The present article aims at approaching the relationship between representation and deliberation and discusses the way these themes have been dealt with in the field of legislative studies. Despite the attention placed on the theme of deliberation by the contemporary democratic theory, it has been neglected by scholars of Legislature. This article discusses the relationship between deliberation and representation in the theory and practice of representative democracy. We seek to develop the argument that the informational model of legislative organization has important linkages with the theme of deliberation, being able to turn into a feasible alternative to understand how the debate takes part in the decision-making process within the parliament and what conditions will foster an informed deliberation.


A laser differential interferometer, a modification of an ordinary Schlieren system, is used to study the evolution of plasma sheath structure and the influence of X-ray emission in a plasma focus, and is found to give good results. From the interferograms it is clear that the filling pressure affects not only the propagation velocity of the plasma sheath, but also its structure, and the different structure of plasma above the anode in turn influences X-ray emission. Whilst the pinched plasma gives higher X-ray yield in a low filling pressure, the turbulent plasma with a protrusion above the plasma layer in a high filling pressure leads to low or no X-ray emission. A high density volume emerges from the target of anode at about t=200 ns, well after the focus is over, which may be the metallic vapour released from the target due to an intense electron beam bombardment. From an experimental point of view it appears that the differential interferometer is simpler to use than other interferometers and has proved to be very useful in the diagnostics of plasma focus.


Spermatogonial stem cells are committed to initiating and maintaining male spermatogenesis, which is the foundation of male fertility. Understanding the mechanisms underlying SSC fate decisions is critical for controlling spermatogenesis and male fertility. However, the key molecules and mechanisms responsible for regulating human SSC development are not clearly understood. Here, we analyzed normal human testis single-cell sequencing data from the GEO dataset (GSE149512 and GSE112013). Melanoma antigen gene B2 (MAGEB2) was found to be predominantly expressed in human SSCs and further validated by immunohistology. Overexpression of MAGEB2 in SSC lines severely weakened cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis. Further, using protein interaction prediction, molecular docking, and immunoprecipitation, we found that MAGEB2 interacted with early growth response protein 1 (EGR1) in SSC lines. Reexpression of EGR1 in MAGEB2 overexpression cells partially rescued decreased cell proliferation. Furthermore, MAGEB2 was shown to be downregulated in specific NOA patients, implying that abnormal expression of MAGEB2 may impair spermatogenesis and male fertility. Our results offer new insights into the functional and regulatory mechanisms in MAGEB2-mediated human SSC line proliferation and apoptosis.


A study was conducted using one hundred and twenty day-old Ross 308 broiler chicks to evaluate blood and serum chemistry response of broiler chickens fed direct fed microbes The birds were obtained from a reputable hatchery and randomly assigned to four dietary treatments, each with three replicates of ten birds per treatment. The treatments were T1, T2, T3 and T4, the levels of inclusion of direct fed microbes (DFM) were 0%, 2.5%, 5.0% and 7.5% respectively. The birds were assigned to these treatment diets, feed and water was given ad libitum throughout the duration of the experiment which lasted for 56 days. The experimental design was Completely Randomized Design (CRD). At the end of the experiment blood samples were collected from the broilers and taken to the laboratory for hematological and serum chemistry analysis. The hematological characteristics of the broiler shows that there was no significant (P>0.05) in haemoglobin (Hb), Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Red Blood Cell (RBC), White Blood Cell (WBC), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH) and Mean Cell Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC). The WBC portrayed decreasing trend as the level of DFM increased, also the Hb, MCV and MCH portrayed an increasing trend as the DFM increased in the treatment diet up to the 5% inclusion level. The serum chemistry result shows that there was a significant difference (P 0.05) was observed in serum albumin, glucose, urea and creatinine. From the result it could be concluded that birds fed diet 2 performed better as they compete favourably with the control. Birds fed diet 2 also had a balanced physiological system. Keywords: Direct Fed Microbe, Growth Performance and Broiler birds


This is the fourth independent evaluation by the World Bank's Operations Evalauuation Department of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) in northern Pakistan. Requested and funded by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and some of its co-donors, the evaluation was undertaken to assist the AKRSP in shifting its strategy to accommodate a changing environment and new challenges. It looked at both the period since the last, 1995 evaluation and the full period since program initiation in 1982. Some of the lessons from this experience have broad relevance for the rural development community. In rural areas, broad and sustained gains in economic and social welfare must be based on stabe increases in output. Increased output requires that appropriate technology be available that yields relatively quick returns. The program has pursued a high input/high output strategy that has expolited complementarities among the program components and efficiently used the region's scarce community facilitation and program managmeent skills. Expansion (scaling up) is a slow process even with skilled facilitators, as there are few economies of scale. However, expansion by grafting new programs into locations with similar circumstances offers substantial leverage. Partnerships with actionable and measurable commitments should be formally agreed at the start of a program to ensure role clarity and create performance incentives. Exit strategies should be agreed with communities at the outset.


The system for the immunomorphological evaluation of the degree of the human and animal thymus transformation is suggested. The degree of the epithelium demasking and the character of lymphocyte emigration were revealed due to the increase of the surface and alteration of the size of epithelial cells which under normal conditions are completely screened by lymphocytes. This was done by means of the fluorescent antibodies to the cells of epithelial reticulum of the thymic lobule cortex and some cells of the medulla layer (prekeratins). This system permits a more circumstantial characteristics of the histological changes in the thymus when the cortical part of the lobule loses the capacity for lymphocyte retention in the epithelial reticulum.


In this paper we study the role of turbulence transport on loss prediction using high fidelity scale-resolving simulations. For this purpose we use eight high-fidelity simulation datasets and compute flux of entropy and stagnation pressure transport equation budgets for all the cases. We find that under certain unsteady inflow conditions the stagnation pressure coefficient is not a reliable loss metric even at low Mach number conditions. This is due to the turbulence transport terms. The impact of these terms, typically assumed to be negligible, made stagnation pressure loss coefficient under-predict loss from 0% to over 40% when compared to entropy loss coefficient for cases considered here. This effect was most pronounced for the cases with highly unsteady inflow conditions and at low Reynolds numbers.


Employee insurance training is one of the most essential steps to enhance service quality and enhance the performance effectiveness in campus in terms of student insurance services. Students must be considered as the best customers that expected the high service quality from the campus of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. It is imperative for the university to offer new techniques to enhance the quality of student insurance service. Many trainings in this areas in aims not only to reduce cost and time but also to enhance the quality services. The purposes of this research were to examine the training programs of student insurance services of employees who registered for training programs and to suggest ways to improve the employee trainings at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University that resulted in high service quality in student insurance services. To be able to gain the findings, the qualitative research method was utilized with 30 university staff who had recent experiences with many forms of trainings in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The in-depth interviews were used with sample groups. The findings from with study unveiled that the training covered three important aspects: current knowledge of student insurance, working papers and computer process of student insurance, and pre and post service quality of student insurance services. The majority of the employees, reported after the training, that most of the training method, format, quality, and topics had met with their expectation and helped them to perform a better job with high confidence.


Industries are transforming their business strategy from a product-centric to a more servicecentric nature by bundling products and services into integrated solutions. Such systems which offer value in use are commonly termed Product-Service Systems (PSS) and they tend to enhance the relationship between the provider and their customers. As the research related to Product-Service Systems is currently at a rudimentary stage, the development of a robust ontology for this area would be helpful. The purposes of developing a standardized ontology are that it could help researchers and practitioners to communicate and share their views without ambiguity and thus encourage the conception and implementation of useful methods and tools. In this report, an initial structure of a PSS ontology from the design perspective is proposed and evaluated. The primary objective of this ontology development is to aid clarity to the top-level concepts of PSS which would help to communicate these concepts better between researchers and practitioners. This development included the collection of PSS concepts, the definition of each concept, the grouping and structuring of the concepts hierarchically as well as the identification of the relationships between these concepts. This ontology has been developed from scratch from interviews with experts regarding current practices and challenges within the PSS domain. Some PSS concepts have been extracted from these interviews and structured whilst other concepts have been populated using the PSS literature. Subsequently, the proposed ontology was evaluated by thirty PSS researchers which resulted in revisions and established a common agreement for the structure. Reasoning based on the developed ontology is not within the scope of this work. This ontology could be expanded through multidisciplinary collaborative efforts and should mature as the PSS domain matures.


1-Formyl-7-isopropyl-4-methylazulene (4) has been synthesized by DDQ oxidation method of 1-methyl group of guaiazulene (1). The overall synthetic procedures from 1 to 4 were completed within 2 h, and almost quantitative yield was achieved. The compound (4) was inaccessible so far, because of a poor yield of 4 in its total synthesis (<5%, overall), as well as in its preparation by non-selective oxidation of 1 (<1%).


Concentrations of phytanic acid and pristanic acid were measured in stored dried blood spots collected at neonatal screening from patients with peroxisomal disorders, and compared with concentrations in control blood spots. In blood spots from two patients with Zellweger syndrome both phytanic acid and pristanic acid concentrations were increased but their concentration ratio was normal. In the blood spot from a patient with rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata, the concentration of phytanic acid was increased, whereas pristanic acid was within the control range, resulting in a low pristanic acid/phytanic acid ratio. In the blood spot from a patient with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, the concentrations of the acids and their ratio were normal. These findings are consistent with results for these acids in plasma from such patients. Measurement of phytanic acid and pristanic acid and their ratios in stored dried blood collected at neonatal screening can therefore be used in the diagnosis of peroxisomal disorders, especially for those cases in which, owing to early death of the patient, no other material is available for biochemical investigations.


