Over the last decade numerous active queue management (AQM) schemes have been proposed in the literature. Many of these studies have been directed towards improving congestion control in best-effort networks. However, there has been a notable lack of standardised performance evaluation of AQM schemes. A rigorous study of the influence of parameterisation on specific schemes and the establishment of common comparison criteria is essential for objective evaluation of the different approaches. A framework for the detailed evaluation of AQM schemes is described in this paper. This provides a deceptively simple user interface whilst maximally exploiting relevant features of the NS2 simulator. Traffic models and network topologies are carefully chosen to characterise the target simulation environment. The credibility of the results obtained is enhanced by vigilant treatment of the simulation data. The impact of AQM schemes on global network performance is assessed using five carefully selected metrics. Thus, a comprehensive evaluation of AQM schemes may be achieved using the proposed framework.


Abstract The aim was to investigate the long-term outcome after corrective osteotomy for malunion of distal radius fractures. Radiological findings, function, activity performance, pain, health-related quality of life and self-efficacy were studied. Evaluation of 37 patients 3–10 years after osteotomy fixated with a volar plate. Conventional radiographs were taken. Grip strength and range of motion were evaluated. Scores from the Patient Rated Wrist Evaluation (PRWE) were compared with normative values. The RAND-36 was used for evaluation of health-related quality of life and the General Self-Efficacy scale (S-GSE) for self-efficacy. Radial height, volar tilt, and ulnar variance improved postoperatively. In the long term, the corrections were maintained. Radiographs showed significantly more advanced osteoarthritis. Mean grip strength was 31 kg (SD 13) 89%, and range of motion varied between 80% and 95% compared to the uninjured side. The median PRWE was 12 points (0–99). The study group experienced higher levels of pain than reference values. There was a moderate correlation between the PRWE and volar tilt (rs = 0.453, p = .006) and grip strength (rs = 0.40, p = .014). At long-term follow-up functional outcome after a corrective osteotomy is generally good, but patients may experience some degree of pain. Corrective osteotomy might be considered for patients with a poor functional outcome after a distal radius fracture.


Water quality in the Waikato Region is highly variable, despite ongoing efforts from farmers, iwi, industry, local government and other stakeholders in the region. Intensive farming is a major contributor to areas of poor water quality. Levels of nitrogen in the region's waterways have been rising slowly but steadily over the last 20 years. Nitrogen in groundwater can take decades to emerge into surface water. Hence, this indicator of water quality will worsen before it improves. Levels of micro-organisms are moderate to high, but stable. Sediment levels are high in places, and phosphorus levels vary. Menus of good practice to improve water quality arose from direct requests by farmers and have been developed by collaborative effort between the Waikato Regional Council, research and industry bodies. They provide farmers and consultants with a decision support tool that is both scientifically rigorous, and flexible enough to meet the needs of individual farmers' circumstances by providing an objective assessment of the relative benefits of a range of practices for their mitigation of nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and bacterial discharges from farms. The procedures can also be used as a contribution to the review of the current Regional Plan.


Recombinant factor VIIa has been licensed in the United Kingdom since 1996 for the control of bleeding in hemophilic patients who are actively bleeding or are about to undergo surgery. Medical practitioners are also applying recombinant factor VIIa toward the control of bleeding in patients without hemophilia. Although the efficacy of recombinant factor VIIa has been shown in many patients, concerns have arisen about the risk of thrombotic adverse events. Herein, we report the case of a 73-year-old woman who underwent major coronary surgery and developed fatal systemic venous thrombosis after recombinant factor VIIa was used in an attempt to control her severe postoperative bleeding. We review the medical literature and discuss the risks of using recombinant factor VIIa to control severe bleeding after cardiac surgery.


Possible chemopreventive mechanisms include carcinogen-blocking activities, antioxidant/anti-inflammatory activities and antiproliferation/antiprogression activities. Carcinogen-blocking activities encompass inhibition of carcinogen uptake, inhibition of carcinogen formation or activation, deactivation or detoxification of carcinogens, prevention of carcinogen binding to DNA, and enhancement of the level or fidelity of DNA repair. Antioxidant/anti-inflammatory activities include scavenging of reactive electrophiles and oxygen radicals, and inhibition of arachidonic acid metabolism. Antiproliferation/antiprogression activities comprise modulation of signal transduction, modulation of hormonal and growth factor activity, inhibition of aberrant oncogene activity, inhibition of polyamine metabolism, induction of terminal differentiation, restoration of immune responses, enhancement of intercellular communication, restoration of tumour suppressor function, induction of apoptosis, telomerase inhibition, correction of DNA methylation imbalances, inhibition of angiogenesis, inhibition of basement membrane degradation, and activation of antimetastasis genes. In evaluating the potential efficacy of chemopreventive agents several mechanistic parameters are weighed: (1) the number of chemoprevention-related pharmacological activities, (2) the impact of the agent on likely carcinogenesis pathways to the targeted cancer, (3) pharmacodynamics, and (4) specificity for chemopreventive activity compared with interference with normal cellular function. Mechanistic data are important throughout the development process for chemopreventive drugs, and they are particularly important in the earlier phases of identifying promising candidate agents and characterizing efficacy. In vitro mechanistic assays are a first step in evaluating chemopreventive potential. Mechanistic considerations are also useful in defining animal efficacy models and in interpreting the results of assays in these models. Mechanistic data are also applied in designing short-term Phase II clinical chemoprevention trials that use reductions in intermediate biomarkers of cancer rather than cancer incidence as end points. The basis for identifying and evaluating these biomarkers is in understanding carcinogenesis and chemopreventive mechanisms.


We study the stock and audit market effects associated with a widely publicized accounting scandal involving a public company (ComROAD AG) and a large, reputable audit firm (KPMG) in a country (Germany) that has long provided auditors with substantial protection from shareholder legal liability. We use this event to study whether an auditor's reputation helps to ensure audit quality, a rationale for which recent literature and events provide scant support. Given the absence of a strong insurance rationale for audit quality, Germany permits a relatively clean test of whether auditor reputation matters. We find that KPMG's clients sustain negative abnormal returns of 3% at events pertaining to ComROAD, and that these returns are more negative for companies that are likely to have higher demands for audit quality. We also find an increase in the number of clients that drop KPMG in the year of the ComROAD scandal (mostly smaller, recently public companies that are similar to ComROAD). Overall, our results provide support for the reputation rationale for audit quality.


Twentieth century Japan has experienced a scale and pace of urbanization that is remarkable not only in Asia but also in the modern world. In the brief span of fifty years that separated the 1920s from the 1970s Japan was transformed from a society of rural agriculturalists, which comprised more than 80 percent of the Japanese population in 1920, to an urban industrial society in which more than 80 percent of her population now lives in cities. This book represents the first systematic attempt to inquire into the nature and effects of the urbanization process in a small Japanese city, Kariya, over the century from 1872 to 1972. The results include some important new insights into the relationship of industrial expansion to Japanese urban growth and the peculiar manner in which Japanese cultural and political forces attempted to deal with the rapidly changing urban environment. The author traces the development of Kariya from a small, rustic feudal castletown in the early Meiji period to a dynamic, industrial city of ninety thousand which now serves as a center for several major firms in the Toyota complex. The historical focus concentrates


The process of altering the shape of cartilage using heat has been referred to as thermoforming, and presents certain clinical benefits in reconstructive surgical procedures within the head and neck. Thermoforming allows cartilage in the upper airway and face to be reshaped without the use of classic surgical maneuvers such as carving, morselizing, or suturing. The goal of this study was to determine the dependence of cartilage shape change on both temperature and laser dosimetry using two thermoforming methods: saline bath immersion and laser irradiation.


Six children under 3 months of age have been brought to me by mothers who had used "antiseptic baby oil" on the children's faces since discharge from the maternity ward. The torso and limbs had been bathed in soap and water; the face had been cleaned with nothing but the oil. The infants showed a patchy, erythematovesicular dermatitis, with occasional papules, which was obviously itching; the dermatitis was limited almost entirely to the cheeks and forehead. Omission of the "antiseptic baby oil" and application of bland ointments resulted in complete disappearance of the lesions within a few days. A patch test was carried out by applying small bandages soaked in "antiseptic baby oil", bandages soaked in olive oil and liquid petrolatum serving as controls. The bandages were left in situ for forty-eight hours; on removal the area in contact with the "antiseptic baby oil" showed an erythematous and vesicular lesion,


Abstract : In most classical frameworks for learning from examples, it is assumed that examples are randomly drawn and presented to the learner. In this paper, we consider the possibility of a more (it active) learner who is allowed to choose his/her own examples. Our investigations are carried out in a function approximation setting. In particular, using arguments from optimal recovery, we develop an adaptive sampling strategy (equivalent to adaptive approximation) for arbitrary approximation schemes. We provide a general formulation of the problem and show how it can be regarded as sequential optimal recovery. We demonstrate the application of this general formulation to two special cases of functions on the real line monotonically increasing functions and functions with bounded derivative. An extensive investigation of the sample complexity of approximating these functions is conducted yielding both theoretical and empirical results on test functions. Our theoretical results (stated in PAC-style), along with the simulations demonstrate the superiority of our active scheme over both passive learning as well as classical optimal recovery. The analysis of active function approximation is conducted in a worst-case setting, in contrast with other Bayesian paradigms obtained from optimal design. (AN)


We present a setup for temperature-dependent spectral generalized magneto-optical ellipsometry (SGME). This technique gives access to the electronic as well as the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials within one single magneto-optical measurement. It also allows the determination of the orientation of the magnetization. We show spectra of the real and the imaginary part of the refractive index N as well as the magneto-optical coupling parameter Q of permalloy and iron films for in-plane magnetization. Our findings demonstrate the relevance of SGME for the understanding of the interplay between electronic and magnetic properties of ferromagnetics.


