and Rab27A, their regulators or their effectors cause pigmentation disorders in humans and coat colour variations in mice because such impairments cause defects in melanosomal logistics, i.e. defects in melanosome biogenesis and transport. Genetic and biochemical analyses of the gene products responsible for mammalian pigmentation disorders in the past decade have revealed that Rab-mediated endosomal transport systems and melanosome transport systems play crucial roles in the efficient darkening of mammalian hair and skin. In this article, we review current knowledge regarding melanosomal logistics, with particular focus on the roles of Rab small GTPases and their effectors.


Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), characterized by excessive fat accumulation in liver, is prevalent in obesity. Genetic factors that link obesity to NAFLD remain obscure. Apolipoprotein C3 (APOC3) is a lipid-binding protein with a pivotal role in triglyceride metabolism. Humans with APOC3 gain-of-function mutations and mice with APOC3 overproduction are associated with hypertriglyceridemia. Nonetheless, it remains controversial whether APOC3 is culpable for diet-induced NAFLD. To address this fundamental issue, we fed APOC3-transgenic and wild-type littermates a high fructose diet or high fat diet, followed by determination of the effect of APOC3 on hepatic lipid metabolism and inflammation and the progression of NAFLD. To gain mechanistic insight into NAFLD, we determined the impact of APOC3 on hepatic triglyceride synthesis and secretion versus fatty acid oxidation. APOC3-transgenic mice were hypertriglyceridemic, culminating in marked elevation of triglycerides, cholesterols, and non-esterified fatty acids in plasma. Despite the prevailing hypertriglyceridemia, APOC3-transgenic mice, relative to wild-type littermates, had similar weight gain and hepatic lipid content without alterations in hepatic expression of key genes involved in triglyceride synthesis and secretion and fatty acid oxidation. APOC3-transgenic and wild-type mice had similar Kupffer cell content without alterations in hepatic expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. APOC3 neither exacerbated diet-induced adiposity nor aggravated the degree of steatosis in high fructose or high fat-fed APOC3-transgenic mice. These effects ensued independently of weight gain even after 10-month high fat feeding. We concluded that APOC3, whose dysregulation is liable for hypertriglyceridemia, is not a predisposing factor for linking overnutrition to NAFLD in obesity.


Interactions of the calcium binding proteins, like parvalbumins pI 4.2 and p15.0 and bovine and human alpha-lactalbumins, with dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles have been studied by means of scanning microcalorimetry and intrinsic tryptophan, tyrosine and phenylalanine fluorescence. The interactions are modulated by the Ca2+ and Mg2+ binding to the proteins and induce some changes in the physical properties of both the proteins and the liposomes. The liposomes increase the thermal stability of the Mg2+-loaded and metal-free parvalbumin. Ca2+-loaded alpha-lactalbumin interacts with the liposomes in its native state, while the metal-free protein binds to the liposomes mainly in its thermally denatured state. The interactions of both proteins with the liposomes affect the phase transition from gel to liquid-crystalline state in the liposomes. The results of the microcalorimetric and spectrofluorometric studies are corroborated by the data obtained by means of gel-chromatography on Sepharose 4B.


BACKGROUND
The human thrifty phenotype is characterized by a greater decrease in 24-h energy expenditure (24EE) during fasting due to relatively higher eucaloric 24EE in sedentary conditions, both of which are indicative of greater propensity to weight gain. Thriftiness is also associated with a smaller increase in 24EE (i.e., reduced adaptive thermogenesis) during overfeeding.

OBJECTIVES
We investigated whether short-term measures of adaptive thermogenesis during overfeeding with low/normal/high protein content characterize thriftiness.

METHODS
In this secondary cross-sectional analysis of a single-arm crossover study, 24EE was measured using whole-room indirect calorimetry during energy balance, fasting, and different overfeeding conditions (low/3% protein, high/30% protein, and 3 normal/20% protein diets) with 200% of eucaloric requirements in 77 healthy individuals [63 men; BMI (in kg/m2): 26.4 ± 4.3; body fat by DXA: 27.7% ± 9.4%, mean ± SD] with normal glucose regulation. Relations between the 24EE during energy balance (adjusted for body composition) and 24EE during each overfeeding diet were analyzed using separate linear regression models. Participants were arbitrarily categorized as thrifty/spendthrift based on the median value (-177 kcal/d) of the difference in 24EE between fasting and energy balance conditions.

RESULTS
Differences in 24EE during low/high-protein overfeeding diets (regression line slope = 0.76 and 0.68, respectively, both P < 0.05 compared with slope = 1) but not during the normal-protein overfeeding diets (all P > 0.05 compared with slope = 1) were dependent on baseline 24EE during energy balance. Specifically, individuals with higher eucaloric 24EE (thriftier phenotype) showed smaller increases in 24EE during protein-imbalanced overfeeding. Analyzed by group, thrifty individuals had smaller increases in 24EE by 42 and 237 kcal/d during low- and high-protein overfeeding, respectively, compared with spendthrift individuals who showed greater increases in 24EE by 100 and 302 kcal/d (P ≤ 0.03 compared with thrifty group).

CONCLUSIONS
During acute overfeeding conditions with low/high-protein content, thrifty participants have limited capacity to increase 24EE, indicating that impaired adaptive thermogenesis during protein-imbalanced diets further characterizes the thrifty phenotype and its susceptibility to weight gain. This trial was registered at clinicalTrials.gov as NCT00523627.


