The eotaxin chemokines have been implicated in allergen-induced eosinophil responses in the lung. However, the individual and combined contribution of each of the individual eotaxins is not well defined. We aimed to examine the consequences of genetically ablating eotaxin-1 or eotaxin-2 alone, eotaxin-1 and eotaxin-2 together, and CCR3. Mice carrying targeted deletions of these individual or combined genes were subjected to an OVA-induced experimental asthma model. Analysis of airway (luminal) eosinophilia revealed a dominant role for eotaxin-2 and a synergistic reduction in eotaxin-1/2 double-deficient (DKO) and CCR3-deficient mice. Examination of pulmonary tissue eosinophilia revealed a modest role for individually ablated eotaxin-1 or eotaxin-2. However, eotaxin-1/2 DKO mice had a marked decrease in tissue eosinophilia approaching the low levels seen in CCR3-deficient mice. Notably, the organized accumulation of eosinophils in the peribronchial and perivascular regions of allergen-challenged wild-type mice was lost in eotaxin-1/2 DKO and CCR3-deficient mice. Mechanistic analysis revealed distinct expression of eotaxin-2 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cells consistent with macrophages. Taken together, these results provide definitive evidence for a fundamental role of the eotaxin/CCR3 pathway in eosinophil recruitment in experimental asthma. These results imply that successful blockade of Ag-induced pulmonary eosinophilia will require antagonism of multiple CCR3 ligands.


from tuberculosis has declined more or less steadily from over 3,000 per annum in 1917 and 1918 to 1,611 in 1929, which is the smallest number yet recorded for Northern Ireland. A salient feature of the deaths from tuberculosis is the high rate at certain ages; of the deaths between the ages of 15 and 25 from all causes more than half are due to tuberculous disease. The deaths from cancer numbered 1,469, a slight increase on the figure for 1928. The recorded rate from this cause has increased gradually over the past ten years in Northern Ireland. Of the total deaths, numbering 19,822, over 50 per cent. were attributed to the following diseases:


This article critically analyses the hermeneutic commitment of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). In the theoretical framework of IPA, the role of preconceptions and prejudices is consistently downplayed; priority is given to the participant's own words. Paley has argued that IPA's interpretative phase is always and necessarily determined by the researcher's fore-conceptions, as opposed to the participant's narrative. I demonstrate that IPA's failure to recognize the importance of an external frame of reference in interpretation may arise from the misunderstanding of the method's hermeneutic underpinnings. I essentially argue that bracketing the researcher's fore-conceptions during the initial phases of IPA is merely an illusion. While it is beyond the scope of this article to dispute whether IPA is genuinely phenomenological, my claim ultimately poses a challenge to IPA's phenomenological commitment on its own terms. The article concludes with a proposal to substantially improve IPA's consistency with hermeneutic tradition and its grounding in phenomenological philosophy.


The NIST Crystal and Electron Diffraction Data Center builds a comprehensive database with evaluated chemical, physical, and crystallographic information on all types of well-characterized substances. The data are evaluated and standardized by specially designed computer programs as well as by experts in the field. From its master database, the Data Center produces NIST Crystal Data and an Electron Diffraction Database with over 220 000 and 81 000 entries, respectively. These distribution databases are made available to the scientific community via CD-ROM, scientific instruments and online systems. In addition, the Data Center has developed theory and software that can be used for establishing all types of lattice relationships, for the determination of symmetry, for the identification of unknowns using lattice matching techniques, and for data evaluation.


Many factors introduce the prospect of changes in the demand environment that a firm faces, with the specifics of such changes not necessarily known in advance. If and when realized, such changes affect the delicate balance between demand and supply and thus current prices should account for these future possibilities. We study the dynamic pricing problem of a retailer facing the prospect of a change in the demand function during a finite selling season with no inventory replenishment opportunity. In particular, the time of the change and the postchange demand function are unknown upfront, and we focus on the fundamental trade-off between collecting revenues from current demand and doing so for postchange demand, with the capacity constraint introducing the main tension. We develop a formulation that allows for isolating the role of dynamic pricing in balancing inventory consumption throughout the horizon. We establish that, in many settings, optimal pricing policies follow a monotone path up to the change in demand. We show how one may compare upfront the attractiveness of pre- and postchange demand conditions and how such a comparison depends on the problem primitives. We further analyze the impact of the model inputs on the optimal policy and its structure, ranging from the impact of model parameter changes to the impact of different representations of uncertainty about future demand.


Education in science has been developing rapidly in its various dimensions and this can be considered a new paradigm in science education. The dimensions considered highly significant in their development are the instructional approach, orientation to diversity of learners' characteristics, expansion of the orientation to educational output, and interinstitutional and international collaboration. Science education is no longer considered sterile in character with orientation only to the interest of understanding science and developing scientific thinking. Human and social values that can be developed through science education have started to be discovered and studied. An interand multidisciplinary character of science education is becoming more dominant and it will be the character that tends to develop further in the future. Science education can be used as a medium to identify the perspective of the nation's development and as a basis for technological development and nation building. The responsibility of science education for national development is increasingly becoming bigger and the education in science needs to be renewed continuously in order not to be left behind by the nation it self.


Stroke patients experienced the event of non-disable person to disable one. After having a stroke, they got many changes. Physical, social, emotional and spiritual adjustment needs to be addressed for the stroke patients. They underwent transition during recovery and rehabilitation process. This conceptual analysis is important to reveal the basic element of the transition concept in stroke patients make definitions and terminology associated with it. There were several themes that associated with the concept of transition in stroke patients, such as changes in the temporal order of life (daily routines and activities), change in sense of self and the experience of time, change in connectedness, and change in community integration. This concept analysis will help nurses or health provider during taking care of stroke patient to make the best service for them. The model presented here may useful for nurses and other health professional to develop intervention programs to promote quality of life of stroke patients.


The paper describes an "immediate" skin reaction to derivatives of the diphtheria bacillus which is shown to be distinct from the "delayed" or "pseudoreaction" commonly seen in Schick tests on adults. The "immediate" reaction was passively transferred to local areas of the skin of other people.


Fourteen endonasal endoscopic operations for vascular tumors of the paranasal sinuses, mainly of stage II-III, were performed in 1997-2006. In one case intraoperative navigation was used. Preoperative angiography was made in 4 patients with a definite diagnosis of hemangioma. Out of them, in three cases preoperative embolisation of the afferent vessel was conducted; apparent vascular bed in tumor stroma was not found. Follow-up from 1 to 8 years registered no further growth of the tumor in patients operated endoscopically.


The results of eleven two-stage reimplantations to salvage eleven infected total knee arthroplasties in ten women (seven with osteoarthritis and three with rheumatoid arthritis) were evaluated after an average follow-up of thirty-four months. The staged procedures included removal of all of the components of the prosthesis and all cement, then six weeks of parenteral antibiotic therapy (monitored by maintaining serum bactericidal levels at a peak dilution of 1:8), and finally reimplantation with a total condylar-type prosthesis. All antibiotics were discontinued after reimplantation. At follow-up, no patient had had a recurrence of the original infection, but one had a hematogenous infection with a different organism secondary to an infected bunion. The results after reimplantation were rated excellent in five knees, good in four, and fair in two. Weakness of the extensor mechanism with an extension lag was the most frequent complication. We do not believe that antibiotic therapy alone is adequate for the management of an infection around a prosthesis. The method described appears to be effective but it is costly and time-consuming. The surgical procedures and medical management are technically difficult, often special equipment and a custom-made prosthesis are required, and there are no shortcuts.


The relative harmonic coefficients (RHC), recently introduced as a multi-microphone spatial feature, demonstrates promising performance when applied to direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. All existing RHC-based DOA estimators suffer from a resolution limitation due to the inherent grid-based search. In contrast, this paper utilizes the first-order RHC to propose a closed-form DOA estimator by deriving a direction vector, which points towards to the desired source direction. Two objective metrics, namely localization accuracy and algorithm complexity, are adopted for the evaluation and comparison with existing RHC-based and intensity based localization approaches, in both simulated and real-life environments.


In this paper, we introduce a new concept for constructing prior
distributions. We exploit the natural nested structure inherent to many model
components, which defines the model component to be a flexible extension
of a base model. Proper priors are defined to penalise the complexity induced
by deviating from the simpler base model and are formulated after the input
of a user-defined scaling parameter for that model component, both in
the univariate and the multivariate case. These priors are invariant to reparameterisations,
have a natural connection to Jeffreys' priors, are designed to
support Occam's razor and seem to have excellent robustness properties, all
which are highly desirable and allow us to use this approach to define default
prior distributions. Through examples and theoretical results, we demonstrate
the appropriateness of this approach and how it can be applied in various situations.


AIM
To examine whether adding the Community Reinforcement Approach for Seniors (CRA-S) to Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) increases the probability of treatment success in people ≥ 60 years old with alcohol use disorder (AUD).

DESIGN
A single blind multi-centre multinational randomized (1:1) controlled trial.

SETTING
Outpatient settings (municipal alcohol treatment clinics in Denmark, specialized addiction care facilities in Germany, and a primary care clinic in the USA).

PARTICIPANTS
Between January 2014 and May 2016, 693 patients aged 60+ years and fulfilling DSM-5 criteria for AUD participated in comparing MET (n=351) and MET + CRA-S (n=342).

INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR
MET (comparator) included four manualized sessions aimed at increasing motivation to change and establishing a change plan. CRA-S (intervention) consisted of up to eight further optional, manualized sessions aimed at helping patients to implement their change plan. CRA-S included a specially designed module on coping with age and age-related problems.

MEASUREMENTS
The primary outcome was either total alcohol abstinence or an expected blood alcohol concentration of ≤ 0.05% during the 30 days preceding the 26 weeks follow-up (defined as success) or blood alcohol concentration of >0.05% during the follow-up period (defined as failure). This was assessed by self-report using the Form 90 instrument. The main analysis involved complete cases.

