The hydra is in many ways a well-working allegory for the numerous conflicts the EU has been facing in the GMO authorization process, and in particular regarding the complex deadlocks in the authorization of GMOs for cultivation. In the 1990s, heavy pressure at the international level2 caused the responsible EU decision-makers to establish a regulatory framework and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to finally resolve their struggles with the de facto moratorium on GMO authorization. Unfortunately, this solution to the conflicts and struggles with GMO authorization did not prove to be sufficient. Even worse, the EU decision-makers faced what we call the first deadlock. It originated from the continuous bans of GMOs that Member States imposed with the safeguard clause, now in particular on GMO cultivation. As with the Hydra's many heads which are growing back numerously every time one head is cut off, each time one issue was solved in the GMO authorization process, numerous other problems came up. When over time the new directive and agency proved not be the solution to the many conflicts and as there was no sign that GMO-opposing Member States would finally stop the banning, Member States from both camps – anti- and pro-GMO – instrumentalised the Commission to end the conflict on GMO authorization. The Commission attempted to do so by drafting a proposal,8 which arguably gave the Member States more freedom in deciding whether or not to cultivate GMOs in their territory. Thereby the Commission expected to accelerate the general authorization procedure for GMOs, as anti- GMO Member States could on the one hand agree on authorization of GMOs at the EU level, but also had the opportunity to ban their cultivation on national territory. Irrespective of the Commission's attempt to solve the conflict and give the Member States more freedom, the proposal did not succeed in solving the deadlock. It was heatedly debated by EU officials and stakeholders, partly amended by the European Parliament (EP) and has not been adopted yet, as a blocking minority in the Council exists. We label this situation the 'second deadlock' – namely the deadlock on the solution of the first deadlock. After a couple of years of silence on this situation, the proposal and the whole deadlock situation suddenly became news again, when the Commission announced the revival of the talks and Monsanto, one the biggest GM producing companies, threatened to leave the European market in 2013. GMO authorization in the EU was never an easy topic, partly because the European public is not very fond of the idea of having GM-food on their table. Therefore, not only the heads of the hydra, but also the hydra itself can be compared to the GMO authorization process. In Greece mythology, the hydra was hated by the public as it murdered the farmers' cattle at night. Unfortunately, up to now there was no Herakles in the EU, being able to find a solution on how to solve the deadlocks in GM- authorization. As there is no complete solution evident at the moment, we investigate to what extent the two deadlocks might be unlocked, also in light of the high prevalence of the topic in the news. Even though we are aware of the manifold aspects surrounding GM-authorization and cultivation, we aim to provide an overview for a broad scholarly public, not only on how the two deadlock arose and what were the exact issues at stake but also regarding the many heads of the hydra – namely the many issues decision-makers need to take into account – when trying to unlock the deadlocks. After explaining our research approach and methodology, our analysis first provides a general overview on the regulatory framework on GMOs. By describing the problems of authorization in practice, we investigate the first deadlock. Subsequently, some of the Hydra's heads are cut off by means of analysing whether or not science is the solution to the first deadlock. The fourth section presents the Commission's proposal to solve the deadlock, which is subsequently analysed on its legal viability regarding EU and WTO legislation. It is then attempted to solve the deadlock, or at least to provide some ideas on how to move a step towards solving it. Before concluding, we embed our proposal in the latest state-of-the-art academic literature.


We successfully demonstrate the compensation of 540-dB transmission loss over 52-nm gain bandwidth by using acoustooptic tunable filters in conjunction with silica-based low-noise wide-band amplifiers. A signal-to-noise rate of over 17 dB (optical) over the whole gain bandwidth has been achieved with very small gain variation (4.3 dB), which corresponds to only 0.8% of the total accumulated gain in the 30 erbium-doped fiber amplifier link.


Critical roles of the cAMPresponsive element-binding protein-mediated pathway in disorganized epithelial phenotypes caused by mitochondrial dysfunction Page 1803–10 Recent evidence suggests that, in addition to mutations in nuclear DNA, mitochondrial DNA aberrancies could contribute to the development of certain types of cancers. Here, Shibanuma and colleagues present their work to further elucidate the biochemical pathway underlying neoplastic transformation of mammary epithelial cells. Using a cell culture model of mitochondrial dysfunction, the authors found that disruptions in cell–cell junctions correlated with the degree of mitochondrial deterioration. Specifically, the presence of E-cadherin was irregular and there was an increased prevalence of actin stress fibers. To better understand the mechanism of this phenomenon, a knockdown of the cAMP-responsive element-binding (CREB) protein was carried out, and recovery in cell–cell junction morphology was observed. Additional experiments were done that indicated that a subcomponent of the CREB pathway, HMGA2, was also involved and that this DNA binding protein is highly expressed in cancer cells taken from humans. doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2012.02369.x


Epoxy/kaolinite nanocomposites were prepared by adding the organically modified layered kaolinite to an epoxy resin [biphenyl phenol novolac epoxy resin (BPNE)] with 4,4′-diamino biphenyl sulfone (DDS) as a curing agent. The dispersion state of the kaolinite within crosslinked epoxy-resin matrix was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron micrograph (TEM). The effects of kaolinite on thermal properties were investigated and discussed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Experimental results show that BPNE/kaolinite nanocomposites exhibit improved thermal than pure BPNE. When the kaolinite content is 5 wt %, the BPNE/kaolinite nanocomposites show the best thermal properties. These results indicate that nanocomposition is an efficient and convenient method to improve the thermal properties of BPNE. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010


This study aimed to assess insight in Chinese schizophrenia patients and to identify its relationship with socio-demographic and clinical factors, executive functions and quality of life (QOL). A cohort of 139 clinically stable schizophrenia patients was selected by consecutively screening patients diagnosed with schizophrenia who were attending the outpatient department of a university-affiliated psychiatric hospital in China. Participants' socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, including psychotic symptoms, depression and insight, as well as QOL and executive functions, were periodically assessed with standardized rating instruments. Patients received standard psychiatric care and were followed up for 1 year. Impaired insight was found to be common in stable Chinese schizophrenia patients (76.3%), with merely 5% showing improvement over the 1-year follow-up. Insight was inversely correlated with positive and negative symptoms at all but the 12-month assessment and with both the physical and mental components of QOL at baseline and the 12-month assessment. Insight was not associated with depressive symptoms or executive functions. Standard psychiatric care does not improve the level of insight in clinically stable Chinese schizophrenia outpatients, which warrants the introduction of specific therapeutic interventions that enhance insight.


Robots are being used increasingly in different fields like industry and space applications. Nowadays there are even demands for application of robots in homes and hospitals. These robots should be able to move and navigate at indoor areas which consist of fixed and movable obstacles like walls and chairs, respectively. There is not a fixed map of obstacles in these applications and the robot should detect obstacles and decide how to move to achieve the goal while avoiding obstacles. In this paper, an intelligent approach for navigation of a mobile robot in unknown environments is proposed. Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO) method be used for finding proper solutions of optimization problems. At first the robot navigation problem is converted to optimization problem. Then PSO method searches the solution space to find the proper minimum value. Based on position of goal. an evaluation function for every particle in PSO is calculated. In each iteration of the algorithm, the global best position of particle is selected and the robot moves to next calculated point in order to reach the goal. To be practical, it's assumed that Robot can detect only obstacles in a limited radius of surrounding with its sensors. Environment is supposed to be dynamic and obstacles can be fixed or movable.


OLAP tools divide concepts based on whether they are used as analysis dimensions, or are the fact subject of analysis, which gives rise to star shape schemas. Operations are always provided to navigate inside such star schemas. However, the navigation among diierent stars use to be forgotten. This paper studies diierent kinds of conceptual relationships between stars (i.e. Derivability, Generalization/Specialization, Ag-gregation/Decomposition, or Temporal), and proposes a 3-level schemas architecture to ease the implementation and usage of multi-star schemas.


Correct estimation of interindividual variability is of primary importance in models aiming to quantify population dynamics. In a fisheries context, individual information such as age and growth is often extracted using scales; however, the rationale for using a given scalimetric method (i.e. number of scales per individual and number of readers) is rarely discussed, but different sources of variance may affect the results. As a case study, we used scale growth and age of brown trout (Salmo trutta) caught in the Kerguelen Islands. Based on a nested design (readings of four scales per fish by two independent readers), we decomposed variance in growth and age according to fish (interindividual level), scales (intraindividual level) and readers by using repeatability analysis. The results highlight that most variation is attributable to fish. Readers and scales contribute little to interindividual variance, suggesting that inference was insensitive to intraorganism biological variation. Using additional scales or readers was an inefficient use of sampling resources. We argue that variance decomposition should be widely used for studies aimed at modelling natural variability in life history traits. This would improve our knowledge of the implications of measurement error, helping rationalise and define appropriate sampling strategies.


This paper studies how to develop accurate and interpretable time series classification (TSC) models with the help of external data in a privacy-preserving federated learning (FL) scenario. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study on this essential topic. Achieving this goal requires us to seamlessly integrate the techniques from multiple fields including Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Security. In this paper, we formulate the problem and identify the interpretability constraints under the FL setting. We systematically investigate existing TSC solutions for the centralized scenario and propose FedST, a novel FL-enabled TSC framework based on a shapelet transformation method. We recognize the federated shapelet search step as the kernel of FedST. Thus, we design FedSS-B, a basic protocol for the FedST kernel that we prove to be secure and accurate. Further, we identify the efficiency bottlenecks of the basic protocol and propose optimizations tailored for the FL setting for acceleration. Our theoretical analysis shows that the proposed optimizations are secure and more efficient. We conduct extensive experiments using both synthetic and real-world datasets. Empirical results show that our FedST solution is effective in terms of TSC accuracy, and the proposed optimizations can achieve three orders of magnitude of speedup. PVLDB Reference Format: Zhiyu Liang and Hongzhi Wang. FedST: Federated Shapelet Transformation for Interpretable Time Series Classification. PVLDB, 14(1):


Choreography description languages aim at specifying from a global point of view interactions among a set of services involved in a new system. From this specification, local implementations or peers can be automatically generated. Generation of peers that precisely implement the choreography specification is not always possible: this problem is known as realizability. When peers corresponding to this specification are being executed we may want to modify the choreography specification and reconfigure dynamically the system. This is the case for instance if we add or remove interactions due to the addition of functionalities to the system at hand or the loss of a service. In this article, we present our solutions to check if a choreography is realizable and if a specific reconfiguration can be applied or not.


