AIMS
Post-infarction remodelled failing hearts have reduced metabolic efficiency. Paradoxically, they have increased tolerance to further ischaemic injury. This study was designed to investigate the metabolic mechanisms that may contribute to this phenomenon and to examine the relationship between ischaemic tolerance and metabolic efficiency during post-ischaemic reperfusion.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to coronary artery ligation (CAL) or SHAM surgery. After 4 weeks, in vivo mechanical function was assessed by echocardiography, and then isolated working hearts were perfused in this sequence: 45 min aerobic, 15 min global no-flow ischaemia, and 30 min aerobic reperfusion. Left ventricular (LV) function, metabolic rates, and metabolic efficiency were measured. Relative to SHAM, both in vivo and in vitro CAL hearts had depressed cardiac function under aerobic conditions (45 and 36%, respectively), but they had a greater recovery of LV function during post-ischaemic reperfusion (67 vs. 49%, P < 0.05). While metabolic efficiency (LV work per ATP produced) was 50% lower during reperfusion of SHAM hearts, metabolic efficiency in CAL hearts did not decrease. During ischaemia, glycogenolysis was 28% lower in CAL hearts, indicative of lower ischaemic proton production. There were no differences in mitochondrial abundance, calcium handling proteins, or key metabolic enzymes.

CONCLUSION
Compared with SHAM, remodelled CAL hearts are more tolerant to ischaemic injury and undergo no further deterioration of metabolic efficiency during reperfusion. Less glycogen utilization in CAL hearts during ischaemia may contribute to increased ischaemic tolerance by limiting ischaemic proton production that may improve ion homeostasis during early reperfusion.


The Norwegian aquaculture of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) is hampered by ulcerative disorders associated with bacterial infections. Chronic ulceration may provide microenvironments that disturb the normal microbial biodiversity of external surfaces. Studying the composition of microbial communities in skin ulcers will enhance our understanding of ulcer aetiology. To achieve this, we tested marine farmed Atlantic salmon and sampled the base and edge of ulcers at the end of winter (April) and end of summer (September), in addition to skin mucus of healthy individuals. In order to assess microbiota associated with the host and obtain insight into the environmental ecology, we also sampled sea water, the sediment layer underneath the farm facility and the distal intestine of Atlantic salmon. The skin microbiota of Atlantic salmon was different from that of the surrounding water. Residential Tenacibaculum and Arcobacter species persistently dominated the cutaneous skin and ulcer mucus surfaces of Atlantic salmon during both winter and summer periods. The intestinal microbiota was dominated by Mycoplasma with an increase in Aliivibrio and Alcaligenes abundance in the intestine of fish with ulcerative disorder at the end of winter. These findings suggest the presence of resilient microbes in the mucus surfaces of Atlantic salmon.


Submitted in partial requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of IsiZulu namaGugu in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 2002.


A series of well-defined poly(vinyl acetate)-b-poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVAc-b-PVA) amphiphilic diblock copolymers with different hydrophilic block sizes were synthesized by a combination of macromolecular design via the interchange of xanthates (MADIX) polymerization and copper-catalyzed Huisgen's click reaction (CuAAC). Poly(vinyl acetate)s were first prepared by MADIX polymerization using new chain transfer agents bearing clickable moieties. After the hydrolysis of PVAc homopolymers under basic conditions, PVAc-b-PVA copolymers were synthesized using Huisgen's reaction with copper catalysis. Then, the self-assembly in water of PVAc-b-PVA was studied by dynamic light scattering (DLS), static light scattering (SLS), pyrene fluorescence and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The dependence between the hydrophilic chain length of the copolymer and the critical aggregation concentration (CAC) value has been proved. The three different methods of characterization showed similar results, the CAC increasing with hydrophilic block length. Additionally, ITC has proved to be a very valuable technique for the study of self-organization of amphiphilic copolymers.


Micro‐organisms are tightly integrated into host‐microbiota ecosystem. Microbiota of human semen has been studied so far mostly in case of infertility or prostatitis. We aimed to reveal possible impact of sexual debut on seminal microbiota in healthy young men. The study group included 68 young healthy men, of them 12 men without sexual experience, 11 men with single lifetime sexual partner and 45 men with multiple lifetime sexual partners. Basic semen parameters were similar for all subgroups, and no correlation between sexual experience and WBC counts in semen was found. A man could harbour one to nine different bacteria in his semen; the total concentration of bacteria ranged from 2.3 to 7.3 log10 CFU/mL of semen. Lower total bacterial concentration and lower bacterial diversity was observed in men without sexual experience than in sexually experienced men (p < 0.05), with significant positive correlation between these two parameters (r = 0.54; p < 0.0001). In conclusion, the sexual debut is associated with the enrichment of seminal microbiota but not with the influx of WBC or changes in basic seminal parameters.


Received Mar 23, 2021 Revised Aug 6, 2021 Accepted Sep 1, 2021 There is a need for non-renewable energy sources in generation of power for almost every domestic and commercial purposes. This source of energy helps in the development of a country. Because of the increasing usage of the fossil fuels and depletion of these resources, our focus has been shifted towards the renewable sources of energy like solar, water and wind. Therefore, in the present scenario, the usage of renewable sources has been increasing rapidly. Selection of a solar power plant (SPP) requires environmental factor, local terrain, and local weather issues. Thus, a large amount of investment is required for installation. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) is a method that identifies one in choosing the best sites among the other proposed options. This paper gives a detailed study of optimal ranking of SPP site using analytical hierarchy process (AHP), multiple layer perceptron (MLP) neural network trained with back propagation (BP) algorithm and genetic algorithm (GA). Three SPP sites of India were considered and various important criteria like local weather, geographical location, and environmental factors are included in our study as SPP site selection is a multi-criteria problem. A precise comparison of these three methods is listed in this paper.


. An international cooperation, named Brasil-Japan Collaboration of Chacaltaya Emulsion Chamber Experiment (B-J Collaboration) exposed 2.35 x 10 8 m 2 .s, during the period 15 th Jun, 1962 till 10 th May, 1988. It corresponds to 22 'runs' on Cosmic Rays and in this figure are not included photosensitive material set in the lower part of the two-storied emulsion chamber. Although 3 more 'runs' occurred after 1988, they were not included either, because they were not yet properly measured and because they contain mixed Japanese and Russian films. Chacaltaya Mountain was firstly used in 1947 for 2 meson observations and π - µ decays. It was a wise choice not only for these observations but also for the B-J Collaboration and for the Alpaca Project, running at neighbouring sites. The main results observed by the B-J Collaboration are presented.


We have performed a retrospective analysis of side-effect profile of endovenous laser ablation (EVLA) of great saphenous veins in patients operated on in general sedation or general/regional anesthesia with or without tumescence solution injection. The results confirmed our initial assumptions that omitting tumescence (and in addition, avoiding any external compression and cooling) may actually significantly reduce the incidence of moderate/severe postoperative pain and brusing without compromising closure rates. As these are probably caused by vessel wall perforations they seem to be more common in the tumescence cohort. The results are in line with recent basic research which showed that fiber tip centering may reduce perforations (easier to perform in vessels filled with blood), that blood itself does not either reduce or enhance laser's effect, and that various lasers over a wide range of wavelengths (from hemoglobin-absorbing to water-absorbing) have comparable clinical efficacy. Hence, omitting tumescence and external compression probably reduces the incidence of postoperative pain and brusing in patients treated with EVLA.


Here we review the current knowledge of green mirids, Creontiades dilutus (Hemiptera: Miridae). Creontiades dilutus are highly polyphagous pests that are endemic to Australia. They are widely distributed across Australia and feed on a broad range of agricultural crops. Recently, C. dilutus has become an important focus of pest control in Australian cotton crops, most likely due to a decrease in insecticide use associated with the widespread uptake of transgenic cotton varieties. Prior to this, C. dilutus had been coincidentally controlled in cotton by applications of insecticides targeted at other pests such as Helicoverpa spp. Further, the pest status of C. dilutus in summer pulse crops has become more apparent due to the increased research dedicated to this area over the past decade. We review various aspects of the biology and ecology of C. dilutus, including their life cycle, feeding behaviour and host plants. We also examine current control methods and laboratory-rearing techniques, which will be important for the development of novel control strategies in cotton and other cropping environments. Possible future research directions are highlighted, such as dispersal capabilities and extent of genetic structure within C. dilutus populations, as these will have important implications for effective and sustainable control in the future.


A family with an unexpected aggregation of both ischaemic heart disease and peptic ulcers is presented. Possible mechanisms behind an association between the two diseases are discussed. It is suggested that, depending on the genetic susceptibility, similar environmental stimuli like preexisting "stress" could induce either ischaemic heart disease or peptic ulcer.


The Dividing Rectangles (DIRECT) search is a deterministic, derivative-free, global search algorithm. The algorithm searches for the global minimum by recursive space partitioning, essentially grouping similar regions within the decision space and selecting a sample from each group. The DIRECT algorithm was initially designed for continuous problems, but has since been modified to allow for integer variable types. Though DIRECT has been previously used for discrete numbers, the algorithm has not been extended to other discrete variable types, such as graph nodes or multi-dimensional points. This research further extends the DIRECT algorithm to use a mix of continuous and discrete variables, including connected graph nodes. In this paper, the algorithm is applied to leak detection problems in water distribution systems (WDSs), which involve both discrete network nodes and continuous leak magnitudes. In addition, the DIRECT algorithm is parallelized using a master-worker paradigm and tested using cluster resources for a moderate number of processors. The generalization and abstraction of the DIRECT algorithm presented in this research will enable the application of DIRECT to a wider class of problems than previously possible.


personality symptoms scale among Iranian students Sohrab Amiri1, Yusef Jamali2 Abstract Histrionic personality is a personality disorder in the international classification of disease and diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. This study was aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of brief histrionic personality symptoms scale (BHPS). 322 university students were selected by using multistage cluster sampling. Initially the questionnaire was translated (backward and forward). Reliability of the scale was assessed by Cronbach's alpha, test-retest and splitting coefficient, which were 77.0, 89.0, 56.0, 49.0, 67.0, 71.0. The criterion validity was done with histrionic personality subscale from millon clinical multiaxial inventory and five-factor personality inventory. As well as its factor structure was assessed by using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, fit indexs of X2/df equal to 3.2, SRMR=0.07, CFI=0.90 and RMSEA=0.10. The results of the factor analysis indicated that BHPS has 2 factors, test the reliability of the scale by using Cronbach's alpha, retest and splitting coefficient reflects the reliability of the scale, the criterion validity of the questionnaire with other questionnaires showed desirable discriminant and convergence validity. In Overall, these findings indicated BHPS has good psychometric properties among Iranian students.


