Microstrip couplers and power splitters are widely used electrical components in the field of microwave technology, which has the function of dividing one wave into multiple waves with same magnitudes but different phases. In this essay, 5 typical types of couplers and power splitters are introduced, with their applications, layout designs, effect on the wave, advantages and weaknesses. Couplers and power splitters are labelled with their output wave phase differences and their voltage magnitude transfer ratio. In this essay, all the couplers introduced are 3dB couplers, which means that the output voltage is decreased by 3dB. The Wilkinson power splitter has an output phase difference of 0 degree, the monolithic multilayer 2-line microstrip directional coupler, the Lange coupler, the microstrip branch-line coupler have output phase difference of 90 degrees, and the planar Marchand balun has output phase difference of 180 degrees. The microstrip rat-race coupler has 2 divider modes and 1 combiner mode, where in the divider mode the phase difference could be set as 0 degree or 180 degrees. Therefore, in the design of microwave circuits, the type of coupler should be carefully chosen according to the working characteristics, the structure features and the working conditions of couplers.


Abstract We have generalized the methodology of our regional amplitude tomography from the Lg phase to the four primary regional phases ( Pn , Pg , Sn , Lg ). Differences in the geometrical spreading, source term, site term, and travel paths are accounted for, while event source parameters such as seismic moment are consistent among phases. In the process, we have developed the first comprehensive regional P -wave and S -wave attenuation model of the crust and upper mantle by simultaneously using the amplitudes of four regional phases. When applied to an area encompassing the Middle East, eastern Europe, western Asia, south Asia, and northeast Africa for the 1–2 Hz passband, we find large differences in the attenuation of the lithosphere across the region. The tectonic Tethys collision zone has high attenuation, while stable outlying regions have low attenuation. While crust and mantle Q variations are often consistent, we do find several notable areas where they differ considerably but are appropriate given the region's tectonic history. Lastly, the relative values of Qp and Qs indicate that scattering Q is likely the dominant source of attenuation in the crust at these frequencies.


Cellular, biochemical, and structural investigation of the MyoVa/MICAL1 complex reveals an intracellular cargo-unloading mechanism. Motor-mediated intracellular trafficking requires motors to position cargoes at proper locations. Myosin Va (MyoVa), an actin-based motor, is a classic model for studying cargo transport. However, the molecular basis underlying cargo unloading in MyoVa-mediated transport has remained enigmatic. We have identified MICAL1, an F-actin disassembly regulator, as a binding partner of MyoVa and shown that MICAL1-MyoVa interaction is critical for localization of MyoVa at the midbody. By binding to MICAL1, MyoVa-mediated transport is terminated, resulting in vesicle unloading at the midbody for efficient cytokinesis. The MyoVa/MICAL1 complex structure reveals that MICAL1 and F-actin assembly factors, Spires, share an overlapped binding surface on MyoVa, suggesting a regulatory role of F-actin dynamics in cargo unloading. Down-regulating F-actin disassembly by a MICAL1 mutant significantly reduces MyoVa and vesicles accumulating at the midbody. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that MyoVa binds to MICAL1 at the midbody destination and triggers F-actin disassembly to unload the vesicle cargo.


Purpose of reviewTo examine the satiety effect of carbohydrates with a focus on the comparison of liquid and solid food and their implications for energy balance and weight management. Recent findingsA number of studies have examined the role of dietary fiber, whole grains, and glycemic index or glycemic load on satiety and subsequent energy intake, but results remain inconclusive. Intake of liquid carbohydrates, particularly sugar-sweetened beverages, has increased considerably across the globe in recent decades in both adolescents and adults. In general, liquid carbohydrates produce less satiety compared with solid carbohydrates. Some energy from liquids may be compensated for at subsequent meals but because the compensation is incomplete, it leads to an increase in total long-term energy intake. Recent studies also suggest some potential differential responses of satiety by characteristics of the patients (e.g., race, sex, and body weight status). These differences warrant further research. SummarySatiety is a complex process influenced by a number of properties in food. The physical form (solid vs. liquid) of carbohydrates is an important component that may affect the satiety process and energy intake. Accumulating evidence suggests that liquid carbohydrates generally produce less satiety than solid forms.


In this paper, a general-purpose fuzzy controlled charger for a set of Ni-Cd batteries is investigated, Simulated and experimentally tested. The fuzzy controller applied to a BUCK converter as a battery charging system and during the charge process, battery temperature and voltage variations are used as controller input variables and charge current as output .Battery voltage and temperature is kept safe and stable during the charge process. Experimental results also confirmed by computer simulation and show control potentialities.


Freshwater must sufficiently be in quantity and quality that would support sustainable development and survival of mankind. Physicochemical properties and heavy metal concentration of the Imo River were investigated. Four sampling stations were selected 300 m apart along the River and sampling was done between August to November. Electrical conductivity, pH, total dissolved solids, biochemical oxygen demand, oxygen demand, chloride, sulphate, phosphate and heavy metal (Cu, Pb, Mn, Cr, Zn, Fe , Cd, Ni and As) were the parameters determined. Standard methods were employed for physicochemical analysis of water samples. Concentrations of heavy metals in water, sediment and fish samples were determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The river was slightly alkaline in all the sampling stations (pH 7.10 to 8.60). Sulphate had the highest concentration (210.30 mg/L to 360.0 mg/L) nitrite had the lowest mean concentration (1.52 mg/L) among the anions in water samples. Nickel had the lowest concentrations in water (0.001mg/L) and fish (0.01 mg/kg) respectively. Iron was the most abundant metal in sediment (9645 mg/kg) and in fish tissue (13.51 mg/kg). Zinc had the greatest concentration in water (21.20 mg/L) whereas cadmium had the lowest concentration in sediments. Heavy metal concentrations were higher in sediments than in fish tissue and water. Imo River was contaminated with lead, copper, zinc and manganese.


The fusion of real-time remote sensing imagery with numerical ocean circulation models provides a unique capability for monitoring the coastal ocean. A real-time ocean monitoring system is currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Dynamic changes in the ocean environment occur on scales of hours, days, weeks and years, which influence biological, ecological and physical processes. By monitoring these processes at different spatial resolutions, new enhanced capability is available to coastal managers and researchers for making decisions. Monitoring of physical processes and bio-optical responses are currently being done for the Gulf of Mexico. Open ocean eddies and loop current interact with coastal processes such as river plumes and tides and have significant impact on the biological and ecological processes along our shores. Until now we had no capability to routinely monitor these ocean conditions without insitu sensors and observations. Now the "weather" in the Gulf of Mexico is being monitored daily and provides coastal managers and researchers an edge in tracking or pin-pointing events. This information assists the decision maker in identifying how physical events are influencing the coastal ecosystem. How is this being done? Improved bio-optical algorithms have been developed and applied to ocean color satellite imagery from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) providing estimates of water constituents such as absorption properties from phytoplankton, color dissolved organic matter (CDOM), and detritus and backscattering properties related to sediment concentration. In addition, advances in numerical circulation modeling (Navy Coastal Ocean Model — NCOM) provide nowcasts and forecasts of coastal processes (currents, sea surface height, salinity and temperature). Physical ocean properties of temperature, salinity, and currents from NCOM are combined with daily latest pixel composite products of phytoplankton, CDOM, and detritus absorption, backscattering and sea surface temperature (SST). We demonstrate an advanced environmental monitoring capability available operationally that highlights the fusion of physical (model) and bio-optical properties (satellite). The entire Gulf conditions are demonstrated daily in addition to higher resolution monitoring of coastal conditions. We will focus on Mississippi and Louisiana Coast using high resolution (250 meter resolution) MODIS imagery. We will demonstrate a capability of supporting coastal manager's and researchers integrating satellite bio-optical products, model circulation (current vectors), sea surface height (contours), salinity (contours) and temperature (contours) layers into Google Earth. In addition, we will demonstrate promising new research using satellite optics and numerical models to create surface optical forecast (hourly increments up to 48 hours) and a 3-D optical volume of the ocean derived from a physical (model) / optical (satellite) Gaussian relationship optimized using insitu profiles. By using these methods of fusing the satellite and ocean circulation model it will provide coastal zone managers with a new capability to assess, predict and track Harmful Algal Blooms, Hypoxia, and sediment discharge.


ABSTRACT Most activated sludge treatment plants suffer from the presence of foams on the surfaces of their aeration reactors. These are often stabilized by hydrophobic mycolic acid-synthesizing actinobacterial species. A polyvalent Siphoviridae phage, GTE7, which lysed several Gordonia and Nocardia species, is described here. Its genome has a modular structure similar to that described for Rhodococcus phage ReqiDocB7. In laboratory-scale experiments, we showed that GTE7 prevents stabilization of foams by these Gordonia and Nocardia species.


ABSTRACT Penicillin resistance threatens the treatment of pneumococcal infections. We used sentinel hospital surveillance (1978 to 2001) and population-based surveillance (1995 to 2001) in seven states in the Active Bacterial Core surveillance of the Emerging Infections Program Network to document the emergence in the United States of invasive pneumococcal isolates with very-high-level penicillin resistance (MIC ≥ 8 μg/ml). Very-high-level penicillin resistance was first detected in 1995 in multiple pneumococcal serotypes in three regions of the United States. The prevalence increased from 0.56% (14 of 2,507) of isolates in 1995 to 0.87% in 2001 (P = 0.03), with peaks in 1996 and 2000 associated with epidemics in Georgia and Maryland. For a majority of the strains the MICs of amoxicillin (91%), cefuroxime (100%), and cefotaxime (68%), were ≥8 μg/ml and all were resistant to at least one other drug class. Pneumonia (50%) and bacteremia (36%) were the most common clinical presentations. Factors associated with very highly resistant infections included residence in Tennessee, age of <5 or ≥65 years, and resistance to at least three drug classes. Hospitalization and case fatality rates were not higher than those of other pneumococcal infection patients; length of hospital stay was longer, controlling for age. Among the strains from 2000 and 2001, 39% were related to Tennessee23F-4 and 35% were related to England14-9. After the introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, the incidence of highly penicillin resistant infections decreased by 50% among children <5 years of age. The emergence, clonality, and association of very-high-level penicillin resistance with multiple drug resistance requires further monitoring and highlights the need for novel agents active against the pneumococcus.