When contemplating future trips to the Moon whose gravity is one sixth of Earth gravity, the question is to know what the adaptive changes in the lower limb venous system would be. In fact, one can suppose that the presence of a partial gravity on the Moon would be able to attenuate venous hemodynamics adaptative changes observed in microgravity. In the present experiment changes in the venous hemodynamics of lower limbs have been studied with mercury strain gauge plethysmography during a simulated Moon mission including a 4 day trip to the Moon (-6 degrees bedrest), a stay of 6 days on the Moon (+11 degrees bedrest), and a 4-day trip back to Earth (-6 degrees bedrest). It was previously demonstrated that +11 degrees bedrest was a good model to simulate the effects of lunar gravity on the cardiovascular system (Vernikos-Danellis J 1986, personnal communication).


In recent years, demands of three dimensional (3D) displays have increased due to its attractive application. Nowadays, Integral Imaging (II) is one of the most promising and fascinating research topic since it can fulfill all requirements of a true 3D display. In this thesis, different algorithms of elemental image generation for 3D integral imaging display systems is studied and analyzed. Integral imaging is an attractive autostereoscopic 3D display techniques that produces full color, full parallax, continues true 3D images without any eyeglass or supplementary devices. Despite tremendous benefits it has some drawbacks like-insufficient resolution, small viewing angle, shallow image depth. A numerous researches have been conducted to solve the problems. Elemental image generation algorithms play an important role for integral imaging 3D display systems. We studied and analyzed several elemental image generation algorithms to identify and suggest the effective algorithm for efficient 3D integral imaging display systems. The experimental data for the analysis are presented in this thesis. 2 At first, we studied about direct pickup method of integral imaging 3D display system. In this method, the object information are captured through a array of small lenses called elemental lenses and each lens produce an elemental image by tracing the ray emanating from the object specific lenslet of the lens array. As a result, an array of elemental images can be directly captured by a CCD camera. This method causes noise with the captured elemental image. Secondly, we studied computer generated elemental image (CGEI) method which allows to reduce the noises that causes in direct pickup method. Several algorithms for CGEI method have been studied and analyzed. CGEI method can only generate elemental images from synthesized 3D object points from a 2D image which are not real depths of a 3D object. Thirdly, we studied about elemental image generation method using real depth and color information of a real object which can overcome the limitation of CGEI method. Hence, viewing angle is a problem of this method. Lastly, we studied the Directional Elemental Image Generation and Resizing (DEIGR) algorithm and multi-directional projection schemes that could be a breakthrough of integral image display.


Abstract By the end of the twentieth century, a scholarly consensus emerged around the idea that oil fuels authoritarianism and slow growth. The natural abundance once thought to be a blessing was unconditionally, and then later only conditionally, a curse for political and economic development. We re-examine the relationship between oil wealth and political regimes, challenging the conventional wisdom that such natural resource rents lead to authoritarian outcomes. We contend that most efforts to examine the causal linkages between natural resource abundance and political regime have been complicated by the likelihood that both democracy and oil revenue are endogenous to the industrialization processes itself, particularly in its developmentalist form. Our quantitative results, based on an analysis of global data from 1970 to 2006, show that both resource endogeneity and several mechanisms of intraregional regime diffusion are powerful determinants of democratic outcomes. Qualitative evidence from the history of industrialization in Latin America yields support for our proposed causal claim. Oil wealth is not necessarily a curse and may even be a blessing with respect to democratic development.


This paper investigates the kinematics and stiffness of an isotropic three-legged manipulator having six degrees of freedom. Rotary motors at the base rotate the tool by using the extensible legs as drive shafts. The manipulator has the positional stiffness of a parallel manipulator and the rotational stiffness of a serial manipulator. Low inertia results from having only three legs and having three motors fixed at the base. The inverse kinematics are obtained in closed form. Singularities are characterized for the case of concentric u-joints at the tool. These singularities yield the constraint singularities of a related 3-universal-prismatic-universal translational manipulator.


Purpose To evaluate the long-term safety of dexamethasone intravitreal implant (DEX) in patients treated for macular edema associated with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) or noninfectious posterior segment uveitis (NIPSU) in clinical practice. Patients and methods Multicenter (102 sites in France, Germany, Spain, UK), prospective, observational, post-authorization safety study in adult patients treated with DEX. Data collected up to 2 years after enrollment included serious adverse events (SAEs) and adverse events of special interest (AESIs; adverse drug reactions that are considered important risks associated with DEX and listed in the European Union Ozurdex Risk Management Plan). Results Overall, 803 patients (652 RVO, 151 NIPSU) received on-study DEX treatment, and 73.1% completed 24 months of follow-up; 72.6% were DEX-naïve. Median number of on-study injections per treated eye was 2 (range, 1–7); median reinjection interval was 27.1 weeks. Nonocular SAEs affected 9.5% of patients; none were considered DEX-related. Ocular SAEs (most common: cataract progression) occurred in 3.2% of treated eyes. SAEs were similar in eyes stratified by previous DEX use and number of on-study DEX injections (≤2 or >2), in both RVO and NIPSU. The most common AESIs were cataract formation and progression (20.0% and 19.2% of treated phakic eyes, n=551), increased intraocular pressure (19.0% of treated eyes), and vitreous hemorrhage (3.3% of treated eyes). Cataract progression was more frequent in baseline phakic eyes that were previously treated with DEX or received >2 on-study DEX injections. Conclusion The long-term safety profile of DEX was acceptable. No new safety concerns were identified.


We present the compilation of published and unpublished records of continental copepods of Colombia, as well as personal observations by the authors, yielding an additional list of 52 species and subspecies (7 calanoids, 20 cyclopoids, 25 harpacticoids). In addition to our former inventory (2007) of 69 species, the total number now reaches 121 taxa, increasing by 75 % the known number of continental copepods. Freshwater taxa increased in 15 species and subspecies. The number of brackish species (and marine species collected in brackish environments), recorded from coastal lagoons and temporal offshore ponds reached 39 species and subspecies. Thirteen taxa with locus typicus in Colombia have been described since 2007. Between 2007 and 2018, thirty-nine departmental records were made, and 43 new habitat records were reported (not including the species recorded as new for the country). Parasitic copepods of fish reached six species. However, the number of species is expected to increase with the survey of poorly studied regions like the Amazon and the Eastern Plains, and habitats like groundwater, benthos of lakes and ponds, semiterrestrial environments and additional coastal lagoons.


This article discusses issues surrounding the move towards electronic delivery of journals within the UK. Ayris looks at the problems faced by academics, libraries and institutions as a whole and examines the need for anational electronic archive in the UK. Current development towards new models of electronic provision are highlighted, and future options suggested.


Climate science and climate policy have been tightly linked for more than two decades. Science is supposed to provide the factual basis for action on climate, and a single policy approach to dealing with climate (through the UN Framework Convention process) has been dominant throughout this period. As a result, debates about climate policy and debates about climate science are impossible to disaggregate, and opposition to the prevailing international climate regime is often expressed as distrust of the science. Until new policy options are available that can enfranchise more diverse political constituencies, climate science will continue to exist as a largely political phenomenon. WIREs Clim Change 2011 2 475–481 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.126


: Research on how diet and health labels (including advertising) influence taste or satiation shows mixed findings that are study-specific and difficult to generalize. We offer a potential explanation to these inconsistencies. Results from a controlled cafeteria study suggest that health and diet labels might improve the perceived taste of less healthy, hedonic foods (such as desserts and possibly snack foods) without influencing the taste of more healthy utilitarian foods (such as entrees or possibly yogurt and soy foods). These findings have immediate implications for reinterpreting past research findings that may have gone unnoticed because they appeared inconsistent with conventional thinking.


Simulation of a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm prior to implementation is useful in avoiding unnecessary prototyping, fabricating and testing costs. Also upon implementation of the actual hardware system, performance monitoring and recording of the system behavior is of importance. The data manipulated above is useful in energy management and saving applications. To full fill the above requirements and to demonstrate it, a system hardware and software is designed in the research. The proposed user-software provides a gateway to real time monitoring of a prototype MPPT converter performance. Additionally, through the proposed user software, obtaining datasets to model a solar cell of interest for more accurate simulation on a given algorithm is made possible. Also it is demonstrated that the software and the prototype system together help monitoring and validating the performance of a solar panel based system.


BACKGROUND
There is paucity of information on the use of dietary peptides in laying hens and its effects on egg production and quality. In the current study, peptide from enzymatic hydrolysis of soybean protein was incorporated into laying hens' diets to investigate its effect on egg production and internal egg quality.

RESULTS
There were no treatment effects on egg production (average hen day production was 96%) during the experiment. Final body weight of the hens increased quadratically (P < 0.05) in response to peptide supplementation. There were no significant effects of peptide supplementation on internal egg quality of the fresh eggs. Peptide supplementation tended to increase yolk colour (P < 0.10) in eggs collected at 4 weeks of the study and stored at room temperature for 14 days. For the eggs collected at 8 weeks of the experiment and stored at room temperature for 14 days, peptide supplementation linearly increased (P < 0.05) albumen height, Haugh unit and yolk index but linearly decreased (P < 0.01) yolk width.

CONCLUSION
Peptide supplementation to laying hens at peak production, receiving diets meeting their nutrient requirement, did not improve hen production but positively helped to maintain hens' body weight and egg quality during storage. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.


