Krishna Sobti's all novels are unique. Each has different characters with different set of issues. She is a class in herself when it comes to portrayal of women characters. Woman, undoubtedly is an architect of herself, her individuality as an imaginative being. Her discourse in the novels of Sobti has been balancing. Most of the times, Sobti woman is a strong rebellion of her silence. Her discourse and attitudes are a challenge not only to marginalised position but also their repressed individuality and suppressed desires. Wherever and whenever they raise their voice, their discourse obtains unique identity and recognition. This paper talks about the image of woman in Hindi fiction in general and in the novels of Krishna Sobti in particular. Her three translated novels, to Hell with You Mitro (2007), Sunflower of the Dark (2008), and Memory's Daughter (2007) have discussed. Sobti presents panoramic image of woman in her novel which have been unmatched hitherto. Her women characters are rebellious, submissive, timid, outspoken, sexually passionate, courtesan, widows, single parent, rape victims, so called Sati-Savitri, stereotype, archetype and many other kinds. She proves herself as the representative fiction writer of Hindi literature.


Macrophages with suppressive characteristics such as Tumor associated macrophages or Myeloid derived suppressor cells have been defined showing regulatory function under inflammatory or polarizing conditions. Until now, there are no reports indicating that under normal, non-inflammatory or non-polarizing conditions, macrophages could have immunoregulatory functions. Utilizing knock-in Foxp3-GFP mice, we identified a new population of Foxp3 positive cells that were CD11b+F4/80+ cells. These cells were observed in spleen, lymph nodes, bone marrow and thymus. Similar to Tregs, the CD11b+F4/80+Foxp3+ macrophages inhibited T cell proliferation, whereas Foxp3neg macrophages did not. The Foxp3neg macrophages could be converted to express Foxp3. These induced-CD11b+F4/80+Foxp3+ cells displayed inhibitory properties similar to natural Foxp3pos macrophages. Based on the immunoregulatory properties of these cells, we termed them Macrophage regulatory cells (Mac-regs). These Mac-regs express CD68hiF4/80hiCTLA4hiGITRhiIL-4Rhi. Interestingly, GR-1 is not a differentiation marker. The cytokine, chemokine, growth factor and genomic profiles of Mac-regs are different compared to CD11b+F4/80+Foxp3-cells. For the first time, we demonstrated the occurrence of a natural population of macrophages displaying regulatory function which may contribute to the homeostatic balance of the immune system.
 This research was supported by Grants from the NIH and AFAR.


We introduce a new approach to enable an open and public parallel machine which is accessible for multi users with multi jobs belong to different blocks running at the same time. The concept is required especially for parallel machines which are dedicated for public use as implemented at the LIPI Public Cluster. We have deployed the simplest technique by running multi daemons of parallel processing engine with different configuration files specified for each user assigned to access the system, and also developed an integrated system to fully control and monitor the whole system over web. A brief performance analysis is also given for Message Parsing Interface (MPI) engine. It is shown that the proposed approach is quite reliable and affect the whole performances only slightly.


Description of the basic procedures for publishing electronic journals, including both titles that exist only in an electronic version and those that are electronic versions of a printed journal. The authors describe the basic formats used for publishing on the internet as well as the tools and procedures necessary for creating web pages and documents in pdf. The advantages of e-publishing as compared to the printing process are also explored.


It is generally believed that O stars, confined near the galactic midplane, are somehow able to photoionize a significant fraction of what is termed the "diffuse ionized gas" (DIG) of spiral galaxies, which can extend up to 1–2 kpc above the galactic midplane. The heating of the DIG remains poorly understood, however, as simple photoionization models do not reproduce the observed line ratio correlations well or the DIG temperature. We present turbulent mixing layer (TML) models in which warm photoionized condensations are immersed in a hot supersonic wind. Turbulent dissipation and mixing generate an intermediate region where the gas is accelerated, heated, and mixed. The emission spectrum of such layers is compared with observations of Rand of the DIG in the edge-on spiral NGC 891. We generate two sequence of models that fit the line ratio correlations between [S ii]/Hα, [O i]/Hα, [N ii]/[S ii], and [O iii]/Hβ reasonably well. In one sequence of models, the hot wind velocity increases, while in the other, the ionization parameter and layer opacity increase. Despite the success of the mixing layer models, the overall efficiency in reprocessing the stellar UV is much too low, much less than 1%, which compels us to reject the TML model in its present form.


Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional. ABSTRACT Aristotle's theory of seed has occupied a very important place in the history of ancient embryology and medicine. Previous studies have overemphasized, in light of the APo. II method, Aristotle's definition of seed as male semen. In this paper, I wish to show that there are at least three independent definitions of seed working in Aristotle's Generation of Animals: seed as male semen, seed as female menstruation and seed as embryo. Those three definitions are mutually exclusive on the one hand, but on the other hand, they are also capable of being unified into one Aristotelian account, which can help us understand better Aristotle's theory of seed.


The Irish airline Ryanair is estimated to employ, either directly or through companies such as Crewlink or Brookfield Aviation, some 12,000 pilots, cabin crew and other workers operating from 87 bases throughout Europe. Cabin crew supplied by Crewlink are invariably employed under three year fixed-term contracts with a 12 month probationary period.
Clause 6 of such contracts typically provides:
"As the Client's aircraft are registered in the Republic of Ireland and as you will perform your duties on these aircraft your employment is based in the Republic of Ireland."
Clause 37 then typically provides:
"The employment relationship between the Company and you shall at all times be governed by the laws in effect and as amended from time to time in the Republic of Ireland. The Irish courts have jurisdiction in all matters relating to the execution and termination of this contract."
That clause, it should be noted, goes on to provide:
"In the event that this clause becomes inoperable due to legislative changes, legal directive or any other change that the Company determines as material, then this contract will become null and void and your employment with the company will cease and you will be paid the statutory amount in lieu of notice."
The applicability of these two clauses has been considered in recent times by courts in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Norway. In Beyer v Ryanair (8 Ca 8031/09), the Bremen Labour Court ruled, on 1 April 2009, in a case brought by a cabin director based at Bremen airport, that the German courts did not have jurisdiction. This decision was followed by the Wesel Labour Court on 2 February 2010 in Dominguez v Crewlink (1 Ca 2253/09), a case brought by a flight attendant based at Weeze airport. Similar decisions were made by the Courts of Velletri and Bergamo in Iaccarino v Ryanair (985/2013) – flight attendant based at Naples airport – and de Blasio v Ryanair (920/2014) – pilot based at Bergamo airport – on 19 February 2015 and 12 March 2015 respectively. The decision of the Bergamo court was appealed to the Labour Section of the Brescia Court of Appeal which, by decision of 23 March 2016, dismissed the appeal (Order no.21/2016). It should be noted that the Italian Supreme Court, in a case relating to a flight attendant employed by a Belgian company on Belgian aircraft operating out of Fiumicino airport, had previously ruled that the Italian courts did not have jurisdiction in such cases (Cass. Joint Sections, Order no. 18509 of 20 August 2009).
This article will focus on the litigation in Belgium and in Norway.


Refinements of one ideally ordered and two partially disordered dolomites. Progressive and gradual changes as disorder increases. Completely disordered crystals could not be recovered using piston-cylinder methods owing to reordering during the quench. Disorder is complete by 1150 degrees C. Electron density maps based on intensity data from specimens which exceeded the critical disordering temperature suggest CO 3 group disorder of a rotational kind.--Modified journal abstract.


The van der Pol oscillator has interesting properties central to the study of electrical circuits and nonlinear dynamics. This paper demonstrates the effect of modelling the van der Pol oscillator with hysteresis in the inductance element, a feature often omitted, using the derivative of a Preisach nonlinearity. The system is then solved using a recently developed algorithm and it is shown that multiple limit cycles are present.


Proliferating trichilemmal tumour (PTT) is an uncommon neoplasm that has been derived from the outer root sheath of hair follicle. We describe a case of a 73 year old female who presented with solitary friable nodular mass on scalp measuring 3.5x2x1cm.She underwent local excision of this growth. Histologically, tumour shows trichilemmal keratinisation without interposed granular layer which was characterized by poor circumscription with invasion of surrounding tissue with marked nuclear atypia, hyperchromasia and atypical mitotic activity.


AIMS
Studies assessing transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TF-TAVI) showed lower rates of in-hospital mortality at high-volume hospitals and minimum caseloads were recommended to assure quality standards.

METHODS AND RESULTS
All patients in the German mandatory quality assurance registry with elective or urgent TF-TAVI procedures in 2018 and 2019 at 81 and 82 hospitals, respectively, were analysed. Observed in-hospital mortality was adjusted to expected mortality by the German AKL-KATH score (O/E) as well as by the EuroScore II (O/E2). Hospital volume and O/E were correlated by regression analyses and volume quartiles. 18 763 patients (age: 81.1 ± 1.0 years, mean EuroSCORE II: 6.9 ± 1.8%) and 22 137 patients (mean age: 80.7 ± 3.5 years, mean EuroSCORE II: 6.5 ± 1.6%) were analysed in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The average observed in-hospital mortality was 2.57 ± 1.83% and 2.36 ± 1.60%, respectively. Unadjusted in-hospital mortality was significantly inversely related to hospital volume by linear regression in both years. After risk adjustment, the association between hospital volume and O/E was statistically significant in 2019 (R2 = 0.049; P = 0.046), but not in 2018 (R2 = 0.027; P = 0.14). The variance of O/E explained by the number of cases in 2019 was low (4.9%). Differences in O/E outcome between the first and the fourth quartile were not statistically significant in both years (1.10 ± 1.02 vs. 0.82 ± 0.46; P = 0.26 in 2018; 1.16 0 .97 vs. 0.74 ± 0.39; P = 0.084 in 2019). Any chosen volume cut-off could not precisely differentiate between hospitals with not acceptable quality (>95th percentile O/E of all hospitals) and those with acceptable (O/E ≤95th percentile) or above-average (O/E < 1) quality. For example, in 2019 a cut-off value of 150 would only exclude one of two hospitals with not acceptable quality, while 20 hospitals with acceptable or above-average quality (25% of all hospitals) would be excluded.

