The cycle of activities of the creation of principally new generation of reed switches with nanostructured contact surfaces was implemented. Experimental justification of the opportunity of reed switches creation with modified contact surface was given (instead of precious metals-based galvanic coating). Principally new technological process of modification of magnetically operated contacts contacting surfaces was developed, based on the usage of the ion-plasma methods of nanolayers and nanostructures forming having specified contact features.


Service quality has emerged as an important area in the hotel industry for decades. Thus, it is essential that service providers understand customer expectations and perceptions as well as the factors that influence their evaluation and satisfaction with the provided service. Hotel industry is growing each year in Mongolia. Realizing the increase in competition among hotels, hotel managers are focusing on improving the elements which contribute to service quality for customers of the hotel industry in Mongolia. The quality of service in hotel industry is an important factor of successful business. This study identifies the effects of various elements of hotel industry which affects customer satisfaction. Almost all researchers utilized service quality model and adopted their SERVQUAL instrument, based on the concept that service quality differs from industry to industry. Examining additional dimensions, identified by customers, it should be included in the service quality concept. Further, the level of importance of each specific dimension for the users of hotel services in Mongolia is then measured.


Bubble frequency and gas holdup in bubbling jets were measured by means of an electro-resistivity probe. The axial, radial and tangential velocity and fluctuation components of water in the bath were measured with a laser Doppler velocimeter. On the basis of the experimental results, the flow field in an air-water vertical bubbling jet in a cylindrical vessel was divided into 4 regions, i.e., the momentum, transition, buoyancy and surface regions with respect to the axial distance from the nozzle exit. The profiles of gas holdup, axial velocity and root mean square value of axial velocity fluctuation in each region were discussed in detail. Also, the flow rate, momentum, and kinetic energy of rising water were determined, being necessary to refine previous theoretical models predicting the fluid behavior induced by bubbles.


A broadened version of the perceptual load model was utilized to explore systematically the influence of four variables on driver's behavior: a. levels of load on the road; b. levels of load at the sides of the road; c. event's initial location (on the road vs. at the sides of the road); and d. the presence and size of advertizing billboards. 18 participants participated in two experimental sessions in a driving simulator. One of the sessions contained advertizing billboards and the other session did not. The results indicated that billboards can have a considerable effect on various aspects of driving like the time required responding to a potentially dangerous event or simply the number of accidents occurring during driving, but importantly the effect of billboards on driving was modulated by the levels of perceptual load.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Changes in rainfall and temperature brought about through climate change may affect plant species distribution and community composition of grasslands. The primary objective of this study was to test how manipulation of water and temperature would influence the plasticity of stomatal density and leaf area of bluebunch wheatgrass, Pseudoroegneria spicata. It was hypothesized that: (1) an increased water supply will increase biomass and leaf area and decrease stomatal density, while a reduced water supply will cause the opposite effect; (2) an increase in temperature will reduce biomass and leaf area and increase stomatal density; and (3) the combinations of water and temperature treatments can be aligned along a stress gradient and that stomatal density will be highest at high stress. Methods The three water supply treatments were (1) ambient, (2) increased approx. 30% more than ambient through weekly watering and (3) decreased approx. 30 % less than ambient by rain shades. The two temperature treatments were (1) ambient and (2) increased approx. 1-3 degrees C by using open-top chambers. At the end of the second experimental growing season, above-ground biomass was harvested, oven-dried and weighed, tillers from bluebunch wheatgrass plants sampled, and the abaxial stomatal density and leaf area of tillers were measured.

KEY RESULTS
The first hypothesis was partially supported--reducing water supply increased stomatal density, but increasing water supply reduced leaf area. The second hypothesis was rejected. Finally, the third hypothesis could not be fully supported--rather than a linear response there appears to be a parabolic stomatal density response to stress.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, the abaxial stomatal density and leaf area of bluebunch wheatgrass were plastic in their response to water and temperature manipulations. Although bluebunch wheatgrass has the potential to adapt to changing climate, the grass is limited in its ability to respond to a combination of reduced water and increased temperature.


Conforming Galerkin discretization of the constant-density acoustic wave equation provides optimal order convergence even in the presence of very rough coefficients, provided that the time dependence of the data (right-hand side) is minimally smooth. Such discretizations avoid the well-known first-order error ("stairstep diffraction") phenomenon produced by standard finite difference methods. On the other hand, Galerkin methods in themselves are inefficient for high frequency wave simulation, due to the implicit nature of the time step system. Mass lumping renders the time step explicit, and provides an avenue for efficient time-stepping of time-dependent problems with conforming finite element spatial discretization. Typical justifications for mass lumping use quadrature error estimates which do not hold for nonsmooth coefficients. In this paper, we show that the mass-lumped semidiscrete system for the constant-density acoustic wave equation with Q elements exhibits optimal order convergence even when the coefficient (bulk modulus) is merely bounded and measurable, provided that the right-hand side possesses some smoothness in time. We illustrate the theory with numerical examples involving discontinuous, non-grid-aligned bulk moduli, in which the coefficient averaging implicit in mass lumping eliminates the stairstep diffraction effect.


Background and Objective: Due to rises in number of peoples with coronary artery diseases, Coronary Artery bypass surgery is considered as one of the most effective treatment methods. In most of cases, adverse events and beside effects is not ignorable. This study was aimed to determine the post-CABG surgery complications in one public hospital during a range of ten years. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted on 600 patients underwent CABG surgery during 1999-2009 in one hospital of Mashhad. Patients' medical records were reviewed for cases of mortality, postoperative bleeding, cerebral complications, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, pulmonary complications and atrial fibrillation were surveyed. Data were analyzed and interpreted using SPSS descriptive statistics. Results: According to the findings of this study the mean age of patient underwent this surgery (CABG) was 56/6 ±10/2 years and most of patients (73%) were male. The highest complication rate of 31/6% was related to post operation atrial fibrillation and the lowest rate of 0.3% was related to deep vein thrombosis. Death following surgery was reported for 1/6% of patients. Conclusion: coronary artery bypasses surgery in one of the proper options, and indeed the final one, in treatment of coronary artery disease. Like other invasive treatments, this method may be associated with adverse events and complications. Proper treatment management and monitoring procedures can lead to decreases in adverse events.


We present preliminary results from a new Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) archival program aimed at tightly constraining the ancient (>4 Gyr ago) star formation histories (SFHs) of the field populations of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We demonstrate the quality of the archival data by constructing HST /Wide Field Planetary Camera 2-based colour–magnitude diagrams (CMDs; M F 555 W ∼ +8) for seven spatially diverse fields in the SMC and eight fields in the LMC. The HST -based CMDs are > mag deeper than any from ground-based observations, and are particularly superior in high surface brightness regions, e.g. the LMC bar, which contain a significant fraction of star formation and are crowding limited from ground-based observations. To minimize systematic uncertainties, we derive the SFH of each field using an identical maximum likelihood CMD fitting technique. We then compute an approximate mass weighted average SFH for each galaxy. From the average SFHs, we find that both galaxies lack a dominant burst of early star formation, which suggests either a suppression or an underfuelling of ancient star formation in the Magellanic Clouds (MCs). From 10 to 12 Gyr ago, we find that the LMC experienced a period of enhanced stellar mass growth relative to the SMC. Similar to some previous studies, we find two notable peaks in the SFH of the SMC at ∼4.5 and 9 Gyr ago, which could be due to repeated close passages with the LMC, implying an interaction history that has persisted for at least 9 Gyr. We find little evidence for strong periodic behaviour in the lifetime SFHs of both MCs, suggesting that repeated encounters with the Milky Way are unlikely. Beginning ∼3.5 Gyr ago, both galaxies show sharp increases in their SFHs, in agreement with previous studies. Subsequently, the SFHs track either remarkably well. Spatial variations in the SFH of the SMC are consistent with a picture where gas was driven into the centre of the SMC ∼3.5 Gyr ago, which simultaneously shut down star formation in the outer regions while dramatically increasing the star formation rate in the centre. In contrast, the LMC shows little spatial variation in its ancient SFH. The planned additional analysis of HST pointings at larger galactocentric radii will allow us to make more confident statements about spatial variations in the SFHs of the SMC and LMC.


In this paper, we present the methods to detect the channel delay profile and the Doppler spectrum of shallow underwater acoustic channels (SUAC). In our channel sounding methods, a short impulse in form of a sinusoid function is successively sent out from the transmitter to estimated the channel impulse response (CIR). A bandpass filter is applied to eliminate the interference from out-of-band (OOB). A threshould is utilized to obtain the maximum time delay of the CIR. Multipath components of the SUAC are specified by correlating the received signals with the transmitted sounding pulse with its shifted phases from 0 to 2Π. We show the measured channel parameters, which have been carried out in some lakes in Hanoi. The measured results illustrate that the channel is frequency selective for a narrow band transmission. The Doppler spectrum can be obtained by taking the Fourier transform of the time correlation of the measured channel transfer function. We have shown that, the theoretical maximum Doppler frequency fits well to that one obtained from measurement results.