Abstract. Triplaris (Polygonaceae) is a genus of 18 species of fast-growing dioecious trees. Triplaris is widely distributed in the Neotropics, with a center of diversity in the western portion of the Amazon basin. The most recent revision of the genus was one of consolidation, lumping a large number of names into a small number of species concepts. One species in particular, T. americana, is presently an amalgamation of 15 historical taxonomic concepts. Moreover, as currently circumscribed, T. americana is morphologically variable and ranges over the whole of the Neotropics despite the fact that most species in the genus have restricted geographic ranges. Given the recent taxonomic history of Triplaris, the infraspecific variation observed in T. americana, and the narrow endemism observed in most species of Triplaris, it is reasonable to question whether T. americana, as it is currently circumscribed, in fact constitutes a single species. This study examined the circumscription of T. americana using a morphological species concept, morphometrics, and hierarchical clustering. Hierarchical clustering revealed that the morphological variation present in 136 specimens of T. americana could be explained by dividing those specimens into two groups of plants. These groups, however, could not be reliably distinguished morphologically. The distribution of values and morphologies among the various groups always overlapped. As a result, this work supports retaining T. americana as a single, widespread, and morphologically variable species.


Acknowledgements. Foreword. Eugene Gendlin, Focusing Institute, New York University of Chicago, Illinois, USA, and Greg Madison City University, London, UK, Psychotherapy and Psychology, Senior Lecturer, International. Preface. Greg Madison. Introduction. Greg Madison. Section 1: Understanding the Focusing-Oriented Approach. 1. A Theory of Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy. Akira Ikemi, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan. 2. The FOT View of Change: What is Therapeutic about Therapy? Anna Karali and Pavlos Zarogiannis, both at the Hellenic Focusing Center, Athens, Greece. 3. Thinking and Practicing FOT in the 21st Century: Challenges, Critiques, and Opportunities. Kevin Krycka, Seattle University, Washington, USA. Section 2: Integrating with Other Orientations. 4. Focusing with Solutions: How to do Brief Therapy Deeply. Bala Jaison, Focusing for Creative Living, Toronto, Canada. 5. Applying Attachment Theory and Interventions to Focusing Therapy. Larry Letich, Individual and Marital Therapist, Maryland, USA, and Helene Brenner, Focusing-Oriented Psychologist, Maryland, USA. 6. The Relational Heart of Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy. Lynn Preston, The Focusing-Oriented Relational Psychotherapy Study Centre, New York, USA. 7. Exhilarating Pessimism: Focusing-Oriented Existential Therapy. Greg Madison. Section 3: Modes of Clinical Practice: The FOT Way. 8. New Ways of Processing Experience: How to Work with Structure-bound Processes. Christiane Geiser, Ausbildungsinstitut GFK, Zurich, Switzerland, and Judy Moore, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. 9. 'I can see you, you can't see me'. Focusing-Oriented Therapy with Children: A Fresh Approach. Rene Veugelers, Art Therapist, The Netherlands. 10. Principles and Practice of Focusing-Oriented Parent-Infant Consultation and Therapy. Zack Boukydis, Semmelweis Medical School and Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary. 11. Integrating Focusing into Couples Therapy. John Amodeo, Meridian University, California, USA and Annmarie Early, Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia, USA. 12. A Focusing Orientation in Group Psychotherapy. Calliope Callias, Adelphi University in New York, The Focusing Institute of NY and The Experiential Psychotherapy Project of NY, USA, and Charlotte Howorth, The Focusing Institute and The Experiential Psychotherapy project, New York, USA. 13. Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts Therapy: Working on the Avenues. Laury Rappaport, Lesley University, Massachusetts, USA. Section 4: Topics from the Focusing-Oriented Context. 14. The Myth of the Bodily Felt Sense. Campbell Purton, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. 15. Two Things Therapists Should Know about Philosophy. Rob Parker, Private Practice, New York, USA. 16. Neuroscience and Psychological Change in Focusing Therapy. Peter Afford, Counsellor and Psychotherapist, London, UK. 17. Focusing-Oriented Therapy: The Message from Research. Rob Parker. 18. Cross-cultural Focusing-Oriented Therapies: An Approach for a Globalized World. Kevin Krycka, Sergio Lara, Instituto de Formacion y Desarrollo Transpersonal Integral (IFDI), Santiago, Chile, and Atsmaout Perlstein, Israeli Focusing Center, Tel Aviv, Israel. Conclusion. Greg Madison.


In order to acquire the largest possible coverage for environmental monitoring, small overlapping for satellite images is often the case. Hence, the traditional 3-D bundle adjustment as used in photogrammetry may not be directly employed for orientation modeling. In this investigation, we compare three approaches of block adjustment methods for satellite images that are with weak convergent geometry by using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) as an elevation control. The first one is a revised version of traditional bundle adjustment. The second one is based on the direct georeferencing approach. The third one is a rational function model (RFM) with sensor-oriented rational polynomial coefficients (RPC). These approaches integrate the collocation technique to improve the positioning accuracy. In the bundle adjustment, we calculate the orientation parameters by using the collinearity equations. Meanwhile, the DEM is used as an elevation control. Then, we collocate the orientation parameters by using least squares filtering. For the direct georeferencing, we adjust the orientation parameters from the satellite's ephemeris data, then, we calculate the error vectors for each tie point using DEM and refine the orientation parameters using the least squares filtering. In the implementation of elevation control in RFM, the block adjustment deals with the coordinate transformation and the observation equations of 3-D ground coordinates. In the adjustment, an iterative procedure is employed to combine the adjustment with DEM elevation control. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method using DEM as elevation control could significantly improve the geometric accuracy as well as the geometric discrepancies. * Corresponding author.


To estimate the extent of myocardial infarction after coronary artery reperfusion, serum levels of cardiac myosin light chain (LC) I and creatine kinase (CK) were determined serially in 49 patients with acute myocardial infarction. Intracoronary thrombolysis was successful in 25 patients (reperfusion group), and 24 patients were treated in a conventional manner (control group). The peak level of CK appeared significantly earlier in the reperfusion group (11.3 +/- 3.1 hr, mean +/- SD) than in the control group (21.6 +/- 7.2 hr). Cumulative release of CK was significantly related to angiographically determined left ventricular ejection fraction 1 month after the attack in both groups (r = -.50; -.45, respectively). However, the amount of cumulative release of CK in the reperfusion group was greater compared with that in those with the same left ventricular ejection fraction in the control group. Peak appearance time of LCI was almost equal in the two groups (3.8 +/- 1.4 vs 3.9 +/- 1.2 days). Peak levels of LCI were related to the left ventricular ejection fraction in the reperfusion group (r = -.63) and in the control group (r = -.74), and the slopes of their regression lines were similar. The cardiac index obtained on the day of onset in the two groups was related to peak levels of LCI but not to total release of CK. These results suggest that serum levels of LCI reflect the changes in left ventricular function after acute myocardial infarction, regardless of the presence of coronary reperfusion. Thus, serial determinations of LCI in serum facilitate noninvasive assessment of the effects of intracoronary thrombolysis on infarct size.


Several applications in quantum information processing, such as quantum repeaters and quantum networks, require the quantum state of a photon to be mapped onto a stable quantum memory in a reversible manner [1, 2]. A semiconductor quantum dot (QD) functions as an effective quantum interface between light and matter where the polarisation of a single photon can be transcribed into the spin state of a photo generated exciton with high fidelity [3]. However, the short lifetime of an exciton confined in a single QD, ∼1ns, does not allow that quantum information to be stored for any extended period of time unless the electron and hole are dissociated and stored in separate reservoirs. It has been shown that for spatially indirect excitons, where the electron and hole are confined in the two separate QDs of a quantum dot molecule (QDM), the lifetime can be increased several orders of magnitude [4].


Data recording in a research environment often results in the recording of much redundant data due to the unpredictable nature of most experiments. Data measuring instruments often malfunction, making their data invalid. Data processing efficiency can be increased if the experimental engineer can make judgments at editing time which control the processing and eliminate much of the redundant data and provide substitutions for the invalid data. A small digital computer, coupled with a digital display, light pen, and typewriter, has been programmed to provide an editing station for the experimenter to evaluate his data for processing.


Abstract In this paper, we designed a 8 degrees of freedom (DOFs) haptic device for applications in minimally invasive surgical robot. The device can provide three translational, three rotational and a grasping motion and force feedback capability. It is composed of three parts, including an arm mechanism, a redundant wrist mechanism and a grasper mechanism. The kinematics and gravity compensation algorithms are also detailed in the paper. In addition, the haptic device and a slave surgical robot for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) developed by our lab are integrated as a master-slave surgical robotic system in this paper. In the master-slave robotic system, a new control system is designed to realize real-time mater-slave control based on EtherCAT bus technology. Experiments show that the haptic device can effectively compensate gravity at any position in its workspace and successfully realize master-slave operation by the control method, which prove the haptic device designed in this paper can be used as a master manipulator to control the surgical robot.


Diffuse reflectance Spectroscopy is a non-invasive and real-time technique used both in research and clinical studies for purposes such as identifying tumors and monitoring their response to therapy. Here, a compact, cost-effective and portable experimental setup is used in order to acquire the diffuse reflectance spectra from tissue-like liquid phantoms. Two fiber optic probes with different source-detector separations are used for collecting the diffuse light. A phantom preparation protocol is proposed in order to construct a dataset of diffuse reflectance spectra from phantoms with different tissue chromophores compositions. Nonlinear least-squares support vector machines (LS-SVM) regression technique within the Multivariate analysis (MVA) framework is employed in order to extract the optical properties of the tissue-like phantoms. Validation measurements of the liquid phantoms demonstrate a higher prediction accuracy for larger number of training samples. Percentage error of <2% is observed when testing 1 sample in both reduced scattering coefficient and blood volume fraction models. The reduced scattering coefficient can be estimated with higher accuracy in the models constructed with the data collected using both probes. Ways to improve the regression models' performance are proposed along with suggestions for future work.