A worrying trend in the Malaysian higher education environment is that students graduating not only with diplomas or degrees of their disciplines but also with debts. Graduates with debts becomes a serious issue when  loan but also other debts that they create since entering the job market. This paper examines the debt composition of 186 graduates and their attitudes towards education loans. The education debt-to-income ratio is found to be in the range of 1.8 percent to 12 percent; where a ratio beyond 8 percent is deemed unsafe.
Keywords: graduate debts; education loan; debt-to-income ratio; higher education; attitude to education debts.
eISSN 2514-7528 © 2017 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK . This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.


Reassignment of calls to different wavelengths on blocking can be used in WDM networks without wavelength conversion to get almost the same performance as that of WDM networks with wavelength conversion for circuit switched traffic . However, in a few networks, we did find that while the reassignment on blocking does improve the performance of WDM networks without wavelength conversion, the performance falls short of that of wavelength conversion networks. In this paper, we analyze the reasons for this behavior in these networks. On identifying certain critical nodes as a cause of this behavior, we propose a rerouting technique around the critical node. With a small amount of rerouting, this bottleneck can be removed and the performance of WDM networks without wavelength conversion becomes almost equal to that of networks with wavelength conversion, thus making the wavelength conversion (costly) feature, as redundant. In this paper, we also propose a technique to carry out seamless wavelength reassignment so as not to disrupt traffic during the wavelength reassignment process.


Load balancing is directly associated with the overall performance of a parallel and distributed computing system. Although the relevant problems in communication and computation have been well studied in data center environments, few works have considered the issues in an IoT edge scenario. In fact, processing data in a load balancing way for the latter case is more challenging. The main reason is that, unlike a data center, both the data sources and the network infrastructure in an IoT edge system can be dynamic. Moreover, with different performance requirements from IoT networks and edge servers, it will be hard to characterize the performance model and to perform runtime optimization for the whole system. To tackle this problem, in this work, we propose a load-balancing aware networking approach for efficient data processing in IoT edge systems. Specifically, we introduce an IoT network dynamic clustering solution using the emerging deep reinforcement learning (DRL), which can both fulfill the communication balancing requirements from IoT networks and the computation balancing requirements from edge servers. Moreover, we implement our system with a long short term memory (LSTM) based Dueling Double Deep Q-Learning Network (D3QN) model, and our experiments with real-world datasets collected from an autopilot vehicle demonstrate that our proposed method can achieve significant performance improvement compared to a benchmark solution.


Phytoestrogens are natural compounds with anticancer, proliferation, differentiation, and chemopreventive effects, for which several mechanisms have been proposed. In the present study, modulation of Brca1 and Brca2 expression by different phytoestrogen-rich diets has been investigated in ovariectomized Wistar rats. Two hundred mammary glands were harvested in three independent experiments. Brca1 and Brca2 mRNAs were quantified by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, and their proteins by immunohistochemistry. The first experiment compared the influence of different phytoestrogens [flax-seed, isoflavones (IFs), or rutin]. A 10% increase in Brca1 mRNA expression was shown after flax-seed consumption, whereas no variation was noted for Brca2 mRNA, nor for Brca1 and Brca2 proteins. In the second experiment, two soy IFs sources (Novasoy or Soylife) were given at different concentrations to the animals. Only Brca2 mRNA was increased and only at high doses. Finally, the effect of IFs was compared with that of estradiol. An increase in mRNA for both genes was noted after estradiol treatment and with the highest dose of IFs. In conclusion, our results show that IFs, given in the diet at different doses, are able to increase Brca1 and Brca2 mRNA in ovariectomized female Wistar rat. However, no variation in Brca1 or Brca2 protein expression was demonstrated, whatever the experimental conditions were.


Summary Herpes simplex virus type 2 rendered defective by ultraviolet irradiation transformed hamster embryo fibroblasts in vitro . When the transformed cells were inoculated into newborn hamsters, solid tumors developed and cell cultures were established. The virus-transformed cells, the solid tumors, and the tumor cell cultures were examined by electron microscopy. The transformed cultures and tumors contained cells with nuclei in which the chromatin had become condensed and marginated; this picture resembled the cytopathology induced during lytic infection by herpes simplex virus. These abnormalities were observed in some cell culture lines established from the tumors. Virus-like particles, similar in size and morphology to nonenveloped herpesvirus, were found in the nuclei of a small number of degenerating cells in some of the specimens examined.


The magnitude by which plasma cortisol levels increase following exposure to a stressor is a heritable trait in rainbow trout. The relative growth in coculture of F1 lines selected for high responsiveness (HR) and low responsiveness (LR) to a confinement stressor suggested that behavioral characteristics related to food acquisition, aggression, or competitive ability might differ between the two lines. This hypothesis was tested using the F2 generation of the selected lines. The F2 lines clearly exhibited the characteristics of the F1 parents, displaying significantly divergent plasma cortisol responses to a 1-h confinement stressor and a high heritability for the trait. Behavioral differences between the lines were assessed by observing the outcome of staged fights for dominance in size-matched pairs of HR and LR fish. The identification of dominant and subordinate fish within each pair on the basis of their behavior was supported by the levels of blood cortisol in the fish attributed to each group (dominant << subordinate). Fish from the LR line were identified as dominant in significantly more trials than were HR individuals. The results suggest that behavioral attributes that affect the outcome of rank-order fights are closely linked to the magnitude of the plasma cortisol response to stress in rainbow trout. Whether the link is causal or circumstantial is not yet evident.


The rapid advancement of ICTs has outstripped the theoretical rationalization, regulatory framework, business models, professional practices and audiences' participation in contemporary democratic processes (Kaid L., Mazoleni G., Blumler JG, Esser F.). This new 'mosaic culture' is characterized by demassification of media and of society itself. A virtual online culture has been created which, due to its interactive nature, acts as integrating while having an alienating and restrictive impact on people, destroying 'live' communication. Nevertheless, media still stays among the main factors of the deliberative democracy, which should ensure fair and reasonable debate among citizens. Compared to traditional media, internet platforms and especially social networks are becoming increasingly popular channels for politicians to communicate with the electorate. The aim of the study undertaken by an academic team of the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at the St. Kliment Ohridsky Sofia University of Bulgaria and supported by the National Scientific Fund (research project KP-06-M35/4-18.12.2019) focuses on the deficits of media literacy in pre-election online communication. The object is the dynamics of the online campaign for the three parliamentary elections in Bulgaria in 2021: one regular (April 4) and two preliminary (July 11 and November 14). They have been held under the shadow of social distance and strict observance of the anti-epidemic measures against COVID-19 and in conditions of political confrontation, hostile public speech, and neglected professional standards. The subject is related to the Facebook messages in the profiles of the political leaders within the one-month period of the three campaigns. The methodology is an empirical study and comparative analysis. The scope of the survey includes those political forces that have passed the 4% electoral threshold. The main research question of the study is how Facebook messages affect voter choiceThe results showed that during all the three election campaigns, Bulgarians preferred to be informed first by television, then by online platforms and most of all - by Facebook. However, the number of posts, the frequency of Facebook use, and the funds invested did not turn out to be directly proportional to the success achieved by the politicians. Relying on populism in various dimensions was a more profitable strategy. Thus, for some of the new political formations, aggressive rhetoric was winning. Online communication replaced politicians' live contact with the public, but numerous likes, comments and shares expanded the audience's reach. In the long run few of the Facebook profiles of political leaders who were elected MPs clearly presented their intentions in such a way that voters could have the opportunity to make informed choices. The results are indicative of the extent to which insufficient information, media and digital literacy as part of the civic education of electoral actors - regulators, politicians, media, analysts and audiences - affect informed voter choice. For successful participation of citizens in public debates on protecting, sustaining and developing of civic rights and democracy, a serious awareness of the risks and opportunities of the deliberative communication process needs to be studied.


Abstract Grommet insertion is a widely accepted method of treatment of glue ear in children. There have been questions raised over the last few years about the indications for grommets and whether assessing the hearing alone is an efficient outcome measure. Parental pressure accounts for one of the factors that is taken into consideration when the decision to insert grommets for glue ear is made. In this paper, a prospective questionnaire is used to investigate the parental perceptions of the effectiveness of grommet insertion in children, focusing on alternative outcome measures such as general health, language, and social skills. The results of this survey suggest that grommet insertion causes improvement in many factors other than hearing and this seems to account for the parental pressure for siblings to have grommet insertion.


Abstract:This article argues that Muslim Australian women are refusing the expectations of both state and religious leadership around how to respond to Islamophobia in Australia. In the wake of policies and rhetoric that disproportionately discriminate against Muslims, local government has partnered with Islamic Australian religious organizations to create initiatives that aim to both publicly show that Muslims are not threats to the social fabric and to reform attitudes within communities around gender equality and family life. Muslim women are seen as key to these emergent partnerships; they are often called upon to change public representations about Islam and to take a lead role in internally reforming their community's attitudes about gender and family. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Melbourne, I examine how one collective of Muslim Australian women has resisted these expectations, through enacting an anti-Islamophobia politics that refuses to replace negative stereotypes of Muslims with positive ones, or to speak for all Muslim Australians. Rather, they situate Islamophobia as a lens to understand how Australian assimilationist projects serve the settler colonial national imaginary. In the process, they reveal Islamophobia as not only a problem of the misrepresentation of Muslims, but as an ongoing legacy of Australian settler colonialism. Their work offers a political alternative for thinking about what an inclusive anti-Islamophobia politics could look like in contemporary Australia.