Ileal interposition in accompaniment with sleeve gastrectomy addresses both the foregut and hindgut hypotheses and thus provides a new paradigm for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the associated metabolic abnormalities even in non morbidly obese subjects. Background: Laparoscopic leal inter Position(II) with sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is an up-coming procedure that helps to improve metabolic profile and leads to weight reduction without causing significant malabsorption, paving the way for usage of the term " metabolic surgery. " Objectives: To determine the impact of this novel procedure on glycemic control and the accompanying metabolic abnormalities of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Patients and Methods: The II and SG procedures were performed in 38 patients (M:F = 24:14). Despite their usage of optimum dosage of oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs) and/ or insulin, all patients exhibited poorly controlled T2DM (mean glycosylated hemo-globin [HbA1C]: 9.57 ± 2 %). The primary outcome was a remission of diabetes (HbA1C < 6.5% without OHA/insulin). Secondary outcomes included a reduced need for antidia-betic agents and a reduction in symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Results: The mean follow up time was 11.3 ± 9 months (range: 3–32 months). Participants were 47.5 ± 8.8 years of age (range: 29–64 years), had diabetes for a mean duration of 9.7 ± 8.8 years (range: 1–32 years), and had a mean preoperative body mass index (BMI) of 32.05 ± 7.5 kg/m2. Thirty patients (79%) exhibited hypertension, 19 (50%) had dyslipidemia, and 19 (50%) harbored significant microalbuminuria. Postoperatively, glycemic parameters (fasting and post lunch blood sugars, and HbA1C) improved for all patients (P < 0.05) at all intervals. Eighteen patients (47%) experienced a remission in diabetes and the remaining patients received a significantly lower OHA dosage. All patients demonstrated 15–30% weight loss (P < 0.05). Twenty-seven patients (90%) experienced a remission in hy-pertension. At 2 years, the mean reduction in HbA1C (36%) was greater than the reduction in BMI (20%). A declining trend in postoperative levels of lipids and microalbuminuria became evident, although the reduction was significant for microalbuminuria only. Conclusions: The laparoscopic II with SG procedure appears promising for gaining control of T2DM and associated morbidities. To substantiate our preliminary findings, additional long-term data that involves a larger number of patients is necessary.


Visualizing the dynamic behavior of electric circuits constitutes an important part of the learning process for students studying circuits. Circuit variables (voltage, current, power, and stored energy) are traditionally displayed separately from the circuit schematic as a Cartesian plot, but advances in scientific visualization indicate that merging all relevant data into a single visualization object, or graphic metaphor, improves the viewer's ability to perceive global relationships and thereby enhances understanding of the system under study. CircuitViz places the two-dimensional circuit diagram into a three-dimensional coordinate system and displays the circuit variables directly on the circuit diagram along the third spatial variable, and the display is animated to show time-dependent behavior. The visual cues are motivated by mechanical analogies (primarily the water-flow analogy) so as to draw upon the student's existing knowledge base. Examples of first-order circuits are presented in the paper. Initial classroom tests indicate that CircuitViz can motivate discussions of circuit operation by effectively illustrating qualitative circuit behavior, and most students report that the technique improved their understanding of transient circuit behavior.


William Lane Craig rejects Platonism (the view that uncreated abstract objects (AOs) exist) in favor of nominalism because he believes Platonism fatally compromises God's aseity. For Craig, concrete particulars (including essences) exist, but properties do not. Yet, we use property-talk, following Carnap's "linguistic frameworks." There is, however, a high cost to Craig's view. I survey his views and then explore the importance of essences. But, next, I show that his nominalism undermines them. Thus, we have just interpretations of reality. Worse, nominalism undermines creation's determinacy. Last, I suggest AOs are created, but in a more fundamental sense than Craig considers.


This study presents the result of a Model-based seismic inversion technique which was used to invert an acoustic impedance structure within a reservoir interval by intergrating well logs and 3D post stack seismic data obtained from XY field offshore Niger Delta. The purpose was to delineate lateral and vertical alternations in subsurface rock properties which is caused by difference in lithofacies within the reservoir interval. This would help to define hydrocarbon fairways better and constrain the range of hydrocarbon zones for field development. The inversion workflow used in this study includes forward modelling of reflection coefficients from a low frequency impedance model driven from well logs and convolution of the reflection coeffiecients with a source wavelet derived from the seismic data. Acoustic impedance cross section obtained from the inversioin algorithim showed impedance values increasing from 4112 to 7539 (m/sec*g/cm 3 ) from top to bottom of the reservoir with gas filled sand facies observed at the top of the reservoir within time window 1900-2100msec. Below time window 2100msec, there is variation in impedance values observed within the anticlinal structures seen at this interval which suggests porous sand facies containing little shale intercalations. This is characteristic of sandstone reservoirs within the Agbada formation in the Niger Delta. These sands were most likely deposited through distributaries channel deposits, distributaries mouth bars, barrier bars, alluvial fans and crevasse which characterize the reservoir rocks (sandstones) in the Niger Delta. At time window 2100-2200msec, anticlinal structures containing porous sand facies with little shale intercalations was observed again. At time window 2200msec, water bearing sand facies (clean sandstone) was observed and at the bottom of the reservoir within time window 2300- 2500msec, the impedance was dominantly high which suggests the presence of shale facies at the bottom of the reservoir. Gas-oil contact (GOC) was observed between time window 2100-2200msec of the acoustic impedance section. These variations in acoustic impedance amplitude is due to lateral changes in lithofacies within the reservoir. The results obtained gave enhanced structural disposition of the reservoir and are important for accurate stratigraphic imaging interpretation to lower the risk in drilling of exploratory and development wells. Keywords : Acoustic impedance, Seismic inversion, Model-based, Lithofacies


The original concept that led to the structuring of a computer-based medical decision support system (DSS) that is able to support a physician's diagnosis is introduced in this paper. The concept's implementation modeled a generic DSS, the core of which are an integrated knowledge/information base (KIB) along with the inference properties of a data evaluator. The KIB encapsulates the necessary medical knowledge and experience in the form of rules and constraints, preemptive tasks and actual patients' clinical data. The data evaluator handles approved medical subjective and objective criteria for assessing the KIB's data. The data evaluator incorporates a medical standard data gathering and decision process, structured upon the principles of the clinical differential diagnosis methodology, and has been integrated in the system by means of both algorithmic and artificial intelligence techniques. The novel model and the resulted computer-based package have been extensively tested at the Pulmonary Department of the University Regional Hospital Patras, Greece.


The Notch signaling pathway plays a substantial role on human NK cell development, however the role of Notch on KIR upregulation and acquisition of effector function has not been explored. To evaluate how Notch influences terminal differentiation, cord blood derived NK cells or sorted KIR- peripheral blood NK cells were cultured with IL-15 for 7 days in the presence or absence of gamma-secretase inhibitor, known to inhibit Notch signaling. Inhibition of Notch signaling significantly decreased KIR expression. Conversely, co-culturing the same cells with OP9 cells bearing Notch ligands enhanced KIR expression. Overexpression of the active portion of Notch on cord blood derived NK cells after 28 days of culture resulted in a 2-fold increase in KIR expression indicating that Notch signaling plays a direct, cell intrinsic, role in KIR regulation. By knocking down delta-like 1 (DLL1) on NK cells and co-culturing them with OP9 cells expressing Notch ligands we show that DLL1 mediated cis-inhibition controls KIR expression. Notch signaling also enhances CD16 upregulation that precedes KIR expression. More important than receptor expression is function. We found that Notch signaling induces increased cytolytic effector capacity and cytokine secretion, even on post-transplant samples where NK cell function is inherently defective. Given these attributes of Notch signaling, we propose Notch agonists can enhance NK cell maturation and tumor killing in a post-transplant setting.


This research was conducted to determine suitable bean cultivars under Cukurova conditions, as well as to find out the correlations between seed yield and yield components. According to the experiment years' average, the seed yield of bean cultivars varied from 57.4 to119.6 kg/da and from 16.5 to 97.5 kg/da in dwarf and climbing beans respectively sehirali-90 and Yalova-5 in dwarf beans and Dermason-Malatya and Horoz-Tokat in climbing beans had the high seed yield in both experiment years. Positive correlation cofficients were found between seed yield and 100 seed number in dwarf beans. Also, there were positive correlation coefficients between seed yield and total pod number, filled pod number, seed weight per plant and seed number per plant in twining beans.


Supercritical carbon dioxide was an ideal solvent for the extraction of fatty and resin acids from pine sawdust. This green extraction process significantly reduces the potential for uncontrolled auto-oxidation within this valuable fuel, thereby removing the risk of combustion during storage and processing. Experimental design was utilised to maximize the yield of the extractives. Within the experimental conditions investigated (74–250 bar and 40–60 °C), higher pressures and lower temperatures gave preferentially high extraction yields, with 97% of the fatty and resin acids in 2 h at 250 bar, 40 °C, 40 g min−1 and with 10% ethanol co-solvent. The calorific value of the pelletized sawdust was not significantly affected by the extraction process and the resulting extracts have demonstrated a significant potential for conversion to a biodiesel liquid fuel or higher value chemicals.


Background: Numerous studies of tissues' regeneration have confessed the recovery of damaged liver by hematopoietic stem cells. The cells act not only by cell replacement in the target organ but also by delivering trophic factors that support endogenous liver regeneration. A little is known of how organ-derived signals recruit such committed cells into circulation. Objective: We investigated the roles of noninvasive mechanical percutaneous stress of cirrhotic human liver in numbers fluctuation of trophic, liver-specific alpha-fetoprotein-positive fraction of CD133-positive hematopoietic stem cells in lymphocytes of patients waiting for liver transplantation. Methods: To promote in blood the number of the alpha-fetoprotein-positive fraction of CD133-positive hematopoietic stem cells, committed to liver' tissue, we activated mechanically the cirrhotic liver of patient by transcutaneous micro vibration received from skin-contacted electro-magnetic vibraphones generated mechanical pulses with amplitude 10 μm and smoothly changing frequency from 0.03 kHz to 18 kHz and back forth during one cycle duration 1 minute. The number of the alpha-fetoprotein-positive fraction of CD133-positive hematopoietic stem cells in lymphocytes of potential recipients was controlled by flow cytometry before and during daily sonication of skin area, which corresponds to liver projection on it. The 15 minutes cyclic sonication of the liver area performed daily for three weeks. Results: The sonication increased significantly averaged number of liver-specific alpha-fetoprotein-positive CD133-positive blood lymphocytes in 2 - 3 times compared to a base lane. The second similar sonication, the same zone after three weeks break showed differences with baseline, but it was statistically insignificant. The result was specifically related to the liver as it showed the control sonication of the backbone's projection on the skin of a separate group of patients with cirrhotic liver from the waiting list. Conclusion: The stem cells committed to the liver recruit from the bone marrow into circulation, when organ mechanically stresses and secretes specific humoral signals to provoke of lymphopoiesis on host liver repair.


