Decomposition of energetic salts TKX-50 and MAD-X1 (dihydroxylammonium 5,5'-bistetrazole-1,1'-diolate and dihydroxylammonium 3,3'-dinitro-5,5'-bis-1,2,4-triazole-1,1'-diol, respectively), following electronic state excitation, is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The NO and N2 molecules are observed as initial decomposition products from the two materials subsequent to UV excitation. Observed NO products are rotationally cold (<25 K) and vibrationally hot (>1500 K). The vibrational temperature of the NO product from TKX-50 is (2600 ± 250) K, (1100 ± 250) K hotter than that produced from MAD-X1. Observed N2 products of these two species are both rotationally cold (<30 K). Initial decomposition mechanisms for these two electronically excited salts are explored at the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) level. Potential energy surface calculations at the CASSCF(8,8)/6-31G(d) level illustrate that conical intersections play an essential role in the decomposition mechanisms. Electronically excited S1 molecules can nonadiabatically relax to the lower electronic state through (S1/S0)CI conical intersections. Both TKX-50 and MAD-X1 have two (S1/S0)CI conical intersections between S1 and S0 states, related to and leading to two different reaction paths, forming N2 and NO products. N2 products are released by the opening of the tetrazole or triazole rings of TKX-50 and MAD-X1. NO products are released from the amine N-oxide moiety of TKX-50, and for MAD-X1, they are produced through nitro-nitrite isomerizations. The observed rotational energy distributions for NO and N2 products are consistent with the final structures of the respective transition states for each molecule on its S0 potential energy surface.


Oral domperidone (30 mg/day) or placebo tablets were given to 41 patients presenting with symptoms of chronic post-prandial dyspepsia, in a double blind study. The tablets were taken three times a day before meals. The first part of the study lasted four weeks and was followed by a second four week period in which domperidone was given on an open basis to all subjects. At the end of the double-blind phase all indices but one (bitter regurgitation) as well as the gastro-oesophageal reflux cluster had significantly improved on domperidone treatment while none had done so on placebo. During the subsequent open four weeks of domperidone all items improved in both study groups. No side effects were seen in any of the participants in the study.


Charge-transfer (CT) complexes composed of a π-electron-poor naphthalene diimide (NDI) derivative combined with a series of π-electron-rich donors were investigated. Solutions of the CT complexes are nonemissive; however, solid-state complexes and aqueous suspensions display emission that is dependent on the energy of the HOMO of the electron donor. Crystallographic analysis of a pyrene-NDI complex reveals columnar packing and a high degree of frontier molecular orbital (FMO) overlap that likely contributes to the observed optical properties. The fluorescent CT particles are utilized as imaging agents; additional luminescent CT complexes may be realized by considering FMO energies and topologies.


The quote-driven London Stock Exchange currently delays the publication of large trades for 90 minutes, while very large trades may be delayed for up to 5 days. In addition, market makers can trade with each other on an order-driven inter- dealer broker market that is inaccessible to other traders. This study examines the effects of the current opacity in the London equity market using data for a two year period (1992-94) from the UK equity and equity options markets. Data on 2.4 million trades in 42 stocks was used to compare the quoted and traded bid-ask spreads for different types and sizes of trade, movements in the inventories of market makers just before and 90 minutes after large trades, the price impact of large trades and the effect of large equity trades on volume in the corresponding stock option.


Nanosilicas can disperse single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) in aqueous solution efficiently; SWCNTs are stably dispersed in aqueous media for more than 6 months. The SWCNT dispersing solution with nanosilica can produce highly conductive transparent films which satisfy the requirements for application to touch panels. Even multiwall carbon nanotube can be dispersed easily in aqueous solution. The highly stable dispersion of SWCNTs in the presence of nanosilica is associated with charge transfer interaction which generates effective charges on the SWCNT particles, giving rise to electrostatic repulsion between the SWCNTs in the aqueous solution. Adhesion of charged nanosilicas on SWCNTs in the aqueous solution and a marked depression of the S11 peak of optical absorption spectrum of the SWCNT with nanosilicas suggest charge transfer interaction of nanosilicas with SWCNT. Thus-formed isolated SWCNTs are fixed on the flexible three-dimensional silica jelly structure in the aqueous solution, leading to the uniform and stable dispersion of SWCNTs.


Pavement infrastructure is experiencing unanticipated climate conditions caused by global warming. Extreme weather events, such as extreme precipitations, are increasing in intensity and frequency, creating rising concern in pavement vulnerability and resilience analysis. Previous design approaches based on historical climate data may no longer be adequate for addressing future conditions. To promote pavement resilience under climate change, assessing pavement risk for extreme events is essential for prioritizing vulnerable infrastructure and developing adaptation strategies. The objective of this study is to develop a quantitative evaluation methodology for assessing pavement risk from extreme precipitations under climate change. Hazard analysis, fragility modeling, and cost estimation are the three major components for risk evaluation. An ensemble of 24 global climate models is used for predicting future extreme precipitations under various climate-forcing scenarios. The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide is employed to simulate performance change for performing fragility modeling. Risk assessment models considering a full range of hazards were used to quantify risk of asset value loss over specified analysis periods. Results indicate that future extreme precipitation events are expected to cause an increased medium risk of asset value loss. However, high uncertainties are involved in the estimation owing to variations in predicted climates. Major pavement damages do not necessarily equate with highest risk because the probability of occurrence of major damage is relatively lower. The proposed approach provides a practical tool for analyzing the interaction among extreme precipitation levels, pavement designs, damage states, occurrence probability, and asset value at risk.


Two species of genus Squatina were recorded off the coast of Senegal and Squatina oculata is the most commonly caught in the area. Adult males and females studied were over 820 and 890 mm total length (TL) respectively, with the largest male and the largest female recorded being 1450 mm and 1570 mm and weighed 37 kg and 39 kg respectively. The females were significantly heavier than the males. Size at birth was between 226 and 266 mm and weight at birth between 129 and 159 g. Weight of ripe oocytes ranged from 87·65 to 117·60 g (mean SD 101·73±&;8·65). Gestation lasts one year minimum. Squatina oculata is a lecithotrophic species. Counts of ripe oocytes, eggs, embryos and fully developed foetuses showed that ovarian fecundity is significantly higher than uterine fecundity. The former ranged from 8 to 20 (mean SD 12·04±5·80), the latter from 3 to 8 (mean SD 6·22±3·41). There is no relationship between size and the categories of fecundity. Adult males and females were more common than the other categories of specimens landed. Among adults, females were more numerous than males, mainly gravid specimens.


The Laplace transform analytic element method
(LT-AEM), applies the traditionally steady-state
analytic element method (AEM) to the
Laplace-transformed diffusion equation (Furman and
Neuman, 2003). This strategy preserves the accuracy
and elegance of the AEM while extending the method to
transient phenomena. The approach taken here
utilizes eigenfunction expansion to derive analytic
solutions to the modified Helmholtz equation, then
back-transforms the LT-AEM results with a numerical
inverse Laplace transform algorithm. The
two-dimensional elements derived here include the
point, circle, line segment, ellipse, and infinite
line, corresponding to polar, elliptical and
Cartesian coordinates. Each element is derived for
the simplest useful case, an impulse response due to
a confined, transient, single-aquifer source. The
extension of these elements to include effects due to
leaky, unconfined, multi-aquifer, wellbore storage,
and inertia is shown for a few simple elements (point
and line), with ready extension to other elements.
General temporal behavior is achieved using
convolution between these impulse and general time
functions; convolution allows the spatial and
temporal components of an element to be handled
independently.


The performance of multibeam focal plane arrays feeding a single aperture is usually reduced due to conflicting requirements on the feed elements. Dense packing is usually required to minimize the beam separation, while typically large feed apertures are needed to provide the high feed directivity to reduce spillover losses from the reflector. In this paper the use of dielectric super-layers to shape the radiation pattern of each feed is demonstrated. The shaping is obtained by exciting, according to design, a pair of TE/TM leaky waves. The spillover from the reflector is reduced without physically increasing the dimensions of each single element aperture. A prototype of a feed array composed of 19 waveguides arranged in a hexagonal lattice was designed, manufactured and tested. The measured embedded patterns provided an increase of the edge of coverage gain, with respect to the free space case, of at least 0.6 dB in an operating bandwidth (BW) of ap12%. Moreover when reactive loading of adjacent feeds is adopted the increase in the edge of coverage with respect to the free space case was demonstrated to be larger than 1.6 dB over a 3% BW.


The Singapore Arts Festival (SAF) is Singapore's largest government-supported international arts festival. SAF presents the best in international and local arts, in an attempt, to develop what it perceives to be a lack of cultural knowledge of the Singaporean arts-going public. Using Pierre Bourdieu's key concept of 'habitus' together with an analysis of the programming of the festival, this paper will highlight how the festival seeks to create a specific cultural taste in Singaporean art-goers through privileging and promoting works that are internationally marketable to European countries. The paper will conclude that this programming style occurs at the expense of Singaporean artists and hinders the development of the city's state cultural and artistic development.