Syphilis is not necessarily a venereal disease. Syphilis is one of the great diseases affecting the human race, and if its entire clinical history could be perfectly known, for ages past, it would be recognized that this one poison had caused greater damage and misery and more decided race degeneration than any other one malady, except tuberculosis. And yet, thus far, except in a few isolated localities, there has been no general and intelligent attempt to restrict its ravages. The common occurrence of syphilis as a result of unlawful sexual intercourse, and its inclusion among venereal diseases in so many text-books of late years, are undoubtedly the cause of much of the feeling existing in regard to it as a disease not to be mentioned in good society, and one whose recognition should be tabooed. It has been ignored through ignorance and neglected through negligence. In studying the older


Graph data mining algorithms rely on graph canonical forms to compare different graph structures. These canonical form definitions depend on node and edge labels. In this paper, we introduce a unique canonical visual matrix representation that only depends on a graph's topological information, so that two structurally identical graphs will have exactly the same visual adjacency matrix representation. In this canonical matrix, nodes are ordered based on a Breadth-First Search spanning tree. Special rules and filters are designed to guarantee the uniqueness of an arrangement. Such a unique matrix representation provides persistence and a stability which can be used and harnessed in visualization, especially for data exploration and studies.


The new type of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has affected more than 22.6 million people worldwide. Since the first day the virus was spotted in Wuhan, China, numerous drug design studies have been conducted all over the globe. Most of these studies target the receptor-binding domain of spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which is known to bind to the human ACE2 receptor and SARS-CoV-2 main protease, vital for the virus' replication. However, there might be a third target, human furin protease, which cleaves the virus' S1-S2 domains playing an active role in its entry into the host cell. In this study, we docked five clinically used drug molecules, favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, lopinavir, and ritonavir onto three target proteins, the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, SARS-CoV-2 main protease, and human furin protease. Results of molecular docking simulations revealed that human furin protease might be targeted by COVID-19. Remdesivir, a nucleic acid derivative, strongly bound to the active site of this protease, suggesting that this molecule can be used as a template for designing novel furin protease inhibitors to fight against the disease. Protein-drug interactions revealed in this study at the molecular level, can pave the way for better drug design for each specific target.


This work presents a MIMO throughput performance analysis of dynamic wideband double-directional channel measurements that were recently obtained by the University of Bristol. Identical 16-element uniform circular arrays (UCAs) were employed at both ends of the link and the parameters of the multipath components (MFCs) were extracted. In this paper, the performance analyses of several 4/spl times/4 subarrays of the 16/spl times/16 measurement arrays are presented. The MIMO response of these channels was synthesised from the extracted MFCs. A comparison is then made between the capacity estimates from the directly measured and synthesised MIMO channels. This was found to show good agreement.


Emergency services managers learn from practice yet practice is an expensive and sometimes a dangerous teacher. The case study method allows for a vicarious experience and reflection on practice and has use as a management teaching and research method. As such it should feature early and often in emergency services management education and in related training and development for practitioners in


Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has emerged as a promising technique for both quantitative and qualitative analysis of elements in a wide variety of samples. However, conventional LIBS suffers from a high limit of detection (LoD) compared with other analytical techniques. This review briefly discusses several methods that demonstrate the applicability and prospects for trace element detection while lowering the LoD when coupled with LIBS. This review compares the enhancement mechanisms, advantages, and limitations of these techniques. Finally, the recent development and application of LIBS coupled techniques for trace element detection are also discussed for various samples such as metal alloys, biomaterials, rare earth elements, explosives, drinking water, and water bodies.


Closures of care homes have received considerable public attention. Fee levels and the cost of upgrading homes to meet the national minimum standards have been identified as the main factors influencing closures. The present paper compares private residential homes, dual-registered homes and nursing homes for older people which have closed between 1996 and 2001 with homes which have remained open. Homes which closed tended to be: smaller; to have had lower occupancy levels in 1996; to be the only home run by the organisation; to occupy converted buildings; to occupy multi-storey buildings, and if so, to have no lift; to have more shared bedrooms; and to have en suite facilities in none or only some of the bedrooms. These factors were interrelated and the effect of these variables in combination was examined using multivariate (logistic regression) analysis. Among the homes which remained open, only 34% provided at least 80% of places in single rooms, which was to have become the national minimum standard for existing homes until the standards were amended in March 2003. A separate analysis of data on social climate found that the homes with a more positive social environment were those most likely to have closed. The findings support the view that there is likely to be an increase in the importance of homes run by corporate providers relative to homes run as single, owner-managed homes, with a consequent reduction in choice for potential residents. At the same time, projections of future demand in a range of countries indicate that a considerable increase in provision will be required to meet the expected growth in the population of dependent older people, while developments in alternative forms of accommodation are unlikely to meet the growth in demand in the foreseeable future.


The objective of this study was to determine the effi cacy of plant growth regulators applied as foliar sprays on height and branching of seashore mallow (Kosteletzkya virginica). Five chemical plant growth regulators were applied: ancymidol [15, 25, and 50 mg·L–1 (ppm)] (A-Rest; Elanco Products Co., Indianapolis), dikegulac sodium (500, 1000, and 1500 mg.L–1) (Atrimmec; PBI/Gordon Corp., Kansas City, Mo.), paclobutrazol (10, 20, and 60 mg·L–1) (Bonzi; Uniroyal Chemical Co., Middlebury, Conn.), chlormequat chloride (CCC) (750, 1000, and 1500 mg·L–1) (Cycocel; Olympic Horticultural Products, Mainland, Pa.), and CCC/daminozide mixes (1000/2500, 1000/5000, and 1500/5000 mg·L–1) (Cycocel and B-Nine; Uniroyal Chemical Co.). Ten replicate plants of each concentration were evaluated weekly for plant height and number of branches for 8 weeks. Plants that received CCC and CCC/daminozide treatments at all concentrations and paclobutrazol at 60 mg·L–1 were 60%, 60%, and 48% shorter than control plants and had 113%, 100%, and 75% more branches than control plants, respectively. All concentrations of ancymidol and dikegulac sodium-treated plants were similar to control plants. Paclobutrazol was applied twice, and only the highest concentration was effective for height control. Chlormequat chloride at the lowest concentration was as effective as all other concentrations of CCC and CCC/daminozide.


Young adults have limited access to comprehensive sex education. As such, they may seek sexuality information through such alternative sources, such as mass media. Previous research suggests that media, including films and television shows, can influence sexual behaviors and attitudes. Because sexual consent communication is important to sexual experiences, the purpose of this study was to assess how sexual consent and refusal communication were depicted in films. We also examined contextual factors that influence consent and refusal communication, such as gender, relationship status, location, and types of sexual behaviors. Four researchers analyzed popular mainstream films (N = 50) from 2013 based on a codebook developed inductively and deductively. The most common consent and refusal communication cues were nonverbal or implicit. The majority of scenes portrayed consent immediately before sexual activity. We also conducted chi-squared analyses to assess differences in consent and refusal communication based on gender and relationship status. There were no gender differences in the portrayal of consent cues; however, characters in established relationships used nonverbal cues more often than those in novel relationships. Mass media can normalize behaviors, and our results suggest that films may further normalize nonverbal or implicit consent cues.


Stretchable electronic textiles are urgently called for due to the emergence of next generation wearable electronics that can undergo various mechanical deformations that exist almost everywhere in our daily lives. In particular, one-dimensional stretchable fibers with excellent electrical conductivity are a promising building block for the construction of stretchable electronic textiles for wearable electronics. However, the reported conductive fibers for stretchable electronics usually have low stretchability and are dark in color, which greatly limit their applications as display devices and colorful electrical textile fabrics. Herein, we report a simple approach toward the fabrication of continuous white conductive fibers with a high stretchability of over 700%, which could offer superfluous deformation capacity. The fiber was fabricated via a dry–wet spinning process using biomass poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB4HB) and lab-made electroconductive antimony-doped tin oxide wrapped titanium dioxide nanoparticles (ATO@TiO2 NPs). The system could be mass produced and easily weaved into diverse patterns and shapes. In the resultant composite fiber, the electroconductive ATO@TiO2 NPs are uniformly dispersed in the filler network of P3HB4HB. The fiber revealed impressive reversible mechanical and electrical characteristics within a strain of 420%. Moreover, white stretchable fibers with restorable electroconductive abilities are reported for the first time, thus opening a new opportunity for colorful electrical textile fabrics.


This article describes James's distaste for taxonomic classification of emotion and argues that he would not have been pleased by current scholarship which still focuses on the definition and classification of discrete emotions, distracting scholars from more fundamental underlying processes. I argue that as in James's time, current taxonomies are still arbitrary and still constrain the kinds of questions psychologists ask.


Carhue is the largest thermal center of the province of Buenos Aires, located 520 kilometers from the state capital. The thermal baths and the treatments with the lake's peloids have become an emblem of the city. Since 1920 visitors from around the world have come to this place to enjoy the benefits of the mineral waters from Epecuen Lake. Objective: The objective of this work is the physicochemical study of the Carhue peloid. Material and Method: A commercial peloid sample, The percentage of the solid components, water and ashes was determined by gravimetric techniques drying the sample in oven and mufla. The specific heat, thermal conductivity coefficient and calorific retentivity were calculated from these data. The particle size was determined by laser diffraction, using the model 3000 of Malvern Instruments Mastersizer. The instrumental texture was determined with the Brookfield LFRA, Texture Analyzer, model 1000 LFRA LRFA. The Rambaud method was the technic used to obtain the cooling curve, with thermostatic baths, Lauda, RA 8 Alpha and E-100 and thermocouple Cole-Parmer, model 91100-50. Results: (Table 1) Conclusions: Its water percentage (47.4%) allow us classify this product as a true peloid. From the relation ash / solid (0.90) it follows that is a peloid rich in inorganic products. The particle size indicates that there are particles ranging 0.6 to 120 microns, with Dv(50) of 10.5 microns but with scarce uniformity. Specific heat and retentivity values are agree with the obtained percentage values of water and ashes. The value tr (8.7 minutes) shows a peloid with slow release of heat, matching up with the data of their retentivity 7.74 106 s/m2. According to its texture is a soft peloid (64.7 g) with good cohesion capacity (0.96) so it is an easy product to use.