From being a scientific curiosity only a few years ago, energy harvesting (EH) is well on its way to becoming a game-changing technology in the field of autonomous wireless networked systems. The promise of long-term, uninterrupted and self-sustainable operation in a diverse array of applications has captured the interest of academia and industry alike. Yet the road to the ultimate network of perpetual communicating devices is plagued with potholes: ambient energy is intermittent and scarce, energy storage capacity is limited, and devices are constrained in size and complexity. In dealing with these challenges, this article will cover recent developments in the design of intelligent energy management policies for EH wireless devices and discuss pressing research questions in this rapidly growing field.


This paper intends to provide the whirling characteristics of an asymmetric rotor-shaft system with a non-ideal DC motor. The equations of motion have been derived in terms of system parameters such as the internal/external damping, the asymmetry and the motor voltage. By imposing the conditions that the motor input power should be balanced by the dissipated power, steadystate whirling characteristics are obtained such as the whirling amplitude, the whirling frequency and the stability diagrams. Results show that the whirling stability is affected by the internal/external damping and the asymmetry as well as the motor voltage. Also, the whirling amplitude at the steadystate is increased and the motor speed is lowered as the internal damping becomes higher or the external damping is reduced. In addition, the asymmetry causes the variation of the whirling orbit, which becomes splitted into two distinct trajectories. Finally, non-ideal characteristics of the DC motor is found to reduce the whirling motion in case of steadystate whirling with high asymmetry and high internal damping.


A robust Ru(II)-catalyzed C-H allylation of electron-deficient alkenes with allyl alcohols in aqueous solution is reported. This method provides a straightforward and efficient access to the synthetically useful 1,4-diene skeletons. With the assistance of the N-methoxycarbamoyl directing group, this allylation reaction features a broad substrate scope with good functional group tolerance, excellent regio- and stereoselectivity, absence of metal oxidants, water-tolerant solvents, and mild reaction conditions. The mechanistic studies indicate that the process of the reversible C-H bond ruthenation is assisted by acetate, and the rate-determining step is unlikely to be the step of C-H bond cleavage.


A procedure for the separation and identification of small peptides from the water-soluble fraction of a goat cheese was developed. The water-soluble extract was ultrafiltered (1000 Da membrane cutoff), and peptides were isolated by sequential chromatography: size exclusion chromatography (HPLC-grade water), anion exchange chromatography (phosphate buffer gradient), and semipreparative reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (water/acetonitrile gradient). The fractions obtained were analyzed by combined mass spectrometry methods including electrospray ionization, liquid secondary ionization, and tandem mass spectrometry to identify and to confirm the sequences of 28 tri- to octapeptides naturally appearing in goat cheese during ripening. Among these peptides, 26 are produced by degradation of caseins but do not correspond to the known specific cleavages due to chymosin. Only low correlation was found between hydrophobicity of peptides and HPLC elution time with acetonitrile gradient.


With the continuous increase of saline-alkali land, sustainable development of the global environment and ecology has been seriously affected. Chenopodiaceae is a pioneer plant family living in saline-alkali land, which plays a crucial role in sustaining the stability, composition and function of saline-alkali arid ecosystems. In this study, 11 elements were analyzed in different plant organs and rhizosphere soil of eight Chenopodiaceae species. Descriptive statistics of the leaf, stem and root element concentrations in eight halophyte species of contrasting salt tolerance types (salt-dilution halophytes and recretohalophytes) were calculated. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were used to compare the correlations of elements among the leaf, stem, root and soil property, as well as between the plant and soil. General linear model was employed to explore how the variance of element concentrations in leaves, stems and roots depends on salt tolerance type, soil salinity property and soil mineral elements. The results showed that salt tolerance type and soil mineral element concentrations explained most of the variation observed in element concentrations in Chenopodiaceae plants; the soil salinity property played only a minor role. It was concluded that the genetic factors are the prerequisite in the composition pattern of leaf elements in Chenopodiaceae, and soil factors are the key to determine element accumulation. These conclusions provide an effective reference for evaluating plant breeding and its response to environmental change in saline-alkali arid areas in Hulunbuir grassland and other parts of the world.


The field performance of movable boards ditch opener (MB) and conventional ditch opener (CD) was contrasted by using a specific resistance to determine  the  optimum  performance  of  either   one   of   them.   The   comparison was conducted using three operating  depths  (30,  40  and  50cm),  three  angles  between  the  boards  of  MB  (45,  60  and  750),  one  angle  for  CD  (650)  because  its boards were fixed, three wings width  of  the  foot  of  MB  whereas,  for  CD,  one  share width  (35cm)  and  two  soil  types  (cultivated  and  uncultivated).  CD  could  not penetrate the  uncultivated  soil  more  than  25cm  so  that  there  was  one  operating  depth.  The  results  of  the  experiments  showed  that  SR  for  MB  decreased as the operating depth,  the  angle  between  the  boards  and  the  width  of the wings of the foot  in  both  soil  types  were  increased.  Specific  resistance  (SR)  for  CD  also  decreased  as  the  operating  depth  increased  in  the  cultivated  soil,    but  in  the  uncultivated  soil,  CD  could  not  penetrate  the  soil  more  than  25cm.  SR for MB was  lower  than  that  for  CD  for  all  operating  depths,  the  angle  between the boards,  the width of the wings of the foot in both soil types. SR for         MB and CD  in  the  cultivated  soil  was  low  compared  to  uncultivated  soil.  The  soil  type  decreased  SR  for  MB  more  than  the  operating  depth,  the  angle   between its boards and the width of  its  wings.  On  the  other  hand,  the  angle  between its boards reduced  SR  more  than  the  width  of  the  wings  and  the  operating depth. MB surpassed CD in giving lower SR and that means the field performance of MB was higher than that for CD.


Cationic nanoparticles are known to interact with biological membranes and often cause serious membrane damage. Therefore, it is important to understand the molecular mechanism for such interactions and the factors that impact the degree of membrane damage. Previously, we have demonstrated that spatial distribution of molecular charge at cationic nanoparticle surfaces plays an important role in determining the cellular uptake and membrane damage of these nanoparticles. In this work, using diamond nanoparticles (DNPs) functionalized with five different amine-based surface ligands and small phospholipid unilamellar vesicles (SUVs), we further investigate how chemical features and conformational flexibility of surface ligands impact nanoparticle/membrane interactions. 31P-NMR T2 relaxation measurements quantify the mobility changes in lipid dynamics upon exposing the SUVs to functional DNPs, and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations further elucidate molecular details for the different modes of DNP-SUV interactions depending on the surface ligands. Collectively, our results show that the length of the hydrophobic segment and conformational flexibility of surface ligands are two key factors that dictate the degree of membrane damage by the DNP, while the amount of surface charge alone is not predictive of the strength of interaction.


This thesis examines how relationships and ethical practices and judgements are made explicit in the dispute forums of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It also explores what the outcomes of this explication can mean for methods of local conflict resolution. My findings are based on twelve months of fieldwork conducted in the province of West New Britain, with particular focus on the region of Bialla and the dispute forums therein. There are a large number of dispute forums used in Bialla that emerge outside the purview of the state government. With such a large number of different venues in the region, it is worth asking what they are used for and how they might connect with, and work alongside, a relatively more state recognised venue - the village court. Without more extensive consideration of how these forums work in relation to one another, can current discussions surrounding the uses and outcomes of the village courts accurately reflect what these forums do?

To answer these questions my research explores the significance of actor-networks
and conceptions of place in the production of authority and conflict resolution. By mobilising theories of emplacement and actor-oriented anthropology my findings are able to challenge the prevailing understanding that law sits at the heart of the courts and can be used as bar against which the use and outcomes of a dispute forum can be measured. By removing law from this central position, other facets that are significant to the usage of dispute forums in Bialla can be revealed.

My discussion revolves around the examination of a number of Bialla's dispute
forums including: the content of the disputes overseen there, details of the way in which disputes are treated in each instance, and the way in which each forum materialises physically on each occasion. In this way, my research considers factors that contribute to the use of these dispute forums and what that may mean for local communities. I explore how extensive group dynamics and long established conflicts are represented and addressed in each. Those venues that are unable to address certain disputes also provide a revealing aspect of my discussion. Limitations go some way to explain why such a wide range of forums are required to oversee the variety of disputes in Bialla. Ultimately, I argue that dispute forums are flexible venues that materialise as a result of actor-networks in order to address the wide variety of disputes arising in the area.


Macro-porous carbon foams are fabricated using cured spherical phenolic resin particles as a matrix and furfuryl alcohol as a binder through a simple casting molding. Different sizes of the phenolic resin particles from 100– 450 µm are used to control the pore size and structure. Ethylene glycol is additionally added as a pore-forming agent and oxalic acid is used as an initiator for polymerization of furfuryl alcohol. The polymerization is performed in two steps; at 80 o C and 200 o C in an ambient atmosphere. The carbonization of the cured body is performed under Nitrogen gas flow (0.8 L/min) at 800 o C for 1 h. Shrinkage rate and residual carbon content are measured by size and weight change after carbonization. The pore structures are observed by both electron and optical microscope and compared with the porosity results achieved by the Archimedes method. The porosity is similar regardless of the size of the phenolic resin particles. On the other hand, the pore size increases in proportion to the phenol resin size, which indicates that the pore structure can be controlled by changing the raw material particle size.


