Introduction Many youth are less informed, less experienced and less comfortable in utilizing reproductive health services. In the Sub-Saharan region the adolescents account for a higher proportion of new HIV infections and unmet need for reproductive health (RH) services. This study assessed reproductive health service utilization and associated factors among the youth in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Methods A community based cross-sectional study was conducted from June 15-July 30, 2014. Three hundred ninety one youth were selected by systematic random sampling technique and interviewed using structured questionnaire. Data were anlyzed using SPSS windows version 20. Multiple logistic regression was done to control potential confounding variables. P-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results Three hundred and nighty one in-school and out-of-school youth were interviewed; 256 (65.5%) participants were in school and 209 (53.5%) were males. Almost all respondents (93.9%) had heard about reproductive health services and a third 129 (33%) had ever practiced sexual intercourse and 54.7% of them had utilized at least one reproductive health services. Never had sexual intercourse (AOR=3.693, 95%CI: 1.266, 10.775), families that asked their children about friends (parental monitoring) (AOR=1.892, 95%CI: 1.026, 3.491), know where service provided (AOR=3.273, 95%CI: 1.158, 9.247), youths who reads newspaper readers (AOR=3.787, 95%CI: 1.849were independent predictors of youth reproductive service utilization at 95 % CI and p-value <0.05%. Conclusion Even though the youth have information about reproductive health services, youth reproductive health services utilization is very low. Therefore, building life skill, facilitating parent to child communication, establishing and strengthening of youth centres and increasing awareness for youth about those services are important steps to improve adolescents' reproductive health (RH) service utilization.


Purpose
This paper is a reflective piece on a PhD workshop on "feminist organising" organised in November 2017 by the three authors of this paper. Calls to resist the neoliberalisation of academia through academic activism are gaining momentum. The authors' take on academic activism builds on feminist thought and practice, a tradition that remains overlooked in contributions on resisting neoliberalisation in academia. Feminism has been long committed to highlighting the epistemic inequalities endured by women and marginalised people in academia. This study aims to draw on radical feminist perspectives and on the notion of prefigurative organising to rethink the topic of academic activism. How can feminist academic activism resist the neoliberal academia?

Design/methodology/approach
This study explores this question through a multi-vocal autoethnographic account of the event-organising process.

Findings
The production of feminist space within academia was shaped through material and epistemic tensions. The study critically reflects on the extent to which the event can be read as prefigurative feminist self-organising and as neoliberal academic career-focused self-organising. The study concludes that by creating a space for sisterhood and learning, the empowering potential of feminist organising is experienced.

Originality/value
The study shows both the difficulties and potentials for feminist organising within the university. The concept of "prefiguration" provides a theoretical framework enabling us to grasp the ongoing efforts on which feminist organising relies. It escapes a dichotomy between success and failure that fosters radical pessimism or optimism potentially hindering political action.


The aim of the present study was to challenge potential mechanisms of action underlying the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation by agmatine. Agmatine inhibited proliferation of the human hepatoma cells HepG2, the human adenocarcinoma cells HT29, the rat hepatoma cells McRH7777, and the rat pheochromocytoma cells PC-12. Inhibition of proliferation of HepG2 cells was associated with an abolition of expression of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) protein and a doubling of mRNA content encoding ODC. In HepG2 cells, silencing of ODC-antizyme-1, but not of antizyme inhibitor, by RNA interference resulted in an increase of agmatine's antiproliferative effect. Thus, the distinct decrease in intracellular polyamine content by agmatine was due to a reduced translation of the synthesizing protein ODC but was not essentially mediated by induction of ODC-antizyme or blockade of antizyme inhibitor. In interaction experiments 1 mM l-arginine, 1 mM d-arginine, 1 mM citrulline, 100 μM Nω-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester, 1 and 10 μM sodium nitroprusside, and 1 μM N1-guanyl-1,7-diaminoheptane failed to alter agmatine's antiproliferative effect. Hence, the antiproliferative effect of agmatine in HT29 and HepG2 cells is due to an interaction with neither the NO synthases, the hypusination of eIF5A, nor an agmatine-induced reduction in availability of intracellular l-arginine. l-Arginine and citrulline, but not d-arginine, inhibited tumor cell proliferation by themselves. Their inhibitory effect was abolished after silencing of arginine decarboxylase (ADC) expression by RNA interference indicating the conversion to agmatine by ADC. Finally, in the four cell lines under study, agmatine-induced inhibition of cell proliferation was paralleled by an increase in intracellular caspase-3 activity, indicating a promotion of apoptosis.


The theory for a new class of Analysis by Synthesis LPC coding algorithms, called Backward Excitation Recovery (BER) LPC, is presented in this paper for the general case where an ARMA type filter is employed in the speech synthesis process. These coders differ from conventional Analysis by Synthesis LPC systems in that their excitation signal is defined from past information which is available at both the transmitter and the receiver. As a result only the filter parameters are required at the receiver for the recovery of the speech signal.A plethora of sequential filter optimization algorithms are proposed for both Single-input and Multi-input Synthesis filters. Two excitation adaptation algorithms are also proposed. The excitation signal is updated by using either 'Past Decoded Speech' (PDS) samples or 'Past Excitation Samples' (PES). The PES sequence is the signal which drives the all-pole part of the ARMA synthesis filter. It is shown that a specific BER-LPC codec, which employs one of the proposed PES algorithms, is equivalent to the recently proposed 4·8 kbit/s Self-Excited LPC system (SE-LPC).Computer simulation results highlight the SNR performance of BER-LPC codecs employing the proposed filter optimization and excitation adaptation algorithms, and demonstrate the superiority of several BER-LPC codecs over the SE-LPC system. Furthermore, it is shown that BER-LPC codecs which use the PDS excitation adaptation approach can operate successfully with a very low encoding delay. This property is valuable to low bit rate speech codecs operating in applications such as digital mobile radio.


Among the inhalant and foods which caused allergy, which is increasing nowaday, this research has a purpose of studying allergy-causing materials (allergen) which most frequently cause allergy. In order to conduct this research, we selected 100 hundred patients (M : F = 65 : 35) from in Kwangju Christian Hospital, who were tested through allergy multiple antigen simultaneous test (MAST) immunoblot assay (RIDA ® X-Screen; r-Biopharm Co., Darmstadt, Germany). According to the test, the total IgE positive rate (above Class 2) from the inhalant is 58.3%, and that from food is 35%, respectively. This research showed that the first most allergen was the tick ( Derm. farinae/Derm. pteronyssinus ), the second most was housedust, and the third was the hair of pets such as cats and dogs; 65%, 35%, 26.3% in inhalant panel, and 52.5%, 40%, 50% in food panel, respectively. Thease allergens newly added to inhalant and food panels were not contributable to the detection of specifical allergen. We needs further improvement to be used as primary screening or quantitative test for allergy.


Background: Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is used increasingly to treat acute kidney injury (AKI), which is a common condition in the intensive care unit (ICU). However, the optimal CRRT dose for the treatment of AKI is still a matter of controversy This study was conducted to ascertain the minimal dose of CRRT that can be effective on AKI patient outcomes. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study in two ICUs of academic medical centers in Japan. Patients aged 15 years or older admitted to the ICUs from January 2007 to July 2010 and treated with CRRT for AKI during their ICU stay were included. Data were retrospectively collected from patient records. Patients were categorized by doses that were above (higher-dose group) or below (lower-dose group) the median. Major outcome measures were hospital mortality, ICU mortality, and renal recovery at hospital discharge. Results: 131 AKI patients were treated with continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) during the study period. The median dose of CVVHDF was 16 ml/kg per hr (IQR = 14 to 20). Hospital mortality was 44%, which was significantly lower than the predicted mortality (56%, p<0.01). Patients who received lower-dose CRRT tend to have lower mortality rates (36% vs. higher-dose 53%; p = 0.055). Conclusions: We found that low-dose CRRT did not increase mortality in critically ill patients with AKI. We also found that AKI patients treated with lower-dose CRRT non-significantly but numerically lower hospital mortality compared to higher-dose CRRT.


Autoclaving nutrient media is still considered as the optimum mode of sterilisation in plant cell and tissue culture. During the process steam under high pressure is maintained at 120 degrees Celsius, 15 psi for 15-20 minutes in a chamber, optimised to kill all possible microbial life forms. But the disadvantages related to the process of autoclaving are plentiful. They are, decrease in the media pH, salt precipitation, agar depolymerisation, carbohydrate hydrolysis, volatile obliteration and necessity of the infrastructure investment. Requirements of additional resources (time, human resources, electrical energy) have forced the lookout for a more viable alternative, that is, chemical sterilisation. The use of Sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) is a useful alternative for media and explant sterilisation. NaDCC is stable, water-soluble, non-toxic and easy to use at room temperature, does not have any environmental hazards and is not phytotoxic. The use of NaDCC as a disinfectant has been documented well concerning water sterilisation, surface sterilisation and also as a broad spectrum disinfecting agent. Disinfecting property of NaDCC is due to the hydrolytic release of chlorine, and this can be utilised for sterilisation of media and explants in plant tissue culture. NaDCC is a useful alternative for autoclaving at a concentration range of 0.05 to 1.0 g/l. However, only a few reports are available for its use as a sterilising agent for media and explants for in vitro cultures of plants. This paper discusses and reviews the possibility of establishing NaDCC as an active agent for explant sterilisation and as a viable alternative to medium sterilisation through autoclaving.


This study was aimed to investigate the effect of problem based learning to environmental literacy for junior high school in environmental pollution subject. The study of students' environmental literacy covered three aspects, there were knowledge, attitudes, and cognitive skills. The research methods used quasi-experimental and non-equivalent control group design. The sample of this research was seventh grade students in junior high school consisting of 27 experimental class students and 25 control class students. The instruments used in this study were multiple choice questions for aspects of knowledge and cognitive skills with Jatigede Reservoir as an environmental content, Likert scale questionnaires for attitude aspects, observation sheets of problem based learning syntax and student questionnaire in learning problem based learning. Pre test was given to the experimental and control class before learning begun and post test was given to the experimental and control class after the last learning was held. The results showed that the knowledge aspect showed a significant difference which meant that there was an influence from the results of the treatment given, while the aspect of cognitive attitude and skills did not show a significant difference, which meant there was no influence from the results of the treatment given. The achievement of the syntax of problem based learning is in the category of almost all activities. Students' responses to the implementation of problem based learning showed an agreed response.


