Deep learning based methods have achieved remarkable success in image restoration and enhancement, but a majority of such methods rely on RGB input images. These methods fail to take into account the rich spectral distribution of natural images. We propose a deep architecture, SpecNet which computes spectral profile to estimate pixel-wise dynamic range adjustment of a given image. First, we employ an unpaired cycle-consistent framework to generate hyperspectral images (HSI) from low-light input images. HSI are further used to generate a normal light image of the same scene. In order to infer a plausible HSI from a RGB image we incorporate a self-supervision and a spectral profile regularization network. We evaluate the benefits of optimizing the spectral profile for real and fake images in low-light conditions on the LOL Dataset.


The reaction of 2-substituted-4H-pyrido[2,3-h]benzoxazin-4-ones (1) with hydrazine hydrate resulted in 2-substituted-3-aminopyrido[2,3-h]quinazolin-4(3H)ones (2) and not in the corresponding 3. The Schiff bases (4) of 2 on pyrolysis led to 2-substituted pyrido[2,3-h]quinazolin-4(3H)ones (5).


: The health care industry will face continuing pressure from government and the private sector to contain costs. This paper provides an overview of health care costs, financing changes and cost inflation in the health care sector. The potential impact of competition oriented insurance plans, activities of business health care costs containment coalitions, and preferred provider organizations are reviewed. Regulatory trends and the effects of hospital reimbursement reforms on diagnostic radiographic and imaging services are discussed.


Cryptococcal meningoencephalitis is mainly caused by Cryptococcus neoformans and accounts for 90% of fungal meningitis cases in Japan. Cryptococcal meningoencephalitis is a rare disease, and similar to tuberculosis meningitis. It often exhibits subacute or chronic progression symptoms such as headache, fever, coma, personality changes, and memory disturbance. Cryptococcal meningoencephalitis often develops in immunosuppressed hosts, but can sometimes occur in healthy individuals, and the mortality rate is 10-25%, indicating a poor prognosis. For the treatment of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis, introduction therapy using a combination of liposomal amphotericin B and flucytosine is recommended. However, in practice, cryptococcal meningoencephalitis is refractory and often requires prolonged treatment; therefore, it is the most difficult to treat among the central nervous system infections. We discuss the following 11 issues: I. Sustainability of first-line treatments, II. Treatment options in case of decreased renal function, III. Association with increased intracranial pressure IV. Causes of visual impairment, V. Necessary steps when symptoms/laboratory findings worsen during antifungal treatment, VI. Cerebral infarction, VII. Difficulty in controlling underlying and comorbid diseases, VIII. Indications for lumbar and ventricular drainage (Ommaya reservoir placement), IX. Pros and cons of concomitant use of corticosteroids, X. Treatment evaluation index: usefulness of head MRI, and XI. Determining the end of treatment and the need for preventive medication.


The growing importance of forest plantations increases the demand for phytopathogen resistant forest trees. This study describes an effective method for early detection and identification of the main fungal phytopathogens in planting material of silver birch (Betula pendula) and downy birch (B. pubescens), based on the estimation of the size of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) in the 18S-5.8S-28S rDNA gene cluster, which are species-specific for most micromycetes. The electrophoretic assay of the ITS1 and ITS2 loci has allowed us to identify predominant phytopathogenic fungal species in downy and silver birch in planta. This new molecular genetic method can be used to screen birch and other forest trees for different fungal pathogens to evaluate disease resistance. This information can be useful in breeding new genotypes of forest trees, including transgenic clones with modified wood composition.


The increasing resource pressure and the expanding amount of textile waste have been rising recycling as a clear priority for the fashion and apparel industry. However, textile recycling remains limited and is therefore a targeted issue in the forthcoming EU policies. As the fashion industry is embedded in complex value chains, enhancing textile recycling entails a comprehensive understanding of the existing challenges. Yet, the literature review suggests only limited empirical studies in the sector, and a dedicated state-of-the-art is still lacking. Filling this gap, a Delphi study was conducted supplemented by the Regnier's Abacus technique. Through an iterative, anonymous, and controlled feedback process, the obstacles collected from the extant literature were collectively discussed with a representative panel of 28 experts, compared to the situation in Europe. After two rounds, the lack of eco-design practices, the absence of incentive policies, and the lack of available and accurate information on the product components emerged as the most consensual statements. Linking theory to practice, this paper aims to improve consistency in the understanding of the current state of textile recycling in Europe, while providing an encompassing outline of the current experts' opinion on the priority challenges for the sector.


The present study was carried out to investigate micropropagation possibility and determine the optimal medium composition and plant growth regulators (PGRs) combinations under in vitro conditions. The cotyledon and epicotyl explants obtained from 1 month old in vitro grown seedlings were used in MS medium containing BA (0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mg-1) and TDZ (0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mg-1) either alone or in combination with 0.5 mg-1 IBA. The response of cannabis explants to PGRs treatments was much different from those observed in most of plant species. That is, callus formation had priority over direct regeneration in most of the PGRs treatments. Comparing the two explants, cotyledon had higher callus formation frequency and the largest callus volume was obtained for this explant in MS medium supplemented with 3 mg-1 TDZ + 0.5 mg-1 IBA. The highest callus fresh weight (3.15 gr) was obtained for cotyledon explant treated with 2 mg-1 TDZ+ 0.5 mg-1 IBA. In shoot formation step, the highest rate of shoot regeneration was achieved in the calli produced from epicotyl explant treated with 2 mg-1 BA + 0.5 mg-1 IBA; and the highest length of regenerated shoots (1.23 cm) was observed in 2 mg-1 BA + 0.5 mg-1 IBA treatment. In general, cotyledon was the best explant and TDZ in combination with IBA was the best treatment for callus formation. Epicotyl explant also showed better regeneration compared to cotyledon.


Giant cell glioblastoma is an extraordinary subtype of glioblastoma that merits mention as a distinct variant of glioblastoma in World Health Organization classification of gliomas. It represents for about 1% of brain tumors and about 5% of glioblastomas in general. It has no preferential region and may occur in various locations of the central nervous system, most commonly in the temporal lobe. To our knowledge, there have been a few cases involved in the unilateral lateral ventricle reported in the literature, but there have been no reports about the recurrent cases involved in bilateral lateral ventricles. We herein present a very rare case of recurrent giant cell glioblastoma that occurred across bilateral lateral ventricles.


We study the exchange interaction between two magnetic impurities on the (110) surface of Cu. We find that the interaction is oscillatory and decays as 1/d2 for large distances d of the impurities. We also show that the oscillations are governed by the Shockley-type surface state around the point of the Surface Brillouin zone. The asymmetry of the dispersion of this surface electronic band implies an anisotropic exchange interaction with respect to the relative position of the impurities.


A Review of:
Kumar, M., & Mostafa, J. (2020). Electronic health records for better health in lower- and middle-income countries: A landscape study. Library Hi Tech, 38(4), 751–767. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-09-2019-0179
 Abstract
Objective – To identify how low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) approached the development of national and subnational electronic health records (EHRs) and to understand the challenges related to EHR research priorities and sustainability.
Design – Landscape study consisting of a review of the scientific literature, country-focused grey literature, and consultation with international experts.
Setting – Hospitals and healthcare systems within LMICs.
Subjects – The 402 publications retrieved through a systematic search of four scientific electronic databases along with 49 publications found through a country-focused analysis of grey literature and 14 additional publications found through consultation with two international experts.
Methods – On 15 May 2019, the authors comprehensively searched four major scientific databases: Global Health, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. They also searched the grey literature and repositories in consultation with country-based international digital health experts. The authors subsequently used Mendeley reference management software to organize and remove duplicate publications. Peer-reviewed publications that focused on developing national EHRs within LMIC healthcare systems were included for the title and abstract screening. Data analysis was mainly qualitative, and the results were organized to highlight stakeholders, health information architecture (HIA), and sustainability.
Main Results – The results were presented in three subsections. The first two described critical stakeholders for developing national and subnational EHRs and HIA, including country eHealth foundations, EHRs, and subsystems. The third section presented and discussed pressing challenges related to EHR sustainability. The findings of the three subsections were further explored through the presentation of three LMIC case studies that described stakeholders, HIA, and sustainability challenges.
Conclusion – The results of this landscape study highlighted the scant evidence available to develop and sustain national and subnational EHRs within LMICs. The authors noted that there appears to be a gap in understanding how EHRs impact patient-level and population outcomes within the LMICs. The study revealed that EHRs were primarily designed to support monitoring and evaluating health programs focused on a particular disease or group of diseases rather than common health problems. While national governments and international donors focused on the role of EHRs to improve patient care, the authors highlighted the urgent need for further research on the development of EHRs, with a focus on efficiency, evaluation, monitoring, and quality within the national healthcare enterprise.


This thesis aims to find out what problems are faced in teaching Arabic at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Muhammadiyah 03 Sedayulawas Brondong Lamongan, as well as to find out the efforts made in overcoming these problematics.
The results obtained from this study are that there are probles in the implementation of teaching Arabic, naely: The Problem of students is that when receiving teaching 58% "a lot" are difficult to understand. From the factor of educators (teachers) only 2% means "less" is a problem. From the objective factor, it is also less of a problem in the implementation of teaching Arabic because only 11% stated that they did not clearly understand the purpose of learning Arabic. Problems with educational tools, one of which is the method used by teachers in teaching Arabic, is "enough" (25.5%) to be a problem. In addition, the teaching aids used by the teacher are "a lot" (54.5%) which is a problem in teaching Arabic. Meanwhile, environmental factors (family) can be said to be "enough" to be a problem (40%) in teaching Arabic because they are very lacking in paying attention to/motivating their children to learn Arabic lessons.
The efforts made in overcoming these problems are the first, the efforts of the students, namely by reading Arabic books, and taking additional lessons outside of school hours. Second, the efforts of the Arabic language teacher, namely by increasing the hours of Arabic lessons outside of school hours, the teacher is trying to find the right method to be taught, while those related to teaching aids are the absence of complete teaching aids (still in the stage of being worked on), teachers try to maximize the use of existing media and increase teacher creativity, which is related to evaluation, teachers try to continuously conduct evaluations. Third, the efforts of the school, namely seeking the equipment needed gradually for the further development of Arabic language teaching, as well as holding meetings with the parents of students and providing understanding to the guardians of students to motivate and support their children in learning Arabic.


