The Prague Synform (Ordovician to Devonian) was folded and thrusted during the Variscan orogeny. This paper is focused on one of these thrusts: the Ockov Fault. The creation of a stratigraphic separation diagram and detailed study of new tunnel exposures has brought about the recognition of the eastern prolongation of the fault, as well as its flat-ramp-flat geometry and thrusting nature.


BACKGROUND
Niemann-Pick disease type C1 (NPC1) and type C2 (NPC2) display the same pattern of neurovisceral storage due to deficiencies within lysosomes. NPC2 is a much rarer condition, and as reports on the pathological changes are scarce, the morphological findings in the lungs and brain in two siblings who died at an early age from pulmonary involvement are described. The diagnosis of NPC2 was confirmed at postmortem mutational analysis.

CASE REPORTS
Both siblings presented with postnatal conjugated hyperbilirubinemia. They subsequently developed progressive respiratory insufficiency with opacification of the lungs on X-ray examination and died at the ages of 8 and 13 months. The lungs contained intra-alveolar accumulation of periodic acid-Schiff positive material, foamy macrophages, and hyperplasia of the alveolar cells, consistent with pulmonary alveolar lipoproteinosis. On neuropathological examination, storage material in swollen perikarya in the deep cerebellar nuclei, thalamus, medulla oblongata, and in the paravertebral ganglion cells was found. Meganeurites were present in the cerebral cortex. A few axonal spheroids were also observed. There seemed to be a reduced number of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum.

CONCLUSIONS
Evidence that NPC2 is associated with severe pulmonary alveolar lipoproteinosis is supported. There were extensive neuropathological changes with storage material in swollen perikarya and a few axonal spheroids.


Cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke and myocardial infarction (MI) remain the major cause of death and disability worldwide. However, the mortality of MI has declined dramatically over the past several decades because of advances in medicines (thrombolytic agents, antiplatelet drugs, beta blockers, and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors) and approaches to restore tissue perfusion (percutaneous coronary intervention and cardiopulmonary bypass). Animal studies have been shown that these treatments have been effective in reducing acute myocardial ischemic injury and limiting MI size. The paradox is that the process of reperfusion can itself amplify cell injury and death, known as myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (I/R). Intensive research has uncovered several complex mechanisms of cardiomyocyte damage after reperfusion,and potential therapeutic targets for preventing I/R. Importantly, it is now recognized that excessive elevation of intracellular and mitochondrial Ca2+during reperfusion predisposes the cells to hypercontracture, proteolysis and mitochondrial failure and eventually to necrotic or apoptotic death. These enormous alterations in cytosolic Ca2+ levels are induced by the Ca2+ channels of the sarcolemma(L-Type Ca2+channels, sodium/calcium exchanger), the endoplasmic/ sarcoplasmic reticulum (SERCA ATPase) and ryanodine receptors, SOCE(store-operated calcium entry), lysosomes and others, which are modified by I/R injury. The overall goal of this review is to describe the different pathways that lead to I/R injury via Ca2+ overload, focus on recent discoveries and highlight prospects for therapeutic strategies for clinical benefit.


It must be admitted that education is the necessary requirement, and educational technologies are the important tools of implementation for sustainable development. This study is based on a comparative and pedagogical approach. Having used the content analysis method we have considered the data of national reports (2018) from 31 countries on implementing the Strategy of education for sustainable development (ESD) of UNECE (sub-indicator 2.1.3) and defined pedagogical technologies applied at different levels of formal, non-formal and informal education. Besides, the rating of technologies according to the frequency of their usage for 0–8 levels has been made. The revealed differences we explain by age-related psychological features of students and pupils, as well as the national peculiarities of educational systems. Moreover, a brief overview about additional educational technologies and methods that are outside the framework of the current ones (non-formal and informal education in particular) has been prepared. The results of experts' survey in Russian Federation carried out in 2019 have been introduced. The general evaluation of progress in the field of ESD with the 3-point scale (0.7; in progress) and estimation of indicator 2.1 (0.9; in progress) has been defined. We also characterised the revealed educational-methodical achievements.


This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of Medical Ozone(MO) in combination with insulin on reproductive hormones and histopathological changes in ovaries of rats with diabetes mellitus (DM). forty eight adult female rats were randomly divided into the following six groups (n = 8): control (A), MO (B), diabetic (C), MOtreated diabetic (E), Insulin-treated diabetic ) E), and MO, Insulin-treated diabetic (F). DM was induced by a single intraperitoneal (ip) Alloxan injection (150 mg/kg ( .after six weeks of treatment Blood sample were collected to estimate biochemical parameters glucose, serum hormones. Also, ovary samples were obtained for histological examination in diabetic untreated rats the results showed hyperglycaemia, and significant decrease in hormones profiles. While ,MO and Insulin treated rats reported an amelioration of the most toxic effect of alloxan and returned most of these parameters nearly normal. Microscopically ovaries showed definite, degeneration in the diabetic group while when use of MO and Insulin treatment in this study showed significant improves of such histological changes when compared to diabetic untreated rats. Conclusion: it was recommended that the use of the Medical Ozone with Insulin as a supplementary agent to reduce oxidative stress damage of hyperglycaemia and recommended to use variable doses and different periods of treatment to evaluate the best dose and period


[reaction: see text] Photocycloadditions of 9,10-phenanthraquinone (PQ) with oxazoles (1a and 1b) gave [4 + 4] products 2 with the O=C-C=O functionality in PQ and the 2-azadiene moiety in oxazole as 4pi addends. Photoreactions of 1-acetylisatin (IS) with 1a, 1c, and 1d gave [4 + 4] product A, which underwent further [2 + 2] reactions with another (3)IS to furnish 5. These regioselective and diastereoselective [4 + 4] photocycloadditions are rationalized by the intervening of the key conformers for ISC and bond formation of the most stable 1,6-diradical intermediates.


Abstract Recent studies have reported that nucleic acid oxidation is elevated in preeclampsia. Furthermore, it is known that products of nucleic acid oxidation are eventually removed through the urine. The aim of this study was to check whether urine can be used as a non-invasive specimen to analyse nucleic acid oxidation in preeclampsia. We carried out a case-control study by enrolling preeclamptic pregnant (n = 31) and normotensive pregnant (n = 31) women. Urine samples from the study participants were collected and the levels of oxidised guanine species (a common product of nucleic acid oxidation) were determined by ELISA method. The urinary levels of oxidised guanine species were significantly higher in the preeclamptic pregnant group compared to the normotensive pregnant group (p = 0.001). The results were also analysed after stratifying the preeclamptic group in terms of severity and gestational age of onset. A significant difference was observed in both mild (p = 0.005) and severe preeclampsia (p = 0.01). However, a significant difference was observed only in the late onset (p = 0.001) and not in the early onset preeclampsia (p = 0.56). The results of this study show that oxidised guanine level is elevated in the urine of preeclamptic pregnant women. IMPACT STATEMENT What is already known on this subject? Nucleic acid oxidation is elevated in preeclampsia. However, the utility of urine (a non-invasive specimen) to analyse nucleic acid oxidation is not known. What do the results of this study add? This study shows that the levels of oxidised guanine (a marker of nucleic acid oxidation) are elevated in the urine of preeclamptic women. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Urinary levels of oxidised guanine may be developed as a non-invasive biomarker for preeclampsia.


Simulated annealing is a popular method for approaching the solution of a global optimization problem. Existing results on its performance apply to discrete combinatorial optimization where the optimization variables can assume only a finite set of possible values. We introduce a new general formulation of simulated annealing which allows one to guarantee finite-time performance in the optimization of functions of continuous variables. The results hold universally for any optimization problem on a bounded domain and establish a connection between simulated annealing and up-to-date theory of convergence of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods on continuous domains. This work is inspired by the concept of finite-time learning with known accuracy and confidence developed in statistical learning theory.


Tools were developed to quantify space–time development of different flow phases on a river basin scale. Such information is needed for the WFD. The spatial development of temporary streams was investigated in the Evrotas basin, Greece. We used the regional hydrological model SIMGRO in a GIS framework to generate flow time series for all major streams. For a streams reach five flow phases are distinguished, being: floods; riffles; connected flow; pools and dry conditions. For each stream and flow phase, thresholds were identified based on local characteristics. The analysis shows the frequency of the flow phases per month. For all streams in the Evrotas basin the average frequency of the flow phase dry and pools are presented. The aim is that GIS helps to better understand the link between dry streams and spatially-distributed catchment characteristics. Local morphological conditions and roughness of the bed need to be considered in defining appropriate threshold levels for the flow phases.


Let G be a finite group. The symmetric crosscap number \tilde \sigma (G) is the minimum topological genus of any compact non-orientable surface (with empty boundary) on which G acts effectively. We first survey some of the basic facts about the symmetric crosscap number; this includes relationships between this parameter and others. We obtain formulas for the symmetric crosscap number for three families of groups, the dicyclic groups, the abelian groups with most factors in the canonical form isomorphic to Z_(2), and the hamiltonian groups with no odd order part. We also determine \tilde \sigma (G) for each group G with order less than 16. The groups with symmetric crosscap numbers 1 and 2 have been classified. We show here that there are no groups with \tilde\sigma=3; this affirms a conjecture of Tucker.