Background: Carotid and vertebral Doppler ultrasonography (USG) is the primary diagnostic tool for the detection of extra cranial atherosclerotic disease and measurement of posterior fossa blood flow volume. The examination is performed while the patient lies on supine position. However, in daily practice we occasionally encounter patients who are not able to lie down on supine position for different reasons, such as kyphosis, severe dyspnea, or severe back pain. Aim: We aimed to compare the doppler spectral measurements of carotid and vertebral arteries obtained in supine and sitting positions. Patients and Methods: Fifty-three patients were recorded in the first group, to whom carotid and vertebral (CV) Doppler Ultrasound examination was initially performed while sitting, and another 52 patients were examined as the second group where initial measurements were done in a supine position. Peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (ED) from each vessel, internal carotid artery (ICA)/common carotid artery (CCA) ratio, and volume flow of vertebral artery (VA) were measured in supine and sitting positions. Also, another 83 patients with a complaint of vertigo were included in the third group but only VA measurements were compared. Results: In the first group, there was a difference between sitting and supine positions in right ICA diastolic, right and left VA diastolic, and left CCA diastolic velocities (P < 0.05). In the second group, there was a difference in sitting and supine positions in right CCA systolic, right CCA diastolic, and left CCA diastolic velocities (P < 0.05). In the third group, there was a difference in sitting and supine positions in right and left VA diastolic velocities, left VA volume flow, and total VA volume flow (P < 0.05). A strong correlation was detected between supine and sitting positions regarding right and left ICA stenoses. Alterations in waveforms were noted in three patients' unilateral VAs, in supine and sitting positions. Conclusion: Our results suggest that CV doppler examinations may be performed in the sitting positions. Examination in the sitting position may be helpful in recognizing pre-steal and retrograde flows.


The protonation and copper(II) complex formation of some new polymers with a poly(amido-amine) structure has been studied in aqueous solution by potentiometric, calorimetric, and spectroscopic techniques. The polymers are characterized by the fact that no ring structures are present along the main chain between tertiary amino-groups of different units. The results indicate the monomeric units of this new family of poly(amido-amines) behave independently towards both protonation and complex formation. Comparison with previously studied poly(amido-amines) shows that the presence of linear diamide moieties in place of 1,4-diacylpiperazine rings [as in the previously studied poly(amido-amines)] has a slight influence on the protonation constants, although differences may be observed in the thermodynamic functions ΔH⊖ and ΔS⊖. Significant differences are observed in copper(II) complex formation.


Ordered arrays of subwavelength hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) nanorods on glass substrates are fabricated using room temperature nanoimprint lithography and anodized aluminum oxide membranes. Moth-eye type nanorod arrays exhibited superior omnidirectional antireflection characteristics in visible wavelengths. The ellipsometric measurements revealed that average specular reflection is remaining below 1% up to 55° incidence angles. Transmission measurements at normal incidence resulted in significant increase in transmitted light intensity with respect to plain glass. Simulations showed that up to 99% transmission could be obtained from double sided tapered HSQ nanorod arrays on HSQ thin film and glass substrates. Achieving large-area, broadband and omnidirectional antireflective surfaces on glass pave the way for applications including photovoltaics.


Hleaf Mantoux Test Test Year Number Total No. Tested of Reactors Positive Positive Results Results 954 214 23 23 22 955 675 96 96 86 956 751 97 93 97 957 863 71 70 71 958 723 75 75 73 These results indicate close agreement (97%h) between the two methods, and, in view of the ease and simplicity of operation particularly with the self-firing apparatus now available, we have decided to rely in future on the Heaf test for mass skin-testing in this connexion.-I Am, etc.,


This paper examines the methodological dilemmas associated with analytical framing as an aspect of the research process. Doing qualitative research potentially changes a researcher – changes their sense of self, who they think they are, who they want to become. The paper examines the ethical dilemma of what that change might mean – for the project, the researcher and the participants. Would respondents be so open if they were that aware the research(er) potentially could change during the performance of the research project? What are the implications, if any, of engaging respondents with the intention of telling their story as a narrative inquiry, then analysing the data through a feminist post-structuralist lens? How does a researcher honour the perspectives of the participants, while simultaneously bringing to bear the critique and understanding provided by employing a post-structuralist lens? The paper pays particular attention to the interactive interview, as it generated possibilities for a researcher to establish a level of trust and rapport such that (emotional) stories could be heard and then later, represented as interpretations of the researcher.


In 1979 Cecilia Tichi (in New World, New Earth) related moral and environmental improvement, and celebrated Manifest Destiny. In 1849 the now-forgotten Orsanus Turner was less certain. How can Americans talk of virgin soil, he asked, when each advance into the "wilderness" produces fresh evidence of antiquity? He concluded: "We say that Columbus discovered a new world. Why not that he helped to make two old ones acquainted with each other?" It is Lee Clark Mitchell's purpose to speak for the Orsanus Turners, who are aware of the ambivalences of pioneering. In some instances it amounts to no more than hesitation over the results of "taming" the land. In others it amounts to an insoluble dilemma, as in the case of Henry Schoolcraft, agonizingly aware that his role as Indian Agent at once enabled and negated his life's work as an ethnographer. Professor Mitchell deals primarily with the period 1820-1900, with an occasional glance back at the eighteenth and look forward to the twentieth century. He traces a gradual shift from ethnocentrism to cultural relativism, concentrating initially on perceptions of the landscape and then at greater length on white attitudes towards Indians.


The acceptance of a treatment depends on what patients experience as helpful or not. In the treatment of anorexia nervosa, the patient's perspective is of special importance as patients are typically highly ambivalent concerning a change in their dysfunctional attitudes and behaviour. 102 patients with anorexia nervosa (ICD-10) evaluated the components of a complex, multimodal treatment programme (inpatient and day clinic) at the end of therapy or follow-up. Overall, psychodynamic as well as symptom-oriented treatment components were experienced as "helpful". Psychodynamic individual sessions received the best assessments. Individual sessions got higher ratings than group sessions. Patients with less successful outcomes described symptom oriented elements like weight goals and work on eating behaviour as significantly less helpful. Lower rankings of some symptom oriented components were associated with more overall symptom severity and bulimic pathology and may point to a feeling of being overtaxed with the programme or a lack of motivation to change.


PURPOSE
This study aimed to quantify the costs of complete denture fabrication by a simplified method compared with a conventional protocol.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A sample of edentulous patients needing conventional maxillary and mandibular complete dentures was randomly divided into group S, which received dentures fabricated by a simplified method, and group C, which received conventionally fabricated dentures. We calculated direct and indirect costs for each participant including unscheduled procedures. This study assessed 19 and 20 participants allocated into groups S and C, respectively, and comparisons between groups were conducted by the Mann-Whitney and Student's t-test (α = 0.05).

RESULTS
Complete denture fabrication demanded median time periods of 173.2 and 284.5 minutes from the operator for groups S and C respectively, and 46.6 and 61.7 minutes from the dental assistant (significant differences, p < 0.05). There was no difference between groups regarding postinsertion adjustments. Group S showed lower values for costs with materials and time spent by patients than group C during the fabrication stage, but not during adjustments.

CONCLUSIONS
The median direct cost of complete denture treatment was 34.9% lower for the simplified method. It can be concluded that the simplified method is less costly for patients and the health system when compared with a conventional protocol for the rehabilitation of edentulous patients.


Hypertension is a serious problem in South Africa, affecting 18.8 percent of women (South African Demographic and Health Survey, 2003), prompting investigation into treatment. In total, approximately 6.1 million people suffer from Hypertension in South Africa. AIM The purpose of this double-blind study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Homoeopathicsimillimum and a Homoeopathic complex (Aurummetallicum6CH, Lachesismuta6CH, Natrummuriaticum6CH, and Veratrum album 6CH) in the treatment of Primary Hypertension in adult females. METHODOLOGY A minimum of 30 patients were recruited and were selected on the basis of specified inclusion and exclusion criteria, and randomly divided into two equal groups by the research supervisor, with the first group receiving the Homoeopathic simillimum andthe second group receiving the Homoeopathic complex.The initial consultation took place at the Durban University of Technology or at the Umlazi Medical Centre after obtaining informed consent from the patients (Appendix D).A detailed case history was taken, followed by a complete physical examination, including blood pressure readings and cardiovascular system examinations. Follow up consultations occurred weekly for a period of four weeks to record blood pressure readings, any changes in the general health and well being of the participants, in order to prescribe more medicines if needed. A mercury sphygmomanometer and a Littmann Classic 2 stethoscope were the tools of measurement and was used according to the method outlined by Bates (2007), which states that an accurate measurement of blood pressure is dependent on the appropriate cuff size of the sphygmomanometer and whether the type of gauge used needs to be calibrated or not. SPSS version 18 was used to analyse the data. A p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Repeated measures ANOVA tests were done to compare the blood pressures over time between the treatment groups. Specific remedies used at each time point were described by treatment group. Potencies of the remedies were compared within each remedy between the treatment groups using Pearson's chi square tests. RESULTS Within each of the two treatment groups there was a highly significant decrease in systolic blood pressure over time (p<0.001). This means that both treatments were effective at lowering systolic blood pressure. Within each of the two treatment groups there was a highly significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure over time (p=0.001 and p<0.001 respectively). This means that both treatments were effective at lowering diastolic blood pressure. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures at five time points were compared between the two treatment groups using repeated measures ANOVA. There was an overall significant change over time in both groups (p<0.001), but the change over time was not different according to treatment groups (p=0.355). The decrease in systolic blood pressure over time was nearly identical in the two groups as the profiles are almost parallel. Therefore in terms of systolic blood pressure there was no statistical evidence for one treatment being more beneficial than the other. There was an overall significant change over time in both groups (p<0.001) but the change over time was not different according to treatment groups (p=0.187). The decrease in diastolic blood pressure over time was almost the same rate in both groups as the profiles are almost parallel. Therefore in terms of diastolic blood pressure there was no statistical evidence for one treatment being more beneficial than the other. CONCLUSION The results of the study led to the conclusion that both the simillimum and complex treatments were effective at reducing blood pressure over time, but there was no evidence that one treatment was more beneficial than the other, since the rates of change over time in systolic and diastolic blood pressure were similar in both treatment groups.