BACKGROUND
Recent antimicrobial resistance data are lacking from inpatient oncology settings to guide infection prophylaxis and treatment recommendations. We describe central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) pathogens and antimicrobial resistance patterns reported from oncology locations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

METHODS
CLABSI data reported to NHSN from 2009 to 2012 from adult inpatient oncology locations were compared to data from nononcology adult locations within the same hospitals. Pathogen profile, antimicrobial resistance rates, and CLABSI incidence rates per 1000 central line-days were calculated. CLABSI incidence rates were compared using Poisson regression.

RESULTS
During 2009-2012, 4654 CLABSIs were reported to NHSN from 299 adult oncology units. The most common organisms causing CLABSI in oncology locations were coagulase-negative staphylococci (16.9%), Escherichia coli (11.8%), and Enterococcus faecium (11.4%). Fluoroquinolone resistance was more common among E. coli CLABSI in oncology than nononcology locations (56.5% vs 41.5% of isolates tested; P < .0001) and increased significantly from 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 (49.5% vs 60.4%; P = .01). Furthermore, rates of CLABSI were significantly higher in oncology compared to nononcology locations for fluoroquinolone-resistant E. coli (rate ratio, 7.37; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.20-8.76) and vancomycin-resistant E. faecium (rate ratio, 2.27, 95% CI, 2.03-2.53). However, resistance rates for some organisms, such as Klebsiella species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, were lower in oncology than in nononcology locations.

CONCLUSIONS
Antimicrobial-resistant E. coli and E. faecium have become significant pathogens in oncology. Practices for antimicrobial prophylaxis and empiric antimicrobial therapy should be regularly assessed in conjunction with contemporary antimicrobial resistance data.


The extent of evolutionary divergence of phenotypes between habitats is predominantly the result of the balance of differential natural selection and gene flow. Lava lizards (Microlophus albemarlensis) on the small island of Plaza Sur in the Galápagos archipelago inhabit contrasting habitats: dense vegetation on the western end of the island thins rapidly in a transitional area, before becoming absent on the eastern half. Associated with these habitats are phenotypic differences in traits linked to predator avoidance (increased wariness, sprint speed, and endurance in lizards from the sparsely vegetated habitat). This population provides an opportunity to test the hypothesis that reduced gene flow is necessary for phenotypic differentiation. There was no evidence of any differences among habitats in allele frequencies at six out of seven microsatellite loci examined, nor was there any indication of congruence between patterns of genetic variability and the change in vegetation regime. We infer that gene flow between the habitats on Plaza Sur must be sufficiently high to overcome genetic drift within habitats but that it does not preclude phenotypic differentiation.


The process of water chlorination to the water contains a considerable amount of TOC can lead to the figuration of some π-products that are highly harmful to human health. Among all the chlorination π-products, trihalomethanes (THMs) is exhibit highly carcinogenic activity. This study tries to identify the main factors that play a critical role in the THM formation and control its mechanisms at different stages. (WHO) usually, measure free residual chlorine values at levels less than the recommended values. The concentrations of THMs formed in the water network vary depending on the concentration of TOC in the discharged spring water, and the chlorine dose plays an important role in this process by increasing the contact time. The THM levels in the tap water of Jericho and Aqbat Jabber camp are at levels below the USEPA limit of 80µg/L, as well as the WHO limit of 100 µg/L. CHBr 3 was found to be the major contributor to the total THMs. CHCl 3 found to be the dominant sort detected after the chlorination of each sample in the experiment. The THM detected at high-temperature incubation was higher than the low-temperature ones for all of the samples.


How did yellow oxide of mercury salve—fine old panacea for all the ills of the eye and adjacent anatomic structures, known to every physician, surgeon, specialist, nurse, optician, housewife and grandmother—obtain its undisputed place in the pharmacopeia and in the hearts of our ailing countrymen? Introduced into ophthalmology for one specific and minor purpose, how did it become a universal cure-all? Long ago abandoned by most experts, why does it tower above the one other preparation embalmed in the memories of generations of medical students and share its place only with a bastard silver agglomeration as "something good for the eyes?" Library and laboratory research, contemplation and questionnaires fail to reveal the answers to these questions, but the phenomenon is worthy of consideration and the history of the salve is interesting. An account of Pagenstecher's ointment first appeared in English ophthalmologic literature in the second volume of theOphthalmic Review


The global pandemic of COVID-19 has made it the focus of current attention. At present, the law of COVID-19 spread in cities is not clear. Cities have long been difficult areas for epidemic prevention and control because of the high population density, high mobility of people, and high frequency of contacts. This paper analyzed case information for 417 patients with COVID-19 in Shenzhen, China. The nearest neighbor index method, kernel density method, and the standard deviation ellipse method were used to analyze the spatio-temporal characteristics of the COVID-19 spread in Shenzhen. The factors influencing that spread were then explored using the multiple linear regression method. The results show that: (1) The development of COVID-19 epidemic situation in Shenzhen occurred in three stages. The patients showed significant hysteresis from the onset of symptoms to hospitalization and then to diagnosis. Prior to 27 January, there was a relatively long time interval between the onset of symptoms and hospitalization for COVID-19; the interval decreased thereafter. (2) The epidemic site (the place where the patient stays during the onset of the disease) showed an agglomeration in space. The degree of agglomeration constantly increased across the three time nodes of 31 January, 14 February, and 22 February. The epidemic sites formed a "core area" in terms of spatial distribution and spread along the "northwest–southeast" direction of the city. (3) Economic and social factors significantly impacted the spread of COVID-19, while environmental factors have not played a significant role.


Summary Economic growth has been one of the most important political goals in China since the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s. The successful increase in economic welfare in China was accompanied by a decoupling of economic growth and energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). The absolute values of these emissions has increased considerably. Two questions arise against this backdrop: what are the main factors behind the decoupling of economic growth and these energy-related emissions, and what is the impact of each of these factors on the rise in emissions? This paper aims to determine and analyse these factors, which are population, per-capita income, total CO2 or SO2 intensity of the primary energy supply, and the energy intensity of GDP. Factor decomposition reveals that the growth in per-capita income and the reduction in energy intensity have the largest balancing impact on energy consumption and emissions in China. The relationship between economic development and emission levels, however, is not linear over time, but follows a path commonly described by the Environmental Kuznets Curve: emissions decrease while per-capita income grows. In China, this phenomenon occurred between 1998 and 2000 and led to a curve much like the typical inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve until 2001. Seen from a 2005 perspective, however, this merely turned out to be a structural break.


The aim of this research was to determine the effect of PBL, RQA, PBLRQA, and conventional learning on retention of students with different academic level in Basic Biology classroom. This research was a quasi experiment with pretest-posttest control group design. Student's retention was measured by essay test. Data were analyzed with one way ANCOVA. The result of research showed that: 1) learning strategy and academic level effected on student's retention. PBLRQA had the potency to improve student's retention greater than others strategy, 2) retention of students with higher academic level was greater than lower academic level, 3) interaction between learning strategy and academic level did not effect on student's retention. PBLRQA could implement to the others subjects.


Many hospitals need more business, and marketing techniques have been suggested in the literature as one way to attract it.


A nudge is an intervention designed to prompt people to "voluntarily" make the choice intended by those who altered the choice environment or situation, and therefore using nudges is thought to undermine self-determination. Evidence for this assumption is weak, however, and sets aside much of what we know about human conduct sociologically. This paper argues that the practical consciousness that people have about their own actions and reasons for executing those actions can inform our thinking about motivating compliance with treatments in clinical settings and the ethical issues involved.


The Thames Basin is the UK's principal aquifer. It encompasses London, which is Europe's largest megacity, and has an extensive coastal zone. It presents a unique conjunction of geological, hydrogeological, environmental, and socio-economic factors that are intrinsically linked by the effects of environmental change. The British Geological Survey (BGS) is responding to this challenge through its FutureThames initiative.

FutureThames aims to initiate, facilitate, and support interdisciplinary and collaborative geoscience research in an attempt to understand the effects of environmental change in the Thames Basin. The project endeavours to involve not only the diverse threads of geoscience within the BGS, but also the wider environmental communities, public bodies and industry to provide a holistic approach to predicting and mitigating the effects of environmental change. Providing a relevant and focussed geoscience knowledge base and encouraging knowledge exchange between researchers and practionners is essential if the impacts of environmental change in the Thames Basin are to be quantified.

This document highlights some of the key challenges affecting the Thames Basin that geoscience can play a role in addressing. Examples of applied research and data from the region show how geoscience can be used to reduce risk and support economic growth. This document provides a starting point to encourage the use of geoscience as part of an integrated solution.


