ABSTRACT Characteristic functions of risk neutral densities are constructed from the prices of options at a fixed maturity using well-known procedures. The logarithm of these characteristic functions are shown to synthesize the Fourier transform of jump arrival tails. The formal arrival rate tails are actual arrival rates if their derivatives have an appropriate sign. The derivatives of formal arrival rate tails embedded in option prices are observed on occasion to be negative, reflecting signed jump arrival rates. Although puzzling at first, we further observe that simple analytical cosine perturbations of the symmetric variance gamma Lévy density provides theoretical examples of such signed arrival rates consistent with a probability density. Additionally signed arrival rates also arise when models of signals perturbed by independent noise yield examples of characteristic functions for signal densities that are ratios of pure jump infinitely divisible characteristic functions. Such ratio characteristic functions can reflect signed arrival rates. Specific models using ratios of bilateral gamma and CGMY models are developed and calibrated to short maturity option prices. The ratio models provide significant improvements over their non-ratio counterparts. The models fall in the class of what have recently been termed to be quasi-infinitely divisible distributions.


Summary Contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL) is the process by which cells stop the continual migration in the same direction after collision with another cell. Highly invasive malignant cells exhibit diminished CIL when they contact stromal cells, which allows invasion of the tissue by tumors. We show that Nm23-H1 is essential for the suppression of Rac1 through inactivation of Tiam1 at the sites of cell–cell contact, which plays a pivotal role in CIL. U87MG cells show CIL when they contact normal glia. In spheroid confrontation assays U87MG cells showed only limited invasion of the glial population, but reduction of Nm23-H1 expression in U87MG cells abrogated CIL resulting in invasion. In U87MG cells, Nm23-H1 is translocated to the sites of contact with glia through association with &agr;-catenin and N-cadherin. Mutants of Nm23-H1, which lacked the binding ability with Tiam1, or &agr;-catenin did not restore CIL. Moreover, the expression of ephrin-B1 in tumor cells disrupted CIL and promoted invasion. As one mechanism, ephrin-B1 inhibits the association of Nm23-H1 with Tiam1, which contributes for activation of Rac1. These results indicate a novel function of Nm23-H1 to control CIL, and its negative regulation by ephrin-B1.


The mechanism of critical phenomena or critical transitions has been recently studied from various aspects, in particular considering slow parameter change and small noise. In this article, we systematically classify critical transitions into three types based on temporal scales and noise strengths of dynamical systems. Specifically, the classification is made by comparing three important time scales τ(λ), τ(tran), and τ(ergo), where τ(λ) is the time scale of parameter change (e.g., the change of environment), τ(tran) is the time scale when a particle or state transits from a metastable state into another, and τ(ergo) is the time scale when the system becomes ergodic. According to the time scales, we classify the critical transition behaviors as three types, i.e., state transition, basin transition, and distribution transition. Moreover, for each type of transition, there are two cases, i.e., single-trajectory transition and multitrajectory ensemble transition, which correspond to the transition of individual behavior and population behavior, respectively. We also define the critical point for each type of critical transition, derive several properties, and further propose the indicators for predicting critical transitions with numerical simulations. In addition, we show that the noise-to-signal ratio is effective to make the classification of critical transitions for real systems.


Ethiopia as a land of asylum is still little known. Welcoming in 2014 about 400,000 people with refugee status, it represents one of the largest countries of asylum in the Horn of Africa. Among this population, is a tiny minority of Congolese, Burundians and Rwandese. In this article, I wish to analyze, through an anthropological approach, their integration in the host country. The relationship that this refugee population has with the Ethiopian space, with Ethiopia as a political and legal structure, and finally, with the Ethiopians will be questioned. It appears that the political and social relationships between Congolese, Burundians and Rwandans with Ethiopia are characterized by a kind of "mutual disinterest". In conclusion, the "Ethiopia of the Congolese, Burundian and Rwandan refugees" will emerge, largely based on the sharing of a common origin (Great Lakes) and a common status (the refugee status).


Hematopoiesis is a complex series of events resulting in the formation of mature blood cells. This process is regulated by cytokines at various levels, including self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation. Upon binding of cytokines to their cognate receptors, the activity of intracellular signal transduction pathways is regulated, leading to modulation of gene expression. Although our appreciation of the transcriptional regulators of hematopoiesis has developed considerably, until recently, the roles of specific intracellular signal transduction pathways were largely unknown. An important mediator of cytokine signaling implicated in regulation of hematopoiesis is the Phosphatidylinositol-3-Kinase (PI3K) / Protein Kinase B (PKB/c-Akt) signaling module (Figure 1). The PI3K family consists of three distinct subclasses of which, to date, only the class I isoforms have been implicated in regulation of hematopoiesis. Four distinct catalytic class I isoforms have been identified; p110, p110, p110and p110(reviewed by Vanhaesebroeck et al., 2001) These isoforms are predominantly activated by protein tyrosine kinases and form heterodimers with a group a regulatory adapter molecules, including p85, p85, p50 p55, p55and p101(reviewed by Vanhaesebroeck et al., 2001). The most important substrate for these Class I PI3Ks is phosphatidylinositol 4,5 bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) which can be phosphorylated at the D3 position of the inositol ring upon extracellular stimulation, resulting in the formation of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5 trisphosphate (PI(3,4,5)P3) (reviewed by Hawkins et al., 2006). PI(3,4,5)P3 subsequently serves as an anchor for pleckstrin homology (PH) domain-containing proteins, such as Protein Kinase B (PKB/ c-akt) (Burgering & Coffer, 1995). Activation of PKB requires phosphorylation on both Thr308, in the activation loop, by phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1) and Ser473, within the carboxyl-terminal hydrophobic motif, by the MTORC2 complex that consists of multiple proteins, including Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) and Rictor (Sarbassov et al., 2005). PKB itself subsequently regulates the activity of multiple downstream effectors, including the serine/threonine kinase Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 (GSK-3) (Cross et al., 1995), members of the FoxO subfamily of forkhead transcription factors FoxO1, FoxO3, and FoxO4 (Brunet et al., 1999; Kops et al., 1999) and the serine/threonine kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) as part of the MTORC1 complex, which also includes the regulatory


This letter presents a tunable stopband filter by using an all-fiber acoustooptical tunable filter (AF-AOTF) subject to differential strains. With the proposed filter, narrow and wide tunable stopbands of 0.4-nm 12-dB bandwidth and 4-nm 12-dB bandwidth, respectively, are demonstrated by experiments. Compared to the conventional approach of simply cascading two stages of AF-AOTFs to produce the same stopband, the proposed filter has improved the tunability of stopband.


Four new species of Cnemalobus Guerin-Meneville, 1838 (Carabidae) from the northern steppe of Patagonia and extra-Andean mountains are described in this work. Two of these species, Cnemalobus nevado sp. n. and Cnemalobus diamante sp. n., are from the Payunia (Argentina), the northernmost region of Patagonia. One species, C. somuncura sp. n., is from the vicinity of the Somuncura Plateau. The other species, Cnemalobus troll sp. n., is from the northwestern steppe. Illustrations and keys for these new species are provided. The phylogenetic relationships among the new species were defined using a cladistic analysis for the genus Cnemalobus, based on 56 characters of the external morphology and male and female genitalia. The cladogram showed that C. nevado sp. n. and C. diamante sp. n. comprise a monophyletic group that is the adelphotaxon of an apical clade of species that mainly inhabit mountain habitats in central Chile. Cnemalobus somuncura sp. n. and C. troll sp. n. are also sister species and comprise the apical group of the Patagonian species. Cnemalobus nevado and C. diamante occur in the Payunia, and their distribution is restricted to different mountains and are isolated from each other. Given that these two mountains are 200 km apart, it is not likely that dispersal has occurred in these large and flightless species. The ancestral species might have been broadly distributed, and, as a result of habitat changes, they became isolated into restricted habitats in the upper part of each mountain, where speciation might have occurred. The other two new species, C. somuncura and C. troll, are placed in the group of Patagonian species that inhabit the lowlands or plateaus. Distributional data, together with phylogeny, showed that the sister species of Cnemalobus have an allopatric distribution. Strict sympatry (same locality) occurs in the northwestern region of the Patagonian Steppe. Nevertheless, this strict sympatry may be an artifact of geographical scale. For example, within the same area, some species may inhabit grasslands next to forests, while other species inhabit only steppe areas.


A case of benign pneumoperitoneum and subcutaneous emphysema of the scrotum after elective colonoscopy with polypectomy is reported. The development and treatment of benign pneumoperitoneum is discussed.


Ten promiscuous soyabean isolates that proved superior in nitrogen fixation effectiveness to commercial inoculant strains under greenhouse studies were evaluated for their symbiotic potential under field conditions. The promiscuous soyabean variety, Magoye and the specific variety Solitaire were used as test hosts. Five of the isolates were obtained from the nodules of Magoye and coded M1 to M5 while the other five were isolated from the promiscuous soyabean variety Hernon 147 and coded H1 to H5. Two commercial inoculant strains, MAR 1491 and 1495 were included for comparison. Parameters tested included nodulation effectiveness, yield, nitrogen content and nitrogen fixation effectiveness. Isolate M3 gave significantly higher nitrogen contents and N2 fixation effectiveness in Magoye than the reference strains, while H1, H3 and H5 gave better nitrogen contents and N2 fixation effectiveness with Solitaire. Nodule numbers and yields obtained were highly variable and not reliable indicators of effectiveness. There were strong harvest index effects of different rhizobial isolates, which closely followed the trend for grain yield. Isolates M3, H1, H3 and H5 were concluded to be potential commercial inoculants, while the other six need to be retested over many sites and seasons before they can be recommended.