In current casting industries, product development paradigm is shifting from traditional trial-and-error in the workshop to CAE-enabled simulation and 'proof-of-concept' by computer. The product development paradigm shift is thus from heuristic know-how and experience to more scientific simulation, evaluation, analysis and calculation. CAE simulation plays an important role in the new product development paradigm as it models the entire casting process and reveals the dynamic behaviour of the casting system in working conditions. In addition, the product quality panorama and product defects are explored via simulation in such a way that the root-causes of casting defects are pinpointed and the solutions to avoid them can be determined. In this paper, the CAE technology for casting process simulation is presented. The modelling of the casting process is first articulated and the detailed simulation issues are then described. The information related to the filling and solidification process and after-ejection behaviour are revealed by CAE simulation. Through case studies, how the CAE simulation helps identify and predict the process-related defects is illustrated and its efficiency is finally validated.


One of Professor Prebble's many achievements is that he is a fellow of the Law and Economics Association of New Zealand. This achievement recognises his contribution to the economic analysis of law. The first field to which scholars applied economic analysis of law was competition law. This article examines a particularly contentious area of New Zealand's competition law; viz the Efficient Component Pricing Rule and s 36 of the Commerce Act 1986. This rule first arose in Clear Communications Ltd's dispute with Telecom Corp of New Zealand Ltd. The Privy Council endorsed charging on the basis of the rule – saying its use did not breach s 36. Many years later New Zealand's Court of Appeal held Telecom's use of it amounted to a breach of s 36 in the context of price squeeze litigation. This article examines how the Court of Appeal concluded this. It looks at the economics of price squeezes and the rationale behind the Efficient Component Pricing Rule. It discusses United States law on price squeezes and shows how that law is hostile to finding competition law liability for price squeezes. It outlines the New Zealand cases and analyses the reasoning of the cases – particularly the Court of Appeal price squeeze case. It concludes that in holding use of the rule was a breach of s 36 the Court has eliminated the equally efficient competitor standard test for monopolisation and interred the Efficient Component Pricing Rule. It also argues that proscribing price squeezes is worthwhile.


A long-standing open problem in fault-tolerant quantum computation has been to find a universal set of transversal gates. As shown by Zeng et al. (e-print arXiv:0706.1382), such a set does not exist for binary stabilizer codes. Here we generalize our work to show that for subsystem stabilizer codes in $d$-dimensional Hilbert space, such a universal set of transversal gates cannot exist for even one encoded qudit, for any dimension $d$, prime or nonprime. This result strongly supports the idea that other primitives, such as quantum teleportation, are necessary for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation, and may be an important factor for fault-tolerance noise thresholds.


This paper examines two different approaches to judicial protection of entitlements in international economic law. One of them, 'performance-oriented', is applied by WTO adjudicators. Performance-oriented remedies focus on inducing wrongdoers to resume compliance with the underlying substantive rules. The other, 'reparation-oriented', is applied overwhelmingly in international investment law. Reparation-oriented remedies aim at offsetting the injury caused to private parties by the wrongful conduct. This paper discusses the utility of performance-oriented remedies within WTO law, and assesses the possibilities for otherwise reparation-oriented investment tribunals to have recourse to these remedies. It examines a number of decisions that, it is argued, favor performance over pecuniary compensation. From the viewpoint of the state found in breach, compensation then appears as a threatened sanction for non-compliance with the performance obligations determined.


Anti–glomerular basement membrane disease can rapidly lead to renal failure and blood pressure dysregulation. A rare complication is hypertensive encephalopathy in the form of seizures. Patients who have a negative initial seizure workup should have an MRI. These patients need tight blood pressure control and monitoring to prevent future seizures.


Stabilization of the levels of active oxygen species (AOS) is important to the survival of organisms. To clarify the system controlling levels of AOS in plants, this study used an electron spin resonance (ESR) method to directly measure superoxide radical (O(2)(.-)) scavenging activities in the wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana (Col and Ler ecotypes), two anthocyanin mutants (tt3 and ttg1), and an ascorbic acid mutant (vtc1). Under ordinary growth conditions, Arabidopsis contained superoxide-scavenging activity (SOSA) of approximately 300-500 SOD units/g of fresh weight. The ESR pattern indicated that most (40-50%) of this activity was due to ascorbic acid. For the analysis of SOSA under conditions of oxidative stress, synthesis of AOS was induced by gamma-irradiation. The radical scavenging activity in irradiated plants increased approximately 10-fold following an associated increase in the accumulation of ascorbic acid and anthocyanin. The accumulation of ascorbic acid and anthocyanin was suppressed by treatment with an antioxidant before irradiation and was induced by treatment with a radical-generating reagent. The contributions of ascorbic acid and anthocyanin to the total superoxide radical scavenging activity differed among ecotypes. In the Ler ecotype, ascorbic acid accumulated at twice the level of that in the Col ecotype, and induction of anthocyanin was half that in Col. To confirm the activity of ascorbic acid and anthocyanin against AOS stress, the viability of the wild type and mutants (tt2, tt3,tt5, ttg1, and vtc1) was examined after gamma-irradiation. Only the plants in which ascorbic acid and anthocyanin were induced had the ability to grow and flower.


Citation for published version (APA): Andersen, L., Ibsen, L. B., & Liingaard, M. (2009). Lumped-parameter Model of a Bucket Foundation. In S. Pietruszczak, G. N. Pande, C. Tamagnini, & R. Wan (Eds.), Computational Geomechanics : COMGEO I: Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Computational Geomechanics (COMGEO I), Juan -lesPins, France, 29 April -1 May, 2009 (pp. 731-742). IC2E International Center for Computational Engineering.


A model was developed for the economic evaluation of embryos for producing bull lines for use in commercial beef production. The fundamental concept underlying the model is that a cloned and sexed embryo of known genetic characteristics for beef traits is used to produce a bull. After reaching physiological maturity, the bull is used in natural matings. Equations relating feed energy requirements and growth rates based on NRC requirements and costs and returns discounted to present value allow investigation of expected economic merits of progeny from different embryo bull lines. The model has the flexibility to determine optimal embryo characteristics for different production environments. Model sensitivity to variation in progeny sex ratios, growth rates, yield and quality grades, and herd fertility characteristics was examined. Net present values (NPV) per embryo transferred were determined at the optimal marketing age of progeny produced from mating the bull to 30 cows per year for 5 yr. Relative to the lowest NPV of $18,209 for progeny with an expected quality grade of Select and yield grade of 4 at 400 d, increments in NPV ranged from $329 to $22,708 depending on differences in expected progeny carcass grade characteristics. The difference between NPV for 100% male and 40% male sex ratios was $7,518. The NPV differences between progeny growth rates of 1.6 and .9 kg/d holding herd conception rate constant at .9 and .5 were $8,311 and $4,611, respectively. The model evaluates relative economic values of embryo lines for producing bulls, accommodating interactions among progeny characteristics, and environments.


In this paper, the Exodus method is applied in solving Poisson's equation for problems involving rectangular and axisymmetric solution regions. The Exodus method is a numerical technique which is capable of providing an "exact" solution. Although the method is probabilistic in its approach, it is not subject to randomness like other Monte Carlo techniques because it does not involve the use of a pseudo-random generation subroutine. >


Goto R, You S, Zaitsu M, Chatenoud L, Wood KJ. Delayed anti-CD3 therapy results in depletion of alloreactive T cells and the dominance of Foxp3(+) CD4(+) graft infiltrating cells. Am. J. Transplant. 13(7), 1655-1664 (2013). Humanized Fc receptor nonbinding anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies have been tested in patients with autoimmune diseases with the goal of inducing immune tolerance. However, the timing of drug administration may be an important determinant of the biologic effects, since not all T cells are equally affected, and there may be different subsets of cells involved during the evolution of immune responses. The study by Goto et al. showed that delayed administration of anti-CD3 therapy was more effective in depleting alloreactive T cells than administration at the time of transplant, and resulted in long-term survival of the graft by promoting infiltration of CD4 Tregs into the graft.


Background Despite increasing rates of revision total shoulder arthroplasty (RTSA), there is a paucity of literature on optimizing perioperative outcomes. The purposes of this study were to identify risk factors for unplanned readmission and perioperative complications following RTSA, risk-stratify patients based on these risk factors, and assess timing of complications. Methods Bivariate and multivariate analyses of risk factors were assessed on RTSA patients from the ACS-NSQIP database from 2011 to 2015. Patients were risk-stratified and timing of severe adverse events and cause of readmission were evaluated. Results Of 809 RTSA patients, 61 suffered a perioperative complication or readmission within 30 days of discharge. Multivariate analysis identified operative time, BMI > 40, infection etiology, high white blood cell count, and low hematocrit as significant independent risk factors for 30-day complications or readmission after RTSA (p ≤ 0.05). Having at least one significant risk factor was associated with 2.71 times risk of complication or readmission within 15 days compared to having no risk factors (p < 0.001). The majority of unplanned readmission, return to the operating room, open/deep wound infection, and sepsis/septic shock occurred within two weeks of RTSA. Discussion Patients at high risk of complications and readmission after RTSA should be identified and optimized preoperatively to improve outcomes and lower costs.