Molecular chaperones and folding enzymes in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) associate with the newly synthesized proteins to prevent their aggregation and help them fold and assemble correctly. Chaperone function of BiP, which is a Hsp70 homologue in ER, is controlled by the N-terminal ATPase domain. The ATPase activity of the ATPase domain is affected by regulatory factors. BAP was identified as a nucleotide exchange factor of BiP (Grp78), which exchanges ADP with ATP in the ATPase domain of BiP. This study presents whether BAP can influence folding of a protein, immunoglobulin heavy chain that is bound to BiP tightly. We first examined which nucleotide of ADP and ATP affects on BAP binding to BiP. The data showed that endogenous BAP of HEK293 cells prefers ADP for binding to BiP in vitro, suggesting that BAP first releases ADP from the ATPase domain in order to exchange with ATP. Immunoglobulin heavy chain, an unfolded protein substrate, was released from BiP in the presence of BAP but not in the presence of ERdj3, which is another regulatory factor for BiP accelerating the rate of ATP hydrolysis of BiP. The ADP-releasing function of BAP was, therefore, believed to be responsible for immunoglobulin heavy chain release from BiP. Grp170, another Hsp70 homologue in ER, did not co-precipited with BAP from [35S]-metabolic labeled HEK293 lysate containing both overexpressed Grp170 and BAP. These data suggested that BAP has no specificity to Grp170 although the ATPase domains of Grp170 and BiP are homologous each other.


ABSTRACT. The bacterial colonization of the nose, unbilicus, perineum and faeces in 85 newborns was studied during one period of high and one of low occupancy in a neonatal intensive care unit. Cultures were taken on admission, at three days, at one week of age, and then weekly during the stay in the unit. Colonization took place early and potential pathogens were responsible for a significant part of the spectrum. At one week of age, more than 50% of the infants had Staphylococcus aureus in the nose and umbilicus, 25% had E. coli and/or Klebsiella enterobacter in the umbilicus, and 60% had Klebsiella enterobacter in the perineum. Neither the occupancy rate in the unit nor the clinical state of the infant seemed to influence the colonization pattern significantly. Changes in flora were frequent in the individual infant. However, the bacterial spectrum remained essentially the same with increasing age during the stay in the unit and during the two periods. Only on two occasions was the same phage type of Staphylococcus aureus found in two infants at the same time. Two cases of septicemia occured in the 85 infants during the three months of the study. Both infants were colonized beforehand with the causative organism. The results may indicate that the clinical state of the infant is of greater importance for risk of septicemia than the pattern of the bacterial colonization.


The wall thinning phenomenon of pipes was simulated as metal loss due to erosion and corrosion. Such wall thinning defects in the pipes of power plants are a very important safety consideration, In this study, we analyzed wall thinning dejects thar occurred by weld bead of weld zone of boost pump recirculation. pipe. From the results of the analysis of pipe failures, numerical analysis was performed by Fluent v6.3.26 using the standard k-e model of the weld bead shape, such as an elliptical or a spherical shape, on the inner wall of the pipe. Using the results obtained, we showed the overlap effect by cavitations corrosion and erosion-corrosion at the bottom of the wall-thinning defect.


Abstract Renewal, revitalisation, or reconstruction of public spaces is an inevitable part of the urban dynamics process. However, before any decision of future development is made, it is necessary to be acquainted with the given place. Mapping urban spaces is essential for recognizing the specifics of a certain area, while a relevant analysis should be performed on the basis of multiple data sources. Nonetheless, identification of relevant data sources as well as their limits, which need to be considered, represent challenges in the process. The study aims to highlight the importance of socio-spatial analyses as tools which help to familiarize place makers with public space as well as with the small nuances of its everyday functioning. Relevant online data sources for urban space analysis (Instasights, Strava) and their limits were explored, described, and applied to the area of interest - two banks of the Danube riverfront in Bratislava, Slovakia. The method was supplemented by mapping of human movement and behaviour. The combination of the methods is a relatively fast and simple way to get to know the spatial, social, environmental, aesthetic, and other dimensions of the given space. The interpretation of data illustrates possible outcomes that can be gained through mapping of public spaces before changes or development plans are proposed. Hence, the paper contributes to the repertory of the possible sources of online data that can be used for recognizing the specific characteristics of individual public spaces. This contributes to responsible decision-making about the future of the urban environment, built on data-based arguments. Highlights for public administration, management and planning: • Online data represents a valuable source of city-related information as well as a relevant addition to other mapping methods. • Mapping an area of interest is a necessary step of the data-based planning process and should always precede any development of urban spaces. • A combination of data from various data sources which reflect life in public space can support user-oriented planning and contribute to responsible decision making.


The data resources in toxicology are characterised primarily by their variety, with the data volume also becoming significant when considering integration with biological databases such as toxicogenomics data. The chapter presents an overview of data integration approaches from the information technology point of view (data warehouses, virtual integration, schema and entity matching techniques) as well as from the bioinformatics point of view, i.e., integrative data analysis. Integration of different data sources requires the "shared representation of a domain", which is best implemented by the use of ontologies, standard representations and Application Programming Interfaces (API). The chapter refers to an extensive number of resources and applications as an illustration of the existing approaches of data resource sharing, linking and integration. The importance of cloud technology, encompassing data storage, cheminformatics and data analysis tools is highlighted and the existing and emerging data sharing infrastructure is outlined, all supporting the handling and use of big data in the field of (predictive) toxicology.


A range of antibiotics has been shown to modify host functions apart from the antimicrobial potency. They may directly influence phagocyte and lymphocyte function, as well as chemotaxis. Effects on the generation and release of various cytokines involved in the inflammatory process have been studied both in vivo and in vitro. However, the molecular mechanisms have not been elucidated in detail. It is suggested that antibiotics can exert immunopharmacological effects on the basis of structure-activity relationships independent of their antibacterial activity. We present a collection of clinical studies and case reports dealing with the potential benefits of systemic antibiotics in the treatment of selected dermatoses which have primarily been classified as non-infectious. Generally accepted treatments such as dapsone in dermatitis herpetiformis and leukocytoclastic vasculitis or chloroquine in lupus erythematosus have not been considered. Based on existing clinical trials with a higher number of cases the following antibiotics have been shown to be effective: erythromycin in bullous pemphigoid and pityriasis rosea as well as tetracyclines in pemphigus vulgaris, bullous pemphigoid and pustulosis palmaris et plantaris. However, most reports have to be viewed critically due to the uncontrolled study design, particularly in dermatoses with a tendency to spontaneous resolution. Despite this lack of evidence-based data, it is important for the clinician to know about the potential use of antibiotics for various skin disorders as a primary treatment option or steroid-sparing therapeutic adjunct. In clinical practice the use of antibiotics depends on various factors including the severity of the disease, the patient's age, contraindications to conventional therapeutic regiments and economic considerations.


The extent of irreversible neuroaxonal damage is the key determinant of permanent disability in traumatic and inflammatory conditions of the central nervous system (CNS). Structural damage is nevertheless in part compensated by neuroplastic events. However, it is unknown whether the same kinetics and mechanisms of neuroaxonal de‐ and regeneration take place in inflammatory and traumatic conditions. We analyzed neuroaxonal degeneration and plasticity in early multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Neuroaxonal degeneration identified by the presence of SMI31+ chromatolytic neurons and SMI32+ axonal profiles were characteristic features of leukocortical TBI lesions. Axonal transport disturbances as determined by amyloid precursor protein (APP)+ spheroids were present in both TBI and MS lesions to a similar degree. Neurons expressing growth‐associated protein 43 (GAP43) and synaptophysin (Syn) were found under both pathological conditions. However, axonal swellings immunopositive for GAP43 and Syn clearly prevailed in subcortical MS lesions, suggesting a higher regenerative potential in MS. In this context, GAP43+/APP+ axonal spheroid ratios correlated with macrophage infiltration in TBI and MS lesions, supporting the idea that phagocyte activation might promote neuroplastic events. Furthermore, axonal GAP43+ and Syn+ swellings correlated with prolonged survival after TBI, indicating a sustained regenerative response.


With the development of automation in distribution systems, distribution supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and many automated meter reading (AMR) systems have been installed on distribution systems. Also distribution management system (DMS) have advanced and include more sophisticated analysis tools. The combination of these developments is providing a platform for development of distribution system state estimation (DSE). A branch-current-based three-phase state estimation algorithm for distribution systems has been developed and tested. This method chooses the magnitude and phase angle of the branch current as the state variables. Because of the limited number of real-time measurements in the distribution system, the state estimator can not acquire enough real-time measurements for convergence, so pseudo-measurements are necessary for distribution system state estimator. The load estimated at every node from the AMR systems is used as a pseudo-measurement for the state estimator. The algorithm has been tested on three IEEE radial test feeders. In addition to this new strategy for DSE, another issue is meter-placement. This topic includes the type of measurement as well as the location of the measurement. Our results show the impact of these two issues on accuracy. Several general meter rules based on this analysis are outlined.


A group of styrylquinolines were synthesized and tested for their anti-proliferative activity. Anti-proliferative activity was evaluated against the human colon carcinoma cell lines that had a normal expression of the p53 protein (HCT116 p53+/+) and mutants with a disabled TP53 gene (HCT116 p53-/-) and against the GM 07492 normal human fibroblast cell line. A SAR study revealed the importance of Cl and OH as substituents in the styryl moiety. Several of the compounds that were tested were found to have a marked anti-proliferative activity that was similar to or better than doxorubicin and were more active against the p53 null than the wild type cells. The cellular localization tests and caspase activity assays suggest a mechanism of action through the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis in a p53-independent manner. The activity of the styrylquinoline compounds may be associated with their DNA intercalating ability.