Yogurt is considered as a functional food, which is a complex mixture of different biological components. Functional foods are designed to have physio-logical benefits and reduce the risk of chronic diseases beyond basic nutritional functions, and may be similar in appearance of conventional food. Therefore, the consumption of dairy products is highly recommended. In this study, the average composition milk was purchased in a local supermarket. Subsequently, ultrafiltration of milk was carried out with a tubular membrane, placed in a laboratory-developed cross-flow membrane module. Pore size and active surface area of tubular membrane were 5 nm and 0.005 m2, respectively. A static turbulence promoter was placed inside of membrane tube. Retentate of ultrafiltration membrane was treated with different concentrations of papain at temperature 50 °C for 10 minutes and subsequently, deactivation of enzymatic activity was performed at temperature 70 °C for 20 minutes. After deactivation of catalytic activity of papain, milks were fermented with yogurt starter culture (Thermophilic YoFlex® culture) at temperature 45 °C for 6 hours. During fermentation, transglutaminase and different types of carbohydrates, such as glucose, maltodextrin and sucrose were introduced with the aid of changing texture and antioxidant capacity of yogurt. Antioxidant capacity and hardness of yogurt, prepared with cow's milk were 0.44 mmol eqv. ascorbic acid/L and 0.58 Newton, respectively. It was found that application of enzyme (both papain and transglutaminase) and maltodextrin increased the antioxidant capacity of yogurt. Furthermore, it was found that hardness of yogurt was increased by addition of carbohydrate.


We consider the dynamics of a quantum impurity after a sudden interaction quench into a onedimensional degenerate Bose gas. We use the Keldysh path integral formalism to derive a truncated Wigner like approach that takes the back action of the impurity onto the condensate into account already on the mean-field level and further incorporates thermal and quantum effects up to oneloop accuracy. This framework enables us not only to calculate the real space trajectory of the impurity but also the absorption spectrum. We find that quantum corrections and thermal effects play a crucial role for the impurity momentum at weak to intermediate impurity-bath couplings. Furthermore, we see the broadening of the absorption spectrum with increasing temperature.


Changes in metabolic pathways are often associated with the development of various pathologies including cancer, inflammatory diseases, obesity and metabolic syndrome. Identification of the particular metabolic events that are dysregulated may yield strategies for pharmacologic intervention. However, such studies are hampered by the use of classic cell media that do not reflect the metabolite composition that exists in blood plasma and which cause non-physiological adaptations in cultured cells. In recent years two groups presented media that aim to reflect the composition of human plasma, namely human plasma-like medium (HPLM) and Plasmax. Here we describe that, in four different mammalian cell lines, Plasmax enhances mitochondrial respiration. This is associated with the formation of vast mitochondrial networks and enhanced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Interestingly, cells cultivated in Plasmax displayed significantly less lysosomes than when any standard media were used. Finally, cells cultivated in Plasmax support replication of various RNA viruses, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) influenza A virus (IAV), severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and several others, albeit at lower levels and with delayed kinetics. In conclusion, studies of metabolism in the context of viral infections, especially those concerning mitochondria, lysosomes, or redox systems, should be performed in Plasmax medium.


With the aid of epitaxial orientation techniques originally designed for linear polymer crystallization, it is found that a large assortment of linear chain molecules can be prepared for electron diffraction study in a projection onto the molecular axes. This not only facilitates a study of ordered monodisperse molecular crystal structures but also of the disordered state as well, including thermotropic phase transitions and the structure of binary solids. Representative studies of monodisperse and polydisperse phase behavior based on electron diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry measurements are reviewed for n-paraffins, glycerolipids, and cholesteryl esters. The importance of observing the microcrystalline state is readily apparent from these studies--not only because the symmetry of individual small crystals can be determined, but also because local structural variations not detectable in bulk measurements are readily observed.


In 1999 a new directorate of the National Prosecuting Authority was launched to 'complement and, in some respects, supplement the efforts of existing law enforcement agencies in fighting national priority crimes'. Over the following seven years the Directorate of Special Operations, nicknamed the 'Scorpions', gained public favour; however, they were accused of, amongst other things, exceeding their jurisdiction by performing functions that fell outside their mandate. During the African National Congress conference of 2007, delegates took a decision that the Scorpions should be disbanded. In 2008, Parliament passed the South African Police Service Amendment Bill that replaced the Scorpions with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, located within the South African Police Service. In 2010 this move was challenged in Hugh Glenister v President of the Republic of South Africa & Others [CCT 48/10]. The key question in this case was whether the national legislation that created the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks (DPCI), and disbanded the Scorpions, was  constitutionally valid. In March 2011 the Constitutional Court ruled that the legislation establishing the Hawks was unconstitutional and 'invalid to the extent that it fails to secure an adequate degree of independence for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.' The Court gave the government 18 months to rectify the situation. This article provides an overview of the decisions that led to the formation and closure of the Scorpions, and the formation of the Hawks.


In recent years, we proposed a number of new and very effective features for automatic writer identification and verification. They are probability distribution functions (PDFs) extracted from the handwriting images and characterize writer individuality independently of the textual content of the written samples. In this paper, we perform an extensive analysis of feature combinations. In our fusion scheme, the final unique distance between two handwritten samples is computed as the average of the distances due to the individual features participating in the combination. Obtained on a large dataset containing 900 writers, our results show that fusing multiple features (directional, grapheme, run-length PDFs) yields increased writer identification and verification performance.


We have investigated the localization of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) binding sites during the development of the neural retina in the chick embryo. The specificity of the affinity of bFGF for its receptors was assessed by competition experiments with unlabelled growth factor or with heparin, as well as by heparitinase treatment of the samples. Two different types of binding sites were observed in the neural retina by light-microscopic autoradiography. The first type, localized mainly to basement membranes, was highly sensitive to heparitinase digestion and to competition with heparin. It was not developmentally regulated. The second type of binding site, resistant to heparin competition, appeared to be associated with retinal cells from the earliest stages studied (3-day-old embryo, stages 21-22 of Hamburger and Hamilton). Its distribution was found to vary during embryonic development, paralleling layering of the neural retina. Binding of bFGF to the latter sites was observed throughout the retinal neuroepithelium at early stages but displayed a distinct pattern at the time when the inner and outer plexiform layers were formed. During the development of the inner plexiform layer, a banded pattern of bFGF binding was observed. These bands, lying parallel to the vitreal surface, seemed to codistribute with the synaptic bands existing in the inner plexiform layer. The presence of intra-retinal bFGF binding sites whose distribution varies with embryonic development suggests a regulatory mechanism involving differential actions of bFGF on neural retinal cells.


The concentration of thiamphenicol in prostatic tissue, testicular tissue and serum after a single intravenous injection of 1 g thiamphenicol glycinate ester was investigated. The prostatic and testicular specimens were obtained by prostatectomy and plastic orchidectomy, respectively, from patients with adenomas and carcinomas of the prostate. 2 h after dosing, the prostatic tissue concentration ranged from 2.1 to 15.1 microgram/g (mean value 5.7 microgram/g) and the testicular tissue from 3.4 to 8.4 microgram/g (mean value 6.1 microgram/g). At the same time the thiamphenicol serum levels varied in the patients with prostate adenomas from 4.6 to 14.5 microgram/ml (mean 8.9 microgram/ml) and in the prostate carcinoma patients from 5.2 to 10.4 microgram/ml (mean 8.5 microgram/ml). Several factors influencing the diffusion of thiamphenicol into the prostate and testis are discussed. The levels of thiamphenicol in the prostate and testis suggest that the antibiotic may be valuable for the treatment of infections of the prostate and testis caused by gram-positive and gram-negative cocci, but is of questionable value for the treatment of infections caused by gram-negative bacilli.


