Similar properties ofbiodiesel to conventional diesel have made biodiesel as a promising fuel. However, its NOx emission was reported higher by most researchers in the world. In this study, antioxidants are used in the effort of improving the oxidation stability ofbiodiesel and reducing the NOx emission while maintaining the engine performance. p-Phenylenediamine (PPD) and N, N'-diphenyl-pphenylenediamine (DPPD) are added in 0.025 wt% and 0.15 wt% concentrations, respectively into palm oil methyl ester-diesel blend. The performance characteristics ofbiodiesel blends are tested on a single cylinder engine with an attached emission analyser. The addition of the PPD and DPPD antioxidants improved the oxidation stability of biodiesel without affecting much in the density and kinematic viscosity. For B20 (20% biodiesel + 80% Euro 5 diesel), the addition ofDPPD showed the best results by reducing NO (0.8% lower on average), CO (10.8% lower on average) and HC emission (32.9% lower on average), as compared to B7 blend. However, in terms of engine performance, B20+DPPD showed higher BSFC and lower brake power when compared to B7 blend.


Summary The Killarney Fern (Trichomanes speciosum) was considered amongst the rarest and most vulnerable of Europe's plants. Research which fed into the Biodiversity Action Plan and developed alongside it, has forced us to reconsider the level of threat to this species. A hitherto overlooked stage of the life-cycle, the gametophyte, has been shown to be comparatively abundant, genetically diverse, largely threat-free and with the potential over time to regenerate the familiar sporophyte stage. This research also promoted wider public interest which itself generated additional records, such that even the sporophyte is now known at more British sites than at any time previously and the species is accordingly considered 'recovered'. However, continued legal protection and the need for further research are still recommended.


: The investigation of sanitary working conditions of stampers and blacksmiths revealed that intense impulse noise of complex time and stochatic structure was a major health adverse factor. Noise levels exceeding 110 dB played an important role in the formation of general noise load, thus acoustic sensitivity being modified. Close correlation was established between exposition and the recovery space of time auditory threshold deviation characterizing analyzer's stress. High effectiveness of new individual means of noise protection was demonstrated along with the necessity of developing requirements for noise characteristics of impulse noise-generating machines.


Breast cancer patients have immune system functional deviations, that affect immune cells that infiltrate the tumor, but also cells from the blood compartment, even in the absence of a metastatic disease. Blood monocytes of these patients, for example, have impaired ability to differentiate into dendritic cells. Little is known, however, about systemic alterations in T cells from these patients. To address this issue, we evaluated T cell populations in peripheral blood of cancer patients, comparing it to those of healthy donors. For this, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated by Ficoll-Paque centrifugation, stained with antibodies to different T cell markers, and evaluated by flow cytometry. Patients had lower CD4:CD8 ratio then healthy donors (Healthy: 2.91±0.31; Cancer: 2.06±0.32; n=10; p=0.04). There was a positive correlation between the histological grade of the tumor and the CD4:CD8 ratio, where those with the lower grade had the lower CD4:CD8 ratio (r2=0.5679; p=0.03). Regarding CD4+ T cells, cancer patients had the same percentage of effector (CD45RA+CCR7-) and central memory (CD45RA-CCR7+) CD4+ T cells, but significantly lower naive (CD45RA+CCR7+) CD4+ T cells (Healthy: 30.82±5.94, n=8; Cancer: 14.21±3.46, n=10; p=0.02) and a tendency to have higher effector memory (CD45RA-CCR7-) CD4+ T cells (Healthy: 35.13±5.54, n=8; Cancer: 48.64±4.52, n=10; p=0.08). When comparing CD8+ T cells, patients also had significantly lower naive CD8+ T cells (Healthy: 42.74±6.97, n=8; Cancer: 19.16±3.42, n=10; p=0.005) and higher effector memory CD8+ T cells (Healthy: 29.69±5.35, n=8; Cancer: 45.37±5.15, n=10; p=0.05). Interestingly, cancer patients seemed to have higher percentage of effector CD8+ T cells than healthy patients (Healthy: 19.54±5.30, n=8; Cancer: 30.30±5.49, n=10; p=0.18). No difference in the expression of the IL-2 high affinity receptor (CD25) was observed between individuals with or without breast cancer. In conclusion, breast cancer patients had significant alterations in the percentage of the different peripheral blood T cell populations, suggesting that these may affect their ability to respond to the tumor, but also to other antigens. Financial Support: FAPESP (2014/25988-1). Citation Format: Mariana Pereira Pinho, Jose Alexandre Marzagao Barbuto. Systemic alterations in T cell subpopulations of breast cancer patients. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; September 16-19, 2015; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B069.


O-Specific polysaccharide composed of L-rhamnose and 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-mannose was obtained on mild acid degradation of P. aeruginosa X (Meitert classification) lipopolysaccharide. On the basis of non-destructive analis using 1H, 13C NMR spectroscopy and Klyne's rule calculation, as well as chemical methods (acid hydrolysis, methylation, Smith degradation), it was established that the polysaccharide is built up of disaccharide repeating units of the following structure: ----4)-alpha-L-Rha-(1----3)-beta-D-ManNAc-(1----.


Purpose: The Chicago Patient Navigation in Medically Underserved Areas Study, a large scale randomized trial of patient navigation, involving women who made appointments at one of three Chicago-area medical centers for either screening or diagnostic mammograms/services. The principal outcome measure is the time required to come to diagnostic resolution for women whose initial mammograms results in BIRAD values of 0,3,4 or 5. Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of patient navigation but also to investigate the effect of living in an officially designated Medically Underserved Area (MUA). Background: MUAs are designated by the Health Research Services Administration (HRSA). Areas to be considered for designation are defined as rational service areas (RSA), which in urban areas are composed of contiguous census tracts. Four elements are considered (1) the ratio of primary medical care physicians per 1,000 population, (2) the infant mortality rate, (3) the percentage of the population with income below the poverty level, and (4) the percent of the population 65 years and older. Each of the four elements is scored separately and then summed; the resulting score can range from 0 to 100. Areas with an IMU below 62 qualify for designation. Consideration for MUA status must be requested by representatives from the population of the eligible areas. Thus, designation requires that a local community organization advocates for establishment of the MUA. As a result, in Chicago, many census tracts are eligible for MUA status but are not so designated. Methods: All women who had an initial referral from a physician for screening or for diagnostic mammography following a clinical breast exam were randomly assigned to either the control or navigation arm of the study. Randomization was balanced by age group. Women assigned to navigation were recruited if they had a working telephone and gave informed consent. Electronic medical record (EMR) data were made available by the cooperating medical centers for all women. All women in the navigation arm and a small subsample of women in the control arm also responded to a series of questionnaires collecting background data and tracking their progress through the breast care cycle. Each woman9s address was geocoded and the census tract was coded for MUA status: (1) not eligible, (2) old MUA designated before the year 2000, (3) new MUA designated in 2000 or after and (4) eligible but not designated. For this analysis, the primary outcome variable is the number of days ensuing between the date of the initial examination and the date on which a firm diagnosis of cancer or no cancer was obtained. The analysis sample consisted of all women with initial BIRAD values of 0, 3, 4 or 5. Women with BIRAD 3 are normally asked to return for re-examination in six months and in their case the number of days till resolution was adjusted to count the number of days following the suggested return date. Over the course of the study some women were observed over several exam cycles. This analysis focuses on the first cycle only. All analysis were conducted using the Cox proportional hazard model. Analyses were stratified by the initial BIRAD value. Results: After excluding a small number of women with missing clinical data, 5660 cases were available for analysis. Of these, 3567 cases were excluded because their initial BIRAD value was 1 or 2. For the remaining 2093 cases involving 223022 person-days at risk we obtained resolution dates for 1810 and the remainder were lost to follow up in that we did not observe a diagnostic resolution date. These cases were considered to be censored. The maximum number of days observed was 741. Variables in the Cox model were indicator variables for navigated versus control and screening versus diagnostic, a set of indicator variables for MUA status (reference group New MUA), a set of indicator variables for insurance status (private, Medicare, Medicaid or uninsured, reference group private) and marital status (single, married, divorced/separated and widowed, reference group single). Age was found to be unrelated to the rate of resolution and was not included in the final model. Women who were navigated obtained diagnostic resolution more quickly (HR 1.13; CI 1.02, 1.24; p .017) than women in the control arm. Women seen for diagnostic mammography had much faster resolution times (HR 1.88, CI 1.67, 2.09; p . Conclusion: Despite years of gains in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment, certain populations continue to disproportionally suffer with poor outcomes and higher mortality. Patient navigation is a strategy to improve the equity in outcomes across populations. The field of navigation is maturing and solidifying the evidence for the efficacy pf patient navigation. There needs to be more efforts aimed at understanding which populations benefit the most from navigation. In addition, determining what type of navigation models works best in certain settings and with certain populations is still ripe for study. This study provides evidence supporting navigation as an effective tool to help women reach diagnostic resolution. Additionally analyses will be conducted to examine more fully the impact on how living in an MUA, having a medical home, and being actively engaged in your health care has on the patients9 ability to navigate themselves more effectively and help provide evidence to help deploy navigation in a sustainable and cost efficient manner. Citation Format: Elizabeth A. Calhoun, Heather Pauls, Ganga Vijayasiri, Julie S. Darnell, Yamile Molina, Nerida Berrios, Richard Warnecke, Richard Campbell. Patient navigation in medically underserved areas. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Seventh AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 9-12, 2014; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2015;24(10 Suppl):Abstract nr IA38.