As we approach the 30th anniversary of Earth Day (the first of its kind was April 1970), congressional debate about environmental protection often remains paralyzed and polarized. But across the country, environmental pragmatism is gaining ground. The Morning after Earth Day explores how policymakers, business executives, and citizen groups are fighting novel political battles and sometimes making peace with surprising compromises. After a generation of progress in reducing large sources of industrial and municipal pollution and in improving management of public lands, today's environmental conflicts are more complex. They involve controlling pollution caused by farmers, small businesses, drivers of aging cars, and homeowners, as well as minimizing ecological threats on private land. Remedies often lie in politically treacherous territory--persuading ordinary people to change their daily routines rather than ordering big business to adopt new technology or government officials to manage land differently. As Mary Graham shows, practical approaches are resolving immediate disputes and providing clues for future policy. But core dilemmas remain. They include how to reconcile environmental protection with respect for private property, how to balance federal and state authority, and how much to rely on behavioral versus technological change. Only by reclaiming the debate about these dilemmas from extremists and confronting them head-on will the nation build a solid foundation for the next generation of environmental policy. Copublished with the Governance Institute


We consider limitations typical for semiconductor devices of up-to-date converter equipment based on silicon and silicone technologies. The reasons for processing complexities in creating the hardware components of heavy-current devices based on wide-band-gap semiconductors are analyzed. Possible approach to production of large area SiC-diodes and thyristors is formulated, which at post-processing stage allows performing modification of their voltage-current characteristics (VCC) and increasing in its non-linearity coefficient. Based on the concept of integrated power devices containing mesa-elements with VCC with random parameters, the possibility of sequential automated exclusion of those single "non-standard" micro-devices to adversely impact on general voltage-current characteristics of an array is considered. Algorithm is briefly described, and computer modelling of transformation of the reverse branch of integrated VCC occurring in the course of such modification is provided, which made it possible to establish relationship between the typical probability distributions of impurity (including in the presence of dislocations) and certain features of final VCC.


We propose a new approach for online noise power spectral density (psd) tracking. In this approach, the prior and posterior probabilities of speech absence and also noise statistics are analytically retrieved from a maximum-likelihood-based criterion at every time-frequency slot. The recursive update rules of these three terms are performed in a unified manner and without relying on the conventional tracking of speech psd minima. A single parameter (a forgetting factor) is needed in this process. Comparisons with state of the art methods demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal.


This paper examines how sovereignty is being reconfigured in the Irish political economy. The constitutive features of the "Celtic Tiger" are characterized as: (a) a strategically "competitive nationalism" focused on maximizing foreign direct investment, (b) a simultaneously internationalized and localized domestic governance regime centered on a European model of "competitive social partnership," and (c) a "flexible developmental state" that enjoyed "embedded autonomy." The conventional explanation of the Celtic Tiger focuses on the alliance between an insulated, technocratic state agency, the Industrial Development Authority, and multinational corporations. This paper examines the role of FAS, the Irish Training and Employment Authority, the agency responsible for active labor market policy. It identifies a crucial coalition between FAS, the European Commission and local/regional social entrepreneurs as the basis for an interventionist policy that has been critical to the success of the tiger economy. The parochial and highly responsive nature of Irish politics and the sovereignty-diffusing role of the EU can be seen to be the driving forces behind dramatic policy and institutional innovation.


Gastrointestinal (GI) infestation with Ascaris lumbricoides is common in the tropical countries, particularly in children. A wide range of clinical presentations are reported for GI ascariasis in both adults and children. We report a case of gastric perforation due to Ascaris, a rare presentation.


This study analyzed the noise equivalent sigma zero (NESZ) and ocean wind sensitivity for Chinese C-band Gaofen-3 (GF-3) quad-polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements to facilitate further operational wind extraction from GF-3 data. Data from the GF-3 quad-polarization SAR and collocated winds from both NOAA/NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS) atmospheric model and National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoys were used in the analysis. For NESZ, the co-polarization was slightly higher compared to the cross-polarization. Regarding co-polarization and cross-polarization, NESZ was close to RadarSAT-2 and Sentinel-1 A. Wind sensitivity was analyzed by evaluating the dependence on winds in terms of normalized radar cross-sections (NRCS) and polarization combinations. The closest geophysical model function (GMF) and the polarization ratio (PR) model to GF-3 data were determined by comparing data and the model results. The dependence of co-polarized NRCS on wind speed and azimuth angle was consistent with the proposed GMF models. The combination of CMOD5 and CMOD5.N was considered to be the closest GMF in co-polarization. The cross-polarized NRCS exhibited a strong linear relationship with moderate wind speeds higher than 4 m·s−1, but a weak correlation with the azimuth angle. The proposed model was considered as the closest GMF in cross-polarization. For polarization combinations, PR and polarization difference (PD) were considered. PR increased only with the incidence angle, whereas PD increased with wind speed and varied with azimuth angle. There were three very close PR models and each can be considered as the closest. Preliminary results indicate that GF-3 quad-polarization data are valid and have the ability to extract winds in each polarization.


Research Question: Whether the source of drinking water influences the occurrence of diarrhoea in under fives? Objectives: i) To know the incidence of morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoea. ii) To identify the relationship of occurrence of diarrhoea with source of drinking water. iii) To study the treatment practices in diarrhoea. Study Design: Cross sectional. Participants: 7141 under five children. Setting: Rural and Urban clusters. Analysis: Simple proportions. Results: Nearly 7% of children experienced diarrhoea in the past two weeks and 4% had an attack of diarrhoea in the last 24 hours. Incidence of diarrhoea was significantly higher amongst 1-3 years male children. The source of drinking water per se did not influence the incidence of diarrhoea. Low (12.7%) ORS use rare was reported 31% of mothers stopped breast-feeding and 15% of mothers stopped oral fluid during diarrhoea. The overall under five-mortality rate in the area was 6.5 per 1000 children and of these one third deaths could be attributed to diarrhoea.


In wireless sensor networks usually taken in routing void problem in geographical routing in high control overhead and transmission delay .The routing void protocol is proposed in this paper is efficient bypassing void routing protocol. This protocol based on virtual co-ordinates is to transform a structure of random process in virtual circle .The circle are composed by void edge in to by mapping of edge nodes. In this paper to used the greedy forwarding algorithm. This algorithm can be process on virtual circle. The virtual circle greedy forwarding failing on routing void process. There are forwarding process are source to destination. The proposed protocol as find the shortest path, long transmission and High quality link maintenance.


Inclusive dijet production at large pseudorapidity intervals (Deltaeta) between the two jets has been suggested as a regime for observing Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) dynamics. We have measured the dijet cross section for large Deltaeta in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=1800 and 630 GeV using the D0 detector. The partonic cross section increases strongly with the size of Deltaeta. The observed growth is even stronger than expected on the basis of BFKL resummation in the leading logarithmic approximation. The growth of the partonic cross section can be accommodated with an effective BFKL intercept of alphaBFKL(20 GeV)=1.65+/-0.07.


This paper presents results of polymer flooding application to Kalamkas oilfield with high watercut and low recovery factor (RF).
 The high layered vertical heterogeneity in permeability and unfavorable oil-water viscosity ratio in reservoir conditions (>20) of the field predetermined the need for chemical methods to enhanced oil recovery (EOR), such as polymer flooding.
 Polymer flooding pilot has been conducted since 2014. The analysis is based on current and cumulative production data plus Production Logging Testing (PLT) and Injection Logging Testing (ILT) interpretations.
 There is an improvement of vertical sweep efficiency in injection wells and blocking of washed water zones in production wells. The results of the EOR pilot show a decrease in watercut and an increase in the recovery factor.
 Our calculations conducted on hard data from the oilfield confirm that a specially designed polymer flooding technology for Kalamkas brownfield development is plausible and commercial.


In blind source separation, one assumes that the observed p time series are linear combinations of p latent uncorrelated weakly stationary time series. To estimate the unmixing matrix, which transforms the observed time series back to uncorrelated latent time series, second‐order blind identification (SOBI) uses joint diagonalization of the covariance matrix and autocovariance matrices with several lags. In this article, we find the limiting distribution of the well‐known symmetric SOBI estimator under general conditions and compare its asymptotical efficiencies to those of the recently introduced deflation‐based SOBI estimator. The theory is illustrated by some finite‐sample simulation studies.


Earlier research works conducted to identify mechanisms of drought resistance in grain legumes under soil water stress of -0.6 MPa showed that drought resistance (maintenace of turgor) in chick pea was due to a significant decrease in osmotic potential (osmotic adjustment) while in common bean it was due to maintenance of high leaf water potential, but not due to osmotic adjustment. Green house experiments were conducted in the University of Hohenheim, Germany to determine whether maintenance of high plant water potential in common bean under stress was the function of stomatal regulation and/or root growth. Seven days mild drought (-0.15 MPa ) decreased the water potential to -0.35 and -0.89 MPa, accompanied by a dry matter decrease of 25 and 15% in common bean and chick pea, respectively. Higher dry matter decrease in common bean was due to reduced CO 2 -fixation, whereby photosythesis was reduced by 75% in common bean but only by 20% in chickpea. Significant decrease in the rate of photosynthesis decreased the sugar reserve (glucose, fructose and sucrose) of commont bean significantly, which could be responsible for the reduced biomass synthesis. Decrease in the rate of photosythesis was attributed to significant decrease in stomatal conductance. However, water use efficiency was significantly higher in common bean than in chick pea regardless of water regimes. A rhizotrone experiment showed that root length density of common bean was higher than that of chick pea (by a factor of two), accompanied by higher root weight. It was concluded that high plant water potential of common beans under stress was not due to osmotic adjustment but it was the function of effective stomatal regulation and robust root system.
Key words/phrases: Common bean, chickpea, drought resistance, root density, stomata regulation SINET: Ethiopian Journal of Science Vol.26(2) 2003: 137-144


We present the results of a controlled experiment aiming at analysing the role played by the approach adopted during an IR-based traceability recovery process. In particular, we compare the tracing performances achieved by subjects using the "one-shot" process, where the full ranked list of candidate links is proposed, and the incremental process, where a similarity threshold is used to cut the ranked list and the links are classified step-by-step. The analysis of the achieved results shows that, in general, the incremental process improves the tracing accuracy and reduces the effort to analyse the proposed links.