This dissertation endeavours to examine long-lasting sequels of malaria on economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the general consensus that countries where malaria is endemic are not only poorer but also grow economically at a slower pace than non-malarial ones, the channels through which malaria incidence translates into lower subsequent development are still under-examined. The aim of this thesis is assessing one of such channels, namely cognitive impairment. According to our hypothesis, malaria sufferers during childhood who survive see their cognition impaired because of the disease, which is reflected into lower human capital as adults and, consequently, affects economic outputs, not only at the individual level but at the aggregate one as well. By using Pearson's Correlation Coefficients and bivariate and multivariate regressions, this study has found initial support for the hypothesized channel in sub-Saharan Africa. According to our preferred estimates, a one standard deviation increase in malaria ecology is associated to a 1.18 points reduction in IQ and a one-point increase in IQ would be associated on average, to a $268 increment in GDP per capita, when controlling for education. Moreover, results suggest a potential indirect effect of malaria on education via cognition as well. While remaining cautious about our results, we suggest that improvements in human capital need not be in the form of more education but rather in the form of better health outcomes that would allow for better-quality education by improving, for instance, cognition.


The regeneration of adrenocortical autotransplants in the rat spleen has been investigated by light and electron microscopy. Up to the seventh day after implantation, adrenal grafts showed large areas of necrosis and contained many degenerating (apoptotic) adrenocortical cells, some mesenchyme-like poorly differentiated elements, and occasional viable parenchymal cells. These last cells possessed mitochondria with scanty tubular cristae and few profiles of smooth endoplasmic reticulum. After 15 days of regeneration, adrenal grafts were reduced in volume, but contained only viable adrenocortical cells; after 30-36 days, autotransplants were noticeably enlarged and surrounded by an evident connective tissue capsule. Regeneration was closely associated with the morphological differentiation of adrenocortical cells, which one month after transplantation were found to assume all the typical features of adult rat zona fasciculata elements (i.e. mitochondria with vesicular cristae, abundant smooth endoplasmic reticulum, some lipid droplets and a well developed Golgi apparatus).


Due to scarce radio resources (e.g., wireless link bandwidth), the cell size is likely to become smaller to increase the frequency reuse ratio, especially in next generation mobile cellular networks. In this scenario, the analysis of handoff traffic is crucial for adequate QoS provisioning. With the assumption that incoming handoff traffic into a cell is equivalent to outgoing handoff traffic from the cell, we propose an iterative computation technique to analyze handoff traffic approximately. The iterative relaxation method is employed to calculate the steady state probabilities. The call blocking probability and the handoff dropping probability are accordingly obtained. We conduct the approximate analysis of handoff traffic in the case of trunk reservation call admission policy and compare the results with those of simulation experiments.


Programs of the US Commerce Department's Technology Administration that are stressing cooperation with industry and academia are discussed. As a result, Commerce programs reflect different approaches. In some cases, the department acts as an advocate for industry within the Federal government. The Commerce Department also acts as an advocate for industry with foreign governments. Efforts are underway to share technological breakthroughs at US government laboratories with small businesses, universities, and state and local governments. In some areas, particularly manufacturing, the Commerce Department acts as an agent for change.<<ETX>>


We studied psychological conditions in patients with balance problems using the POMS (profile of mood states) questionnaire. One hundred and eighty seven patients with balance problems were enrolled in this study. At the time of their first visit to our clinic, they were asked to fill in POMS questionnaires. Their responses were analyzed, and given scores for 6 emotional scales. Patients showed a tendency towards high scores. In comparison of the scores of patients diagnosed as having somatic diseases with other patients, patients who were not diagnosed with somatic diseases had significantly higher scores (or lower V-factor) than those with somatic diseases. From the viewpoints of POMS testing, patients with Meniere's disease seemed to be subdivided into two subgroups. POMS questionnaire testing seemed to be useful at the vertigo/dizziness clinic.


ABSTRACT In the current marketplace, there are maturity models, standards, methodologies, and guidelines that can help organizations to improve the ways of doing business. However, most available improvement approaches focuses on a specific part of the business and do not take a systemic approach to the problems that most organizations are facing. The Capability Maturity Model Integration [CMMI] focuses on improving software and systems. CMMI consists of best practices that address product development and process improvement. It addresses practices that cover the product s life cycle from conception to delivery and maintenance. There is an emphasis on both systems engineering and software engineering and the integration necessary to build and maintain the total product (Chrissis, Konrad, & Shrum, 2005) (Hefner, 2000). In this paper, we propose a software tool (prototype) to enhance the way projects control its quality processes using CMMI principles. The tool is evaluated by specialized organization in the UK (Blue Eye Consulting) the BEC used the tool in CSR project. The tool automates the activities of the process and product quality assurance process area under CMMI . It helps to evaluate the performed processes, work product against standards and procedures. It is based on identifying and documenting noncompliance issues. It helps to ensure that noncompliance issues are addressed. The tool ability to register noncompliance issues formally through a database and allocating dates and owners helps in integrating the project issues and improving across team communications. Journal of science and its applications, libya 2009, January Abstract


To the Editor: Bacterial meningitis is a major cause of death and disability in children worldwide: >1,000,000 cases and 200,000 deaths are estimated to occur each year. Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and Streptococcus pneumoniae are major causative agents of bacterial meningitis in children. A region in sub-Saharan Africa, extending from Ethiopia in the east to the Gambia in the west and containing 15 countries with >260 million people, is known as the "meningitis belt" because of its high prevalence of endemic disease with periodic epidemics caused by N. meningitidis.

Eritrea, a small country with an estimated population of 3.5 million in northeast Africa, is part of the meningitis belt. Eritrea gained independence in 1993 and borders the Red Sea on the east, Djibouti on the southeast, Ethiopia on the south, and Sudan on the north. Asmara, with a population of about 500,000, is the capital city. The estimated infant mortality rate is 73 deaths/1,000 live births.

In 2002, a prospective laboratory-based study was carried out in Asmara to gain insight regarding the distribution of bacterial agents causing bacterial meningitis in children. Starting in January 2002, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens were collected from every child who had a spinal tap administered at Mekane Hiwet Pediatric Hospital, Asmara. This facility serves as the national reference hospital for pediatric care. Within 1 hour of collection, all CSF specimens were processed at the Department of Microbiology, Central Health Laboratory. This laboratory, located <200 m from the Mekane Hiwet Pediatric Hospital, serves as the national reference health laboratory and is the only facility in Eritrea with the capabilities to perform cultures. Standard methods were used to process all specimens and to isolate and identify bacterial agents from the CSF specimens (1–3). All CSF specimens were cultured on chocolate agar plates with IsoVitalex supplement (BBL Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, MD) and tested for bacterial antigens by using Wellcogen latex agglutination kits (Remel, Inc., Dartford, UK). Hib strain ATCC 49247 was used as the control strain. All Hib strains were tested for susceptibility to ampicillin, penicillin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, and cefotaxime by using the disk diffusion method (BBL); isolates determined to be penicillin-resistant were also tested for β-lactamase by using the Nitrocefin touch sticks (Oxoid, Basingstoke, UK).

From January 1 to December 31, 2002, a total of 81 CSF specimens were collected: 38 (47%) were from patients >1 year of age, 28 (35%) from patients 1 to 2 years of age, and 15 (18%) from patients 2 to 14 years of age. Twelve (15%) of the 81 specimens tested positive; 10 were positive by both culture and latex agglutination test (5 Hib, 2 S. pneumoniae, 1 N. meningitidis, and 2 Enterobacteriaceae), and 2 were positive only by the latex agglutination test (1 Hib and 1 N. meningitidis). The patients' age and sex and the results of microbiologic tests are presented in the Table.

Table

Results of microbiologic tests of five cases of Haemophilus influenzae type ba

This study preceded the implementation of the Integrated Disease Surveillance (IDS) in Eritrea (last quarter of 2002) and does not allow for calculation of incidence of Hib disease at the national level. However, implementation of IDS will enable microbiologists to prospectively monitor the incidence of infectious diseases, including meningitis caused by Hib.

In many countries, Hib is still reported as a major cause of bacterial meningitis (4–9), and while Hib meningitis has a relatively low case-fatality rate in developed countries (3% to 5%), high case-fatality rates (20% to 30%) are common in tropical Africa. Rapid laboratory diagnosis and treatment with appropriate antimicrobial drugs, such as third-generation cephalosporins, are crucial in reducing the risk for severe complications. The decrease in Hib meningitis cases after the introduction of Hib vaccination and the use of vaccine to control Hib meningitis are well documented (10–12). Additionally, the findings of this study suggest that Hib remains the leading cause of childhood meningitis in this region and lead us to advocate for the introduction of vaccination in Eritrea.


The amtimicrobial effect of oregano tea (1/10, w/v, in distilled water), commercial oregano water, and 1⁄2 oregano water (1/1, commercial oregano water/distilled water, v/v) against Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes 4b, Staphylococcus aureus and Yersinia enterocolitica 03 after direct contact at 20 ±2 C for 1, 10, 30, and 60 min were comparatively evaluated. The Plate Count Agar was used for colony counts and the content of each treatment tube was enriched in Brain Heart Infusion broth after the 60 min direct contact period. All the four pathogens in oregano water and 1⁄2 oregano water decreased to uncountable level (1 CFU/ml) in one min. No growth has also occured in enrichments. Oregano tea was less effective than the oregano waters after 1 min, but counts of E. coli O157:H7, L. monocytogenes 4b, S. aureus and Y. enterocolitica 03 decrease to uncountable level after 60, 60, 10, and 10 min treatment periods, respectively. All the four test pathogens demonstrated grow ability in enrichment broth after a 60 min treatment period in oregano tea. E. coli O157:H7 appeared to be the most resistant pathogen followed by L. monocytogenes 4b, S. aureus and Y. enterocolitica, respectively. The use of water extracts or hydrosol of oregano for the decontamination or disinfection in food safety strategies should be evaluated in comparison with other natural antimicrobial spices.