The commonly used survey technique of clustering introduces dependence into sample data. Such data is frequently used in economic analysis, though the dependence induced by the sample structure of the data is often ignored. In this paper, the effect of clustering on the non-parametric, kernel estimate of the density, f(x), is examined. The window width commonly used for density estimation for the case of i.i.d. data is shown to no longer be optimal. A new optimal bandwidth using a higher-order kernel is proposed and is shown to give a smaller integrated mean squared error than two window widths which are widely used for the case of i.i.d. data. Several illustrations from simulation are provided.


We present a binary session type system using context-free session types to a version of the applied pi-calculus of Abadi et. al. where only base terms, constants and channels can be sent. Session types resemble process terms from BPA and we use a version of bisimulation equivalence to characterize type equivalence. We present a quotiented type system defined on type equivalence classes for which type equivalence is built into the type system. Both type systems satisfy general soundness properties; this is established by an appeal to a generic session type system for psi-calculi.


Diagnosis and detection of host-specific forms of Fusarium oxysporum are traditionally based on the combination of diagnostic symptoms on the host with the presence of the fungus in the affected tissues. The classical approach is becoming increasingly problematic because more than one forma specialis may occur on a given host, along with non-pathogenic strains which are common soil and rhizosphere inhabitants. Neither formae speciales nor pathogenic races within formae speciales can be distinguished morphologically. Although united by joint pathogenicity to a given host, strains belonging to the same forma specialis need not be phylogenetically related. Development of diagnostics for host-specific groups in F. oxysporum requires monophyletic target groups. Recent studies on gene-genealogy and AFLP-based phylogenies show that the majority of formae speciales in F. oxysporum are polyphyletic (unnatural) and do not offer any prospects for the development of molecular diagnostics. In contrast, highly specific PCR primers have been developed for formae speciales (or races) that consist of a single clonal lineage, and for monophyletic groups of lineages within a forma specialis. Among others, specific PCR primers have thus been developed for F. oxysporum f. sp. basilici, specific races in F. oxysporum ff. spp. dianthi and gladioli, and for the EPPO A2 (EU II/A1) quarantine fungus F. oxysporum f. sp. albedinis which can reliably replace conventional isolation and pathogenicity testing procedures.


The relationship between alcohol dependence, alcohol consumption and parasui cide was studied among patients admitted over a twenty year period (1968-87) to a regional poisoning treatment centre in Edinburgh. Both alcohol dependence and consumption of alcohol at the time of the parasuicidal act were reported more commonly by men than by women. An examination of temporal trends showed little change among male patients, while the proportion of females diagnosed as alcohol dependent or consuming alcohol at the time of the act tended to increase over time. A comparison of alcohol dependent (AD) and non-alcohol dependent (non-AD) parasuicides over the period 1982-87 revealed differences in respect of sociodemo graphic characteristics (the AD group containing more unemployed, especially long term) clinical variables (the AD group being more likely to have acted suicidally and to have received psychiatric treatment in the past, yet less likely to be currently diagnosed psychiatrically ill), family features and social problems. The implications of the study findings for research and service delivery are mentioned.


We describe a middle aged previoulsy healthy female patient who presented with clinical features suggestive of acute heart failure. Investigations revealed very high NT pro-BNP, right heart enlargement, bilateral pulmonary alveolar edema and bilateral pleural effusion. In view of falling platelet counts and exudative pleural effusion inflammatory/infective causes were considered. Her Weil Felix test was strongly positive and IgM for scrub typhus also returned positive. She was started on doxycycline to which there was dramatic improvement. Thus in this case scrub typhus infection presented as acute right heart failure and the cause seemed elusive at the outset. We also systematically reviewed the existing literature on cardio-pulmonary manifestations of scrub typhus infection.


There has been a revolution in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. Several oral regimens combining direct‐acting antivirals (DAAs) from different families [NS5B nucleotide inhibitors, NS5B non‐nucleoside inhibitors, NS5A replication complex inhibitors and NS3/4A protease inhibitors (PI)] are under development. These regimens result in an increase in sustained virological response (SVR) rates to above 90% and reduce the duration of treatment to twelve weeks or less. As of 2015 several regimens will be approved with additive potencies, without cross‐resistance and with a good safety profile. Remaining issues will include increasing screening and access to care so that HCV may become the first chronic viral infection eradicated worldwide. This review summarizes results obtained with oral DAAs combinations, that have been approved and/or have completed phase III clinical trials for HCV genotype 1 (HCV‐1) treatment‐naïve patients.


In this paper, a new method based on Zubov theorem is proposed to enlarge the domain of attraction for a class of affine nonlinear systems. The proposed controller provides the ability to stretch the domain of attraction of affine nonlinear system in any desired dimension of state space. Not only that but the controller makes it possible to stretch the domain of attraction along some directions and compress it along others. Also the proposed approach reduces some constraints of the previous works and is capable to be applied to the larger class of affine nonlinear dynamic system. These constraints are based on the fact that the controller value must be bounded. The Simulation results on the Van der pol system and a three-dimensional system, demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.


Abstract Electronic health records (EHRs) can define real world patient populations with high levels of clinical specificity, potentially addressing some of the shortcomings of other types of real world data (RWD) when informing decisions about the comparative effectiveness of medical technologies. An important but under-recognized concern for EHR-derived RWD, however, is that the rich clinical data permits creation of very homogenous subpopulations from the larger group of eligible patients, thereby reducing the representativeness of the cohort relative to clinical practice. In this article, we discuss the tradeoffs between choosing clinical specificity versus representativeness in population sampling for comparative effectiveness research. Using EHR-derived RWD, we provide an example in non-small cell lung cancer to illustrate the concepts, showing wide variation in outcomes among potential comparator cohorts. We close with several recommendations for selecting comparator populations from EHRs that address the balance between matching clinical guidelines and capturing practice variability in comparative effectiveness research.


The effect of heavy metals (zinc, cadmium, chromium and lead) at concentrations 50, 100 and 500 �g/ml of the heavy metal salts on glyphosate utilization by some bacterial species isolated from rice fields were studied, the addition of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) to the glyphosate mineral salt medium used in growing the Acetobacter sp. significantly (P < 0.05) increased the rate of glyphosate utilization as indicated by the increase in the growth of the organism and could be attributed to easy uptake of the metal-glyphosate complex by the organism. The growth of Pseudomonas fluorescens was enhanced in the presence of zinc in the glyphosate medium, when compared to its growth in the medium without the heavy metals. This was followed by lead, cadmium and chromium, respectively.


Chromophore-assisted light inactivation (CALI) is a method of directed inactivation of a protein of interest to study its functions. In CALI, the protein is tagged with a chromophore-photosensitizer and illuminated by light. This results in local production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which damage the target protein. The use of light ensures extremely high spatial and temporal resolution in protein inactivation experiments. This is a distinct feature of CALI compared to other methods of protein inactivation such as gene knockout, RNA interference and chemical inhibitors or blocking antibodies. This chapter provides an overview of existing techniques of CALI implementation, namely CALI with antibody-targeted, genetically targeted and genetically encoded photosensitizers. Advantages and shortcomings of each approach, as well as future perspectives of CALI development are discussed.


Five cases of traumatic aneurysm of the superficial temporal artery are reported. Four patients clearly stated that they had sustained traumatic injuries within 3 months prior to the appearance of the pulsating aneurysms; in the remaining case, more than two years had passed before the appearance of the nodule, and it was without pulsation. Color Doppler echography was very useful for observing the circulation in these aneurysms. Histologically, these cases were pseudoaneurysms composed of small vessels with internal elastic lamina and adjacent connective tissue proliferation, suggesting a break in the arterial wall.


Background: Advances in medical technology together with new legislation, have vastly complicated the process of confirming death1. The Academy of Royal Medical Colleges(ARMC) have produced a code for the diagnosis and confirmation of death to address this1. Using this code as a standard, we report the results of an audit assessing clinician confirmation and documentation of death. Methods: Retrospective study of 45 sets of patient case notes was performed in our Neurosurgical Intensive Care(n = 15), General Intensive Care(n = 15)and the Accident and Emergency(n = 15) units. A further 8 case notes of patients that went on to organ donation after cardiac death were also assessed. Results: Only the 8 cases that went forward for organ donation were documented as per ARMC guidelines. No other cases met the audit standards. This was true over the full range of clinician grades. Discussion: The accurate certification of death is important because: it avoids a delay in releasing the deceased's body for burial; it provides some defence in the (rare) incident of the 'Lazarus phenomenon' (return of spontaneous circulation after cessation of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation); and finally because it represents the last duty of the clinician for their patient. On the basis of this audit, we have conducted an educational campaign and introduced a proforma for the confirmation of death in our institution. We are repeating our audit to assess the impact of these interventions. ReferencesA Code of Practice for the Diagnosis and Confirmation of Death, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, 2008 http://aomrc.org.uk/publications/reports-guidance.html (Accessed October 2011).


In this survey new applications of homotopy theory and singularity theory to geometric and differential topology are considered. The solution of R. Daverman's problem on the embedding of a sphere-like compactum in Euclidean space is obtained. Applications to the theory of pseudo-isotopies and to the topology of low-dimensional manifolds are found.


This review focused on the clinical trials in patients with gastric cancer in Japan. Oral fluoropyrimidines have been extensively used in Japan. Through the decades, these oral fluoropyrimidines have been examined in a variety of combinations. Most of the reports are about randomized phase II trials using overall response rate as a primary endpoint, and are a few phase III trials were conducted. S-1 (TS-1), a novel oral fluoropyrimidine, has demonstrated promising activity in phase II trials. Ongoing phase III trials on S-1 would be defining this as standard chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer.