The formation of amyloid fibrils are thought to contribute to pathogenesis of many amyloids associated human diseases. Here the impact of curcumin on amyloid formation of human serum albumin (HSA) was studied. Incubation of HSA at 68°C under physiologic pH led to amyloid fibril formation. Thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence was used for determination of amyloid fibril formation. Atomic force microscopy experiments indicated different fibril structure of HSA incubated with or without curcumin. The monitoring of the changes in reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels upon incubation of curcumin with HSA showed a significant decrease in ROS levels. Similar experiments were also carried out in the presence of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) and lead (Pb) ions. Our results indicated that AFM1 and Pb ions promote the fibrillation of HSA and accelerate ROS production, which were inhibited in the presence of curcumin. Thus, curcumin mitigates protein fibrillation activity and diminishes ROS generation.


We propose RUDDER, a novel reinforcement learning approach for delayed rewards in finite Markov decision processes (MDPs). In MDPs the Q-values are equal to the expected immediate reward plus the expected future rewards. The latter are related to bias problems in temporal difference (TD) learning and to high variance problems in Monte Carlo (MC) learning. Both problems are even more severe when rewards are delayed. RUDDER aims at making the expected future rewards zero, which simplifies Q-value estimation to computing the mean of the immediate reward. We propose the following two new concepts to push the expected future rewards toward zero. (i) Reward redistribution that leads to return-equivalent decision processes with the same optimal policies and, when optimal, zero expected future rewards. (ii) Return decomposition via contribution analysis which transforms the reinforcement learning task into a regression task at which deep learning excels. On artificial tasks with delayed rewards, RUDDER is significantly faster than MC and exponentially faster than Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), TD({\lambda}), and reward shaping approaches. At Atari games, RUDDER on top of a Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) baseline improves the scores, which is most prominent at games with delayed rewards. Source code is available at \url{this https URL} and demonstration videos at \url{this https URL}.


Neuromuscular scoliosis (NMS) is the second most prevalent spinal deformity (after idiopathic scoliosis) and is usually first identified during early childhood. Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of NMS, followed by Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Progressive spinal deformity causes difficulty with daily care, walking and sitting, and can lead to back and rib pain, cardiac and pulmonary complications, altered seizure thresholds, and skin compromise. Early referral to specialist spinal services and early diagnosis of NMS is essential to ensure appropriate multidisciplinary patient management. The most important goals for patients are preservation of function, facilitation of daily care, and alleviation of pain. Non-operative management includes observation or bracing for less severe and flexible deformity in young patients as a temporising measure to provide postural support. Surgical correction and stabilisation of NMS is considered for patients with a deformity >40-50°, but may be performed for less severe deformity in patients with DMD. Post-operative intensive care, early mobilisation and nutritional supplementation aim to minimise the rate of post-surgical complications, which are relatively common in this patient group. However, surgical management of NMS is associated with good long-term outcomes and high satisfaction rates for patients, their relatives and carers.


This paper investigates the regulatory aspects of exploiting Brazilian public airports under private regime. The proposition is that the essential difference between leased and permit grants is the level of regulatory intervention by the Government, which then determines the legal regime to which the airport exploitation is predominantly subject to. The descriptive and exploratory methodology used is based on previous literature on airport exploitation. The results indicate that airports exploited predominantly under private regime, that is, those granted permits, are generally subject to a lighter regulatory intervention than those exploited under public regime, which are granted a lease, hence the level of necessary regulatory intervention is the main criterion for determining which type of grant shall be used for a certain airport. The conclusion also indicates that the level of regulatory intervention to which an airport is subject will depend on the value of use to the collectivity that its operations generate. The optimal granting policy is an ideal combination of types of grants directly related to the diversification of the airport services and the different levels of regulatory intervention that they require.


The industrial use of geothermal energy for process heating in New Zealand is anticipated to double, and possibly treble, over the next 15 years. The forest processing industries arc likely to remain the largest users, as maturing exotic forests exist close to the known geothermal fields. DSIR engineers have recognized the need to improve the technology used in these geothermal energy supply plants. Development projects are aimed at raising the thermal efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of the existing singleflash recovery system. Projects implemented include performance monitoring of production geothermal heat exchangers, field testing of an experimental heat exchanger, and demonstration of silica and arsenic removal processes to treat geothermal water. Future advances are illustrated by a simple model for a process steam generation plant which would be a common operation for any industrial user. Flow sheets are presented to compare the merits of multiflash, total flow, and cascade heat exchanger systems combined with both reinjection and surface disposal methods for the geothermal effluents,


The technologies for developing food products for people with type 2 diabetes involve enrichment with polyphenolic compounds that have hypoglycemic and/or hypolipidemic properties. The production of ingredients for introduction into such food products should involve the techniques of concentration of natural polyphenols on certain food-grade protein matrices. In this study, a technology was developed for the production of a functional food ingredient, which was a complex of polyphenols (mostly anthocyans) from cranberries with coagulated egg albumen. The optimal parameters of sorption of anthocyans from cranberry juice on the albumen during the coagulation of the latter were determined. The contents and profile of anthocyans within the resulting food ingredient were assessed. The concentration of total anthocyans (recalculated to equivalents of cyanidin-3-glucoside) was determined by pH-differential spectrophotometry; the profile of individual anthocyans was determined by highperformance liquid chromatography. Sensory evaluation of the resulting ingredient (through a taste panel test) evidenced the possibility of including the product in the functional foodstuffs. The technology developed can be used in the design of functional food ingredients for subsequent introduction into anti-diabetic food products.
Keywords: coagulated egg albumen, cranberry juice, anthocyans, functional food ingredients


This paper presents the look and development of vehicle plate recognition for automated toll collection. Vehicle plate recognition (LPR) is that the extraction of car plate information from a picture since it's simpler and faster than the normal token based ticket system, it's all the potential to interchange the prevailing system. Moreover, it saves users valuable time by reducing the queue length before of the toll counter. It's accustomed pay the quantity automatically and open & close the toll gate automatically. A vehicle plate is installed on each vehicle. A recognition device at the gate reads this knowledge from the vehicle and compares it with the info within the on-line database and permits the access consequently by gap the gate. This data is employed to print a daily or monthly bill for toll collection from the vehicles. This model has low complexity and takes fewer times in terms of car plate segmentation and character recognition. We aim to scale back the time consumed to pay the toll gate amount and also to assist the RTO, local department to trace the vehicle, just in case} if it absolutely was stolen or used for any illegal activities. Yet as we are reaching to increase the protection features within the toll gate because now a day's toll gate are the doorway to the most cities. If we increase the protection within the toll gate section automatically the protection within the city are also increased. The proposed open-end credit has been designed using very (high-speed integrated circuit) hardware description language (VHDL) and simulated. Finally, it's downloaded in a very field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip and tested on some given scenarios. The FPGA implementation is administrated in one among the applying area automatic toll assortment.


This paper presents a more efficient Java remote method invocation (RMI) implementation for high-speed clusters. The use of Java for parallel programming on clusters is limited by the lack of efficient communication middleware and high-speed cluster interconnect support. This implementation overcomes these limitations through a more efficient Java RMI protocol based on several basic assumptions on clusters. Moreover, the use of a high performance sockets library provides with direct high-speed interconnect support. The performance evaluation of this middleware on a gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and a scalable coherent interface (SCI) cluster shows experimental evidence of throughput increase. Moreover, qualitative aspects of the solution such as transparency to the user, interoperability with other systems and no need of source code modification can augment the performance of existing parallel Java codes and boost the development of new high performance Java RMI applications.


Inhalation of airborne nickel (Ni) and chromium (Cr) in workplaces causes a variety of respiratory ailments which adversely affects the productivity of employees. A study was therefore conducted on production workers (N=233) from six different types industrial plants, to investigate the influence of Ni and Cr exposure on their respiratory systems. Breathing zone air and urinary samples were collected, and analyzed for total Ni and Cr using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The medical history of the workers was obtained using questionnaires. Their lung functions were further examined using a spirometer. Mean (± standard deviation) breathing zone air of 23.4 ± 11.6 μg/m3 Cr and 10.3 ± 4.3 μg/ m3 Ni was highest among the tanners and welders, respectively. The mean level of 35.2 ± 12.1 Cr and 28.4 ± 7.8 Ni in μg/g creatinine were also highest in the urine of corresponding workers. A significant (P<0.01) correlation of r=0.86 Cr and r=0.89 Ni was observed between airborne and urinary levels in all production workers. Approximately 26.6% of the workers had respiratory diseases that were associated with wheezing, shortness of breath, sneezing attacks among other related symptoms. Most of these workers were welders, tanners and, to lesser extent, paint manufacturers. The breathing zone air of the afflicted workers had significantly (P<0.05) high mean levels of 6.4 ± 4.4 μg/m3 Ni and 9.6 ± 5.3 μg/m3 Cr than those who were not affected (3.9 ± 3.2 μg/m3 Ni and 4.4 ± 3.8 μg/m3 Cr). A high proportion of the workers had reduced ventilatory function measurements. We recommend comprehensive assessment of Cr and Ni in related industries with significant exposures. Designing and developing of training programs and educative manuals on safety and health procedures, and regular medical surveillance is also recommended.