Cognitive neuroscience has inspired a number of methodological advances to extract the highest signal-to-noise ratio from neuroimaging data. Popular techniques used to summarize behavioral data include sum-scores and item response theory (IRT). While these techniques can be useful when applied appropriately, item dimensionality and the quality of information are often left unexplored allowing poor performing items to be included in an itemset. The purpose of this study is to highlight how the application of two-stage approaches introduces parameter bias, differential item functioning (DIF) can manifest in cognitive neuroscience data and how techniques such as the multiple indicator multiple cause (MIMIC) model can identify and remove items with DIF and model these data with greater sensitivity for brain–behavior relationships. This was performed using a simulation and an empirical study. The simulation explores parameter bias across two separate techniques used to summarize behavioral data: sum-scores and IRT and formative relationships with those estimated from a MIMIC model. In an empirical study participants performed an emotional identification task while concurrent electroencephalogram data were acquired across 384 trials. Participants were asked to identify the emotion presented by a static face of a child across four categories: happy, neutral, discomfort, and distress. The primary outcomes of interest were P200 event-related potential (ERP) amplitude and latency within each emotion category. Instances of DIF related to correct emotion identification were explored with respect to an individual's neurophysiology; specifically an item's difficulty and discrimination were explored with respect to an individual's average P200 amplitude and latency using a MIMIC model. The MIMIC model's sensitivity was then compared to popular two-stage approaches for cognitive performance summary scores, including sum-scores and an IRT model framework and then regressing these onto the ERP characteristics. Here sensitivity refers to the magnitude and significance of coefficients relating the brain to these behavioral outcomes. The first set of analyses displayed instances of DIF within all four emotions which were then removed from all further models. The next set of analyses compared the two-stage approaches with the MIMIC model. Only the MIMIC model identified any significant brain–behavior relationships. Taken together, these results indicate that item performance can be gleaned from subject-specific biomarkers, and that techniques such as the MIMIC model may be useful tools to derive complex item-level brain–behavior relationships.


In research and in practice,usability specialists commonly target thetechnology user-interfaces and help as the main arena for bringing about usability improvements. However, usability improvements depend on more than innovative and user-centered technical designs and implementations. Equally important for creating useful and usable software are the social and political forces that shape the development context. These forces give rise to leadership conflicts, factional disputes, renegade efforts, alliances and betrayals, all of which profoundly influence whether usability improvements will be supported and sustained within and across projects. This essay presents and analyzes a case history of a software start-up company in which usability achieved a Pyrrhic victory, triumphing only in the short run because of social and political forces.


Cyberpets and artificial autonomous creatures become popular applications of spoken dialogue systems as well as of artificial life and artificial intelligence research. One of next targets in the fields is to give them social skills so as to be social entities in human-inhabited environments. To behave as social entities, they first have to establish the social bonding with social others, and to coordinate social distance with them. The abilities are also what conventional spoken dialogue systems lack.This paper discusses the social aspects in interacting between human and autonomous creatures, such as dialogue coordination, social bonding and social understanding. One of the points is how to establish and maintain a dynamic, structural coupling with social others. We are focusing the relationship between entrusting behavior and its grounding in our everyday activities. And then, we discuss on a model of the structural coupling with dialogue participants based on the notion of the entrusting behavior and its grounding. Finally, we show an example of artificial autonomous creatures that is implemented in multiple situated agents for the model. life which the


Between 1992 and 1996 a survey was carried out in the Gran Paradiso National Park (Western Italian Alps) in order to draw up a species list and collect ecological information on the different taxa of the orders of Insectivora, Chiroptera, Lagomorpha, Rodentia and Carnivora, excluding marmot and fox. Data were obtained from different sources, among which: sighting, trapping, inspection of discarded bottles, pellet analysis and visit to potential bat roost sites. With the exception of data from pellets, records are reported with regard to seven habitat types: human settlements, deciduous woods, mixed woods, coniferous woods, ecotones (stream edges and grassland close to woods), green alder shrubwoods and alpine open habitats far from woodland. At a more detailed level the composition of communities of woodland Insectivores and Rodents is described. In deciduous forests the most frequently trapped taxa were Clethrionomys glareolus, Apodemus sp. and Sorex araneus; in coniferous woods the dominant species were Clethrionomys glareolus and Eliomys quercinus.


Paper describes young consumers' behaviour connected with online product comparison sites usage as an example of online decision shopping aids. Authors' main goal is to check whether or not such factors as: previous experience in such sites usage, personal innovativeness in domain of information technology – PIIT, and particularly cognitive trust (in several subdimensions), as well as affective trust toward online product comparison site, influence purchase intention via mentioned sites (acting as intermediaries in online sales channel), and anticipated satisfaction from choice made by consumer. Also indirect influence of users' opinions about product and sellers on mentioned constructs has been researched. Study on effective sample of 456 young consumers with data collected through CAWI questionnaire confirmed reliability and validity of measurement scales. Path model estimated via PLS-SEM confirmed most hypotheses settled, particularly confirming strong positive relationships between cognitive trust (mostly in competence) on affective trust, and later on purchase intention and choice satisfaction. Product and sellers reviews were partially mediating some of those relationships.


