Background: The XIENCE V™ everolimus-eluting coronary stent system is a second-generation drug-eluting stent designed for safety and efficacy in the interventional treatment of coronary artery disease and in preventing in-stent restenosis. A comprehensive preclinical program was completed to aid in the scientific design and to demonstrate the safety of XIENCE V.

Methods: Studies evaluating clinical dose selection, pharmacokinetics, single and overlapping stent safety, polymer safety, and maximum dose (8× everolimus) safety were conducted in the porcine coronary arterial model at 28, 90, 180 days, and 1 and 2 years. Additionally, a subset of studies was conducted in the rabbit iliac arterial model.

Results: Morbidity and mortality rates for all preclinical studies were exceptionally low, being less than 1%. The arterial response observed in the clinical dose selection study and in all safety studies was typified by benign neointimal hyperplasia with endothelialization by 28 days. Everolimus was released in a controlled manner for 120 days and remained primarily localized within the stented arterial region, which was evidenced histologically as peristrut fibrin. The temporal presence of peristrut fibrin matched the everolimus-elution profile. Thrombosis, malapposition, medial loss, or other adverse effects were not observed in any preclinical studies.

Conclusion: XIENCE V has demonstrated safety via an extremely comprehensive preclinical program published to date for a DES system, with data generated in two species to 2 years. The preclinical data, along with the SPIRIT clinical trial data, demonstrate the excellent safety and potential efficacy profile of XIENCE V.


Sets of small ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) and large ribosomal DNA (LSU rDNA) sequences were obtained for Philometroides moraveci Vismanis Yunchis, 1994, Philometra kotlani (Molnár, 1969), Philometra rischta Skrjabin, 1923, Philometra cf. obturans (Prenant, 1886) (Philometridae), Sinoichthyonema amuri (Garkavi, 1972), Agrachanus scardinii (Molnár, 1966), Kalmanmolnaria intestinalis (Dogiel Bychowsky, 1934) and Skrjabillanus tincae Shigin Shigina, 1958 (Skrjabillanidae). Phylogenetic analysis of SSU rDNA data shows that dracunculoid nematodes are divided into two well-supported clades designated as Clade I and Clade II, respectively. Clade I includes the type species of the genus Philonema Kuitunen-Ekbaum, 1933, some species from the family Daniconematidae Moravec Køie, 1987 and two subfamilies of skrjabillanids, Skrjabillaninae Shigin Shigina, 1958 and Esocineminae Moravec, 2006. Clade II unites species from the families Dracunculidae Stiles, 1907, Micropleuridae Baylis Daubney, 1926 and Philometridae Baylis Daubney, 1926. Within the Philometridae, there are several well-supported groups of species, one of which unites freshwater Philometra spp. from the Palearctic cyprinids, identified as P. kotlani, P rischta, P. ovata (Zeder, 1803) and P. cyprinirutili (Creplin, 1825). However, the phylogenetic relationships of most philometrids are unresolved. An analysis of partial SSU and LSU rDNA sequences indicates that there is no direct phylogenetic relationship between Agrachanus Tikhomirova, 1971 (type species Skrjabillanus scardinii Molnár, 1966) and Skrjabillanus Shigin Shigina, 1958 (type species Sk. tincae), which means that the genus Agrachanus can be resurrected. Our study confirms that Philonematinae Ivashkin, Sobolev Khromova, 1971 should be elevated to the family rank. We formally establish the family Philonematidae Ivashkin, Sobolev Khromova, 1971 stat. nov. We also suggest combining the superfamilies Dracunculoidea Stiles, 1907 and Camallanoidea Railliet Henry, 1915 into the infraorder Camallanomorpha Roberts, Janovy Nadler, 2013.


Recent years have seen tremendous growth of many online social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. People connect to each other through these networks forming large social communities providing researchers rich datasets to understand, model and predict social interactions and behaviors. New contacts in these networks can be formed due to an individual's demographic attributes such as age group, gender, geographic location, or due to a network's structural dynamics such as triadic closure and preferential attachment, or a combination of both demographic and structural characteristics.
A number of network generation models have been proposed in the last decade to explain the structure, evolution and processes taking place in different types of networks, and notably social networks. Network generation models studied in the literature primarily consider structural properties, and in some cases an individual's demographic profile in the formation of new social contacts. These models do not present a mechanism to combine both structural and demographic characteristics for the formation of new links. In this paper, we propose a new network generation algorithm which incorporates both these characteristics to model network formation. We use different publicly available Facebook datasets as benchmarks to demonstrate the correctness of the proposed network generation model. The proposed model is flexible and thus can generate networks with varying demographic and structural properties.


Several neural networks corresponding to feature space in the paper were formed by Boosting method variant and RBF neural network based on particle swarm optimization (PSO), and these neural networks were integrated, so that the classification information of CAD three dimensional (3D) models was given. In the retrieval of CAD 3D model, the distance of the output results for the classifier and the distance for the feature space were weighted to calculate, which not only considered the difference of between the model's content and features, at the same time, and appended classification information parameters,but also took into account the semantic classified information of model. The experimental results showed that the classification method based on neural network ensemble could effectively improve the classification accuracy of CAD 3D model as well as consider the distance between models in feature space and the distance between models at semantic classification level, so that the 3D CAD model retrieval could be greatly improved accuracy.


This article focuses on parties as the main anchors of democratic consolidation and seeks to present the main factors that have affected their development in two systems that could be argued to be amongst the most stable in Latin America, those of Argentina and Chile. It argues that some of the main variables affecting that development have been, besides systemic variables: the professionalized electoral campaign; external variables including technological transfers resulting from the foreign assistance received by centre and centre-left parties; the proscription of parties by authoritarian regimes; and shocks such as electoral defeat, loss of office and economic crises. Whilst electoral campaigns show a high level of professionalization in Argentine and Chilean parties, it is moderated by the preservation - or re-acquisition - of personnel-based campaigning and mass party characteristics.


This study examines how Islam is covered in 18 large circulation U.S. newspapers and finds six frames that draw a nuanced picture of how Islam is framed in the news media. Two frames are negative, one is positive and three are neutral.


BACKGROUND: Since a growing body of evidence points to mean training intensity over a season as a key factor to performance improvements, and there is wide evidence of the benefits of high-intensity intermittent training (HIIT) for endurance athletes, coaches need further information about the acute impact of typical HIIT workouts on endurance runners. OBJECTIVE: To compare the physiological strain and muscular performance parameters of endurance runners during two HIIT workouts by determining whether a typical HIIT for endurance runners (10 × 400 m) leads to a similar impact as a HIIT protocol (40 × 100 m) that increases the average training pace despite maintaining the same training volume. METHODS: Eighteen endurance runners performed 2 HIITs. Metabolic (blood lactate [BLa], blood ammonia [BAmm]), neuromuscular (countermovement jump [CMJ], handgrip strength test [HS]), and physiological responses were monitored during both protocols. RESULTS: No significant differences between HIITs were found for BLa-1 min post-test, BAmm, HS and HRpeak. Significant differences were found in fatigue-induced changes in CMJ performance (-0.36 cm in 40 × 100 m; +1.48 cm in 10 × 400 m), and in average pace (P <0.001) which was faster during the 40 × 100 m. CONCLUSIONS: Despite similar physiological, metabolic, and HS responses, the 40 × 100 m protocol allowed runners to train at a higher intensity, which might have important effects on the training prescription for endurance runners. © 2016 IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.


This article tells a little known story that began in South Carolina in 1955, a few months after the Supreme Court handed down Brown v. Board of Education. The story concerns the Cannon Street YMCA All Stars Little League team, which Little League Baseball, Inc. today calls "the most significant amateur team in baseball history." The 11-12-year-old All Stars won the Charleston, South Carolina city championship; the South Carolina state championship in Greenville; and the southern regional championship in Rome, Georgia. They traveled to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. as guests of Little League's national office, but they were not permitted to play for the national title because they had won each of the earlier championships by forfeits. At the local, state and regional levels, all 70 other teams refused to play the All Stars for one reason – the other teams were all-white and 11-12-year-old All Stars were all-black. White parents and southern newspapers expressly linked interracial youth baseball competition to Brown's recent order to integrate elementary and secondary school classrooms. In the early summer of 1955, the Charleston Post and Courier publicly condemned the All Stars and their parents for trying "to force the colored team into the league," where they "weren't wanted." When the city of Charleston honored the All Stars in 2'008 however, the paper praised them as "classy, forgiving men" whose sterling example taught a "lesson of courage and inspiration." When Little League invited the All Stars back to Williamsport to throw out the first pitch at the World Series in 2002 and 2005, fans representing teams from around the world responded with sustained standing ovations. The Boston Globe calls the Cannon Street All Stars' story "one of baseball's cruelest moments," and ABC News calls it "the civil rights story that got lost in history." Histories of individual indignities such as those suffered by the All Stars, and accounts of the victims' lifelong successes and dignified forgiveness, enrich understanding of Brown and its influence on America and the nation's children.