Background Adequate assessment of disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) using disease activity index, evaluating the extent of organ damage and quality of life, contributes to better monitoring, treatment, and improved prognosis in SLE patients. Organ damage element of the index in SLE patients predicts further organ damage and is associated with increased risk of mortality. Objectives Our aim was to examine the correlation between organ damage and disease activity, quality of life, and severity of fatigue. Risk factors for organ damage in SLE patients were established. Methods The study enrolled 83 SLE patients with disease duration of over 6 months, hospitalized at the Institute "Niška Banja" in 2012, out of which 6 men (7.2%) and 77 women (92.8%), aged 45.8±9.2 years on the average, with average disease duration of 10.6±7.9 years. Disease activity was assessed using the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) and physician's global assessment, and degree of damage was assessed using the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index for SLE (SLICC/ACR Damage Index - SDI). Quality of life was assessed based on the standardized Medical Outcome Survey Short Form 36 (SF-36), and severity of fatigue using the Fatigue Severity Scale. Results Average SDI value was 1.8±1.9 (median 1, min. 0, max. 9), and average SLEDAI was 10.9±7.4. Our results demonstrated that SDI was positively correlated with SLEDAI, global physician's assessment, and severity of fatigue (r=0.359, p=0.001; r=0.357, p=0.001; r=0.296, p=0.007, respectively), being associated as well with poorer quality of life. Univariant analysis demonstrated that age, disease duration (especially if over 10 years- OR 3.368, CI95% 1.01-11.34, p=0.045), high disease activity at global physician's assessment, as well as the use of Azathioprine, were all independent risk factors for organ damage. Use of Chloroquine was an important protective factor regarding organ damage (OR 0.378, CI95% 0.14-0.99, p=0.048). Our results demonstrated that the levels of anti-dsDNA antibodies, anti-nucleosome, anti-C1q antibodies, as well as the level of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in the serum and urin, were not predictors of organ damage. Multivariant logistic regression showed that high disease activity at global physician's assessment (OR 31.839, 95CI% 2.33-435.58, p=0.01) and use of Azathioprine (OR 7.256, 95CI% 1.37-5.63, p=0.005) were the strongest predictors of organ damage. Conclusions Organ damage in SLE patients increases with advancing age and disease duration. The strongest predictors of organ damage are high disease activity at global physician's assessment and use of cytostatic agents. Use of Chloroquine can afford some protection against organ damage. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Low back pain is a ubiquitous symptom. It is the second most common complaint to visit a provider in the United States. It accounted for 4.4% of emergency department visits from 2000 to 2016. The lifetime prevalence of back pain is approximately 70% to 85%. The causes for low back pain range from muscle spasm and disc protrusions to more severe entities such as discitis osteomyelitis and malignancy. Imaging provides varied details based on modality. The most common modalities include radiographs, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Ultrasound (US) and nuclear medicine imaging are occasionally choices. The American College of Radiology enlists appropriateness criteria for evaluating back pain. Patients with uncomplicated back pain do not require imaging unless it persists for more than six weeks. However, patients with cauda equina syndrome, malignancy, suspected infection, or fracture require further imaging. Symptoms of cauda equina syndrome would include saddle anesthesia, bowel, or bladder incontinence. Patients presenting with fever and low back pain or patients with a history of drug misuse or immunosuppression should lead to the suspicion of an infection. While plain radiographs are usually the first imaging modality, depending on the acuity, medical condition, and general contraindications to imaging modalities, the appropriate modality merits consideration. As a broad rule, whenever there is a concern for infection, or there is a suspicion for malignancy, contrast-enhanced studies are the recommended approach. ACR appropriateness criteria help in choosing the right modality in a variety of circumstances. CT is the imaging modality of choice in patients with suspected fractures. In patients who are possible candidates for augmentation procedures, MRI is the modality of choice. MRI is also highly sensitive for evaluating tumors and metastasis. It is also the modality of choice for assessing cord compression.


The objective of this study is to describe aspects of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in a cohort of hospital patients in Libya.  The patterns of clinical presentation of oral squamous OSCC in 122 Libyan patients from 1979-2004 were retrospectively analysed.  Men were affected more often than women with the average age at presentation 53 years. Just over half the patients had symptoms for more than six months prior to presentation. The tongue and floor of the mouth were the most commonly affected sites. In 30.3% of patients the OSCC presented as an ulcer, in 20.4% as a swelling, and in 19% as a white patch. The majority of the patients had stage III or IV disease when first examined. Nearly 80% of the patients were tobacco smokers. It was concluded that the pattern of clinical occurrence of OSCC in Libya was similar to previous reports from Western Europe and Asia. The results of the present study highlight the need for an appropriate strategy to prevent OSCC and reduce delays in the diagnosis and treatment of such disease in Libya.         Key Words: Libya; Malignancy; Oral; Squamous cell carcinoma


Ehrlich ascites tumor cells were grown and maintained in continuous spinner culture. The population of dividing cells was synchronized by a double thymidine block technique. Cell cycle phases were determined graphically by plotting mitotic index, cell number, and DNA synthesis against time. Changes in the osmotic properties of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells during the cell cycle are described. Permeability to water is highest at the initiation of S and progressively decreases to its lowest value just after mitosis. Heats of activation for water permeability vary during the cell cycle, ranging from 9–14 kcal/mole. Results may imply changes in the state of water in the membrane during the cycle. The volume of osmotically active cell water is highest during S and early G2 and decreases during the mitotic phase, as cells undergo division. Total water content remains stable at 82% (w/w) during the cycle. Total concentration of the three major ions (Na, K, Cl), expressed as mEq/liter total cell volume, does not change. The fraction of total cell water which is osmotically active (Ponder's R) decreased gradually from 0.75 at S to about 0.56 following mitosis. Findings suggest that a fraction of the total water within the cell exists in a "bound" form and is, therefore, incapable of being shifted under the driving force of osmotic pressure. This fraction of bound water increases during the cell cycle. Possible alterations in membrane fluidity and the state of water in the cell are discussed.


On page 500 of Mr. Nunn's paper, he assumes from calculations of Lake Erie's level for nearly 50 years that the elevations of the intake have been so selected that at extreme low water and most adverse conditions a full supply of water should always be obtained. While he has been speaking, it has occurred to me to inquire what view the promoters and owners of this great development at Niagara Falls take of the possible withdrawal of the water at other places, such as the tapping of the great lakes at Chicago. The outlet of the great lakes, it is well known, used to be at Chicago, and the divide there is only 14 or 15 ft. high. Recently with the reversal of the flow of the Chicago River to give that city a deep-sea waterway and a pure water supply from the lake there has been taken out of the great lakes and consequently robbed from Niagara about 8 per cent. of the water that formerly went over the falls; and the Chicago people are talking of making still greater withdrawals of water from the lakes. There is a great inducement to do this, because in addition to other uses the water already taken is furnishing 40 000 h.p. The question is more than a State one, since it is outside of the territory of New York; it is an international one. I should like to know what view the engineers take of the possible diversion of this water which would make the levels much lower than would be necessary to run the plants.


The consideration of phenomena which have a tendency to illumine the history or habits of the early inhabitants of this country must at all times be looked upon with a large amount of interest. From this point of view the discovery of the remains of a number of ancient Lake Dwellings in Holderness, the low-lying district between Hull and Bridlington affords a glimpse of the habits of a people who lived during ages of which there is no written history, and of whose existence there is no record but such as can be gathered from the remains of rude platforms built on the edge of a lake or mere, on which to erect dwellings affording a scanty shelter from the inclemency of the weather, some protection from the wild animals of the neighbourhood, or the attacks of their human but more dangerous foes. Living over the water they naturally found that the readiest method of disposing of the refuse was to throw it into the lake below : and so it happens, that in digging beneath the platform there are found, mixed with the natural accumulation of peat, large numbers of the bones of animals which had been used as food, charred wood from their fires, implements of stone used as adzes in shaping and pointing the piles, rounded stones for pounding and grinding corn, arrow and spear-heads, rudely-fashioned objects of bone used for fastening skins round the loins, or for personal adornment of the primeval inhabitants of our island, ...


Toscana phlebovirus (TOSV) and Sicilian phlebovirus (SFSV) are endemic in the Mediterranean area where they are transmitted to humans by infected sandflies. Vertebrates of several species have been postulated to act as reservoirs of these viruses, but convincing evidence is still awaited. Among them, bats have been suggested, however documented evidence is lacking. Here we tested a total of 329 bats belonging to eight species collected from twelve localities in southern Spain for the presence of neutralizing antibodies specific to TOSV and SFSV. Positive sera were detected in Schreiber's long-fingered bat (Miniopterus schreibersii), mouse-eared Myotis (Myotis myotis), European free-tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis), and common serotine (Eptesicus serotinus) with the latter showing the highest prevalence rates for SFSV (22.6%) and TOSV (10%). There was no difference between females and males. Results suggest that bats are not likely to play a major role in the natural cycle of these two sandfly-borne phleboviruses. However, large breeding colonies of bats can be used as sentinels for surveillance of the presence of such viruses in a given locality. In addition, capture–recapture studies should be initiated in order to understand better the dynamics of TOSV and SFSV in bat populations.


A study of pertussis prophylaxis has been under observation at the University of California since March 1935. The plan of our method of study, the criteria for exposure to pertussis and the results of our earlier observation have been published in detail in a previous report. 1 My purpose in this report is to bring the results of our observations up to date, to stress the necessity of rigid control for such a program and to point out some of the difficulties encountered in a study of this nature. The efficacy of a prophylactic procedure is difficult to determine conclusively in most diseases. Pertussis is not one of the exceptions. The best and most critical test of any prophylactic measure is subjection of the immunized or treated individual to direct close contact with the disease in question. Studies of this nature not infrequently require years of observation on a rigidly


The increasing frequency and severity of droughts and floods, the shift in onset of the rains, increasing intensity of mid-season wet and dry spells and variations in the cessation of the rains in the last 50 years have been identified in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report (IPCC-TAR) as a major consequence of climate change. This paper presents a study that was conducted to project climatic trends in Zimbabwe by the end of the 21st Century. Observed data of the last three decades (1971 to 2000) from several climatological stations in north-eastern Zimbabwe and outputs from several global climate models were used. The downscaled model simulations consistently predicted a warming of between 1 and 2 oC above the baseline period (1971-2000) at most of the stations in the period 2046-2065. Most of the models predicted that for the same period, rainfall will decrease by an average of 10 mm for each month for October to December; while there will be an average increase of 10 mm for the months of January to April. The AquaCrop crop production model simulations predicted that climate change will shift planting dates towards delayed planting in the period 20462065. The results further showed that using traditional static sowing practices in the period 2046-2065 will result in maize (Zea mays L.) yield reductions, while adopting dynamic planting strategies will result in highest maize yields for short season cultivars.


Amphotericin B (AmB) is a clinically vital antimycotic but is limited by its severe toxicity. Binding ergosterol, independent of channel formation, is the primary mechanism by which AmB kills yeast, and binding cholesterol may primarily account for toxicity to human cells. The leading structural model predicts that the C2' hydroxyl group on the mycosamine appendage is critical for binding both sterols. To test this, the C2'-OH was synthetically deleted, and the sterol binding capacity of the resulting derivative, C2'deOAmB, was directly characterized via isothermal titration calorimetry. Surprisingly, C2'deOAmB binds ergosterol and, within the limits of detection of this experiment, does not bind cholesterol. Moreover, C2'deOAmB is nearly equipotent to AmB against yeast but, within the limits of detection of our assays, is nontoxic to human cells in vitro. Thus, the leading structural model for AmB/sterol binding interactions is incorrect, and C2'deOAmB is an exceptionally promising new antifungal agent.