FINDINGS
The follow-up rate at 26 weeks was 76.2% (76.9% in the MET group and 76.0% in the MET+CRA-S group). The success rate in the MET group was 48.9% (95%CI=42.9%-54.9%) vs. 52.3% (95%CI=46.2%-58.3%) in the MET+CRA-S group. The odds of success in the two conditions did not differ (odds ratio 1.22. 95% CI=0.86-1.75, p = 0.26, Bayes factor=0.10). Sensitivity analyses involving alternative approaches to missing values did not change the results.

CONCLUSIONS
In older adults with an alcohol use disorder diagnosis, adding the 'Community Reinforcement Approach for Seniors' intervention to brief outpatient Motivational Enhancement Therapy treatment did not improve drinking outcome.


We report the synthesis and voltamperometric reduction of 5H-benzo[b]carbazole-6,11-dione (BCD) and its 2-R-substituted derivatives (R = -OMe, -Me, -COMe, -CF(3)). The electrochemical behavior of BCDs was compared to that of the 2-[(R-phenyl)amine]-1,4-naphthalenediones (PANs) previously studied. Like PANs, BCDs exhibit two reduction waves in acetonitrile. The first reduction step for the BCDs represents formation of the radical anion, and the half-wave potential (E(1/2)) values for this step are less negative than for that of the PANs. The second reduction wave, corresponding to the formation of dianion hydroquinone, has E(1/2) values that shift to more negative potentials. A good linear Hammett-Zuman (E(1/2) vs sigma(p)) relationship, similar to that for the PAN series, was also obtained for the BCDs. However, unlike the PANs, in the BCDs, the first reduction wave was more susceptible to the effect of the substituent groups than was the second wave, suggesting that the ordering of the two successive one-electron reductions in BCDs is opposite that in PANs. This is explained by the fact that the electron delocalizations in the two systems are different; in the case of BCDs there is an extra aromatic indole ring, which resists loss of its aromatic character. The electronic structures of BCD compounds were, therefore, investigated within the framework of the density functional theory, using the B3LYP hybrid functional with a double zeta split valence basis set. Our theoretical calculations show that the O(1).H-N hydrogen bond, analogous to that previously described for the PAN series, is not observed in the BCDs. Laplacians of the critical points (nabla(2)rho) and the natural charges for the C-O bonds indicate that the first reduction wave for the BCDs corresponds to the C(4)-O(2) carbonyl, while in the PAN series the first one-electron transfer occurred at the C(1)-O(1) carbonyl. Natural bond orbital analysis showed that, in all the BCDs, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) is located at C(4), whereas for the PANs, the LUMO is found at C(1). The good correlation between the LUMO energy values and the E(1/2) potentials (wave I) established that the first one-electron addition takes place at the LUMO. Analysis of the molecular geometry confirmed that, in both series of compounds, the effect of the substituent groups is mainly on the C(4)-O(2) carbonyl. These results explain the fact that reduction of the C(4)-O(2) carbonyl (voltammetric wave II in the PANs and voltammetric wave I in the BCDs) is more susceptible to the effect of the substituent groups than is reduction of the C(1)-O(1) carbonyl (wave I in the PANs and wave II in the BCDs).


We measured magnetic susceptibility (MS) and core gamma radiation (CGR) on 3162 ft (963.9 m) of core recovered by the New Jersey Coastal Plain Drilling Project (Ocean Drilling Program Leg 150X) at Island Beach, Atlantic City, and Cape May, New Jersey. Integration of core lithology, core/log (MS and CGR), and downhole gamma-ray (DGR) log studies have (1) documented the core/log expression of previously determined unconformities; (2) shown that MS is a proxy for glauconite percent in the New Jersey Coastal Plain; (3) illustrated a major change in sedimentation from shelfal glauconite evidenced by very high MS values to deltaic deposition with low MS values in the earliest Miocene (ca. 22 Ma); (4) shown that comparison of MS and CGR with DGR can be used to resolve discrepancies in depth between downhole logs and cores; and (5) shown that the CGR detects some zones noted in the lithology (e.g., phosphate rich zones) that are not resolved in the DGR.


Abstract The article focuses on the importance of technical and scientific assessments in present public regulation, notably in extra-national governance. The necessity to rely on experts' opinions in order to neutralize decisions, so to avoid arbitrariness and harmonize policies, is both crucial and increasingly predominant. Nonetheless, such evaluations are not always neutral, sound or independent. This may produce arbitrary decisions for regulatory measures that need to be at least impartial. Instead of proposing to shift the decision-making on behalf of discretionary or political regulators, the article insists on the idea of improving the moment of scientific assessment. The tool to increase the reliability of science-based opinions without compromising scientific neutrality is to realize a knowledge-based participation, only open to qualified interveners. The latter should be experts belonging to no-profit private associations pursuing public interests, with the aim to open up the discussion in uncertain fields of scientific investigation. This would make science democratic, but aims to legitimize its opinions – by adding democratic devices to scientific assessment – when they are not objective and have a regulatory effect, assuming that experts are exercising an (indirect) role of public regulators. The implementation of a mechanism of public participation in scientific assessments – limited to a selected representation of stakeholders qualified for their competence, knowledge and preparation – would enhance a scientific debate that would make scientific assessments plural without conditioning them to public opinion. Such a model could have advantages and some drawbacks, although the latter could be overcome with the application of an effective and efficient legal discipline covering the entire procedure.


Objectives This study investigated the correlation between sports club activities and well-being and physical health parameters in 10–12 years old boys. Design Cross sectional. Setting Danish schools. Participants 2293 boys took part in the study. Primary and secondary outcome measures Questionnaires on participation in sports clubs and well-being and testing of physical health profile through measurement of body composition, resting heart rate (RHR), blood pressure and postural balance, jump and Yo-Yo IR1C performance. Data were analysed by participation in sport and according to the five most frequently reported sports. Results Boys enrolled in sports clubs had higher physical well-being (51.7±9.7 vs 45.9±8.7) and psychological well-being (53.3±9.6 vs 51.4±10.0), experienced more peers and social support (50.9±9.9 vs 48.0±11.6), and had a more positive perception of the school environment (48.6±7.5 vs 45.9±8.1) than boys not involved in sports clubs. In addition, they showed better Yo-Yo IR1C (+46%), long jump (9%) and balance test performance (+20%). The boys active in sports clubs had higher relative muscle mass (+6%) and lower fat percentage (−3%), body mass index (−6%) and RHR (−5%) compared with boys not involved in sports clubs (p<0.05). Boys enrolled in football clubs had higher aerobic fitness compared with boys not active in clubs (+11%), handball players (+5%), swimmers (+8%) and badminton players (+7%). Moreover, the boys enrolled in football clubs had lower fat percentage (−17%) and higher relative muscle mass (+4%) than swimmers. Conclusion Boys participating in club-based sports showed markedly higher levels of well-being and better physical health profiles than boys not involved in sports club activities. Footballers had superior aerobic fitness and body composition compared with those active in other sports. Results suggest that sports club activities seem to be beneficial for young boys' well-being, fitness and physical health profile, with the greatest benefits achieved by boys involved in football.


Laser welding 0.016 x 0.022 in. beta-Ti, Ni-Ti, and Co-Cr-Ni orthodontic wires was investigated by measuring joint tensile strength, measuring laser penetration depth, determining metallurgical phases using micro X-ray diffraction (micro-XRD), and examining microstructures with an scanning electron microscope (SEM). Welding was performed from 150 to 230 V. Mean tensile strength for Ni-Ti groups was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than for most other groups of laser-welded specimens. Although mean tensile strength for beta-Ti and Co-Cr-Ni was significantly lower than for control specimens joined by silver soldering, it was sufficient for clinical use. The beta-Ti orthodontic wire showed deeper penetration depth from laser welding than the Ni-Ti and Co-Cr-Ni orthodontic wires. Micro-XRD patterns of laser-welded beta-Ti and Ni-Ti obtained 2 mm from the boundary were similar to as-received specimens, indicating that original microstructures were maintained. When output voltages of 190 V and higher were used, most peaks from joint areas disappeared or were much weaker, perhaps because of a directional solidification effect, evidenced by SEM observation of fine striations in welded beta-Ti. Laser welding beta-Ti and Co-Cr-Ni wires may be acceptable clinically, since joints had sufficient strength and metallurgical phases in the original wires were not greatly altered.


This study aimed to evaluate the effect of surface preparation on bond strength of a tri-n-butylborane initiated resin (MMA-TBB) bonded to zirconia. Zirconia disks were either airborne-particle abraded with alumina or silica-coated. The disks were thereafter primed with one of the following materials: phosphate-silane (Clearfil Ceramic Primer), phosphate (Alloy Primer), or silane (ESPE Sil). The specimens were bonded with the MMA-TBB. Shear bond strength was determined both before and after thermocycling. Bond strength of unprimed zirconia (control) was not affected by the surface roughness of each adherend. Priming with phosphate was effective for bonding alumina-blasted zirconia. Priming with silane was effective for bonding silica-coated zirconia. Priming effect of the phosphate-silane was superior to that of silane alone for bonding silica-coated zirconia. Bond strength to zirconia of the MMATBB is significantly influenced by a combination of the specific functional monomer and the surface modification performed rather than the material surface roughness.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the protective mechanism of preconditioning to the lung injury induced by ischemia-reperfusion.

METHODS
Twelve pigs were randomly divided into 2 groups: control group ( Group C) and ischemic preconditioning group ( Group IP). The concentration of superoxide distrautase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in circuit were checked before and after the perfusion to reflect the lipid peroxidation in the lungs. Left lung biopsies were performed immediately after the perfusion and 1 hour postperfusion for histologic examination. The ICAM-1 expression was assessed by immunohistochemical analysis with Envision method and the mRNA expression of ICAM-1 was analyzed by RT-PCR.

RESULTS
SOD in Group IP was much higher than that in Group C (P < 0.01 ). MDA in Group IP was much lower than that in Group C ( P < 0.01 ). The lung histologic examination showed that Group C was significantly more serious than Group IP in pulmonary edema, inflammatory cell infiltration, mild focal hemorrhage, and alveolar disruption. The expression of ICAM-1 of lung tissue obviously decreased in Group IP than that in Group C (P <0.01 ). The expression of ICAM-1 mRNA of lung tissue was significantly lower in Group IP than that in Group C (P < 0.01 ).