Lynch syndrome (LS) is the most common hereditary syndrome that predisposes to colorectal cancer (CRC). LS is associated with susceptibility to proximal colon cancer, multiple primary (CRC) and extra-colonic tumors. According to Registration of Hereditary Colorectal Cancer (RHCC) of AC Camargo Hospital of Brazil, breast cancer is the most frequent extra-colonic tumor among women with suspicion of hereditary CRC, suggesting the possibility of a new syndrome known as Hereditary Breast and Colorectal Cancer (HBCC). Array comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH) is the high-resolution laboratory technique of choice for the detection of chromosomal DNA copy number alterations on a genome-wide scale. The aim of the present study was to identify copy number alterations in genes related to predisposition in HBCC syndrome. Array comparative genomic hybridization was performed using Human 4 × 180K Oligoarrays (G4449A, Agilent) in 47 individuals from families showing HBCC phenotype. For each sample, 800 ng of DNA were fragmented by a double enzymatic digestion (AluI + RsaI). DNA from peripheral blood leukocytes and control DNA from Promega (Human Genomic DNA Female G1521) were labeled with CY3-dCTP and CY5-dCTPs, respectively, and hybridized at 65°C for 17 h. The chips were scanned on an Agilent DNA Microarray Scanner and image analysis was done using the Feature-Extraction version 10.1.1.1 software (Agilent Technologies). Raw copy number ratio data were transferred to the Agilent Genomic Workbench Software (version 5.0.14) for further analysis. It was detected copy number variations involving 36 regions previously described in genome databases. Furthermore, it was observed loss at 3p12.3 in two individuals. One patient presented breast cancer and CCR while the other one had breast carcinoma. Both of them had breast cancer around the 50 years. In both families, their relatives had CCR, breast cancer and endometrial cancer, which is another extra-colonic tumor found among patients with LS. In a third women with breast and colorectal carcinomas was detected deletion at 7q36.3. Germline copy number alterations may indicate new genes associated with cancer predisposition. Our results suggest that 3p12.3 and 7q36.3 harbor genes associated with hereditary breast and colorectal carcinomas. Additional members of these families are being evaluated to confirm the involvement of these regions as candidate genes. Financial Support: FAPESP (2008/57887-9) and CNPq (57589/2008-9). Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1857.


While research questions the usefulness of a stock's beta, its widespread availability implies continued use. Whether in a portfolio context or in a capital budgeting scenario, beta and its inputs should be clearly understood in order to enable a more accurate decision. This article provides investors a guide to how beta is calculated on 22 of the most popular websites and resources. The discussion connects research findings about beta's inputs to the data available.


Europe has been transformed from an order of largely independent nation-states to an integrated order with some capacity to rule in the name of all. The European integration process has resulted in a set of institutions premised on a complex mixture of supranational, transnational and intergovernmental principles. It is difficult to understand how this could have happened voluntarily when the Union lacks important enabling conditions, such as a collective European identity based on a common language and culture. The pragmatist approach depicts cooperation as a response to problematic situations, and institution formation as a response to the indirect consequences of such, which increasingly catches on and has polity consequences. The effect is more legal regulation, which triggers claims to democracy. The integration process is to a large degree driven by contestation and opposition. The paper also addresses 'the nature of the beast'. What could the EU possibly amount to? A regional subset of an emerging larger cosmopolitan order?


The productivity of herds may be negatively affected by inbreeding depression, and it is important to know how intense is this effect on the livestock performance. We performed a comprehensive analysis involving five Zebu breeds reared in Brazil to estimate inbreeding depression in productive and reproductive traits. Inbreeding depression was estimated for 13 traits by including the individual inbreeding rate as a linear covariate in the standard genetic evaluation models. For all breeds and for almost all traits (no effect was observed on gestation length), the performance of the animals was compromised by an increase in inbreeding. The average inbreeding depression was -0.222% and -0.859% per 1% of inbreeding for linear regression coefficients scaled on the percentage of mean (βm ) and standard deviation (βσ ), respectively. The means for βm (and βσ ) were -0.269% (-1.202%) for weight/growth traits and -0.174% (-0.546%) for reproductive traits. Hence, inbreeding depression is more pronounced in weight/growth traits than in reproductive traits. These findings highlight the need for the management of inbreeding in the respective breeding programmes of the breeds studied here.


Available data showed that the intestine increases it glucose uptake in response to hyperglycemia induced by anycause. However, what the intestine does with the glucose is not known. This study investigated the metabolic fate of theglucose taken up by the intestine during hyperglycaemia in dogs. Experiments were carried out on fasted, male, anaesthetizedmongrel dogs divided into 4 groups. The control (group 1, n=5) received normal saline (0.2 ml/kg) while groups 2-4(subdivided into two as low or high dose, n=5 each) received adrenaline (1 μg/kg or 5 μg/kg), glucagon (3 ng/kg or 8 ng/kg)and glucose (10 mg/kg/min or 20 mg/kg/min). Through a midline laparatomy, the upper jejunum was cannulated for IntestinalBlood Flow (IBF) measurement. Blood glucose and lactate levels were determined using glucose oxidase and lactatedehydrogenase methods, respectively. Intestinal Glucose/Lactate Uptake (IGU/ILU) was calculated as the product of IBFand arterio-venous glucose /lactate difference [(A-V) glucose/lactate]. Jejunal tissue samples were obtained for the determinationof Glycogen Content (GC) and activities of Glycogen Synthase (GS), Glycogen Phosphorylase 'a' (GPa), hexokinase andglucose-6-phosphatase. Anthrone method was used to determine GC while activities of GS, GPa, hexokinase and glucose-6-phosphatase were determined spectrophotometrically. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics and analyzed usingstudent's t-test and ANOVA at α0.05. Arterial and venous blood glucose and lactate were increased by adrenaline, glucagonand glucose. Venous lactate was higher than arterial lactate in all groups. Intestinal blood flow, (A-V) glucose and (A-V)lactate were increased in all the experimental groups. Intestinal glucose uptake increased by 624% (adrenaline), 705%(glucagon) and 589% (glucose) while intestinal lactate release increased by 422%, 459% and 272% respectively. IntestinalGC increased from 138.72 ± 4.58 mg/100 g to 167.17 ± 4.20 mg/100 g (adrenaline), 229.21 ± 6.25 mg/100 g (glucagon) and165.17 ± 4.20 mg/100 g (glucose). Adrenaline and glucose had no effect on GS activity but it was increased by glucagon;GPa was decreased while hexokinase activity was increased by adrenaline, glucagon, and glucose. Glucose-6-phosphataseactivity was not affected by adrenaline and glucagon but decreased by glucose. The intestine modulates blood glucose levelsthrough lactate formation, glycogen formation and most probably conversion of lactate to glucose through gluconeogenesis.


This study aimed to investigate the effect of nutrition consisted of 7% of ribose, rhamnose, arabinose, and xylose supplemented with 0, 7, and 14% of sucrose respectively on the life cycle and egg production of the adult females of Pimpla turionellae. In all experimental combinations, the nutritions containing 7% of ribose, rhamnose, arabinose, and xylose had an effect on the insects to live approximately 9 days and the addition of sucrose could extend this period in some way. The time extension was significantly at low level compared to the control (except for the combination of 7% ribose and 14% sucrose). All nutrient combinations caused remarkable decreases at egg productivity of the insect. The nutrition, except 7% arabinose and 7% sucrose combination, did not affect egg hatching. Results of this study suggest that P. turionellae require sucrose rather than ribose, rhamnose, arabinose, and xylose for optimum the life cycle and egg production. We conclude that future researchers should investigate the effect of sugar at these levels, but also that we need a better understanding of which proportion of toxic sugar will reduce pest populations in the field.


The finite-difference method is used in the analysis of the propagation characteristics of an infinite array of rectangular dielectric waveguides. Particular attention is devoted to the mode coupling analysis and a comparison with results from an integral equation method is presented. The wave equation is solved in terms of the transverse components of the magnetic field, resulting in an eigenvalue problem with the elimination of spurious modes. The formulation is general and may be applied to the solution of other problems, including those with anisotropic dielectrics and with a continuous variation of the index of refraction profile in the waveguide cross section. >


Cardiomyocytes (CMs) derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) or human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are functionally heterogeneous, display insufficient biological efficacy and generally possess the electrophysiological properties seen in fetal CMs. However, a homogenous population of hESC/hiPSC-CMs, with properties similar to those of adult human ventricular cells, is required for use in drug cardiotoxicity screening. Unfortunately, despite the requirement for the functional characteristics of post-mitotic beating cell aggregates to mimic the behavior of mature cardiomyocytes in vitro, few technological improvements have been made in this field to date. Previously, we showed that culturing hESC-CMs under low-adhesion conditions with cyclic replating confers continuous contractility on the cells, leading to a functional increase in cardiac gene expression and electrophysiological properties over time. The current study reveals that culturing hESC/hiPSC-CMs under non-adhesive culture conditions enhances the electrophysiological properties of the CMs through an increase in the acetylation of histone H3 lysine residues, as confirmed by western blot analyses. Histone H3 acetylation was induced chemically by treating primitive hESC/hiPSC-CMs with Trichostatin A (TSA), a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, resulting in an immediate increase in global cardiac gene expression. In functional analyses using multi-electrode array (MEA) recordings, TSA-treated hESC/hiPSC-CM colonies showed appropriate responses to particular concentrations of known potassium ion channel inhibitors. Thus, the combination of a cell-autonomous functional increase in response to non-adhesive culture and short-term TSA treatment of hESC/hiPSC-CM colonies cultured on MEA electrodes will help to make cardiac toxicity tests more accurate and reproducible via genome-wide chromatin activation.


