SV40 minichromosomes (MCH) either isolated from SV40 infected CV-I monkey cells (native MCH) or reconstituted in vitro from viral DNA and the H1 depleted calf thymus histone fraction could transform and mutate Chinese hamster (CH) cells in vitro. Whereas reconstituted MCH transformed and mutated CH cells with about the same efficiency as purified SV40 DNA, approximately 10-200-fold increase in the transforming activity had been demonstrated for native MCH. All transformed cell colonies and a major part of the isolated mutant cell clones recovered after inoculation of CH cells with SV40 MHC expressed the SV40 T antigen. Addition of H1 to both purified SV40 DNA and reconstituted MHC drastically diminished the transforming capacities of both agents. Possible reason(s) for the inhibition effect of H1 histone is discussed.


Citizen science is part of a wider trend in science and society of promoting two-way dialogue and engagement between scientists and the public, by involving citizens in the research process. This paper examines how CONCISE, an international research project involving Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Slovakia, seeks to understand how citizens acquire and use scientific information, by engaging citizens through public consultations. The consultations gathered close to 500 citizens in 2019. Asking them for suggestions on how to improve science communication and involving them in the dissemination efforts, CONCISE aims to put citizens at the core of the research process.


Background: Increased globalization and poor lifestyle are resulted in significant elevation of pulmonary diseases, as per the available scientific data. Beneficial effects of yoga on pulmonary health are substantially documented. However, irrespective of the study design most of the studies in this context is not only conducted on respiratory patients with less or modest sample size as well as short-term intervention.

Aims and Objectives: The present study was intended to assess the effect of long-term yoga training on certain pulmonary health markers with large sample size in healthy individuals.

Materials and Methods: This yoga interventional single cohort study was conducted on healthy subjects (n = 200) by giving 6 months yogic intervention. Vital Capacity (VC), Forced Expiratory Volume in 1st s (FEV1), and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) were recorded at baseline and after 6 months of yoga training. Data were statistically analyzed and compared using paired t-test. Statistical significance was established at 5% of probability.

Results: Longt-erm yogic training caused significant (P < 0.0001) increase in VC, FEV1, and PEFR compared to their respective baseline values.

Conclusion: Results are the suggestive of improved pulmonary endurance. Improvement in post-yogic values may indicate the increased strength and power of respiratory muscles. Further, results re-confirm the effectiveness of regular yoga practice in betterment of pulmonary health.


This paper presents research aimed at developing a three dimensional (3D) buried assets locating system based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. RFID is employed to improve the locating of underground infrastructure. Problems facing the utility companies are highlighted and discussed. Within the paper, differences between system performance in real conditions and ideal conditions will be examined. Other factors, which may affect the overall performance characteristics of the system, such as RF tag type, antennae, and soil conditions will also be analysed and discussed.


Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a clinically heterogeneous disease, affecting patients of all ages and presenting as limited or advanced disease in essentially any nodal or extranodal site in the body. Gene-expression profiling defined 3 molecular subtypes of DLBCL, termed germinal center B-cell-like (GCB), activated B-cell-like (ABC), and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBL). GCB-like DLBCL has a more favorable prognosis than ABC-like regardless of therapy with CHOP or RCHOP. 1,2 Additional genome-wide copy number analysis coupled with gene-expression profiling provide evident that the DLBCL subtypes are distinct diseases using different oncogenic pathways with implications for future treatments. 3 Calculation of a survival score from a six-gene model is also predictive in the R-CHOP era, and this model has been successfully applied to routine formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue. 4 To date, it has not been possible to reliably replicate the cell of origin with routine immunohistochemistry, in part due to lack of reproducibility with markers such as bcl-6. 5,6 Recent data suggest that a 9 microRNA signature can differentiate the two subtypes of DLBCL and that some of the microRNAs in this signature correlate with clinical outcome. 7


Hypoxia significantly compromises the therapeutic performance of photodynamic therapy (PDT) owing to the oxygen level which plays a key role in the production of singlet oxygen (1O2). Herein, the photothermally responsive phase change materials (PCM) are used to encapsulate 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene-functionalized platinum(II)-acetylide conjugated polymer (CP1) with intense near-infrared (NIR) absorption to prepare new 1O2 nanocarriers (CP1-NCs). The 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene moieties in CP1-NCs can trap the 1O2 produced from CP1 under irradiation and form a stable endoperoxide. Then, the endoperoxide undergoes cycloreversion to controllably release 1O2 via the NIR light-triggered photothermal effect of CP1 and controllable phase change of PCM, which can be used for oxygen-independent PDT for hypoxic tumor. Furthermore, the in vivo luminescence imaging-guided synergistic PDT and photothermal therapy showed better efficiency in tumor ablation. The smart design shows the potent promise of CP1-NCs in PCM-controlled and sustainable phototherapy under tumor hypoxic microenvironment, providing new insights for constructing oxygen-independent precise cancer phototherapeutic platform.


We investigated the role of alpha IIb beta 3 in microparticle generation by normal and thrombasthenic platelets stimulated with collagen plus thrombin. Microparticle generation by normal platelets was scarcely inhibited by monoclonal antibodies for glycoprotein Ib and glycoprotein IX. Although one monoclonal anti-alpha IIb beta 3 antibody (NNKY1-32) partly inhibited microparticle generation, 3 other monoclonal anti-alpha IIb beta 3 antibodies had little effect. However, the combination of 4 monoclonal anti-alpha IIb beta 3 antibodies or treatment with a polyclonal anti-alpha IIb beta 3 antibody significantly inhibited microparticle generation (p < 0.05). Microparticle generation by thrombasthenic platelets also occurred after stimulation with collagen plus thrombin, although at a significantly lower level compared with normal platelets. Monoclonal antibodies for resting alpha IIb beta 3, P-selectin, activated alpha IIb beta 3 and beta 2-glycoprotein I bound to microparticles from healthy platelets. In contrast, only a monoclonal antibody for beta2-glycoprotein I bound to thrombasthenic microparticles. These results suggest that microparticle generation by collagen plus thrombin occurs via two different mechanisms which are dependent and independent of alpha IIb beta 3, respectively. The alpha IIb beta 3-dependent mechanism appears to require activation of alpha IIb beta 3.


Herpes gestationis (HG) is an uncommon autoimmune bullous disease that appears during pregnancy or in association with trophoblastic tumors. It is characterized by an intensely pruritic vesiculobullous eruption that develops during the later part of pregnancy or during the immediate postpartum period. Direct immunofluorescence reveals linear deposits of C3 along the basement membrane zone in all patients with active disease. 1 Although it is generally accepted that HG in the mother is not associated with an increased fetal risk, there is a tendency for premature and small-for-gestationalage babies to occur. Only a few studies have specifically addressed this issue. We have studied all patients diagnosed with HG at our Department of Dermatology since direct immunofluorescence became available; the issue of fetal complications was examined. Patients and Methods. All patients with HG seen at the Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain, between February 1972 and November 1994 were included and retrospectively studied. The


This longitudinal experimental study is concerned with the L2 acquisition of argument structure and its relationship with Case Theory. French (n = 17) and English (n = 19) intermediate learners of Spanish as a Second Language were tested three times over a period of eight months on their knowledge of dative experiencers. Eighteen Spanish native speakers acted as a control group. Dative experiencers in Spanish are common with a subset of psych verbs and unaccusative predicates. These experiencers look like indirect objects on the surface, and indeed can appear in the position of indirect objects. Most of the time, however, they appear in canonical subject position and behave like subjects for some modules of the grammar, such as Control PRO in adjunct clauses. It was hypothesized that if a thematic hierarchy is operative in SLA,both English and French learners would have no difficulty interpreting experiencers as subjects, but that English learners would experience greater difficulty with dative case because there is no dative case in English.An Interpretation Task and a Preference Task were designed to test these hypotheses. Results indicate that,whereas both groups of subjects have access to the thematic hierarchy (a UG component),L1 influence plays an important role with case assignment and checking.


Control Systems: Theory and Implementation contains a comprehensive coverage of mathematical modeling of dynamical systems, analog and digital control principles, controller design and analysis, commercial microcontrollers / DSPs for control applications, and implementation of control systems using microprocessor-based systems. Theoretical contents of the book are presented as much practically oriented as possible. Most books on control systems contain extensive amount of theoretical contents but little information about the practical aspects and implementation. There are books on digital signal processing but with little emphasis on real-time control applications. Control engineering is one of the broadest sub-disciplines of Engineering that can not be covered in a single book. Too much of content in the book often makes it difficult for undergraduate students and beginners to figure out which of the contents should be the most relevant. This book starts with the basic fundamentals, modeling of dynamical systems, discusses analog and digital control theories, and practical implementation using microprocessor-based systems. The contents cover typical syllabi of a control systems undergraduate course and postgraduate level taught courses and hence in ideal text book in control systems for beginners.


We evaluated the clinical background of early death (within 3 months after admission to our hospital) in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis during the past five years (1992-1996). Among 65 active pulmonary tuberculosis patients who died during the past five years, 32 (49%) died directly of tuberculosis. Thirteen (41%) of those 32 patients died of acute respiratory failure and 9 patients (28%) died in emacitation state. Twenty two patients (69%) died within 3 months after admission to our hospital (the early death group) and 10 patients (31%) died after 3 months (the late death group). Thirteen patients (59%) in the early death group died of acute respiratory failure. On the other hand, none in the late death group died of acute respiratory failure but 4 patients died of chronic heart and/or respiratory failure and 4 patients died in emarciation state. Compared to the patients in the late death group, more patients in the early death group had long total delays (patient's and doctor's delays), had coexisiting diseases, had fallen into acute respiratory failure, and were under malnutrition. We evaluated the nutritional condition of patients using the Onodera's PNI (Prognostic Nutritional Index; 10 x serum almumin concentration + 0.005 x peripheral lymphocyte count) and the PNI value was lower among the patients in the early death group than among those in the late death group. To prevent death due to tuberculosis, we emphasize that it is important to start anti-tuberculosis therapy before patients fall into acute respiratory failure and/or malnutrition.