Biotic and abiotic interactions between the riparian zone and the river determine relevant hydrological processes and exert control over riparian and bordering upland vegetation types. Vegetation growth and development are mainly controlled by water availability on semi‐arid regions, where a moisture gradient determines the transition between the densely vegetated riparian zone and the semi‐arid upland. To reproduce this spatial distribution, a mathematical model named RibAV is presented. Its conceptualization is based on the main ecohydrological modelling approaches and field expertise. The implementation of RibAV that is proposed in this paper allows the simulation of the distribution of three plant functional types [herbaceous riparian vegetation (HRV), woody riparian vegetation (WRV) and terrestrial vegetation (TV)] within the riparian zone. An evapotranspiration index (Eidx) obtained through RibAV is used as a criterion for plant absence/presence prediction. Two permanent river reaches of semi‐arid Mediterranean basins, the Terde reach (Mijares River, Spain) and the Lorcha reach (Serpis River, Spain), have been selected as case studies for the calibration and validation of the model, respectively. Several criteria based on the confusion matrix were used to analyse the efficiency of RibAV on the prediction of plant distribution. The satisfactory performance of the model establishing the distribution of the riparian vegetation types and the limit between this zone and the bordering upland are demonstrated in this paper; the strength of the Eidx to classify plant functional types in riparian semi‐arid environments is additionally proven. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Children with chronic unexplained nausea have a high incidence of cardiovascular instability (~ 75%) manifesting as orthostatic intolerance (OI), with exaggerated suppression of baroreflexes upon standing. Because vasopressin (AVP) causes nausea and may be triggered by a fall in blood pressure (BP), we aimed to determine the relationship between AVP and tilt-induced changes in BP in children with OI. Forty-eight patients (mean age [range] of 15.2 [10-18] years) (36 females, 12 males) underwent tilt table testing for symptoms of OI and nausea. Subjects were maintained supine for 15 min before 45 min upright tilt (from 0 to 70 degrees). Plasma AVP was measured in blood sampled immediately before and 15 min into upright tilt. Of the 48 tilt tests: 9 were normal and 39 abnormal. Abnormal tests were classified as: postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS, heart rate >120 bpm or increase by 30 bpm during first 10 min of tilt; n = 15), neutrally mediated hypotension (NMH, decrease in systolic BP [SBP] >25 mmHg during first 10 min of tilt; n = 2), and neurocardiogenic syncope (NCS, hypotension followed by syncope; n = 22). Mean supine SBP of normal subjects was 129 ± 9 mmHg and diastolic BP [DBP] was 64 ± 3 mm Hg (mean ± SEM). There were no differences in supine BPs among groups. Supine AVP levels were 4 ± 2 and 2 ± 1 in abnormal vs normal subjects (p = NS) There was a positive correlation between SBP and AVP in the supine position before tilt (0.34, p = 0.02). AVP increased by 44 ± 13 pg/mL vs. 1 ± 1 pg/mL for subjects with abnormal vs. normal tilt tests (p = 0.002), by 43 ± 17 pg/mL for NCS alone vs. normal (p = 0.02), and by 37 ± 20 pg/mL for POTS vs. normal (p = NS). There was a negative correlation between AVP and both SBP and DBP during tilt (-0.3, p = 0.035 and -0.4, p = 0.005, respectively). Hypotension and syncope upon tilt are associated with acute increases in AVP in subjects with OI and nausea. The increase in AVP may serve as a compensatory mechanism in the face of impaired autonomic reflexes. It is not known whether the increase in AVP contributes to the nausea observed during tilt, but better understanding of this relationship may allow for more effective treatment options for the management of nausea in these subjects.


The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of moderate passive motion on articular cartilage in osteoarthritis (OA) caused by knee fracture. Sprague-Dawley rats (age, 8 weeks) with knee fractures were used to construct rat knee early- and middle-stage OA models. The stages were fixed for three and six weeks, with 20 rats analyzed at each stage. The experimental groups were exercised daily for 15 m/min with a specified duration. Following the completion of exercise, the effects of proper passive motion on cartilage thickness, the Mankin rating, cartilage collagen matrix, proteoglycan content and the morphological structure of the cartilage in the rat OA models were measured at the various degenerative stages caused by knee fracture. The proteoglycan content of the cartilage matrix, type II collagen fibers and the number of cartilage cells undergoing apoptosis were semiquantified. For early- and middle-stage OA, the cartilage layers in the three- or six-week experimental groups were significantly thicker and the levels of proteoglycans and type II collagen fibers in the weight-bearing area of the cartilage were significantly higher when compared with the control groups (P<0.05). In addition, the Mankin ratings were lower and ligament tension was increased when compared with the control group (P<0.05). In the early-stage OA group, significantly decreased apoptotic rates (P<0.05) were observed in the three- and six-week experimental groups, however, no significant decrease was observed in the middle-stage OA group. In the early-stage OA rats, the thickness of the cartilage layer, as well as the levels of proteoglycans and type II collagen fibers, in the six-week experimental group, were significantly higher compared with the control and three-week subgroups, and a decreased apoptotic rate was observed (P<0.05). In the six-week experimental middle-stage OA group, significant differences were observed in the content of proteoglycans and type II collagen fibers when compared with the control group, but not when compared with the three-week experimental group. Therefore, proper passive motion can repair and improve the metabolism of chondrocytes and delay the degenerative progress of articular cartilage in OA caused by knee fracture. However, for middle-stage OA, passive motion exhibits no significant repairing effect on the articular cartilage. This therapy increases the levels of proteoglycans and collagen fibers by reducing their decomposition, thereby improving the strength of the articular ligament and the stability of articulation.


CTH is a software system under development at Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque to model multidimensional, multi-material, large deformation, strong shock wave physics. One-dimensional, two-dimensional, and three-dimensional Eulerian meshes are currently available. CTH uses tabular or analytic equations of state that model solid, liquid, vapor, plasma, and mixed-phase materials. CTH can model elastic-plastic behavior, high explosives, fracture, and motion of fragments smaller than a computational cell. CTH was carefully structured to vectorize and multitask on the CRAY X-MP. Three-dimensional databases reside on the CRAY solid state disk with only five planes in core at once. The input/output to the solid state disk is overlapped with computations so there is no penalty for using the solid state disk. This allows very large problems to be run effectively. A sophisticated post-processor, CTHED, has been developed for interactive analysis using color graphics. This paper describes the architecture, database structure, models, and novel features of CTH. Special emphasis will be place on the features that are novel to CTH or are not direct generalizations of two-dimensional models. 8 refs., 1 fig.


We present a comprehensive study of the variability properties of young disk-bearing stars in the Taurus star-forming region, paralleling our previous investigation in ρ Oph and Upper Sco. A sample of 99 confirmed Taurus association members is placed in the diagnostic Q − M plane of flux asymmetry (M) and (Q), which guides our assignment of variability classes. We find a similar proportion of flux-symmetric variables in Taurus, but more bursters and fewer dippers relative to Upper Sco. The regions also differ in that the amplitudes for periodic and sources are larger in Taurus relative to the more evolved Upper Sco star/disk systems. The relationship between photometric variability patterns at optical wavelengths, which arise in the inner disk and at the stellar surface, are assessed relative to available disk inclination measurements.


In this paper different architectures for real time image constant coefficients convolutions are considered. Accordingly, look-up-table (LUT) based multiplication/convolution, LUT based distributed arithmetic (DA) convolution and multiplierless convolution (MC) implementations into FPGA structures has been investigated. In one result, the choice between these architectures depends on given coefficients values, however in most cases the MC preferable. Furthermore the change of coefficient values in real-time systems is also considered. This work is a contribution to worldwide intense research on developing reconfigurable and user dedicated custom computing machines (CCM).


This review summarizes winter conditions from six polymictic European shallow lakes. The lakes range from oligotrophic to hyper-eutrophic. Four of the lakes freeze regularly while ice cover is absent or rare in the two others. Ice duration and timing of ice-out are significantly influenced by climate signals in three of the lakes. Winter water temperature remains higher in non- ice-covered lakes. No long-term trend in temperature is detectable except for one lake where winter water temperature began to increase in 1986. Secchi depth in winter is equal or greater than summer values in all six lakes indicating relatively better light conditions in winter. Total phosphorus concentration in winter ranges from 10 to 130 µg L -1 , which is equal or lower than summer values and is unrelated to chlorophyll a in five of the sites. Phytoplankton species composition during winter differs largely at the six sites. The winter assemblages largely depend on the trophic level and the conditions during the previous season. Winter chlorophyll a and phytoplankton biomass are usually lower than summer values because of reduced photosynthetic rates. Bacterial production often exceeds primary production. Epipelic algal assemblages tend to proliferate during winter in both ice-covered and non-ice-covered lakes. Primary production is low during winter because of insufficient light. Zooplankton abundances and biomass critically depend on conditions during the previous season and the winter situation and are quite variable from year to year, but their values correlate with the trophic status of the lakes. As a result, winter conditions are important to understand seasonal and annual changes in shallow lakes.


