1Department of Nursing, Semyung University, Jecheon, Republic of Korea; 2Department of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Purpose: In recent years, the world has been under threat of novel infectious diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Governmental risk communication plays a key role in overcoming the public health crises caused by the emergence of these infectious diseases. The purpose of this study was to identify the focus of Korean public service advertisements (PSAs) in response to the MERS and COVID-19 outbreaks, along with the differences between them. Methods: A total of five MERS and 17 COVID-19 TV PSAs were analyzed using Lasswell's Sender, Message, Channel, Receiver, and Effect model and the responses of the Korean government were compared between the MERS and COVID-19 outbreaks. Results: During the MERS outbreak, the Korean government failed to gain the public's trust through its PSAs. Despite its best efforts, it provided opaque and selective information on the crisis. Conversely, in the case of COVID-19, the Korean government has successfully worked to strengthen community awareness by supporting and encouraging the public. Conclusion: Despite the Korean government's improved communication in the COVID-19 crisis, there has been an insufficient response to the needs of vulnerable groups that could be placed in at-risk situations as a result of domestic violence or mental health problems during outbreaks of novel infectious diseases that require aggressive management.


This paper presents short term demand and supply forecasting model for a microgrid supply system used to secure the electricity demands of a commercial building, using one year demand data collected in hourly base. One-year renewable-based Micro-grid electricity supply data were produced by simulating its sub-systems (wind and PV supply systems). The Artificial Neural Network, ANN, forecasting models are built on predicting generation capacity and load demands in the next 24 hours. The ANN model presented here is a micro-level supply and demand forecasting model that links the decision making with the performance measures. To sustain the model results, the daily weather forecasts supplied by local authorities, are incorporated in our model. The models validity were tested by calculating the Mean Absolute Percent Error for the forecasted data. The ANN models' applicability and performance were tested in a case study for forecasting the demands of a hotel building and the supply potential of its microgrid supply sub-system. The building demands are assumed to be supplied by a hybrid supply system of 20% renewable-based Micro grid (10% Wind and 10% Photovoltaic) and 80% from electricity grid.


By developing a mild Ni-catalyzed system, a method for direct borylation of sp(2) and sp(3) C-N bonds has been established. The key to this hightly efficient C-N bond borylative cleavage depends on the appropriate choice of the nickel catalyst Ni(COD)2, ICy·HCl as a ligand, and the use of 2-ethoxyethanol as the cosolvent. This transformation shows good functional group compatibility and can serve as a powerful synthetic tool for gram-scale synthesis and late-stage C-N borylation of complex compounds.


Improvement of CD control can be achieved by reduction of substrate reflectivity effects. On highly reflective substrates such as metals, dyed resists are used most of the time. Especially for poly gate level patterning, the use of Bottom Anti Reflective Coatings has become common practice. While originally organic BARCs dominated, interest is gradually shifting towards inorganic BARCs of the SiOxNy type. Their highly conformal deposition now really allows for tuning towards zero reflectivity, even on substrates with topography. Furthermore, the use of inorganic BARC as a hard mask for etching allows for a thinner resist layer. This reduction of the resist thickness is advantageous for obtaining high resolution. It should be realized, however, that while resist thickness reduction improves resolution, it increases CD swing effects. Also, increased resists absorption reduces CD swing, but negatively influences resolution on substrates with a low reflectivity. THus, while resist absorption, resist thickness and substrate reflectivity can be used as parameters to optimize process performance, optimum conditions for CD control and resolution are generally different. The subject of this paper is how to determine optimum values for resist absorption, resist thickness and substrate reflection. We quantify the effect of these parameters on both CD control and resolution. Furthermore, requirements for BARC parameter variations are discussed. Finally, practical boundary conditions on increasing resist absorption and thickness for better CD control are determined.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.


Next generation nuclear power plants, specifically small modular reactor designs, are the best alternative to fossil fuels for power generation due to their power density and low carbon emissions and constant awareness of safety concerns. A promising safety feature of new designs is the removal of heat by passive systems in accident scenarios. The passive systems require no moving parts and no intervention by personnel. These systems must be accurately simulated for better understanding of the heat transport phenomena: natural convection cooling. Due to the fact that most work developing these passive heat removal systems are proprietary information, a passive heat removal system for a small modular reactor was designed and simulated in Star CCM+ to evaluate the capability of natural convective flows to remove decay heat in a shutdown scenario. The size and dimensions of the heat exchanger are based on the Westinghouse-SMR design. The design of the passive heat removal system was a hexagonal lattice heat exchanger. The final design was projected to dissipate the 56MW of decay heat at the rate simulated in Star CCM+.


SUMMARY Extractive reserves are conservation units that are concurrently expected to sustain subsistence and cash economies of reserve residents, often through use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) has been central to many Amazonian reserves and resident livelihoods therein, due to its basin-wide distribution, significance in global markets, and potential for sustainable use and forest conservation. Yet, do the benefits of this and other NTFPs extend to all extractive reserve residents? A livelihood survey, structured interviews, and Brazil nut inventories from 2008 to 2010, randomly sampling the widely dispersed households and corresponding forests across the three regions of Riozinho do Anfrísio Extractive Reserve (RDAER), revealed significant social and ecological heterogeneity among RDAER regions. There were differences in Brazil nut stand access, individual tree characteristics (including crown form and marginally, and fruit production), stand and tree management, multiple household characteristics that shape resident investment and dependence on NTFPs, and the contribution of Brazil nut to forest-based income. If Brazil nut and other NTFPs are to reconcile conservation and development in forest communities, then policies to regulate and promote NTFP use must integrate the socioecological heterogeneity inherent in these forest products and within reserve polygons.


Phytoremediation plant is one of the proposed methods that by accumulating heavy metals in the aerial parts of plants, it is possible to remove these elements from contaminated soils. The aim of this study was to investigate the situation of removal of three heavy metals, Al, Pb and Zn in the soil based on 8 plant species in Meyghan wetland in Markazi province, Iran. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate the difference between of heavy elements in the aerial parts, roots of plant species and soil. The results showed that there were signi�cant difference in the contaminants of Al, Pb and Zn in the aerial, root organs of plant and soil. The results of the study of Al changes in the soil and the studied species showed that the amount of this element in the soil is very high and the studied plants do not have the high adsorption capacity of this element. The results of a study of the amount of Pb in aerial parts and roots of plant species showed that the amount of this metal in aerial parts is higher than the root and Halocenemum Strobilaceum has the highest rate of Pb contaminants (0.82 mg/cm 3 ) among the studied species. The results of Zn change in aerial and root limbs showed that the amount of Zn metal contaminants in aerial organs was higher than the root, and Scirpus lacustris (2.14 mg/cm 3 ) had the highest total absorption rate among the species studied.


The arene-perfluoroarene stacking interaction was studied by experimental and theoretical methods. A series of compounds with different possibilities for formation of this recognition motif in the solid state were synthesized, and their crystal structures determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal packing of these compounds, as well as the packing of related compounds retrieved from crystallographic databases, were analyzed with quantitative crystal potentials: total lattice energies and the cohesive energies of closest molecular pairs in the crystals were calculated. The arene-perfluoroarene recognition motif emerges as a dominant interaction in the non-hydrogen-bonding compounds studied here, to the point that asymmetric dimers formed over the stacking motif carry over to asymmetric units made of two molecules in the crystal both for pure compounds and for molecular complexes; however, inter-ring distances and angles range from 3.70 to 4.85 A and from 5 to 21 degrees , respectively. Pixel energy partitioning reveals that whenever aromatic rings stack, the largest cohesive energy contribution comes from dispersion, which roughly amounts to 20 kJ mol(-1) per phenyl ring, while the coulombic term is minor but significant enough to make a difference between the arene-arene or perfluoroarene-perfluoroarene interactions on the one hand, and arene-perfluoroarene interactions on the other, whereby the latter are favored by about 10 kJ mol(-1) per phenyl ring. No evidence of special interaction which can be attributed to HF confrontation was recognizable.


The use of tissue- or tumor-selective promoters in targeted gene therapy for cancer depends on strong and selective activity. Hexokinase type II (HK II) catalyzes the first committed step of glycolysis and is overexpressed in tumors, where it is no longer responsive to normal physiological inhibitors, e.g., glucagon. We show, in a reporter gene assay, activation of HK II in non-small cell lung carcinomas NCI-H661 and NCI-H460 at 61 and 40%, respectively, relative to the activation observed with a constitutive promoter, while it was only 0.9% in different preparations of primary normal human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBECs). Similar results were observed in a variety of normal and tumor cells. Moreover, treatment of the transfectants with glucagon did not inhibit promoter activation in the transformed H661 cells, while endogenous HK II in NHBECs is suppressed by glucagon. H460 and H661 cells infected with a recombinant adenovirus carrying an HK II/LacZ expression cassette, AdHexLacZ, demonstrated beta-galactosidase activity that correlated with the level of HK II promoter activation in these cells. Under similar conditions, no enzyme activity was observed in NHBECs. Cells were then infected with AdHexTk and treated with GCV. Our results demonstrate selectivity in toxicity, with a 10- to 100-fold increase in IC50 between lung cancer cell lines H661 and H460, respectively, and NHBECs. There was also a 100-fold increase in IC50 in NHMECs relative to breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7. In HepG2 cells, an IC50 of 1 microg/ml was observed, comparable to that of other tumor cell lines. This represents a novel use of the hexokinase type II as a selective promoter in cancer gene therapy.