CONCLUSION
Lung ischemic preconditioning can reduce the lung injury. The mechanisms of the protective effects of the IP may be related to the increase of SOD and the decrease of MDA. The preconditioning down-regulated the ICAM-1 expression is one of the mechanisms in reducing the lung injury.


Andersen cardiodysrhythmic periodic paralysis or Andersen-Tawil syndrome includes the distinct clinical features of periodic paralysis, cardiac arrhythmia, and facial and skeletal dysmorphisms and exhibits autosomal dominant inheritance. Mutations in the KCNJ2 gene, which encodes the human inward rectifier potassium channel Kir2.1, have been identified in the majority of cases. Despite well-established clinical and molecular characteristics, treatment is still case oriented, and timely diagnosis could be delayed because of the low incidence and phenotypic heterogeneity of this disease. This article describes the clinical and molecular features of 3 cases of Andersen-Tawil syndrome in 2 families. One of the mutations (G144D) was located in the pore selectivity filter residue (which is mutated recurrently) and was considered novel. Intermittent muscle weakness in childhood warrants careful evaluation of cardiac dysrhythmia and skeletal anomalies.


This study is useful to look at the dynamics of resilience in male inmates. Resilience is consideredimportant in the context of prisoners, as prisoners are not resilient, once released will tend torepeat the same mistake of not being able to adapt and rise from the ground. Theme resiliencemale inmates selected because of the lack of resilience theme that uses subject prisoners inIndonesia. The lack of resilience topics male prisoners in Indonesia due to the concept ofresilience is more widely used in the context of natural disasters. This study uses interviews andLife History Quesionaire given to 6 inmates. As a result, individuals who have a high resiliencedue to the support person nearby, spirituality, and age. While the length of sentences has noeffect on the ability of prisoners resilience capability.


Usually, vehicles' stop-and-go driving will consume more fuel and emit more CO2 than constant speed driving. To reduce vehicles' CO2 emissions, vehicles' travel should be smoothed by reducing the stop-and-go times. In this paper, a three-tier structure is proposed to realize dynamic traffic light control for smoothing vehicles' travel. In tier-1, an electronic toll collection (ETC) system is employed for collecting road traffic flow data and calculating the recommended speed. In tier-2, radio antennas are installed near the traffic lights. Road traffic flow information can be obtained by wireless communication between the antennas and ETC devices. In tier-3, a branch-and-bound-based real-time traffic light control algorithm is designed to smooth vehicles' travels. After smoothing vehicles' travels, more vehicles can pass intersections with less waiting time and fewer short-time stops; therefore, the vehicles' CO2 emissions can be reduced. Simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme performs much better than the adaptive fuzzy traffic light control method: The average waiting time, short-time stop times, and CO2 emissions are greatly reduced, and the nonstop passing rate is greatly improved.


To gain more insight in the mechanism of action of inhibin, we studied the effect of inhibin on activin signaling in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Inhibin specifically counteracted activin-induced expression of a plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 promoter element (3TP) and of the junB gene, but was ineffective when the responses were induced by transforming growth factor-beta. This indicates that inhibin acts only on the activin-specific part of these signaling cascades. Using a constitutively active activin type IB receptor we determined whether inhibin acted at the level of the activin-receptor complex or downstream of it. The mutant activin receptor stimulated the expression of the 3TP promoter in the absence of activin. This stimulation was insensitive to inhibin, indicating that inhibin acts exclusively at or upstream of this activin type I receptor. In addition, competition studies using labeled activin showed that inhibin displaced activin from the activin type II receptors, especially from the activin type IIB receptor, but not from the type I receptors. In conclusion, these data show that in Chinese hamster ovary cells inhibin acts directly at the activin receptor complex, most likely through displacement of activin from the activin type II receptor.


The Psilidae (Diptera) fauna of Israel is reviewed and found to include 11 species: Chyliza extenuata (Rossi); Loxocera aristata (Panzer); and nine species of Chamaepsila, three of which (Ch. basalis, Ch. friedmani, and Ch. homochroa) are described as new. Chamaepsila hebraica Hennig is redescribed and its taxonomic and nomenclatural status are clarified, including a designation of a neotype. This species and the three newly described species comprise a monophyletic group (the hebraica group) endemic to Israel and its immediate environs. The little known and rarely collected Chyliza gracilis Loew is transferred to Chamaepsila (new combination) in which it is a homonym of Chamaepsila gracilis (Meigen). It is therefore renamed as Chamaepsila setalba, nomen novum, and redescribed. A key to all the Israeli taxa and a discussion of their temporal and geographic distribution in Israel are provided.


Abstract:With recourse to some relevant postmodern sensibilities—especially the pertinence of peripheries and the value of plurality—this article examines the occurrences of mountain(s) in Micah with a view to highlighting the tension between the abstractness of space conceived of with a single center and the complex pluriformity of places that it overwrites. The work proceeds in two movements: (1) a syntopic (contra synchronic) reading that builds on the ancient western Asian worldviews of space, and (2) guided by theories of critical spatiality, a diatopic (contra diachronic) reading that highlights some peripheral details that contribute to the Mican vision, paving the way for a "syndiatopic" suggestion.


Glucagon is used as an anti-motility agent during gastrointestinal tract examinations. We experienced subjects with enhanced 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in whole-body skeletal muscle when conducting positron emission tomography (PET). The subjects had been administered glucagon during gastroscopy just prior to PET. This observation prompted us to perform the present retrospective study to determine whether or not glucagon enhances FDG uptake in skeletal muscle. We randomly selected 30 cases, including subjects who had undergone PET and gastroscopy on the same day as cancer screening procedures, and classified them into three groups. In the NO group (n = 10), no medications were used prior to PET. In the SC group (n = 10), scopolamine butylbromide (10 mg) was intravenously administered during endoscopy. In the GL group (n = 10), glucagon (0.5 mg) was intravenously administered during endoscopy. Both drugs were administered 45-60 min prior to FDG administration. The mean standardized uptake value (SUV) for gluteal muscle was 0.7 ± 0.14, 0.69 ± 0.15, and 0.99 ± 0.7 in the NO, SC, and GL groups, respectively. The SUV in the GL group was highest, but the difference was not statistically significant. In the subject with the highest SUV (3.04; GL group), the quality of the oncologic PET image was impaired, perhaps because of a relative decrease of FDG distribution in the chest and abdomen. Because previous literature showed that via hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia glucagon has the effect of increasing FDG uptake in skeletal muscle, the use of glucagon should be avoided just prior to FDG PET, although in our subjects, no statistical proof that glucagon enhances FDG uptake in skeletal muscle was obtained.


From the Publisher:
Predicate transformation semantics is the best specification method for the development of correct and well-structured computer programs. This book is a complete account of the predicate transformation calculus semantics of sequential programs, including repetitions, recursive procedures, computational induction, and unbounded nondeterminacy. The author develops their theory to a greater depth than has been achieved before, and describes it in a way that makes it readily compatible with programming methodology. He gives proofs of the programming rules for partial and total correctness of repetitions and recursive procedures, supplies new rules for proving incorrectness, and a stronger rule for proving that two programs satisfy the same specifications. Finally, the semantics are extended so that non-terminating programs can be specified as well.


Reduction of the η-deformed sigma model on AdS5×S5 to the two-dimensional squashed sphere (S2)η can be viewed as a special case of the Fateev sausage model where the coupling constant ν is imaginary. We show that geodesic motion in this model is described by a certain superintegrable mechanical system with four-dimensional phase space. This is done by means of explicitly constructing three integrals of motion which satisfy the sl(2) Poisson algebra relations, albeit being non-polynomial in momenta. Further, we find a canonical transformation which transforms the Hamiltonian of this mechanical system to the one describing the geodesic motion on the usual two-sphere. By inverting this transformation we map geodesics on this auxiliary two-sphere back to the sausage model.


In August 2016, the Ghanaian Parliament marked the advent of a new era for the country's nascent petroleum industry with the enactment into law of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act (Act 919). Act 919 is considered to represent a major milestone in the legislative history of the upstream oil and gas industry in Ghana. The main objective of this article is to assess the new statute's fitness for purpose through a critical examination of its regulatory aspirations and its underlying legislative presumptions. The discussion is set against the historical background of petroleum exploration and production in Ghana.


Abstract The adversarial nature of medical negligence litigation is subject to frequent criticism by the media, patient advocates, and scholars. In Ireland, reform of the medical negligence dynamic is often mooted, particularly in response to the high financial costs of this type of litigation; however, change in this area has been slow. Recently, the Irish courts have dealt with a number of high-profile, medical negligence disputes, including claims for those affected by the CervicalCheck controversy, which involved the failure to disclose the results of a retrospective audit to women who had developed cervical cancer. These cases have again highlighted the shortcomings of an adversarial system. This article explores the limitations of the tort system in the context of plaintiff aims in medical negligence disputes, drawing on empirical findings (qualitative interviews with patient support groups and barristers), and the literature. In doing so, the article argues that while financial compensation is necessary and appropriate in cases of medical negligence, the current system fails to recognise the often emotional nature of these claims, and the wider needs and aims of litigants involved in these disputes.


We are approaching the era with blurred boundary between hardware and software: hardware is getting more and more flexibility for fast development and configuration - we are programming hardware; critical software is being built on chip for high performance - we are also coining software. The author of this book try to build such a bridge to import the new high speed computation architecture based on FPGA to the simulation of neutron transport in nuclear reactor. After the most recent Fukushima accident in Japan, there is no doubt for more effort on reactor safety. This book represents first an algorithm to simulate the three-dimensional transport of neutrons, the generators of nuclear fission, inside an arbitary nuclear reactor model, and then demonstrates the methodology of moving the computationally intensive codes into an FPGA chip with 20 times higher performance. We all use software running above hardware, but here the software is inside hardware.