CONCLUSION
The association between hospital volume and in-hospital mortality in patients undergoing elective TF-TAVI in Germany in 2018 and 2019 was weak and not consistent throughout various analytical approaches, indicating no clinical relevance of hospital volume for the outcome. However, these data were derived from a healthcare system with restricted access to hospitals to perform TAVI and overall high TAVI volumes. Instead of the unprecise surrogate hospital volume, the quality of hospitals performing TF-TAVI should be directly assessed by real achieved risk-adjusted mortality.


Strawberry, a high value fruit crop, has recently become amenable for genetic studies due to genomic resources and CRISPR/CAS9 tools. Unlike ovary-derived botanical fruits, strawberry is an accessory fruit derived from receptacle, the stem tip subtending floral organs. Although both botanical and accessory fruits initiate development in response to auxin and GA released from seeds, the downstream auxin and GA signaling mechanisms underlying accessory fruit development remain unknown. Using wild strawberry, we performed in depth molecular characterizations of accessory fruit development. We show that auxin signaling proteins FveARF8/FveARF6 are bound and hence inhibited by FveIAA4 and FveRGA1, repressors in auxin and GA signaling pathways. This inhibition is relieved post-fertilization or by the application of GA or auxin. Mutants of FveRGA1 developed parthenocarpic fruit suggesting a conserved function of DELLA proteins in fruit set. Further, FveARF8 was found to repress the expression of a GA receptor gene GID1c to control fruit's sensitivity to GA, revealing a novel crosstalk mechanism. We demonstrate that consensus co-expression network provides a powerful tool for non-model species in the selection of interacting genes for functional studies. These findings will facilitate the improvement of strawberry fruit productivity and quality by guiding future production of parthenocarpic fruit. One sentence summary Genome editing and network analysis are applied to investigating the mechanism of accessory fruit initiation in the wild strawberry, revealing conserved as well as novel crosstalk mechanisms. The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantcell.org) is: Zhongchi Liu (email@example.com)


Use of water treatment plant residuals (WTR), as a soil amendment is a promising alternative to landfill disposal. Unfortunately, WTR has a propensity to bind with phosphate, which is an important plant nutrient. Phosphate may be added to WTR prior to soil application. This type of pretreatment may convert WTR from a phosphate consumer to a phosphate supplier. The binding of phosphate to WTR is typically attributed to surface complexation with metal oxides. However, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) data and phosphate-WTR adsorption equilibrium data indicate that phosphate also binds to a cationic polyelectrolyte that is added during water treatment processes. Using the FITEQL optimization program, equilibrium constants and total number of surface sites were determined for the polymer. Results from the FITEQL optimization were used to model binding of phosphate by cationic polymer. Binding of phosphate by hydrous ferric oxide was modeled using a diffuse double layer model, which included surface precipitation (MICROQL). The model was validated through the use of phosphate equilibrium partitioning data at pH values of 6 and 8. The model predicted that a significant fraction of phosphate adsorbed onto WTR is associated with the cationic polymer.


The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of maternal age at first birth on low birth weight, preterm birth and low Apgar scores at one minute and at five minutes among live births delivered to primiparous Brazilian women in the city of São Paulo. Analyses were based on 73,820 birth records from the 1998 birth cohort. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between maternal age and each outcome variable, controlling for the following risk factors: delivery mode, plurality, sex, maternal education, number of prior losses, prenatal care, race, parity and community development. Maternal ages below 20 and above 30 years were significantly associated with the risks of low birth weight and preterm birth, but no association was found between maternal ages and Apgar score, with the exception that ages 15–19 reduced the odds of a low one-minute score. Even though this result seems to be inconsistent, low birth weight, preterm birth and low Apgar scores measure different dimensions of newborn well-being, and the association of each measure with maternal age is expected to diverge.


Abstract. Wildfires affecting forest ecosystems and post-fire silvicultural treatments may cause considerable changes in soil properties. The capacity of different microbial groups to recolonise soil after disturbances is crucial for proper soil functioning. The aim of this work was to investigate some microbial soil properties and enzyme activities in semiarid and dry Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis M.) forest stands. Different plots affected by a wildfire event 17 years ago without or with post-fire silvicultural treatments 5 years after the fire event were selected. A mature Aleppo pine stand, unaffected by wildfire and not thinned was used as a control. Physicochemical soil properties (soil texture, pH, carbonates, organic matter, electrical conductivity, total N and P), soil enzymes (urease, phosphatase, β-glucosidase and dehydrogenase activities), soil respiration and soil microbial biomass carbon were analysed in the selected forests areas and plots. The main finding was that long time after this fire event produces no differences in the microbiological soil properties and enzyme activities of soil after comparing burned and thinned, burned and not thinned, and mature plots. Moreover, significant site variation was generally seen in soil enzyme activities and microbiological parameters. We conclude that total vegetation recovery normalises post-fire soil microbial parameters, and that wildfire and post-fire silvicultural treatments are not significant factors affecting soil properties after 17 years.


The effect of an optimum dialysis fluid calcium concentration (1.625 mmol/l) on calcium mass transfer from dialysis fluid to patient was assessed in patients on routine hemodialysis. While there was a mean body gain of only 3.0 mmol of calcium during dialysis, a marked variation occurred with losses and gains of body calcium up to 16.4 and 18 mmol respectively. A significant correlation was noted between the mass transfer of calcium and the dialysis fluid calcium concentration (r = 0.834, p less than 0.01) which was found to vary by at least 5%. This variation was due to a manufacturing variation and not due to inaccurate dilution of the dialysis fluid concentrate. These data suggests that such a manufacturing variation may expose maintenance hemodialysis patients to periods of excessive calcium loss or gain and thereby favor renal osteodystrophy or soft tissue calcification. In keeping with published data, the mean measured dialysis fluid calcium concentration (1.61 +/- 0.02 mmol/l) should be satisfactory for most patients and it is recommended that dialysis fluid concentrates be manufactured with closer tolerance limits.


Ubuntu has launched the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, 2020–2030. This commentary stipulates how ubuntu can reinforce the Pachamama rights and its significance to social work practice. The African philosophy of ubuntu has potential to enhance the framework of understanding environmental rights from an eco-spiritual social work perspective and integrating the concepts of Pachamama rights. Clearly showing the link between Pachamama and ubuntu, this paper reminds social workers to advance the Rights of Nature.


Agricultural practices such as harvesting of crops cause the pathogens to disseminate in abundance and may cause diseases, like skin and respiratory allergies in an epidemic form. Also the farm workers were likely to be exposed repeatedly to high doses of fungal spore allergens from crop harvesting operations. At Srikakulam, located in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh, India, the major crops grown include rice and sugarcane. As part of a major study on the airspora of Srikakulam the effect of harvesting of these two crops on aerial spore concentrations was studied through rotorod trappings. The results showed an enormous increase in the spore load not only of the fungi pathogenic to the crop but also saprophytic fungi while the crop was harvested. The increase in the pathogenic fungal spores was large as evidenced by the increase of the rice crop pathogens as Trichoconis padwickii, Ustilaginoidea virens, Cochilobolus oryzae etc.


A novel integrated circuit transmission line, trench waveguide, has been developed for high frequency/high speed applications. The three-dimensional structure is suitable as a low impedance interconnect. The fabrication process developed uses special wet etch, and angle evaporation techniques. Measurements on large-scale models of the device yielded impedances as low as 12 Omega . >


The high prevalence of chronic wounds infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) coupled with the rise of antibiotic resistance is now a serious global health threat. Once systemic, current therapies capable of successfully clearing the infection are limited. Aboriginal bush medicine has been used for thousands of years hence, we selected a native Australian plant to evaluate its bactericidal activity against MRSA.


In the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, the ROD Crate DAQ provides a complete framework to implement data acquisition functionality at the boundary between the detector specific electronics and the common part of the data acquisition system. Based on a plugin mechanism, it allows selecting and using common services (like data output and data monitoring channels) and developing simple libraries to control, monitor, acquire and/or emulate detector specific electronics. Providing also event building functionality, the ROD Crate DAQ is intended to be the main data acquisition tool for the first phase of detector commissioning. This paper presents the design, functionality and performance of the ROD Crate DAQ and its usage in the ATLAS DAQ and during detector tests


Learning analytics aims to evaluate the data obtained from learning environments with various methods and to improve the learner experience on educational platforms. Thus, educational institutions will be able to develop their strategies and policies regarding the improvement and development of the learning process. In addition, it will help strengthen learner-oriented systems too. In practice, learning analytics, especially based on the analysis of data on learning management systems. However, ignoring the data sets on the systems used by education and training complementary units such as libraries causes the results of the implementation to be questioned. The framework and library-specific evaluation of learning analytics applications performed in universities was discussed in this study. In addition, it was aimed to determine the place of libraries in learning analytics. The documentary research method was used in this study. Studies on learning analytics and educational data mining have been identified by this method and library-learning analytics relationship has been evaluated. According to the research results, university libraries have many data sets of their users on their websites, electronic systems and social media tools. One-way learning analytics applications that these data sets are not included will lead to deficiencies in planning the future. In addition, libraries should consider ethical issues related to learning analytics, such as user privacy, data privacy and security.