The ideal observer represents a Bayesian approach to performing detection tasks. Since such tasks are frequently used as prototype tasks for radiological imaging systems, the detectability measured at the output of an ideal detector can be used as a figure of merit to characterize the imaging system. For the detectability achieved by the ideal observer to be a good figure of merit, it should predict the ability of the human observer to perform the same detection task. Of great general interest, especially to the medical community, are imaging devices with long-tailed point spread functions (PSFs). Such PSFs may occur due to septal penetration in collimators, veiling glare in image intensifiers or scattered radiation in the body. The authors have investigated the effect that this type of PSF has on human visual signal detection and whether any improvement in performance can be gained by deconvolving the tails of the PSF. For the ideal observer, it is straightforward to show that the performance is independent of any linear, invertible deconvolution filter. The authors' psychophysical studies show, however, that performance of the human observer is indeed improved by deconvolution. The ideal observer is, therefore, not a good predictor of human observer performance for detection of a signal imaged through a long-tailed PSF.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to analyse the differences in renal function among various types of renal artery involvement in acute Debakey Type I aortic dissection.

METHODS
From January 2016 to January 2018, 304 consecutive patients with acute Debakey type I aortic dissection with renal artery involvement were included. According to computed tomography angiography (CTA) findings, renal artery involvement on one side can be classified into four types: type A, in which a large intimal tear is near the renal artery orifice; type B, the orifice of the renal artery originates entirely from the false lumen; type C, the orifice of the renal artery originates entirely from the true lumen; and type D, a renal artery dissection is observed. All patients underwent aortic repair.

RESULTS
The average age was 46.98±10.64 years. The types of bilateral renal artery involvement were as follows: AB type, four patients (1.32%); AC type, 38 patients (12.50%); AD type, three patients (0.99%); BB type, 13 patients (4.28%); BC type, 140 patients (46.05%); BD type, four patients (1.32%); CC type, 76 patients (25.00%); and CD type, 26 patients (8.55%). One-way ANOVA showed that there was no significant difference in serum creatinine (P = .57) and creatinine clearance rate (P = .08) between the groups. A statistically significant difference in age, gender, body mass index, hypertension history and aortic dissection onset time also was not observed (P > .05). The overall incidence of KDIGO acute kidney injury (AKI) was 49.67%. There was no significant difference in AKI incidence between different types of renal artery involvement after aortic surgery (P = .39). For patients needing renal replacement therapy, CTA showed that enhancement of renal cortex in the arterial phase was low and the boundary between the cortex and medulla was unclear in bilateral kidneys.

CONCLUSION
The types of renal artery involvement did not affect renal function in the acute phase.


The notion of metric entropy dimension is introduced to measure the complexity of entropy zero dynamical systems. For measure preserving systems, we define entropy dimension via the dimension of entropy generating sequences. This combinatorial approach provides us with a new insight to analyze the entropy zero systems. We also define the dimension set of a system to investigate the structure of the randomness of the factors of a system. The notion of a uniform dimension in the class of entropy zero systems is introduced as a generalization of a K-system in the case of positive entropy. We investigate the joinings among entropy zero systems and prove the disjointness property among entropy zero systems using the dimension sets. Given a topological system, we compare topological entropy dimension with metric entropy dimension.


Plant traits are vital to quantify, understand and predict plant and vegetation ecology, including responses to environmental and climate change. Leaf traits are among the best sampled, with more than 200,000 records for individual traits. Nevertheless, their coverage is still strongly limited, especially with respect to characterizing variation within species and across longer time scales. However, to date, more than 3000 herbaria worldwide have collected 390 million plant specimens, dating from the 16th century. At present, the herbarium specimens are rapidly digitized and the images are made openly available to facilitate research and biodiversity conservation. In this study, we determined the potential of the digitized herbarium specimens images to: 1. overcome limitations of data availability for quantitative leaf traits such as the area, length, width along with petiole length and 2. use the trait values to understand the intraspecific variability across spatio-temporal scales. For the study, initially, specimen metadata was analysed from various online resources such as the Global Plants Database, Natural History Museum Paris, iDigBio and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Based on the completeness of the metadata, ‡ ‡ §,| ‡ ‡ © Kommineni V et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. image availability, and the ease of measuring the leaf traits, we selected Salix bebbiana, Alnus incana, Viola canina, Salix glauca, Impatiens capensis, Chenopodium album, and Solanum dulcamara for the study. The semi-automated tool TraitEx (Gaikwad et al. 2019) was used to measure quantitative leaf traits such as the leaf area, perimeter, width, length and petiole length. Finally, excluding duplicates, we downloaded 17383 digital herbarium specimen images from iDigBio and GBIF, which included specimens from the 17th century to the present. However, about 5000 had insufficient information or quality issues, including not-yetidentified duplicates, or no intact leaves. For each selected image we measured four leaf traits area, length, width and perimeter of the leaf blade on up to 5 leaves. In sum, we collected about 120,000 trait records from 32009 leaves. Comparison of measured leaf traits to data from the TRY Plant Trait database (Kattge et al. 2019) revealed that we could improve the database for studying intraspecific trait variability by several orders of magnitude (from less than 10-100 records per species to >1000). The variation of trait records within the seven species shows reasonable patterns, which improves trust in the data quality. The extracted trait measurements were used to analyse the intraspecific variability for the species across different spatio-temporal resolutions. Machine learning method (random forest) was used to perform the analysis and the results revealed the imprint of spatial and temporal climate variation, including long term trends and climate change as well as seasonality effects, on leaf area. Through this study, we demonstrate the high benefits of digitizing herbarium specimens and reusing it for research studies to improve ecological knowledge and predictability of size-related leaf traits.


Advanced corrugated sheet structured packings are considered a natural choice for
deep vacuum distillation. In many of these applications that occur at absolute pressures
below 0.01 bar at the top of the column, the low density gas/vapor driven by pressure
ascends through an irrigated packed bed under laminar flow conditions. This implies that the packing geometry features aiming to reduce the form drag of advanced packing may not be as effective, if at all, as experienced in common applications where turbulent flow prevails. To consider this appropriately, a theoretically founded expression for laminar flow friction factor has been incorporated into Delft model (DM). With this extension, the predicted pressure drop within laminar flow region approaches closely that estimated using well-established empirical model available in software package SULCOL. In absence of adequate experimental evidence, extended DM was validated using newest data obtained at FRI with an advanced wire gauze structured packing in total reflux experiments carried out with paraxylene/orthoxylene system at 0.02 and 0.1 bar top pressure in a column with internal diameter of 1.22 m.


Background: Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy is a growing treatment modality for acute cardiorespiratory failure. Cardiac output monitoring during veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy remains challenging. This study aims to validate a new thermodilution technique during veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy using a pig model. Methods: Sixteen healthy pigs were centrally cannulated for veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and precision flow probes for blood flow assessment were placed on the pulmonary artery. After chest closure, cold boluses of 0.9% saline solution were injected into the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation circuit, right atrium, and right ventricle at different extracorporeal membrane oxygenation flows (4, 3, 2, 1 l/min). Rapid response thermistors in the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation circuit and pulmonary artery recorded the temperature change. After calculating catheter constants, the distributions of injection volumes passing each circuit were assessed and enabled calculation of pulmonary blood flow. Analysis of the exponential temperature decay allowed assessment of right ventricular function. Results: Calculated blood flow correlated well with measured blood flow (r2 = 0.74, P < 0.001). Bias was −6 ml/min [95% CI ± 48 ml/min] with clinically acceptable limits of agreement (668 ml/min [95% CI ± 166 ml/min]). Percentage error varied with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation blood flow reductions, yielding an overall percentage error of 32.1% and a percentage error of 24.3% at low extracorporeal membrane oxygenation blood flows. Right ventricular ejection fraction was 17 [14 to 20.0]%. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation flow reductions increased end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes with reductions in pulmonary vascular resistance. Central venous pressure and right ventricular ejection fractions remained unchanged. End-diastolic and end-systolic volumes correlated highly (r2 = 0.98, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Adapted thermodilution allows reliable assessment of cardiac output and right ventricular behavior. During veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation weaning, the right ventricle dilates even with stable function, possibly because of increased venous return. In 16 healthy pigs that received veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support via central cannulation, a novel adaptation of thermodilution cardiac output assessment provided reliable estimation of right ventricular cardiac output and right ventricular function. Future studies appear warranted to determine whether this method of modified thermodilution can be used to accurately assess right ventricular output and function during veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support. Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.


Evidence from study and mapping of erosional levels, from reconstruction of dissected drainage divides, and from geological relations of a volcanic series proves that the Kern River has always followed a southerly course in its cutting in the Kern River Basin, refuting the deductions of Lawson (1904) that the Kern flowed eastward from the upper Kern Basin across Toowa Valley. Structural control of the Kern River by the Kern Canyon fault is shown to have been effected at the beginning of the older of two cycles; principal evidence is found in the plotted erosional surfaces preserved throughout the basin. The Great Western Divide is established as the primary division of drainage in the southern Sierra prior to the development of the Sierra Nevada fault. A hitherto unrecognized period of canyon cutting is recorded by channels cut in the Chagoopa level, now buried by flows, but visible in the walls of Little Kern gorge. Volcanism, in two stages, and periodic movement on the Sierra Nevada fault stagnated and diverted drainage in both tributary and master streams.