Background Understanding patient satisfaction with pharmacy services can help to enhance the quality and monitoring of pharmacy services. Patient Satisfaction with Pharmacist Services Questionnaire 2.0 (PSPSQ 2.0) is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring patient satisfaction with services from the pharmacist. The availability of the PSPSQ 2.0 in Nepalese version would facilitate patient satisfaction and enhance pharmacy services in Nepal. This study aims to translate the PSPSQ 2.0 into the Nepalese version, culturally adapt it and verify its reliability and validity in the Nepalese population. Methods The methodological and cross-sectional study design was used to translate, culturally adapt it, and validate PSPSQ 2.0 in Nepalese. The Nepalese version of PSPSQ 2.0 went through the full linguistic validation process and was evaluated in 300 patients visiting different community pharmacies in Kathmandu district, Nepal. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out using principal component analysis with varimax rotation, and Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the reliability. Results Three-hundred patients were recruited in this study. Participants ranged in age from 21 to 83 years; mean age was 53.93 years (SD: 15.21). 62% were females, and 34% educational level was above 12 and university level. Only 7% of the participants were illiterate. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkinwas found to be 0.696, and Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant with a chi-square test value of 3695.415. A principal axis factor analysis conducted on the 20 items with orthogonal rotation (varimax). PSPSQ 2.0 Nepalese version (20 items) had a good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.758). Item-total correlations were reviewed for the items in each of the three domains of PSPSQ 2.0. Conclusion The PSPSQ 2.0 Nepalese version demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability, which can be used in the Nepalese population for evaluating the satisfaction of patients with pharmacist services in both community pharmacy and research.


INTRODUCTION Tuberculosis infections, regardless of clinical presentation, are established with the inhalation of bacilli into distal airways, in the form of droplet nuclei. After escaping from the airspace into the interstitium, M. tuberculosis spreads first to the local draining lymph nodes in the lung and then to distant sites via the bloodstream. Tuberculous meningitis is the most devastating manifestation of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and represents a medical emergency. Approximately one half of tuberculous meningitis patients die or suffer severe neurologic disability.M. tuberculosis infections of the central nervous system most commonly present as subacute or chronic meningitis. There may also be discrete granulomas (tuberculomas), and these lesions may enlarge or coalesce sufficiently to present with the signs and symptoms of space-occupying lesions. CASE REPORT A 26-year-old female patient was referred by the Emergency Care Unit (UPA), where she was hospitalized for 4 days. The patient presented a clinical picture of headache, mental confusion, nausea, emesis and alternating drowsiness with agitation for more than 60 days. Thirty days ago, the condition developed, with worsening mental confusion, impaired concentration and temporo-spatial disorientation. She also reported febrile illness with onset 8 days ago. As reported by the patient, 11 months ago she presented "viral meningitis", associated with herpes zoster, being medicated with acyclovir and corticosteroids. On physical examination, a globular abdomen was observed, painful to the superficial palpation diffusely, with palpable mass in the left hypochondrium. Neurological examination found consciousness level fluctuation, mental confusion, no signs of meningeal irritation and scored 14 on the Glasgow scale. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION From the results of the physical and neurological examination, some laboratory and imaging tests were requested. In the complete blood count done on February 24th, 2009, there was a decrease in the leukocyte level, presenting a value of 1900/mm3 (reference value: 3000 - 10000/mm3). On the same day, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was analyzed, which, in turn, although the physical characteristics corresponded to the normal aspect, the latter presented high leukocyte cellularity, corresponding to 61 p/mm3 (reference value: 0-5 p/mm3). In addition, protein levels were also altered, corresponding to 216.81 mg/dL (reference values: 20-40 mg/dL). Laboratory analysis of CSF allows the collection of important information; the increase in the number of leukocytes is called pleocytosis and may be related to an inflammatory process in the cerebrospinal fluid. For a better analysis of the case, Magnetic Resonance (MRI) of the sellaturcica and Computed Tomography (CT) of the skull with contrast, chest and abdomen were requested. Sellaturcica MRI showed thickening and alteration of the prechassis signal of optic nerves, optic chiasm and hypothalamus, associated with nodulariformleptomeningeal enhancement, as well as signal and nodulariform enhancement on the surface of the III ventricle and the frontal horns of the lateral ventricles and on the leptomeningeal surface in the cisterns of the base, among other characteristics. The MRI analysis includes as differential diagnosis the possibility of an infectious inflammatory process. The cranial CT revealed presence of nodular heterogeneous enhancement of the meningeal contours of the skull base, cisterns, some cortical grooves, scythe and cerebellum tent. Chest CT revealed the presence of multiple mediastinal lymph node metastases, some conglomerate, para-aortic, in the aorto-pulmonary, subcranial windows, with the largest ones measuring about 3 cm. Bilateral axillary lymph node enlargement was also observed. CT scan of the abdomen showed multiple adenomegalies in the cervical, retroperitoneal and inguinal regions, measuring about 10 cm each. A lymph node biopsy was requested due to the finding of lymph node enlargement. An inguinal lymph node was used as the material for the biopsy. The biopsy concluded a chronic granulomatous lymphadenitis with necrosis compatible with tuberculosis, and the search for BAAR using the Faraco method was positive.Therefore, the patient in question was diagnosed with meningeal tuberculosis, without involvement of other systems, that is, only with presentation in the central nervous system. As a treatment for meningeal tuberculosis, the recently updated guidelines of the American Thoracic Society, Infectious Disease Society of America and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the initial four-drug therapy: isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol due to good penetration and concentration in the CSF.


Recursive aggregate demand and supply functions are used to simulate the ability of the farm sector to adjust during the 1970's to three policy alternatives. Different output demand elasticities and shifts in the supply and demand for farm output were assumed. Within reasonable bounds, agriculture could remain economically viable during the 1970's under policies diverting about 6 percent of potential output. An average of 6 percent was diverted from the market by Government productiqn centroI, storage, and subsidized exports in 1962-69. Returning to a free market immediately or by 1980 would place severe financial strain on the farm sector.


Living On - a guide to living on in the thoughts and memories of those you love is a 'self help' book to assist people with life-limiting illnesses to create their own unique 'heart will'. It depicts today's post-modern era where the individual takes some control to lessen the burden of responsibilities for the soon to be bereaved loved ones and to assist in the grief process by reinforcing the relationship after death. Heart wills allow a person who has died to live on in the hearts of those that are important to them by maintaining emotional ties. This book gives the reader practical ideas about what they may want to say to their loved ones in the future so as to reinforce their emotional self. It outlines different mediums that may be used such as writing letters, cards and short notes, as well as using voice and video recordings. It also draws on Petrea King's work with children around separation anxiety by explaining the 'rainbow ritual', a sensory way of communicating with younger children through imagination. Although the most important message it conveys is that heart wills do not need to be perfect with an advanced writing style, correct spelling or professional audio and video recordings, it does however use quite articulate examples of heart wills that have been left. It gives useful advice on how to store these in varying different digital formats and also advertises a website www.livingon.net as a type of bank vault to store these messages that is secure and may be accessed by a password. When searching for this site it currently gives the message 'Living on, a new site launching soon', so it was not clear whether there would be a cost associated with accessing this complimentary resource to gather and store precious information. Overall this book is easy to read and may be helpful to give people with life limiting illnesses ideas of how, when, why and where to leave loved ones heart wills. Its rawness and simplistic format is useful for someone who is unwell, but at the same time it is a very emotive read. Putting these ideas into practice can be both psychologically and emotionally complex for those who are dying. In light of this the book does lack the option of directing people to discuss these issues if they wish with the appropriate members of the multidisciplinary oncology or palliative care team they are associated with.


The gluconeogenic enzymes phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and pyruvate carboxylase (PC) and the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase (PK), regulating pyruvate metabolism, were determined in the livers of 71 fetuses, which were developed of 25 dams on the 80th, 100th, 106th, and 112th day of gestation (length: 115 days) by Caesarean section. For comparative purposes the same enzymes were estimated in 12 naturally born piglets immediately after delivery. During the period under examination (the last third of gestation) the total activity of PEPCK has its highest values at the 80th day, the PC and PK activity at the 100th day of gestation. The activities of all 3 enzymes decrease during the last 2 weeks of gestation until birth. The cytosolic part of PEPCK amounts to 10-15 per cent of total activity and develops in a parallel manner. In newborn piglets a further decline of the PC and total PEPCK activity can be observed, but the cytosolic PEPCK activity remains constant, and therefore its relative proportion increases to 25% of the total activity. The PK activity rises distinctly (1.5 times). The role of these enzymes in the carbohydrate metabolism of the fetus, especially in gluconeogenesis, is discussed in detail.