in a world where technology has taken over our daily activities, the public library is still the place for the community of all ages to look for books and references for formal or informal studies. public libraries are one of the successful spaces designed for people of all ages as they encourage visitors to behave and interact positively in the environment. thus, teenagers as library users who are at the verge of becoming adults, need a more positive environment around them to observe and learn. however, only a few studies on public libraries and teenage visitors have been conducted. one of the issues is the lack of space designed specifically for teenagers, and the too formal ambience for the group in the public library. the study determined the physical characteristics of interior design in public libraries that would significantly affect teenage behaviour by identifying their design preferences and perceptions. the research utilized a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative data collection to identify the interior design characteristics of public libraries in malaysia that affect teenage behaviour. case studies were conducted on three public libraries in selangor. data on the characteristics were collected through observation, photographs and annotated sketches. next, to verify teenage perception and preferences on the interior design characteristics of public libraries, online questionnaire survey forms were forwarded to teenage online groups using the snowball technique. 70 respondents answered the survey within the time allocated. in addition, semi structured interviews were conducted on 13 teenage visitors of public libraries through random sampling to further investigate their perceptions and preferences of public library interior design. finally, the third objective is to determine the relationship between interior design characteristics of public libraries in malaysia and teenage behaviour, and the data for the analysis were from the triangulation of the collected data. statistical methods were used to analyse quantitative data while qualitative data were analysed through content analysis by systematically evaluating the texts and answers in a table form. the main output of the research showed that all the characteristics listed, namely bright colours, natural day lighting, informal and interactive furniture arrangement and furnishings are imperative in designing a better public library for a better learning environment for teenagers as agreed by the respondents. the findings contribute to the possibility of future studies on the interior design of public libraries for teenagers specifically in malaysia. hence, this research hopefully provides insights on the needs of teenagers with regard to space in public libraries. this enables architects and expert designers to strike a clearer balance between creating functional and inspiring buildings with exciting architectural features and enjoyable internal design spaces for teenagers as well as users of all ages.


Seven previously unreported triterpene glycosides (1-7) were isolated from methanol extract of the aerial parts of Trifolium medium var. sarosiense (zigzag clover). Their structures were established by the extensive use of 1D and 2D NMR experiments along with ESI-MS and HRMS analyses. Compounds 1-7 are oleanane derivatives characterized by the presence of a keto group at C-22 of an aglycone and a primary alcoholic function at C-24 and differing functions at C-30. Among these, compounds 1-3 and 6 showed a secondary alcoholic function at C-11, which is methoxylated in compounds 4 and 7. Compound 5 was shown to possess a known aglycone, wistariasapogenol A; however, it is described here for the first time as a saponin constituent of the Trifolium genus. Some aspects of taxonomic classification of zigzag clover are also discussed.


1School of Mathematics and Statistics, Wuhan University, Wuhan, People's Republic of China; 2Reading Academy, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, People's Republic of China; 3Faculty of Management Sciences, National University of Modern Languages Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan; 4College of Business Administration, Liaoning Technical University, XingCheng, Liaoning Province, 125105, People's Republic of China; 5Islamia College Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan Objective: This study investigates life expectancy and trade openness in China for the period 1960–2018. Methods: We purposed a theoretical model that is tested for China by applying regimeswitching regression. Results: Our findings suggest that trade openness increases life expectancy in China; trade affects life expectancy from two aspects; firstly, trade expansion and industrialization lead to high economic activities and resulted in raise the income of the people in society leading to improve life expectancy. Secondly, industrial expansion increases the CO2 emissions which leads to imposes a negative implication on human health and thus reduces life expectancy. Conclusion: Thus, the net effect of trade liberalization depends on the value of income effect and volume of CO2 emissions. Therefore, the government needs to support the trade policies which causes a low level of CO2 emissions, the government may provide incentives to exports and industrialists to adopted green energy in the production process. Besides, the government may impose some regulations such as carbon tax to mitigate the CO2 emissions in society.


BACKGROUND
There are limited pediatric data regarding severe COVID-19 disease. Our study aims to describe the epidemiology and identify risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease in children.

METHODS
This is a retrospective cohort study among children with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR from March to July 2020 at Children's Hospital Colorado. Risk factors for severe disease were analyzed as defined by hospital admission, respiratory support, or critical care. Univariable and multivariable analyses were conducted.

RESULTS
Among 454 patients identified with SARS-CoV-2, 191 (42.1%) were females, median age 11 years. Fifty-five percent of all patients identified as Hispanic compared with 29% among all hospital visits in 2019 (P < 0.0001). In multivariable analyses, age 0-3 months or >20 years [adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 7.85; P < 0.0001 and aOR, 5.1; P = 0.03, respectively], preterm birth history (aOR, 3.7; P = 0.03), comorbidities [including immunocompromise (aOR, 3.5; P = 0.004), gastrointestinal condition (aOR, 2.7; P = 0.009), diabetes (aOR, 6.6; P = 0.04), asthma (aOR, 2.2; P = 0.04)], and specific symptoms at presentation were predictors for admission. Age 0-3 months or >20 years, asthma, gastrointestinal condition, and similar symptoms at presentation were also predictors for respiratory support. Elevated C-reactive protein was associated with the need for critical care with median of 17.7 mg/dL (IQR, 5.3-22.9) versus 1.95 mg/dL (IQR, 0.7-5.5) among patients requiring critical versus no critical care (OR, 1.2; P = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS
Extremes of age, comorbid conditions, and elevated CRP are predictors of severe disease in children. Findings from this study can inform pediatric providers and public health officials to tailor clinical management, pandemic planning, and resource allocation.


Corticosteroids (GC) act by two molecular mechanisms known as transactivation or transrepression. Transrepression mediates the vast majority of the anti-inflammatory actions of corticosteroids, whereas transactivation has been associated with the unwanted side effects of corticosteroids. One unanswered question is whether compounds that can dissociate the transactivation from the beneficial transrepression function of GC could be used to treat severe patients who are refractory to steroid therapy. The purpose of the present study was to study the effect of CpdA, a dissociated steroid receptor ligand, on the production of steroid-resistant chemokines induced by TNFα/IFNγ in ASM cells. We found that TNFα/IFNγ combination stimulates the expression of CXCl10, CCl5 and CX3Cl1 in both asthmatic and healthy airway smooth muscle cells, with a greater production of CXCl10 and CCl5 by asthmatic cells (n=3 subjects). Pretreating cells with fluticasone (100 nM, 2 hr) did not affect cytokine-induced expression of CXCl10 while CX3Cl1 levels were significantly increased by 2.3 fold in the presence of fluticasone. Interestingly, CpdA (5 μM) suppressed cytokine-induced expression of CXCl10 by 50% while CCl5 and CX3Cl1 responses were completely inhibited in both asthmatic and healthy cells. These data show that CpdA can inhibit the expression of steroid-resistant inflammatory genes in airway smooth muscle cells. This study suggests that dissociated steroid receptor ligands could offer a novel therapeutic alternative to treat steroid resistance in severe asthmatics.


The full protection and security obligation traditionally requires a State to exercise due diligence to prevent physical damage from being inflicted on foreign investments within its territory, and to provide a means of redress for aggrieved foreign investors. Recently, tribunals have expanded this application of the obligation such that States are obliged to exercise due diligence to afford legal or regulatory protection to foreign investments. Establishing a breach of the obligation involves establishing a State's responsibility for its omissions. The law of State responsibility has nuances in respect of establishing a breach of non-absolute positive obligations, such as this one. Evidence of the State's knowledge of the need to act, and of its capacity to act, provide the basis on which a breach of the obligation may be established. Causation is also an element of the proof of a breach, and is to be established by reference to an adequate counter-factual. The standard to which one must establish a breach is contested – as between an objective and subjective standard, or a hybrid – albeit an objective standard of due diligence is preferable. In this context, recent tribunals have fashioned diagnostics for determining a breach of the obligation which invoke concepts of legitimate expectations, and reasonableness and rationality. Using these diagnostics means that the objective standard of proof is satisfied when an investor's legitimate expectations are frustrated by the conduct of the State, or when the State fails to act reasonably and in order to achieve rational public policy goals. These diagnostics offer a useful and workable development in the articulation of the standard of proof in relation to a breach of the full protection and security obligation.