Body dissatisfaction is prevalent in females, leading to detrimental physical and psychological outcomes. Mindfulness might successfully reduce body dissatisfaction through decentering, the metacognitive aspect of viewing thoughts as transient mental events. Most previous research has examined the effects of extended acceptance-based mindfulness interventions on body dissatisfaction, with very few studies considering the effectiveness of brief decentering approaches. This study examined whether radically short (two-minute or "instant") mindfulness interventions could decrease body dissatisfaction compared to a control condition in 102 females (18-30 years), after exposure to "ideally thin" body dissatisfaction trigger-stimuli. It was hypothesised that both two-minute and instant approaches would decrease body dissatisfaction, while being equally effective. Results supported the prediction that both interventions would decrease body dissatisfaction. Additionally, Bayesian analysis provided anecdotal evidence that both interventions were equally effective. In addition to demonstrating that brief decentering interventions can protect from body dissatisfaction, the study is the first to support the feasibility of an instant mindfulness approach, opening the way for future research.


Since tumors of the perineum, apart from the epidermal neoplasms, are remarkable for their infrequency, the occurrence of two mucous gland tumors of the female perineum within a short time attracted our attention to this type of growth. We were unable to find a report of any similar tumors in a brief survey of the literature or by personal inquiry among several pathologists and gynecologists. We report these cases with the hope that recognition of other cases will lead to a better understanding of the lesion.


The presence of slow space charge packets crossing the insulation thickness from one electrode to the other and causing significant electrical field distortion has been reported already in several papers. They are activated in general by very high dc fields or, in highly polluted materials, by relatively low fields and constitute an important ageing factor, concerning dc electrical stress. It has been observed, in fact, that such packets can cause accelerated breakdown of insulation. The development of fast systems for space charge measurements has allowed the presence of almost instant heterocharge to be observed close to electrodes in certain field and temperature conditions, especially in cable models. This has been explained often by the separation of ionic charge populations, even though such heterocharge appears also in materials, such as Polyethylene or crosslinked Polyethylene that represent the best extra-clean technologies. The measurements reported here use a high speed technique to investigate the build up of heterocharge in model cables that have been treated to remove volatile chemical species. They show that in fact the heterocharge is built up by many very small and very fast charge packets (i.e. charge packets having a high mobility), which are injected from both electrodes and cross the insulation in less than one second. Because the packet charge is unable to exit the counter-electrode at the same rate at which it arrives, hetero-charge is built up within just a few seconds from the beginning of the polarization. The mobility of these charges, depending significantly on temperature, is estimated through observation of charge packets as a function of time, and compared with that of the already-known slow packets, generally occurring at higher fields with respect to fast packets. The basis for the interpretation and modelling of such phenomena is discussed.


ECOLOGICAL AND ETHNOECOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF A FORESTED LANDSCAPE IN THE TAYAL MRQWANG TERRITORIES, TAIWAN (ROC) Kevan James Berg University of Guelph, 2013 Advisor: Dr. Steven G. Newmaster In landscape ecology, it is widely acknowledged that landscape is as much a social and cultural entity as it is biophysical, and that people and place must be jointly considered to fully understand the evolution of spatial pattern. This thesis explores the overlapping biophysical and human dimensions of landscape in the context of an (i) ecological and (ii) ethnoecological classification on the local landscape of the Tayal Mrqwang indigenous people in north central Taiwan. The goal of the ecological classification was to identify ecosystem types for a ~3000 acre landscape by relating vegetation patterns to gradients of physiography, soil, humidity, light, pixel brightness, and human modification across 76 transect sample plots. Using multivariate analyses, seven ecosystem types were identified, ranging from xeric through submesic pine, bamboo, alder, and laurel forests to mesic evergreen broadleaved and mixed coniferous forests. At the broad scale, ecosystems were distributed along gradients of elevation, soil, humidity and human modification, while factors related to local variability in physiography and soil development were more important at the fine scale (i.e., within elevational ecoregions). Within lower elevation sites in particular, patterns of forest variation and soil development were resonant of ancestral practices, including shifting cultivation, terrace farming, arboriculture, and selective extraction. The objective of the ethnoecological classification was to explore whether the Mrqwang people categorize landscape variation according to systematic or multidimensional knowledge structures. Results of interviews and free-listing exercises revealed an unsystematized classification that recognizes a continuum of forest variation through the intersection of three overlapping categories: history of disturbance, topography and substrate, vegetation. These categories are modified through land tenure and toponyms. The classification appears accommodating of personal experience, and it is theorized that this flexibility results in dynamic knowledge that evolves with time, generating variable characterizations of forest variation rather than formalized categories. The thesis concludes that despite the lack of formalization, the Tayal are nonetheless highly cognizant of how current forest variation coincides with the environment and the activities of their ancestors. This knowledge represents immense local expertise and must not be excluded from conservation and co-management projects in the local area.


This article tells about researches of the emotional intelligence qualities of the leaders of the organizations, that took place in 2009.The examples of the foreign test measuring emotional intelligence adaptation for the Russian culture are discussed. The conclusions of the research are formulated. The main conclusion is the discovery of the connection of emotional intelligence qualities and management effectiveness for Russian culture.


Perturbed Kerr black holes emit gravitational radiation, which (for the practical purposes of gravitational-wave astronomy) consists of a superposition of damped sinusoids termed quasinormal modes. The frequencies and time constants of the modes depend only on the mass and spin of the black hole—a consequence of the no-hair theorem. It has been proposed that a measurement of two or more quasinormal modes could be used to confirm that the source is a black hole and to test if general relativity continues to hold in ultrastrong gravitational fields. In this paper, we propose a practical approach to testing general relativity with quasinormal modes. We will also argue that the relative amplitudes of the various quasinormal modes encode important information about the origin of the perturbation that caused them. This helps in inferring the nature of the perturbation from an observation of the emitted quasinormal modes. In particular, we will show that the relative amplitudes of the different quasinormal modes emitted in the process of the merger of a pair of nonspinning black holes can be used to measure the component masses of the progenitor binary.


Ethnic grievances, socio-economic cleavages, past conflicts, and other macro-level factors associated frequently with political violence cannot explain subnational and cross-national variation in geographic and temporal patterns of coercive campaigning and post-election violence. Why do so many democracies — old and new, diverse and homogenous — experience election violence, often long after founding elections? Why does it occur in some electoral districts and not others? I develop a common set of explanations for this unique form of political violence, proposing why, where, how, and when parties and candidates risk reprisals, punishment, and reputational costs to influence elections through "undue influence." Considering the array of available non-coercive strategies, such as negative campaigning, vote buying, and boycotting available to politicians, to name a few, the choice to use violence or to allow supporters to do so is a rare and, often, conscious choice. I aim to expand understanding of this phenomenon. First, drawing on historical case studies of particularly acute eruptions of election violence, I describe the enigmatic historical and contemporary patterns of election violence that contemporary explanations, which focus primarily on recent episodes, tend to overlook. It is study of these cases, as well as preliminary, theory-building research trips to observe both rounds of Indonesia's 2004 presidential elections, on which I base my theory, while the collection of data and tests of this theory will be carried out independently and separately from this presentation of theory, hypotheses, and empirical expectations to minimize bias and report transparently and honestly when the empirical results are inconsistent with my initial propositions. While the theory shaped the research design and data collection, data has not been analyzed before full articulation of the theory in its current form. I begin by developing a typology of election violence — an undertaking that responds to one of the first studies in political science to call attention to the topic (Rapoport & Weinberg, 2001b, p. 35). I follow by presenting a theory to explain the probability, spatial diffusion, typological variation, lethality, and long-term rise and fall of election violence in the electoral histories of many polities. In the first of four propositions, I contend that parties and candidates are most likely to initiate or tolerate election violence when both uncertainty and incentives to cultivate a personal vote are high. Electoral uncertainty arises from exogenous sources of competitiveness. Institutional uncertainty arises following pro-democratic electoral reforms or tougher monitoring and enforcement of electoral corruption laws, increasing the costs of nonviolent fraud relative to violence. Personal vote incentives (a) minimize party desire and ability to control candidate campaign behavior and (b) maximize the number of actors willing to provide violence when faced with the imminent gain or loss of the private benefits that particular candidates target to loyal supporters. Second, I argue that the timing, targets, perpetrators, number of people involved, and other components of the typology vary across electoral system families and regime type. At one extreme, in Closed List Proportional Representation Systems (CLPR), violence occurs primarily during the intra-party, pre-campaign and/or coalition-formation stages of competition and involves candidate sponsorship of violence against one another. At the other extreme, violence in First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) electoral systems occurs primarily during the inter-party campaign and election day phases, targeting voters and supporters. Following the posting of results, post-election violence tends to occur when the national distribution of competitive constituencies is such that at least one party and its supporters estimated apriori equal probabilities of winning or losing the ability to govern alone at the national level, a situation that can occur in both CLPR and FPTP systems. This and other types of violence tend to occur at adolescent stages of democratization, rather than primarily during founding elections.Third, I suggest that ethnic grievances, socio-economic cleavages, past conflicts, and other correlates of deaths common in the broader political violence literature cannot predict when and where election violence occurs. I hypothesize instead that these predisposing factors determine the severity and lethality to which coercive campaigning and election violence escalate in particular countries and constituencies. Fourth, I propose that election violence is endogenous to democratization. Cleaning up elections can, in the short term, increase incentives for competitors to engage in coercive campaigning and election violence. In turn, eruptions of election coercion can disrupt path-dependent, institutionalized electoral bias and fraud more by generating mass awareness of and demand for pro-democratic electoral reforms than can nonviolent election fraud alone. The theory's subnational and cross-national empirical expectations will be evaluated using three original datasets, informed by qualitative fieldwork in Algeria, Newark, and Pakistan. The Election Violence Incidents Database (EVID) includes narratives and micro-level coding of the features of election-related incidents reported in major national newspapers four months before and one month after elections in Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Newark, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Variables include dates, geographic location (latitude-longitude), perpetrator and victim affiliations, and positions, the tactics used by each actor in each event (from vandalism to bombings), deaths, injuries, property damage, and electoral consequences, as well as an index of report reliability indicators. EVID encompasses elections since the 1960s, but initial analysis will include only two elections for each case. The cross-national analysis employs the Global Violent Elections Database (GVED), which indicates whether each national election worldwide between 1890 and 2005 included violence, fraud, or both, along with number of injuries and deaths (for 1945-2005). I combine this data with that compiled by other scholars for uncertainty, ICPV, electoral systems, degree of democracy, electoral reform, and control variables such as ethno-linguistic diversity and poverty. Due to the lack of literature and measurement of causes of electoral reform, it is difficult to implement a dynamic model that addresses the mutually causal relationship between election violence and electoral reform. For a tentative test of the endogeneity hypothesis, I will use data on the timing of major electoral reforms and constitutional changes in neighboring countries during the previous five years as an instrument for electoral reform in a structural equation model.I created the Election Laws on Election Crimes (ELECD) database, which codes national election crimes laws current as of 2005 (if specified in the constitution or electoral law and amendments) for nearly all countries in the world. I model the content, complexity, and levels of fines, penalties, electoral remedies for violent and nonviolent electoral crimes as a function of a country's past experience with election violence. In describing and explaining election violence and its institutional consequences, I contribute to research on micro-level variations in violence, the role of violence as a mechanism of institutional change, and the incremental process by which even flawed elections further democratization. My findings should interest practitioners involved in election observation, reform, administration, and security, as well as those involved in designing institutions in new democracies.