Although Zimbabwe has a wealth of livestock genetic resources and mostly are quite agriculturally dependent, there exist clear limitations and challenges regarding animal recording, genetic improvement, production efficiency and the implementation of new technologies, such as genomic selection (GS). Genomic selection incorporates genomic information with phenotypic information (breeding values) to derive genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) and leads to an increased rate of genetic improvement. The primary principle underlying the application of genomics is that it has the most value for difficult and expensive to measure traits. Maintenance of health will be one of the biggest challenges for efficient livestock production in the next few decades. This challenge will only increase in the face of demand for animal protein, resistance to existing drugs, and the pressure to reduce the use of antibiotics in agriculture. There is probably genetic variation in susceptibility for all diseases but little has been done to make use of this variation to date. In part this is because it is very difficult as well as expensive to measure this variation. This suggests that genomics should provide one of the ways of tackling the challenge of improving animal health. The establishing of reference populations seems beyond the capacity of many, mainly in terms of financial viability, infrastructural support and national cohesion. Genomic technology however holds potential for the introgression of favorable genes in resource-poor livestock production systems and traceability of livestock products. This paper will discuss overview of genomic selection for improved animal health and review challenges and opportunities in Zimbabwe.


"Remember, you are not going out there to start a war," Rear Admiral Frank Johnson reminded Commander Pete Bucher just prior to the maiden voyage of the U.S.S. Pueblo. And yet a war one that might have gone nuclear was what nearly happened when the Pueblo was attacked and captured by North Korean gunships in January 1968. Diplomacy prevailed in the end, but not without great cost to the lives of the imprisoned crew and to a nation already mired in an unwinnable war in Vietnam. The Pueblo was an aging cargo ship poorly refurbished as a signals intelligence collector for the top-secret Operation Clickbeetle. It was sent off with a first-time captain, an inexperienced crew, and no back-up, and was captured well before the completion of its first mission. Ignored for a quarter of a century, the Pueblo incident has been the subject of much polemic but no scholarly scrutiny. Mitchell Lerner now examines for the first time the details of this crisis and uses the incident as a window through which to better understand the limitations of American foreign policy during the Cold War. Drawing on thousands of pages of recently declassified documents from President Lyndon Johnson's administration, along with dozens of interviews with those involved, Lerner provides the most complete and accurate account of the Pueblo incident. He weaves on a grand scale a dramatic story of international relations, presidential politics, covert intelligence, capture on the high seas, and secret negotiations. At the same time, he highlights the very intimate struggles of the Pueblo's crew-through capture, imprisonment, indoctrination, torture, and release-and the still smoldering controversy over Commander Bucher's actions. In fact, Bucher emerges here for the first time as the truly steadfast hero his men have always considered him. More than an account of misadventure, The Pueblo Incident is an indictment of Cold War mentality that shows how the premises underlying the Pueblo's risky mission and the ensuing efforts to win the release of her crew were seriously flawed. Lerner argues that had U.S. policymakers regarded the North Koreans as people with a national agenda rather than one serving a global Communist conspiracy, they might have avoided the crisis or resolved it more effectively. He also addresses such unanswered questions as what the Pueblo's mission exactly was, why the ship had no military support, and how damaging the intelligence loss was to national security. With North Korea still seen as a rogue state by some policymakers, "The Pueblo Incident" provides key insights into the domestic imperatives behind that country's foreign relations. It astutely assesses the place of gunboat diplomacy in the modern world and is vital for understanding American foreign policy failures in the Cold War."


Electron microscopy (EM) continues to provide near-atomic resolution structures for well-behaved proteins and protein complexes. Unfortunately, structures of some complexes are limited to low- to medium-resolution due to biochemical or conformational heterogeneity. Thus, the application of unbiased systematic methods for fitting individual structures into EM maps is important. A method that employs co-evolutionary information obtained solely from sequence data could prove invaluable for quick, confident localization of subunits within these structures. Here, we incorporate the co-evolution of intermolecular amino acids as a new type of distance restraint in the Integrative Modeling Platform (IMP) in order to build three-dimensional models of atomic structures into EM maps ranging from 10-14 Å in resolution. We validate this method using four complexes of known structure, where we highlight the conservation of intermolecular couplings despite dynamic conformational changes using the BAM complex. Finally, we use this method to assemble the subunits of the bacterial holo-translocon into a model that agrees with previous biochemical data. The use of evolutionary couplings in integrative modeling improves systematic, unbiased fitting of atomic models into medium- to low-resolution EM maps, providing additional information to integrative models lacking in spatial data.


Currently we see a discussion on the transition from ATM-based transport to IP transport in the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). Issues that result from the transition to IP are QoS, esp. delay, jitter, loss, bandwidth guaranties and in sequence delivery of packets for voice traffic. The paper compares two solutions for future UTRANs, native IP multi-path transport and MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) transport. MPLS employs RSVP-TE (extension of the Resource Reservation Protocol for signaling in MPLS) as reservation scheme. We have developed an extension for the network simulator 2 that allows for comparing delay, jitter and loss of these two approaches. Our studies show that MPLS/RSVP-TE is able to deliver very stable QoS for a wide range of traffic mixes and traffic loads even for network utilizations beyond 90%. Thus, MPLS provides extra flexibility to the network operator and can help to reduce the network cost.


"Law and literature" represents a field that is becoming increasingly significant for the study of legal argumentation and methodology. Although this field is more established in the United States where methods of persuasion in legal argumentation enjoy more prominence, it is impossible to deny its growing importance in Europe. Thus the workshop entitled "Law and Literature" formed a special part of the ARGUMENTATION 2012 conference.


Including "smartness" in your field does not necessarily add additional expenditures. ADNOC Offshore piloted a new well completion design combining Interval Control Valves (ICVs) in the shallow reservoir and Inflow Control Devices (ICDs) in the deeper reservoir, both deployed in a water injector well for the first time in the company. The objectives were to improve reservoir management, reduce well construction complexity and achieve one of the main business targets of cost optimization. This paper covers the subsurface study, detailed well construction design, completion deployment, well intervention and overall well performance in commingled injection mode.
 A multi-disciplinary study was conducted based on updated reservoir data available after the first two years of production in a heterogeneous multi reservoir field. This study showed the possibility of replacing the upper horizontal drain by a deviated perforated section. The authors identified the need of completion compartmentalization to overcome challenges such as high reservoir heterogeneity and uneven pressure depletion enforced by non selective acid stimulation. As part of the evaluation, a simulation was performed to evaluate the expected injection performance across the four zones with different combinations of ICVs and ICDs in order to cater for different injection scenarios.
 As a result of the integrated analysis, a new well completion design was deployed to optimize a Dual Horizontal Water Injector into a Single Smart Completion with 3 Inflow Control Valves (ICVs) covering the upper perforated zones and 14 Inflow Control Devices (ICDs) with sliding sleeves across lower lateral reservoir. Cost savings and reduction of rig time was achieved with this new completion design demonstrating very pro-active participation from all involved teams, ADNOC Offshore and Service Companies.
 The requirements to complete high and low permeability zones in one single well can be successfully accomplished. Firstly, mitigation of early water breakthrough is achieved by incorporating surface water injection control in high permeable zones and secondly, the injection target for the low permeable reservoir is also delivered.
 Building on the successful results and captured lesson learnt, this new well completion design provided the capabilities to optimize the water injection plan while reducing costs. Therefore, the project has passed the trial phase and the team proposed its implementation.


Background: In China, mosquito-borne diseases are most common in the sub-tropical area of Yunnan province. The objective of this study was to examine behaviors related to mosquito-borne diseases in different ethnic minority groups and different socioeconomic groups of people living in this region. Methods: A stratified two-stage cluster sampling technique with probability proportional to size was used in Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan. Twelve villages were used to recruit adults (≥18 years old) and eight schools were used for children (<18 years old). A questionnaire on behaviors and environment variables related to mosquito-borne diseases was devised. Results: Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) grouped 20 behaviors into three domains, namely, environmental condition, bed net use behaviors, and repellent use behaviors, respectively. The Han ethnicity had the lowest odds of rearing pigs, their odds being significantly lower than those of Yi and Yao. For bed net use, Dai and other ethnic minority groups were less likely to use bed nets compared to Yi and Yao. The odds of repellent use in the Han ethnicity was lower than in Yi, but higher than in Dai. The Dai group was the most likely ethnicity to use repellents. Farmers were at a higher risk for pig rearing and not using repellents. Education of less than primary school held the lowest odds of pig rearing. Those with low income were at a higher risk for not using bed nets and repellent except in pig rearing. Those with a small family size were at a lower risk for pig rearing. Conclusion: Different ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the study areas require different specific emphases for the prevention of mosquito-borne diseases.


Optical pump - THz probe spectroscopy has been used to characterize the collective solvent dynamics of chloroform when a dissolved dye molecule is photoexcited, and transient photoconductivity in CdSe quantum dots. If time permits, I may also describe THz emission experiments of intramolecular electron transfer in oriented dye molecules. Full-text article is not available.


Pretreatments with relatively low (25-250 U/ml) concentrations of interferon (IFN) enhanced while 5000-10 000 U/ml concentrations of IFN inhibited leukocyte inhibitory factor (LIF) and migration inhibitory factor (MIF) production of concanavalin A (Con A) stimulated human leukocytes. The lymphokine regulatory activity of IFN correlated with the antiviral activity of IFN preparations regardless of their specific activity and it showed species specificity. Modulation of lymphokine production depended not only upon the amount of IFN used but also on the length of IFN pretreatment. Blocking of lymphokine production by high concentration of IFN could not be explained by the effect of IFN on cell viability.