SUMMARY: The time taken for agar plates to reach incubator temperature under different conditions was determined by thermocouple measurements. From 1 to 5 hr. was taken to reach within 1° of the incubator temperature, according to their mass, position, stacking and original temperature. Delay in heating slowed the growth of organisms and produced larger inhibition zones due to diffusing antiseptics. This leads to errors in sensitivity and thus in assay work unless technique is standardized to overcome these differences. Deviations from the calculations resulting from the formula of Cooper & Woodman (1946) can be overcome by such standardization. An appendix discusses the theory of inhibition zones and compares the formulae proposed by Cooper & Woodman (1946), by Vesterdal (1947) and by Mitchison & Spicer (1949).


There is worldwide considerable interest in the study and development of high-power Yb-doped continuous wave (CW) and pulsed fiber lasers for various material processing applications. Although it appears to be trivial to generate high-power CW output from Yb-doped CW fiber lasers by pumping with high-power CW laser diodes; however, it is not so easy to generate truly CW output without amplitude modulations due to self-puls‐ ing phenomenon. The observation of random self-pulses overriding CW output has been reported by several authors. These random self-pulses may have very high peak power to cause catastrophic damage of fiber laser components and thereby inhibit generation of high-power CW output. This chapter describes self-pulsing dynamics and its elimination in different Yb-doped CW fiber laser configurations.


VOR/DME is the short range radio navigation system for much of the world. The navigation with VOR/DME is used for a long time because of its reliability. It can be used for almost all civil aircraft. To simulate the small aircraft's autopilot system based on VOR/DME system, we developed a simulator by using SIMULINK. The output panel of the simulator was developed according to the cockpit instrument of an actual aircraft. To verify the performance of the simulator several scenarios were planned. And we showed that the simulator performed well.


This paper concerns with a sequencing problem to raise the efficiency of line handling in a mixed-model assembly line where products are assembled in the same cycle time. The goal of the sequencing is to attain two objectives simultaneously, i.e., smoothing of work-load and smoothing of part usage. On real mixed-assembly lines, there exist large variations in the assembly times among different product-models. This causes inefficiency such as line stop or increase in idle time. In this paper, we propose a sequencing method to achieve the above two objectives with the help of Relief Man in such situation. For this purpose, the sequencing problem of minimizing both line stop times and idle times is formulated. Since this problem refers to combinational optimization problems, we develop a hierarchical method that applies meta-heuristics like SA (Simulated Annealing) together with NNM (Nearest Neighbor Method). Finally, we examine effectivness of the proposed method through computer simulations.


Extensive DNA methylation is observed in gastric cancer with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, and EBV infection is the cause to induce this extensive hypermethylaton phenotype in gastric epithelial cells. However, some 5′ regions of genes do not undergo de novo methylation, despite the induction of methylation in surrounding regions, suggesting the existence of a resistance factor against DNA methylation acquisition. We conducted an RNA-seq analysis of gastric epithelial cells with and without EBV infection and found that TET family genes, especially TET2, were repressed by EBV infection at both mRNA and protein levels. TET2 was found to be downregulated by EBV transcripts, e.g. BARF0 and LMP2A, and also by seven human miRNAs targeting TET2, e.g., miR-93 and miR-29a, which were upregulated by EBV infection, and transfection of which into gastric cells repressed TET2. Hydroxymethylation target genes by TET2 were detected by hydroxymethylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (hMeDIP-seq) with and without TET2 overexpression, and overlapped significantly with methylation target genes in EBV-infected cells. When TET2 was knocked down by shRNA, EBV infection induced de novo methylation more severely, including even higher methylation in methylation-acquired promoters or de novo methylation acquisition in methylation-protected promoters, leading to gene repression. TET2 knockdown alone without EBV infection did not induce de novo DNA methylation. These data suggested that TET2 functions as a resistance factor against DNA methylation in gastric epithelial cells and repression of TET2 contributes to DNA methylation acquisition during EBV infection.


Contrary perhaps to expectation, Classical studies is at the vanguard of the latest technological developments for using digital tools and computational techniques in research. This article outlines its pioneering adoption of digital tools and methods, and investigates how the digital medium is helping to transform the study of Greek and Latin literature. It discusses the processes and consequences of digitization, explaining how technologies like multispectral imaging are increasing the textual corpus, while examining how annotation, engagement, and reuse are changing the way we think about "the text". It also considers how the digital turn is reinvigorating textual analysis, by exploring the broader ecosystem, within which the digital text can now be studied, and which provides enriched contexts for understanding that are constantly shifting and expanding. Classical literature in the digital age has the potential to both challenge dominant modes of thinking about antiquity and disrupt traditional ways of doing research.


This paper develops a theory of propagation of chaos for a system of weakly interacting particles whose terminal configuration is fixed as opposed to the initial configuration as customary. Such systems are modeled by backward stochastic differential equations. Under standard assumptions on the coefficients of the equations, we prove propagation of chaos results and quantitative estimates on the rate of convergence in Wasserstein distance of the empirical measure of the interacting system to the law of a McKean-Vlasov type equation. These results are accompanied by non-asymptotic concentration inequalities. As an application, we derive rate of convergence results for solutions of second order semilinear partial differential equations to the solution of a partial differential written on an infinite dimensional space.


Background
Oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT) prevents ischaemic incidents in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). CHA2DS2-VASc risk score of ≥2 points in men and ≥3 in women is a class I indication for OAT. OAT should also be considered as a prevention of thromboembolism in AF men with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1 point and women with 2 points, but the class of recommendation is lower (IIa). This study aims to assess the occurrence of left atrial appendage thrombus (LAAT) and risk factors of its formation in patients with lower class recommendation to oral antiocoagulation treatment.

Methods
The study group consisted of 1,858 patients: 555 patients with class IIa indication to OAT (IIa group) and 1,303 patients with class I indication as a control group (I group). Patients were admitted to three cardiology departments. All subjects underwent transoesophageal echocardiography.

Results
The incidence of LAAT was comparable in both IIa and I group: LAAT was confirmed in 30 (5.4%) subjects of IIa group and in 77 (5.9%) of I group. The prevalence of LAAT in IIa group was higher on treatment with VKAs (in comparison to NOACs) (8.4% vs. 3.4%, P=0.010), and lower in case of paroxysmal AF (in comparison to non-paroxysmal AF) (2.4% vs. 9.8%, P=0.0002). Multivariate logistic regression revealed the following variables as the independent predictors of LAAT in IIa group: treatment with VKAs (OR 2.99, 95% CI: 1.33-6.69; P=0.007), paroxysmal AF (OR 0.26, 95% CI: 0.11-0.62; P=0.002) and eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (OR 3.19, 95% CI: 1.42-7.16; P=0.005).

Conclusions
The prevalence of LAAT in AF patients with lower class (IIa) recommendation to anticoagulants was comparable to higher (I). Treatment with VKAs, along with non-paroxysmal type of AF and eGFR <60 mL/min/1.72 m2 were identified as the strongest predictors of LAAT in IIa group.


Figs (Ficus spp., Moraceae) and their pollinator wasps (Agaonidae) are the most intricately coevolved of the plant-insect mutualisms. The necessity of the tiny wasps for good fruit set in cultivated figs [Ficus carica (L.)] was recognized over two thousand years ago by Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus, and the details of pollination in this species were understood by the early part of this century (Condit 1947). It was only fifteen years ago, however, that the tremendous diversity in pollination mechanisms among the approximately 900 species of figs began to be appreciated (Ramirez 1969; Galil and Eisikowitch 1969; Chopra and Kaur 1969). It is generally accepted that each fig species is pollinated by a unique species of fig wasp (Ramirez 1970a; Wiebes 1979). There is much variability in fig inflorescence morphology, which is associated (by host specificity) with variability in fig wasp morphology (Ramirez 1974) and behavior (Galil and Meiri 1981). Although general trends in the mechanism of pollination across subtaxa of Ficus and Agaonidae can be inferred from fig inflorescence and fig wasp morphology (Ramirez 1974), the actual details of both pollen collecting and pollination by the wasps have only been studied in a few species. Among the monoecious figs, Galil and Snitzer-Pasternak (1970) studied the pollination of Ficus religiosa (L.) by the fig wasp Blastophaga quadraticeps (Mayr); Galil and Eisikowitch (1969, 1974) studied F. sycomorus (L.) and its pollinator Ceratosolen arabicus (Mayr); Joseph and Abdurahiman (1981) described pollination of F. race-


A simplified RF noise de-embedding method for an on-wafer CMOS device using only one dummy structure for simplicity and area reduction is presented. The method describes the use of a 'thru' test structure to subtract completely the parasitic effects of pads and in/out interconnections from the device under test. A comparison of the de-embedding results among the simplified method and existing de-embedding methods is given, which proves that the new method is effective, accurate and time efficient.


Characterization of the ancient auxin conjugate hydrolase MpILR1 from liverwort provides evidence of its exaptation in the evolution of tracheophytes. Auxin homeostasis is tightly regulated by several mechanisms, including conjugation of the hormone to specific moieties, such as amino acids or sugar. The inactive phytohormone conjugate is stored in large pools in plants and hydrolyzed to regain full activity. Many conjugate hydrolases (M20D metallopeptidases) have been identified and characterized throughout the plant kingdom. We have traced this regulatory gene family back to liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha), a member of the most ancient extant land plant lineage, which emerged approximately 475 million years ago. We have isolated and characterized a single hydrolase homologue, dubbed M. polymorpha IAA-Leucine Resistant1 (MpILR1), from liverwort. MpILR1 can hydrolyze two auxin (indole acetic acid [IAA]) substrates (IAA-Leucine and IPA-Alanine) at very low levels of activity, but it cannot hydrolyze the two native auxin conjugates of liverwort (IAA-Glycine and IAA-Valine). We conclude from these results that liverwort likely does not employ active auxin conjugate hydrolysis as a regulatory mechanism and that conjugate homeostasis likely takes place in liverwort by passive background degradation. Furthermore, we present evidence that MpILR1 was probably exapted by tracheophytes over evolutionary time into the auxin regulatory pathway.