: Before and after treatment iron metabolism was evaluated in 37 iron deficient women given intravenous Ferrum Lek. In addition to standard blood counts and serum iron tests, iron metabolism was investigated with Fe-59 whole body radiometry in a low-background camera. The treatment effect was assessed in 1.3 and 6 months. The red blood cells and iron content in the serum returned to normal values. The effect persisted for 6 months. The initial 3 months iron accumulated in the depot, being further distributed in the blood. Total body iron 6 months after the treatment was at the baseline levels. It is thought adequate to use Ferrum Lek in the management of women with iron deficiency anemia.


A time-stratigraphic framework for discontinuously exposed regional ignimbrites in the Eocene-Oligocene Mogollon-Datil volcanic field has been established using correlations aided by 40Ar/39Ar age determinations and paleomagnetic analyses. 40Ar/39Ar age spectra from sanidine separates (25 regional ignimbrites, 85 samples, 97 spectra) yield well-defined plateau ages that are precise (within-sample and within-unit 1σ < ± 0.5%) and agree closely with independently established stratigraphic order. Paleomagnetic remanence directions (404 sites) from individual ignimbrite outflow sheets are generally vertically and horizontally uniform throughout facies ranging from thick (100-500 m), densely welded, proximal ignimbrites to thin (1.5-30 m), unwelded, distal fringes. Between-unit differences in paleomagnetic directions provide useful correlation criteria, particularly for units having ages too close to be resolved using 40Ar/39Ar dating.

The Mogollon-Datil time-stratigraphic framework clarifies ignimbrite history and provides improved age control for intercalated lavas and sedimentary rocks. Ignimbrite activity was strongly episodic; outflow sheets were primarily erupted in four discrete pulses representing synchronized activity of two separate cauldron complexes. Activity in the southern complex began at 36.2 Ma near Las Cruces, New Mexico, and subsequently migrated 220 km northwest, culminating in the 28.0 Ma Bursum cauldron. Activity in the northern complex, located west of Socorro, New Mexico, underwent a less defined and more modest 40-km westward migration over its 32.0 to 24.3 Ma life span. The four pulses of ignimbrite activity were (1) 36.2-24.3 Ma, 12 major units, >1,500 km3 total volume; (2) 32.0-31.4 Ma, three major units, >1,500 km3 volume; (3) 29.1-27.4 Ma, nine major units, >6,000 km3; and (4) 24.3 Ma, one major unit. The third and largest ignimbrite pulse was accompanied by extensive rhyolitic dome and flow eruptions in the area between the two main cauldron complexes.


A broadband spiral antenna (2 to 18 GHz) is modeled using the FDTD method. The inner turn of the antenna is an Archimedean spiral, while the outer turn is an Archimedean spiral with a zigzag shape. The current-density distribution along the spiral arms is first presented in the time domain, interestingly manifesting the impulse current propagation from the feed point to the outer end of the spiral arms. The performance of the broadband spiral antenna is also measured in an anechoic chamber. The simulated and measured results showed the sensitivity of the axial ratio and radiation pattern to the current distribution. The simulated linear gain, radiation patterns, and axial ratios agree well with the measured data over all of the frequency range from 2 to 18 GHz.


Background: Agile and distributed software development are two trends that continue to increase rapidly in today's software industry. Even though the benefits achievable by combining them are potentially many, the intrinsic challenges of such marriage often lead to severe complications that can jeopardize the successful completion of software projects. Method: To investigate empirically how these two trends can coexist without compromising on the agile core values and principles, we conducted an exploratory holistic case study. Focusing on the development team of a Danish SME having both distributed offices as well as teleworking arrangements, we showcase (the evolution of) their practices. Results: The case is an example of the effective application of the agile reflective culture that allowed the company to evolve to a level in which the collocation restrictions of agile software development are overcome by a continuously evolving software process geared towards reducing waste to achieve speed and simplicity. Conclusions: Even though results need to be considered carefully due to the single nature of the reported case, we highlight five elements that have been fundamental in such journey: agile servant-leader, agile team, trust, virtual work environment, inspect & adapt, and reduce waste. Extensive information is provided to frame the context and to allow meaningful future comparisons.


Background Self-reports are widely used for measuring behaviour in HIV research and prevention, yet the accuracy of these measures has been shown to be questionable in many cases. Social desirability bias (SDB) is one of the key factors identified as affecting self-report accuracy. Methods Using in-depth interviews, we examined SDB from the perspective of 60 women at high risk for HIV in two West African countries: Ghana and Nigeria. We solicited suggestions for reducing SDB in the context of HIV research and prevention, and asked for feedback regarding methods currently being employed to reduce SDB. Results Themes pertaining to fear and a desire to have a better life were pervasive throughout the data. Thematic structure was similar between sites and age groups, although younger women tended to be more concerned about the interview context. Conclusions Vulnerability of a population should be considered when asking sensitive questions. Audio-computer-assisted self-interviews may not be appropriate for vulnerable populations in developing countries, particularly for older respondents.


On March 30, 2007, Japan's electric utilities reported the results of a complete review of their power-generating units to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI). The Ethics Committee of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) then recommended an assessment method to analyze the seriousness of the problems from multiple perspectives in order to support the public's understanding of the reported problems. Accordingly, the Ethics Committee conducted the assessment. The assessment considered each reported problem associated with nuclear power-generating units and the preventive measures completed between June 2007 and September 2008 (corrective measures continued beyond that period). The results were presented at the autumn conferences of AESJ in 2007 and 2008, and are discussed in this report.


Misregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF‑A) has been implicated in numerous types of ovarian disease, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, endometriosis and ovarian cancer. VEGF regulates blood vessel permeability and angiogenesis. In our previous study, VEGF‑regulated gene expression was profiled in the uterus of a transgenic mouse model with repressed VEGF expression, which indicated that VEGF is an important regulator in controlling gene expression in the uterus. The anti‑Müllerian hormone (AMH) is expressed by ovarian granulosa cells (GCs) and acts through its type 2 receptor, AMH receptor 2 (AMHR2). Serum AMH levels are used to predict ovarian reserves and the small antral follicles contribute markedly to the serum AMH level. AMH recruits primordial follicles and inhibits excessive follicular development by follicular stimulating hormone (FSH). However, AMH may be influenced by suppression of gonadotrophin secretion and VEGF inhibition. In the current study, human primary ovarian GCs were isolated from ovarian follicle fluid of in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles (IVF/ICSI). It was identified that the FSH receptor was consistently expressed in the isolated cells. VEGF‑A treatment stimulated AMHR2 overexpression at the gene and protein levels. In addition, VEGF induced AMHR2 expression on the surface of the isolated GCs from mature follicles. The VEGF treatment was also performed in an ovarian granulosa‑like cell line, KGN. AMH and AMHR2 are co‑expressed in normal GCs; however, as a result of VEGF misregulation, AMHR2 overexpression increases AMH binding, which may attenuate follicular or oocyte maturation. However, the associated function and underlying mechanism requires further investigation.