The effect of a gap between an inlet duct and a rotating impeller in a centrifugal fan is often neglected in the impeller design calculations or design-related CFD analyses. This leads to an arbitrary determination of the gap size for the final fan configuration. Since the gap guides the volute flow back to the impeller flow field near the shroud high-curvature turning area, the low-momentum jet formed by the gap flow could prevent local flow from separation, reducing the local flow turning losses. However, this jet flow has enlarged flow separation in the blade passage producing shedding vorticity in the downstream passage flow. The passage-flow separation and the downstream volute flow, which is also affected by the passage-flow separation, have a higher impact on flow losses than the blade leading-edge separation. If the gap size is not selected carefully, the combined effect of the passage-flow separation and downstream volute-flow losses reduces the fan's overall performance between 2% points and 5% points as demonstrated in the current study. In this paper, local impeller velocity distributions obtained from both design-CFD and analysis-CFD calculations are compared along the shroud from the gap to the blade trailing edge. The overall impeller flow fields with and without the gap and volute effects are also compared and discussed based on the CFD solutions. Finally, an example of controlling the gap effect is shown.


The study was premised on understanding the market equilibrium model in economics so as to improve the Zimbabwe tourism destination market performance. The analysis was done through combining the demand and supply concepts in order to reach tourism market equilibrium. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research designs to get data form respondents. The elements driving market demand have been identified as prices, changes in taste and preferences, cultural changes, disposable income, technological changes, marketing and branding.  Those determining supply include technology, distribution networks (accessibility), local community support, buildings and infrastructure. The results of the study show that both demand and supply variables need to be favourably crafted in order to get a better market position for Zimbabwe tourism destination. Also the study recommended changes in tastes and preferences, culture changes and branding as the main determinants affecting Zimbabwe tourism destination demand. The supply variables to improve have been identified as technology, buildings and infrastructure, distribution networks and local community participation.


Measurements of the temperature of the baryons at the end of the cosmic dark ages can potentially set very precise constraints on energy injection from exotic sources, such as annihilation or decay of the dark matter. However, additional effects that lower the gas temperature can substantially weaken the expected constraints on exotic energy injection, whereas additional radiation backgrounds can conceal the effect of an increased gas temperature in measurements of the 21-cm hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen. Motivated in part by recent claims of a detection of 21-cm absorption from a redshift of 17 by the EDGES experiment, we derive the constraints on dark matter annihilation and decay that can be placed in the presence of extra radiation backgrounds or effects that modify the gas temperature, such as dark matter-baryon scattering and early baryon-photon decoupling. We find that if the EDGES observation is confirmed, then constraints on light dark matter decaying or annihilating to electrons will in most scenarios be stronger than existing state-of-the-art limits from the cosmic microwave background, potentially by several orders of magnitude. More generally, our results allow mapping any future measurement of the global 21-cm signal into constraints on dark matter annihilation and decay, within the broad range of scenarios we consider.


INTRODUCTION
This study was carried out to investigate changes in the plasma leptin concentrations during preeclampsia treatment and to determine whether antihypertensive treatments, aimed at decreasing leptin levels, would improve foetal outcomes.

METHODS
A prospective study was undertaken in 57 pregnant women with preeclampsia (37 with mild and 20 with severe preeclampsia) and 46 normal pregnant women who were matched in maternal and gestational age and body mass index. The mild preeclampsia group was treated with alpha-methyldopa, while the severe preeclampsia group was treated with a combination of alpha-methyldopa and nifedipine.

RESULTS
The severe preeclampsia group had significantly lower platelet counts, higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures and elevated serum uric acid concentrations. Pre-treatment plasma leptin levels were significantly increased in the severe preeclampsia group (range 18.3-49.5) compared to the the mild preeclampsia group (range 20.7-45.4) and normal controls (range 8.6-19.2). Post-treatment plasma leptin levels in both the mild and severe preeclampsia groups (range 10.2-23.5 and 11.3-24.4, respectively) were statistically similar to those of the control group (range 9.1-20.7). Estimated foetal weight, intrauterine growth retardation and demise were statistically similar in the three study groups.

CONCLUSION
Plasma leptin concentrations were found to be elevated in women diagnosed with severe preeclampsia. However, the exact mechanism underlying the increased plasma leptin levels in preeclampsia and the functional role of leptin in the development of hypertension need to be further clarified. Leptin has a promising future as a valuable marker to identity women with a high risk for preeclampsia.


Prussian blue analogue Ce[Co(CN)6]·nH2O nanoparticles were prepared by water bath coprecipitation for the first time. The effects of reaction parameters on the morphology and particle size of the synthesized products were revealed by controlling the variable method. The synthetic product has the characteristics of simple preparation method, low cost, small particle size and MOF (Metal organic framework). The cerium and cobalt elements contained in it are common catalytic active elements, which provides ideas and reference for the design and preparation of high-efficiency and low-cost catalysts.


Plastic pollution is a fast-rising environmental catastrophe. Microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) are ubiquitous components of most aquatic environments, and their burgeoning prevalence is endangering aquatic organisms. Recent studies have documented the entanglement of marine and freshwater biota by plastic litters, particularly ghost fishing gear, resulting in suffocation, drowning, or starving to death. Numerous reports have shown that aquatic organisms readily ingest and accumulate these emerging contaminants in their digestive systems. Given experimental evidence that contaminants-laden MNPs can persist in the gastrointestinal tract for considerable durations, investigations have documented a high probability of lethal and sublethal toxicological effects associated with direct and indirect MNPs ingestions. These include chronic protein modulation, DNA damage, embryotoxicity, gastrointestinal toxicity, genotoxicity, growth inhibition toxicity, histopathotoxicity, liver toxicity, neurotoxicity, oxidative stress, reproductive toxicity, and tissue damage. Today, reports have proven the transfer of MNPs across the aquatic food web to humans. However, the mechanisms of multiple contaminants-laden MNPs-induced toxicities, size-dependent toxicity, and the comprehensive mode-of-action and alterations of digestive, reproductive, and neurological systems' functionality in marine organisms are still unclear. Thus, this review mainly addresses the prevalence, food web interactions, and toxicity assessment of micro(nano) plastics in marine and freshwater organisms. It summarizes documented studies based on the following broad objectives: (1) the occurrence and prevalence of micro(nano) plastic particles in marine and freshwater environments; (2) the ingestion of MNPs by aquatic biota and the food web exposure routes and bioaccumulation of contaminated MNPs by higher trophic entities; (3) the adsorption and desorption of persistent organic pollutants, metals, and chemical additives on/from micro(nano)plastics; and (4) the probable ecotoxicological effects of micro(nano)plastics ingestion on aquatic biota.


Earlier epidemiological studies have shown that exposure to aluminium oxide and silicon carbide might carry with it an increased risk of lymphomas, stomach cancer, and non-malignant respiratory disease. To elucidate further this possible hazard, the cancer morbidity and the total mortality pattern was studied among 521 men manufacturing abrasive materials who had been exposed to aluminium oxide, silicon carbide, and formaldehyde. Total dust levels were in the range of 0.1-1.0 mg/m3. The cohort was followed up from 1958 until December 1983. No significant increase was found in total mortality, cancer mortality, or incidence of non-malignant respiratory diseases.


Ubiquitin-like PHD and ring finger domain protein 1 (UHRF1) are members of the multifunctional UHRF family, which can participate in DNA methylation change and histone posttranslational change through particular domains and participate in the event and development of tumors. The purpose of this study was to decide the molecular traits and potential medicine-based importance of UHRF1 that helped settle methylated immune infiltration in generalized cancer by carefully studying the relationship between UHRF1 expression and a variety of tumors and to further check for truth the functional role of UHRF1 in kidney-related cancer. A comprehensive analysis of UHRF1 in 33 cancers was performed based on TCGA database. This research involves analysis of mRNA expression profiles, prognostic value, immune infiltration, immune neoantigens, TMB, microsatellite instability, DNA methylation, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Both immune infiltration and DNA methylation were used to evaluate the importance and method of UHRF1 in renal cancer. The results showed that tumor tissue had higher expression level of UHRF1 than usual tissue. The high expression level of UHRF1 is related to the survival rate of renal cancer. UHRF1 expression was associated with tumor mutation load and microsatellite instability in different cancer types, and enrichment analysis identified terminology and pathways associated with UHRF1. This study showed that UHRF1 plays an important role in the group of objects and development of 33 tumors. UHRF1 may serve as a biomarker of immune infiltration and poor outlook of cancer.


Coated fertilizers can provide lower losses and higher soil nutrients availability, which can be absorbed by plants, when we consider their gradual release. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of doses and sources of N, P, and K on maize grain components and yield, under no-till system, in the Brazilian savannah. The experimental design was randomized blocks, with 4 top-dressed doses (0 kg ha-1, 40 kg ha-1, 80 kg ha-1, and 120 kg ha-1) and 2 sources (urea and coated urea), for N; 4 doses (0 kg ha-1, 50 kg ha-1, 100 kg ha-1, and 150 kg ha-1) and 2 sources (triple superphosphate and coated triple superphosphate), for P; and 4 doses (0 kg ha-1, 40 kg ha-1, 80 kg ha-1, and 120 kg ha-1) and 2 sources (potassium chloride and coated potassium chloride), for K, with 4 replications. The fertilizers coated with polymers (urea, triple superphosphate, and potassium chloride) were not efficient under the soil and climate conditions studied, because they provided results similar to the same conventional fertilizers, for the N, P, and K foliar contents, and irrigated maize grain components and yield. The increment of N doses increased linearly the N leaf content, number of ears per hectare and maize grains yield. The application of K2O and P2O5 doses did not influence grain yield.