Background Cytokines regulate a broad range of inflammatory pathways in the pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and cytokine blockade against TNF-a and IL-6 has offered substantial advances in the treatment of articular inflammation. However, a large proportion of patients become unresponsive or exhibit only a partial response to treatment and new therapies are thus required. IL-21 is a member of the four-a-helix bundle family of cytokines that mediates pleiotropic effects through the IL-21 receptor (IL-21R)[1]. Since potency of IL-21 is mainly dependent on presence and abundance of its receptor on different cell types, the objective of this study was to characterize expression of IL-21R in the synovium and blood of patients with RA. Methods Immunohistochemistry for IL-21R was carried out on synovial tissue samples derived by arthroplasty from patients with RA (n=5) obtained from our synovial tissue bank. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 10 RA patients and 6 healthy subjects were isolated using Histopaque (Sigma). Cells were analyzed by flow cytometry for IL-21R expression on T cells (CD3/CD4/CD8), B cells (CD19/CD27) and NK cells (CD16/CD56). In parallel, RNA was purified from total PBMC using Qiagen RNeasy kit, converted into cDNA using Quantitect reverse transcription kit (Qiagen) and the absolute levels of IL-21R transcripts measured by quantitative Real-Time PCR. Samples were normalized against endogenous GAPDH control. Results Expression of IL-21R was detected in all synovial RA tissues tested. The IL-21R+ cells were located in the synovial intimal and sub-lining layers and in lymphoid aggregates. Flow cytometric analysis of PBMC revealed IL-21R highly expressed on both CD4+ (12.58 mean fluorescent intensity (MFI)) and CD8+ (13.69 MFI) T cells, as well as on a subset of NK cells (19.15 MFI) in RA patients. Interestingly, the amount of IL-21R per CD8+ T cell is higher in patients with RA than in healthy subjects (13.69 MFI vs. 5.06 MFI, p=0.007, respectively). On B cells, IL-21R expression was higher on the CD27- fraction of naïve B cells (37.02 MFI), with lower expression on the CD27+ memory B cells (32.22 MFI). In this study cohort, Real-Time PCR revealed IL-21R to be at significantly higher transcript levels in total PBMC of healthy subjects compared to RA patients (2239 vs. 827.3 mean gene copy numbers, normalized to 104 copy numbers of GAPDH, p=0.001, respectively), suggesting discordant mRNA and protein expression indicating complex regulation of IL-21R biology. Conclusions Our results show abundant expression of IL-21R in synovial tissue as well as peripheral blood of RA patients. Diversity in the signature between RA patients and healthy volunteers requires further phenotyping at the protein as well as transcriptional level. Such data will be essential in translating to proof of concept clinical trials. References Habib T. et al., J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2003 Dec;112(6):1033-45. Disclosure of Interest M. Frleta: None Declared, V. King: None Declared, J. Reilly: None Declared, S. Kerr: None Declared, D. Gilchrist: None Declared, D. Tornehave Shareholder of: Minor stock holder at Novo Nordisk A/S, Employee of: Novo Nordisk A/S, A. Neisig Employee of: Novo Nordisk A/S, D. Lundsgaard Shareholder of: Minor stock holder at Novo Nordisk A/S, Employee of: Novo Nordisk A/S, A. Miller: None Declared, I. McInnes: None Declared


The construction of population of initial solution is a crucial task in population-based metaheuristic approach for solving curriculum-based university course timetabling problem because it can affect the convergence speed and also the quality of the final solution. This paper presents an exploration on combination of graph heuristics in construction approach in curriculum based course timetabling problem to produce a population of initial solutions. The graph heuristics were set as single and combination of two heuristics. In addition, several ways of assigning courses into room and timeslot are implemented. All settings of heuristics are then tested on the same curriculum based course timetabling problem instances and are compared with each other in terms of number of population produced. The result shows that combination of largest degree followed by saturation degree heuristic produce the highest number of population of initial solutions. The results from this study can be used in the improvement phase of algorithm that uses population of initial solutions


surgery in a better way, such as she subsequently describes. Such is the way new techniques and modifications are continuously evolving and how much of this book has come to be produced. The editor must be complimented on the magnificent way in which he has controlled the verbosity of most of the contributors. Only the essential facts required to describe techniques have been permitted, and clarity has been achieved with copious diagrams. Where different surgeons favour different techniques for achieving similar goals both techniques are included, such as mucous membrane grafting and vein grafting around Jones tubes for maintaining a conduit, and ear cartilage and sclera for preventing entropion after Cutler-Beard reconstructions. Rarely is anything included which some might feel is positively contraindicated, but the removal of an elipse of skin for the correction of entropion and the excision of tarsus and posterior lamella of an eyelid to correct ptosis in patients with conjunctival scarring, which makes eversion of an eyelid difficult, are both techniques which must be treated with extreme caution by surgeons not very well versed in eyelid surgical techniques. For anybody practising ophthalmic plastic surgery in either a major or minor way this book has plenty of surgical 'pearls' to offer, and I have seldom enjoyed reading a book more. It is not, however, and is not intended to be, a comprehensive textbook, and no attempt is made to describe a logical series of operations to cover the spectrum of ophthalmic plastic surgery, nor does the editor comment on or criticise the individual contributions. If the reader has a basic knowledge of ophthalmic plastic surgery, however, he will find this book very enjoyable, instructive, easy to assimilate, and in short warmly to be recommended.


Abstract Purpose Non-targeted effects, including bystander and systemic effects, play a crucial role during Auger targeted radionuclide therapy. Here, we investigated whether small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) produced by irradiated cells could contribute to the bystander cytotoxic effects in vitro and also to therapeutic efficacy in vivo, after their injection in tumor xenografts. Materials and methods B16F10 melanoma donor cells were exposed to radiolabeled antibodies (Auger radioimmunotherapy, RIT) for 48 h or to X-rays (donor cells). Then, donor cells were incubated with fresh medium for 2 h to prepare conditioned medium (CM) that was transferred onto recipient cells for bystander effect assessment, or used for sEVs enrichment. Resulting sEVs were incubated in vitro with recipient cells for determining bystander cytotoxicity, or injected in B16F10 melanoma tumors harbored by athymic and C57BL/6 mice. Results In vitro analysis of bystander cytotoxic effects showed that CM killed about 30–40% of melanoma cells. SEVs isolated from CM contributed to this effect. Moreover, the double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) content was increased in sEVs isolated from CM of exposed cells compared to control (not exposed), but the difference was significant only for the X-ray condition. These results were supported by immunodetection of cytosolic dsDNA in donor cells, a phenomenon that should precede dsDNA enrichment in sEVs. However, sEVs cytotoxicity could not be detected in vivo. Indeed, in athymic and in immunocompetent mice that received four intratumoral injections of sEVs (1/day), tumor growth was not delayed compared with untreated controls. Tumor growth was slightly (not significantly) delayed in immunocompetent mice treated with sEVs from X-ray-exposed cells, and significantly with sEVs purified from CM collected after 48 h of incubation. These results highlight the need to determine the optimal conditions, including radiation absorbed dose and sEVs collection time, to obtain the strongest cytotoxic effects. Conclusions This study demonstrates that sEVs could play a role during Auger RIT through bystander effects in vitro. No systemic effects were observed in vivo, under our experimental conditions. However, X-rays experiments showed that sEVs collection time might be influencing the nature of sEVs, a parameter that should also be investigated during Auger RIT.


This paper describes Web Assembly Audio Worklet (WAAW) Csound, one of the implementations of WebAudio Csound. We begin by introducing the background to this current implementation, stemming from the two first ports of Csound to the web platform using Native Clients and asm.js. The technology of Web Assembly is then introduced and discussed in its more relevant aspects. The AudioWorklet interface of Web Audio API is explored, together with its use in WAAW Csound. We complement this discussion by considering the overarching question of support for multiple platforms, which implement different versions of Web Audio. Some initial examples of the system are presented to illustrate various potential applications. Finally, we complement the paper by discussing current issues that are fundamental for this project and others that rely on the development of a robust support for WASM-based audio computing.


To the Editor.— The letter of Capurro and Gray (229:763, 1964), regarding protection against chemical exposure, implied both that the liver and pancreas scan was abnormal and that this abnormality might be indicative of organ damage. I suggest caution regarding the interpretation of such scans. The liver scan shows the technical artifacts of excessive optical density, respiratory motion, and time-constant scalloping, with the additional suggestion of excessive contrast enhancement. These factors could easily account for the suggested diminution in liver size and the "irregular concave profile" of the lower margin of the liver. No further commentary regarding this type of abnormality has been made by the authors. 1,2 The pancreas scan displayed "uneven isotope uptake" but here also technical factors can lead to improper observation of radionuclide distribution. 3 It does appear true that an "abnormal" pancreas scan does represent at least a 50% chance of carcinoma and close to


Deep learning (DL) aims at learning the meaningful representations. A meaningful representation gives rise to significant performance improvement of associated machine learning (ML) tasks by replacing the raw data as the input. However, optimal architecture design and model parameter estimation in DL algorithms are widely considered to be intractable. Evolutionary algorithms are much preferable for complex and nonconvex problems due to its inherent characteristics of gradient-free and insensitivity to the local optimal. In this paper, we propose a computationally economical algorithm for evolving unsupervised deep neural networks to efficiently learn meaningful representations, which is very suitable in the current big data era where sufficient labeled data for training is often expensive to acquire. In the proposed algorithm, finding an appropriate architecture and the initialized parameter values for an ML task at hand is modeled by one computational efficient gene encoding approach, which is employed to effectively model the task with a large number of parameters. In addition, a local search strategy is incorporated to facilitate the exploitation search for further improving the performance. Furthermore, a small proportion labeled data is utilized during evolution search to guarantee the learned representations to be meaningful. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been thoroughly investigated over classification tasks. Specifically, error classification rate on MNIST with 1.15% is reached by the proposed algorithm consistently, which is considered a very promising result against state-of-the-art unsupervised DL algorithms.


ABSTRACT The use of water with different salinity values in the production of vegetable seedlings is an issue of global concern; therefore, selecting tomato cultivars with tolerance to saline water is essential to improve the fruit quality and production. This study aimed to estimate the maximum electrical conductivity of irrigation water that does not harm the production of tomato seedlings and find cultivars with tolerance to the effects of salinity in this phase. In the first experiment, the treatments were arranged in a 3 × 8 factorial scheme (three tomato cultivars and eight values of electrical conductivity of irrigation water). The second experiment was arranged in a 10 × 3 factorial scheme (10 cultivars and three values of electrical conductivity of irrigation water). The 50% reduction in the root dry matter accumulation occurred with the electrical conductivity of irrigation water (ECw) of 2.31 dS m-1. The reduction of more than 50% of the Dickson quality index was observed with an ECw of 6.38 dS m-1. Irrigation with 3.0 dS m-1 impairs the complete emergence and growth of seedlings of all tomato cultivars. Coração de Boi, Dominador, Maestrina, Sheena, and Shanty were the tomato cultivars most tolerant to the irrigation water with 3.0 dS m-1 of ECw. The electrical conductivity of irrigation water higher than 2.31 dS m-1 impairs the root growth of tomato seedlings.