A manifestly gauge invariant exact renormalization group for pure $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory is proposed, along with the necessary gauge invariant regularisation which implements the effective cutoff. The latter is naturally incorporated by embedding the theory into a spontaneously broken $SU(N|N)$ super-gauge theory, which guarantees finiteness to all orders in perturbation theory. The effective action, from which one extracts the physics, can be computed whilst manifestly preserving gauge invariance at each and every step. As an example, we give an elegant computation of the one-loop $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills beta function, for the first time at finite $N$ without any gauge fixing or ghosts. It is also completely independent of the details put in by hand, \eg the choice of covariantisation and the cutoff profile, and, therefore, guides us to a procedure for streamlined calculations.


AIM: To explore the effect of recombinant human epidermal growth factor (rhEGF) on the ERK1/2 pathway and its safety in use when the proliferation of cultured FL cells (human amnion epithelial cells) were promoted by rhEGF. METHODS: FL cells were stimulated by rhEGF at various concentrations. The proliferation rate of FL cells was evaluated by MTT assay. Western blotting was used to detect phosphotylation of ERK1/2 (p-ERK1/2) and the change of Bel-2 and P53 protein. RESULTS: The proliferation rate FL cells reached the maximum when the concentration of rhEGF was 10 μg/L (42.4%, P<0.01). Western blotting showed that the activity of p-ERK1/2 increased significantly when rhEGF ranged in 10 μg/L to 60 μg/L. Level of Bcl-2 was unchanged in each groups. Level of P53 decreased significantly when the concentration of rhEGF was 60 μg/L. CONCLUSION: It is safe when rhEGF presents in optimization concentration of 10 μg/L. The capability of apoptosis may be depressed when rhEGF is in larger dose.


With support from Japan, the Government of Kenya embarked on implementation of Strengthening Mathe matics and Science Education (SMASE) in-service programme in all primary schools in 2009 with the aim of i mproving pupils' achievement in the two subjects. However, headteachers' and teachers' perceptions tow ards this programme and the effects of those perceptions on pupils' achievement have not been establishe d. This study therefore sought to determine headteachers' and teachers' perceptions towards the SMASE-p rogramme and primary school pupils' achievement in Mathematics and Science in primary schools in Mura ng'a County, Kenya. This study adopted descriptive survey research design. Data were collected through val idated headteachers' and teachers' questionnaires and pupils' achievement tests in Mathematics and Scien ce. Chi Square (χ²) tests and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to test the null hypotheses (α = .05). I n the study, only headteachers' perceptions towards SMASE in-service programme had a significant relatio nship with pupils' achievement in Mathematics, albeit a negative one.


Perceived threat from outgroups is a consistent social-environmental antecedent of intergroup bias (i.e. prejudice, ingroup favoritism). The serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) has been associated with individual variations in sensitivity to context, particularly stressful and threatening situations. Here, we examined how 5-HTTLPR and environmental factors signaling potential outgroup threat dynamically interact to shape intergroup bias. Across two studies, we provide novel evidence for a gene-environment interaction on the acquisition of intergroup bias and prejudice. Greater exposure to signals of outgroup threat, such as negative prior contact with outgroups and perceived danger from the social environment, were more predictive of intergroup bias among participants possessing at least one short allele (vs two long alleles) of 5-HTTLPR. Furthermore, this gene x environment interaction was observed for biases directed at diverse ethnic and arbitrarily-defined outgroups across measures reflecting intergroup biases in evaluation and discriminatory behavior. These findings reveal a candidate genetic mechanism for the acquisition of intergroup bias, and suggest that intergroup bias is dually inherited and transmitted through the interplay of social (i.e. contextual cues of outgroup threat) and biological mechanisms (i.e. genetic sensitivity toward threatening contexts) that regulate perceived intergroup threats.


Abstract Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) has undergone a number of biodiversity restoration programs in the last three decades. Yet, its biodiversity degradation could not be fully checked due to people's tremendous forest-dependency for their livelihoods. A livelihood support program was implemented from January 2012 to June 2015 aiming to reduce households' forest-dependency through the development of Alternative Income Generating Activities (AIGAs). The treatment households were classed into regular and model households. While both regular and model households got financial and technical supports to start AIGAs, model households also got integrated production and monitoring supports. There was a control group with similar socioeconomic conditions without any project support. The Difference in Difference method was employed to assess the effectiveness of this program. The net monthly income from AIGA sources increased by BDT 2816 and BDT 1932 for regular and model households, respectively. In other non-forestry sources, these figures were BDT 8965 and BDT 8074, respectively. On the contrary, monthly fuelwood collection decreased by 227 kg for a regular household and 251 kg for a model household. We conclude that the livelihood program has significantly increased households' total income through non-forestry sources while reducing their dependency on forest resources.


Introduction: The Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) method is a significant neonatal alternative that ensures better quality humanized care for preterm and low birth weight newborns. Objective: To analyze the immediate physiological effects of the kangaroo position in critically ill newborns. Methods: Open clinical trial with parallel interventions, involving preterm (up to 28 days old) low or very low birth weight newborns (minimum weight of 1,250 grams) of both sexes, that were clinically stable and undergoing enteral nutrition. The degree of respiratory distress was assessed and quantified using the Silverman-Anderson scoring system. Heart rate and peripheral oxygen saturation were collected using a pulse oximeter. Respiratory rate was determined by auscultation for one minute. The newborns were submitted to the kangaroo position once only, for 90 minutes. Results: Participants were 30 newborns, 56.7% of which were girls. Comparison of the variables before and after application of the kangaroo position using the Wilcoxon test showed a statistically significant reduction in respiratory rate (p = 0.02) and Silverman-Anderson score (p < 0.01). The remaining variables showed no significant differences: heart rate (p = 0.21), peripheral oxygen saturation (p = 0.26) and axillary temperature (p = 0.12). Conclusion: There was a decline in the respiratory rate and Silverman-Anderson score after application of the kangaroo position, while peripheral oxygen saturation, axillary temperature and heart rate remained stable.


Biomarker discovery is a central application in today's proteomic research. There is an urgent need for valid biomarkers to improve diagnostic tools and treatment in many disorders, such as the rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that has a fatal outcome in about 3 years and yet no curative treatment. Screening for clinically relevant biomarkers puts high demands on high-throughput, rapid and precise proteomic techniques. There is a large variety in the methods of choice involving mainly gel-based approaches as well as chromatographic techniques for multi-dimensional protein and peptide separations followed by mass spectrometry (MS) analysis. This special feature article will discuss some important aspects of MS-based clinical proteomics and biomarker discovery in the field of neurodegenerative diseases and ALS research respectively, with the aim to provide a prospective view on current and future research aspects in the field. Furthermore, examples for application of high-resolution MS-based proteomic strategies for ALS biomarker discovery will be demonstrated with two studies previously reported by our group. These studies include among others, utilization of capillary liquid chromatography-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (LC-FTICR-MS) for advanced protein pattern classification in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples of ALS patients as well as highly sensitive protein identification in minimal amounts of postmortem spinal cord tissue and laser micro-dissected motor neurons using FT-ICR-MS in conjunction with nanoflow LC coupled to matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MALDI-TOF-TOF-MS).


In this article, the cluster synchronization problem for a class of the nonlinearly coupled delayed neural networks (NNs) in both finite- and fixed-time cases are investigated. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory and pinning control strategy, some criteria are provided to ensure the cluster synchronization of the nonlinearly coupled delayed NNs in both finite-and fixed-time aspects. Then, the settling time for stabilization that is dependent on the initial value and independent of the initial value is estimated, respectively. Finally, we illustrate the feasibility and practicality of the results via a numerical example.


Considering the fact that clinical porcine circovirus-associated diseases (PCVAD) mostly results from activation of latent PCV2 infection by confounding factors such as coinfection or environmental stresses, we propose that such confounding factors might impose oxidative stress to the animals, where PCV2 in infected cells might utilize the elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) to promote HMGB1 migration out of nuclei in favor of its replication. An animal infection model with a particular stressor could be approached with or without antioxidant treatment to examine the relationship among the stressor, ROS level, HMGB1 distribution in target tissues, virus replication, and severity of PCVAD. ABSTRACT Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) causes several disease syndromes in grower pigs. PCV2 infection triggers endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, autophagy, and oxidative stress, all of which support PCV2 replication. We have recently reported that nuclear HMGB1 is an anti-PCV2 factor by binding to viral genomic DNA. However, how PCV2 manipulates host cell responses to favor its replication has not been explored. Here, we demonstrate that PCV2 infection increased expression of ERO1α, generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and nucleocytoplasmic migration of HMGB1 via protein kinase R-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) activation in PK-15 cells. Inhibition of PERK or ERO1α repressed ROS production in PCV2-infected cells and increased HMGB1 retention within nuclei. These findings indicate that PCV2-induced activation of the PERK-ERO1α axis would lead to enhanced generation of ROS sufficient to decrease HMGB1 retention in the nuclei, thus derepressing viral DNA from HMGB1 sequestration. The viral Rep and Cap proteins were able to induce PERK-ERO1α-mediated ROS accumulation. Cysteine residues 107 and 305 of Rep or 108 of Cap played important roles in PCV2-induced PERK activation and distribution of HMGB1. Of the mutant viruses, only the mutant PCV2 with substitution of all three cysteine residues failed to activate PERK with reduced ROS generation and decreased nucleocytoplasmic migration of HMGB1. Collectively, this study offers novel insight into the mechanism of enhanced viral replication in which PCV2 manipulates ER to perturb its redox homeostasis via the PERK-ERO1α axis, and the ER-sourced ROS from oxidative folding is sufficient to reduce HMGB1 retention in the nuclei—hence the release of HMGB1-bound viral DNA for replication. IMPORTANCE Considering the fact that clinical porcine circovirus-associated diseases (PCVAD) mostly results from activation of latent PCV2 infection by confounding factors such as coinfection or environmental stresses, we propose that such confounding factors might impose oxidative stress to the animals, where PCV2 in infected cells might utilize the elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) to promote HMGB1 migration out of nuclei in favor of its replication. An animal infection model with a particular stressor could be approached with or without antioxidant treatment to examine the relationship among the stressor, ROS level, HMGB1 distribution in target tissues, virus replication, and severity of PCVAD. This will help decide the use of antioxidants in the feeding regime on pig farms that suffer from PCVAD. Further investigation could examine if similar strategies are employed by DNA viruses, such as PCV3 and BFDV and if there is cross talk among endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, autophagy/mitophagy, and mitochondrial-sourced ROS in favor of PCV2 replication.