Cathepsin S (Cat S) is predominantly expressed in antigen-presenting cells and is up-regulated in several preclinical models of antigen-induced inflammation, suggesting a role in the allergic response. Prophylactic dosing of an irreversible Cat S inhibitor has been shown to attenuate pulmonary eosinophilia in mice, supporting the hypothesis that Cat S inhibition before the initiation of airway inflammation is beneficial in airway disease. In addition, Cat S has been shown to play a role in more distal events in the allergic response. To determine where Cat S inhibition may affect the allergic response, we used complementary genetic and pharmacological approaches to investigate the role of Cat S in the early and downstream allergic events in a murine model of antigen-induced lung inflammation. Cat S knockout mice did not develop ovalbumin-induced pulmonary inflammation, consistent with a role for Cat S in the development of the allergic response. Alternatively, wild-type mice were treated with a reversible, highly selective Cat S inhibitor in prophylactic and therapeutic dosing paradigms and assessed for changes in airway inflammation. Although both treatment paradigms resulted in potent Cat S inhibition, only prophylactic Cat S inhibitor dosing blocked lung inflammation, consistent with our findings in Cat S knockout mice. The findings indicate that although Cat S is up-regulated in allergic models, it does not appear to play a significant role in the downstream effector inflammatory phase in this model; however, our results demonstrate that Cat S inhibition in a prophylactic paradigm would ameliorate airway inflammation.


Szeliga M. 2017. The First Chronometric Markings of the Late Stage of the LPC in the Northern Foreland of the Sandomierz Upland. Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia 12, 431–448 The article presents results of first radiocarbon analyses carried out for samples obtained from the Linear Pottery Culture settlement on site 6 in Tominy, Opatów district. Presented radiocarbon dates highly enrich current database of chronometric markings relating to the early Neolithic in the Sandomierz Upland and its northern foreland. Together with data on stylistic and typological differentiation of the vascular pottery, seem to reveal a specific course of development of local groups of the Linear Pottery Culture, which is characterized by particularly long term functioning of the music note ornamental traditions, as well as their late, little intense and retarded coexistence with the early-Želiezovce stylistic influences. These data are also a quite significant contribution both to the discussion on the overall time range of the Linear Pottery Culture, as well as the nature and course of the final stage of its development in the upper basin of the Vistula River.


The behavior of confined anticancer carboplatin (CPT) molecules in a single (10, 10) boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) was studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Our study revealed a very large storage capacity of BNNT. Analysis of the energy profiles depending on the number of confined molecules, and on their spatial organization allowed us to quantify the ability of BNNT to vectorize CPT. Indeed, BNNT despite its small radius presented a large inner volume that favored stable encapsulation of multiple active anticancer molecules. Moreover, in our molecular dynamics simulations, the empty BNNT and the BNNT filled with CPT diffused spontaneously to the cell membrane and were able to passively enter inside lipid bilayers by a lipid-assisted mechanism. This property has been used to deliver naturally anticancer drugs to cellular targets. Using this enhanced drug delivery system, we have provided a definitive solution to the problem of drug release and have thus opened up a new way of targeting cancer cells. Indeed, regardless of the mode of action of the platinum complex towards the cell, the delivery of the drug on site should limit the side effects of the drug.


This volume documents the severe consequences that climate change is predicted to have for coral reefs worldwide. While there are expected to be many impacts on coral reefs from climate change, the most immediate and dramatic are associated with rising sea temperatures and resultant mass coral bleaching events. These events have already been responsible for long-term damage to more than 16% of the world's reefs, and with causing serious, although largely unmeasured, hardship for the people who depend on the reefs. As evidence of these socio-ecological impacts grows, so does attention on the associated management question: are there any actions that coral reef managers can implement to help reefs in the face of climate change?


Abstract Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of segmental superficial parotidectomy in the surgical treatment of benign parotid tumours. Methods: Patients who underwent parotidectomy for benign primary parotid tumours limited to the superficial lobe were retrospectively reviewed. Tumour location, size, surgical procedure, follow-up period, complications and recurrence rates were noted. Results: The study included a total of 39 patients: 22 underwent segmental superficial parotidectomy (group 1) and 17 underwent superficial parotidectomy (group 2). The mean follow-up period was 41.79 months (range, 13–85 months). There were no recurrences in either group during the follow-up period. No significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of tumour size, complications or recurrence rates. Conclusion: Segmental superficial parotidectomy is a safe and effective option in the surgical treatment of benign parotid tumours.


Abstract. The Los Humeros geothermal system is steam dominated and
currently under exploration with 65 wells (23 producing). Having
temperatures above 380 ∘C, the system is characterized as a super
hot geothermal system (SHGS). The development of such systems is still
challenging due to the high temperatures and aggressive reservoir fluids
which lead to corrosion and scaling problems. The geothermal system in
Acoculco (Puebla, Mexico; so far only explored via two exploration wells) is
characterized by temperatures of approximately 300 ∘C at a depth
of about 2 km. In both wells no geothermal fluids were found, even though a
well-developed fracture network exists. Therefore, it is planned to develop
an enhanced geothermal system (EGS). For better reservoir understanding and prospective modeling, extensive
geological, geochemical, geophysical and technical investigations are
performed within the scope of the GEMex project. Outcrop analogue studies
have been carried out in order to identify the main fracture pattern,
geometry and distribution of geological units in the area and to
characterize all key units from the basement to the cap rock regarding
petro- and thermo-physical rock properties and mineralogy. Ongoing
investigations aim to identify geological and structural heterogeneities on
different scales to enable a more reliable prediction of reservoir
properties. Beside geological investigations, physical properties of the
reservoir fluids are determined to improve the understanding of the
hydrochemical processes in the reservoir and the fluid-rock interactions,
which affect the reservoir rock properties.


Evidence suggests that a low-protein diet (0.8 g/kg) is beneficial in persons with diabetes with the onset of macroalbuminuria. Despite problems with existing studies, preliminary evidence suggests that vegetable proteins are not detrimental to renal function and may be used to supplement or replace animal proteins.


SETTING
Patients of five randomly selected general practitioners in Split, Croatia.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate knowledge about tuberculosis (TB) and to identify target groups for information, education and communication activities.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey based on a structured questionnaire using a convenience sampling among subjects aged > or =18 years. Data were stratified by sex, age group, educational background, personal monthly income and contact with TB patients. TB knowledge scores were determined from the number of correct answers to 12 selected questions.

RESULTS
The questionnaires were completed by 386 subjects. No statistically significant differences were observed between females and males with respect to age, educational background or contact with TB patients, except for personal income, which was higher in males (P < 0.001). The mean TB knowledge score was 9.4 +/- 1.98 (range 1-12, median 10). A low score was associated with the youngest age group, 18-29 years (P = 0.018), and with <12 years of education (P = 0.002).

CONCLUSION
Educational background and age groups of respondents were important determinants of TB knowledge. Although the study sample showed a satisfactory level of knowledge, the results demonstrated several misconceptions that need to be clarified. Uncertainties in core TB knowledge need to be addressed choosing less educated and young people as specific target groups.


This study examined temporal parameters of speech in subjects with apraxia of speech, conduction aphasia, and normal speech. They were asked to repeat target words in a carrier phrase 10 times. Acoustic analyses involved measurement of stop gap duration, voice onset time, vowel nucleus duration, and consonant-vowel (CV) duration. Speakers with apraxia of speech had longer and more variable stop gap, vowel, and CV durations than did subjects with aphasia or normal speech. Speakers with conduction aphasia had longer vowel durations and CV durations than subjects with normal speech. Also, subjects with apraxia of speech showed greater token-to-token variability than the other subject groups. The variability shown by subjects with apraxia of speech was significantly correlated with perceptual judgments of their speech. The significance of these results is discussed in the context of motoric and phonological explanations for apraxia of speech and conduction aphasia.


This paper develops efficient ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) implementations based on shrinkage covariance estimation. The forecast ensemble members at each step are used to estimate the background error covariance matrix via the Rao-Blackwell Ledoit and Wolf estimator, which has been developed specifically developed to approximate high-dimensional covariance matrices using a small number of samples. Additional samples are taken from the normal distribution described by the background ensemble mean and the estimated background covariance matrix in order to increase the size of the ensemble and reduce the sampling error of the filter. This increase in the size of the ensemble is obtained without running the forward model. After the assimilation step, the additional samples are discarded and only the initial members are propagated. Two implementations are considered. In the EnKF Full-Space (EnKF-FS) approach the assimilation process is performed in the model space, while the EnKF Reduce-Space (EnKF-RS) formulation performs the analysis in the subspace spanned by the ensemble members. Numerical experiments carried out with a quasi-geostrophic model show that the proposed implementations outperform current methods such as the traditional EnKF formulation, square root filters, and inflation-free EnKF implementations. The proposed implementations provide good results with small ensemble sizes (∼ 10) and small percentages of observed components from the vector state. These results are similar (and in some cases better) to traditional methods using large ensemble sizes (∼ 80) and large percentages of observed components. The computational times of the new implementations remain reasonably low.


From its roots in the American South to today's world stage, the journey of the blues has encompassed countless artists and recordings. But how can you find the best of them? "The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings" is a uniquely informative, insightful and easy-to-use guide through the jungles of the record shop and the online music store. It surveys the recorded work of more than a thousand blues artists, from towering figures of the past like Charley Patton, Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson to stars of the modern era such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan, providing crisp, expert and witty reviews of almost six thousand CDs. Whether you're a blues aficionado or just starting a collection, this is required reading.


Single-event upset effects from heavy ions are measured for Motorola and IBM silicon-on-insulator (SOI) microprocessors with different feature sizes and core voltages. The results are compared with results for similar devices with bulk substrates. The cross sections of the SOI processors are lower than their bulk counterparts, but the threshold is about the same, even though the charge collections depth is more than an order of magnitude smaller in the SOI devices. The scaling of the cross section with reduction of feature size and core voltage dependence for SOI microprocessors is discussed.


ABSTRACT Snare entrapment is a rare complication of hot snare polypectomy of large colon polyps. We report a case of snare entrapment in our unit and its management. This report highlights the method of delayed removal of snare followed by repeat colonoscopy.