Traditionally, empirical requirements have been used for the selection of masonry wall dimensions and lateral support spacing for resistance to wind pressures. These empirical requirements provide satisfactory results for buildings less than 35 ft (11 m) in height where the basic wind pressure does not exceed 25 psf (1197 Pa). This TEK addresses those cases where it is necessary or desirable to undertake a more thorough structural analysis of the lateral wind resistance of a concrete masonry wall or wall-pilaster combination.


Comparisons between papain- and Triton X-100-solubilized lactase (EC 22.214.171.124) were made in terms of elution from various chromatographic columns and by molecular weight determinations. Using these techniques, no major differences could be detected. Since papain-solubilized enzyme would be cleaved at the hydrophilic-hydrophobic interface and detergent would release the amphipathic enzyme, the lack of detectable differences between purified lactase solubilized by the two agents suggests the existence of a relatively small anchoring moiety in rats when compared to that suggested in previous studies for adult humans.


In this article, I set out to explain cross-national variations between styles of ethnic minority incorporation in the conventional political systems of British and French cities. To this aim, I draw inspiration from, and refine, institutionalist approaches to minority participation. I focus on a comparison of two cases, Birmingham (England) and Lille (France). I construct a parsimonious explanatory framework focused on three institutional factors: central-local relations in each country and local party politics and styles of local government in each city. I argue that these elements combine in different ways in each country to produce different local political environments for the politics of ethnic minorities, thereby shaping patterns of participation and conditioning their success, or absence thereof, in the electoral process of cities. Because of local specificities, my two cases are not entirely representative of other cities, but they provide an illustration of the political processes at work in most cities. In Birmingham, minorities participate successfully in Labour party politics, while in Lille, they are submitted to persistent political exclusion at the hands of a powerful Socialist party machine. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2002.


Actinotignum schaalii is a gram-positive, facultative anaerobic bacillus, an opportunist agent that is underestimated or mistaken as a contaminant.
In this article, we present a case of sepsis with multiorgan dysfunction due to acute pyelonephritis complicated by A. schaalii bacteraemia in an elderly
patient with diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive renal disease, benign prostatic hyperplasia, renal lithiasis and chronic urinary device. Through specific
laboratory techniques such as Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionisation Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry, it was possible to identify the presence of
A. schaalii in blood cultures. However, uroculture was negative. After 20 days of β-lactam, it was possible to successfully heal the infection.
The difficulty in identifying this rare agent has definitely constrained our diagnostic and therapeutic approach.


Aim: This study was conducted to study the distribution of ABO blood group and Rhesus factor among Malay, Chinese, Indian and other races' students in Asia Metropolitan University, Malaysia.
Method : 428 students were involved in this study. They were divided into 4 different groups named as Malay, Chinese, Indian, Others. 107 students (male and female) were chosen randomly and being placed in each respective group. A 1.0-2.0 ml sample of blood was drawn from the antecubital vein of each subject in a disposable syringe, and transferred immediately to a tube containing ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA). Blood grouping (ABO) and Rhesus factors (Rh), was done by the antigen antibody agglutination test. The anti sera used were obtained from Plasmatec Laboratory, Great Britain.
Result : Blood group O was prevalent among Malay, Chinese, Otheretnics but among Indians blood group B was prevalent. Blood group AB was least prevalent. Among rhesus positive races, blood group O was prevalent and blood group AB was least prevalent. Among rhesus negative races, blood group B was prevalent and blood group A and AB were sharing the same percentage respectively that was 0.23%.
Conclusion: Blood group O was most prevalent and blood group AB was least prevalent. When narrowly focused interestingly Indians were having blood group B as most prevalent but for Malay, Chinese, Others etnics, blood group O were most prevalent. Another interesting finding was almost 67% rhesus negative were among the Indians and only 33% rhesus negative were distributed among Malay and Others etnics with no rhesus negative were recorded for Chinese etnic. From the present finding, Indians are having unique blood group distribution when compared to other etnics live in Malaysia.


Measurements of hazardous gas concentrations in forage tower silos are described. The problems associated with sampling in silos, the identity and distribution of gases and their rate of evolution, and the effects of forced and natural ventilation are considered. Particular attention is given to conditions at times when entry to the silo by farm personnel is likely and the possibility of farmers carrying out gas measurements is discussed.


The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are any differences in the time delay distributions between showers initiated by gamma rays and by protons. The results of Monte Carlo calculations of atmospheric showers initiated by gamma rays and protons at an energy of 100 TeV show systematic differences. These differences are negligible at small distances from the core of the showers; at larger distances the effects become large. However, at large distances the particle densities are small at an energy of 100 TeV and the subsequent statistical fluctuations would make an identification of gamma-ray showers unreliable. However, these large effects should be included in corrections for the curvature of gamma-ray and proton shower fronts.


Tubulin polyglutamylation is a post-translational modification that occurs primarily along the axoneme of cilia. Defective axoneme polyglutamylation impairs cilia function and has been correlated with ciliopathies, including Joubert Syndrome (JBTS). However, the precise mechanisms regulating proper axoneme polyglutamylation remain vague. Here, we show that Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 6 (CDK6), but not its paralog CDK4, localizes to cilia base and suppresses axoneme polyglutamylation by phosphorylating RAB11-interacting protein FIP5 at site S641, a critical regulator of cilia import of glutamylases. S641 phosphorylation disrupts the ciliary recruitment of FIP5 by impairing its association with RAB11, thereby reducing the ciliary import of glutamylases. Interestingly, significant upregulation of CDK6 and defective axoneme polyglutamylation were observed in Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) cells. Encouragingly, the FDA-approved CDK4/6 inhibitor Abemaciclib can effectively restore cilia function in JBTS and ADPKD cells with defective glutamylation and suppresses renal cystogenesis in an ex vivo ADPKD model. In summary, our study elucidates regulatory mechanisms governing axoneme polyglutamylation and suggests developing CDK6-specific inhibitors could be a promising therapeutic strategy to enhance cilia function in ciliopathy patients.


Introduction: Transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy by vestibular approach (TOETVA) is a relatively new technique for the surgical treatment of thyroid diseases. We present the initial experience of a reference hospital of Mexico with TOETVA. Materials and Methods: This is a comparative retrospective study of cases (TOETVA) and controls (open thyroidectomy) treated by the endocrine surgeons between July 2017 and April 2019. Cases were patients of any gender, older than 18 years of age, with malignant thyroid nodules <2 cm or undetermined <5 cm without extrathyroidal extension and no lymph node or distant metastasis. Demographic, operative, and postoperative data were obtained and analyzed. Results: Twenty patients were surgically treated by TOETVA during the study period. Controls were paired based on type of surgery and dominant thyroid nodule. Ninety percent of the patients had a definitive diagnosis of malignancy. No statistically significant differences were found in age, BMI, length of stay, thyroid lobes size, and complication rates. Operative time was longer in TOETVA (216.7 ± 62.5 vs. 153.9 ± 49.25 minutes; t test P < .0001) and intraoperative blood loss was lesser for the TOETVA group (38.25 ± 38.9 vs. 101.8 ± 126.6 mL; t test P < .04). Conclusions: TOETVA is a feasible and relatively safe surgical technique for patients with benign and malignant thyroid diseases. Complication rates seem to be comparable with conventional open technique with lesser intraoperative bleeding; nevertheless, it requires longer operative times.


We perform a complete integration of the Einstein-dilaton-antisymmetric form action describing black p-branes in arbitrary dimensions assuming the transverse space to be homogeneous and possessing spherical, toroidal or hyperbolic topology. The generic solution contains eight parameters satisfying one constraint. Asymptotically flat solutions form a five-parametric subspace, while conditions of regularity of the non-degenerate event horizon further restrict this number to three, which can be related to the mass and the charge densities and the asymptotic value of the dilaton. In the case of a degenerate horizon, this number is reduced by one. Our derivation constitutes a constructive proof of the uniqueness theorem for $p$-branes with the homogeneous transverse space. No asymptotically flat solutions with toroidal or hyperbolic transverse space within the considered class are shown to exist, which result can be viewed as a demonstration of the topological censorship for p-branes. From our considerations it follows, in particular, that some previously discussed p-brane-like solutions with extra parameters do not satisfy the standard conditions of asymptotic flatness and absence of naked singularities. We also explore the same system in presence of a cosmological constant, and derive a complete analytic solution for higher-dimensional charged topological black holes, thus proving their uniqueness.


The authors report on 283 primary, non-metastatic, breast cancer cases consecutively referred after surgery and followed-up from a minimum of 10 months to a maximum of 3.5 years. All cases were studied according to the presence of estrogen receptors (ER). ER presence was correlated with age and menstrual status, with ER+ cases more frequent in older patients. No correlation was found between ER and nodal status. Prognosis was evaluated in terms of disease-free survival at 2 years (actuarial method). No correlation between ER and survival was evident for N– cases, whereas a better prognosis was recorded for ER+N+ patients compared to ER-N+, although the difference was not statistically significant. The observed results are compared with recent literature data and agree with other recent reports, which did not confirm the previously undiscussed statement regarding the prognostic role of ER determination. According to these studies and to the present study, the prognostic role of ER determination seems at least questionable and particularly the postoperative adjuvant treatment of ER-N– cases should be reconsidered.