Traffic signal control is an essential and chal-lenging real-world problem, which aims to alleviate traffic congestion by coordinating vehicles' movements at road in-tersections. Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) combines deep neural networks (DNNs) with a framework of reinforcement learning, which is a promising method for adaptive traffic signal control in complex urban traffic networks. Now, multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MARL) has the potential to deal with traffic signal control at a large scale. However, current traffic signal control systems still rely heavily on simplified rule- based methods in practice. In this paper, we propose: (1) a MARL algorithm based on Nash Equilibrium and DRL, namely Nash Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (Nash-A3C); (2) an urban simulation environment (SENV) to be essentially close to the real-world scenarios. We apply our method in SENV, obtaining better performance than benchmark traffic signal control methods by 22.1%, which proves that Nash-A3C to be more suitable for large industrial level deployment.


Navigation through large microscopic images is a potential benefit for histology or pathology teaching, for improving the quality of diagnosis in pathology, or for communicating pathologists in some telemedicine applications. However, the size of this kind of images is prohibitive for navigation with conventional techniques. This article presents a soft computing model, which permits to anticipate the pathologist trajectories in diagnosis tasks when exploring virtual slides. The Bayesian strategy combines an offline model of a baseline pathologist knowledge (the prior) and a prediction online module (the likelihood) that captures a particular pathologist navigation pattern. While optimal parameters for the biologically inspired offline model are calculated using an Expectation‐Maximization strategy, prediction is carried out by a particle filter. Parameters are estimated from several series of actual navigations performed by several pathologists in different virtual slides. The present approach is compared with other conventional prediction methods and decreases the calculated MSE in about a 50% for the entire group of pathologists. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


We address the problem of separating the short-distance, high-energy physics of cyclotron motion from the long- distance, low-energy physics within the Lowest Landau Level in field theoretic treatments of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect. We illustrate our method for the case $\nu =1/2$. By a sequence of field transformations we go from electrons to fermions that carry flux tubes of thickness $l_o$ (cyclotron radius) and couple to harmonic oscillators corresponding to magnetoplasmons. The fermions keep track of the low energy physics while the oscillators describe the Landau level, cyclotron currents etc. From this starting point we are able to get Jain and Rezayi-Read wavefunctions, and many subsequent modifications of the RPA analysis of Halperin, Lee and Read.


The powder metallurgy (PM) process is a cost efficient near net-shape technology suitable for sustainable manufacturing of structural steel components. A drawback with the PM technology is the difficulty to use oxidation sensitive alloying elements, such as Cr and Mn. These are effective alloying elements and their cost is significantly lower than the cost of the most commonly used alloying elements (Cu, Ni and Mo) in PM steel. Hence, increased usage of Cr and Mn as alloying elements in PM steel is crucial for retaining the competitiveness of the PM technology versus other metal forming processes. Sintering is the most critical process step when manufacturing PM steel parts from oxidation sensitive powder. The research work presented in this thesis was aimed at building a fundamental knowledge platform regarding key aspects of sintering PM steel prealloyed with Cr and Mn. These aspects are sintering atmosphere requirements, oxide reduction mechanisms, and effects of residual oxides on mechanical properties of the sintered material.

The test materials used in the research studies were four different water-atomized steel powder grades prealloyed with 3%Cr-0.5%Mo, 1.5%Cr-0.2%Mo, 1.8%Cr and 0.8%Cr-0.4%Mn. Compacted specimens based on these powder grades were used for sintering experiments in N2/H2 (90/10) atmosphere at temperatures in the range of 1120-1300°C. Oxide reduction reactions during sintering were studied by the means of photoacoustic spectroscopy. Mechanical properties of the sintered specimens were evaluated through hardness measurements, tensile tests and impact tests. The analysis techniques used for evaluation of specimen microstructures and fracture surfaces were light-optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.

The research work shows that the critical oxygen partial pressure in the sintering atmosphere can be well-predicted by thermodynamic calculations of oxide stabilities in the steel. Stable Cr-Mn spinel oxides on the powder surfaces are reduced via carbothermal reactions at temperatures above 1000°C. Sintering for 30 minutes at 1120°C in a reducing atmosphere gives incomplete reduction of these oxides, which does not affect the sinter neck formation in the PM part. Increased sintering temperature to 1200-1250°C enables nearly complete oxide reduction, although high PM part density may obstruct the reduction of the stable oxides due to less effective CO diffusion in the pore system of the part. Residual oxides after sintering are in the form of micrometer size particulate features and these have no detrimental effect on the evaluated mechanical properties of the PM steel.


Two different variants of secure routing algorithms are proposed
in the present work. In both the variants a stable route is established between source and destination.

The selected route is associated with the nodes having sufficient energy to establish the route
and to transmit the data packets, minimum velocity to reduce the frequency of link failure, maximum
distance from the source node to reduce the number of hops in the selected route, minimum number of
neighbors to reduce the routing overhead. Each variant has two phases. In the first phase it is assumed
that the selected route has no attackers. The first phase is made more realistic in the second phase by
considering the presence of attacker in the selected route. In the first variant a node associated with the
selected route overhears the transmission of the next forwarder node to detect an attacker node in the
routing path. But a node may fail to overhear its next hop in presence of hidden node, due to limited
overhear range etc. Such problem is eliminated in the second variant. In the second variant each node
associated with the selected route searches its data packet buffer for the reception of the next data
packet from its predecessor node associated with the same route and suspects the predecessor node as
an attacker in case the next data packet is not found in the buffer. The performance of both the variants
is compared on the basis of packet delivery ratio, throughput and average end-to-end delay.

The throughput and packet delivery ratio are higher in the second variant than the first variant
whereas the average end-to-end delay is less in the second variant than the first variant.

Moreover both the variants outperform the existing schemes in terms of packet delivery
ratio, throughput and average end-to-end delay.


Lupinosis is caused by phomopsins, which are toxic metabolites of the fungus Phomopsis leptostromiformis. This thesis records a series of studies of aspects of the pathogenesis, toxicology and pathology of lupinosis and associated conditions.

A sheep bioassay developed for the estimation of phomopsins-associated toxicity in feed samples infected with Phomopsis leptostromiformis is described. Toxicity ratings provided by this bioassay were compared with results provided by a nursling rat bioassay and a chemical assay for phomopsin A. There was a poor correlation between the results from the two bioassays, but results from the sheep bioassay correlated well with those from the chemical assay.

The procedure for scoring microscopic liver damage in the sheep bioassay was modified to enable assessment of the severity of lupinosis in sheep grazing toxic lupin stubbles for various periods. Individual sheep were awarded liver injury scores as a measure of the severity of their lupinosis. The microscopic changes assessed had a dynamic interrelationship with each other, and with other parameters including the daily intake of phomopsins and the period over which they were consumed. For this reason liver injury scores could only be used to compare the severity of lupinosis in sheep in individual experiments, and at the same times during experiments. Nevertheless, liver injury scores proved to be a valuable experimental tool and were used in several of the investigations reported in this thesis.

The roles of copper and the hepatic microsomal enzymes in the pathogenesis of lupinosis were examined. It was established that copper accumulates in the liver of sheep with subacute and chronic lupinosis. The concentration of copper in the liver was positively correlated with the degree of liver injury. It was also found that the degree of liver injury was correlated positively with the concentration of selenium and negatively with the concentration of zinc.

Induction of the hepatic microsomal enzymes with DDT and phenobarbitone, and inhibition with SKF 525A and carbon disulphide, did not alter the toxicity of phomopsin A in rats. However, the toxicity in both males and females was significantly increased when hepatic microsomal enzymes were inhibited by adrenalectomy, and was significantly increased in males only when they were inhibited by cobalt chloride.

Toxicological studies established 50% lethal doses for phomopsin A in sheep and pigs following a single subcutaneous administration, and in sheep following a single oral administration and daily oral administrations. Sheep were approximately 40 times more susceptible than pigs to phomopsin A, and in sheep phomopsin A was approximately 65 times more toxic following a single subcutaneous injection rather than a single oral administration.

It was demonstrated that only the Biotype A strains of P. leptostromiformis were toxicogenic when grown on autoclaved wheat. The different strains of this biotype had varying potentials to produce phomopsin A. Evidence for a toxic phomopsin additional to phomopsins A and B is presented, and it was referred to as phomopsin C.

Aspects of the pathology, clinical chemistry and haematology of experimental phomopsins toxicosis in sheep and rats, which complemented or differed from previous descriptions, are reported. Special attention was given to lupinosis-associated spongy degeneration of the brain and lupinosis-associated myopathy in sheep. Specific experiments conducted to study the pathogenesis and pathology of these conditions are documented.


Projections of computer technology forecast processors with peak performance of 1,000 MIPS in the relatively near future. These processors could easily lose half or more of their performance in the memory hierarchy if the hierarchy design is based on conventional caching techniques. This paper presents hardware techniques to improve the performance of caches. Miss caching places a small fully-associative cache between a cache and its refill path. Misses in the cache that hit in the miss cache have only a one cycle miss penalty, as opposed to a many cycle miss penalty without the miss cache. Small miss caches of 2 to 5 entries are shown to be very effective in removing mapping conflict misses in first-level direct-mapped caches. Victim caching is an improvement to miss caching that loads the small fully-associative cache with the victim of a miss and not the requested line. Small victim caches of 1 to 5 entries are even more effective at removing conflict misses than miss caching. Stream buffers prefetch cache lines starting at a cache miss address. The prefetched data is placed in the buffer and not in the cache. Stream buffers are useful in removing capacity and compulsory cache misses, as well as some instruction cache conflict misses. Stream buffers are more effective than previously investigated prefetch techniques at using the next slower level in the memory hierarchy when it is pipelined. An extension to the basic stream buffer, called multi-way stream buffers , is introduced. Multi-way stream buffers are useful for prefetching along multiple intertwined data reference streams. Together, victim caches and stream buffers reduce the miss rate of the first level in the cache hierarchy by a factor of two to three on a set of six large benchmarks.