Alkanolamine is commonly used in natural gas processing plant for carbon dioxide removal from natural gas. Alkanolamine may incidentally release and contaminate the surrounding soil and water due to plant operational failure or irresponsible related activities. Thus, the application of laccase for biodegradation of alkanolamine, which has not been reported so far, carried out in batch (shake flask) and continuous (packed-bed) reactors was investigated. Though, biodegradation using laccase may offer many advantages, the free laccase (FL) itself is unstable, cannot be reused and poor of thermal and storage stability. The sol-gel laccase (SGL), i.e. SOLAC04 was therefore synthesized by manipulating triethylamine (TEA) concentration (which was used as a gelating agent), laccase loading (LL), agitation conditions (with or without sonication), and experimental procedures (one-step or two-step) towards obtaining a higher laccase catalytic activity and stability. The SOLAC04 synthesized using two-step procedure, TEA (0.1 mL), laccase loading, LL (5 mg/mL) and without sonication had the highest laccase catalytic activity and stability as compared to other synthesized by SGL samples. This result suggested that the entrapment in silica matrix provided an additional framework for the preservation of an active laccase conformation at higher temperature and long storage duration. The biodegradation of alkanolamines: diethanolamine (DEA), ethanolamine and N-methylethanolamine was carried out in batch reactor using both FL and SGL; and optimized using response surface methodology. The results showed that the biodegradation efficiency (μ) and biodegradation rate of DEA using SOLAC04 was higher than other alkanolamines and observed to be higher compared to FL. The μ of DEA in batch reactor using FL and SOLAC04, respectively reached an optimum value at 50 °C and 40 °C. The μ of DEA increased with increasing dosage (Ds) of FL and SOLAC04. It was also revealed that the SOLAC04 are fairly stable and can be used many times. The μ of DEA remained constant at almost the same level after being reused for 5 times. The biodegradation performance and μ of DEA using FL under optimum pH of 5.8, temperature of 45.71°C, Ds of 37.14 mg, and reaction time of 42.66 minutes were 84.8 % and 0.077 mg-1, while for SGL obtained under the optimum pH of 5, temperature of 41°C, Ds of 34.01 mg, and reaction time of 57.59 minutes were 66 % and 1.11 mg-1, respectively. The μ of DEA in packed-bed reactor using SOLAC04 was optimum at pH 6, 250 mL/h and 500 ppm. The μ of DEA increased with increasing Ds of SOLAC04. These experimental results demonstrated the advantages gained from entrapment of laccase in silica matrix and the biodegradation superiority of the SGL over FL for the removal of alkanolamines. Thus, the potential of laccase especially SGL for biodegradation of the alkanolamine was finally demonstrated.


Most historians regard the Cape Colony of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an impoverished and destitute settlement, primarily because of the many restrictions and prohibitions enforced by the Dutch East India Company, who founded the Cape settlement as a refreshment station for its ships. The mercantilist thinking of the time ensured that the free burghers in the Cape were to comply with the demands of the Company, dependent on the number of passing ships, for a market, and with little economic incentive to expand production. This assumption of poor economic performance only came to be challenged in the late 1980s. Using new data collected from the so-called opgaaf rolls (tax return records) in The Hague, Van Duin and Ross (1987) argue that, in fact, the Cape economy grew significantly through out the eighteenth century. However, these authors emphasise that local demand played the dominant role in the development of the economy and dismiss the traditional argument that passing ships were essential to the welfare of the Cape Colony. Using new empirical evidence on the number of ships in Table Bay combined with techniques from business cycle theory, this paper tests whether ship traffic had any significant relationship with agricultural production in the Cape Colony and, if so, the direction and size of association. The results suggest a strong systematic co-movement between wheat and ship traffic in Table Bay, with less evidence for wine production and stock herding activities.


Making use of the MM2 method of molecular mechanics and the AM1 method of quantum chemistry (in the cluster approximation), various chemical structures at the surface of γ-APTES-modified silicas have been examined with respect to the existence of hydrogen bonding between amino groups and other polar groups at that surface. Only in few cases the geometrical factors appear to be auspicious for hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonds between amino groups and residual silanols can arise for sprawling aminopropyl tails on the surface, or in places of coupling of silica globules. Hydrogen bonds between neighboring aminogroups are enabled by the sintering of anchor silanols, which makes the amino groups come close together. Hydrogen bonding is facilitated by the molecular roughness of the amorphous silica surface. In the presence of adsorbed water, which promotes the transferring of protons from silanols to amino groups, and especially in contact with an aquatic environment, the surface acquires the character of a macroscopic zwitterion. This conclusion has been confirmed by the charge titration experiment. In treatment of the experimental data from charge titration, allowance has been made for the solubility of silica.


Cell death by apoptosis mediates several important physiologic and pathologic processes and appears to be intrinsically programmed. Its characteristic features are distinctive morphologic changes of nucleus and cytoplasm, along with cleavage of chromatin at regularly spaced sites. Here we study DNA organization and nuclear structure in apoptotic thymocytes to define the cleavage event and, by implication, the role of the responsible endonuclease. We show that in apoptosis, double-stranded cleavage of DNA generates two classes of chromatin fragments: 70% of DNA exists as long, H1-rich oligonucleosomes bound to the nucleus, and 30% comprises short oligonucleosomes and mononucleosomes, which are depleted in H1, enriched in HMG1 and 2, and not attached to the nucleus. This minority class probably derives from chromatin in a transcriptionally active configuration, which would allow better access to enzymes in the nucleoplasm, producing more complete digestion. The characteristic nucleolar morphology in apoptosis can also be explained in terms of cleavage of the transcriptionally active ribosomal genes, with conservation of the nucleolin-rich fibrillar center. The chromatin cleavage, nucleolar morphologic changes, and chromatin condensation were closely mimicked by micrococcal nuclease digestion of normal thymocyte nuclei in the presence of protease inhibitors. Thus, in apoptosis, selective activation of an endogenous endonuclease appears to be responsible not only for widespread chromatin cleavage but also for the major nuclear morphologic changes.


[1] This study investigates some of the principal errors arising in atmospheric inversion estimates of N2O surface fluxes. Using a synthetic data set of model-generated atmospheric N2O mixing ratio data, representative of the current observation network, we investigate the influence of errors in the stratospheric N2O sink and in vertical transport. Our inversion framework uses a variational formulation of the Bayesian problem, and atmospheric transport is modeled using the global circulation model LMDz. When only optimizing the surface fluxes (with a prescribed sink), bias errors in the sink magnitude translate into substantial bias errors in the retrieved global total surface fluxes. Conversely, we find that errors only in the temporal and horizontal distribution of the N2O sink (nonbiased magnitude) have a very small impact on tropospheric mixing ratios and thus on the retrieved surface fluxes. Bias errors in the modeled vertical transport, however, lead to notable changes in tropospheric N2O and, in particular, in the phase of the seasonal cycle. This also leads to bias errors in the spatial distribution of the derived surface fluxes, although not in the global total. Last, the simultaneous optimization of the surface fluxes and the sink magnitude was tested as a means to avoid biasing the fluxes by incorrect prior assumptions about the N2O lifetime. With this approach, a significant reduction in the error of the sink magnitude was achieved and biases in the surface fluxes were largely avoided, and this result was further enhanced when aircraft data were included in the inversion.


BACKGROUND
To determine whether the allelic status of chromosomes is clinically useful in colorectal cancer, the allelic losses at chromosomes 17p, 18q, 22q and 3p and their relationships with the clinicopathological features in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, who had undergone curative surgery without adjuvant chemotherapy, were examined.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The allelic status at 17p, 18q, 22q and 3p was analyzed by PCR-SSCP (polymerase chain reaction single-strand conformation polymorphism) in 139 CRC from patients who had undergone curative surgery between October 1994 and June 1996. The relationships between these allelic losses and the clinicopathological features were investigated.

RESULTS
The lymph node status was significantly associated with the allelic status of 17p, 18q and 22q. The tumor site and tumor differentiation were significantly associated with the allelic status of 18q. When patients with more than two allelic losses were defined as the high allelic loss group and those with no, or only one allelic loss were defined as the low allelic loss group, it was found that the lymph node involvement was significantly higher in the high than in the low allelic loss group. Only three out of 25 patients in the low allelic loss group had lymph node metastasis, and 15 patients in this group without lymphatic invasion had no lymph node metastasis. There was no relationship between the allelic status and survival at any stage.

CONCLUSION
The allelic status was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis. A combination of allelic status and lymphatic invasion assessment can predict the lymph node status before radical surgery.


Lipsky's classic study of 'street-level bureaucracy' (1980) provided a perceptive analysis of front line practice in public organizations that has continuing relevance to recent literature, which has debated whether discretion continues to operate in social work or whether it has been curtailed. Having considered contributions to the debate on the continuation and curtailment of professional discretion in social work, it becomes clear that there are significant differences between these two positions, differences which focus on beliefs about manager' desire for, and ability to secure, control and workers' ability to resist control and seek discretion. However, after examining these issues further, through an examination of key aspects of Lipsky's work and Howe's (1991) critique of that work, a unifying strand is identified in the curtailment and continuation perspectives. Both perspectives have a tendency to treat professional discretion as a phenomenon that is either present or absent and rest on a background assumption, particularly in the curtailment literature, that professional discretion is self-evidently a 'good thing'. An alternative argument is advanced, based on two propositions: first, that the proliferation of rules and regulations should not automatically be equated with greater control over professional discretion; paradoxically, more rules may create more discretion. Second, discretion in itself is neither 'good' nor 'bad'. In some circumstances it may be an important professional attribute, in others it may be a cloak for political decision-makers to hide behind or it may be an opportunity for professional abuse of power. If this alternative argument is soundly based, future analysis of and research into professional discretion rooted in 'all-or-nothing' formulations are unlikely to advance understanding much beyond the impasse in the existing literature. Rather, the alternative argument suggests that discretion should be regarded as a series of gradations of freedom to make decisions and, therefore, the degree of freedom professionals have at specific conjunctures should be evaluated on a situation-by-situation basis.