In the compression tests of cold-formed steel (CFS) members, fixed end supports are commonly simulated by fixing the test specimens to end plates by either welding or casting them with high strength adhesives. This is costly, time consuming and takes much effort to ensure that the axial compression loading is applied correctly. Some past research studies have used clamping connectors for this purpose, but had many limitations relating to their flexibility in use and restraining capacity. This research study has used an improved clamping connector system to provide fixed end support conditions in the compression tests of CFS members, which can be easily adjusted to suit different CFS sections. A series of compression tests using the new clamping connector system was conducted on single channels, built-up back-to-back channels and nested (box) channels with their lengths in the range of 0.6 to 3.0 m. Test results were then analyzed and compared with corresponding finite element analyses based on ideal fixed end support conditions. Comparison of results showed the suitability of the new clamping connector system to simulate fixed end supports.


We calculate the frequency-dependent variance of the log spectral ratio for correlated time series. This is used to produce a weighted least-squares approach to attenuation estimation, with weights calculated from estimated coherence. Applications to synthetic and real data illustrate that, for correlated series, the method improves significantly on traditional unweighted least-squares attenuation estimates


Background: To evaluate the antimicrobial activity of the fast-setting bioceramic iRoot Fast Set Root Repair Material (iRoot FS) and two other calcium silicate cements. Methods: The antimicrobial activity of iRoot FS, ProRoot MTA and Biodentine against E. faecalis and P. gingivalis were evaluated in this study. The materials were freshly mixed or set for 1 and 7 days on 5mm diameter sterile filter papers. The agar diffusion test, direct contact test and carry-over effect test were conducted, and the pH values (using a digital pH meter) were also evaluated. The data were analyzed by an analysis of variance and two-way ANOVA (α=0.05).Results: In the agar diffusion experiment, no obvious inhibition zone was observed for iRoot FS, ProRootMTA or Biodentine at any time interval. In the direct contact test, all three materials showed good antibacterial activity after setting for 20 minutes. The antibacterial properties of the three materials decreased with the increase of setting time. None of the three materials showed carry-over antibacterial effect. The pH measurement showed that the suspension of all the three materials showed high pH values (11-12). With the extension of setting time, the pH of iRoot FS and Biodentine slightly decreased.Conclusions: Fresh iRoot FS, Biodentine, and MTA killed E. faecalis and P. gingivalis effectively, and the antimicrobial effect of all the three materials decreased over 1 and 7 days after mixing. All three materials showed a tendency of alkalinity which last for at least 7 days after setting.


UNLABELLED
A protein-protein docking decoy set is built for the Dockground unbound benchmark set. The GRAMM-X docking scan was used to generate 100 non-native and at least one near-native match per complex for 61 complexes. The set is a publicly available resource for the development of scoring functions and knowledge-based potentials for protein docking methodologies.

AVAILABILITY
The decoys are freely available for download at http://dockground.bioinformatics.ku.edu/UNBOUND/decoy/decoy.php


Background: At present, there are many clinical trials of drug coated balloon in the treatment of lower extremity arterial occlusive diseases, but there are not many clinical data in the real world study. Here we aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety ofAcotec drug-coated balloon (DCB) for chronic ischemic disease in lower extremity.Methods: Clinical data of 435 patientswith 564occlusive/stenotic lesions in 492lower extremities treated by DCB from April 2016 toApril2019 were retrospectively analyzed.The mean age was 63years.Rutherford stage 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 were classified in 11, 167, 182, 109, and 23 limbs, respectively.The mean length of the targeted lesions was 179.6mm. Of all the lesions, 436 located at femoraland/or popliteal arteries, and 128 at infra-popliteal arteries. All the patients were followed up at 6-month intervals. The major evaluation endpoints included late lumen loss (LLL), target lesion restenosis, target lesion revascularization (TLR), and severe clinical events including mortality and major amputation.Results: The technique success rate was 96.1%.Stents were placed in 57 (13.1%) cases for flow-limited dissections or remnant stenosisgreater than 50% after DCB angioplasty.The mean follow-up time was 28.5 ± 12.1 months (12-48 months). The meanLLLwas 1.1 mm, 1.8mm, and 2.8 mm, respectively, 1, 2, and 3 years after operation. The rate ofrestenosis and TLRwas 17.3%and8.2%, respectively, 1 year after operation; 20.6% and 11.6%, respectively, 2 years after operation; 29.4% and 18.3%, respectively, 3 years after operation.Fourteenpatientsdiedand 25received amputation.Conclusion: AcotecDCBwas safe and effective in treating chronic ischemic diseases of lower extremities.A better clinical outcome was achieved in femoro-popliteal arteries, compared toinfrapopliteal arteries.


according to the Alcoholism Subcommittee of the World Health Organization,5 " disulfiram should not be used for aversion therapy, for which emetine and apomorphine are much more appropriate" (although Dent6 does not regard apomorphine treatment as aversion therapy). In view of the fact that terminology in the field of alcoholism is very confusing it seems preferable not to discuss disulfiram treatment under the heading of " Aversion Treatment."-I am, etc.,


The dispute resolution procedures of the World Trade Organization allow sanctions to be imposed when a country is unwilling to bring a WTO-inconsistent trade measure into conformity. Apart from the fact that the procedure for triggering the retaliation process has ambiguities that need to be removed, the retaliation itself has some undesirable economic features. This paper looks at why compensation is not preferred to retaliation and then examines five economic features of the temporary trade retaliation that WTO may permit under certain conditions. Both efficiency and equity concerns are raised. The paper concludes with some suggestions for reforming this part of WTO dispute resolution during the review of the Dispute Settlement Understanding that is due to be completed by May 2003.


The objectives of this research are 1. to study the way of life and motives that makes Burmese decision to live in Lampang Province, 2. to study cross-cultural learning of Burmese people in Lampang, and 3. to analyze the adaptation process for living altogether equally under the cultural differences. This research is the qualitative research by interviewing the community leaders, the Burmese, living in Tha Ma O community, Muang District, Lampang Province, and members of Tha Ma community. The research results reveal that living in Lampang Province is more prosperous in the socio-economic and quality of life than in their own country. This is the factor attracting the Burmese to decide to emigrate to live and work in Lampang Province because their country is underdeveloped with economic downturn and lack of quality of life. They need to immigrate to find work opportunities. In immigrating to find works of the Burmese, they also bring the culture and beliefs in their country into practice in Lampang. The cultural characteristics of the Burmese in Lampang are similar to people in Lampang such as Buddhism, worshipping the Buddha images, and going to the temple to make merit. Therefore, those groups can adjust and learn about the culture of the local areas quickly as well as analyzing the adaptation processes for equally living under cultural differences. The Burmese can adapt their thoughts and behaviors to the environment, economic, and social changes from their own country in order to survive and to be able to live happily.


This year's recipient of the Journal of Drug Targeting Life-time Achievement Award 2009 is Prof. Dr. Peter Paul Speiser who was a professor at the world famous Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zürich, 1961 to 1989). It is a great honor for me to act as the guest editor for the special issue of this journal dedicated to him. Prof. Speiser was the first having the idea of developing nanoparticles as drug delivery systems (Birrenbach & Speiser, 1976; Kreuter & Speiser, 1976; Kreuter, 2007). He first envisioned their use as longcirculating intravenous drug delivery systems. Already during his first investigations using nanoparticles as carriers for vaccines and after the first body distribution and cell distribution findings in his team which demonstrated their accumulation in certain tissue (Kreuter, Täuber, & Illi, 1979) and cell organelles (Couvreur et al., 1977), Prof. Speiser saw their great potential for drug targeting. This potential soon was demonstrated in cooperation with Patrick Couvreur who at that time still was working in Brussels (Grislain et al., 1983). In their study, they found that the nanoparticles not only accumulated in a primary Lewis Lung Carcinoma transplanted subcutaneously to mice but also in the lungs—an organ in which this tumor was producing metastases—much higher nanoparticle concentrations were yielded than in normal mice. Being a great visionary Prof. Speiser also proposed to use the nanoparticles for oral and ophthalmic drug delivery. A lot of people were skeptical then about this idea, including myself, but soon it could be demonstrated that nanoparticles indeed were useful for these purposes (Nefzger et al., 1984; Harmia et al., 1986). However, his most visionary idea that he already developed around 1980 was to propose to use nanoparticles for the delivery of drugs across the blood–brain barrier. At that time I was sure that this was an impossible, stupid idea, but over 10 years later we demonstrated that the delivery of drugs with nanoparticles across the blood– brain barrier indeed was possible (Kreuter et al., 1995) and was holding great promise even for large molecules such as nerve growth factor (see article "Brain targeting of nerve growth factor using poly(butyl cyanoacrylate) nanoparticles" in this issue). Prof. Speiser also fathered similar targetable nanometer-sized drug delivery systems, the pharmacosomes (Vaizoglu & Speiser, 1986). These pharmacosomes are defined as colloidal dispersions of drugs covalently bound to lipids and may exist as ultrafine vesicular, micellar, or hexagonal aggregates, depending on the chemical structure of the drug–lipid complex. Any drug possessing an active hydrogen can be bound to the lipid via esterification or by using a spacer chain


In his concluding analysis, Lloyd Mudiwa examines progress made under the treatment and rehabilitation pillar of the National Drugs Strategy 2009-2016.

