: Pyramidal neurons stained with methylen blue (from layers III and V of the cat brain cortex) are revealed in vivo after a special preparation of the contact objectives in the reflecting light. Small pieces of the brain tissue with identified neurons were separated under visual control, after which an oriented piece placed in a special grid-basket appeared to be stabilized by the borders of the grid. This method permits investigating the same neurons after fixation by means of histological light or electron microscope techniques.


The primary place held by Scripture in the theology of Irenaeus of Lyons is beyond doubt. A number of scholars have pointed out, however, that Irenaeus also utilizes philosophy and rhetoric to his advantage. Despite the gains of this research there is a persistent tendency to trivialize Irenaeus' philosophical and rhetorical ability. In this paper I argue against this tendency by calling more attention to the philosophical ability that Irenaeus displays. In the first place, I summarize the current state of scholarly opinion on the role of philosophy and rhetoric in Irenaeus' thought. In the second, I illustrate Irenaeus' use of philosophy by examining his comments in Against Heresies 3,24,2-3,25,5.


Understanding and mapping the spatial variation in stream biological condition could provide an important tool for conservation, assessment, and restoration of stream ecosystems. The USEPA's 2008-2009 National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) summarizes the percentage of stream lengths within the conterminous United States that are in good, fair, or poor biological condition based on a multimetric index of benthic invertebrate assemblages. However, condition is usually summarized at regional or national scales, and these assessments do not provide substantial insight into the spatial distribution of conditions at unsampled locations. We used random forests to model and predict the probable condition of several million kilometers of streams across the conterminous United States based on nearby and upstream landscape features, including human-related alterations to watersheds. To do so, we linked NRSA sample sites to the USEPA's StreamCat Dataset; a database of several hundred landscape metrics for all 1:100,000-scale streams and their associated watersheds within the conterminous United States. The StreamCat data provided geospatial indicators of nearby and upstream land use, land cover, climate, and other landscape features for modeling. Nationally, the model correctly predicted the biological condition class of 75% of NRSA sites. Although model evaluations suggested good discrimination among condition classes, we present maps as predicted probabilities of good condition, given upstream and nearby landscape settings. Inversely, the maps can be interpreted as the probability of a stream being in poor condition, given human-related watershed alterations. These predictions are available for download from the USEPA's StreamCat website. Finally, we illustrate how these predictions could be used to prioritize streams for conservation or restoration.


People have, for many well-documented reasons, a tendency to overemphasize their intuitions and to follow them, even when they should not. This "intuition bias" leads to several kinds of specific intuitive biases in judgments and decision making. Previous studies have shown that characteristics of the decision process have a tendency to "leak" into the experience of the choice outcome. We explore whether intuitive choices influence the experience of the choice outcomes differently from "non-intuitive," analytic choices. Since intuition is feeling based, we examine in particular if intuitive choices have stronger affective consequences than non-intuitive ones. Participants in two scenario studies (N = 90; N = 126) rated the feelings of decision makers who experienced a conflict between two options, one intuitively appealing and another that appeared preferable on analytic grounds. Choosing the intuitive alternative was anticipated to lead to somewhat more regret after negative outcomes and, in particular, much more satisfaction with positive outcomes. In two autobiographical studies, one with psychology students (N = 88) and the other with experienced engineers (N = 99), participants were asked to provide examples of choice conflicts between an intuitive and a non-intuitive option from their own private or professional lives. Both groups showed a tendency to report stronger emotions, in particular positive, after intuitive choices. One well-established explanation for intuition bias focuses on the nature of people's anticipated negative counterfactual thoughts if their decisions were to turn out badly. The present data indicate that intuitive choices intensify positive emotions, anticipated and real, after successful outcomes much more than negative emotions after failures. Positive outcomes are also more commonly expected than negative ones, when we make choices. We argue that markedly amplified emotions, mediated by stronger personal involvement, in the positive outcomes of intuitive versus non-intuitive choices, is an overlooked reason for intuition bias.