Visualizing network data is applicable in domains such as biology, engineering, and social sciences. We report the results of a study comparing the effectiveness of the two primary techniques for showing network data: node-link diagrams and adjacency matrices. Specifically, an evaluation with a large number of online participants revealed statistically significant differences between the two visualizations. Our work adds to existing research in several ways. First, we explore a broad spectrum of network tasks, many of which had not been previously evaluated. Second, our study uses a large dataset, typical of many real-life networks not explored by previous studies. Third, we leverage crowdsourcing to evaluate many tasks with many participants.


The study aims to develop an automated isolated word speech recognition for Malay language that relies heavily on the well known and widely used statistical method in characterizing the speech pattern, the Hidden Markov Model (HMM). This paper discusses the development and implementation of an isolated Malay word speech recognition system using HMM as the acoustic model. This research focuses on isolated 5 phonemes word structure such as empat (four), lapan (eight), rekod (record), tidak (no), tujuh (seven) and tutup (close). The proposed system is relatively successful where it can identify spoken word at 88% recognition rate which is an acceptable rate of accuracy for speech recognition.


The unorthodox monetary policies currently being pu rsued by the Fed and other central banks raise the distinct possibility of a future hyperinflation. Th is is not just alarmist fantasizing, because the im plicit aim of these policies is to create inflationary expecta tions in order to induce households and businesses to increase their spending. What has not been consider ed by mainstream macroeconomists and policymakers who support such policies is that the unhinging of the public's expectations concerning the future val ue of the monetary unit is the defining feature of the dy namics of hyperinflation. It thus appears to be an opportune time to revisit the effects of hyperinfla tion. The purely economic destruction wrought by historical episodes of hyperinflation has been adeq uately dealt with by economists. The disastrous soc ial consequences of hyperinflation have been well docum ented in the narratives of sociologists, historians , and journalists. It is the aim of this paper to bri ng an economic perspective to bear on the destructi ve effects on individual human personality that are ca used by the breakdown of monetary calculation that results from hyperinflation. Using the classic case of the German hyperinflation, the deformation of human personality is characterized and its implicat ions for a radical transformation of the relationsh ip between the individual and the State are drawn out.


A newly marketed device measures body temperature using an ear probe that detects infrared radiation from the tympanic membrane. It is simple to use and gives a reading in 1-2 seconds. Its accuracy was evaluated in a group of children, aged 1 month through 10 years, by comparing it with either rectal (n = 65), or oral (n = 48) temperatures obtained with a standard electronic thermometer, IVAC (San Diego, CA). The average elapsed time between readings was 11 minutes. Overall, 60 rectal and 40 oral temperatures (88.5%) were higher with IVAC than with the aural sensor. The difference ranged from -0.7°C to +2.5°C. The correlations between the infrared ear-probe values and the rectal and oral temperature readings were 0.77 and 0.75, respectively. Because the average reading using the aural sensor was lower than that using the IVAC, the sensitivity of the aural sensor for detecting clinically important levels of fever was low. None of seven patients with a rectal temperature of 39°C or more and only 7 of 27 with a rectal temperature of 38°C or more were identified by the aural sensor as having temperatures above these cutoff levels. Similarly, none of three patients with an oral temperature of 39°C or more and only three of eight with an oral temperature of 38°C or more were identified correctly by the aural sensor. The authors conclude that the aural sensor is unsatisfactory for detecting clinically significant fevers in a pediatric outpatient setting.


Document clustering is a central method to mine massive amounts of data. Due to the explosion of raw documents generated on the Internet and the necessity to analyze them efficiently in various intelligent information system s, clustering techniques have reached their limitations on single processors. Instead of single processors, generalpurpose multi-core chips are increasingly deployed in response to diminishing returns in single processor speedup due to the frequency wall, but multi-core benefits only provide linear speedups while the number of documents in the Internet grows exponentially. Accelerating hardware devices represent a novel promise for improving the performance for data-intensive problems such as document clustering. They offer more radical designs with a higher level of parallelism but adapt ation to novel programming environments. In this paper, we assess the benefits of exploiting the comput ational power of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to study two fundamental problems in document mining, namely TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency) and document clustering. We transform traditional algorithms into accelerated parallel counterparts that can be efficiently executed on many-core GPU ar chitectures. We assess our implementations on various platforms ranging from stand-alone GPU desktops to Beowulf-like clusters equipped with contemporary GPU cards. We observe at least one order of magnitude speedups over CPU-only desktops and clusters. This demonstrates the potential of exploiting GPU clusters to efficiently solv e massive document mining problems. Such speedups combined with the scalability potential and accelerator-based parallelization are unique in the domain of document-based data mining, to the best of our knowledge.


Approximate LD50values for DDD, endrin, aldrin, dieldrin, toxaphene, heptachlor, and lindane were determined for 4 populations of mosquito fish, Gambusia affinis affinis (Baird and Girard). The results show resistance and crossresisance in populations having past exposure to insecticides. Evidence favoring a genetic basis for resistance is presented wherein toxicity levels remained constant in progeny of resistant fish which were reared in the absence of inseticides.


Development of the cultivated mushroom farming which began to be produced in the 1960s in Turkey, has been more faster in the Mediterranean region than other regions. The development of mushroom cultivation has began to seen Marmara and Ic Anadolu regions in recent years. The mushroom production which is very important for human health and nutrition, has been changing year to year (sometimes increase, sometimes decrease) in the province of Ankara. The first private mushrrom cultivation company had been established in1963. Up to date, the number of private enterprises has changed over the years in Ankara. This study was carried out by doing a survey with an active 12 enterprises which the annual production capacity of 10-600 ton. The enterprises were visited and problems were determined during the cultivation. As a result of the study, It was observed that there are problems in production and marketing phases and with surface soil material


For a multirate system where the output sampling is slower than the input updating, this brief aims at designing filters for fast state estimation in the H/sub 2/ and H/sub /spl infin// settings. Because of the multirate nature, linear matrix inequality solutions to the design problems involve a nonconvex constraint, which is numerically tackled by the product reduction algorithm. Finally, a design example is given and the effectiveness of the approach is illustrated.


This study was designed to determine the most significant (IC50) values of purified pyomelanin pigment which was produced by local isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on four cell lines using3-(dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT assay). 143 samples from burns, urine and sputum were collected from patients hospitalized into eleven hospitals which are located in Baghdad, Al-Anbar and Karbala provinces during the period of July 2013 to April 2014. All isolates were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa according to morphological, cultural, biochemical characteristics, VITEK-2 and 16S rRNA . Eight pyomelanogenic isolates (5.6%) were produced pyomelanin pigment on pyomelanin production medium. The results were showed that the isolate of sputum from cystic fibrosis (CF) was greatest in production of pyomelanin. The cytotoxicity of extracted and purified pyomelanin was assessed on Lung A 549, Skin A375, Macrophage RAW264.7 and VERO cell lines. The results showed that pyomelanin has cytotoxic effect on all tested cell lines but the most significant was on Skin A375 cell line with dose dependent effect.


The b subunit dimer of the Escherichia coli ATP synthase, along with the delta subunit, is thought to act as a stator to hold the alpha(3)beta(3) hexamer stationary relative to the a subunit as the gammaepsilonc(9-12) complex rotates. Despite their essential nature, the contacts between b and the alpha, beta, and a subunits remain largely undefined. We have introduced cysteine residues individually at various positions within the wild type membrane-bound b subunit, or within b(24-156), a truncated, soluble version consisting only of the hydrophilic C-terminal domain. The introduced cysteine residues were modified with a photoactivatable cross-linking agent, and cross-linking to subunits of the F(1) sector or to complete F(1)F(0) was attempted. Cross-linking in both the full-length and truncated forms of b was obtained at positions 92 (to alpha and beta), and 109 and 110 (to alpha only). Mass spectrometric analysis of peptide fragments derived from the b(24-156)A92C cross-link revealed that cross-linking took place within the region of alpha between Ile-464 and Met-483. This result indicates that the b dimer interacts with the alpha subunit near a non-catalytic alpha/beta interface. A cysteine residue introduced in place of the highly conserved arginine at position 36 of the b subunit could be cross-linked to the a subunit of F(0) in membrane-bound ATP synthase, implying that at least 10 residues of the polar domain of b are adjacent to residues of a. Sites of cross-linking between b(24-156)A92C and beta as well as b(24-156)I109C and alpha are proposed based on the mass spectrometric data, and these sites are discussed in terms of the structure of b and its interactions with the rest of the complex.