In this paper, a 32-bit chaos-based pseudo random number generator (PRNG) using timing-based reseeding method with pure digital pseudo noise is proposed for passing the SP 800-22 test. In the iterations of the given chaos equation, when the reseeding timing arrives, the last five least significant bits of the iteration result are masked to produce the pseudo noise, and then the masked result is feedback to the iteration process as a new seed. Using this reseeding method, the proposed PRNG would result in an acceptable quality of randomness without operating in longer bit length digital operation


Two conductive formulations containing different types of micron-sized metal flakes (silver-coated copper (Cu) and pure silver (Ag)) were characterised and used to form highly electrically conductive coatings (conductors) on plain and base-coated woven fabrics, the latter in an encapsulated construction. With e-textiles as the intended application, the fabric stiffness, in terms of flexural stiffness and sheet resistance (Rsh), after durability testing (laundering and abrasion) was investigated and related to user friendliness and long-term performance. Bare and encapsulated conductors with increasing amounts of deposited solids were fabricated by adjusting the knife coating parameters, such as the coating gap height (5, 20, 50, and 200 μm), which reduced the Rsh, as determined by four-point probe (4PP) measurements; however, this improvement was at the expense of increased flexural stiffness of the coated fabrics. The addition of a melamine derivative (MF) as a cross-linker to the Cu formulation and the encapsulation of both conductor types gave the best trade-off between durability and Rsh, as confirmed by 4PP measurements. However, the infrared camera images revealed the formation of hotspots within the bare conductor matrix, although low resistances (determined by 4PP) and no microstructural defects (determined by SEM) were detected. These results stress the importance of thorough investigation to assure the design of reliable conductors applied on textiles requiring this type of maintenance.


Benzene and other nonpolar organic solvents can accumulate in the lipid bilayer of cellular membranes. Their effect on the membrane structure and fluidity determines their toxic properties and antibiotic action of the organic solvents on the bacteria. We performed molecular dynamics simulations of the interaction of benzene with the dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) bilayer. An increase in the membrane surface area and fluidity was clearly detected. Changes in the acyl chain ordering, tilt angle, and overall bilayer thickness were, however, much less marked. The dependence of all computed quantities on the benzene content showed two regimes separated by the solubility limit of benzene in water. When the amount of benzene exceeded this point, a layer of almost pure benzene started to grow between the membrane leaflets. This process corresponds to the nucleation of a new phase and provides a molecular mechanism for the mechanical rupture of the bilayer under the action of nonpolar compounds.


Accurate numerical simulations of heat transfers in 3D liquid-gas flows are of first importance in multiple industrial applications such as droplet evaporation in combustion chambers, spray cooling or propellant behavior in cryogenic tanks. Liquid-gas flows are characterized by the discontinuity of properties (e.g. viscosity, thermal diffusivities, ...) and flow variables (e.g. pressure, energy, chemical composition) across the interface. Robust and accurate algorithms are then necessary to transport the flow variables consistently with the interface. This work presents an algebraic interface capturing method which enables a consistent transport of scalars with the interface. This two-fluid approach ensures conservation of the transported scalars while controlling accurately the flux at the interface. The interface represented by a hyperbolic tangent profile is transported and reinitialized without geometric reconstruction. The scalars are transported separately in each phase and a reinitialization step is performed in order to impose the correct flux at the interface. The method is implemented in the YALES2 low-Mach number flow solver and takes advantage of adaptive unstructured grids to handle complex geometries. It has been assessed on various test cases and compared to analytical solutions.


Background: Dentinal hypersensitivity is an exaggerated response to non noxious stimuli such as thermal, chemical, evaporative and tactile. Pain is characterized by short sharp pain from exposed dentinal tubules. There are various treatment modalities available such as conventional methods like iontophoresis, desensitizing agents in the form dentifrices, dental varnishes, bonding agents and nowadays concept of laser therapy is being popularized. Materials and Methods: In the present study, 90 sites were divided into three groups as group1 (Iontophoresis with NaF), group 2 (Low level laser therapy) and group 3 (control groupsaline solution). Pain scores were measured by Visual analogue scale given by Plagmann et al in 1997 by air blast method, tactile examination and cold water test at baseline and at 14 day. Results: After intragroup and intergroup analysis, it has been shown that iontophoresis and LLLT has shown reduction in VAS scores from baseline to 14 day postoperatively but at the same time iontophoresis has shown comparatively more reduction in VAS scores than LLLT group and control group. Conclusion: Fluoride iontophoresis can be used as a first line treatment, before other therapeutic steps like resin primers and low level laser treatment are considered for the treatment of dentine hypersensitivity.


This study examines the self-concept and perceptions of early parental behavior in a group of 277 normal adolescents with respect to differences in age (12-18 years) and gender. A group of 30 antisocial adolescents of similar age (13-19 years) were included as a comparison group. The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire study and the Swedish translation of the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) introject and mother/father questionnaires were used as measures of self- and parental concepts. Multivariate analyses of variance show that the normal adolescent self-concept and perception of early parental behavior are positive and that there are no age or gender differences. The early behavior of the mother is perceived more positively than that of the father. A positive self-concept is related to a positive perception of the parent's early behavior. The antisocial group of adolescents shows a more autonomous and negative self-concept and more negative perception of early parental behaviors. This was true especially in the group of antisocial girls. The conclusion from the study is that there is no evidence of a chaotic self-concept or tumultuous changes in the perceptions of early parental behavior during normal adolescence, but that an antisocial way of life might be reflected in a more negative and autonomous self-concept and in more negative perceptions of early parental behavior during adolescence.


Much work has been completed with regards to gender and education. Some strides too, have been made in achieving gender equality in education: the greatest being in physical access to school for boys and girls. However, numerous challenges have been met in this process of attempting to achieve gender equality in education. Researchers have come to some consensus that there exist cultural traits and practices that either constrain or enable achieving gender equality in education (Stromquist, 990; Gordon, 1994; Prasad, 2004; Kalu, 2005; Chikunda, 2010; Chetcuti and Kioko 2012). The purpose of this paper is to argue for the use of Amartya Sen's capability approach as a theoretical tool to enrich the gender-education discourse with specific focus on culture in Zimbabwe. Emphasis is given to cultural attributes and practices that are deemed retrogressive to achieving gender equality and equity in the country.  It is hoped that this paper will contribute to a discussion on overcoming cultural barriers that prevent certain individuals from converting resources to desired educational functionings.


Abstract. The spider crabs Willinachoides santanai n. gen. n. sp. from the early-middle Miocene of north Brazil and Paradasygyius rodriguezi n. sp. from the late Miocene of Venezuela are described and illustrated. Additionally, Eoinachoides senni Van Straelen, 1933, from the late Oligocene–early Miocene of Venezuela, is redescribed based on photographs of the holotype, and the diagnosis of Eoinachoides latispinosus Carriol, Muizon, and Secretan, 1987, from the late Miocene of Peru, is emended also on the basis of photographs of the holotype. The past distribution points to a Tethyan background for the current amphi-American Inachoididae, with the oldest fossil species known from the early Eocene Tethyan regions (Pakistan and Italy), and from the late Eocene–late Pliocene of the Americas. The high number of monotypic genera in Inachoididae could be the result of rapid dispersion followed by diversification during the Neogene of the tropical America, facilitated by global and regional events (e.g., eustatic sea level changes, the Mi-1 Oligocene-Miocene boundary global cooling, the global warming period of the Middle Miocene Climate maximum, closure of the Panama Isthmus, and marine incursions into the Amazon Basin). The shoaling and final closure of the Central American Seaway are thought to have critically affected the evolution of the inachoidids and shaped their current distribution patterns.


Cross-linking of the T-cell receptor (CD3) induces activation of tyrosine kinases and the subsequent phosphorylation of intracellular protein substrates. We examined whether early events in signal transduction through CD3 or CD3 x CD4 receptor ligation were altered in aged murine T-lymphocytes. Both calcium mobilization and tyrosine phosphorylation of phospholipase C gamma 1 (PLC gamma 1) were decreased in T-lymphocytes from old mice. In addition, there was less tyrosine phosphorylation of a 35/36 kDa protein both in whole cell lysates and in PLC gamma 1 immunoprecipitates from old mice. This 35/36 kDa phosphoprotein binds specifically to the SH2 domains of PLC gamma 1. Using a fusion protein containing the SH2 domains of PLC gamma 1 and human IgG1 heavy chain, we identified three additional proteins that bind to the SH2 domains which were tyrosine phosphorylated following CD3 x CD4 ligation to a lesser degree with age. The tyrosine phosphorylation of two phosphoproteins binding to a fusion protein consisting of the SH2 domains of GAP (ras GTPase-activating protein) and human IgG1 heavy chain was also reduced with aging. The observed binding to SH2 domains was thiol redox sensitive. Thus, decreases in antioxidants with age may be responsible for inhibitory effects on PLC gamma 1-phosphatidylinositol signaling through redox regulation of tyrosine phosphoproteins.


This essay is an account of how young people, deeply committed to sustainability, struggle to live according to their beliefs. In light of a growing population, limited arable land, and possible food shortages, an organization known as Students for Sustainable Agriculture (SSA) responds to the threat of industrial agriculture. These students strive to do what is good for the earth, good for their bodies, and good for their community. They do so by revering food and creating a set of practices that distinguish them as believers in sustainable agriculture. Still, practical difficulties of everyday life make it difficult for them to live by the rules they create. As students living in a wealthy country, contending with environmental degradation, SSA'ers attempt to negotiate their moral commitments with what they can effectually realize. To align their practices with their articulated morals, SSA'ers make alternative consumption choices. Like others who struggle to live according to a set of principles that r...