Results of photometric measurements on fuel-rich, atmospheric-pressure, laminar, premixed H2 + O2+ N2 flames with and without small proportions of added calcium, strontium and barium are reported. These results, together with earlier observations on alkaline earth metals E in flames, are interpreted in terms of a set of chemical reactions involving the gasphase additive species E, EO, EOH, E(OH)2, EOH+ and E+ and the flame species H, OH, H 2 and H 2O. The interpretation offered differs somewhat from those of previous workers, particularly with regard to the significance of non-equilibrium effects, but nevertheless provides an overall description of alkaline earth flame chemistry consistent with all available observations. Thermochemical data are tabulated for key reactions.


Road safety has become one of the most important traffic issues in Kuwait, along with traffic congestion. On average, one person dies daily in Kuwait because of road accidents; this is in addition to scores of major and minor injuries. A deeply worrying aspect of road accidents in Kuwait is that a vast majority of the dead and seriously injured are young Kuwaiti drivers. The Kuwait government has implemented new and stiffer traffic rules and regulations since November 2001, and the Ministry of the Interior has installed several speed cameras at midblock and intersection locations. Analysis of accident patterns and driving habits in Kuwait reveals that enforcement and engineering alone may not be able to help alleviate the high rate of traffic accidents in Kuwait today. Driver education is probably as important as engineering and enforcement measures. This paper presents the results of a study undertaken to investigate the driving behavior and traffic safety attitudes of young university student drivers. It also examines road traffic accident statistics in Kuwait. Findings of the study indicate that although most students affirm their awareness of traffic rules and claim to be following them usually, a significant number appeared to be oblivious to the disastrous consequences of higher travel speeds. Driver education measures should be effectively used to improve the extremely dangerous traffic safety situation in Kuwait. Education and training before issuing the license and graduated driver licensing policies should also be investigated for implementation in Kuwait.


forward, the most striking of which runs as follows : " ... the alteration observed in the poet's liver was no proof of being the result of alcoholic intemperance. This so-called • cabby's' liver has been met with in persons of temperate habits." This, we think, is sufficient to dispose of the rumour that Lord Byron consistently drank to excess. Also it is stated: "the nasolabial curves of expression of intellectual and social superiority and extreme unaffected disdain; the physical and mental restlessness; the lucidity of perception and of expression ; the utter and hopeless dissatisfaction with environment and circumstance ; sympathy and antipathy; scorn of man and love of woman and the inevitable disappointrnent ; powers of intellectual achievement of quality all of which may surely be rated as superhuman when measured by the standards of our own' enlightened' twentieth century."


The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of wind movement and air flow according to the placement of pilotis in apartment housing. The conclusion was drawn from analyzing four different types of layouts and their impact on the wind movement and flow. The wind velocity ratio is defined as the difference between the wind velocities at entering and at exiting the apartment housing. The layout types selected for the analysis are grid linear type, tower type and the combination of grid and linear type. The main reason for planning wind movement and flow is to increase the amount of wind flow, which can be indicated by the wind velocity within the apartment housing. As a result of analyzing the wind flow simulation on the opening of pilotis, as the opening of pilotis is larger, the wind velocity ratio was found to be also larger. The wind velocity was higher with placing pilotis on the first floor rather than the upper floors and opening the center rather than the sides. Furthermore, opening pilotis vertically with 1st and 2nd floors had higher velocity than the opening horizontally. The planning for wind movement and flows not only improves the exterior wind velocity ratio and balances of air quality within the apartment housing, but also provides better ventilation and air quality for the interior.


............................................................................................... iv ABSTRAK .................................................................................................. v ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............................................................................ vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................... xii LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................... xiii CHAPTER


When a shallow‐water wave meets a steep cliff or harbour wall, a jet is sometimes thrown upwards with very high initial acceleration. In the present work it is shown that a similar phenomenon can occur in a standing wave in deep water, provided that the initial shape of the trough is narrow and an almost circular arc. During collapse of the trough, vertical accelerations exceeding 10g are found, with subsequent vertical velocities exceeding 1.7c, where c is the phase‐speed of a small‐amplitude progressive wave. The vertical acceleration, plotted as a function of the time, is shown to be very sensitive to the initial shape of the wave trough. The presence of a much shorter wave superposed on the initial wave profile can further increase the maximum acceleration and velocity.


The article expounds the question about the choice of models of studying the course «Russian and Speech standard» in the modern pedagogical community.


Abstract Effect of solute atom on dislocation nucleation and subsequent elasto-plastic deformation observed in nanoindentation tests was investigated using Si-alloyed interstitial-free steel (IF). The onset shear stresses for plastic deformation  τ _p at the first pop-in where the dislocation nucleation occur were greatly affected by the presence of solute Si irrespective of the Si content tested. The analysis of the cumulative probability of τ _p indicate that the dislocation nucleation occurred through heterogeneous nucleation where the nucleation sites are solute Si atoms. It has suggested that Si has ability to increase the activation energy for dislocation nucleation. The variation in the magnitude of displacement burst at the first pop-in showed that more kinetic energy of moving dislocations is dissipated by the presence of solute Si resulting in decrease of travel distance of dislocations. This trend can be explained by classical solid solution theory. The staircase yielding observed only in Si-alloyed sample indicate that the re-activation of dislocations formed at the pop-in became difficult by the solute Si. Graphic Abstract


As a generalization of the common assumption of exponential distribution of the exceedances in partial duration series the generalized Pareto distribution has been adopted. Estimators for the parameters are presented using estimation by both method of moments and probability-weighted moments. The corresponding estimators for the T-year event are given and approximate expressions for bias and variance of the estimators are derived in both cases. Using the mean square error of the T-year event estimator as a performance index it is shown that the method of moments is preferable to the probability-weighted moments. Maintaining the generalized Pareto distribution as the parent exceedance distribution the T-year event is estimated assuming the exceedances to be exponentially distributed. For moderately long-tailed exceedance distributions and small to moderate sample sizes it is found, by comparing mean square errors of the T-year event estimators, that the exponential distribution is preferable to the correct generalized Pareto distribution despite the introduced model error and despite a possible rejection of the exponential hypothesis by a test of significance. For moderately short-tailed exceedance distributions (with physically justified upper limit) the correct exceedance distribution should be applied despite a possible acceptance of the exponential assumption by a test of significance.


A multiresidue method for the isolation and liquid chromatographic determination of 7 benzimidazole anthelmintics (thiabendazole, oxfendazole, para-hydroxyfenbendazole, fenbendazole sulfone, mebendazole, albendazole, and fenbendazole) in milk is presented. Blank or benzimidazole-spiked milk samples (0.5 mL) were blended with octadecylsilyl (C-18, 18% load, end-capped) derivatized silica packing material. A column made from the C-18/milk matrix was first washed with hexane (8 mL), and then the benzimidazoles were eluted with methylene chloride-ethyl acetate (1 + 2, v/v; 8 mL). The eluate contained benzimidazole analytes which were free from interfering compounds as determined by UV detection (photodiode array, 290 nm). Correlation coefficients of standard curves for individual benzimidazoles isolated from spiked samples were linear (0.989 +/- 0.003 to 0.998 +/- 0.001) with recoveries ranging from 70 +/- 9% to 107 +/- 2% for the concentration range (62.5-2000 ng/mL) examined. The inter-assay variabilities ranged from 4 +/- 1% to 9 +/- 7% with intra-assay variabilities of 3-6%.


By the final day of the Supreme Court's 2012–2013 Term, when the Court issued decisions in challenges to two laws that discriminated against same-sex marriages, a remarkable consensus anticipated essentially the outcomes announced. Court watchers expected that Justice-in-the-middle Anthony Kennedy would lead the Court cautiously toward protecting against sexual orientation discrimination and, in any event, would not set back the cause of marriage equality by upholding either law. Although a substantial and passionate minority of the U.S. population continued to oppose the ability of gays and lesbians to marry, by June 6, 2013, the issue's eventual resolution seemed quite clear and few believed that the Court would put itself on the "wrong side" of that history.

A closely divided Court in United States v. Windsor met these expectations by declaring unconstitutional the section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that limited marriage for federal law purposes to a man and woman. A different five-Justice majority in Hollingsworth v. Perry declined to reach the constitutionality of similar discrimination in a state law, California's Proposition 8, by finding that the plaintiffs lacked standing. The two decisions, in effect, ended more than one thousand forms of federal discrimination against married same-sex couples and, by allowing the Perry district court ruling to stand, made California the thirteenth state, plus the District of Columbia, to permit same-sex couples to marry. More than thirty-eight percent of the U.S. population now lives in jurisdictions where women and men may marry or have their out-of-state marriages recognized regardless of sexual orientation—and after Windsor, receive federal as well as state benefits associated with marriage.

The Court's invalidation of DOMA, and the very fact that the outcome was widely anticipated, marked an extraordinary evolution in constitutional law, as interpreted by the Court and understood by the American people. Windsor's discussion of the merits began by emphasizing the rapid and recent changes in how states and the public have approached the issue. When Congress enacted DOMA in 1996, every state limited marriage to a man and a woman and many Americans had not seriously contemplated that it could be otherwise.

