Eucalyptus nitens is an important plantation tree species in South Africa, where it is grown for paper and pulp production. The growth and performance of E. nitens in South Africa is, however, reduced substantially by Mycosphaerella leaf blotch (MLB) disease. The aim of this study was to determine which species of Mycosphaerella are associated with MLB epidemics on E. nitens in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. Mycosphaerella species were isolated from leaves from two commercial E. nitens plantations by inducing the active release of ascospores onto agar. All isolates were identified according to their ascospore germination patterns, anamorph associations and sequence data generated from the Internal Transcribed Spacer region of the rDNA operon. From taxonomic and sequence data, M. nubilosa was identified as the main cause of MLB on E. nitens in commercial plantations in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. M. nubilosa is an important Eucalyptus leaf pathogen, and its correct identification in South Africa is important for the future planting of E. nitens. This is particularly true during the initial years of tree growth where MLB results in severe defoliation.


Beam currents of radioactive {sup 17}F(T{sub 1/2} = 65s) as high as 2 x 10{sup 6} s{sup {minus}1} have been produced at the ATLAS facility and delivered to target for nuclear physics research. The d({sup 16}O, {sup 17}F)n and p({sup 17}O,{sup 17}F)n reaction were used to produce the {sup 17}F in the energy range of 65-110 MeV with {sup 17}F intensities of up to 250 pnA. The target employed is a liquid nitrogen cooled H{sub 2} gas cell, with HAVAR windows, operating at up to 8 x 10{sup 4} Pa pressure. A new beam optics geometry consisting of a superconducting solenoid immediately after the production target followed by a single superconducting resonator has significantly improved the total capture efficiency of the transport system. The superconducting solenoid captures the highly divergent secondary beam and refocuses it to improve the beam match into the remainder of the transport system. A single superconducting resonator then ''debunches'' the beam, reducing the energy spread by a factor of four. The beam energy can also be varied, using the resonant cavity, without changing the primary beam energy. Detailed discussion of the results, comparison to calculations, and further possible improvements will be presented.


A novel microwave-assisted sol-gel method was applied to the synthesis of the single-phase perovskite bismuth ferrite nanoparticles (BFO NPs) with the mean diameter ca. 73.7 nm. The morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed the rhombohedral phase with R3c space group. The weak ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature was affirmed by the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). According to the UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum (UV-DSR), the band gap energy of BFO NPs was determined to be 2.18 eV. The electrochemical activity was evaluated by BFO NPs-chitosan-glassy carbon electrode (BFO-CS-GCE) sensor for detection of p-nitrophenol contaminants. The material showed an efficient oxidation catalytic activity by degrading methylene blue (MB). It was found that the degradation efficiency of 10 mg L-1 MB at pH 6.0 was above 90.9% after ultrasound- and microwave-combined-assisted (US-MW) irradiation for 15 min with BFO NPs as catalyst and H202 as oxidant. A possible reaction mechanism of degradation of MB was also proposed.


In this work we probe the impact of channel estimation on the performance of quantum LDPC codes. Our channel estimation is based on an optimal estimate of the relevant decoherence parameter via its quantum Fisher information. Using state-of-the art quantum LDPC codes designed for the quantum depolarization channel, and utilizing various quantum probes with different entanglement properties, we show how the performance of such codes can deteriorate by an order of magnitude when optimal channel identification is fed into a belief propagation decoding algorithm. Our work highlights the importance in quantum communications of a viable channel identification campaign prior to decoding, and highlights the trade-off between entanglement consumption and quantum LDPC code performance.


Carboplatin is currently being used as an anticancer drug against human cancers. However, high dose of carboplatin chemotherapy resulted in ototoxicity in cancer patients. Carboplatin-induced ototoxicity was related to oxidative stress to the cochlea and inner hair cell loss in animals. It is likely that initial oxidative injury spreads throughout the neuroaxis of the auditory system later. The study aim was to evaluate carboplatin-induced hearing loss and oxidative injury to the central auditory system (inferior colliculus) of the rat. Male Wistar rats were divided into two groups of seven animals each and treated as follows: (1) control (normal saline, intraperitoneal [IP]) and (2) carboplatin (256 mg/kg, IP). Auditory brain-evoked responses (ABRs) were recorded before and 4 days after treatments. The animals were sacrificed on the 4th day and inferior colliculus from brain stem and cerebellum were isolated and analyzed. Carboplatin significantly elevated the hearing threshold shifts at clicks, 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-, and 32-k Hz tone burst stimuli. Carboplatin significantly increased nitric oxide and lipid peroxidation, xanthine oxidase, and manganese superoxide dismutase activities in the inferior colliculus, but not in the cerebellum, indicating an enhanced flux of free radicals in the central auditory system. Carboplatin significantly depressed the reduced to oxidized glutathione ratio, antioxidant enzyme activities, such as copper-zinc superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and glutathione S-transferase, and enzyme protein expressions in the inferior colliculus, but not in the cerebellum, 4 days after treatment. The data suggest that carboplatin induced oxidative injury specifically in the inferior colliculus of the rat leading to hearing loss.


Object. In the article taking into account forming of European educational space orientated on rapprochement of the systems of training of pedagogical personnels in the countries of European union, actuality of the research-oriented studies as innovative is grounded. Methods. On the basis of comparativist analysis the different vectors of refraction of theoretical and practical experience are considered in relation to forming of scientifically-research culture of teachers, future teachers of musical art, in European countries (To Germany, Poland, Great Britain). Results. It was found that in the European pedagogical space there is a significant number of teacher training programs «teacher-scientist», «teacher-researcher», «teacher who reflexively self-governs», «teacher - reflexive practice». In these programs, the conditions for organizing the training of future teachers, the nature of educational interaction are transformed and subject to the requirements of research. The German pedagogical system is based on W. Humboldt's concept of higher education and determines that the specialty «music teacher» is based on three «whales» - creativity, science and pedagogy. It is established that in Poland the master's research is considered as a didactic category in art education and requires different ways of organizing scientific and pedagogical guidance; in the Great Britain, the education and development of a teacher-researcher, a thinking practitioner, is a personal marker of his competence and professionalism. Conclusions. Factors influencing the development of critical, interdisciplinary, analytical, methodological thinking of the future specialist and creating the necessary foundation for the formation of his research culture are identified. This is raising the level of scientific and methodological education, the fundamentalization of the educational space, its «learning», the intensification of research, reflection, innovative forms of learning.


On February 4, 2021, voting machine company Smartmatic filed a defamation lawsuit against Rudolph Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Fox News, and Fox News personalities Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro. The complaint seeks $2.7 billion in compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees. The 285-page complaint alleges the damages were incurred from the defendants' false claims that Smartmatic was actively involved in rigging the 2020 U.S. presidential election in favor of Joe Biden. This is similar to the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., (Dominion) against Sidney Powell on January 8, 2021.

Part II of this Article addresses the complaint generally. Part III considers the allegation that the defendants actively colluded together. Part IV analyzes the case against Giuliani and Powell, including false statements, intent, their failed election fraud lawsuits, actual malice, and potential immunity as attorneys for Donald Trump. Part V considers the case against Fox News, including issues of potential motivations, what was known when, ambiguities in coverage, and the accessibility of accurate information. Part VI considers Smartmatic's various damages claims, including the ability to sue on behalf of employees and receive compensation for future, reputational harm. Part VII compares the present lawsuit to the earlier Dominion lawsuit against Sidney Powell. Part VIII uses the plaintiffs' attorney's former "pink slime" defamation lawsuit as a comparison. Part IX concludes by predicting the trial outcome and ramifications this case may have on the political process and defamation precedent.

The outcome of the Smartmatic lawsuit could have significant consequences not just for the defendants but also for the political landscape. For example, the discovery process has the potential to uncover damaging communications implicating high-profile players. There is even evidence to suggest that future litigation could include former President Trump. The Smartmatic lawsuit could also have a long-term effect on defamation case law if it reaches the Supreme Court. The Court could use it as an opportunity to revisit Sullivan, as recently advocated for by Justice Thomas.


Verbal models have hypothesized a relation between body size and the successful introduction of animal species. This relation is largely based on studies of intrinsic rate of increase in what have been termed "colonizing" species. From these studies it has been predicted that introduction success should be negatively correlated with body size across taxa but positively correlated within closely related taxa. T examine this relation for globally introduced land birds. Introduced land birds are. on average, larger bodied than extant land bird species. Across species, families, and higher family nodes, global introduction success is significantly related to decreasing body size. However, within taxa there is a significant positive relationship between introduction success and body size. I discuss possible explanations for the observed relations and conclude that an indirect but genuine relationship between the introduction success of land birds and their body size is currently the most plausible.


This paper explores differences in behaviour and performance between rural and urban small firms during the economic downturn. The authors had anticipated that the 'thinness' of the rural environment would have had adverse effects. However, their survey of 6,300 respondents showed that rural small firms were performing marginally better. Both groups were proactively striving to cope with falling demand, not waiting for things to get better, but rural firms had better sales and fewer price reductions. The authors attribute this to local embeddedness, a more stable customer base and less competition. They note too the relative independence of rural businesses.


Aqueous zinc-sodium hybrid batteries with a Prussian blue cathode have been extensively studied in recent years. However, less research has been conducted on low-cost ferric ferricyanide (FeFe(CN)6) cathode materials. Considering that both Zn2+ and Na+ can be reversibly embedded in FeFe(CN)6 crystals, here we focus on mixed electrolytes with different concentrations of ZnSO4 and Na2SO4 in deionized water to explore the preference of FeFe(CN)6 towards Zn2+ and Na+. As a result, by using 0.1 M ZnSO4 + 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte, a superior battery performance is obtained, which reveals that the co-function of Zn2+ and Na+ in this electrolyte promotes Zn//FeFe(CN)6 cells to exert a superior specific capacity. In this work, FeFe(CN)6 is synthesized by a co-precipitation method and is analyzed by XRD, SEM, etc., and then used as the cathode material in Zn-Na hybrid batteries. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) tests show that FeFe(CN)6 in 0.1 M ZnSO4 + 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte delivers the highest discharge/charge capacities of 165.2/165.9 mA h g-1 (theoretical specific capacity: 212.2 mA h g-1) at a 0.1 C current density, with good capacity retention of 84% after 200 cycles at 15 C, outperforming many of the reported Zn-Na hybrid cells.