The discovery of the quantum Hall effect in 1980 has demonstrated the importance of two-dimensional electronic systems for application and fundamental research. In this paper a review of some transport phenomena in such systems in high magnetic fields is given.


Some intra-cratonic basins are traditionally called "aulacogens". This term
 has persisted in the geoscience literature since its invention by Soviet
 geologists in the mid-20th century before the triumph of the plate tectonics,
 but its meaning has evolved. Attempts to change its meaning from descriptive
 to genetic have led to a broad spectrum of opinions on the definition of
 aulacogens. Some specialists related them to continental rifts, while others
 have restricted aulacogens to the only particular rift systems or peculiar
 stages in the evolution of young cratons. The Donets Basin is a typical
 aulacogen stretching across the southern margin of the East European Craton.
 A brief review of present knowledge of this basin shows that its nature is
 rather incompatible with the present understanding of aulacogens. Instead,
 the new classification of rifts offers a more precise terminology for its
 exact characteristics. It is suggested that the term "aulacogen" should only
 be restricted to those basins for which it has been applied historically.


The solar wind is known to be a turbulent medium. Further on observational evidence reveals a high degree of Alfvenicity of the fluctuations at least for the fast solar wind and also the existence of nonlinear two-dimensional turbulent interactions which contribute to solar wind fluctuations [Tu C-Y and Marsch E 1995 Space Science Rev. 73, No. 1–2]. To understand fluctuations which are existing in the solar wind one has to study the behavior of nonlinear drift Alfven waves in multi-ion plasmas. For this reason we investigate the propagation of Alfven vortices in multi-ion plasmas. Vortices are structures of at least two-dimensions which is also needed to understand turbulent motion. Alfven vortices were already applied to explain the observed phenomena in the ionosphere and magnetosphere [Chmyrev V M et al 1988 Physica Scripta 38 841]. The aim of the present work is to find the connection between the formation of Alfven vortices and the turbulent behavior of the solar wind.


A test apparatus is described which allows precise offtrack positioning of digital data storage (DDS) heads. This apparatus is used for calibration of tracking error signals (TESs). In addition, more detailed measurements were made of the writing and offtrack reading characteristics of DDS heads and a simple model was developed based on these measurements which successfully predicts TES vs. offtrack displacement. >


This study delves into the application of Small Area Estimation (SAE) techniques to enhance the accuracy of predicting global needs for assistive spectacles. By leveraging the power of SAE, the research undertakes a comprehensive exploration, employing a range of predictive models including Linear Regression (LR), Empirical Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (EBLUP), hglm (from R package) with Conditional Autoregressive (CAR), and Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM). At last phase, the global spectacle needs' prediction includes various essential steps such as random effects simulation, coefficient extraction from GLMM estimates, and log-linear modeling. The investigation develops a multi-faceted approach, incorporating area-level modeling, spatial correlation analysis, and relative standard error, to assess their impact on predictive accuracy. The GLMM consistently displays the lowest Relative Standard Error (RSE) values, almost close to zero, indicating precise but potentially overfit results. Conversely, the hglm with CAR model presents a narrower RSE range, typically below 25%, reflecting greater accuracy; however, it is worth noting that it contains a higher number of outliers. LR illustrates a performance similar to EBLUP, with RSE values reaching around 50% in certain scenarios and displaying slight variations across different contexts. These findings underscore the trade-offs between precision and robustness across these models, especially for finer geographical levels and countries not included in the initial sample.


Nanocomposite materials have seen increased adoption in a wide range of applications, with toxic gas detection, such as carbon monoxide (CO), being of particular interest for this review. Such sensors are usually characterized by the presence of CO absorption sites in their structures, with the Langmuir reaction model offering a good description of the reaction mechanism involved in capturing the gas. Among the reviewed sensors, those that combined polymers with carbonaceous materials showed improvements in their analytical parameters such as increased sensitivities, wider dynamic ranges, and faster response times. Moreover, it was observed that the CO reaction mechanism can differ when measured in mixtures with other gases as opposed to when it is detected in isolation, which leads to lower sensitivities to the target gas. To better understand such changes, we offer a complete description of carbon nanostructure-based chemosensors for the detection of CO from the sensing mechanism of each material to the water solution strategies for the composite nanomaterials and the choice of morphology for enhancing a layers' conductivity. Then, a series of state-of-the-art resistive chemosensors that make use of nanocomposite materials is analyzed, with performance being assessed based on their detection range and sensitivity.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the corrosion resistance of stressed NiTi and stainless steel orthodontic wires using cyclic potentiodynamic and potentiostatic tests in acid artificial saliva at 37 degrees C. An atomic force microscope was used to measure the 3-D surface topography of as-received wires. Scanning electron microscope observations were carried out before and after the cyclic potentiodynamic tests. The surface chemical analysis was characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Auger electron spectroscopy after the potentiostatic tests. The cyclic potentiodynamic test results showed that the pH had a significant influence on the corrosion parameters of the stressed NiTi and stainless steel wires (p < 0.05). The pitting potential, protection potential, and passive range of stressed NiTi and stainless steel wires decreased on decreasing pH, whereas the passive current density increased on decreasing pH. The load had no significant influence on the above corrosion parameters (p > 0.05). For all pH and load conditions, stainless steel wire showed higher pitting potential and wider passive range than NiTi wire (p < 0.001), whereas NiTi wire had lower passive current density than stainless steel wire (p < 0.001). The corrosion resistance of the stressed NiTi and stainless steel wires was related to the surface characterizations, including surface defect and passive film.


Design activities, such as brainstorming or critique, often take place in open spaces combining whiteboards and tables to present artefacts. In co-located settings, peripheral awareness enables participants to understand each other's locus of attention with ease. However, these spatial cues are mostly lost while using videoconferencing tools. Telepresence robots could bring back a sense of presence, but controlling them is distracting. To address this problem, we present ReMotion, a fully automatic robotic proxy designed to explore a new way of supporting non-collocated open-space design activities. ReMotion combines a commodity body tracker (Kinect) to capture a user's location and orientation over a wide area with a minimally invasive wearable system (NeckFace) to capture facial expressions. Due to its omnidirectional platform, ReMotion embodiment can render a wide range of body movements. A formative evaluation indicated that our system enhances the sharing of attention and the sense of co-presence enabling seamless movement-in-space during a design review task.


In the last few decades, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been a worldwide concern. The excessive use of antibiotics affects animal and human health. In the last few years, livestock production has used antibiotics as food supplementation. This massive use can be considered a principal factor in the accelerated development of genetic modifications in bacteria. These modifications are responsible for AMR and can be widespread to pathogenic and commensal bacteria. In addition, these antibiotic residues can be dispersed by water and sewer water systems, the contamination of soil and, water and plants, in addition, can be stocked in tissues such as muscle, milk, eggs, fat, and others. These residues can be spread to humans by the consumption of water or contaminated food. In addition, studies have demonstrated that antimicrobial resistance may be developed by vertical and horizontal gene transfer, producing a risk to public health. Hence, the World Health Organization in 2000 forbid the use of antibiotics for feed supplementation in livestock. In this context, to obtain safe food production, one of the potential substitutes for traditional antibiotics is the use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). In general, AMPs present anti-infective activity, and in some cases immune response. A limited number of AMP-based drugs are now available for use in animals and humans. This use is still not widespread due to a few problems like in-vivo effectiveness, stability, and high cost of production. This review will elucidate the different AMPs applications in animal diets, in an effort to generate safe food and control AMR.


Hybrid structures of two-dimensional (2D) materials and quantum dots (QDs) are particularly interesting in the field of nanoscale optoelectronic devices because QDs are efficient light absorbers and can inject photocarriers into thin layers of 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides, which have high carrier mobility. In this study, we present a heterostructure that consists of a monolayer of tungsten diselenide (ML WSe2) covered by nitrogen-doped graphene QDs (N-GQDs). The improved photoluminescence of ML WSe2 is attributed to the dominant neutral exciton emission caused by the n-doping effect. Owing to strong light absorption and charge transfer from N-GQDs to ML WSe2, N-GQD-covered ML WSe2 showed up to 480% higher photoresponsivity than that of a pristine ML WSe2 photodetector. The hybrid photodetector exhibits good environmental stability, with 46% performance retention after 30 days under ambient conditions. The photogating effect also plays a key role in the improvement of hybrid photodetector performance. On applying the back-gate voltage modulation, the hybrid photodetector shows a responsivity of 2578 A W-1, which is much higher than that of the ML WSe2-based device.


Albizia lebbeck (Linn.) Benth. is a deciduous tree which is planted as ornamental and avenue tree almost all over Bangladesh. Leaves of the plant are used in ethnomedicine for the treatment of convulsion and CNS related disorder. This study was aimed to evaluate the neuropharmacological effects of the methanol extract of A. lebbeck leaves in Swiss albino mice. The locomotor effect of crude methanol extract of the plant was investigated by open field and hole cross tests while the anxiolytic activity was determined using elevated plus-maze (EPM) and light/dark box (LDB) tests. Furthermore, the sedative activity of the plant extract was assessed by sodium thiopental-induced sleeping time test. The results demonstrated that the methanol extract significantly (p < 0.001) reduced locomotion of the animals in both hole cross and open field tests in dose-dependent manner at 200-400 mg/kg b.w. In both EPM and LDB tests, the plant extract produced significant anxiolytic effect (p < 0.05) at the doses of 100-400 mg/kg b.w. In addition, it showed significant (p < 0.001) dose-dependent decrease in the onset of sleep and an increase in duration of sleep in sodium thiopental-induced sleeping time test. Preliminary phytochemical analyses of the plant extract revealed the presence of alkaloid, flavonoid, glycoside, saponin, tannin and resin. In acute toxicity test, the leaf extract did not exhibit any adverse effect in mice during 7 days treatment. The results of the present studies suggest that the crude methanol extract of A. lebbeck leaves possesses significant CNS depressant, anxiolytic and sedative properties and rationalize the traditional uses of the plant.Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 21(2): 80-86, 2018


Although the presence of information technology in the developing nations has been growing steadily for several decades now there is still a significant gap between these and the developed countries and as some of the areas with lower tech-development have the highest degrees of happiness it is still an unknown how the implementation of new technologies, will affect the degree of happiness perceived in these regions. The present paper explores the insights of Economics of Happiness and its interrelation with technological advances in developing nations, considering that the implementation is most widespread among youngsters within and outside the educational scope. Finally, future lines of research into this matter are suggested.