Background Joint erosions in RA correlate with structural damage progression and functional capacity. Therefore, detection and the follow-up of erosions are of paramount importance for RA diagnosis, monitoring and determining of prognosis. The 5th MTP is usually the first and most commonly destructed joint in RA. Ultrasound (US) is a useful and as good tool as MRI to detect 5th MTP erosions especially in early RA patients. Although a few MRI studies revelaed that most of the MTP erosions were located at the plantar aspect of the joint, it is unknown whether plantar or dorsal or lateral plane US better detects 5th MTP erosions. Objectives To determine the best ultrasonographic plane for detection of 5th MTP joint erosion in RA patients and to assess clinical characteristics of patients with 5th MTP erosions. Methods The 5th MTP of 92 feet of 48 RA patients were evaluated by B-mode and Power- Doppler US for signs of erosion. US images were obtained from 3 different aspects, the dorsal, lateral and the plantar surface of the foot, in longitudinal and tranverse planes. The presence of erosion was determined according to OMERACT definition. Patients were also assessed clinically (tender/swollen joint count, DAS28, HAQ scores) along with disease characteristics. Each erosion in each aspect were recorded seperately. Results The study cohort consisted of 48 RA patients (F/M=35/13, mean age 50.7±12.3 years, mean DAS28 score 4.04±1.47, HAQ score 0.93±0.88) with mean disease duration of 8.2±7.3 years. RF and anti- CCP positivity were 66.7% and 60.4%, respectively. The 5th MTP erosions were detected in 35 of 48 patients (72.9%) and 62 of 92 feet (67.4%). Of the erosions 15 (16.3%) were observed at dorsal plane whereas plantar and lateral planes revelaed majority of the erosions, 53 (57.6%) and 52 (56.5%), respectively. In 26 feet (28.3%), erosions were observed on both plantar and lateral planes, in 15 feet (16.3%) erosions were observed in all three planes. None of the patients had erosion just in dorsal plane examination of the 5th MTP. The presence of 5th MTP erosion in plantar aspect of foot was significantly higher than both lateral and dorsal aspect (P<0.0001, P=0.002, respectively). Patients with dorsal erosion had significantly higher disease duration (13.8 years vs 6.5 years, P=0.005). Patients with erosion in any aspect have similar disease characteristics including, RF, anti-CCP positivity, disease duration, HAQ scores and current biologic requirement, when compared to patients without erosion. Conclusions The 5th MTP erosions in RA patients can be better detected with plantar plane US than dorsal and lateral aspect evaluations. These data also indicate that dorsal aspect US of foot may miss erosions in early disease and insufficient when performed solely. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.3817


Gametogenesis in mammals encompasses highly regulated developmental transitions. These are associated with changes in transcription that cause characteristic patterns of gene expression observed during distinct stages of gamete development, which include specific activities with critical meiotic functions. SWI/SNF chromatin remodelers are recognized regulators of gene transcription and DNA repair, but their composition and functions in meiosis are poorly understood. We have generated gamete-specific conditional knockout mice for ARID2, a specific regulatory subunit of PBAF, and have compared its phenotype with BRG1 knockouts, the catalytic subunit of PBAF/BAF complexes. While Brg1Δ/Δ knockout acts at an early stage of meiosis and causes cell arrest at pachynema, ARID2 activity is apparently required at the end of prophase I. Striking defects in spindle assembly and chromosome-spindle attachment observed in Arid2Δ/Δ knockouts are attributed to an increase in aurora B kinase, a master regulator of chromosome segregation, at centromeres. Further genetic and biochemical analyses suggest the formation of a canonical PBAF and a BRG1-independent complex containing ARID2 and PBRM1 as core components. The data support a model in which different PBAF complexes regulate different stages of meiosis and gametogenesis.


Background: Enlarged thyroid is one of the commonest clinical problems usually denoted as goiter. The objective of this study is to see the histopathological pattern of enlarged thyroid lesion in patients undergoing thyroid surgery.
Material & Methods: This descriptive study conducted in Bannu Medical College, Pakistan from January, 2013 to December, 2014. A total of 105 thyroid biopsies were included in this study. The inclusion criteria were all thyroid biopsies of any age and sex while exclusion criteria was autolysed and insufficient thyroid biopsies. All biopsies specimen were fixed in formalin and processed for block and slides preparation, reported by histopathologist and data entered in a designed proforma.
Results: A total of 105 thyroid biopsies were examined. Amongst these 87(82.85%) cases were non neoplastic and 18(17.14%) cases were neoplastic. The age range was from 20-75 years, male patients were 45 in number and females were 60 in number, male female ratio was 1:1.3. In non-neoplastic lesion age range was 20-48 years where is in neoplastic lesion age range was 40-75 years. Adenomatous goiter was the commonest non neoplastic lesion, follicular adenoma was the commonest benign neoplastic lesion where is papillary carcinoma was the commonest malignant lesion.
Conclusion: This study shows that non neoplastic lesions are more common in thyroid biopsy specimens as compared to neoplastic ones. Adenomatous goiter is the commonest among these. Among the neoplastic lesions follicular adenoma was the commonest benign and papillary carcinoma the commonest malignant lesion.


Background American young adults have a high risk of sexually transmitted infections. Sexual risk behaviors may be influenced by psycho-behavioral factors, including substance use and sexual enhancement expectancy. Existing research suggested that substance use may mediate the relationship between sexual enhancement expectancy and sexual risk behaviors. The substance use literature also suggested that non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) was highly prevalent in college students and was associated with sexual risk. However, limited studies have examined NMUPD-related sexual enhancement expectancy. The current study examined the relationship among sexual enhancement expectancy, NMUPD, and sexual risk behaviors in college students. Methods Online data were collected in 2016 from 453 US college students with lifetime NMUPD. All participants reported their (1) past-three-month NMUPD, (2) NMUPD sexual enhancement expectancy, and (3) sexual risk behaviors. Structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis. Results Findings suggested significant associations of NMUPD with sexual enhancement expectancy and sexual risk behaviors. Sexual enhancement expectancy was indirectly associated with sexual risk behaviors through NMUPD. Conclusions College students' sexual risk behaviors appear to be indirectly influenced by sexual enhancement expectancy through NMUPD. Future sexual risk reduction interventions should attend to sexual enhancement expectancy and NMUPD.


In this article we provide an overview of pricing concepts for broadband multiservice networks. We review the notions of flat pricing, priority pricing, Paris-Metro pricing, smart-market pricing, responsive pricing, expected capacity pricing, edge pricing, and effective bandwidth pricing. We use numerous evaluation criteria, including network, economic, and social efficiency, as well as their suitability in using pricing as a means for congestion control. Some of the schemes are based on best-effort networks, and are thus unable to provide the user with quality of service (QoS) guarantees. Others build on networks with connection admission control functions and are thus able to provide individual QoS guarantees. We particularly investigate the relevant time frame over which pricing schemes are assumed to operate. The majority of the schemes work on short time frames (on the order of minutes), which makes them applicable to use pricing as an additional means for controlling congestion. We also consider technical aspects such as compliance with existing networking technologies or computational overheads associated with billing and accounting.


This paper reports a new circularly polarized (CP) high-gain, high-efficiency rectifying antenna (rectenna) array designed in a coplanar stripline (CPS) circuit. The array can maintain a constant dc output voltage regardless of its broadside orientation. The array is etched on Rogers Duroid 5870 substrate with /spl epsiv//sub r/=2.33 and 10 mil thickness. High-gain dual rhombic loop antennas and a reflecting plane are used in order to reduce the total number of rectenna elements necessary to cover a fixed area. Each antenna has a CP antenna gain of 11 dB and a better than 1 dB axial ratio fractional bandwidth of 4.7%. The single element rectenna achieves 81% RF-to-dc coversion efficiency at 5.71 GHz and uses a CPS band-reject filter (BRF) to suppress the reradiated harmonics by more than 19 dB. At 5.61 GHz, using an array loading of 150 /spl Omega/, a 3 /spl times/ 3 rectenna array produces 0.86 W of dc output power with an RF-to-dc conversion efficiency of 78% and an axial ratio of 0.25 dB for an incident CP power density of 7.6 mW/cm/sup 2/.


Tackling the question of defining a new eucalyptus ideotype, more efficient to use nutrients, can be done through different strategies. Analysing the genotype by nutritional stress interaction in an adequate experiment is among the most consistent strategies. The recent advances of high-throughput molecular technology has opened up new perspectives, giving an easy access to transcriptome resulting from gene expression Transcriptome data have become relevant to gaining insights into plant biology and provide complementary information to the classical methods based on ecophysiological and growth variables. To address these questions and facilitate the understanding of tree functioning, we implemented a field experiment (Botucatu, SP, Brazil) with three Eucalyptus grandis clones facing contrasting nutrient deficiencies (non-limiting fertilisation (NLF) considered as the baseline; NLF - N: N deficiency; NLF - P: P deficiency; NLF - K: K deficiency). Gene expression obtained by RNA-seq technology was the variable analysed to improve our understanding of tree response to the stressing nutritional environments tested. After filtering process, 21698 expressed genes were obtained for leaf and 21443 for xylem. For both tissues, the number of genes di↵erentially expressed between the three clones was very high: around 3500 to 4000 genes down and up regulated. The genes differentially expressed for leaf were only observed for N deficiency treatment. The number of genes up regulated was 116 and 99 genes were down regulated at FDR p value< 0.05. The same pattern was observed for xylem but the number of genes differentially expressed for N deficiency was much higher, 1403 for up and 569 for down, at FDR p value< 0.05. This result based on gene expression was consistent with the first phenotypic observations in our field experiment showing that tree growth from 6 to 18 months after planting was much more affected by N deficiency than by P or K deficiency. The next steps will consist in identifying major genes involved in N deficiency response by using network approach and analysing the co-variation between gene expression and eco-physiological and growth variables.