OPERA is part of the CNGS project and it is an experiment dedicated to the observation of long-baseline numu into nutau oscillations through tau appearance. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) with bakelite electrodes are used to instrument the 2 cm gaps between the magnetized iron slabs of the two spectrometers. The RPC installation ended in may 2004 on the first spectrometer and in march 2005 on the second one. Before the installation, every RPC is subjected to a complete test chain in order to reject the poorer quality detectors. The tests are performed in dedicated facilities to ensure the proper RPC gluing, to measure its electrical properties and to verify the response to cosmic rays and the intrinsic noise levels. We have also tested the long term stability of real size OPERA RPC prototypes operated at cosmic ray fluxes for more than one year. On small size prototypes we are performing studies on the gas mixtures in order to reduce the total charge released in the gas for each detector count. The validation of the installed RPCs has been performed with pure nitrogen. A small part of them has been also tested with the gas mixture Ar/C2H2F4/i-C4H10 /SF6=75.4/20/4/0.6


Understanding and predicting the response of marine communities to climate change at large spatial scales, and distilling this information for policymakers, are prerequisites for ecosystem-based management. Changes in thermal habitat suitability across species' distributions are especially concerning because of their implications for abundance, affecting species' conservation, trophic interactions and fisheries. However, most predictive studies of the effects of climate change have tended to be sub-global in scale and focused on shifts in species' range edges or commercially exploited species. Here, we develop a widely applicable methodology based on climate response curves to predict global-scale changes in thermal habitat suitability. We apply the approach across the distributions of 2,293 shallow-water fish species under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5 by 2050–2100. We find a clear pattern of predicted declines in thermal habitat suitability in the tropics versus general increases at higher latitudes. The Indo-Pacific, the Caribbean and western Africa emerge as the areas of most concern, where high species richness and the strongest declines in thermal habitat suitability coincide. This reflects a pattern of consistently narrow thermal ranges, with most species in these regions already exposed to temperatures above inferred thermal optima. In contrast, in temperate regions, such as northern Europe, where most species live below thermal optima and thermal ranges are wider, positive changes in thermal habitat suitability suggest that these areas are likely to emerge as the greatest beneficiaries of climate change, despite strong predicted temperature increases.


We present data for seven new markers isolated from a microsatellite-enriched DNA library from the freshwater snail Physa acuta. Six of them appear to be conserved in Physa cubensis. These loci might be useful for analysing population structure and reconstructing the story of invasion of freshwaters on a worldwide scale by P. acuta.


Margaret Macaulay et al ' have shown that neomycin may become bound to silicone rubber tubing used for preparing media in the laboratory and may be carried over into diagnostic sensitivity test agar (DST, Oxoid) to inhibit the growth of coagulase negative staphylococci. We have shown that neomycin, kanamycin, and gentamicin used in concentrations commonly recommended for anaerobe selective media may be carried over to other media through the same tubing, inhibiting the growth of any suitably sensitive organism. The consequences of any such media being used in the primary plating of specimens are obvious. In this laboratory we use separate, identifiable tubing for pouring media containing these antibiotics, after which at least 3 litres hot water is flushed through. All non-inhibitory media, including MacConkey agar, are shown to support the growth of a sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (NCTC 6571) before being released for use. Those plates poured first in each batch should be selected for testing. We believe that unless other laboratories are equally thorough in their testing of poured media, some may have a serious


A synoptic‐scale cyclonic eddy was captured in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) global reanalysis surface winds in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea in October 1996. The eddy was formed in the Bay of Bengal in the middle of October 1996. It migrated across southern India, entered the Arabian Sea, and moved along the west coast of India before it turned and propagated across the Arabian Sea toward the Somali coast. The eddy eventually dissipated near Socotra in early November. The performance of the model winds is validated using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scatterometer (NSCAT) data along swath measurements. The model is able to resolve the eddy. The results compare well with observations in circulation intensity but differ in eddy center locations and, therefore, in westward propagation speeds in the late stage of the eddy life cycle.