This was a study of the effects of gastrin on gastric mucosal cyclic-adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase activity and DNA synthesis in rat stomach carcinogenesis induced by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) in order to clarify the mechanism of the enhanced effect of gastrin on the early stage of stomach carcinogenesis. Inbred Basel-Wistar rats received MNNG in drinking water (50 micrograms/ml for 32 weeks) and were treated with s.c. injections of pentagastrin (300 micrograms/kg twice daily for 4 weeks) beginning with the fourth and eighth weeks after the initiation of MNNG treatment. The incidence of gastric adenocarcinoma in fourth-week gastrin-treated rats and of gastric carcinoid in eighth-week gastrin-treated rats was higher than that in rats treated with MNNG alone. The former tumors developed in the antrum and most of the latter tumors in the fundus. In the early stage of carcinogenesis the labeling index [( 3H]thymidine-labeled nuclei/one gland) in both the antrum and fundus was the same in MNNG-plus-gastrin-treated groups and in the MNNG-only-treated group. With regard to the distribution of cAMP-dependent protein kinase isoenzyme in fourth-week gastrin-treated rats, the proportion of type I cAMP-dependent protein kinase significantly increased in the antrum during the eighth week after the initiation of MNNG treatment (P less than 0.01). The increased type I activity in the antrum of the gastrin-treated rats agreed with the high incidence of gastric adenocarcinoma in the antrum. Type I isoenzyme clearly increased in gastric adenocarcinoma. These results suggest that type I cAMP-dependent protein kinase can play an important role in the enhanced effect of gastrin on rat stomach carcinogenesis induced by MNNG.


Lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin are major carotenoids in human blood and tissues but unlike beta-carotene do not contribute to vitamin A supply. These carotenoids are efficient antioxidants quenching singlet molecular oxygen which is formed in photooxidative processes and thus may contribute to the prevention of light-exposed tissue, skin and eyes, from light-induced damage. Increasing lycopene intake by daily consumption of tomato paste over a period of ten weeks provides protection against erythema formation following UV-irradiation. Lycopene and other carotenoids may be used as oral sun protectants and contribute to the maintenance of skin health. The yellow color of the macula lutea is due to the presence of the carotenoid pigments lutein and zeaxanthin. These macula carotenoids are suggested to play a role in protection against light-dependent damage. Filtering of blue light and scavenging of reactive intermediates generated in photooxidation are considered to be the underlying protective mechanisms. Epidemiological studies provide evidence that an increased consumption of lutein is associated with a lowered risk for age-related macular degeneration, a disease with increasing incidence in the elderly.


This is a brief introduction to the closing discussion of the IAU Symposium 295, "The Intriguing Life of Massive Galaxies", that was held in Beijing from August 27 through 31, 2012. The discussion was focused on only four hot items, namely 1) the redshift evolution of the size of passively evolving galaxies, 2) the evolution with redshift of the specific star formation rate, 3) quenching of star formation in galaxies and dry merging, and 4) the IMF.


Endocytosis is a process by which cells absorb extracellular materials via the inward budding of vesicles formed from the plasma membrane. Receptor-mediated endocytosis is a highly selective process where receptors with specific binding sites for extracellular molecules internalize via vesicles. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest single family of plasma-membrane receptors with more than 1000 family members. But the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of GPCRs are believed to be highly conserved. For example, receptor phosphorylation in collaboration with β-arrestins plays major roles in desensitization and endocytosis of most GPCRs. Nevertheless, a number of subsequent studies showed that GPCR regulation, such as that by endocytosis, occurs through various pathways with a multitude of cellular components and processes. This review focused on i) functional interactions between homologous and heterologous pathways, ii) methodologies applied for determining receptor endocytosis, iii) experimental tools to determine specific endocytic routes, iv) roles of small guanosine triphosphate-binding proteins in GPCR endocytosis, and v) role of post-translational modification of the receptors in endocytosis.


The authors sum up the results of CT and clinical investigation of 46 women with inflammatory diseases of the uterine appendages: salpingo-oophoritis, pyosalpinx, pyoovarium, and 2 types of tuboovarian abscesses. They have shown CT potentialities in differential diagnosis of inflammations of the uterine appendages with cysts and true ovarian tumors on the basis of routine investigation and an iv contrast study of intensified images. Retrospective analysis of the most typical diagnostic errors is given.


Reported are the results of an examination of domestic water supplies for microbial contamination in the Lesotho Highlands, the site of a 20-year-old hydroelectric project, as part of a regional epidemiological survey of baseline health, nutritional and environmental parameters. The population's hygiene and health behaviour were also studied. A total of 72 village water sources were classified as unimproved (n = 23), semi-improved (n = 37), or improved (n = 12). Based on the estimation of total coliforms, which is a nonspecific bacterial indicator of water quality, all unimproved and semi-improved water sources would be considered as not potable. Escherichia coli, a more precise indicator of faecal pollution, was absent (P < 0.001) in most of the improved water sources. Among 588 queried households, only 38% had access to an "improved" water supply. Sanitation was a serious problem, e.g. fewer than 5% of villagers used latrines and 18% of under-5-year-olds had suffered a recent diarrhoeal illness. The study demonstrates that protection of water sources can improve the hygienic quality of rural water supplies, where disinfection is not feasible. Our findings support the WHO recommendation that E. coli should be the principal microbial indicator for portability of untreated water. Strategies for developing safe water and sanitation systems must include public health education in hygiene and water source protection, practical methods and standards for water quality monitoring, and a resource centre for project information to facilitate programme evaluation and planning.


The paper reports on the results of a corpus-based and pedagogically orientated contrastive analysis envisaged to complement and supplement the results of the Yugoslav Serbo-Croat—English Contrastive project, representing also a contribution to a revised edition of Serbo-Croat—English Contrastive Grammar. The analysis specifically focuses on verbal reflexivity and middleness in the two languages, confining itself to the so-called 'severbs', verbs followed by the morpheme se in Serbo-Croat and their English translation equivalents. Some theoretical and methodological innovations in contrastive linguistic research are discussed in the first part of the paper, concluding that further research within the proposed framework can yield contrastively valuable results that can be further applied to a variety of study fields, primarily to language pedagogy.


Anomaly detection for time-series data has been an important research field for a long time. Seminal work on anomaly detection methods has been focussing on statistical approaches. In recent years an increasing number of machine learning algorithms have been developed to detect anomalies on time-series. Subsequently, researchers tried to improve these techniques using (deep) neural networks. In the light of the increasing number of anomaly detection methods, the body of research lacks a broad comparative evaluation of statistical, machine learning and deep learning methods. This paper studies 20 univariate anomaly detection methods from the all three categories. The evaluation is conducted on publicly available datasets, which serve as benchmarks for time-series anomaly detection. By analyzing the accuracy of each method as well as the computation time of the algorithms, we provide a thorough insight about the performance of these anomaly detection approaches, alongside some general notion of which method is suited for a certain type of data.


Objective Patients with a small aortic annulus (≤21 mm) have an increased risk of patient-prosthesis mismatch after valve replacement. The aim of this study was to compare the early hemodynamic performance of the balloon-expandable transaortic valve implantation Edwards system (SAPIEN) and the sutureless Perceval prostheses. Methods Fifty patients underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation, and 113 patients underwent sutureless aortic valve replacement. Mean ± SD aortic annulus diameter was 19.7 ± 1 mm, with no significant difference between groups. SAPIEN valve size was 23 mm in 40 patients (80%) and 26 mm in 10 patients (20%). Perceval valve size was small in 45 patients (40%), medium in 62 patients (55%), and large in 6 patients (5%). Transthoracic Doppler echocardiographic images were collected at baseline and before discharge. Results There were no significant difference in predischarge effective orifice area (SAPIEN: 1.5 ± 0.5 cm2 and Perceval: 1.48 ± 0.34 cm2, P = 0.58) and indexed effective orifice areas (SAPIEN: 0.93 ± 0.32 cm2/m2 and Perceval: 0.88 ± 0.22 cm2/m2, P = 0.42). Predischarge mean ± SD transaortic gradient was lower with the SAPIEN than with Perceval valves (12 ± 6 and 17 ± 6 mm Hg, respectively, P < 0.001). Rates of moderate and severe prosthesis-patient mismatch were similar (SAPIEN: 44% and 10% and Perceval: 50% and 14%, P = 0.53 and 0.75, respectively). There were no moderate-severe paravalvular leaks. Conclusions Although indexed effective orifice areas were similar, transcatheter aortic valve implantation with the balloon-expandable SAPIEN system yielded lower predischarge transaortic mean gradients than the surgically implanted Perceval, in patients with a small annulus.


The cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) procedure has long been associated with a generalized immunosuppression. To understand further the cytokine-mediated regulation of the complex physiological and immunological changes induced by CPB, the authors decided to investigate whether CPB affects the release of interleukin (IL)-10, as well as other cytokines, in correlation to the inhibition of T cell responses. Using phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) as mitogen and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) isolated from patients undergoing CPB, we investigated whether this procedure has an effect on the secretion of different patterns of cytokines (Th1- and Th2-type) and PBMC proliferation. In all patients, CPB significantly enhances IL-10 and IL-6 production in resting and PHA-stimulated PBMC. On the other hand, IL-2 production, in response to PHA, was significantly diminished. Reduced IL-2 and enhanced IL-10 production were associated with a significant decrease in PBMC proliferation. Immunosuppression was also associated to lymphopenia, while neutrophil counts were significantly enhanced. These results show that after CPB there is a transient but clear unbalanced immune response demonstrated by a differentiated production of Th1- and Th2-type cytokines. The release of different patterns of cytokines observed after CPB may be helpful in understanding and preventing the development of infectious and immune complications in surgical procedure employing CPB.