The last two decades were marked by an exponential growth in the volume of data originating from various data sources, from mobile phones to social media contents, all through the multitude devices of the Internet of Things. This flow of data can't be managed using a classical approach and has led to the emergence of a new buzz word: Big Data. Among the research challenges related to Big Data there is the issue of data storage. Traditional relational database systems proved to be unable to efficiently manage Big Data datasets. In this context, Cloud Computing plays a relevant role, as it offers interesting models to deal with Big Data storage, especially the model known as Database as a Service (DBaaS). We propose, in this article, a review of database solutions that are offered as DBaaS and discuss their adaptability to Big Data applications.


Emotions that teachers experience are not only important for their performance and satisfaction in the classroom, but they also affect their interaction with students and students' achievement. The present study mainly aimed to examine the association between teachers' emotions and students' perspectives towards the their teachers' success in teaching, and to determine the predictors of students' views on teachers' pedagogical success in teachers' emotions components. Finally, the study tries to explore the students' views regarding the influence of teachers' emotions based on semi-structured interview. In so doing, 80 homogeneous university students majoring in TEFL form different universities in the northeast of Iran and 20 EFL teachers teaching English to the students of foreign languages participated in this study. The results obtained from Pearson Correlation Coefficient confirmed that there was a moderate, positive correlation between teachers' emotions and students' views on teachers' pedagogical success. Moreover, running Multiple Regression, the study indicated that the best predictors of students' views on teachers' pedagogical success in teachers' emotions components was for enjoyment. Finally, the findings from the interviews revealed that display of emotions such as pride, and enjoyment can be used to motivate the students. The study offers practical implications for language teachers and learners.


Background Intravenous fentanyl has been used for acute postoperative pain management, but has not always provided reliable adequate analgesia, including patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of time-scheduled decremental infusion of fentanyl for postoperative analgesia. Methods Ninety-nine patients, aged 20-65 years, undergoing laparoscopic-assisted hysterectomy using total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) were randomly assigned into one of the three groups. Their background infusions of fentanyl diluent (2 ml/hr of diluent was equivalent with 0.5 µg/kg/hr of fentanyl) with PCA were maintained at the fixed-rate of 2 ml/hr until the postoperative 24 hr (FX2-2-2), or at the decremental rates of 6.0, 4.0, 2.0 ml/hr (D6-4-2) and 8.0, 4.0, 2.0 ml/hr (D8-4-2). The visual analogue score (VAS), incidence of inadequate analgesia, frequency of PCA intervention, and side effects were evaluated. Results VAS was significantly higher in FX2-2-2 than in D6-4-2 and D8-4-2 until postoperative 3 hr (P < 0.05). After postoperative 4 hr, VAS was significantly higher in FX2-2-2 than D8-4-2 (P < 0.05). The incidence of inadequate analgesia of FX2-2-2 was significantly greater than D6-4-2 (P = 0.038) and D8-4-2 (P < 0.001) until postoperative 1 hr. None of the patients had ventilatory depression, and postoperative nausea and vomiting were not significant among the groups. Conclusions The time-scheduled decremental background infusion regimens of fentanyl, based on the pharmacokinetic model, could provide more effective postoperative pain management after TIVA, and the side effects and the risk for morbidity were not different from the fixed-rate infusion regimen.


The goal of the following reviews (originally written during the summer time of 1999-2002 and 2005) is to offer a constructive critic of recent works on historical linguistics devoted to the main exercise of the discipline: to proof or disproof the validity of alleged genealogical/genetic links. Although it is totally true that comparative and historical linguistics may have other goals, sometimes much more humble and reduce in scope (as it will be reflected in some of the next paragraphs commenting upon the work of responsible historical and comparative linguists), it is only by means of the procedures of this discipline that proposals of such a kind might be evaluated. As is well known among specialists in the field, such a task (proving the genealogical/genetic link of two or more given languages), immense in any sense of the word, is not always carried on with the appropriate care required by the discipline. The comparative method, one of the most powerful tools the researcher can made use of with reliable results, has very concrete rules that should be applied in consequence. However, the misuse of the comparative method not always is the main reason why a particular proposal has to be at the end refuted. In the majority of cases, it can be observed a surprising (and painstaking) unknowing of the involved language(s) and/or the most elemental philological principles. Moreover, authors of long-range genealogical/genetic proposals do not take into consideration further implications of their own proposals, e.g. archaeological, historical, etc., in that way making even harder the positive evaluation of their work. Far from what people's intuition may consider at this respect, the incorrectness in the usage of the comparative method not always corresponds to «outsiders» that because of their academic training alien to linguistics had neither time nor chance to make acquaintance with it. Sometimes, very well trained linguists, working even in the field of historical and comparative linguistics, can get all wrong and apply it with terrible consequences not only for their own work, but for an entire discipline.


Like all other bones of the skeleton, the component parts of the pelvic girdle are subject to the occurrence of foci of osteomyelitis. It is found that the forms of osteomyelitis usually resulting from or associated with various kinds of trauma are more prevalent than the orthodox hematogenous forms resulting as thromboembolic phenomena in the course of a general infection (sepsis, pyemia or bacteremia). ANATOMY The pelvic girdle is composed of two main divisions: (1) the sacrum 1 and (2) the innominate bone. The sacral vertebrae conform in structure, external form and physiologic function with the other bones of the spine, except that they are fused during adolescence to form the adult entity known as the sacrum. The innominate bone is one of the most irregular bones of the body. The external physical form of its major segments resembles that of all the other bones of the skeleton, including the


A systematic study of the concentration, motility and morphology of epididymal spermatozoa was undertaken in mice of the OF1 strain, in order to characterize the changes observed during puberty. The comparative development of these 3 parameters was followed from days 30 to 90. A detailed morphological system of classification was established covering both individual and multiple abnormalities. At puberty, the first spermatozoa to appear were few in number, showed poor motility and were extremely atypical. Subsequently, the number of atypically-shaped spermatozoa diminished, and their concentration and motility exhibited parallel increases. At 60 days, the values for these 3 parameters and the proportions of normal and abnormal spermatozoa became stable. During puberty, various forms of disruption of the midpiece as well as the presence of extremely atypical detached flagella resulted in a special pattern of sperm morphology, although all of these abnormal features disappeared at 40 days.