Justice Antonin Scalia alluded to that change, with the intent of discrediting its legitimate role in constitutional interpretation, during the March 2013 oral arguments when he pressed marriage-equality advocate Theodore Olson to answer the question: "When did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage?" This question foreshadowed the two principal grounds on which Windsor is constitutionally significant: first, for what it said about the substantive constitutional protections that apply to sexual orientation discrimination, and second, for the interpretive methodology the Court used to reach its conclusions. Windsor's four opinions—one for the five-Justice majority and three for the four dissenting Justices—disagreed about precisely what the Court concluded, which may caution restraint in speculating about the case's future import.9 This Essay hazards the prediction that 2013 will be regarded as a momentous year in the history of two distinct legal/political movements that first gained momentum in the 1980s: most obviously, strengthening the movement to combat sexual orientation discrimination and repression; and, more generally and less noted, weakening the movement to promote "originalism" in constitutional interpretation and American politics.


Mining high-dimensional data streams poses a fundamental challenge to machine learning as the presence of high numbers of attributes can remarkably degrade any mining task's performance. In the past several years, dimension reduction (DR) approaches have been successfully applied for different purposes (e.g., visualization). Due to their high-computational costs and numerous passes over large data, these approaches pose a hindrance when processing infinite data streams that are potentially high-dimensional. The latter increases the resource-usage of algorithms that could suffer from the curse of dimensionality. To cope with these issues, some techniques for incremental DR have been proposed. In this paper, we provide a survey on reduction approaches designed to handle data streams and highlight the key benefits of using these approaches for stream mining algorithms.


Support vector machine (SVM) has become one of most developed methods for classification, focusing on cross-sectional analysis. However, classification of time series data is an important issue in statistics and data mining. Classification of time series data using SVMs that focus on cross-sectional data leads to improper classification, and hence, the SVM needs to be extended for handling time series dataset. As with cross-section data, the problem of imbalanced data is also common in time series data. Fuzzy method has been proven to be capable of overcoming the case of imbalanced data. In this paper, we developed a Fuzzy Support Vector Machine (FSVM) model to classify time series data with imbalanced class. The proposed method puts the fuzzy membership function on the constraint function. Through simulation studies, this research aims to assess the performance of the developed FSVM in classifying time series data. Based on the classification accuracy criteria, we prove that the proposed FSVM method outperforms the standard SVM method for the classification of multiclass time series data.


The timing, variability, and quantity of seasonal and annual rainfall are important factors in the relationship between climate and cultivation in Sub-Saharan Africa. If there is an unexpected break in rainfall early in the growing season, farmers may be able to recover and resume production despite the loss of some of their crops. However, if such a break occurs in the middle or latter part of the growing season, all of the crops sown may suffer irreparable damage, with dire economic consequences for farmer. Besides, frequent dry spells and droughts are common phenomena during the monsoon season. This book, therefore, provides agriculturalists, policy makers and farmers to have a proper knowledge of short period rainfall distribution both in time and space. Furthermore, it gives a detail explanation to know the chances of occurrence of dry spells during the critical stages of the crops for deciding the sowing date, cropping pattern and planning for irrigation and intercultural operations to sustain the rain-fed agriculture.


The aim of this paper was to research how coating of Egyptian cotton fabric with renewable source of natural amino acids extracted from soybean seed waste would influence the textile to be coated and how it affects the penetration of reactive dyestuff. Cationization have been studied on scoured and mercerized cotton fabrics for achieving electropositive charge and better adsorption properties and the optimum conditions were determined. The changes in surface morphology of fabrics after cationization were identified by FTIR spectroscopy analysis. The results revealed obtained that the color measurements, tensile strength, elongation and fastness properties of cationized cotton fabrics has improved compared with the untreated fabrics. An important advantage of cationic treatment is in the economical and environmental impact by using the waste of soybean and minimize the environmental problems occurred in reactive dyeing by making salt-free reactive dyeing.


Recent Ontario provincial and federal education policy developments propose to increase the academic success of an ever increasing number of First Nation children attending urban and First Nation schools. Key to achieving that goal is increasing the number of Aboriginal educators who are skilled in teaching that is grounded in culturally responsive and relational pedagogy. In many instances, those interested in pursuing such a career in education are limited in their ability to attend conventional teacher education programs because they live in remote communities, have familial responsibilities, and/or have limitations related to their employment. Creating and resourcing teacher education programs that consider the realities of First Nation peoples will be fundamental to achieving the goals set out by the Ontario and federal governments. This paper highlights factors that limit access to university education for First Nation peoples and presents the results of a pilot study that evaluated a unique teacher education program for Aboriginal students delivered at a distance from their home communities. The paper also discusses the opportunities and pitfalls associated with technology-mediated Aboriginal teacher education.


Entity alignment (EA) aims to find the equivalent entity pairs between different knowledge graphs (KGs), which is crucial to promote knowledge fusion. With the wide use of temporal knowledge graphs (TKGs), time-aware EA (TEA) methods appear to enhance EA. Existing TEA models are based on Graph Neural Networks (GNN) and achieve state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance, but it is difficult to transfer them to large-scale TKGs due to the scalability issue of GNN. In this paper, we propose an effective and efficient non-neural EA framework between TKGs, namely LightTEA, which consists of four essential components: (1) Two-aspect Three-view Label Propagation, (2) Sparse Similarity with Temporal Constraints, (3) Sinkhorn Operator, and (4) Temporal Iterative Learning. All of these modules work together to improve the performance of EA while reducing the time consumption of the model. Extensive experiments on public datasets indicate that our proposed model significantly outperforms the SOTA methods for EA between TKGs, and the time consumed by LightTEA is only dozens of seconds at most, no more than 10% of the most efficient TEA method.


ABSTRACT Organised sport has become a legitimate interest group, with potential influence in wider policy-making circles. Building on a distinction between because-of motives and in-order-to motives, the purpose of this study is to analyse why sport organisations conduct advocacy while offering an assessment of the sport-internal transformative effects of advocacy activities. The analysis is based on interviews with 46 elected and staff representatives of Swedish Regional Sport Federations, and it shows (1) that a perceived de-institutionalization of organised sport's monopolistic position in Sweden underpins the imperative to conduct advocacy, and (2) that the overarching goal-oriented purpose of advocacy is to further sport organisations' role as advocates in future policy processes. This indicates that sport organisations are transitioning from a 'passive custodian' to an 'active advocate' role in relation to the government. We propose that this latter role may include a professionalisation of advocacy activities, and that advocacy, therefore, may accentuate internal tensions related to the trade-off between efficiency and democracy, create a need for sport-internal advocacy, and undermine future advocacy claims and/or access to policy processes.


The Cu-Fe base alloys with liquid immiscible were prepared by gas atomization technique and conventional solidification process, the self-assemble composite microstructures in powders and bulk materials can be obtained under gravity conditions, respectively, and the minor liquid phase always forms the center of composite microstructure. It is shown that the formation of the core-type macroscopic morphology is strongly connected with the existence of a stable miscibility gap of the liquid phase in the Cu-Fe base alloys. This result can be explained by a mechanism that the minor droplets as the second phase are forced to move into the thermal center due to Marangoni motion, which is caused by the temperature dependence of interfacial energy between two liquid phases.


ABSTRACT It is quite feasible to concentrate material for heavy mineral studies in the field. This saves much labor and extends the scope of the geologist in the field.


The study was undertaken to assess the potential of a labeled C3d radioimmunoassay method as a standardization criterion for antiglobulin reagents containing anti‐C3d reactivity. Over an 18‐month interval, four different lots of broad‐spectrum antiglobulin reagents were purchased from each of seven United States manufacturers. Anti‐C3d antibody concentration and Ko in each lot were assayed initially and at four‐month intervals over 16 to 21 months storage at 4 degrees C. The results permitted 1) comparison of anti‐C3d antibody concentrations among different manufacturers, 2) comparison among different lots from the same manufacturer, and 3) assessment of stability of anti‐C3d during storage. In addition, serial dilutions of reagents in each manufacturer's diluent were compared for their anti‐C3d agglutinating properties by the spin‐antiglobulin method against red blood cells (RBC) coated by C3d in vitro and against in vivo C3d‐coated RBC from 16 patients. Most reagents were shown also to contain anti‐C3c, anti‐C4c and anti‐C4d reactivities when tested against suitably coated RBC. Anti‐ C3d antibody concentrations ranged from approximately 1 to 3.5 microgram/ml for 27 of the 28 reagents and were stable over 16 to 21 months of storage. Anti‐C3d agglutination titer scores showed a general correlation with anti‐C3d antibody concentrations when tested against in vitro C3d‐coated RBC; correlations were less good against C3d‐coated cells from patients. The radioimmunoassay provided reproducible objective measurements and appeared to have merit as a standardization criterion.


This study determines the impacts of stock splits on transaction costs under tick sizes of $1/16 and $0.01. Similar to previous studies, stock splits decrease quoted dollar spreads and effective dollar spreads, and they increase quoted percentage spreads and effective percentage spreads. The effect of stock splits, however, differs depending on tick size. Quoted percentage spreads increase 44% with the smaller tick size ($0.01), but increase 56% with the larger tick size ($1/16). Moreover, effective percentage spreads increase 39% with the smaller tick size, but increase 44% with the larger tick size. In addition, under the $1/16 tick size regime stock splits increase quoted depth, but under the $0.01 tick size regime stock splits decrease quoted depth.


Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a special kind of network that differs from traditional communication network. It consists of multiple wireless nodes within an area, with each device assuming responsibility for assisting in forwarding packets and being free to move around the area to change the wireless connection at any time. The network's wireless topology may change rapidly and unpredictably, and MANET has no centralized control for distribution of load properly, so load balancing becomes one of the most important issue in MANET. When a network transmits a large number of packets, if there is no load balancing, the network's life and performance will be affected due to congestion, high latency and data loss caused by overloading the network. Load balancing can improve network life and performance by distributing the load on a per-node basis. With development of the research, multipath routing protocols are more popular than single-path routing protocols, and multi-path routing protocols have shown superiority in their ability to improve packet rates, increase transmission reliability, and handle network congestion and busy traffic on time. This paper examines some multi-path load-balanced routing schemes in MANET networks and provides the relative advantages and disadvantages of the protocols so that we can identify future directions for research.


Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2‐R) over a membrane lung is a new therapy for patients with adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) who frequently suffer from lung complications caused by long‐term artificial ventilation and who may require major thoracic surgery. This is a report of 76 patients with severe ARDS who were treated by ECCO2‐R. Twenty‐six of these 76 patients required thoracotomy: 19 for pneumothorax and pneumatocele, and seven for haemothorax, infected lung necrosis or oesophagotracheal fistula. Most pneumothoraces were bilateral. Ten of these 26 patients required reoperation, usually for extensive persisting alveolar air leaks. Sixteen (62 per cent) of the 26 patients who had a thoracotomy and 22 (44 per cent) of the 50 patients without surgery survived. These results demonstrate that performing a thoracotomy, if necessary, does not diminish the survival chance of high‐risk patients with severe ARDS.


Electric Quadrupole transitions are calculated for beryllium isotopes (9, 10, 12 and 14). Calculations with configuration mixing shell model usually under estimate the measured E2 transition strength. Although the consideration of a large basis no core shell model with 2ℏtruncations for 9,10,12 and14 where all major shells s, p, sd are used, fail to describe the measured reduced transition strength without normalizing the matrix elements with effective charges to compensate for the discarded space. Instead of using constant effective charges, excitations out of major shell space are taken into account through a microscopic theory which allows particle–hole excitations from the core and model space orbits to all higher orbits with 2ℏw excitations which are called core-polarization effects. The two body Michigan sum of three ranges Yukawa potential (M3Y) is used for the core-polarization matrix element. The simple harmonic oscillator potential is used to generate the single particle matrix elements of all isotopes considered in this work. The b value of each isotope is adjusted to reproduce the experimental matter radius, These size parameters of the harmonic oscillator almost reproduce all the root mean square (rms) matter radii for 9,10,12,14Be isotopes within the experimental errors. Almost same effective charges are obtained for the neutron- rich Be isotopes which are smaller than the standard values. The major contribution to the transition strength comes from the core polarization effects. The present calculations of the neutron-rich 12,14Beisotopes show a deviation from the general trends in accordance with experimental and other theoretical studies. The configurations arises from the shell model calculations with core-polarization effects reproduce the experimental B(E2) values.


Abstract. The Arctic marine climate system is changing rapidly, which is seen in the warming of the
ocean and atmosphere, decline of sea ice cover, increase in river discharge,
acidification of the ocean, and changes in marine ecosystems. Socio-economic
activities in the coastal and marine Arctic are simultaneously changing. This
calls for the establishment of a marine Arctic component of the Pan-Eurasian
Experiment (MA-PEEX). There is a need for more in situ observations on the
marine atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean, but increasing the amount of such
observations is a pronounced technological and logistical challenge. The
SMEAR (Station for Measuring Ecosystem–Atmosphere Relations) concept can be
applied in coastal and archipelago stations, but in the Arctic Ocean it will
probably be more cost-effective to further develop a strongly distributed
marine observation network based on autonomous buoys, moorings, autonomous
underwater vehicles (AUVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These have to
be supported by research vessel and aircraft campaigns, as well as various
coastal observations, including community-based ones. Major manned drifting
stations may occasionally be comparable to terrestrial SMEAR flagship
stations. To best utilize the observations, atmosphere–ocean reanalyses need
to be further developed. To well integrate MA-PEEX with the existing
terrestrial–atmospheric PEEX, focus is needed on the river discharge and
associated fluxes, coastal processes, and atmospheric transports in
and out of the marine Arctic. More observations and research are also needed
on the specific socio-economic challenges and opportunities in the marine and
coastal Arctic, and on their interaction with changes in the climate and
environmental system. MA-PEEX will promote international collaboration;
sustainable marine meteorological, sea ice, and oceanographic observations;
advanced data management; and multidisciplinary research on the marine Arctic
and its interaction with the Eurasian continent.


Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the initiatives undertaken by a corporation to measure its efforts to improve the environment and social well-being. One of the aspects of CSR pertains to the disclosure of emission information and carbon management strategy (CMS). In this paper, we examine the role of an effective CMS on the emission disclosure behavior of firms. Emissions can be categorized as direct emissions, owned or controlled by firms, and indirect emissions, which are a consequence of the activities of the firms but are not owned or controlled by them. By using the information from Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) Climate Change Information Survey we find that firms adopting an effective CMS are more likely to disclose the information about both direct and indirect emissions. Another inquiry of this paper is to test how firms benefit from adopting superior quality CMS. After controlling the amount of both direct and indirect emissions, as well as firm-specific factors, we find that the value of the firm increases with the quality of the CMS. These findings are robust because we used various measures for firm value. We also find that the quantity of direct emissions is negatively associated with firm values, a finding consistent with recent literature. However, there is no association between indirect emissions and firm value. In addition, we document that an increase in one unit of CMS score significantly reduces the quantity of direct emissions, which potentially would positively impact the value of the firms. Additional analysis finds that the disclosures of direct emissions, driven by CMS, also improve the value of the firms. Overall, our findings establish the importance of an effective CMS that brings positive benefits for the firms in terms of market value, also helping to reduce carbon footprints to ensure environmental sustainability. JEL Classification: M10, M14, M41, Q56


This study aims to determine how much influence the number of populations, government expenditure and GRDP affect regional income in Jambi Province. This study uses a quantitative descriptive method with a form of correlational research that explains the relationship of independent variables with dependent variables. The analytical tool in this study uses multiple regression with proof of hypotheses by statistical tests t. Based on the results of SPSS calculations, the authors get the results of research in the form of government expenditure variables, PDRB and the number of residents together - they have a partially positive influence on regional income in Jambi Province due to F count (11.69973)>F table (3.41) then ho is rejected or equal to zero. This means that all regression coefficients or all government expenditure variables, GDP and population together - have an effect on regional income in Jambi Province. From the results of the analysis in this study can be concluded, together the Regional Expenditure Variables, Population and GRDP affect Regional Original Revenue. Individually, the Regional Expenditure Variables, Population and GRDP can influence Regional Original Income, which has the greatest influence on Regional Original Revenue in Jambi Province.


The UC Berkeley Comfort Model is a helpful simulation tool for the assessment of thermal comfort in non-uniform environments. A major element of the model is the implementation of a clothing node, which considers both heat and moisture capacitance of clothing. Heat capacity of the clothing has been demonstrated to be important when considering transient effects. Moisture capacitance is important to correctly model evaporative heat loss from the body through clothing. The moisture model uses the regain approach to calculate the amount of moisture that a specific fabric will absorb at a given humidity.


The purpose of this paper is to analyze the competition among mobile app stores for smart mobile media devices. Therefore, the business models of seven mobile app stores are analyzed with a special focus on Apple and Google. We use e3-value modelling - a formal business modelling technique - for analyzing the critical elements of these mobile ecosystems. The analysis of the app store ecosystems allows a differentiated view on the different strategies of the app store owners. Additionally, we look at the impact of network effects, economies of scale, platform differentiation, quality assurance, and transaction costs on the design of mobile application markets. This theoretical model allows a deeper discussion about the design choices and success factors in the different app store cases. Based on our analysis, we expect that the open versus closed models discussion becomes less relevant - so-called open platforms have closed aspects as well as the other way around - and that competitive differentiation and segmentation strategies will become increasingly critical in order to strengthen the competitive positioning of the different app store platforms.


It has been recently shown that the hidden variables of convolutional neural networks make for an efficient perceptual similarity metric that accurately predicts human judgment on relative image similarity assessment. First, we show that such learned perceptual similarity metrics (LPIPS) are susceptible to adversarial attacks that dramatically contradict human visual similarity judgment. While this is not surprising in light of neural networks' well-known weakness to adversarial perturbations, we proceed to show that self-ensembling with an infinite family of random transformations of the input --- a technique known not to render classification networks robust --- is enough to turn the metric robust against attack, while retaining predictive power on human judgments. Finally, we study the geometry imposed by our our novel self-ensembled metric (E-LPIPS) on the space of natural images. We find evidence of "perceptual convexity" by showing that convex combinations of similar-looking images retain appearance, and that discrete geodesics yield meaningful frame interpolation and texture morphing, all without explicit correspondences.


Abstract: It has been shown that nitric oxide (NO) regulates NO synthase (NOS) activity through negative feedback in cytosolic enzyme preparations in various cell types. We compared the effects of the NO‐generating compounds S‐nitroso‐N‐acetylpenicillamine (SNAP), 3‐morpholinosydnonimine (SIN‐1), and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) on NOS activity in intact neuroblastoma N1E‐115 cells and in the cytosol obtained from the same cells. Enzyme activity was measured by the conversion of l‐[3H]arginine into l‐[3H]citrulline. At concentrations that elicit almost complete inhibition of NOS activity in cytosolic enzyme preparations of these cells, SIN‐1 and SNP did not cause significant attenuation of enzyme activity measured at 45 min in intact cells. It is surprising that SIN‐1 and SNP markedly stimulated l‐[3H]citrulline formation in a time‐ and concentration‐dependent manner when cells were incubated with the compounds for >1.5 h. Neither inhibitory nor stimulatory effects of SNAP on NOS were observed in intact N1E‐115 cells. This is in contrast to the inhibitory effects of SNAP in cytosolic preparations of the enzyme. The increased NOS activity by SIN‐1 or SNP in intact cells was dependent on the presence of extracellular Ca2+, suggesting that it might be due to increased Ca2+ influx. On the other hand, measurements of the activity of lactate dehydrogenase showed that there was no generalized increase in cell permeability in response to SIN‐1 or SNP. There was no agreement in the rank order of potencies of these compounds in activating guanylate cyclase and in affecting NOS activity, both in broken‐cell preparations and in intact cells. Thus, modulation of NOS activity by NO‐releasing compounds is not dependent on cyclic GMP formation and might not be related in a simple fashion to NO generation. Alternatively, activation of guanylate cyclase and stimulation of NOS activity might require different redox species of NO. Our present findings might be of clinical relevance in relation to long‐term use of NO‐generating compounds as therapeutic agents.