The article examines parameters in the implementation of digital training in the field of linguistic-literary didactic discourse. It is included in the educational process of students from pedagogic specialties who study at Trakia University – Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. Descriptive statistics were used to present the identified metacognitive strategies for the realized simulation form – an analogue of the lesson in a real work environment. They can relate to the analyzing, creating and evaluating through testifying to the realized reflection of future elementary teachers. Problems related to goal setting and time distribution of educational activities were registered, as well as when outlining the parameters of an imaginary communicative speech situation. A high level was found in the self-assessment of pedagogical students regarding the implemented simulation form in a digital environment.


The juvenile-to-adult transition in plants involves changes in vegetative growth and plant architecture; the timing of this transition has important implications for agriculture. The microRNA miR156 regulates this transition and shoot maturation in plants. In Arabidopsis thaliana, deposition of histone H3 trimethylation on lysine 27 (H3K27me3, a repressive mark) at the MIR156A/C loci is regulated by Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 (PRC1) or PRC2, depending on the developmental stage. The levels of miR156 change during mitosis and decline during shoot maturation. The amount of H3K27me3 at MIR156A/C loci affects miR156 levels; however, whether this epigenetic regulation is conserved remains unclear. Here, we found that in rice (Oryza sativa), the putative PRC1 subunit LIKE HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN 1 (OsLHP1), with the miR156-SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) module, affects developmental phase transitions. Loss of OsLHP1 function results in ectopic expression of MIR156B/C/I/E, phenocopy of miR156 overexpression, and reduced H3k27me3 levels at MIR156B/C/I/E. This indicates that OsLHP1 has functionally diverged from Arabidopsis LHP1. Genetic and transcriptome analyses of wild-type, miR156b/c-overexpression, and Oslhp1-2 mutant plants suggest that OsLHP1 acts upstream of miR156 and SPL during the juvenile-to-adult transition. Therefore, modifying the OsLHP1-miR156-SPL pathway may enable alteration of the vegetative period and plant architecture. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Advancements in optical manufacturing and testing technologies for sapphire material are required to support the increasing use of large aperture sapphire panels as windscreens for various electro-optical system applications. It is well known that the grinding and polishing operations employed to create optical surfaces leads to the introduction of surface stress and sub-surface damage which can affect critical opto-mechanical performance characteristics such as strength and durability. Traditional methods for measuring these defects are destructive and, therefore, unsuitable as inprocess, high volume inspection tools. A number of non-destructive optical techniques were investigated at Exotic Electro-Optics under funding by the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Research Laboratory including Raman spectroscopy, laser polarimetry and the Twyman effect to characterize process-induced defects in sapphire panels. Preliminary experimental results using these techniques have shown that surface stress and sub-surface damage may be non-destructively measured. Raman spectroscopy has shown promise in quantifying surface stress, laser polarimetry is of questionable utility and the Twyman effect may be used qualitatively to monitor relative stress and sub-surface damage. This information will ultimately provide a better understanding of the overall manufacturing process leading to optimized process time and cost.


Using polyclonal antibodies which recognize 18 kDa BMP-2, we have previously demonstrated that the major BMP-2 protein in Xenopus embryo extracts is monomeric and not dimerized whereas, the mammalian counterpart derived from bone extract was purified as a dimeric protein. In this study, the same antibodies (Ab383) were used to detect high molecular weight forms of Xenopus BMP-2. Partial purification of the immunoreactive 18 kDa BMP-2 from Xenopus embryo extract by gel filtration, heparin-Sepharose affinity chromatography and preparative SDS-PAGE resulted in co-purification and identification of higher molecular forms of BMP-2 of 110 kDa and 36 kDa. Diagonal SDS-PAGE analysis suggested that they are homodimer and multimer of the 18 kDa species, respectively, linked through disulfide bridge(s).


The topological effect of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau during the Quaternary climatic oscillation must have important effects on spatial distribution and genetic structure of organisms distributed there. At the same time, the ecological niches provided by the uplifts of the plateau and the following Quaternary climatic changes may have promoted morphological differentiation and speciation of plants occurring there. The plateau endemic Hippophae neurocarpa (Elaeagnaceae) is a dominant shrub species along the streams or rivers and it also occurs in the semiarid ecosystem. This species is recognized as two separate subspecies, i.e. ssp. neurocarpa and ssp. stellatopilosa, mainly according to the appendages on leaves and different habitat preferences. The former is characteristic of scale-like appendages on the leaves and distributed in the drier and colder habitats while the latter has stellate hairs with a preference of occurring in the wetter and warmer habitats. It is interesting to know whether the morphological sub-speciation of H. neurocarpa is correlated with the intra-specific chloroplast phylogeny. In addition, this species also provide a good proxy to test the hypothesis that a few coldor dry-tolerating species survive in the high altitude region of the plateau during the Quaternary glacial stages. In this study, we examined chloroplast trnL-F sequence variation from both subspecies of H. neurocarpa. The chloroplast genome was found to be maternally inherited in Hippophae and the intraspecific genealogy may reflect the maternal lineage sorting between both subspecies. A total of eight haplotypes were recovered through sequencing 70 individuals from 14 populations. One was shared by both subspecies, and four and three were only found in ssp. neurocarpa and ssp. stellatopilosa respectively. These findings suggested that two subspecies did not show genealogical concordance with morphological differentiation in this fragment. The constructed nested cladogram classified eight haplotypes into three lineages: one consisted of endemic haplotypes of ssp. neurocarpa and the other two included haplotypes from both subspecies with those of ssp. neurocarpa at the tip positions. In addition, the unique haplotypes recovered in the high altitude suggested that this species might have survived in these arid habitats. The contiguous range expansion was detected from these different refugia. Key word contiguous range expansion, cpDNA, Hippophae neurocarpa, phylogeography, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, refugia, sub-speciation, trnL-F. 摘要 由于青藏高原的地理效应, 第四纪冰期气候的反复变化应对现今该地区生物的地理分布及其居群遗传结构产生重大 影响。肋果沙棘Hippophae neurocarpa是青藏高原地区的一个特有种, 根据叶上的附属物(星状鳞毛或者鳞片状鳞毛)分为两个 亚种: 肋果沙棘亚种subsp. neurocarpa和密毛肋果沙棘亚种subsp. stellatopilosa。依据母系遗传的叶绿体DNA片段对该物种谱 系地理学进行研究不仅能阐明该物种冰期避难所, 而且对于理解两个亚种的母系分化也具有重要意义。共对两个亚种14居群 的70个个体的trnL-F序列进行了测序, 共发现8种单倍型, 其中5种单倍型出现在肋果沙棘亚种中, 4种出现在密毛肋果沙棘亚 ——————————— 2007-02-12收稿, 2007-04-20收修改稿。 * 通讯作者(Author for correspondence. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com)。 孟丽华等: 基于叶绿体 DNA trnL-F 序列研究肋果沙棘的谱系地理学 33 种中, 两个亚种共享一种单倍型。种内谱系分化与两个亚种形态上的分化不一致。嵌套进化分支把8种单倍型分为三支: 一支 为肋果沙棘亚种, 其他两支中两个亚种单倍型嵌套组成, 且肋果沙棘亚种处于进化末端。我们的研究结果还表明肋果沙棘在 冰期可能在高海拔地区存在多个避难所, 并且存在来自避难所的邻域扩张。 关键词 邻域扩张; 叶绿体DNA; 肋果沙棘; 谱系地理学; 青藏高原; 避难所; 亚种分化; trnL-F序列


Energy generation and the use of energy is associated with environmental impacts. It is imperative to reduce energy consumption – for a better environment, energy security and a more competitive industry. The Swedish government has set goals to increase the energy efficiency with 20 % and reduce greenhouse gas emissions with 40 % by 2020.

The 'energy efficiency gap' is a concept describing the discrepancy between the potential energy savings from cost-effective energy efficiency measures that could be adopted and the savings from measures actually implemented. The explanation for the gap include various market failures and barriers for energy efficiency, e.g. competition for limited resources, insufficient knowledge, and lack of customer demands.

This study covers three processes for energy efficiency: the program for improving energy efficiency in energy intensive industries (PFE), energy management systems (mainly ISO 50001), and network for energy efficiency. The purpose is to identify success factors for energy efficiency management in the industry, with the extended expectation that the results can be used when designing resource efficiency strategies.

Through literature review and interviews, this study shows that the most important factors for successful increase of energy efficiency in companies is the involvement and dedication of top management and employees, and establishment of energy management through the whole organisation. Further, the importance of a systematic and continuous energy management is clearly demonstrated through all processes and interviews. The need for creation of economic incentives by governments is another success factor identified for all processes and energy efficiency in general. Lastly, the importance of proper goal setting is pointed out. Some of the results may be applicable for resource efficiency efforts but some interviewees recommend lean management as a more suitable approach.


Generalized stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs) are used to model and analyze a real flexible manufacturing system (FMS). First, performance and dependability evaluation are applied to a real-life system. A global system is decomposed to reduce the complexity evaluation. Temporal analysis is used to derive performance measures such as the average production per day. Second, a solution is proposed to increase the production rate by introducing buffers with finite capacity and a reorganization of jobs on different production lines.<<ETX>>


In this paper we deal with an M/G/1 vacation system with the sojourn time (wait plus service) limit and two typical vacation rules, i.e. multiple and single vacation rules. Using the level crossing approach, we derive recursive equations for the steady-state distributions of the virtual waiting times in M/G/1 vacation systems with a general vacation time and two vacation rules.