The ratio of atmosphere-derived 10Be to continent-derived 9Be in marine sediments has been used to probe the long-term relationship between continental denudation and climate. However, its application is complicated by uncertainty in 9Be transfer through the land-ocean interface. The riverine dissolved load alone is insufficient to close the marine 9Be budget, largely due to substantial removal of riverine 9Be to continental margin sediments. We focus on the ultimate fate of this latter Be. We present sediment pore-water Be profiles from diverse continental margin environments to quantify the diagenetic Be release to the ocean. Our results suggest that pore-water Be cycling is mainly controlled by particulate supply and Mn-Fe cycling, leading to higher benthic fluxes on shelves. Benthic fluxes may help close the 9Be budget and are at least comparable to, or higher (~2-fold) than, the riverine dissolved input. These observations demand a revised model framework, which considers the potentially dominant benthic source, to robustly interpret marine Be isotopic records.


The module 'Living with cancer of the lower urinary tract' was developed to address the learning needs of specialized urology nurses working in hospitals and generalist nurses caring for urology patients in practice settings. The module is also offered to oncology nurses undertaking specialist postgraduate education. The module is delivered by a 'blended learning' approach and supported by the technology offered on the Blackboard Learning System (Version 9·1), a virtual learning environment that facilitates the delivery of on-line and flexible learning. While a number of challenges were faced during the module development and delivery, the positive benefits of collaborative working between university and expert nurse clinicians, and shared learning between urology and oncology nurses was evident. © 2012 The Authors. International Journal of Urological Nursing © 2012 BAUN & Blackwell Publishing Ltd.


This paper describes the application of simulation learning technology, popularized by the emerging serious games industry, for training first responders to properly act in the event of a radiological emergency. Using state-of-the-art video game production tools and runtime engines as an enabling technology, simulation learning combines interactive virtual worlds, based on validated engineering models, with engaging storylines and scenarios that invoke the emotional response---and the corresponding human stress level---that first responders would encounter during a real-world emergency. For the application discussed here, in addition to providing engaging instruction about the fundamentals of radiological environments and the proper usage of radiological equipment, simulation learning prepares first responders to perform effectively under high stress and enables them to practice in teams.


Although Indonesia is an archipelagic state, but the discourse on maritime state is not yet become the main discourse in the construction of nation and state of Indonesia. This discourse is reemerged when President Joko Widodo make it as one of the main strategic agenda of his administration. The re-emerging of this maritime nation discourse is interesting to be studied in terms of nationalism, as an attempt to reconstructing the Indonesian national identity imagination. By tracking the dynamics of the arguments that enliven the discourse in Indonesian politics, this paper wants to uncover why this discourse re-emerged and what is the political interests behind the reimagination of Indonesian nationalism.


In this paper, we developed an intelligent web based e-learning system based on multi agents. To do development of the system, we applied an inclination test that is based on the education theory to do grouping the desirable e-learning community. The proposed system, Intelligent Web based e-learning Multi Agent System (IMAS), is used the multi agents paradigm including learning manner by neural network for grouping of e-learning community and a new distributed multi agent framework proposed here.


ABSTRACT Stone has been widely used as a construction material since ancient times, and its preservation is crucial in historical and contemporary buildings. Biodeterioration and other alterations cause damage in stone monuments which leads to the need for repeated actions. Nanotechnology is increasing the development of new products for construction and restoration, and new treatments based on nanoparticles have been developed for stone conservation, such as biocides or consolidants. These treatments avoid the disadvantages of traditional products, such as limewater for consolidation or quaternary ammonium salts as biocides and fulfil some of the requirements demanded by cultural heritage, i.e., effectiveness, compatibility with the stone and its aesthetic values, and durability. This manuscript reviews some of the main advances in the development and application of nanoparticles as consolidants and biocides to treat stone cultural heritage.


High salinity causes ion imbalance and osmotic stress in plants. Leaf sections from 8-d-old dark-grown wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Giza 168) were exposed to high salt stress (600 mM) and the native arrangements of plastid pigments together with the ultrastructure of the plastids were studied using low-temperature fluorescence spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Although plastids from salt-treated leaves had highly swollen prothylakoids (PTs) the prolamellar bodies (PLBs) were regular. Accordingly, a slight intensity decrease of the short-wavelength protochlorophyllide (Pchlide) form was observed, but no change was found in the long-wavelength Pchlide form emitting at 656 nm. After irradiation, newly formed swollen thylakoids showed traversing stromal strands. The PLB dispersal was partly inhibited and remnants of the PLBs formed an electron-dense structure, which remained after prolonged (8 h) irradiation. The difference in fluorescence emission maximum of the main chlorophyll form in salt-stressed leaves (681 nm) and in control leaves (683 nm) indicated a restrained formation of the photosynthetic apparatus. Overall chlorophyll accumulation during prolonged irradiation was inhibited. Salt-stressed leaves returned to darkness after 3 h of irradiation had, compared with the control, a reduced amount of Pchlide and reduced re-formation of regular net-like PLBs. Instead, the size of the electron-dense structures increased. This study reports, for the first time, the salt-induced swelling of PTs and reveals traversing stromal strands in newly formed thylakoids. Although the PLBs were intact and the Pchlide fluorescence emission spectra appeared normal after salt stress in darkness, plastid development to chloroplasts was highly restricted during irradiation.


Recently, denoising diffusion probabilistic models (DDPM) have been applied to image segmentation by generating segmentation masks conditioned on images, while the applications were mainly limited to 2D networks without exploiting potential benefits from the 3D formulation. In this work, we studied the DDPM-based segmentation model for 3D multiclass segmentation on two large multiclass data sets (prostate MR and abdominal CT). We observed that the difference between training and test methods led to inferior performance for existing DDPM methods. To mitigate the inconsistency, we proposed a recycling method which generated corrupted masks based on the model's prediction at a previous time step instead of using ground truth. The proposed method achieved statistically significantly improved performance compared to existing DDPMs, independent of a number of other techniques for reducing train-test discrepancy, including performing mask prediction, using Dice loss, and reducing the number of diffusion time steps during training. The performance of diffusion models was also competitive and visually similar to non-diffusion-based U-net, within the same compute budget. The JAX-based diffusion framework has been released at https://github.com/mathpluscode/ImgX-DiffSeg.


Invasion is a critical step in the metastatic process during which cells dissociate from the primary tumor to breach the basement membrane and migrate through the stroma. Successful invasion can then lead to other steps in the metastatic cascade such as intravasation through the vascular system to secondary sites, ultimately resulting in the spread of tumors throughout the body as well as a dramatic decrease in patient survival. Efficient migration through the extracellular matrix is a key determinant of a tumor cell9s ability to invade local tissue and eventually metastasize to secondary sites. Previous work has indicated that the ability of cancer cells to migrate and therefore invade efficiently through the stroma is dependent on the microenvironment, which differs from its normal state in the presence of non-cancerous cells. Alterations to matrix properties such as fiber alignment, stiffness, and density may facilitate this migration. We have focused on how these properties impact the migratory abilities of cancer cells in in vitro models of the tumor microenvironment. There is significant evidence to suggest that the molecular mechanisms governing 2D migration are significantly different than those dictating migration in 3D matrices. In recent work, we have shown that in vivo, cells also migrate in pseudo-3D environments where they utilize preformed tunnels and interstitial spaces in the tissue to navigate through the stroma. To recreate these tunnels in vitro, we created and utilized a micromolded 3D system of patterned collagen microtracks to gain a more complete understanding of invasive migration. The consequences of altering matrix properties on cell behavior were then examined using this system and compared to the more commonly utilized 3D collagen matrix model. Results indicate that increasing collagen density affected single cell migration in 3D matrices but did not have a significant impact on average cell velocity in the microtracks, suggesting these cells migrate independently of density. These findings then raise the question of how important extracellular cues are in determining the behavior of cancer cells during track migration and how this influence changes depending on the state of the microenvironment. Since changes in collagen density affected migration in 3D matrices but not microtracks, it is worth determining if a similar trend is seen for stiffness. To this end, we utilized the in vitro microtrack system described above to investigate how single cell migration through tracks is affected by changes in extracellular stiffness. Collagen gels of varying stiffness were made through non-enzymatic glycation by allowing the gels to incubate in ribose solutions of different concentrations. The migration of cells through the tracks was quantified based on average cell velocities across the various conditions. Interestingly, the data indicate there is no significant difference in velocity with increasing stiffness. This is in contrast to 2D migration, where a similar change in stiffness causes an increase in cell velocity. These results suggest that either the change in stiffness is too subtle for the cells to detect within the tracks or they behave as they did in response to density, insensitive to alterations to either of these properties. When taken together with our previous published findings, the data suggest that while the tumor microenvironment is important in mediating malignancy and metastasis, it varies in its influence. Cells moving in microtracks, which offer the least resistance as they navigate through the extracellular matrix, may migrate independently of a variety of mechanical cues from the microenvironment that more closely regulate their migration in other contexts. Citation Format: Marianne Lintz. The role of extracellular stiffness in metastatic cell invasion. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Engineering and Physical Sciences in Oncology; 2016 Jun 25-28; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(2 Suppl):Abstract nr A51.