Author(s): Lloret Batlle, Roger | Advisor(s): Jayakrishnan, R. | Abstract: Transportation systems have been traditionally operated on a First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) fashion. FCFS consumption of supply occurs because it is accepted as a natural paradigm when the operators have no individual-specific information that allows consideration of any other serving order, and when users are assumed not to communicate among themselves. Thus, FCFS behaves as a status quo policy that is generally considered as fair, since it is presumed that all users are treated equally. We know though, that there exists heterogeneity in users' valuation of time and delay savings, and that the values may be different in different situations even for the same user. Taking advantage of smartphones and connected vehicle environments, it is now possible to include this user heterogeneity into operations in order to increase overall system efficiency and fairness, where efficiency refers to satisfaction of users. There are then possibilities of accomplishing this through exchanges among users with appropriate pricing, which can be determined by the users themselves to their satisfaction, so as to determine the order and extent of the utilization of supply. This new operational paradigm leads to collaborative consumption of supply.This dissertation explores the idea of violating FCFS by allowing users to trade in real-time the part of supply that they effectively "own" while they are in a transportation system. This de-facto ownership originates from the space-time region which each user rightfully controls, either due to their physical presence or due to reservations such as after purchasing a future trip from an operator. Attempting to answer the question of what pricing scheme would be fair and acceptable, leads this dissertation to introduce for the first time in transportation literature, the fundamental economic concept of envy-freeness. It can be taken as a pricing scheme as well as a user-behavior model. A resource allocation is said to be envy-free, when no agent feels any other agent's allocation to be better than their own, at the current price. An extension called dynamic envy-freeness is then developed for use in the domain of dynamic problems that the transportation field invariable pose, and a new family of envy-minimizing criteria are developed, namely the Constant Elasticity of Substitution Envy Intensity (CESEI) criteria, which strongly fits into the existing axiomatic body of Welfare Economics.Several applications of collaborative consumption that breaks FCFS ordering are explored in this dissertation. First, the dissertation develops PEXIC, Priced EXchanges in Intersection Control, in which users can pay other users to reduce their waiting delays in a fair manner. This system is shown to be Pareto-efficient, envy minimizing and financially self-sustainable. Second, it studies new operational policies in highway control: parallel queue routing policies for bottleneck situations where the vehicles' lane-queue selections are the results of trades, and queue-jumping operations for exit lanes where vehicles can take forward spots in a queue by paying the overtaken vehicles in a fair fashion that achieves queue stability. Third, it proposes Peer-to-peer (P2P) ride exchange in ridesharing systems, in which trip property rights are transferred to users in such a way that they can trade their rides between each other. Finally, the dissertation models a P2P ridesharing system as a dual role market exchange economy, introducing a truthful pricing scheme which includes High-Occupancy-Vehicle (HOV) lane savings and uses a novel min-cost max flow formulation that guarantees users a ride-back, a complementarity in preferences never explored before.The research does not attempt any elaborate examination of the social equity implications of such exchange-based systems with non-FCFS operations, but identifies some of such key issues and presents pointers for further study. It does not purport to take an advocacy position on transforming the transportation system operations to the newer paradigms, nor does it examine all the regulatory complications. The research does, however, demonstrate through modeling and analysis results from a variety of applications, that better system efficiency and user satisfaction can be achieved with the use of the proposed paradigms.


After the detection of gravitational waves caused by the coalescence of compact objects in the mass range of neutron stars, GW170817, several studies have searched for an imprint of tidal effects in the signal, employing different model assumptions. One important distinction is whether or not to assume that both objects are neutron stars and obey the same equation of state. Some studies assumed independent properties. Others assume a universal equation of state, and in addition that the tidal deformability follows certain phenomenological relations. An important question is whether the gravitational-wave data alone constitute observational evidence for finite tidal effects. All studies provide Bayesian credible intervals, often without sufficiently discussing the impact of prior assumptions, especially in the case of lower limits on the neutron-star tidal deformability or radius. In this article, we scrutinize the implicit and explicit prior assumptions made in those studies. Our findings strongly indicate that existing lower credible bounds are mainly a consequence of prior assumptions combined with information gained about the system's masses. Importantly, those lower bounds are typically not informed by the observation of tidal effects in the gravitational-wave signal. Thus, regarding them as observational evidence might be misleading without a more detailed discussion. Further, we point out technical problems and conceptual inconsistencies in existing studies. We also assess the limitations due to systematic waveform model uncertainties in a novel way, demonstrating that differences between existing models are not guaranteed to be small enough for an unbiased estimation of lower bounds on the tidal deformability. Finally, we propose strategies for gravitational-wave data analysis designed to avoid some of the problems we uncovered.


Transglutaminase activity was determined in normal and transformed paired cell systems. Reduced enzyme activity was found in virus-transformed human and hamster cells and in chemically transformed mouse cells relative to normal counterparts. Most of the enzyme activity was localized in the particulate fraction sedimenting at 105,000 X g. Enzyme activity was highest when normal cell populations were in an essentially nonmitotic state. Protein capable of incorporating putrescine was present in normal and transformed human cells, although the rate of incorporation was lower in the latter. The putrescine acceptor in the normal cell paralleled enzyme activity and enzyme distribution. Trypsin (5 microng/ml) treatment of the normal cell resulted in a 3-fold increase in enzyme activity, which occurred independently of protein synthesis.


This article deals with lexical errors, i.e., errors stemming from an insufficient knowledge of properties—semantic, formal and combinatorial—of lexical units. Such errors are frequent in written texts produced by language learners. They indicate that there are gaps to be filled in the learner's lexical knowledge, in particular, when it comes to learners' ability to efficiently use lexical and paraphrastic relations in text production. Our analysis of a corpus of texts produced by learners of French as a second language, based on a typology of lexical errors we have developed, has revealed a high number of lexical errors, in particular those involving meaning properties of lexical units and their restricted lexical cooccurrence properties. These findings will be used for the development of a learners' dictionary based on the Meaning-Text linguistic theory and designed in such a way as to facilitate the acquisition and active use of lexical and paraphrastic relations.


Every five years a series of studies is carried out by the Census Bureau which provides an opportunity to review the basic economic well-being of the many industries at the national, state and county levels. A comparison of dental economic data from the 2007 and 2012 studies for the period that encompassed the 2007-2009 "Great Recession" details the general economic difficulties faced by the dental profession during this period.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to compare the ABI PRISM 7700 Sequence Detection System and the LightCycler to develop a quantitative real-time PCR assay for the detection of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) DNA suitable for routine hospital application.

METHODS
We used one exonuclease probe and five different hybridization probe sets as sequence-specific fluorescence detection formats. For the exonuclease assay and two hybridization probe sets, reproducibility and the detection limit were determined. To keep the total assay time to a minimum, we gradually shortened individual reaction steps on both instruments.

RESULTS
The exonuclease assay can be interchangeably performed on the 7700 and the LightCycler. No change of reaction conditions is required, except for the addition of bovine serum albumin to the LightCycler reaction. The shortest possible total assay time is 80 min for the ABI PRISM 7700 Sequence Detection System and 20 min for the LightCycler. When the LightCycler is used, the exonuclease probe can be replaced by a set of hybridization probes. All assays presented here detected HCMV DNA in a linear range from 10(1) to 10(7) HCMV genome equivalents/assay (r >0.995) with low intraassay (<5%) and interassay (<10%) variation.

CONCLUSIONS
The ABI PRISM 7700 Sequence Detection System as well as the LightCycler are useful instruments for rapid and precise online PCR detection. Moreover, the two principles of fluorescence signal production allow HCMV quantification with the same accuracy.


Purpose High dietary magnesium intake may reduce insulin resistance (IR) and metabolic syndrome (MetS). The aim of the cross-sectional analysis was to evaluate the association between dietary magnesium intake, IR, and MetS using data from China Health and Nutrition Survey. Methods Dietary magnesium intake was defined as daily dietary magnesium intake divided by body weight. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for IR and the prevalence of MetS across the quartile categories of dietary magnesium intake. In addition, we used the macro PROCESS to perform the mediation analyses. Results A total of 8120 participants were included in the final analysis. We found a significant negative association between dietary magnesium intake and IR, the multivariable-adjusted OR for HOMA-IR comparing the highest to the lowest quartile of dietary magnesium intake was 0.435 (95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.376 to 0.502). The prevalence of the MetS was 38.6%, 28.9%, 22.5%, and 16.5% for increasing quartiles of dietary magnesium intake (p <0.001). The mediation model analysis displayed that insulin resistance mediated the effect of dietary magnesium on MetS. The direct effect and indirect effect of dietary magnesium on MetS were found significant, and the calculated percentage of mediation by insulin resistance was 19.6%. Conclusion Our study demonstrated a significant and independent negative relationship among weight-adjusted dietary magnesium intake, HOMA-IR, and MetS in a large Chinese population. IR partly mediated the relationship between dietary magnesium intake and MetS.


The study was concerned with the influence of environmental factors such as light, temperature and nutrition on the production of tillers and inflorescences and induction of cold hardiness in ryegrasses. Field trials were carried out to determine if nitrogen fertiliser altered the degree of flowering in perennial ryegrass varieties. Although tiller numbers increased due to nitrogen in one experiment, the percentage of flowering tillers was not markedly altered. This applied to both an early (Pax tofte) and late (S23) perennial ryegrass. A study of nitrate effects on the production of leaf primordia, tillers and inflorescences under glasshouse conditions was carried out* Nitrate increased leaf appearance in main axes and tillers as well as increasing total primordia production and tiller bud expansion. An observation from field and glasshouse experiments that tiller production in ryegrasses at the flowering stage decreased both in annual and perennial ryegrasses This suggested that apical dominance existed in ryegrasses. Using surgical techniques, removal of the apical region and expanding leaves in annual and perennial ryegrasses increased the expansion of tiller buds. Employing tiller number and tiller bud expansion as criteria apical dominance was also found to exist in annual ryegrasses (Westerwolds and Lolium temulentum) when the main axis was flowerings but was most marked under conditions of low nitrate. Results are discussed in terms of current theories of apical dominance, particularly- with relevance to grasses. As well as apical dominance lack of cold tolerance was also a factor which limited the perennation of ryegrasses. Cold tolerance was measured by survival or regrowth after subjection to low temperatures or by the degree of damage brought about by low temperatures, measured by the amount of electrolytes released from the plants. Hardening of perennial ryegrasses was found to be dependant on low temperatures. Long photoperiods at low, but above zero, temperatures induced hardiness at a faster rate than short photoperiods in some experiments. However at higher temperatures, the effect of daylength varied according to species and variety. Nitrogen fertiliser decreased hardiness in ryegrass in the field but the reverse was found under controlled environmental conditions. Roots were generally less responsive to hardening conditions than shoots. Conclusions are drawn and are considered in terms of future research and, in particular, the role of perenniality in determining persistence in ryegrass.