Synthetic oxytocin (OT) conjugated to bovine thyroglobulin by the carbodiimide reaction was injected into rabbits to raise a high titre, specific OT antiserum which was then coupled to microcrystalline cellulose activated by cyanogen bromide. High affinity of the coupled antiserum was defined by Scatchard analysis, Keq = 7.1 X 10(11)1/mol. Cross-reactivity studies revealed little binding of antiserum to analogues of OT. Iodination was performed by the Chloramine T method, giving specific activity of 125I-OT, range 1.1 - 1.7 X 10(3) Ci/mmol. After incubation for 40 hours under disequilibrium conditions, specific and non-specific bindings were 10.6 +/- 2.7% and 0.2 +/- 0.1% (n=15), respectively. Displacement of 50% 125I-OT occurred with 2.9 pg OT/tube. Coefficients of variation of standard OT concentrations (0.03 - 16 pg/tube) were less than 5%. Limit of detection was 2 pg OT/ml plasma. Recovery of synthetic OT added to non-pregnant plasma was 81.8% (n=34) at 20 pg/ml and 97.4% (n=32) at 100 pg/ml. Two patients, 17 and 18 weeks post-partum, had increases in plasma OT from less than 2 pg/ml to 18.3 and 16.0 pg/ml after 6 and 4 minutes breast feeding infants, respectively. We conclude that this solid phase OT radioimmunoassay is quick, relatively sensitive and reliable, and does not require prior extraction of plasma samples.


In writing the history of art in Aotearoa/New Zealand, much attention has been focussed on the exhibitions and activities of painters and sculptors of the Māori Renaissance in the 1950s. Equally significant was the impetus given to reviving customary crafts through the Adult Education movement associated with the University of Auckland. The Maori Social and Economic Advancement Act of 1945 positioned the responsibility for preservation, revival and maintenance of "Māori arts, crafts, language, genealogy and history" with iwi, and led to the formation of the Maori Women's Welfare League in September 1951, with its agenda to perpetuate women's skills in Māori arts and crafts, and for these to be practised within an architectural context.
A Māori advisory committee was established in the Adult Education Centre at Auckland University College in 1945, tasked with mitigating Māori urban alienation through the teaching of Māori arts and cultural history to establish "pride of race and cultural achievement." In 1949, the first tutor for the Maori Adult Education Extension Programme was appointed, Maharaia Winiata (1912-60), followed by a graduate of the Rotorua School of Māori Arts and Crafts, Master carver Henare Toka (Ngāti Whatua) and his wife Mere. They recruited students from the Auckland University College Māori Club and pupils from Māori secondary schools to decorate the entrance hall of Sonoma House, 21 Princes Street, with kōwhaiwhai and tukutuku. Thus an Edwardian building was reborn as the University's Adult Education Centre, and was acclaimed for its biculturalism in the spring issue of Te Ao Hou in 1954.
Now 60 years old, the tukutuku panels have been preserved by present day Deputy Vice Chancellor Jim Peters in the ground floor of the University's Clocktower following the disestablishment of Adult Education. Seven of these tukutuku panels have recently undergone extensive conservation treatment, and they are recognised as highly significant examples of twentieth century weaving, exemplifying the approach to reviving customary tukutuku at mid-century in terms of the materials and techniques as well as patterns: muumuu, or purapura whetuu roimata toroa), waharua koopito, whakarua koopito, niho taniwha and nihoniho. They have now gone on display in pride of place in the University Clocktower. This paper will contextualise the changing meaning of these tukutuku panels from interior décor to historic design within the evolving narrative of customary Māori weaving practices.


Fermi measurements of the high-latitude {gamma}-ray background strongly constrain a decaying-dark-matter origin for the 1-100 GeV Galactic positron anomaly measured with PAMELA. Inverse Compton scattering of the microwave background by the emergent positrons produces a bump in the diffuse 100-200 MeV {gamma}-ray background that would protrude from the observed background at these energies. The positrons are thus constrained to emerge from the decay process at a typical energy between {approx}100 GeV and {approx}250 GeV. By considering only {gamma}-ray emission of the excess positrons and electrons, we derive a minimum diffuse {gamma}-ray flux that, apart from the positron spectrum assumed, is independent of the actual decay modes. Any {gamma}-rays produced directly by the dark-matter decay leads to an additional signal that makes the observational limits more severe. A similar constraint on the energy of emergent positrons from annihilation in dark-matter substructures is argued to exist, according to recent estimates of enhancement in low-mass dark-matter substructures, and improved simulations of such substructure will further sharpen this constraint.


This thesis investigates three kinds of turn taking strategies that is used by dominant speakers in the movie Titanic. If a conversation is held, turn taking must take place which means that there must be changes of the speaker's turn during the conversation. The writer derives the turn taking strategy from Stenstrom's classification (1994) that consists of taking the turn strategy, holding the turn strategy and yielding the turn strategy. The writer chooses the film Titanic as the source of this research because the story is very popular and also turn taking is found in the conversations. In this research, the writer uses both qualitative and quantitative research because the result of the quantitative research can support the final result of this research. The source of this research is only the main conversation between the main characters in Titanic. Through the analysis, the writer finds out that taking the turn has the highest occurrence. Moreover, the male speaker is the most dominant speaker between the main characters and he often uses uptake to dominate the female speaker.


This book explores the challenge posed by the immersion of 15 million Muslims in Western democracies and the few, but volatile, terrorists present within the larger body of believers. The fact that immersion in Western culture is insufficient to stem the tide of extremism is discussed, along with the factors that contribute to the growth of radical Islam, such as the presence of charismatic, authoritarian leadership, educational options that downplay critical thinking, and colonialism. Hope that radical Islam can be kept to a minimum in Western societies is provided by the Islamic concept of Ijtihad, through which Muslims reinterpret their own religion. Just as mainstream Mormons have dispensed with polygamy and Christians with witch-hunting, Muslims in Western societies have the potential to minimize the growth of radicalism.


Liquid waste produced from tofu industry which is containing suspended and dissolved solids will physically, chemically and biologically change. The poisonous substance yielded from the change is potential to disturb human health. The preliminary study showed that the measurement of H2S concentration in Tofu Industry "X" in its liquid waste was 0,394 mg/l or exceeding the standard threshold. One of the methods to reduce the gas is by adding wood vinegar. The study was an experiment with post test only with control group design. The amount of liquid waste sample used was 20 liter and there were three dose variations of wood vinegar observed, i.e. 5 ml, 10 ml and 15 ml for every 1000 ml liquid waste. Based on the result of One Way Anova test at 95 % level of confidence, the p-value obtained was < 0,001, which means that the various doses of wood vinegar had different effects in decreasing H2S level in tofu liquid waste. The subsequent LSD test showed that the highest mean difference with the control group was reached by Dose C (15 ml wood vinegar in 1000 ml liquid waste). However, Dose B (10 ml) was already able to fulfill the permitted threshold of 0,1 mg/l.


What is loneliness and what influence does culture have on it? These questions were investigated by reviewing cultural changes in the industrial western world and research on loneliness in a historical context. This review brought up three approaches towards loneliness: an existential approach focusing on subjective experience, a cognitive approach making use of a cognitive construct and a social needs approach embedded in an affective construct. These approaches where explored through empirical data supporting the different views on loneliness, followed by a discussion of cultural differences in experienced loneliness, and possible degrees and kinds of loneliness. The second part of the paper addressed the strengths and weaknesses of the different findings on loneliness arguing whether or not any of the different approaches or understandings on loneliness offered a full understanding of the phenomenon. It was found that the different approaches were caught in their own methodology and epistemology and therefore unable to offer a full understanding of loneliness. Instead an integrative approach to loneliness is offered that encompasses a number of different factors that come into play when loneliness is experienced. A final section points to a need for more integrative research methods.


This research reports on the design aspect of a bigger project which sought to design and implement information and communication technology (ICT)-based interventions for the purpose of developing pre-service teachers' ICT competency for teaching physics in an interactive manner using a three-stage (design stage, implementation and evaluation stage, and documentation and reflection stage) design-based research approach. Using literature as a lens, this research examines the interventions that we designed in the first stage of the project with the intent to determine its features that promote interactive teaching and fit the Ghanaian senior high school physics classroom context. Findings show that the intervention with inherent features comprising of: a readily available, sustainable, context- and content-specific ICT teaching and learning environment; an ICT-oriented knowledge base for teachers' uptake of ICT; an underlining framework for defining interactive and learner-centred teaching approach with ICT; ICT-driven interactive lesson objectives; an inquiry-driven, activity- and ICT-based learning material; and a collaborative classroom arrangement is appropriate and sensitive to the needs of the Ghanaian physics classroom context and, hence, possess the potential for promoting interactive teaching. The features of the interventions, as situated in the specific context of the research and implications of the findings are discussed.


Most agronomic traits of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) are quantitatively inherited and affected by environment The importance of epistasis as the genetic basis for complex traits has been reported in many crops. In this study, a linkage map was constructed by means of a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from 7235×TM-1. Main effects, epistatic effects, and environmental interaction effects of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling fiber and yield component traits were determined by mixed linear model based QTL mapping in two to four environments. Sixteen main effect QTLs for 12 traits and 19 digenic interaction QTLs for 12 traits were detected. The amount of variation explained by the QTLs of main effect was larger than the QTLs involved in epistatic interactions. Among seven QTLs having QTL × Environment (QE) interaction effects, five produced significant additive effects and two did not, but only one interaction showed significant additive × additive × environment (AAE) interaction effects. Some QTLs with large effects detected in specific environments could be assodated with environmental response elements.