Vesicles formed by DMPC liposomes externally conjugated with branched polyglycerol-dendrons as well as linear PEG in water solution were simulated using the DPD method. Such a structure of vesicles corresponds to the structure of polymer-grafted liposomes obtained experimentally by the post-insertion method, in which polymer chains are fixed on the outer surface of the liposome. The grafting density, generation number and spacer length of grafted dendrons were varied. It was shown that modification of the outer surface of liposomes due to grafting of hydrophilic dendrons has practically no effect on the size and shape of the vesicle, as well as on the morphology of the lipid membrane up to certain critical thresholds of grafting density, degree of polymerization, and generation number of grafted molecules. Exceeding the threshold values of these structural parameters leads to irreversible deformation of the lipid membrane. Diffusion through the membrane and the transition of grafted molecules from the outer surface of the liposome to the inner surface is not observed for dendrons with a generation number higher than one, even at high grafting densities. The critical values of the generation number and the characteristics of the molecular coating at these values were determined for various grafting densities and spacer lengths of the grafted chains. It was shown that the chemical potential of the grafted dendron can serve as a stability metric for the conjugated liposome. The chemical potential of grafted molecules was calculated using the mean field model of the spherical brush on the liposome surface. An analysis of the simulation data shows that, within the framework of the applicability of the mean field approach, the value of the chemical potential is a sufficient criterion for separating vesicles into stable and unstable forms. These results can be used as a guide for the experimental design of nanocontainers based on lipid vesicles with an external protective coating of branched macromolecules.


This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of sub-clinical mastitis and sex of birth on physico chemical composition of milk for some species of farm animals (Cows, Sheep and Goats ) in Al-Diwania province during a period from March to August 2012. A total of (120) samples of raw milk includes (40) samples for cows, (35) samples for sheep and (45) samples for goats were used in this study. The results of this study revealed that there was a significantly difference (P<0.05) in fat and lactose percentages for milk of sheep and goats. Fat percentages were (3.36± 0.24) and (3.33 ±0.16) for milk of infected sheep and goats with sub clinical mastitis respectively as compared to (5.04± 0.14) and(4.20 ± 0.02) for milk of uninfected animals while, the percentages of lactose were (4.27 ±0.02) and (4.30±0.01) for milk of uninfected sheep and goats respectively as compared to (3.91±0.13) and (4.06±0.11) for milk of infected of the same animals. The results also showed a significantly (P<0.05) higher in the solid not fat (SNF) percentage for milk of infected cows. The percentage of SNF was (9.12±0.12) for milk of uninfected cows as compared to (8.78 ±0.08) for milk of infected cows . Protein percentages was a significantly (P<0.05) higher in milk of uninfected cows and sheep , in which was (3.85 ±0.11) and ( 5.75 ±0.11) in both species respectively. The results of this study showed that there was a significantly (P<0.05) higher in PH values of milk for infected of three studied species as compared with milk of uninfected of the same species animals in which was (6.94± 0.06) , (6.71±0.04) and (6.73±0.01) for the three species respectively. The results also demonstrated a significantly (P<0.05) effect of sex of birth on fat and SNF percentages for milk of goats and a significantly (P<0.05) higher of protein percentage in milk for sheep which born male as compared to that born female ( 5.21± 0.35) and (3.89±0.33) respectively.


Bacteriophage endolysins and their derivatives have strong potential as antibacterial agents considering the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance in common bacterial pathogens. The peptidoglycan degrading peptidase CHAPk, a truncated derivate of staphylococcal phage K endolysin (LysK), has proven efficacy in preventing and disrupting staphylococcal biofilms. Nevertheless, the concentration of CHAPk required to eliminate populations of stationary-phase cells was previously found to be four-fold higher than that for log-phase cells. Moreover, CHAPk-mediated lysis of stationary-phase cells was observed to be slower than for log-phase cultures. In the present study, we report the fusion of a 165 amino acid fragment containing CHAPk with a 136 amino acid fragment containing the cell-binding domain of the bacteriocin lysostaphin to create a chimeric enzyme designated CHAPk-SH3blys in the vector pET28a. The chimeric protein was employed in concentrations as low as 5 μg/mL, producing a reduction in turbidity in 7-day-old cultures, whereas the original CHAPk required at least 20 μg/mL to achieve this. Where 7-day old liquid cultures were used, the chimeric enzyme exhibited a 16-fold lower MIC than CHAPk. In terms of biofilm prevention, a concentration of 1 μg/mL of the chimeric enzyme was sufficient, whereas for CHAPk, 125 μg/mL was needed. Moreover, the chimeric enzyme exhibited total biofilm disruption when 5 μg/mL was employed in 4-h assays, whereas CHAPk could only partially disrupt the biofilms at this concentration. This study demonstrates that the cell-binding domain from lysostaphin can make the phage endolysin CHAPk more effective against sessile staphylococcal cells.


Mammalian spermiogenesis is characterized by replacement of somatic histones by a set of basic nuclear transition proteins thought to be actively involved in the chromatin remodeling process. The two major transition proteins of the elongating spermatids, namely TP1 and TP2, were expressed and purified using a bacterial expression system. Both topoisomerase and ligase-mediated supercoiling assays demonstrated that TP1, as well as TP2, did not produce detectable changes in the twist and/or writhe of DNA molecules upon binding. Ligase-mediated circularization assay further demonstrated that neither of the transition proteins under study produced bends in linear DNA but that they both have the capacity to stimulate oligomerization of linear DNA fragments. We further established that the transition proteins are in vitro substrates for the Ca+2-phospholipid-dependent protein kinase (PKC) as well as the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). PKC phosphorylation was found to strongly weaken the DNA-condensing ability of TP2. These results suggest that the major transition proteins represent architectural factors able to stabilize DNA in a nonsupercoiled state, thereby promoting DNA condensation.


To evaluate possible physiologic mechanisms in hemorrhagic shock, sequential hemodynamics, O2 transport, conjunctival O2 (PcjO2), transcutaneous blood gases (PtcO2, PtcCO2), and core and conjunctival temperature (Tcore, Tcj) were measured during a control period, after hemorrhage, after reinfusion of the shed blood, and subsequently during terminal normovolemic shock in eight anesthetized dogs. The PtcO2 sensor requires surface heating to 44° or 45°C, whereas the PcjO2 sensor measures surface temperature but does not heat the tissue, thus avoiding heat-induced artifacts. Shortly after onset of hemorrhage, hemodynamic variables, bulk O2 transport, and tissue O2 tensions decreased abruptly. Prolongation of hemorrhage further deteriorated these variables. Reinfusion of the shed blood returned all values except PcjO2 to the normal range. In the terminal stage, all variables except PaO2 again deteriorated; decreased O2 transport impaired oxygen consumption, which in turn reduced both central and peripheral heat production. Lowered oxygen consumption, Tcore and Tcj reflect decreases in total-body and local tissue metabolism. These data are consistent with the concept that tissue O2 tension represents the balance between O2 supply and O2 demand and thus reflects overall O2 metabolism, which may be ratelimited by circulatory deficiencies.


Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF),  a well-known technique  to find  parts-based representations of nonnegative data, has been widely studied. In reality,  ordinal relations often exist among data,  such as data i is more related to j than to q.  Such relative order is naturally available, and more importantly, it truly reflects the latent data structure.  Preserving the ordinal relations enables us to find structured representations of data that are faithful to the relative order, so that the learned representations become  more discriminative. However, current NMFs pay no attention to this. In this paper, we make the first attempt towards incorporating the ordinal relations and  propose a novel ranking preserving nonnegative matrix factorization (RPNMF) approach, which enforces the learned representations to be ranked according to the relations. We derive  iterative updating rules to solve RPNMF's objective function with  convergence guaranteed.  Experimental results with several datasets for clustering and classification have demonstrated that RPNMF achieves greater performance against the state-of-the-arts,  not only  in terms of  accuracy, but also interpretation of orderly data structure.


Ocular allergic disorders can be a component of systemic or local allergies. The importance of ocular allergy results from its incidence rather than from its severity, however, some of them are vision-threatening. The majority of ocular allergies affect the conjunctiva, eyelids and sometimes cornea that is exposed to the environment and is the place of interaction between allergens and immunocompetent cells. Different types of allergic disorders in the eye may have similar signs and symptoms, but each has its own pathognomonic characteristics, which help to diagnose, differentiate and choose the most suitable therapy. Ocular allergic diseases are classified into six categories: SAC, PAC, VKC, AKC, GPC and ConBC. In 2001 EAACI suggested new classification, also of allergic conjunctivitis, into IgE-mediated and non-IgE-mediated conjunctivitis. IgE-mediated conjunctivitis may be divided into intermittent and persistent conjunctivitis. Persistent allergic conjunctivitis is classified into vernal and atopic keratoconjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis contact allergy is a non-IgE form of allergic conjunctivitis. Currently available medications provide safe and effective management of most cases of ocular allergy. Drugs used in the treatment of ocular allergic disorders include mast cell stabilizers, antihistamines, steroids, NSAID's, artificial tears and others.


Bacterial S1 protein is a functionally important ribosomal protein. It is a part of the 30S ribosomal subunit and is also able to interact with mRNA and tmRNA. An important feature of the S1 protein family is a strong tendency towards aggregation. To study the amyloidogenic properties of S1, we isolated and purified the recombinant ribosomal S1 protein of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Using the FoldAmyloid, Waltz, Pasta 2.0, and AGGRESCAN programs, amyloidogenic regions of the protein were predicted, which play a key role in its aggregation. The method of limited proteolysis in combination with high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometric analysis of the products, made it possible to identify regions of the S1 protein from P. aeruginosa that are protected from the action of proteinase K, trypsin, and chymotrypsin. Sequences of theoretically predicted and experimentally identified amyloidogenic regions were used to synthesize four peptides, three of which demonstrated the ability to form amyloid-like fibrils, as shown by electron microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. The identified amyloidogenic sites can further serve as a basis for the development of new antibacterial peptides against the pathogenic microorganism P. aeruginosa.