In this thesis we have analyzed bulk thermodynamic properties of QCD at high temperature and small but non-vanishing baryon density on lattices. We have used the integration method to calculate the pressure at zero chemical potentials. The thermodynamic quantities are normalized such that they vanish at zero temperature. The zero temperature calculations are thus needed for both calibrating the lattices and the subtraction procedure for the normalizations. In this study, we have scanned a wide range of temperature and constructed a line of constant physics, on which the strange pseudo-scalar meson mass and kaon mass are kept at their physical values and the light pseudo-scalar meson mass is about 220 MeV. Our calculations are mostly carried out on lattices with cut-offs a = 1/4T and 1/6T, where T is the system temperature. All thermodynamic quantities, such as pressure, energy density as well as energy-momentum trace anomaly, show small cut-off effects. We have also calculated the trace anomaly at high temperatures on N = 8 lattices to check that the lattice cut-off effects are under control. In order to study the QCD thermodynamics at small chemical potentials, we have used the Taylor expansion method. The pressure is expanded in terms of quark chemical potentials and the expansion coefficients at zero chemical potentials are calculated up to the fourth order on both N = 4 and 6 lattices. Using these coefficients thermodynamic quantities, e.g. pressure and number densities, have been constructed and shown.


This dictionary entry concerns the regulation of derivative securities in the United States. Regulation of financial derivatives has focused on reducing the different risks -- credit, legal, market, and operational -- generated by derivative instruments, in contrast to the historical emphasis of the regulatory regime on market manipulation, an important issue for contracts to deliver agricultural products that are susceptible to natural shortages. The entry criticizes recent regulatory approaches to market and operational risks, distinguishes between the appropriate regulatory approach to private and public entities' participation in over-the-counter markets, and assesses common proposals to shift from the current dispersed regulatory regime to a unitary regulator.


Multicarrier code-division multiple-access (MC-CDMA) is one of the effective techniques to gain its multiple access capability, robustness against fading, and to mitigate the ISI. The paper proposes a dynamic subchannel and power allocation algorithm for MC-CDMA system. In the proposed scheme, data is transmitted over the user's best subcarrier and power control is applied for the selected subcarrier, rather than transmitted over all the subcarriers. Analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional MC-CDMA in BER performance.


This paper examines the behaviour of S&P CNX Nifty returns across the days-of-the-week during the different settlement regimes for the period of ten years from April 1995 to March 2005. During the fixed-day weekly settlement system, inflated returns are observed on first day of the settlement cycle on Wednesday. However, this Wednesday-effect vanishes when adjustment is made for the settlement-lag. The intra-week behaviour of market is rational rather then anomalous and market is appropriately adjusting the stock prices to cover the interest for the delay in settlement. The market seems to follow the trading-period hypothesis rather than the calendar-period hypothesis in making such adjustments. The impact of interest cost on stock returns is found significant during the fixed-day weekly settlement regime but it becomes feeble as the market switches over to rolling settlement system. After the implementation of rolling settlement system no any day-of-the-week effect is found in S&P CNX Nifty index returns.


Under the macro environment of raising farmers' income, rural land transfer and part-time farming is not only the inevitable trend of the development of China's agricultural modernization, but also the inevitable choice to promote farmers 'welfare based on the household survey data,. From the perspective of farmer cognition in ecological farming, this paper depicts that the farmer needs to consider certain principles unique to ecological farming: a) food production should be ecological in both origin and destiny; b) integration of species that maintain ecosystem services whilst providing a selection of alternative products; c) minimize food miles, packaging, energy consumption and waste; d) define a new ecosystem to suit human needs using lessons from existing ecosystems from around the world; e) apply the value of a knowledge-base (advanced data base) about soil microorganisms so that discoveries of the ecological benefits of having various kinds of microorganisms encouraged in productive systems such as Forest Gardens can be assessed and optimized; for example in the case of naturally occurring microorganisms called denitrifies. The results showed that the factors of sex, age, education, professional skills, land area, household agricultural income, non-agricultural income, consumer spending, difficulty of obtaining employment information and channel, professional training (reeducation) opportunities have a significant impact on the behavior choice willingness of the rural land transfer and part-time farming. But the other factors are not significant. On the other hand, it illustrated that ecological farming includes organic methods which regenerate ecosystem services like prevention of soil erosion, water infiltration and retention, carbon sequestration in the form of humus, and increased biodiversity.


Abstract–The Phase-I upgrade Level-1 Muon Trigger of the ATLAS Experiment will receive inputs from the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) detector in the barrel region and from the Thin Gap Chamber, the Barrel Inner Small 7/8 (BIS78) RPC and the New Small Wheel detectors in the endcap region. The intensive upgrade program will allow the trigger to withstand the increasing LHC luminosity and the more demanding requirements on trigger efficiency and performance. As part of the upgrade program, 32 new RPC chambers (the BIS78 system) in the barrel inner small region have been developed to reduce the fake trigger rate in the barrel-endcap transition region. In this work, we describe the design of the BIS78 Pad, an FPGAbased board which collects the BIS78 RPC hit data, performs the local coincidence of the detector triplet, and sends the trigger information to the off-detector endcap Sector Logic board. The Phase-I endcap Sector Logic combines the information coming from the Thin Gap Chamber, the New Small Wheel and the BIS78 RPC to produce the endcap Level-1 muon trigger candidate; it identifies muons with specific values of transverse momentum using coincidences between different detector layers.


BACKGROUND
High values of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) have been associated with poor prognosis in certain tumors. Nevertheless, few data exist regarding these prognostic variables in breast cancer patients from Hispanic populations. In this study, we aimed to determine the prognostic value of these two estimates and to establish the best cutoff to categorize patients according to their risk.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed 172 consecutive breast cancer patients treated in our center. Pre-treatment NLR and PLR, as well as clinical variables were collected from medical records. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to assess the relationship between NLR, PLR, overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS), adjusted for potential confounders. The best cut-off point was determined based on the maximization of the Log-rank test statistic.

RESULTS
Median follow-up time was 71.3 months. The optimal cut-off for NLR and PLR was 3 and 250, respectively. In univariate analysis, a NLR 3 was associated with poor DFS (Hazard Ratio (HR): 3.92; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.98-7.77; p < 0.001) and reduced OS (HR: 4.20; 95% CI: 2.10-8.38; p < 0.001). Similarly, a PLR 250 was associated with worse DFS (HR: 5.01; 95% CI: 2.33-11.1; p < 0.001) and poorer OS (HR: 5.35; 95% CI: 2.43-11.76; p < 0.001). However, after adjustment for potential confounders, only the PLR was independently associated with worse outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS
A NLR greater than 3 and a PLR greater than 250 were associated with worse OS and DFS in Hispanic patients with breast cancer.


There is a growing interest in the development of very high gradient (/spl ges/1 GeV/meter) accelerating structures and millimeter-wave power sources. The need for very high gradient structures to be operated in W-band or at higher frequencies poses great technical challenges and demands innovation in RF science and technology to reach this goal. Requirements for microstructure fabrication and power sources based on deep X-ray lithography techniques are examined.


Cell constructs and culture methods are essential tools in tissue engineering. The cell construct should be equivalent to the native cartilage it is intended to replace. Thus, three-dimensional cell constructs are usually composed of a high density of cells and dense extracellular matrix. However, dense constructs suffer from a lack of passive nutrient supply, gas exchange, and removal of degraded debris. We have developed a novel hydrostatic pressure/perfusion culture system that improves the quality of neo-tissues, providing an automated and affordable system for clinical applications. We have also developed a semipermeable membrane pouch that contains a fragile amorphous cell carrier. Although amorphous material is difficult to handle, it is a useful medium in which to deliver cells to the desired site via injection. We evaluated phenotypes of bovine articular chondrocytes embedded in a collagen type I gel enclosed within membrane pouches permeable to molecules of various sizes. Constant or cyclic hydrostatic pressure was externally applied to the medium phase with a new culture system. Accumulation of cartilage specific matrix was promoted with a 500-kDa cutoff membrane pouch and cyclic hydrostatic pressure at 0.5 MPa, 0.5 Hz. This new method will be useful in the delivery of engineered cells to a desired tissue in regenerative medicine.


The research work covers the Pharmacognostic and Biological studies of the aqueous extract of the rhizome of Cochlospermum planchonii, Hook F (family: Cochlospermaceae) which is claimed by the Hausa in the Northern Nigeria to be used traditionally for the relief of pain. Macroscopical, microscopical and chemomicroscopical studies have been carried out on the whole rhizome, powdered samples and anatomical sections. Characteristic pharmacognostic features of the plant observed were calcium oxalate crystals, sclerenchymatous fibres, reticulate vessels, numerous starch grains, sclereids and parenchyma cells. The peculiar feature being isodiammetrically shaped isolated sclereids with thick walls and lignified lumen showing striation. This could be used as indices for identification of the plant. Quantitative evaluations were also carried out. The moisture content, alcohol soluble extractive value, water soluble extractive value, total ash value and acid insoluble ash were found to be 7.20%, 2.91%, 3.92%, 16.04% and 8.00% respectively. These can serve in qualifying and differentiating the plant. The various phytochemical tests revealed the presence of carbohydrates tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes and sterol, saponins and cardiac glycosides which could be responsible for the pharmacological action of the plant. The plant was safe orally on acute toxicity investigation. There was no observable LD50. The result of the analgesic and anti- inflammatory activities of the extracts showed a significant and dose dependent activity when compared to the untreated control group at P<0.05. This justifies the use of the plant in ethno-medicine for the treatment of pain.