SUMMARY The North Canterbury region marks the transition from Pacific plate subduction to continental collision in the South Island of New Zealand. Details of the seismicity, structure and tectonics of this region have been revealed by an 11-week microearthquake survey using 24 portable digital seismographs. Arrival time data from a well-recorded subset of microearthquakes have been combined with those from three explosions at the corners of the microearthquake network in a simultaneous inversion for both hypocentres and velocity structure. The velocity structure is consistent with the crust in North Canterbury being an extension of the converging Chatham Rise. The crust is about 27 km thick, and consists of an 11 km thick seismic upper crust and 7 km thick seismic lower crust, with the middle part of the crust being relatively aseismic. Seismic velocities are consistent with the upper and middle crust being composed of greywacke and schist respectively, while several lines of evidence suggest that the lower crust is the lower part of the old oceanic crust on which the overlying rocks were originally deposited. The distribution of relocated earthquakes deeper than 15 km indicates that the seismic lower crust changes dip markedly near 43"s. To the south-west it is subhorizontal, while to the north-east it dips north-west at about lo". Fault-plane solutions for these earthquakes also change near 43"s. For events to the south, P-axes trend approximately normal to the plate boundary (reflecting continental collision), while for events to the north, T-axes are aligned down the dip of the subducted plate (reflecting slab pull). While lithospheric subduction is continuous across the transition, it is not clear whether the lower crust near 43"s is flexed or


Biotites from several Basin and Range monzonitic stocks have been analyzed for Cu, Pb and Zn. These data have been compiled for biotites from the Tintic, Bingham, Park City-Little Cottonwood, Iron Springs, San Francisco and related districts, the Gold Hill mining district, also the Mineral Range stock, and the Ibapah stock, all in Utah. Similar data have been compiled for the Ely district and the Whitehorse Pass stock in Nevada. The biotites were analyzed spectrochemically on an Applied Research Laboratories, 1.5 m, 24,000 line per in. grating spectrograph. In was used as an internal standard. The F test was used to establish the equivalence the variances of base metal concentrations in biotite from groups of individual stocks or districts. A graphical comparison of geometric means and standard deviations of the base metal content of biotites from the individual stocks and districts was examined and visual estimates of differences and similarities were noted. The comparisons show the following correlations: 1) Each stock or district belongs to its individual trace base-metal concentration population. 2) Contrasting correlations exist between base-metal concentration of biotite and base-metal production in the sampled areas. High Cu content is associated with Cu production, whereas low Pb and Zn content is associated with Pb and Zn production. 3) Biotites from hydrothermally altered stocks contain more Cu and less Pb and Zn than unaltered stocks. 4) Trace base metal content of biotite is an indicator of base metal mining districts in the Basin and Range province.


Sendai virus envelopes devoid of hemagglutinin-neuraminidase but containing the fusion protein (F-virosomes) were prepared. F-virosomes exhibited discernible serine protease activity at neutral pH. Electrophoretic analysis of the protein profile of the F-virosomes under nonreducing conditions, by both sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing, led to the identification of a previously unknown glycoprotein with a relative molecular weight of 45,000 (45K protein) associated with the F protein. The identity of the 45K protein, as distinct from F protein, was established by Western blot analysis with F- and 45K-specific antibodies. This 45K protein forms a nexus with the F protein through noncovalent hydrophobic interactions, as proved by its sensitivity to urea treatment, and it is essential for the proteolytic activity of the F-virosomes as well as for the fusion of the viral envelope with host cell membrane. N-terminal sequence analysis (first 11 amino acids) of this protein showed strong homology (> 90%) to flavivirus NS3 serine proteases but no similarity to any of the Sendai viral proteins. On the basis of the N-terminal sequence, oligonucleotides were designed corresponding to the sense and antisense DNA sequences. Dot blot hybridization and primer extension with these oligonucleotides with the viral and the host genome confirmed the host origin of this protein. Further, the limited proteolytic digestion of the target membrane resulted in significant inhibition of viral fusion with it. On the basis of these results, we postulate a model for the molecular mechanism of F protein-induced membrane fusion, which may provide a rationale for other paramyxoviruses.


This article examines the early years of democratization in the small Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Once a reclusive country, Bhutan embarked on a gradual path of socioeconomic modernization and opening up to the rest of the world. A most significant step on that path was the decision to democratize. The first national democratic elections were held in 2007–2008. In 2013, the second national elections took place and marked an appropriate moment to assess the progress of democratization in Bhutan. This article not only analyzes the electoral experience but also evaluates what has occurred in other areas of democratization including the rule of law, accountability of government, civil society, and freedom of expression. The article concludes that Bhutan has made good progress in democratization on many fronts but that its trajectory is unique, reflecting the particular context of Bhutan and the overriding concern with stability in political and social life.