Workplace bullying is a major problem that affects the well-being and productivity of employees. Some previous studies have found that workplace bullying is associated with absenteeism, which is a major contributor to lost workplace productivity. However, a comprehensive understanding of how different workplace bullying experiences are associated with absenteeism is currently lacking. In particular no previous studies have examined potential mediators of these relationships. The present article aimed to provide new insights into the relationship between workplace bullying and absenteeism. In a 12-month prospective study of 500 Australian employees, we identified 5 distinct subtypes of workplace bullying experiences using a person-centred approach. These bullying subtypes were found to be associated with absenteeism via health impairment and lower work engagement. The findings can be used to inform HR strategies to prevent and manage workplace bullying.

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd


Planar separate absorption, grading, charge, and multiplication (SAGCM) InP-InGaAs avalanche photodiodes (APD's) are ideal for studying the multiplication (photogain) versus bias voltage (M-V) characteristics. In this paper, the M-V characteristics-in SAGCM InP-InGaAs APD's are investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The self-calibrated nature of M and the bias-voltage independent quantum efficiency make it possible to compare theory and experiment accurately in an InP-based APD. The Miller empirical formula for Si and Ge is proved appropriate for the SAGCM InP-InGaAs APD's. Using a physics-based model, the M-V characteristics and its temperature dependence for all the SAGCM APD's with different device parameters is calculated theoretically, and the calculations are in good agreement to the experimental results. >


ADITYA Tokamak is a medium size ohmically heated tokamak. The hot plasma interacts with the vacuum vessel wall introducing impurities in the plasma and also damages the vacuum vessel wall. Limiter is used to reduce plasma wall interaction and protect the vacuum vessel wall as well as inside components. It also controls impurity generation. ADITYA has a set of two types of limiters (i) Safety limiter (ii) a Poloidal limiter. Formally all the limiters are made of shaped graphite tiles fixed on stainless steel base plates. But graphite tiles are responsible for low Z impurities in plasma. To avoid these low Z impurities Molybdenum tiles are suggested. In this paper, we are going to present ansys analysis of surface temperature rise of molybdenum tiles compared to graphite tiles when used as Poloidal Limiter during plasma discharges in Aditya tokamak. The analysis is carried by ANSYS 11.0 software using Transient Thermal Analysis module. The results are compared with experimental results for graphite tiles. The graphite and molybdenum tiles are analyzed under same conditions.


The (C 1s−1,π*) triplet states of carbon monoxide, benzene, ethylene, and acetylene have been studied using electron energy loss spectroscopy with low-energy (near-threshold) excitation. The singlet–triplet splitting for the (C 1s−1,π*) states of the hydrocarbon species were measured for the first time. Intermediate neglect of differential overlap (spectroscopic) (INDO/S) calculations within the equivalent cores approximation were used to calculate (1s−1, π*) singlet–triplet splittings. The calculated values are in reasonable agreement with the experimental values for the hydrocarbon species but are significantly underestimated for CO. A strong correlation between singlet–triplet splittings and oscillator strengths for the 1s → π* transitions was noted and rationalized in terms of the dependence of both factors on the spatial overlap of 1s and π* wave functions.


ABSTRACT Turkey's natural gas hub development has been under the spotlight recently as its long-term gas supply contracts expire between 2021 and 2026. This study is an effort to investigate end-user prices and shippers' behaviors in the natural gas hub development process through four noncooperative game models representing different maturity levels of the Turkish gas market. These models, comprising mixed complementarity problems, are solved by GAMS software using the Turkish gas market's data. Our findings suggest that although increasing hub maturity yields decreasing end-user prices owing to the availability of more supply options and enhanced competition, a shift from long-term contracts to spot trading may result in an increase in the end-user prices due to strategic withholding by importers. Our models are pioneering as they are the first to depict the Turkish gas market with regard to shippers' behaviors.


Summary: Natural killer (NK) cells are large granular lymphocytes of the innate immune system that participate in the early control of microbial infections and cancer. NK cells can induce the death of autologous cells undergoing various forms of stress, recognizing and providing non‐microbial 'danger' signals to the immune system. NK cells are widely distributed in lymphoid and non‐lymphoid organs. NK cell precursors originate from the bone marrow and go through a complex maturation process that leads to the acquisition of their effector functions, to changes in their expression of integrins and chemotactic receptors, and to their redistribution from the bone marrow and lymph nodes to blood, spleen, liver, and lung. Here, we describe the tissue localization of NK cells, using NKp46 as an NK cell marker, and review the current knowledge on the mechanisms that govern their trafficking in humans and in mice.


The article aims to reconstruct historically the Political Science neo-institutionalism paradigm in order to explore two points. The first one consists in arguing that there were two factors that contributed to the neo-institutional "revolution" in politics, which are: the emergence of the economical analysis of political phenomena under the optics of the paradoxes of collective decisions, from the 1950s, and the crisis in behaviorism in the 1960s. The second one consists in arguing that the neo-institutional approach is a synthesis of part of the behaviorism with part of the "old institutionalism".


Drying of foods is a preservation method that aims to prolong the product shelf life and simplify its transport and storage. However, this process requires a large amount of energy, which results in high emissions of contaminants in the environment. In this work, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis was applied to the drying of strawberries. In particular, for the first time, traditional freeze drying and the combination of osmotic dehydration + freeze drying were analysed and compared to verify if the application of the pre-treatment was effective in reducing the environmental impact, obtaining a more sustainable process. Primary data related the drying process were used to perform and energy compile analysis was accomplished using SimaPro 8.0.5 software, in accordance with ISO 14040-14044. The calculations on the traditional freeze drying process were made considering actual operation factory data, whereas the calculations on the osmotic + freeze drying process were desk calculations. The comparison of freeze drying and osmotic dehydration + freeze drying on industrial scale revealed that the traditional process generated higher emissions in terms of all the studied environmental categories. A scenario analysis was, then, carried out to evaluate the potential emissions' reduction due to the variation of some process times. An improved scenario based on the use of osmotic dehydration + freeze drying with optimised process times was, therefore, proposed; using the improved process, a reduction of the emissions equal to 25 % with respect to the traditional freeze drying process could be obtained. Sensitivity analysis showed that variations in fertilisers' amount and in condenser and vacuum pump power did not cause significant changes to the results. The results also showed moderate sensitivity to strawberries' transport distance.


RNA 5‐methylcytosine (m5C) is a prevalent RNA modification in multiple RNA species, including messenger RNAs (mRNAs), transfer RNAs (tRNAs), ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), and noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), and broadly distributed from archaea, prokaryotes to eukaryotes. The multiple detecting techniques of m5C have been developed, such as m5C‐RIP‐seq, miCLIP‐seq, AZA‐IP‐seq, RNA‐BisSeq, TAWO‐seq, and Nanopore sequencing. These high‐throughput techniques, combined with corresponding analysis pipeline, provide a precise m5C landscape contributing to the deciphering of its biological functions. The m5C modification is distributed along with mRNA and enriched around 5′UTR and 3′UTR, and conserved in tRNAs and rRNAs. It is dynamically regulated by its related enzymes, including methyltransferases (NSUN, DNMT, and TRDMT family members), demethylases (TET families and ALKBH1), and binding proteins (ALYREF and YBX1). So far, accumulative studies have revealed that m5C participates in a variety of RNA metabolism, including mRNA export, RNA stability, and translation. Depletion of m5C modification in the organism could cause dysfunction of mitochondria, drawback of stress response, frustration of gametogenesis and embryogenesis, abnormality of neuro and brain development, and has been implicated in cell migration and tumorigenesis. In this review, we provide a comprehensive summary of dynamic regulatory elements of RNA m5C, including methyltransferases (writers), demethylases (erasers), and binding proteins (readers). We also summarized the related detecting technologies and biological functions of the RNA 5‐methylcytosine, and provided future perspectives in m5C research.


A randomized prospective double-blind study of thymopentin was performed upon 24 severely burned patients to evaluate its efficacy in correcting postburn immunologic abnormalities and preventing infectious morbidity and mortality. Patients in the treated group received 50 milligrams of thymopentin daily for the first two weeks after injury and three times weekly thereafter until the patient was no longer at risk for having infections develop. The placebo group received saline solution intravenously. The rate of infectious complications was recorded. Immunologic tests used at least weekly were: white blood cell counts, OKT4 to OKT8 ratios, lymphocyte blastogenesis and neutrophil bactericidal index. There were no differences noted in patient mortality, infectious complications or antibiotic use. There were two significant differences noted among the immunologic tests. First, there was a decreased lymphocyte blastogenic response in the treated group at two weeks after injury without a difference in T4 to T8 ratios. Second, there was less leukopenia during the first week after injury in the treated group.