The Times obituaries have given readers throughout the world an instant picture of a life for over 150 years. For many it is the first port of call in the newspaper. The Times Great Lives is a selection of over 100 of these pieces, reproduced in their entirety, by the current obituaries editor of The Times, Ian Brunskill. This book provides a rich store of information and opinion on the most influential characters of the twentieth century -- be they politicians, sportspeople, musicians, writers, artists, pop stars or military personnel. Included are the major figures that one would expect to find in a book of great 20th century lives such as Sigmund Freud and Diana, Princess of Wales. However, there are also some unexpected figures who were not necessarily in the limelight but whose lives have had an impact on the world we inhabit today. Throughout the book there are pictures from The Times archive, some of which have not been seen since the obituary was first published. The Times brings world class journalism and research to this title.


This paper deals with the problem of under-determined convolutive blind source separation. We model the contribution of each source to all mixture channels in the time-frequency domain as a zero-mean Gaussian random variable whose covariance encodes the spatial properties of the source. We consider two covariance models and address the estimation of their parameters from the recorded mixture by a suitable initialization scheme followed by an iterative expectation-maximization (EM) procedure in each frequency bin. We then align the order of the estimated sources across all frequency bins based on their estimated directions of arrival (DOA). Experimental results over a stereo reverberant speech mixture show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Stratified Cox model on the events are not identical is a modification of the Cox Proportional Hazard models when there are individuals who experienced more than one incident. This study aims to form a stratified Cox regression models for repeated occurrences of data are not identical and their application to cases of hemorrhagic stroke disease recurrence and to determine the factors that affect the case. Parameter Estimation in Stratified Cox models using Partial Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MPLE). Stratified Cox model building procedure consists of six stages: (1) identification data, which specify the variables that will be used in the Cox models. (2) Estimated Cox Proportional Hazard model parameters. (3) The test parameters for each variable using the Wald test. (4) Testing Proportional Hazard assumptions. (5) stratification variables. (6) Interpretation Stratified Cox models. This study uses data of patients who experienced a hemorrhagic stroke unspecified with 7 independent variables such as age, sex, blood pressure, blood sugar, triglycerides, cholesterol and replications. Based on the testing parameters obtained three variables that influence such as age, cholesterol levels and repeat. Furthermore, in assuming Proportional Hazard showed that replicates variable Proportional Hazard did not meet the assumptions that need to be stratified. Unspecified hemorrhagic stroke patients aged over 50 years admitted to 3.230 times longer than the patients were under 50 years old. Unspecified hemorrhagic stroke patients with high cholesterol levels are treated 0.182 times faster than patients with normal cholesterol levels. Keywords : Stratified Cox, Cox Proportional Hazard, MPLE, Haemorrhagic Stroke, Recurrent Events


Abstract:In Ireland agricultural activities have been identified as major sources of nutrient input to receiving waters, and it has been estimated that these activities contribute 75.3% of the N and 33.4% of the P found in these waters. The strategy at European level focuses on the prevention of nutrient loss by improved farm management. However, it does not focus on nutrient remediation or incidental nutrient loss from farmyard manures to surface water and groundwater. This review describes the impact of agriculture on the environment in Ireland and examines emerging technologies for agricultural waste-water treatment. An integrated approach at pretreatment and field stages for nitrate (NO₃) remediation and P control is recommended.


The preferred marker for identifying regulatory T cells (Tregs) is FOXP3 but its intracellular localization currently precludes it from being used for isolating viable cells. Human FOXP3+ Tregs are characterized as CD4+ T cells expressing high levels of CD25 and low levels of CD127. We have developed a novel immunomagnetic approach for the isolation of magnetic-particle-free human Tregs from PBMCs in as little as 55 minutes. This offers a vast improvement in speed over other immunomagnetic Treg isolation approaches, which typically require more than 2 hours. The standard approach for isolating Tregs combines CD4+ T cell negative enrichment followed by CD25 positive selection. By contrast, our novel approach is to first perform the CD25 positive selection step with EasySep™ Releasable RapidSpheres™, a new type of magnetic particle that can be rapidly released from the isolated cells with a no-incubation, no-wash protocol performed at room temperature. Subsequent depletion of CD127high and non-CD4+ T cells is achieved by negative enrichment with EasySep™ Dextran RapidSpheres™. Starting with 5x107 PBMCs, a purity of 87.6% ± 3.1% and recovery of 2.7x105 ± 8.2x104 Tregs (CD4+CD127lowCD25+FOXP3+) can be achieved (n=6). This is the first EasySep™ kit to incorporate the EasySep™ Releasable RapidSpheres™ and it exemplifies the potential of this technology for use in rapidly isolating magnetic particle-free cell populations possessing complex cell surface phenotypes.


The recent developments in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be useful in observing the detailed haemodynamics in renal artery bifurcation for clinical evaluation and treatment. The present study focuses on haemodynamic behaviour of blood as it flows through the abdominal aorta-renal artery junction in an idealistic healthy artery with varying bifurcation angles to the abdominal aorta, i.e. from 30° to 90° with increments of 15°. This is to examine the effect of angulation on the junction and to determine whether arterial geometry plays a role in the prediction of atherosclerotic lesions. The three-dimensional models used in this study were generated using ANSYS WORKBENCH 19.0, and numerical simulation was done using FLUENT 19.0 solver. The blood flow is assumed to be Newtonian, incompressible and laminar. Haemodynamic parameters such as velocity, wall pressure and wall shear stress along with flow variation are compared among the different models. As the angulation increased, velocity and wall shear stress at the ostial region decreased by 14% and 52% respectively. Wall pressure at the same region saw an increase by 3%. Therefore, renal arteries with higher bifurcating angles to the abdominal aorta were observed to be more prone to the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. The present study is a precursor for future studies on renal artery with stenosis.


Background: Biological ethylene production via the ethylene-forming enzyme (EFE) can offer a promising sustainable alternative approach for fossil-based ethylene production. The high stress tolerance of Z. mobilis make it as promising bio-ethylene producer.Results: In this study, Heterologous expression of the efe gene in Z. mobilis successfully converted the non-ethylene producing strain into an ethylene producer. What's more, we systematically performed the effect of knocking out the competitive metabolic pathway of pyruvate and the addition of nutrients to the medium to improve the ethylene production in Z. mobilis. These optimization pathways and different substrate supplies resulted in higher ethylene productivity (from 1.36 to 12.83 nmol/OD600/ml), which may guide future engineering work on ethylene production in other organisms to further improve ethylene productivity. Meanwhile, we obtained ethylene production of 5.8 nmol/OD600/ml in strain ZM532-efe by using enzymatic hydrolysate of corn straw as the sole carbon source. This is also the first report on the production of ethylene from cellulosic biomass.Conclusions: These results indicate that the engineered Z. mobilis show great potential for production of ethylene from cellulosic biomass in the future.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression of signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) in sclera fibroblast of guinea pigs for understanding whether STAT3 signaling transduction pathway induced by the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) was constitutively activated.

METHODS
Immunocytochemical staining was used to determine the protein levels of STAT3 and P-STAT3 (activated STAT3) in scleral fibroblasts. RT-PCR was used to detect the mRNA of STAT3. The effects of IGF-1 on scleral fibroblast proliferation were measured by MTT assay.

RESULTS
Immunocytochemical staining and RT-PCR revealed that STAT3 protein and mRNA were over-expressed in the cells which contained constitutively activated STAT3 signaling transduction pathway (t=-6.925, -10.179 and 9.363; P<0.001). The results of MTT showed that IGF-1 induced fibroblasts proliferation significantly at concentrations of 0.5, 1.0, 10.0 microg/L (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
STAT3 signaling transduction pathway is constitutively activated in the treated scleral cells by IGF-1, suggesting that STAT3 signaling transduction pathway may play a critical role in the occurrence of myopia and sclera remodeling.


The article discusses the results of a voluntary survey (free sample) of 80 students in order to study the level of linguistic intelligence of 2nd year students of the faculty of medicine of the medical University. Students highly appreciat-ed (points) their interest in games with words (4.1± 0.8); ease of playing Russian text (3.9 ± 0.5), the ability to perceive listening (3.8 ±0.6); among the respondents 93% were interested in learning Latin, 68% plan to improve their knowledge of English. 10% of respondents were able to perform a qualitative translation of the educational biochemi-cal text from English.


The survey "Jetzt Sprichst Du!" evaluates the psychosocial burden and impairments of children and adolescents in Austria during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Using an online-questionnaire, 5483 children and adolescents between 6 and 18 years shared their feelings, fears, worries and thoughts regarding the Coronavirus pandemic. Most of them report a high degree of fear due to the current situation, with especially female participants being under more emotional strain than their male counterparts. Associated to this, the risk of a COVID-19-associated hospitalization is strongly overestimated, as previously found in adults. In addition, an alarming lack of perspective during the ongoing pandemic is evident across all age groups including the youngest participants aged 6-10 years. Feelings of fury, anger, loneliness, and sadness are reported much more frequently than previously. Last but not least, our study shows an alarming reduction of sleep quality and a drastic increase in self-reported sleep problems already in this young population. The results of the "Jetzt Sprichst Du!" survey emphasize the need for immediate action in order to limit the collateral damage caused on the psychosocial, developmental and health dimension as far as this is still possible today.