This study aims to determine the enzyme activity of chitinase B. bassiana strain found in South Sulawesi. Knowing the relationship between the activity of chitinase enzyme isolate-isolate B.bassiana strain in South Sulawesi with mortality grayak caterpillar (Spodoptera litura). This descriptive research by linking the enzyme activity of chitinase from Beauveria bassiana strain local South Sulawesi on mortality grayak caterpillar larvae (Spodoptera litura). Based on the research that has been done shows that the activity of the enzyme from South Sulawesi B.bassiana local strains showed differences in each isolate, isolates the origin Enrekang 7.15 units / ml, isolate origin Bantaeng 7.12 units / ml, 6.32 units of isolate origin Pinrang / mi and isolate the origin of Maros 6.2 units / ml. There is a relationship between enzyme activity with mortality rates of larvae of Spodoptera litura. The highest mortality is caused by the isolate origin Enrekang 86%, followed by the isolate origin Bantaeng 83%, 76% Pinrang origin isolates and isolate the origin of Maros 73%. Keywords : Beauveria bassiana, enzim kitinase, Spodoptera litura


In this work, we describe the implementation of a 1.2-V pseudo-differential operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) with common-mode feedforward (CMFF) and inherent common-mode feedback (CMFB) in a 65-nm, digital CMOS process. The OTA architecture provides an inherent CMFB when cascaded OTA structures are utilized and this work has studied a cascaded amplifier consisting of four stages. Due to the low-gain using core 65-nm circuit devices, the overall gain must be distributed on all four stages to acquire a gain of more than 60 dB, while maintaining a −3-dB bandwidth of 200 MHz. To achieve high gain, we propose using a modified, positive-feedback, cross-coupled input differential stage. The modified OTA achieves a high output swing of ±0.85 V due to only two stacked transistors, 88 dB DC gain and a third-order harmonic of −60 dB for 800 mV pp at 30 MHz. Further on, in a capacitive buffer configuration, we achieve a high slew rate of 1240 V/µs, −3-dB bandwidth of 509 MHz, signal-to-noise ratio of 63 dB while consuming 10.4 mW power.


Neurohormones in the vasopressin/oxytocin family of peptides are responsible for eliciting social behaviors ranging from kin recognition (Ferguson et al., 2002) to pair-bonding (Winslow et al., 1993) and other aspects of reproductive behavior in various organisms (Donaldson and Young, 2008; Northrop and Erskine, 2008). In the medicinal leech, exogenous homologs of vasopressin, such as conopressin and annetocin, and the endogenous Hirudo homolog, hirudotocin (Salzet, 2007), initiate stereotyped courtship behavior in the medicinal leech Hirudo verbana. Hirudo sp. is a valuable model organism for investigating pattern generator networks due to its readily accessible central nervous system, relatively small number of neurons, many of which are well characterized, and similarities between mid-body ganglia (Macagno, 1980; Muller et al., 1981; Pearce and Friesen, 1984). Vasopressin analogs interact with a central pattern generator in the medicinal leech that initiates and maintains a variety of behaviors that play a role in reproduction (Wagenaar et al., 2010). Using immunohistochemistry, we determined that a vasopressin-like molecule was reliably present in specific identified neurons within the leech nervous system. Most of those cells are as yet uncharacterized, but one pair of large, well-known neurosecretory cells, the Leydig cells, showed a positive reaction in every ganglion. In addition, to look for potential targets of this vasopressin-like molecule, we probed ganglia with antibodies that recognize receptors for mammalian vasopressin. We discovered a set of neurons that labeled positively for vasopressin receptor 1B. In future work, we will use the results to further study the neurohormonal basis of reproductive behavior


The use of serious games as digital medicine started in recent years as the United States Food and Drug Administration granted Class 1 or 2 device clearance to serious games or game-like technologies. This encouraging trend motivates interdisciplinary cooperation between experts in the medical sciences and the game industry because the Northern American pharmaceutical revenues have exceeded USD1 trillion globally since 2014. The potential of this lucrative business opportunity may attract fund providers and venture capitalists to support game-related research and development projects. The author elaborates his activities and experiences in the United States in FY2017/2018 as a Humphrey fellow from Malaysia. Specifically, the research and development trend of serious games for cognitive function in the academic and the game industry has positive impact on how medical doctors and practitioners in low- and middle-income countries may use or develop games as digital medicine.


A human non‐small‐cell lung carcinoma cell line, Calu‐6 (from an anaplastic carcinoma), was transfected with the Ki‐ras‐related anti‐oncogene Krev‐1. Several transfectant lines were obtained that showed a reduced tumorigenicity in nude mice with respect to the parental and control transfected cell lines. This decrease was approximately 50% in tumor incidence at 4 wk after subcutaneous inoculation of the transfected cells. In addition, the volume of the Calu‐6 revertant‐derived tumors was three to 10 times smaller than that of the equivalent tumors produced by inoculation of the control cell line transfected with the neomycin‐resistance gene. Krev‐1‐transfected cells that exhibited reduced tumorigenicity expressed Krev‐1 mRNA and had variable numbers of copies of the Krev‐1 gene. Moreover, Krev‐1 ‐transfected cells exhibited a more differentiated squamous epithelial morphology than the parental and control cell lines did. Moderately elevated levels of protein kinase C activity were detected in some revertant clones. Such activity correlated with the level of expression of Krev‐1 mRNA in most cases. In summary, Krev‐1 induced important morphological and biological changes in transfected Calu‐6 cells that we interpreted as partial reversion of the malignant phenotype. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Primary care in the UK has been the subject of numerous changes and reorganizations since 1990. Each innovation in organization, with the exception of fundholding, has been the subject of evaluation. However, the complexities of some innovations make the evaluation process problematic and this is further complicated by the trend towards central policy decision making being subject to local interpretation and implementation, by means of simultaneous devolution and centralization. This paper discusses the challenges and problems posed by attempting to evaluate these new organizations, particularly with regard to whether or not they can be considered to be "successful". It draws specifically on the national evaluation of the total purchasing pilots and indicates how the findings can be applied to primary care groups.