An analytical method to determine the residual lactide in polylactide (PLA) was proposed using an internal standard method of gas chromatography (GC). PLA samples and diphenyl ether (DPE) as an internal standard were dissolved in dichloromethane, then PLA was precipitated in anhydrous alcohol. The residual lactide and DPE were extracted to alcohol for GC analysis. At room temperature, lactide could react with alcohol and change into ethyl lactoyl lactate (ELL), but the relative response factor of lactide versus DPE could be obtained through a numerical analysis method. Therefore, the residual lactide content could be quantitatively calculated in PLA. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the measurements is not more than 7.0%, indicating that the method is suitably precise.


Ensuring the correction of heterogeneous and complex systems is an essential stage in the process of engineering systems.
In this paper we propose a methodology to verify and validate complex systems specified with SysML language using a combination of the two techniques of simulation and verification. We translate SysML specifications into SystemC models to validate the designed systems by simulation, then we propose to verify the derived SystemC models by using the Uppaal model checker. A case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.


The methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2), a transcriptional suppressor, is involved in gene regulation by binding to methylated promoters. We found that MECP2 is overexpressed in gastric cancer (GC), and that Mecp2 knockdown affects the growth of GC cells both in vitro and in vivo. MECP2 can directly bind to the methylated-CpG island of miR-338 promoter and suppress the expression of two mature microRNAs, namely, miR-338-3p and miR-338-5p. Furthermore, miR-338-5p can suppress GC cell growth by targeting BMI1 (B lymphoma Mo-MLV insertion region 1 homolog). We additionally found that decreased miR-338-5p expression in GC tissues, relative to normal tissues, was significantly negatively correlated with increased BMI1 expression. Silencing MECP2 can indirectly lead to reduced expression of P-REX2, which has been identified as the miR-338-3p target, as well as BMI1 and increasing expression of P16 or P21 both in vitro and in vivo. Altogether, our results indicate that MECP2 promote the proliferation of GC cells via miR-338 (miR-338-3p and miR-338-5p)-mediated antitumor and gene regulatory effect.


A brief history of the close association of the founding of colonial South Africa with scorbutic dental disease and its prevention is outlined. The impact of civilian dental disease upon British army recruits at the end of the 19th century laid the foundation for military dental corps in the 20th century. The deployment of the first dental field officer by the British army during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) demonstrates a further South African contribution to dental history.


Abstract Most recorded trace fossils in palaeosols are burrows and chambers attributed to bees, ants, termites and coleopterans. Ichnogenera attributed to bees are grouped in the ichnofamily Celliformidae, whereas those attributed to ants, termites and coleopterans are included herein in the new ichnofamilies Pallichnidae, Krausichnidae and Coprinisphaeridae respectively. Shape, type of wall, fillings and associated burrows of chambers are the main morphological ichnotaxobases used for this classification; they are weighed with regard to the behaviour and architecture of the supposed trace-makers. Coprinisphaeridae are spherical, pear-shaped or ovoid structures, having active or passive fillings and constructed walls. The ichnogenera included are: Fontanai, Coprinisphaera, Eatonichnus, Monesichnus, Teisseirei and Rebuffoichnus, attributed to coleopterans. The similar Pallichnidae show lined or structureless walls, and include Pallichnus, Fictovichnus and Scaphichnium, also attributed to coleopterans. The Krausichnidae constitutes trace fossils composed of chambers of different shapes interconnected by burrow systems of inconsistent diameter or isolated chambers associated with burrow systems of different diameters. The Krausichnidae include Attaichnus, Parowanichnus, Krausichnus, Archeoentomichnus, Tacuruichnus, Vondrichnus, Fleaglellius, Termitichnus and Syntermesichnus, attributed to ants and termites. The stratigraphic ranges of insect ichnotaxa in palaeosols are reviewed and compared with the body fossil record of potential tracemakers, revealing that in most cases insect trace and body fossils show similar ranges. As stated by earlier authors, the Cretaceous was a critical period during which the oldest body fossils of dung-beetles, bees, termites and ants are recorded, whereas the trace fossils of these groups are recorded from this period or shortly after, during Cenozoic times.


We combined ab initio molecular dynamics with the intrinsic reaction coordinate in order to investigate the mechanisms of stability and pyrolysis of N4 ÷ N120 fullerene-like nitrogen cages. The stability of the cages was evaluated in terms of the activation barriers and the activation Gibbs energies of their thermal-induced breaking. We found that binding energies, bond lengths, and quantum-mechanical descriptors failed to predict the stability of the cages. However, we derived a simple topological rule that adjacent hexagons on the cage surface resulted in its instability. For this reason, the number of stable nitrogen cages is significantly restricted in comparison with their carbon counterparts. As a rule, smaller clusters are more stable, whereas the earlier proposed large cages collapse at room temperature. The most stable all-nitrogen cages are the N4 and N6 clusters, which can form the van der Waals crystals with densities of 1.23 and 1.36 g/cm3, respectively. The examination of their band structures and densities of electronic states shows that they are both insulators. Their power and sensitivity are not inferior to the modern advanced high-energy nanosystems.


In two groups of patients, noncompliance with drug regimens resulted in misinterpretation of serum theophylline levels. All six chronic asthmatics in the first group, found in a retrospective review of 43 outpatient charts, had outpatient serum theophylline levels in the therapeutic range (10 to 20 microgram/mL) and at least a 7-microgram/mL greater inpatient theophylline level while receiving the same dosage. When hospitalized, four of these patients had serum theophylline levels in the toxic range (greater than 20 microgram/mL). In the second group four hospitalized patients had persistently low serum theophylline levels despite an adequate theophylline dose. When compliance was enforced, serum theophylline levels rose significantly. Compliance cannot be assumed in the outpatient with a serum theophylline level in the therapeutic range or in the hospitalized patient. Determination of serum theophylline level after supervised drug administration is recommended in inpatients requiring unusually high doses of theophylline or in those whose condition is poorly controlled despite having serum theophylline levels in the therapeutic range (10 to 20 microgram/mL).


When a periodic signal is sampled at a rate below the Nyquist limit, it is considered undersampled because it is impossible to recover the original signal from the samples without some additional signal information. The authors have studied the visual effects of raster sampling upon the discriminability of simple monochrome test targets (edges and sinusoidal gratings) and found out that observers have good perceptual tolerance to the sinusoidal test gratings the low sampling rates produce illusory visual effects that disturb the recognition of the waveform. The occurrence of these illusions in sampled images points out two different sources of sampling noise in images: genuine spectral noise and purely visual spatial noise. The findings suggest that scenes containing abundant edge information tolerate low sampling rates better than scenes in which low and medium spatial frequencies are dominant.


As distinct from the classic Billings depolariser, a simple time-domain polarisation scrambler can be made on one crystal possessing a threefold axis among its symmetry elements and displaying a linear electro-optical effect (Pockels effect). We demonstrate a polarisation scrambler on a LiNbO3 uniaxial crystal with two pairs of electrodes to which two harmonic voltages identical in amplitude and differing in phase by 90° are applied. The residual degree of polarisation of the depolarised light, quantified by the polarisation extinction ratio, is less than 0.1 dB. Tolerances on the crystal orientation and the phase difference between the control voltages are estimated. The quality of the crystal is shown to be critical to the performance of the scrambler.


The kinetics of the irreversible unfolding of glutathione reductase (NAD[P]H:GSSG oxidoreductase, EC 188.8.131.52.) from cyanobacterium Spirulina maxima was studied at pH 7.0 and room temperature. Denaturation was induced by guanidinium chloride and the changes in enzyme activity, aggregation state, and tertiary structure were monitored. No full reactivation of enzyme was obtained, even after very short incubation times in the presence of denaturant. Reactivation plots were complex, showing biphasic kinetics. A very fast early event in the denaturation pathway was the dissociation of tetrameric protein into reactivatable native-like dimers, followed by its conversion into a nonreactivatable intermediary, also dimeric. In the final step of the unfolding pathway the latter was dissociated into denatured monomers. Fluorescence measurements revealed that denaturation of S. maxima glutathione reductase is a slow process. Release of the prostethic group FAD was previous to the unfolding of the enzyme. No aggregated species were detected in the unfolding pathway, dismissing the aggregation of denatured polypeptide chains as the origin of irreversibility. Instead, the transition between the two dimeric intermediates is proposed as the cause of irreversibility in the denaturation of S. maxima glutathione reductase. A value of 106.6 +/- 3 kJ mol(-1) was obtained for the activation free energy of unfolding in the absence of denaturant. No evidence for the native monomer in the unfolding pathway was obtained which suggests that the dimeric nature of glutathione reductase is essential for the maintenance of the native subunit conformation.


The cerebral cortex is divisible into a number of cytoarchitectonic areas, but developmental mechanisms that regulate their number and size remain unknown. Here we provide evidence that reducing the population of selected thalamic fibers projecting into the primary visual cortex (area 17) of monkeys during midgestation induces the formation of a novel cytoarchitectonic area situated along the border of and embedded within area 17. This region, termed area X, differs cytoarchitectonically from both area 17 and the adjacent secondary visual cortex (area 18). We propose that an aberrant combination of thalamic and cortical connections acting on a portion of prospective area 17 deprived of its normal thalamic input may result in formation of a hybrid cortex. Our results support the protomap hypothesis of cortical parcellation and suggest how during evolution new cytoarchitectonic regions may arise by cell-cell interactions that depend on a unique combination of intrinsic properties of cortical neurons and afferent fibers.


Log-domain integrators and filters are considered to be a promising alternative in the area of low-voltage filtering applications. The authors present the MOS strong inversion analogue, a /spl radic/x-domain integrator. Simulation results demonstrate the viability of this new approach.


This article examines the public sphere in early-twentieth-century America via a study of Charles Richmond Henderson, Chicago reformer and sociology professor. It discusses Henderson's broad visibility, from religious and university venues, through the club and voluntary association world, and into the professions and government. It examines the relations between this archipelago of reform venues and the intimate sphere of family and religion as well as the separation of the world of Protestant reform from both the Catholic and the immigrant publics. Finally, it examines Henderson's own experience of his public role, showing how his religious understanding yoked objectivity and advocacy into a single concept of reform knowledge-driven reform.