We study the impact of contracting-out of maternal health care by the government of Malawi to providers from the Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) in the form of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Under a SLA, a CHAM facility provides agreed maternal and newborn services free-of-charge to patients, and is reimbursed on a fixed price per service. We merge data on health facilities in Malawi with pregnancy histories from the 2010 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey, and exploit the staggered implementation of SLAs across facilities. Using difference-in-differences, we estimate the differential effects on pregnancy- related health care utilisation to mothers residing near and far from facilities with a SLA over time. Our findings show that SLAs reduced home births and increased skilled deliveries at CHAM hospitals. We observe greater provision of prenatal care services at CHAM health centres but no overall increase in the number of prenatal care visits. We find evidence of a reduction in certain components of prenatal care.


This encyclopedic and systematic collection of useful synthetic methodology contains almost 15,000 reactions and over 23,000 references. It represents the most complete sourcebook of organic reactions and functional group preparations available. The criteria for inclusion are that yields should be at least 50 %, that the reaction should be either general in scope or so unique that the methodology will find real synthetic utility, and that the agents should be readily available or easily prepared and handled in the laboratory. Similar transformations are grouped together whenever possible. The literature coverage is complete through 1987 and considers over 160 primary chemical journals as well as a number of books and reviews. Extensive indexes enable the user to access quickly the information needed either from the starting material or product.


BACKGROUND
The clinical manifestations of fibrillary-immunotactoid glomerulopathy are still being appreciated. It is unclear whether fibrillary-immunotactoid glomerulopathy actually represents two distinct clinicopathological entities, fibrillary glomerulopathy (FG) and immunotactoid glomerulopathy (ITG), or a single disease with different ultrastructural variants.

METHODS
To address these issues, we analysed the clinical features of 186 patients with fibrillary-immunotactoid glomerulopathy referred to our institutions (25 patients) or reported in the literature (161 patients). In separate analyses, patients were subclassified as having either fibrillary glomerulopathy (FG) or immunotactoid glomerulopathy (ITG) according to fibril diameter (FG<=30nm, ITG>30 nm) or arrangement (FG, random; ITG, focally organized).

RESULTS
Proteinuria (FG approximately 100%, ITG approximately 100%), nephrotic syndrome (FG approximately 71%, ITG approximately 82%), haematuria (FG approximately 71%, ITG approximately 64%), hypertension (FG approximately 67%, ITG approximately 45%), and renal insufficiency (FG approximately 54%, ITG approximately 42%) were frequent clinical correlates of both FG and ITG, irrespective of the ultrastructural criteria for diagnosis. Twenty-five patients presenting to our institutions (24 FG, 1 ITG) were divided into three groups based on rate of decline of GFR (mean slope of 1/serum creatinine versus time: group 1 -0. 103+/-0.238; group 2 0.121+/-0.040; group 3 0.466+/-0.318) in an attempt to identify clinical predictors of progression at presentation. Rapid progressors (Group 3) had an increased incidence of nephrotic syndrome and tended to have higher blood pressure than patients with milder disease, but did not differ from other groups in age, prevalence of haematuria or degree of renal insufficiency. The number of patients requiring dialysis was 0/10 in group 1, 2/6 in group 2, and 2/4 in group 3 over a follw-up period 47+/-46, 55+/-32, and 19+/-19 months respectively; two predialysis deaths being recorded in group 3. Four patients received five renal allografts (one patient being transplanted twice) and were followed for 4-11 years. Whereas recurrence of FG was documented in three allografts undergoing post-transplant biopsy, the rate of deterioration of GFR was invariably slower in allografts than native kidneys (mean slope of 1/Cr versus time: 0.036+/-0.01 versus 0. 0301+/-0.18 respectively). The strength of association between FG-ITG and lymphoproliferative malignancy varied depending on whether patients with monoclonal-gammopathy-associated fibrillary deposits were included or excluded from the analysis.

CONCLUSIONS
We contend that patients presenting with Congo-red-negative fibrillary deposits on renal biopsy should be evaluated carefully for monoclonal-gammopathy and cryoglobulins, but there is insufficient published data, as yet, to justify subclassification of FG and ITG as distinct clinical entities. Indeed, we argue that it remains to be determined if FG-ITG represents a unique condition or a forme fruste of cryoglobulin- or gammopathy-associated renal disease. Although the optimal treatment for FG-ITG has not been determined, renal transplantation appears an attractive option in patients with end-stage renal failure.


OBJECTIVE
To improve the treatment of drug related childhood hepatic veno-occlusive disease (HVOD), clinical characteristics of 6 children with hematologic neoplasm from 2 hospitals of China Children's Leukemia Group (CCLG) treated with 6-thioguanine (6-TG) complicated with HVOD were analyzed.

METHOD
All the drug related HVOD patients were treated with CCLG acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)-2008 protocol. They were from Children's Hospital of Fudan University and Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College from April 2008 to April 2009. The diagnosis was made according to the modified Seattle criteria and Baltimore criteria, including 2 or 3 of the following clinical features: hepatomegaly and upper right abdominal pain, jaundice (bilirubin ≥ 35 µmol/L), ascites or confirmed by pathology. The 6 HVOD patients' clinical manifestations, laboratory finding, imageologic and pathologic data were collected and analyzed.

RESULT
Of the 6 patients, 2 were males and 4 females. Mean age of the 6 patients was 3.89 years (range from 3 years 1 month to 4 years 11 months). The original disease was acute lymphoblastic leukemia. HVOD occurred during chemotherapy protocols of CAM (CTX + Ara-C + 6-TG) or maintenance period (MTX + 6-TG). Most of 6 HVOD patients presented with pain in liver area, hepatomegaly on imaging, elevated aminotransferase and bilirubin (often ≥ 35 µmol/L), hydroperitonia was common, one with pleural fluid, illegible hepatic veins. All the patients recovered after being treated with hepatoprotective, jaundice-relieving and supportive therapeutics, some patients were treated with low molecular weight heparin. The prognoses were good.

CONCLUSION
HVOD was a serious complication of chemotherapy with 6-TG. Hepatoprotective and jaundice-relieving and low molecular weight heparin could improve the prognosis.


Abstract Background Students with visual loss may benefit from assistive technology (AT) for their educational activities. Aim To understand the barriers faced in using ATs by students who have heard of ATs and reported needing them, but were not using (acquainted students), at schools for the blind in Delhi. Methods Two hundred and fifty students were selected randomly from ten schools for the blind in Delhi and screened for presenting and pinhole binocular distance vision using a modified 'E' chart and multiple pinhole occluder. Students were divided into two groups; 1/60 or better vision (likely to benefit from vision-based AT) and <1/60 vision, (likely to benefit from tactile/sound-based AT). Awareness of, and need for, ATs was investigated for each student with a questionnaire. Then information on barriers to using AT was obtained from students who knew about AT, felt they needed AT, but were not using them. This information was collected for a total of 42 ATs. Results The three most requested tactile/sound-based ATs for the 250 students were talking watch, Braille typewriter and audio format. The three most requested vision-based ATs in 69 (27.6%) students who had presenting or pinhole visual acuity less than 6/18 to 1/60 were near optical magnifiers, electronic magnifiers and large keyboard for computer. Non-availability of ATs in schools was the most common perceived barrier (43% of overall responses), followed by economic constraints (20% of responses). Conclusion Non-availability or limited possession of ATs and financial constraints were the major barriers to use of ATs among students. IMPLICATION FOR REHABILITATION Students with visual disability face many challenges in accessing assistive technology for their education learning, especially in low middle-income countries. Non-availability and limited possession of assistive technology by schools for the blind are main barriers in the study. School authorities must recognize their responsibility to ensure assistive technology (academic and non-academic related, visual and non-visual based) are made accessible for their students with adequate quantity. Future studies should focus on all school age children in the community rather than focusing on school going children.


A detailed mathematical analysis of the diffusion process of neurotransmitter inside the synaptic cleft is presented and the spatio-temporal concentration profile is calculated. Using information about the experimentally observed time course of glutamate in the cleft the effective diffusion coefficient Dnet is estimated as Dnet approximately 20-50 nm(2) microseconds(-1), implying a strong reduction compared with free diffusion in aqueous solution. The tortuosity of the cleft and interactions with transporter molecules are assumed to affect the transmitter motion. We estimate the transporter density to be 5170 to 8900 micrometer(-2) in the synaptic cleft and its vicinity, using the experimentally observed time constant of glutamate. Furthermore a theoretical model of synaptic transmission is presented, taking the spatial distribution of post-synaptic (AMPA-) receptors into account. The transmitter diffusion and receptor dynamics are modeled by Monte Carlo simulations preserving the typically observed noisy character of post-synaptic responses. Distributions of amplitudes, rise and decay times are calculated and shown to agree well with experiments. Average open probabilities are computed from a novel kinetic model and are shown to agree with averages over many Monte Carlo runs. Our results suggest that post-synaptic currents are only weakly potentiated by clustering of post-synaptic receptors, but increase linearly with the total number of receptors. Distributions of amplitudes and rise times are used to discriminate between different morphologies, e.g. simple and perforated synapses. A skew in the miniature amplitude distribution can be caused by multiple release of pre-synaptic vesicles at perforated synapses.