Image inpainting aims to restore the missing regions of corrupted images and make the recovery result identical to the originally complete image, which is different from the common generative task emphasizing the naturalness or realism of generated images. Nevertheless, existing works usually regard it as a pure generation problem and employ cutting-edge deep generative techniques to address it. The generative networks can fill the main missing parts with realistic contents but usually distort the local structures or introduce obvious artifacts. In this paper, for the first time, we formulate image inpainting as a mix of two problems, i.e., predictive filtering and deep generation. Predictive filtering is good at preserving local structures and removing artifacts but falls short to complete the large missing regions. The deep generative network can fill the numerous missing pixels based on the understanding of the whole scene but hardly restores the details identical to the original ones. To make use of their respective advantages, we propose the joint predictive filtering and generative network (JPGNet) that contains three branches: predictive filtering & uncertainty network (PFUNet), deep generative network, and uncertainty-aware fusion network (UAFNet). The PFUNet can adaptively predict pixel-wise kernels for filtering-based inpainting according to the input image and output an uncertainty map. This map indicates the pixels should be processed by filtering or generative networks, which is further fed to the UAFNet for a smart combination between filtering and generative results. Note that, our method as a novel framework for the image inpainting problem can benefit any existing generation-based methods. We validate our method on three public datasets, i.e., Dunhuang, Places2, and CelebA, and demonstrate that our method can enhance three state-of-the-art generative methods (i.e., StructFlow, EdgeConnect, and RFRNet) significantly with slightly extra time costs. We have released the code at https://github.com/tsingqguo/jpgnet.


Technology informs many aspects of our lives. Many critics perceive technology as a system of values, seeing it as an incomplete "ethic". I explore the converse. Using Ellul's (1990) technique (translated as "technologism"), I ask, "Can ethics be technologized?" I show how the Challenger disaster delimits the range of technologism with regard to ethics. Collecting additional technical information cannot of itself prevent ethical lapses. Furthermore, the investigations implicitly show the assumption that technologism can apply to ethics in their call for additional procedures. The recognition that procedures already in place were adequate, however, shows this assumption to be fallacious. I also show that trying to technologize ethics is a recent instance of an old reductive fallacy. The ancient sophists were criticized for trying to technologize both rhetoric and ethics. In recent philosophy, too, many critics insist that ethics cannot be reduced, systematized or technologized. Ethics then is innately problematic, so ethical choices must always be continually deliberated among people in an indeterminate way. >


The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in the processing and retrieval of reward-related information. Here, we investigated long-lasting changes in protein composition of the mPFC in rats with a history of sucrose self-administration. Protein levels were analyzed using 2-D PAGE and MALDI-TOF sequencing. From approximately 1500 spots, 28 regulated proteins were unambiguously identified and were involved in cytoskeleton organization, energy metabolism, oxidative stress, neurotransmission, and neuronal outgrowth and differentiation. For several proteins, this change was also found as a long-lasting alteration in gene expression. We show that self-administration of sucrose produces long-lasting molecular neuroadaptations in the mPFC that may be involved in reward-related information processing.


Emotions play an important role in school bullying situations. Studies have shown that children who have difficulty recognizing their emotions, labelling and expressing their feelings were more likely to be subjected to violence. Similarly those who have trouble understanding or feeling what another person is experiencing and who have difficulty placing themselves in someone's position are more likely to be violent and to become bullies. Developing empathy, emotional skills and sense of respect for others in early childhood is therefore necessary in learning about life within society and in fighting school violence. In this article, I will present three games that teachers can use to teach children about feelings and to develop their emotional and social skills.


The problem of finding the degeneracy of a graph is a subproblem of the k-core decomposition problem. In this paper, we present a (1 + epsilon)-approximate solution to the degeneracy problem which runs in O(n log n) time, sublinear in the input size for dense graphs, by sampling a small number of neighbors adjacent to high degree nodes. This improves upon the previous work on sublinear approximate degeneracy, which implies a (4 + epsilon)-approximate ~O(n) solution. Our algorithm can be extended to an approximate O(n log n) time solution to the k-core decomposition problem. We also explore the use of our approximate algorithm as a technique for speeding up exact degeneracy computation. We prove theoretical guarantees of our algorithm and provide optimizations, which improve the running time of our algorithm in practice. Experiments on massive real-world web graphs show that our algorithm performs significantly faster than previous methods for computing degeneracy.


Kinins, members of a family of peptides released from kininogens by the action of kallikreins, exhibit a variety of biological activities including vasodilation, increased vascular permeability, contraction of smooth muscle cells, and activation of sensory neurons. However, investigation of the physiological actions of kinins has been greatly hampered because its effects are curtailed by rapid proteolysis in blood, lung, and liver. We describe the pharmacological characteristics of a novel nonpeptide bradykinin receptor agonist FR190997 (8-[2,6-dichloro-3-[N-[(E)-4-(N-methylcarbamoyl)cinnamidoacetyl ]-N-methylamino]benzyloxy]-2-methyl-4-(2-pyridylmethoxy)quinoli ne). FR190997 markedly stimulated phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis in Chinese hamster ovary cells permanently expressing the human bradykinin B2 receptor. The response of phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis was antagonized by the B2 receptor selective antagonist Hoe 140 (D-Arg-[hydroxyproline3,beta-thienylalanine4,D-Tic7,++ +Oic8]bradykinin). In competitive experiments using membranes prepared from Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing the human bradykinin receptor subtypes, FR190997 showed a high affinity binding to the B2 receptor with IC50 value of 5.3 nM and no binding affinity for the B1 receptor. In vivo, FR190997 mimics the biological action of bradykinin and induces hypotensive responses in rats with prolonged duration. Therefore, FR190997 is a highly potent and subtype-selective nonpeptide agonist which displays high intrinsic activity. This compound should represent a powerful tool for further investigation of the physiology and pathophysiology of bradykinin receptors.


In this contribution we explore one of the many possibilities of determining the strong coupling constant S at hadron colliders. The method considered is quite unique compared to other methods in that the value of S is determined by the \evolution rate" of the parton density functions rather than by the \event rate". Talk given at the \5th International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering and QCD", Chicago, April 1997. Introduction and Motivation Hadron colliders will supply an increasing amount of data with the upcoming high luminosity TEVATRON run and the LHC project. Methods for extracting S and parton density functions from these data sets can therefore expect a steady improvement in the precision over the coming decades. Often it is claimed that hadron colliders cannot do such precision measurements. A few comments can be made in answer to this. First of all, a hadron collider measures the value of S at many di erent values of the (partonic) center of mass energy. This is in contrast to ee -colliders where the center of mass energy is xed. In fact, at the TEVATRON the partonic center of mass energy useful for the S-extraction can go as high as 1 TeV (and at the LHC this will increase by an order of magnitude). Secondly, a hadron collider can make accurate measurements by selecting appropriate observables. For this purpose we select in this talk the normalized one jet inclusive transverse energy distribution. The value of S will be determined from the shape of the distribution. The major factor determining the shape is the fraction of quarks in the colliding hadrons. Due to the evolution of the parton density functions the quark fraction at moderate parton fractions decreases as the jet energy increases. This depletion is controlled by the strength of the strong coupling constant. Because we look at a normalized quantity both the theoretical (renormalization scale dependence) and experimental uncertainties (e.g. luminosity uncertainty) are much smaller than one would expect. Measurement and Methodology As mentioned in the introduction, the observable used is the normalized one jet inclusive transverse energy distribution. As an example we use the published run 1a results from the CDF collaboration [1]. For the theoretical prediction we use the JETRAD monte carlo [2] with the cuts and jet algorithm as close as possible to the experimental setup. The MRSA' parton density functions [3], which allows varying S, were used. The renormalization/factorization scale, , was chosen to be a constant, , times the maximum jet transverse energy, ET , in the event. Both data and theory are divided by the \reference" theory prediction which is given by: S(MZ ) = 0:120, = ET . To normalize the distribution we choose the ratio to be equal to unity at ET = 200 GeV . We show the S-dependence in g. 1a and the scale dependence in g 1b. As can be seen the dependence on S is quite substantial compared to both the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. Also note that the leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) results are quite close. The only di erence between the two predictions is the (expected) reduced scale dependence at NLO. The method to extract S is now quite simple: we minimize the 2 to t the theory to the data in g. 1 between 30 GeV ET 200 GeV by


In this paper, a novel three-dimensional (3D) space-time-frequency (STF) non-stationary geometry-based stochastic model (GBSM) is proposed for the sixth generation (6G) terahertz (THz) wireless communication systems. The proposed THz channel model is very general having the capability to capture different channel characteristics in multiple THz application scenarios such as indoor scenarios, device-to-device (D2D) communications, ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications, and long traveling paths of users. Also, the generality of the proposed channel model is demonstrated by the fact that it can easily be reduced to different simplified channel models to fit specific scenarios by properly adjusting model parameters. The proposed general channel model takes into consideration the non-stationarities in space, time, and frequency domains caused by ultra-massive MIMO, long traveling paths, and large bandwidths of THz communications, respectively. Statistical properties of the proposed general THz channel model are investigated. The accuracy and generality of the proposed channel model are verified by comparing the simulation results of the relative angle spread and root mean square (RMS) delay spread with corresponding channel measurements.


Just as urbanization has its advantages, it also has a number of problems like pollution, insufficient sanitation facility and inadequate provision of social services. This is normally resolved either through the imposition of rural-urban migration control or through the efficient management and financing of the urban sector. This paper deals with the latter focusing on financing and delivery of urban social services. This also assesses the determinants of revenue performance of city local government units (CLGU's) and determinants of CLGU's expenditures for the years 1991-1995. Various measures to close the urban fiscal gap are suggested.


We present a top-down method to quantify optical losses due to encapsulation of textured multicrystalline silicon wafer solar cells in a photovoltaic module. The approach is based on a combination of measurements and mathematical procedures. Seven different loss mechanisms are considered: 1) reflection at the glass front surface, 2) reflection at the metal fingers, 3) reflection at the textured solar cell surface, 4) absorption in the antireflection coating, 5) absorption in the glass pane and the encapsulation layer, 6) front surface escape, and 7) losses due to a non-perfect solar cell internal quantum efficiency. Losses for each of these mechanisms are obtained as a function of wavelength, and the corresponding current loss for each loss mechanism is calculated. Comparing simulated and measured results, the method predicts the module quantum efficiency with an error of less than 2% and the collected current with an error of less than 1%. In the presented example, the biggest loss (7.4 mA/cm 2) is due to the nonperfect quantum efficiency, followed by reflection losses at the glass front (2.2 mA/cm 2) and absorption in the glass and encapsulation layer (1.1 mA/cm 2).