Current nitrogen (N) fertilizer management practices for vegetable farming have led to elevated levels of nitrate-nitrogen in the local groundwater. A study was conducted at the Hancock Agricultural Research station to determine if controlled release fertilizer, specifically Environmentally Smart Nitrogen (ESN®), could reduce groundwater N concentration. Field experiments were conducted using Russet Burbank potato and Overland sweet corn, planted in Plainfield sand. Four fertilizer rates in potato were evaluated: 1) 0 N control, 2) 224 kg ha -1 of N as ESN®, 3) 280 kg N ha -1 as ESN®, and 4) 280 kg N ha -1 as a split application of ammonium sulfate (AS) and ammonium nitrate (AN). Sweet corn fertilizer rates were: 1) 0 N control, 2) 168 kg N ha -1 as ESN®, 3) 168 kg N ha -1 as ASurea-urea, and 4) 224 kg N ha -1 as AS-urea-urea. Both studies included three replicates to create twelve 14.6 m by 15.2 m field plots. Three groundwater monitoring wells placed diagonally across plots were installed and sampled weekly during the growing season and monthly during winter for assessing nitrate. Bromide tracer was used to evaluate solute flux and spatial distribution of N leaching potential among plots. Bromide tracer showed that plot size was sufficiently large with no plot-to-plot contamination from N migration and the time for groundwater to flow to adjacent plots is longer than the growing season. Therefore, in-season contamination is minimal, and thus nitrate measurements were from respective plots. Trends indicate that ESN® reduced the amount of nitrate leaching to groundwater. However, highly variable background nitrate concentrations in the groundwater made it difficult to show statistical significance. The effective use of groundwater monitoring wells requires careful consideration of depth to groundwater, groundwater flow direction, and variability of groundwater nitrogen concentration.


Our research will help ice-sheet modellers to validate and improve their computer models and thus improve predictions of future sea-level rise in response to polar ice-sheet melting.


Purpose: To construct and test a 3D printed phantom designed to mimic variable PET tracer uptake seen in lung tumor volumes. To assess segmentation accuracy of sub-volumes of the phantom following 4D PET/CT scanning with ideal and patient-specific respiratory motion. To plan, deliver and verify delivery of PET-driven, gated, simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) radiotherapy plans. Methods: A set of phantoms and inserts were designed and manufactured for a realistic representation of lung cancer gated radiotherapy steps from 4D PET/CT scanning to dose delivery. A cylindrical phantom (40x 120 mm) holds inserts for PET/CT scanning. The novel 3D printed insert dedicated to 4D PET/CT mimics high PET tracer uptake in the core and lower uptake in the periphery. This insert is a variable density porous cylinder (22.12×70 mm), ABS-P430 thermoplastic, 3D printed by uPrint SE Plus with inner void volume (5.5×42 mm). The square pores (1.8×1.8 mm2 each) fill 50% of outer volume, resulting in a 2:1 SUV ratio of PET-tracer in the void volume with respect to porous volume. A matching in size cylindrical phantom is dedicated to validate gated radiotherapy. It contains eight peripheral holes matching the location of the porous part of the 3D printed insert, and one central hole. These holes accommodate adaptors for Farmer-type ion chamber and cells vials. Results: End-to-end test were performed from 4D PET/CT scanning to transferring data to the planning system and target volume delineation. 4D PET/CT scans were acquired of the phantom with different respiratory motion patterns and gating windows. A measured 2:1 18F-FDG SUV ratio between inner void and outer volume matched the 3D printed design. Conclusion: The novel 3D printed phantom mimics variable PET tracer uptake typical of tumors. Obtained 4D PET/CT scans are suitable for segmentation, treatment planning and delivery in SIB gated treatments of NSCLC.


This paper describes work initiated by the government in Tanzania aimed at benchmarking labour productivity amongst building contractors, and to thereby establish a construction labour productivity performance related data base and stimulate competitive performance. A clear need for performance improvement for construction industries in African developing countries is set out. Labour productivity has been identified as a critical issue in performance improvement and arguments have been put forward to justify the concentration of efforts to improve labour productivity at site level. Productivity benchmarks were established by observing site output using the activity sampling technique. The proposed benchmark is an asymptotic upper productivity figure which can be used for establishing a continuous productivity improvement programme. The project concepts used are then compared with Total Quality Management (TQM) and benchmarking concepts.


Abstract: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economic development of many countries. SMEs are also dominant in the Malaysian economy. Their contribution to the national economy, however, remains modest in terms of value added and exports. During the last 2-3 decades, the process of globalization has gained momentum. Malaysia has embraced globalization with open arms and benefited in terms of foreign trade and investment. Along with trade and investment opportunities, globalization has brought challenges of competition, technological change and new business environment to local producers. Given their size and structure, the SMEs in Malaysia are particularly affected by these challenges. To make further progress, the SMEs need to become more dynamic and enter global markets. This requires enhanced competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovation capacity on the part of SMEs. This paper argues that, among other things, some aspects of the national culture act as constraints in leading the SMEs to the global markets. The paper makes recommendations to overcome these constraints.


Superconductivity in the copper oxides occurs at a crossover from localized to itinerant electronic behaviour, a transition that is first order. A spinodal phase segregation is normally accomplished by atomic diffusion; but where it occurs at too low a temperature for atomic diffusion, it may be realized by cooperative atomic displacements. Locally cooperative, fluctuating atomic displacements may stabilize a distinguishable phase lying between a localized-electron phase and a Fermi-liquid phase; this intermediate phase exhibits quantum-critical-point behaviour with strong electron?lattice interactions making charge transport vibronic. Ordering of the bond-length fluctuations at lower temperatures would normally stabilize a charge-density wave (CDW), which suppresses superconductivity. It is argued that in the copper oxide superconductors, crossover occurs at an optimal doping concentration for the formation of ordered two-electron/two-hole bosonic bags of spin S = 0 in a matrix of localized spins; the correlation bags contain two holes in a linear cluster of four copper centres ordered within alternate Cu?O?Cu rows of a CuO2 sheet. This ordering is optimal at a hole concentration per Cu atom of p ? 1/6, but it is not static. Hybridization of the vibronic electrons with the phonons that define long-range order of the fluctuating (Cu?O) bond lengths creates barely itinerant, vibronic quasiparticles of heavy mass. The heavy itinerant vibrons form Cooper pairs having a coherence length of the dimension of the bosonic bags. It is the hybridization of electrons and phonons that, it is suggested, stabilizes the superconductive state relative to a CDW state.


The distribution of four basement membrane components, type IV collagen (C IV), laminin (LM), heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSP) and fibronection (FN) has been studied by indirect immunofluorescence using specific antibodies, in benign and malignant proliferations of the mammary gland and in soft tissue tumors. In breast carcinomas, specially intraductal cancers, there is a progressive and concomitant loss of these macromolecules around tumoral cells, preceding an overt tumoral invasion. In sarcomas, FN is frequently seen between malignant cells but the regular pericellular labeling observed around normal muscular cells, Schwann cells and adipocytes is absent. Nevertheless, the persistance of some pericellular staining with anti-C IV, anti-LM, anti-HSP and anti-FN antisera, in most differentiated territories of liposarcomas, leiomyosarcomas and neurifibrosarcomas can help to the diagnosis of such lesions.


Abstract. Mekhadmi NE, Ramdani M, Lograda T, Chalard P, Figueredo G. 2019. Chemotypes and antibacterial activity of Matricaria pubescens of Algeria. Biodiversitas 20: 3170-3179. The objectives of this study were to determine the chemical composition and to evaluate the antibacterial activity of Matricaria pubescens L. essential oils from 14 sampling locations in southern Algeria. The extraction of essential oils was carried out by the hydro-distillation; the analysis of chemical composition of essential oil was carried out by GC-MS. Antibacterial activity was performed by disc diffusion method at the undiluted and diluted essential oil (1/1, 1:2, 1:4 and 1:8 v:v of DMSO) against eight species of bacteria (Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Listeria innocua, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica and Staphylococcus aureus). The results showed that the average yields of essential oils were 0.4 ± 0.27%. A total of 34 components were identified, averaging 99.22 ± 0.8% of the total oils. The main components were β-ocimene (Z) (47.41 ± 13.67%), α-pinene (19 ± 7.36%), β-bulnesene (4.96 ± 10.6%), ocimene-allo (4.46 ± 1.3%), 1-phenyl-penta-2,4-diyne (4.06 ± 5.7%), limonene (3.84 ± 1.8%), caryophyllene oxide (2.36 ± 3.6%) and γ-bisabolene-E (2.08 ± 4.3%). Based on the UPGMA cluster analysis, there were two distinct clades of M. pubescens. This species has a chemical polymorphism with different chemotypes marked in nature. There were four chemotypes identified in the essential oil of M. pubescens in the region studied. The essential oil of M. pubescens has antibacterial activity against eight bacteria tested in a concentration-dependent manner.


This paper presents a media access protocol designed for LIGHTING, a WDM testbed currently under construction which has been designed for high-performance supercomputer interconnection. The architecture is based on a dynamically reconfigurable hierarchical WDM network that is being constructed to interconnect a large number of supercomputers and create a distributed shared memory (DSM) environment. This paper describes the network media access protocol based on a single tunable transmitter and single tunable receiver (TT-TR) per node. The protocol exploits the bimodal traffic characteristics of a DSM system. The primary objectives of the protocol design are reduced average latency per packet, support of broadcast/multicast, and support of collisionless communication. The proposed approach is compared to an earlier protocol based on one tunable transmitter and one fixed receiver (TT-FR) per node. The performance of the protocol in terms of average latency and channel utilization is analyzed for varying system characteristics such as number of nodes and channels.