The Department of Health has published the National Drugs Strategy (interim) 2009-2016 Progress Report to End 2013, which outlines progress to date in the implementation of the actions under the five pillars, including treatment and rehabilitation.

Under Action 39 — 'Maintain and develop treatment services dealing with blood borne viruses, with particular emphasis on Hepatitis C treatment services' — the HSE established a National Hepatitis C Strategy Implementation Committee in April 2013 to oversee and monitor implementation of recommendations of the Hep C Strategy, and has held three meetings during 2013.

Its terms of reference include facilitating communication and provision of information throughout the health services and wider community in respect of progress made on implementation of the recommendations, identification of emerging issues, updating recommendations in light of new evidence, and developing and encouraging synergies across the Hep C sector.

The development by the HSE, this time with support from the Department of Health, of a response to drug-related deaths was another Action (40) under the pillar. This was to be achieved through a National Overdose Prevention Strategy — a co-ordinated health response to the rise in deaths indirectly related to substance abuse — and a review of the regulatory framework for prescribed drugs.

One of the key actions contained in the Prevention Strategy September 2011 (unpublished) implementation plan is the development of guidance and protocols to explore the possibility of the enhanced availability of naloxone. Recommendation 4 advises that 'the opioid antagonist Naloxone should be made routinely available in Ireland to opioid drug users'.

Furthermore in this document, there is a stated commitment to take actions, which focus on reducing the number of drug-related deaths and near-fatal drug poisonings.


On the basis of data obtained by seroepidemiological studies general regularities, as well as essential differences, in the manifestations of the epidemic processes characterized by the active and sluggish spread of infection induced by hepatitis A virus have been revealed.


This paper proposes novel boost type inverter topologies and their control scheme for solar Photovoltaic (PV) applications. The proposed topologies provide a single power stage, low part count, highly efficient solution for 1-φ and 3-φ stand alone applications. A notable feature of the proposed topologies is that they facilitate splitting of a given PV source into two or more sub-parts by offering as many input ports. Thus, they offer excellent features with respect to optimal arrangement and configuration of the PV panels and maximum power extraction, which are especially beneficial under partially shaded conditions. For analysis of the control strategy, a model is derived for one of the sections of the proposed system, which is then extended for the controller design of the overall system. The plant pole cancellation and reference signal frequency information approach is used for the compensator design to track the reference signal that includes both AC and DC components. The compensators are designed for a fast dynamic response and accurate reference tracking. The topology modification for the three phase loads has also been analyzed and evaluated. The system is simulated and results show the ability of the proposed configuration to produce desired high quality supply, fed from split sub-sections of a PV source. A laboratory prototype is developed with available PV panels for 1-φ topology. Experimental results obtained from this prototype validate the analysis and simulated results.


We consider paths of a one-dimensional simple random walk conditioned to come back to the origin after $L$ steps, $L\in 2\mathbb{N}$. In the pinning model each path $\eta$ has a weight $\lambda^{N(\eta)}$, where $\lambda>0$ and $N(\eta)$ is the number of zeros in $\eta$. When the paths are constrained to be non--negative, the polymer is said to satisfy a hard--wall constraint. Such models are well known to undergo a localization/delocalization transition as the pinning strength $\lambda$ is varied. In this paper we study a natural ``spin flip'' dynamics for %associated to these models and derive several estimates on its spectral gap and mixing time. In particular, for the system with the wall we prove that relaxation to equilibrium is always at least as fast as in the free case (\ie $\lambda=1$ without the wall), where the gap and the mixing time are known to scale as $L^{-2}$ and $L^2\log L$, respectively. This improves considerably over previously known results. For the system without the wall we show that the equilibrium phase transition has a clear dynamical manifestation: for $\lambda\geq 1$ relaxation is again at least as fast as the diffusive free case, but in the strictly delocalized phase ($\lambda<1$) the gap is shown to be $O(L^{-5/2})$, up to logarithmic corrections. As an application of our bounds, we prove stretched exponential relaxation of local functions in the localized regime.


ABSTRACT

This final project was written based on the writer's job training as an English teacher in SMP Negeri 40 Purworejo which was done for one and a half month. The writer took two classes in VIII A and VIII B as the subject to be observed. This final project discusses the effectiveness of using recount genre to improve writing skill for VIII grade students in junior high school.
 During the job training, the writer took some activities to collect the data by doing observation in the school and the class, interviewing the English teacher to get more information about the school and the English teaching and learning process.
 The genre used by the writer to teach writing skill to the students was recount genre. While the type of writing performance used by the writer was guided writing. The writer used four steps in teaching recount genre. First, the writer only asked the students to make a simple recount text based on a topic. Second, the writer gave some pictures and asked the students to make the recount text based on the pictures. Third, the writer give also some pictures and certain vocabulary and asked the students to make the text recount based on the pictures and the vocabulary. The last, the writer gave some pictures, including a certain paragraph in Indonesian language and jumbled sentences in English and asked the students to compose them into a good paragraph. The best steps should be just in opposite order. Most of the students got some difficulties such as grammatical use, vocabulary use, punctuation use, and the influence of Indonesian language. During the process, the writing skill of the student especially in writing the recount genre improved. It was proven by looking at the students' writing in the end of the meeting.


Research is presented for carbon emissions abatement utilizing concentrating solar power (CSP) heating for culinary industrial process heat applications of roasting peppers. For this investigation the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) performed high-intensity flux profile heating, as high as approximately 12.2 W/cm2 roasting peppers near 615°C. This work also explores the suitability of culinary roasting as applied to different forms of CSP heating as well as techno-economic costs. Traditionally, chile pepper roasting has used propane gas source heating to achieve similar temperatures and food roasting profiles in batch style processing. Here, the investigators roasted peppers on the top level of the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) solar tower for multiple roasting trials, with and without water. For comparison, the team also performed roasting from a traditional propane gas heating source, monitoring the volume of propane being consumed over time to assess carbon emissions that were abated using CSP. Results found that roasting peppers with CSP facilitated approximately 26 MJ of energy that abated approximately 0.122 kg CO2/kg chile for a 10 kg bag. The team also determined that pre-wetting the peppers before roasting both under propane and CSP heat sources increased the roast time by approximately 3 minutes to achieve the same qualitative optimal roast state compared to dry peppers.


The present geoconservation network in Poland comprises 67 nature reserves, about 1600 nature monuments and 80 documentary sites as well as complex sites protected in 22 national parks and 106 landscape parks. Numerous other localities are proposed for legal conservation. According to results of evaluation and selection 84 site-sets and individual sites are designated to the European List of Geosites compiled by lUGS in collaboration with ProGEO Association. This draft list corresponds to the diversity of geological formations and landforms of Poland. Pre-Quaternary structures connected with Caledonian, Variscan and Alpine orogenic cycles are accessible on the surface in Southern Poland while the northern part of the country is covered with Pleistocene deposits. Stratotypes and reference sections of lithostratigraphic units, fossil-bearing deposits. sedimentary and tectonic structures. Karst areas, forms of structural relief as well as the most interesting landforms are the main types of subjects recommended to the Euro-list. The proposed framework is opened to be supplemented and verified.


OBJECTIVES
In designing a local exhaust ventilation (LEV) system, the exhaust airflow rate which will produce the required control velocity at the capture point must be predicted properly. Conventionally, the airflow requirements for LEV hoods have been calculated using Dalla Valle's equation. Although Dalla Valle's equation is a simple and convenient formula for LEV design, it is known that the airflow rate predicted by the equation does not always coincide with actual exhaust airflow rate. In order to develop a new airflow formula which can substitute for Dalla Valle's equation, the author aimed to develop an empirical airflow formula for a slot type exhaust hood using the least square method.

METHODS
Based on the actual measurements (exhaust airflow rate, suction velocity, hood size and centerline distance) of test slot type hoods in several configurations and conditions, an empirical approximation formula which predicts exhaust airflow rate was developed. In this study, the approximation formula was described as a polynomial linear expression, and the validity of the predicted exhaust airflow rate by the approximation formula was confirmed by comparing with measured airflow rates.

RESULTS
It was found that the predicted airflow rates of the developed approximation formula were in good agreement with the measured airflow rates and were more accurate than the airflow rates predicted by Dalla Valle's equation.

CONCLUSIONS
Although the applicability of the developed formula is inferior to that of Dalla Valle's equation, certain economic benefits can be derived from the developed formula in some cases.


The objective of an advanced fission reactor program should be to develop an economically attractive, safe, proliferation-resistant fission reactor. To achieve this objective, an aggressive and broad-based research and development program is needed. Preliminary work at Brookhaven National Laboratory shows that a reasonable goal for a research program would be a reactor combining as many as possible of the following features: (1) initial loading of uranium enriched to less than 15% uranium 235, (2) no handling of fuel for the full 30-year nominal core life, (3) inherent safety ensured by core physics, and (4) utilization of natural uranium at least 5 times as efficiently as light water reactors.


Background: Range of motion (ROM) measurements are essential for diagnosing and evaluating upper extremity conditions. Clinical goniometry is the most commonly used methods but it is time-consuming and skill-demanding. Recent advances in human tracking algorithm suggest potential for automatic angle measuring from RGB images. It provides an attractive alternative for at-distance measuring. However, the reliability of this method has not been fully established. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if the results of algorithm are as reliable as human raters in upper limb movements.Methods: Thirty healthy young adults (20 males, 10 females) participated in this study. Participants were asked to performed a 6-motion task including movement of shoulder, elbow and wrist. Images of movements were capture by commercial digital camera. Each movement was measured by a pose tracking algorithm and compared with the surgeon-measurement results. The mean differences between the two measurements were compared. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationship. Reliability was investigated by the intra-class correlation coefficients.Results: Comparing this algorithm-based method with manual measurement, the mean differences were less than 3 degrees in 5 motions (shoulder abduction: 0.51; shoulder elevation: 2.87; elbow flexion:0.38; elbow extension:0.65; wrist extension: 0.78) except wrist flexion. All the intra-class correlation coefficients were larger than 0.60. The Pearson coefficients also showed high correlations between the two measurements (p<0.001). Conclusions: Our results indicated that pose estimation is a reliable method to measure the shoulder and elbow angles, supporting RGB images for measuring joint ROM. Our results proved the possibility that patients can assess their ROM by photos taken by a digital camera.Trial registration: This study was registered in the Clinical Trials Center of The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University (2021-387).