The amino-terminal region of the membrane-anchored subunit of influenza virus hemagglutinin, the fusion peptide, is crucial for membrane fusion of this virus. The peptide is extruded from the interior of the protein and inserted into the lipid bilayer of the target membrane upon induction of a conformational change in the protein by low pH. Although the effects of several mutations in this region on the fusion behavior and the biophysical properties of the corresponding peptides have been studied, the structural requirements for an active fusion peptide have still not been defined. To probe the sensitivity of the fusion peptide structure and function to small hydrophobic perturbations in the middle of the hydrophobic region, we have individually replaced the alanine residues in positions 5 and 7 with smaller (glycine) or bulkier (valine) hydrophobic residues and measured the extent of fusion mediated by these hemagglutinin constructs as well as some biophysical properties of the corresponding synthetic peptides in lipid bilayers. We find that position 5 tolerates a smaller and position 7 a larger hydrophobic side chain. All peptides contained segments of alpha-helical (33-45%) and beta-strand (13-16%) conformation as determined by CD and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The order parameters of the peptide helices and the lipid hydrocarbon chains were determined from measurements of the dichroism of the respective infrared absorption bands. Order parameters in the range of 0.0-0.6 were found for the helices of these peptides, which indicate that these peptides are most likely aligned with their alpha-helices at oblique angles to the membrane normal. Some (mostly fusogenic) peptides induced significant increases of the order parameter of the lipid hydrocarbon chains, suggesting that the lipid bilayer becomes more ordered in the presence of these peptides, possibly as a result of dehydration at the membrane surface.


in addition in two-thirds, and multiple pathology was not uncommon. The outlook for three-fifths was deterioration, though improvement could be expected in 8%. It was considered that special treatment in the past, if available, would have been unlikely to have made much difference to more than half the respondents, but onefifth could have benefitted from surgery. In contrast, present specialist needs were thought to be considerable, although the biggest call was for out-patient rather than in-patient treatment. The need for other remedial assistance and for aids, appliances, and adaptations was even more marked, and the resource implications of these assessments are challenging. The biggest practical problems in life around the house were in cutting toenails, doing housework, having a bath or all over wash, getting out of the house, and coping with stairs, and for the three former of these at least a fifth of the respondents were dependent on other people. In sampling the respondents' attitudes, it was striking that although 70% claimed that nothing had been done to help them, the majority had not asked their family doctor for help, even though more than half considered that something could have been done.


The instrumentation of nuclear reactors is designed based on the reliability, redundancy and diversification of control systems. The monitoring of the parameters is of crucial importance with regard to the operational efficiency and safety of the installation. Since the first criticality of a nuclear reactor, achieved by Fermi et al. in 1942, there has been concern about the reliable monitoring of the parameters involved in the chain reaction. This paper presents the current stage of the system of simulation, which is under development at the CDTN, which intends to simulate the operation of the Triga IPR-R1 nuclear reactor, involving the evolution of neutron flux and reactor power related events. The system will be developed using LabVIEW® software, using the modern concept of virtual instruments (VIs) that are visualized in a video monitor. For the implementation of this model, computational tools and systems analysis are necessary, which help and facilitate the implementation of the simulator. In this article we will show some of these techniques and the initial design of the model to be implemented. The design of a computational system is of great importance, since it guides in the implementation stages and generates the documentation for later maintenance and updating of the computational system. It is noteworthy that the innovations developed in research reactors are normally used in power reactors. The relatively low costs enable research reactors to be an excellent laboratory for developing techniques for future reactors.


Passive surveillance of preferences, opinions and behaviors on social media is becoming increasingly common. The general goal is to make inferences from observations collected from the numerous posts publicly available in blogs, microblogs, and other social forums. A traditional approach for collecting observations is by querying a random (or convenience) sample of individuals with surveys. A wide variety of well respected survey instruments have been developed over many decades especially in social sciences.The question addressed here is: how does one `translate' a survey of interest into surveillance strategies on social media? Specifically, how does one find the posts that could be interpreted as valid responses to the survey? Developing a general methodology for translating a survey into social medial surveillance might further the inclusion of social media research into traditional social science research. We propose a translation methodology using a well-reputed survey (the Satisfaction with Life Scale) as an example. A second methodological contribution that goes beyond the survey translation focus is a crowdsourcing approach, which we claim with reasonable confidence, finds close to \ul{all} the relevant items in a dataset. This is different from the standard approach of asking workers to annotate all items in a small dataset. Our method supports more accurate evaluations (i.e., more precise recall calculations) as well as the development of larger training datasets. Finally the resulting surveillance method derived from the life satisfaction survey achieves recall, precision and F scores between 0.59 and 0.65. This is considerably better than standard methods using lexicons (precision around 0.16) or classifiers (precision, recall and F scores between 0.32 and 0.38).


The efficiency of 2 commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits (Listeria-Tek and Tecra) for detecting Listeria in naturally contaminated foods was evaluated and compared with that of the culture method described in the Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM). Both ELISAs use modified University of Vermont (UVM-1) medium as a primary enrichment; the BAM method uses Listeria enrichment broth. Secondary enrichments for Listeria-Tek and Tecra, respectively, were Fraser broth and UVM-2, which contains additional acriflavin-HCl. When ELISA test results differed, secondary enrichments were tested against the other ELISA; Fraser broth was used to determine recovery rates because of its superiority over UVM-2. Of the 178 food samples examined, the presence of Listeria was detected and culturally confirmed in 38, 37, and 40 samples by the BAM, Listeria-Tek, and Tecra methods, respectively. Differences in results of the ELISAs compared with those of the BAM method were not statistically significant; however, differences between results of the 2 ELISA methods were significant. It was concluded that as rapid screening methods, the Listeria-Tek and the Tecra kits qualify as alternative methods to the BAM cultural method.


References 1 Middeldorp S. Thrombophilia and pregnancy complications: cause or association? J Thromb Haemost 2007; 5(Suppl. 1): 276– 82. 2 Sugidachi A, Ogawa T, Kurihara A, Hagihara K, Jakubowski JA, Hashimoto M, Niitsu Y, Asai F. The greater in vivo antiplatelet effects of prasugrel as compared to clopidogrel reflect more efficient generation of its active metabolite with similar antiplatelet activity to that of clopidogrel's active metabolite. J Thromb Haemost 2007; 5: 1545–51. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 5: 1995


We evaluated the use of telemedicine in the long-term control of stable patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis at home. From September 2003 to August 2005, patients were randomly selected from current cases and invited to join study group A, in which they had telemedicine support. Patients not selected for this group, or who refused the invitation, were placed in study group B, and used for comparison. There were 25 patients in group A and 32 patients in group B. Videoconferencing equipment was installed in each patient's home, connected to a videoconferencing unit at the hospital by three ISDN lines. Patients in group A were followed for a mean of 8 months (range 3–24) with alternate months of teleconsultations and hospital visits. A total of 172 teleconsultations were conducted. A mean of 22 min (SD 9) were spent on each teleconsultation, significantly less than in hospital consultations, which took a mean of 33 min (SD 8) (P<0.01). In 148 teleconsultations (89%) medical treatment was modified. In 4 cases (2%) patients needed a hospital visit. In all instances (100%) the condition of the catheter exit site and the presence of oedema could be evaluated. In group A, the estimated cost of telemedicine was €198 and that of a hospital visit was €177. The mean hospitalization rate was 2.2 days/patient/year in group A and 5.7 days/patient/year in group B (P<0.05). Home telemedicine appears to be clinically useful in the long-term follow-up of stable patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis, and the costs and savings also seem to be encouraging.


Hierarchical nanostructures and the effects of ligands on their structure formation were investigated. Morphological analysis showed the change in the morphology from nanospindles to hollow hexagonal nanodisks with the change in ligands. Structural analysis exhibited the formation of both hexagonal ZnO and monoclinic CuO structures in the composition. The elemental composition confirms the presence of CuO and ZnO in the composition. An ultra-fast degradation was achieved for the nanocomposites. The ZnO/CuO composite with ethylenediamine showed the best activity by degrading 98.77% of the methylene blue dye in 36 min. A possible photocatalytic mechanism is proposed.


OBJECTIVES
To differentiate the leprosy agents Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis and correlate them with geographic distribution and clinicopathologic features.

METHODS
Species-specific polymerase chain reactions were used to detect each bacillus in archived skin biopsy specimens from patients with leprosy from Brazil (n = 52), Malaysia (n = 31), Myanmar (n = 9), and Uganda (n = 4). Findings were correlated with clinical and pathologic data.

RESULTS
Etiologic species was detected in 46 of the 52 Brazilian patients, including 36 patients with M leprae, seven with M lepromatosis, and three with both bacilli. The seven patients with sole M lepromatosis all had tuberculoid leprosy, whereas only nine of the 36 patients infected with M leprae exhibited this type, and the rest were lepromatous (P < .001). All patients with dual infections had lepromatous leprosy. Of the nine patients from Myanmar, six were test positive: four with M leprae and two with M lepromatosis. Of the Malaysian and Ugandan patients, only M leprae was detected in 27 of the 31 Malaysians and two of the four Ugandans.

CONCLUSIONS
The leprosy agents vary in geographic distribution. Finding M lepromatosis in Brazil and Myanmar suggests wide existence of this newly discovered species. The leprosy manifestations likely vary with the etiologic agents.


The aims of the research are to learn aspect of psychological character in the novel Sebelas Patriot by Andre Hirata using psychology literature review. This research form of qualitative descriptive by using content analysis strategy. The data sources used in the form of document. Sampling technique used purposive sampling. The data collection techniques using triangulation theory. Techniques of data analysis using flow model analysis. The research showed that the analysis can be obtained characterizations in the novel idea of the psychological processes of each character is influenced by factor both inside and outside factor. Through analysis of characterizations by using the approach of literary psychology, mental processes of characters each character can be understood and can provide realistic effect in this work. Psychology literature novel Sebelas Patriot by Andrea Hirata can give a characterization of each character. Mental processes of his characters can be understood through the deepening of the theory of Sigmund Freud (id, ego and super ego) that can describe the atmosphere and mood of the characters. This is not separated from the author's ability to describe the disposition in which there are figures in his work. The conclusions of this study is the psychological aspect of the characters in the novel Sebelas Patriot by Andrea Hirata can be reviewed using the review of psychology literature. Kata kunci: sastra, nilai, novel, tokoh


The study aimed to determine whether inhibitory effects of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) on mineralisation in dental pulp (DP) cultures were associated with changes in the expression of genes regulating phosphate balance (Enpp1, Ank, Slc20a2, Alpl, Phospho1, and Xpr1). DP cultures growing under mineralisation-inducing conditions were exposed to FGF2 and inhibitors of the FGFR and MEK/ERK1/2 signaling pathways. Mineralisation, culture cellularity, and gene expression were examined at various time points. Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance followed by the Holm-Šídák test. Control cultures exhibited transient increases in Enpp1 and Ank, continuous increases in Alpl, Phospho1, and Xpr1, and continuous decreases in Slc20a2. FGF2 increased Enpp1, Ank, and Slc20a2 and decreased Alpl, Phospho1, and Xpr1, whereas the FGF2 withdrawal and inhibition of FGFR and MEK/ERK1/2 exerted opposite effects. These changes suggest that FGF2-mediated decreases in mineralisation could be functionally coupled to the altered regulation of phosphate formation and transport.