Cloud--computing is quickly becoming a useful collaboration tool in businesses and universities. This paper describes one of the first empirical studies comparing outcomes of collaboration using cloud computing with traditional collaboration systems. For collaboration tasks, participants' ratings for cloud computing systems were significantly higher than ratings for traditional collaboration systems.


The capacity to learn abstract concepts such as 'sameness' and 'difference' is considered a higher-order cognitive function, typically thought to be dependent on top-down neocortical processing. It is therefore surprising that honey bees apparantly have this capacity. Here we report a model of the structures of the honey bee brain that can learn same-ness and difference, as well as a range of complex and simple associative learning tasks. Our model is constrained by the known connections and properties of the mushroom body, including the protocerebral tract, and provides a good fit to the learning rates and performances of real bees in all tasks, including learning sameness and difference. The model proposes a novel mechanism for learning the abstract concepts of 'sameness' and 'difference' that is compatible with the insect brain, and is not dependent on top-down or executive control processing.


Aim. To study the effect of combined antihypertensive therapy on the basic parameters of the left ventricle (LV) myocardium structure and function in women with arterial hypertension (HT), metabolic syndrome (MS) and hypothyroidism. Material and methods. Women (n=196) with HT grade 2–3 and MS were included into the study. Standard clinical examination including an assessment of thyroid status, ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring and echocardiography was performed at baseline and after 6 months. The patients were split into 3 groups: control (without hypothyroidism) with subclinical and manifested (symptomatic) hypothyroidism (SH and MH). Depending on baseline heart rate (HR) patients of each group received a combination of amlodipine+losartan (A+L) in HR <85/min or a combination of amlodipine+moxonidine (A+M) in) in HR ≥85/min. Results. The significant antihypertensive effect was found in patients of the control group due to both A+L and A+M combination (target BP was reached in 85.7 and 88.2%, respectively). In patients with hypothyroidism significant antihypertensive effects was observed only during A+M therapy (target BP in SH and MH was achieved in 82.8 and 82.4%, respectively). In the control group A+L and A+M combinations increased a number of patients with normal LV geometry (85.7 and 86.7, respectively) and diastolic function (78.6 and 80%, respectively). In hypothyroidism A+M therapy resulted in more prominent increase in a number of patients with normal LV geometry (75% in both SH and MH) and diastolic function (in SH and MH 83.3 и 85.7%, respectively) than these in A+L therapy (р<0.05). Conclusion. The combination of A+M has advantages over A+L combination in antihypertensive efficacy as well as in the effect on the structural and functional state of the LV myocardium in women with HT and MS associated with hypothyroidism.


Acrylamide (AM) and methylacrylic acid (MAA) copolymer microspheres were prepared by a reverse suspension polymerization technique. Several kinds of P (AM-co-MAA)/ZnO composite microspheres with different surface morphologies were prepared by using P (AM-co-MAA) microgels as template. It was investigated that the amount of MAA and the concentration of Zn (Ac) 2, the concentration of NaOH ethanol solution effect on the surface morphology of the P (AM-co-MAA)/ZnO composite microspheres in detail. The morphology and composition of the P (AM-co-MAA)/ZnO composite microspheres were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and accessory (SEM and EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The surface structures of the composite microspheres could be tailored to a certain extent by varying the ratio of the two monomer content in the template (microgels) and the amount of ZnO deposited.


Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is associated with altered gait biomechanics. No previous research study has investigated the effect of activity on muscle activation in individuals with PAD. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of PAD on muscle activation in response to a ten-minute walking task. METHODS: Ten healthy young adults, ten healthy older adults and ten individuals with PAD performed a ten-minute treadmill walking trial at a self-selected velocity. Surface EMG was recorded from the vastus lateralis and medial gastrocnemius during five steps in the first and tenth minutes of the walking trial. EMG signals were rectified and smoothed using the root mean squared (RMS) with a 20 ms smoothing window. Peak RMS EMG and median frequencies (MdF) were calculated. Mixed-model ANOVAs with Tukey's post-hoc was used to determine effects of group and activity on peak RMS EMG and MdF. RESULTS: PAD was associated with significantly greater reductions in MdF of the vastus lateralis compared to healthy young and healthy older adults. No significant differences were observed in peak RMS EMG. DISCUSSION: PAD is associated with exaggerated rates of fatigue in the quadriceps but not the gastrocnemius. Efficacy of evidence-based therapeutic interventions should be further investigated.


The main objective of this study is to gather information about teachers perception of Mobile Game-based Learning (MGBL). A mixed method research was used to collect and analyze data from 95 brazilian teachers. Although they know about the use of games in education (> 70%), have positive perceptions about its pedagogical benefits (> 80%) and intention to use it in smartphones (> 60%), no statistical correlation were found between these informations and the intention in using mobile games in education (p-value > 0.05). The qualitative analysis provides relevant reasons why teacher's reject or accepts MGBL.


Limited verbal abilities might act as a barrier to witnesses with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) to provide accurate testimony. This might be particularly problematic when the police need to create a facial composite image. Contrary to featural composite systems such as Electronic Facial Identification Technique (E-FIT), holistic systems such as Evolutionary Facial Identification Technique (EvoFIT) do not require the witness to provide a verbal description of a perpetrator's face. Instead, they rely more on face recognition, which may make them more suitable for people with ID. The current study compared the performance of people with and without ID at creating composites using E-FIT and EvoFIT. Although ID composites created with EvoFIT were more often accurately identified than E-FIT composites, the performance of ID participants was overall very poor across both systems and considerably poorer than that of non-ID participants. The implications of these findings for practitioners working in the Criminal Justice System are discussed.


1 Lee TH, Marcantonio ER, Mangione CM, et al. Derivation and prospective validation of a simple index for prediction of cardiac risk of major noncardiac surgery. Circulation 1999; 100: 1043–9. 2 Boersma E, Poldermans D, Bax JJ, et al. Predictors of cardiac events after major vascular surgery: role of clinical characteristics, dobutamine echocardiography and b-blocker therapy. Journal of the American Medical Association 2001; 285: 1865–73. 3 Auerbach AD, Goldman L. b-Blockers and reduction of cardiac events in non-cardiac surgery. Scientific review. Journal of the American Medical Association 2002; 287: 1435–44. 4 Howell, SJ, Sear JW, Foex P. Perioperative b-blockade: a useful treatment that should be greeted with cautious enthusiasm. British Journal of Anaesthesia 2001; 86: 161–4.


SUSIMS is the most cutting-edge, innovative and robust solution for a university. In existing college datamanagement systems there are plenty of activities which are handled manually. All these activities are paper based which are expensive and time consuming. Various activities are handled by various departments. This leads to major problem in interlinking data and avoiding duplicates. Hence this becomes very hard and prolonged process for students to access information from management. In the proposed system, a better solution is defined for all these activities which are paperless, cost effective and time saving. In 21st century with the latest technology the world is moving towards cloud computing. SUSIMS is full-fledged cloud computing based information management system. It covers every minute aspects of a universities work flow and integrates all processes into smartphones with user friendly interface. It includes all major modules like Attendance module, Placement module, Alumni Association module and many more. All modules inter-related and data redundancy is eliminated.


. This paper is concerned with forecast error, particularly in relation to loss reserving. This is generally regarded as consisting of three components, namely parameter, process and model errors. The first two of these components, and their estimation, are well understood, but less so model error. Model error itself is considered in two parts: one part that is capable of estimation from past data (internal model error), and another part that is not (external model error). Attention is focused here on internal model error. Estimation of this error component is approached by means of Bayesian model averaging, using the Bayesian interpretation of the LASSO. This is used to generate a set of admissible models, each with its prior probability and the likelihood of observed data. A posterior on the model set, conditional on the data, results, and an estimate of model error (contained in a loss reserve) is obtained as the variance of the loss reserve according to this posterior. The population of models entering materially into the support of the posterior may turn out to be "thinner" than desired, and bootstrapping of the LASSO is used to gain bulk. This provides the bonus of an estimate of parameter error also. It turns out that the estimates of parameter and model errors are entangled, and dissociation of them is at least difficult, and possibly not even meaningful. These matters are discussed. The majority of the discussion applies to forecasting generally, but numerical illustration of the concepts is given in relation to insurance data and the problem of insurance loss reserving.


One obvious manifestation of changing climate has been the recent rapid reduction in the extent and volume of Arctic sea ice. However, a dense observational data set spans only a few decades. To better understand sea ice dynamics and especially the context of the recent decline, scientists need to construct longer records. This relies on proxy data from marine sediments, ice cores, and coastal material, each providing evidence of past sea ice presence or absence.


We present the most interesting examples of the orbital evolution of asteroids in retrograde orbits (i > 90◦). First, we used the latest observational data to determine nominal and averaged orbital elements of these objects. Next, the equations of motion of these asteroids were integrated backward 1 My, taking into account the propagation of observational errors. We used so-called 'cloning' procedure to reproduce the reliability of initial data. We obtained some possible scenarios of the orbit inversion in the past, what is often caused by the long-term influence of outer planets. For two most interesting cases (Apollo and Amor type) we did additional calculations: 100 My in the future. Additionally, we investigated the potential influence of Yarkovski/YORP effects on the long-time orbital evolution.