Kilobots are micro-robots originally designed by Rubenstein and Nagpal's research group to be inexpensive, quick to build, and versatile with many functionalities. Once Kilobots were made public in 2012, they have instantly become a valuable tool for empirical validation of swarm robotics and an entertaining instrument for educational demonstrations. However, although the original designs were publicly available, when the authors initially built the Kilobots by following the instructions, several issues occurred. The most challenging issue was about the calibration board. The authors reached out to several research groups world-wide and found out that others encountered similar issues. Most groups purchased their Kilobots from K-Team at a much higher price and with a long waiting time in the ordering process, defeating the purpose of Kilobots being inexpensive micro-robots that are quick to build. The authors were inspired to revise the design of the Kilobots, to make them truly accessible to all the researchers and educators around the world. The redesign is not an overhaul of the original design; instead, it is aimed at making the building process of Kilobots feasible and time-efficient. The main areas of the redesign are in PCB layout, distance calibration, and the associated documentation update. During the redesign process, the authors were very grateful for the help received from the inventors of the Kilobots and several other research groups. The final design has been tested in house and in another research group. The authors are also working on creating a website to present all the relevant information publicly and freely, so that Kilobots will be widely accessible to all the researchers and educators, gaining a greater social impact than that of now.


ABSTRACT A cystatin capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using recombinant Fasciola gigantica cathepsin L1 antigen was developed to detect specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclass antibodies (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4) and was evaluated for its diagnostic potential for human fasciolosis. In an analysis of the sera of 13 patients infected with F. gigantica, 209 patients with other parasitic infections, 32 cholangiocarcinoma patients, and 42 healthy controls, the IgG4-ELISA gave the highest diagnostic values. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and positive and negative predictive values of this method based on the detection of IgG4 antibody were 100%, 99.3%, 99.3%, 86.7%, and 100%, respectively. The results revealed that restricting the ELISA to the detection of specific IgG4 antibody enhanced the specificity and accuracy for the serodiagnosis of human fasciolosis.


The automated negotiation for resource leasing contracts in cloud produces many challenges. Since we incorporate an identity for each participant, future utilities will play a major role in their strategies in a cloud marketplace. In fact, unlike traditional agents' strategies, our strategies had to take into account two additional components, namely, future utilities involving the reputation of agents' identities as well as transactions' fees in a marketplace destined for dynamic resource allocation for cloud computing. The aim of this paper is to design such strategies that prevent any practice that may cause unfairness to arise due to some drawbacks in the resource allocation protocol helping some participants to take unfair advantages over others. Comparative experiments with non-trust model show the effectiveness of our approach in terms of fairness and social welfare.


This paper discusses the analysis and measurement of the dynamic center of pressure of a brake pad during a normal braking event. The technique is unique in its design and implementation. The process is progressive whereby the interface static measurements are first taken and then dynamic testing is carried out under braking. Two different measurement systems are considered during the analysis with one used to measure the center of pressure. Both the in-board and out-board pads are measured for wear but the piston pad was selected for pressure measurements. Validation of the spragging process is undertaken on both test rigs and vehicle trials. Pad wear measurements complement the collective information. The results show the position of the center of pressure to vary considerably during a braking event, both radially and axially along the pad. The variable "instability envelope" is related to the caliper-mounting geometry which is subsequently compared to the effective "spragging angle" and the generation of brake noise. It is seen that by careful selection of the backplate abutment friction level the center of pressure may be controlled to always fall within the "stable envelope" region.


Based on superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) coupled to a cavity, we propose a scheme for implementing a quantum controlled-phase gate (QPG) and Deutsch–Jozsa (DJ) algorithm by a controllable interaction. In the present scheme, the SQUID works in the charge regime, and the cavity field is ultilized as quantum data-bus, which is sequentially coupled to only one qubit at a time. The interaction between the selected qubit and the data bus, such as resonant and dispersive interaction, can be realized by turning the gate capacitance of each SQUID. Especially, the bus is not excited and thus the cavity decay is suppressed during the implementation of DJ algorithm. For the QPG operation, the mode of the bus is unchanged in the end of the operation, although its mode is really excited during the operations. Finally, for typical experiment data, we analyze simply the experimental feasibility of the proposed scheme. Based on the simple operation, our scheme may be realized in this solid-state system, and our idea may be realized in other systems.


Fermented cocoa beans (Theobroma cacao L., Sterculiaceae) from different countries of origin (Ecuador, Ghana, Trinidad) and cocoa beans roasted under defined conditions (industrial roasting; 150-220 degrees C for 20 min, dry roasting in conventional oven) were analyzed for their contents of certain chiral hydroxy acids, catechins, and amino acids. Cocoa beans are fermented, dried, and industrially transformed by roasting for the production of chocolate, cocoa powders, and other cocoa-related products. Fermentation and roasting conditions influence the contents of chiral compounds such as hydroxy acids, amino acids, and polyphenols, depending on technological procedures as well as some technical parameters. The aim of this work was to check if the content and nature of the named chiral compounds present both in fermented and roasted cocoa beans could be related to the traditional parameters used to classify the variety of seeds and the degree of fermentation. The extent of racemization of amino acids in fermented cocoa beans was low while it slowly increased during roasting, depending on the temperature applied. L-lactic acid was always higher than the D-form while citric acid was generally the most abundant hydroxy acid detected in beans. A correlation was found between polyphenol content and degree of fermentation, while epimerization of (-)-epicatechin to (+)-catechin was observed during roasting. On the whole, results showed that several chiral compounds could be considered as good quality markers for cocoa seeds and cocoa-related products of different quality and geographic origin.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Forisomes are specialized structural phloem proteins that mediate sieve element occlusion after wounding exclusively in papilionoid legumes, but most studies of forisome structure and function have focused on the Old World clade rather than the early lineages. A comprehensive phylogenetic, molecular, structural and functional analysis of forisomes from species covering a broad spectrum of the papilionoid legumes was therefore carried out, including the first analysis of Dipteryx panamensis forisomes, representing the earliest branch of the Papilionoideae lineage. The aim was to study the molecular, structural and functional conservation among forisomes from different tribes and to establish the roles of individual forisome subunits.

METHODS
Sequence analysis and bioinformatics were combined with structural and functional analysis of native forisomes and artificial forisome-like protein bodies, the latter produced by expressing forisome genes from different legumes in a heterologous background. The structure of these bodies was analysed using a combination of confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the function of individual subunits was examined by combinatorial expression, micromanipulation and light microscopy.

KEY RESULTS
Dipteryx panamensis native forisomes and homomeric protein bodies assembled from the single sieve element occlusion by forisome (SEO-F) subunit identified in this species were structurally and functionally similar to forisomes from the Old World clade. In contrast, homomeric protein bodies assembled from individual SEO-F subunits from Old World species yielded artificial forisomes differing in proportion to their native counterparts, suggesting that multiple SEO-F proteins are required for forisome assembly in these plants. Structural differences between Medicago truncatula native forisomes, homomeric protein bodies and heteromeric bodies containing all possible subunit combinations suggested that combinations of SEO-F proteins may fine-tune the geometric proportions and reactivity of forisomes.

CONCLUSIONS
It is concluded that forisome structure and function have been strongly conserved during evolution and that species-dependent subsets of SEO-F proteins may have evolved to fine-tune the structure of native forisomes.


Lipid A is responsible for the endotoxic activities of gram-negative bacteria. Binding of lipid A (50 micrograms/ml) to RBC was studied using a passive hemolysis test. RBC from adults, cord and venous RBC from full-term infants and RBC from preterm infants were studied. Lipid A sensitized RBC were hemolysed with anti-lipid A and guinea pig complement. Hemolysis was expressed as hemoglobin concentration (absorbance at 546 nm) in the supernatant after centrifugation. 50 micrograms/ml lipid A did not increase spontaneous hemolysis (< 3%) after 60 min of incubation in any of the four groups. The passive hemolysis test did not result in additional hemolysis (5%) of umbilical cord RBC. RBC of preterm infants showed a significant increase in hemolysis (24%) after 60 min of incubation. In RBC of full-term neonates, increased hemolysis (14 and 46%) was detected after 30 and 60 min of incubation. Adult RBC hemolysed stronger (26 and 64%) after 30 and 60 min than neonatal RBC. We conclude that lipid A binds less to neonatal RBC compared to adults.


In this paper, a simple vision-based position control approach is developed for driving a wheeled mobile robot towards target position(s). The trajectory tracking problem is simplified as a combination of point-to-point movements between every two adjacent targets. The controller contains a velocity and steering angle control, using a proposed visual sensing methodology to measure the distance between the vehicle and the desired position and the desired rotary angle. It is proved that when the control gains are properly chosen, the robot asymptotically converges to the desired target position. The method is simple and easy to implement. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach


The current study was designed to investigate the effect of cholesterol supplementation at a dose of (260 mg/kg ration) and boiled extract of red pepper at a dose of (100 mg/kg body weight) on the Testosterone hormone, Thyroid stimulating hormone or Thyrotropin, thyroxine, thyronine, and it is effects on the body weights of male rabbits after 4, 8 weeks of the start of treatment. Forty local male rabbits aged (8-10) months old were randomly divided into four groups (10 animals/ group) to be treated as follows: First group: Standard ration and distilled water represented as control groups. Second group: Standard ration plus cholesterol at the dose (260 mg/ kg ration) and distilled water. Third group: Standard ration with drinking red pepper fruit boiled extract at the dose (100 mg/ kg body weight). Fourth group: Standard ration plus cholesterol (260 mg / kg ration) in addition to drinking red pepper fruits boiled extract at a dose of ( 100 mg/kg body weight). All groups were treated daily for eight weeks. Results showed that cholesterol treatment caused significant decrease(P≤0.05) in the hormones level, with a significant increase (P≤0.05) on the body weights of treated rabbit after 4 and 8 weeks. Furthermore, treatment with red pepper boiled extract led to a significant increase (P≤0.05) on the levels of the studied hormones, and a significant decrease (P≤0.05) in the body weights of treated rabbits.