Analysis and reconstruction of range images usually focuses on complex objects completely contained in the field of view; little attention has been devoted so far to the reconstruction of simply shaped wide areas like parts of a wall hidden behind furniture pieces in an indoor range image. The work presented in the paper is aimed at such reconstruction. First of all, the range image is partitioned based on depth discontinuities and fold edges. Next, the planes best fitting each of the regions constituting the partition of the image are determined. A third step locates potentially contiguous surfaces, while a final step reconstructs the hidden regions. The paper presents results for reconstruction of the shape of planar surfaces behind arbitrary occluding surfaces. The system proved to be effective and the reconstructed surfaces appear to be reasonable. Some examples of results are presented from the Bornholm church range images.


Twenty‐eight children, ages 2 months to 13 years, with a diagnosis of reticuloendotheliosis were treated on a random basis with either vincristine (VCR) 2 mg/m2/week or methotrexate (MTX) 30 mg/m2 twice a week. Both groups received prednisone 40 mg/m2/day. The responders received randomly either MTX 30 mg/m2 twice weekly or no maintenance therapy. Of the 11 patients receiving VCR, 2 achieved complete and 5 partial remissions. Among 17 treated with MTX there were 8 complete and 1 partial remissions. The complete plus partial remission rate is 64% for VCR and 53% for MTX. The duration of response was superior in the MTX‐treated group, with a median remission duration of 315 days; the 4 patients above the median are still in remission. With VCR therapy, the median was 96 days, and all patients have relapsed. Maintenance therapy also improved the duration of remission, with a median of 20 months, compared to 79 days with no maintenance. Thus, in this clinical trial the best results were obtained when methotrexate plus prednisone were used for induction, followed by methotrexate maintenance therapy.


Abstract Radiolysis of the CO2-C3H8 system by fission fragments (FF) was compared experimentally with those by γ- and (n+γ)-rays. Carbon monoxide formation was observed to reach maximum at 1% propane concentration with all three kinds of radiation. The G (CO) value was found consistently higher with FF than with γ- and (n+γ)-rays, whereas G(C2H6) showed the opposite tendency in the difference between FF and the other radiations. The maximum G(CO) value obtained with FF was 6.7, while only 3.6 was attained with the other radiations. The difference between the radiolysis by FF and by the other radiations was ascribed to reactions taking place within the FF tracks. The rates of in-track reactions and the diffusion out of the tracks were estimated on the basis of Mozumder's track model. This estimation made it clear that, with the rise in the total pressure, CO formation could be expected to be enhanced by FF irradiation, with the reaction CO+ 2+e−→CO+O coming to predominate over other reactions constituting ...


INTRODUCTIONIn today's business world, one of the most important problems that companies encounter is new product failure. The high product failure rate has been a major concern for practitioners for years. It was reported that almost half of the new products introduced each year will actually fail (Sivadas and Dwyer, 2000). While there are different failure rates reported, the issue is absolutely a critical one for firm survival in intensely competitive markets.Given the fact that the increasing level of technological advancement, consumer expectations, and domestic as well as international competitive pressures continue to reduce the product life cycle for new products, it has become extremely important for companies to understand the critical determinants of new product success and failure and to be able to develop satisfactory, failure-free, and long-living products for markets. A group of studies on new product performance has predominantly investigated project-level or process-based factors as the potential determinants of new product success (e.g., Cooper, 1979a, 1979b; Kalyanaram and Krishnan, 1997; Link, 1987). Another stream of past research on new product performance has addressed organizational-level predictors of new product performance (e.g., Ayers, Dahlstrom and Skinner, 1997; Gupta, Raj and Wilemon, 1986; Moorman and Miner, 1997). In a number of studies, a market orientation has been presented as a significant factor that affects new product performance (e.g., Appiah-Adu, 1997; Atuahene-Gima, 1995; Atuahene-Gima, Slater and Olson, 2005; Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1988; Im and Workman, 2004; Langerak, Hultink and Robben, 2004; Narver, Slater and Mac Lachlan, 2004; Slater and Narver, 1994a, 1994b). In spite of its significance, the relationship between market orientation and new product performance has not received much scholarly attention (Narver, Slater and MacLaehlan, 2004). Past research has failed to explore the relationship between market orientation and new product performance in more specific studies.It has been argued that a market orientation may enable the organization to develop a number of strategic capabilities which are critically important for the organization (Deshpande, 1999; Narver and Slater, 1990; Slater and Narver, 1994b). A market-oriented organizational culture may develop some strategic capabilities whose independent effects and interactions with each other lead to better new product performance. Learning orientation and organizational innovativeness have been recognized by some researchers as strategic capabilities which are likely to be developed and reinforced by a strong market orientation (Day, 1994; Deshpande, 1999).A significant number of scholars have recognized the importance of the potential link between market orientation and innovativeness and have stressed the need for additional research on this issue (e.g., Deshpande, 1999; Hurley and Huit, 1998; Jaworski and Kohli, 1996; Lukas and Ferrell, 2000). Deshpande (1999) posited that since organizational innovativeness might have an important effect on business profitability, the linkage between a market orientation and a firm's innovative capability should be investigated (p.5-6).Learning orientation is defined as "an organizational characteristic that reflects the value that a firm places not only on adroitly responding to changes in the environment but on constantly challenging the assumptions that frame the organization's relationship with the environment" (Baker and Sinkula, 1999, p.412). It is believed that a learning orientation "has a direct bearing on the degree to which higher order learning occurs" (Baker and Sinkula, 1999, p.413; Slater and Narver, 1995). This statement means that the higher the degree of learning orientation within an organization, the greater the level of organizational learning occurring within the organization. To the authors' best knowledge, the incorporation of learning orientation into marketing has been limited to date (e. …


We have studied the influence of cholesterol-decreasing drug, liprimar, of statin group which blocks synthesis of low and very low lipoprotein, in patients suffering from sensorineural deafness associated with atherosclerosis. Results of the study showed that liprimar application in the dose of 20 mg b. d. for two months had resulted in steady decrease of cholesterol in blood serum and stabilization of hearing function of patients.


THE NUMBER and variety of the complications as a result of bishydroxycoumarin (Dicumarol) intoxication, or poisoning, are of staggering proportions. A review of the literature leads one to conclude that in this drug one is dealing with a truly fine pharmaceutical tool but one that without proper surveillance may easily become a lethal weapon. In the report of a fatal case of bishydroxycoumarin poisoning Duff and Shull 1 state succinctly: The most important of all contraindications to the use of dicumarol ® is lack of reliable laboratory facilities for prothrombin determinations. Employment of this beneficial drug without laboratory control is hazardous and may result in fatal widespread hemorrhage. Aggeler 2 has collected and tabulated from the American literature the number of hemorrhagic complications following bishydroxycoumarin therapy up to 1946. He reports that of a total of 1,471 patients treated with the drug hemorrhagic complications developed in 123 (8.3%). There were


We present a patient with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis who developed multiple large, painful ulcers that were scattered over his anterior lower legs and were characteristic of pyoderma gangrenosum (PG). This association has not previously been described. We review other forms of arthritis that usually occur with PG and discuss them in light of this observation.


VR training system for endoscopic inspection of intestine has been investigated developed by the authors. A mobile total system for hospitals is developed. This "Potable VES" consists of a miniaturized haptic mechanism to provide force sensation to the doctor, microcomputer and LCD display. All of these components are built in tower-type computer case with handle. New mathematical model are formulated and implemented to simulate large deformable intestine and endoscope. Several doctors demonstrate effectiveness of this system for pre-clinical training of basic skill for noninvasive inspection.


Objective: To determine the prevalence of subclinical synovitis using ultrasound (US) imaging of both painful and asymptomatic joints, in patients with early (<12 months), untreated oligoarthritis (⩽5 joints). Methods: Eighty patients underwent a detailed clinical assessment by two physicians. All painful joints were identified, which were immediately scanned by a sonographer. In the last 40 patients, an additional standard group of joints was scanned to establish the prevalence of synovitis in asymptomatic joints. Results: In 80 patients, 644 painful joints (with and without clinical synovitis) were identified and each underwent a US assessment. Of these joints, 185 had clinical synovitis, of which, US detected synovitis in only 79% (147/185). In the other 38 joints US demonstrated tenosynovitis instead of synovitis in 12 joints and possible, but not definite, synovitis in 11 joints. Fifteen joints were, however, normal on US. In 459 joints that were not clinically synovitic, US detected synovitis in 33% (150/459). In 64% (51/80) of patients, US detected synovitis in more joints than clinical examination and in 36% (29/80) of patients, US detected a polyarthritis (>6 joints). Of the 826 asymptomatic (non-painful) joints scanned, 13% (107/826) had US detected synovitis. Conclusion: Sonography detected more synovitis than clinical examination in patients with oligoarthritis. In almost two thirds of patients there was evidence of subclinical disease while one third could be reclassified as polyarticular. These findings suggest that a definition of oligoarthritis based purely on clinical findings may be inappropriate, which may have important implications for disease management.