In this paper, a new planar antenna array based on 9 identical quasi-Yagi elements is presented. In contrast to conventional designs, the feeding network is composed of 3-way power dividers, which are carefully designed in order to provide synchronised output signals over a wide frequency range. The use of spline-shaped microstrip lines suppresses coupling effects by parallel lines. Thus, signal distortions within the feeding network are minimised. Compared to conventional designs with 8 elements, the additional antenna element will enhance the gain of the array, which is between 10.5 and 13 dB in the X-band. The input return loss of the antenna array is below -15 dB over most parts of the relevant spectrum, with a total bandwidth of 45%. The planar antenna array is well-suited as a radiating element in linear phased arrays for multifunction radars including SAR and MTI.


Studying citation patterns of scholarly articles has been of interest to many researchers from various disciplines. While the relationship of citations and scientific impact has been widely studied in the literature, in this paper we develop the idea of analyzing the semantic distance of scholarly articles in a citation network (citation-distance network) to uncover patterns that reflect scientific impact. More specifically, we compare two types of publications in terms of their citation-distance patterns, seminal publications and literature reviews, and focus on their referencing patterns as well as on publications which cite them. We show that seminal publications are associated with a larger semantic distance, measured using the content of the articles, between their references and the citing publications, while literature reviews tend to cite publications from a wider range of topics. Our motivation is to understand and utilize this information to create new research evaluation metrics which would better reflect scientific impact.


global concerns. Decoding the Church is a valuable resource bringing together several themes from Snyder's earlier writings regarding church renewal, mission, church ecology, culture, and futurism. For new readers, this book introduces many foundational insights described by the author over several decades. Readers may not agree with every insight or critique but should appreciate the rich combination of biblical and historical insight with cultural awareness and church life.


The aim of this study was to determine the influence of oral hygiene instruction (OHI) on oral hygiene status and on the reduction of inducing bacteria (Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus spp.) in 30 subjects (12 males and 18 females) with an age range from 10 to 14 years. The patients were instructed on how to carry out effective oral hygiene close to brackets and ligatures, and in the use of dental floss for cleaning spaces around brackets, between the teeth and under archwires. The plaque index (PI) was used to measure oral hygiene status, and the level of S. mutans and Lactobacillus spp. was determined using the colour reaction time test before and after 1 month of OHI. Statistical analysis included a Student's t-test and chi-square test. The results showed that OHI significantly improved oral hygiene. The percentage of patients with a PI exceeding 1 decreased from 23.3 to 10 per cent and for those with a PI below 0.1 it increased from 20 to 60 per cent. The level of S. mutans and Lactobacillus spp. was not reduced. The percentage of subjects with excessive levels of S. mutans (above 10(6) bacteria in 1 ml of saliva) decreased after OHI but only from 73.3 to 70 per cent. For Lactobacillus spp., a level above 10(5) of bacteria in 1 ml of saliva was found for all subjects at both time points. Patients with fixed appliances, trained in scrupulous tooth cleaning, remain at risk of developing caries and should be carefully monitored.


Non-covalent interactions with aromatic rings pervade modern chemical research. The strength and orientation of these interactions can be tuned and controlled through substituent effects. Computational studies of model complexes have provided a detailed understanding of the origin and nature of these substituent effects, and pinpointed flaws in entrenched models of these interactions in the literature. Here, we provide a brief review of efforts over the last decade to unravel the origin of substituent effects in π-stacking, XH/π, and ion/π interactions through detailed computational studies. We highlight recent progress that has been made, while also uncovering areas where future studies are warranted.


A new generation of high sensitivity telescopes based on the use of Laue lenses coupled with high efficiency solid state focal plane detectors has been identified as a possibility for hard X and soft gamma ray astronomy. For this kind of space mission, polarimetry is recognized as a very important observational parameter and therefore this capability should be included as one of the primary scientific requirements. In this framework our group has realized a small experiment to demonstrate that the combination of a Laue Lens, built using Cu mosaic crystals, with a CZT pixel detector is capable of measuring the polarization of hard X ray sources contemporaneously with spectroscopy and imaging. This experiment was performed at the beginning of March 2008 using the ID15B beam line at ESRF (Grenoble). The experiment was based on a pixel CZT detector (5 mm thick array with 11×11 pixels of 2.5×2.5 mm2) with a sensitive area of 3×3 cm2 in conjunction with a mosaic Cu crystal (15×15 mm2, 4 mm thick) used in the Laue diffraction configuration. During the tests the Cu crystal was rotated so as to simulate a Laue lens ring, and the detector was moved in order to have the diffracted beam always impinging on the same pixel. The beam at the ID15B have allow us to test the response of this system, with almost 100% linearly polarized photon at ∼90, 270, 350 keV. In this paper we describe the experimental setup and we report on the preliminary results, with particular emphasis on the evaluation of possible systematic effect introduced in the detected polarization of the impinging photon by the Laue diffraction process.


Phylogenetic trees can provide a stable basis for a higher-level classification of organisms that reflects evolutionary relationships. However, some lineages have a complex evolutionary history that involves explosive radiation or hybridisation. Such histories have become increasingly apparent with the use of DNA sequence data for phylogeny estimation and explain, in part, past difficulties in producing stable morphology-based classifications for some groups. We illustrate this situation by using the example of tribe Mirbelieae (Fabaceae), whose generic classification has been fraught for decades. In particular, we discuss a recent proposal to combine 19 of the 25 Mirbelieae genera into a single genus, Pultenaea sens. lat., and how we might find stable and consistent ways to squeeze something as complex as life into little boxes for our own convenience. © CSIRO.


The soil inhibiting entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), in the family Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae, are useful insect biological control agents. They have been used in the management of economically important crop pests. The EPNs are mutually associated with symbiotic bacteria genus Xenorhabdus and Photoharbdus respectively. The study aimed to isolate, characterize and evaluate the pathogenicity of symbiotic bacteria associated with EPN Steinernema sp. Kalro (Accession MW151701). The EPN Steinernema sp. Karlo was multiplied using the insect baiting technique. Its bacteria symbiont was isolated and characterized based on microscopic, biochemical, and physiological features like Gram staining, urease, motility test, and glucose fermentation test).  Molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis were performed on 16S rDNA nucleotide sequence. Pathogenicity of the bacteria isolate was evaluated against Tuta absoluta larvae with mortality data recorded after 24 and 48hours of exposure to the bacterial cell suspension. The bacteria were found to be motile and glucose fermentation positive. Sequence analysis of 16S rDNA region resulted in 1500bp sequence with maximum similarity of between 97 and 98.93%, with Xenorhabdus spp Accessions from Genbank. It closely matched to Xenorhabdus sp. My8NJ with 98.93% similarity (Accession AB507811.1). Mean percent larval mortality of 68±4.9 and 88±8.0 in the lowest cell suspension was observed in 24 and 48h of exposure. It's concluded that, the symbiotic bacteria associated with Steinernema sp. Kalro is Xenorhabdus sp. strain Kalro Genbank Accession MW245845. The bacteria is a potential biological control agent against Tuta absoluta larvae. Further classification of the bacteria to species level and pathogenicity trials in the screen house and field are recommended.


In the 10th John E.C. Brierley Memorial Lecture, Professor Lucy Reed explores the hybrid dispute resolution mechanism of domestic "international commercial courts". The lecture starts with a description of the current debate of 'Arbitration versus Domestic Courts versus Investment Courts', to frame the question of whether proposed reforms in international arbitration and new court structures represent advances or retreats in international dispute resolution. After surveying the existing international commercial courts, Prof. Reed describes the new Singapore International Commercial Court ('SICC') and its promising early case law. In her view, the SICC is uniquely international among comparable offerings, and hence is an important new option – and an advance – in international commercial justice, at least in the Asia-Pacific region.


Semantic  Web  is a network  that  is able to understand  not only the meaning  of a word  and a concept,  but  also  a  logical  relationship  between  the  two,  so  that  a  website  can  generate  the appropriate information and desired by visitors to the website. The language used in support of the vision  of  the  semantic  web  is  the  Resource  Description  Framework  (RDF)  /  Web  Ontology Language (OWL). RDF / OWL capabilities and its facilities capable of being used to represent the meaning of terms in the web to be processed in the machine. Therefore, the research discusses the development of a model for a knowledge management system with the research domain, namely the Academic Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering, University Janabadra. Model form of web- based  prototype.  This  web  prototypes  using  semantic  web  technologies   with  application  of ontology.   Ontology   built   implemented   using   Protege   3.4.8.   besides   it  is  also   used   Java Development Kit (JDK) and the Command Prompt as an emulator prototype web. As for seeing the display prototypes use semantic web-bank.  Keywords : Knowledge management system, semantic web, ontology, protege, semantic-bank


The effect of Cladonia humilis on glycaemic metabolism was researched in this studied. The blood glucose, insulin secretion and glycogen synthesis of the hyperglycemic mice induced by alloxan were analyzed respectively. The gluconeogenesis and the sugar tolerance of the normal mice were also analyzed in this paper. After the hyperglycemic mice were orally administrated with Cladonia humilis extract, the blood glucose was decreased (p<0.05), the level of insulin secretion and glycogen synthesis were elevated (p<0.05, p<0.01, respectively). In addition, Cladonia humilis extract could inhibit the gluconeogenesis (p<0.01) and improve the sugar tolerance in normal control mice. These results maybe account for the causes of Cladonia humilis extract-induced significant decreases of the blood glucose in hyperglycemic mice.