Inflammation is a key component in multiple sclerosis (MS) pathology. Quantitative MRI metrics reflecting inflammation are important for understanding disease processes in vivo. Metrics from multi-echo T2 relaxation, Diffusion Basis Spectrum Imaging (DBSI) and Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) were compared in participants with MS and healthy controls. NODDI neurite density index and DBSI restricted fraction were correlated and may be sensitive to similar pathology. GMT2 correlated negatively with cellularity, but positively with oedema, suggesting oedema may be a key mechanism driving GMT2 increases. Our findings support a complementary T2 and diffusion approach to probe inflammation in MS.


Marketing margins of agricultural products evoke the interest of agricultural producers, especially because farmers suspect wholesale and retail trade as taking large profits at the cost of their income. This suspicion, sometimes more emotionally ladden than economically calculated, has therefore stimulated many investigations in the problem area of the farmers' share in the consu mers' dollar. The present study has a more limited purpose, namely, to examine the size and structure of retail margins and their influence on the demand, with respect to short run changes mainly, for some horticultural prod ucts in the Netherlands. Since the determination of retail margins is identical with the process of price formation at retail level, firstly some hypotheses on short-run price formation will be presented and substantiated by evidence from the vast literature in this field. In view of the characteristics of retail trade of vegetables in the Netherlands which direct price policies of the retailers - from amongst the relevant hypotheses mentioned, a choice will be made to fit the empirical evidence. Having presented a hypothesis, the retail margins of some vegetables will be analysed on the basis of data for the retail market in Amsterdam. An important aspect of short run changes in the retail margins is their impact on the difference between the price elasticity at retail and wholesale level. Therefore finally, a general expression for this difference will be derived and applied to the results obtained from the data of the Amsterdam market.


Purpose:To retrospectively evaluate the diagnostic performance of multidetector row CT (MDCT), superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-enhanced MRI (S-MRI), and dual-contrast MRI (DC-MRI) in predicting the appropriateness of recipients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) for liver transplantation (LT), based on Milan criteria. Materials and Methods:This retrospective study received Institutional Review Board approval. Requirement for patient informed consent was waived. During a 3-year period, 80 patients who underwent LT were enrolled in this study. However, 2 patients in whom >10 HCCs were present were excluded from the analysis of detection performance of imaging modalities for HCC. MDCT and DC-MRI examinations with the sequential use of SPIO and gadolinium were performed in all patients. Interval readings for MDCT, S-MRI, and DC-MRI were performed. Two radiologists independently recorded confidence levels using a 4- and 5-point scale for the presence of HCC and for the appropriateness regarding LT, respectively. Image interpretation was compared with histopathological results on a lesion-by-lesion basis. Diagnostic performance of the 3 imaging techniques was compared using jackknife alternative free-response receiver operating characteristic and ROC analyses. Results:Eighty-two HCCs were detected in 38 of 78 patients. Twenty-seven HCCs were larger than 2 cm in diameter and 55 HCCs were smaller than 2 cm in diameter. Among 80 patients included for the assessment of eligibility for LT, 69 recipients were categorized as appropriate and the remaining 11 patients were found to be inappropriate for LT based on Milan criteria. In terms of detecting HCCs, the reader-averaged figure of merit was highest for DC-MRI (0.764), followed by S-MRI (0.702) and MDCT (0.672). The use of DC-MRI was significantly better than the use of the other 2 modalities specifically for HCCs smaller than 2 cm in diameter (P < 0.001) although not for those larger than or equal to 2 cm (P = 0.125–1). The AZ value for predicting the appropriateness for LT was highest with the use of S-MRI (0.841), followed by the use of DC-MRI (0.830) and the use of MDCT (0.790). However, significant differences were not seen for the predictions determined by both radiologists (P = 0.384–1). This result might be because of the small number of patients who had a critical number of HCCs (ie, 2 ∼ 4 HCCs). Conclusion:DC-MRI showed significantly better diagnostic performance in transplantation candidates for the detection of HCCs, particularly small HCCs, than both MDCT and S-MRI. However, for assessing the appropriateness of a transplantation recipient based on Milan criteria, MDCT, S-MRI, and DC-MRI showed comparable diagnostic accuracy without a statistical difference.


The bicentenary of Paolo Mascagni's death is the occasion to celebrate an anatomist who strongly took in the spirit of the Enlightenment. Mascagni spent the first part of his life in the University of Siena, where he had many interests, including chemistry, mineralogy, agriculture, and botany. Thanks to his mentor Tabarrani, the anatomical research became his main field of studies. He won great fame with masterpieces dedicated to the first complete description and illustration of the lymphatic system and became president of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici. After meeting with that success, Mascagni conceived the idea to realize an ambitious dream of the anatomists: a complete and life-sized illustration of the human body. Nevertheless, political events delayed his purposes and upset his life. During the French occupation of Tuscany in 1799, he embraced the case of Jacobinism and had the appointment to manage education and culture in the new government of Siena. Because of the defeat of the French army, he fell into disgrace spending about eight months in prison. Finally, at the end of 1800 Mascagni was rehabilitated and left the insecure Siena to move to Pisa, where he was named professor of anatomy at the university on January 1st 1801. Again, after a few months Mascagni was politically disapproved and accused to be irreligious. The embarrassing situation was overcome with a compromise solution: the role of professor in Pisa was maintained, but Mascagni was obliged to teach anatomy in the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence. The short stay in Pisa was very prolific. Besides the anatomical lessons, and the interesting meeting with Cuvier, Mascagni was concerned with the ultimate preparation of the anatomical tables. Some reports indicate that he lived on the second floor of the historical Agostini's Palace on the Lungarno, and in a laboratory prepared at the last floor his pupils coloured the anatomical drawings. The masterpiece was published posthumously in 1823-1831 by the Pisan printer Capurro on the initiative of Vacca-Berlinghieri, Barzellotti and Rosini, bearing the right title of Anatomia Universa. The 44 tables represent four front and back dissection layers of the life-sized human body and several detailed viscera. The monumental work also included black and white extra tables and a Latin textbook. Art and science are in debt to Mascagni's contribution to modern anatomy iconography.


In this paper the authors propose a numerical method for the computation of the singular system of certain compact integral operators related to the problem of data inversion in confocal microscopy. The method is based on the sampling theorem for functions whose Hankel transform has a bounded support. In this way the original integral equation is transformed into an infinite-dimensional linear system for the values of the unknown function at the sampling point. The singular values of the infinite-dimensional matrix coincide with the singular values of the integral operator. Approximations of the singular systems are obtained by considering finite sections of the infinite-dimensional matrix.


Nonlinear optical phenomena play a critical role in understanding microscopic light-matter interactions and have far-reaching applications across various fields, such as biosensing, quantum information, optical switching, and all-optical data processing. Most of these applications require materials with high third-order absorptive and refractive optical nonlinearities. However, most materials show weak nonlinear optical responses due to their perturbative nature and often need to be improved for practical applications. Here, we demonstrate that the charge donor-acceptor hybrid of VSe2-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) hybrid exhibits enhanced ultrafast third-order absorptive and refractive nonlinearities compared to the pristine systems, at least by one order of magnitude. Through density functional theory and Bader charge analysis, we elucidate the strong electronic coupling in the VSe2-rGO hybrid, involving the transfer of electrons from VSe2 to rGO. Steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements confirm the electronic coupling and charge transfer. Furthermore, we fabricate an ultrafast optical limiter device with better performance parameters, such as an onset threshold of 2.5 mJ cm-2 and differential transmittance of 0.42.


We report a Japanese case of Darier's disease with brown and white papules or maculae distributed on the neck, trunk and dorsa of hands. Both brown papules and leukoderma showed typical histological features of Darier's disease. Moreover, there were much fewer melanocytes and melanosomes in the epidermis of both lesions. The corneal layer of the brown papules was far thicker than that of the leukoderma. Therefore, the thick corneal layer of the brown papules may prolong the retention of a few melanosomes or a little melanin to induce hyperpigmentation, while the thin corneal layer of leukoderma may not do so, thereby producing hypopigmentation. The difference in clinical and histological courses after involvement of melanocytes was proposed to be the cause of the discrepancy between the previous reports. We conclude that leukoderma was the primary lesion, the postinflammatory depigmented spots, or the atypical or subclinical eruption of Darier's disease.


volume measurement of a phase object is one of the most distinctive capabilities of quantitative phase microscopy (QPM). However, the accuracy of a measured volume is limited by the different noises of a measurement system and the finite band pass filter used in the phase extraction algorithm. In this paper, we investigate the phase extraction algorithm and through comparison six kind of band pass filters determine optimum filter so that minimizes the morphological error in the phase volume measurement.


In this correspondence, a constrained least-squares multichannel image restoration approach is proposed, in which no prior knowledge of the noise variance at each channel or the degree of smoothness of the original image is required. The regularization functional for each channel is determined by incorporating both within-channel and cross-channel information. It is shown that the proposed smoothing functional has a global minimizer.


Meperidine is widely used for pain control in the hospital setting. It is also known for its propensity to cause mental status changes in renally and hepatically impaired patients. A case is reported of a 37-year-old man with chronic renal failure maintained on peritoneal dialysis in whom delirium developed when he was treated with meperidine not only on one occasion but also on two subsequent admissions. The pharmacology of meperidine is reviewed and the implications of using the medication in patients with renal impairment are discussed.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Hyperlipidemia has been extensively recognized as a high-risk factor for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH); however, clinical susceptibility to NASH is highly heterogeneous. The key controller(s) of NASH susceptibility in patients with hyperlipidemia have not yet been elucidated. Here, we aimed to reveal the key regulators of NASH in patients with hyperlipidemia and to explore its role and underlying mechanisms.