We describe the architecture of Prism, an integrated system for planning radiation treatments for cancer patients. This architecture is based on the mediator design approach. The problem addressed by this approach is that common methods of designing integrated systems lead to undue module coupling, significantly complicating software development and evolution. The mediator approach was devised to ameliorate the conflict between integration and ease of software development and evolution. It does this by enabling the composition of visible and independently defined components into behaviorally integrated systems. We present Prism as evidence for two claims: first, the mediator method can overcome the problem of coupling, easing the design and evolution of real integrated systems; second, the method profitably can be learned and used by practicing software engineers. Prism continues to evolve in clinical use at University of Washington and Emory University Cancer Centers, and in trials at other institutions, including the University of Miami. It is an attractive subject for continuing research on integration, software structure, and the evolution of mediator-based architectures.


Current changes in the automotive industry towards autonomous vehicles will spur wide ranging changes in the roles of cars in urban environments. When combined with advances in display technology, this creates potential for the outer surfaces of cars to act as public displays. We present a real-world in context study, where participants ideated on a variety of different types of informative content, displayed on or around vehicles. Our study approach utilized handheld projection to create visualization experiences suggestive of the capabilities of future display technologies. The salient findings show that ideas related to the car and the driving function, such as parking, warning pedestrians and changing the vehicles aesthetic appearance, were appreciated. In contrast, ideas where the vehicle formed part of a smart urban infrastructure, such as guiding pedestrians or acting as a public display caused diverse opinions. In particular, concepts where personalized content was shown were disliked for reasons related to privacy and feeling like 'big brother' is watching.


Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC)-associated postweaning diarrhea (PWD) is still a leading disease in recently weaned piglets. Vaccination is considered to be the most ideal and efficacious strategy for preventing PWD. Recently, a commercialized live monovalent F4 oral vaccine and a bivalent F4/F18 oral vaccine have been demonstrated to effectively protect piglets in the F4-positive (F4+) and F18+ ETEC challenge models. However, they will not provide cross-protection against F5+, F6+, or F41+ ETEC-associated PWD cases, as they lack all five fimbria antigens. Thus, a multivalent vaccine containing all five ETEC fimbriae would be more effective in preventing ETEC-driven PWD. In this study, we designed two fimbria-targeted MEFAs using the MEFA technology, and further study demonstrated that these coadministered MEFAs in mice can induce protective antibodies against the five fimbriae expressed by ETEC. These MEFAs could be used as an efficient PWD vaccine candidate; furthermore, MEFA-based structural technology provides an alternative and promising strategy for the development of vaccines against pathogens with heterogeneous virulence factors. ABSTRACT Fimbriae mediate the initial adherence of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) to the piglet small intestine and play an important role in development of ETEC-driven postweaning diarrhea (PWD). PWD inflicts huge economic losses on the swine industry each year, making development of alternative treatment and prevention measures for PWD essential. Vaccine candidates that induce antifimbria antibodies that block the initial attachment and colonization of ETEC pathogens with fimbriae are one approach that could help prevent PWD. In this study, we constructed two multiepitope fusion antigens (MEFAs) that carried, expressed, and displayed representative epitopes of F4, F5, F6, F18, and F41 ETEC fimbriae. These MEFAs used either the F4 major subunit FaeG or the F18 adhesive subunit FedF as a backbone. To assess the potential of these MEFAs as antifimbria vaccine candidates that could help prevent PWD, we generated computational models of the MEFAs, constructed them, and then tested their immunogenicity by using them to immunize mice. Computational modeling showed that all relevant epitopes were exposed on the MEFA surface. We found that coadministration of our MEFAs in mice successfully induced five fimbria-specific antibodies in accordance with the epitopes included in the MEFA constructs. Furthermore, the induced antibodies can significantly inhibit the ability of ETEC strains that express F4, F5, F6, F18, and F41 fimbriae to adhere to piglet small intestinal IPEC-1 and IPEC-J2 cells. Our findings indicate that the antifimbria antibodies induced by our FaeG-Fim41a-FanC-FasA and FedF-FasA-Fim41a-FanC fimbria MEFAs blocked adherence of five ETEC fimbriae, suggesting these multivalent fimbria MEFAs may be useful for developing broadly protective antifimbria vaccines against PWD caused by ETEC infections. IMPORTANCE Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC)-associated postweaning diarrhea (PWD) is still a leading disease in recently weaned piglets. Vaccination is considered to be the most ideal and efficacious strategy for preventing PWD. Recently, a commercialized live monovalent F4 oral vaccine and a bivalent F4/F18 oral vaccine have been demonstrated to effectively protect piglets in the F4-positive (F4+) and F18+ ETEC challenge models. However, they will not provide cross-protection against F5+, F6+, or F41+ ETEC-associated PWD cases, as they lack all five fimbria antigens. Thus, a multivalent vaccine containing all five ETEC fimbriae would be more effective in preventing ETEC-driven PWD. In this study, we designed two fimbria-targeted MEFAs using the MEFA technology, and further study demonstrated that these coadministered MEFAs in mice can induce protective antibodies against the five fimbriae expressed by ETEC. These MEFAs could be used as an efficient PWD vaccine candidate; furthermore, MEFA-based structural technology provides an alternative and promising strategy for the development of vaccines against pathogens with heterogeneous virulence factors.


This paper addresses distributed parameter estimation in randomized one-hidden-layer neural networks. A group of agents sequentially receive measurements of an unknown parameter that is only partially observable to them. In this paper, we present a fully distributed estimation algorithm where agents exchange local estimates with their neighbors to collectively identify the true value of the parameter. We prove that this distributed update provides an asymptotically unbiased estimator of the unknown parameter, i.e., the first moment of the expected global error converges to zero asymptotically. We further analyze the efficiency of the proposed estimation scheme by establishing an asymptotic upper bound on the variance of the global error. Applying our method to a real-world dataset related to appliances energy prediction, we observe that our empirical findings verify the theoretical results.


In St. Louis Zoo first acquired Spectacled Owls in 1986 for a display in the Bird House. A commitment was made at the time to ultimately house two pairs of owls. Both pairs of birds produced offspring over a five year period. This paper reports on the captive management of Spectacled Owls and their reproductive efforts. Two captive reared female owls were acquired from the Oklahoma City Zoo and a wild caught male was obtained from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Boulder, Colorado. In 1989, a second male was purchased from the San Diego Zoo. This bird was handreared. None of the birds had a history of reproduction prior to arriving at St. Louis. The first pair of owls was housed in an indoor enclosure at the Bird House. The exhibit is triangular in shape and measures 2.5 m x 2.5 m x 4 m. The two short walls are solid and the long side is of piano or harp wire. The height of the enclosure is 2.5 m. The ceiling has a skylight and incandescent lights provide a minimum daylength of 12 hours. Live plants decorate the exhibit and are planted in a soil substrate. Fresh water is provided daily in a small dish. The birds are fed dead mice once daily in the late afternoon. The nest is a box made out of plywood which measures 50 cm x 50 cm x 75 cm. The entrance is a hole 25 cm in diameter near the top of the box. The nest is painted a dark brown and elevated so the hole is 1.2 m off the ground. Oak bark mulch is added to the box to a depth of 20 cm. The nest was put in the exhibit as soon as a pair was introduced together. In February of 1988, a single egg was found on the floor of the exhibit and was removed for artificial incubation. The egg proved to be infertile. The next egg was laid in late February 1991 in the nest box. Egg laying was preceded by the male feeding the female and increased vocalizations between the pair. In late February, the birds began spending an average of four hours a day in the nest. The 30th of March was the first time one bird was constantly in the box. A single egg was pulled for artificial incubation on April 30 and the egg hatched on May 3. The estimated incubation period was 35 days. The chick was raised without difficulty by bird department keepers. On June 6, 1991, an egg was seen in the nest box and a second egg was noticed in subsequent nest checks. A decision was made to leave these eggs in the nest to determine the adults' ability to rear their own offspring. The first chick was heard vocalizing on July 11 which was 36 days after the first egg was seen. A few weeks later a second chick was seen in the nest. During this period, the owls were...


The kinetochore is a large protein complex that assembles on centromeres. It enables accurate chromosome segregation by attaching chromosomes to the mitotic spindle via microtubules and by recruiting regulators that control mitosis. Many of these regulators modify kinetochore components by post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation and ubiquitination. For example, when kinetochores fail to attach to microtubules, the kinase Mps1 phosphorylates the kinetochore to activate the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC). The abundance of chromosomal instability mutants suggests that numerous kinetochore regulators remain to be identified and the mechanisms of some known regulators are poorly characterised. The kinetochore is highly conserved from yeast to humans and many important discoveries of kinetochore function have been made using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In order to identify kinetochore regulators in budding yeast, I have used the Synthetic Physical Interaction (SPI) technology to separately associate each member of the yeast proteome with a kinetochore protein. In addition, I have recruited several hundred proteins involved in chromosome segregation and post-translational modifications individually to kinetochore proteins representing each of the major kinetochore subcomplexes. I then associated each candidate regulator separately with most of the kinetochore proteins to spatially map their function. This method identifies candidate kinetochore regulators such as chromatin remodelling complexes, phosphatases and kinases; some of which are novel. In this thesis, I focus on three regulators; first, the Cdc14 phosphatase, second, components of the SAC and lastly the Polo-like kinase. These studies reveal kinetochore proteins sensitive to specific regulators and that their action is spatially restricted within the large kinetochore structure.