In this study, we quantify the reduction in the standard deviation for empirical ground-motion prediction models by removing ergodic assumption. We par- tition the modeling error (residual) into five components, three of which represent the repeatable source-location-specific, site-specific, and path-specific deviations from the population mean. A variance estimation procedure of these error components is developed for use with a set of recordings from earthquakes not heavily clustered in space. With most source locations and propagation paths sampled only once, we opt to exploit the spatial correlation of residuals to estimate the variances associated with the path-specific and the source-location-specific deviations. The estimation proce- dure is applied to ground-motion amplitudes from 64 shallow earthquakes in Taiwan recorded at 285 sites with at least 10 recordings per site. The estimated variance com- ponents are used to quantify the reduction in aleatory variability that can be used in hazard analysis for a single site and for a single path. For peak ground acceleration and spectral accelerations at periods of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, and 3.0 s, we find that the single- site standard deviations are 9%-14% smaller than the total standard deviation, whereas the single-path standard deviations are 39%-47% smaller.


Conventional thermal interface materials (TIMs), such as greases, gels, and phase change materials, pose bottlenecks to heat removal and have long caused reliability issues in automotive power electronics packages. Bonded interface materials (BIMs) with superior thermal performance have the potential to be a replacement to the conventional TIMs. However, due to coefficient of thermal expansion mismatches between different components in a package and resultant thermomechanical stresses, fractures or delamination could occur, causing serious reliability concerns. These defects manifest themselves in increased thermal resistance in the package. In this paper, the results of reliability evaluation of emerging BIMs for large-area attachments in power electronics packaging are reported. Thermoplastic (polyamide) adhesive with embedded near-vertical-aligned carbon fibers, sintered silver, and conventional lead solder (Sn63Pb37) materials were bonded between 50.8 mm x 50.8 mm cross-sectional footprint silicon nitride substrates and copper base plate samples, and were subjected to accelerated thermal cycling until failure or 2500 cycles. Damage in the BIMs was monitored every 100 cycles by scanning acoustic microscopy. Thermoplastic with embedded carbon fibers performed the best with no defects, whereas sintered silver and lead solder failed at 2300 and 1400 thermal cycles, respectively. Besides thermal cycling, additional lead solder samples were subjected to thermal shock and thermal cycling with extended dwell periods. A finite element method (FEM)-based model was developed to simulate the behavior of lead solder under thermomechanical loading. Strain energy density per cycle results were calculated from the FEM simulations. A predictive lifetime model was formulated for lead solder by correlating strain energy density results extracted from modeling with cycles-to-failure obtained from experimental accelerated tests. A power-law-based approach was used to formulate the predictive lifetime model.


Internet of Things (IoT) is the new paradigm to the scaling nature of things and their elements, interconnected, exchanging data over a network supported with nodes. The Ubiquitous use of tiny devices and embedded sensor frameworks has pushed IoT to the forefront of emerging technologies used in many applications like peer-to-peer networks, smart energy grids, home and building automation, vehicle to vehicle communication, and wearable computing devices. This massive growth and extensive use brought forth security risks that could hinder its commencement in many novel applications. The number of interconnected devices leads the way to several entry points for intruders and, along with it, security risks. The sensitive nature of the IoT applications such as health, automation, and energy grids cannot afford security risks. Traditional security mechanisms will not design or develop to secure such an emerging technology as IoT. Existing technologies have to be relied on with the non-existence of security mechanisms for this purpose. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is one such technology that can reduce the security risks in IoT. The central node vulnerability that can compromise the whole system can be mitigated by eliminating the need for a central node by using the distributed ledger. Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology, has attracted tremendous attention and harnessed in itself a real-world value. However, computationally costly with limited scalability is not entirely suited for the IoT environment. IoT Application (IOTA) technology is the distributed ledger technology that can provide unlimited scalability specifically suitable for the IoT industry. This survey provides an in-depth introduction to how blockchain performs and its constraints in its nature as a generic platform for DLT. In contrast, IOTA is introduced as the technology for IoT, the next-generation blockchain overcoming blockchain's limitations for its use in IoT.


Lignin accounts for approximately 25–35 % of the organic matrix of wood and lignocellulosic biomass in itself is the most abundant renewable material on the planet. It has long been recognized as a potential feedstock for producing chemicals, fuels, and materials. Despite this excellent availabilty of lignin it is a low value compound and has so far mainly been used as energy source in combustion applications. Less than 5 % are being processed for other purposes. This article discusses the potential for an increased use of lignin as a renewable raw material, possible conversion routes towards monomeric phenolic compounds, and applications for these products. A brief overview about present state-of-the-art is given and a high-yielding, one-step approach of producing alkylated phenolic compounds from lignin is presented.


Abstract
 Traditional genetic selection programmes based on pedigree and performance information have been used to improve livestock populations for decades. The introduction of high-density single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping about 10 years ago supported increased rates of gain through more accurate prediction of genetic merit earlier in life. Recent continued technological advances enable the routine use of genetic engineering and gene editing tools in livestock research and, increasingly, production systems. Livestock geneticists have responded by proposing new breeding schemes that combine traditional selection methodology with these new tools to substantially increase rates of genetic gain while reducing harmful effects due to decreased heterozygosity. Genetic improvement strategies based on gene drives have the potential further increase rates of gain but pose risks that may not be acceptable to the public. Intense debate about the use of these technologies in the animal food chain is being driven by regulatory agencies and consumer advocates, and it is not clear if genetically modified animals will be acceptable to consumers. This review focuses on the application of genetic engineering and genome engineering tools to livestock population improvement through the management of genetic load and the promotion of desirable alleles in the population associated with both monogenic and polygenic traits. Limitations of the current technology, such as limited knowledge of true causal variants, are discussed, as are regulatory and consumer acceptance issues.


Improvement and advantages of 10G EPON hierarchical model, which had been standardized in the framework of the IEEE 802.3av Task Force, are analyzed. Based on the analysis, the related upgrading technique scheme of 1G EPON to 10G EPON as well as the corresponding technical key bottlenecks of dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) mechanism and security problems are thoroughly studied. Furthermore, three kinds of networking schemes based on 10G EPON systems are proposed, which can respectively be suitable for different situations of FTTH, FTTO and mobile communications. At the same time, these schemes can support various triple-play services and effectively integrate the computer communication with telephone and video services, providing a good reference for future 10G EPON access network system.


In this work we study different types of coherent and squeezed states for the Charlier, Kravchuk and Meixner oscillators. We calculate the average values of different observables corresponding to the coherent states. We found that the coherent and squeezed states of the Kravchuk oscillator are unstable. There are also coherent and squeezed states that are similar to the coherent and squeezed states of the harmonic oscillator. We have introduced a discrete variable model for the biophoton coherent radiation, and the coherent thermal and squeezed thermal states.


The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic shook the entire world. All sectors, industries, organisations, and more importantly, people were affected by multiple restrictions implemented by their respective governing bodies. Federal lockdowns and all the emerging laws and regulations associated with them have forced organisations worldwide to transition their operations to remote environments. The implications from the organisations' perspective vary from leadership to management, structure to operations, and training and development to policy making. However, from the employees' perspective, the implications vary from general well-being to work engagement, satisfaction to motivation, and followership to trust. Nonetheless, remote work has other implications, such as productivity, the impact of social distancing, work-life balance, and isolation concerns. Therefore, this article aims to present critical thinking and comprehensively analyse the existing literature on remote working, transformational leadership, and work engagement contexts. Theoretical and practical gaps are discussed, and recommendations for future research could contribute to our better understanding of remote leadership and its practical elements. Remote working environments are believed to be permanent working arrangements for many organisations and employees; hence, scholars and practitioners must explore them to further depths.


OBJECTIVE
We aimed to explore the role of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in combination with T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) in detecting prostate carcinoma through a systematic review and meta-analysis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cancerlit, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for studies published from January 2001 to July 2011 evaluating the diagnostic performance of T2WI combined with DWI in detecting prostate carcinoma. We determined sensitivities and specificities across studies, calculated positive and negative likelihood ratios, and constructed summary receiver operating characteristic curves. We also compared the performance of T2WI combined with DWI with T2WI alone by analyzing studies that had also used these diagnostic methods on the same patients.

RESULTS
Across 10 studies (627 patients), the pooled sensitivity of T2WI combined with DWI was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.65-0.84), and the pooled specificity was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.77-0.87). Overall, the positive likelihood ratio was 4.31 (95% CI, 3.12-5.92), and the negative likelihood ratio was 0.29 (95% CI, 0.20-0.43). In seven studies in which T2WI combined with DWI and T2WI alone were performed, the sensitivity and specificity of T2WI combined with DWI were 0.72 (95% CI, 0.67-0.82) and 0.81 (95% CI, 0.76-0.86), respectively, and the sensitivity and specificity of T2WI alone were 0.62 (95% CI, 0.55-0.68) and 0.77 (95% CI, 0.71-0.82), respectively.

CONCLUSION
T2WI combined with DWI may be a valuable tool for detecting prostate cancer in the overall evaluation of prostate cancer, compared with T2WI alone. High-quality prospective studies of T2WI combined with DWI to detect prostate carcinoma still need to be conducted.