Scathing critiques of the European response to what has been widely called a 'refugee crisis' are not in short supply. However, as many activist mobilisations and solidarities emerged along the Balkan Route, this is only one facet of the European response to forced migration. Having interviewed four migration activists from four countries along this route – Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary – this exploratory pilot study sought to investigate possible motivational factors for mobilisation in light of the fact that the participants had no prior experience in activism nor interest in the politics of migration prior to the European migration crisis. Through content analysis of interview transcripts, two factors emerged as having potential implications for mobilisation: media coverage and visibility of refugees. Hence, theories about the media effect and intergroup contact are used to explicate the findings. Possible future research avenues are proposed.


The dynamics in the system and structure of the Indonesian constitution began in the reform era so quickly developed. All can run properly and correctly because it was initiated by reforming the constitution through an amendment or constitutional amendment mechanism (the 1945 Constitution) in four stages of change (1999 - 2002). One of the essence of the amendment, gave birth to the Regional Representative Council (DPD RI) as a state institution with its constitutionality can be found explicitly in Chapter VIIA Article 22 C Paragraph 1 - Paragraph 4 and Article 22 D Paragraph 1 - Paragraph 4. And UUNO. 17 of 2014 Jo UUNo.2 of 2018 concerning the MPR, DPR, DPD, DPRD. As a new post-amendment state institution, the DPD is designed as a strong bicameral second chamber of our parliament which was originally only unicameral, namely the DPR RI as a state institution and a representative institution of the people. But one of the characteristics of bicameral is if both parliamentary chambers carry out the legislative function as they should. However, if examined carefully until now based on the substitution of article 22 C and Article 22D of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945 the authority and authority of the DPD is still very limited. So that as an organic law does not give much space for the implementation of authority to the DPD in carrying out its main duties and functions, especially the legislative function like the DPR. For this reason, in order to strengthen and empower the future, the DPD's consistency and authority need to get priority place in the context of the subsequent amendments to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia as the Holder of strategic and fundamental national political decision authority. Everything is inseparable from the problems in the DPD now is a matter of the authority granted by the constitution to him, especially in the context of the legislative function to make laws. Its existence is expected to bridge the relationship between the center and the regions, in a two-chamber parliamentary frame which has strong bicameralism authority.


Advancement in the molecular tools used in toxicology has provided immense information about the cellular and global structure and function of toxicant-responsive genes. Now, it has become possible to assess the functional activity of genes and proteins involved in various toxicological pathways, which were not possible with the conventional methods. Many genes are known to have a greater influence on the susceptibility to environmental agents than others; therefore, identification and characterization of polymorphism in such genes for the determination of early, late, or no response of an individual for the toxicant-induced diseases has also become mandatory. Toxicogenomics, a newly born discipline of toxicology, comprises of two major facets, one, how various genes in the genome respond to environmental toxicants and stressors and second, how toxicants modify the function and expression of specific genes in the genome. Toxicogenomics play an important role in the identification and characterization of molecular biomarkers to predict cellular toxicity and to determine the efficacy and exposure in the toxicity trials at an early stage. Genome and proteome-wide expression profiles in combination with conventional toxicology are being used to classify compounds, predict the mechanism of toxicity of newer compounds and determine the susceptibility of an individual for the toxic responses. Single-nucleotide polymorphism in toxicant-responsive genes is being used to obtain basic information of the genetic variation and its role in the functional protein expression. Various national and international government and private organizations have launched several programs on gene-environment interactions. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India, has also launched a program on 'toxicogenomics of genetic polymorphism in Indian population to industrial chemicals for development of biomarkers' to provide better ventures and facilities to researchers in order to understand the environment-genome interactions. In this review, the contribution of genomics, proteomics, and SNPs in toxicology along with its current status in India has been discussed


The World Wide Web is a vast and rapidly growing source of information. A web data extraction system is a system that extracts data from web pages automatically. However, there are various web sites having most of the pages that contains structured data. Thus, for Web Information integration, an important step is to extract information from Web documents for the websites. This paper presents an unsupervised approach to providing page-level data extraction task. It automatically detects schema of web pages. Web pages are compared based on visual clues to find fixed/variant template pages. Then data region from web pages are extracted and if they belong to fixed template then, schema recognized by applying tree merging, tree alignment and mining techniques. For heterogeneous template pages, variant tree matching algorithm is used.


This provocation invites reflection on the use of design workshops in research. We are concerned that often, design workshops don't work; at least, not as their facilitators might have intended, or as effectively as they could do. In this short paper we draw from our own experiences of organizing and attending design workshops, to observe common challenges in using design workshops as a research tool. Though critical, we intend this paper to serve as a point of reflection for running more purposeful workshops, and being able to better articulate the research and design developed through them.


Powdery mildew occurs increasingly on parsley during hot summer periods, which has already become the main problem in some cultures when potted. Therefore a screening system of parsley is being elaborated in a cooperation project to be able to check breeding material for resistance and develop varieties resistant to powdery mildew. The project aims to find a screening system well practicable under greenhouse conditions for a multitude of breeding material. This requires both finding optimal conditions as well as climatic factors for best infection and development of the pathogen and simple rating methods. Investigations into sporulation, germination of spores, and incubation period have revealed that they are influenced by temperature and relative humidity. 25 °C and 70 % rf have proved to be the best conditions for powdery mildew to develop most effectively. Selecting aggressive isolates is another important impact factor for screening system methods. A collection of 16 isolates sent in from all over Germany could not only show their exclusive affiliation to the genus Erysiphe but also their differences in aggressiveness. This will support an effective selection of isolates for the screening system. The remaining year of the project will see comparative studies of the aggressive isolates on 20 varieties in greenhouse and field trials to evaluate the method. Rating methods applied so far will be optimized to detect differences in the susceptibility to powdery mildew most clearly.


Antibody titers to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)--related antigens (viral capsid antigen : VCA; early antigen : EA; and EBV associated nuclear antigen : EBNA) were determined in the sera of 86 patients and 150 matched control subjects. The patients belonged to four histological groups : diffuse and nodular non-hodgkin's lymphomas angio-immunoblastic lymphadenopathies and apparented syndroms. The incidence of antibodies to other herpes-viruses (cytomégalovirus, herpes simplex virus, and varicella zoster virus) was compared. There was a significantly higher incidence of anti VCA and anti EA titers in some patients, not associated with an increase in titres of antibodies to other herpes viruses.


Dr. Charles Hodge was known more as a systematic theologian than as an expositor of Scripture. Nevertheless, his whole life was devoted primarily to the critical and systematic study of the Bible. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans has become a standard resource for teachers, pastors, and educated laypersons. Hodge's introductory material, chapter analyses, and verse-by-verse exposition provide - even after more than one hundred years - solid, relevant instruction for today's student of the Bible.


We study the influence of the innovations, proxied by the number of patent grants and citations as well as the R&D investments on the stock price crash risk. Using a large sample of U.S. firms, we show that the innovation related activities reduce the likelihood to experience future stock price crashes with significant magnitude. This finding is consistent with the argument that the innovations facilitate information dissemination and decrease the probability of hoarding negative news. Further, we find that such influence on stock price crash risk is more pronounced for firms with weak external monitoring mechanism and high information asymmetry.


Previous studies have shown that pain is generally reported more on the left side of the body. It has been hypothesized that patient report of left pain dominance may be due to the right hemisphere being less efficient in processing cutaneous sensory input while being dominant for emotional experience as compared with the left hemisphere of the brain. Only in cases of trigeminal neuralgia has self-report of pain been lateralized to the right side. Due to previous research findings, we postulated that other facial pain diagnoses may demonstrate a right-sided dominance due to the lack of neural crossover in the facial region. The results of the study found no significant difference between self-report of right- and left-sided facial pain within four diagnostic categories. It was concluded that the results of right lateralized pain with trigeminal neuralgia should not be generalized to the facial pain population as a whole.


A correlation between the results obtained with the fatigue test and those from the indirect tensile test on two base mixes was attempted in anticipation of the possible use of the latter test to design base mixes for maximum fatigue life. Two base mixes at several asphalt contents were tested at two test temperatures. Flexural fatigue tests and indirect tensile tests were performed for each mix and temperature condition. Unexpectedly, there was a very poor correlation between the constants of the fatigue equations and the strength and stiffness values from the indirect tensile tests. However, the asphalt content corresponding to the maximum fatigue life agreed generally with the asphalt content corresponding to maximum work in the indirect tensile test. The work computed from the indirect tensile test might be useful in selecting the asphalt content for the maximum fatigue life of base mixes.


Traffic grooming is an efficient technique to utilize network resources by packing low speed traffic streams onto a high speed lightpath. Since many existing traffic grooming algorithms still have very high complexities, and do not consider the costs paid for network systems; in this paper, we propose a time and cost efficient dynamic traffic grooming algorithm (TCGA). The novelty of this heuristic algorithm is that it can reduce the complexity by removing redundant nodes when constructing the reachability graph. Then, from the graph established, we propose the cost functions to determine the optimal grooming path for a new connection request with the minimum cost. The simulation results show that our algorithm has a lower complexity, while still ensuring a comparable blocking performance, compared with other existing approaches


1. Biological capacities to respond to changing environments dictate success or failure of populations and species over time. The major environmental feature in this context is often temperature, and organisms across the planet vary widely in their capacity to cope with temperature variation. With very few exceptions, Antarctic marine species are more sensitive to temperature variation than marine groups elsewhere, having survivable temperature envelopes between 5degreesC and 12degreesC above the minimum sea temperature of -2degreesC.