This study discovers the uniqueness of physical and optical characteristics of the oil palm Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) and is based on two different tenera planting materials namely PORIM SERIES 1 (PS 1) and PORIM SERIES 2 (PS 2). Three methods have been done to determine the characteristics which are as follows; 1) manual approach by measuring the weight, length, width and circumference of oil palm FFB, 2) machine vision technique for color information extraction and 3) multi-band portable, active optical sensor system to determine the chlorophyll and anthocyanin content. A total of thirty bunches were standardized into a ripe grade and have been used as samples in this study. The results showed that each planting material produces different physical and optical characteristics. The correlation between the weight and linear dimensions of oil palm FFB was found to be 80%. This study gives very important information in helping researchers on the development of future non-contact and non-destruction oil palm FFB grading equipment and system.


The ghost bat (Macroderma gigas) is listed as Vulnerable in Australia, and is a difficult species to study in the wild. The published literature available on even the most basic aspects of its ecology is limited. This study describes an investigation into the diet of ghost bats occupying the Pilbara region of Western Australia, using identification of dried food remains recovered from beneath roosts in the 1980s and 1990s, and DNA metabarcoding of faecal pellets collected from roost sites during 2011–12. Ghost bat diet in the Pilbara region consists primarily of small mammal and bird species, with a lesser contribution from reptiles (geckoes and skinks) and amphibians. In total, 46 vertebrate taxa were identified, with 32 taxa identified from the dried food remains, and 21 taxa by DNA metabarcoding analysis of the faecal pellets. Only seven of the taxa identified were common to both collection methods, and 32 of those taxa identified represent new prey records for ghost bats in Western Australia, and 19 prey species that had not previously been reported from any other part of Australia. Knowledge of the diet of the ghost bat will provide land managers with important information necessary to ensure the continued survival of this species across its range.


The clinical presentations of severe and complicated malaria vary. The prognosis is poor when associated with cerebral malaria and acute renal failure. Clinical profile, biochemical parameters and outcome were studied in 46 adult patients of malaria admitted in a tertiary care hospital between April 2002 to April 2003. The age of the patients ranged from 15 to 60 years. Majority (n=30) of the patients were in age group of 15 to 34 years. 67% of the patients were from terai belt. Mean duration of febrile illness was 10 days at the time of presentation. 39% (n=18) patients had hepatic dysfunction and 22% (n=10) had acute renal failure (ARF) according to WHO criteria. All patients with ARF were oligo-anuric and required dialysis support. Four patients died of which three were patients with ARF and hepatic dysfunction. Although malaria still remains a major health problem, malarial renal disease has not been formally reported previously from Nepal. Early initiation of antimalarial therapy, close observation for organ failure and early initiation of dialysis in ARF is instrumental in the recovery of the patient. Key Words: Malaria, Organ Failure.


Non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries typically occur during cutting maneuvers and are associated with high peak knee abduction moments (KAM) within early stance. To screen athletes for injury risk or quantify the efficacy of prevention programs, it may be necessary to design tasks that mimic game situations. Thus, this study compared KAMs and ranking consistency of female handball players in three sport-specific fake-and-cut tasks of increasing complexity. The biomechanics of female handball players (n = 51, mean ± SD: 66.9 ± 7.8 kg, 1.74 ± 0.06 m, 19.2 ± 3.4 years) were recorded with a 3D motion capture system and force plates during three standardized fake-and-cut tasks. Task 1 was designed as a simple pre-planned cut, task 2 included catching a ball before a pre-planned cut in front of a static defender, and task 3 was designed as an unanticipated cut with three dynamic defenders involved. Inverse dynamics were used to calculate peak KAM within the first 100 ms of stance. KAM was decomposed into the frontal plane knee joint moment arm and resultant ground reaction force. RANOVAs (α ≤ 0.05) were used to reveal differences in the KAM magnitudes, moment arm, and resultant ground reaction force for the three tasks. Spearman's rank correlations were calculated to test the ranking consistency of the athletes' KAMs. There was a significant task main effect on KAM (p = 0.02; ηp2 = 0.13). The KAM in the two complex tasks was significantly higher (task 2: 1.73 Nm/kg; task 3: 1.64 Nm/kg) than the KAM in the simplest task (task 1: 1.52 Nm/kg). The ranking of the peak KAM was consistent regardless of the task complexity. Comparing tasks 1 and 2, an increase in KAM resulted from an increased frontal plane moment arm. Comparing tasks 1 and 3, higher KAM in task 3 resulted from an interplay between both moment arm and the resultant ground reaction force. In contrast to previous studies, unanticipated cutting maneuvers did not produce the highest KAMs. These findings indicate that the players have developed an automated sport-specific cutting technique that is utilized in both pre-planned and unanticipated fake-and-cut tasks.


AIMS
Focal glomerulosclerosis (FGS) and minor glomerular abnormalities are kidney diseases characterized by massive proteinuria. Urinary liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP), an intracellular carrier protein of free fatty acids, is expressed in proximal tubules of the human kidney. Patients with FGS show significant improvement with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) apheresis. The aim of the present study was to determine whether urinary L-FABP levels differ between patients with FGS and those with minor glomerular abnormalities and whether levels are altered by LDL apheresis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
There were 24 patients with minor glomerular abnormalities (nephrotic stage, n = 14, remission stage, n = 10), 17 patients with FGS, and 20 healthy age-matched subjects were included in the present study. Urinary L-FABP levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and compared. All patients with minor glomerular abnormalities at the nephrotic stage received prednisolone for 6 months, and all FGS patients received some form of immunosuppression therapy with prednisolone, cyclophosphamide or mizoribine for 12 months. LDL apheresis was performed in eight FGS patients with drug-resistant nephrotic syndrome.

RESULTS
Urinary L-FABP levels were significantly higher in the 17 FGS patients (82.0 +/- 44.4 microg/g.Cr) than in the 24 patients with minor glomerular abnormalities (10.2 +/- 8.4 microg/g.Cr) (p < 0.01) and in the 20 healthy subjects (7.4 +/- 4.2 microg/g.Cr) (p < 0.01). Urinary L-FABP levels differed little between nephrotic stage and remission stage in patients with minor glomerular abnormalities. Urinary L-FABP levels were significantly higher in the eight drug-resistant FGS patients (122.6 +/- 78.4 microg/g.Cr) than in the nine drug-sensitive FGS patients (45.9 +/- 32.0 microg/g.Cr). Urinary L-FABP levels did not correlate with levels of other clinical markers including serum creatinine, urinary protein, and urinary N-acetyl-beta-D- glucosaminidase. In the eight drug-resistant FGS patients, LDL-apheresis significantly reduced urinary protein excretion (p < 0.01) and urinary L-FABP levels (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Urinary L-FABP may be a useful diagnostic indicator for differentiation between FGS and minor glomerular abnormalities. LDL apheresis may be effective in ameliorating tubulointerstitial lesions associated with FGS.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence depression, suicidal thought, and life satisfaction of Korean elders. Method: The subjects for this study were 219 Korean elders living in three different provinces. The data was collected using structured questionnaires from October through December, 2007. Result: There were statistically significant differences in the levels of depression, suicidal thought, and life satisfaction according to age, health state, sleep state, economic state, feeling of loneliness, feeling of abuse, and having friends or neighbors. Suicidal thoughts correlated less with the above factors than depression did. Depression significantly correlated with age, life satisfaction, loneliness and suicidal thought. Suicidal thought was influenced significantly by depression. Life satisfaction was influenced significantly by depression, health state, and economic state. Conclusion: It could be concluded that nursing interventions for reducing depression and suicidal thought should be developed to improve life satisfaction and the health state of Korean elders as well as to relieve their feelings of loneliness.


Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) allows one to capture 3D images of cells in a close to native state, at sub-nanometer resolution. However, noise and artifact levels are such that heavy computational processing is needed to access the image content. In this paper, we propose a deep learning framework to accurately and jointly localize multiple types and states of macromolecules in cellular cryo-electron tomograms. We compare this framework to the commonly-used template matching method on both synthetic and experimental data. On synthetic image data, we show that our framework is very fast and produces superior detection results. On experimental data, the detection results obtained by our method correspond to an overlap rate of 86% with the expert annotations, and comparable resolution is achieved when applying subtomogram averaging. In addition, we show that our method can be combined to template matching procedures to reliably increase the number of expected detections. In our experiments, this strategy was able to find additional 20.5% membrane-bound ribosomes that were missed or discarded during manual annotation.


This document offers a synthesis of insights from recent research and design activities conducted by ideas42 through Breakthrough RESEARCH, Breakthrough ACTION, and other projects across nine different low- and middle-income settings about the behavioral roots of challenges health care providers face in providing high quality services. We discuss how the physical and social environment in which they work and live sends signals to providers about what is important, how they can navigate difficulties, and how well they are performing. We discuss how experiences outside the health facility impact how providers approach their professional duties. We also discuss how pervasive time and resource constraints create a cognitive and emotional burden that gets in the way of what they can do, even within these constraints. For each challenge, we also share lessons emerging from this research about about how global health practitioners can address these challenges through program design and implementation.