The second decade of the XXI century has seen major changes concerning the activities of non-profit organizations. First, the status of non-profit organizations (NPOs) as a subject of social policy has significantly improved, aided by some changes in the socioeconomic structure of various states after the global crisis. This trend is characteristic of most developed countries in the world. Secondly, the NPOs have become more popular among the population: as a result, both the number of NPO members and their professionalism have increased. Thirdly, government agencies are responding to modern challenges and become actively engaged in the development and implementation of mechanisms supporting and enabling socially oriented NPOs. All these factors show that the activity of non-profit organizations is becoming an integral part of socio-economic processes that improve the quality of life of the population. A list of public utility services provided by NPOs covers the main range of indicators of quality of life of the population. About 60 percent of the more than 223 thousand NPOs registered in the country have received the status of socially oriented nonprofit organizations (SONPOs), which allows them to rely on state support. To further enhance the effectiveness of socially oriented non-profit organizations one should: improve the regulatory framework, including preferential loans and banking services for socially oriented NGOs; develop the supportive infrastructure for socially oriented NPOs; share experience, e.g. through the establishment of advisory centers and implementation of mentoring in the field SONPOs; include SONPOs in assessing the effectiveness of the authorities in the field of social policy; inform citizens about the possibilities to receive services from the SONPOs and their activities in general.


The effect of weight reduction on circulating lipids was studied in 17 normotensive, normolipemic obese women consuming diets with differing carbohydrate contents. Ten subjects consumed an 800-calorie, 10-gram carbohydrate diet, and 7 subjects followed an 800-calorie, 70-gram carbohydrate diet. At the end of 12 weeks of dieting, the mean weight loss was 12.3 kg for both groups (P less than 0.001) but not significantly different between the two groups. Serum insulin decreased by 31% (P less than 0.05) and a reduction of 18% (P less than 0.025) was observed in serum triiodothyronine. Serum potassium and magnesium remained unchanged; however, serum magnesium was marginally low for the duration of the study. Only four nonspecific changes were observed in a total of 68 electrocardiograms (5.8%); there were no arrhythmias. The response of serum cholesterol was biphasic, decreasing initially and returning to the baseline by the twelfth week. The high-density lipid (HDL) cholesterol followed a pattern similar to that of total cholesterol. A possible mechanism explaining the changes in circulating lipids is proposed. The results indicate that, in spite of substantial changes in weight, the cholesterol-to-HDL cholesterol ratio remained unchanged. Although weight reduction did not alter the risk factor in a group of normotensive, normolipemic obese women, hypocaloric diets should be prescribed under medical supervision, especially when cardiovascular or other diseases coexist.


The development of specific and age-appropriate pediatric formulations is essential to assure that all children and their care-givers can easily access to safe and effective dosage forms. The need for developing specific pediatric medicinal products has been highlighted by the European Medicines Agency. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of combining the advantages of both cyclodextrin (CD) complexation and loading into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC), to obtain a liquid oral pediatric formulation of hydrochlorothiazide (HCT), endowed with safety, dosage accuracy, good stability and therapeutic efficacy. Equimolar drug combinations as physical mixture (P.M.) or coground product (GR) with hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD) or sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (SBEβCD) were loaded into NLC, then characterized for particle size, homogeneity, Zeta potential, entrapment efficiency, gastric and storage stability. The presence of HPβCD allowed higher entrapment efficacy than NLC loaded with the plain drug, and enabled, in the case of GR systems a complete and sustained drug release, attributable to the wetting and solubilising properties of HPβCD toward HCT. In vivo studies on rats proved the superior therapeutic effectiveness of HCT-in HPβCD-in NLC formulations compared to the corresponding free HCT-loaded NLC, thus confirming the successfulness of the proposed approach in the development of an efficacious liquid oral formulation of the drug.


The mechanical properties of Al, Ti, Fe, and Cu metals p-type Si, and n-type Si were investigated by using coincidence Doppler broadening (CDB) positron annihilation spectroscopy. The samples in this experiment were irradiated by using X-rays at generating powers for up to 9 kW. The data taken after the irradiation showed all the characteristic features predicted from defects with vacancies. The S parameter values of the metals were generally less than those of semiconductors such as p-type Si and n-type Si. The relationship between n-type Si and p-type Si were more affected when n-type Si rather than p-type Si was irradiated with X-rays.


Objective: To assess fear potentiated poststartle activity in adult rats administered clomipramine during neonatal period
 (" CLI rats").

Methods: Rat pups were treated twice daily from postnatal day 5 to 21 with clomipramine (15 mg/kg, SC). At three months of age CLI rats were given twenty trials per day, for two days. In each trial an unconditioned stimulus (US), namely footshock (0.8 mA) was presented during the last 0.5 sec of the 1 .O sec conditioned stimulus (CS), namely light. Twenty-four hours after the last conditioning trial, rats were presented with twenty alternated sequence of light-tone (98 dB) and tone-alone trials.

Results: CLI rats showed an enhanced potentiated poststartle activity and increased activity in open field as compared to control rats.

Conclusion: The present data suggest an increased expression of fear/anxiety in CLI rats,


Abstract Bikini Atoll has been reshaped through time according to Western mythologies regarding "deserted" islands. Geographers have increasingly recognized that landscapes are shaped by the ways human agents conceptualize places. Ideals that shape places are not only based on interpretations of a given place, however, but are also formed by the semiotic linking of representations of similar landscapes. Conceptualizations of Bikini Atoll enabled the drastic alteration of the landscape by nuclear testing in the 1940s and 1950s as well as subsequent development projects such as the current tourism operation on the atoll. The information presented in this article stems from interview research conducted in the Marshall Islands in 2001 and 2002 as well as from a review of historical accounts of the atoll from 1945 to the present. The conceptualizations of Bikini Atoll held by members of the Bikinian community, U.S. military and government officials, other people living in the Marshall Islands, and visitors to the atoll explain the transformations of the atoll landscape. Going beyond the notion of landscapes as readable texts, places can be understood as discursive-material formations where the semiotic meanings of places are intrinsically entwined with their reproduction.


Steel slag is a industry solid waste which come from steel making factory,and is easy to solid-liquid separation, so it posses some adsorption capacities and can be used as adsorbent. Adsorption phenol onto steel slag was investigated by the oscillating adsorption experiments and the effect of different operating parameters on these adsorption processes, such as initial concentration phenol and the pH value were studied. The surface characterization were gained by SEM, X-ray diffraction, IR Spectroscopy and BET.


—Critical aircraft structural components, such as wings and fuselages, are exposed to harsh environments that vary considerably in temperature and moisture content. In most cases, the corrosion is hidden under paint and primer and cannot be visually detected. The initiation of corrosion is preceded by the presence of corrosion precursor pitting. Near-field millime-ter-wave nondestructive testing (NDT) methods have been suc- cessfully used for detecting corrosion precursor pitting in exposed as well as painted aluminum substrates. However, near-field mil- limeter-wave measurements are susceptible to clutter that may mask indications of small defects such as pitting. Standoff distance variation produces an unwanted intensity gradient on an image and may be considered the most undesired clutter-producing effect. This paper presents a differential millimeter-wave probe consisting of a pair of radiating apertures. It is shown that the differential nature of this probe tends to significantly reduce the undesired effect of standoff distance variation, thereby enhancing probe detection sensitivity. Furthermore, when this probe is used for the purpose of millimeter-wave imaging, it produces defect indications with unique features that help in distinguishing the defect from noise. This dual differential probe was used for detect- ing corrosion precursor pitting. The design of the probe and the results of detecting various pittings are presented in this paper.


Recently, a commercial treatment planning system (TPS) has implemented aperture collimators for PBS dose calculations which can serve to reduce lateral penumbra. This study characterized the variation in magnitude of lateral penumbra for collimated and un-collimated PBS fields versus the parameters of air gap, depth, and range shifter thickness. Comparisons were performed in a homogenous geometry between measured data and calculations made by a commercial TPS. Beam-specific target volumes were generated for collimated and un-collimated PBS fields and optimized for various range shifter thicknesses and air gaps. Lateral penumbra (80%-20% distance) was measured across each target volume to characterize penumbra variation with depth and air gap. An analytic equation was introduced to predict the reduction in lateral penumbra between un-collimated and collimated PBS treatments. Calculated penumbra values increased with depth across all combinations of range shifters for a constant air gap. At 2 cm depth, the reductions in penumbra due to the aperture were 2.7 mm, 3.7 mm and 4.2 mm when using range shifter thicknesses of 0 cm, 4.0 cm and 7.5 cm, respectively. At a depth of approximately 20 cm and air gap of 5 cm, differences between penumbras of collimated and un-collimated beams were less than 1 mm. Penumbra reductions for the collimated beams were largest at small air gaps. All TPS-calculated penumbra values derived in this study were within 1 mm of film measurement values. Finally, the analytic equation was tested using a clinical CT scan, and we found good dosimetric agreement between the model predictions and the result calculated by the TPS. In conclusion, application of collimators to PBS fields can sharpen penumbra by several mm and are most beneficial for shallow targets. Furthermore, measurements indicate that the dose calculation accuracy in the penumbra region of PBS-collimated fields is adequate for clinical use.