APPROACH AND RESULTS
To identify the predominant suppressors of NASH in the setting of hyperlipidemia, we collected liver biopsy samples from patients with hyperlipidemia, with or without NASH, and performed RNA-seq analysis. Notably, decreased LIM domain only 7 (LMO7) expression robustly correlated with the occurrence and severity of NASH. Although overexpression of LMO7 effectively blocked hepatic lipid accumulation and inflammation, LMO7 deficiency in hepatocytes greatly exacerbated diet-induced NASH progression. Mechanistically, lysine 48 (K48)-linked ubiquitin-mediated proteasomal degradation of tripartite motif 47 (TRIM47) and subsequent inactivation of the JNK/p38 MAPK cascade are required for the protective function of LMO7 in NASH.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings provide proof-of-concept evidence supporting LMO7 as a robust suppressor of NASH in the context of hyperlipidemia, indicating that targeting the LMO7-TRIM47 axis is a promising therapeutic strategy for NASH.


Soft-magnetic Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si13.5B9 (Finemet) ribbon has been fabricated by using melt-spinning techniques. After annealing at suitable temperature the ribbon changes from an amorphous to crystalline state which related to the formation of Fe nanocrystallites. Study on the magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of the ribbon is presented. Furthermore, based on the fabricated ribbon stress sensors are simply constructed. The sensors showed high sensitivity of 3.8 mV/MPa as well as a wide working range up to 17 MPa. These sensors are potential for practical applications such as detecting small stress and movement in civil structures.


The dynamic structures of 2-thiopyrimidone (2TPM) and 2-thiopyridone (2TP) in B-band absorptions were studied using the resonance Raman spectroscopy combined with quantum chemical calculations. In gas phase, 2-thiopyrimidine (2MPM, the thiol form) was more stable than 2TPM (the thione form) by ~15.1 kJ·mol - 1 , whereas in water and acetonitrile 2TPM was more stable than 2MPM by 29.3 and 28.0 kJ·mol - 1 , respectively. The transition barrier for the ground state proton transfer tautomerization reaction between 2TPM and 2MPM was ~130 kJ·mol - 1 in gas phase on the basis of the B3LYP/6-311++ G(d,p) level of theory calculations. The three absorption bands of 2-thiopyrimidone were respectively assigned as πH→π * L, πH→π * L+1, and πH-1→π * L transitions. The vibrational assignments were carried out for the B-band resonance Raman spectra of 2TPM in water and acetonitrile solvents on the basis of the measurements from the Fourier transform (FT)-Raman and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectra of


Abstract The southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) is a cryptic, primarily nocturnal marsupial, for which behavioral information is notably lacking. Animals that are difficult to observe can be identified and tracked by individual-specific genotypes obtained from remotely collected DNA sources; wombats are excellent candidates for such an approach because freshly plucked hair is easily captured at burrow entrances. Twice a year during 1999–2001, we employed an intensive remote hair-collection regime coupled with individual-resolution genetic analysis to sample a South Australian population in a 63.3-km2 protected conservation reserve. Individuals were identified using 5 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers and further examined using another 10 markers to resolve ambiguities, enabling assessment of burrow- and space-use patterns. Analyses of rate of discovery of new individuals indicated that nearly all wombats inhabiting the study area were detected (102); there were >1,000 "capture" events, and 90% of individuals were detected multiple times. Surprisingly, a female sex bias existed despite females being the dispersing sex. Space use was conservative and likely a reflection of adaptations enabling energy conservation. Transits between the northern and southern sections of the study area were nearly nonexistent. No sex or consistent seasonal differences were found in burrow, warren, or space use, other than in interaction with other factors. However, a strong increase in activity and space use in September 2001 relative to other sampling periods may be attributed to activities associated with mating. The thoroughness and evenness of this study's sampling strategy was markedly effective for this species, as, with appropriate modification and optimization, it will likely be for other shy and cryptic organisms.


During greenhouse production in Spring 1995, conditioning treatments were applied to columbine (Aquilegia ×hybrida Sims 'McKana Giants'), New Guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri Bull. 'Antares'), marigold ( Tagetes erecta L. 'Little Devil Mix') and ageratum (Ageratum houstonianum Mill. 'Blue Puffs') plants. Treatments included: mechanical conditioning (brushing 40 strokes twice daily); moisture stress conditioning (MSC) (wilting for ≈2 hours per day); undisturbed ebb-and-flow irrigation; overhead irrigation; high (500 mg·L -1 N) or low (50 mg·L -1 N) 3×/week N fertilizer regimes; daminozide (5000 mg·L -1 ); or paclobutrazol (30, 45, or 180 mg·L -1 ). One week after initiation of treatments, individual plants in separate greenhouses were inoculated with two adult green peach aphids (Myzus persicae Sulzer) or five two-spotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae Koch). A natural infestation of western flower thrips ( Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande) in the mite-inoculated greenhouse provided an additional insect treatment. Brushing was the only treatment that consistently reduced thrips and mite populations. Aphid populations were lower on low-N than on high-N plants, but thrips and mite populations were not consistently affected by plant fertilization. Moisture stress conditioning tended to increase aphid populations on New Guinea impatiens and mari- gold, but had little effect on spider mite or thrips populations. Ebb-and-flow irrigation reduced the mite population on ageratum relative to that on overhead irrigated (control) plants. Plant growth regulators did not consistently affect pest populations. Chemical names used: butane-dioic acid mono(2,2-dimethylhydrazide) (daminozide); β-((4- chlorophenyl)methyl)-α-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-1H-1,2,4-triazole-1-1-ethanol (paclobutrazol).


In this paper, we propose two new generic attacks on the rank syndrome decoding (RSD) problem. Let C be a random [n, k] rank code over GF(qm) and let y = x + e be a received word, such that x ∈ C and rank(e) = r. The first attack, the support attack, is combinatorial and permits to recover an error e of rank weight r in min(O((n - k)3m3qr1(km/n)J, O((n - k)3m3q⌈(r-1)I(((k+1)m)/n)J))⌉ operations on GF(q). This new attack improves the exponent for the best generic attack for the RSD problem in the case n > m, by introducing the ratio m/n in the exponential coefficient of the previously best known attacks. The second attack, the annulator polynomial attack, is an algebraic attack based on the theory of q-polynomials introduced by Ore. We propose a new algebraic setting for the RSD problem that permits to consider equations and unknowns in the extension field GF(qm) rather than in GF(q) as it is usually the case. We consider two approaches to solve the problem in this new setting. The linearization technique shows that if n ≥ (k + 1) (r + 1) - 1 the RSD problem can be solved in polynomial time. More generally, we prove that if [(((r + 1)(k + 1)- (n + 1))/r)1 ≤ k, the RSD problem can be solved with an average complexity of O(r3k3qrΓ(((r+1)(k+1)-(n+1))/r)l)⌉ operations in the base field GF(q). We also consider solving with Gröbner bases for which we discuss theoretical complexity, we also consider hybrid solving with Gröbner bases on practical parameters. As an example of application, we use our new attacks on all recent cryptosystems parameters, which repair the GPT cryptosystem, we break all examples of published proposed parameters, and some parameters are broken in less than 1 s in certain cases.


ABSTRACT ABSTRACT ABSTRACT ABSTRACT This study discusses the readiness of Muhammadiyah Islamic Boarding in Solo Raya in preparing cadre to continue Muhammadiyah movement. The approach used in this study is descriptive qualitative. The data collection method is a combination of interview, observation and documentation. The findings of this study are that Muhammadiyah Ismamic Boarding in Solo basically been designed to produce a cadre of graduates who have the ability to move Muhammadiyah branch and regional level. Each boarding school has an emphasis and the size of their own about the qualification of cadres prepared. In general, Muhammadiyah boarding school cadres equip with the following qualifications: strengthening faith, tahfid of Al-Qur'an, organization skills, relationship with the leaders, foreign language skills, and qariyah thayiibah.


The quasi-normal modes of a black hole represent solutions of the relevant perturbation equations which satisfy the boundary conditions appropriate for purely outgoing (gravitational) waves at infinity and purely ingoing waves at the horizon. For the Schwarzschild black hole the problem reduces to one of finding such solutions for a one-dimensional wave equation (Zerilli's equation) for a potential which is positive everywhere and is of short-range. The notion of quasi-normal modes of such one-dimensional potential barriers is examined with two illustrative examples; and numerical solutions for Zerilli's potential are obtained by integrating the associated Riccati equation.


Brazil has more than 23 million rural people with unimproved sanitation, which corresponds to about 75% of rural population. This study aimed to measure the social, environmental and economic impacts caused by implementation of a technological proposal for sanitation: "septic cesspool biodigester". It was found that, per year, the implementation of this technology in rural homes with unimproved sanitation could: reduce about 250 deaths and 5.5 million infections caused by diarrheal diseases; reduce pollution of waterways by about 250 thousand tons of BOD and; that every R$1.00 invested in the implementation of alternative technology evaluated could cause a return to the society of R$2.55 in GDP. Moreover, the jobs would increase from 51 thousand.


Three synthetic peptides corresponding to amino acid sequences of two human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) subunits were conjugated to thyroglobulin and used for immunization of rabbits. The highest antibody concentration was found in antisera from rabbits immunized with the peptide corresponding to 122-145 sequence of the hormone beta-subunit. Specificity of antisera and immunoaffinity purified rabbit antibodies were studied. Antibody anti-122-145-beta hCG with antibody anti-beta hCG conjugated to peroxidase were suitable for sensitive and specific enzyme immunoassay of hCG and beta hCG. Good correlation was noted between assay of the hormone in sera of patients with trophoblastic diseases or in urine of pregnant women by ELISA with the rabbit antibody pair and by commercial kit or by ELISA with two monoclonal antibodies.


This paper discusses the development and validation of two analytical methods for the assay of naloxone in microparticles, as used in the therapy of opioid drug addiction (weaning). A UV-Vis spectrophotometric method is proposed to study drug loading and drug release, due to its ease and simplicity of performance, while a high performance liquid chromatographic method is developed as a means of stability-indication. Both analytical procedures were validated according to the International Committee for Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. Although the ranges and wavelengths were different for the two analytical methods, they were both found to be specific, linear, precise, and accurate under the determined conditions.