The use of in vitro expanded human CNS precursors has the potential to overcome some of the ethical, logistic and technical problems of fetal tissue transplantation in Parkinson disease. Cultured rat mesencephalic precursors proliferate in response to bFGF and upon mitogen withdrawal, differentiate into functional dopamine neurons that alleviate motor symptoms in Parkinsonian rats (Studer et al. [ 1998 ] Nat. Neurosci. 1:290–295). The successful clinical application of CNS precursor technology in Parkinson disease will depend on the efficient in vitro generation of human dopaminergic neurons. We demonstrate that human dopamine neurons can be generated from both midbrain and cortical precursors. Transplantation of midbrain precursor‐derived dopamine neurons into Parkinsonian rats resulted in grafts rich in tyrosine hydroxylase positive neurons 6 weeks after transplantation. No surviving tyrosine hydroxylase positive neurons could be detected when dopamine neurons derived from cortical precursors were grafted. Our data demonstrate in vitro derivation of human dopamine neurons from expanded CNS precursors and encourage further studies that systematically address in vivo function and clinical potential. J. Neurosci. Res. 65:284–288, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Skarnoid calc-silicate xenoliths composed of anorthite, clinopyroxene and Mg-Al spinel occur in alkali basalts of the Pliocene-Pleistocene intra-plate magmatic province in the northern part of the Pannonian Basin. Randomly oriented and elongated pseudomorphs are tschermakite crystals replaced by olivine, spinel and plagioclase. The relict amphibole within the pseudomorphs is characterized by high VIAl, between 1.95 and 2.1, and very low occupancy of the A-site (<0.1 apfu)—these features are rarely found in nature and are thought to be diagnostic of high-pressure metamorphic rocks. Pyroxene compositions plot along continuous mixing line extending from nearly pure diopside-augite towards a Ca(Fe3+Al)AlSiO6 endmember with an equal proportion of VIAl3+ and Fe3+. Concentrations of kushiroite CaAlAlSiO6 endmember, up to 47.5 mol%, are the highest recorded in terrestrial samples. The AlFe3+-rich pyroxenes originated at the expense of diopside-augite during the interaction with carbonate-aluminosilicate melt. Forsterite (Fo72–83) and hemoilmenite with up to 32 mol% geikielite (9.3 wt% MgO) also crystallized from the melt, leaving behind the residual calcic carbonate with minor MgO (1–3 wt%). Columnar habit of neoformed olivine growing across diopside-augite layers indicates rapid crystallization from eutectic liquid. Euhedral aragonite and apatite embedded in fine-grained calcite or aragonite groundmass indicate slow crystallization of the residual carbonatite around the calcite-aragonite stability boundary. Corundum exsolutions in rock-forming anorthite are products of superimposed low-pressure pyrometamorphic reworking during transport in alkali basalt. Concomitant alkali metasomatism produced neoformed interstitial sodalite, nepheline, sanidine, albite, biotite, Mg-poor ilmenite (10–18 mol% MgTiO3), Ti-magnetite and fluorapatite. Olivine-ilmenite-aragonite-calcite thermobarometry returned temperatures of 770–860 °C and pressures of 1.8–2.1 GPa, whereas plagioclase-amphibole thermobarometer yielded 781 ± 13 °C and 2.05 ± 0.03 GPa. The calculated pressures correspond to depths of 60–70 km. The calc-silicate xenoliths are most likely metamorphosed marbles; however, a magmatic protolith (metagabbro, metaanorthosite) cannot be ruled out owing to high Cr contents in spinels (up to 30 mol% chromite) and abundant Cu-sulfides.


A major goal in microbial ecology is to predict how microbial communities will respond to global change. However, DNA-based sequencing that is intended to characterize live microbial communities includes extracellular DNA (exDNA) from non-viable cells. This could obscure relevant microbial responses, particularly to pulse disturbances which kill bacteria and have disproportionate effects on ecosystems. Here, we characterize bacterial communities before and after a drying-rewetting pulse disturbance, using an improved method for exDNA exclusion. We find that exDNA removal is important for detecting subtle yet significant changes in microbial abundance, diversity, and community composition across the disturbance. However, inclusion of exDNA did not obscure results to a large extent, only sometimes altering statistical significance but rarely changing the direction of the response or general conclusions about bacterial disturbance dynamics. Although there may be instances where exDNA removal is essential for accurate representation of microbial communities, our study suggests these scenarios will be difficult to predict a priori. Overall, we found no evidence that certain time points across the distrubance were more affected by exDNA inclusion, nor did the size or composition of exDNA pools accurately predict when exDNA would alter significance levels. However, exDNA dynamics did vary strongly across the two soil types tested.