The relationship between infl ammation and cancer is a topic of intense study. On the one hand, immunotherapy, relying on the host mounting a cytotoxic immune response to the tumour, has shown a survival advantage for men with advanced prostate cancer. On the other hand, systemic infl ammation may create a pro-tumour environment and portend a poor prognosis, as suggested by the data reported in the present study. Baseline C-reactive protein (CRP) is shown to offer a readily-available prognostic marker that performs as well as the best published nomograms for progression-free and overall survival in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Why is CRP such a strong predictor of progression in men with late-stage disease? CRP is produced in the liver as a marker of host response to tissue damage, pathogens or infl ammatory stimuli and, as such,is a marker of systemic infl ammation. CRP transcription is primarily regulated by interleukin (IL)-6 and, to a lesser extent, by other pro-infl ammatory cytokines [ 1 ] . There is much interest in IL-6 because it is a pleiotropic pro-infl ammatory, pro-tumour cytokine produced by a variety of cell types, including T lymphocytes, macrophages and endothelial cells, and it has been implicated in prostate cancer tumourigenesis, progression, androgen independence and bone metastasis [ 2 ] . Howeverphase , II results have shown minimal clinical activity of anti-IL-6 therapy (siltuximab) in patients with CRPC [ 3 ] , indicating that more research is necessary. Given the clear data reported in the present study showing that CRP is a strong predictor of outcome, what are the next steps? First, it has been shown that decreased levels of several biomarkers in response to therapy, which are prognostic of outcome at baseline (i.e. PSA levels and circulating tumour cells) portend a good prognosis. Thus, can correlating dynamic variations in serum markers such as CRP with traditional surrogate measures of response to therapy in CRPC offer a future application for assessing treatment effi cacy in a setting where PSA levels have less utility? Indeed, this approach has been shown for CRP in other disease states, such as RCC, cardiovascular and orthopaedic diseases [ 4 ] . Second, how do we explain why CRP predicts outcome for men with metastatic disease but does not predict a diagnosis of prostate cancer? [ 5 ] Third, is there a common mechanism that results in disease progression and CRP production? In summary, the data show that CRP, which is cost-effective and non-invasive, can be used to accurately risk-stratify men with advanced prostate cancer. However, similar to any good study, this leaves us with more questions than answers.


Despite its extraordinary complexity and diversity, many of Life's characteristics scale with size in a surprisingly simple fashion: time-scales from lifespans to growth-rates, and sizes from genome lengths to tree heights, scale systematically and predictably with size. Remarkably, cities and companies also exhibit systematic scaling: wages, profits, patents, crime, disease, and roads all scale in an approximately "universal" fashion across the globe. The origin of these laws, which constrain much of the organisation and dynamics of Life, will be explained and related to the underlying generic principles of the networks that sustain life ranging from circulatory systems of mammals to social networks of cities and companies. Their dynamics, which transcend history, geography and culture, have potentially dramatic implications for growth, development and global sustainability.


Background Panax notoginseng is an important herbal medicine in China, where this crop is cultivated by replanting of seedlings. Root rot disease threatens the sustainability of P. notoginseng cultivation. Water flooding (WF) is widely used to control numerous soilborne diseases, and biogas slurry shows positive effects on the soil physiochemical properties and microbial community structure and has the potential to suppress soilborne pathogens. Hence, biogas slurry flooding (BSF) may be an effective approach for alleviating root rot disease of P. notoginseng; however, the underlying mechanism needs to be elucidated. Methods In this study, we conducted a microcosm experiment to determine if BSF can reduce the abundance of pathogens in soil and, alleviate root rot of P. notoginseng. Microcosms, containing soil collected from a patch of P. notoginseng showing symptoms of root rot disease, were subjected to WF or BSF at two concentrations for two durations (15 and 30 days), after which the changes in their physicochemical properties were investigated. Culturable microorganisms and the root rot ratio were also estimated. We next compared changes in the microbial community structure of soils under BSF with changes in WF and untreated soils through high-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA (16S) and fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) genes amplicon. Results WF treatment did not obviously change the soil microbiota. In contrast, BSF treatment significantly altered the physicochemical properties and reshaped the bacterial and fungal communities, reduced the relative abundance of potential fungal pathogens (Fusarium, Cylindrocarpon, Alternaria, and Phoma), and suppressed culturable fungi and Fusarium. The changes in the microbial community structure corresponded to decreased root rot ratios. The mechanisms of fungal pathogen suppression by BSF involved several factors, including inducing anaerobic/conductive conditions, altering the soil physicochemical properties, enriching the anaerobic and culturable bacteria, and increasing the phylogenetic relatedness of the bacterial community. Conclusions BSF application can reshape the soil microbial community, reduce the abundance of potential pathogens, and alleviate root rot in P. notoginseng. Thus, it is a promising practice for controlling root rot disease in P. notoginseng.


This second edition was published in 1962 and represents some expansion over the first edition which was published in 1952 and then reprinted again in 1954. In the preface the authors state that the book is directed to both the clinician and the pathologist. The book is organized into 3 parts. The first part is limited to the nature of skeletal muscle and includes chapters on embryology, anatomy, and histology, innervation of muscle, chemistry of muscle, and the relationship of muscle contraction and neuronal activity. Part 2 is devoted to pathologic reactions of skeletal muscle, with chapters on experimental pathology and general reaction of human muscles to the diseases. Part 3 is entitled pathology of muscle diseases. Chapters 5 to 13 include descriptions of the pathologic changes in a variety of neuromuscular diseases starting with congenital defects and including muscular dystrophy, and inflammatoid diseases, tumors, spinal and neuromuscular atrophies, endocrine


Mid-dermal elastolylis (MDE) is an uncommon skin disorder characterized by a loss of elastic fibers in the mid dermis. The pathogenesis of MDE still remains unclear. This entity usually affects the neck, trunk, and upper extremities. Three clinical patterns have been described: patches of fine wrinkles, perifollicular papular protusions, and persistent reticular erythema. We report a patient with disseminated MDE.


The role of industrial design has been essential for the definition of an industrial model based on large production volumes for broad markets, but industrial designers also contributed to the maturation of such a model towards sophisticated models that are now proving to be unsustainable. This made the design discipline particularly sensitive to the question of sustainability. In this context, the need for a decisive change of perspective for designers is certainly a necessity, but can also be an opportunity to propose a new approach that can generate sustainable innovation and development, especially at the local level. This paper proposes a change in the design perspective that is strongly linked to a new approach to innovation in industrial production. Only a genetic change in the role of industrial production is likely to provide the radical changes required for a sustainable development. Consequently, only a radically new design approach will be able to support such change.


ABSTRACT The failure of COVID-19 vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission, a possibly critical reason was the lack of protective mucosal immunity in the respiratory tract. Here, we evaluated the effects of mucosal and systemic immunity from a novel simian adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine (Sad23L-nCoV-S) in mice in comparison with Ad5-nCoV-S by intranasal (IN) drip and intramuscular (IM) injection vaccinations. As good as the well-known Ad5-nCoV-S vaccine, a single-dose IN inoculation of 1 × 109 PFU Sad23L-nCoV-S vaccine induced a similar level of IgG S-binding antibody (S-BAb) and neutralizing antibody (NAb) and higher IgA in serum, while IN route raised significantly higher IgG and IgA S-BAb and NAb in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), and specific IFN-γ secreting T-cell response in lung compared with IM route, but lower T-cell response in spleen. By prime-boost vaccination regimens with different combinations of IN and IM inoculations of Sad23L-nCoV-S vaccine, the IN-involved vaccination stimulated higher protective mucosal or local immunity in BAL and lung, while the IM-involved immunization induced higher systemic immunity in serum and spleen. A long-term sustained mucosal and systemic NAb and T- cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 was maintained at high level over 32 weeks by prime-boost vaccination regimens with IN and IM routes. In conclusion, priming or boosting immunization with IN inoculation of Sad23L-nCoV-S vaccine could induce effective mucosal immunity and in combination of IM route could additionally achieve systemic immunity, which provided an important reference for vaccination regimens against respiratory virus infection. IMPORTANCE The essential goal of vaccination is to generate potent and long-term protection against diseases. Several factors including vaccine vector, delivery route, and boosting regimen influence the outcome of prime-boost immunization approaches. The immunization regimens by constructing a novel simian adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine and employing combination of intranasal and intramuscular inoculations could elicit mucosal neutralizing antibodies against five mutant strains in the respiratory tract and strong systemic immunity. Immune protection could last for more than 32 weeks. Vectored vaccine construction and immunization regimens have positively impacted respiratory disease prevention. The essential goal of vaccination is to generate potent and long-term protection against diseases. Several factors including vaccine vector, delivery route, and boosting regimen influence the outcome of prime-boost immunization approaches. The immunization regimens by constructing a novel simian adenovirus-vectored COVID-19 vaccine and employing combination of intranasal and intramuscular inoculations could elicit mucosal neutralizing antibodies against five mutant strains in the respiratory tract and strong systemic immunity. Immune protection could last for more than 32 weeks. Vectored vaccine construction and immunization regimens have positively impacted respiratory disease prevention.


Introduction - "Letters to a friend" "The Red and the Black" - topicality and realism, plausibility and representation "The Charterhouse of Parma" - mirror or myth?, psychoanalysis and story-telling perspectives. Part 1 Nineteenth-century views: 1831 - Balzac's response to "The Red and the Black" 1832 - from Stendhal's own draft review of "The Red and the Black" 1840 - from Balzac's review of "The Charterhouse of Parma" 1854 - Sainte-Beuve on "The Red and the Black" 1864 - Hippolyte Taine on characterization and style 1880 - Emile Zola on Stendhal the psychologist 1882 - Paul Bourget on Standhal and "The Red and the Black" 1892 - Emile Faguet on "The Red and the Black" and "The Charterhouse of Parma". Part 2 Modern readings: "realism" - Erich Auerbach on "The Red and the Black", Georges Blin on realism and point of view thematic criticism - Jean-Pierre Richard on Stendhal's "imaginary universe" existentialism and Marxism - Victor Brombert on freedom in "The Charterhouse of Parma", Pierre Barberis on politics in "The Charterhouse of Parma" structuralism and language - Shoshana Felman on "madness" and "intoxication", Michel Crouzet on language and silence psychoanalysis and narratology - Roland Barthes on "The Charterhouse of Parma", Peter Brooks on "The Red and the Black" feminism and gender criticism - Carol Mossman on "The Red and the Black" readers and representation - Ann Jefferson on reading "The Red and the Black", Christopher Prendergast on the ethics of verisimilitude.