Tanzania is one of the East African countries where rich hydrocarbon accumulations are starting to be discovered in both onshore and offshore sedimentary basins, although there is currently little research that has been published in relevant research areas of geology, micropalaeontology or hydrocarbon prospectivity. The hydrocarbon reserves discovered so far are mainly gas, and these have been found in Cretaceous and Cenozoic reservoirs that provide signatures of multi-source rock origins that demonstrate promising future prospects.This thesis presents a series of studies focussing on improving our understanding of the (bio)stratigraphy and hydrocarbon source rock potential of Cretaceous-Cenozoic sediments of Tanzania. The samples studied have unfortunately yielded impoverished organic-walled microfossil (palynomorph) assemblages, and thus the biostratigraphic analysis has formed a smaller component of this project than originally intended. The main aspect of the research undertaken has thus focussed on analysing organic matter composition (palynofacies analysis) and quality (organic richness, kerogen typing), in order to provide interpretations of the palaeoenvironmental conditions prevailing at the time of sediment deposition and hydrocarbon source potential. The hydrocarbon potential has also been examined by undertaking assessments of the thermal maturity of the host sediments using vitrinite reflectance measurements in order to construct thermal histories and burial models for the several of the study locations.This study examines three hundred Cretaceous-Palaeogene cutting samples from three boreholes drilled on the continental shelf (the shallow offshore basin sites Msufi # 1, Mtiki # 1 and Mkongo # 3), one hundred Cretaceous cutting samples from one well from the deep offshore basin (Mvule # 1), and twenty-nine Cretaceous core samples from shallow boreholes from Tanzania Drilling Project (TDP) sites 21, 24, 36 & 37.Biostratigraphic results are limited, with the three shallow offshore basin wells proving largely barren of palynomorphs. The samples from the deep offshore basin (Mvule #1) produced the highest species richness, and although lacking many age-diagnostic taxa, palynological analysis has permitted the recognition of three dinocyst-based bioevents, using first downhole occurrences of taxa, as is appropriate for borehole studies. The four TDP boreholes yielded very restricted palynological assemblages, but a series of downhole dinocyst bioevents have been recognised in the core material, and although not defined using definitively age-diagnositic taxa, the events have been dated by correlation with existing calcareous microfossil biozonations.The sedimentary organic matter (palynofacies) analyses of the onshore and shallow offshore basin sites indicates the sediments studied were deposited in oxic open shelf conditions in close proximity to land, due to the high supply of terrestrial input diluting other palynomaceral components. Certain stratigraphic intervals were subject to periodic lowering of the oxygen conditions. The samples from the deep offshore basin well (Mvule #1) indicates a more marine-influenced setting. Overall, all samples are dominated by Type III kerogens, which are indicative of gas-prone source rocks.The organic richness (total organic carbon: TOC) results range from 0.1% to 3.4% TOC, demonstrating good source potential. In particular, the TOC values for the shallow offshore basin wells are as follows: for Msufi # 1, TOC ranges from 0.3-0.8%; for Mtiki #, 0.1-3.0%; for Mkongo # 3, 0.4-1.1%, and for the deep offshore well Mvule # 1, the TOC values range from 1.0-3.4%.
Thermal maturity of the sediments was assessed using vitrinite reflectivity (Rv %), and values range from 0.3-3.4% Rv, indicating mature to post-mature maturity levels, and thus that the sediments studied have reached values appropriate for hydrocarbon generation. Computer modelling of the burial histories of the successions studied reveals that they have entered the window for early liquid hydrocarbon generation and reached the stages for wet-dry gas generation.


Wireless sensor networks are increasingly being employed for potentially hazardous and critical applications such as monitoring the gas concentration levels in a battle held. In such sensitive applications, it is vital to monitor closely the transient phenomenon and take requisite preventive and corrective actions, if necessary. In such scenarios, due to the presence of adversaries who intend to disrupt the functioning of the system, it becomes imperative to shield our system from false data injection attacks. We propose a novel secure statistical scheme, called SSTF to effectively monitor the transient phenomenon while being immune to false data injection attacks. For achieving our goals, we require the sensors to do a lightweight computation and report a simple statistical digest in addition to the current sensed reading. SSTF is a two-tier system consisting of a statistical inter-sensor testing framework, which is the kernel of our scheme, employed atop an enhanced version of a well-known existing security scheme. We present detailed theoretical analysis and in- depth simulations to show the effectiveness of SSTF.


Comorbid depression and anxiety is linked to worse outcomes such as increased impairment, distress, and morbidity, as well as worse treatment outcomes. Transdiagnostic variables such as cognitive fusion are considered potential factors for explaining comorbidity. The aim of this study was to analyze the differences between symptom profiles of caregivers (comorbid, depressive, anxiety, and subclinical) in terms of demographic and contextual factors, stress variables, and cognitive fusion. Individual interviews were conducted with 553 caregivers of a relative with dementia. Sociodemographic variables, stressors, cognitive fusion, and depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed. Caregivers were grouped into four symptom profiles, comorbid (n = 303), depressed (n = 40) anxiety (n = 86), and subclinical (n = 124), based on their depressive and anxiety symptoms. The likelihood of presenting a comorbid profile relative to the subclinical profile was higher in female caregivers. In addition, higher frequency of disruptive behaviors of the care recipient was a risk factor for presenting a comorbid profile relative to the other three profiles, and higher scores in cognitive fusion were a risk factor of comorbidity relative to the other profiles (anxiety, depressive, and subclinical). The findings suggest that the likelihood of presenting comorbid symptomatology is higher for female caregivers and those reporting higher levels of cognitive fusion and higher frequency of disruptive behaviors. These characteristics may describe a vulnerable profile of dementia family caregivers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).


Smart healthcare aims to revolutionize med-ical services by integrating artificial intelligence (AI). The limitations of classical machine learning include privacy concerns that prevent direct data sharing among medical institutions, untimely updates, and long training times. To address these issues, this study proposes a digital twin-assisted quantum federated learning algorithm (DTQFL). By leveraging the 5G mobile network, digital twins (DT) of patients can be created instantly using data from various Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices and simultane-ously reduce communication time in federated learning (FL) at the same time. DTQFL generates DT for patients with specific diseases, allowing for synchronous training and updating of the variational quantum neural network (VQNN) without disrupting the VQNN in the real world. This study utilized DTQFL to train its own personalized VQNN for each hospital, considering privacy security and training speed. Simultaneously, the personalized VQNN of each hospital was obtained through further local iterations of the final global parameters. The results indicate that DTQFL can train a good VQNN without collecting local data while achieving accuracy comparable to that of data-centralized algorithms. In addition, after personalized train-ing, the VQNN can achieve higher accuracy than that with-out personalized training.


Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 80% of lung cancer and has a high incidence and mortality rate. The combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy is used widely to treat locally advanced NSCLC, but the clinical efficacy is limited. MiRNA-483-5p has been connected to the improvement of an assortment of malignancies. Notwithstanding, its capacity in NSCLC stays obscure. Methods: Here we utilized benefit- or loss-of-miRNA-483-5p expression to investigate the effect of miRNA-483-5p on NSCLC. Results: The results showed that MiRNA-483-5p is entirely up-regulated in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. MiRNA-483-5p inhibitor blocked cell viability, proliferation, migration, invasion but promoted apoptosis, suggesting miRNA-483-5p acts as an oncogene in NSCLC. TargetScan predicted that HIPK2 was an objective gene of miRNA-483-5p. Then, luciferase reporter assay further confirmed that miRNA-483-5p specifically attacked HIPK2's 3'UTR, suggesting the targeted relationship between miRNA-483-5p and HIPK2. Moreover, HIPK2 acted as a redox signal modulator and was associated with a variety of malignant tumors. The current examination affirmed the low HIPK2 expression in the NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Moreover, overexpression of HIPK2 inhibited NSCLC cell viability, proliferation, migration, invasion, but enhanced apoptosis. More importantly, co-transfection with HIPK2 and miRNA-483-5p reversed these effects, suggesting that miRNA-483-5p facilitated tumor progression by inhibiting HIPK2. Conclusions: Hence, our findings indicated that miRNA-483-5p might be a promising remedial target in NSCLC and give major premise to clinical therapeutics.


Citrus is considered highly nutrient responsive crop.  Occurrence of multiple nutrient deficiencies makes the redressal of such nutrient deficiencies all the more complex exercise. Site specific nutrient management studies find a greater weightage over conventional but classical progressive fertilization response studies, if constraint specific fertilization is to be worked out. Simultaneously use of integrated strategies viz., soil application of macronutrients (NPKS) and foliar application of micronutrients (Fe Mn Zn B); fertigation and integrated nutrient  management (INM) using rationale of organic manures fortified with microbial consortium based microbial reactor through isolation and characterization of native and dual purpose microbes and inorganic fertilizers have produced encouraging responses to improve production dividends underlying their undeniable utility. But, fertilizer requirement experiments have generated a vast variation in their recommendations depending upon orchard age, soil type and climatic features besides very limited information on micronutrients requirement. Application of these nutrients was substantially reduced (25-30%) using fertigation, thereby, adding an additional component of fertilizer use efficiency which could be effectively achieved through INM as well. There is a still a bigger constraint in form of non-availability of reproducible nutrient diagnostics to determine frequency distribution of nutrient constraints duly verifiable at orchard level.  Countrywide studies on development of nutrient diagnostics have suggested optimum range of nutrients based on leaf and soil analysis. For the optimum yield using DRIS (diagnosis and recommendation integrated system) based interpretation tool. Development of morphological descriptors and juice nutrient norms have further aid in defining the nutrient constraint more precisely.  Such studies strongly warrant refining diagnostics at regional, and still finer at orchard level, so that once the correct diagnosis of nutrient constraint is made, management becomes a comparatively easier task. Such management study starts with intervention of microbially loaded substrate as a part of rooting medium (rhizosphere engineering) in pre-bearing plants so that an adequate microbial pool of nutrients is built-up by the time plants enter into bearing stage in order to sustain quality production on one hand, and improve orchard longevity on the other hand.