An investigation into three alternative gas chromatographic based methods for providing simulated distillation curves, up to a final boiling point of 538°C, on total crude oils is described. The first and simplest method employs a single chromatographic run with a known weight of an n-paraffin added to quantify the amount of crude oil analyzed. The second procedure involves the use of two chromatographic runs, one with and one without a known weight of an internal standard. In the third method, the flash distillate of the crude oil from a miniature flash still is analyzed. In this procedure, an accurate weight balance of distillate and residue can be obtained. The advantages and disadvantages of the three techniques in terms of speed, accuracy, and simplicity are discussed. The results obtained for various crudes by these procedures are compared with the true boiling point data obtained by conventional 15-plate distillation.


In wireless networks, implementing cooperative beamforming (CB) can enable long-range communications in an energy efficient manner. By appropriately weighting and forwarding message signals, the cooperating nodes form one or more beams to cooperatively transmit one or more message signals to the desired destinations. In this paper, a cross-layer CB framework recently proposed by the authors is revisited and optimal weight design is considered. For single-beam beamforming, closed-form optimal weights that maximize the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) under a transmit power constraint are derived. It is shown that these weights also achieve maximal spectral efficiency. For multibeam beamforming, determining the weights that maximize spectral efficiency is in general a difficult problem, and two suboptimal weight designs (co-phasing weights and nulling weights) are proposed. Co-phasing weights allow desired signals to combine coherently at destinations and require local channel state information (CSI); nulling weights completely cancel interference at destinations and require global CSI.


One of the most frequent eye diseases for old people, infectious keratitis, is an important cause of compromised life. Even if the infectious keratitis represents an important cause for hospitalisation and involves high expenses approached, the risk factors, which, eliminated, can contribute to the prevention of this disease.


The possible mutagenic and DNA-synthesis inhibitory effects of 2-bromo-alpha-ergocryptine, a new semi-synthetic ergot alkaloid, was studied in human and rabbit lymphocytes exposed to it in vivo and in vitro. The analysis of SCE was mainly used to evaluate potential mutagenicity, and the mitotic and DNA-synthesis inhibition was explored by examining the proportions of first-, second- and third-division metaphases in the corresponding lymphocyte cultures. The results obtained show that 2-bromo-alpha-ergocryptine does not induce SCE in the cell systems tested, or structural chromosome aberrations in human lymphocytes in vivo. On the other hand, a marked mitotic inhibitory effect and associated cell kinetic changes could be clearly attributed to the drug, probably related to its cytotoxicity.


For the first time, detailed natural science investigations of ceramic finds from Pergamon have been undertaken in order to attain greater certainty in their attribution to Pergamene production. More than 170 items predominantly of fine ceramics were subjected to neutron activation analysis (NAA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The result was the identification of several chemical groups which can be safely attributed to Pergamene pottery workshops on account of archaeological criteria. A particularly noteworthy finding is that the two groups which combined the most samples included vessels of greatly varying periods and forms. Evidently potters used the same clay mixtures for decorated and undecorated table ware down the centuries. Furthermore, the Eastern Sigillata C and the Late Roman C Production from Pitane/Candarli belong to one and the same chemical group, even though macroscopic differentiation from Pergamene Eastern Sigillata C remains difficult. The study included pottery from Elaia and Atarneus. In the case of Elaia, imports from Attica, Pergamon and Pitane were identified from the pre-Hellenistic, Hellenistic and Roman periods; in addition, the local production of jugs and coarse kitchenware during the Roman epoch has been verified. In Atarneus, imports from Attica and Pergamon have been identified. Whether there was any local production is a question that must remain open for the time being, however.


There has been considerable interest in the importance of oscillations in the brain and in how these oscillations relate to the firing of single neurons. Recently a number of studies have shown that the spiking of individual neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) become entrained to the hippocampal (HPC) theta rhythm. We recently showed that theta-entrained mPFC cells lost theta-entrainment specifically on error trials even though the firing rates of these cells did not change (Hyman et al., 2010). This implied that the level of HPC theta-entrainment of mPFC units was more predictive of trial outcome than differences in firing rates and that there is more information encoded by the mPFC on working memory tasks than can be accounted for by a simple rate code. Nevertheless, the functional meaning of mPFC entrainment to HPC theta remains a mystery. It is also unclear as to whether there are any differences in the nature of the information encoded by theta-entrained and non-entrained mPFC cells. In this review we discuss mPFC entrainment to HPC theta within the context of previous results as well as provide a more detailed analysis of the Hyman et al. (2010) data set. This re-analysis revealed that theta-entrained mPFC cells selectively encoded a variety of task-relevant behaviors and stimuli while never theta-entrained mPFC cells were most strongly attuned to errors or the lack of expected rewards. In fact, these error responsive neurons were responsible for the error representations exhibited by the entire ensemble of mPFC neurons. A theta reset was also detected in the post-error period. While it is becoming increasingly evident that mPFC neurons exhibit correlates to virtually all cues and behaviors, perhaps phase-locking directs attention to the task-relevant representations required to solve a spatially based working memory task while the loss of theta-entrainment at the start of error trials may represent a shift of attention away from these representations. The subsequent theta reset following error commission, when coupled with the robust responses of never theta-entrained cells, could produce a potent error-evoked signal used to alert the rat to changes in the relationship between task-relevant cues and reward expectations.