Renewable energy mini-grids are playing an increasingly important role in advancing the electrification process in many developing countries. Significant steps have been taken by governments, regulators and development finance institutions to create conditions for the private sector to scale-up deployment of mini-grids in areas where grid is unlikely to expand (at least in the mediumto long-term) because it is not the least-cost option – sites too far from the main grid, with too low and disperse demand – or because of the dire financial conditions of the distribution company and the subsidized tariffs render grid extension an unviable proposition. Under the present conditions, in most rural areas in low-access developing countries the three modes of electrification (on-grid, mini-grids and stand-alone systems) coexist and are largely developed in silos. The current plans to roll-out stand-alone and mini-grid solutions will continue this trend. In particular, mini-grid focused initiatives based on the Results-Based Financing (RBF) approach1, such as the Universal Energy Facility2, can mitigate some of the administrative risk associated with accessing financing support and components procurement hurdles and inefficiencies presently plaguing private mini-grid companies in developing countries. Being subject to light-handed regulation or no regulation at all, the deployment of mini-grids under this kind of arrangement can be fast, with obvious advantages for the yet unserved population. However, with a limited track record, concerns may arise about the long1 RBF typically involves payment of specified sums when mini-grid projects achieve a specific milestone most commonly verified connections. In some cases, where the viability gap may be too large, part of RBF support may also be provided to cover upfront capital cost. The level of support is usually capped at a specific point and is tied to specified requirements related to, for instance, quality of supply, tiers of service, etc. The application of the RBF to mini-grids is further discussed in SEforAll (2020), State of the Global Mini-grids Market Report 2020, https://www.seforall.org/system/files/2020-06/MGP-2020SEforALL.pdf. 2 The Universal Energy Facility is a multi-donor results-based financing facility which aspires to be a USD 500 million facility by 2023 (USD 100 million by 2021) and to deliver approximately 2 million electricity connections and 300,000 clean cooking solutions by 2023. INTEGRATING ISOLATED MINI-GRIDS WITH AN IDF-COMPLIANT REGULATED DISTRIBUTION SECTOR: A LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE TOWARDS UNIVERSAL ELECTRICITY ACCESS 2 term inclusiveness (i.e., leaving no-one-behind) and permanence (i.e., financial sustainability, vocation) outcomes of such approaches once they are left to their own devices to meet demand growth over the project lifetime and to replace worn out components. The Global Commission to End Energy Poverty (GCEEP) has deliberated, and widely supported, the adoption of the Integrated Distribution Framework (IDF)3 as an ideal first solution to achieve universal access to electricity efficiently and sustainably. The IDF proposes that an "entity" (comprising one or more public and private actors) must be responsible for undertaking the distribution activity in a given area (under an investment-worthy contract like a concession) to ensure universal coverage through the optimum mix of the three electrification modes, which will dynamically evolve – as demand grows and the grid extension segment becomes financially viable – towards a higher proportion of the grid extension solution. It aligns with the view that over the long-term, the distribution sector in all low-access countries will need to converge to the well-tested regulatory principles of distribution business i.e., long-term remuneration schemes based on a cost-reflective revenue requirement for all electrification modes. However, the IDF requires a more complete regulatory support and a comprehensive business plan covering all electrification modes, compared to targeted approaches to scale-up mini-grid solutions (e.g., through the RBF) and its implementation will be necessarily slower. Would it be possible to take advantage of the strengths of both approaches, while minimizing their weaknesses? This paper explores the point of convergence between measures to rapidly scale-up isolated mini-grid development in unelectrified areas, and steps taken towards an IDFapproach in the distribution sector broadly. Rather than viewing the two as conflicting approaches, given the longevity of electricity assets and distribution activities, the paper argues that the design of isolated mini-grid programs could integrate elements that provide the building blocks for the potential integration of isolated mini-grids into a regulated distribution business. Anticipating and planning for the transition will help address potential regulatory risks, internalize the transition in mini-grid business and financing models, and support a symbiotic co-evolution of the three electrification modes. 3 I. Pérez-Arriaga, R. Stoner, D. Nagpal and G. Jacquot. "Global Commission to End Energy Poverty: Inception Report", September 2019. https://www.endenergypoverty.org/reports. INTEGRATING ISOLATED MINI-GRIDS WITH AN IDF-COMPLIANT REGULATED DISTRIBUTION SECTOR: A LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE TOWARDS UNIVERSAL ELECTRICITY ACCESS