Historical document analysis systems gain importance with the increasing efforts in the digitalization of archives. Page segmentation and layout analysis are crucial steps for such systems. Errors in these steps will affect the outcome of handwritten text recognition and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) methods, which increase the importance of the page segmentation and layout analysis. Degradation of documents, digitization errors, and varying layout styles are the issues that complicate the segmentation of historical documents. The properties of Arabic scripts such as connected letters, ligatures, diacritics, and different writing styles make it even more challenging to process Arabic script historical documents. In this study, we developed an automatic system for counting registered individuals and assigning them to populated places by using a CNN-based architecture. To evaluate the performance of our system, we created a labeled dataset of registers obtained from the first wave of population registers of the Ottoman Empire held between the 1840s and 1860s. We achieved promising results for classifying different types of objects and counting the individuals and assigning them to populated places.


Access to specialized diabetes care is limited due to shortage of endocrinologists and distance to specialty clinics. In addition, referrals to out-of-network providers frequently results in suboptimal care coordination. Tele-mentoring models such as ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) extends specialty knowledge to primary care providers. Prior to the implementation of a series of ECHO sessions, we assessed provider confidence in managing type 2 diabetes (T2D) .
 Methods: Prescribing providers (PP) from three VA Health Care Systems in Florida (North Florida/South Georgia) , Texas (Valley Coastal Bend) and Wisconsin (Milwaukee) were invited to participate. We asked questions about practice patterns, prescription habits, and confidence level treating T2D.
 Results: A total of 49 PP completed the assessment. Mean age was 42.5 years and 74% were females. They were clinical pharmacists (63%) , physicians (22%) , ARNP (8%) , and the rest were trainees. Clinical experience < 5 year was present in 14.2%, whereas 67% had > years. Half of the providers felt very or extremely confident managing a complicated case (A1c>8% on two oral agents) , whereas only 14% of providers felt either "not at all" or somewhat confident. Most of the providers felt very or extremely confident obtaining a diabetes-focused history (63%) , educating patients about complications (69%) , or changing insulin regimens (61%) . Although most of the providers prescribed a glucose meter very often or always (81%) , only 6% of them prescribed a continuous glucose monitor frequently. When sending a referral, 32% mentioned either lack of local endocrinologists or long waiting time as main barriers. Providers felt that patients prefer to stay with their local VA PCP for diabetes care instead of seeing a specialist (65%)
 Conclusions: A third of providers perceive significant barriers to access specialized diabetes care. There are opportunities to improve provider confidence and skills managing diabetes.

 C.E.Mendez: Advisory Panel; Monarch Medical Technologies . K.Hazen: None. L.M.Semeah: None. J.A.Leey: None. E.A.Mattox: None. S.Kadiyala: None. M.Xhikola: None. K.Yantsides: None. A.D.Oien: None. I.O'shaughnessy: None. A.E.Hansen: None. J.Lucas: None.

 Veterans Rural Health Resource Center - 00RH


Cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis provides us with a new approach to the understanding of carcinogenesis, therapeutics, and prevention strategies. In recent years, the origin and biological characteristics of CSC were widely studied in solid tumors; it is astonishing to find out the delicate relevancy between CSC and committed progenitors evolved from embryonic stem cells (ESC) during organ development. In this review, we propose that some key molecular signal pathways during lung development are crucial for abnormal self-renewal and differentiation of lung cancer stem cell as well as try to elaborate the lung CSCs from the point view of ontogeny.


Several types of commercial organizations play significant roles in the continuing education of engineers and other professional personnel, supplementing the efforts of individuals, employers, professional societies and universities. In addition to the publication of textbooks and technical magazines, entrepreneurs are discovering new opportunities in the production and distribution of multi-media "packaged" courses. The recent trends toward external degrees and separation of the testing and certification process from the instructional process may enhance the significance of learning opportunities made available through commercial channels.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) can be deployed in a non-intrusive way in outdoor and indoor environments, due its reduced size and wireless communication media. Some networks are deployed in hazardous and inaccessible places where change of battery is either prohibitive or an expensive solution. This way, energy economy is one of the most important characteristic in a WSN approach. In this paper, is presented DPAWSN -- a decentralized power aware approach for data fusion applications in WSN. Test results based in real motes implementation confirm the approach effectiveness.


The thesis describes what happens when twelve students learn to read and write. The main purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the learning process of the students, with respect to reading and writing, based on the specific learning environment. Special attention is given to the relationship between the individual and the environment. It is the author's strong belief that one needs to look at both these aspects together. Further, the intention of the thesis is not to compare different environments in terms of good or bad, but rather to use them as examples of situated social practices for reading. The investigation has an ethnographic approach and is based primarily on qualitative data collected by personal studies of the students' reading and writing processes in the classroom environment. Secondly, estimations of the students' reading abilities have been performed in order to validate various kinds of data. Twelve students have been studied from August 1998 when they started in first grade and until March 2001. The analysis derives from Vygotskij's theory, the sociocultural perspective, and to get a better understanding of differences and similarities between the environments, Bernstein's theory about the visible and invisible pedagogic was used. The result indicates that in a classroom, students show a variety of specific behaviours related to the setting in different ways. The conclusion of this thesis is that it is urgent to make teachers observe and pay attention to the behaviour pattern of each group of readers. Teachers hereby receive a tool that gives them a chance to identify students with negative patterns in purpose to make them choose a constructive way of learning. Through guidance the teacher may transfer successful strategies and/or design situations that make it possible for the students to discover an alternative way of learning.


In the structure of wounds on the Russian-Ukrainian war, traumatic brain injury takes 33 percent. And more than 80 percent is a mild TBI. Open clinical trial was provided by a multidisciplinary team in the National Military Medical Center (the Main military clinical hospital), Kyiv, Ukraine, under the leadership of the Military Medical Academy of Ukraine. 286 veterans, male, age 27,38±9,67 y.o with history of mTBI were observed for post-concussion syndrome. Causes of concussion were: isolated blast injury-69,3%, combine blast + shrapnel injury- 18,5% , car accidences - 6,1%, falls-7,1%/ Spectrum of PCS symptoms included all manifestations – as a physical, as mental heals problems, but dynamic in time of manifestations show the decreasing of physical signs and increasing of intensity of mental symptoms. Many patients with post-concussion syndrome also have symptoms of PTSD. In the studied group near the 40% of patients have PCL-m score more than 50. Our study shown that post-concussion syndrome, as a result of traumatic brain morphological and functional changes, powered with combat psycho trauma, lead to functional disorders: physical, emotional and cognitive.


Various tumours of the urogenital system were studied whether their cells contain gene products characteristic of functioning adenovirus genes. Complementation studies were made by using tumour cell extracts and two temperature-sensitive adenovirus mutants at restrictive and permissive temperatures. The procedure was applied in in vitro HEp-2 cell culture. It was found that cell extracts of bladder tumour, renal tumour, malignant bladder papilloma and of penis cancer are capable of complementing adenovirus mutants at restrictive temperature, i.e. they induce the reproduction of virus mutants being otherwise incapable of replication. Thus, functioning adenovirus genes are present in the tumour cells. It seems that virus genes together with hormonal changes activate the cell protooncogenes giving rise to and maintaining tumours.


Introduction: Lupus retinopathy and posterior uveitis are complications due to systemic lupus erythematosus which can threaten the vision. The presence of posterior segment manifestation is suggestive of high disease activity. The aim of this study is to identify posterior segment manifestation (Lupus Retinopathy and Posterior Uveitis) in SLE patient and their correlation with SLE disease activity using The Mexican-SLEDAI (MEX-SLEDAI) score.

Methods: This was an analytical observational study with cross-sectional design, conducted from August to October 2020 and involved 114 SLE patients in Dr. Saiful Anwar General Hospital. We calculated MEX-SLEDAI score to assess SLE disease activity. All participant that met inclusion criteria underwent ophthalmology examinations using a portable slit-lamp, head indirect ophthalmoscope, and fundus finding were documented using portable fundus imaging.

Result: Lupus retinopathy (LR) presents in 25/114 (21.9%) and posterior uveitis (PU) occurs in 2/114 (1.8%) SLE patients. The mean age of patient with LR, PU, and without retinopathy were 32.92; 37.00; and 31.08 years respectively. The posterior segment findings were hemorrhages, cotton wool spots, hard exudates, and vasculitis reflecting vascular damage. The most common manifestation found in retina was cotton wool spot. The mean of MEX-SLEDAI score of SLE patient with LR (7.200 ± 3.905) and SLE patient with PU (3.500 ± 2.121) was higher than the mean of SLE patient without LR and PU (2.871 ± 2.534). There was a significant association between LR and MEX-SLEDAI score (p=0.000). An insignificant association between PU and MEX-SLEDAI score was found (p=0.353)

Conclusion There is a significance correlation between lupus retinopathy and SLE disease activity based on MEX-SLEDAI scores. The mean of MEX-SLEDAI score in SLE patients with lupus retinopathy was higher than SLE with posterior uvetis and SLE without posterior segment manifestations.


Most people are able to effectively process and respond to the sensory stimuli of daily life. But people who have sensory processing disorders struggle to form meaningful responses to sensory stimuli. As a result these individuals often exhibit problems with coordination, sensory-seeking or sensory-avoiding behaviors, and sensory modulation. The concept of sensory processing disorders stems from the work of occupational therapist Jean Ayres, Ph.D. Her work has launched a sensory-based treatment approach, primarily practiced by occupational therapists. This article outlines the theories supporting the notion of sensory processing disorders, options for assessment and treatment, and research on the efficacy of treatment.