Distributed Memory Multicomputers (DMMs), such as the IBM SP-2, the Intel Paragon, and the Thinking Machines CM-5, offer significant advantages over shared memory multiprocessors in terms of cost and scalability. Unfortunately, the utilization of all the available computational power in these machines involves a tremendous programming effort on the part of users, which creates a need for sophisticated compiler and run-time support for distributed memory machines. In this paper, we explore a new compiler optimization for regular scientific applications-the simultaneous exploitation of task and data parallelism. Our optimization is implemented as part of the PARADIGM HPF compiler framework we have developed. The intuitive idea behind the optimization is the use of task parallelism to control the degree of data parallelism of individual tasks. The reason this provides increased performance is that data parallelism provides diminishing returns as the number of processors used is increased. By controlling the number of processors used for each data parallel task in an application and by concurrently executing these tasks, we make program execution more efficient and, therefore, faster.


Title: Usage and effectiveness of different software packages in the libraries of Kashmir University, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur: a comparative study Researcher: Hilal Ahmad Malla Guide(s): Mehtab Alam Ansari


Coronavirus pandemics have become a huge threat to the public health worldwide in the recent decades. Typically, SARS-CoV caused SARS pandemic in 2003 and SARS-CoV-2 caused the COVID-19 pandemic recently. Both viruses have been reported to originate from bats. Thus, direct or indirect interspecies transmission from bats to humans is required for the viruses to cause pandemics. Receptor utilization is a key factor determining the host range of viruses which is critical to the interspecies transmission. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the receptor of both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, but only ACE2s of certain animals can be utilized by the viruses. Here, we employed pseudovirus cell-entry assay to evaluate the receptor-utilizing capability of ACE2s of 20 animals by the two viruses and found that SARS-CoV-2 utilized less ACE2s than SARS-CoV, indicating a narrower host range of SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, pangolin CoV, another SARS-related coronavirus highly homologous to SARS-CoV-2 in its genome, yet showed similar ACE2 utilization profile with SARS-CoV rather than SARS-CoV-2. To clarify the mechanism underlying the receptor utilization, we compared the amino acid sequences of the 20 ACE2s and found 5 amino acid residues potentially critical for ACE2 utilization, including the N-terminal 20th and 42nd amino acids that may determine the different receptor utilization of SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and pangolin CoV. Our studies promote the understanding of receptor utilization of pandemic coronaviruses, potentially contributing to the virus tracing, intermediate host screening and epidemic prevention for pathogenic coronaviruses.


This paper presents results of extensive analysis of mode excitation observed during the operation of the Alfvén Eigenmode Active Diagnostic (AEAD) in the JET tokamak during the 2019-2020 deuterium campaign. Six of eight toroidally spaced antennas, each with independent power and phasing, were successful in actively exciting stable MHD modes in 479 plasmas. In total, magnetic resonances were detected with up to fourteen fast magnetic probes. In this work, we present the calculations of resonant frequencies f 0, damping rates γ < 0, and toroidal mode numbers n, spanning the parameter ranges f 0≈ 30–250 kHz, −γ ≈ 0–13 kHz, and |n|≤30 . In general, good agreement is seen between the resonant and the calculated toroidal Alfvén Eigenmode frequencies, and between the toroidal mode numbers applied by the AEAD and estimated of the excited resonances. We note several trends in the database: the probability of resonance detection decreases with plasma current and external heating power; the normalized damping rate increases with edge safety factor but decreases with external heating. These results provide key information to prepare future experimental campaigns and to better understand the physics of excitation and damping of Alfvén Eigenmodes in the presence of alpha particles during the upcoming DT campaign, thereby extrapolating with confidence to future tokamaks.


A system for the measurement of ultrasound velocity in liquids was automated to cope with variations in temperature and pressure . The following problems had to be solved: supervision and monitoring of the achievement of the required pressure and temperature, creation and reception of the signal, acquisition of the measurement points, identification of the signal received on the basis of the characteristics of a reference signal, measurement of ultrasound travel times, memorization and processing of the results. The system enables substantial savings of time compared with manual methods. The system calibration procedure is also described. Measurements of octane and pentane (which had been studied previously) are used to verify the validity of the system developed and to determine its degree of accuracy (absolute average deviation from literature data 0.1% and maximum deviation from literature data 0.25%).


In the spring of 2011, the UK's Digital Curation Centre (DCC) commenced a programme of outreach designed to assist individual universities in their development of aptitude for managing research data. This paper describes the approaches taken, covering the context in which these institutional engagements have been discharged and examining the aims, methodology and processes employed. It also explores what has worked and why, as well as the pitfalls encountered, including example outcomes and identifiable or predicted impact. Observing how the research data landscape is constantly undergoing change, the paper concludes with an indication of the steps being taken to refit the DCC institutional engagement to the evolving needs of higher education.


Purpose

This paper argues that there is an absence of halal integrity within the conventional stages of a food chain. This paper adapts the understanding of the different stages and argues the need to develop a critical consciousness for halal integrity within the food chain to address the needs of the ever-growing Muslim consumers' market. The purpose of this paper is to propose a definition of halal integrity using farm to fork and global food supply chain models.

Design/methodology/approach

The study includes a review of priori literature and media reports regarding cross-contamination of food products with haram (forbidden) components. This background will be used to conceptualise halal integrity using farm to fork and global supply chain models.

Findings

Different interpretations of halal – what is permitted and what is prohibited – exist for the different schools of Islamic legal thought and within the customs of different countries. In order to ensure that food production is embracive of the religious needs of the global Muslim customer market, this paper utilises the farm to fork and global supply chain models to foster a critical awareness of halal needs. Halal integrity should be clearly presenting the details of the halal status of the product and assuring that the requirements for halal as stated are met. Halal integrity not only deals with permitted and prohibited foods, but that the halal status of the food products (i.e. from raw materials until it reaches the consumers) should not be breached (i.e. no cross-contamination with haram products/methods and no ill intents). A formal definition of halal integrity has been proposed.

Research limitations/implications

The SWOT analyses serve as a guideline as the analysis done may be outdated as the environments are constantly changing.

Originality/value

This research although academic is meant to have a real value in improving the integrity of the halal food supply chain, providing value to the food industry, to countries that are concerned about this supply chain and to Muslim consumers. Halal integrity is crucial to the success of the emerging halal market.


This paper describes an ongoing prototypical framework to annotate and retrieve web videos with light semantics. The proposed framework reuses many existing vocabularies along with a video model. The knowledge is captured from three different information spaces (media content, context, document). We also describe ways to extract the semantic content descriptions from the existing usergenerated content using multiple approaches of linguistic processing and Named Entity Recognition, which are later identified with DBpedia resources to establish meanings for the tags. Finally, the implemented prototype is described with multiple search interfaces and retrieval processes. Evaluation on semantic enrichment shows a considerable (50% of videos) improvement in content description.


Scattering theory is studied for small solutions of nonlinear Klein-Gordon equations in a wider Hilbert space Σ*. The nonlinearities are power-type, the order of which is less than the conformal index but more than the Strauss index. The solutions are continuous on R to Σ* and the Σ*-norm tends to zero as t →±∞. The scattering operator acts on space-time functions.


Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are expected to play an essential role for our society in the near future. In this paper, we propose a data adaptive transmission mechanism, DAT in short, for clustering-based wireless sensor networks. Sensor nodes do not always have data to send all the time. The data obtained at a time by the sensor nodes are expected to be transmitted as a whole to the cluster-head as soon as possible. The sensor nodes will send request message to cluster-head for data transmission slots to transmit its data. The cluster-head assign appropriate slots adaptively to the sensor nodes according to current requests of all the cluster members. Then, the nodes transmit their data during their allocated transmission slot. At last, the cluster-head aggregate the data received from sensor nodes and send the effective information to the base station. Simulation experiments show that the DAT mechanism outperforms other clustering-based protocols in wireless sensor networks.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Background: Continued tobacco use during cancer treatment has been associated with poor outcome. Nicotine replacement is currently used as a standard of care for smoking cessation in cancer patients; however, prior data demonstrates that nicotine can promote tumor growth and decrease the effectiveness of cancer treatment in vitro.

Methods: Athymic nude mice with human H460 lung cancer cell xenografts were stratified into three Groups beginning when tumors reached 5 mm in maximal dimension: control (CON), short term nicotine (STN, 60 ug subcutaneously every other day x 6 days), or long term nicotine (LTN, 60 ug SC every other day until tumor endpoint). Within each Group, mice were further stratified into three Treatments consisting of saline (SAL), radiotherapy (RT, 3 Gy daily x 5 days), or chemoradiotherapy (CRT, RT + concurrent cisplatin intraperitoneally 3 mg/kg daily x 5 days). Tumor volumes were measured and compared between Treatments and Groups (n=10 per Treatment within each Group). This protocol was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Kentucky.