All evolutionary biologists are familiar with evolutionary units that evolve by vertical descent in a tree-like fashion in single lineages. However, many other kinds of processes contribute to evolutionary diversity. In vertical descent, the genetic material of a particular evolutionary unit is propagated by replication inside its own lineage. In what we call introgressive descent, the genetic material of a particular evolutionary unit propagates into different host structures and is replicated within these host structures. Thus, introgressive descent generates a variety of evolutionary units and leaves recognizable patterns in resemblance networks. We characterize six kinds of evolutionary units, of which five involve mosaic lineages generated by introgressive descent. To facilitate detection of these units in resemblance networks, we introduce terminology based on two notions, P3s (subgraphs of three nodes: A, B, and C) and mosaic P3s, and suggest an apparatus for systematic detection of introgressive descent. Mosaic P3s correspond to a distinct type of evolutionary bond that is orthogonal to the bonds of kinship and genealogy usually examined by evolutionary biologists. We argue that recognition of these evolutionary bonds stimulates radical rethinking of key questions in evolutionary biology (e.g., the relations among evolutionary players in very early phases of evolutionary history, the origin and emergence of novelties, and the production of new lineages). This line of research will expand the study of biological complexity beyond the usual genealogical bonds, revealing additional sources of biodiversity. It provides an important step to a more realistic pluralist treatment of evolutionary complexity.


ABSTRACT Red cell distribution width (RDW) has been proposed as an early prognosis marker with increased mortality in variety of pathophysiological conditions. We hypothesized that elevated RDW could be used in judging the severity of acute pancreatitis (AP). We retrospectively and prospectively studied 545 and 72 AP patients, who were admitted to the Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital of Tongji University, respectively. Compared with mild acute pancreatitis, significantly higher RDW was observed in patients with moderately severe acute pancreatitis and sever acute pancreatitis (14.03 ± 1.74% vs. 13.23 ± 1.23%, P < 0.000). RDW values were also found positively correlated with the patient's blood urea nitrogen (r = 0.120, P = 0.026), creatinine (r = 0.182, P = 0.000), age (r = 0.099, P = 0.028), and bedside index of severity in acute pancreatitis scoring system (r = 0.147, P = 0.001), and were negatively correlated with the serum albumin (r = −0.244, P = 0.000). The area under the receiver-operating characteristics was as follows—RDW: 0.677 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.619–0.735, P < 0.000); combination of RDW and albumin: 0.693 (95% CI, 0.625–0.761, P < 0.000); and the optimal cutoff value for RDW to predict whether patients with AP should be in intensive care unit (ICU) was 13.55 with a sensitivity of 54.5% and a specificity of 73.6%. In the validation study, AP with RDW ≥ 13.55% had significantly higher ICU admission ratio than those with RDW < 13.55% (44.4% vs. 9.8%, P < 0.000). In conclusion, RDW is positively associated with AP severity, and is likely a useful predictive parameter of AP severity.


This paper summarizes the development of a MEMS-based flight information system. It includes an inertial and air data measurement unit and an electronic compass unit. The inertial and air data measurement unit provides the capability for three-axis accelerations, three-axis angular rates, airspeed, altitude, temperature, and angle of attack measurements. The compass system is used to measure the magnitude of the external magnetic fields. A Microchip PIC micro-controller is used in each measuring unit to perform data acquisition and deduction andto transfer the results to the host system for further analysis and processing. The inertial and air data measurement unit uses the RS232 serial port to interface with the host system while the compass unit uses the USB bus. The performance of the designed system is evaluated using an in-house designed four-axis motion platform. A specially designed wireless transmission system is also developed and integrated into the test system to improve the efficiency and flexibility of the test system A hardware-software integrated, function tested real system is accomplished in this design.


We have observed beam coupling and degenerate four-wave mixing in high-resistivity, undoped GaAs at 1.06 microm that is due to the photorefractive effect. The photorefractive species is thought to be the deep donor EL2. The measured values of two-wave gain are comparable with those measured in Bi(12)SiO(20). The response time is measured to be 20 microsec at an intensity of 4 W/cm(2). This exceptionally fast photorefractive response time (compared with that of oxide electro-optic materials) is due primarily to the large mobility of GaAs.


studies in the early twentyfirst century needs a better understanding of the relationship between two of the field's most unwieldy and unstable organizing concepts: "animation" and "film theory."1 As the increasingly digital nature of cinema now forces animation to the forefront of our conversations, it becomes ever clearer that for film theorists, it has really never made sense to ignore animation. Tom Gunning has recently described the marginalization of animation as "one of the great scandals of film theory."2 Marginalization, of course, is not the same as total neglect; and in order to respond productively to this apparent scandal, we need to consider both where and when this marginalization has happened in the history of film theory, and where and when it hasn't happened. Flipping through the available film theory anthologies, one could easily assume that film theorists have utterly neglected the topic of animation.3 Yet as both Suzanne Buchan and Oliver Gaycken point out in their contributions to this volume, animation has been a sustained if dispersed area of interest for a surprisingly substantial and prominent list of authors. Part of the fragmentary nature of film theorists' engagement with the term may stem from the fact that animation signifies in so many different ways. At different moments, it becomes synonymous with a whole range of much more specific terms and concepts, including movement, life itself, a quality of liveliness (that doesn't necessarily involve movement), spirit, nonwhiteness, framebyframe filmmaking processes, variable frame filmmaking processes, and digital cinema, as well as a range of mobilized media that appear within animated films, including sculpture, drawing, collage, painting, and puppetry. These divergent terms do not always sit easily with each other, and though the tensions Animating Film Theory: An Introduction


The project discusses how the Government disposes of MoD land and how it is sold and redeveloped. The main aim is to show how the current system of land disposal is out of date and is in need of radical change, as it is not what is best for local communities and the country. It shows how the large amount of land disposals planned will give the unique opportunity to address the housing shortages in the UK and provide economic and social benefits to local communities. However, the Government is currently not using the land to its full capacity, planners are not given enough time to put the available land into regional plans and so the land is sold quickly to developers, this is a short term approach and raises questions about the quality of the development.

The research project reviews the whole planning and legal framework on land disposal, including Treasury Rules. A number of small case studies are evaluated by their success and disposal model used. A main case study on RAF Lyneham is undertaken by realising the site as a civilian mixed use area of mainly leisure facilities (including a theme park) and whether plans to keep the base as MoD property are right for the community. A series of structured interviews are also used to aid the Lyneham case study. The approach to be used for data collection was a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods.


 Abstract — Muscle activity is accompanied by an electrical signal (electromyogram or EMG) which travels through a complex volume conductor before reaching the surface of the body. Most usually, this signal is recorded with surface electrodes since it is not invasive but due to its alterations induced by the volume conductor, information on the signal origin is difficult to obtain. In such a context, the use of a direct and inverse model could offer useful information to help analyze and take benefits of surface EMG signals. We are developing such a model in the context of improving the control of myoelectric prostheses capable of producing various movements This could be possible by exploiting the presence of anatomical compartments within large muscles such as the biceps and triceps brachii. If activation of those compartments could be individually activated, they could be used to activate modern myoelectric prostheses. To develop the models, a tank circled with recording electrodes and dipoles positioned at known positions was used. Preliminary results are presented pierced.


At present, data mining technology is continuously researched in science and application. With the rapid development of remote sensing satellite industry, especially the launch of remote sensing satellites with high-resolution sensors, the amount of information obtained from remote sensing images has increased dramatically, which has largely promoted the application of remote sensing data in various industries. This technique mines useable information from less complete and accurate data while ensuring low program complexity. In order to determine the impact of data mining techniques on feature extraction of graphic images, this paper explores the relevant steps in the image recognition process, especially the image preenhancement and image extraction processes. This paper develops a preliminary set of relevant data and investigates two different extraction methods based on the availability or absence of nursing information. Aiming at the advantages and disadvantages of the two house extraction methods, this work discusses how to effectively integrate remote sensing data. It uses different data sources to describe different characteristics of buildings, analyzes and extracts effective information, and finally derives building information. The research results show that, using the SVM algorithm in data mining for image feature extraction, in the verified filtering window, the accuracy can be effectively improved by about 20%. Buildings are important objects in high-resolution remote sensing images, and their feature extraction and recognition technology is of great significance in many fields such as digital city construction, urban planning, and military reconnaissance.


Background This study assessed patient perceptions of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act and opinions toward physicians who receive gifts and/or payments from pharmaceutical or medical device companies. Methods During their office visit, patients attending different specialty clinics volunteered to complete our survey. The survey asks if the patient knows what the Sunshine Act is, then asks questions on 5-point response scales to assess the patient's opinions toward physicians who receive compensation from companies, their self-rated knowledge of physician compensation, and how they believe this compensation affects the cost of care. Results Over 13 months, 523 responses were collected: 8.6% of patients reported having knowledge of the Sunshine Act, 56.8% rated their knowledge of physician compensations as "poor," and 67.1% agreed with the statement that patients should be aware of the compensation physicians receive. When asked how their opinion toward their physician would change if they learned the physician received free meals or gifts from companies, 58.9% replied "not at all," and 36.11% of patients did not believe their cost of care would increase if their physician received compensation from companies. Conclusions Most patients were unfamiliar with the Sunshine Act, and believe their knowledge of physician compensation is poor. Over half of the respondents would not change their opinion of their physician based on knowledge of their physician receiving payments/gifts from companies, and over one-third of respondents did not believe such compensation increased the cost of care. The majority of respondents agreed that patients should be aware of payments/gifts to physicians.


Purpose
This paper aims to showcase an innovative programme of physical activity and sport to enhance the health and well-being of people with Young Onset Dementia (YOD). It is hoped that this will inspire similar collaborations between day and activity centres and exercise/sports facilities.

Design/methodology/approach
A case study of a collaborative programme between Peaceful Place, a day service for people with YOD and Sport for Confidence in Essex. It draws upon the observations and reflective accounts of those implementing the programme.

Findings
People with YOD chose and engaged in a range of physical activities and sports, resulting in increased fitness, flexibility and mobility. There were improvements in memory, cognition for some and reductions in anxiety and depression for most. The main benefits were fun, enjoyment, confidence, a sense of achievement, self-esteem, improved social interaction and wider relationships. Participants were also motivated to take more exercise, get outdoors and try new challenges and experiences.