While Portland cement concrete (PCC) overlay has been increasingly used as a rehabilitation technique for deteriorated PCC pavements in the last decade, reflective cracking places a major limit on its durability performance. The use of ultra ductile concrete named Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) should arrest such failure mode and greatly enhance the long term performance of the overlaid pavements. In this paper, this novel concept is introduced via experimental study on the reflective cracking resistance of small-scale ECC overlaid concrete beam. The ECC specimens totally eliminate the reflective cracking mode by developing extensive micro-cracks under flexural fatigue loading, in addition to a much enhanced modulus of ruptures (MOR) compared to controlled concrete specimen. Based on finite element model (FEM) analysis of the overlay system and fatigue performance of the ECC beam, a simplified design chart for ECC overlay is presented for use in practice and life cycle assessment (LCA)-life cycle cost (LCC) analysis. The proposed ductile overlay approach should greatly enhance the durability and sustainability of the future pavement overlay.


In this paper we study intra-host viral adaptation by antigenic cooperation - a mechanism of immune escape that serves as an alternative to the standard mechanism of escape by continuous genomic diversification and allows to explain a number of experimental observations associated with the establishment of chronic infections by highly mutable viruses. Within this mechanism, the topology of a cross-immunoreactivity network forces intra-host viral variants to specialize for complementary roles and adapt to host's immune response as a quasi-social ecosystem. Here we study dynamical changes in immune adaptation caused by evolutionary and epidemiological events. First, we show that the emergence of a viral variant with altered antigenic features may result in a rapid re-arrangement of the viral ecosystem and a change in the roles played by existing viral variants. In particular, it may push the population under immune escape by genomic diversification towards the stable state of adaptation by antigenic cooperation. Next, we study the effect of a viral transmission between two chronically infected hosts, which results in merging of two intra-host viral populations in the state of stable immune-adapted equilibrium. In this case, we also describe how the newly formed viral population adapts to the host's environment by changing the functions of its members. The results are obtained analytically for minimal cross-immunoreactivity networks and numerically for larger populations.


Effects of malonylginsenoside Rb1 (GRb1-m) isolated from dried root of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer (Araliaceae) on neuronal survival and neurite outgrowth were compared with those of ginsenoside Rb1 (GRb1) using organ culture of chick embryonic dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and cell culture of DRG neurons. In the organ culture, nerve growth factor (NGF) showed neurite outgrowth promoting effect. GRb1-m (30 microM) significantly potentiated this NGF-induced neurite outgrowth with similar potency to that of GRb1 (30 microM). Low density cell culture of DRG neurons was employed to minimize the contribution of contaminating non-neuronal cells. NGF (10 ng/ml) prolonged duration of neuronal survival. Neither GRb1-m nor GRb1 (1-30 microM) changed the prolongation effect of NGF, nor did NGF show a significant effect on the neurite elongation and re-elongation after axotomy by laser beam irradiation. However, GRb1-m (10 microM) potentiated initial neurite elongation when co-treated with NGF. In the process of re-elongation of neurites, GRb1-m (1, 30 microM) also promoted it in the presence of NGF. These results suggest, first, that GRb1-m potentiates NGF-induced neurite outgrowth of chick embryonic DRGs and DRG neurons, but behaves in a slightly different manner from GRb1, and, second, that the effects of the two saponins may work primarily on neurons causing the potentiation of NGF-induced neurite outgrowth.


Interferon (IFN) is a promising drug for prevention and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in combination with chemotherapeutic agents. We previously reported that the spectra of antiproliferative activity and synergistic effect of IFN-beta when combined with anticancer drugs are more potent than those of IFN-alpha in HCC cells. However, the mechanism of the diverse antitumor effects of the IFNs is not understood yet. We studied the expression of IFN alpha receptor 2 (IFNAR2), STATs, and IFN-alpha, IFN-beta's growth-inhibitory effect, signal transduction and binding to IFNAR2 on three HCC cell lines and a tumor xenografted mouse model (12 animals/group). From the results, IFN-beta showed a significantly stronger growth-inhibitory effect than IFN-alpha on the HuH7 cell line (expressing low IFNAR2), however it was similarly high on PLC/PRF/5 and weak on HLE. In the nude mouse tumor xenograft model, IFN-beta injection significantly suppressed tumor volume relative to vehicle injection, while IFN-alpha showed weaker growth-inhibition. IFN signal transduction (phosphorylated-STAT1, 3) induced by IFN-beta was higher than that by IFN-alpha in HuH7 and tumor xenografts. Pretreatment of hepatoma cells with anti-IFNAR2 antibody blocked the IFN signaling, more for IFN-alpha. IFN-alpha's antiproliferative effect was reduced by the antibody in lower concentrations compared to that of IFN-beta. Taken together, the HCC cells that express low IFNAR2 and are resistant to IFN-alpha were sensitive to the growth-inhibitory effect of IFN-beta, which might be mediated by stronger IFN signal transduction and distinct binding to IFNAR compared to IFN-alpha.


The definitions of the lexeme ―metamorphosis‖ are in itself semiotically gripping. Whether in a more figurative level, as ―complete change of shape‖, as ―change in appearance, character‖ or in a deeper level, such as ―change of nature‖ which seems to throw doubt in the very identity of the entity which is subjected to the transformation, the metamorphosis is revealed as an instructive phenomenon of the way how the significance operates in its different strata. Very common to the mythical world and the realm of biology, it still receives a particular facet in the Franz Kafka's work The metamorphosis (1997), as a result of the significant importance given to the tempo that rules the phenomenon: not enough the tension caused by the modal concessive constitution of the transmutation of man into an insect, there is a disharmony intrinsic to the phenomenon, inasmuch as the bodily and sensory metamorphosis of Gregor was faster than the intellectual one. Furthermore, the metamorphosis motif is thus typified by a problem of phenomenological nature: what modal arrangements are in the act of Grete's consciousness when she makes a judgment about her brother?


Fixed bed arrangements find wide applications, particularly in reaction engineering, where they are employed as multi-tubular catalytic reactors for the transformation of reactants into desired products. The importance of such complicated reactors can be realized by their extensive applications as the process workhorse in various industries, e.g. chemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical. The design of such systems is predominantly rooted in macroscopic models, e.g. pseudo-continuum approaches, with effective parameters extracted from averaged semi-empirical correlations. However, such simplistic design procedures are inadequate for design of tubular fixed beds with low tube-to-particle diameter ratios, say dt/dpl10, where lateral heterogeneities of the tortuous structure lead to dominance of localised phenomena. These local or "pellet-scale" effects cannot be captured nor explained by pseudocontinuum models, and call for 3D spatially-resolved simulations of flow and transport scalars. However, majority of the prevailing efforts within the context of "particle-revolved CFD simulation", have dealt with fixed beds of spheres, because generating random packing of nonspherical pellets necessitates a cumbersome and complicated strategy to account for the orientation freedom of such pellets, specifically when collisions occur...


Judicial protection of fundamental rights in the Commonwealth Caribbean is identifiable in recent decisions in the areas of: vindicatory damages; discrimination and mala fides; proportionality; and the independence of Magistrates. Under vindicatory damages, the courts recognise the need for non‐compensatory damages for breaches of fundamental rights. In the area of discrimination judicial decisions indicate a movement towards the removal of the requirement of proof of mala fides for an allegation of unequal treatment by a public authority. Also of note are the introduction of proportionality and protection against contracting out of Constitutional rights, with regard to magistrates and their tenure.


Of the many heat shock proteins (HSPs), hsp70 appears to correlate best with heat resistance, either permanent or transient. We have investigated various approaches to quantify the concentration of hsp70, and examined the relationship between hsp70 and cells' thermal sensitivity during the development and decay of thermotolerance in model systems. Specifically, experiments were performed to determine the possibility of using the rate of synthesis of hsp70 after a second test heat shock to predict the kinetics of thermotolerance in tumor cells in vitro and in animal tumor models. We found that the cells' ability to re-initiate hsp70 synthesis in response to the test heat shock inversely correlated with retained thermotolerance. These data suggest the level of hsp70 in thermotolerant cells regulates the rate of synthesis of additional hsp70 in response to the subsequent heat challenge. Furthermore, the results showed that the rate of re-induction of hsp70 synthesis after a test heat shock can be used as a rapid measure of retained thermotolerance. This study suggests an approach for quantifying the level of retained thermotolerance during fractionated hyperthermia.


Blood can be collected from rats in a number of sampling locations. For instance, the tail vein is a superior location for blood sampling. However, the tail vein is thin so that it is sometimes hard to puncture. In addition, the tail vein has low blood flow and requires a long sampling time to get sufficient blood. The present report describes a simple blood sampling method, the vacuum blood collection method, which is usually used to obtain blood samples from patients, here used for non-anesthetized rats. The 22 G butterfly needle tip was inserted into one of the lateral tail veins approximately 2-3 cm from the tip of the tail at an angle of approximately 20°, and blood was collected in the vacuum collection tube by inserting the rubber end of the butterfly needle into the vacuum blood collection tube. The present experimental results show that the success rate was 95% in the experimental group and 90% in the beginner group. The success rate and puncture times were similar between two groups. The sampling duration was significantly shorter in the experimental group compared to beginner group. In conclusion, this vacuum blood collection method for sequential blood sampling from the tail vein of non- anesthetized rats is feasible and easy-to-learn, which might serve as a reliable alternative to other conventionally used blood sampling techniques for rats.


With the unprecedented and dramatic development of Web services in recent years, designing novel approaches for efficient Web service prediction has become of paramount importance. Quality of Service (QoS) plays a critical role in Web service recommendation. However determining QoS values of Web services is still a challenging task. For example, some QoS properties (e.g., response time, throughput) may hold different values for different users. In this paper, we describe how to develop a novel approach, PLMwsp, based on a probabilistic latent model, to predict effectively the QoS values of Web services. A Web service prediction has been developed, and experiments have been conducted to show the efficacy of our approach.