Leakage after simple suture repair of rotator cuff tears depends on the overall preoperative fatty degeneration index (FDI) of the muscles and preoperative fatty degeneration (FD) of the infraspinatus. When the FDI is = 2, cuff leakage is always observed after repair. The risk of recurrent tears of the supraspinus is high if the FD of the infraspinatus is > 1. However if the FDI is very low or nil, the rate of recurrent tears is 15%. These tears can be explained by tension on sutures in macroscopically and histologically abnormal tendons. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether repair of rotator cuff tears using sutures without tension after removal of abnormal tendon stumps, a technique requiring tendon plasty, can improve the leakage rate. Material and methods: Total repair of 24 rotator cuff tears was performed without tension on the sutures after resection of at least one centimetre of the supraspinatus tendon stump. This consecutive series was studied prospectively. The tears involved the supraspinatus and the infraspinatus in ten cases, all three tendons in 13 cases and only the supraspinatus in one case. Mean preoperative FDI was 1.18 (0.5–2.16); pre-operative FD of the infraspinatus was a mean 1.19 (0–2). The supraspinatus stump was resected from the trochiter in 14 cases, on the apex of the head of the humerus in seven and facing the glenoid cavity in three. Repair required translation advancement of the supraspinatus in 24 cases, translation advancement of the infraspinatus in six (associated with a rhomboid flap) and a trapezeal flap in three cases. Postoperative leakage was assessed with arthroscan (n=23) and ultrasonography (n=1) at one year. Results: No leakage was observed in 20 of the 24 cuffs (83%). Recurrent tear of the supraspinatus was observed in three cases and in the supraspinatus and infraspinatus in one case each. The FDI of cuffs with recurrent tears (1.31) was not significantly greater than the FDI of cuffs without leakage (1.15) (p = 0.085). Preoperative FD of the infraspinatus of cuffs with recurrent tears (1.5) was significantly higher than that for cuffs without leakage (1.12) (p = 0.16). For the supraspinatus and the subscapularis, there was no significant difference between preoperative fatty degeneration of cuffs with recurrent tears and cuffs without leakage. The number of repaired tendons had a statistically significant effect (p = 0.012) on postoperative leakage: 23% of the recurrent tears after repair of three tendons showed no leakage compared with 9% after repair of one or two tendons (there was no significant difference for preoperative FDI, p = 0.33). Discussion: Resection of macroscopically abnormal tendon stumps which requires tendinomuscular plasty, gives better anatomic results than simple suture. For an equivalent FDI, this allows fewer cases of leakage (83% without leakage compared with 50% after simple suture). Results were also better for an equivalent number of tendons repaired: 77% and 50% for three tendons and 91% and 55% for two tendons respectively). Conclusion: Despite the almost constant need for plasty, rotator cuff repair using sutures without tension after resection of macroscopically abnormal tendon stumps gives, for an equivalent preoperative degree of fatty degeneration and an equivalent number of tendon repairs, better anatomic results than simple suture.


In recent years the role of public services has acquired increasing relevance on account of the growing awareness of the importance of such services in the social and economic development of a country. This is determined primarily by the demand for quality and good value (for money) by an ever more sensitive public (which has brought under analysis the methods of traditional service providers, no longer seen as able to respond efficiently to the changing and diversified needs of society), the need to conform to EU directives and the effects of liberalization and from an internal perspective of the industrial and institutional reorganization of the public sector. After a description of the theoretical background, the present study is aimed to analyse the transparency of the public service companies listed on the Italian Stock Exhange. Given the fundamental role played by these companies, this sudy investigates the levels of total and partial disclosure and identifies the successful elements as well as those areas where improvements could be made. In particular, for the research conducted, an attempt was made to adopt an index capable of showing a measure of the quality of transparency undertaken by the case-study companies in the FTSE Italy Public Services Sector. In order to meet this aim, the work is based on an index of "corporate e-governance" used by Gandia. Based on the variables considered in the analysis of the websites, no company provides total disclosure with maximum values; the company which offers total disclosure with the highest value is Enel (9.52) while Ergycapital has the lowest value (3.14). Research thus shows that, it is necessary to improve the quality of disclosure of the public utilities companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange.


The general problem of heating iron or steel strip by induction is analyzed to arrive at equations for power-factor efficiency and density of heating under all conditions. Certain general curves are shown to illustrate the limitations of strip thcikness, frequency, and density of heating.


Background: CYP2B6 (cytochrome P450 subfamily IIB polypeptide 6), encoded by the CYP2B6 gene, is a critical enzyme involved in clopidogrel metabolism. However, the association between CYP2B6 polymorphisms and the efficacy of clopidogrel in minor stroke or transient ischemic attack for secondary stroke prevention remains unclear. Methods: Based on CHANCE (Clopidogrel in High-Risk Patients With Acute Nondisabling Cerebrovascular Events) randomized clinical trial of aspirin plus clopidogrel versus aspirin alone, we investigated the role of CYP2B6 polymorphisms and the efficacy of clopidogrel in patients with minor stroke or transient ischemic attack in China from October 2009 to July 2012. A total of 2853 patients were successfully genotyped for CYP2B6-516G>T, rs3745274 and CYP2B6-1456 T>C, rs2054675. The primary efficacy and safety outcomes were new stroke and any bleeding within 90 days. Results: Among the 2853 patients, 32.8% were identified as the carriers of the CYP2B6-516 GT/TT or -1456 TC/CC genotype. The incidences of 90-day new stroke in aspirin plus clopidogrel and aspirin alone groups were 7.1% versus 11.3% among noncarriers, respectively; and 9.7% versus 12.2% among carriers, respectively. The efficacy of aspirin plus clopidogrel versus aspirin alone was not significantly different (P interaction=0.29) in noncarriers (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.61 [95% CI, 0.45–0.83]) compared to carriers (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.80 [95% CI, 0.54–1.18]). The incidence (n=51) of 90-day any bleeding in aspirin plus clopidogrel and aspirin alone groups were 2.2% (21 bleeds) versus 1.9% (18 bleeds) among noncarriers (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.11 [95% CI, 0.59–2.09]) and 1.9% (9 bleeds) versus 0.7% (3 bleeds) among carriers (adjusted hazard ratio, 3.23 [95% CI, 0.86–12.12]). Similar findings were observed during the 1-year follow-up. Conclusions: In this post hoc analysis of the CHANCE trial, we did not observe a significant difference in the efficacy of aspirin plus clopidogrel compared with aspirin in carriers versus noncarriers of CYP2B6-516 GT/TT or -1456 TC/CC genotype. Our results suggest that both carriers and noncarriers suffering from a minor stroke are likely to benefit from aspirin plus clopidogrel treatment over aspirin monotherapy for secondary prevention. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT00979589.


The design concept, service and communication modules, and characteristics of the TV-Sat system are described. Also discussed are the solar array, propulsion and antenna modules as well as the high-power amplifier. A dual control system is used for the coarse pointing of the satellite's body (by infrared earth sensors) and the fine pointing of antenna reflectors. Fine pointing is done by an RF-sensor and 2 pointing mechanisms (APM). In the case of TV-Sat, 90% of the power is required by the payload; only the subsystems AOCS (attitude and orbit control system), TTC (telemetry, tracking and command system), and UPS are not dependent on the payload. The power required by these subsystems is supplied by the solar array structure with an output of 68 W/m/sup 2/ and 19.4 W/kg. The methods by which a high mean temperature is achieved and heat dissipation problems are examined. In-orbit tests with TV-Sat 1 are presented. >


Abstract Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies, vascular thrombosis (venous, arterial, or small vessels), and/or pregnancy morbidity. Diagnosis of APS is based on the presence of at least one clinical criterion (thrombotic events or pregnancy morbidity) and at least one of the laboratory criteria (persistently medium/high titer immunoglobulin G [IgG]/immunoglobulin M [IgM] anticardiolipin antibodies, and/or medium/high titer IgG/IgM anti-β2-glycoprotein I antibodies, and/or a positive lupus anticoagulant test), confirmed after repetition at least 12 weeks apart. The clinical spectrum of APS encompasses additional (extracriteria) clinical manifestations, including cardiac diseases. Heart involvement may become evident as a consequence of direct (autoimmune-mediated) or indirect (thrombosis) mechanisms, and include valve heart disease (vegetations and/or thickening associated with functional abnormalities) and intracardiac thrombosis, coronary, and vascular accelerated atherosclerosis, along with ischemic heart disease. APS can also cause pulmonary arterial hypertension, left ventricular dysfunction, and heart failure. This review describes the major cardiac manifestations of APS and illustrates the role of cardiac imaging for diagnosing subclinical and overt heart involvement and addressing management of these patients. The possible role of therapeutic strategies in cardiac manifestations of APS is also discussed.


Design and development of a large video game is a challenging software engineering and project management problem. Thus, it is a non-trivial task. This paper describes the design and development of a game, entitled N-STAL, which embodies nearly every aspect of game design and implementation, including researching, crafting of assets, selection and usage of proper tools, software development, testing, and team play. Key software engineering principles are followed throughout the design, development, and validation stages. Successful execution of such design and development in an academic setting inspires team-based learning in students. It challenges them to meet project deadlines, prepares them for life-long learning, and helps them understand some of the challenges that are faced with modeling, simulation, and user interfacing.


This paper presents a neural network based verification method in an HMM-based on-line Korean handwriting recognition system. It penalizes unreasonable grapheme hypotheses and complements global and structural information to the HMM-based recognition system, which is intrinsically based on local information. In the proposed system, each grapheme has one neural network verifier as well as one HMM recognizer. The verifier takes as an input the grapheme hypothesis generated by the HMM and outputs a posteriori probability as its validity. This probability is then incorporated into the search process by Viterbi algorithm during recognition. The global and structural information to the verifier is obtained from the relationship between primitive strokes in each grapheme by analyzing their correspondence with the HMM states. The experimental result shows that the recognition error of the baseline HMM network can be reduced by 39.2% with the proposed verification scheme.