After presenting the results of the previous researches on the topic, the author concludes that the most frequent Ruthenian surnames are Nađ, Kis, Pap, Hardi, etc. in Ruski Krstur and Hromis, Hornjak, Ruskovski, Fejsa etc. in Kucura. The Ruthenians living in Ruski Krstur recognise each other not only by surnames but also by cognomens, such as Andrisko, Bandurik, Džambas, Jeva, Makajicka, Nađmiska, Postarov and Jonov for surname Nađ. There are approximately 600 Ruthenian surnames in Serbia. More than 40 % of them are of Hungarian origin. The oldest Hungarian surnames/cognomens in the Ruthenian language emerged from the direct contacts of Slavs and Hungarians. Most of them originate from the times before Ruthenian settlement in Backa in the mid 18th century.


Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple genetic susceptibility loci for breast cancer risk. The majority of these loci, however, were identified in studies conducted in European descendants. A comprehensive evaluation of these risk loci using densely genotyped data in East Asians may help to identify independent association signals and risk variants that are more closely related to breast cancer risk in East Asian women than those reported initially. Methods: We performed a fine-scale mapping of 32 breast cancer susceptibility loci identified in previous GWAS in 5,703 breast cancer cases and 5,766 controls in studies conducted in Shanghai, China, Nearly 4,100 variants in these 32 loci were genotyped. We imputed genotypes using the 1000 Genomes Project (Phase 3) as the reference. Included in this analysis were 4,086 genotyped and more than 17,000 well-imputed common variants. At each locus, analyses using logistic regression models were conducted to identify variants that better capture the association with breast cancer risk and new risk variants that are not correlated with the risk variants reported from the initial studies (index SNPs). To identify additional independent risk variants, logistic regression conditional on the most significantly associated variant was performed. Results: We identified risk variants that better captured the association than the index SNPs at 3 loci (2q35, rs1478596, OR = 1.14, P = 5.6×10-6; 6q25.1, rs9322344, OR = 0.89, P = 3.1×10-5;11q24.3, rs11221769, OR = 1.12, P = 6.1 ×10-5), new risk variants at 2 loci (1p13.2, rs3789614, OR = 1.31, P = 0.002; 2q31.1, rs117055746, OR = 0.87, P = 0.004), and independent risk variants at two loci (6q14.1, rs200626240, OR = 0.89, P = 0.001; 6q25.1 rs2982684, OR = 0.87, P = 2.7×10-5, Chr6:152107810, OR = 0.91, P = 1.4×10-4). Conclusion: This study identified multiple risk variants that were more relevant to East Asians than the index SNPs. These risk variants combined explained a further 2% of the familial relative risk in this population. This study highlighted the need of fine-mapping studies in non-European ancestral populations to search for additional risk variants. Citation Format: Chenjie Zeng, Qiuyin Cai, Jirong Long, Ying Zheng, Yong-Bing Xiang, Jiajun Shi, Xiao-Ou Shu, Wei Zheng. Fine mapping of 32 breast cancer risk loci in women of East Asian ancestry. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-370.


Abstract
 Evidence indicates low levels of hybridization in nature between the apple maggot (AM), Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), and snowberry maggot (SB), Rhagoletis zephyria Snow, sibling species in the R. pomonella complex. We determined the effects of AM and SB pairings on mating frequencies and production of hybrid offspring in the laboratory. Mating frequency was lowest in SB female × AM male pairings, higher in AM female × SB male and AM female × AM male pairings, and highest in SB female × SB male pairings. A greater percentage of AM female × AM male pairs produced offspring (puparia) than did AM female × SB male and SB female × AM male pairs, and a greater percentage of AM female × SB male pairs produced puparia than did SB female × AM male pairs. Male or female F1 hybrids backcrossed with AM males and with other F1 hybrids were fertile. Results suggest most R. pomonella × R. zephyria hybrids found in nature are the result of R. zephyria males mating with R. pomonella females, with few from reciprocal matings. If true, this asymmetry could lower the incidence of hybridization in nature.


In this work, I explore the use of supervised learning in distinguishing mainstream and fringe scientific papers. This work has two goals. The first is to determine whether mainstream and fringe scientific papers can be reliably distinguished through automated means. The second is to determine whether classifiers trained using stylometric features, such as word count, average word and sentences lengths, and frequencies of part-of-speech sequences, can outperform conventional n-gram document models in classifying papers across scientific topics. I conduct a systematic study of the ability of classifiers to distinguish mainstream and fringe scientific papers across topics, for example by training a classifier on biophysics papers and testing it against cosmology papers. The term-based and style-based approaches both perform significantly better than chance, with neither approach consistently outperforming the other. Classifiers trained using the combined feature set (i.e., n-gram frequencies and stylometric features) perform little better than those trained only on one or the other feature set, suggesting that the two feature sets are, in aggregate, highly correlated. Overall, the results of this work suggest that mainstream and fringe scientific papers are readily distinguishable by conventional text classification methods.


The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have significant impacts on social determinants of health. Immigrant communities often bear a disproportionate burden of the crisis because of the immigration experience, which serves as an additional social determinant of health. Evidence suggests that these communities are hard hit by economic instability, food insecurities, isolation, lack of safe housing and safe neighborhoods, environmental dynamics that cut them off from systems of support, lack of sufficient access to educational tools that have become critical in remote and digital learning, limited access to health and healthcare resources, low health literacy, and restricted access to culturally and linguistically competent services. In this review we (a) synthesize literature on structural and community level causes of health disparities in immigrant communities; (b) summarize evidence-based interventions that increase collective efficacy in managing social determinants of health in immigrant communities; and (c) recommend strengths and resiliency-based approaches that focus on increasing community capacity to eliminate COVID-19 health disparities.


Radio over Fiber technology (ROF) is an essential technology for saving the remote access to broadband wireless communication. It is a combination of wireless and fiber optic networks. In this research the influence of changing the switching voltage of Mach-Zehnder modulator on millimeter wave ROF system has been presented. One of an important data modulation known as subcarrier multiplexing amplitude shift keying SCM ASK was examined. Eye diagrams were used to effectively analyze the performance of ROF optical system at different switching voltages. A larger "eye opening" signifies less noise or distortion and therefore a higher quality of the received signal. The simulation analysis shows that there exists an optimum switching voltage (8v). The software package called "Optisystem ver. 12" has been utilized to simulate this system. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25130/tjes.24.2017.34


The lack of truly reliable data for climate change analyses and prediction presents challenges in climate modeling. Needed data are required to be hydrologically/statistically reliable to be useful for hydrological, meteorological, climate change, and estimation studies. Thus, data quality and homogeneity screening are preliminary analyses. In this study, the homogeneity of the climatic data used for analyses of climate variability was conducted in the coastal region of Nigeria. Climatic Research Unit (CRU 0.5× 0.5) gridded monthly climatic data for sixty years (1956- 2016) for nine states of the coastal region of Nigeria obtained from internet sources were validated with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) data to assure adequacy for use. The data were tested for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk (S-W) test, D'Agostino-Pearson omnibus test, and skewness test. Four homogeneity test methods were applied to 257 locations in the nine states of the coastal region of Nigeria and they include Pettit's, Standard Normal Homogeneity Test (SNHT), Buishand's and Von Neumann Ratio (VNR) tests. The results of the validity analysis indicated that the CRU data are very reliable and thus justified their use for the further analysis carried out in the study. Also, the results obtained indicated that CRU climatic data series were normally distributed and parametric methods could be used in further analysis of the data. Rainfall data homogeneity was detected for Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, and Ondo states and inhomogeneity for Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, and Rivers States. Also, temperature data inhomogeneity was detected for all the states in the study area.


Crystalline silica (cSiO2) particles are naturally existing environmental toxicants. Exposure to cSiO2 could cause local or systemic inflammation and aggregate inflammation-associated diseases. Dietary postbiotics are reported to possess anti-inflammatory activities; however, their effects on cSiO2-triggered inflammation are unknown. Here, we investigate the impact of postbiotics from Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus (LGG), Limosilactobacillus reuteri (L.reu), and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bb12 (BB12) on cSiO2-induced cytotoxicity and IL-1 cytokines in vitro using macrophages. The postbiotics used in this study were cell-free fractions of a probiotic growth medium collected at different time points. The in vitro model used was the wild-type murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cell line stably transfected with the inflammasome adapter protein, ASC. Our results indicate that all the postbiotics could reduce cSiO2-induced cytotoxicity in the wild-type and ASC macrophages and the effects were OD-dependent. Following priming with a lipopolysaccharide, cSiO2 treatment resulted in robust inflammasome activation in ASC, as reflected by the IL-1β release. These responses were minimal or absent in the wild-type RAW cells. All the postbiotics decreased the release of IL-1β from ASC; however, only LGG and BB12 reduced the IL-1β secretion from wild-type cells. Only the L.reu postbiotics reduced the IL-1α release from ASC. We conclude that the postbiotics from LGG, BB12, and L.reu can protect macrophages against cSiO2-induced cytotoxicity and suppress IL-1β activation.


Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the leading cancer diagnosis among men and the second leading cause of male cancer death. However, screening asymptomatic men remains controversial, as early diagnosis and treatment of PCa has not yet been definitively demonstrated to reduce disease-related mortality in a randomized trial. The primary question is whether PCa screening results in overdiagnosis, the detection and treatment of disease that would not otherwise result in increased morbidity or mortality. Ongoing trials are addressing this question, but the final results will not be available for several years. Further, if the trials do not provide a definitive recommendation for or against screening, the question will persist. The difficulty of making medical decisions prior to the availability of definitive outcome data has been a long-standing issue in cancer screening and is likely to become increasingly important as screening technology advances more rapidly than our ability to validate it. Thus, widely applicable approaches to health education are needed in order to facilitate informed decision making about the growing number of unproven treatment and screening technologies, of which PCa screening is a prime example. Despite the PCa screening controversy, the practice of screening asymptomatic men is increasing in the U.S. and men are increasingly committed to screening. Most men who undergo PCa screening are unaware of the controversy and believe that the medical community unequivocally accepts the benefits of screening. One approach to improving informed consent for PCa screening is the development, evaluation, and dissemination of patient education materials and decision aids. Abundant evidence documents the expanding role of the Internet in increasing access to and understanding of health information. However, systematic evaluations of Internet-based interventions are needed to address questions regarding the accessibility and efficacy of this mode of health education, particularly among older adults, persons without a college education, and minority participants. We conducted a randomized clinical trial to test the effectiveness of widely accessible and disseminable methods to assist men in making informed decisions about PCa screening. The goal of this research program is neither to encourage nor discourage PCa screening, but instead is designed to assist patients in making an informed decision until the definitive data on screening effectiveness are available. Method: This study included male outpatients aged 45 to 70 from two Washington, DC, area hospitals and an outpatient group practice (N = 1,893). Trial arms included: 1) print-based information and a decision aid (Print; N = 630), 2) web-based information plus an interactive decision aid (Web; N = 631), and 3) usual care (UC; N = 632). Subjects completed outcome assessments at baseline, one- and 13-months post-baseline. The primary outcomes of interest were knowledge, decisional conflict, decisional satisfaction, health-related quality of life, screening preferences, screening intentions, and screening behavior. Results: Participants were a mean age of 57, 40% were African American, and 70% had been screened for PCa within 12 months prior to the baseline assessment. We assessed the short-term (1-month) impact of the educational interventions on knowledge, decisional conflict, and decisional satisfaction. Multivariate analyses revealed a significant improvement in knowledge for the print and Web groups at the one-month assessment in comparison to the UC group (F (2,1630) = 119.4, p = .000). Regarding decisional conflict, the Web (OR = .449 (.341, .591)) and print (OR = .464 (.352, .611)) arms were less likely than the UC group to report high decisional conflict at the 1-month follow-up. There was no significant impact on satisfaction with the screening decision between the three study groups. We will also present findings on the short-term impact of the interventions on screening preferences and screening intentions, as well as the long-term (13-months) impact on prostate cancer screening behavior. Conclusions: Both the Print- and Web-based tools significantly impacted short-term outcomes by increasing knowledge and reducing decisional conflict relative to the UC arm. However, contrary to prediction, there were no group differences in decisional satisfaction. This was likely due to a ceiling effect, as all groups reported a very high level of decisional satisfaction at both assessments. We have developed and tested two methods of patient education that are easily disseminable in real-world settings. These methods are effective and could improve clinical care by providing an easily adaptable way to provide patients with the information needed to assist them in making an informed decision about PCa screening. The next step of this research is to conduct a dissemination trial to determine the most cost-effective method of educating large groups of men about PCa screening so that they may make the best screening decision for themselves, until there is a definitive recommendation either for or against screening. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(12 Suppl):CN05-05.


One of the barriers for the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is the anxiety around the limited driving range. Recent proposals have explored charging EVs on the move, using dynamic wireless charging which enables power exchange between the vehicle and the grid while the vehicle is moving. In this paper, we focus on the intelligent routing of EVs in need of charging so that they can make most efficient use of the so-called mobile energy disseminators (MEDs) which operate as mobile charging stations. We present a method for routing EVs around MEDs on the road network, which is based on constraint logic programming and optimization using a graph-based shortest path algorithm. The proposed method exploits inter-vehicle communications in order to eco-route electric vehicles. We argue that combining modern communications between vehicles and state of the art technologies on energy transfer, the driving range of EVs can be extended without the need for larger batteries or overtly costly infrastructure. We present extensive simulations in city conditions that show the driving range and consequently the overall travel time of electric vehicles is improved with intelligent routing in the presence of MEDs.


Background Alfuzosin is indicated for the treatment of the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and as adjunctive therapy with ureteral catheterisation for acute urinary retention related to BPH. The alpha blocking properties on the urinary tract are used for various indications not mentioned in the marketing authorisation (MA) for men and women. Purpose We carried out a retrospective study on alfuzosin 10 mg prescriptions over 1 year, in order to: identify the different off-label indications; quantify the proportion of off-label prescriptions; and determine if good prescribing practices are observed. Material and methods We analysed 420 computerised prescriptions (software: Pharma) of medicine, geriatric and surgery units, via Excel. Analysed data included: unit; patient's age—indication for alfuzosin; time of drug intake; renal and hepatic functions; and drug interactions. Results Our study showed 43% off-label prescriptions, including 17% concerning women. Various off-label indications were: 32% of acute urinary retention related to kidney stone, obstructive pyelonephritis, prostatitis, hypoactive bladder due to the use of a neuroleptic, etc. 6% of mictional disorders caused by prostate cancer—5% of mictional disorders caused by neurogenic bladder in connexion with stroke, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, etc. More than 85% of prescriptions mentioned evening administration, including 100% in the geriatric service where a pharmacist works. 64% of prescriptions were affected by drug interactions (mostly antihypertensive drugs: amlodipine, bisoprolol, urapidil, and also levodopa, phenothiazine and tricyclic antidepressants). Among these, 85% concerned elderly people. In association with alfuzosin, the risk of severe orthostatic hypotension increased and therefore the risk of falling and rehospitalisation. 33 patients suffered from severe renal insufficiency and there were no cases of severe hepatic insufficiency which are considered contraindications according to the summary of characteristics product. Conclusion Our study revealed various off-label indications, all developed in several scientific papers, and underlined the issue of medicine related illness among the elderly. The improvement process of medicinal treatment has led us to write a summary (for medical and pharmacy interns) of the indications mentioned in the MA and the recommendations linked to the prescription. Another analysis will be done in 1 year. References and/or acknowledgements Summary of Characteristics Product: Alfuzosin 10 mg prolonged release tablets. No conflict of interest


There exists a disconnect in corporate law between the outsized role officers play in managing the corporation and the scant attention these actors receive in statutes and case law. Out of the doctrinal void, a proposal by the ABA's Officer Liability Task Force has emerged. Seizing on the private ordering movement in corporate law, the Task Force proposes contractual means for addressing the uncertainty surrounding the duties of officers. The Task Force's proposal extends private ordering in a radical new direction, taking aim at bedrock principles of corporate law – fiduciary duties and the business judgment rule.

This article takes a deep dive into the issue of private ordering corporate officer fiduciary obligations and liability. Specifically, this article addresses questions like: Should officer duties be a product of contract or common law? What is the foundational basis for officer fiduciary obligations? What are the bounds, if any, for private ordering of this nature? How does officer private ordering fit within the broader scheme of privately ordered fiduciaries across business organizations? What are some of the possible ways of structuring fiduciary duties and the business judgment rule via contract? The goal of this article is twofold. First, to provide guidance regarding the viability and drafting considerations for corporate actors considering contractually structuring officer duties. Second, to engage in a discussion of the broader normative implications for corporate law if officer fiduciary duties and liabilities become dominated by private ordering.


The change of the electronic structure in NiAl is investigated through DVM-the first principle method when Al in NiAl is substituted by Sc,Ti,V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn. The results including Mulliken population, the charge distribution and cohesion energies are presented. The calculation of the electronic structure indicates that the substitution atoms take effect on the electronic structure of Ni and Al atoms surrounding the substitution atoms, and the ductility of NiAl. Among the substitution atoms that we studied, Fe, Co and Ni with more d electrons may be good for the ductility of NiAl.


A 10-11 cm aperture stellar scintillometer can measure atmospheric isoplanatic angles reliably provided the normalized variance and the zenith angle of the data are sufficiently, restricted. Within these constraints, the normalized variance data has a zenith angle power law that is quite close to the theoretical prediction. This is a self-consistent indication that the instrument is actually measuring the isoplanatic angle.


Teaching loss, grief, and bereavement to nursing students should be an interactive process to stimulate critical thinking and address the affective domain of learning. Lecture as a teaching methodology may be the easiest to prepare and deliver; however, used alone, it is ineffective in identifying perceptions, fears, and issues related to dying and death. Personal and professional experiences of loss, grief, and bereavement are central to student's learning of effective and compassionate care of the dying patient and their family. Strategies that explore such experiences allow students to move forward and focus on the cognitive retention of content related to loss, grief, and bereavement, as well as the ability to learn related psychomotor skills. The authors discuss pedagogical methods for teaching student nurses about loss, grief, and bereavement utilizing the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) curriculum training materials.


BACKGROUND: This study focused on the effectiveness of the zero-valent iron (ZVI) pre-treatment for enhancing the biodegradability of 2-chloronitrobenzene (2-ClNB), and further to evaluate the performance and mechanism of a coupled ZVI column–sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system treating 2-ClNB contained wastewater.

RESULTS: 2-ClNB was readily transformed into 2-chloroaniline (2-ClAn) with the efficiency over 99.9% by ZVI column, and its biodegradability was significantly enhanced via ZVI pretreatment. The transformed effluent was subsequently fed into the SBR followed by 2-ClAn loading of 3.4–117.2 g m−3 d−1 and COD loading around 1000 g m−3 d−1. A 2-ClAn removal efficiency over 99.9% and COD removal efficiency of 82.0–98.1% were obtained. Moreover, 91.9 ± 0.1% TOC removal efficiency and 107.1 ± 6.0% chloride recovery efficiency during one cycle confirmed the complete biodegradation of 2-ClAn in the coupled system. 16S rDNA PCR-DGGE analysis suggested that ZVI pretreatment enhanced the diversity of the microbial community and promoted enrichment of the functional microorganisms degrading 2-ClAn in the following SBR.