Magnetite nanoparticles, activated Carbon and their composites were synthesized in the laboratory. The adsorbents were characterized by bulk density, pH, pzc, surface area, iodine value, moisture contents, volatile components, Brunauer Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The adsorbents were employed for the batch adsorption of sulphate ion from aqueous solution. Some variable effects such as pH, initial concentration, contact time, adsorbent dosage and temperature on adsorption were also investigated. The data obtained were fitted into isotherms, kinetic model and thermodynamic process. The adsorption studies results revealed R 2 value ranging from 0.961 - 0.996 for Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm ranges from 0.954 – 0.979 for all types of adsorbents studied. Pseudo-first-order kinetic models correlation coefficient factor ranges between 0.818 – 0.947 while Pseudo-second-order kinetic models R 2 values ranges from 0.999 - 1. The equilibrium time for all adsorbent types range from 45-120 minutes and the maximum monolayer capacity (q max ) was observed to be between 83.0 - 142.86 mg/g for all the adsorbents at optimum pH 5. Thermodynamic studies revealed ΔH value to be in the range 1.484-4.573kJ/mol and ΔG value in the range -7.054- (-5.314) kJ/mol for all adsorbent types. Thermodynamic result revealed that the adsorption system was feasible, spontaneous and endothermic in nature. Keywords: Sulphate, Adsorption, Magnetite, Composites, Isotherm, Thermodynamic


Nontyphoidal Salmonella is a type of well-known foodborne pathogen that causes gastroenteritis, bacteremia, and subsequent focal infection. Moreover, colonic ulcers, caused by nontyphoidal Salmonella infection, are considered uncommon in children. We report on the case of a 32-month-old healthy female with diffuse left-side colonic ulcers that presented with copious hematochezia, caused by a Salmonella enteritidis infection. (Pediatr Gastroenterol Hepatol Nutr 2012; 15: 193∼196)


The article is devoted to the implementation of the method of modeling for identifying an unknown perpetrator. Some approaches to the concept model of a person unknown perpetrator. Analyzed some of the fields of application of the method of modeling the unknown criminal personality, their content.


A series of dogs was anesthetized with a morphine-pentobarbital combination and the plasma volume measured with radioactive I131 and plasma protein by the method of Barbour and Hamilton. Blood was then transfused in 10 cc/kg increments up to a total of 50 cc/kg. After each 10 cc/kg of blood 20 minutes was allowed for equilibration and then plasma volume and protein were redetermined. No loss of plasma volume or protein occurred with a transfusion of 10 cc/kg, but the loss of both was statistically significant with 20 cc/kg. There was a progressive loss of both plasma volume and protein from the initial values with each additional increment of 10 cc/kg.


Abstract Foster children exhibit high rates of atypical neuroendocrine functioning compared to children in the general population. In particular, alterations in the daytime diurnal activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis have been observed in foster children, often characterized by blunted salivary cortisol levels (i.e., low morning levels that remain low throughout the day). There is emerging evidence that therapeutic interventions for foster children can affect this pattern of HPA axis activity, but the specific intervention components responsible for change have not been fully explicated. Within a randomized trial to evaluate a therapeutic intervention for foster preschoolers (n = 57 intervention condition; n = 60 comparison condition; n = 60 community comparison condition), the present study examined whether diurnal cortisol activity was associated with caregiver self-reported stress in response to child problem behavior. Results showed immediate reductions in caregiver stress that were sustained through 12 months postbaseline in the intervention condition. In contrast, caregivers in the regular foster care condition showed higher rates of stress across time and increased stress sensitivity to child problem behaviors. In addition, among caregivers in regular foster care, higher self-reported stress was associated with lower morning cortisol levels and more blunted diurnal cortisol activity. These results provide evidence that interventions can simultaneously impact caregiver stress and buffer children from the negative impacts of caregiver stress on HPA axis regulation.


Pedestrian trajectory prediction is fundamental to a wide range of scientific research work and industrial applications. Most of the current advanced trajectory prediction methods incorporate context information such as pedestrian neighbourhood, labelled static obstacles, and the background scene into the trajectory prediction process. In contrast to these methods which require rich contexts, the method in our paper focuses on predicting a pedestrian's future trajectory using his/her observed part of the trajectory only. Our method, which we refer to as LVTA, is a Location-Velocity-Temporal Attention LSTM model where two temporal attention mechanisms are applied to the hidden state vectors from the location and velocity LSTM layers. In addition, a location-velocity attention layer embedded inside a tweak module is used to improve the predicted location and velocity coordinates before they are passed to the next time step. Extensive experiments conducted on three large benchmark datasets and comparison with eleven existing trajectory prediction methods demonstrate that LVTA achieves competitive prediction performance. Specifically, LVTA attains 9.19 pixels Average Displacement Error (ADE) and 17.28 pixels Final Displacement Error (FDE) for the Central Station dataset, and 0.46 metres ADE and 0.92 metres FDE for the ETH&UCY datasets. Furthermore, evaluation on using LVTA to generate trajectories of different prediction lengths and on new scenes without the need of retraining confirms that it has good generalizability.


The nature and distribution of sequences related to the murine erythroleukemia virus, Friend spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV), have been analyzed by using a radioactive cDNA probe specific for the SFFV genome (cDNA(sff)). From the proportion of high molecular weight viral [(32)P]RNA which hybridized to cDNA(sff), it was estimated that these sequences represent about 50% of the SFFV genome, indicating a genetic complexity of about 3300 nucleotides. cDNA(sff) hybridized extensively (80-95%) to SFFV virion RNA and to cellular RNA from murine and rat cells productively or nonproductively infected with SFFV. Only background homology was detected between cDNA(sff) and viral RNA from a number of murine [Friend murine leukemia virus (MuLV), Moloney-MuLV, and Kirsten sarcoma virus] and nonmurine (Rous sarcoma virus, feline leukemia virus, baboon endogenous virus, and Mason-Pfizer mammary tumor virus) retroviruses. Limited homology was also detected to a number of murine xenotropic and mink cell focus-inducing viruses (20-35%) as well as Rauscher leukemia virus (50%). Nucleotide sequences homologous to cDNA(sff) were also detected in the DNA of normal cells of several mouse strains as single or a few copies per cell. Thermal denaturation analysis indicated that duplexes formed between cDNA(sff) and normal DBA/2J cellular DNA have a reduction in melting temperature of 2 degrees C when compared with the dissociation of hybrids between cDNA(sff) and homologous sequences in SFFV-infected mouse spleen cell DNA. Examination of cellular RNA from uninfected mouse cells indicated that SFFV-related RNA sequences were also expressed in varying degrees in different tissues of adult DBA/2J mice. The highest amounts were observed in cells from bone marrow and spleen, whereas considerably lower amounts were found in cells from the thymus and kidney. No SFFV-related sequences could be detected in RNA extracted from liver, muscle, or fibroblasts. The presence of these SFFV-related sequences in normal, uninfected mouse cell DNA and their differential expression in hematopoietic tissues suggest that these sequences may be an integral part of the program of both normal and leukemic hematopoietic cell differentiation.


This paper examines the regulatory and supervisory implications stemming from the dominance of large and complex financial institutions, drawing on the recent Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) mission work on Sweden. The analysis highlights the importance of consolidated supervision, of a greater emphasis on effective management and corporate governance structures, and of measures strengthening the disciplinary role of the private sector. It calls for developing credible liquidity and crisis management arrangements through appropriate attention to the cross-product and cross-border nature of large and complex financial institution (LCFI) operations. Strengthened supervisory and regulatory responses will enable financial markets to better assess the nature and sources of residual risks they have to face and, on this basis, to develop more effective risk-mitigating measures.


A computerized test of preparedness for effortful processing (alerting attention), response to orienting cues (orienting attention), and response to the interference of competing demands (executive attention) was administered to a diverse sample of 249 children (47% female, 4.96 to 7.27 years) to assess developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates of task performance. Older children and socially advantaged children demonstrated greater proficiency in overall accuracy and speed of responding. Boys and socially advantaged children improved more in response to alerting cues. Older children improved more in response to orienting cues. Older children, socially advantaged children, African American, and Hispanic children resisted the interference of competing demands better. Findings are discussed in the context of developmental and sociodemographic factors relevant to attention and executive functions.


ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Ye Zhang is the first author on 'Histone H3K27 methylation modulates the dynamics of FANCD2 on chromatin to facilitate NHEJ and genome stability', published in Journal of Cell Science. Ye is a PhD student in the lab of Fang-Lin Sun at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, investigating epigenetic regulation in DNA repair and carcinogenesis.


ABSTRACT Purpose: To assess changes in eye alignment before and after cataract surgery. Subjects and methods: The medical records of 786 cataract patients without eye movement limitation who underwent bilateral cataract surgery under topical anesthesia with monofocal IOL placement were retrospectively reviewed at the Eye Center of Sanno Hospital in Japan. Results: Before cataract surgery, 121 of the 786 patients (15.4%) had constant strabismus, 263 (33.5%) had intermittent strabismus, and 402 (51.1%) had phoria. Among the 121 patients with constant strabismus on the preoperative exam, 64 (52.9%) had exotropia without vertical strabismus, 7 (5.8%) had esotropia without vertical strabismus, and 6 (5.0%) had vertical strabismus without a horizontal component. After surgery, 98 of the 786 patients (12.5%) had constant strabismus, 126 (16.0%) had intermittent strabismus, 562 (71.5%) had phoria. The rate of eye alignment agreement before and after surgery was 72.3% overall. We found that 17 patients (2.2%) who did not have constant strabismus preoperatively developed constant strabismus postoperatively, and all of these patients experienced binocular diplopia. Characteristics of patients at risk for constant strabismus and diplopia postoperatively included patients with vertical deviation preoperatively (intermittent or phoria). Conclusions: Uncomplicated cataract surgery under topical anesthesia did not influence eye alignment classification in 72.3% of patients; however, patients with vertical deviation preoperatively were more likely to transition to constant strabismus after surgery.


It was with great emotion that I accepted to be a guest speaker to this memorial section dedicated to my old-time friend, Prof. Radomir Ilic. In addition to being one of the most outstanding scientists in the field of nuclear tracks, Prof. Radomir Ilic has been always highly acclaimed by the scientific community for his enthusiasm, his warm friendship, and his great vitality. Through his successful editorial activities [1-7], Prof. Ilic has proved to be very able to address the field of nuclear tracks to very wide audiences with special regards to young students. It was here in Portorož, that Prof. Radomir Ilic was our host as the organiser of the 21 International Conference on Nuclear Tracks in Solids [4]. All the participants have great memories of this very successful international conference. For all these reasons, the 2006 edition of the International Conference on Nuclear Energy for new Europe, with its wide audience and its venue at Portorž, can be considered as one of the most appropriate forum for the memorial lecture of Prof. Radomir Ilic. The present paper will be dealing with the solid state nuclear track detectors-SSNTDs and their successful applications for the measurements of cosmicrayneutrons and terrestrial radioactivity, namely radon.