Every September, CDC, along with partners in government, private and public health, and academia observes National Preparedness Month, a public service reminder of the importance of personal and community preparedness for all events (1). This year, CDC's Center for Preparedness and Response has published a CDC Digital Media Toolkit (https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/npm/npm2019.htm) regarding personal health preparedness, including how to build an emergency supplies kit. In addition to food and water, an emergency supplies kit should include 1) personal needs (supplies necessary to protect physical, mental, and emotional health); 2) an emergency supply of prescription medications and medical supplies; 3) important paperwork including documentation of medical coverage, property ownership, and identity; and 4) backup and alternative power sources for mobile phones and medical devices.


The paper aims to examine policy-anchor hypotheses by analysing the impact of WTO accession process on domestic economic policies and institutions of newly acceded WTO members. It shows that the process of obtaining WTO membership, under certain circumstances, can lead to a positive improvement in domestic econoic policies and institutions. The difference-in-difference analysis is employed as the empirical model. Results are robust with alternative model specifications and choice of economic policies and institutional variable.


Background: DNA ligase IV (LIG4) deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the DNA LIG4 gene. Nowadays hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(HSCT) is the most effective treatment option. Matched sibling or unrelated donor was the best choice for those patients. However, it will be a problem for LIG4 deficiency patients without proper donor as above but needed urgent transplantation because of infection or bone marrow failure. Furthermore, mixed donor chimerism after transplantation is more common in LIG4 deficiency patients because of reduced intensity conditioning(RIC) regimen. How to deal with those problems? Here we report a case which the patient received haploidentical HSCT and got complete donor chimerism after donor stem cell infusion. Results:The patient was diagnosed as LIG4 deficiency at 8-month-old. At 14 months of age, she received a T cell receptor(TCR)α/β and CD19+ B cells depleted graft from his haploidentical father, followed a RIC regimen with no additional graft versus host disease(GvHD) prophylaxis. Engraftment was as usual. However, mixed donor chimerism occurred after transplantation and viremia persisted. Cryopreserved donor cell infusion was initiated. The chimerism grew up steadily and viremia disappeared at four months post transplantation. Conclusions: This case report gives an example of successful haploidentical transplantation and donor stem cell infusion as a treatment option in a mixed donor chimerism situation after HSCT in LIG4 deficiency patients.