2. Our findings show that in biological functions important to long-term survival these animals are even more tightly constrained. The Antarctic bivalve mollusc Laternula elliptica and limpet Nacella concinna both survive a few days in experiments at 9-10degreesC, but suffer 50% failure in essential biological activities at 2-3degreesC and complete loss at 5degreesC. The Antarctic scallop Adamussium colbecki is even more sensitive, and loses the ability to swim as temperature approaches 2degreesC.

3. These failures of activity are caused by a loss of aerobic capacity, and the animals investigated are so sensitive that a 2degreesC rise in sea temperature could cause population or species removal from the Southern Ocean.


An efficient enantioselective synthesis of sphinganine and ent-clavaminol [corrected] H is reported. These sphingoid-type bases were obtained from commercially available fatty acids using highly enantioselective Ru-catalyzed hydrogenation and organocatalytic electrophilic amination reactions to create the stereogenic centers.


Vesicles self-assembled from amphiphilic diblock copolymers exhibit a wide diversity of behavior upon poration, due to competitions between edge, surface and bending energies, while viscous dissipation mechanisms determine the time scales. The copolymers are essentially chemically identical, only varying in chain length (related to the membrane thickness d). For small d, we find large unstable pores and the resulting membrane fragments reassemble into vesicles within minutes. For large d, however, submicron pores form and are extremely long-lived. The results show that pore behavior depends strongly on d, suggesting that the relevant energies depend on d and pore size r in a more complex manner than what is generally assumed. Further control over these systems would make them useful for numerous applications.


CALCIUM deposits occurring in the meconium of the newborn, under certain pathologic conditions, have been frequently reported. Such observations have usually been made on infants with meconium ileus and peritonitis, the calcified material existing as yellowish flakes in the peritoneal cavity or being plastered to the intestine and various viscera. Rarely has there been any mention of the occurrence of calcification within the intestinal tract, and even in these cases there has always been an accompanying perforation of the intestine with local or general peritonitis. The case which we wish to present we believe is unique in that the infant exhibited extensive calcification of the intestinal contents at birth without any evidence of perforation or concomitant peritonitis. Abt,1in 1931, summarized the literature on fetal peritonitis and included in his manuscript a case reported by Dubler2in 1888, the lesion in which was described as a curious cyst


Biofilm-associated bacteria exhibit profound changes in bacterial physiology. They thrive in the environment but also in the human host in protected sessile communities. Antimicrobial therapy usually fails, despite the absence of genotypic resistance, and it is commonly accepted that biofilm-grown bacteria are up to 1,000-fold more resistant than planktonic cells. We are only at the beginning to understand the reasons for biofilm recalcitrance, and systematic approaches to describe biofilm-induced tolerance phenotypes are lacking. In this study, we investigated a large and highly diverse collection of 352 clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates for their antimicrobial susceptibility profiles under biofilm growth conditions towards the antibiotics ciprofloxacin, tobramycin, and colistin. We discovered characteristic patterns of drug-specific killing activity and detected conditional tolerance levels far lower (in the range of the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC)), but also far higher (up to 16,000-fold increase compared to planktonic cells) than generally believed. This extremely broad distribution of biofilm-induced tolerance phenotypes across the clinical isolates was greatly influenced by the choice of the antibiotic. We furthermore describe cross-tolerance against ciprofloxacin and tobramycin, but not colistin, and observed an additive activity between biofilm-induced tolerance and genetically determined resistance. This became less evident when the biofilm-grown cells were exposed to very high antibiotic concentrations. Although much more remains to be learned on the molecular mechanisms underlying biofilm-induced tolerance, our data on intra-species variations in tolerance profiles provide valuable new insights. Furthermore, our observation that colistin appears to act independently of the tolerance mechanisms of individual clinical strains could make colistin a valuable therapeutic option in chronic biofilm-associated infections characterized by the presence of particularly tolerant strains.


In this work we present a historical overview of mathematical discoveries which lead to fundamental developments in super string theory, super gravity and finally to E-infinity Cantorian space–time theory. Cantorian space–time is a hierarchical fractal-like semi manifold with formally infinity many dimensions but a finite expectation number for these dimensions. The idea of hierarchy and self-similarity in science was first entertain by Right in the 18th century, later on the idea was repeated by Swedenborg and Charlier. Interestingly, the work of Mohamed El Naschie and his two contra parts Ord and Nottale was done independently without any knowledge of the above starting from nonlinear dynamics and fractals. 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.


The FreeHand™ (NeuroControl Corporation, USA) system is an implantable electronic neuroprosthesis designed to stimulate muscles of tetraplegic upper limbs to achieve lateral pinch and simple grasp. When first introduced, the system required insertion through multiple large incisions, but recently introduced intramuscular electrodes have allowed the development of a percutaneous electrode placement technique. The technique minimizes incisions, decreases overall operative time and patient morbidity and improves the outcome by minimizing tendon adhesions.


A parser formalism for natural languages that is so restricted as to rule out the definition of linguistic structures that do not occur in any natural language can make the task of grammar construction easier, whether it is done manually (by a programmer) or automatically (by a grammar induction system). A restrictive grammar formalism for logic programming languages is presented that imposes some of the constraints suggested by recent Chomskian linguistic theory. In spite of these restrictions, this formalism allows for relatively elegant characterizations of natural languages that can be translated into efficient prolog parsers.


Network coding is a novel method for transmitting data, which has been recently proposed, and has been shown to have potential to improve wireless network performance. In this article, we study using network coding for one specific case of multicast, broadcasting. Precisely, we focus on (energy-)efficient broadcasting in a multi-hop wireless networks: transmitting data from one source to all nodes with a small number of retransmissions. It is known that finding an efficient method to broadcast, is essentially summarized in selecting proper transmission rates of each node. Our contribution, is proposing a simple and efficient method for determining a rate selection. Our method adapts dynamically and uses only local dynamic information of neighbors: Dynamic Rate Adaptation from Gap with Other Nodes (D.R.A.G.O.N.). The rationale of this rate selection method is detailed from some logical arguments. Experimental results illustrate the behavior of the method, and its excellent performance.


The absorption of ursodeoxycholate and its tauro‐conjugate by the jejunum and the terminal ileum of rat intestine was compared with that of other unconjugated bile acids and taurocholate. In the ligated jejunum, the efficacy of absorption of unconjugated bile acids was in the following order: ursodeoxycholate = deoxycholate > chenodeoxycholate = cholate > lithocholate. This order cannot be explained by the theory that the passive diffusion of bile acids is faster the less hydroxyl bonds in the molecule. These findings on the unconjugated bile acids in the ligated jejunum were further confirmed by perfusion experiments. In the ligated terminal ileum, ursodeoxycholate, cholate and deoxycholate were absorbed as fast as taurocholate or tauroursodeoxycholate, whereas absorption of chenodeoxycholate was significantly slower. The Na+‐dependency of the absorption of ursodeoxycholate and cholate in the terminal ileum was confirmed by perfusion studies. In conclusion, intestinal absorption of ursodeoxycholate was efficient in both the jejunum and ileum and these results may contribute to the high availability of ursodeoxycholate in various hepatobiliary diseases.


The synthesis, spectroscopy and electrochemical characterisation of palladium and platinum phthalocyanines is reported. Electrochemical techniques were used in conjunction with electronic absorption spectroscopy to analyse the reduced and oxidised phthalocyanine species in solid films and in solution, and significant and extensive excitonic coupling resulting in broadening of the Q-band was observed in the film phase. The Q-band was also shown to be affected by the electrolyte, changes in potential concomitant with the redox properties of the films and structural changes of the phthalocyanines within the films.


Seegmiller, J. E., Laster, L., and Howell, R. R., New Engl. 7. Med., 1963, 268, 821. 2 Hart, F. D., and Boardman, P. L., Brit. med. 7., 1963, 2, 965. Bywaters, E. G. L., and Holloway, V. P., Ann. rheum. DMs., 1964, 23, 236. Hall, A. P., Holloway, V. P., and Scott, J. T., ibid., 1964, 23, 439. Book of " To-day's Drugs."-This book is now available through booksellers at 30s., or from the Publishing Manager, B.M.A. House, Tavistock Square, London W.C.1, at 32s. 6d., including postage. It is based on the series of review articles which were printed in the " To-day's Drugs " section between January 1963 and May 1964. The articles have been edited and brought completely up to date so as to form an authoritative and practical guide to modem therapeutics. The book is designed to cover the drug treatment of those common conditions which are met with in general and hospital practice.


Research connecting children's sleep and parental bedtime practices to temperament and behavior problems has typically focused on sleep problems and Western cultures, and this chapter examines relationships between child sleep and parental bedtime practices with toddler temperament and behavior problems from a cross-cultural perspective. Between- and within-country correlations revealed cross-cultural differences in how children's sleep and parental bedtime practices relate to temperament and behavior problems. Thus, results provide support for culture-specific relations between child sleep, parental bedtime practices, child reactivity/regulation, and emerging behavior problems.