We have proposed a novel offset gated polysilicon TFT fabricated without an offset mask in order to reduce leakage current and suppress the kink effect. The photolithographic process steps of the new TFT device are identical to those of conventional non-offset structure TFT's and an additional mask to fabricate an offset structure is not required in our device. The new device has demonstrated a lower leakage current and a better ON/OFF current ratio compared with the conventional non-offset device. The novel TFT also exhibits a considerable reduction in the kink effect because a very thin film TFT may be easily fabricated due to the elimination of the contact over-etch problem. >


A high resolution version of an operational weather prediction model has been developed. An explicit time integration scheme is used on a limited area polar stereographic grid. The physical parameterization of surface fluxes, fluxes in the free atmosphere, stratiform and convective precipitation are relatively simple and no radiation processes are involved. Simulations are presented for six synoptic situations when polar lows occurred in The Norwegian Sea. Analyses from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF) are used as initial analyses. The simulations are verified against published subjective analyses. In one case, analyses from detailed aircraft measurements were available. In most cases the horizontal grid distance has been 50 km; in one case 25 km resolution was used. The integrations started before any polar low was observed and lasted for 36 or 48 hours. The model creates polar low disturbances at approximately the right position at the right time. The predicted intensity is, however, generally too weak. All the simulated polar lows show an initial phase where a baroclinic development takes place in a reversed shear flow. Usually the structure is relatively shallow. The low-level trough or low is found to be warm, and conditional vertical instability is connected to it. In this way, a synoptic situation is prepared which is favourable for some CISK-like mechanism which sometimes further develop the polar low. The model does not handle this rapid growth properly, probably due to lack of resolution or incomplete parameterization of convection. In all cases, cross-sections perpendicular to the trough-like disturbance show a warm occlusion, or a double-front system. The front also exists when precipitation processes are excluded in the model; however, release of latent heat strengthens the vertical circulations generally connected to each branch of the occlusion. A rapid development of a polar low might be connected to locally descending air in between the two circulations; satellite pictures indeed show a cloud-free eye in some cases. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0870.1987.tb00312.x


Surgical hip dislocation is the gold standard for treatment of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). It utilizes an intermuscular and internervous approach to the hip. Concerns have been expressed that this approach causes soft tissue trauma resulting in post-operative muscle weakness of patients undergoing this procedure. We therefore asked whether surgical hip dislocation leads to (i) atrophy (decreased muscle diameter or cross-sectional area [CSA]) and (ii) degeneration (fatty infiltration) of 18 evaluated periarticular hip muscles. We retrospectively evaluated 32 patients (34 hips) following surgical hip dislocation for the treatment of FAI using pre and post-operative magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography of the hip. We evaluated muscle diameter, CSA and degree of fatty infiltration according to Goutallier for 18 periarticular hip muscles on axial and sagittal views. The mean interval between pre and post-operative MR was 1.9 ± 1.5 years (range, 0.4–6.1 years). Pre and post-operative muscle diameter and CSA of all 18 evaluated hip muscles did not differ. There was no post-operative change in the Goutallier classification for any of the evaluated 18 muscles. No muscle had post-operative degeneration higher than Grade 1 according to Goutallier. No atrophy or degeneration of periarticular hip muscles could be found following surgical hip dislocation for treatment of FAI. Any raised concerns about the invasiveness and potential muscle trauma for this type of surgery are unfounded. Level III, retrospective comparative study. See guidelines for authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


Soft metrology, the science of measurement applied to non-physical properties, is becoming increasingly important in many application fields, but the validation of measurement for soft properties is a topic still worth of exploration. This paper aims at introducing some aspects of a general framework to interpret such topic and at showing how measurement-related models can be exploited as validation tools.


Endoscopic carpal tunnel decompression is a new and effective way of relieving CTS. It shortens the recovery period and the length of time required to resume normal postoperative activity. The majority of our patients have experienced relief of symptoms and, in instances where the opposite hand was affected by CTS, have returned for that hand to be surgically repaired. Because there is less trauma with this method, and because of the patient's rapid recovery, it is common to perform bilateral releases. It is thought that patients who require surgical intervention will choose to have the procedure done sooner because of the availability of endoscopy, thereby decreasing the incidence of entrapment neuropathy that occurs late in the CTS process.


Rear-end collisions are the most frequent same and opposite-direction crashes. Common causes include momentary inattention, inadequate speed or inadequate distance. While most rear-end collisions in urban traffic only result in vehicle damage or slight injuries, rear-end collisions outside built-up areas or on motorways usually cause fatal or serious injuries. Driver assistance systems that detect dangerous situations in the longitudinal vehicle direction are therefore an essential safety plus. In view of this, for ADAC, systems that alert drivers to dangerous situations and initiate autonomous braking complement ESC as one of the most important active safety features in modern vehicles. The aim of ADAC is to provide consumers with technical advice and competent information about the systems available on the market. Reliable comparative tests that are based on standardised test criteria may provide motorists with important information and help them make a buying decision. In addition, they raise consumer awareness of the systems and speed up their market penetration. The assessment must focus on as many aspects of effectiveness as possible and include not only autonomous braking but also collision warning and autonomous brake assist. The work of the ADAC accident research is the development of the testing scenarios with direct link to accident situations and the identification of useful test criteria for testing. (A) Paper to the session "Aspects of Driver Assistant Systems" of the 5th International Conference on ESAR "Expert Symposium on Accident Research", 7th to 8th September 2012 in Hannover.


The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the five general practices of an island community over a three-month period is reported. While the usual higher female prevalence rate was found, a significant finding was an extremely high rate in women in the 25-34-year-old age group, almost 12 percent of women in that age group having consulted their family doctor for a psychiatric disorder. Since women of this age group are heavily involved in the rearing of children, the public health implications of this finding are significant.


This work is aimed at characterization of the carbon nanotube (CNT) distribution in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)–CNT composites by high‐resolution Raman spectroscopy. In particular, we focus on study of the boundary regions between the CNT aggregates and the surrounding areas where the CNTs are well dispersed in the PMMA matrix. Different laser excitation energies (1.96 and 2.33 eV) were used to preferentially probe metallic and semiconducting SWCNTs, respectively. At both photon energies, spectral line scans across the boundary regions were performed revealing a substantial drop in intensity of G+ CNT Raman mode and an increase of the D/G+‐intensity ratio. The latter testifies to a preferential dispersion of functionalized CNTs in the PMMA matrix. Certain inhomogeneities were observed by Raman spectral imaging even in the areas with well‐dispersed CNTs.


Some details are given of the design. operation. and applications of an eight-channel Cranz-Schardin type high-speed multiple spark source camera suitable for optical studies of nonstationary flow phenomena in gases and transparent liquids and solids. The camera has been successfully applied to the investigation of cylindrical and spherical explosions and implosions. underwater blasts, stress waves in plastics and impact in glass panels.


We tackle the problem of template estimation when data have been randomly deformed under a group action in the presence of noise. In order to estimate the template, one often minimizes the variance when the influence of the transformations have been removed (computation of the Fr{\'e}chet mean in the quotient space). The consistency bias is defined as the distance (possibly zero) between the orbit of the template and the orbit of one element which minimizes the variance. In the first part, we restrict ourselves to isometric group action, in this case the Hilbertian distance is invariant under the group action. We establish an asymptotic behavior of the consistency bias which is linear with respect to the noise level. As a result the inconsistency is unavoidable as soon as the noise is enough. In practice, template estimation with a finite sample is often done with an algorithm called "max-max". In the second part, also in the case of isometric group finite, we show the convergence of this algorithm to an empirical Karcher mean. Our numerical experiments show that the bias observed in practice can not be attributed to the small sample size or to a convergence problem but is indeed due to the previously studied inconsistency. In a third part, we also present some insights of the case of a non invariant distance with respect to the group action. We will see that the inconsistency still holds as soon as the noise level is large enough. Moreover we prove the inconsistency even when a regularization term is added.


Abstract: Field experiments were conducted in 1996 and 1997 near Arlington, WI, to compare the efficacy of glyphosate applied below registered rates in sequential and tank-mix combinations with residual herbicides to no-till, narrow-row, glyphosate-resistant soybean. In the sequential combinations of preplant (PP) residual herbicides and postemergence (POST) glyphosate study, glyphosate followed one of eight burndown treatments. Clomazone applied PP controlled 86% of common lambsquarters in 1996 when followed by 420 g ae/ha glyphosate early POST (EPOST). All other herbicide treatments controlled 94% or greater regardless of weed species, PP treatment, glyphosate timing, or glyphosate rate. The greatest soybean yields occurred in EPOST glyphosate applications in 1996 and late POST (LPOST) glyphosate applications in 1997. The only time PP residual herbicides were beneficial was prior to the LPOST glyphosate application in 1996. In the tank-mix POST combinations of glyphosate and residual herbicides study, glyphosate was applied alone or in combination with four residual herbicides. Soybean injury did not exceed 5% except in the glyphosate and imazethapyr combination in 1997. Control of common lambsquarters, velvetleaf, and giant foxtail was 90% or greater when averaged across all residual combinations and glyphosate timings and rates. Imazethapyr alone controlled velvetleaf 99% and giant foxtail 92% in 1997. When glyphosate was applied alone, soybean yields were similar at all glyphosate rates and application timings, except the 630 g/ha glyphosate LPOST resulted in a lower yield than 420 g/ha glyphosate LPOST. Only one residual herbicide, SAN 582, combined with glyphosate produced yields equivalent to the highest yielding treatments when averaged over both glyphosate rates and timings. Cloransulam added to 420 g/ha glyphosate EPOST and chlorimuron plus thifensulfuron and imazethapyr added to 420 g/ha glyphosate LPOST resulted in lower soybean yields compared to the same rate of glyphosate applied alone at the respective timings. Thus, no herbicide combination preformed better than glyphosate applied in a timely manner alone. However, in situations where early-season weed competition is severe and a timely glyphosate application is not possible, a PP residual herbicide may be beneficial. Nomenclature: Chlorimuron; clomazone; cloransulam; glyphosate; imazethapyr; pendimethalin; SAN 582 (proposed name dimethenamid), 2-chloro-N-(2,4-dimethyl-3-thienyl)-N-(2-methoxy-1-methylethyl)-acetamide; thifensulfuron; common lambsquarters, Chenopodium album L. #3 CHEAL; giant foxtail, Setaria faberi Herrm. # SETFA; velvetleaf, Abutilon theophrasti Medicus # ABUTH; soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. Additional index words: Combinations, sequential, tank-mixed. Abbreviations: EPOST, early postemergence; 7DPP, 7 d prior to planting; DAP, days after planting; fb, followed by; LPOST, late postemergence; POST, postemergence; PP, preplant.