. The Arctic Ocean is a region important for global and regional climate. Although generally quiescent compared to mid-latitudes, the upper Arctic ocean hosts mesoscale and smaller scale processes. These processes can have a profound impact on vertical ocean fluxes, stratification, and feedback with the sea ice and atmosphere. Sparse and non-synoptic in-situ observations of the polar oceans are limited by the distribution of manual observing platforms and autonomous instrumen-tation. Analyzing observational data to assess tracer field gradients and upper ocean dynamics becomes highly challenging 5 when measurement platforms drift with the ice pack due to continuous changes in drift speed direction. This work presents a dynamical reconstruction of the ocean state, based on observations of the Multidisciplinary Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) experiment. Overall, the model can reproduce the lateral and vertical structure of the temperature, salinity, and density fields, which allows for projecting dynamically consistent features of these fields onto a regular grid. We identify two separate depth ranges of enhanced eddy kinetic energy, which are located around two maxima in buoyancy frequency: the 10 depth of the upper halocline and the depth of the warm (modified) Atlantic Water. Simulations reveals a notable decrease in surface layer salinity and density towards the north, accompanied by high variability in the mixed layer depth in the south-north direction. And no significant horizontal gradients in salinity and density fields but an increase in mixed layer depth from west to east 0.084 m/km gradient with 0.6 m/km standard deviation, indicating opposite characteristics compared to the south-north direction. The model resolves several stationary eddies in the warm Atlantic Water and provides insights into the associated 15 dynamics. The obtained three-dimensional fields of temperature and salinity can be used for further analysis of the thermo-haline structure and related dynamics associated with submesoscale processes in the Central Arctic. Dynamic characteristics and eddy fields can be used for further analysis and comparison with state-of-the-art climate and Earth System Models. The developed nudging method can be used to utilize future observational data obtained from a diverse set of instruments.


BackgroundMalaria is still an endemic disease in Africa with many imported cases in Europe. The standard treatment is intravenous artesunate for severe malaria and oral artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for uncomplicated malaria. Delayed hemolytic anemia (DHA) after intravenous artesunate has been extensively described and guidelines recommend a biological monitoring until one month after the end of the treatment. The link with an autoimmune process is unsure. Nevertheless, cases with positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT) have been reported. Conversely, DHA is not recognized as an adverse effect of oral ACT. Previously, only two cases of DHA occurring after oral ACT without intravenous artesunate administration have been reported. Case presentationWe report the case of a 42 year old man returning from Togo. He was treated with dihydroartemisinin / piperaquine combination for an uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Nine days after the end of the treatment he developed hemolytic anemia with positive DAT. Eventually, the patient recovered after corticotherapy. ConclusionThis is the first case report of autoimmune hemolytic anemia after treatment with dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine.


Mechanical Turk (MTurk) provides an on-demand source of human computation. This provides a tremendous opportunity to explore algorithms which incorporate human computation as a function call. However, various systems challenges make this difficult in practice, and most uses of MTurk post large numbers of independent tasks. TurKit is a toolkit for prototyping and exploring algorithmic human computation, while maintaining a straight-forward imperative programming style. We present the crash-and-rerun programming model that makes TurKit possible, along with a variety of applications for human computation algorithms. We also present case studies of TurKit used for real experiments across different fields.


Pressure sensors are used to monitor the performance characteristics of various systems within the appliance industry. Temperature, humidity altitude are the significant parameters to get the right information about atmospheric pressure. These geographical constraints affect the value of pressure. The pressure sensors are designed in such way that it should give correct information about all atmospheric changes. Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) having piezoresistive pressure sensor has a various chip structure and sensing element. This chip structure helps to get various sensitivity results. Right now there are no results regarding impact of various chip structure, temperature and altitude variation on pressure sensors. A calibration check should be carried out at the chosen intervals for these pressure sensors to get accuracy. This paper helps to get information about how temperature and altitude affect the value of pressure and how sensor data is visualized to the user using android application. This analysis can be used for aerospace engineering application while airplane takes off or while landing


We have prepared a series of new carbohydrate-based materials based on the use of carbohydrates as a template for the introduction of functionality to polymeric materials with complete regio- and stereochemical control. The synthesis of these new materials by the use of chemical and enzymatic methods allows for the rational design of new materials based on the properties of the monomeric subunit. These materials have potential applications that range from their use in enhanced oil recovery to biodegradable plastics to biological applications including targeted drug delivery and enzyme stabilization.


The indications, method, results and complications of various thrombolytic medical treatment options in acute myocardial infarction is discussed. The thrombolytic treatment decreases the in-hospital and late mortality of patients and prevents the deterioration of left ventricular function. The earlier the treatment is initiated, the better result may be expected. The indication of thrombolysis may be expanded for patient with left bundle branch block, higher age groups, and also for late admissions after the onset of chest pain.