A separation/preconcentration procedure with coprecipitation has been proposed for the flame atomic absorption spectrometric (FAAS) determination of cadmium at trace level in food and environmental samples. Manganese(Ⅱ) was used as a carrier which chelated with 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol to detect the content of trace cadmium in shrimp and shell fish samples with flame atomic absorption spectrometry for the first time. The precipitate could be easily dissolved with concentrated nitric acid. The optimum coprecipitation of this new method including the amount of reagent, amount of manganese(Ⅱ), the pH, and the standing time of the precipitate had been confirmed for the quantitative recoveries of the analytes. The effect of matrix ions and the interference of co-existing ions were also evaluated. Under the experimental conditions established by the optimization step, the system of Mn(Ⅱ)-5-Br-PADAP was able to overcome the matrix interference which showed the effect of separation and enrichment well. The linear range of cadmium content was determined to be 0.1~1.0 mg·L-1. The sensitivity and the relative standard deviation(RSD) were found 0.147(mg·L-1)-1, 0.73%, respectively. The optimum procedure allows the determination of cadmium with limit of detection of 4.27 μg·L-1. The complexity of preprocessing was determined by the complexity of food samples. So the differences of cadmium content in the samples between the direct determination with atomic absorption spectrometry and the measurement after coprecipitation were examined, which providedevidences for the superiority of the system again. Cadmium in shell fish and shrimp samples were 1.85 mg·kg-1 and 1.74 mg·kg-1, which in line with international standards of the Codex Alimentarius Commission(CAC). The credibility of the method was evaluated by standard additional method and recovery experiments. The standard addition recoveries of sample and RSDs of the method were in the range of 99.9%~100.3% and 0.15%~0.83%. The results of recovery experiment showed that the presented coprecipitation procedure had good repetition, high accuracy. In addition, with the method, we could draw conclusions that the experiments were simple and rapid. The developed method described in the literature was successfully applied for the determination of trace cadmium in shrimp and shell fish samples with satisfactory results.


A30 Background:
 Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most aggressive tumours. Intracellular signalling pathway PI3K/Akt and Ras/Erk have been shown to be important in tumour survival. SM018 is a novel compound developed in our laboratory which showed selective activities against the PI3K/Akt and Ras/Erk pathways in cancer cells. Our aim is to investigate the effects of SM018 on GBM in experimental models.
 Methods: Western blot analyses with anti-phospho Akt and anti-phospho Erk antibodies were performed on U87MG and U251MG cells after treatment with SM018. Subcutaneous and intracranial xenograft models were performed in nude mice to assess the in vivo effects of SM018.
 Modified Boyden chamber assays were used to assess the effects of SM018 on cellular migration and invasion. The effects of SM018 were further investigated with Matrigel assays. In vivo effects of SM018 were studied with matrigel plug models in mice.
 Results: SM018 inhibits the level of phospho-Akt in U87MG cells but not in U251MG cells. Phospho-Erk level was also only affected in U87MG cells. However, both U87MG and U251MG tumours in mice were significantly reduced in size by SM018 indicating effective tumour control against GBM cells of different molecular makeup. This was shown in both subcutaneous and intracranial models. SM018 inhibits cellular proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. Cellular invasion was significantly reduced by SM018 in matrigel plug model in mice.
 Conclusion: The present study showed novel effects of SM018 against GBM tumour growth. SM018 is affecting multiple different cellular mechanisms including proliferation, migration and invasion. Orally bioavailable SM018 is a potential new therapy for GBM.


Levees are a significant part of the United States flood protection infrastructure. It is estimated that over 100,000 miles of levees exist in the United States. Most of these levees were designed many years ago to protect farmland and rural areas. As growth continues in the United States, many of these levees are now protecting homes and other important structures. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the levees in the United States a grade of Din 2009. To bring flood protection up to modern standards there requires adequate methods of evaluating levees with respect to seepage, erosion, piping and slope instability. Transient seepage analyses provide an effective method of evaluating seepage through levees and its potentially destabilizing effects. Floods against levees usually last for days or weeks. In response to a flood, pore pressures within the levee will change from negative (suction) to positive as the phreatic surface progresses through the levee. These changes can be calculated by finite element transient seepage analyses. In order for the transient seepage analysis to be valid, appropriate soil properties and initial conditions must be used. The research investigation described here provides simple and practical methods for estimating the initial conditions and soil properties required for transient seepage analyses, and illustrates their use through a number of examples.


The issue of measuring the flow rate through a pneumatic component is a critical one. Several methods exist, each with its own pros and cons regarding the type of gas, measurement range, and accuracy.1 ISO Standards, however, consider only a few of them: orifice plates, nozzles, Venturi nozzles, Venturi tubes.2–4 Although amenable to possible criticism, the International Organization for Standardization is an important reference. Designing a test bench according to its Standards is often more than reasonable: advantages include certification, assessment of test methods and accuracy, worldwide recognition. On the other hand, however detailed the Standards may be, they often lack the designer's (and perhaps the user's) point of view. This aspect leads to complicated realizations, low usability or long test execution times. This article proposes a flow rate test bench compliant to ISO Standards allowing a partially automated testing, rational installation, high configurability, user-friendliness, and accuracy.


Poultry production is a lucrative business in Nigeria but inadequate hatchery machines limit the expansion and make poultry products for instance day old chicks more expensive. At the moment, few commercially owned poultry hatcheries in Nigeria are located distance far away in the western and Eastern parts of the country. Majority of these hatcheries have little or no access to the national grid system but operate at about 60 per cent below the installation capacity. Generally, environmental pollution, unreliability and lack of access to grid power supply and low performance efficiency characterize the condition of the poultry hatchery business powered by conventional energy supply in Nigeria. These hamper and adversely affect the establishment of medium to large scale poultry production outfits in the rural areas of the country. But with the advent of electric powered egg incubator technology in poultry production, poultry farmers in Nigeria are likely to incubate and hatch poultry eggs and breed day-old chicks under a sustained power supply in a clean environment. Therefore, this study was aimed at the design, developed and tested in order to provide a favourable environment for eggs hatching. The developed machine was tested to assess its performance. The results from the test showed that out of the total 25 eggs, 5 eggs hatched after operating the machine. This gives 33% hatchability. The results showed that with further improvements, the developed machine can adequately be adopted at the household level instead of rearing chickens for the sole purpose of incubating eggs.


With the increasing need to restore former agricultural lands worldwide and in the tropics, in particular, it is critical to explore different models for how to restore these lands in a cost‐effective manner which best simulates natural forest recovery and provides for human livelihoods. We propose that agro‐successional restoration, which we define as incorporating a range of agroecology and agroforestry techniques as a transition phase early in forest restoration, could be used more widely to overcome socioeconomic and ecological obstacles to restoring these lands. Over centuries, farmers and scientists have developed various agroforestry techniques that aim to cultivate crops and trees, in a range of crop types, time periods of cultivation (a few years to several decades), and complexity of species planted. The management practices used in these systems, such as weeding and increasing soil fertility, parallel those used in many forest restoration efforts. The synergism between these approaches is evidenced by many existing agro‐successional examples currently used by smallholders in the tropics. Benefits of the agro‐successional model include extending the management period of restoration, offsetting some management costs, providing food security for small landholders, and involving small landholders in the restoration process.


Winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature, this is Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz's analysis of his country's history and psyche and of United States-Mexican relations. This enlarged edition of "The Labyrinth of Solitude" contains the new texts that complete the book and bring it up to date. These include "The Other Mexico" which, written in response to the government massacre of three hundred students in the plaza of Tlatelolco in Mexico City, is at once a postscript and a revision of "The Labyrinth of Solitude","Mexico and the United States" and "The Philanthropic Ogre". "Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude", is an interview with Claude Fell in which Paz takes a new look at his work.


Evaluated the effect of incorporation of the nanostructured silver vanadate decorated with silver nanoparticles (β-AgVO3) into dental porcelains on surface characteristics, antimicrobial, chemical, and mechanical properties. The percentages of 2.5% and 5% of β-AgVO3 were incorporated into commercial dental porcelains IPS Inline and Ex-3 Noritake. Surface characteristics were evaluated by SEM/EDS. Antimicrobial activity were investigated against Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sobrinus, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, by colony counts (CFU/mL), metabolic activity, and multiphoton microscopy. The chemical and mechanical behavior was evaluated by silver (Ag+) and vanadium (V4+/V5+) ions release, microhardness, roughness, and fracture toughness. Statistical tests Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's post-hoc were applied for antimicrobial analysis and ions release, and ANOVA and Bonferroni's post-hoc, for mechanical analysis. The nanomaterial interferes in the material's morphology but does not alter the porcelain's components. IPS Inline 5% reduced S. mutans and S. sobrinus (p<0.05), and Ex-3 Noritake 5% reduced S. sobrinus (p<0.05). The IPS Inline 2.5% reduced A. actinomycetemcomitans (p<0.05). IPS Inline 5% released more Ag+ (p<0.05), and Ex-3 Noritake 2.5% released more V4+/V5+ (p<0.05). The β-AgVO3 increased the fracture toughness of IPS Inline, the roughness for all groups, and decreased the microhardness of 2.5% group (p<0.05). β-AgVO3 incorporation influenced on morphology but not altered the porcelain's components, promoted antimicrobial activity against S. mutans, S. sobrinus, and A. actinomycetemcomitans, due to the Ag+ and V4+/V5+ released and influenced the porcelain's mechanical properties.