This paper reinterprets the stratigraphic position, depositional environments, and depositional systems in the middle Frio (Oligocene) Hackberry, and their relation to hydrocarbon accumulations. This stratigraphic unit is present in the subsurface of southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, in an area known as the Hackberry embayment. The unit consists of a lower Hackberry sandstone-shale sequence, overlain by middle and upper Hackberry marine shale (the Hackberry shale ''wedge''). The lower Hackberry sandstones-shale sequence overlies a truncated lower Frio section, but in some interdomal areas and in downdip locations lower Hackberry sediments rest conformably on lower Frio Nonion struma beds. Planktonic foraminifers indicate that the erosional surface between lower and middle Frio coincides with a worldwide relative sea level fall approximately 30 Ma, in planktonic foraminiferal zone P21. Dip-oriented submarine channel and fan systems related to this erosional surface contain lower Hackberry reservoir sands in downdip positions. The marine shale wedge that overlies the lower Hackberry sandstones was deposited during a relative sea level rise, when rates of subsidence exceeded rates of deposition. Some strike-oriented discontinuous marine sand reservoirs are present within the shale wedge. Production is found in the lower Hackberry in structural traps in reservoirs related to nearshore and fluvio-deltaic depositionmore » (traction-transport systems), and, in downdip locations, in stratigraphic-structural traps in submarine channel-fan systems (gravity-transport systems). Unexplored objects related to submarine channel-fan systems may be present below thick, growth-faulted younger Frio sections.« less


Rotor cage asymmetries of induction machines cause disturbances of the air-gap flux pattern. These deviations affect torque and speed as well as stator terminal voltages and currents. The proposed fault detection technique senses the actual machine state with the help of real-time space-phasor models. The Vienna Monitoring Method compares online a voltage model output with a current model and observes the deviations in a rotor fixed reference frame. High accuracy and robustness allow the detection of a faulty rotor bar out of the switched voltage and current signals of an inverter-fed machine in an early state. The focus of this paper is the detection of a single rotor bar increase under transient speed conditions without the necessity of a clutched load. During an inverter-controlled acceleration, lasting only 200 ms, the Vienna Monitoring Method evaluates currents, voltages, and rotor position for the calculation of an indication quantity that allows for reliable detection. As only one acceleration task does not excite every rotor cage bar sufficiently, a set of acceleration and deceleration cycles has to be driven.


Purpose The Aim of this study was to investigate the activation time of trunk muscles and characteristics of the movement of center of pressure (COP) during arm swing with a light weight in standing. Methods Thirty health subjects (14 males, 16 females) participated in this study. Arm swing was performed for 10 trials without and with a weight at 1.2Hz frequency toward anterior and posterior direction. Electromyography (EMG) was used to determine muscle activation time and Biorescue was used to measure characteristics of the movement of COP. Surface bipolar electrodes were applied over the right anterior deltoid, the right latissimus dorsi, both rectus abdominis, both internal oblique, and both erector spinae. The data were analyzed by repeated one way ANOVA and Duncan's post hoc. Results The results were as follows: There were significant differences with muscle activation time in all muscles except the ipsilateral internal oblique between conditions of arm swing without and with a weight (p<0.01). There were significant differences with characteristics of the COP (sway area, length, and speed) between conditions of arm swing without and with a weight (p<0.01). Conclusion The arm swing with a light weight evokes the more rapid EMG activity of ipsilateral trunk muscles and the increasing movement of COP. The findings highlight the importance of investigating the role of the light weight during arm swing in anticipatory postural adjustment and posture stability in maintaining control of vertical posture.


Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) rarely occurs in the kidneys, and only one reported case of renal SFT has shown distant metastasis. We report the second case of renal SFT exhibiting distant metastasis. A 48-year-old man was referred to our hospital because of a right renal mass. An abdominal CT scan detected a large renal tumor, which was suspected to be a renal cell carcinoma. Right radical nephrectomy was performed, and the tumor was found to measure 28 × 18 × 10 cm. The pathological diagnosis was benign solitary fibrous tumor of the kidney. Eight years after the operation, lung and liver metastases developed. Pulmonary segmentectomy and partial hepatectomy were performed. The pathological diagnoses of these resected tissue specimens were compatible with benign SFT.


We propose a new way of browsing bilingual Web sites through concurrent browsing with automatic similar-content synchronization and difference-detection facilities. Our prototype browser system is called the bilingual comparative Web browser (B-CWB) and it concurrently presents bilingual web pages in a way that enables their content of the Web pages to be automatically synchronized. The B-CWB allows users to browse two Web news sites concurrently and compare the similar news articles written in different languages (English and Japanese). The major characteristics of the B-CWB are its content synchronization and difference detection: content synchronization means that user operation (scrolling or clicking) on one Web page automatically invokes not necessarily same operations on the other Web page to preserve similarity of content between the two Web pages. For example, scrolling a Web page may involve passage-level similarity retrieval on the other Web page. Clicking a Web page (and obtaining a new Web page) invokes page-level similarity retrieval within the other Web site pages through the use of a English-Japanese dictionary. Difference detection means that the B-CWB analyzes two similar Web pages shown concurrently to discover the several "differences" between them. This facility is important in comparing two news articles that report the same affairs.


Http://www.ijetmr.com©International Journal of Engineering Technologies and Management Research [42] EVALUATION OF A NEW BIO-BASED-FLOCULANT EXTRACTED FROM WATER-MELON, ON THE REMOVAL OF LEAD IONS FROM WATER M. Dinne , S. Alahiane , A. Sennaoui , F. Sakr , F.Byoud , N. Bougdour , A. Assabbane 7 *1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Catalysis and Environment Team, Laboratory of Electrochemistry, Catalysis and Environment, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ibn Zohr University, PO Box 81006 City Dakhla, Agadir, Marocco Abstract: The current study, aims to eliminate lead ions in drinking water or industrial waste, by the coagulation and flocculation process, adopting a coupling of NaOH with a new bioflocculant "BFM" extracted from the crust and fruit of a variety of melon named "Pineapple". The removal process was tested on 100mg / l samples of pb + ions, as a function of pH, NaOH and "BFM" doses. the experimental results gave an elimination efficiency which reaches about 99% for a pH 11, and a dose of "BFM" of 1 mg / l. A comparative study of the sedimentation rate between our bio-flocculant and a commercial flocculant "sodium alginate" showed a very competitive performance of "BFM".


Aluminum magnesium antacids have achieved widespread acceptance over the past 15 to 20 years. Before that, the Sippy regimen of milk and calcium magnesium antacids were the primary agents used in the treatment of acid-peptic disorders. Today, cimetidine has the spotlight. Comparing antacids with cimetidine in the treatment of peptic ulcer has not produced a clear-cut choice, but it has reawakened the present generation of physicians to the effectiveness of antacids. 1,2 The clinical choice of a therapeutic agent, as always, is one that is individualized and balances benefits with adverse effects. In comparing the side effects of these agents, we note the low level of toxicity with the short-term use of cimetidine. Agranulocytosis, diminished sperm counts, and other antiandrogenic effects, as well as confusional states in the elderly (some with renal impairment), have been reported infrequently. We cannot yet speak of the potential adverse effects of cimetidine over the


Several approximate inference methods have been proposed for deep discrete latent variable models. However, non-parametric methods which have previously been successfully employed for classical sparse coding models have largely been unexplored in the context of deep models. We propose a non-parametric iterative algorithm for learning discrete latent representations in such deep models. Additionally, to learn scale invariant discrete features, we propose local data scaling variables. Lastly, to encourage sparsity in our representations, we propose a Beta-Bernoulli process prior on the latent factors. We evaluate our spare coding model coupled with different likelihood models. We evaluate our method across datasets with varying characteristics and compare our results to current amortized approximate inference methods.


The deepening of the international division of labor, the growth of dynamism and the scale of integration processes in the context of steadily increasing globalization of market relations and production operations, focused on the gradual creation of a single global economic and information space, are the key modern trends that determine the development of the world economy. The most powerful driving force behind the deployment and significant consequence of implementing these complex processes of change in the social production system is to strengthen the integration orientation of transformations of the corporate sector of the economy, the subjects of which are not only some large transnational conglomerates, but also a wide range of other corporate entities. which are owned by joint-stock companies), regardless of the scope and extent of their economic activity, so the study of the question is relevant today.The purpose of the study is to substantiate the organizational and economic forms of formation of integration associations. The main tasks of the article are to streamline the properties of various forms of integration cooperation, to consider the classification system of types of integration and integration associations, to identify the features of the concern as an organizational and economic form of implementation of corporate integration.Thus, a favorable prerequisite for creating and enhancing the competitive advantages associated with the realization of the scale effect, when using the organizational and economic form of the concern, is the predominant extension in this case of the framework of the process of corporate integration in the industries and sectors of the national economy, which uses technologically complex and large and large-scale production is developed, there is considerable need for rapid updating of the technical base of production of goods and services based on intensive introduction of innovations, etc.