Results: In CON animals, RT (199 uL at day 30) or CRT (100 uL at day 30) significantly prevented tumor regrowth as compared with control SAL animals (864 uL at day 10 requiring euthanasia as per protocol). As expected, CRT was more effective than RT (p<0.05). Nicotine administration alone (STN or LTN) had no effect on tumor growth rate as compared with CON. In contrast, administration of LTN significantly increased tumor regrowth in RT animals (356 uL at day 30, p<0.05) and CRT treated animals (170 uL ad day 30, p<0.05). To eliminate the effects of nicotine on proliferation following completion of RT or CRT, animals were treated with STN. Administration of STN also significantly increased tumor regrowth in RT animals (328 uL at day 30, p<0.05) and CRT animals (176 uL at day 30, p<0.05) with virtually identical regrowth curves as demonstrated for LTN animals.

Conclusions: Results demonstrate that nicotine significantly reduces the efficacy of RT and CRT in vivo. Moreover, data suggest that nicotine use during treatment is the primary determinant of decreased therapeutic response. These results may significantly alter current recommendations for smoking cessation in cancer treatment populations.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1408.


It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the design of a stabilizer via sampling the speed and voltage feedback in order to improve the oscillations of generators in Siahbisheh pumped-storage power plant in Iran. An overall PSS is utilized for all of the generators and its output is connected separately to the generators excitation systems. Moreover, a terminal voltage feedback is employed for damping oscillations. Comparing the simulation results shows a considerable improvement in the oscillations of the rotor speed, generator power, and terminal voltage. The proposed method is feasible and cost effective.


Neutrino physics, and in particular the question of neutrino mass and oscillations, is currently one of the primary fields of interest in particle physics. This review mainly focuses on how experiments using neutrino beams from accelerators have contributed to the current knowledge over the last few years, and how they will contribute in the future. It also sets these results in the context of results obtained from non-accelerator neutrino sources. Classical measurements within the Standard Model framework are summarized, and potential extensions of the Standard Model are discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of neutrino oscillations, its current status, and how new experiments can yield decisive insights into the many open questions in this field.


We investigate properties of Galactic microlensing events in which a stellar object is lensed by a neutron star. For an all-sky photometric microlensing survey, we determine the number of lensing events caused by ∼ 10 5 ?> potentially observable radio pulsars to be ∼ 0.2 yr − 1 ?> for 1010 background stellar sources. We expect a few detectable events per year for the same number of background sources from an astrometric microlensing survey. We show that such a study could lead to precise measurements of radio pulsar masses. For instance, if a pulsar distance could be constrained through radio observations, then its mass would be determined with a precision of ∼ 10 % ?> . We also investigate the timescale distributions for neutron star events, finding that they are much shorter than had been previously thought. For photometric events toward the Galactic center that last ∼15 days, around 7% will have a neutron star lens. This fraction drops rapidly for longer timescales. Away from the bulge region we find that neutron stars will contribute ∼ 40 % ?> of the events that last less than ∼10 days. These results are in contrast to earlier work which found that the maximum fraction of neutron star events would occur on timescales of hundreds of days.


Boarding is one of the major processes of airplane turnaround time, with a direct influence on the airline companies' costs. From a sustainable point of view, a faster completion of the boarding process has impact not only on the airline company's long-term performance, but also on customers' satisfaction and on the airport's possibility of offering more services without additional investments in new infrastructure. Considering the airplane boarding strategies literature, it can be observed that the latest papers are dealing with developing faster boarding strategies, most of them considering boarding using just one-door of the aircraft. Even though boarding on one-door might be feasible for the airports having the needed infrastructure and sufficient jet-bridges, the situation is different in European airports, as the use of apron buses is fairly common. Moreover, some of the airline companies have adapted their boarding pass in order to reflect which door one should board once they get down from the bus. While using these buses, the boarding strategies developed in the literature are hard to find their applicability. Thus, a new method for boarding on two-door airplanes when apron buses are used is proposed and tested against the actual boarding method. A model is created in NetLogo 6.0.4, taking advantages of the agent-based modeling and used for simulations. The results show a boarding time reduction of 8.91%.


RIAO conferences, all of which have had printed proceedings, have the special feature of incorporating both scientific papers and innovative product demonstrations. Both the product demonstrations and the scientific papers (which are often accompanied by prototype system demonstrations) are subject to a rigorous selection process. While commercial displays, as such, are not promulgated, the mix of scientific expertise and state-of-the-art industrial development lends itself to a critical examination o f both with the potential for advances in product development and sponsorship as well as the initiation o f lines for further, critical research investigations.


Three species of resident Gyps vulture are threatened with extinction in South Asia due to the contamination of domestic ungulate carcasses with the drug diclofenac. Observed rates of population decrease are among the highest recorded for any bird species, leading to total declines in excess of 99.9% for the Oriental White-backed Vulture Gyps bengalensis in India between 1992 and 2007. Vultures have declined in Nepal, but quantitative information on the rate and scale of decreases is unavailable. Road transect surveys for vultures, following the same route, methodology and timing, were undertaken in lowland areas of Nepal for seven years from 2002 to 2011. The seven survey transects followed Nepal's East-West highway and covered 1,010 km in three years of the survey, and 638 km in the remaining four years. Slender-billed Vultures G. tenuirostris were very scarce, with a maximum of five individuals in 2002 and none recorded in 2010 and 2011. Oriental White-backed Vultures were most commonly recorded, but decreased from 205 to 68 birds over the survey period, with an estimated annual rate of decline of 14% a year. If population decreases commenced in Nepal in the same year as in India, then White-backed Vultures in Nepal have declined by 91% since the mid-1990s. Few resident Gyps vultures remained in Eastern and Central regions of Nepal, with just one, nine and six birds recorded in the three surveys that covered these regions. The majority of threatened Gyps vultures in lowland Nepal are now found in Western and Mid Western regions, where conservation efforts have been focused in the last six years. Removing veterinary diclofenac from across the country and continuing to manage effective "vulture safe zones" are essential to conserve Nepal's remaining vulture populations.


We address the common rate maximization problem in two-layer cellular networks where high-power and low-power base stations are colocated in the same geographical area. Interference becomes a serious problem when two or more layers are considered in the same network. For this purpose, power control in the downlink needs to be used to limit the interference and to fully exploit the benefits of additional layer deployments. We present an analytical framework to the common rate maximization problem both with and without maximum power constraints and propose a heuristic algorithm. We present simulation results for the proposed approaches in a two-layer network setup and observe a significant common rate increase compared to single-layer wireless networks.


Due to a high Raman threshold and serious thermal effect, a challenge is to achieve efficient continuous-wave (CW) operation of a crystalline Raman laser at 1.5 µm. Based on effective thermal management and the self-Raman effect, we demonstrate, to our knowledge, the first efficient CW operation of a Nd:YVO4 Raman laser at 1.5 µm. We achieve 685 mW of CW eye-safe emission at 1524.5 nm by the use of a 20-mm-long composite Nd:YVO4 and 300-µm pump beam radius, with a diode-to-Stokes conversion efficiency of 4.8%. Lasers operating at ∼1.5µm have found many important applications in various areas such as optical communication, laser radar, laser ranging, remote sensing, and spectral research.


Abstract  The promyelocytic leukemia (PML) gene encoded PML protein as a tumor suppressor protein, plays important roles in the occurrence and development of various cancers including acute promyelocytic leukemia. Recent studies have indicated that there are a variety of post-translational modifications of the PML protein, such as SUMOylation, ubiquitination, phosphorylation, and acetylation in cells. These modifications of the PML protein can directly affect the formation of PML nuclear bodies (PML-NBs), repair DNA damage, and modulate cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the abnormal modifications of PML not only result in the occurrence of hematopoietic tumors, but also are closely related to the drug-resistance of cancer. Therefore, investigating the post-translational modifications of PML is significant to uncover the mechanism of formation and functions of PML-NBs, thus contributing to the prevention and treatment of related hematopoietic tumors. In this review, the characteristics of the post-translational modifications of PML protein and the relationship between these modifications and functions of PML-NBs are summarized so as to provide the potential targets for the treatment of related cancers.


A tripodal ligand constructed solely from mesoionic carbene donors is reported. The donor strength of this ligand is lower than most imidazol-2-ylidene-based tris(carbene)borate ligands, as measured by IR spectroscopy of {NiNO}(10) and {Mn(CO)3}(+) derivatives. The attenuated donor strength is proposed to be due to the collective electron-withdrawing effect of the ligand's aryl substituents.


Against a background of increasing demand for radiotherapy equipment, this study was undertaken to investigate options for equipment procurement, in particular to compare purchase with lease. The perceived advantages of lease are that equipment can be acquired within budget and cashflow constraints, with relatively low amounts of cash leaving the NHS in the first year, avoiding the necessity of capitalizing the equipment and providing protection against the risk of obsolescence associated with high technology equipment. The perceived disadvantages of leasing are that the Trust does not own the equipment, leasing can be more expensive in revenue terms, the tender process is extended and there may be lease conditions to be met, which may be costly and/or restrictive. There are also a number of technical considerations involved in the leasing of radiotherapy equipment that influence the financial analysis and practical operation of the radiotherapy service. The technical considerations include servicing and planned preventative maintenance, upgrades, spare parts, subsequent purchase of "add ons", modification of equipment, research and development work, commencement of the lease period, return of equipment at the end of the lease period and negotiations at the end of the lease period. A study from Raigmore Hospital, Inverness is described, which involves the procurement of new, state-of-the-art radiotherapy equipment. This provides an overview of the procurement process, including a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of leasing, with the figures from the financial analysis presented and explained. In addition, a detailed description is given of the technical considerations to be taken into account in the financial analysis and negotiation of any lease contract.