We study the evolution of the magnetic ground state close to the putative quantum critical point in CeCoGe2.2Si0.8 by using electrical resistivity and specific heat measurements under the same high hydrostatic pressure conditions. The electrical resistivity shows that the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature, TN, is suppressed above PC = 5.9 kbar, with the emergence of non‐Fermi liquid behavior. On the other hand, the specific heat shows two different magnetic transitions at 0 kbar, one at TN and another one at Tl ≈ 0.3 K. Both transition temperatures are reduced by pressure but remain finite up to at least 7.2 kbar. The height of the specific heat anomaly at TN, ΔCN, is strongly reduced above PC. These features suggest that the quantum criticality in CeCoGe2.2Si0.8 is governed by disorder.


Governments in Africa are spending significant funds in their drive towards putting public business processes and services online. Although this drive has different names, such as electronic government (e-government), open government and open data, the motivation is hinged upon achieving overall efficiency and effectiveness in public services and is based on the notion of freedom of information. In Botswana's public services, diverse interventions are being put in place to facilitate business automation and electronic records management. The then-Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), now Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), has joined the drive by implementing the Document Workflow Management System (DWMS) as an e-records management system. This study probes the determinant factors influencing meaningful adoption and usage of the DWMS for effective records and information management within MITI. Multivariate analysis is employed to understand which factors have the highest variance in adoption and use of the DWMS. The study utilises the adapted Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as the conceptual framework in its design. Quantitative data was collected from a population of sixty-one officers, from which fifty-three (86.9%) responses were received and included in the analysis. Effort expectancy, behavioural intention, social influences and facilitating conditions were the key determinants for adoption and use accounting for 55% of variance. The study identifies to what degree each of the potent factors contribute to adoption and use of the DWMS at MITI. The major limitation of this study is that it was impossible to identify all the factors influencing behaviour intention, as human behaviour is difficult to measure. Other unidentified factors account for 45% of variance not accounted for by the predictor factors. This is an indication that there is a need for an in-depth study, preferably a longitudinal study, that critically probes the factors of technology adoption in work processes by a large set of individuals in a developing world context.


Abstract Within global sport, volunteering has been identified as a fundamental resource to the effective operation and continuity of operations. However, investments in, and the success of, sport volunteering is contingent on amiable socio-cultural, political, and economic conditions. In Europe, the context of this paper, the vibrancy of sport volunteering remains a concern since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding the pandemic, some transnational sport networks and regional governmental partnerships have been making more dedicated investments to fortify volunteer cultures in the region. In addition, collaborative ventures are finding ways to connect sport volunteering with wider international issues to support its growth across all sectors. Here, sustainability and environmental change have provided a key issue platform for sport volunteer leverage. As the pandemic continues to confront the existence and practices of sport organisations, and specifically their ability to engage volunteers, these issues have become salient. We present a commentary of the Erasmus + Sport-funded, pan-European, sport volunteering and sustainability focused, PlayGreen consortia and its organisation members responses to the unfolding pandemic across Europe. Our commentary is guided by spatial theory and internal administration insights. The pandemic has brought new ideas and cohesion into sport volunteer communities, challenged, and changed modes of production, and led to new forms of social transformation and action vis-à-vis environmental and sustainability issues. As sport organisations continue to find viable ways of existing, the experiences within the PlayGreen consortia evidence creative potential for future volunteer engagements.


BACKGROUND
Blindness caused by ophthalmic artery embolism is the most catastrophic complication of facial hyaluronic acid (HA) injections. Extravascular (retrobulbar) injection of hyaluronidase has been suggested as a salvage in this calamitous situation. However, the effectiveness of this treatment still lacks consensus.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to investigate the role of extravascular hyaluronidase in dissolving intravascular HA occlusion.

METHODS
Two different animal experiments were performed: (1) isolated rabbit abdominal aorta segments filled with HA were treated with extravascular immersion of highly concentrated hyaluronidase for 90 minutes, followed by gross observation, microscopic examination, particle size analysis, and immunohistochemical staining; and (2) live rabbit auricular arteries were first occluded with HA and then immediately treated with extravascular injection of hyaluronidase. The ears were then evaluated by gross observation, microscopic examination, and perfusion studies after 60 minutes and again after 90 minutes.

RESULTS
The HA within the aorta segments showed no gross or microscopic changes after treatment with extravascular hyaluronidase. Hyaluronidase could only be detected in adventitia of the aortae, instead of in vascular smooth muscle, tunica intima, or vascular lumen. The occluded auricular arteries showed no reperfusion after extravascular injection of hyaluronidase.

CONCLUSIONS
In this rabbit model, extravascular hyaluronidase was unable to penetrate into the arterial lumen of the isolated abdominal aorta nor the live auricular artery of the rabbit to dissolve intravascular HA within a 90-minute time limit, thus casting doubt on whether extravascular (retrobulbar) hyaluronidase injection has a role in treating ophthalmic artery embolism caused by HA injections.


In this paper the most common methods of data mining have been investigated and their application in electronics will be reflected. The current developments are systematized by the type of the used techniques. Therefore, a comprehensive literature review of data mining in electronics has been accomplished. The paper describes the usage of data mining in defect cause analysis, effects of process parameter for quality, deployment of equipment and maintenance. Examples of data mining applications in the literature have been summarized. A comprehensive experimental setup was the basis for the investigation on the effects on void generation. Statistical analysis and data mining techniques were used to identify the main causes for voids. The data file encompasses materials, suppliers, process parameters and inspection results. For a detailed analysis the x-ray inspection data of voids has been clustered into groups according to the dedicated package type. Finally, a neural network approach is applied to the experimental data and the model results are discussed.


To investigate the mechanism of recombination of immunoglobulin heavy chain variable and constant region genes, we have determined the nucleotide sequence of a large portion of the recombination region between an active C mu gene and its associated VH gene, isolated from an IgM-secreting mouse plasmacytoma, HPC76. By comparison with the sequence of the mu mRNA, we determined the exact boundaries of the intervening sequence between the VH76 and C mu genes. The rearranged VH76 gene encodes up to amino acid 116 without interruption, the 3' 39 nucleotides (the JH76 region) being derived from an embryonic JH segment (JH315) whose sequence was recently determined [Early, P., Huang, H., Davis, M., Calame, K. & Hood, L. (1980) Cell 195, 981-992]. The active JH76 does not use the first two codons of the embryonic JH315 from which it is derived. This indicates that V-J recombination is important in generating diversity within the third hypervariable region of heavy chains. We have identified another JH segment (JHA4), located 336 nucleotides 3' to the rearranged JH76 segment. This JH segment is expressed in the heavy chains of anti-levan myeloma proteins, which have truncated third hypervariable regions. We propose that the nucleotide sequence 5' to JHA4 is important for generating V region genes with shortened third hypervariable regions.


High-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) is the most common and deadliest ovarian cancer responsible for 90% of all ovarian cancer deaths. Studying the origin and early progression of this deadly cancer is critical in identifying biomarkers for early detection of the disease. Unfortunately, in the case of HGSC, it is virtually impossible to obtain early-stage human HGSC tissue samples because there is no diagnostic method capable of detecting early forms of HGSC. The recent breakthrough of an animal model (Dicer-Pten double-knockout mice) provides an invaluable opportunity to finally investigate the early tumor microenvironment. The model exhibits remarkable similarities to human HGSC, allowing greater insight into the biochemistry associated with nascent neoplastic changes within ovarian and fallopian tube tissues. An important aspect of determining potential biomarkers is to correlate any detected chemical changes with observed histological changes. To visualize the spatial distribution of chemical changes, tissue-based mass spectrometric imaging (MSI) can be employed as an unbiased way of visualizing the changes of proteins, metabolites, or both in cancer tissues. MSI is particularly useful for identifying molecules uniquely elevated or lowered in early tumor tissues, in which cell-type specific changes are expected to occur due to intratumoral microenvironment heterogeneity. In this study, two complementary MSI techniques – matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) and desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) mass spectrometry – are applied to thin tissue sections of Dicer-Pten mutant mouse ovaries and fallopian tubes. Several sulfatide lipids d18:1/C16:0, d18:1/C24:1 and d18:1/C24:0 have been implicated as potential biomarkers in human ovarian cancer. These metabolites, among others, are being included in a thorough MSI experiment to visualize molecular changes in multiple cell types in the microenvironment during early tumor progression. In addition to providing information about the early molecular changes taking place, the knowledge gained from this study will also help understand which specific cell types in the fallopian tube are more prone to early tumorigenesis. (Grant support: Marsha Rivkin Ovarian Cancer Challenge Grant) Citation Format: Martin R. L. Paine, Rachel V. Bennett, Jaeyeon Kim, M. Cameron Sullards, Martin M. Matzuk, Facundo M. Fernandez. Mass spectrometric imaging of ovarian cancer mouse model tissue: searching for high-grade serous carcinoma biomarkers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 10th Biennial Ovarian Cancer Research Symposium; Sep 8-9, 2014; Seattle, WA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2015;21(16 Suppl):Abstract nr POSTER-TECH-1122.


This chapter reviews the new era of advances in the application of industrial enzymes on renewable carbohydrate materials, including mono-, di-, and polysaccharides. Stunning progress in the genetic and protein engineering of enzymes using advanced techniques of biotechnology continue to open new markets, with enzymes being increasingly tailored for specific applications. Current large-scale enzyme applications on carbohydrate materials are reported, as well as advances in their increased and cheaper production. Examples of rapid growth of the use of industrial enzymes in specific industries are described, and include fuel ethanol production from agricultural feedstocks, detergents, pulp and paper manufacture, animal feeds, fine chemicals, and specialized sugar manufacture. Practical application of enzymes under harsh industrial process conditions is still often problematic, and ways to improve the optimization of industrial applications are described. Finally, the future outlook for the application of enzymes on carbohydrate materials in industry is discussed.