Social skills, or interpersonal skills, have been the object of increasing interest over recent years within the field of social, clinical and educational psychology; nevertheless, both their assessment and psychological interventions for their improvement are faced with a disconcerting number of different classifications or divergent categories of said skills. As a result of successive factorial studies, this paper proposes five major categories of social skills (Interaction with strangers in consumer situations, Interactions with people one finds attractive, Interaction with friends and colleagues, Interaction with family members, and Making and rejecting requests to/from friends) which respond to different contexts of social interaction. The five scales (corresponding to said categories) of a new measurement instrument, the Interpersonal Difficulties Questionnaire (IDQ), which has a high level of internal consistency (alpha=0,896), account for 47.47% of the total variance. Correlational analyses between the IDQ and the Social Interaction Self Statement Test (SISST) by Glass, Merluzzi, Biever and Larsen (1982) reveal significant cognitive differences between subjects with high and low levels of social skills, with a greater frequency of positive self statements and a lower frequency of negative self statements being observed in subjects with good social skills, in comparison with those possessing poorer social skills.


A novel quaternary lyotropic liquid-crystalline mixture of dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DDTMABr)/sodium bromide/1-dodecanol/water, presenting the biaxial nematic phase (NB ) in addition to two uniaxial discotic (ND) and calamitic (NC) nematic ones, was synthesized. The partial phase diagram of this new mixture was constructed as a function of the DDTMABr molar-fraction concentration. The phase transitions from uniaxial to biaxial nematic phases were studied by means of the temperature dependence of the optical birefringence. In a particular region of the phase diagram, anomalous behavior was observed in the crossover from N-B to N+b: the contrast of the conoscopic fringes, which allows the birefringence measurements, almost vanishes, and the sample loses its alignment. This behavior, which was not observed before in lyotropics, was interpreted as a decrease in the mean diamagnetic susceptibility anisotropy (Δχ) of the sample, which was related to the shape anisotropy of the micelles. Small-angle X-ray scattering measurements were performed to evaluate the micellar shape anisotropy; these revealed that this mixture presented a smaller shape anisotropy than those of other lyotropic micellar systems presenting the NB phase.


Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among females using different heel size footwear.
Methodology: We recruited 87 young females aged between 18-32 years. They were asked to walk on the treadmill at 4km/hour speed for 20 minutes with three different heel size shoes per day. The prevalence of pain was observed in feet and lower limbs.
Results: The prevalence of pain in foot and lower limb was 29.6% and 24.7%, respectively. In flat sandals, the pain in foot and lower limb was 39.5% and 19.8%, respectively. Back was affected from both high heels and flat sandals with 9.9% and 6.2%, respectively.
Conclusion: The pain in foot and lower limb was seen in both high heel users as well as flat sandals.


Candida albicans and related organisms rarely produce septicemia and widespread lesions which can be considered the immediate cause of death. The patient reported here developed C. albicans septicemia while recovering from severe pancreatitis. Broadspectrum antibiotics given during the acute episode of pancreatitis probably allowed this organism to establish itself in necrotic areas of the pancreas and peripancreatic tissues. Oral nystatin* therapy failed to influence the rapidly fatal septic course. Report of a Case A 68-year-old single, white, retired laborer was admitted to the King County Hospital on Sept. 18, 1955, complaining of severe pain throughout the abdomen of 14 hours' duration. He had also noted low back pain and had vomited several times. He recalled two similar episodes within the preceding two years, but otherwise had been in good health. No dietary or alcoholic excess preceded the onset of abdominal pain. The patient was moderately obese and appeared acutely ill.


OBJECTIVE
Increased serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 levels have been found in metastatic breast cancer patients and are correlated with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpression in tumor cells. However, the prevalence of serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 in gastric cancer patients has not been elucidated.

METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissues and serum samples from 96 advanced gastric cancer patients. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 expression and gene amplification in tumor cells were determined by immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 levels were measured using a chemiluminescent immunoassay. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positivity in tumor cells was defined as immunohistochemistry 2+ with fluorescence in situ hybridization positive or immunohistochemistry 3+ with any fluorescence in situ hybridization results.

RESULTS
All tissue samples and serum samples were successfully measured. Nineteen patients (20%) were human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive in tumor cells. The median serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 level was 9.3 ng/ml (range, 5.0-332.4 ng/ml), and serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 levels were significantly separated according to human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status in tumor cells (P < 0.0001, Wilcoxon's rank sum test); median serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 levels in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative patients and -positive patients were 8.9 (range, 5.0-20.5) and 24.0 (range, 9.7-332.4), respectively. There were 15 serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive patients (16%) using a cutoff value of 15 ng/ml. The sensitivity and the specificity of serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 with respect to human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positivity in tumor cells were 53 and 94%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 measurements cannot be substituted for tissue human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 diagnosis in advanced gastric cancer patients. However, serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 levels are associated with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpression in tumor cells. Further investigations of clinical significance of serum human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 as a predictive marker and a therapy-monitoring marker are warranted.


As artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous in our lives, so do the opportunities to combine machine and human intelligence to obtain more accurate and more resilient prediction models across a wide range of domains. Hybrid intelligence can be designed in many ways, depending on the role of the human and the algorithm in the hybrid system. This paper offers a brief taxonomy of hybrid intelligence, which describes possible relationships between human and machine intelligence for robust forecasting. In this taxonomy, biological intelligence represents one axis of variation, going from individual intelligence (one individual in isolation) to collective intelligence (several connected individuals). The second axis of variation represents increasingly sophisticated algorithms that can take into account more aspects of the forecasting system, from information to task to human problem-solvers. The novelty of the paper lies in the interpretation of recent studies in hybrid intelligence as precursors of a set of algorithms that are expected to be more prominent in the future. These algorithms promise to increase hybrid system's resilience across a wide range of human errors and biases thanks to greater human-machine understanding. This work ends with a short overview for future research in this field.


CI 934, a new quinolone, is only marginally more active in vitro against Listeria monocytogenes and other Listeria spp. than ciprofloxacin. A bactericidal effect is seen only after several hours of incubation. However, mice infected with a virulent strain of L. monocytogenes were protected by parenteral treatment with CI 934. With a dosage of 2 x 2 mg CI 934 per day for three days almost complete remission could be achieved. These results are somewhat better than those obtained in previous experiments with other antibiotics.


OBJECTIVES
Gynecomastia-like changes of the female breast are only sparsely reported and are not well defined in the literature to our knowledge. Our objectives were to determine the incidence, clinical presentation, mammographic findings, and the medical background of patients with these changes.

DESIGN
Two thousand seven hundred nine female breast surgical cases from 1995 to 1999 were searched by SNOMED. Three observers further reviewed all cases with gynecomastia-like changes. Strict criteria were developed and cases that fulfilled the criteria were analyzed further.

RESULTS
We found the incidence of female gynecomastia-like changes to be 0.15% (4/2709) of all female breast lesions, which represents an underestimation. Patients were usually young and had an average age of 32 years. The usual clinical presentation was a palpable mass with a size ranging from about 3.5 x 2 x 2 cm to 5 x 4 x 2.5 cm. Mammography showed either negative findings or a nonspecific density. Gross examination of these specimens revealed no distinct lesions. Histologically, the lesions consisted of ductal hyperplasia with periductal stromal fibrosis or edema. They were associated with fibrocystic changes in the adjacent breast. The patients had no significant medical history.

CONCLUSION
We propose that the gynecomastia-like change is a specific benign entity within the spectrum of benign fibrocystic changes and that it usually occurs in young patients.


Intercalation of HgI2 into high-Tc superconducting Bi1.85Pb0.35Sr1.9Ca2.1Cu3.1O10 + δ (Bi2223) compound is achieved by a stepwise reaction technique in which the iodine intercalate is used as a secondary host material. While the vapor transport reaction is ineffective in intercalating mercuric salts directly into Pb-doped or single crystalline Bi-based cuprates, the present stepwise reaction method can provide a useful way of intercalating larger molecules into Bi2O2 double layers of Bi-based cuprates. According to Hg LIII-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure analyses, it is found that the intercalated mercuric iodide is stabilized as a linear molecule with additional free iodine species in the interlayer space of Bi2223. Taking into account the fact that no free iodine can be found in the HgI2 intercalated Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ polycrystal prepared by the direct intercalation method, the present experimental finding indicates that the intracrystalline structure of mercuric iodides in Bi2O2 double layers can be modified by controlling the synthetic route. The linear geometry of intercalated mercuric iodide has been further confirmed by performing ex-situ X-ray diffraction measurements on the deintercalation products, which clarify that the partial deintercalation of mercuric iodide leads to the formation of an intermediate phase with a parallel orientation of HgI2 molecules with respect to the basal plane.


In Ponorogo, one of microfinance institution developed by Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor namely Baitul Mal Wat Tamwil La-Tansa Gontor. BMT La-Tansa Gontor has 2462 customers from various regions in Ponorogo. The high demand for financial services for the community, especially in Ponorogo makes the community more selective in choosing the financial institution that will be used, this is evidenced by the high motivation of customers to use the services of BMT La-Tansa Gontor Ponorogo.The purpose of this study is to analyze the customer motivation of using BMT La-Tansa Gontor services. This research used qualitative method with grounded theory. Data collection used observation techniques, interviews, and documentation. Determination of the sample used in this study using a purposive sampling, while data analysis method used is a method of miles and hubberman with internal and external motivation as an instrument. From this research, it can be concluded that the motivation on customer of BMT La-Tansa Gontor is caused by internal motivation; (1) Implement islamic principles; (2) Personal motivation; (3) Honest revenue sharing; and (4) Halal result. The factors from external motivation on BMT La Tansa Gontor customer (1) Service factor;(2) Influence of other; (3) Transparency factor, (4) Promotion factor; and (5) Transaction factor. From the results of this research, it is expected the service quality in BMT La-Tansa Gontor can be improved to build customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty. Researcher hopes to increase the socialization of BMT La-Tansa Gontor to the community to manage property according to Islamic principles.Keywords: BMT La-Tansa Gontor, Customer, External, Internal, Motivation