The purpose of the study, approaching from the aspect of the construction technologies, is to determine the architectural techniques of traditional wood architects in existence, through which the systems and techniques that create the inherent characteristics of Korean architecture are clarified. With understanding traditional construction system and focusing on the fact that built environment results from the consistent standards and technologies of architects, this study inquires into the systematic standard and its formation that present in the process of planning for the overall scale and shape of a building from the study determines dimension of structural members. All the members that constitute the structure are trimmed in advance and assembled in a short period of time on the site. Because of that, the dimensions for trimming and assembling are predetermined according to designated standards in the planning process, therefore consistent standard of computation are in necessity to design shapes and sizes of enormous amount of structural members. This study also shows the standards of measurement employed by architects while planning for structural members of a building, and how the size and range of its composition are developed.


The objective was to determine the effect of trout farm effluent on the production of green hydroponic forage of barley (GHF). The activities were: oxidation of ammonia (N-NH4+) in the trout farm effluent to nitrate of nitrogen (N-NO3-) in a biofilter (nitrification), and the use of this effluent in the production of GHF. Design was completely randomized with three treatments: 100% of water from water supply channel (T0), 50% of water from biofilter effluent, plus 50% of water from water supply channel (T1), and 100% of water from biofilter effluent (T2); with 10 replications. Variables assessed were: development time of biofilter; NNO3- content in fully developed biofilter; percentage of protein and plant height on 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th day production; and biomass production of GHF on 16th day. By the end of the 90th day, the biofilter installed to generate N-NO3- was developed at a medium pH of 8.23 and at a medium temperature of 14.9°C. N-NO3- content (mg/L) in biofilter effluent was 2.2 while trout farm effluent was 1.2. No significant difference was found in protein percentage of GHF (P<0.05). However, there was a highly significant effect (P<0.01) on plant height the 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th days, and biomass production on the 16th day. For both variables, treatment T2 was placed in the A range, treatment T1 in B range and treatment T0 in C range.


Abstract. This paper documents the global climate model EC-Earth3-AerChem, one of the members of the EC-Earth3 family of models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6). EC-Earth3-AerChem has interactive aerosols and atmospheric chemistry and contributes to the Aerosols and Chemistry Model Intercomparison Project (AerChemMIP). In this paper, we give an overview of the model and describe in detail how it differs from the other EC-Earth3 configurations, and what the new features are compared to the previously documented version of the model (EC-Earth 2.4). We explain how the model was tuned and spun up under pre-industrial conditions and characterize the model's general performance on the basis of a selection of coupled simulations conducted for CMIP6. The mean energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere in the pre-industrial control simulation is −0.10 ± 0.25 W m−2 and shows no significant drift. The corresponding mean global surface air temperature is 14.05 ± 0.16 °C, with a small drift of −0.075 ± 0.009 °C per century. The model's effective equilibrium climate sensitivity is estimated at 3.9 °C and its transient climate response at 2.1 °C. The CMIP6 historical simulation displays spurious interdecadal variability in Northern Hemisphere temperatures, resulting in a large spread among ensemble members and a tendency to underestimate observed annual surface temperature anomalies from the early 20th century onwards. The observed warming of the Southern Hemisphere is well reproduced by the model. Compared to the ERA5 reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the ensemble mean surface air temperature climatology for 1995–2014 has an average bias of −0.86 ± 0.35 °C in the Northern Hemisphere and 1.29 ± 0.05 °C in the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere warm bias is largely caused by errors in shortwave cloud radiative effects over the Southern Ocean, a deficiency of many climate models. Changes in the emissions of near-term climate forcers (NTCFs) have significant climate effects from the 20th century onwards. For the SSP3-7.0 shared socio-economic pathway, the model gives a global warming at the end of the 21st century (2091–2100) of 4.9 °C above the pre-industrial mean. A 0.5 °C stronger warming is obtained for the AerChemMIP scenario with reduced emissions of NTCFs. With concurrent reductions of future methane concentrations, the warming is projected to be reduced by 0.5 °C.


This paper presents a research of deformations influence on duplex ball bearings dynamic behavior. Despite the common use of duplex ball bearings, bearings subcomponents deformations are not thoroughly investigated. In order to investigate these effects, this study integrates the outcome of a 3D dynamic model, developed for assessment of the defect pattern and experimental results from a full scale CH-53 Swashplate test rig. The ability to withstand high radial and bi-directional axial loads makes duplex bearings common in aircraft applications and specifically in helicopter rotors. The swashplate of the CH-53 is constructed of duplex angular contact ball bearings. Two spacers, internal between the static inner rings and external, between the rotating outer rings support the bearing rings. A structural defect is formed by a faulty external spacer, thus causing a lack of support to the top bearing and deformation of the outer rings. Model results indicate that the lack of support has a defect pattern in both radial and axial directions. Test rig data acquired by accelerometers was analyzed by several diagnostic techniques including order tracking, envelope analysis and dephased algorithm in order to recognize the simulated pattern.


We have successfully fabricated and tested the electrochemical performance of supercapacitor electrodes consisting of Ni(OH)2 nanosheets coated on NiCo2O4 nanosheets grown on carbon fiber paper (CFP) current collectors. When the NiCo2O4 nanosheets are replaced by Co3O4 nanosheets, however, the energy and power density as well as the rate capability of the electrodes are significantly reduced, most likely due to the lower conductivity of Co3O4 than that of NiCo2O4. The 3D hybrid composite Ni(OH)2/NiCo2O4/CFP electrodes demonstrate a high areal capacitance of 5.2 F/cm(2) at a cycling current density of 2 mA/cm(2), with a capacitance retention of 79% as the cycling current density was increased from 2 to 50 mA/cm(2). The remarkable performance of these hybrid composite electrodes implies that supercapacitors based on them have potential for many practical applications.


Operational policies are established to handle natural hazards including floods to minimize the effect with differing degrees of effectiveness and increasing relaxation. Sometimes policies are time-consuming of rigid protocols that are inadequate in a dynamic and somewhat chaotic environment synonymous with the complexity of flood disaster. Hence, this research aimed at recommending the incorporation of agile concepts in flood control, which would offer stability and adaptability in the control of the complex flood situation. Extensive reviews on flood management and existing frameworks for disaster management were conducted to understand the problems and the potential solution to construct an agile framework. A grounded analysis was conducted to obtain insight into how the agility of standard operating procedures could be enhanced. The agile components have been defined by contrasting characteristics from other effective disciplines, including software development and health care, that share common complexity in management environments. Consequently, an Agile Information-Based for Flood Management Framework is proposed in previous publication. The validation component for agile key-values presented in the earlier article is, however, absent. This study therefore presents the validation component from earlier publication on the Agile Information Based Framework. A theoretical evaluation of the proposed key-values for the agile framework has been conducted using the metadata concept. The evaluation identified the similarity feature in the same area where the proposed framework was agreed to be implemented in tandem with electricity company emergency response plan to improve flood operations. The proposed key-values in the agile framework are required to be adopted and further strengthened by other significant variables.


Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of odontogenic differentiation of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) on hydrogel scaffolds derived from bone extracellular matrix (bECM) in comparison to those seeded on collagen I (Col-I), one of the main components of dental pulp ECM. Methods DPSCs isolated from human third molars were characterized for surface marker expression and odontogenic potential prior to seeding into bECM or Col-I hydrogel scaffolds. The cells were then seeded onto bECM and Col-I hydrogel scaffolds and cultured under basal conditions or with odontogenic and growth factor (GF) supplements. DPSCs cultivated on tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) with and without supplements were used as controls. Gene expression of dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP), dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP-1) and matrix extracellular phosphoglycoprotein (MEPE) was evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and mineral deposition was observed by Von Kossa staining. Results When DPSCs were cultured on bECM hydrogels, the mRNA expression levels of DSPP, DMP-1 and MEPE genes were significantly upregulated with respect to those cultured on Col-I scaffolds or TCPS in the absence of extra odontogenic inducers. In addition, more mineral deposition was observed on bECM hydrogel scaffolds as demonstrated by Von Kossa staining. Moreover, DSPP, DMP-1 and MEPE mRNA expressions of DPSCs cultured on bECM hydrogels were further upregulated by the addition of GFs or osteo/odontogenic medium compared to Col-I treated cells in the same culture conditions. Significance These results demonstrate the potential of the bECM hydrogel scaffolds to stimulate odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs.


The decision of when to release a software product commercially is not a question of when the software has attained some objectively justifiable degree of correctness. It is, rather, a question of whether the software achieves a reasonable balance among engineering objectives, market demand, customer requirements, and marketing directives of the software organization. We present a rigorous framework for addressing this important decision. Conjugate distributions from statistical decision theory provide an attractive means of modeling the cost and rate of bugs given information acquired during software testing, as well as prior information provided by software engineers about the fidelity of the software before testing begins. In contrast to other methods, the stopping analysis yields a computationally simple rule for deciding when to release a commercial software product based on information revealed to engineers during software testing-complicated numerical procedures are not needed. Our method has the added benefits that it is sequential: it measures explicitly the costs of customer dissatisfaction associated with bugs as well as the costs of declining market position while the testing process continues; and it incorporates a practical framework for cost-criticality assessment that makes sense to professional software developers.


Harvey, Liu and Zhu argue that probably most of the Cross-Section of Returns literature is garbage. One can always try an additional factor and will find a significant Cross-Sectional result with enough trial and error. Lopez de Prado argues in a series of articles in a similar vein. Theoretically scientific results are falsifiable. Practically previous results and publications are checked only in rare occasions. Growth in a Time of Depth by Reinhart-Rogoff was the most influential economic paper in recent years. It was published in a top journal. Although the paper contained even trivial Excel-Bugs it took 3 years till the wrong results and the poor methodology was fully revealed. The reviewers did not check the simple spreadsheets.This paper analyzes a less prominent example about spread trading in the crude oil futures market by Thorben Lubnau. The author reports for his very simple strategy a long term Sharpe-Ratios above 3. It is shown that – like for Reinhart-Rogoff – one needs no sophisticated test statistics to falsify the results. The explanation is much simpler: The author has no clue of trading. He used the wrong data.