This article deals with the issue of the abolition of the slave trade in the South Atlantic. It is important to say that this study does not deal with this discussion from the exclusive framework of the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Brazil regarding the question of slave trade, it is also based on the traditional relations developed between Portugal and Brazil in respect to that same question in the mid-nineteenth century.


Flapping wings of insects can follow various complex-motion waveforms, influencing the flow structures over a wing and consequently the aerodynamic performance. However, most studies of insect-wing models incorporate either simple harmonic or robofly-like motion waveforms. The effects of other waveforms appear to be under-explored. Motivated by this, the present study investigates the individual and combined effects of the sweep- and pitch-motion waveforms for fixed flapping frequency and amplitude of a fruit-fly wing planform. Physical experiments are conducted to directly measure the forces and torques acting on the wing. Interestingly, the sweep waveform is observed to influence the overall variation in the lift coefficient ($C_{L}$), whereas the pitch waveform is observed to influence only the instantaneous $C_{L}$ during stroke reversal. Carefully validated three-dimensional numerical simulations reveal that a change in the strength of the large-scale vortex over the wing as the sweep profile parameter is varied is responsible for the observed variations in $C_{L}$. An exploration over wide ranges of the sweep and the pitch profile parameters shows that the waveforms maximising the mean lift coefficient are different from those maximising the power economy. Consistent with some previous experiments on robotic insects, the possibility of passive pitch motion is observed at slower pitching rates. Contours of the mean lift coefficient and power economy mapped on the planes of the sweep and the pitch profile parameters can help designers of flapping-wing micro air vehicles in selecting the waveforms appropriate for their design criteria.


Health means not only the freedom from disease but its ability to work with self-control and satisfaction. According to WHO health is to define as a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease.  Social and cultural pressures can only be endured by a healthy individual. Health is only the factor which helps to achieve Dharma (Attain Pious) Artha (Wealth) Kama (Desire) and Moksha (Salvation).  As per Ayurveda, proper lifestyle or the person following Dinacharya, Ritucharya explained by acharya having disease-free life.  The ideal lifestyle or routine or various duties from day to day in a day called daily regimen (Dinacharya). Recently Ayush Ministry has given some measures has to be taken in Dincharya. These measures include Dhumpana by dravyas having antiseptic and antimicrobial properties then, installing taila or ghrita in both the nostrils (Pratimarsha Nasya) at morning and evening helps to boost immunity. This practice acts as the first line of defense against the destabilizing influences of an external environment and will improve the condition of health. But most importantly, it will increase positivity in one, which is the prime requirement of the person dealing with COVID 19 patients. This should be the practical approach in the condition like atmosphere full of COVID 19 virus; One should always wear clean clothes and never share with others. Graha Dhuma is a unique technique mentioned in the texts for disinfecting the rooms. If all these daily regimens follow strictly, can help to prevent the spread of pandemic like covid-19.


ABSTRACT
 Recently, there has been growing interest in analysis of the geographical variation between populations of different Phlebotomus spp. and American sand flies by comparing the sequences of various genes. However, little is known about the genetic structure of the genus Sergentomyia França & Parrot. No study has been carried out on Sergentomyia minuta Rondani. Most authors recognize this as a species with a high degree of morphological polymorphism, and some suspect that there are two subspecies: Se. minuta minuta Rondani in Europe, having about 40 horizontal cibarial teeth (sticks aligned along a straight line in the cibarial cavity), and Se. minuta parroti Adler & Theodor in North Africa, having about 70 cibarial teeth. Here we analyzed phylogeographic patterns using cytochrome b (Cytb) and cytochrome C oxidase I mtDNA for 29 populations from 10 countries: Algeria, Cyprus, France (continental and Corsica), Greece (continental and Crete), Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal (continental and Atlantic Savage Islands), Spain, and Tunisia. We analyzed intra- and interpopulation patterns of genetic diversity. Our results from Bayesian inference showed a complex genetic structure of Se. minuta with four haplogroups including many different haplotypes. One haplogroup includes all the specimens from North Africa. A second haplogroup includes a few specimens from the south of France, Spain, and one from Portugal. The third includes many specimens from southern France, all the specimens from Corsica, one from Spain, and all specimen from Portugal except one. A fourth branch includes specimens from the Balkans, Malta, Crete, Cyprus, and curiously some from the Atlantic Savage Islands; settlement of the latter population remains unexplained. However, our results suggest that the settlement of the Mediterranean basin could have occurred at the same time for Se. minuta and both Phlebotomus perniciosus Newstead and Phlebotomus ariasi Tonnoir. The spatial distribution of haplotypes was congruent with phylogenetic findings.


TGF-beta is a multifunctional cytokine modulating the onset and course of autoimmune diseases as shown in experimental models. The aim of this study was to investigate TGF-beta expression in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), and the possible interactions of this cytokine with lysosomal enzymes identified as ANCA autoantigens (e.g. PR3). This included TGF-beta effects on the translocation of the lysosomal enzymes to the cell surface of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN), and the presumed activation of non-bioactive, latent TGF-beta by these enzymes. Patients with various types of systemic vasculitis (SV) were studied, including three different types of AAV (Wegener's granulomatosis (WG), Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA)). Regardless of the type of assay applied, the TGF-beta 1 isoform was found to be over-expressed in SV, including AAV, and to correlate with disease activity as shown for WG. Mean TGF-beta 1 plasma levels in AAV patients ranged from 8.9 ng/ml (WG) to 13.3 ng/ml (CSS) (control 4.2 ng/ml; P < 0.01), while TGF-beta 2 levels were not elevated. Flow cytometry analysis showed TGF-beta 1 to be a potent translocation factor for PR3 comparable to other neutrophil-activating factors such as IL-8. PR3 membrane expression on primed PMN increased by up to 51% after incubation with TGF-beta 1. PR3 itself was revealed as a potent activator of latent TGF-beta, thus mediating bioeffects of this cytokine. These findings, together with other features of TGF-beta such as induction of angiogenesis and its strong chemotactic capacity, indicate that TGF-beta might serve as a proinflammatory factor in SV, especially in AAV.


Recently, the depletion of fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions due to limitations in the internal combustion engine vehicles is rising concern about electric vehicle. Neighborhood Electric Vehicle(NEV) is maximum speed 60km/h and one day driving distances less than 80km. In this paper, Power Conversion Controller is proposed for Neighborhood Electric Vehicle. To verify the developed Power conversion Controller, Test performed integration test, max load, power density, efficiency. Confirmed that the vehicle can be applied.


A novel approach is proposed for expressing and computing efficiently a large class of problems, including finding the shortest path in a graph, that were previously considered impervious to an efficient treatment in the declarative framework of logic-based languages. Our approach is based on the use of min and max predicates having a first-order semantics defined using rules with negation in their bodies. We show that, under certain monotonicity conditions, (1) there exists a total well-founded model for these programs expressed using negation, (2) this model can be computed efficiently using a procedure called greedy fixpoint, and (3) programs with min/max goals on recursively defined cost predicates can often be rewritten into more efficient ones by pushing min and max predicates into recursion. The greedy fixpoint evaluation of the program expressing the shortest path problem coincides with Dijkstra?s algorithm, once the finite differencing techniques of seminaive fixpoint are applied.


Mobile robot autonomy has made significant advances in recent years, with navigation algorithms well developed and used commercially in certain well-defined environments, such as warehouses. The common link in usage scenarios is that the environments in which the robots are utilized have a high degree of certainty. Operating environments are often designed to be robot friendly, for example augmented reality markers are strategically placed and the ground is typically smooth, level, and clear of debris. For robots to be useful in a wider range of environments, especially environments that are not sanitized for their use, robots must be able to handle uncertainty. This requires a robot to incorporate new sensors and sources of information, and to be able to use this information to make decisions regarding navigation and the overall mission. When using autonomous mobile robots in unstructured and poorly defined environments, such as a natural disaster site or in a rural environment, ground condition is of critical importance and is a common cause of failure. Examples include loss of traction due to high levels of ground water, hidden cavities, or material boundary failures. To evaluate a non-contact sensing method to mitigate these risks, Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar is integrated with an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), representing a novel application of FMCW to detect new measurands for Robotic Autonomous Systems (RAS) navigation, informing on terrain integrity and adding to the state-of-the-art in sensing for optimized autonomous path planning. In this paper, the FMCW is first evaluated in a desktop setting to determine its performance in anticipated ground conditions. The FMCW is then fixed to a UGV and the sensor system is tested and validated in a representative environment containing regions with significant levels of ground water saturation.


In this work, we present a novel method to approximate stiff problems using a finite volume(FV) discretization. The stiffness is caused by the existence of a small parameter in the equation which introduces a boundary layer. The semi-analytic method consists in adding in the finite volume space the boundary layer corrector which encompasses the singularities of the problem. We verify the stability and convergence of our finite volume schemes which take into account the boundary layer structures. A major feature of the proposed scheme is that it produces an efficient stable second order scheme to be compared with the usual stable upwind schemes of order one or the usual costly second order schemes demanding fine meshes.