The ability to detect and locate runways/taxiways and obstacles in images captured using on-board sensors is an essential first step in the automation of low-altitude flight, landing, takeoff, and taxiing phase of aircraft navigation. Automation of these functions under different weather and lighting situations, can be facilitated by using sensors of different modalities. An aircraft-based Synthetic Vision System (SVS), with sensors of different modalities mounted on-board, complements the current ground-based systems in functions such as detection and prevention of potential runway collisions, airport surface navigation, and landing and takeoff in all weather conditions. In this report, we address the problem of detection of objects in monocular image sequences obtained from two types of sensors, a Passive Millimeter Wave (PMMW) sensor and a video camera mounted on-board a landing aircraft. Since the sensors differ in their spatial resolution, and the quality of the images obtained using these sensors is not the same, different approaches are used for detecting obstacles depending on the sensor type. These approaches are described separately in two parts of this report. The goal of the first part of the report is to develop a method for detecting runways/taxiways and objects on the runway in a sequence of images obtained from a moving PMMW sensor. Since the sensor resolution is low and the image quality is very poor, we propose a model-based approach for detecting runways/taxiways. We use the approximate runway model and the position information of the camera provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS) to define regions of interest in the image plane to search for the image features corresponding to the runway markers. Once the runway region is identified, we use histogram-based thresholding to detect obstacles on the runway and regions outside the runway. This algorithm is tested using image sequences simulated from a single real PMMW image. The camera position information provided by the GPS is not accurate. An alternative is to estimate the camera position using image-based features, such as points


Training in neglect prevention for healthcare professionals should incorporate understanding of who is at risk, what represents neglect, how signs might be identified quickly and what should be done to rectify neglectful practice and minimise further risk. It must also cover accurate reporting in line with safeguarding vulnerable adults legislation and the evaluation of what healthcare systems have contributed to the risk of neglect. Neglect is an ambiguous term, so it is important to explore how it is understood and why sometimes it is not challenged. This article discusses various issues around neglect and suggests a new approach to training that involves the analysis of clients' and practitioners' narratives and discourses about care. Understanding these narratives and discourses can help identify situations of institutional neglect.


We introduce ICU-PFC: an automatic parallelizing compiler. It receives FORTRAN source code and generates parallel FORTRAN code where OpenMP directives for parallel execution are inserted. A research compiler is developed to test automatic parallelizing techniques in the SMP environment. ICU-PFC detects DO ALL parallel loops and inserts appropriate OpenMP directives. For parallel loop detection, we designed and implemented a dependence matrix which is used for storing data dependence information of statements in a loop. In experimental results ICCT-PFC generated code showed better performance than sequential code and even manually parallelized code.


Magnesium deficiency produces a pro-oxidant systemic inflammation in rats. The purpose of these experiments was to determine if and when there is any oxidation of cellular proteins. We have found there is a significant increase in protein oxidation products, protein carbonyls, in both the brain and the kidney within 2 to 3 weeks on a magnesium deficient diet. These changes occur prior to any detectable changes in cellular glutathione, tissue damage or dysfunction. We conclude that oxidation of cellular proteins occur early in magnesium deficiency and may contribute to the tissue damage and loss of function observed in the later stages of the deficiency. This is the first demonstration of the time course of protein oxidation product development in magnesium deficient animals.


This special issue of Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering is devoted to the 16th European Workshop on Micromechanics (MME 2005), which was held in Göteborg, Sweden, at the Chalmers Conference Centre on the premises of Chalmers University of Technology, 4–6 September 2005. Göteborg is the second largest city in Sweden and is situated on the beautiful south-west coast. With its relaxed and friendly atmosphere Göteborg proudly lives up to its reputation of having the charm of a small town with all the opportunities of a big city. The MME workshop is a well recognized and established European event for creating microsensors and microactuators in the field of micromachining, microengineering and technology. The very first workshop was held at Twente University, The Netherlands, in 1989. Scientists and people from industry who are interested in the field gather annually for this event. The goals are stimulation and improvement of know-how in the field, as well as establishing cooperation and friendship between delegates. Thus MME is arranged so that people can meet in a friendly and informal atmosphere. That is why the accent is on mutual discussions around poster presentations rather than on formal oral presentations. The contributions, which came from 21 countries, were presented in four sessions and five keynote presentations. I am proud to present 24 high-quality papers from MME 2005 selected for their novelty and relevance to Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. Each paper passed a rigorous peer review process. May I take this opportunity to thank those authors who contributed their research to this special issue, which I hope gives an excellent overview of topics discussed at the workshop. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Robert Puers for advising on the selection of papers and to Dr Anke Sanz-Velasco for helping to coordinate the special issue with the Institute of Physics Publishing office at the start. I hope you enjoy reading this selection of papers.


PURPOSE
To describe the anesthetic implications, and management of a medically complex parturient, who presented for Cesarean delivery (CD). The patient had poliomyelitis complicated with severe kyphoscoliosis, which had been treated with extensive spinal surgery. We used ultrasound guidance to facilitate successful spinal analgesia and anesthesia.

CLINICAL FEATURES
A 27-yr-old woman, with a history of poliomyelitis and moderate restrictive lung disease secondary to kyphoscoliosis, presented at 38 weeks gestation for elective CD because of cephalopelvic disproportion. The woman had Harrington rods in situ from the level of the second thoracic vertebra, to the level of the fourth lumbar vertebra. Ultrasound guidance enabled one intervertebral space to be visualized (L5-S1), 3 cm from the expected spinal midline, and spinal anesthesia was performed at this interspace without any complications. A healthy infant was delivered, and the mother recovered uneventfully.

CONCLUSIONS
Spinal anesthesia can be effectively performed in patients with poliomyelitis and severe kyphoscoliosis, that has been treated with extensive Harrington instrumentation. To facilitate regional techniques in such patients, bedside ultrasound may be greatly beneficial in identifying the correct spinal interspace.


Background: Bronchial asthma (BA) has different phenotypes, and it requires a clinically effective subtype classification system. The impulse oscillometry system (IOS) is a novel device used in respiratory functional tests. However, its efficacy has not been validated. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the relationship between BA and the IOS parameters, and the difference in the therapeutic effects of inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) among the subtype classifications was evaluated using the IOS.Methods: Of the 245 patients with bronchial asthma who were screened, 108 patients were enrolled in this study. These patients were divided based on three subtypes according to the IOS result: Central predominant type (n=34), Peripheral predominant type (n=58), and resistless type (n=16). Then, the following ICSs were randomly prescribed in daily medical care: coarse-particle ICS (fluticasone propionate [FP]), fine-particle ICS (mometasone furoate [MF]), and moderate-particle ICS (budesonide [BUD]). The treatment effects were assessed using the Asthma Health Questionnaire (AHQ) and the Asthma Control Test (ACT), and were compared among the three subtypes.Results: In the central predominant type, the AHQ score of the MF group was significantly higher than that of the FP group (15.4 vs. 3.6, p<0.01) and BUD group (15.4 vs. 8.8, p<0.05), and the ACT score of the FP group was significantly higher than that of the MF and BUD groups (24.3 vs 21.7, 22.3, respectively, p<0.05) at 4 weeks after treatment. In the peripheral predominant type, the AHQ score of the FP group was significantly higher than that of the MF group (14.1 vs. 3.4, p<0.05) and the ACT score of the FP group was lower than that of the MF and BUD groups (22.8 vs 24.6, 24.4, respectively, p<0.01) at 4 weeks after treatment. In the resistless type, no significant difference was observed in the both scores among the three groups. Conclusions: A strong association was observed between IOS subtype classification and ICS particle size in terms of therapeutic efficiency in BA. This result indicates that the ICS particle size must be identified using the IOS subtype classification before treatment.


In this examination of the piety and devotional books of Reginald Pole and his friends, three booklists are compared: Pole's own, and those of Marcantonio Flaminio and Michael Throckmorton. The article also probes their comments and choices about reading and prayer, sacrament and preaching, as well as the observations of contemporaries. Piety in Pole's household was nourished principally by the Bible, the Fathers and the Imitation of Christ, but scriptural commentaries by suspect reformers also became part of their devotional reading, moulding religious identities which were unusual and became dangerous.


Cover crops (CC) can provide protection from erosion and prevent soil carbon depletion. In many cases CC are fertilized to improve carbon inputs and soil cover, however there are few studies on the residual effect of nitrogen (N) in CC biomass and its contribution to N availability of subsequent crops. In order to elucidate this question, a field experiment with rye as cover crop during fallow for corn was carried out at INTA experimental station Anguil, La Pampa. The four treatments were control (C), and CC fertilized with 0, 40 and 80 kg N ha-1 (N0, N40 and N80), in a completely randomized block design. The fertilized CC treatments were later split at V6 of the corn crop, with applications of 60 and 120 kg N ha-1 for N40 and N80 respectively (N40+60 and N80+120). Dry matter (DM) and nutrient contents of standing CC and their residues was determined at "drying" of CC, planting and harvest of corn. Corn yields were recorded at maturity. Fertilized CC had significantly higher DM and N contents than N0 throughout the sampling period; loss of N from CC residues was 38.1, 43.6, 50.2 kg ha-1 for N0, N40 and N80 respectively, around 90% of this loss occurred between "drying" and planting. Assuming the total N loss from DM, this represented 40, 35 and 22% of total corn N uptake for N0, N40 and N80. The yield response of corn to N40 and N80 was 1.5 and 6.1 Mg ha-1, resulting in N use efficiencies of 0.3 and 0.12 Mg grain per kg N applied, respectively. Fertilizer applied to corn caused yield increases of 5.0 and 1.9 Mg for N40+60 and N80+120, with efficiencies of 0.08 and 0.01 Mg grain per kg N applied, respectively. We concluded that N applied to cover crops could be an efficient practice to enhance N availability for corn.