The ability to sort proteins to different intracellular compartments is an essential property of all cells. Many diseases are caused by a failure of certain proteins to be sorted properly in the endocytic and secretory pathways. In addition, various intracellular pathogens use their hosts' protein-sorting machinery at different stages of their life cycles. These facts underscore the importance of understanding the mechanisms of protein sorting at a molecular level. In this article, we review recent advances in the identification of signals that direct proteins to their correct intracellular locations and of the recognition molecules that bind to the signals. The implications of these findings for the trafficking of various proteins are discussed.


For decades now, scholars have researched the aesthetic inspirations refl ected in the poetry of the Generation of '27. Undoubtedly, the Avant Garde movement infl uenced their poetics and the way they conceived art as a whole. At the same time, the poets of this group were avid readers of the verses of their own literary tradition. Although Gongora became a symbol of this, the poets of '27 transcended Gongorismo very early. The purpose of this article is to illustrate how all the aforementioned manifests in the poetry written during the 1920s and the 1930s, especially, the way Garcilaso's poetry was incorporated into their cultural spectrum.


The i.p. injection of nicotine produced several changes in regional catecholamine concentrations in rat brain. These changes were blocked by the centrally active nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine, but not by the quaternary nicotinic antagonist hexamethonium. An examination of the effects of various cholinergic agents on hypothalamic epinephrine concentrations revealed several interesting findings. Central muscarinic antagonism or peripheral muscarinic agonism decreased hypothalamic epinephrine concentrations. The anticholinesterase physostigmine decreased hypothalamic epinephrine concentrations and this effect was blocked by the centrally acting nicotinic antagonist mecamylamine, but not by hexamethonium, scopolamine or methscopolamine. These findings indicate an interaction of cholinergic receptors, both nicotinic and muscarinic, with hypothalamic epinephrine.


We report on a set of performance measurements executed on VMEbus MVME5500 boards equipped with MPC7455 PowerPC processor, running four different operating systems: Wind River VxWorks, Linux, RTAI, and Xenomai. Some components of RTAI and Xenomai have been ported to the target architecture. Interrupt latency, rescheduling and inter-process communication times are compared in the framework of a sample real-time application. Performance measurements on Gigabit Ethernet network communication have also been carried out on the target boards. To this purpose, we have considered the Linux IP stack and RTnet, an open-source hard real-time network protocol stack for Xenomai and RTAI, which was ported to the considered architecture. Performance measurements show that the tested open-source software is suitable for hard real-time applications.


The nutritional condition of patients affects the results of surgical treatment. In patients in poor nutritional condition, postoperative complications, length of hospital stay, and mortality rate were reported to increase. Perioperative nutritional management is an important factor in preventing the incidence of postoperative infectious complications. The assessment of nutritional status is also important, and the appropriate dietary regimen should be selected based on the results of the assessment. Oral and enteral nutrition are usually selected for perioperative patients. Early enteral nutrition is advantageous in preventing postoperative infection. The effects of immunonutrition and synbiotics in surgical patients have been discussed in many recent reports. The advantages and disadvantages of nutritional therapy must be understood to provide the most appropriate regimen. This paper reviews the contribution of nutritional support to the prevention of complications after surgery.


Introduction An improved method for sampling nasal mucosal lining fluid (MLF), termed nasosorption, utilises a synthetic absorptive matrix (SAM) (Accuwick Ultra, Pall). Conventionally, Whatman's filter paper has been used for absorption of nasal MLF, but this natural cellulose source has the capacity to bind mediators, causing eluted fluid to have decreased and variable detectable levels of mediators. Nasal lavage has the problem of diluting MLF and this also causes detectable levels of mediators to be low. Strips of Accuwick are effective for nasosorption in adults following nasal allergen challenge and for sampling children with active rhinitis. However, Accuwick is no longer manufactured and we wished to validate an alternative SAM (Leukosorb, Pall). Methods Sputum supernatant (40 μl) from a subject with COPD as well as a standard preparation of cytokines was spiked onto Accuwick and Leukosorb strips. Following elution by spin filter centrifugation, the MesoScale Diagnostics (MSD) multi-immunoassay platform was used to assess levels of IFN-γ, IL-10, IL-12 p70, IL-6, IL-8, and TNFα. After absorption to Accuwick and Leukosorb, elution was compared with and without buffer (PBS with BSA (1%) and Triton X (1%)), prior to immunoassay of the recovered sample. Results Without buffer the recovery of 7 cytokines after the sputum supernatant was applied to Accuwick was a mean of 17.6% (range 1–100%), while recovery was a mean of 20.2% (range 2.9–92.5%) using Leukosorb. Addition of the buffer prior to elution of the fluid increased mean recovery to 61.8% when employing the Leukosorb system. Finally, in a direct comparison when employing Leukosorb and Accuwik for nasosorption in different nostrils after nasal allergen challenge in a single subject, Leukosorb resulted in higher detectable IL-5 levels in MLF. Conclusion Leukosorb appears to be a superior alternative to Accuwick Ultra for nasosorption in terms of recovery of cytokines. Addition of a buffer containing detergent and protein prior to elution significantly increases recovery. SAM has the potential to be employed in the upper and lower respiratory tract to sample undiluted MLF.


For almost a century, Neandertals were considered the ancestors of modern humans. But now, in a new plot twist in the unfolding mystery of how Neandertals were related to modern humans, it seems that members of our own lineage were among the ancestors of Neandertals. Researchers sequenced ancient DNA from the mitochondria—the tiny energy factories inside cells—from a Neandertal that lived at least 100,000 years ago in southwest Germany, and found that its mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) resembled that of modern humans. In a new report in Nature Communications , researchers conclude that this Neandertal, as well as others whose mtDNA was previously sequenced, inherited their mitochondrial genomes from mating with an early ancestor of Homo sapiens.


Antioxidant food additives are substances that can be added to foodstuff, in small amounts. The aim is to avoid oxidation of food products, thereby improving its durability. Authorized by the European Union Law there are more them fifty food additives with antioxidant technologic functions. On food products, two main oxidation processes prevail: (i) enzymatic oxidation of fruits, vegetables, and processed derivatives like juices, soft drinks, jellies and jams; (ii) oxidation and rancidity of spreadable fats and cooking fats and oils. Consequently, food technology uses soluble antioxidants in fats or in water, to prevent oxidation of various types of foodstuffs. Although some of these food additives are harmless when used in small quantities (e.g., the authorized amounts), the use of others might have risks to human health. Among side effects that can occur, stands out skin rashes and itching, urticarial and eczema, breathing difficulty, sneezing, gastrointestinal upsets, cholesterol in blood, hyperkinesis. This work is a synoptic review of food additives used as antioxidants authorized in the European Union, considering their characteristics, applications and side effects.


A descriptive and cross-sectional study to characterize clinically 707 patients with cancer, treated in "ConradoBenitezGarcia" Teaching Provincial Oncological Hospital from Santiago de Cuba was carried out during the year 2013, for presenting secondary adverse reactions to the radiotherapy. Toxicity (68.4%) was present in 484 affected patients from the case material. The male sex, the age group 60-70 years, the prostate and breast tumors, as well as the clinical stadium II prevailed. Among the most frequent adverse reactions there were: radiodermitis, rectitis and anemia. Hypertension, cardiopathies and cerebrovascular diseases were associated to the tumor. There were more adverse reactions when the concurrent radiotherapy was used with chemotherapy, and the complete remission was achieved in the patients who didn't interrupt the treatment.


ABSTRACT The residual levels of antibiotics in Vietnamese eggs were monitored from 2014 to 2015. A total of 111 egg packages, distributed by 11 different companies, were collected from supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City and the levels of 28 antibiotics were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) screening method. Sixteen samples tested positive for antibiotics; a total of eight compounds (enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, sulfadimethoxine, sulfamethazine, sulfamonomethoxine, tilmicosin and trimethoprim) were detected. Enrofloxacin was detected in eight samples, with two samples exhibiting concentrations exceeding 1,000 µg kg−1. Tilmicosin was detected in three samples at a range of 49–568 µg kg−1. We observed that two of the 11 companies frequently sold antibiotic-contaminated eggs (detection rates of 56 and 60%), suggesting that a number of companies do not regulate the use of antibiotics in egg-laying hens. Our findings indicate that livestock farmers require instruction regarding antibiotic use and that continual antibiotic monitoring is essential in Vietnam.


Purpose: Protein expression in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue is routinely measured by IHC or quantitative fluorescence (QIF) on a handful of markers on a single section. Digital spatial profiling (DSP) allows spatially informed simultaneous assessment of multiple biomarkers. Here we demonstrate the DSP technology using a 44-plex antibody cocktail to find protein expression that could potentially be used to predict response to immune therapy in melanoma. Experimental Design: The NanoString GeoMx DSP technology is compared with automated QIF (AQUA) for immune marker compartment-specific measurement and prognostic value in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Then we use this tool to search for novel predictive markers in a cohort of 60 patients with immunotherapy-treated melanoma on a tissue microarray using a 44-plex immune marker panel measured in three compartments (macrophage, leukocyte, and melanocyte) generating 132 quantitative variables. Results: The spatially informed variable assessment by DSP validates by both regression and variable prognostication compared with QIF for stromal CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20, and PD-L1 in NSCLC. From the 132 variables, 11 and 15 immune markers were associated with prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Notably, we find PD-L1 expression in CD68-positive cells (macrophages) and not in tumor cells was a predictive marker for PFS, OS, and response. Conclusions: DSP technology shows high concordance with QIF and validates based on both regression and outcome assessment. Using the high-plex capacity, we found a series of expression patterns associated with outcome, including that the expression of PD-L1 in macrophages is associated with response.