Practical implications
Given the predicted rise in people with YOD, this paper offers insight into ways of supporting them to be active physically and socially, thus, improving health, well-being and quality of life.

Originality/value
This paper is the account of professionals deeply involved in all stages of negotiating, consulting, developing, overcoming challenges and implementing the programme.


The present study invested on the effect of different concentrations of NaNO3 (1.5, 2, 2.5 gl-1) and K2Hpo4 (0.04, 0.05, 0.06 gl -1 ) on chlorophyll a, carotenoids, fresh and dry weight measures, and the quality of mass absorption in Spirulina platensis alga. Findings revealed a significant increase in the amount of chlorophyll a and carotenoids in cultivation setting by increasing NaNO3 and K2HPO4, especially at 2.5gl -1 NaNo3 and 0.06 gl -1 K2Hpo4 concentrations. More findings also revealed that nitrate or phosphate supplemented growth medium had reducing effects on fresh weight; but, adversely affected the dry weight. Here, there was an increase in concentration of NaNO3 and K2HPO4, especially for 2.5 gl-1nitrateand 0.05 gl-1phosphate concentration samples. It should also be mentioned that the highest dry mass measures were obtained in 2.5 gl -1 NaNO3, though mass absorption in Spirulina platensis was at the highest rate in 2 gl-1 nitrate and 0.06 gl-1 phosphate concentration samples. Supplementary findings also indicated that quantities of mycosporine like amino acids (MAAs) increased significantly by increasing nitrate and phosphate concentrations. Collectively, it could be concluded that the altered composition of cultivation medium, especially macro elements like nitrate and phosphate, may affect the composition of quasi-mycosporine like amino acids by changing nitrogen assimilation, photosynthetic pigments content, which leads to probably higher photosynthesis and stimulating shikimate pathway.


Processes responsible for structures in sand dunes consist of (l) primary deposition by saltation and creep and by settling from suspension, (2) redeposition accompanying avalanching, and (3) penecontemporaneous erosion. Characteristics of dune structures were examined in the field by introducing marker beds of magnetite at times of sand deposition, thus recording original surfaces and making possible the determination of subsequent changes. Similar structures were examined in the laboratory by testing processes and comparing the resulting structural forms with corresponding natural features. Avalanching in sand is of two types: sand flow and slumping. Deformational structures characteristic of each were recorded in the field and were reproduced in the laboratory. Nine varieties of deformational structures are recognized and described. Analysis of these structures suggests criteria for distinguishing compressional types (lower dune slope) from tensional types (upper dune slope). The analysis of deformational structures also serves to distinguish between forms developed in cohesive sand and those in non-cohesive sand. Since the degree of cohesion is largely a function of the amount of moisture in the sand at the time of avalanching, the deformational structures provide a means for recognizing original dry sand, wet sand, sand crusts, and saturated sand surfaces in ancient deposits. A testing of these criteria was made by comparing laboratory samples with those of dry sand at White Sands, New Mexico, and with those of coastal dunes (probably wet sand) in southern Brazil.


Little did we imagine that the effects of COVID-19 would ultimately make us a stronger and more accessible clinic. The sudden halt of providing in-person services clouded the entire University of Exeter clinical programme with uncertainty. However, we could not simply stop our clinical provision – we had existing clients that still needed assistance, as well as students who were taking the clinic as a module. Furthermore, we wanted to continue servicing the community. To consider converting to a remote service, there are fundamental questions a university clinical programme must address: Why does the clinic exist? What are the goals of the clinic and can they still be achieved by a remote service? This paper outlines the process of converting our in-person clinic to a remote service, by detailing steps taken such as developing a remote operating student training manual, establishing a new case triage system, utilising Zoom sessions, and developing a user focused website. It reflects upon the process of finding effective ways of communicating and collaborating with students and clients, while managing and mitigating the potential barriers to technology. Both the successes and the challenges taught us more about the human connection and the human experience. Ultimately, the lessons learned from a swift shut down to reopening a fully remote clinic made us better organised, better communicators, and more accessible for clients. Once we safely return to in-person meetings, the value gained in providing a remote service will remain embedded in our offering, committing us to a hybrid service of in-person and remote meetings to provide a better service to our clients. For the next academic year, our strengthened service enables us to move seamlessly between a fully remote service and our new hybrid model with minimal disruption, should COVID-19 continue to cast a dark cloud.


New gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists, which allow suppression of luteinizing hormone (LH) surges, have recently become available. We compared in this study the results of a single administration of 3 versus 2 mg Cetrorelix in 65 patients undergoing ovarian stimulation and in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The GnRH antagonist (Cetrorelix) was non-randomly administered at a dose of 3 mg (34 patients) or 2 mg (32 patients) on day 8 of the stimulation cycle. In the case of slow follicular development, the injection was delayed until oestradiol reached 400 pg/ml. No difference was observed in the decrease in LH and in oestradiol secretion between the 3 and the 2 mg groups, but the LH secretion was suppressed for a shorter time in the 2 mg group. No LH surge was observed in the 3 mg group, while one surge (3%) and one significant rise in LH were observed in the 2 mg group. No significant difference was observed in IVF results in the two groups of patients. This study demonstrates that a single injection of 3 or 2 mg successfully prevents LH surges for at least 3 days in all the patients treated. The LH rises in the 2 mg group led us to choose the 3 mg dose as a safer dose in our single administration protocol.


Abstract It is shown that the modern equations of state for neutron star matter based on microscopic calculations of symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter are compatible with the lower bound on the maximum neutron-star mass for a certain range of hyperon coupling constants, which are constrained by the binding energies of hyperons in symmetric nuclear matter. The hyperons are included by means of the relativistic Hartree-or Hartree-Fock approximation. The obtained couplings are also in satisfactory agreement with hypernuclei data in the relativistic Hartree scheme. Within the relativistic Hartree-Fock approximation, hypernuclei have not been investigated so far.


Two Late Ordovician unattached solitary rugose corals from the Beaverfoot Formation in southeastern British Columbia were almost certainly preserved in life position. These unique specimens occur beneath large colonial corals and were thus shielded from high-energy events that overturned and transported other individuals. They confirm previous hypotheses that greatly curved solitary corals lay in the sediment with concave sides facing up and at least partly exposed, whereas slightly curved forms were oriented in more upright positions.


Although there has been extensive research on the evolution of individual decision making under risk (when facing variable outcomes), little is known on how the evolution of such decision-making mechanisms has been shaped by social learning and exploitation. We presented socially foraging house sparrows with a choice between scattered feeding wells in which millet seeds were hidden under 2 types of colored sand: green sand offering ~80 seeds with a probability of 0.1 (high risk-high reward) and yellow sand offering 1 seed with certainty (low risk-low reward). Although the expected benefit of choosing variable wells was 8 times higher than that of choosing constant wells, only some sparrows developed a preference for variable wells, whereas others developed a significant preference for constant wells. We found that this dichotomy could be explained by stochastic individual differences in sampling success during foraging, rather than by social foraging strategies (active searching vs. joining others). Moreover, preference for variable or constant wells was related to the sparrows' success during searching, rather than during joining others or when picking exposed seeds (i.e., they learn when actively searching in the sand). Finally, although for many sparrows learning resulted in an apparently maladaptive risk aversion, group living still allowed them to enjoy profitable variable wells by occasionally joining variable-preferring sparrows.


This paper focuses on speeding up NTRU - one of the lattice-based finalists of the NIST PQC competition - by improving the ring multiplication. The Number Theoretic Transform (NTT), Toom-Cook, and Karatsuba are the most commonly used algorithms for implementing NTRU. In this paper, we propose Toeplitz matrix-vector product (TMVP) based algorithms for multiplication for all parameter sets of NTRU. We implement the proposed algorithms on ARM Cortex-M4. The results show that the TMVP-based multiplication algorithms we propose are more efficient than the others in the literature in most cases. Our algorithm for ntruhps2048509 outperform the Toom-Cook and NTT methods in the literature by 25.4% and 21.5%. We also observe the impact of these improvements on the overall performance of NTRU. We speed up the key generation, encryption, decryption, encapsulation, and decapsulation algorithms of ntruhps2048509 by 12.5%, 14.3%, 17.7%, 3.9%, and 14.7%, respectively, compared to state-of-the-art implementation. Moreover, our algorithms require less stack space than the others.


Advances in bioinformatics research continue to add complexity to the analyses and interpretation of biological data. Certain sequence database searches may take weeks to complete due to complicated data dependencies by dynamic programming. A reconfigurable coprocessor can remove this computational bottleneck and accelerate the operation. This paper presents a heterogeneous computing platform through Message Passing Interface (MPI) enabled enterprise computing infrastructure for high-throughput biological sequence analysis. The computing platform integrates heterogeneous computer architectures including conventional processors with Streaming Single Instruction Multiple Data Extensions 2 (SSE2) instructions, reconfigurable coprocessors, and legacy processors together into one system, and allows each to perform the task to which it is best suited. With appropriate computation and communication scheduling, the integrated heterogeneous computing infrastructure is designed to accommodate various types of accelerators to provide a High-Performance Computing (HPC) framework to support the most widely used life science applications.


the article considers the essence of the remarketing notion and substantiates its content, which is a system of management of demand on products in an agricultural company. It uses experience of developed countries to identify practical tools of remarketing and to consider a possibility of its use in domestic companies. It develops a system of measures for increase of demand on products of agricultural companies in the local market with the


Self-injurious behaviors are gaining increased attention in both the media and the professional literature. Despite increased interest, little is actually known about prevalence, diagnoses, and treatment considerations, specifically with outpatient mental health populations. This ankle presents the results from a national survey of American Mental Health Counselor Association (AMHCA) members regarding the rate at which they see clients who self-injure and their clinical opinions of related diagnoses. Finally the treatment methods used by counselors with clients who self-injure are also reported.