The plaintiff physicians and organizations providing abortion-related services challenged the constitutionality of provisions of a Missouri statute that a) state that life begins at conception and that unborn children have a protectable interest in life, health, and well being; b) require a physician to inform a woman seeking an abortion of certain facts; c) require all post sixteen-week abortions to be performed in a hospital; d) require certain tests to be performed in order to determine gestational age and viability; and e) prohibit the use of public funds, public employees, and public facilities for performing or assisting an abortion or encouraging or counseling an abortion except to save a woman's life. The Court ruled that all of these provisions were unconstitutional and in conflict with its previous rulings on a woman's right to obtain an abortion. In a related case the United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, E.D., held that the plaintiff physicians could not attack a statement of intent of the same law, which provides that "It is the intention of the general assembly of the state of Missouri to grant the right to life to all humans, born and unborn, and to regulate abortion to the full extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States, decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and federal statutes." See Women's Health Ctr. of West Cty. v. Webster, 24 September 1987, 670 F.Supp. 845.


BACKGROUND
To evaluate the influence of pretreatment plasma folate concentrations on methotrexate exposure in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia/non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated with high-dose methotrexate, we assessed time profiles of plasma homocysteine, folate, and vitamin B(12) concentrations in children treated with high-dose methotrexate with leucovorin rescue.

METHODS
We analyzed 98 treatment courses. The study endpoints were to determine how methotrexate exposure is related to homocysteine accumulation and whether it is influenced by pretreatment plasma folate.

RESULTS
Peak concentrations of homocysteine increased from the start of the intravenous infusion through cessation of methotrexate therapy up to time point t(42), when this trend was reversed by administration of folinic acid. The area under the curve (AUC) for plasma homocysteine showed decreasing course-to-course tendencies with a statistically significant decrease only between courses 1 and 2 (P <or=0.05), indicating decreased whole-body homocysteine accumulation in response to administration of consecutive methotrexate courses. Therapeutic courses with low initial folate concentrations (<or=10 nmol/L) gave significantly higher responses in homocysteine accumulation expressed both as (hcys)AUC(0-66 h) and the peak t(42) homocysteine concentrations than did courses with initial folate >10 nmol/L. Correspondingly, in the courses with low initial folate, peak plasma concentrations of methotrexate were significantly higher than in courses with high precourse concentrations of plasma folate.

CONCLUSION
Endogenous pretreatment plasma folate modulates the magnitude of the methotrexate effect, providing support for a "folate overrescue" concept.


As business games were initially used as business school integrative devices and management development aids, it was natural that the first "rigorous" and quantitative evaluations of them would be in the form of correlational studies between a player's previous academic achievements and the results obtained by teams of players in a particular simulation. To have any credibility, and to make at least a cursory effort at satisfying the educator's demand for internal validity, it was hypothesized that high academic achievers would outperform those players who had proved to be low academic achievers. Certainly if a simulation "is a slice of reality" and a business education prepares an individual for a real-world life of productive activity, the integrative, capstone experience provided by a complex business game should endorse, authenticate, and vindicate all that the student/player had been exposed to in an academic career [1,6]. Unfortunately, for both the opponents and proponents of business gaming, the results of those correlational studies have led to mixed results and impressions.


The research examined the acquisition level of a new verbal response class by geriatric subjects. Four nursing home residents and five members of a Senior Citizens club served as subjects. The experimenter used " very good " as a contingent reinforcement when the subjects emitted the criterion response—alliteration of the letter " s ". The non-institutionalized subjects manifested a significant increase in the frequency of the response whereas institutionalized subjects did not exhibit a significant increase in the frequency of the response.


The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of gas bubbles on the formation of spheroidal graphite in cast iron, Fe-Si-8%Mg alloy, mischmetal hydride() and , which discharge various amounts of Mg, and , gases, were added to Fe-3.9% C-2.0%Si melt and the melt was innoculated with 0.3wt% of 75%Fe-Si. The spheroidal graphites and/or compacted vermicular graphites were produced with more than 0.625cc/g of Mg gas or more than 0.3125cc/g of gas while gas did not contribute to graphite spheroidization. Nodule counts increased with the amount of Fe-Si-Mg added ; but they decreased with the amount of added because the number of effective gas bubbles decrease with the increase in Mm residual. The bull's eye structure was revealed with 0.625cc/g, 1.25cc/g of Mg and 0.3125cc/g of ; the ledeburite structure was revealed with more than 0.625cc/g of .


The international interest in early childhood education and care (ECEC) by supranational organisations, including the European Union, has grown considerably due to its dual function of sustaining parental employment and fostering child development. Focussing primarily on child development debates around ECEC, this article argues that human capital theory is the dominant rationale for investing in ECEC. The article discusses the development of ECEC in Finland and England, countries that are considered members of different family policy regimes. It explores the pattern of ECEC developments over time, the extent to which these developments have been framed as human capital investments, the extent that there are references to supranational policy imperatives, and whether there is a growing convergence between the countries around ECEC. Whilst we argue there is some merging in ideas around the function of ECEC in supporting parental employment, there are still differing interpretations when looking at child development that can be related to the cultural and historical origins of ECEC in the respective countries. We voice our concerns that the growing dominance of human capital theory in interpretations of ECEC is resulting in a very narrow view of children and ECEC services.


Human rights obligations require legislation and standards to ensure access to the web. To understand how standards support human rights obligations, this article uses a framework that differentiates the legal or practical use of mandatory and voluntary standards. This article demonstrates how voluntary web accessibility standards emerged from legislation in the United Kingdom, which suggests standardization processes mediate a standard's use in law. Data from policy analyses and semistructured interviews demonstrate the association among policy actors, social institutions, and the use of a standard in law. This article recommends evaluating the impact of standardization processes in realizing human rights obligations.


Abstract:  The status of thirty four species of the cytheroidean ostracod family Cytheruridae from the Neuquén Basin, west‐central Argentina is reviewed. These species belong to the following nine genera: Eucytherura Müller, ranging in this study from Pliensbachian to Valanginian and represented by fourteen species; Kangarina Coryell and Fields, Aalenian–Bajocian, with a single species; Acrocythere Neale, Hauterivian, one species; Paranotacythere Bassiouni, Berriasian, two species; Procytherura Whatley, Pliensbachian to Hauterivian, twelve species; Cytheropteron Sars, Aalenian–Bajocian, one species: Eocytheropteron Alexander, Hauterivian, one species; Paradoxorhyncha Chapman, Aalenian–Bajocian, one species; and Paracytheridea Müller, Berriasian, one species. Of the three subfamilies of the Cytheruridae, the Cytherurinae, with thirty species are by far the most numerous and abundant throughout the study. The other two subfamilies, the Cytheropterinae are represented by three species and the Paracytherideinae by a single species of the nominative genus. Several of the species are very widely distributed geographically and have, for example, also been recorded from Europe; others indicate close links with South Africa and Australia. The stratigraphical ranges of certain genera have been extended as a result of this study. For example, Kangarina has not previously been recorded below the Cretaceous. The Cytheruridae are clearly the most diverse cytheroidean ostracodes in the Mesozoic of the Neuquén Basin and are more diverse than all other groups of ostracodes combined. Four new species, Eucytherura tessae, Eucytherura yunga, Procytherura amygdala and Eocytheropteron immodicus are described. Eucytherura guillaumeae nom. nov. for Eucytherura tuberculata Brenner and Oertli and Eucytherura paranuda nom. nov. for Eucytherura nuda (Brand) are proposed.


Peter Taylor-Gooby's recent contribution to the debate on globalisation and the logic of welfare retrenchment with which it has come to be so closely associated (1997), represents a valuable and timely intervention in a debate whose significance can scarcely be over-stated. Our assessment of the extent to which the contours of the contemporary global political economy circumscribe the parameters of the politically and economically possible is crucial to our understanding of the trajectory and future of the welfare state in a post-Keynesian era, as it is to any attempt to reclaim a positive agenda for welfare reform in a context in which social policy is increasingly being subordinated to the perceived imperative(s) of economic competitiveness. Yet, despite its important challenge to the equation of globalisation, 'new times' (however labelled) and welfare retrenchment, Taylor-Gooby's intervention is not unproblematic. The counterposing of an 'old sociology' concerned with class, capital and the state with a 'new sociology' of fragmentation and diversity (a sociology of and for new times) is ultimately unhelpful. It presents an artificially stark choice between a celebration of the novel that threatens to prove complicit with contemporary welfare reform on the one hand, and a reassertion of continuity and the continuing relevance of 'second-best theory' on the other. It is the argument of this brief response that is only by rejecting the dualistic pairings of 'old' and 'new' sociology, 'old' and 'new' times alike, that we can fashion a sociology and attendant political economy capable of detailing the complex and contingent processes currently restructuring the welfare state and of charting the space for positive alternative trajectories of welfare reform. In so doing we must resist the temptation to make do with second-best.


In this letter, a differential space-frequency modulation (DSFM) scheme is proposed for multiple input multiple-output (MIMO)-orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in broadband wireless communications. We assume that the fading channels keep constant only within each OFDM block, and may change independently from one OFDM block to another. The differential schemes proposed for MIMO-OFDM systems in the literature cannot successfully decode with such a rapidly fading channel, since the successful decoding of the previously existing schemes relies on the assumption that the fading channel keeps constant within a period of several OFDM blocks, and it changes slowly from a period of several OFDM blocks to another. In our proposed DSFM scheme, the transmitted signals are differentially encoded in the frequency domain within each OFDM block. Thus, the differential decoding can be performed over subcarriers within each single OFDM block. Furthermore, if a statistical channel power-delay profile (PDP) is known at the transmitter, we propose to create a smooth logical channel to improve the performance of the DSFM scheme. We obtain the smooth logical channel by sorting the channel frequency responses over subcarriers from a statistical point of view. If the logical channel is not smooth enough, we further consider a pruning process in which we use only the "good" part of the channel and get rid of the "bad" part of the channel. Simulation results show that the proposed DSFM scheme over a smooth logical channel (with pruning, if necessary) performs well for various channel PDPs.