The Gibbs free energy involved in the transfer of ions from water to a hydrophobic medium with ion-exchange sites changes the selectivity pattern expected from the electrostatic interactions. Oxyanions are less hydrated and, therefore, their exchange with more hydrated anions at the ion-exchange sites of a hydrophobic matrix in contact with aqueous solution is energetically more favorable. This gives rise to a possibility of separating the highly toxic monovalent oxyanions such as HCrO4−, MnO4−, TcO4− and ClO4− etc. by the Gibbs free energy of the transfer controlled anion-exchange process. In the present work, hydrophobic anion-exchange polymer encapsulation was anchored on Fe3O4 particles by a simple and reproducible method for studying the selectivity pattern. The choice of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) as the host matrix was based on their higher dispersion, larger surface area, and easy retrieval using an external magnetic field that is best suited for treating a large volume of an aqueous stream and developing sustainable technology. The anion-exchange polymer encapsulation was formed by first coating Fe3O4 NPs with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane, and subsequently reacting these precursor particles in a sequence with poly(vinylbenzyl chloride) (PVBCl), 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO), and 1,8-dibromooctane (DBO). Each step involved in the chemical treatments was monitored by C, H and N analyses. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to confirm the expected chemical structure of the encapsulation on the Fe3O4 NPs. This sequence of chemical treatments resulted in the formation of hyper-crosslinked, hydrophobic, and high fixed positive charge density polymer encapsulation on the Fe3O4 NPs. The analyses of the images obtained from field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicated that the sizes of the Fe3O4 NPs were increased from 13 ± 3 nm to 33 ± 3 nm due to the formation of polymer encapsulation and inter-particle crosslinking. Although a very dilute solution and ultrasonication were used, there was a possibility of crosslinking between the particles. However, the thus encapsulated Fe3O4 NPs retained their superparamagnetic properties having a reasonably good magnetic saturation (30 emu g−1). The anion-exchange capacity was found to be 0.65 ± 0.03 meq g−1. The Fe3O4@PVB–DABCO–DBO particles exhibited a selectivity pattern corresponding to the Hofmeister series, i.e. the least hydrated anions were adsorbed preferentially. For example, the least hydrated representative TcO4− anions adsorbed quantitatively in the Fe3O4@PVB–DABCO–DBO particles from aqueous solutions such as ground water, seawater, and 0.5 mol L−1 HNO3 with efficiencies of 98%, 80% and 75%, respectively.


In this paper, Cellular Neural Networks (CNNs) have been applied to noisy Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image to improve its performance and appearance. The image has been obtained from Erzurum, Turkey. Because of the importance of imaging quality and appearance for remote sensing applications, CNN has been applied to data for image processing applications that for noise filtering and edge detection. In training, Recurrent Perceptron Learning Algorithm (RPLA) is used as a learning algorithm. According to templates SAR-image has been tested and obtained satisfactory results.


Soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) is a histopathologically diverse group of tumors accounting for approximately 10,000 new malignancies in the US each year. The proximal lower extremity is the most common site for STS, accounting for approximately one-third of all cases. Coordinated multimodality management in the form of surgery and radiation is often critical to local control, limb preservation, and functional outcome. Based on a review of currently available Medline literature and professional experience, this paper provides an overview of the treatment of STS of the lower extremity with a particular focus on the modern role of radiotherapy.


Background Improved prognosis in women with multiple sclerosis (MS) undergoing immunosuppressive treatment with mitoxantrone (MITO) has led to an increased interest in the effect of such treatments on fertility. FErtility and Mitoxantrone In MS (FEMIMS) is a collaborative retrospective study aimed at evaluating the impact of MITO treatment on fertility in women with MS. Methods Occurrence of chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea (CIA) was evaluated in 189 women with MS treated with MITO before the age of 45. An "ad hoc" questionnaire, paying particular attention to onset of CIA either during or post-MITO treatment, was administered to each patient. The probability of CIA was calculated using a multivariate logistic regression analysis taking into account age at exposure, cumulative dose, and use of estroprogestinic (EP) drugs during treatment. Results Forty-eight (26%) patients presented CIA following MITO. The probability of CIA was increased by 2%/mg/m2 of cumulative dose and by 18% for each year of age, whereas it was reduced by administration of EP during treatment. Conclusions MITO treatment may affect reproductive capacity in women with MS. Patients of childbearing age should be properly counseled before MITO treatment and EP therapy should be administered to reduce the risk of CIA.


Self-organization was observed using the algorithm of Kohonen with an original "distance" adapted to stimuli resulting from coincident detections of electron-positron annihilation photon pairs. This has led to a method for approximate reconstruction of two-dimensional positron emission tomography (2-D PET) images that is totally independent of the number of detectors. To obtain meaningful information about the distribution of the radioactive tracer, a toroidal architecture must be used for the network.


Abstract We present results of investigation and comparison of spectral properties of molecular iodine transitions in the spectral region of 514.7 nm that are suitable for laser frequency stabilization and metrology of length. Eight Doppler-broadened transitions that were not studied in detail before were investigated with the help of frequency doubled Yb-doped fiber laser, and three of the most promising lines were studied in detail with prospect of using them in frequency stabilization of new laser standards. The spectral properties of hyperfine components (linewidths, signal-to-noise ratio) were compared with transitions that are well known and traditionally used for stabilization of frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser at the 532 nm region with the same molecular iodine absorption. The external frequency doubling arrangement with waveguide crystal and the Yb-doped fiber laser is also briefly described together with the observed effect of laser aging.


The author examines the question of whether Geert Morrhe, a Dutch printer who worked in Paris in 1530-2, can be accounted one of the Paris scholar printers of the first half of the sixteenth century. The article begins with a discussion of what information can be gained about his editorial practice from Morrhe's letters and prefaces, and then draws parallels between Morrhe's prefaces and those of Aldus Manutius. Finally two books printed by Morrhe are examined in greater detail, changes from the text of the printed copy being described. The variants show that Morrhe tried to correct errors offending against the rules of classical Latin. In his edition of a speech by Johannes Stratius changes in the text have been made by the compositor due to a misunderstanding, while in the edition of Johannes Lichtenberger's Prognosticatio there is a change that is indicative of Morrhe's dislike of the orthodox theologians of Paris.


The Haredi (Jewish ultra-orthodox) population in Israel is an idiosyncratic community. Its members are committed to the observance of the Bible and its commandments, as interpreted by its sectarian religious leaders. Haredi poverty is exceptionally high, with a share of 20% of the Israeli poor and a population share half that size. Its major causes are very high Haredi fertility (a population growth of 6% p.a.), reducing household income per capita and the mother's earning capacity; its independent education system's neglect (particularly among boys) of materially important subjects for future earning capacity such as Mathematics, English and digital skills; and low labor-force participation of Haredi men, due to prolonged learning in religious seminars (Yeshiva), often deeply into the prime working age. A further cause for the sharp increase in poverty in the short term has been the recent large cuts in child benefit payments. The estimation of the size and composition of the Haredi population is based on data from the Israeli Social Survey. Poverty calculations are based on an innovative way of optimally matching data on Haredi group membership from that source with data in the Household Expenditure Survey, thus allowing for improved identification of poor Haredi households compared to previous studies. Poverty is calculated both on a needs-based approach and on the (official) relative approach. The share of Haredi children up to age 4 is nearly 3 times higher than in the Jewish non-Haredi society. This, together with the empirical regularity of a negative relationship between poverty and age, implies an upward trend for Haredi and overall Israeli poverty over time. Haredi Poverty, as measured by the distribution-sensitive Sen-poverty index, nearly doubled over the last three years after a previous significant improvement. This deterioration stands in contrast to developments in the rest of the Israeli-Jewish society, whose poverty intensity increased only slightly over the last couple of years. In 2004 the Haredi men's labor force participation of 37% only slightly exceeded one half that of the general Jewish population, mainly due to the high enrollment of Haredi men in religious seminars (Yeshiva) during their prime working age. Despite their much higher fertility, women function as the family's main providers, with a participation rate of 48%, compared to 58% of non-Haredi women.


Introduction: Zooplankton is a major link in coral reef food webs and a source of nutrients for corals. Demersal zooplankton in coral reefs makes diel migrations at night to avoid predation by fish and corals, increasing abundance and biomass at night. Objectives: To study the composition and variation of the demersal and pelagic zooplankton community at night and to increase the taxonomic knowledge of the benthic copepod fauna over different substrates of a coral reef. Methods: Traps made of plastic, with a 100 μm mesh size collector cup attached, were placed for 12 hours between 5-10 m depth over four substrates: (1) sand, (2) small and (3) big colonies of Porites lobata, and (4) dead and alive corals. Sampling started at dusk (1800 h), and the collector cups were collected and replaced at 2100 and 0000, and the last samples removed at down (0600 h). Results: The highest abundance of zooplankton was capture over P. lobata colonies between 0000 to 0600 h. Copepods (adults, copepodites, and nauplii) dominated the community structure and were more abundant during all the time intervals and substrates. Pelagic copepods were more abundant than the benthic, however, not more diverse. Among the benthic copepods, 20 new records of harpacticoids and calanoids were registered for Isla del Coco and Costa Rican waters. Appendicularians and decapod larvae were also abundant. Changes in coral reef community structure were related with time and not with the kind of substrate, although some taxa were found only in a specific time interval or substrate. Conclusions: Community structure and abundance of demersal and pelagic coral reef zooplankton in Chatham Bay were dominated by copepods, larvaceans and decapod larvae, similar to other coral reefs around the world. The highest abundance peak of organisms in the water column between 0000 to 0600 h could be related to diel migration.


Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were generated against sodium dodecyl sulfate-disrupted bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV-1). When screened by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on intact and disrupted BPV-1, -2, and deer papillomavirus, three patterns of reactivity were defined: reactivity only with intact virus, with both intact and disrupted virus, and only with disrupted virus. On the basis of ELISA results, the topographical location and requirement for conformation for immunoreactivity of epitopes was defined as external conformational, external linear, and internal linear. Cross-reactivity of MAbs with other papillomavirus types was analyzed by immunofluorescence on warts from different species. Type-specific, BPV-1 and/or -2 cross-reactive, broadly cross-reactive, and genus-specific MAbs were identified. MAb reactivity with structural polypeptides of BPV-1 was analyzed by Western blot. MAbs reactive with epitopes defined as conformational by ELISA did not react in Western blot. All MAbs reactive in Western blot reacted with the major capsid protein (MCP) [55 kilodalton (kDa)], demonstrating that the MCP carries both type-specific and cross-reactive epitopes. Most MAbs reactive with the MCP were cross-reactive with structural polypeptides of 48 and 96 kDa, demonstrating the immunologic relatedness of these three polypeptides.