Anthropogenic warming of near-surface atmosphere in the last
50 years is dominant over the west Antarctic Peninsula. Ozone depletion has led
to partly cooling of the stratosphere. The positive polarity of the Southern Hemisphere
Annular Mode (SAM) index and its enhancement over the past 50 years have intensified
the westerlies over the Southern Ocean, and induced warming of Antarctic Peninsula.
Dictated by local ocean-atmosphere processes and remote forcing, the Antarctic sea
ice extent is increasing, contrary to climate model predictions for the 21st century,
and this increase has strong regional and seasonal signatures. Models incorporating
doubling of present day CO2 predict warming of the Antarctic sea ice
zone, a reduction in sea ice cover, and warming of the Antarctic Plateau, accompanied
by increased snowfall.


The standard quadratic optimization problem (StQP) refers to the problem of minimizing a quadratic form over the standard simplex. Such a problem arises from numerous applications and is known to be NP-hard. In a recent paper [Chen X, Peng J, Zhang S (2013) Sparse solutions to random standard quadratic optimization problems. Math. Programming 141(1–2):273–293], Chen, et al. showed that with a high probability close to 1, StQPs with random data have sparse optimal solutions when the associated data matrix is randomly generated from a certain distribution such as uniform and exponential distributions. In this paper, we present a new analysis for random StQPs combining probability inequalities derived from the first-order and second-order optimality conditions. The new analysis allows us to significantly improve the probability bounds. More important, it allows us to handle normal distributions, which is left open in Chen et al. (2013). The existence of sparse approximate solutions to convex StQPs and extens...


This document describes the support of Mobile Networks, as defined in
Mobile IPv4, by the Mobile Router and Home Agent. A Mobile Router is
responsible for the mobility of one or more network segments or
subnets moving together. The Mobile Router hides its mobility from the
nodes on the mobile network. The nodes on the Mobile Network may be
fixed in relationship to the Mobile Router and may not have any
mobility function. Extensions to Mobile IPv4 are introduced to
support Mobile Networks.


This paper deals with the voltage control of DC-DC cascaded buck converters. A steady-state analysis is presented, providing the design guidelines for all the parameters of two cascaded buck converters based on analytical expressions. In the sequence, a state feedback model of the converter is obtained, and after linearized. A small-signal model in the state space is provided and then augmented with an extra state variable representing integral action. A state feedback controller is used, and its gains are computed with the help of a linear quadratic regulator (LQR). The impact of parametric variations over the dynamic response are investigated and simulation results of the closed-loop system are presented, confirming good transient and steady state performances of the converter under load variations.


The Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma provides a way to map a number of points in high-dimensional space into a low-dimensional space, with only a small distortion of the distances between the points. The proofs of the lemma are non-constructive: they show that a random mapping induces small distortions with high probability, but they do not construct the actual mapping. In this paper, we provide a procedure that constructs such a mapping deterministically in time almost linear in the number of distances to preserve times the dimension of the original space. We then use that result (together with Nisan's pseudorandom generator) to obtain an efficient derandomization of several approximation algorithms based on semidefinite programming.


AC transport current loss in high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes can be measured without a direct electrical connection by using a pick-up loop method. This method requires a correction factor, which is related to the ratio of the linkage magnetic flux determined by the distribution of the transport current in the HTS tape and pick-up loop. In this study, to determine the accuracy of the AC transport current loss measurement using a pick-up loop method, we measured the critical current and AC transport current loss distribution in the tape axis. We found the pick-up loop voltage of the deteriorated section of the HTS tape to be higher than in the normal section with the same transport current. We concluded that the pick-up loop method accuracy is sufficient to measure the AC transport current loss in HTS tapes.


A Topic-based Document Retrieval Framework (TDRF) is proposed in this paper to resolve the topic-based document retrieval. The TDRF includes nine parts, of which Corpus Topic Learning, Query Topic Learning and Relationship Sorting are the core. Experiments on similar document retrieval showed that TDRF's instance outperforms the Vector Space Model (VSM) in average precision, recall and f-measure. The value of TDRF may lie in that it provides a simple, universal and novel methodology for document retrieval.


Thanks to its RDataFrame interface, ROOT now supports the execution of the same physics analysis code both on a single machine and on a cluster of distributed resources. In the latter scenario, it is common to read the input ROOT datasets over the network from remote storage systems, which often increases the time it takes for physicists to obtain their results. Storing the remote files much closer to where the computations will run can bring latency and execution time down. Such a solution can be improved further by caching only the actual portion of the dataset that will be processed on each machine in the cluster, reusing it in subsequent executions on the same input data. This paper shows the benefits of applying different means of caching input data in a distributed ROOT RDataFrame analysis. Two such mechanisms will be applied to this kind of workflow with different configurations, namely caching on the same nodes that process data or caching on a separate server.


The Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS) will be launched as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 payload in September 2008, arriving at the Moon within 7 days to begin a two year mission in lunar orbit conducting mineralogical surface mapping over the range of 1 - 10 keV. The detector plane of the instrument consists of twenty four e2v technologies CCD54 swept-charge devices (SCDs). Such devices were first flown in the Demonstration of a Compact Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (D-CIXS) instrument onboard SMART-1 [4, 5]. The detector plane in each case provides a total X-ray collection area of 26.4 cm2. The SCD is capable of providing near Fano-limited spectroscopy at -10°C, and at -20°C, near the Chandrayaan-1 mission average temperature, it achieves a total system noise of 6.2 electrons r.m.s. and a FWHM of 134 eV at Mn-Kα. This paper presents a brief overview of the C1XS mission and a detailed study of the effects of proton irradiation on SCD operational performance.


ABSTRACT This study demonstrates, for the first time, the principle of nuclear transmutation of minor actinide (MA) by the accelerator-driven system (ADS) through the injection of high-energy neutrons into the subcritical core at the Kyoto University Critical Assembly. The main objective of the experiments is to confirm fission reactions of neptunium-237 (237Np) and americium-241 (241Am), and capture reactions of 237Np. Subcritical irradiation of 237Np and 241Am foils is conducted in a hard spectrum core with the use of the back-to-back fission chamber that obtains simultaneously two signals from specially installed test (237Np or 241Am) and reference (uranium-235) foils. The first nuclear transmutation of 237Np and 241Am by ADS soundly implemented by combining the subcritical core and the 100 MeV proton accelerator, and the use of a lead-bismuth target, is conclusively demonstrated through the experimental results of fission and capture reaction events.


NMRI mice of both sexes and in various stages of the suckling period were handled oncea day for three minutes. They were intraperitoneally infected with E. coli O 111 on the eighteenth day of life. Handling carried out from the first to the 18th day led to a significantly higher mortality (P = 1,4%) as compared to the control animals. Differences in mortality were not observed when the stimulation occurred on the 1st to 10th or 10th to 18th day of life. Weight determination carried out just prior to infection showed no remarkable differences between the experimental groups.


Maternal anti-Ro (SS-A) antibodies have been implicated in the pathogenesis of congenital complete heart block. When congenital complete heart block occurs, SS-A antibodies are almost always present in maternal and fetal serum, although not all infants of SS-A antibody positive mothers are affected. We describe a situation in which antibodies to SS-A were present in high titre in both maternal and fetal serum, although there was no evidence of heart block in the infant. This is the first report of a normal infant in whom maternally derived SS-A antibodies have been documented in high titre.


Young men in precarious situations of persistent un(der)employment in post-civil war Freetown, Sierra Leone are depicted in popular and policy debate as "stuck" economically or "dangerous" and prone to violence. In the present paper, by contrast, we draw on young men's explanations of their work and livelihood struggles as "straining." We explore the logic of straining, its innovations and demands, and its geography across the city, especially where acts of straining interface with the prohibition and criminalisation of informal trading. We argue that straining innovates and endures because of (not despite) young men's marginalisation and limited autonomy and power. In this context, young men build forms of provisional agency and enact dynamic forms of waithood, in their strategies to earn a living to try to support their families and to negotiate a transition from youth to manhood. Drawing on this research, we argue for a more complex understanding of young men at work in Freetown, in particular, and of the "youth bulge," in general, in African cities.


Background Neonatal sepsis (NS) is considered as the most common cause of neonatal deaths that newborns suffer from. Although numerous studies focus on gene biomarkers of NS, the predictive value of the gene biomarkers is low. NS pathogenesis is still needed to be investigated. Methods After data preprocessing, we used KEGG enrichment method to identify the differentially expressed pathways between NS and normal controls. Then, functional principal component analysis (FPCA) was adopted to calculate gene values in NS. In order to further study the key signaling pathway of the NS, elastic-net regression model, Mann–Whitney U test, and coexpression network were used to estimate the weights of signaling pathway and hub genes. Results A total of 115 different pathways between NS and controls were first identified. FPCA made full use of time-series gene expression information and estimated F values of genes in the different pathways. The top 1000 genes were considered as the different genes and were further analyzed by elastic-net regression and MWU test. There were 7 key signaling pathways between the NS and controls, according to different sources. Among those genes involved in key pathways, 7 hub genes, PIK3CA, TGFBR2, CDKN1B, KRAS, E2F3, TRAF6, and CHUK, were determined based on the coexpression network. Most of them were cancer-related genes. PIK3CA was considered as the common marker, which is highly expressed in the lymphocyte group. Little was known about the correlation of PIK3CA with NS, which gives us a new enlightenment for NS study. Conclusion This research might provide the perspective information to explore the potential novel genes and pathways as NS therapy targets.