ABSTRACT We detected a significant elevation of serum HSP90α levels in pancreatitis patients and even more in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients. However, there was no significant difference in the serum HSP90α levels between patients with early-stage and late-stage PDAC. To study whether elevation of serum HSP90α levels occurred early during PDAC development, we used LSL-KrasG12D/Pdx1-Cre transgenic mice as a studying model. Elevated serum HSP90α levels were detected before PDAC formation and an extracellular HSP90α (eHSP90α) inhibitor effectively prevented PDAC development. Both serum HSP90α level and pancreatic lesion were suppressed when the mice were administered a CD11b-antagonizing antibody, suggesting that CD11b+-myeloid cells were associated with eHSP90α levels and pancreatic carcinogenesis. Consistently, in CD11b-DTR-EGFP transgenic mouse model with CD11b+-myeloid cells depletion, serum HSP90α levels were suppressed and Panc-02 cell grafts failed to develop tumors. Macrophages and granulocytes are two common tissue-infiltrating CD11b+-myeloid cells. Duplex in situ hybridization assays suggested that macrophages were predominant HSP90α-expressing CD11b+-myeloid cells during PDAC development. Immunohistochemical and immunohistofluorescent staining results revealed that HSP90α-expressing cells included not only macrophages but also pancreatic ductal epithelial (PDE) cells. Cell culture studies also indicated that eHSP90α could be produced by macrophages and macrophage-stimulated PDE cells. Macrophages not only secreted significant amount of HSP90α, but also secreted interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 to induce a JAK2−STAT3 signaling axis in PDE cells, stimulating them to express and secrete HSP90α. eHSP90α further promoted cellular epithelial-mesenchymal transition, migration, and invasion in PDE cells. Besides myeloid cells, eHSP90α can be potentially taken as a target to suppress PDAC pathogenesis.


The subject of this essay is the partecipation of Jews in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. The number of Jewish volunteers who joined the International Brigades in order to defend the Spanish Republic against Franco and the Nationalist rebels was very high. During the Spanish civil war at least 35.000 volunteers from more than 50 countries went to fight in Spain on the side of the republican government and 5.000 of these volunteers were of Jewish descent. In particolar, the essay deal with Jewish partecipation in the Botwin Company. The Botwin Company, formed in december 1937, was a clear symbol of the Jewish fight against fascism in Spain, and a choice on behalf of its members to fight that battle as Jews


The symmetry and disorder of the Eu3+ site was investigated in some phosphate and borate glasses by means of 151Eu Mössbauer spectroscopy. The quadrupole interaction parameter, which is due to the distortion of the Eu site compared to a cubic symmetry, has been measured together with the asymmetry parameter, which points out the absence of a threefold or fourfold axis of symmetry at the rare earth site. The correlation of the isomer shift with the optical basicity of the glass indicates a covalent component with 6s character in the Eu-O bond. The axial component of the electric field gradient at the Eu site is also correlated with the optical basicity.


Purpose – This paper sets out to test the effects of firms' and industry's R&D intensity on persistence of abnormal earnings. Design/methodology/approach – Ohlson's valuation model is used with pooled regressions along with Fama–Macbeth methodology on yearly regressions and partitioning on Herfindahl index to conduct the tests. Findings – It was found that firms' and industries' R&D intensities are both positively correlated with persistence of abnormal earnings. The evidence suggests that the positive effect on earnings persistence caused by R&D's effectiveness in mitigating competition dominates the negative effect brought by more risk from R&D projects Practical implications – The fact that the firm's own R&D investment leads to incremental earnings persistence beyond that of the industry suggests the importance of incorporating both industry and firm's R&D intensity in earnings persistence. While industry R&D investment leads to competition mitigation via creation of entry barriers, a firm's own investment in R&D differentiates its products from those of its competitors, and thereby results in further competition mitigation by creating replacement barriers. Originality/value – Finally, since R&D intensity is correlated with earnings persistence, inclusion of R&D intensity in future earnings persistence studies may lead to better model specification by reducing the problem of correlated omitted variables.


ABSTRACT We have investigated the molecular evidence in favor of the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from an HIV-infected surgeon to one of his patients. After PCR amplification, theenv and gag sequences from the viral genome were cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the viral sequences derived from the surgeon and his patient are closely related, which strongly suggests that nosocomial transmission occurred. In addition, these viral sequences belong to group M of HIV type 1 but are divergent from the reference sequences of the known subtypes.


Kidney transplant is the most appropriate renal replacement therapy in terms of survival, quality of life and long term cost. We report 81 years old Nigerian whose kidney transplant lasted for 22 years. He encountered various challenges including complications relating to the long term impact of immunosuppression and infection. Keywords: Survival, Graft, Rejection, Transplant, Kaposi


The Yale Medical Orchestra displayed exceptional talent and inspiration as it performed a timeless composition to celebrate Yale School of Medicine's bicentennial anniversary during a December 2010 concert. Under the leadership of musical directors Robert Smith and Adrian Slywotzky, the richly emotional meditations of Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Schubert, and Yale's own Thomas C. Duffy filled the minds and hearts of an audience as diverse as the orchestra. I intend to retrace the steps of that melodic journey in this essay, fully aware of the limits imposed on me to recreate the aural art form through the medium of text. While these symbols can be pale representations of the beauty and complexity of the music, I hope they will be the building blocks for the emotional experience of the audience. I describe the works' inception and their salient musical features and then review what we know about the effects of melody, meter, and timbre on our brains. My intentions are to provide evidence to encourage the further use of music as a tool in medical practice, provide interest in the works explored by the Yale orchestra, support the orchestra itself, and investigate a personal passion.


Young families are the fastest-growing group of homeless people in the United States. Many women have suffered violations of physical and sexual abuse, reduced income through divorce, and discrimination in seeking housing. Families have been disconnected from their homes, an adequate income, health care services, schools, and their families. Selected literature is reviewed to promote understanding and advocacy nursing for this high-risk population.


Fifty-seven patients with craniopharyngiomas underwent a total of 64 operations. Their clinical follow-up ranged from 2.5 to 15.5 years, with a mean follow-up of 6.5 years. A transsphenoidal approach was used in 35 patients (61%), whereas 22 (39%) were operated on using a pterional approach (in 16 patients, the tumor was found in the suprasellar cisterns, and in 6, the tumor was found in the third ventricle and was removed passing through the lamina terminalis). Total removal of the tumor was achieved in 43 patients (75%). In six patients (11%), fragments of the capsule remained attached to the hypothalamus (subtotal removal), and, in eight patients (14%), the tumor was partially removed. No recurrence occurred in those patients in whom removal was total. Regrowth was observed in two patients (33%) in whom removal was subtotal and in two (25%) in whom removal was partial. Three of them underwent subsequent operations, and a total removal with good clinical outcome was achieved. All patients except two had good postoperative recovery. Twenty patients (35%) required hormonal replacement therapy. When transsphenoidal surgery was used, a total removal of the tumors was achieved in 23 (66%) of the patients. Good clinical outcome was seen in all 35 patients. Six patients (17%) required hormonal replacement therapy. When the pterional approach was used for tumors in the suprasellar cisterns, we achieved total removal of tumors in 15 patients (94%). Good clinical outcome was seen in 20 patients (91%). Eleven patients (50%) required hormonal replacement therapy. After a period of time (from 45 d to many years), three patients died, one because of a pulmonary embolism and two because of diencephalic insufficiency. Using the translamina terminalis approach, we achieved a total removal of intraventricular tumors in five (83%) of six cases, with good clinical outcome in five; hormonal replacement therapy was necessary in three patients, and death caused by diencephalic insufficiency occurred in one patient after several months


Since industrialisation global CO2 emissions have increased, and as a consequence oceanic pH is predicted to drop by 0.3-0.4 units before the end of the century - a process coined 'ocean acidification' (OA). There is significant interest therefore in how pH changes will affect the oceans' biota and integral processes. This thesis investigates community organisation and functioning in response to predicted end of century CO2 concentrations using an elevated CO2 (~750ppm), large volume (11,000 L) contained seawater mesocosm. This thesis utilises RNA stable isotope probing (SIP) technologies, in conjunction with quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR), to investigate the functional consequences of ocean acidification upon microbial communities. This thesis finds little evidence of changes occurring in bacterial abundance or community composition with elevated CO2, under both phytoplankton pre-bloom/bloom and post-bloom conditions. It is proposed that they represent a community resistant to the changes imposed. In contrast, significant differences were observed between treatments for a number of key eukaryote community members. These findings were investigated in the context of functional change, using the uptake of two key substrates (bicarbonate and glucose) as analogues for photosynthesis and respiration respectively. Unlike community abundance, distinct changes in carbon assimilation were detected in dominant members of the picoplankton. In conclusion the data presented suggests that although current microbial communities hold the capacity to respond to elevated CO2, future responses will likely be taxa specific and controlled by wider community dynamics.


1. Thirty lactating British Friesian heifers and cows were individually given maize silage ad libitum containing 331 g dry matter/kg, 13 g nitrogen and 11·2 MJ of metabolizable energy per kg dry matter. Urea or aqueous ammonia was mixed in at the time of feeding to give 7·0 g nitrogen per kg silage dry matter. Urea-treated silage was given with concentrates at a high (mean 6·6 kg dry matter/day: treatment HU) or a low (mean 3·3 kg:treatment LU) level of feeding; the lower level only was given with ammonia-treated silage (treatment LA). 2. The addition of ammonia raised silage pH values from 3·9 to 4·4. Silage dry-matter intakes in lactation weeks 7 to 22 for treatments HU, LU and LA were 8·8, 11·1 and 10·7 kg/day. 3. Digestible organic matter content in the dry matter of the diets measured in vivo was not significantly affected by treatment. However, digestible organic matter intakes were significantly greater for treatment HU than for LU in weeks 7 to 10, and for LU than for LA in weeks 11 to 22. 4. The yields of milk and the contents of protein, lactose and energy did not differ between treatments. The milk yields for treatments HU, LU and LA in weeks 7 to 22 were 20·2,19·2, 18·8 kg/day respectively. Fat content of milk was significantly depressed with the HU treatment for heifers in weeks 7 to 10. The live-weight changes of the cows in weeks 7 to 22 for treatments HU, LU and LA were +0·10, −0·07 and −0·37 kg/day; the live-weight loss by cows given treatment LA was significantly greater than for LU. The live-weight change of the heifers was not affected by treatment.