In order to be fully autonomous, a mobile robot must possess the skill of finding its location in a particular environment. In other words, while navigating, a mobile robot must be capable of finding its location in a map of the environment (i.e. its pose < x, y, θ >), otherwise the robot will not be able to complete its task. The problem becomes specially challenging if the robot does not possess any external measure of its global position. Naively, the position/orientation of the robot can be determined using odometry sensors or inertial systems. However, these sensors lack of accuracy when used for long periods of time, due to wheel slippage, drifts and other problems. Localization techniques are used instead, in order to find the position of the mobile agent in the space. The great majority of localization methods rely on finding salient characteristics sensed by the robot and relating them with a map of the environment. These salient characteristics of space are usually called landmarks, and constitute the basis that enables the robot to deduce its location in a previously built map of the environment. In this paper we present a localization method based on the Monte Carlo algorithm.


Upholstery fabrics are one of the important types of fabrics that the textile industry produces, and they generally enjoy a great deal of accuracy and care due to the quality of performance and appearance that is commensurate with their use and Those working in the field of textiles agreed on the importance of the properties of tensile strength, friction resistance, dirt resistance, and dust attraction for upholstery fabrics at a sufficient and appropriate rate to face and bear the stresses they are exposed to during use . Furniture is not the main factor influencing filling the spaces inside the room and changing its dimensions, but the fabrics help in achieving this function as wall coverings, floor coverings, and upholstery fabrics and It must be distinguished by its effective colors, and the fabric is the one that can do it better and at the lowest cost than any other materials. Statement of the problem: The research problem is the lack of connection between furniture models, decorative units and the colors of upholstery fabrics in general. Lack of studies linking furniture models and some bedding fabrics that are appropriate for these models. The rapid development in textile technology with the stability of furniture models available in the local market for a long period of time led to the aesthetic deformation of the products. Objectives : Creating textile designs that fit the furniture models used in the local market and keep pace with the developments in textiles. Significances: Creating contemporary textile designs that are compatible with furniture styles and the evolution of textiles. Contribute to providing a practical and academic study of the link between furniture models and fabrics for upholstery. Take advantage of the development of textile programs to develop what suits furniture models. Methodology: The research follows the analytical empirical method. Conclusions : Creating designs that match classic furniture models and implementing them, which led to achieving the aesthetic appearance of the final product. According to the consumer audience questionnaire, the percentage of customers' approval of the executed samples increased.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the pathological actions of lipid peroxidation implicated in liver fibrogenesis induced by dimethylnitrosamine (DMN), and the mechanism of Fuzheng Huayu 319 decoction (319 decoction) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) actions against liver fibrosis.

METHODS
A liver fibrotic model was induced by intraperitoneal injection of DMN in rats, and treated with 319 decoction and IFN-gamma, respectively. The liver sections were stained with HE and ponceau for collagens, and the liver functions were assayed. The contents of hepatic hydroxyproline (Hyp) and malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured. The correlation among SOD, MDA and Hyp was analyzed.

RESULTS
In the models, hepatic collagens proliferated remarkably and fibrous septa were formed. Serum ALT activities increased. Both Hyp and MDA enhanced obviously, but SOD decreased markedly. SOD was significantly negatively correlated with MDA and Hyp, respectively (r=-0.70, -0.73, P<0.01), and MDA was significantly positively correlated with Hyp (r=0.88, P<0.01). While both 319 decoction and IFN-gamma attenuated collagen proliferation and deposition, decreased ALT level, increased SOD activity, but decreased MDA and Hyp contents.

CONCLUSIONS
DMN can cause hepatic lipid peroxidation, which is closely involved in liver fibrogenesis induced by DMN. The effect against hepatic lipid peroxidation is one of the important mechanisms of 319 decoction and IFN-gamma actions against liver fibrosis.


An important step toward successful pregnancy involves invasion of the trophoblast cells into the decidua for placentation. Herein, we show that in the human and baboon decidua HOXA10 expression is downregulated after implantation and that this reduction is most prominent in the decidual cells juxtaposed to the invading placental villi. The supernatants derived from HOXA10-depleted human decidual cells increase the invasiveness of the trophoblast cell lines ACH-3P and JEG3 in vitro; this increase is due to higher expression and activity of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) and reduced expression of tissue inhibitors of MMPs in both the cell lines. The proinvasive ability of HOXA10-depleted decidual cells is due to increased levels and secretion of leukemia inhibitor factor (LIF) and interleukin (IL)-6. Both these cytokines individually promote invasion of ACH-3P and JEG3 cell by increasing the activities of MMPs and decreasing mRNA levels of TIMPs. Finally, we demonstrate that the supernatants derived from HOXA10-depleted decidual cell-phosphorylated STAT3 (Tyr 705) and knocking down STAT3 in ACH-3P and JEG3 cells restrained the invasion mediated by supernatants derived from HOXA10-depleted decidual cells. These results imply that STAT3 activity is essential and sufficient to promote invasion in response to downregulation of HOXA10 in decidual cells. We propose that downregulation of HOXA10 in the decidual cells promotes the expression of LIF and IL-6, which, in a paracrine manner, activates STAT3 in the trophoblast cells, leading to an increase in MMPs to facilitate invasion.


Many privacy improving techniques have been proposed based on packet encryption to protect the communication privacy of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). However, we show that MANETs are still vulnerable under passive statistical traffic analysis attacks. To demonstrate how to discover the communication patterns without decrypting the captured packets, we present Region based statistical traffic pattern discovery system for MANETs. Region based statistical traffic pattern discovery system for MANETs works passively to perform traffic analysis based on statistical characteristics of captured raw traffic. Region based statistical traffic pattern discovery system for MANETs are capable of discovering the sources, the destinations, and the end-to-end communication relations. Region based statistical traffic pattern discovery system for MANETs perform the traffic analysis as divide the entire network into multiple regions geographically. Empirical studies demonstrate that Region based statistical traffic pattern discovery system for MANETs achieves good accuracy in disclosing the hidden traffic patterns.


The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve is an UNESCO World Heritage Site of Culture and Nature due to the forest of outstanding biodiversity that surrounds multiple ancient Maya ruins sites, including the city of Calakmul that contained up to 150,000 people during the height of its power between 250BC – 900AD. The total area covered by the reserve is 1,200,000 hectares, but the vast majority of the land surrounding the reserve is also forest. Over 20,000 people live in and around Calakmul and with more people moving into the area, developments are starting to affect the landscape and hunting rates. Hunting is strictly prohibited inside the reserve, but in the surrounding forest, indigenous communities are permitted to hunt certain species (e.g. peccary and deer). Although these species are abundant, they are the preferred prey of jaguar and puma and a reduction in their preferred prey can lead to increased likelihood of felid attacks on livestock in buffer zone communities (Forster et al., 2010).


In previous studies, monensin (M) and unsaturated plant oils independently increased trans fatty acid concentrations in cultures of mixed ruminal microorganisms. This study was conducted to determine if combining M with plant oil yielded interactions on trans fatty acid concentrations in cultures of mixed ruminal microorganisms or their effects were additive. Four continuous fermentors were fed 14 g of dry feed per day (divided equally between two feedings), consisting of alfalfa hay pellets (30% of DM) and either a high corn (HC) or a high barley (BB) concentrate (70% of DM) in each of two fermentors. Within each grain type, one fermentor was supplemented with M (25 ppm), and the other fermentor was supplemented with 5% soybean oil (SBO) during d 5 to 8. Monensin and SBO were added together in all fermentors during d 9 to 12. Samples were taken at 2 h after the morning feeding on the last day of each period and analyzed for fatty acids by gas-liquid chromatography. A second run of the fermentors followed the same treatment sequence to give additional replication. Average pH across all treatments was 6.15, which was reduced by M but not affected by SBO. Monensin reduced the ratio of acetate to propionate (A:P), which averaged 2.03 across all treatments; fat decreased A:P in cultures not receiving M but increased it in the presence of M. Monensin and SBO altered the concentration of several trans fatty acids, but the only interaction was a grain x M x SBO interaction for trans-10 C18:1. The increase in trans-10 C18:1 by the M and SBO combination exceeded the sum of increases in trans-10 C18:1 for each individual feed additive, but only for KB. For the HC diet, M increased trans-10 C18:1 more than fat alone and more than the M and SBO combination. The results of this study show that M and SBO effects are additive for all trans FA except for trans-10 C18:1. In the case of trans-10 C18:1, M and SBO interacted to give higher trans-10 C18:1 concentrations in ruminal contents than would be expected simply by adding their individual effects, but only for HB. Because some trans fatty acid isomers have been associated with milk fat depression in dairy cows, these results suggest more severe depressions in milk fat content when cows are fed M along with unsaturated plant oils.


The catecholamine release-inhibitory catestatin [Cts; human chromogranin (Cg) A(352-372), bovine CgA(344-364)] is a vasoreactive and anti-hypertensive peptide derived from CgA. Using the isolated avascular frog heart as a bioassay, in which the interactions between the endocardial endothelium and the subjacent myocardium can be studied without the confounding effects of the vascular endothelium, we tested the direct cardiotropic effects of bovine Cts and its interaction with beta-adrenergic (isoproterenol, ISO) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) signaling. Cts dose-dependently decreased stroke volume and stroke work, with a threshold concentration of 11 nM, approaching the in vivo level of the peptide. Cts reduced contractility by inhibiting phosphorylation of phospholamban (PLN). Furthermore, the Cts effect was abolished by pretreatment with either nitric oxide synthase (N(G)-monomethyl-l-arginine) or guanylate cyclase (ODQ) inhibitors, or an ET(B) receptor (ET(BR)) antagonist (BQ-788). Cts also noncompetitively inhibited the positive inotropic action of ISO. In addition, Cts inhibited the positive inotropic effect of ET-1, mediated by ET(A) receptors, and did not alter the negative inotropic ET-1 influence mediated by ET(BR). Cts action through ET(BR) was further suggested when, in the presence of BQ-788, Cts failed to inhibit the positive inotropism of both ISO and ET-1 stimulation and PLN phosphorylation. We concluded that the cardiotropic actions of Cts, including the beta-adrenergic and ET-1 antagonistic effects, support a novel role of this peptide as an autocrine-paracrine modulator of cardiac function, particularly when the stressed heart becomes a preferential target of both adrenergic and ET-1 stimuli.