A patient with a solitary intracranial cryptococcoma of the occipital lobe of the brain and a concomitant granuloma of similar aetiology in the breast is reported. Despite resistance of the causative fungus to 5-fluorocytosine in vitro, the patient responded well to radical excisional surgery and therapy with 5-fluorocytosine.


This volume reviews the available empirical evidence on the interrelationships between population growth and economic development in developing countries from a variety of perspectives. Issues examined include the relationship between population growth and natural resources; agriculture; savings investment and trade; health education and welfare; and labor and urbanization. Several chapters attempt to unravel the conceptual issues involved in understanding how population change affects economic development. The chapters were prepared for the Working Group on Population Growth and Economic Development which concluded that slower population growth would on balance benefit most developing countries and that the positive effects of slower population growth on economic development would be clearest in the poorest and most densely populated countries. Nevertheless the scientific literature contains few adequate studies of the effects of slower population growth in developing countries; it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about overall impacts.


The health and well-being of staff working in the NHS is a significant issue for UK health care. We sought to identify research relevant to the promotion of healthy lifestyles among NHS staff on behalf of NHS England.

 To map existing reviews on workplace-based interventions to promote health and well-being, and to assess the scope for further evidence synthesis work.

 Rapid and responsive scoping search and evidence map.

 Adult employees in any occupational setting and in any role.

 Any intervention aimed at promoting or maintaining physical or mental health and well-being. Early intervention initiatives and those addressing violence against staff, workplace bullying or harassment were also included.

 Any outcome related to the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness or implementation of interventions.

 A scoping search of nine databases was conducted to identify systematic reviews on health and well-being at work. Searches were limited by publication date (2000 to January/February 2019).

 The titles and abstracts of over 8241 records were screened and a total of 408 potentially relevant publications were identified. Information on key characteristics were extracted from the titles and abstracts of all potentially relevant publications. Descriptive statistics (counts and percentages) for key characteristics were generated and data from reviews and 'reviews of reviews' were used to produce the evidence map.

 Evidence related to a broad range of physical and mental health issues was identified across 12 'reviews of reviews' and 312 other reviews, including 16 Cochrane reviews. There also exists National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance addressing multiple issues of potential relevance. A large number of reviews focused on mental health, changing lifestyle behaviour, such as physical activity, or on general workplace health/health promotion. Most of the reviews that focused only on health-care staff addressed mental health issues, and stress/burnout in particular.

 The scoping search process was extensive and clearly effective at identifying relevant publications, but the strategy used may not have identified every potentially relevant review. Owing to the large number of potentially relevant reviews identified from the scoping search, it was necessary to produce the evidence map using information from the titles and abstracts of reviews only.

 It is doubtful that further evidence synthesis work at this stage would generate substantial new knowledge, particularly within the context of the NHS Health and Wellbeing Framework[NHS England. Workforce Health and Wellbeing Framework. 2018. URL: www.nhsemployers.org/-/media/Employers/Publications/Health-and-wellbeing/NHS-Workforce-HWB-Framework_updated-July-18.pdf (accessed 10 January 2019)] published in 2018. Additional synthesis work may be useful if it addressed an identifiable need and it was possible to identify one of the following: (1) a specific and focused research question arising from the current evidence map; it may then be appropriate to focus on a smaller number of reviews only, and provide a more thorough and critical assessment of the available evidence; and (2) a specific gap in the literature (i.e. an issue not already addressed by existing reviews or guidance); it may then be possible to undertake further literature searching and conduct a new evidence review.

 This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research programme and will be published in full in Health Services and Delivery Research; Vol. 8, No. 18. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.


Optical on-off modulators require low insertion loss, high contrast ratio (CR), small drive power and large bandwidth or bit-rate. A systematic approach to optimize the total performance of these modulators based on the quantum-confined Stark effect is presented here. The approach consists of minimizing the power/bandwidth ratio while satisfying a given CR and insertion loss. Our design consists of a large-core multimode passive waveguide with a thin buried active layer. The passive waveguide is designed to yield a high coupling efficiency to conventional single-mode fibers. The quantum well material structure is designed to maximize Delta alpha / Delta F/sup 2/, while maintaining a sufficiently large Delta alpha / alpha /sub 0/, where Delta alpha is the absorption change, alpha /sub 0/ is the residual absorption at zero bias, and Delta F is the swing of the applied electric field. Our theoretical model shows that i) wider quantum wells give larger Delta alpha / Delta F/sup 2/, and ii) the bandwidth/power ratio as high as 4 GHz/mW can be achieved simultaneously with small insertion loss, For example, with a drive voltage of 3 V, an RC limited bandwidth as high as 60 GHz is predicted, while a contrast ratio of 20 dB and a total insertion loss of 4.5 dB may also be obtained. >


Free radicals and inflammatory mediators are involved in transient focal cerebral ischemia (FCI). Preadministration of N‐acetylcysteine (NAC) has been found to attenuate the cerebral ischemia‐reperfusion injury in a rat model of experimental stroke. This study was undertaken to investigate the neuroprotective potential of NAC administered after ischemic events in experimental stroke. FCI was induced for 30 min by occluding the middle cerebral artery (MCA). NAC (150 mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally at the time of reperfusion followed by another dose 6 hr later. Animals were sacrificed after 24 hr of reperfusion. The cerebral infarct consistently involved the cortex and striatum. Infarction was assessed by staining the brain sections with 2,3,5‐triphenyltetrazolium chloride. Animals treated with NAC showed a significant reduction in infarct area and infarct volume and an improvement in neurologic scores and glutathione level. Reduction in infarction was significant even when a single dose of NAC was administered at 6 hr of reperfusion. Immunohistochemical and quantitative real‐time PCR studies demonstrated a reduction in the expression of proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and interleukin 1β (IL‐1β) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in NAC compared to that in vehicle‐treated animals. The expression of activated macrophage/microglia (ED1) and apoptotic cell death in ischemic brain was also reduced by NAC treatment. These results indicate that in a rat model of experimental stroke, administration of NAC even after ischemia onset protected the brain from free radical injury, apoptosis, and inflammation, with a wide treatment window. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Recognizing the importance of protecting indigenous property rights, as acknowledged by worldwide organizations such as the United Nations, and specifically the poor and badly governed forested communities, this paper elected as its Use Case the implementation of the Indian Forest Rights Act from 2006. Historically, India has a large number of forest dwelling tribes or which are largely dependent on forest products for their livelihood. However, after gaining independence, Indian forests become property of the state and thus the right of residing or traditional collection of forest produces become illegal in a number of forest areas designated as reserved or protected forest areas by the government. This denied the forest dwelling tribes and other related tribes their historical rights to earn their livelihoods based upon forest produces. Finally, in 2006 through an extraordinary gazette, Indian government declared Indian Forest Rights Act for recognizing the traditional rights of such tribes to reside in and earn their livelihoods through forests. The background and current situation regarding the forest rights on ancestral lands and their habitat is first examined by literature review, followed by a modelling approach supported on the Land Administration Domain Model. The existing legislation is examined for its land administration aspects and related spatial dimensions with the aim to derive a specialized model applicable to the Indian Forest: IFR_LADM. From an initial set of definitions extracted from the Act, a functional, aspect-driven approach is followed. Each different aspect is first considered on its own iteration, before producing a comprehensive model where relationships and constraints are identified. To finalize the modelling, a number of Instance Level diagrams is depicted and described, in order to demonstrate how the IFR_LADM model can answer to specific, expected situations on the ground.


Several expression vector plasmids containing the tac promoter, the rrnBT1T2 terminator, and the pUC ori sequence were constructed. Some of them, the pES series, have a start codon in all three reading frames and multiple cloning sites downstream of the tac promoter and have stop codons also in all three frames and additional stop codons accompanying restriction sites. They are designed for versatile expression of truncated proteins which are produced by deleting portions of the inserted DNA.


Purpose – Investigate the causes and consequences of foreign financial institutions' divestments in China's banking sector which is an example of cross-border transactions by institutional investors.

Methodology – Use a sample of 26 foreign financial institutions' strategic investments in Chinese banks. Ten of those investments are divested after the global financial crisis. We investigate determinants of the divestment, business cooperation after the divestment, and Chinese banks' stock price reactions to the divestment announcement.

Findings – The poor performance of foreign financial institutions, which is attributable to the global financial crisis, and the institutions' regulated low equity ownership are important causes of divestment (or whole divestment). In contrast, Chinese banks' poor performance does not cause foreign divestments. Foreign financial institutions that fully divest their equity stakes usually terminate their cooperative business, which was required by the strategic investment agreement. The Bank of China and the China Construction Bank, which experienced large H-share divestments, experienced large economic declines in A-share values.

Social implications – Foreign financial institutions' strategic investments created substantial shareholder value before the divestment. Banking sector developments that rely on foreign investments are vulnerable to economic downturns in developed countries.

Originality/value of paper – To the best of our knowledge, this is the first trial to analyze the impact of divestments on divested bank performance.