Mosquito-borne diseases are a global public health concern. Individuals' behavior may affect the transmission dynamics of diseases. For instance, improper storage of water can become a breeding site for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector of dengue, zika, chikungunya and urban yellow fever viruses. Most of the Aedes foci are in or near people's homes and the control of vector population is essential to prevent these diseases. Thereby, population awareness should be part of public health policies. Games are a powerful tool to promote awareness and behavioral changes, including public health. Our research goals are 1) the development and evaluation of a gamification-based system to support entomological and epidemiological surveillance through volunteered contributions, integrated with a 2) a game-based platform to be used as a complementary tool to promote awareness and behavioral changes. Some partial results are the game design, prototypes and demos. The expected results are the release and evaluation of a mixed reality game-based platform to support public health actions based on education and engagement of population aimed at vector control.


For temperature zero the authors study the effects of disorder on the electronic properties of the two-dimensional electron gas which exists in planar-doped ( delta -doped) GaAs. The density of states, the Fermi level, the single-particle relaxation time and the electron mobility are calculated as functions of the dopant concentration. The transition from a band tail to an impurity band and the nature of the metal-insulator transition are discussed. The authors compare the theoretical results on the mobility with some available experimental data.


: Five categories of strained baby foods were analyzed for iron, copper, zinc, magnesium, manganese, strontium, and cadmium. Meats, egg yolk, and cerals tended to have the highest concentrations of iron, copper, and zinc. Fruits and vegetables had lower contents of these minerals. Cereals and vegetables were the best sources of magnesium and manganese. Strontium and cadmium levels were consistently low.


Abstract Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is related to coronary artery disease (CAD), but the mechanisms are uncertain. SDB is characterized by periods of intermittent hypoxia and free radical formation. This study tested the hypothesis that carbonylation can be the link between SDB and CAD. It included 14 cases with CAD and 33 controls with <50% coronary narrowing. CAD cases have higher erythrocyte carbonyl levels than controls (p = 0.012). Positive correlation was observed between apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and erythrocyte carbonyl concentration (ρ = 0.310; p = 0.027). To predict CAD, including as regressors: AHI, erythrocyte carbonyl, gender, age and body mass index, the significant variables in the Poisson multiple regression model were AHI and erythrocytes carbonyl. An increase of 1 pmol/gHb in erythrocyte carbonyl levels increases by 1.8% the risk of CAD and one unit of AHI increases by 3.8% the risk of CAD. The present findings represent the first evidence in humans that SDB may cause CAD through protein carbonylation.


Marine traffic in Osaka Bay is very intensified and much atmospheric pollutant (S0% and N0%) from ships is released but there is no regulation about the ship emission. In this paper, we investigated the emission amounts of SO*, NO* and HC from car, factory and ships in Osaka bay area and estimated the influence of the ship emission on the atmospheric pollutant concentration, using both the meteorological prediction model and the atmospheric pollutant concentration prediction model including the dry deposition and the chemical reaction. In Osaka bay area, the emission amounts of SO% and NO% from ships were about 30 % of the total emission amounts, respectively. Using these emission data, the atmospheric pollutant concentration was simulated on a summer fine day when high oxidant concentration was measured at several observatories and was compared with the observed data. Though some differences were seen between the simulated results and the observed data, the diurnal variation agreed reasonably. The second simulation was carried out except for the ship emission and we estimated the influence of the ship emission on the atmospheric pollutant concentration. It was found that the ship emission raised SO2, NO% and NO concentration not only in shore area but also in 40km inland.


One of the most important and complex problems facing both developing and industrialized nations is how to sustain economic growth without harming the environment. Faye Duchin and Glenn-Marie Lange address this issue in a practical and realistic way: through a detailed evaluation of the well-known approach to sustainable development outlined in the Brundtland Report, Our Common Future. Taking issue with the Brundtland Report's optimistic and widely accepted assumptions, the authors show that the positive effects of recycling, increased fuel-efficiency, and other technological adjustments will not go far enough to provide for truly sustainable development in the long term. Through a new, broad-based empirical analysis, they argue that unless there are significant changes in the use of technologies, continued environmental degradation cannot be avoided. They warn that the trend of making only slight adjustments in the use of technologies, while feasible from an economic point of view for industrialized nations, will undoubtedly lead to further environmental damage. In addition to offering a clear and unflinching look at what development is really doing to the global environment, the unique conceptual framework developed for this analysis provides an invaluable basis for analysis for the new, multidisciplinary field of ecological economics. Duchin and Lange describe how this new methodology will enable economists and policy-makers to evaluate our options for the future and choose those that most effectively reduce environmental degradation and achieve sustainable development.


Complexes [FeIII2MIIOL3] (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu; 2, 3, 4, 5) have been synthesised in which L2− is a pentadentate ligand designed to coordinate all three metal atoms in the central cluster and to inhibit dissociation and solvent exchange processes. Crystal structures for 2, 4 and 5 show threefold symmetry, attributed to rotational disorder. Magnetisation data for 2 indicate strong superexchange between basis oxidation states Fe(3+, 3+, 2+). Comparisons of IR spectra across the series of complexes confirm the non-threefold symmetry of the mixed-valence cluster
on the vibrational time scale, both in the solid state and in solution. Proton NMR spectra in solution at room temperature do not distinguish the three iron sites, suggesting that pseudo-rotation by thermal electron transfer also operates. Cyclic voltammetry and spectroelectrochemical measurements show that the mixed-valence iron complex 2 can be oxidised reversibly to give the tri-iron(III) complex [Fe3OL3]+ and reduced reversibly and quasireversibly to give respectively [Fe3OL3]− and tri-iron(II) [Fe3OL3]2−, E0
= 85, −635, −1230 mV (versus Fc+/0) in dichloromethane (T
= 298 K, 0.1 M [n-Bu4N][PF6]). Mossbauer spectra of 2
indicate significant valence delocalisation even at low temperature (4.2 K) with estimated valences Fe(2.9+, 2.9+, 2.2+) in the solid state. At higher temperatures no lifetime broadening is observed but additional Mossbauer absorptions are consistent with increasing proportions of trimer molecules with greater delocalisation, i.e. Fe(2.75+, 2.75+, 2.5+). In frozen solution (THF) the spectra indicate increasing proportions of molecules fully valence-delocalised on the Mossbauer time scale. The data are accounted for with a model which places the complex at the Robin–Day class III/II borderline. It combines strong superexchange with significant double exchange even at the lowest temperatures, while at higher temperatures in solution complete valence delocalisation occurs through intramolecular electron transfer at rates intermediate between the IR and NMR time scales.


Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) enzyme was effectively encapsulated onto an Fe3O4 nanoparticle–polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) film via the casting method. The HRP was immobilized on the 0.5% Fe3O4Np–PMMA film and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy. Moreover, the reusability, thermal stability, optimum pH, optimum temperature, the influence of metal ions, and the effects of detergent and organic solvent were investigated. After optimizing the immobilization conditions, the highest efficiency of the immobilized enzyme was 88.4% using 0.5% Fe3O4Np–PMMA. The reusability of the immobilized HRP activity was 78.5% of its initial activity after being repeatedly used for 10 cycles. When comparing the free and immobilized forms of the HRP enzyme, changes in the optimum temperature and optimum pH from 30 to 40 ◦C and 7.0 to 7.5, respectively, were observed. The Km and Vmax for the immobilized HRP were estimated to be 41 mM, 0.89 U/mL for guaiacol and 5.84 mM, 0.66 U/mL for H2O2, respectively. The high stability of the immobilized HRP enzyme was obtained using metal ions, a high urea concentration, isopropanol, and Triton X-100. In conclusion, the applicability of immobilized HRP involves the removal of phenol in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, therefore, it could be a potential catalyst for the removal of wastewater aromatic pollutants.


This response raises questions about Jack Donnelly's argument for the "relative universality" of human rights. It shows that Donnelly's reliance on the terms relative and universal dulls many of his sharp analytic points and in some instances leads to inconsistencies in his account. This response also contends that in defending the relative universality of human rights Donnelly obscures or mischaracterizes the bases of their legitimacy. It concludes by arguing that human rights are neither relative nor universal and shows how abandoning this vocabulary would improve our theoretical understanding of them.


Energy-related behavior in resource dependent systems (e.g. electric vehicles, houses, ships) is an important factor for the actual energy efficiency such systems can achieve. Energy feedback human-machine-interfaces (HMIs) can support the awareness of energy dynamics in order to comprehend the situation and the influences on energy consumption and to control the system to enhance energy efficiency. To evaluate these HMIs, a scale to assess the energy dynamics awareness (EDA) is needed. Therefore, we developed the EDA scale with 7 items and tested the scale in a study with N = 40 battery electric bus (BEB) drivers on two different HMIs. First results indicated an excellent reliability (Cronbach's ą = .92 and .93) and principal factor analyses revealed a solid single factor structure (61.8% and 67.8% explained variance) with high factor loadings (> .61 for all items). Future studies should further explore the construct and criterion validity of the scale.


We present results of the first paleoseismic study of the Yammouneh fault, the main on-land segment of the Levant fault system within the Lebanese restraining bend. A trench was excavated in the Yammouneh paleolake, where the fault cuts through finely laminated sequences of marls and clays. First-order variations throughout this outstanding stratigraphic record appear to reflect climate change at centennial and millennial scales. The lake beds are offset and deformed in a 2-m- wide zone coinciding with the mapped fault trace. Ten to thirteen events are identified, extending back more than ~12 kyr. Reliable age bounds on seven of these events constrain the mean seismic return time to 1127 ± 135 yr between ~12 ka and ~6.4 ka, implying that this fault slips in infrequent but large (M ~ 7.5) earthquakes. Our results also provide conclusive evidence that the latest event at this site was the great A.D. 1202 historical earthquake, and suggest that the Yammouneh fault might have been the source of a less well-known event circa A.D. 350. These findings, combined with previous paleoseismic data from the Zebadani valley, imply that the parallel faults bounding the Beqaa release strain in events with comparable recurrence intervals but significantly different magnitudes. Our results contribute to document the clustering of large events on the Levant fault into centennial episodes, such as that during the eleventh through twelfth centuries, separated by millennial periods of quiescence, and raise the possibility of a M > 7 event occurring on the Yammouneh fault in the coming century. Such a scenario should be taken into account in regional seismic-hazard assessments and planned for accordingly.