Highly synchronized cultures of HSF‐55 human diploid fibroblasts contain subpopulations of cells with intact plasma membranes that do not participate in the parasynchronous division wave. To determine the fate of these laggard cells, cultures were incubated with BrdU for variable periods to label newly replicated DNA in both the readily synchronizable and nonsynchronizable subpopulations. The kinetics of labeling with BrdU were determined with a two‐laser flow cytometric technique that did not employ antibody to BrdU, but instead monitored emission of fluorescence from DNA‐specific stains that differed in the degree of BrdU‐induced quenching of their fluorescence signals. Approximately 90% of the cells rapidly incorporated BrdU and later divided within a 3 hr period. The remaining 10% of the cells, however, were found to reside within a minority subpopulation that maintained the capacity to traverse the cell cycle, but at a greatly reduced rate relative to the progression capacity of the majority of cells. Cells were viably sorted from these cohorts within the synchronized culture, and their kinetic behavior was determined through direct measurement of their growth rates and plating efficiencies. As predicted by the BrdU labeling studies, the sorted cells from the minority, slowly traversing subpopulation divided at a rate that was 30 to 50% lower than that obtained with cells sorted from the readily synchronizable subpopulation. From consideration of the kinetics of entry into S‐phase of the majority and minority subpopulations, protocols are described that should allow preparation of relatively pure populations of both early‐ and late‐replicating species of human DNA.


Exposure of the Roma ethnic minority to social exclusion, segregation, and racial discrimination is well documented in the literature. How these tendencies are reflected in the access to environmental benefits and exposure to environmental risks in the majority and the minority populations is the subject of this article. Using a comparative evaluation and the concept of environmental justice the author analyses the social processes and factors that contribute to differentiated distribution of risks/benefits. Based on a survey of 30 randomly selected settlements and comparative case study analyses the author maps inequalities, identifies the location of a Roma settlement as a strong factor leading to various forms of environmental (in)justice, and subjects the settlement locations to an entitlement analysis (as developed by Amartya Sen). Particular attention is paid to defining and understanding entitlements and how they govern access to land and thus influence the living conditions and well-being of different individuals and groups. Entitlements and the entitlement-based control of resources are discussed here as a dynamic process, the different economic and social factors behind which are identified and analysed to deconstruct the processes that lead to environmental (in)justice. The article concludes with a description of trends and a discussion of the need to re-think our definitions and understanding of the role of entitlements in relation to the distribution of environmental benefits and risks.


The study is intended to forecast the advantages and contributions of agricultural insurance to support the agricultural sector in the Sudan and to detect especially the limitations and constraints facing the adoption of this policy. A descriptive and analytical approach was used. A questionnaire targeting the professionals and officials in Shiakan insurance company in Khartoum and Wad Medani. The study concluded that: Awareness and orientation of the farmers with this policy was poor, furthermore, farmers were unhappy regarding the adoption of the insurance policy in a compulsory way. The prevailing economical environment in the Sudan did not much favor the adoption of this policy, there was a time lagge between the timing of actions and Compensations received by the clients. The study recommended the promotion and development program for all the stakeholders about the agricultural insurance, upgrading the technology used, securing the finance needed, rules and regulations to define the obligations of the different parties. Farmers should be responsive through provision of incentives and encouraged by different ways.


In the autumn of 2000, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) organised a 'blind comparison', in which wind turbine research centres worldwide were asked to provide stationary aerodynamic loads for the wind turbine Phase VI and aerodynamic coefficients for the S809 airfoil. These institutes participated in this benchmark with their wind tunnel measurements and numerical calculation programs. The results furnished by the participants showed a large discrepancy and scatter, in particular in deep stall. Based on the differences between the provided aerodynamic properties, the need for improvements on the current design codes and for implementation of new numerical method was imposed. The purpose of the present work is to reproduce the aerodynamic coefficients for S809 airfoil in attached flow and in-stall development, by using a coupled potential method and the boundary layers theory. For the fully stalled region, a novel technique was introduced, based on the AERODAS model developed by NASA. This model has been improved to consider the effect of Reynolds number, and to prevent numerical instability, which might be produced by the transition from pre-stall to post-stall regions. The results of our calculations were approximately in the mid-range of those from the 'blind comparison' participants while they were not highly disparate to the measurements.


Deposits of hard kaolin are abundant in China, with kaolin
content in the ore exceeding 95%. It is, however, rather difficult to remove
iron from the ore. It was demonstrated that wet high–gradient magnetic
separation is very efficient in removing the iron compounds from kaolin.
For hard kaolin, however, dry high–gradient magnetic separation (HGMS)
may be more suitable. To this end, we have developed a new type of dry
HGMS device for laboratory use. The separation performance of the device
was tested as a function of the iron concentration in the ore, gas velocity,
magnetic induction and the intensity of the vibrating current. The following
results were achieved: for sample no. 1 of hard kaolin, the content of Fe2O3
was reduced from about 2.20% to .082%, with the yield of the concentrate
of 86.5%. For no. 2 sample of hard kaolin, the content of Fe2O3 was reduced
from about 0.60% to 0.48%, with the yield of the concentrate 83.15%. The
removal of the iron oxide from hard kaolin by dry HGMS proved to be
feasible. Industrial–scale dry HGMS device was built and installed at a
mine at the end of 1993.


An inline inspection of a subsea oil pipeline located in the North Sea identified a large top of line dent.
 The pipeline was scheduled for decommissioning within 3 years, however conventional fatigue assessment of the dent indicated that the pipeline could become unsafe before the scheduled decommissioning date.
 As the required remaining life could not be justified by conventional assessment, a review was completed to determine whether a case-specific assessment methodology could be developed to reduce the conservatism, while reliably demonstrating that the pipeline could be safely operated up until the planned decommissioning date.
 This review identified that the pipeline had a unique pressure history, which included a large one-off pressure spike that had occurred following detection of the dent. This raised the possibility of a pseudo-hydrotest type assessment to justify the required remaining life.
 This paper describes the non-conventional pseudo-hydrotest assessment that was undertaken for the dent to demonstrate acceptability, which used a combination of state of the art finite element analysis and fatigue crack growth assessment.


"The Soviet Union is now engaged in an audacious attempt JL to upset the established balance of power prevailing in Europe." This statement was used by C. L. Sulzberger, writing in the New York Times for March 23, 1952, to open a discussion of the Soviet offer to establish a unified and neutral Germany. It symbolizes the startling renaissance of the balance of power concept in recent years not only in the pages of learned journals, but in the daily press and in radio as well. This rebirth is probably attributable to the effort to reconsider the notions concerning international relations generally held during the League of Nations period, notions which emphasized open diplomacy, collective security, and the use of arbitration instead of unilateral force. The apparent futility of these methods seemed to call for the reintroduction of more meaningful concepts into the analysis of international affairs, and the balance of power thus reappeared as part of the general trend to re-establish the primacy of power as the key to the understanding of interstate relations. There would be no difficulty in this development if the term "balance of power" were free from philological, semantic, and theoretical confusion. Unfortunately, it is not. The term is defined differently by different writers; it is used in varying senses, even if not defined exactly at all; and, finally, it is the focal concept in several quite distinct theories of international relations. The purpose of this article is the clarification, not only of the verbal differences in meaning, but also of the applied meanings of the "balance of power" phrase as they vary in accordance with the intentions of the users. The necessity for such an attempt may be demonstrated by an introductory discussion of the variety of thought on this topic, in terms of substantive meanings no less than in terms of systems of classification.


Rice is Indonesia's staple food and accounts for large shares of both consumers' budgets and total employment. Until recently, Indonesia was the world's largest importer, but rice import policy is now highly protectionist. Since early 2004, rice imports have been officially banned. Advocates of this policy say it reduces poverty by assisting poor farmers. Opponents say it increases poverty, stressing negative effects on poor consumers. This paper uses a general equilibrium model of the Indonesian economy to analyse the effects of a ban on rice imports. The analysis recognises 1000 individual households, including all major socioeconomic categories, disaggregated by expenditures per person. It takes account of effects on each household's real expenditure and its income, operating through wages and returns to land and capital. The results indicate that the rice import ban raises the domestic price of rice relative to the import price by an amount equivalent to a 125 per cent tariff, six times the pre-2004 tariff. Poverty incidence rises by a little under 1 per cent of the population and increases in both rural and urban areas. Among farmers, only the richest gain. These results are qualitatively robust to variations in key parametric assumptions. Copyright 2005 Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd..


The Josephina, written by Jean Gerson at the beginning of the fifteenth century, is a Virgilian poem of biblical content. It was the first in a genre of which De partu Virginis by Jacopo Sannazzaro would be the most famous example. To understand Gerson's motivation and originality, it is necessary to clarify the cultural context in which he wrote. This paper reviews the ancient and medieval traditions that might have inspired him: hagiographic and historical narrative poems of scriptural discussion written in hexameter, devotional literature with subject matter from the Bible or the Apocrypha that grew out of the Devotio moderna. Two works – Petrarch's Africa and the Dictamen de laudibus beati Joseph by Pierre Poquet – seem to have been particularly significant. This demonstrates that Gerson was both rooted in that tradition and sensitive to the newer cultural demands of the times.