Aims Periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) are one of the best candidates for periodontal regeneration. Their function could be impaired in periodontitis microenvironment. Dental follicle cells (DFCs), serving as precursor cells and mesenchymal stem cells, have intimate connection with PDLSCs. However, it is still unknown whether DFCs could provide a favorable microenvironment to improve the proliferation and differentiation capacity of PDLSCs from healthy subjects (HPDLSCs) and patients diagnosed with periodontitis (PPDLSCs). Methods HPDLSCs, PPDLSCs and DFCs were harvested and identified using microscopic and flow cytometric analysis. Then, the coculture systems of DFCs/HPDLSCs and DFCs/PPDLSCs were established with 0.4 µm transwell, in which all the detection indexs were obtained from HPDLSCs and PPDLSCs. The expression of stemness-associated genes was detected by real-time PCR, and the proliferation ability was assessed using colony formation and cell cycle assays. The osteogenic differentiation capacity was evaluated by real-time PCR, western blot, ALP activity, Alizarin Red S staining and calcium level analysis, while the adipogenic differentiation capacity was determined by real-time PCR and Oil Red O staining. The cell sheet formation in vitro was observed by HE staining and SEM, and the implantation effect in vivo was evaluated using HE staining and Masson's trichrome staining. Results PPDLSCs had a greater proliferation capability but lower osteogenic and adipogenic potential than HPDLSCs. DFCs enhanced the proliferation and osteogenic/adipogenic differentiation of HPDLSCs and PPDLSCs to different degrees. Moreover, coculture with DFCs increased cell layers and extracellular matrix of HPDLSCs/PPDLSCs cell sheets in vitro and improved periodontal regeneration by HPDLSCs/PPDLSCs in vivo. Conclusions Our data suggest that the function of PPDLSCs could be damaged in the periodontitis microenvironment. DFCs appear to enhance the self-renewal and multi-differentiation capacity of both HPDLSCs and PPDLSCs, which indicates that DFCs could provide a beneficial microenvironment for periodontal regeneration using PDLSCs.


Arterioportal vascular anomalies are communications between the splanchnic arteries and the portal system that represent a rare cause of presinusoidal portal hypertension in small animals. There is little information concerning the imaging findings of arterioportal communications in small animals and no classification could be found for radiologists and surgeons. The aims of this retrospective descriptive multicentric study were to describe the computed tomographic characteristics of arterioportal communications in a group of cats and dogs, and to propose a classification based on computed tomography (CT) angiographic anatomy. Computed tomography databases from multiple veterinary hospitals were searched for cats and dogs with a diagnosis of arterioportal communication. A total of 36 animals (33 dogs, three cats) met the inclusion criteria. There were 32 intrahepatic arterioportal malformations and four extrahepatic fistulae. The intrahepatic arterioportal malformations were classified as right divisional (11/32) and left divisional (21/32), and the left divisional were subclassified as left medial (16/21) and left lateral (4/21). One patient showed multiple intrahepatic arterioportal communications with concomitant left medial and left lateral conformations. Two patients with intrahepatic arteriovenous malformation showed concomitant congenital intrahepatic shunts. The proposed anatomical classification based on CT angiography could allow veterinary radiologists to have a more systematic approach and help improve the radiologist-surgeon communication.


Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) is a central component to health and social care research carried out in the UK, Europe, North America and Australia. It has a long history, from its roots in social activism and in patient movements through to clinical and political policy changes. However, PPI is yet to emerge as an important consideration in research and development within ophthalmology. The presentation will explore the some of the basics of patient and public involvement, including what it is, who it encompasses, and why PPI has an important role in research. The presentation will review the outcomes of the recent 'Glaucoma Day' held in London as an illustration of the importance of involving the public in research. Finally, the challenges and impact of PPI on eye research will be discussed


Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the long-term performance of firms that early adopted Statement of Financial Accounting Standard 142 (SFAS 142).

Design/methodology/approach

In particular, the paper focuses on a relatively lengthy time frame after the standard became effective in 2002 and examines whether the firms which early adopted SFAS 142 exhibit different characteristics from their non-early adopting counterparts when comparing operating returns, stock returns and earnings quality over the same time period. Profit margin, return on assets and return on equity are used to measure operating returns; buy-and-hold return, Tobin's Q and price-to-book ratio are used to measure stock returns; and abnormal accruals and accruals quality are used to measure earnings quality.

Findings

Based on a sample of 692 firm-year observations over five years between 2002 and 2006, the authors find that early adopters tend to exhibit lower operating performance (most noticeable when measuring profit margin and return on assets) and lower earnings quality following the early adoption of SFAS 142 than non-early adopters. However, little relation is found between post-adoption market returns and the choice to early adopt SFAS 142.

Research limitations/implications

This study helps fill the gap in accounting literature by investigating the long-term performance of firms post adoption of SFAS 142. The empirical results may provide greater understanding of the firms choosing to early adopt SFAS 142, and offer additional insight to guide standard setters on similar accounting issues in the future.

Originality/value

This study's research questions attempt to identify potential differences in operating and stock performance and earnings quality by comparing early adopters and non-early adopters of SFAS 142 over a five-year period between 2002 and 2006, which extends the research beyond the relatively short window covered by prior research, and also takes into consideration Statement of Financial Accounting Standard 141 (SFAS 141)-R "Business Combination", issued in 2007, to supersede SFAS 141 of 2001.


The Bluebell Pb-Zn deposit is located on the east side of Kootenay Lake in southeastern British Columbia. It is a fracture-controlled replacement deposit hosted in Lower Cambrian marble of the Badshot and Mohican formations. The orebodies trend west-northwest, parallel to a prominent set of fractures that controlled mineralization. These fractures are interpreted to have formed as part of a conjugate set. Contrary to some earlier suggestions, folding played no role in fracture formation. The youngest generation of folds are reinterpreted as having formed through development of shear bands during extension of the layering prior to fracture development. Formation of the fractures also postdated motion on a number of early Tertiary normal faults that are associated with regional extension and alkaline magmatism. West-northwest–trending fractures, which formed as part of a conjugate set, were reactivated and controlled the intrusion of mafic dikes, mineralizing fluids, and minor late faulting. Fracturing, faulting, mafic dike intrusion, and mineralization may be associated with a long-lived basement structure that runs below the area, which could have facilitated the ascent of deep crustal or mantle-derived magma and mineralizing fluids. The results of this study provide a new perspective on exploration strategies for hydrothermal ore deposits in this part of southeastern British Columbia.


Thirty one samples of gum swabs were collected from patients with tooth caries (5-30 years old) from the College of Science (Biology department )University of BaghdadIraq for the period from October 2018 to December 2018. , The samples were transported, after inoculation in a transport media (nutrient broth), to the laboratory of the College of Science and then cultured on mannitol salt agar and blood agar). The isolates belonging to Staphylococcus spp. were identified by biochemical tests and Vitek 2 compact system, while the more antibiotic resistant isolates were identified by using Polymerase Chain Reaction(﴾PCR) and sequencing of 16SrRNA . The results showed sharp UV absorption peaks at 303 303nm and AFM at 56 nm. Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) results showed that lemon silver nanoparticles (NPs) are spherical in shape. The results also demonstrated that the silver NPs have a higher antibacterial activity with a diameter of inhibition zone that reached 16mm as compared with the common three mouthwash and toothpaste brands (Colgate, Crest and Close up) that had inhibition zone values of 5-8mm.


FUTURES is a computer-based careers information system designed primarily for independent use by individuals, although it is equally valuable in guidance sessions led by an adviser. The program, developed over the past four years at Auckland's UNITEC Institute of Technology, is used there, in schools, in private careers consultancies and has been trialled by The New Zealand Employment Service. Surveys of user reactions suggest that FUTURES has assisted large numbers of students and community members to gain a broad perspective on career opportunities, reflect on their own potential and make well informed career decisions. This is achieved by providing an intuitive, graphical interface to a program that supports the structured exploration of a comprehensive information database and promotes reflection on personal prospects. The objective was to develop a significantly different system from the many computer-based products already available in the education market. The novel design philosophy, based on autonomous enquiry and choice, is believed to be largely responsible for the program's success.


With the development of computer architecture and its technologies in recent years, applications like e-commerce, e-government, e-governance and e-finance are widely used, and they act as active research areas. In addition, in order to increase the quality and quantity of the ordinary everyday transactions, it is desired to migrate from the paper-based environment to a digital-based computerized environment. Such migration increases efficiency, saves time, eliminates paperwork, increases safety and reduces the cost in an organization. Digital signatures are playing an essential role in many electronic and automatic based systems and facilitate this migration. The digital signatures are used to provide many services and solutions that would not have been possible by the conventional hand-written signature.
In the educational environment, the process of issuing the graduation certificates can no longer be restricted to the traditional methods. Hence, a computerized system for issuing certificates of graduation in an electronic form is needed and desired. This paper proposes a Graduation Certificates Issuing System (GCIS) based on digital signature technology. In doing so, this research highlights the state-of-the-art and the art-of-the-practice for some existing digital signature-based systems in the literatures. In addition, eight intertwined elected services are identified, namely: message authentication, entity authentication, integrity, non-repudiation, time stamping, distinguished signing authorities, delegating signing capability and supporting workflow systems. Moreover, this research examines nine existing systems, showing their merits and demerits in terms of these elected services. Furthermore, the research describes the architectural design using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and provides the concrete implementation of the proposed GCIS. The GCIS is implemented using Visual Basic.Net programming language and SQL Server database management system.


A continuously tunable microwave phase shifter implemented using a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) written in an erbium/ytterbium (Er/Yb) co-doped fiber is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By optically pumping the TFBG, the magnitude and phase responses of the cladding mode resonances are changed, which is used to introduce a tunable phase shift to the optical carrier of a single-sideband with carrier (SSB+C) modulated signal. A tunable phase shifter with a tunable phase of 2800 at a microwave frequency tunable from 24 to 36 GHz is experimentally achieved.