The paper presents the analysis of the impact of wind loads on large plate billboards, how to determine and convert input data and repeat cycle conversion ratios in calculating the wind load between Vietnam standards and foreign standards. In addition, the article presents the notes in the calculation according to different standards, thereby giving the process of calculating the determination of wind load according to Vietnam standard TCVN 2737-1995, European standard EN 1991- 1-4 and AmericanASCE / SEI 7-05 standards for large billboard advertising by MathCad calculation software, presenting calculations for a specific billboard, from the results of the presentation, we get some conclusions and recommendations.


Haematological and histological studies were made following challenge in 8 monkeys (Macaca irus) sensitized with ovalbumin. Haemagglutinating, but no reaginic antibodies to ovalbumin were demonstrated before challenge. Both platelet and leucocyte counts decreased markedly (-80 and -89%, respectively) within 5 min after challenge. No evidence of haemoconcentration was found. Plasma fibrinogen decreased (-74%), indicating activation of the coagulation system. Histological examination revealed platelets, leucocytes, fibrin and a large number of hyaline globuli ('globular microemboli') in pulmonary capillaries and small arterioles. From their staining properties the globuli were considered to consist mainly of fibrin. Some globuli were also found in the liver and kidneys, but were rarely seen in other organs. It is concluded that the anaphylactic reaction in this experimental model can be classified as aggregate anaphylaxis, and it is suggested that platelet mediators play an important role in the early pulmonary vascular and respiratory response.


The lower-middle part of the Pennsylvanian Haymond Formation in the Marathon Basin, west Texas, consists of interbedded sandstone, siltstone, and shale, which have been traditionally interpreted as turbidites deposited in deep water. Comparisons of the internal structures and mean grain size of the turbiditelike sandstone to Bouma9s (1962) classical turbidite sequence suggest important dissimilarities. The majority of the Haymond turbidite-like sandstone beds displays only one kind of internal structure — cross-lamination, which can be subdivided into trough and flaser subtypes. Other turbiditelike sandstones in which two kinds of internal structure are found appear to have some similarities to Bouma9s sequence; however, their general lack of normal grading indicates that turbidity currents played only a very minor depositional role. On the bases of the internal structures, grain-size distributions, and mineralogic and bed-thickness variations, it is suggested that the sandstone was probably deposited on a sloping, delta-front platform on which currents generated by waves, tide, and wind have constantly acted upon the sediments that were periodically flushed from nearby distributary channels. During flood stages in distributary channels or during storms, high-velocity currents and turbulence may have developed, thus modifying depositional processes on the platform to produce turbiditelike sedimentation.


We take a preliminary look at computational methods of identifying similarity in musical compositions. We have chosen the "Raga" paradigm of Indian classical music as the basis of our formal model since it is well understood and semi-formal in nature. We address the issues of why we need a computational basis of the judgment whether two compositions are similar or not, and why traditional distance metrics fail. The Raga paradigm is discussed and the computational attributes of a raga are defined. Machine learning techniques for assimilating the tuple that formally defines a raga are explored, and matching algorithms for identifying genres of music that have been learnt are proposed. This is essentially a positional paper and we have just started testing some of our models, but current research shows a lot of promise.


Purpose of the Study. To evaluate the effectiveness of intravenous magnesium sulfate in the treatment of acute asthmatic attacks in children. Study Population. Pediatric patients (n = 182) with moderate-to-severe asthmatic attacks in the emergency department in 5 randomized, placebo-controlled trials comparing intravenous magnesium sulfate to placebo, with co-therapies of inhaled β2 agonists and systemic steroids. Methods. Meta-analysis that evaluated outcomes of hospitalization, short-term pulmonary-function tests, and symptom scores. Results. Magnesium sulfate was effective in preventing hospitalization (odds ratio: 0.29; 95% confidence interval: 0.143–0.589). The number needed to treat was 4 (95% confidence interval: 3–8). Secondary outcomes of short-term pulmonary-function tests and clinical symptom scores also showed significant improvement. The therapy was well tolerated with only minor adverse effects reported. Conclusion. Intravenous magnesium sulfate probably provides additional benefit in moderate-to-severe acute asthma in children treated with bronchodilators and steroids. Reviewer Comments. Meta-analyses are useful when multiple previous studies have shown inconsistent results. They may not, however, be the final answer, because subsequent large trials can alter the conclusion of a meta-analysis. Nonetheless, the data to date considered in this meta-analysis seem quite convincing. Also, the treatment is inexpensive and well tolerated, and the number needed to treat is small (you would need to give this therapy to only 4 children to keep 1 out of the hospital).


Conotoxins in venoms of marine cone snails  are structural diversity, rich disulfide-bridges that selective block of ion channel voltages or receptors, therefore it is used for development of analgesic drugs. In this paper, we investigated conotoxins from venoms of eight cone snails  of the genus Conus in Vietnam by using a nano-liquid chromatography linked mass spectrometry. For medical application, the recombinant ω-conotoxin MVIIA was expressed in E. coli and determined analgesic activity by testing on the mice. As the results, the conotoxins were identified in venoms of eight conus mainly belong to O, M, A super families. In addition, many small peptides were determinated, however these databases are not clear due to reference of DNA and protein databases is deficient. Recombinant MVIIA (CTX) was expressed in the fusion with thioredoxin in molecular weight of 20.5 kDa (Trx-CTX) and the original CTX peptide was purified in size of below 3 kDa after removing thioredoxin and his tag. Both of CTX peptide and Trx-CTX fusion protein showed an analgesic activity when compared to lidocaine and morphine. Hence, these recombinant proteins could be potential drugs for effective analgesic treatment.


Land degradation has put the world's rangelands under intense pressure and reduced their capacity to provide vital services to those who solely depend on them for survival. With the current pressures on rangelands, worldwide, there is an urgent need to survey the present condition of rangelands. Such detailed surveys can identify where improvement programmes can be emphasised; whether it be reseeding, stock control, sociological restraints or other actions. To combat rangeland degradation, management systems are more effective when they account for community perceptions and practices. This study aims to assess the current status of woody plants in different categories of degradation as perceived by herders in Kunene, Namibia. Furthermore, we wished to compare the perception of degradation by herders with the measured ecological condition. With the help of herders, sites representing different categories of degradation (low, moderate, high and protected) were identified and 10 plots of 400m2 each were established in each category. Species diversity, density, basal area and regeneration of woody plants increased sequentially along the degradation gradient (high to low). Vegetation attributes such as species diversity, seedling density and standing basal area increased with increasing distances from the villages. Although the herders' perception of degradation, for high and moderate degradation, matches the ecological results, the low degradation sites show signs of bush encroachment, a type of degradation that the herders did not perceive as degradation. Colophospermum mopane, a known encroacher species across Namibia, was the dominant species in the moderate and low degradation sites. Pechuel‐loeschea leubnitziae, which is also known to be an indicator of degradation, was the dominant species in the high degradation sites. The findings highlight the present and future threats the study area is facing and form the basis for current restoration research.


Over the past decade, in Hall-A of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), both the HAPPEX and PREx collaborations have carried out various high-precision polarized elastic electron scattering experiments to explore the nuclear structure, the nucleon form factor and the weak charge of proton and electron. They have done so through the technique of the parity-violating asymmetry measurement with limited theoretical uncertainties. My dissertation focuses on the study of nuclear structure, namely the thickness of the neutron skin, using elastic electron scattering experiments. The direct measurement of the thickness of the neutron skin in heavy nuclei, where neutron are two-fold more than protons, constrains the slope of changes in binding energies of every single heavy nucleus with respect to the full nucleus density, including proton and neutron densities. In addition, a more precise description of the neutron density profile for each heavy nucleus can help us gain better understanding of nuclear binding energies and has astrophysical implications for neutron stars. As far as we know, the proton and charge RMS (root-mean-square) radii in heavy nuclei such as Lead ( 82 Pb) have been measured with an accuracy of 0.02 fm and 0.002 fm, respectively. However, there is no clear picture of the neutron density profile through a high precision neutron RMS radii measurement free from the strong interaction until now. Through a series simulations, both theorists and experimentalists have studied the sensitivity of the parity-violating asymmetry to the extraction of the neutron radii in heavy nuclei. Under some specific conditions, for instance, a fixed scattering angle of 5 degrees and a fixed Q of 0.0088 GeV, a 3% statistic uncertainty of parity-violating asymmetries corresponds to a merely 1% error of the neutron radii in Lead ( 82 Pb). That is, the uncertainties of neutron radii in Lead ( 82 Pb) is three-fold smaller than the error of the parity-violating asymmetry. Since Mar. 2010, we performed the first electroweak experiment to probe the neutron radii in Lead ( 82 Pb). The normalized parity-violating asymmetries, after addressing false asymmetries, background asymmetries, to the 90% partially polarized electron beam and the momentum-transfer (Q) is 0.656± 0.06(stat)± 0.014(sys) ppm (part-per-million), which corresponds to the thickness of the neutron skin of 0.33 −0.18 fm. One of the most significant systematic uncertainties results from the discrepancies in beam parameters such as position, angle and energy on the target, leading to the difference in the differential cross-section between two helicity states. The helicity-correlated (window-to-window or pulse-to-pulse) beam asymmetries thus arise. My primary contribution to this experiment is to establish an analysis strategy used to control the size of the helicity-correlated beam asymmetries during the data-taking period. This analysis is especially addressed in Chapter 6. In sum, the neutron radii of 0.33 −0.18 fm in Lead ( 208 82 Pb) supports the existence of the neutron skin in the neutron-rich matter. A second future run will yield a much higher precision neutron radii measurement. Moreover, the strong correlation between the neutron skin in Lead ( 82 Pb) and the neutron start radius indicates an approach from nuclear physics to understand the astrophysical equation of state (EOS) for a neutron star. First Leptonic Probe of Neutron Radii in Lead (208 82 Pb) at Low-Q 2


The nitrification inhibition (NI) bioassay guided fractionation of the methanol extract of lyophilized and milled roots of Leuceana leucocephala resulted in the isolation of four compounds, 1-4, as confirmed from their 1H and 13C NMR spectral data. Compound 1, gallocatechin, was the most active NI inhibitor at 12 microg/mL. Epigallocatechin, 2, and epicatechin, 4, isolated as mixtures, were not assayed individually for their NI inhibitory activities against the nitrification bacterium Nitrosomonas europaea.