Mary Wasik, partner and chair of the Corporate & Securities Group, wrote "Understanding the FTC's Position on Social Media Endorsements" published by Inside Counsel. Using the Cole Haan Pinterest contest as an example, Mary breaks down the FTC's updated requirements when endorsements are made on social media sites and provides steps that legal departments can take to help keep their companies on the straight and narrow with respect to FTC Guidelines.


: IoT Based Solar Powered Water Pump System is project development of an automatic watering plant system that replaces the conventional watering plant. This project was focus on controlling the system by using is a mobile application called Blynk. The idea of the project is to help small farmers and users remotely controll and monitor their farm and remote workspace within a limited distance. Besides; remote monitoring, this project also provide automatic plant watering in order to reduce time-consuming activities at farm. This system used a solar panel as the main source which is connected to the solar charge controller in order to ensure the battery will not go overcharge and will act as the protection to the battery. IoT Based Solar Powered Water Pump System is created to improve the conventional system that is readily available by utilizing the different approach of an access system with the application of a Wi-Fi phone and solar system. In conclusion, : IoT based solar powered water pump system was successfully created and tested. This project provie proof of small scale concept which will help small farmers to replace the conventional ways of watering plant watering. Solar power offers sufficient amount of electricity to power up the system as well as the battery to ensure that the system is also operating during nigt hour without solar radiation energy for future work.


Nearly one-half of infants immunized with Haemophilus influenzae b capsular polysaccharide (polyribosylribitol phosphate; PRP)-protein conjugate produce low-affinity antibody. To test the hypothesis that antibody affinity is linked to biologic function, sera were obtained before and 1 month after immunization of 18-month-old infants with PRP-diphtheria toxoid conjugate vaccine. Correlation was attempted of anti-PRP affinity, concentrations of anti-PRP, and anti-outer membrane proteins and of immunoglobulin isotype with bactericidal activity. Nine subjects produced anti-PRP of low affinity (K less than 10(4) l/mol), and 11 had higher affinity antibodies (average K, 2.8 x 10(4) l/mol). By multiple regression analysis, antibody affinity was the only variable significantly related to the bactericidal activity of serum after immunization with the conjugate vaccine (r = .71; P = .04). Thus, serum anti-PRP from a substantial proportion of infants appeared functionally deficient in association with low-affinity antibody.


Left atrial appendage aneurysm (LAAA) is a rare cardiac anomaly. The cause mostly due to congenital, but can be acquired also. Patient may remain asymptomatic or may present with variable symptom. It can predispose to hazardous adverse events, including atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, cardiac dysfunction and life-threatening systemic thromboembolism. Simple imaging, electrocardiography and echocardiography can diagnose this rare cardiac anomaly. We are reporting a case who presented to us at 5 years of age with palpitation, chest pain and dizziness with arrythmia that developed one month back; he visited our outpatient department of the National Heart Foundation Hospital & Research Institute Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 13th February 2020. We diagnosed left atrial appendage aneurysm with mitral valve prolapse with atrial arrhythmia thereafter surgical resection of aneurysmal part along with mitral valve annuloplasty done by mid sternotomy and maze therapy. Postoperative period was uneventful and discharged after 6th post operative day.


We have previously studied the relationship between dominance rank and physiology among male olive baboons (Papio anubis) living freely in a national park in Africa. In stable hierarchies, such males have distinctive secretory profiles of glucocorticoids and of testosterone. We find that these endocrine features are not, in fact, purely markers of social dominance; instead, they are found only among dominant males with particular stylistic traits of social behavior. One intercorrelated stylistic cluster revolved around the intensity with which the male is involved in sexual consortships (e.g., frequency of copulation, of grooming, degree to which feeding is suppressed by being in consortship). Males most involved in such consortships had the lowest basal cortisol concentrations and smaller cortisol stress‐responses. A second stylistic cluster revolved around the degree of social affiliation (e.g., rate of grooming and interacting positively with non‐estrus females and infants). Males who were highly affiliated had low basal cortisol concentrations and an attenuated cortisol stress‐response. A third cluster revolved around the degree to which males could distinguish between highly threatening interactions with rivals and neutral or mildly threatening ones. Males most adept at this had lower basal cortisol concentrations. These behavioral/endocrine clusters were independent of each other. This suggests that the same adaptive physiological feature (e.g., low basal cortisol concentrations) may arise from different and independent personality styles. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Since the fetus is semiallogenic to the mother, mechanisms have evolved to protect fetal tissue from the maternal immune response. Among these mechanisms is the expression of cell-surface complement regulatory proteins at the maternal-fetal interface. However, beginning in the third trimester, fetal blood cells are exposed to actively-transported IgG antibody. Thus, we speculated that fetal blood cells would require expression of one or more complement regulators by the early third trimester. Using flow cytometry and Western blots, we have demonstrated the presence of three important complement regulatory proteins in the circulating blood cells of human fetuses. These findings are consistent with the putative biological role of the cell-surface complement regulatory proteins.


It is well known that company Intranets are growing into ubiquitous communications media for everything. As a consequence, network traffic is notoriously dynamic, and unpredictable. Unfortunately, local area networks were designed for scalability and robustness, not for sophisticated traffic monitoring. This paper introduces a performance measurement method based on widely used IP protocol elements, which allows measurement of network performance criteria to predict the voice transmission feasibility of a given local area network. The measurement does neither depend on special VoIP equipment, nor does it need network monitoring hardware. Rather it uses special payload samples to detect unloaded network conditions to receive reference values. These samples are followed by typical VoIP application payload to obtain real-world measurement conditions. The validation of our method was done within a local area network and showed convincing results.


The political conflict over the United Kingdom's relationship to Europe was dominated by projections of sovereignty, particularly the 'restoration' of political sovereignty from Brussels to Westminster. This chapter explores two different aspects of this projection of sovereignty as a desire to take back control and regain 'people's agency'. The first aspect concerns its role as collective fantasy in which the chapter traces the ways in which the image of sovereignty was constructed and deployed in the campaign to Vote Leave. In particular, it considers how the conception of the nation as a sovereign people was central to the political mobilisation of Brexit and has persisted as a key reference point for continuing conflicts over Brexit. The second aspect concerns the emergent disjuncture between the political temporality implied in the Leave campaign and the return of governmental temporality. In doing so, the chapter draws on and develops Taguieff's insight that populist political discourse suspends time in favour of a continuous present. In the process, the fantasy of the sovereign people has continued to play a central role in the denunciation of delay, doubt and dissent.


The official and politically correct language of the educational world consistently insists on the importance of learning to think during the period of formal and compulsory education. Returning to a basic principle of political life, possibly as old as mankind but more clearly declared in forms of democratic organization, we cannot understand a democracy without the existence of an educated and informed citizenry, able to think for itself in confrontation with options and world conceptions different from its own. Intelligence - understood as the ability of people to develop abstract thinking and reasoning, to understand complex ideas, solve problems and overcome obstacles, learn from experience and adapt to the environment - is the most valuable attribute that we have. Reasoning well, therefore, is essential to all human beings, both in relation to their personal lives and in the relations we have living in society. Despite this, there are several mistakes that we make when thinking, when we make decisions or solve problems, both in our everyday lives and in decisions about social and political issues of a general nature. So it is necessary to improve our ability to reason in general, with emphasis on formal and informal reasoning. This improvement is a fundamental goal of education, although in practice it has not received enough attention. In order to achieve this, the implementation of programs of learning to think are required, including the Philosophy for Children program, which involves one of the most solid and consistent proposals on this subject. The program uses the Western philosophical tradition, focusing on the quality of the arguments during discussions of the classical themes of philosophy, all considered within the framework of the school converted into a community of inquiry.


The Indo-Myanmar Ranges (IMR) are an enigmatic mountain belt that occupy a complex tectonic zone in western Myanmar extending from the northern continuation of the active Sunda-Andaman arc into the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. The IMR are part of an accretionary fore-arc basin-arc complex that includes the Central Myanmar Basin and the Wuntho-Popa Arc to the east. New biostratigraphic, petrologic, and detrital zircon U-Pb age data are presented that are used to test and refine the divergent tectonic models that have been proposed for western Myanmar. These data suggest: 1) that the Upper Triassic Pane Chaung Formation was originally deposited adjacent to the NE Indian continental margin within northern Gondwana during the Late Triassic, and 2) that the Upper Cretaceous – Paleogene rocks of the IBR were mainly derived from the Wuntho-Popa Arc and Inner Belt, with a subordinate input from a crustal source, potentially from the Naga metamorphic-type Paleozoic basement. The Kalemyo ophiolite has an Early Cretaceous age similar to ages of ophiolites in the Indus Yarlung-Tsangpo suture zone, south Tibet and Nagaland, reinforcing the hypothesis that they were once part of the same Neo-Tethyan ocean floor.

 Supplementary material:
 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6487105


This study was examined digestive enzyme activity in the crystalline style of the three species of bivalves. Bivalves used in this study were Tegillarca granosa (n=61), Mytilus galloprovincialis (n=30) and Saxidomus purpuratus (n=30) and collected from southern coast of Korea on May 2010. Digestive enzymes activities in the crystalline style were assayed in spectrophotometer. Amylase and cellulase occupied approximately 90% of digestive enzyme in crystalline style of T. granosa, M. galloprovincialis, and S. purpuratus. And protease activity in crystalline style of T. granosa, M. galloprovincialis and S. purpuratus showed the lowest values to 0.02, 0 and 0.08%, respectively. Digestive enzyme activity in crystalline style of three species was measured in the order of cellulase > amylase > chitinase > laminarinase.