Background: Preterm infants growth is best described in form of standard deviation scores (SD scores or z–scores). Effects of nutritional interventions are assessed easily with z–scores. The z–score of a measurement such as weight indicates how far and in what direction that measurement deviates from its distribution's mean, expressed in units of its standard deviation. However, there are no pertinent German population based reference curves available enabling clinicians to easily convert preterm infants growth status into z–scores.Objective: Aim of the present study was to provide a new growth reference for preterm infants as z–scores.Methods: Normalized growth standards were constructed by the LMS method (Cole TJ. J Clin Nutr 1990;44(1):45– 60) from a cohort of 1.8 million German singleton newborns born from 1995 to 1997. Data were divided into distinct gestational age groups according to completed weeks of gestation. The power (L), mean (M) and coefficient of variation (S) were calculated for each week of gestation for the variables birth weight, length, head circumference, and weight for length. Finally smoothed L, M and S curves were computed by standard mathematical procedures.Results: From 20 to 43 weeks of gestation the L, M and S values for the assessed variables will be presented together with corresponding smoothed curves. If A is the measured anthropometry for the preterm infant, then the z-score is calculated as: z=((A/M)L–1)/(LS). For example for the weight of boys at 25 weeks of postmenstrual age M=790g, L=0.23, and S=0.20. An actual body weight of 500g would correspond to a z–score of –2.2. The full set of data does not fit in this abstract and will be presented at the convention.Conclusion: The presented data help to assess the growth of preterm infants.Disclosure: The biometrical evaluation was supported by Milupa, Germany.


Objective: To evaluate injury incidence rates, types, mechanisms, and potential risk factors in youth volleyball. Design: Prospective cohort. Setting: 2018 Canadian Youth National Volleyball Tournament. Participants: Thousand eight hundred seventy-six players [466 males, 1391 females, mean age 16.2 years (±1.26)] consented to participate (19.5%). Assessment of Risk Factors: Sex (male/female), age group, position, and underage players. Main Outcome Measures: Players completed a questionnaire (demographic information, injury, and concussion history). Medical attention injuries were recorded by tournament medical personnel through an injury report form (eg, mechanism and type). Injury was defined as any physical complaint seeking onsite medical attention. Concussion was defined using the fifth International Consensus. Injury rates adjusted for cluster by team were calculated by sex. Exploratory multivariable Poisson regression was used to analyze potential risk factors (eg, sex, age group, position, and underage players) for injury, adjusted for cluster by team and offset by athlete exposures (AEs). Results: There were 101 injuries in the 7-day tournament {IRFemale = 6.78 injuries/1000 AEs [95% confidence interval (CI), 5.27-8.72]; IRMale = 4.30 injuries/1000 AEs (95% CI, 2.55-7.24)}. Joint sprain (n = 29, 28.71%) and concussion (n = 26, 25.74%) were the most common. Most concussions were associated with ball-to-head contact (61.5%). There was no statistically significant difference in injury rate by sex (IRRF/M: 1.47; 95% CI, 0.80-2.69). The rates of injury in U14 were higher than U18 (IRRU14: 2.57; 95% CI, 1.11-5.98). Conclusions: Injury rates are high in youth volleyball tournament play, with the highest rates in U14. More research is needed to inform the development of volleyball-specific injury prevention strategies.


Background and aims: Homalium letestui Pellegr (Flacourtiaceae) is used traditionally by the Yorubas of Western Nigeria as an antidote and by the Ibibios of Southern Nigeria to treat stomach ulcer, malaria and other inflammatory diseases. The aim of this study is to determine the hepatoprotective effects of ethanol extract of H. letestui stem (250-750 mg/kg) on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver injury in rats.Methods: A total of 36 rats were divided into six groups of 6 animals each. Group 1 was administered with normal saline (10 ml/kg) for eight days, group 2 received CCl4, group 3 served as the standard group, while groups 4, 5 and 6 were administered p.o with 250, 500 and 750 mg/kg of H. letestui stem extract, respectively, for 8 days. Liver function and histopathological parameters were investigatesd to assess hepatoprotective activity of the extract.Results: Administration of the stem extract (250-750 mg/kg body weight) caused significant (PConclusions: The plant may provide protection against substances that react with membrane lipids to induce peroxidation and subsequent dysfunction of membranes by acting as an effective scavenger of reactive oxygen species. This positive effect may be similar to the established effects of certain substances such as silymarin, vitamin E, vitamin C and other free radical scavengers that reduce the toxic effects of CCl4, especially on the liver.
Conclusions: The plant may provide protection against substances that react with membrane lipids to induce peroxidation and subsequent dysfunction of membranes by acting as an effective scavenger of reactive oxygen species. This positive effect may be similar to the established effects of certain substances such as silymarin, vitamin E, vitamin C and other free radical scavengers that reduce the toxic effects of CCl4, especially on the liver.


Infections with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) are often asymptomatic in healthy adults but can be severe in people with a compromised immune system. While several studies have demonstrated associations between cardiovascular disease in older adults and HCMV seropositivity, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. We review evidence published within the last 5 years establishing how HCMV can contribute directly and indirectly to the development and progression of atherosclerotic plaques. We also discuss associations between HCMV infection and cardiovascular outcomes in populations with a high or very high burden of HCMV, including patients with renal or autoimmune disease, transplant recipients, and people living with HIV.


We observed an ultrashort response of the gold nanoparticle system that was as fast as 240 fs in a femtosecond optical-Kerr-shutter experiment. The ultrafast response is attributed to the self-diffraction of the pump pulse due to the transient grating. We estimated χ(3) of the gold nanoparticle system to be 2.0 ×10-8 esu in the femtosecond region.


Background: Infectious Diseases Society of America/American Thoracic Society Guidelines on the Management of Community-Acquired Pneumonia 2007 recommend the first antibiotic dose should be administered while still in the emergency department. However, evidence of the benefit of the early administration of antibiotics before admission(EAA) is lacking, and randomized controlled trials are difficult for ethical reasons. Objectives: To clarify the difference in mortality between pneumonia patients who underwent EAA and those who did not, a retrospective cohort analyses using propensity scores were conducted. Methods: Previous cohort patients with pneumonia admitted to our hospital from April 2007 to June 2012 were eligible for this study. The propensity score was calculated using potentially confounding variables to predict the probability of the EAA. The primary outcome was defined as the 30-day mortality. Using the doubly robust estimators (DR) and the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW), mortality was estimated using the average treatment effect method. Sensitivity analyses were conducted for the subset of sepsis patients. Results: A total of 1783 pneumonia patients were eligible, including 1227 sepsis patients. The mortalities of the EAA group and the control group were 9.2% and 7.9% (P=.32, unadjusted), 7.8% and 8.7% (P=.58, DR), 7.2% and 8.2% (P=.47, IPTW), respectively. In the subset of sepsis patients, the mortalities were 7.8% and 8.8% (P=.54, DR), respectively. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that the early administration of antibiotics before admission could not improve the prognosis of pneumonia patients.


Several yeast species, belonging to Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces genera, play fundamental roles during spontaneous must grape fermentation, and recent studies have shown that mixed fermentations, co-inoculated with S. cerevisiae and non-Saccharomyces strains, can improve wine organoleptic properties. During active dry yeast (ADY) production, antioxidant systems play an essential role in yeast survival and vitality as both biomass propagation and dehydration cause cellular oxidative stress and negatively affect technological performance. Mechanisms for adaptation and resistance to desiccation have been described for S. cerevisiae, but no data are available on the physiology and oxidative stress response of non-Saccharomyces wine yeasts and their potential impact on ADY production. In this study we analyzed the oxidative stress response in several non-Saccharomyces yeast species by measuring the activity of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging enzymes, e.g., catalase and glutathione reductase, accumulation of protective metabolites, e.g., trehalose and reduced glutathione (GSH), and lipid and protein oxidation levels. Our data suggest that non-canonical regulation of glutathione and trehalose biosynthesis could cause poor fermentative performance after ADY production, as it corroborates the corrective effect of antioxidant treatments, during biomass propagation, with both pure chemicals and food-grade argan oil.


The recent trends in optimisation of sustainability of production processes requires, amongst all the activities, a continuous detection and correction of process behaviours, monitoring those parameters critical to performance. Detection of special causes of variations is a basic task in manufacturing, that has to be performed continuously to maintain any process stable as well as predictable. In this paper, a contribution to automate performance control is presented, based on synthesizing Cellular Neural Networks as associative memories for pro-actively recognizing unnatural behaviours. As an example, a test case is developed by considering abnormal cyclic behaviours given by sinusoidal signals. For this purpose, a CNN is synthesized for an associative memory, to recognize these unnatural situations. A robustness analysis of the synthesized network is then developed in the presence of unnatural behaviours in the form of input noises. The behaviour of the designed circuit is illustrated in detail. Key-Words: Statistical Process Control, Cellular Neural Networks, Recognition Process, Associative Memories, Sustainable manufacturing.