Visible light promoted hydration of a wide scope of alkynes to ketones catalyzed by rhodium(III) porphyrin complexes was described. The key intermediate β-carbonyl alkyl was observed and independently synthesized. The rate of photolysis is over two orders of magnitude faster than that of the thermal process.


We introduce the application of an arbitrary high-order derivative (ADER) discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method to simulate earthquake rupture dynamics. The ADER-DG method uses triangles as computational cells which simplifies the process of discretization of very complex surfaces and volumes by using external automated tools. Discontinuous Galerkin methods are well suited for solving dynamic rupture problems in the velocity-stress formulation as the variables are naturally discontinuous at the interface between two elements. Therefore, the fault has to be honored by the computational mesh. The so-called Riemann problem can be solved to obtain well defined values of the variables at the discontinuity itself. Fault geometries of high complexity can be modeled thanks to the flexibility of unstructured meshes, which solves a major bottleneck of other high-order numerical methods. Additionally, element refinement and coarsening are easily controlled in the meshing process to better resolve the near-fault area of the model. The fundamental properties of the method are shown, as well as a series of validating exercises with reference solutions and a comparison with the well-established finite difference, boundary integral, and spectral element methods, in order to test the accuracy of our formulation. An example of dynamic rupture on a nonplanar fault based upon the Landers 1992 earthquake fault system is presented to illustrate the main potentials of the new method.


The optimisation of a 5.7 air pressure ratio single stage radial-inflow turbine applied in the Sundstrand Power Systems T-100 Multipurpose Small Power Unit (MPSPU) is performed using coupled CFD-FE method. The commercial software ANSYS-Vista RTD along with a built-in module, BladeGen, is used to conduct a meanline design and, consequently, create the 3D geometry of the flow passage. Carefully examining the proposed design against the geometrical and experimental data, ANSYS-TurboGrid is applied to generate computational mesh. CFD simulations are then performed with ANSYS-CFX in which three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved subject to appropriate boundary conditions. Conducting the CFD simulations, the pressure and temperature distributions are imported to the ANSYS-FE module. The von Mises stress σv distribution is then calculated taking into account the centrifugal force acting on the turbine wheel. To obtain the optimised geometry, 25 major design points are regenerated where the meridional parameters, tip clearance, and blade thickness distribution are systematically changed. Furthermore, constraints are defined as high aerothermodynamic performance and acceptable vibration with a stress distribution less than yield limit of the turbine material. Results of coupled CFD-FE method show the power, efficiency, stress and deformation. Finally, performance of the optimised radial-inflow turbine indicates enhanced aero-thermodynamics (NTS and) and structural performance (σν) compared to the MPSPU turbine design.


Most agencies that provide residential services for children and youth make some attempt to work with natural family members; e.g. mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, sister, or brother of those placed within these programmes. Some common approaches to this include the employment of social workers or involvement of other social agencies to undertake this work. Alternatively, a member of the direct care staff in a residential programme may be designated as a family worker and required to make extra effort to maintain links between the child in the programme and the natural family. Under all of these arrangements, direct care practitioners in residential programmes are expected to be responsive to natural family members visiting a child in the programme. They are also expected to support a child planning to return home for a family visit or returning to the programme from such an event.


The electronic structure and elastic properties of YCu, YAg, and DyCu were studied by full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method (FP LAPW) on the basis of the density functional theory (DFT). The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) is applied for YCu, YAg, and the LDA+U is applied for DyCu. The density of states at the Fermi energy, NðEFÞ, are 1.08, 1.09, and 1.04 states/(eV unit cell) for YCu, YAg and DyCu, respectively. The elastic constants were calculated. The values for Pugh's criterion are 2.30, 2.05 and 3.00 for YCu, DyCu and YAg, respectively. All of them are larger than 1.75, indicating the ductile manner of these materials. The calculated value of the anisotropy is close to 1, indicating highly isotropic behavior. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MB200816]


Water management in lowland areas has focused on facilitating rapid drainage over the past centuries leading to increased flows during wet periods, but also to lower groundwater tables during dry periods. This has impacted society e.g. by increased need for irrigation and subsidence of soils. Water managers in lowland areas therefore try to focus on smart water management, wherein water is retained as much as possible. This study focuses on regional effects of delaying discharge peaks for water retention, which could alter the occurrence of discharge peaks at confluences so that the discharge peaks coincide. There is currently a lack of knowledge on processes and effects of simultaneous occurrence of discharge peaks in both hydrological and hydraulic research areas. Here, we investigate the simultaneous occurrence of discharge peaks for the River Meuse and a lowland tributary, by making use of the Dynamic Time Warping method. The outcome will help water authorities with making informed decisions to reduce flood risk and helps preparing them for floodings like the unexpected flooding of January 1995.


The Role of SNF1-Related Protein Kinase 1 (SnRK1) in Regulating Intermediary Metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana You Wang Advisors: University of Guelph, 2017 Dr. Michael J. Emes University of Guelph, 2017 Dr. Ian J. Tetlow The Sucrose Non-fermenting-1 (SNF1)-Related Protein Kinase 1 (SnRK1) is a highly conserved heterotrimeric protein kinase which plays an important role in the control of energy balance in plants. It possesses a catalytic subunit (α) and two regulatory subunits (β and γ). This research project focuses on understanding the role of one of its regulatory subunits, AKINβ1, on metabolism in Arabidopsis. The effects of altered expression of AKINβ1 on carbohydrate metabolism in plants was investigated in an Arabidopsis T-DNA insertion mutant. The concentrations of key intermediates in the tricarboxylic acid cycle of the mutant leaves were markedly reduced throughout the diurnal cycle, and this was coupled with a decrease in measurable respiration rate. The subcellular localization of AKINα1 (AKIN11), AKINβ1, and AKINγ1 subunits of SnRK1 was investigated in tobacco and Arabidopsis leaves, using fluorescence-tagged proteins. The regulatory function of Nmyristoylation on the subcellular localization of AKINβ1 was also investigated, indicating that AKINβ1 binds to the Golgi stack, and that the N-terminal 74-amino acids of AKINβ1 possesses a putative nuclear localization signal. Recombinant fusion proteins (AKINα1, AKINβ1 and AKINγ1) of SnRK1 were expressed in E. coli and used as bait to study their interaction with other proteins in plant leaf cells. LHCB1.1/LHCB1.2 or/and LHCB1.3 were identified as putative interacting protein(s) of AKINα1. Finally, the effect of altered expression of AKINβ1 on transcriptional regulation was studied. Compared to WT, 2485 genes and 188 genes were expressed differentially in the akinβ1 mutant leaves in response to light and darkness respectively. Very large changes in expression were observed in several genes including glycerol-3phosphate acyltransferase 5 (-243 fold), NADP-dependent malic enzyme 1 (-70 fold), and nitrate transporter 1.8 (-52 fold), indicating that the AKINβ subunit plays a significant role in modulating carbohydrate, lipid, and nitrogen metabolism. A model is hypothesized to explain the effects of AKINβ1 on metabolism in Arabidopsis. The results in this study provide new insight into the role of SnRK1, especially AKINβ1, in regulating plant metabolism.


BACKGROUND
Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas are associated with tobacco and alcohol use; therefore, the incidence of this type of tumor is expected to rise in the future as a result of the increasing numbers of female and adolescent smokers. Previous reports of cytogenetic analysis of this type of tumor have implicated a number of chromosomal regions in recurring changes, but no clear pattern of characteristic changes has emerged.

PURPOSE
We have undertaken cytogenetic analysis of 10 cell lines which were established from squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck, to determine the possible sites of additional tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes that may contribute to malignant transformation.

METHODS
Metaphases were harvested from cultures of cells in the exponential growth phase, following exposure to Colcemid (demecolcine) at a final concentration of 30 ng/mL for 5 hours. Air-dried slides were G-banded using trypsin and Giemsa. Fifteen metaphases were photographed and fully karyotyped.

RESULTS
We observed that several chromosomal regions were lost at high frequency, including 18q (10 of 10 lines), 10p (eight of 10 lines), 3p (six of 10 lines), 8p (seven of 10 lines), and the short arms of the acrocentric chromosomes (seven of 10 lines). Nine of 10 lines had additional copies of 7p. We also noted clustering of breakpoints in a number of chromosome bands, including 1p22, 10q11.2, 11q13, and the short arms of the acrocentric chromosomes.

CONCLUSION
The observation of loss of multiple chromosomal regions in a significant number of lines analyzed is consistent with the theory that tumorigenesis occurs as the result of the accumulation of a number of genetic alterations, as proposed for colorectal carcinoma. The high frequency with which these changes are seen suggests that genes located in these regions have a role in the etiology of this type of tumor.


is given scant attention in textbooks of psychiatry. The problem of patients with headache is one of the most frequent in the practice of liaison psychiatry and an authoritative overview of the problem seems most welcome. The book is organised in five sections including sections devoted to the assessment of the headache patient as well as treatment. The major contribution is from the two principal editors who co-author 14 ofthe 33 chapters. It is somewhat ofa disappointment that the content of the book rarely matches the form. The language and theoretical of perspective is largely psychodynamic which renders the book less accessible or acceptable to British psychiatrists. Indeed the view that American psychiatry has in the past decade shaken off the shackles of psychoanalysis might easily be questioned on reading this book. As an example, in the chapter on assessment, tests like the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), the Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Tests are recommended as useful adjuncts to routine work up of the patient. These tests have long been assigned to the dustbin by empirically minded psychiatrists and their uncritical inclusion as of potential value in routine evaluation of patients is a good example of the general tenor of the whole book. In summary it cannot be recommended to anyone who has lost faith with the church of psychoanalysis.