Online communication and collaboration tools are widely employed by users in order to express their opinions on a vast amount of subjects. These tools were not designed to accurately identify topics, nor to point out relationships between topic elements related to a given discussion. As it turns out, there is a staggering amount of user-contributed information generally available, and conversely, a huge challenge related to accurately pointing out featured topics and their intertwining relationships and sources. The main purpose of Argument Web is to define a rich, full-featured annotation model capable of storing relationships between topics and their sources. Given the availability of rich, interlinked data about a number of related subjects, Argument Web can potentially increase the quality of online discussions and the analysis of its components. However, there is still a reduced number of real-world applications based on these concepts. Even in well-known projects, there's still a lack of exploration efforts related to the use of open and linked data. This paper presents an application model based on Argument Interchange Format (AIF) and state-of-the-art semantic Web technology. Its main contribution lies in the integration of external source information, linked data formats and data visualization aspects. The solution is then evaluated through a case-study related to the use of open and linked data on the field of public administration.


By simulating various (labour market) integration scenarios with the aid of a New Keynesian DSGE model, this paper explores the potential economic consequences and transmission mechanisms resulting from the recent refugee migration to Germany. We find that the long-run costs and benefits for domestic agents depend critically on the skill levels migrants will obtain in the long run. A failure to integrate the about 800,000 migrants (equivalent to 1% of initial German population) could reduce per capita output and consumption by 0.43% and 0.48%, respectively, while integration measures that improve their qualification structure could even yield per capita output and consumption gains of 0.34% and 0.38%, respectively. Measures that cause the migrant qualification structure to closely match that of the native population over the long term do not lead to significant changes in GDP and consumption. Overall, our model simulations suggest that the macroeconomic impact of refugee migration is small.


Although numerous studies have examined the individual effects of increased temperatures and N deposition on soil biogeochemical cycling, few have considered how these disturbances interact to impact soil C and N dynamics. Likewise, many have not assessed season-specific responses to warming and N inputs despite seasonal variability in soil processes. We studied interactions among season, warming, and N additions on soil respiration and N mineralization at the Soil Warming 3 Nitrogen Addition Study at the Harvard Forest. Of particular interest were wintertime fluxes of C and N typically excluded from investigations of soils and global change. Soils were warmed to 58C above ambient, and N was applied at a rate of 5 g m 2 y . Soil respiration and N mineralization were sampled over two years between 2007 and 2009 and showed strong seasonal patterns that mirrored changes in soil temperature. Winter fluxes of C and N contributed between 2 and 17% to the total annual flux. Net N mineralization increased in response to the experimental manipulations across all seasons, and was 8% higher in fertilized plots and 83% higher in warmed plots over the duration of the study. Soil respiration showed a more season-specific response. Nitrogen additions enhanced soil respiration by 14%, but this increase was significant only in summer and fall. Likewise, warming increased soil respiration by 44% over the whole study period, but the effect of warming was most pronounced in spring and fall. The only interaction between warming3N additions took place in autumn, when N availability likely diminished the positive effect of warming on soil respiration. Our results suggest that winter measurements of C and N are necessary to accurately describe winter biogeochemical processes. In addition, season-specific responses to the experimental treatments suggest that some components of the belowground community may be more susceptible to warming and N additions than others. Seasonal changes in the abiotic environment may have also interacted with the experimental manipulations to evoke biogeochemical responses at certain


Although several trainings have been offered to improve professional expertise on alcohol and other drugs, few have used an interdisciplinary approach and evaluated long-term improvements in the professional's work routine. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of an interprofessional training program on alcohol and other drugs offered by a Regional Reference Center for Drugs of the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil. Methods: the evaluation was carried out longitudinally using mixed methods (questionnaires (n = 29–177) and semistructured interviews (n = 28)). The participants were current workers from public institutions of health, education, social assistance, justice, and security system who attended the training. Data were collected at the beginning, the end, and one year after the end of the training. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed for quantitative data and thematic content analyses for qualitative data. Results: professionals who attended the training enhanced their understanding of substance-related issues, reduced stigma, changed their attitude, and improved their networking among the different services providing care to users. The main characteristics related to these outcomes were the interprofessional and biopsychosocial approach, and the experiential activities developed during the training. Most participants reported difficulties in implementing changes in their work routine, but those in managerial roles have reported having more autonomy to carry out such changes. Conclusions: the mixed methods converged in terms of their results. The training promoted a better understanding of issues related to substance use disorders, reduced stigma and expanded the repertoire of skills. The interprofessional and biopsychosocial approach and field activities seem to be related to these outcomes. The potential for implementing changes in daily practice was prominent among those occupying a managerial role.


Expression of CD56 has recently been introduced as one of the adverse prognostic factors in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). However, the clinical significance of CD56 antigen in APL has not been well elucidated. We assessed the clinical significance of CD56 antigen in 239 APL patients prospectively treated with all‐trans retinoic acid and chemotherapy according to the Japan Adult Leukemia Study Group APL97 protocol. All patients were prospectively treated by the Japan Adult Leukemia Study Group APL97 protocol. The median follow‐up period was 8.5 years. Positive CD56 expression was found in 23 APL patients (9.6%). Expression of CD56 was significantly associated with lower platelet count (P = 0.04), severe disseminated intravascular coagulation (P = 0.04), and coexpression of CD2 (P = 0.03), CD7 (P = 0.04), CD34 (P < 0.01) and/or human leukocyte antigen‐DR (P < 0.01). Complete remission rate and overall survival were not different between the two groups. However, cumulative incidence of relapse and event‐free survival (EFS) showed an inferior trend in CD56+ APL (P = 0.08 and P = 0.08, respectively). Among patients with initial white blood cell counts of 3.0 × 109/L or more, EFS and cumulative incidence of relapse in CD56+ APL were significantly worse (30.8% vs 63.6%, P = 0.008, and 53.8% vs 28.9%, P = 0.03, respectively), and in multivariate analysis, CD56 expression was an unfavorable prognostic factor for EFS (P = 0.04). In conclusion, for APL with higher initial white blood cell counts, CD56 expression should be regarded as an unfavorable prognostic factor.


This study investigates the relationship between family network density and income hiding in rural Liberia. We link people's behaviour in a modified lottery experiment and a time preference game to detailed information about their family networks. We find that individuals with a dense family network are more likely to pay a fraction of their endowment to hide their earnings from the experiment. This association is mainly driven by male respondents. We also find that men with dense family networks have lower discount rates than those with smaller networks. Qualitative responses suggest that these men perceive us as an alternative bank: if they have no immediate purpose for the money, they prefer the research team to keep it for two weeks. This prevents them from spending it on things other than its intended use and may keep predatory members of the family network at bay. The negative association between family network density and investment decisions is stronger if these networks are characterised by members who sought financial support in the past. Taken together, our results offer tentative evidence that dense family networks, under some conditions, have adverse impacts on economic decision-making.


Hierarchical attention networks have recently achieved remarkable performance for document classification in a given language. However, when multilingual document collections are considered, training such models separately for each language entails linear parameter growth and lack of cross-language transfer. Learning a single multilingual model with fewer parameters is therefore a challenging but potentially beneficial objective. To this end, we propose multilingual hierarchical attention networks for learning document structures, with shared encoders and/or shared attention mechanisms across languages, using multi-task learning and an aligned semantic space as input. We evaluate the proposed models on multilingual document classification with disjoint label sets, on a large dataset which we provide, with 600k news documents in 8 languages, and 5k labels. The multilingual models outperform monolingual ones in low-resource as well as full-resource settings, and use fewer parameters, thus confirming their computational efficiency and the utility of cross-language transfer.


Pregnancy management is a typical medical shared follow up, between general practicioner and the specialist, in charge of birth process, in the Obstetrical Center. To improve this health care net coordination, propositions are made based upon most frequently done errors analysis, practicioner and specialist errors too.


Using the skew-symmetry of the differential operators and multiplication operators in the canonical representations of finite-dimensional classical Lie algebras, we obtain some noncanonical polynomial representations of the classical Lie algebras. The representation spaces of all polynomials are decomposed into irreducible submodules, which are infinite-dimensional. Bases for the irreducible submodules are constructed. In particular, we obtain some new infinite-dimensional irreducible modules of symplectic Lie algebras that are not of highest weight type.


For at least two centuries, scientists have been enthralled by the "zombie" behaviors induced by mind-controlling parasites. Despite this interest, the mechanistic bases of these uncanny processes have remained mostly a mystery. Here, we leverage the recently established Entomophthora muscae-Drosophila melanogaster "zombie fly" system to reveal the molecular and cellular underpinnings of summit disease, a manipulated behavior evoked by many fungal parasites. Using a new, high-throughput behavior assay to measure summiting, we discovered that summiting behavior is characterized by a burst of locomotion and requires the host circadian and neurosecretory systems, specifically DN1p circadian neurons, pars intercerebralis to corpora allata projecting (PI-CA) neurons and corpora allata (CA), who are solely responsible for juvenile hormone (JH) synthesis and release. Summiting is a fleeting phenomenon, posing a challenge for physiological and biochemical experiments requiring tissue from summiting flies. We addressed this with a machine learning classifier to identify summiting animals in real time. PI-CA neurons and CA appear to be intact in summiting animals, despite E. muscae cells invading the host brain, particularly in the superior medial protocerebrum (SMP), the neuropil that contains DN1p axons and PI-CA dendrites. The blood-brain barrier of flies late in their infection was significantly permeabilized, suggesting that factors in the hemolymph may have greater access to the central nervous system during summiting. Metabolomic analysis of hemolymph from summiting flies revealed differential abundance of several compounds compared to non-summiting flies. Transfusing the hemolymph of summiting flies into non-summiting recipients induced a burst of locomotion, demonstrating that factor(s) in the hemolymph likely cause summiting behavior. Altogether, our work reveals a neuro-mechanistic model for summiting wherein fungal cells perturb the fly's hemolymph, activating the neurohormonal pathway linking clock neurons to juvenile hormone production in the CA, ultimately inducing locomotor activity in their host.


The statistical properties of the random birefringence that affects long single-mode fibers are experimentally evaluated by means of a polarization-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry. The measurements are in good agreement with theoretical predictions and show, for what we believe is the first time, that the components of the local birefringence vector are Gaussian random variables.