CONCLUSION: ZVI pretreatment significantly enhanced the biodegradability of 2-ClNB, and the coupled ZVI–SBR system demonstrated excellent performance when treating wastewater containing 2-ClNB. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry


Forecasts indicate that in the next decade cancer will become the most common cause of death in our country. Over 140,000 new cases of malignant neoplasms are reported annually in Poland. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequently detected malignancies: third in men and second in women. The aim of the study was the assessment of colonoscopy screening for early detection of colorectal cancer by elderly screening subjects. The study group consisted of 106 elderly people (aged 66 years and older), and the control group consisted of 100 consecutive people aged 40 to 65 years who reported to the Clinic for colonoscopy screening under PBP. Subjects from the control group expressed much more positive opinion about the usefulness of colonoscopy screening. 99,1% of subjects from this group assessed the examination as "very useful", while in the study group such an opinion was expressed by 76% of subjects (p<0.0001). In the study group, 25.0% of subjects considered the preparation for colonoscopy as not bothersome, while in the control group such an opinion was expressed by 44.3% of subjects (p=0.0040).


Recently, the small scale photovoltaic (PV) electronic devices are drawing attention as the upcoming PV generation system. The PV system is commonly used in small scale PV applications such as LED lighting and cell phone. This paper proposes photovoltaic output sensorless (POS) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control for a small scale charging system of PV-nickel metal hydride battery using field-programmable gate array (FPGA) controller. A converter is connected to a small scale PV cell and battery, and performs the POS MPPT at the battery terminal current instead of being at the PV cell output voltage and current. The FPGA controller and converter operate based on POS MPPT method. The experimental results show that the nickel metal hydride battery is charged by the maximum PV output power.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence and potential factors associated with pre-pregnancy nutritional status of women.

METHODS
This is a cross-sectional study carried out between December 2007 and November 2008 with 1,535 women in the first trimester of pregnancy and randomly selected in health units of the Brazilian public health system (SUS) in the municipalities of Queimados and Petrópolis in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The diagnosis of nutritional deviations was based on the Body Mass Index, according to the classification of the Institute of Medicine, and the following categories were obtained: underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity. In the statistical analysis, the multinomial logistic regression model was used and an odds ratio and confidence interval of 95% were estimated.

RESULTS
The sample included women between 13 and 45 years. The prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity were 10, 18 and 11%, respectively. Women living in Queimados, adolescents, women who did not live with a partner and smokers had a higher proportion of low pre-pregnancy weight. There was an association between hypertension, overweight and obesity. Adolescents presented lower chance to overweight and obesity. Living in Queimados reduced the odds of overweight.

CONCLUSION
The proportion of pre-pregnancy nutritional deviations was high, and recognizing factors that lead to them is very important for an early identification of women at nutritional risk, with view to interventions to reduce the adverse effects of malnutrition on maternal and child health.


This article presents a multi-centre study cohort study on 50 patients with cranial defects of multiple etiologies (trauma, decompression, tumour surgery, etc.) operated in 10 hospitals. In all patients the neurosurgeon repaired the cranial defect using 3D printed and CNC milling and drilling grafts or Patient Specific Implants, from two world known manufacturers, custom made in accordance with the data obtained from the patient's 3D CT reconstruction.


With the objective to investigate 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG) mediated lysine crosslinks in vivo, we have isolated a lysine-3-DG-lysine crosslink from in vitro reaction of 3-DG and N-proportional to-acetyllysine (NAL). This crosslink, named as furopyrrolopyridine crosslink (FPPC), has intense blue fluorescence with absorption maxima at 235, 270 and 370 nm and emission maximum at 470 nm. The absorption and fluorescence spectra of FPPC were not altered in pHs ranging from 2-12, but the characteristic spectrum of FPPC (at pH 7.0) disappeared when it was reduced with sodium borohydride. FAB-MS showed that FPPC has a molecular mass of 611, equivalent to the reaction of two molecules each of NAL and 3-DG with the concomitant loss of 5 molecules of water. NMR data showed that FPPC has a pyridinium ring and four free hydroxy groups. Since acid hydrolyzed FPPC can be detected by amino acid analysis, we have determined its levels in the acid hydrolyzates of proteins glycated by 3-DG or in the acid hydrolyzates of normal aged, cataractous, diabetic and brunescent human lens proteins as well as in the acid hydrolyzed glycated hemoglobin, A0.


A 3D LTCC (low temperature co-fired ceramic) millimeter wave balun using asymmetric structure was investigated in this paper. The proposed balun consists of embedded multilayer microstrip and CPS (coplanar strip) lines. It was designed at 40GHz. The measured insertion loss of the back-to-back balanced transition is -1.14dB, thus the estimated insertion loss of each device is -0.57dB including the CPS line loss. The 10dB return loss bandwidth of the unbalanced back-to-back transition covers the frequency range of 17.3/spl sim/46.6GHz (91.7%). The area occupied by this balun is 0.42 /spl times/ 0.066/spl lambda//sub 0/ (2.1 /spl times/ 0.33mm/sup 2/). The high performances have been achieved using the low loss and relatively high dielectric constant of LTCC (/spl epsiv//sub r/=5.4, tan/spl delta/=0.0015 at 35GHz) and a 3D stacked configuration. This balun can be used as a transition of microstrip-to-CPS and vice-versa and insures also an impedance transformation from 50 to 110 Ohm for an easy integration with a high input impedance antenna. This is the first reported 40 GHz wideband 3D LTCC balun using asymmetric structure to balance the output amplitude and phase difference.


In this paper, we present a parallel hyper-heuristic approach for two-dimensional rectangular strip-packing problems (2DSP). This is an island model with a special master-slave structure, and in all the islands we run a memetic algorithm-based hyper-heuristic (HH). The basic technique of this HH is a memory-based evolutionary technique, the "extended virtual loser" (EVL). The memory-based technique memorises the past events, e.g., past successes of the evolutionary process or bad values of the variables; thus, we can influence the operations of the evolutionary algorithms using thismemory. The EVL technique learns the bad values of the variables based on the worst solutions of the population and computes probabilities to control the mutation steps. With the help of the EVL technique, we can use a mutation-omitting recombination operator and obtain a learning mechanism for the selection of heuristics. In the HH, the selection of the low-level heuristics is modified with mutations based on the EVL technique using a local search. The island model achieved good performance. The test instances show that the proposed algorithm is efficient for the rectangular strip-packing problem.


In this Master's thesis I present a means of finding active sources of cortical electrical activity from electroencephalogram (EEG) data acquired during operation of a brain-computer interface (BCI). A novel subspace-based technique was used to suppress spatially correlated EEG interference sources, followed by a technique that estimates the source parameters with a near maximum likelihood performance. These sources are found to correlate with event-related potentials (ERPs) and are thus hypothesized to be responsible for the N200 and P300 ERPs. The source localization technique was tested on EEG data of 6 able-bodied subjects, and my analysis underlines consistencies and variation of brain activity locations both within and across subjects. Results are compared to literature and results using other techniques and the new methods show promise in localizing brain activity when dual-condition datasets are available.


 Abstract—Internet communication is largely based on TCP/IP protocols. The main design of TCP/IP is for trusted peers to communicate. IP Packets have no inherent security, and therefore it is relatively easy to forge the addresses of IP packets, modify the contents of IP packets, replay old packets, and inspect the contents of IP packets in transit. In this paper, we discuss how Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) is used for secured and encrypted communication between Internet hosts. IPSec is described as an end-to-end security scheme operating in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite(1). According to Kent et al., it can be used in protecting data flows between a pair of hosts (host-to-host), between a pair of security gateways (network-to-network), or between a security gateway and a host (network-to-host). To discuss the use of IPSec in an TCP/IP based network, we chose Virtual Private Network (VPN) as the application in describing how IPSec provides the platform for secure and encrypted channel for communication.


The study was conducted with the objective of comparing the toxicity and the effect of the combination of intra and extracellular cryoprotectants in curimba Prochilodus lineatus sperm cells subjected to cryopreservation. Semen from 19 males were analyzed and diluted in four solutions comprise of intra and extracellular cryoprotectants in the following combinations: methanol+lactose, methanol+egg yolk, DMSO+lactose and DMSO+egg yolk. A portion of the diluted semen was frozen while the remaining fraction was kept in repose and evaluated after 10 min. For freezing, the diluted samples were packaged in 0.50 mL straws and placed into liquid nitrogen vapor for 24 h and, after this time, submerged into liquid nitrogen for 10 days. The combination of DMSO+lactose was less toxic to the diluted semen, resulting in higher motility rates and durations when compared to the other treatments. After thawing, the highest motility rate and duration were obtained using lactose as extracellular cryoprotectant, regardless of its combination. There was no significant difference between treatments when analyzing sperm morphology after thawing. Considering the effects of the tested treatments, the use of lactose as an extracellular cryoprotectant added with DMSO or methanol is the most suitable, since these combinations presented the highest motility rates and durations and low morphological change rate after thawing.


Contemporary evidence shows biotic factors play a prominent role in the soil health and the provision of soil functions. Herbaceous grassland species differ in their modulation of soil communities, effects on soil components, as well the processes they interact with or regulate. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of different plant species communities on soil health, as quantified by soil physical (water infiltration), chemical (soil organic matter) and biological (Collembola community data) indicators. Data was collected from an existing long-term field trial in the UK, planted to either forb-dominated composition, grass species dominated composition or a multipurpose mixture of forb and grass species. Results showed that plant community can determine soil water infiltration rates, particularly with observed increased soil organic matter (SOM) and epigeic Collembola abundances. The results presented here add evidence that plant communities planted as vegetative buffer strips can be specifically tailored to support soil health development and maintenance.