The most common statistics parameters are the measures of central tendency [1]. These tell us how the data behaves on an average basis. For example, mean [2], median [3] and mode [4] are measures of central tendency that give us an idea about where the data concentrates. Standard deviation [5] tells us how the data is spread from the central tendency, i.e. whether the distribution is wide or narrow. Such parameters [6] are often very useful in analysis.


BACKGROUND Small heterodimer partner (SHP) is an important transcriptional factor involved in the regulation of glucose, lipid, and bile acid metabolism in the liver. SHP has been reported to be down-regulated in ovariectomized (Ovx) mice and up-regulated by estrogens suggesting a link between estrogens and SHP. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of exercise training on SHP and key molecular markers of cholesterol and bile acid homeostasis in Ovx rats under cholesterol feeding. METHODS Our main experimental group was composed of Ovx rats fed a high-cholesterol diet (Ovx-Chol) that was compared to a group of Ovx rats fed a standard diet (Ovx-SD) and a group of sham operated rats fed the cholesterol diet (Sham-Chol). These three groups of Ovx and sham rats were subdivided into either voluntary wheel running (Tr) or sedentary (Sed) groups for 5 weeks. The mRNA expression of all genes was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS Liver total cholesterol levels were not affected by exercise training in any of the experimental conditions. Cholesterol feeding in both sham and Ovx rats resulted in significantly higher hepatic cholesterol accumulation than in Ovx-SD (P < 0.001). Hepatic low density lipoprotein receptor (LDL-R) involved in cholesterol uptake from circulation was not influenced by training. A main effect of training was, however, found for transcripts of SHP and cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase (CYP7A1, P < 0.050). CYP7A1 is the main gene involved in bile acid biosynthesis from cholesterol. CONCLUSION These results suggest that voluntary wheel running modulates cholesterol metabolism in Ovx animals through up-regulation of SHP and bile acid formation.


Species of eight bacterial genera have been proposed in the literature as leaf-nodule symbionts: Mycobacterium, Bacillus, Bacterium, Rhizobium, Chromobacterium, Phyllobacterium, Klebsiella, and Xanthomonas. The first four are discounted either by rules of nomenclature (i.e., Bacterium) or because modern generic limits exclude the nodule species originally placed in them. Species of the latter four genera have been isolated recently by several investigators. Even though some of these investigators favor the hypothesis of one bacterial symbiont in all leaf-nodulated plants, all four genera must still be considered as containing legitimate symbionts. Phyllobacterium foliicola (Miehe) comb. nov. is proposed as the legitimate name of the type species of Phyllobacterium Knosel to replace the illegitimate name P. myrsinacearum Knosel.


As a typical load of an aircraft power system, the aviation static inverter (ASI) brings about undesirable low-frequency ripple current on the aeronautic dc bus, which seriously deteriorates the power quality of aeronautic grid. Based on the double-Fourier switching function method, the input current of the inverter unit is analyzed. The corresponding expressions of the dc component, the second harmonic current, the mth harmonic current with regard to the carrier frequency, and the sideband harmonic current are given. In addition the equivalent circuit model of the second harmonic current that spreads to the high-voltage dc bus is derived. This model reveals the generation and propagation characteristics of the low-frequency input ripple current of ASI and its impact factors. Simulation and experimental results are shown to validate the theoretical analysis.


Studies on Effect of A. niger on Physiological Weight Loss and Biochemical Changes in Black Mould Rot Diseased Onion
Black mould rot of onion is an important post-harvest diseases of onion which effects on the quality deterioration of onion bulbs by utilizing its nutrient contents. Here, present research was carried out to study the losses of different nutrients from onion bulbs after the infection of A. niger in three different varieties. Onion bulbs inoculated with A. niger showed loss in weight as compared to uninoculated bulbs at 30, 60 and 90 days after inoculation. Highest per cent physiological weight loss was recorded in Gujarat Anand white onion-3 variety (10.48 g and 16.70%) followed by Nasik yellow (11.54 g and 14.45%) and Nasik red (11.73 g and 10.59%) after 90 DAI. Total soluble sugar content in onion bulbs inoculated with A. niger progressively decreased as the incubation period was increased over control in all three varieties. Least TSS (10.90, 6.39 and 6.09%) and reducing sugar content (1.81, 1.13 and 1.09%) was recorded in onion bulbs after 90 DAI over control (18.21, 17.25 and 14.11%); (6.91, 5.48 and 5.23%) in Nasik red, yellow and Gujarat Anand white onion-3 varieties, respectively. There was appreciable decrease in phenol content in onion bulbs inoculated with A. niger up to 60 DAI due to utilization by fungi and then there was increase in total phenol content in onion bulbs up to 90 DAI when inoculated with A. niger. Total phenol content of healthy Nasik red, yellow and Gujarat Anand white onion-3 varieties were 51.23, 46.07 and 38.78 per cent, which showed maximum reduction after 60 DAI (30.69, 27.36 and 20.24%) and found increased after 90 DAI (33.72, 29.60 and 26.22%). Significantly lowest amount of ascorbic acid content was recorded at 90 DAI (0.03, 0.014 and 0.014 mg/100g) over control (0.14, 0.14 and 0.13 mg/100g), least pyruvic acid content was found at 90 DAI (257.82, 217.11 and 158.65 mg/100 g) over control (755.48, 589.77 and 512.78 mg/100 g), least acidity content was found at 90DAI (2.05, 2.81 and 1.28%) over control (6.40, 5.76 and 3.84%) in Nasik red, Nasik yellow and Gujarat Anand white onion-3 varieties, respectively.....


In this paper, a robust phase watermarking algorithm for still images is presented where the watermark information is conveyed in the phase spectrum in the transform domain. Phase watermarking algorithm that uses multi-polarity Complex Hadamard transform is developed. The robustness of presented algorithm is investigated by its uniqueness, JPEG encoding, image resizing, dithering noise distortions, sharpening, cropping and successive watermarking.


Municipal refuse contains recoverable materials. It is valued in terms of savings of energy and resources. The percentage of recoverable materials varies in different countries, in different socio-economic compositions and in different seasons. The purpose of recycling is not only to reduce the Waste load in the dumping ground but more to extract some values that we otherwise achieve through the production processes of agriculture, mining and manufacture. Recycling
thus supports the slogan of sustainable development. Recycling of wastes is an old practice. But due to many factors recycling is not practiced to its fullest potential. Many formal and informal organisations or individuals
are involved in the work of recycling of wastes. Refuse composition is a function of levels of consumption, which is again related to the economic level of the Society. Waste is waste until the recycled and recovered value is more than the cost and labour for recovery. Municipal waste, once thrown out of the individual premises, is the
property of the municipal bodies – a burden to the municipal bodies.


Meloidogyne hapla can be spread in bare-root herbaceous perennial propagation material and may be difficult to control once established in new fields or in the landscape. Root pruning of bare-root plants was investigated as a means of reducing spread and establishment of M. hapla. Plants previously inoculated with 10,000 eggs/plant were root-pruned to remove either a portion or most of the fibrous root system without removing underground stems, buds, tubers, or tuberous roots. Root pruning of Aconitum, Ajuga, Anemone, Geranium, and Trollius significantly reduced or eliminated M. hapla galls and egg production in plants 1 to 4 months after propagation. Planting M. hapla-resistant plants such as Rudbeckia and Aster into pots infested with 10,000 eggs/pot eliminated M. hapla populations after 2 to 6 months of growth. Tomato plants grown after Rudbeckia and Aster were free of galls and eggs, while bioassay tomatoes grown after susceptible plants such as Coreopsis, Primula, and Lobelia were heavily galled with a large number of egg masses. These results demonstrate the potential of sanitation and resistance for management of M. hapla in perennials.


Voltage clamp data were analyzed in order to characterize the properties of the fast potassium transient current IA for a serotonergic neuron of the rat dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). We obtain maximal conductance, time constants of activation and inactivation, and the steady state activation and inactivation functions m∞ and h∞, as Boltzmann curves, defined by half-activation potentials and slope factors. We employ a novel method to accurately obtain the activation function and compare the results with those obtained by other methods. The form of IA is estimated as g(V − Vrev)mh, with g = 20.5 nS. For activation, the half-activation potential is Va = −52.5 mV with slope factor ka = 16.5 mV, whereas for inactivation the corresponding quantities are -91.5 mV and -9.3 mV. We discuss the results in terms of the corresponding properties of IA in other cell types and their possible relevance to pacemaking activity in 5-HT cells of the DRN.


All entrepreneurs have a goal to excel with benefits socially or financially in business and because of rapid environmental changes, these entrepreneurs are looking for means to take a lead in the industry. Disruptive innovation is the application of new methods or technology in the current market of an organization. It was recognized that the impact on the business environment, not of the technology itself, that is disruptive. The effect can be damaging on existing organisations that do not follow the new trend as the current market is more likely to take the new technology because it is leading and enhancing the characteristics of other technologies in the market. This paper is an archival study aimed at identifying disruptive innovation as one of the recent drivers of success as entrepreneurs, how disruptive innovation can provide an entrepreneur with a competitive advantage and how disruptive innovation affects entrepreneurs.


In Crithidia fasciculata division of the kinetoplast occurs prior to karyokinesis. Kinetoplast division involves the lateral replication of the nucleoid, and the subsequent constriction and 'pinching off' of the nucleoid and mitochondrial components. Two subunits are produced. DNA synthesis in the kinetoplast and the nucleus is overlapping but asynchronous. Experiments for short labelling times indicate that the kinetoplast S period either precedes, succeeds or is simultaneous with the nuclear period of DNA synthesis. The kinetoplast divides in a manner in which some radioactivity is transmitted to each unit.