Mentalization-based psychotherapy practices in patients with borderline personality disorder Natalia Dewi Wardani1*, Lisyani Suromo2 Introduction: Mentalization-based psychotherapy (MBT) develops with the importance of establishing attachment relations with patients. MBT focuses on internal mental processes that occur in the therapeutic process that actively improve patient-therapist relationships. Methods: A woman with preoccupied/anxious attachment is given mentalization-based psychotherapy. The goal of psychotherapy based on mentalization is to develop secure attachment relationships in therapy, use empathy and validation in reciprocal relationships, strengthen the patient's capacity to reduce emotional dysregulation and impulsive behavior, increase self-awareness, control of attention and flexible thinking in the context of emotions and relationships. Results: The patient has begun to form a secure base attachment. Patients' mentalization has improved along with the formation of secure base attachments, patients are better able to do self-soothing and regulate emotions properly. Conclusion: In the early years of life, patients have a pattern of interaction with caregivers who lack the need for mirroring. Furthermore, the patient develops into an insecure self and has an inherent preoccupied/anxious attachment. It has an effective representation and attention regulation system that is not functioning so that patients use existing stimuli as the basis of an insecure sense of self. Fonagy termed this condition with incoherent, disruptive "alien self" through controlling and manipulative behavior. The patient externalizes the alien self against the attachment figure. This externalization appears as a countertransference experience in a therapy session, if it can be appropriately managed it will emerge a feeling of coherence in the patient's internal world.


The pectineal ligament is used in surgery as a support element in the treatment of groin hernias and female urinary stress incontinence. The question is to determine the anatomical characters that account for its strength. Three complementary approaches have been considered: an anatomical dissection study established the origin of the different fibers the ligament is composed of; a morphometric study determined the areas where the ligament is the thickest; and microscopic anatomy clearly showed the arrangement of the fibers. The pectineal ligament continues the near-by fibers fibrous elements, notably thanks to its ends. The latter are significantly thicker. At microscopic level, the regular layout of the pectineal ligament fibers accounts for its resistance.


Merycism, or rumination in man, although described by ancient medical writers, has attracted but little attention until within the past few years. Hammond, who reported a case in 1894, said that only about fifty cases had been recorded up to that time. Since then, however, a number of additional cases have been recorded, both in this country and abroad. I have however been able to find only thirteen reported in America, but in Europe a great number of cases have been added to the literature in recent years. The American cases are: Hubbard: Medical Record , 1886, p. 122, one case. Max Einhorn: Medical Record , 1890, p. 38, two cases. Charles Shattinger: Medical Fortnightly , 1892, p. 163, one case. W. A. Hammond: Proceedings of American Neurological Association, 1894, one case. D. W. Graham: Chicago Medical Examiner , 1894, Vol. xv, p. 118, one case. Edward Runge: St. Louis Med. Review , 1894, p.


Abstract The Vietnamese continental margin records the tectonic processes which have controlled opening of the East Vietnam Sea basin. The geometry and chronology of Cenozoic structures linked to the opening of this marginal basin have been studied offshore Da Nang (central Vietnam), based on unpublished data acquired by BP Exploration from 1989 to 1991. These data demonstrate that a N160° E fault trend is the main structural orientation recognised on both gravity and seismic data. Important crustal extension on shallow-dipping fault planes striking N060° E and connected to the N160° E faults is observed also. This horse-tail map-pattern is compatible with transtensional dextral motion along the N160° E faults. The discrepancy between the amount of motion observed onshore and offshore suggests the presence of a major shear zone which trends subparallel to the east Vietnam margin. This shear zone is located in the region of the offshore Qui Nhon ridge, which is blanketed by carbonate sediments. These carbonates have been drilled and dated as Middle Miocene. Dextral motion along this shear zone diminished during the late Early Miocene (around 20 Ma.), as evidenced by the onset of carbonate deposition on top of the ridge. This is broadly synchronous with propagation of the East Vietnam Sea basin towards the southwest. This major shear zone has been a fundamental part of the fault network which developed during opening of the East Vietnam Sea. The structural development of the offshore Da Nang region has resulted in the development of contrasting sub-basin geometries; those within the major shear zone appear to be relatively restricted laterally whereas those to the east display geometries more typical of extensional sub-basins. Both sub-basins show a variety of potential hydrocarbon trapping styles and by analogy with comparable areas in SE Asia have the potential to contain important oil reserves, in addition to the considerable volume of gas already proven by recent drilling.