The invention concerns galenic formulations fast disintegrating in the mouth and the method for preparing them. Said galenic formulations comprise at least an active principle dispersed in a mixture of excipients and are characterised in that the mixture of excipients comprises at least a hardly compressible diluting agent other than trehalose and a 1-vinylpyrrolidin-2-one and vinyl acetate copolymer. The invention is useful for oral administration of numerous active principles (antalgesic, antispasmodic agents, agents used in gastroenterology, antinaupathic agents, antimigraine agents, beta -blockers, antihistaminic agents, antibiotic or antibacterial agents, antivertigo agents, hypnotic agents and others).


We investigate the dc and microwave properties of a SiGe pFET on sapphire technology. The results show that both cutoff frequency (f/sub T/) and low-field mobility (/spl mu//sub eff/) of SiGe pFETs improve with the integrated Ge dose in the SiGe channel, when compared to the Si pFET. Silicon CMOS on sapphire (Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/) technology is ideally suited for microwave circuits since it has a low dielectric loss substrate, low noise figure, excellent radiation hardness, and reduced punch-through effects. Recent studies of SiGe CMOS on sapphire technology have shown improvements in pFET mobility and transconductance at 300 K and 77 K, compared to Si. This work focuses on the effects of Ge profile in the SiGe channel on the low field mobility and cutoff frequency of a SiGe pFET on sapphire technology.


The importance of using risk assessment in developing food regulations is growing with the globalization of our food supply. The World Trade Organization has entrenched the principles of science-based risk assessment in the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. The relevant international organization for food standards, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, recognises risk analysis, and its component parts risk assessment, risk management and risk communication, as the basis for scientific decision-making. Risk assessment comprises two activities: hazard evaluation; and exposure estimation. A hazard may be chemical, microbiological or nutritional in origin. The practical application of risk assessment in Australia is illustrated in this presentation by four examples involving: (1) food additives, (2) microbiological safety of imported raw milk cheeses, (3) genetically modified foods and (4) imported food inspection.


Previous analysis of legislative voting has focused on the behavior of nominal legislative parties, regardless of whether the country under examination was an established democracy or a newly democratized country. This approach is inadequate for countries with young party systems. To establish the extent to which legislative coalitions are party based, scholars must allow for the possibility that institutional incentives predominate over party influence. For this study, I applied a Bayesian discrete latent variable method to identify the legislative coalitions in the 1996-99 Duma. I found that legislative alignments cut across party lines: electoral incentives and support for the president contribute to divides within parties that lack coherent platforms. Here I present a novel methodological approach to the identification of intraparty divisions and the major determinants of legislative coalitions in many legislative settings. This approach allows a comparison of the importance of party influence relative to other institutional incentives. It is especially useful for analyzing legislative voting in young party systems and where constitutional frameworks and electoral systems subject legislators to competing pressures.


This paper describes how Turkish teachers of English in state primary education approach the implementation of a Communicative‐Oriented Curriculum innovation and factors that impact on teachers' classroom practices. Using multidimensional research procedures, including a questionnaire, observations and teacher interviews, a picture has been developed of teachers' instructional practices and factors influencing their classroom practices. The findings revealed a gap between curriculum objectives and teachers' implementation of the innovation. Factors that were identified as having a significant impact on teachers' classroom application of the communicative teaching include teachers' understanding of the curriculum innovation, their previous training, insufficient instructional support, limited instructional time, large class size and lack of resources. It is suggested that a greater level of support in the form of in‐service training and resource provision be given to teachers to ensure more effective implementation of the curriculum initiative.


Although neuroimaging studies strongly implicate the medial prefrontal cortex (ventral and dorsal), cingulate gyrus (anterior and posterior), precuneus and temporoparietal cortex in mediating self-referential processing (SRP), little is known about the neural bases mediating individual differences in valenced SRP, that is, processes intrinsic to self-esteem. This study investigated the neural correlates of experimentally engendered valenced SRP via the Visual–Verbal Self-Other Referential Processing Task in 20 women with fMRI. Participants viewed pictures of themselves or unknown other women during separate trials while covertly rehearsing 'I am' or 'She is', followed by reading valenced trait adjectives, thus variably associating the self/other with positivity/negativity. Response within dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and left temporoparietal cortex varied with individual differences in both pre-task rated self-descriptiveness of the words, as well as task-induced affective responses. Results are discussed as they relate to a social cognitive and affective neuroscience view of self-esteem.


African Animal Trypanosomiasis (AAT) is a tsetse-transmitted protozoan disease endemic in "the tsetse belt" of Africa. Past studies investigating the epidemiology of the disease rarely focused on spatial distribution when reporting the prevalence. The challenge of understanding the spatial epidemiology of the disease is further confounded by low-sensitive parasitological techniques used in field investigations. This study aimed to identify trypanosome species in cattle and their spatial distribution in western Kenya. Low-sensitive microscopic analysis and highly-sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques were also compared to better understand the epidemiology of Trypanosoma infections by use of the geographical information system (GIS). Blood samples from 888 cattle, collected between August 2010 and July 2012, were examined for Trypanosoma parasites by light microscopy and PCR. The spatial distribution of Trypanosoma positive cases by species were mapped and overlaid on the map for tsetse distribution. The estimated prevalence was 4.17% by PCR compared to 2.48% by microscopy. Trypanosomes were detected in tsetse free areas. Trypanosoma vivax and Trypanosoma b. brucei were identified, but not the zoonotic Trypanosoma b. rhodesiense. This study demonstrated the importance of geospatial data analysis to understand the epidemiology of the parasite, to inform future research and formulate control strategies.


This paper presents a method of solving planning problems that involve actions whose effects change according to the situations in which they are performed. The approach is an extension of the conventional planning methodology in which plans are constructed iteratively by scanning for goals that are not yet satisfied, inserting actions to achieve them, and introducing additional subgoals to be achieved. The necessary extensions to this methodology to handle context-dependent effects are presented from a general, mathematically rigorous standpoint.


An 83-year-old man underwent cervical esophagectomy and developed a chylothorax as a postoperative complication. We decided to perform lymphangiography and thoracic duct embolization for chylous leakage, but it was expected to be challenging to maintain bed rest. Therefore, dexmedetomidine was administered for procedural sedation. The patient's blood pressure and heart rate were mostly stable during the procedure, and the sedation level was maintained within the desired limits. Due to its specific sedative pattern and mild analgesic effect, Dexmedetomidine is suitable for procedural sedation in various painless interventional radiology procedures, such as lymphangiography and thoracic duct embolization. Therefore, it may be the best sedative for the elderly and should be widely and effectively used in interventional radiology.


Magnetization recoveries for nuclear spin relaxation of like spins due to magnetic dipolar coupling and diffusion on inequivalent sites involve a sum of exponentials. The theory is applied to diffusion on octahedral and tetrahedral interstitial sites in the face-centred cubic structure. Monte Carlo simulations have been used to generate relaxation data for parameters typical for H in metals. It is found that only a single exponential would be observable in the high- and low-temperature limits, but that two-exponential recoveries could be observable in the vicinity of the maximum in the relaxation rate as a function of temperature. The Monte Carlo relaxation data has been fitted using a Bloembergen–Pound–Purcell (BPP) model to assess the accuracy of the BPP model.


The influence of the resonant helical field (RHF) with l=2 and n=1 on the m=2/n=1 natural tearing mode is studied numerically for large (A=20) and small (A=6) aspect ratio Tokamak. The behaviour of the nonlinear coupling among the tearing modes is different when the aspect ratio is different. However, it is found that in both cases RHF really suppresses the 2/1 mode when the widths of the islands generated by RHF and the 2/1 mode are the same order and the phase of RHF is opposite to the phase of the 2/1 mode. Primary mechanism of this suppression is the counter plasma flow induced by RHF. The growth rate of the 2/1 mode, however, is not remarkably affected by the existence of RHF, when the mode is not suppressed by RHF.


Child and adolescent neuropsychiatry services' development is described from early deinstitutionalization, through to rehabilitation, intervention and social inclusion of children with disability. The issues that have changed the services in order to meet the growing mental health problem, and the protection of mental well-being trough developmental years, are then dealt with in detail. Finally we draw a picture of the organization of child and adolescent neuropsychiatry services in Italy and in the different regional contexts.