Process variation has become a major concern in the design of many nanometer circuits, including interconnect pipelines. This paper develops closed-form models to predict the delay distribution of an interconnect pipeline stage and the slew distributions of all the nets in the circuit. Also, a buffer sizing and replacement algorithm is presented to minimize the area of interconnect pipelines while meeting the delay and slew constraints. Experiments show that ignoring location dependent variation can cause a timing yield loss of 8.8% in a delay limited circuit, and the area can be improved by over 10% when the location dependent variation and residual random variation are understood and separated. Furthermore, under equivalent area, an interconnect pipeline optimized with only sizing changes may violate the slew constraint on over 50% of the nets, so location change is needed to best optimize these circuits


Interpersonal verbs like disappoint and praise in Lucy disappointed/praised Mary because she… bias the potential cause of the event to one of the antecedent noun phrases (henceforth NPs) (e.g., Lucy for disappoint whereas Mary for praise). Using Chinese as its materials, this study investigated how verb-based implicit causality affects online pronoun resolution in backward concession (e.g., Lucy disappointed/praised Mary although she…), an intersubjective discourse relation where the subordinate although-clause forms an indirect relationship with the preceding main clause. Experiment 1 was a baseline experiment with the typical structure where implicit causality is found to be effective, i.e., backward causality. Results showed a clear modulation effect of implicit causality on pronoun resolution such that as verb bias strength decreases, participants were faster in processing sentences that disambiguate the pronoun to the verb-inconsistent NP. However, this modulation effect was not observed in Experiment 2 where we used the same verbs but replaced because with although. There was no preference for the pronoun to be disambiguated toward the verb-consistent NP or the verb-inconsistent NP in backward concession. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 were replicated in Experiment 3 where we directly compared causal and concessive relations. We suggest that the absent effect of verb-based implicit causality in backward concession could be attributed to the intersubjective nature of the concessive relation. Discourse devices such as although indicate speakers' subjective perspective and comprehenders are able to quickly accommodate the speaker's point of view during online discourse processing.


In this paper, we consider the transmission of confidential message through single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) identically and independent generalized-K fading channels in the presence of an eavesdropper. We derive the analytical expressions for the probability of strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC), secure outage probability (SOP), and average secrecy capacity (ASC) of SIMO systems. Numerical results are presented and verified via Monte Carlo simulation.


Background Motorcycle-related road traffic injuries are a significant contributor to the burden of disease in low- and middle-income countries. To reduce this risk, helmet use has been proven an effective method. Aims/Objective/Purpose Given an increase in motorcycle use in Cambodia, this study aims to assess the current status of helmet use, as well as the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of use among motorcyclists. Methods Helmet observations were conducted in Phnom Penh, Kandal, Kampong Speu, Siem Reap, and Kampong Cham to assess the current status of helmet use. In addition, roadside knowledge, attitudes, and practice interviews were also conducted in Phnom Penh, Kandal, and Kampong Speu to determine prevailing beliefs. Results/Outcomes Though awareness of the benefits of wearing a helmet is high, actual helmet use remains low. Daytime usage is higher than nighttime (45% vs 32% across all study sites in January 2012), and these proportions are significantly higher among drivers than among passengers (ratio of 8.2 : 1.0). Among those interviewed in 2011, 55% said that use of a helmet depends on where they drive. The top three reasons for always wearing a helmet included: lifesaving potential, legal duty, and police fines. Helmet quality, price, style, and colour were also important factors influencing the decision to purchase a helmet. Significance/Contribution to the Field The results of this study will be used to assist with better planning and implementation of injury prevention strategies and to address the continuing need to improve the proportion of all-day helmet wearing, especially at night and among motorcycle passengers in Cambodia.


Investigators at 6 institutions who are exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying combined vaccine adjuvants have been awarded a total of $3.1 million in grants by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) (http://1.usa.gov/1V4MCbS). Vaccine adjuvants are substances such as aluminum salts and oil and water emulsions that boost vaccine effectiveness. Such agents can improve the antigen-stimulated immune response in individuals with weak immune systems, reduce the need for booster immunizations, and enable vaccine manufacturers to use fewer antigens in the vaccine. The researchers who received the NIAID grants will study which adjuvant combinations work well together, how the interactions between adjuvants can be leveraged, and how adjuvant combinations interact with the immune system.


The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine in 2022 led to a massive migration of refugees to Poland. Immigrant children, living in overcrowded humanitarian hubs, were exposed to multiple stressful factors likely affecting their immune systems. This case series study aimed to describe a particularly severe course of common viral infections, in Ukrainian refugee children. We present 2 case series of Ukrainian refugee children: 5 hospitalized due to either adenovirus (AdV) and 8 with rotavirus (RV) infection, admitted within 3 months in each case series, recruited retrospectively. Most patients lived in humanitarian hubs and were neglected on admission (dehydrated, with poor hygiene and anxious). All RV infection cases had symptoms of severe gastroenteritis requiring intravenous rehydration. Metabolic acidosis was present in 6 children, and hypoglycemia in 4 participants. None of them were vaccinated against RV. All children with AdV infection had prolonged fever, dyspnea requiring oxygen therapy and hyperinflammation. In 2 AdV infection cases with no clinical improvement and increasing inflammatory markers, intravenous immunoglobulins and glucocorticosteroids were used. The combination of stressful factors and living in overcrowded hubs during the high prevalence of viral infections led to a particularly severe course of viral infections in Ukrainian refugee children.


Simulating the evolution of urban landscapes is a challenging objective with a large impact not only for Computer Graphics (for its applications in the filming and gaming industries), but also for urban planning, economical and historical studies, urban physics, and many other. However, this target has remained elusive because of the large complexity implied by urban structures and their evolutions. We present a system that aims at simulating the evolution of the commercial structure in a modern city. In particular, given an initial distribution of shops, it studies the evolution when larger commercial areas, like malls, are introduced. This is computed using the Huff model as a measure of the attraction each commerce has on potential consumers, and an agent-based simulation to determine how these aspects affect their choices. Then, after a given simulation time, the system decides whether the shop has retained an income such that it can continue operating, or has gone bankrupt. Our system is used to study the evolution of the commercial structure of Barcelona city over the last century.


Onion is one of the most important vegetable crops grown in Uganda, because of its nutritional and economic value. However, production of onion in Uganda is very low due to nutritional imbalances in the soil. Therefore, soil fertility remains one of the key areas of focus in sustaining onion production. A field experiment was conducted to assess the response of onion variety Red Creole C-5 to different soil organic amendments at Kyambogo University during the period February 2016 and January 2017. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The treatments included T0: without manure (control), T1: green manure (GM), T2: farmyard manure (FYM) and T3: compost manure (CM). Data collected included: plant height, root length, plant fresh and dry weight, number of leaves per plant, fresh and dry weight of bulbs, diameter of bulbs and commercial yield computed. Data were analysed using Genstat. There was significant response of onion to the different soil organic amendments. Onion plant height, number of leaves, root length, dry and fresh weight and bulb weight were high in farmyard manure, followed by compost manure and lastly green manure, compared to the control. The highest yield (12,000 kg/ha) was obtained from the plots amended with farmyard manure as opposed to the control. It was therefore concluded that farmyard manures had a greater effect on the agronomic and yield performance of onion. Future study with more than one onion genotype is recommended so as to widen the scope of this result.


This paper describes our proposed solution for SemEval 2017 Task 1: Semantic Textual Similarity (Daniel Cer and Specia, 2017). The task aims at measuring the degree of equivalence between sentences given in English. Performance is evaluated by computing Pearson Correlation scores between the predicted scores and human judgements. Our proposed system consists of two subsystems and one regression model for predicting STS scores. The two subsystems are designed to learn Paraphrase and Event Embeddings that can take the consideration of paraphrasing characteristics and sentence structures into our system. The regression model associates these embeddings to make the final predictions. The experimental result shows that our system acquires 0.8 of Pearson Correlation Scores in this task.


The pioneer deep neural networks (DNNs) have emerged to be deeper or wider for improving their accuracy in various applications of artificial intelligence. However, DNNs are often too heavy to deploy in practice, and it is often required to control their architectures dynamically given computing resource budget, i.e., anytime prediction. While most existing approaches have focused on training multiple shallow sub-networks jointly, we study training thin sub-networks instead. To this end, we first build many inclusive thin sub-networks (of the same depth) under a minor modification of existing multi-branch DNNs, and found that they can significantly outperform the state-of-art dense architecture for anytime prediction. This is remarkable due to their simplicity and effectiveness, but training many thin sub-networks jointly faces a new challenge on training complexity. To address the issue, we also propose a novel DNN architecture by forcing a certain sparsity pattern on multi-branch network parameters, making them train efficiently for the purpose of anytime prediction. In our experiments on the ImageNet dataset, its sub-networks have up to $43.3\%$ smaller sizes (FLOPs) compared to those of the state-of-art anytime model with respect to the same accuracy. Finally, we also propose an alternative task under the proposed architecture using a hierarchical taxonomy, which brings a new angle for anytime prediction.


Bone grafting provides ideal conditions to the patient′s rehabilitation with dental implants. In addition, prototyped tridimensional models allow the surgical procedure to be simulated and enable important anatomic structures to be visualized. To present a bone defect rehabilitated with xenogenic bone preshaped on a stereolithographic model and the follow-up after 7 years of treatment. The present case report describes a bone defect rehabilitated with a lyophilized bone block preshaped on a stereolithographic model. The patient, a 56-year-old woman, was referred to the dental office presenting a bone defect in the anterior maxilla. Bone regeneration intervention was performed with xenogenic grafting and barrier membrane. The follow-up of the postoperative period and after 7 years is presented. After 7 years, the tomographic exam showed the maintenance of bone at the grafted site, representing the long-term success of the treatment.