Session of Monday, December 30, 1912 President David White called the Society to order at 10 o'clock at the opening session, Monday morning, December 30, 1912, in Lampson Hall of Yale University. Following some introductory remarks the President called for the first matter of business on the program, the report of the Council, which was read by the Secretary. REPORT OF THE COUNCIL To the Paleontological Society in Fourth Annual Meeting assembled: The regular meeting of the Council was held at Washington, D. C., immediately following the adjournment of the Society, on December 30, 1911. Since this meeting all business of the Society has been arranged as heretofore, by correspondence. The details of administration for the Society's fourth year are presented in the following reports of officers: Secretary's Report To the Council of the Paleontological Society: Meetings. —The proceedings of the third annual meeting of the Society, held at Washington, D. . . .


Security is a crucial factor in multi-agent systems where agents dynamically leave and enter the system. In this paper, we continue our work on security for agent-based systems by proposing a new trust model allowing agents to decide about a target agent. The model combines two techniques: using reports provided by the trustworthy agents regarding to direct and indirect interaction histories, and using reports provided by the referee agents in the form of recommendations. In addition, after a periodic time, the actual behavior of the target agent is checked against the provided information by others to adjust their credibility. The paper considers different parameters for computing trust, which is represented as a quantitative value.


Stool specimens from 3,038 children in rural and urban areas near Harare were examined for Giardia lamblia cysts. Preliminary studies, using specimens collected on three consecutive days from 157 known cyst passers, showed that over 89% of infections could be diagnosed on single stool specimens by examination of Gomori-stained smears. The overall prevalence of giardial infection was 19.4% with significantly more urban children (21.1%) passing cysts than rural children (16.7%). In urban areas the highest prevalence was in young (5-6 year) children, while in rural areas, the highest prevalence was in older (9-10 year) children. Of 132 children treated with Entamizole a metronidazole-diloxanide combination, 127 (96.2%) had ceased excreting cysts by the fifth treatment day. Follow-up examination of these children showed a high rate of reinfection, with 29.6% excreting cysts during the year following treatment. During the same period 13.3% of previously uninfected children had started passing cysts, while over half of infected, but untreated, children had undergone apparent "self-cure." Younger children were more likely to be reinfected than older children, and continued excreting cysts for a longer period of time.


Aim The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of E-OA-07 on individuals having osteoarthritis of the knee. Background Lanconone® (E-OA-07) is a widely marketed dietary supplement which has been previously studied in different clinical settings for managing chronic joint pain. This was a confirmatory study planned at a lowered dose regimen with the purpose of improving compliance and reducing consumer cost. Methods Male and female participants aged between 40 and 65 years, with history of joint pain for at least 3 years, were recruited. Knee joint dysfunction of grade II/III was radiographically characterized as per Kellgren-Lawrence system of classification. Enrolled participants were randomized to receive E-OA-07 at a dose of 1000 mg/day or placebo over a period of 8 weeks. The primary efficacy parameter was assessment of change in Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain score. Whereas, the secondary parameters explored in the study included WOMAC subscales of stiffness and physical function, EQ-5D-5L questionnaire, systemic inflammatory marker (hs-CRP) and self-assessment of treatment satisfaction. Results At the end of 8 weeks, joint pain severity as per WOMAC was found to be significantly reduced in the E-OA-07 group as compared to placebo (p<0.001). Similar improvement was observed in the subscales of stiffness and physical function which corresponds to significant improvement in the quality-of-life standards of E-OA-07 participants (p<0.001), reporting higher treatment satisfaction (p<0.001). Conclusion E-OA-07 at a dose of 1000 mg/day was able to significantly reduce joint pain and thereby improve joint mobility in study participants. At the end of the study period, there was a clinically relevant change of 45.55%, 45.91% and 38.19% for pain, stiffness and physical function, respectively. Moving forward, studies could be planned for understanding the cartilage regenerative properties of E-OA-07.


: Professionalization as a process is reviewed and characteristics an occupation acquires as it becomes professionalized are outlined. Those attributes include founding a professional association with membership requirements to exclude the unqualified; control of education and admission to the profession by current members, frequently working through the professional organization; possible licensure or certification as a prerequisite to practice; a name change to provide enhanced status or prestige; and elaboration of an altruistic, service-oriented code of ethics. Relevant developments in dietetics and the history of The American Dietetic Association are then compared with this model. Advances have been and continue to be made in the above areas as the professionalization of dietetics and the dietitian progresses.


OBJECTIVE
Diagnostic pitfalls often arise in the community because of potentially misleading similarities between juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and Blau syndrome, an immune-related disorder caused by NOD2 gene mutations. It remains unclear in which population and to which extent next-generation sequencing techniques can aid in diagnosis.

METHODS
We evaluated clinical usefulness of targeted next-generation sequencing in previously diagnosed JIA. Participants were required to have symptoms and signs suspected of Blau syndrome, including at least uveitis or cutaneous lesions in addition to arthritis. Targeted sequencing was conducted on NOD2 gene to detect diagnostic variants classified as pathogenic or likely pathogenic for Blau syndrome. We assessed the molecular diagnostic yield and clinical implications on patient care.

RESULTS
Between May 1, 2008, and June 1, 2021, sequencing data were accrued from 123 previously diagnosed JIA (median age: 5 years; female: 62.6%). Targeted NOD2 sequencing yielded a positive molecular diagnosis of Blau syndrome in 21.1% (95% CI, 14.9%-29.2%), encompassing six heterozygous missense mutations classified as pathogenic variants. Among those receiving a molecular diagnosis, changes in clinical management and treatment were considered as having occurred in 38.5%. Nine predictors were identified to be associated with a higher diagnostic yield, providing clinical clues to suspect the possibility of Blau syndrome.

CONCLUSION
Among some patients with pediatric-onset arthritis complicated with uveitis or cutaneous lesions, reassessing their diagnosis of JIA may be warranted. Targeted NOD2 sequencing established the molecular diagnosis of Blau syndrome in nearly one fifth of these cases and provided clinically relevant information for patient-care decisions.


We consider non-linear massive gravity with two St\"uckelberg fields in which the diffeomorphism invariance is broken spontaneously in two of the spacetime directions. This theory admits a charged anti-de Sitter black brane solution and has recently been used in holographic context as a bulk description of a boundary field theory with momentum dissipation. Here we study the stability of the black brane solution. We identify the physical degrees of freedom and determine the healthy regions of the parameter space of the theory. We find that there is a region in parameter space, where the theory suffers from ghost instability. We recognise this as the reason for the instability found in the previous works on holographic conductivity. We also rederive the previous results for the holographic conductivity in a coordinate independent way.


This paper considers the multiple access of mobile users to a common wireless channel. The channel is slotted and the binary feedback (empty slot/nonempty slot) is sent to all accessing users. If a slot was not empty and only one user transmitted in it, the transmission is considered successful. Only the user, which had the successful transmission, receives information about its success. In the Introduction, the paper gives a review of known multiple-access algorithms for such a channel. Then our algorithm is constructed that has none of the weaknesses of the algorithms discussed in the Introduction. The algorithm is stable, in contrast to the ALOHA algorithm. It can work in a channel with capture and multiple reception. Without them, the algorithm has a throughput of 0.2891. It is shown how capture and multiple reception can increase the algorithm throughput to 0.6548 and decrease the packet delay for some fading models. The average packet delay and variance are found for two fading models. The models are Rayleigh fading with incoherent and coherent combining of joint interference power. The accessing traffic is Poisson.


An avian thymic hormone, originally designated the T1-antigen, was purified from chicken thymus by Sephadex G-75-40 chromatography and affinity chromatography, following enrichment by heat and pH treatments. It was characterized as an acidic polypeptide rich in phenylalanine, alanine and serine, lacking in histidine, tryptophan, methionine and cysteine, and having a blocked N-terminal amino acid. The hormone also was rich in hydrophobic amino acid residues, which gave it a propensity to form aggregates. Its molecular weight was estimated by gel electrophoresis and low speed sedimentation equilibrium to be 12-13 Kd, and by molecular sieving chromatography to be 15-16 Kd. The hormone was lacking in carbohydrates and amino sugars.


Long-duration manned space missions will require integrated biological and physicochemical processes for recovery of resources from wastes. This paper discusses a hybrid regenerative biological and physicochemical water recovery system designed and built at NASA's Crew and Thermal Systems Division at Johnson Space Center. The system is sized for a four-person crew and consists of a two-stage, aerobic, trickling filter bioreactor; a reverse osmosis system; and a photocatalytic oxidation system. The system was designed to accommodate high organic and inorganic loadings and a low hydraulic loading. The bioreactor was designed to oxidize organics to carbon dioxide and water; the reverse osmosis system reduces inorganic content to potable quality; and the photocatalytic oxidation unit removes residual organic impurities (part per million range) and provides in situ disinfection. The design and performance of the hybrid system for producing potable/hygiene water is described. Aspects of the system such as closure, automation and integration are discussed and preliminary results presented.


A new method for the labeling of terminal cis-diol end groups in ribopolynucleotides is described; it involves the reaction of an aqueous solution of RNA with sodium metaperiodate and subsequent reduction of the resulting terminal dialdehyde with 3H-sodium borohydride. The reaction conditions are mild, and conversion to end group-labeled RNA is nearly quantitative, as judged by the incorporation of radioactivity into pApApA and yeast transfer RNA (tRNA). With pApApA and tRNA as substrates, the specificity of reaction for 2',3'-diol end groups has been confkned. This method has been applied to the sequence analysis of an octanucleotide isolated from yeast phenylalanine tRNA. A general scheme for 3'4erminal sequence analysis of ribopolynucleotides by application of this technique is proposed.