The quality of data collected in official spatial databases is crucial in making strategic decisions as well as in the implementation of planning and design works. Awareness of the level of the quality of these data is also important for individual users of official spatial data. The author presents methods and models of description and evaluation of the quality of spatial data collected in public registers. Data describing the space in the highest degree of detail, which are collected in three databases: land and buildings registry (EGiB), geodetic registry of the land infrastructure network (GESUT) and in database of topographic objects (BDOT500) were analyzed. The results of the research concerned selected aspects of activities in terms of the spatial data quality. These activities include: the assessment of the accuracy of data collected in official spatial databases; determination of the uncertainty of the area of registry parcels, analysis of the risk of damage to the underground infrastructure network due to the quality of spatial data, construction of the quality model of data collected in official databases and visualization of the phenomenon of uncertainty in spatial data. The evaluation of the accuracy of data collected in official, large-scale spatial databases was based on a representative sample of data. The test sample was a set of deviations of coordinates with three variables dX, dY and Dl – deviations from the X and Y coordinates and the length of the point offset vector of the test sample in relation to its position recognized as a faultless. The compatibility of empirical data accuracy distributions with models (theoretical distributions of random variables) was investigated and also the accuracy of the spatial data has been assessed by means of the methods resistant to the outliers. In the process of determination of the accuracy of spatial data collected in public registers, the author's solution was used – resistant method of the relative frequency. Weight functions, which modify (to varying degree) the sizes of the vectors Dl – the lengths of the points offset vector of the test sample in relation to their position recognized as a faultless were proposed. From the scope of the uncertainty of estimation of the area of registry parcels the impact of the errors of the geodetic network points was determined (points of reference and of the higher class networks) and the effect of the correlation between the coordinates of the same point on the accuracy of the determined plot area. The scope of the correction was determined (in EGiB database) of the plots area, calculated on the basis of re-measurements, performed using equivalent techniques (in terms of accuracy). The analysis of the risk of damage to the underground infrastructure network due to the low quality of spatial data is another research topic presented in the paper. Three main factors have been identified that influence the value of this risk: incompleteness of spatial data sets and insufficient accuracy of determination of the horizontal and vertical position of underground infrastructure. A method for estimation of the project risk has been developed (quantitative and qualitative) and the author's risk estimation technique, based on the idea of fuzzy logic was proposed. Maps (2D and 3D) of the risk of damage to the underground infrastructure network were developed in the form of large-scale thematic maps, presenting the design risk in qualitative and quantitative form. The data quality model is a set of rules used to describe the quality of these data sets. The model that has been proposed defines a standardized approach for assessing and reporting the quality of EGiB, GESUT and BDOT500 spatial data bases. Quantitative and qualitative rules (automatic, office and field) of data sets control were defined. The minimum sample size and the number of eligible nonconformities in random samples were determined. The data quality elements were described using the following descriptors: range, measure, result, and type and unit of value. Data quality studies were performed according to the users needs. The values of impact weights were determined by the hierarchical analytical process method (AHP). The harmonization of conceptual models of EGiB, GESUT and BDOT500 databases with BDOT10k database was analysed too. It was found that the downloading and supplying of the information in BDOT10k creation and update processes from the analyzed registers are limited. An effective approach to providing spatial data sets users with information concerning data uncertainty are cartographic visualization techniques. Based on the author's own experience and research works on the quality of official spatial database data examination, the set of methods for visualization of the uncertainty of data bases EGiB, GESUT and BDOT500 was defined. This set includes visualization techniques designed to present three types of uncertainty: location, attribute values and time. Uncertainty of the position was defined (for surface, line, and point objects) using several (three to five) visual variables. Uncertainty of attribute values and time uncertainty, describing (for example) completeness or timeliness of sets, are presented by means of three graphical variables. The research problems presented in the paper are of cognitive and application importance. They indicate on the possibility of effective evaluation of the quality of spatial data collected in public registers and may be an important element of the expert system.


Primary mediastinal cysts are infrequent lesions that can arise from a variety of mediastinal organs or structures. Most of these are congenital in origin and incidental findings during investigations for unrelated conditions. Histologically, the cysts may be composed of various tissues, including bronchogenic, pericardial, thymic, enteric, Müllerian, lymphatic, and parathyroid types. Mediastinal cysts typically demonstrate a benign clinical course and patients are cured after complete surgical resection. In this review, the embryogenesis, clinical, radiologic, and pathologic characteristics of non-neoplastic mediastinal cysts are examined with discussion of the role of immunohistochemistry and the most pertinent differential diagnosis.


ABSTRACT For more than 60 y, beef cattle producers have safely used various types of growth-enhancing technology (GET) such as steroidal implants with anabolic activity and orally active beta-adrenergic agonists to increase skeletal muscle growth rate, improve carcass leanness, increase average daily gain (ADG), and alter dry matter intake (DMI) compared to non-treated cattle. Generally, the use of a GET increases ADG and only moderately affects DMI relative to non-treated cattle; subsequently, this enhances the rate of live weight gain relative to the amount of feed needed to achieve that gain, this is referred to as feed efficiency (G:F). When a producer chooses to utilize a GET, improvements in treated cattle over non-treated cattle are typically in the range of 8% to 28% for ADG and 5% to 20% for G:F. This review of the literature is intended to provide up to date insight into the mechanisms of how steroidal implants with anabolic activity enhance cattle growth and how these technologies have evolved since their introduction to U.S. beef producers nearly 60 y ago.


Now a days, television has become an integral part of daily life. Substantially Children are obsessed with cartoons, rhymes, and 3D pictures. Therefore, the use of long periods of TV viewing has a negative impact on their health, including optic nerve damage. Jitters that impair their vision and heighten their stress level without their knowledge causes headaches, etc. This proposed system will produce a smart app that covers and controls both biases and allows you to shoot parents and guardians can disable SMS announcements if they find them inconvenient. The bias automatically from anywhere at any time. The main ideal of this design is to give an IoT-enabled security system control over and long-time usage of TV. If the children use the TV for a long time automatically TV will be shut down by the parents with the help of blynk app. This design avoids the causes of health problems such as increased stress, neck pain and vision loss as well as the effects of optic jitters on the brain. This system aims to develop a prototype that's independent and capable of controlling television automatically via an Android smartphone using the Arduino UNO Microcontroller. If the children are sitting in front of the television within the distance limit from 20cm to 100 cm, the wi-fi module tracks the distance from the ultrasonic sensor. The tracked signal from ultrasonic sensor is send to the Arduino microcontroller and microcontroller will turn off the screen of the television.


Real-time adaptation of a motion capture sequence to virtual environments with physical perturbations requires robust control strategies. This paper describes an optimal feedback controller for motion tracking that allows for on-the-fly re-planning of long-term goals and adjustments in the final completion time. We first solve an offline optimal trajectory problem for an abstract dynamic model that captures the essential relation between contact forces and momenta. A feedback control policy is then derived and used to simulate the abstract model online. Simulation results become dynamic constraints for online reconstruction of full-body motion from a reference. We applied our controller to a wide range of motions including walking, long stepping, and a squat exercise. Results show that our controllers are robust to large perturbations and changes in the environment.


The alpha particle effect on the excitation of toroidal Alfv{acute e}n eigenmodes (TAE) was investigated in deuterium-titrium (D-T) plasmas in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor. rf power was used to position the plasma near the instability threshold, and the alpha particle effect was inferred from the reduction of rf power threshold for TAE instability in D-T plasmas. Initial calculations indicate that the alpha particles contribute 10{percent}{endash}30{percent} of the total drive in a D-T plasma with 3 MW of peak fusion power. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}


ABSTRACT Impaired macroautophagy/autophagy and high levels of glycolysis are prevalent in liver cancer. However, it remains unknown whether there is a regulatory relationship between autophagy and glycolytic metabolism. In this study, by utilizing cancer cells with basal or impaired autophagic flux, we demonstrated that glycolytic activity is negatively correlated with autophagy level. The autophagic degradation of HK2 (hexokinase 2), a crucial glycolytic enzyme catalyzing the conversion of glucose to glucose-6-phosphate, was found to be involved in the regulation of glycolysis by autophagy. The Lys63-linked ubiquitination of HK2 catalyzed by the E3 ligase TRAF6 was critical for the subsequent recognition of HK2 by the autophagy receptor protein SQSTM1/p62 for the process of selective autophagic degradation. In a tissue microarray of human liver cancer, the combination of high HK2 expression and high SQSTM1 expression was shown to have biological and prognostic significance. Furthermore, 3-BrPA, a pyruvate analog targeting HK2, significantly decreased the growth of autophagy-impaired tumors in vitro and in vivo (p < 0.05). By demonstrating the regulation of glycolysis by autophagy through the TRAF6- and SQSTM1-mediated ubiquitination system, our study may open an avenue for developing a glycolysis-targeting therapeutic intervention for treatment of autophagy-impaired liver cancer.


We previously generated transgenic mice carrying a large P1 artificial chromosome (PAC160) encompassing a 160-kb segment containing the human renin gene, two upstream genes, and one downstream gene. We also previously generated mutant PAC160 constructs lacking the distal enhancer and concluded it is required to maintain baseline expression of human renin, but is not required for tissue-specific, cell-specific, and regulated expression of renin in vivo. We now report two additional transgenic lines carrying random truncations of PAC160 upstream of the renin gene. Southern and PCR mapping studies indicate that the truncation break points in the two lines are located approximately 10.4 and 2.5 kb upstream of the renin gene causing a deletion of all DNA upstream of the break. We tested the hypothesis that large-scale deletion of DNA upstream of the human renin gene including the enhancer would cause dysregulation of human renin expression. Phenotypically, these truncations cause a severe dysregulation of human renin expression, but remarkably, a preservation of the normal tissue-specific expression of the human ethanolamine kinase 2 (ETNK2) gene which lies immediately downstream of renin. Several functional binding sites for CTCF, a mammalian insulator protein, were identified in and around the renin and ETNK2 loci by gel shift and chromatin immunoprecipitation. We conclude that there are sequences in and around the renin and ETNK2 loci which act as boundaries between neighboring genes which insulate them from each other. The study illustrates the value of taking a much wider genomic perspective when studying mechanisms regulating gene expression.


We show that by taking into account randomness of realization of experimental contexts it is possible to construct common Kolmogorov space for data collected for these contexts, although they can be incompatible. We call such a construction "Kolmogorovization" of contextuality. This construction of common probability space is applied to Bell's inequality. It is well known that its violation is a consequence of collecting statistical data in a few incompatible experiments. In experiments performed in quantum optics contexts are determined by selections of pairs of angles (θi,θ'j) fixing orientations of polarization beam splitters. Opposite to the common opinion, we show that statistical data corresponding to measurements of polarizations of photons in the singlet state, e.g., in the form of correlations, can be described in the classical probabilistic framework. The crucial point is that in constructing the common probability space one has to take into account not only randomness of the source (as Bell did), but also randomness of context-realizations (in particular, realizations of pairs of angles (θi, θ'j)). One may (but need not) say that randomness of "free will" has to be accounted for.