When objects are changed the locations within them also move. In groupware, users may cooperatively view and update shared objects and so the implementations must take account of the movement of locations in order to perform as expected. Dynamic pointers are a way of describing this behaviour. They have formal properties which can be used for speciication and reasoning about complex systems, and, in addition, they can be used as an implementation paradigm. Threads refer to the short lifetime versions which arise during concurrent activity. These versions can be related to one another using dynamic pointers allowing diierent users' threads of activity to be raveled together into a common view. This paper describes dynamic pointers and threads and applies them to synchronous and asynchronous editing and to problems of group undo.


At elevated temperatures of 1000–1500 K, carbon (C) atoms that segregated to a surface and mixed with the boron (B) honeycomb lattice resulted in the formation of three different BCx layers as the topmost layers of NbB2(0001). Two of the layers were commensurate lattices: and structures; the third was incommensurate. The characteristic features of the lattice with a honeycomb structure are discussed on the basis of the experimental data.


Washington voters passed Initiative Measure No. 688 on November 3, 1998. This bill increased Washington's minimum wage to $5.70 on January 1, 1999.and to $6.50 on January 1, 2000. The Initiative required that future annual changes in Washington's minimum wage be indexed to inflation in the BLS Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPIW). As of 2005, Washington had the highest minimum wage in the nation at $7.35 per hour. Eleven other states have minimum wages above the Federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour; however, Oregon is the only other state with an inflation-indexed minimum wage, which was $7.05 per hour in 2004. A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Washington economy was used to examine the economic impact of increases in Washington's minimum wage. Results from the short-run model indicated that a five percent increase in Washington's minimum wage would cause a loss of 1909 minimum wage jobs (2.5 percent of baseline minimum wage jobs) but the wage bill for minimum wage workers would increase by $22.61 million (2.38 percent of the baseline minimum wage bill). The loss in the total wage and capital bill for the state economy was $14.04 million. The predicted change in gross state product was roughly 0.007 percent. Tracing the impact of increases in the minimum wage across the size distribution of household income, low income households in Washington experienced an increase in welfare and there was a slight decrease in welfare for high income households.


There has been concern that the move towards generalism means that specialties, such as neurosurgery, are being pushed out of the undergraduate syllabus. Surveys were created, along with the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, and sent to medical school representatives (MSRs) and neurosurgery programme directors (NPDs) in the United Kingdom (UK). 60% of MSRs and 71% of NPDs responded. Neurosurgical topics were taught by a variety of specialties, and in one medical school, a MSR said that neurosurgery was not taught at all. 83% of MSRs and 80% of NPDs said that neurosurgeons should be more involved in undergraduate education, with 70% of NPDs saying that their unit would be willing to have increased involvement. All NPDs, but only 72% of MSRs, said that neurosurgery should be taught in medical school. Those MSRs who disagreed opined that it was a postgraduate subject, and could be difficult to engage all students. The majority of MSRs and NPDs thought that neurosurgery guidelines would be useful. The most popular forms of guidance were in the forms of curriculum/guidelines, website and powerpoint presentations. It is therefore recommended that neurosurgeons, under the umbrella of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons, create national guidelines for the teaching of undergraduate students; to aid their educational colleagues and ensure that accurate, standardised teaching occurs. Care must be taken not to be over-prescriptive in these endeavours.


Dr. JOBSON HORNE suggested removal of the tumour. He could not detect extension beyond the soft palate in the post-nasal region. Similar cases that had come under his notice had been reported to be of the nature of sarcoma when examined under the microscope, but they had not been of a very malignant form, as proved by the absence of recurrence. Dr. DAN McKENZIE said that two years ago he showed a patient with a somewhat similar tumour of the palate which after removal proved to be an endothelioma. There had been no recurrence so far.


At a Bio-Terrorism Conference at Case Western Reserve University School of Law on March 31, 2006, the government participants were asked what they would do if a superior instructed them not to disclose information to the public about the likely grave health affects of an ongoing bio-terrorist attack. In response, they indicated that they would be reluctant to become a "whistleblower." This is not surprising since, despite the federal and state laws that purport to facilitate such whistleblowing for the public good, government whistleblowers routinely have faced loss of promotion, harassment, firing, and in some instances criminal prosecution when they have gone public with their important information. Yet, without government whistleblowers who had the courage to go to the press, the public would never have learned about Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal, the inhumane practices at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the secret prisons run by the United States in Eastern Europe, or the NSA policy of wiretapping Americans without warrants. These disclosures initiated vital public debate and prompted corrective actions and reforms. The authors argue that the government whistleblower who in good faith discloses information to the press should no longer be treated as an enemy of the state, and provide a legislative proposal to give them a greater degree of protection from retaliation than exists under current legislation.


Studies conducted in our laboratories and by others found no consistent correlation between prostate size, prostate pathology, or the development of prostate cancer under a variety of experimental conditions. Furthermore, an evaluation of eight published studies that were conducted in mice and rats following in utero exposure by oral treatment of dams with low levels of bisphenol A (BPA) and that focused on the prostate identified several discrepancies that affect their adequacy for use in human risk assessment. For example, there was inadequate reporting of the purity of BPA and the animal supplier used, and housing of offspring was not the same among the studies. In addition, there were differences between studies with mice and rats in exposure regimen, route of exposure, and numbers of dams or pups used per BPA dose group. Poor inter- and intraspecies correlation (i.e., mouse to rat or between mouse or rat strains) further complicates the ability to use results from these studies to predict potential prostate effects in humans. Thus, we conclude that a finding of increased prostate weight in rodent studies with perinatal exposure in the absence of associated pathologic and/or functional changes is meaningless and not indicative of a potential adverse effect in humans.


Analysis of genetic divergence of sixty four genotypes (39 new germplasm accessions and 25 advanced breeding lines) of groundnut revealed wide range of D2 values ranging between 4.52 and 27.75 suggesting the presence of considerable amount of genetic diversity in the genotypes studied, which were grouped in to seven clusters where, cluster VII (28) was the largest followed by cluster I (24) and cluster VI (4). Maximum inter cluster distance was recorded between IV and VI representing wide divergence among these clusters. On the basis of intercluster distance and cluster means the genotypes viz., ICGV-05033, ICGV-05052, PAFRGVT58, GG-20×ICGV-91114, ICGX-020063-F-B-SSD-P20-B, ICGX-020055-F-SSD-P37-B were 21121 widely diverse therefore may be considered for future breeding programmes.


This paper seeks to illustrate the advantages of not treating phonological words as distinguished building blocks in compositional semantics. Following Bobaljik 2012, we derive the relative readings of amount superlatives in two steps, [[[d-many] comparative] superlative]. The existence of two comparative constructions is revealed, involving more vs. the more. Each builds a different superlative construction, explaining the conflicting intuitions about superlatives in the literature, as well as puzzles relating to the definite article in superlatives.


A geophysical survey of the fort at Birdoswald, together with an area 80 m to the east and 120 m to the west of the fort walls, undertaken by the authors in 1997, was published in this journal. A detailed account of the findings is set out there, and it is not proposed to go into further detail. A further survey was undertaken in 1998, which encompassed the remainder of the vicus together with the cemetery to the south-west, with the benefit of a grant from English Heritage. More buildings were recognised below the escarpment to the south of the fort during the work on site, and two areas were surveyed in spring 2000 with the aid of a grant from the Roman Research Trust. The findings of these two latest surveys are set out in this paper, and some of the earlier findings have been reassessed. The completed survey has revealed the extent and form of the settlement, and it is probable that more is known of this fort than any other on the northern frontier.


Solution scattering from iodine in different solvents is used to derive the cross-correlation between iodine and the solvent. In parallel, molecular dynamics simulations are performed and the findings compared to the experimental results. The close correspondence shows that it is possible to describe the structural rearrangements of the solvent around a solute molecule. Time-resolved studies of photoexcited molecules will therefore allow one to study the relaxations of the solute as well as the solvent molecules.


ABSTRACT Hordeum vulgare L. dust (HVW) chemically activated using Na2CO3 (HVW-Na2CO3) was characterised by several techniques (SEM, FTIR and TGA/DTG). The increase in the surface charge of the biomaterial induced by the activation process was demonstrated by multisweep cyclic voltammetry. The modified HVM was then exploited as carbon paste electrode (HVW-Na2CO3/CPE) modifier to prepare a sensor which was applied in the determination of Cd2+, Pb2+ and Hg2+at trace level by stripping voltammetry. Key experimental variables (nature of stripping medium, modifier mass in CPE, electrolysis time and potential and pH of preconcentration solution) were optimised to detect Cd2+, Pb2+ and Hg2+ at HVW-Na2CO3/CPE. Under optimised conditions, calibration plots were obtained for all analytes. The low limits of detection (3s/m) were found to be 1.82 nM, 0.0691 nM and 0.237 nM for Cd2+, Pb2+and Hg2+respectively. The sensor was successfully applied to the detection of trace metals in real samples.


Inosine dialdehyde, an antitumor agent highly active against several murine tumors, ispresently undergoing clinical trial for potential activity in man. To aid in the clinical evaluation of this drug, a chemical assay has been developed for the determination of concentrations of inosine dialdehyde in biologic fluids. The method involves reaction of inosine dialdehyde with phenylhydrazine in an acetic acid medium, followed by extraction of the product into ether and determining its absorbance at 378 nm. The reaction is specific for free inosine dialdehyde and will quantitate amounts as low as 1.0 mug.