Anxiety is a cardinal symptom of many psychiatric disorders and an almost inevitable component of many medical and surgical conditions. Indeed it is a universal human emotion, closely allied with appropriate fear presumably serving pyschobiologically adaptive purposes. Anxiety is a normal emotional behavior. When it is severe and/or chronic, however, it becomes pathological and can precipitate or aggravate cardiovascular and psychiatric disorders. Although many drugs are available in allopathic medicine to treat anxiety disorders, they produce various systemic side effects. Ursolic acid has been identified as the active principle of Ocimum sanctum. From our laboratory we have established the antianxiety, anticateleptic and antidepressant activity of ethanolic extract of leaves of Ocimum sanctum. In the present study, we have attempted to evaluate the anxiolytic- activity of ursolic acid in rats by employing, elevated plus maze and bright and dark arena. The rats were divided into five groups, each group containing six animals. The effects of the test drug ursolic acid (at 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg doses), the standard anxiolytic, diazepam (1.0 mg/kg) and control group 14% dimethyl sulfoxide (10ml/kg) were assessed after single dose administration. The results suggest that, ursolic acid exhibited anxiolytic like activity comparable to diazepam


This article explores why cultural branding – ideo-affective market communication addressing intense political tensions – paradoxically seems to lead to political inertia rather than political mobilization. I critically analyse advertising addressing political tensions related to race, ethnicity and immigration, but instead of only following the traced-out trajectory of postcolonial theory, I use the lens of Žižek's radicalized Lacanian psychoanalysis and treat the therapeutic visuality in cultural branding as ideological fantasies of the market's multicultural imaginary. Through critical visual methodologies, I situate four 'multicultural' commercials in their culture- and idea historical contexts, and juxtapose a postcolonial with a Žižekian reading for each of them. I come to argue that the market's multicultural imaginary (unconsciously) serves important ideological functions in sustaining the political status quo not foremost because it placates anxiety, but because it doesn't. Tapping into previous discussions in critical marketing on fetishistic disavowal and inversion, I offer yet another explanation. The political inertia following from ideo-affective dimensions of cultural branding does not primarily come from therapeutic sedation, but from the opposite, namely the parallax object's upholding of gruesome tension and suspense; a fetishistic tickling. This article ends by critiquing the compulsory use of postcolonial theory in research on racial and ethnic relations. From the Žižekian reading, it appears that the postcolonial gaze is now a punishing agency like any dominant ideology, where the social inequality of global capitalism is deemed a more bearable alternative than the traumatic horror of visible racism, which, subsequently, closes the circuit from radical politics.


Background

Interest on the use of short-rotation willow as a lignocellulose resource for liquid transport fuels has increased greatly over the last ten years. Investigations have shown the advantages and potential of using Salix spp. for such fuels but have also emphasized the wide variations existing in the compositional structure between different species and genotypes in addition to their effects on overall yield. The present work studied the importance of tension wood (TW) as a readily available source of glucose in two-year-old stems of four Salix clones (Tora, Björn, Jorr, Loden). Studies involved application of a novel approach whereby TW-glucose and residual sugars and lignin were quantified using stem cross-sections with results correlated with HPLC analyses of milled wood. Compositional analyses were made for four points along stems and glucose derived from enzyme saccharification of TW gelatinous (G) layers (G-glucose), structural cell wall glucose (CW-glucose) remaining after saccharification and total glucose (T-glucose) determined both theoretically and from HPLC analyses. Comparisons were also made between presence of other characteristic sugars as well as acid-soluble and -insoluble lignin.
Results

Initial studies showed good agreement between using stem serial sections and milled powder for determining total sugar and lignin. Therefore, sections were used throughout the work. HPLC determination of T-glucose in Salix clones varied between 47.1–52.8%, showing a trend for higher T-glucose with increasing height (Björn, Tora and Jorr). Using histochemical/microscopy and image analysis, Tora (24.2%) and Björn (28.2%) showed greater volumes of % TW than Jorr (15.5%) and Loden (14.0%). Total G-glucose with enzyme saccharification of TW G-layers varied between 3.7–14.7% increasing as the total TW volume increased. CW-glucose measured after enzyme saccharification showed mean values of 41.9–49.1%. Total lignin between and within clones showed small differences with mean variations of 22.4–22.8% before, and 22.4–24.3% after enzyme saccharification. Calculated theoretical and quantified values for CW-glucose at different heights for clones were similar with strong correlation: T-glucose = G-glucose + CW-glucose. Pearson´s correlation displayed a strong and positive correlation between T-glucose and G-glucose, % TW and stem height, and between G-glucose with % TW and stem height.
Conclusions

The use of stem cross-sections to estimate TW together with enzyme saccharification represents a viable approach for determining freely available G-glucose from TW allowing comparisons between Salix clones. Using stem sections provides for discrete morphological/compositional tissue comparisons between clones with results consistent with traditional wet chemical analysis approaches where entire stems are milled and analyzed. The four clones showed variable TW and presence of total % G-glucose in the order Björn > Tora > Jorr > Loden. Calculated in terms of 1 m3, Salix stems Tora and Björn would contain ca. 0.24 and 0.28 m3 of tension wood representing a significant amount of freely available glucose.


as to how best to employ which method in the analysis of particular data sets or in the investigation of specific problems. Such a reader will not be disappoin ted. He will be reminded that neither the statistician nor his methods, however complex, can do his own conceptualizing or interpreting for him, nor turn a sow's ear of data into something more valuable. He may have problems with the more technical parts of the book, but will nevertheless find help from the guidelines and discussion of problems which Everitt gives. The book is readable despite its difficult subject matter.