The conversion of forests from complex natural ecosystems to simplified commercial woodlands is one of the major causes of biodiversity loss. To maintain biodiversity, we need to understand how current management practices influence forest ecosystems. We studied the effects of forest successional stage and management intensity on the abundance, species richness, and assemblage composition of small mammals. Our results show that management intensity significantly contributes to reducing the number of species after clearcutting. We revealed that intensively managed clearings can make the dispersal or foraging activity of small mammals difficult and hence negatively influence their abundance and species richness. The significantly higher species richness of small mammal species was recorded within more extensively rather than intensively managed clearings. In contrast, we did not observe significant changes in species richness and abundance after intensive management in old-growth forests. Species Clethrionomys glareolus and Apodemus flavicollis reached the greatest abundance in old-growth forest patches. On the other hand, Microtus arvalis and Microtus subterraneus were species mainly associated with the successionally youngest forest stands. Our analysis suggests that intensive management interventions (i.e., vegetation destruction by pesticides and wood debris removal by soil milling) in clearings produce unhostile environments for majority of the small mammal species.


Background: During the pandemic process, changes were made in cancer screening programs in order to reduce the density of hospitals and prevent the spread of the pandemic.

Objective: To determine the health beliefs, thoughts and practices of women regarding cervical cancer and pap-smear testing during the COVID-19.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out with 361 women who filled out the questionnaire online through the social media application. Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test Health Belief Model Scale was used to collect data.

Results: The women's 81.2% stated that they did not have a pap smear test and 72.6% of them stated that the pap smear test should not be postponed during the pandemic. Their 76.7% stated that they did not want to get a self-swab smear test at home during the pandemic, 49.3% of them stated that they could get Human Papilloma Virus vaccine in the pandemic. Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test Health Belief Model Scale sub-dimension mean scores of Pap smear benefits and motivation (15.12 ± 4.96), pap smear barriers (40.09 ± 6.79), cervical cancer care/seriousness (26.21 ± 2.62), cervical cancer sensitivity (12.96 ± 1.88) and cervical cancer health motivation (7.36 ± 2.37).

Conclusion:Although women's perception of pap-tests and their level of cervical cancer sensitivity was found high, most of them did not have pap smear screening in the pandemic period. This may increase the incidence of cervical cancer in the future. In order for women to continue their participation in screening programs during the pandemic, health personnel should take the necessary precautions according to restriction and relaxation processes.


Present methods for assessing the potential for unsatisfactory levee performance because of underseepage consist of deterministic seepage analyses and simplified reliability methods. Deterministic methods consist of calculating factors of safety based on the ratio of the critical gradients of the soil and hydraulic exit gradients without taking into account high levels of uncertainty in soil properties and subsur- face geometry that are inherent to many levee analyses. The most common simplified reliability approaches currently being used to analyze levees against underseepage apply the first-order second-moment Taylor series method, using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blanket theory equations as the performance functions. In many cases, these methods do not realistically reflect the geometry of the levee's foundation soils and the uncertainty associated with their performance. This study proposes a new application for the response surface method that allows modeling the initiation of erosion process with more accurate failure mechanisms and more complex subsurface geometry. The response surface-Monte Carlo (RSMC) simulation method uses finite-element analyses to develop a series of equations that define the relationship between the variables and the factor of safety (F). Using these equations, probability density functions (PDF) for variables, and the computer program @Risk, a Monte Carlo simulation is performed to calculate the conditional probability of unsatisfactory performance because of underseepage for a given river flood level. Two examples are presented to illustrate the proposed procedure. Multiple regression analyses are performed to assess the relative effect that changes in the input variables have on the F for the various analyses. The results suggest that uncertainty in the levee geometry has the greatest effect on the variation of the F for the cases studied. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606 .0000650. © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.


Objectives: Infection of the Central Nervous System (CNS) is a life-threatening condition in children. Herpes Simplex Encephalitis (HSE) is one of the most common causes of sporadic encephalitis in children. Our objective is to report on seven consecutive patients with this condition detailing the clinical picture, radiological findings and outcome. Methods: This was a retrospective report, all children presenting with HSV encephalitis to our tertiary Paediatric Neurology centre were included in the review. Results: Seven children were admitted to our facility with confirmed herpes simplex encephalitis in the period between July2010 and July 2012. All seven patients had CSF pleocytosis (with lymphcyte predominance). Elevated CSF protein was found initially in three patients. Neuroimaging abnormalities were found in all patients. Five patients displayed temporal lobe abnormalities and two diffuse changes. Developmental delay occurred in four patients and seizures in two. One patient developed spastic paraplegia following a prolonged course of illness complicated by CNS demyelination. All patients were treated with IV Acyclovir. Infants under the age of one were less likely to develop neurological deficit or significant developmental delay than older children. Conclusions: In our patients; infants had a much better outcome inspite of similar presentation and neuroimaging findings; this may well reflect brain plasticity in younger children.


An email client capable of supporting real-time communication of time-based media. The email client includes a session element configured to establish a session with a server when an email address addressing a recipient within a domain is defined. As soon as the email address is defined, a transmitting element of the email client is configured to progressively and simultaneously transmit time-based media as the time-based media is being created to the recipient via a route at least partially discovered by a lookup of the domain of the email address. By at least partially discovering the route to the recipient as soon as the email address of the recipient is defined, the transmitting element may progressively deliver the time-based media to the recipient.


Background: Radiostereometric analysis (RSA) accurately assesses arthroplasty implant performance and is routinely used for research purposes. Because of its efficacy in detecting implant failure in research subjects, we deployed the use of RSA beads for routine surveillance in all elective total hip and total knee arthroplasty patients. Methods: We retrospectively compared 143 patients who received RSA beads intraoperatively with 343 patients who did not receive RSA beads. Using RSA images, we assessed bead stability at 6 weeks and 1 year postoperatively. Results: There were no intraoperative complications in the RSA group and two in the control group. No differences were found between groups for the surgical time and the expected blood loss. At 6 weeks, 99.5% of beads were considered to be stable, with stability increasing to 99.7% of beads at 1 year. Conclusion: The routine use of RSA bead insertion is a safe procedure and may provide the ability to assess implant fixation in clinical practice.


Accumulation and utilization of storage starch and epidermis-related development in roots of vigorous and non-vigorous satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc. cv. Miyagawa Wase) were compared anatomically from early winter to early summer. Only a few starch grains were deposited in the cortex of the pioneer roots of both kinds of trees in December. In vigorous trees, the number of starch grains per cortical cell and the ratio of areas of starch grain to the area of cortex (area-ratio) increased considerably during January and February, attaining a maximum in March. Area-ratio gradually decreased from April to May ; by June, it approached zero as the starch grains almost disappeared. In contrast, the area-ratio in non-vigorous trees was unchanged from January to February and increased slightly in March. The area-ratio reached the highest level in April, followed by rapid reduction in May, as the starch grains disappeared in June. Neither the vigorous nor the non-vigorous trees contained starch grains in July. Fibrous roots on vigorous trees were filled with many starch grains up to April, then the grains disappeared completely in June ; whereas in non-vigorous trees starch grain depletion started in June but the grains persisted until July. The pioneer roots on vigorous trees had but one layer of phellogen cells beneath the epidermis in January. The periderm was distinct with the formation of phellem, phellogen, and phelloderm in March. Periderm formation in non-vigorous trees was initiated in March, and it continued slowly into April. Root hair and epidermal development was faster in roots of vigorous tree.


A simple, sensitive and reproducible reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the determination of nicardipine hydrochloride (NC) in pure, pharmaceutical preparations, human plasma and the study of the pharmacokinetics of the drug in human body. Nicardipine in plasma were extracted with hexane-butanol (12:1,v/v) after addition of borate buffer (0.5 M, pH=9.0), and then measured by HPLC-UV using a Waters Symmetry C18 column as stationary phase and methanol– triethylamine buffer (0.01M) pH 4 with acetic acid (70:30) as mobile phase. Nicardipine was quantified by ultraviolet absorbance at 353 nm. The method proved to be linear in the pure drug in the ranges of 15-200 ng/mL (r=0.9989) and 5-40 µg/mL (r=0.9995), and for the pharmaceutical preparations and plasma for drug concentrations in the range of 5-40 µg/mL (r =0.9992) and 25-150 ng/mL (r=0.9991), respectively. The lower limit of detection and the lower quantitation limit of NC in plasma were 11.74 and 35.57 ng/mL, respectively. The method is sensitive and reliable for pharmacokinetic studies of nicardipine in humans after the oral administration of immediate-release capsules to healthy subjects.


Clinical trials play a crucial role in testing new drugs or devices in modern clinical practice. Medical imaging has become an important tool in clinical trials because images provide a unique and fast diagnosis with visual observance and quantitative assessment. A typical imaging-based clinical trial consists of: (1) A well-defined rigorous clinical trial protocol, (2) a radiology core that has a quality control mechanism, a biostatistics component, and a server for storing and distributing data and analysis results; and (3) many field sites that generate and send clinical trial image studies to the radiology core. With ever-increasing number of clinical trials, it becomes a great challenge for a radiology core which handles multiple clinical trials to have a robust server to administrate multiple trials as well as satisfy the requirements to quickly distribute information to participating radiologists/clinicians worldwide to assess trials' results. Data Grid in the grid computing technology can satisfy the aforementioned requirements of imaging-based clinical trials. In this paper, we present a Data Grid architecture for worldwide imaging-based clinical trials. The Data Grid testbed has been set up in three international sites: Image Processing and Informatics (IPI) Laboratory at University of Southern California, USA; the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; and InCor (Heart Institute) at Sao Paulo, Brazil. The three chosen sites are connected with high speed international networks including the Internet2, the HARNET (Hong Kong Academic and Research Network), and the Brazilian National Research and Education Network (RNP2). The concept, design and implementation of the Data Grid are presented. Grid computing technology open source software Globus Toolkit 4.0 and DICOM technology were used to implement the DICOM compliance Data Grid. This paper also describes results of using Data Grid in imaging-based clinical trails for fault tolerance image data backup. The successful implementation and evaluation of the Data Grid for imaging-based clinical trials provide three major benefits: (1) an understanding of the methodology for using data grid technology and high speed networks in clinical trails; (2) an establishment of the performance benchmarks of Data Grid over high speed networks; and (3) a Data Grid test bed for performing worldwide imaging based clinical trials.