This paper examines whether subcultural norms survive immigrant transitions to affect fertility of the two biggest Chinese immigrant subgroups, Cantonese and Mandarins, by analyzing the Census 2000 PUMS. The research finds that Cantonese, who are believed to be more pronatalistic and have higher fertility than Mandarins in China, continue to exhibit these tendencies in the United States. Part of the fertility disparities between Cantonese and Mandarins can be explained by their differences in migration experiences, demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status. Higher Cantonese fertility, however, persists even when all these factors are controlled for, suggesting the effect of pronatal subcultural norms. Furthermore, levels of education and degree of assimilation, which play very important roles in depressing fertility, can also be associated with their regional culture by cause and effect. Some possible causes of the Cantonese pronatal norms and their persistence and changes are explored as well.


Due to the achievements of the NIDCD, combined with the important influence of the initial work on 'birthdating' by Dr. Ruben and his leading role in the field through 1975-1995, the editors of this Special Issue consider Dr. Ruben to be a landmark in modern research on ear development. It was a great delight to talk to a person who has been of such paramount importance for the development of the entire field, having contributed to the main issues of the science of normal ear development, and to the orientation of the administrative resources towards the application of basic research to the treatment of disease.At the end of this day in Manhattan, there was as strong feeling that there is a need to continue with this conceptualization now that the molecular foundation of ear development has been laid down. It appeared possible that current efforts may have an immediate relevance for translational research to benefit those with impaired hearing. Conceptualization of the issues as an intellectual 'blueprint' for others, in particular younger researchers with not as broad a perspective, might benefit the entire field. It is the intent of the editors of this Special Issue to provide at least a rough outline of this future direction of research.


A structure-activity relationship of some derivatives of 2-phenylsubstituted- 3-hydroxyquinolin-4(1H)-one-7-carboxamides was systematically studied using combinatorial solid-phase synthesis and in vitro cytotoxic activity screening on representative cancer lines. The effect of substituent type in position 2 as well as of the carboxamide group was investigated via synthesis of generic libraries constructed with respect to polarity and bulkiness of appropriate substituents. The process of development afforded a set of compounds with significant cytotoxic activity. Subsequently, corresponding 2-phenylsubstituted-3-hydroxyquinolin-4(1H)-one-6-carboxamides and 2-phenylsubstituted-3-hydroxyquinolin-4(1H)-one-8-carboxamides were prepared to evaluate the influence of the carboxamide group position on the resulting biological activity.


Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the latest high speed mobile broadband technology that is gaining widespread attention due to its high data rates and improved Quality of Service (QoS). Initially, LTE was seen as a technology for supporting high speed data, but there is a growing interest in the industry to support voice over LTE. The support of voice over LTE has lot of challenges owing to the fact that both voice and data traffic are to be carried over the same radio and core networks. The optimum usage of resources in the radio network is of high importance as there is a growing need to improve the capacity at reduced cost. The transport network is another key area that needs to be carefully planned according to the capacity of the radio network. Differentiation and scheduling of resources in the transport network plays a key role in guaranteeing good end to end performance for both voice and data services. In this thesis, the impact of differentiation and scheduling of resources in the transport network on the end to end performance of voice over LTE is investigated. The results indicate that without proper prioritization and scheduling of resources in the transport network , the performance of voice is severely affected when the transport network is congested with data traffic. To overcome this scenario, we prioritize voice over data traffic and analyse its performance for different transport network scheduling algorithms. From the results, it is clear that with proper classification and scheduling of resources in the transport network, significant increase in voice capacity is observed. On the other hand, by totally prioritizing voice, performance of the data traffic is affected to a large extent. Hence, to achieve a balance, voice users are classified into different priority levels and the performance of voice and data in this scenario is investigated. The analysis for all these scenarios are based on simulations using OPNET simulation tool. Master of Science Thesis Prasanna Gururaj Raghavendrarao


Abstract : The objective of this research effort was to design a model(s) to estimate the impact of key demographic variables on individual and group accession behavior. This would provide personnel managers the ability to project the quality mix of future accessions and track the impact of this quality mix on enlisted retention behavior as these accessions advance through a military career. Six demographic groups were analyzed: males, females, Caucasians, Blacks, others, and all. Within each demographic group, four aptitude groups were studied: Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT) Categories I's, II's, IIa's, and IIb's. The results of the modeling and estimation effort were implemented into the Airman Applicant Prediction System (AAPS) to predict the number of applicants from selected demographic/aptitude groups. The estimated equations were used to predict the proportion of a Military Available (MA) population which would be interested in applying to the Air Force (by AFQT Category). AAPS proceeds through a series of steps to arrive at population numbers for Interested Qualified Military Available (IQMA). IQMA can then be disaggregated through the AAPS software to determine from the IQMA population who would potentially meet mechanical, administrative, general, and electronic (MAGE) minimum Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) composite score requirements. Applicant prediction, Enlisted force projection model, Demographic applicant breakout, Military available


Plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs) are plant channel proteins located on the plasma membrane. PIPs transfer water, CO2 and small uncharged solutes through the plasma membrane. PIPs have high selectivity to substrates, suggestive of a central role in maintaining cellular water balance. The expression, activity and localization of PIPs are regulated at the transcriptional and post-translational levels, and also affected by environmental factors. Numerous studies indicate that the expression patterns and localizations of PIPs can change in response to abiotic stresses. In this review, we summarize the mechanisms of PIP trafficking, transcriptional and post-translational regulations, and abiotic stress responses. Moreover, we also discuss the current research trends and future directions on PIPs.


Children are at higher risk of renal injury from blunt trauma than adults due to a variety of anatomic factors such as decreased perirenal fat, weaker abdominal muscles, and a less ossified thoracic cage. Non-operative management is gaining in popularity for even major injuries, although there are no universally accepted guidelines. We present a retrospective review of pediatric major blunt renal injuries (grade 3 or higher) at a children's hospital in Hawai'i over a 5-year period. Medical records were examined between January 2009 and September 2014 from Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Inclusion criteria were a diagnosis of renal trauma, or the diagnosis of blunt abdominal trauma with hematuria. Exclusion criteria were grade I or II renal injury or death due to an additional traumatic injury. Mechanism of injury, clinical characteristics on admission, blood product requirements, surgical interventions performed, and hospital length of stay were retrospectively analyzed. Eleven total patient records were examined, nine of which fit inclusion criteria. Uniquely, 33% of patients sustained their renal injury while surfing. No patients required laparotomy or nephrectomy, though 22% of patients received a blood transfusion and 44% of patients underwent ureteral stent placement. Non-operative management of major renal injuries in children is feasible and allows for preservation of renal tissue. A novel mechanism of surfing as a cause of major renal trauma is seen in the state of Hawai'i.


Abstract Resveratrol is a member of stilbenoids with promising anti-atherosclerotic properties. This hallmark makes it an extremely interesting candidate for local drug delivery to damaged tissue adjacent to the implant in order to reduce implant-related complications. For the regulatory approval drug-eluting medical devices have to be thoroughly tested for safety, efficacy and interactions with the surrounding tissue, including tests for sensitization among others. Studies for sensitization help to estimate the risk for an allergic reaction upon prolonged exposure to a chemical compound. Due to increased social and regulatory demand for replacement of animal experiments by in vitro approaches a number of reliable predictive non-animal tests have been developed. Here, we assessed the skin sensitization potential of resveratrol by the direct peptide reactivity assay (DPRA), one of the first non-animal tests adopted by the OECD.


Contemporary class analysis takes the national state as its unit of analysis. This convention could be challenged on at least two grounds. On the one hand, the national state might be seen as too gross an aggregation that leads to the neglect of important internal variation; on the other, the national state might be considered an irrelevant distinction for the study of processes that are best viewed on a larger canvas. In this paper we concern ourselves with this latter possibility and we assess the extent to which globalisation threatens to displace the national state's role in shaping class structure and patterns of social fluidity. In our formulation, the competing claims of national state and global system effects on class structures and mobility regimes involve matters of degree, and thus are open to empirical investigation. The existing evidence supports the continued resilience of the national state but not so emphatically as to preclude the need to take account of world-system influences. This leads us to propose an analytical strategy for integrating world-system effects into class analysis. We conclude by suggesting that a more robust challenge to the role of the national state in class analysis might yet come from the growth of the `new regionalism' in Europe and elsewhere.


The process of fixation of DNA-containing plasms is investigated by macroscopical and electron microscopical observations on solutions of DNA, nucleohistones, as well as on bacterial nuclei. The following treatments were found to produce a gelation of a solution of DNA or nucleohistones: (a) OsO4 fixation at pH 6 in the presence of amino acids (tryptone) and Ca++. (b) Exposure to aqueous solutions of uranyl acetate. (c) Exposure to aqueous solutions of indium chloride. Observed in the electron microscope, these gels show a fine fibrillar material. From experiments in which solutions of DNA or nucleohistones are mixed with bacteria and treated together, it is concluded that the behavior of the bacterial nucleoplasm is similar to that of the DNA solutions. The appearance of birefringence indicates that uranyl acetate and indium chloride produce an orientation of the molecules of a DNA solution during gelation. Bacterial chromosomes fixed by these agents also show a certain order, while those fixed by the OsO4-amino acid-Ca++ formula do not. Whether or not the order can be considered to be artificial is discussed, and a tentative conclusion is presented: (a) Uranyl acetate may induce artificial order. (b) Fixatives which do not gel DNA probably result in the grossest artifacts. (c) OsO4 fixation at pH 6 in the presence of amino acids (tryptone) and Ca++ may give the most accurate preservation of the in vivo disposition of DNA (RK+ fixation).