Paenibacillus odorifer produces a single multimodular enzyme containing a glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 74 module (AIQ73809). Recombinant production and characterization of the GH74 module (PoGH74cat) revealed a highly specific, processive endo-xyloglucanase that can hydrolyze the polysaccharide backbone at both branched and unbranched positions. X-ray crystal structures obtained for the free enzyme and oligosaccharide complexes evidenced an extensive hydrophobic binding platform - the first in GH74 extending from subsites -4 to +6 - and unique mobile active-site loops. Site-directed mutagenesis revealed that glycine-476 was uniquely responsible for the promiscuous backbone-cleaving activity of PoGH74cat; replacement with tyrosine, which is conserved in many GH74 members, resulted in exclusive hydrolysis at unbranched glucose units. Likewise, systematic replacement of the hydrophobic platform residues constituting the positive subsites indicated their relative contributions to the processive mode of action. Specifically, W347 (+3 subsite) and W348 (+5 subsite) are essential for processivity, while W406 (+2 subsite) and Y372 (+6 subsite) are not strictly essential, but aid processivity.


Category: Ankle; Bunion; Midfoot/Forefoot; Other Introduction/Purpose: Patients with a history of opioid use disorder (OUD) have been shown to incur more severe medical complications, higher readmission rates, and increased cost following various orthopedic procedures. There is a scarcity in the literature investigating the effects of OUD following a hallux valgus procedure. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate whether OUD patients undergoing a hallux valgus correction are at greater odds of: 1) readmission rates, 2) emergency room (ER) visits, and 3) costs. Methods: Patients undergoing a hallux valgus correction with a history of OUD were identified using a health insurance claims database. To search for patients undergoing hallux valgus surgical corrections the following current procedural terminology (CPT) medical codes were used: 28290, 28292, 28293, 28294, 28296, 28297, 28298, 28299, 28306, and 28307. To include all eligible patients the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes were also utilized, including: 77.51 and 77.59. OUD patients were matched to non-opioid use disorder (NUD) patients in a 1:4 ratio by age, sex, Elixhauser-Comorbidity Index (ECI), diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and tobacco use. Primary outcomes analyzed included odds of 90-day readmission rates, 30-day emergency room visit, and 90-day episode of care costs. Pearson's chi-squared test was used to compare demographics. Logistic regression analysis calculated odds-ratios for readmission and ER visits. Welch's t-test was used for significance in ECI and cost between cohorts. Results: The query yielded 6,318 patients (OUD=1,276; NUD=5,042) who underwent a hallux valgus correction. There were no significant difference between any of the compared age ranges (p=0.859, p=0.952, p=0.909, p=0.961), ECI (p=1.000) and comorbidities between OUD and NUD patients. OUD patients had higher incidence and odds of 90-day readmission rates (9.56 vs. 6.04%; OR: 1.55, p<0.001) and 30-day ER visits (.86 vs. .35%; OR: 2.42, p=0.021) compared to controls. OUD patients also incurred significantly greater 90-day episode of care costs ($7,208.28 vs. $6,134.75, p<0.0001) compared to NUD patients. Conclusion: Patients with a history of OUD who underwent a hallux valgus correction had a higher odds ratio of 90-day readmission rates, 30-day emergency room visits, and 90-day total global episode of care cost compared to those with NUD. These findings expand on a rapidly growing body of current literature that demonstrate OUD increases numerous costs associated with outcomes of foot and ankle surgery. OUD is a risk factor for poor post operative outcomes for patients undergoing a hallux valgus correction. The findings of this study are likely to improve preoperative counseling and selection when addressing patients with preoperative opioid use.


A novel low cost borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) technology suitable for one micron processing is presented here. This technique allows glass to be flowed consistently and reproducibly at temperatures as low as 750°C. Flow angles are independent of device linewidths from 1 to 10 microns. The flow angle can be adjusted by changing the deposition time. The simplicity of the process will probably enhance the reliability of the technique. Related issues such as photoresist adhesion and plasma etching have been examined. Application of this material as an interlayer dielectric in MOS circuits looks promising.


This paper explores some of the ways that economists can incorporate insights from recent research combining psychology and economics to help understand risky behavior by adolescents.


We construct a sequence that converges to a solution of the Cauchy problem for a singularly perturbed linear inhomogeneous differential equation of an arbitrary order. This sequence is also an asymptotic sequence in the following sense: the deviation (in the norm of the space of continuous functions) of its $n$th element from the solution of the problem is proportional to the $(n+1)$th power of the parameter of perturbation. This sequence can be used for justification of asymptotics obtained by the method of boundary functions.


Economics of scale in Internet of Things (IoT) presents new security challenges for ubiquitous devices in terms of authentication, addressing and embedded security. Currently available cryptographic techniques require further analysis to determine applicability to IoT. We introduce an authentication and encryption protocol which serves as a proof of concept for authenticating device using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) – Galois/ Counter Mode GCM as cryptographic primitive. Authenticated encryption is best suited concept for IoT that will provide both message encryption and authentication. Unique part of this work is a novel approach of extending authentication and encryption with cryptographic capabilities.


There are various strategies developed by scientists to form criteria that contribute to stabilising the Russian economy and its growth. A strategy aimed at socio-economic transformation is used to increase the economy's growth rate. Despite this, there is a differentiation of the industrial sector and the economic and infrastructural stratification of the regions. In this regard, many social problems and conflicts have appeared. To resolve these conflicts in the Volga Federal District (VFD) regions, it is necessary to improve the quality of the socio-economic environment by implementing appropriate development strategies. It is necessary to form a system of effective interaction between the regions, contributing to the normalisation of socio-economic relations. To form this type of strategy, it is necessary to have a detailed analysis of the development of the region, as well as to understand the specifics of the processes taking place in the region. The problems of the influence exerted on the economic development of the regions of the Russian Federation as a whole in some cases are aggravated by regional specifics, as well as increased interregional competition for labor resources. The article analyses the labor resources and their impact on the economic development of the regions. The problem of reducing the number of labor resources in the regions has been identified, directly related to the regions' demographic situation and the population's standard of living, and the most important economic indicator the gross regional product (GRP). Recommendations are given for solving the problems of labor supply in the regions and ways of economic development of the regions. The characteristics of the Volga Federal District regions are compared with the Chuvash Republic indicators for clarity, which helps to notice a significant difference between the regions. The instability of the socio-economic situation in the region caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is shown, which directly affected the reduction of the population and the reduction of the labor resources of the population and the quality of life of the population. This article presents the results of the analysis of socio-economic problems, due to the existence of which there is a reduction in the labor resources of the Volga Federal District and the impact on the economic situation.


An enzyme-linked differential antibody immunosorbent assay has been developed for the quantification of alpha2-plasmin inhibitor-plasmin and alpha2-macroglobulin-plasmin complexes. In this method the inhibitor-plasmin complex is bound to a surface by an inhibitor-specific antibody, and the plasmin bound to the inhibitor is quantified by a second antibody, rabbit antiplasminogen F(ab')2, labeled with alkaline phosphatase. The hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl phosphate by the alkaline phosphatase is expressed in femtomoles of plasminogen per milliliter, by reference to a standard plasminogen curve. Inhibitor-enzyme complexes were generated in plasma by the addition of plasmin or of urokinase. The concentration of plasmin added was well below the plasma concentration of alpha2-plasmin inhibitor (1 microM) or of alpha2-macroglobulin (3.5 microM), so that neither inhibitor would be fully saturated with enzyme. Under these conditions increasing amounts of plasmin generated an increase in both alpha2-plasmin inhibitor-plasmin and alpha2-macroglobulin-plasmin complexes. Varying amounts of plasmin were incubated with each of the purified inhibitors in the concentration found in plasma, and the complexes. Varying amounts of plasmin were incubated with each of the purified inhibitors in the concentration found in plasma, and the complexes that formed were quantified by immunoassay. These studies made it possible to quantify the distribution of plasmin between the two inhibitors in plasmin or urokinase-treated plasma. In plasmin-treated plasma, 10% or less of the plasmin bound to both inhibitors was in complex with alpha2-macroglobulin. In contrast, between 19 and 51% of the plasmin generated in urokinase-activated plasma was bound to alpha2-macroglobulin. Thus, major changes in the distribution of plasma were observed, according to whether plasmin was added to plasma or whether plasminogen was activated endogenously. The pattern of inhibitor plasmin complexes generated in vivo by the therapeutic infusion of urokinase was similar to that found for urokinase-activated plasma. 23 normal individuals had low levels of alpha2-plasmin inhibitor-plasmin complexes, whereas six patients with laboratory evidence for disseminated intravascular coagulation demonstrated a 16- to 35-fold increase in he concentration of these complexes. These data indicated that a useful new probe for the study of the fibrinolytic enzyme system had been developed.