Industrial Control Systems (ICS) have seen a rapid proliferation in the last decade amplified by the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution. At the same time, several notable cybersecurity incidents in industrial environments have underlined the lack of depth in security evaluation of industrial devices such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). Modern PLCs are based on widely used microprocessors and deploy commodity operating systems (e.g., ARM on Linux). Thus, threats from the information technology domain can be readily ported to industrial environments. PLC application binaries in particular have never been considered as regular programs able to introduce traditional security threats, such as buffer overflows. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of exploiting PLC binaries as well as their surrounding PLC-specific environment. We examine binaries produced by all available IEC 61131-3 control system programming languages for compilation-based differences and introduced vulnerabilities. Driven by this analysis, we develop a fuzzing framework to perform security evaluation of the PLC binaries along with the host functions they interact with. Fuzzing such non-executable binaries is non-trivial, as they operate with real-time constraints and receive their inputs from peripherals. To prove the correctness of our fuzzing tool, we use a database of in-house developed binaries in addition to functional control applications collected from online repositories. We showcase the efficacy of our technique by demonstrating uncovered vulnerabilities in both control application binaries and their runtime system. Furthermore, we demonstrate an exploitation methodology for an in-house as well as a regular control binary, based on the uncovered vulnerabilities.


During a brief historical moment, April 15-26, 1959, Fidel Castro and a delgation of more than fifty industrial and international representatives visited the United States as guests of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The 32-year-old Cuban revolutionary, in rumpled fatigues and unkempt beard, was extolled by many U.S. citizens as a genuine hero. This article suggests that this postive presentation was largely created and perpetuated by mainstream media accounts from newspapers such as the New York Times that lent credence to Castro's image as a charismatic Iberian conqueror.


Geological Carbon Sequestration (GCS) in deep geological formations, like saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas reservoirs, brings enormous potential for large-scale storage of carbon dioxide (CO2). The successful implementation of GCS requires a comprehensive risk assessment of the confinement of plumes at each potential storage site. The accurate prediction of the flow, geochemical, and geomechanical responses of the formation is essential for the management of GCS in long-term operations because excessive pressure buildup due to injection can potentially induce fracturing of the cap-rock, or activate pre-existing faults, through which fluid can leak. In this study, we build a Deep Learning (DL) workflow to effectively infer the storage potential of CO2 in deep saline aquifers. Specifically, a reservoir model is built to simulate the process of CO2 injection into deep saline aquifers, which considers the coupled phenomenon of flow and hydromechanics. Further, the reservoir model was sampled to account for a wide range of petro-physical, geological, and operational parameters. These samples generated a massive physics-informed simulation database (about 1500 simulated data points) that provides training data for the DL workflow. The ranges of varied parameters were obtained from an extensive literature survey. The DL workflow consists of Fourier Neural Operator (FNO) to take the input of the parameterized variables used in the simulation database and jointly predict the temporal-spatial responses of pressure and CO2 saturation plumes at different periods. Average Absolute Percentage Error (AAPE) and coefficient of determination (R2), Structural similarity index (SSIM), and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) are used as error metrics to evaluate the performance of the DL workflow. Through our blind testing experiments, the DL workflow offers predictions as accurate as our physics-based reservoir simulations, yet 300 times more efficient than the latter. The developed workflow shows superior performance with an AAPE of less than 5% and R2 score of more than 0.99 between actual and predicted values. The workflow can predict other required outputs that numerical simulators can typically calculate, such as solubility trapping, mineral trapping, and injected fluid densities in supercritical and aqueous phases. The proposed DL workflow is not only physics informed but also driven by inputs and outputs (data-driven) and thus offers a robust prediction of the carbon storage potential in deep saline aquifers with considering the coupled physics and potential fluid leakage risk.


It seems timely to define the purpose of medicine and examine the concept of a profession. This paper does so in the wider context of health, values in society, and the need to involve patients and the public as a whole. The author looks closely at what doctors do and concludes that making the diagnosis is a key element. The consultation is the building block for resource allocation. In addition to the diagnosis it sets out the prognosis and possible treatment and emphasises the importance of communicating these to the patient. Looking at the kind of doctor we need raises such issues as ethical standards, continuing professional development, team working, clinical standards, quality, outcomes, and research and development. Throughout, the role of education is seen as crucial. Leadership and vision are required by senior members of the profession if the opportunities presented are to be developed further.


While continuity based testing is a relatively well accepted method for assessing the integrity of a grounding grid, no specific continuity based test has distinguished itself with practitioners at large. Why this continues to be the case is not completely understood but it is likely a combination of ignorance of more effective procedures and the availability of better instrumentation. This paper reviews the various continuity based methods used for integrity testing and the characteristics required of a test procedure to make it effective at assessing integrity. This is considered primarily due to a lack of review of the various methods and instrumentation available to perform integrity testing. Accurate measurement of resistance in the electrically noisy environment of a power substation is a difficult task. In the case of grounding grid measurements, not only are the noise levels quite high but the resistances to be measured are relatively small, and the absolute significance of a specific measurement can be obscure. In practice the context of any given measurement is crucial to determining the significance of the measurement. While continuity testing can be performed at any power installation this paper concentrates specifically on the integrity assessment of a major substation. Most power utility substations are of a reasonable size, typically a few thousand square meters of real estate, which usually defines the extent of the grounding system and hence the extent of the integrity testing. This paper identifies the obstacles to performing an accurate measurement of resistance in the noisy environment of a power substation, establishing measurement targets and specific instances of poor integrity.


Quiniodochlor has well established antimicrobial properties. It is used for treatment of amoebiasis caused by Entamoeba histolytica. The drug is to be delivered to the colon for its effective action against Entamoeba histolytica. But the pharmacokinetic profile of Quiniodochlor indicates that the drug is not completely and promptly absorbed after oral administration. Quiniodochlor is specifically targeted to colon by making its prodrugs. Chemical structure of Quiniodochlor posses a hydroxyl group which can be exploited to make glycosides through glycosidic conjugation. Prodrugs of Quiniodochlor were synthesized and their colon targeting evaluation by HPLC was done in order to deliver it specifically to colon for treatment of amoebiasis and other colonic diseases. Three prodrugs of quiniodochlor QG1, QG2, QG5 are synthesized and In vitro drug release studies of the synthesized glucosides in simulated GIT fluids containing &-glucosidase was done. The studies showed that these prodrugs hydrolyzed most rapidly in simulated ceacal fluid (0.1 M HCl, pH 1.2), rapidly in simulated intestinal fluid ( phosphate buffer, pH 7.4) and slowly in simulated gastric fluid (acetate buffer, pH 5.0).By comparing all the results with time period, it may be concluded that - Quiniodochlor Acetylated Glucoside (QG1) > Quiniodochlor Acetylated Galactoside (QG2) > Quiniodochlor Acetylated Xyloside (QG5) .The antiprotozoal activity is best for acetylated glucoside of quiniodochlor as compared to acetylated galactoside and xyloside.


The dynamics of the relationship with customers was fundamentally modified with the extremely fast evolution and development of the Internet, as a new channel of communication also as an opportunity to effective fast dissemination. The Internet shifted the ability to control the market from seller to buyers and led to the fundamental modification of the relations with clients. The new client that comes from the Internet channel is looking mainly for 24x7 accesses to seller's information and resources. The Internet client wants right context and ease of navigation with effective search tools. Ultimately, he is looking for a personalized buying experience, defined by ease of opening a personal account, ability to review his shopping cart in real time. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is defined as the sum of business processes that an organization needs to execute in order to identify, choose, buy, develop and retain its clients. The current article is aiming to present the current architecture designed to fulfil all these requirements.


We analyzed the effect of part time farming in the US using a panel data analysis method. Data from three census years on ten southern states and the counties therein indicated that part time farming has a positive impact on the total value of the farm products produced. Although the result is preliminary, it sheds an important light on the changing farm structure in the USA.


A key design constraint when implementing Monte Carlo and variational inference algorithms is that it must be possible to cheaply and exactly evaluate the marginal densities of proposal distributions and variational families. This takes many interesting proposals off the table, such as those based on involved simulations or stochastic optimization. This paper broadens the design space, by presenting a framework for applying Monte Carlo and variational inference algorithms when proposal densities cannot be exactly evaluated. Our framework, recursive auxiliary-variable inference (RAVI), instead approximates the necessary densities using meta-inference: an additional layer of Monte Carlo or variational inference, that targets the proposal, rather than the model. RAVI generalizes and unifies several existing methods for inference with expressive approximating families, which we show correspond to specific choices of meta-inference algorithm, and provides new theory for analyzing their bias and variance. We illustrate RAVI's design framework and theorems by using them to analyze and improve upon Salimans et al.'s Markov Chain Variational Inference, and to design a novel sampler for Dirichlet process mixtures, achieving state-of-the-art results on a standard benchmark dataset from astronomy and on a challenging datacleaning task with Medicare hospital data.