Abstract:Online musical performances in the first few months of the pandemic and lockdown in New York City bring to light the sonic and temporal challenges, unique acoustic space, and aesthetic possibilities of performing on Zoom. The social connection gained through these performance events is the key to their efficacy.


The more complex a software system is and the longer a software system evolves, the more difficult it is to avoid effects like software architecture erosion or architectural drifts. These effects can lead to systems where the realization of the system diverges from the intended architecture with resultant negative impacts on quality attributes associated with the intended architecture. As studies have shown, untreated divergence can lead to systems which are impossible to maintain in the long run. Expensive redevelopments and replacements are the consequences. In recent years, researchers from different communities like software maintenance, model-driven development, and software architecture have investigated many aspects of software architecture erosion from different perspectives. The goal of the "Second Workshop on Software Architecture Erosion and Architectural Consistency (SAEroCon)" is to intensify the exchange of ideas regarding the current state-of-the-art/the state-of-the-practice and future research directions regarding architecture consistency, architecture recovery and restoration and ways to prevent and mitigate against architecture erosion. The workshop targets all software engineering researchers and practitioners interested in discussing ideas regarding these topics and shaping future research related to them.


The stability of a thin liquid film bounded by two free surfaces is examined in the presence of insoluble surface active agents. The surface active agents not only cause gradients in surface tension, but could also render surface viscosity to be significant, and variable, as a function of their concentration. A set of three coupled nonlinear evolution equations are derived for the film height, concentration of surface active agents, and the horizontal liquid velocity which governs the dynamics of the free film. Suitable phenomenological models for variation of surface tension and surface viscosity with the concentration of surface active agents are incorporated in the interfacial stress boundary condition. Linear stability analysis reveals the effect of various non-dimensional parameters, specifically the retarding nature of surface viscosity and Marangoni effects on film rupture. An analysis of the `jamming' limit of surfactant concentration reveals that Γ(nl)0<3D/M is a sufficient criteria for instability of the system, where Γ(nl)0 is a normalized initial surface particle concentration, D is the disjoining pressure number and M is the Marangoni number. Nonlinear simulations suggest film profiles at rupture are also qualitatively different from those reported in earlier studies, revealing that free films in the jamming limit are remarkably stable and their free surfaces behave like immobile interfaces. Furthermore, self-similar exponents extracted from our nonlinear simulations are used to explain topological differences between zero and constant surface viscosity in the vicinity of rupture.


Thermal energy storage (TES) system integrated with concentrated solar power provides the benefits of extending power production, eliminating intermittency issues, and reducing system LOCE. Infinia Corporation is under the contract with DOE in developing TES systems. The goal for one of the DOE sponsored TES projects is to design and build a TES system and integrate it with a 3 KWe free-piston Stirling power generator. The Phase Change Material (PCM) employed for the designed TES system is a eutectic blend of NaF and NaCl which has a melt temperature of 680 o C and energy storage capacity of 12 KWh. This PCM was selected due to its low cost and desired melting temperature. This melt temperature ensures the Stirling being operated at designed operating hot end temperature. The latent heat of this eutectic PCM offers 5 to 10 times the energy density of a typical molten salt. The technical challenges associated with low cost molten salt TES systems are the low thermal conductivity of the salt and large thermal expansion. To address these challenges, an array of sodium filled Heat Pipes (HP) is embedded in the PCM to enhance the heat transfer from solar receiver to PCM and from PCM to Stirling engine. The oversized dish provides sufficient thermal energy to operate a 3KWe Stirling engine at full power and to charge up the TES. The HP arrays are optimally distributed so that the solar energy is transferred directly from receiver to Stirling engine heat receiver. During the charge phase, the Stirling engine absorbs and converts the transferred solar energy to electricity and the excess thermal energy is re-directed and stored to PCM. The stored energy is transferred via distributed HP from PCM to Stirling engine heat receiver during discharge phase. The HP based PCM thermal energy storage system was designed, built, and performance tested in laboratory. The TES/engine assembly was tested in two different orientations representing the extremes of system operation when mounted on sun-tracking dish, horizontal and vertical. Horizontal represents the zero elevation at sun rise and the vertical represents the extreme of solar noon. The testing allows the examination of orientation effect on the heat pipe performance and the maximum charge and discharge rates. The total energy stored and extracted was also examined. The areas for further system refinements were identified and discussed.


The present study aimed to investigate the common fears and their origins among children and adolescents from different age, gender, and socioeconomic levels (SES). The sample was comprised of 642 females (48.8%) and 673 males (51.2%) with a total of 1,315 participants aged between 8 and 18 (M = 13.15; SD = 3.18). The Fear interview was utilised to examine the common fears and the role of conditioning, modelling and negative information in the development of children's fears. The result showed that the most common fear in Turkey was 'God', followed by 'losing my friends' and 'going to Hell'. In addition, the findings revealed that Turkish students are more likely to learn fears by modelling rather than negative information transmission and conditioning. The results also indicated that negative information transmission had a more intensifying effect on the children and adolescents' existing fear rather than modelling and conditioning. Furthermore, multinomial logistic regression was conducted to examine the effects of age, gender and SES on the origins of fear. Results showed that age and gender were significant predictors of origins of fear.


In 2007, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission voted to eliminate the 20-F reconciliation requirement for foreign issuers listing their stocks or bonds in the U.S. capital markets and preparing their financial statements under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Distinct from prior research focusing on the equity market, we investigate the impact of eliminating the 20-F reconciliation on the cost of debt in the U.S. listed foreign bond market. Employing a difference-in-differences approach, we document that bond yield spread increases for foreign IFRS bond issuers after the elimination of 20-F reconciliation. The results suggest that bondholders, on average, view the elimination of 20-F reconciliation as an information loss. Cross-sectional analyses reveal that the positive association between the elimination of 20-F reconciliation and bond yield spread is more pronounced for firms with greater stock return volatility, lower institutional ownership, weaker reporting incentives, and higher country-level investor protection.
 JEL Classifications: M41; G15; G18.


The interaction of a ligand with its cognate receptor not only activates signal transduction pathways but also determines adaptive responses affecting key elements in these pathways, in particular the cell surface receptor. Such is the case for G protein-linked receptors, the expression and functional status of which are highly regulated. The regulatory mechanisms involved can be divided according to two distinct time frames, acute and chronic. In the short-term, posttranslational mechanisms alter the functional status of the elements without changing steady-state levels or gene expression. Protein phosphorylation plays a prominent role in these acute adaptive responses. Thus agonists promote phosphorylation and the desensitization of several G protein-linked receptors. And we have shown in the case of the dopamine D2 receptor that protein kinase C modulates receptor coupling to its G-protein. Longer-term regulation involves transcriptional (gene expression), posttranslational (mRNA stability), and posttranslational (protein phosphorylation) regulation of the turnover of the elements in the information transduction pathway. In the case of G protein-linked receptors, long-term regulation is often reflected in changes in steady-state levels of mRNA (which can be quantified by techniques such as northern blot analysis, solution hybridization or in-situ hybridization). For dopamine D2 receptors, prolonged administration of neuroleptic drugs induces an up-regulation of receptor mRNA in various brain regions, probably through an increase in gene transcription. Receptor-transduced extracellular stimuli are converted into long-term changes in gene expression through specific nuclear transcription factors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Buffer insertion has successfully been applied to reduce delay in global interconnect paths: however, existing techniques only optimize delay and timing slack. With the increasing ratio of coupling to total capacitance and the use of aggressive dynamic logic circuit families, noise is becoming a major design bottleneck. We present comprehensive buffer insertion techniques for noise and delay optimisation. Our experiments on a microprocessor design show that our approach fixes all noise violations that were identified by a detailed, simulation-based noise analysis tool. Further, we show that the performance penalty induced by optimizing both delay and noise as opposed to only delay is 2%.


The virulence spectrum of isolates from the 49th HK passage of OCT-541 (JBE) virus at 37°C was examined using an infectious center technique in singly infected HK cells. Thirty per cent of that portion of the virus population that could be examined in this manner were found to be less virulent for the weanling mouse than was the parent virus. Ten per cent of the isolates were of very low virulence and one isolate designated T-11 virus was sufficiently different to be studied in depth.
 The T-11 virus infectivity titer for cell cultures exceeds the intracerebral LD50 for weanling mice 1 million-fold. Intracerebral inoculation of 250 TCID50 of virus produces a non-lethal immunizing infection in weanling mice. Peripheral inoculation of this host does not result in infection. T-11 virus retains complete neurovirulence for the suckling mouse when given intracerebrally. It will produce a non-lethal immunizing infection in 30% of weanling hamsters inoculated by peripheral routes.
 Comparison of the attenuated virus with the virulent OCT-541 virus by several methods did not reveal the mechanism or defect by which this virus is different. Thus, T-11 virus has a half-life at 38°C and pH 7.1 similar or superior to that of OCT-541 virus. The two strains are equally sensitive to interferon and T-11 virus can not be demonstrated to induce more interferon than the parent virus. Single cycle growth curves in cell culture are identical for the two viruses. T-11 virus is inhibited in multicycle growth curves and is more sensitive to the saline-soluble fraction of unpurified commerical agars. It has several other plaque markers common to other tissue culture-passaged viruses.