Accurate spatial-temporal traffic flow forecasting is essential for helping traffic managers to take control measures and drivers to choose the optimal travel routes. Recently, graph convolutional networks (GCNs) have been widely used in traffic flow prediction owing to their powerful ability to capture spatial-temporal dependencies. The design of the spatial-temporal graph adjacency matrix is a key to the success of GCNs, and it is still an open question. This paper proposes reconstructing the binary adjacency matrix via tensor decomposition, and a traffic flow forecasting method is proposed. First, we reformulate the spatial-temporal fusion graph adjacency matrix into a three-way adjacency tensor. Then, we reconstructed the adjacency tensor via Tucker decomposition, wherein more informative and global spatial-temporal dependencies are encoded. Finally, a Spatial-temporal Synchronous Graph Convolutional module for localized spatial-temporal correlations learning and a Dilated Convolution module for global correlations learning are assembled to aggregate and learn the comprehensive spatial-temporal dependencies of the road network. Experimental results on four open-access datasets demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in terms of the prediction performance and computational cost.


Detailed studies of the process of cell division in yeast, particularly of the genus Schizosaccharomyces, have been few (Guilliermond, 1920; Knaysi, 1941), and little is known of the details of this process. Duraiswami (1953) points out that "It would be interesting to study the relationship between karyokinesis and cytokinesis in those yeasts where cell division is effected not by budding but by the formation of a septum in the middle-as for instance in the Schizosaccharomycetes. It is very likely that a close correlation between these two processes exists in these yeasts." Since the Schizosaccharomycetes appear to divide in a manner which is analogous to that described for bacterial cells, a study by electronl microscopy of cytological changes occurring in Schizosaccharomyces octosporus during cytokinesis and karyokinesis was carried out not only to elucidate details of the process of cell division, but also to compare and relate these to the, process of cell division described for bacterial cells.


Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Pacific Ocean during El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) episodes exhibit different spatial patterns from year to year. In most ENSO studies, SST anomalies have been analysed in the 3.4 or 3.0 El Niño regions. Recent analyses have considered different SST anomalies areas in the Pacific, such as ENSO Modoki, which takes into account anomalies in the central Pacific which are bounded by opposite anomalies in the eastern and western Pacific. In order to analyse the influence of different Pacific spatial patterns on South American precipitation and on the Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation, composites obtained from Canonical ENSO were compared with those from ENSO Modoki in cases when strong anomalies were present in the Central Pacific. During the Canonical El Niño (La Niña), there tends to be a precipitation increase (decrease) in the La Plata Basin (LPB, 45°W–65°W, 15°S–35°S) and a decrease (increase) over northern South America during all seasons. In ENSO Modoki exhibiting strong anomalies in the Central Pacific, these typical patterns are not observed, and in some regions the anomalies even show opposite signs. Precipitation anomaly differences or similarities over South America between the two cases occur in different areas and different seasons. In both cases, differences in tropical South American precipitation during both ENSO types are related to differences in the Walker circulation. In extra‐tropical South America, the precipitation differences are due to differences in the Pacific wavetrains and differences in moisture flux intensity over the continent. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society


The discovery of novel non-coding RNAs has been among the most exciting recent developments in Biology, yet, many more remain undiscovered. It has been hypothesized that there is in fact an abundance of functional non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) with various catalytic and regulatory functions. Computational methods tailored specifically for ncRNA discovery are being actively developed. As the inherent signal for ncRNA is weaker than that for protein coding genes, comparative methods offer the most promising approach. In this dissertation, we address several open issues and problems on computational methods for genome wide non-coding RNA discovery and analysis: (1) We first consider the following problem: Given an RNA sequence with a known secondary structure, efficiently detect all structural homologs in a genomic database by computing the sequence and structure similarity to the query. Our approach, based on structural filters that eliminate a large portion of the database, while retaining the true homologs, allows us to search a typical bacterial genome in minutes on a standard PC. This results is two orders of magnitude better than currently available software for the problem. (2) We formalize the concept of a filter and provide figures of merit that allow comparison between filters. We design efficient sequence based filters that dominate the current state-of-the-art HMM filters. We provide a new formulation of the covariance model that allows speeding up RNA alignment. We demonstrate the power of our approach on both synthetic data and real bacterial genomes. We then apply our algorithm to the detection of novel riboswitch elements from the whole bacterial and archaeal genomes and environmental sequence data. Our results point to a number of novel riboswitch candidates, and include genomes that were not previously known to contain riboswitches. (3) We propose a novel framework to predict the common secondary structure for unaligned RNA sequences. By matching putative stacks in RNA sequences, we make use of both primary sequence information and thermodynamic stability for prediction at the same time. We show that our method can predict the correct common RNA secondary structures even when we are only given a limited number of unaligned RNA sequences, and it outperforms current algorithms in sensitivity and accuracy. Together these contributions made efforts toward genome wide ncRNA discovery for exploring the modern RNA world


Abstract- Oil exploration and exploitation has resulted in oil pollution in the Niger Delta. This study investigated the toxicity of water soluble fractions (WSFs) of crude oil, diesel fuel and gasoline on Ceratophyllum demersum (L) .  The parameters measured include fresh weight, biomass production and relative growth rate.  The water soluble fractions concentrations used were 25%, 50% 100% for crude oil and diesel and 5%, 10%, 20% were used for gasoline.  Results from the study showed that at 25% WSF of crude oil and diesel fuel and 5% WSF of gasoline, there was significant increase (P < 0.05) in fresh weight, biomass production and relative growth rate of Ceratophyllum demersum . While increase in concentration resulted in decrease in the growth parameters.  High concentrations of Water Soluble Fractions of gasoline were the most toxic followed by diesel fuel. This study showed that low concentration of water soluble fractions of petroleum hydrocarbons enhanced growth while high concentration was toxic to the aquatic macrophyte.  Keywords: Crude oil, diesel, gasoline, Ceratophyllum demersum .


Porphyromonas gingivalis as the keystone periodontopathogen plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis, and crucially accounts for inflammatory comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer′s disease. We recently identified the existence of P. gingivalis persisters and revealed the unforeseen perturbation of innate response in human gingival epithelial cells (HGECs) due to these noxious persisters. Herein, RNA sequencing revealed how P. gingivalis persisters affected the expression profile of cytokine genes and related signaling pathways in HGECs. Results showed that metronidazole-treated P. gingivalis persisters (M-PgPs) impaired the innate host defense of HGECs, in a similar fashion to P. gingivalis. Notably, over one thousand differentially expressed genes were identified in HGECs treated with M-PgPs or P. gingivalis with reference to the controls. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analysis demonstrated significantly enriched signaling pathways, such as FOXO. Importantly, the FOXO1 inhibitor rescued the M-PgP-induced disruption of cytokine expression. This study suggests that P. gingivalis persisters may perturb innate host defense, through the upregulation of the FOXO signaling pathway. Thus, the current findings could contribute to developing new approaches to tackling P. gingivalis persisters for the effective control of periodontitis and P. gingivalis-related inflammatory comorbidities.


An electrocardiography system records electrical activities of the heart, and it is used to assist doctors in the diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation. This study presents a fast, automated deep-learning algorithm that predicts atrial fibrillation with excellent performance (F-1 score 88.2% and accuracy 97.3%). Our approach involves the pre-processing of ECG signals, followed by an alternative representation of the signals using a spectrogram, which is then fed to a fine-tuned EfficientNet B0, a pre-trained convolution neural network model, for the classification task. Using the transfer learning approach and with fine-tuning of the EfficientNet, we optimize the model to achieve highly efficient and effective classification of the atrial fibrillation.


This article examines the current state of research on energy efficiency in the paper industry, focusing on the key strategies, technologies, and best practices for improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The review covers a range of topics, including energy management systems, process optimisation, cogeneration, waste heat recovery, and renewable energy sources. Overall, the energy efficiency improvements can significantly reduce energy costs and carbon emissions in the paper industry. Still, there is aneed for more comprehensive and integrated approaches that consider the entire value chain of paper production.


Swine dysentery is a contagious mucohaemorrhagic colitis of pigs that is caused by anaerobic intestinal spirochaete Brachyspira hyodysenteriae. Recently, an outer membrane lipoprotein of B. hyodysenteriae (BmpB) has been identified, and the mice or pigs immunized with a recombinant BmpB generated antibodies recognizing the native BmpB of B. hyodysenteriae. In this study, we cloned, expressed and purified BmpB protein from E. coli and used it as a vaccine candidate for oral delivery. The BmpB was encapsulated into the pH-sensitive and thiolated Eudragit microspheres (TEMS). The sizes of the microspheres ranged from 5-20 μ. About 22-34% of BmpB were released from the BmpB-loaded TEMS within 24 h at stomach pH 2.0 whereas the release of BmpB from the BmpB-loaded TEMS was 35% in the first one hour and reached 81% within 24 h at intestinal pH 7.2. These data revealed that the BmpB could be protected in the harsh gastric condition. Mucoadhesive experiment in vitro showed that TEMS have high binding affinity with the mucin glycoproteins of porcine intestine. Finally, in vitro production of cytokines from immune cells treated with the BmpB-loaded TEMS suggested that the TEMS would be a promising approach for oral delivery of BmpB as vaccine candidate.