Background Trilostane medical treatment of naturally occurring hyperadrenocorticism (NOH) in dogs is common, as is use of the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) stimulation test (ACTHst) in monitoring response to treatment. There is uncertainty regarding when the ACTHst should be started relative to time of trilostane administration. Objective To compare ACTHst results in dogs being treated for NOH with trilostane when the test is begun 2 versus 4 hours after trilostane administration. Animals Twenty‐one privately owned dogs with NOH, each treated with trilostane for at least 30 days. Methods Each dog had 2 ACTHst completed, 1 started 2 hours and the other 4 hours after trilostane administration. The second test was started no sooner than 46 hours and no later than 74 hours after the first. Results For all 21 dogs, the mean post‐ACTH serum cortisol concentration from tests started 2 hours after trilostane administration (5.4 ± 3.7 μg/dL) was significantly lower (P = .03) as compared with results from the tests started 4 hours after administration (6.5 ± 4.5 μg/dL). Conclusions Results of ACTHst started at different times yield significantly different results. Dogs with NOH, treated with trilostane, and monitored with ACTHst results should have all of their subsequent ACTHst tests begun at or about the same time after trilostane administration.


This special issue is dedicated to Yoichiro Matsumoto on the occasion of his 60th birthday. A six-session symposium on Advances in Computational Fluid Mechanics and Fluid–Structure Interactions was organized to celebrate this occasion at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress, which was held in November 2009, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. This special issue contains papers authored by friends, collaborators, and former students of Yoichiro Matsumoto who gave presentations at this symposium. Yoichiro Matsumoto contributed much to computational and experimental fluid mechanics, mentored many young researchers in Japan, and has been a dedicated participant in research gatherings on computational fluid mechanics and fluid–structure interactions (FSI). This special issue is another occasion to recognize his accomplishments and thank him for his contributions. Yoichiro Matsumoto received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tokyo, and has been serving on the faculty there since then. He made significant research contributions to multiscale phenomena in fluid mechanics, dispersed multiphase flows, bubbly liquids, molecular dynamics, and medical applications of ultrasound with microbubbles. He received the Calvin Rice Lecture Award from the ASME in 2005, and was selected for the ASME Applied Mechanics Division Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award, which will formally be given in November 2010. This special issue contains several papers on FSI modeling, with a wide range of applications. The applications include patient-specific modeling of cerebral aneurysms, blood flow, performance analysis of Orion spacecraft parachutes, modeling of parachute clusters, and aerodynamic and FSI modeling of wind turbine rotors at full scale. Both the moving-grid techniques (such as the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian and space–time methods) and fixed-grid techniques are used in dealing with the moving interfaces. The coupling techniques used include the direct and block-iterative methods. A good number of papers focus on numerical method development, performance evaluation, and conceptual framework. These include the stabilized formulations for combustion, modal analysis for 3D sloshing with surface tension, nested and parallel sparse algorithms, multidimensional kinetic approach for rarefied and transitional flows, ultrasound simulation techniques, investigation


An autonomous robot operating in a dynamic environment is confronted by the question of, "What to do now?" The problem of designing a controller for a car-like robot competing with another robot in a game of soccer is considered. This is a dynamic environment; the locations of the ball and the robots are constantly changing. Rapid and appropriate responses to changes in the world are central to intelligent behaviour. There are no established robot architectures that seem adequate for the challenges posed in dynamic domains. Traditional work in Artificial Intelligence has focused on the construction of plans for future execution and has resulted in architectures that are not extensible to dynamic environments. Even recently developed "reactive" architectures such as the subsumption architecture, situated automata, and RAP do not seem satisfactory. Reactive deliberation has been designed to present a set of structural elements needed in dynamic domains. Reactive deliberation makes three contributions to robot architecture. First, the decisions of what task to achieve and how to achieve it are best resolved in unison. Second, the transient goals of a robot must be evaluated at a rate commensurate with changes in the environment. Third, goal-oriented modules called behaviours are a useful abstraction that allow effective goal-arbitration and sharing of scarce computational resources. The effectiveness of reactive deliberation has been demonstrated through a tournament of one-on-one soccer games between robots. Current functionality includes motion planning, ball shooting, and playing goal, with accurate motion control at speeds of 1 m/s. The results of the soccer tournament suggest that the architectural elements in reactive deliberation are sufficient for real-time intelligent control in dynamic environments.


B-Raf is a member of the Raf family of serine/threonine kinases, which also include A-Raf and C-Raf. While all 3 Raf kinases stimulate the MAPK signaling cascade, B-Raf is the most catalytically active. B-Raf hyperactivity through mutation or over-expression is reported in many solid and hematologic malignancies. An especially high frequency (60%) of activating B-Raf mutations is found in melanoma, with the kinase domain mutant (V600E) accounting for greater than 95% of these. The identification and development of B-Raf inhibitors that selectively block signaling of the V600E B-Raf dependent MAPK pathway may have therapeutic value in these and other malignancies driven by activation of B-Raf. We report here on the characterization of novel, potent and selective small molecule Raf kinase inhibitors demonstrating potent cellular activity. Compound 1 (Smith, DeMorin et al. 2009) exhibits excellent potency in cells harboring V600E B-Raf (P-ERK IC 50 ranging from 1-14nM) however, cells that contain wild type B-Raf are significantly less sensitive to inhibition of MAPK signaling by compound 1 (P-ERK IC 50 ranging from 260nM to > 1μM). This shift in potency between V600E B-Raf versus wt B-Raf cell lines is also observed with cellular viability. In contrast to cells harboring B-Raf mutation, exposure to selected Raf inhibitors resulted in a dose-dependent, and sustained activation of MAPK signaling, increased Raf basal kinase activity and heterodimer stabilization in all wild type B-Raf cell lines examined . In the mutant KRAS MIA PaCa-2 and A549, Raf inhibition by selected compounds led to entry into the cell cycle, 80% increased proliferation, 40% increased colony formation and significantly stimulated tumor growth in vivo (Beltran et al, AACR 2010). Inhibition with structurally distinct Raf inhibitors or isoform specific siRNA knock-down of Raf demonstrated that these effects were mediated directly through Raf. Either A-Raf or C-Raf, mediated the Raf-inhibitor-induced MAPK pathway activation in an inhibitor-specific manner. These paradoxical effects of Raf inhibition were seen in both malignant and normal cells such as HUVEC cells. Indeed mouse treatment with any of the efficacious inhibitors resulted in hyperplasia observed in the epithelial layer of mouse esophagus and stomach. These data suggest that mutant versus wild type B-Raf MAPK pathways are distinctly regulated in cells. An implication of these results is that certain Raf inhibitors may induce unexpected normal cell and tumor tissue proliferation in patients. Smith, A. L., F. F. DeMorin, et al. (2009). "Selective Inhibitors of the Mutant B-Raf Pathway: Discovery of a Potent and Orally Bioavailable Aminoisoquinoline." Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 52(20): 6189-6192. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 21.


Galanin‐like peptide (GALP) is a neuropeptide that is thought to act on the galanin receptors GALR1, GALR2 and GALR3. In rats, i.c.v. injection of GALP has dichotomous actions on energy balance, stimulating feeding over the first hour, but reducing food intake and body weight at 24 h, as well as causing an increase in core body temperature. In mice, GALP only induces an anorexic action, and its effects on core body temperature are unknown. One aim of the present study was to determine the effects of GALP on core body temperature in mice. Intracerebroventricular injection of GALP into conscious mice had no effect on feeding over 1 h, but caused a significant reduction in food intake and body weight at 24 h. It also caused an immediate drop in core body temperature, which was followed by an increase in body temperature. To understand these different effects of GALP on energy balance in mice compared to rats, and to determine the involvement of GALR2 and GALR3, immunohistochemistry was performed to localise c‐Fos, a marker of cell activation. Intracerebroventricular injection of GALP induced c‐Fos expression in the parenchyma surrounding the ventricles, the ventricular ependymal cells and the meninges in mice and rats. GALP also induced c‐Fos expression in the supraoptic nucleus, dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus, lateral hypothalamus and nucleus tractus solitarius in rats but not in mice. Central administration of a GALR2/3 agonist in rats did not induce c‐Fos in any of the brain regions that expressed this protein after GALP injection, and had no effect on food intake, body weight and body temperature in rats or mice. These data suggest that GALP induces differential effects on energy balance and brain activity in mice compared to rats, which are unlikely to be due to activation of the GALR2 or GALR3 receptor.


Aims: To investigate plasmid-borne colistin resistance mechanism (plasmid-mediated colistin resistance [mcr-1]) in Escherichia coli of human, veterinary, and environmental origin in Bangladesh. Materials and methods: A total of 810 samples were collected from different sources. Isolation and identification of E. coli was performed using classical bacteriology and then tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. Colistin-resistant isolates were further analyzed for mcr-1 gene using PCR. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined using microbroth dilution technique. After sequencing of mcr-1 gene, phylogenetics was conducted to see the relationship with other mcr-1 gene sequences. Results: A total of 358 E. coli were isolated from 810 samples of humans, animals, environment, and food in Bangladesh. Of them 49 (15.9%) isolates were phenotypically resistant to colistin and 254 (70.9%) were resistant to multiple antimicrobials. mcr-1 gene was detected in three E. coli isolates of poultry source. For the three mcr-1 positive isolates the MIC of colistin sulfate was 4, 8, and 128 μg/mL. Gene sequencing of two of the three mcr-1 positive isolates and phylogenetic analysis showed close similarities of one isolate to other mcr-1 sequences available at GenBank while the other appeared to have evolved locally. Conclusion: First-ever report on circulation of mcr-1 E. coli of livestock origin in Bangladesh.


Thus the whole sayings or acts of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) proved to be the explanation of the Qur'an. Keeping this reality in view the writer has studied the whole treasure of the Hadith analytically and discussed the duty of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) for explanation of the Qur'an and primary and secondary sources of this pious duty pointing out different aspects of the explanation of the Qur'an by the Hadith; Qur'anic words, Qur'anic terms, Qur'anic notions, Qur'anic thoughts and even valuable points and conclusions the Prophet (PBUH) made through pondering upon this Holy Book.