Abstract A novel lignan, identified as 4-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-6,7-dimethoxy-3a,4-dihydronaphtho[2,3-c]furan-1(3H)-one, named oleralignan A (1), together with six known compounds, loliolide (2), isololiolide (3), dehydrololiolide (4), daphnetin (5), esculetin (6), and trans-coumaric acid methyl ester (7) was obtained from Portulaca oleracea L., while compounds 3, 4, 6, and 7 were isolated from the plant for the first time. Their structures were elucidated using spectroscopic methods, including one- and two-dimensional NMR and high-resolution electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. In addition, the results of activity assay demonstrated that compounds 1-7 have anticholinesterase activities. Graphical Abstract


Abstract The relationship between antidepressants (AD) and metabolic syndrome (MS) can be approached from many perspectives. We can start from the mutuality of depression and MS: depression often causes MS and vice versa; however, the two diseases aggravate each other. Altered glucocorticoid secretion - among others - may be a common etiological factor for depression and MS. Enhanced glucocorticoid production leads both to sleep disorders and insulin resistance, and several antidepressants cause obesity and insulin resistance. In addition, sympathetic nervous system activity increases in depression, together with the elevated production of counter-insulin hormones such as catecholamines (adrenaline) and glucocorticoids. From the components of MS, body weight changes can be most easily followed by the patient. The obesogenic mechanisms of AD drugs are different. The H1-receptor blocking agents have the most important weight gaining effect, followed by the 5-HT2c-receptor blocking and/or down-regulating ADs. The fattening effect of mirtazapine, paroxetine, and tricyclic antidepressants are based on such central mechanisms. Blocking of alpha1-receptors contributes to the obesogenic effects of certain drugs by inducing sedation: this has been confirmed in case of imipramine, amitriptyline, and doxepin. Fluoxetine behaves differently depending on the dose and duration of treatment: while at the usual doses it induces weight loss at the beginning of therapy, its initial anorexigenic effects reverses during prolonged use; while its activation effect at high doses is favorable in bulimia. The selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor reboxetine reduces appetite, similarly to bupropion, which inhibits dopamine reuptake as well. We highlight the effect of fluoxetine on direct adipogenicity, mentioning its preadipocyte-adipocyte transformation-reducing and adipocyte proliferation-inhibiting activity, as well as its ability to enhance fat cell autophagy.


Flow separation is intimately related with intrinsic topological changes in a variety of flows over or through configurations of engineering signincance. Invariably, adverse effects on the performance of lifting surfaces are associated with flow separation, which has provided motivation for research efforts into both incompressible and compressible separated flows, spanning over half a century. However, and despite the continuous research, many questions related to the appearance, structure and behaviour of separation bubbles remain open. While predominance of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability associated with the shear-layer formed on account of flow separation has been confirmed in a multitude of experimental and numerical investigations, it does not suffice to explain neither the occurrence of breathing or flapping bubble behavior, i.e. oscillations of the separation bubble region at frequencies substantially lower than those predicted for the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, nor the effectiveness of such frequencies in controlling the size of separation bubbles, nor the time-persisting breakdown of bubbles into fully three-dimensional patterns. On the other hand, global instability analysis considering the essentially non-parallel, non-local nature of separation bubbles, are able to predict global instability mechanisms diiferent from the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The BiGlobal instability analysis has been used in this thesis to investigate the global instability of laminar separation bubbles. This approach has been historically confined to simple geometries and low resolutions because of the large computational resources required for the direct solution of the associated partial-derivative-based eigenvalue problems. Recent developments achieved in the course of the present work have resulted into the parallelization of the algorithms used in the solution of the problem, significantly relaxing the constrains related to the serial solution, up to the possibilities of state-of-art distributed memory supercomputers. Two kinds of configurations comprising separation bubbles have been considered herein: a series of model laminar separation bubbles on a fiat piate, and the flow around a stalled NACA 0015 airfoil. The first part of the present investigation is concerned with the BiGlobal instability analysis of the laminar separation bubble models. The many parameters involved in the description of possible separated states, and their potentially decisive effect on the instability properties suggests the search for adequate models of laminar separation bubbles in which the influence of the parameters could be analyzed independently. Comparisons with well-established results of both temporal and spatial local stability theories, based on the solution of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation, are used as a basis for the identification and classification of the modal instability mechanisms recovered by BiGlobal analysis. In particular, an unstable, stationary and three-dimensional global mode is found both in the flat piate and the stalled airfoil; its properties have been analyzed in detail. In the second part of the thesis, critical-point concepts have been employed in order to unveil the diiferent topological bifurcations resulting from the linear superposition of the two-dimensional basic states and the three-dimensional global mode. Special attention has been paid to the surface streamlines or skin-friction lines, in order to make direct comparisons between the present reconstructions and the experimental oil-streak topologies. In addition, three-dimensional field streamline topologies associated with laminar separation have been analyzed. The topological de-scription of the resulting flows, besides been in agreement with the theoretical U-shaped separation topology, is qualitatively equivalent to the stall cells recovered experimentally: spanwise periodic structures in which the separated flow regions are organized around two counter-rotating vortices, separated by fully attached bands. In addition, the periodicity length predicted by the instability analysis is in good agreement with the characteristic length observed in experiments. Comparison of the present results and experiments in the literature shows that the amplification of the global mode of laminar separation bubbles is a plausible origin of the stall cells. The main conclusion of this thesis is that the classic picture of laminar separation bubbles, as dominated by the inflectional instability of disturbance waves, is neither necessarily representative of all the possible separation bubbles, nor sufficient to explain the complete dynamics of the separated flow. The presence of the self-excited, temporally amplified global mode not only explains the origin of three-dimensionality in nominally two-dimensional bubbles, but may also serve as the triggering instability mechanism leading to unsteady three-dimensional states, in those cases in which the classic (inflectional) Rayleigh scenario alone would predict stable two-dimensional flow.


Abstract In October 2020, three captive male white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus [Zimmermann] (artiodactyla: Cervidae), were found dead in central Pennsylvania and a fourth was euthanized due to extreme lethargy. The deer presented with high burdens of Dermacentor albipictus (Packard) (Ixoda: Ixodidae) (winter tick). There were no other clinical symptoms and deer were in otherwise good physical condition with no observed alopecia. Winter tick epizootics have been associated with mortalities of moose, Alces alces [Linnaeus] (artiodactyla: cervidae), and more recently elk, Cervus canadensis [Erxleben] (artiodactyla: cervidae), in Pennsylvania, but have not been reported in white-tailed deer. Mild winters are favorable to winter ticks and deer producers and managers should be aware of possible infestations as a result.


The purpose of this study is to explore the diverse ways that aesthetic experience is tested by participatory art. The study will show the part played by participatory action in changing the conditions in which aesthetic experience arises. It will be confirmed that when the philosophy of action is taken into account then explanations of participatory art are enhanced. There are many descriptions of aesthetic experience and it is generally assumed to be a cornerstone in explanations of art. In one of the leading accounts aesthetic experience is associated with disinterested perceptions where the individual is free of any practical concern for the object of experience. In recent explanations of contemporary art there is less emphasis on aesthetic experience and there is a tendency to suggest that background knowledge and interpretation are equally as significant as perception in the experience of art. ˜Participatory art is a category of art that explicitly demonstrates this state of affairs. In contemporary criticism participatory art is a term used to describe art that favours an audience composed of active contributors rather than detached viewers. These are artworks that encourage moments of engagement by an audience such as the moving of elements in the work or the movement of the participants body. It could be said that the observable actions of participants mediate between perception and knowledge in participatory art. Such work opens up a space where assumptions made about the experience of art can be challenged. The present study explores how aesthetic experience is affected by the introduction of human action in participatory art by exploring three exhibitions of participatory art at The Tate Modern, The Barbican and Dundee Contemporary Arts. In this study it is suggested that participation in such artwork may be a consequence of deliberation, spontaneity or may take place within a social group. Therefore the aesthetic experiences and actions that are identified in these artworks are examined from the standpoint of reason, the body and social convention through the respective adoption of analytical, phenomenological and institutional/sociological perspectives.


Four new compounds based on zinc(II) or cadmium(II) metal ions and elongated dicarboxylate and bipyridine ligands, namely, {[Cd3(μ4-bpdc)3(H2O)2]·DMF}n (1), {[Zn3(μ4-bpdc)3(μ-bpdb)]·5DMF}n (2), {[Zn2(μ4-bpdc)2(μ-bpdb)]·7DMF}n (3), and {[Zn4(μ4-bpdc)3(DMF)(μ4-O)(H2O)]·7DMF·3H2O}n (4), (where bpdc = biphenyl-4,4′-dicarboxylate, bpdb = 1,4-bis(4-pyridyl)-2,3-diaza-1,3-butadiene, DMF = dimethylformamide) have been synthesised under solvothermal conditions and structurally characterised by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal structures range from 2D (in 1) to 3D (2, 3, and 4) systems according to the coordination mode acquired by the bpdc ligand and the presence of an ancillary linker. Compound 1 consists of stacked Cd-bpdc neutral layers containing isolated small voids. The coordination of the bpdb ligand (2 and 3) or the formation of a tetrahedral Zn4O cluster (in 4) generates highly open 3D architectures that share the structural feature of being doubly interpenetrated. A careful computational analysis on the crystal structures permits unravelling their void systems. Moreover, characterising the photoluminescence emission of the compounds at variable excitation wavelengths provides an opportunity to couple the luminescence response with their porosity, which could signify the potential utility of these materials as photofluorescent sensors for small adsorbates.


Cytochrome P450s are a broad class of enzymes in the human body with important functions for human health, which include the metabolism and detoxification of compounds in the liver. Thus, in their catalytic cycle, the P450s form a high-valent iron(IV)-oxo heme cation radical as the active species (called Compound I) that reacts with substrates through oxygen atom transfer. This work discusses the possible degradation mechanisms of phthalates by cytochrome P450s in the liver, through computational modelling, using 2-ethylhexyl-phthalate as a model substrate. Phthalates are a type of compound commonly found in the environment from cosmetics usage, but their biodegradation in the liver may lead to toxic metabolites. Experimental studies revealed a multitude of products and varying product distributions among P450 isozymes. To understand the regio- and chemoselectivity of phthalate activation by P450 isozymes, we focus here on the mechanisms of phthalate activation by Compound I leading to O-dealkylation, aliphatic hydroxylation and aromatic hydroxylation processes. We set up model complexes of Compound I with the substrate and investigated the reaction mechanisms for products using the density functional theory on models and did a molecular mechanics study on enzymatic structures. The work shows that several reaction barriers in the gas-phase are close in energy, leading to a mixture of products. However, when we tried to dock the substrate into a P450 isozyme, some of the channels were inaccessible due to unfavorable substrate positions. Product distributions are discussed under various reaction conditions and rationalized with valence bond and thermodynamic models.