In this paper, we present the results of the comparison between three corpora acquired by means of different techniques. The first corpus was acquired using the Wizard of Oz technique. A statistical user simulation technique has been developed for the acquisition of the second corpus. In this technique, the next user answer is selected by means of a classification process that takes into account the previous user turns, the last system answer and the objective of the dialog. Finally, a dialog simulation technique has been developed for the acquisition of the third corpus. This technique uses a random selection of the user and system turns, defining stop conditions for automatically deciding if the simulated dialog is successful or not. We use several evaluation measures proposed in previous research to compare between our three acquired corpora, and then discuss the similarities and differences with regard to these measures.


Factors determining the precision of data procured by the reflection seismograph are discussed under three main headings: (1) under instrumentation, errors caused by various components are considered; (2) under computation, errors introduced by uphole and primary wave computational procedures are discussed as well as those attendant with various plotting methods; and (3) under velocity, numerous vagaries and their potential errors are analyzed. It is concluded that surveys which involve only errors of the first two categories may be accurate to ±50 feet, while those under the third may vitiate the results. The geologist, whose knowledge of stratigraphy may anticipate such velocity variables, can contribute significantly to the precision of the method by a thorough un erstanding of the ramifications.


In this study, dyeing Mongolian cashmere with bio-preparation extracted from Urtica cannabina L. was investigated. Dyeing experiments were carried out under varying pH, temperature and contact time. The results have been used to investigate the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of dyeing cashmere. This process is pH dependent and it has been found that the most suitable condition is pH 4.5. Increase in adsorption capacity with increase in temperature indicates that the dyeing process is endothermic. Thermodynamic parameters like standard affinity (∆μ), standard enthalpy (∆H) and standard entropy (∆S) were evaluated.


Mössbauer spectra of magnetic nanoparticles are usually influenced by fluctuations of the direction of the magnetic hyperfine field. In samples of non-interacting particles, the superparamagnetic relaxation usually results in spectra consisting of a sum of a sextet and a doublet with a temperature dependent area ratio. This is in accordance with the exponential dependence of the superparamagnetic relaxation time on particle size and temperature in combination with the particle size distribution. An alternative interpretation of these features is a first order magnetic transition from a magnetically ordered state to a paramagnetic state. We point out that this interpretation seems not to be correct, because the doublet component has been found to transform to a magnetically split component when relatively small magnetic fields are applied, and therefore it cannot be due to a paramagnetic state. In other cases, spectra of magnetic nanoparticles consist of sextets with asymmetrically broadened lines without the presence of doublets. It has been suggested that such spectra can be explained by a multilevel model, according to which relaxation takes place between a large number of states. We point out that spectra with asymmetrically broadened lines at least in some cases rather should be explained by the influence of magnetic inter-particle interactions on the magnetic fluctuations.


This иarticle dwells upon meta heuristic approach of problem solving of transport routing for industry that has scarce resources in its activity. Such resources are: carrying capacity, moving time and quantity of transport. The general algorithm of developed method bases on imperative problem solving without accounting one of limitation. Simplified problem is solving for quantity unserved consumers of meta heuristic method. The main idea of a method is to merge solving method of Clarke-Wright with the method of simulated annealing. To solve the problem and analyze the effectiveness of developed algorithm the program product has been created. In the present paper the results of calculated experiments and calculated deviation of model solution from received results have been demonstrated. Mean error of the method and the time of finding the solution witnesss that developed method have an ejective solution for acceptable time.


Research management is an emerging field of study and its development is significant to the advancement of research enterprise. Developing the science of research management requires investigating social mechanisms involved in research management. Yet, studies on social mechanisms of research management is lacking in the literature. To address this gap, this paper proposes importing methodologies and theories from other social science disciplines to study the social mechanisms of research management and to build the science of research management. The paper first articulates what constitutes the science of research management, then proposes to appropriate Design-Based Research (DBR), a methodology in education research, for building the science of research management while at the same time strengthening the theory-practice nexus. A study of education research is then presented to illustrate how DBR is used to enact the theory of homophily which is imported from sociology. It reveals an opportunity to use social designs to develop social relationships among teachers from different schools for networked learning. Such a research endeavour also has potential to advance theories of relationship-building in sociology. Inferring from the example as an analogue to what is suggested for research management, the paper advocates a way to reciprocally connect research management as an emerging research field with more established social science disciplines at large and to advance both the theory and practice of research management.


Risk predictive driving is essential to maintain safety while passing a parked vehicle, which is one of typical high risk traffic situations because a pedestrian might suddenly dart out from behind the parked vehicle. Aiming at generating a vehicle motion for risk predictive driving, first, a novel risk quantification method based on collision velocity accompanied with AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking) is presented via a simulated pedestrian darting out from behind the parked vehicle. Next, a preliminary investigation is conducted to show the effectiveness of the presented risk quantification on motion planning for risk predictive driving. The generated motion shows good consistency with actual safe driving data measured in same situations.


The methods using the best estimate codes are now applied in safety demonstration for nuclear power plants (NPP) to evaluate uncertainties of the relevant output parameters. Towards this objective, it is useful to further analyse the outputs, for example, to learn more about sensitivity to input parameters. In addition, this first analysis can be used to assess uncertainty. Such an analysis is difficult to obtain using the code itself because it is quite time-consuming. One approach, called response surface methodology, consists in replacing the code by a simpler model, estimated with few runs. Linear regression is often used. In this paper, we propose kriging as introduced by Sacks et al. (Technometrics 1989; 31:41–47; Stat. Sci. 1989; 4(4):409–435) as an alternative.

Kriging was applied to the Loss-of-Fluid Test (LOFT) loss of coolant experiment L2-5, which was the subject of the former ISP 13 and the ongoing BEMUSE (ISP: International Standard Problem. BEMUSE: Best-Estimate Methods–Uncertainty and Sensitivity Evaluation) international problem. The output is the second maximum peak cladding temperature (PCT) of the fuel. The best estimate code used is CATHARE2 V1.3L. We observe that kriging is more flexible and can handle irregularities. As a result, it gives more accurate predictions. In addition, sensitivity analysis is provided. This method offers complementary information and constructs a response surface more accurately, with a more realistic evaluation of risk. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Noisy channels are a valuable resource from a cryptographic point of view. They can be used for exchanging secret-keys as well as realizing other cryptographic primitives such as commitment and oblivious transfer. To be really useful, noisy channels have to be considered in the scenario where a cheating party has some degree of control over the channel characteristics. Damgård et al. (EUROCRYPT 1999) proposed a more realistic model where such level of control is permitted to an adversary, the so called unfair noisy channels, and proved that they can be used to obtain commitment and oblivious transfer protocols. Given that noisy channels are a precious resource for cryptographic purposes, one important question is determining the optimal rate in which they can be used. The commitment capacity has already been determined for the cases of discrete memoryless channels and Gaussian channels. In this work we address the problem of determining the commitment capacity of unfair noisy channels. We compute a single-letter characterization of the commitment capacity of unfair noisy channels. In the case where an adversary has no control over the channel (the fair case) our capacity reduces to the well-known capacity of a discrete memoryless binary symmetric channel.


Background. Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is universal complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD), the likelihood of which increases as renal function decreases. Currently, SHPT is considered in the context of mineral and bone disorders associated with CKD. Mineral and bone disorders associated with CKD include, in addition to SHPT, disorders of calcium-phosphorus metabolism, bone pathology and metastatic calcification, which determine poor outcomes of the disease. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the serum concentrations of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 23 and Klotho protein in patients with various stages of CKD and their relationship with SHPT, vitamin D levels, and calcium-phosphorus metabolism in patients with varying degrees of decreased renal function. Materials and methods. Serum concentrations of FGF 23, Klotho protein, parathyroid hormone (PTH), 25(OH)D, calcium and phosphorus were evaluated in 229 patients with various stages of chronic kidney disease and in 40 people without signs of CKD. Results. It has been shown that individuals with CKD are characterized by overproduction of humoral phosphatonin FGF 23 and Klotho deficiency, which increase as renal failure worsens. A significant relationship was established between FGF 23 and the levels of PTH and blood phosphorus; Klotho protein — with the patient's age and serum vitamin D. An early marker of disorders in the FGF 23-Klotho system is a decrease in the Klotho protein concentration, which occurs in the early stages of CKD and is aggravated with the progression of renal failure. A statistically significant overproduction of FGF 23 associated with secondary hyperparathyroidism was registered in patients with glomerular filtration rate less than 35 ml/min/1.73 m2. Conclusions. An early marker of disorders in the FGF 23-Klotho system is a decrease in the concentration of the Klotho protein, which occurs in the early stages of CKD and is aggravated with the progression of renal fai-lure. The relationship between Klotho deficiency and the formation of SHPT has not been found. As kidney function decreases, excess production of PTH and FGF 23 appears and increases, hyperphosphatemia progresses. This proves the pathogenetic relationship between the formation of SHPT and the overproduction of humoral phosphatonin FGF 23, since it is this glomerular filtration rate that determines the growth of PTH above the upper limit of the general population reference interval.


The wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) infrastructure is widely used and many location-aware systems and services are researched. In this paper, wireless LAN based indoor positioning system (WiPS) is proposed. WiPS uses wireless LAN technology to measure the location of each mobile terminal. Mobile terminals equip only wireless LAN device to communicate and measure its location, so it can be made without any additional devices for location sensing. Existing wireless LAN based location systems measure the signal strength by only access points. On WiPS, each mobile terminal also measures the signal strength of neighboring terminals. Thereby WiPS can achieve more precise location estimation than existing systems, where there are many mobile terminals. We simulate the case that distance measurement has probabilistic error. The result shows improvement of accuracy in WiPS.