Many research questions in sensory neuroscience involve determining whether the neural representation of a stimulus property is invariant to some irrelevant stimulus change (e.g., viewpoint-invariant face representation, or modality-invariant object representations). Most neuroimaging studies have studied invariance using operational tests that have only face validity, of which the most popular in recent years is the cross-classification test. A recently proposed theoretical framework suggests that operational tests of invariance commonly used in the neuroimaging literature, such as cross-classification, might lead to invalid conclusions. Here, we provide empirical and computational evidence supporting this theoretical insight. In our empirical study, we use encoding of orientation and spatial position in primary visual cortex as a case study, as previous research has established that these properties are not encoded in an invariant way. In a functional MRI study with human participants of both sexes, we show that the cross-classification test produces false positives, in many cases leading to the conclusion that orientation is encoded invariantly from spatial position, and that spatial position is encoded invariantly from orientation, in primary visual cortex. The results of two simulations further suggest that the test can lead to the conclusion of invariance when no sensible definition of invariance holds at the neural level, and that encoding strategies known to be used in cortex may easily lead to such false positives. On the other hand, we show that it is possible to provide evidence against invariance (i.e., context-dependent or configural encoding) through appropriate theory-driven decoding tests.


The cornea is a protective and refractive barrier in the eye crucial for vision. Understanding the human cornea in health, disease and cell-based treatments can be greatly advanced with cornea organoids developed in culture from induced pluripotent stem cells. While a limited number of studies have investigated the single-cell transcriptomic composition of the human cornea, its organoids have not been examined similarly. Here we elucidated the transcriptomic cell fate map of 4 month-old human cornea organoids and the central cornea from three donors. The organoids harbor cell clusters representing corneal epithelium, stroma and endothelium with sub populations that capture signatures of early developmental states. Unlike the adult cornea where the largest cell population is stromal, the organoids develop almost equal proportion of the three major cell types. These corneal organoids offer a three-dimensional platform to model corneal diseases and integrated responses of the different cell types to treatments. Teaser Transcriptomic Map of Cornea Organoid and Human Cornea


This paper presents an adaptation of the flying ant colony optimization (FACO) algorithm to solve the traveling salesman problem (TSP). This new modification is called dynamic flying ant colony optimization (DFACO). FACO was originally proposed to solve the quality of service (QoS)-aware web service selection problem. Many researchers have addressed the TSP, but most solutions could not avoid the stagnation problem. In FACO, a flying ant deposits a pheromone by injecting it from a distance; therefore, not only the nodes on the path but also the neighboring nodes receive the pheromone. The amount of pheromone a neighboring node receives is inversely proportional to the distance between it and the node on the path. In this work, we modified the FACO algorithm to make it suitable for TSP in several ways. For example, the number of neighboring nodes that received pheromones varied depending on the quality of the solution compared to the rest of the solutions. This helped to balance the exploration and exploitation strategies. We also embedded the 3-Opt algorithm to improve the solution by mitigating the effect of the stagnation problem. Moreover, the colony contained a combination of regular and flying ants. These modifications aim to help the DFACO algorithm obtain better solutions in less processing time and avoid getting stuck in local minima. This work compared DFACO with (1) ACO and five different methods using 24 TSP datasets and (2) parallel ACO (PACO)-3Opt using 22 TSP datasets. The empirical results showed that DFACO achieved the best results compared with ACO and the five different methods for most of the datasets (23 out of 24) in terms of the quality of the solutions. Further, it achieved better results compared with PACO-3Opt for most of the datasets (20 out of 21) in terms of solution quality and execution time.


Automation is rapidly evolving, having a profound impact in the way we do work. Such development and the rapid integration of automation systems into most of the engineering processes call for constant, efficient training into automation and control systems. However, this kind of equipment is very expensive, constantly limiting both universities and private companies to have training facilities that are not widely available or, definitely, to not being able to have these facilities at all. The present paper establishes a scheduling/connection scheme for real remote automation laboratories based in common automation protocols for connection, image acquisition systems, and their publication for remote access in real time, interconnecting all the elements by a server, reducing the needed space for traditional automation laboratories, the staff needed to operate it, and the overall cost of equipment required, as well as allowing the lab practices to be customizable.


SUMMARY: The incorporation pattern of 14C from [14C]glucose by the fungus Zygorhynchus moelleri has been investigated. The following substances became labelled in incubation periods of 6 sec. to 30 min.: the monophosphates of glucose, fructose, sedoheptulose, ribose, maltose, glycerol, gluconic acid, glyceric acid, enolpyruvic acid and guanosine; the diphosphates of fructose, glucose, glyceric acid, adenosine, uridine, inosine and guanosine; the triphosphates of adenosine and uridine; uridinediphosphoglucose and uridinediphosphoribose; free maltose and fructose; aspartic acid, glutamic acid, alanine, valine, tyrosine, proline, histidine, threonine, citrulline and glutamine; malic acid, citric acid, succinic acid, fumaric acid and glyceric acid. A small percentage of the 14C was present in unidentified substances. The kinetics of the incorporation of 14C, first into uridinediphosphoglucose, then into maltose phosphate, and finally into free maltose, suggests this sequence of compounds for the biosynthetic pathway of maltose formation.
The main effects of starvation of the cells by shaking them in phosphate buffer for 24 hr. were an increased % incorporation of 14C into maltose and the sugar phosphates, and a decreased % incorporation into amino acids, organic acids and nucleotides. The addition of a small amount of ammonia to starved cells increased the absolute rate of incorporation of 14C from labelled glucose into soluble cellular constituents; however, while the % of the total soluble 14C found in the nucleotides was markedly increased when ammonia was added, the % in the sugar phosphates decreased. In the presence of azide, the incorporation of 14C by starved cells into maltose and the nucleotides was severely inhibited and the incorporation into amino acids was somewhat increased. Thus, one of the most important results of starvation was to prevent incorporation of 14C into the nucleotides, organic acids and amino acids, while the addition of ammonia overcame the effects of starvation and promoted nucleotide synthesis. Ammonia had very little effect on the cells in the presence of azide.
A kinetic study of the sequence in which 14C was detected in these compounds indicated that glucose was metabolized by both the glycolysis and the oxidative pathways, and later by the tricarboxylic acid cycle.


The aim of the study is to identify the interest and follow-up of the Arab youth to the pages of the political parties on Facebook, and to identify the habits, patterns and motives of the uses of Arab youth, as well as the interactive activities carried out on the pages of the political parties and to identify the confidence of Arab youth and their dependence on party pages on Facebook, and identify the impact of the Arab youth on those pages on their participation in the general elections The study was based on a descriptive study. The field study was conducted on a sample of 400 Arab youth who were active in the Facebook in the age group (18-40 years) Through the electronic questionnaire The study concluded: -  Male respondents use Facebook more than females (61% for males versus 46.5% for females). - There are differences between males and females in the forms of participation in the general elections based on their follow-up to the pages of political parties on Facebook depending on the nationality variable and variable monthly income, and educational level. - The male respondents were more political than the females, at 26% compared to 18.5% for females.


Introduction: Despite being classified together as "overhead athletes," the shoulders of swimmers and baseball pitchers were expected to differ in physical characteristics due to the distinctive demands placed upon their shoulders. The purpose of this study was to compare shoulder characteristics between male swimmers, pitchers, and non-overhead athletes (controls). It was hypothesized that swimmers' bilateral shoulders and pitchers' dominant shoulders would present adaptive changes from participation in their respective sport.Methods: Glenohumeral range of motion (ROM), posterior shoulder tightness (PST), scapular kinematics, forward shoulder posture (FSP), and shoulder strength were compared between 15 male intercollegiate swimmers, 15 intercollegiate pitchers, and 15 controls. All subjects were free of shoulder pain. ROM and PST were measured using standard goniometer/carpenters square, and FSP was assessed using a double-square device. Strength was assessed using an isokinetic dynamometer, and scapular kinematics were assessed using an electromagnetic tracking device. Results: Pitchers dominant shoulder exhibited greater external rotation ROM, compared to their non-dominant shoulder (p= 0.049) and the control's dominant shoulder (p= 0.049). No between-group differences in internal rotation ROM and total ROM were found. Glenohumeral internal rotation deficit was greater in pitchers than in swimmers (p< 0.001) and controls (p< 0.001). External rotation gain was also greater in pitchers compared to swimmers (p=0.025). Swimmers (p= 0.002~0.004) and pitchers (p= 0.015~0.047) exhibited greater bilateral flexion ROM than controls. There were no significant between-group differences in abduction and extension ROM. PST was greater in pitchers compared to controls in supine method. No between-group or between-limb differences were found in strength variables. No between-group differences in scapular kinematic variables were found. Dominant shoulders were positioned anteriorly compared to the non-dominant shoulder (p= 0.012). Conclusions: The results of the study demonstrated differences in shoulder characteristics among swimmers, pitchers, and controls. These differences may be due to the unique demands of each sport. The ROM characteristics (GIRD, ERG, and PST) were observed only in pitchers due to their dominant use of a unilateral limb. Between-group difference in strength, scapular kinematics, and FSP were not observed in this study. Further research and advancement in assessment techniques may reveal differences in these variables.


Two diferrous complexes, [Fe(2)(μ-SCH(2)CH(3))(3)(CO)(5)I] and [Fe(2)(μ-SCH(2)CH(2)CH(3))(3)(CO)(5)I] were synthesised via reaction of a monoiron carbonyl precursor, [Fe(CO)(4)I(2)], with ethanethiolate and propanethiolate, respectively. The complexes were fully characterised using spectroscopic techniques, for instance, FTIR and NMR. Their crystal structures were determined using single crystal diffraction analysis. Electrochemical reduction of these complexes are temperature-dependent. At room temperature, the diferrous complexes undergo one-electron reduction. The reduction-initiated cleavage of one bound thiolate and one iodide as a radical, takes the oxidation states of the diiron core from {Fe(I)Fe(II)} to {Fe(I)Fe(I)}. This reduction-initiated transformation can be suppressed by lowering the temperature to 195 K, further reduction of the monoanion was observed at a potential very close to that of the first reduction, which is analogous to the mechanism observed for diiron complexes with a core of {Fe(I)Fe(I)}.