Modern semiconductor technologies have made possible special devices in which a gradual dimensional crossover may be induced by means of applied electric fields. Two specific examples are described. The first one is a special GaAs fieldeffect transistor in which the thickness of the active electron gas layer may be variedby external voltages. With d ecreasing layer thickness transverse states become quantized and by depopulating the corresponding subbands a tunable dimensional crossover from 3D to 2D is achieved. The second example describes how a 2D to 1D crossover may be obtained in high-mobility split-gate GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. Effects of interactions in long wires, the nature of spontaneous magnetization and quantized conduction are discussed. Anomalous features in the conductance are modeled by means of the local spin density approximation for a realistic split-gate device. Advantages and disadvantages of this method are discussed.


A new NIR fluorescent probe, NIR-Pd, for palladium species was designed and synthesized, based on a HD NIR fluorophore and deprotection of aryl propargyl ethers by palladium. The probe NIR-Pd displayed either a large NIR fluorescence turn-on or ratiometric response to palladium with high sensitivity and selectivity. Additionally, the novel NIR probe can monitor palladium species in live HeLa cells by NIR fluorescence imaging.


DNA adducts are believed to play a central role in the induction of cancer in cigarette smokers and are proposed as being potential biomarkers of cancer risk. We have summarized research conducted since 2012 on DNA adduct formation in smokers. A variety of DNA adducts derived from various classes of carcinogens, including aromatic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, alkylating agents, aldehydes, volatile carcinogens, as well as oxidative damage have been reported. The results are discussed with particular attention to the analytical methods used in those studies. Mass spectrometry-based methods that have higher selectivity and specificity compared to 32P-postlabeling or immunochemical approaches are preferred. Multiple DNA adducts specific to tobacco constituents have also been characterized for the first time in vitro or detected in vivo since 2012, and descriptions of those adducts are included. We also discuss common issues related to measuring DNA adducts in humans, including the development and validation of analytical methods and prevention of artifact formation.


Purpose: To calculate the output factor (OPF) of any irregularly shaped electron beam at extended SSD Methods: Using Cerrobend block, circular cutouts with diameter ranging from 2.0cm to the maximum possible size for 15×15 applicator of Varian 2100C and 14×14 applicator of ELEKTA Synergy LINACs were prepared. In addition, two irregular cutouts were made. For each cutout, percentage depth dose (PDD) at standard SSD and point doses at different SSD were measured in water using Scanditronix diodes and PTW 0.125 cm3 ion-chambers, respectively. In addition, the distance at which electron fluence along the central axis becomes independent of cutout size was determined using EDR2 films. On each LINAC, electron beam energies of 6, 9, 12, and 15/20 MeV were used. Results: Using the open applicator as the reference field, the lateral buildup ratio (LBR) for each circular cutout as a function of depth was calculated. From the LBR value and radius of the cutout, the corresponding lateral spread parameter (σR(z)) was determined. Taking the cutout side dependence of σR(z)) into account, PDD of the irregular cutouts at the standard SSD were calculated. From the point dose measurement at different SSDs, the effective SSD of each cutout was calculated. Taking the calculated PDD of the irregular cutout and effective SSD (SSDeff) of the circular cutout into account, OPFs of the irregular cutout at extended SSD values were calculated. Finally, the calculated output factors were compared with the measured values. Conclusion: In this research, the improved LBR method has been generalized to calculate output factor of irregular cutouts at extended SSD. In a clinically useful region, the percentage difference between the measured and the calculated output factors of the irregular cutouts was within 2%. Similar results were obtained for all available electron energies of both Varian 2100C and ELEKTA Synergy machines.


..". a sympathetic, insightful and highly readable story.... Gathorne-Hardy ... shows us a very human and fallible but ultimately likable Kinsey, impatient and irritable at times, stubborn, willful, certainly a monomaniac about his research interests, whether gall wasps or human sexuality." New York Times Book Review..". revises [the] revisionism and presents Kinsey in an altogether more favorable light... a humane and indefatigable sex educator, as well as an unfairly maligned martyr of American priggishness...." SalonGathorne-Hardy s literate, major biography of Kinsey is the first to give a balanced portrait of one of this century s pioneering researchers and social reformers. The author interviewed in depth surviving family members, close colleagues, friends, and lovers. In this subtle, often witty, penetrating book, he reveals not just a series of new revelations, but whole new aspects of this complex, difficult, contradictory, heroic, obsessive, and ultimately sympathetic man."


Objective Hippocampal volume is a sensitive marker of neurodegeneration and a well-established predictor of age-related cognitive impairment. Recently, free-water (FW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown associations with pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but it is still unclear whether these metrics are associated with measures of cognitive impairment. Here, we investigate whether FW and FW-corrected fractional anisotropy (FAT) within medial temporal lobe white matter tracts (cingulum, fornix, uncinate fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and tapetum) provides meaningful contribution to cognition and cognitive decline beyond hippocampal volume. Participants and Methods Vanderbilt Memory & Aging Project participants (n=319, 73±7 years, 59% male) with normal cognition and mild cognitive impairment (40% of cohort) underwent baseline brain MRI, including structural MRI to quantify hippocampal volume, diffusion MRI to quantify medial temporal lobe white matter tract FW and FAT, and longitudinal neuropsychological assessment with a mean follow-up of 3.5 years. Linear regressions were conducted to determine how hippocampal volume and white matter tract FW and FAT interact with baseline memory and executive function performances. Competitive model analyses determined the unique variance provided by white matter tract FW and FAT beyond that of hippocampal volume and other comorbidities. Linear mixed-effects models were conducted to determine how baseline hippocampal volume and white matter tract FW and FAT interact to explain longitudinal change in memory and executive function performances. Results FW in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, tapetum, uncinate fasciculus, and cingulum were robustly associated with baseline memory and executive function. Further, competitive model analysis showed that tract FW contributed unique variance beyond other comorbidities and hippocampal volume for memory (ΔRadj2 range: 0.82-2.00%) and executive function (ΔRadj2 range: 0.88-1.87%). Longitudinal analyses demonstrated significant interactions of hippocampal volume and FAT in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (p=0.02), tapetum (p=0.02), uncinate fasciculus (p=0.02), and cingulum (p=0.002) with decline in memory. For decline in executive function, we found significant interactions of hippocampal volume and FAT in inferior longitudinal fasciculus (p=0.03), tapetum (p=0.02), uncinate fasciculus (p=0.02), and fornix (p=0.02), as well as cingulum (p=0.02) and fornix (p=0.02) FW. Conclusions Our results highlight novel associations between FW and FAT measures of medial temporal lobe tract microstructure and cognitive performance such that individuals with smaller hippocampal volumes and lower tract microstructure experience greater cognitive decline. These results suggest that white matter has a unique role in cognitive decline and, therefore, could be used to provide better disease staging, allowing for more precise disease monitoring in AD.


Bacillus sp. Abq, belonging to Bacillus cereus sensu lato, was isolated from an aquifer in New Mexico, USA and phylogenetically classified. The isolate possesses the unusual property of precipitating Pb(II) by using cysteine, which is degraded intracellularly to hydrogen sulfide (H2S). H2S is then exported to the extracellular environment to react with Pb(II), yielding PbS (galena). Biochemical and growth tests showed that other sulfur sources tested (sulfate, thiosulfate, and methionine) were not reduced to hydrogen sulfide. Using equimolar concentration of cysteine, 1 mM of soluble Pb(II) was removed from Lysogeny Broth (LB) medium within 120 h of aerobic incubation forming black, solid PbS, with a removal rate of 2.03 µg L-1 h-1 (∼8.7 µM L-1 h-1). The mineralogy of biogenic PbS was characterized and confirmed by XRD, HRTEM, and EDX. Electron microscopy and electron diffraction identified crystalline PbS nanoparticles with a diameter <10 nm,  localized in the extracellular matrix and on the surface of the cells. This is the first study demonstrating the use of cysteine in Pb(II) precipitation as insoluble PbS and it may pave the way to PbS recovery from secondary resources, such as Pb-laden industrial effluents.


The article describes a study of pressures underneath the apron of a dam with a crack in the ground at its upstream end. Steady flow is assumed, taking place with the boundary conditions shown on Fig. 1, also with the following assumptions : - (i) An infinitely deep layer of pervious ground underneath the dam ; (ii) The crack BC being considered as a straight line segment, but neglecting loss of head between B and C. 1. Case of crack of infinite length L = ∞). The problem has a single parameter : the angle 0 of the crack to the ground upstream. Application of the Schwarz-Christoffel transformation gives the following : - (i) Formulae (1) and (1 bis) for the pressure p along the apron, i.e. depending on x/l (values of the function F [0, (x/l)] are given by the curves on Figure 3 for single values of 0; (ii) Formulae (2) and (2 bis) giving the module P of the pressure resultant for various values of 0 (values of G (0) are given by the curve on Fig. 4) ; (iii) Formula (3) giving the abscissa X of the point of application of the pressure resultant for various values of 0 (values of x0/l are given by the curve on Fig. 6). II. Case of a crack of finite length. There are two parameters to this problem : 0 and the ratio between crack and apron length L/l. The above method ther gives the following : - (i) Formulae (1) and (6), which play the same part as formulae (1) and (1 bis) and lead to two following types of curve : Curves giving variations of F, i.e. of the pressure along the apron in terms of x/l, for given values of L/l and 0 (Fig. 8) ; Curves giving the variation of pressure p at a definite point of the apron in terms of L/l , for given values of x/l and 0 ; (ii) The formulae in section 3, which are identical to those given for L = ∞. Figs 10 and 11 give the variations of G and x0/l.