Copolymer such as poly(styrene-co-butylacrylate-co-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) p (St-BA-HEMA) was prepared via free radical emulsion polymerization method. The resulting copolymer was converted to silicone secondary crosslinked interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) by condensation reaction with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). The obtained copolymers were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Thermal properties of the copolymers were studied by using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Optical microscopy (OM) is used for studying the morphology, and then the effects of silicone concentrations, the reflux time, and composition on the phase morphology of P (St-BA-HEMA)-SiO2 IPNs were discussed. The broadening of the transition region was observed with the prolongation of the reflux time, and the tendency for aggregation of silicone on the surface was observed with Teflon as substrate plate. However, an optically transparent film was easily achieved at higher temperature due to the chemical crosslink and physical entanglement between the two phases of P (St-BA-HEMA)-SiO2. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


The process of electron-beam-induced deposition (EBID) was simulated with a dynamic Monte Carlo profile simulator, and the growth of carbon, silver, and tungsten supertips was investigated to study the dependence of material composition on the spatial resolution of EBID. Because light atoms have a smaller scattering angle and a longer mean free path, the carbon supertip has the smallest lateral size and the highest aspect ratio of a bottom tip compared to silver and tungsten supertips. Thus the best spatial resolution of EBID can be achieved on materials of low atomic number. The calculation also indicated a significant contribution of primary electrons to the growth of a supertip in EBID, which is consistent with the experimental observations. These results lead to a more comprehensive understanding of EBID, which is a complex interaction process between electrons and solids.


The emergence of the computer as an aid to education, with its unlimited range of instructional control options available to designer and user supports the vast development of coursewares. Hundreds of coursewares, aim to increase learners' learning outcomes were developed. However, to have a courseware fits with learners' characteristics many issues need to be explored. Referring to Resnick's (1989) definition of learning as knowledge construction, it is critical for coursewares to support learners in the process of acquiring, retaining, and retrieving different kinds of knowledge and performance. In acquiring, retaining, and retrieving information learners use procedures known as cognitive strategies. It is assumed that cognitive strategies are integral to the process of learning, but initiation of their use may come from the learner's self-instruction, or, from an instructional unit or system. This study intends to show how courseware design affects the use of cognitive strategies, especially from the high-school learners in Indonesia. A close examination on the psychological processes in learning was made to address questions: (a) how does screen density affect the use of cognitive strategies? (b) Does material presented in a linear format differs with material presented in non-linear (hypertext-based) in producing learner's learning outcomes? The results show that learners employed better cognitive strategies when presented with 25% text density material compare to 60%. Hypertext-based courseware was also found to have an effect on how learner processed the information.


The nucleosynthesis of elements beyond iron is dominated by neutron captures in the s and r processes. However, 32 stable, proton-rich isotopes cannot be formed during those processes, because they are shielded from the s-process flow and r-process, β-decay chains. These nuclei are attributed to the p and rp process. For all those processes, current research in nuclear astrophysics addresses the need for more precise reaction data involving radioactive isotopes. Depending on the particular reaction, direct or inverse kinematics, forward or time-reversed direction are investigated to determine or at least to constrain the desired reaction cross sections. The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) will offer unique, unprecedented opportunities to investigate many of the important reactions. The high yield of radioactive isotopes, even far away from the valley of stability, allows the investigation of isotopes involved in processes as exotic as the r or rp processes.


We describe a design methodology for on-chip magnetic bead label detectors based on Hall-effect sensors. Signal errors caused by the label-binding process and other factors that limit the minimum detection area are quantified and adjusted to meet typical assay accuracy standards. The methodology is demonstrated by designing an 8192 element Hall sensor array, implemented in a commercial 0.18 μm CMOS process with single-mask postprocessing. The array can quantify a 1% surface coverage of 2.8 μm beads in 30 seconds with a coefficient of variation of 7.4%. This combination of accuracy and speed makes this technology a suitable detection platform for biological assays based on magnetic bead labels.


Crocus ancyrensis subsp. guneri is described and illustrated as a new subspecies from Amasya province in Northern Anatolia. A description, detailed illustrations, photographs of metaphase plate and SEM micrographs of seed surface sculpturing pattern are presented. The new subspecies differs from the type subspecies by its prominent flower colouration. While the new subspecies has constantly and intensively suffused or striped with purplish-brown colour on the outer side of the outer perigone segments, the type subspecies always lacks any coloration on the outer side of the outer perigone segments.


One of the beam loading effects in linacs is limitation on the amount of number of particles that can be accelerated in very short beam pulses. The maximum number of particles is determined the correlation between the external accelerating field amplitude and the retarding field amplitude which particles radiate passing the waveguide. For increasing this value we suggested to use disk-loaded waveguides with period D that satisfies the condition: /spl lambda//2<D</spl lambda/, where h is the wavelength of accelerating wave. Three accelerating sections of this type have been manufactured in KFTI and installed at different linacs.


Laboratory studies were conducted to investigate the efficacy of the long-term controlled atmosphere storage of brown cowpeas under nitrogen in Kano, Nigeria, where hot dry weather prevails, typical for a semi-arid zone. The 30-month storage trial consisted of the application of nitrogen in an experimental 0.65 m 3 mini-silo containing half a tonne of the commodity. The storage in nitrogen completely suppressed insect infestation, and grain quality was maintained during the period. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in the population of insects in the cowpea stored under nitrogen, and the control. The initial insect population of 15 adults of C. maculatus, and one adult of T. castenium per kg of cowpea died after 12 months of storage under nitrogen. They however, increased in the control to 1288, and 54 adults per kg respectively before their eventual death. Free fatty acid contents increased from 2.60% to 6.51% under nitrogen, but increased rapidly to 58.60% in the control cowpea. This was attributed to the action of insect activities, mould infection and water activities in the control cowpeas. Viability dropped slightly from 89.75% to 72.84% in nitrogen, but dropped rapidly to 0.00% in the control. The palatability of cowpea did not change adversely in nitrogen, whereas it became very poor in the air-stored commodity. The germinability of cowpea seeds stored in the inert atmosphere silos was maintained above 85% after 12 months of storage, which shows that the technology is effective for seeds storage.


Although there is a well‐known association between tree cover and soil texture in savannahs, the hydrological drivers of tree cover variation have not been systematically explored, particularly in parallel with factors such as fire, herbivory, and tree–grass interactions. The relationship between hydrological factors and tree cover is important for resolving the relative contribution of bottom‐up versus top‐down factors in structuring savannah vegetation. We quantified soil moisture dynamics across eight 1‐km transects spanning tree cover gradients from open to woody savannah in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania using soil moisture sensors coupled with dataloggers. We mapped tree cover at two spatial scales through supervised classification of high‐resolution satellite imagery. We simultaneously produced water retention curves in open and woody habitats within each transect to compare soil hydrological properties and to convert volumetric water content (θ) from dataloggers to plant‐available water over the course of an annual cycle. We also quantified grass biomass at 100 locations per transect, estimated fire frequency from MODIS satellite data, and quantified herbivore occupancy with paired camera traps situated in open and woody habitats within each transect. We found a positive relationship between tree cover and soil moisture drainage rate, and found that open habitats had more negative water potentials than woody habitats for a given value of θ. In contrast, we found no evidence for a consistent relationship between grass biomass or fire frequency and tree cover. We found evidence for higher browser occupancy in woody than open habitats, but no habitat effects on herbivores as a group (browsers plus grazers), suggesting that herbivory is unlikely to be the dominant factor explaining variation in tree cover. Synthesis. Our results suggest that variation in tree cover is partly driven by hydrological (edaphic) factors unrelated to fire, herbivory, tree–grass interactions or mean annual precipitation at these spatial scales in Serengeti. We contrast our findings with previous work attributing tree cover shifts in Serengeti to precipitation gradients.


Background and Purpose— Conventional parameters used to guide fluid therapy after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) are poorly related to blood volume. In a prospective controlled study we assessed whether fluid management guided by daily measurements of blood volume (BV) reduces the incidence of severe hypovolemia compared to conventional fluid balance guided fluid therapy. Methods— We used Pulse Dye Densitometry to measure BV daily in 102 patients during the first 10 days after SAH. Fluid management was based on BV-measurements in the intervention group (n=54) and on fluid balance in the control group (n=48). Severe hypovolemia was defined as BV <50 mL/kg. Results— In the intervention group 6.7% of BV measurements were in the severe hypovolemic range and in the control group 17.1% (mean weighted difference 7.7%; 95% CI: 1.4 to 13.9%). In the intervention group 21 patients (39%) had 1 or more measurements with severe hypovolemia versus 26 (54%) of the controls (RR 0.7; 95% CI: 0.5 to 1.1). Conclusions— Guiding fluid management on daily measurements of blood volume reduces the incidence of severe hypovolemia after SAH. The effects on neurological outcome should be studied.


A waveguide grating based on a mirror causes a 2pi phaseshift of controllable slope in the spectrum of a femtosecond pulse giving rise to an adjustable, lossless temporal pulse splitting. A representation of resonant reflection based on phenomenological parameters enables the designer to achieve the synthesis of the mirrored waveguide grating structure exhibiting the desired temporal pulse shape. The example of a temporal beam splitter under fabrication is presented. Experimental results will be presented at the conference.


This paper investigates the Japanese sentence-final particles ne and yo as they occur in soliloquy. Because of their pivotal roles in spoken Japanese, these particles have been investigated extensively for decades. However, most previous works have analyzed them solely in terms of communication, invariably assuming the presence of an addressee. In fact, it is not yet widely known that these particles can also occur in soliloquy in which communication with another person is not intended. The present article is the first study to address the significance of ne and yo as they occur in soliloquy and discuss problems associated with hitherto proposed analyses. In order to investigate how communicative and non-communicative intentions influence utterances, an experiment was conducted in which soliloquies of native speakers of Japanese were examined. For ne, this study endorses Takubo and Kinsui's Discourse Management Model. For yo, Inoue's account is vindicated.