Background: Although the analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) is the most useful examination for the assessment of airway inflammatory markers, it is an invasive technique with limitations and risks for side effects. Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the molecules included in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in comparison with BALF, and to clarify the clinical usability of EBC. Methods: EBC was collected from sixteen subjects suspected to have sarcoidosis just before BAL. The 40 different inflammatory molecules in EBC and BALF were analyzed with a protein array method. Results: BALF levels of 6 inflammatory molecules including soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor type II (sTNF-RII) and regulated upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES) were significantly correlated with the percentage of lymphocyte in BALF (%Lym). EBC levels of 13 inflammatory molecules including sTNF-RII and RANTES were significantly correlated with%Lym. We found significant correlations between the levels of EBC and BALF in 16 out of 40 inflammatory molecules. Levels of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), RANTES, TNF-α and sTNF-RII in EBC were significantly correlated with those in BALF. Their levels in EBC and BALF also were correlated with%Lym. Conclusion: Highly sensitive approach to protein array in EBC allowed us to detect inflammatory molecules. Comprehensive analysis of EBC might be equivalent to that of BALF.


Ataxic syndromes in cerebral palsy constitute an etiologically and clinically heterogeneous group. Studies in recent years have revealed a total frequency of 12-13 per cent (7, 44). In a penetrating study, Ingram (44) classified the group into two distinctive main syndromes: ataxia without spasticity and ataxic diplegia with spasticity in the lower extremities. However, it is also possible to subgroup non-progressive syndromes of ataxia according to the dominating type of motor dysfunction. Thus, there are some cases in whom the dominating sign is dyssynergia, i.e. tremor, dysmetria and other signs of disturbed coordination. In other cases the salient feature is a disturbance of posture and equilibrium, i.e. dysequilibrium (15, 54). In our experience this latter group, upon whom we have concentrated our interest, display clinical characteristics that justify regarding this form of cerebral palsy as a special entity, the dysequilibrium syndrome. Transitional forms may be found between congenital cerebellar ataxia, e.g. the dyssynergic group, and the dysequilibrium syndrome, but patients in whom the clinical picture is dominated by dysequilibrium show a typical motor development and neurological picture and marked disturbances in their perceptional field. Within the group of stationary cerebellar ataxia, where cases of the dysequilibrium syndrome are usually found, we consider that it is important to recognize this syndrome, mainly because of its different prognosis and of the therapeutic approach required. To our knowledge, no comprehensive study has been devoted to the syndrome of dysequilibrium. In this supplement we will present our findings and experiences from 13 cases of non-progressive motor disturbances dominated by a defective sense of equilibrium and body position, studied during various developmental stages at the cerebral palsy clinic in Uppsala during the years 1956-1968 and again at a planned follow-up investigation in 1969.


Traveling by car, usually passive and often boring, can now be turned into a meaningful recrea hon. The activity described here started out with what the children called Bingo: looking for signs along the highway with the letters B-I-N-G-O on them, one letter per sign, and in the order prescribed by the word. Each player silently checks the signs visible from the car until the one who has first seen all five letters calls out "Bingo." The signs that can be used for this game mu st be visible from the road, more or less facing oncoming traffic. This includes traffic signs along the road and signs off the road, that is, commercial signs, adver tising, graffiti on barn walls, or names on factory buildings. Text written on vehicles is not admissible: no license plates, no car types, no lettering on trucks or utilities.


Modern symmetric stream ciphers Enocoro, Decim, Grain, HC, MUGI, Mickey, Rabbit, RC-4, Salsa20, SNOW2.0, Sosemanuk, Strumok, Trivium, and a block cipher AES, which can be used in streaming encryption modes, are being researched. The main results of testing the rate of formation of a key stream with cross-platform implementation of encryption algorithms in the Java programming language on operating systems Windows 10 (x64), Debian (Kali) and Android (x64) are presented. Testing was conducted on the portable personal computer (Intel Pentium 3550m 2.3GHz, RAM 4GB (1600МHz)) and on the mobile device, in particular, on the smartphone (Samsung galaxy S7).


Abstract This paper uses a sample of professional engineers employed in the public and private sector to investigate the effect of sector employment, indicators of task complexity, organization size, number of rules, importance, and attentiveness and agreement among various principals (customers or clients, peers, mid- and top-level management, and politicians) on both employee discretion and a subjective measure of employee productivity. The results show that disagreement among important and attentive proximate principals (mid-level managers) expands discretion, but disagreement among important and attentive distant principals (top executives and politicians) reduces discretion. Sector has no direct or indirect effect on discretion. When customers or clients and peers are important and attentive principals, discretion increases, and so does productivity. Monitoring by mid-level management has no effect on productivity. Because disagreement among distant principals is greater in the public sector, devolution of authority alone is unlikely to increase public sector productivity. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.


This study examined what relationships or differences exist between patient and nurse characteristics, satisfaction with triage nurse caring behaviors, general satisfaction with the triage nurse, and intent to return to a rural hospital emergency department (ED). The ED, located at a 401-bed teaching hospital in a small southern city, averages 28,000 visits annually. Samples of ED nurses (N = 11) and ED patients (N = 65) were asked to respond to demographic forms and the Consumer Emergency Care Satisfaction Scale (CECSS) Adapted. Findings indicated that the nurse's acuity rating and the patient's perception of condition had a positive relationship. The patient's perception of condition, patient satisfaction, and caring satisfaction were predictors of intent to return. When patients perceived themselves as seriously ill or injured, they expressed less intent to return to that ED.


Validity is the most central concept in the whole testing enterprise. It is the main goal toward which reliability and stability are aimed. However elegantly a test may be constructed in terms of all the other essentials of psychometrics, without validity it comes to naught. A test's validity is the extent to which scientifically valuable or practically useful inferences can be drawn from the scores. From this most general definition of validity, it is obvious that validity is a complex concept requiring further analysis and explication. There are four main types of validity, and the demonstration of a test's validity may be based on any one or any combination of these, easily remembered as the four C 's: content validity, criterion validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity.


The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of various clay materials on the growth and change in mineral composition of soybean sprout. Further effect of sericite concentration on growth of soybean sprout was optimized. The experiments were carried by using three different viz., loess supernatant, tap water and sericite supernatant. From the obtained results it was found that a significant growth in soybean sprouts was observed while using sericite supernatant this growth was 14.71% and 50% more total growth than that of loess supernatant and tap water. In addition, using sericite supernatant the length of root of soybean sprouts was reached 17.30% and 36.50% longer than that of tap water and loess supernatant. The plausible reason for this growth using sericite supernatant may be due to the presence of various mineral(K?, Ca?) in sericite. Further the mineral contents of sericite supernatant were 11.56% and 13.48% more than that for loess supernatant and tap water. Among the various sericite concentration used it was found that 100g/L sericite supernatant showed significant growth rate compared with other fractions. From the obtained results comparing with all materials 100g/L sericite concentration was economic for the cultivation of soybean sprout.


PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION The science of the ultra small nanoscience has dramatically exploded during the last few years, and the technologies operating with ultra small things the nanotechnologies acquired quickly a firm position in today s world of business, technological development, and public perception. Several factors contributed to the acceleration of scientific knowledge and technological progress in the last decades, among which the rapid development of fast computers, availability of high-resolution analytical techniques, and the progress of molecular biology and genetics are probably the most important. The result was an unprecedented expansion of the frontiers of science, which empowered the human genius with unlimited options of top-down and bottom-up methods for manipulation of materials structure and control of properties at multiple levels, from atomic to molecular, supramolecular, and biomolecular. Already a distinctive mark of 21st century, nanoscience and nanotechnology will certainly have a steadily increasing influence on the quality of life and the environment of this Planet for centuries to come. Dekker Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Second Edition provides a comprehensive and detailed review, from multiple angles, of major developments in the human s quest for understanding and mastering of physical, chemical and biological objects and structures having at least one dimension smaller than about 100 nm. Under the expert supervision of the late Professor James A. Schwarz, Marcel Dekker, Inc. published the first edition in 2004 to great acclaim. The success of first edition, the development of the title through online updates, and the dynamics of this continuously growing field has created a high demand for a second edition only four years after the first edition. The second edition offers updated and revised entries, along with many additions that reflect the focus towards energy and environmental issues currently in the news. The new edition is expanded to six volumes. All entry titles have been revised to better reflect to the entry's content, while optimized for alphabetical listing. In addition, a comprehensive (though not exhaustive) topical table of contents has been designed, structured on 24 major topics and almost 100 subtopics. With a robust and efficient indexing system and staggered bleed tabs, this second print edition will be a useful reference tool for scientists in academia and national laboratories, engineers, students, as well as entrepreneurs, policy makers, and opinion builders. The online version of the Encyclopedia offers quick access to individual entries in HTML or PDF format, enriched graphical content, hundreds of color illustrations and photographs, and an efficient keyword search engine. Cristian I. Contescu Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA Karol Putyera Shiva Technologies, Syracuse, New York, USA July 2008