Biological and biomedical measurements, when adequately analyzed and processed, can be used to impart quantitative diagnosis during primary health care consultation to improve patient adherence to recommended treatments. For example, analyzing neural recordings from neurostimulators implanted in patients with neurological disorders can be used by a physician to adjust detrimental stimulation parameters to improve treatment. As another example, biosequences, such as sequences from peptide microarrays obtained from a biological sample, can potentially provide presymptomatic diagnosis for infectious diseases when processed to associate antibodies to specific pathogens or infectious agents. This work proposes advanced statistical signal processing and machine learning methodologies to assess neurostimulation from neural recordings and to extract diagnostic information from biosequences. For locating specific cognitive and behavioral information in different regions of the brain, neural recordings are processed using sequential Bayesian filtering methods to detect and estimate both the number of neural sources and their corresponding parameters. Time-frequency based feature selection algorithms are combined with adaptive machine learning approaches to suppress physiological and non-physiological artifacts present in neural recordings. Adaptive processing and unsupervised clustering methods applied to neural recordings are also used to suppress neurostimulation artifacts and classify between various behavior tasks to assess the level of neurostimulation in patients. For pathogen detection and identification, random peptide sequences and their properties are first uniquely mapped to highly-localized signals and their corresponding parameters in the time-frequency plane. Time-frequency signal processing methods are then applied to estimate antigenic determinants or epitope candidates for detecting and identifying potential pathogens.


A SEASAT synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image taken over the Gulf Stream region shows streak‐like patterns. The physics of their generation and interaction with the Gulf Stream are disputed. This study seeks a convincing interpretation for the SAR imagery patterns. Bathymetric maps show that the sea floor area beneath the streaks is the northeast Hoyt Hills, where isolated seamounts with the heights of 20 to 140 m above the background sea floor are distributed. All the SAR imagery streaks originate from these seamounts and extend downstream. Thus the SAR imagery streaks are interpreted as surface roughness imprints of the seamount wakes. Hydrostatic flow dynamics of the generation of wakes on the lee side of a solid obstacle is used to explain the generation mechanism and internal structure of the seamount wakes. The analysis indicates that boundary conditions and hydrodynamic conditions are favorable for the generation and vertical propagation of the seamount wakes to the upper layer.


Eighteen paraplegics with or without neurogenic osteo-arthropathy (POAN) were evaluated for variations in their urinary excretion levels of total (T), and free (L) hydroxyproline and its non-dialysable (ND) and dialysable (D) peptide fractions. Increases in urinary hydroxyproline, moderate rises in free hydroxyproline and more substantial increases in dialysable and non-dialysable peptide fractions could be observed in these patients who all were affected with osteoporosis of disuse. Only variations in dialysable hydroxyproline could be used to differentiate between POAN + and POAN - patients. Of the various ratios which were analyzed (ND/T, L/ND, and D/ND), the D/ND ratio appears to be the most useful for diagnosis and monitoring of patients with POAN.


This paper describes a concept for placing a cap over soft or fluid tailings deposits using a floating platform for hydraulic cap placement, and compares it to two standard cap placement methods: 1) mechanical placement using earthwork equipment and 2) hydraulic beaching. Hydraulic placement from a water platform has a number of potential uses in the mining industry to manage tailings, and may be one of the more cost-effective methods to consolidate soft tailings in locations where strength is too low for land-based cap placement methods. Supplementary elements, such as installation of wick drains or other drainage features to aid consolidation can be deployed from a water platform as well. General costs of construction are compared to illustrate the competitiveness of water-platform-based capping approaches. Placing caps hydraulically from a water platform can be an alternative to other methods of dealing with fluid tailings (such as centrifuging and thin-lift drying). It offers opportunities to reduce tailings related-risk and closure liabilities, and can prove more practical and more cost-effective than land-based methods, particularly for capping very soft to fluid tailings.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the surgical treatment of preoperative unsuspected gallbladder carcinoma (UGC) and its prognosis.

METHODS
Eighteen patients of UGC admitted in our hospital from January 1996 to December 2003 were analyzed retrospectively. The clinicopathological characters and surgical treatment of UGC patients were compared with the preoperative diagnosed gallbladder carcinoma (DGC) patients admitted in the same period. The cumulative survival rate of the patients received radical resection in two groups was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS
The serous layer was not invaded by tumor in 10 patients of UGC group (55.5%, 10/18), while the serous layer invaded and regional lymph node metastasis were detected in 39 patients of DGC group (90.7%, 39/43). Radical resection rate was 72.2% (13/18) in UGC group and 39.5% (17/43) in DGC group, and 5-year survival rates in those with radical resection were 54.6% and 23.5%, respectively (chi(L)(2) = 16.33, P < 0.01). Compared with the patients underwent palliative operation, the patients with radical resection has a longer median survival time (43.3 months vs 10.5 months, chi(L)(2) = 31.10, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
The prognosis of UGC is better than that of DGC generally. Reoperation for UGC should be performed as soon as possible, and the prognosis can be improved by radical resection.


For the task of pollution source location in the use of environment monitoring robot-fish, there were two kinds of method to deal with the "cruise route". One was discrete hill-climbing search method, and the other was spiral coverage scanning algorithm. It is easy to fall into local optimal point by means of hill-climbing search method only. Meanwhile, the problem of imprecise locating exists in the spiral coverage scanning algorithm. So we tried to use Spiral Coverage and Hill-climbing fusion algorithm with Concentration (C-SpiralHill algorithm) to locate the spot of pollution source. After the analyzing kinematics of the robot-fish swimming on the water surface, we designed a cruise route of robot-fish by means of C-SpiralHill algorithm. According to A.B.KAPAYMEB model of water pollution diffusion, we set up the simulation environment. The results showed the C-SpairalHill algorithm could locate the pollution source area and avoid robot-fish falling into local optimal resolution.


State of the art InGaP2/GaAs/In0.28Ga0.72As inverted metamorphic (IMM) solar cells have achieved impressive results, however, the thick metamorphic buffer needed between the lattice matched GaAs and lattice mismatched InGaAs requires significant effort and time to grow and retains a fairly high defect density. One approach to this problem is to replace the bottom InGaAs junction with an Sb-based material such as 0.73 eV GaSb or ~1.0 eV Al0.2Ga0.8Sb. By using interfacial misfit (IMF) arrays, the high degree of strain (7.8%) between GaAs and GaSb can be relaxed solely by laterally propagating 90° misfit dislocations that are confined to the GaAs-GaSb interface layer. We have used molecular beam epitaxy to grow GaSb single junction solar cells homoepitaxially on GaSb and heteroepitaxially on GaAs using IMF. Under 15-sun AM1.5 illumination, the control cell achieved 5% efficiency with a WOC of 366 mV, while the IMF cell was able to reach 2.1% with WOC of 546 mV. Shunting and high non-radiative dark current were main cause of FF and efficiency loss in the IMF devices. Threading dislocations or point defects were the expected source behind the losses, leading to minority carrier lifetimes less than 1ns. Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) was used to search for defects electrically and two traps were found in IMF material that were not detected in the homoepitaxial GaSb device. One of these traps had a trap density of 7 × 1015 cm-3, about one order of magnitude higher than the control cell defect at 4 × 1016 cm-3.


This paper first reviews the history, the economy, the material properties, and the applications of gold. Then the geometry of the face centered cubic (fcc) gold lattice is introduced. Based on the symmetric arrangement of atoms the gold lattice has a rich variety of symmetry transformations, that interchange the positions of atoms, but leave the lattice as a whole invariant. This begins with the point group symmetry of a single fcc lattice cell and is extended by combination with lattice translations to the full space group symmetry of the whole (practically infinite) lattice. We use the newly created interactive Space Group Visualizer (based on geometric algebra) in order to systematically picture all these symmetries. We can thus understand their origin and their relationships. In particular we give a full geometric explanation of the 192 screw symmetries passing through a single fcc cell of the gold lattice.


Two new pentadentate, pendent arm macrocyclic ligands of the type 1-alkyl-4,7-bis(4-tert-butyl-2-mercaptobenzyl)-1,4,7-triazacyclononane where alkyl represents an isopropyl, (L(Pr))(2-), or an ethyl group, (L(Et))(2-), have been synthesized. It is shown that they bind strongly to ferric ions generating six-coordinate species of the type [Fe(L(alk))X]. The ground state of these complexes is governed by the nature of the sixth ligand, X: [Fe(III)(L(Et))Cl] (2) possesses an S = 5/2 ground state as do [Fe(III)(L(Et))(OCH(3))] (3) and [Fe(III)(L(Pr))(OCH(3))] (4). In contrast, the cyano complexes [Fe(III)(L(Et))(CN)] (5) and [Fe(III)(L(Pr))(CN)] (6) are low spin ferric species (S = 1/2). The octahedral [FeNO](7) nitrosyl complex [Fe(L(Pr))(NO)] (7) displays spin equilibrium behavior S = 1/2<==>S = (3)/(2) in the solid state. Complexes [Zn(L(Pr))] (1), 4.CH(3)OH, 5.0.5toluene.CH(2)Cl(2), and 7.2.5CH(2)Cl(2) have been structurally characterized by low-temperature (100 K) X-ray crystallography. All iron complexes have been carefully studied by zero- and applied-field Mössbauer spectroscopy. In addition, Sellmann's complexes [Fe(pyS(4))(NO)](0/1+) and [Fe(pyS(4))X] (X = PR(3), CO, SR(2)) have been studied by EPR and Mössbauer spectroscopies and DFT calculations (pyS(4) = 2,6-bis(2-mercaptophenylthiomethyl)pyridine(2-)). It is concluded that the electronic structure of 7 with an S = 1/2 ground state is low spin ferrous (S(Fe) = 0) with a coordinated neutral NO radical (Fe(II)-NO) whereas the S = 3/2 state corresponds to a high spin ferric (S(Fe) = 5/2) antiferromagnetically coupled to an NO(-) anion (S = 1). The S = 1/2<==>S = 3/2 equilibrium is then that of valence tautomers rather than that of a simple high spin<==>low spin crossover.