Critical attention on Korean popular culture, particularly outside of Korea, has focused upon the Hallyu cultural phenomenon at the expense of sectors of the Korean creative industries that have sought to actively engage with their social and cultural environment and challenge the status quo. Politically charged, countercultural or just distinctive and/or original, non-Hallyu cultural artifacts have been and continue to be born out of a desire to be creative, to comment on or to create social change. This article focuses upon one such critically overlooked South Korean cultural artifact, the audacious and genuinely groundbreaking television drama "Life is Beautiful" (SBS 2010), which motivated an immense amount of critical and social reaction within Korea and yet has barely featured in English language analysis of Korean drama because it has not been classified as Hallyu. This is in spite of it being a finely produced and performed series and one written by the most prolific, longest serving and commercially successful of all Korean writers of Hallyu drama, Kim Soo-hyeon. In addition to its impressive production credentials, "Life is Beautiful" is also notable for being hugely controversial at the time of its broadcast due to its boldness in tackling the subject of Korean prejudice towards homosexuality.


This study examined ways in which climate information was mobilized for use under Future Climate for Africa (FCFA), an applied research program to improve the use of climate information to support medium-term (5–40 years) policies and planning in sub-Saharan Africa. Past research has underscored the interdependent relationship between user engagement and knowledge mobilization in effective climate knowledge uptake. The study used a document analysis of 46 program ou tputs and semi-structured interviews with 13 FCFA researchers to contrast user-centered and knowledge-centered approaches to effectively mobilize climate information uptake for use. A total of 20 knowledge mobilization tools and approaches were identified across the program and analyzed. This analysis reveals a complex interplay between user engagement and knowledge mobilization processes, including the strategic or flexible use and re-use of knowledge products as the user engagement process evolved. These findings have important implications for future programmatic design and planning in promoting engagement and mobilization approaches that can contribute to long-term policy and decision-making.


This work evaluates the performance of block based Sieve of Eratosthenes method over cluster and LAN grid platform using Design of Experiments Methodology. The MPI Implementation of Sieve of Eratosthenes method in the form of prime number programs are experimented as per the DOE full factorial method. The main idea of applying DOE is to identify how job completion time of "Sieve of Eratosthenes method" depends on number of processors, varying inputs and MPI implementation of prime number programs. This work helps us to design suitable sizing of based Sieve of Eratosthenes method over cluster and grid platform and suggest the suitability of our approach in usage of block-based Sieve of Eratosthenes method in production environments.


Hypertension and progressive deterioration in renal function are commonly seen in heart transplant recipients treated for the long term with cyclosporine. Because angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors have been associated with amelioration of renal dysfunction in some patients with hypertension and preexisting mild-moderate kidney failure, we treated nine hypertensive recipients of orthotopic heart transplants with enalapril (11 +/- 2 mg/day) and furosemide (62 +/- 15 mg/day) for 23 +/- 4 months. Most of the enalapril dose was given at bedtime, which minimized nocturnal and early morning hypertension. In addition to controlling blood pressure (154 +/- 6/100 +/- 2 mm Hg before enalapril vs 120 +/- 5/81 +/- 2 mm Hg currently; p less than 0.001 for both systolic and diastolic blood pressures by paired t test), there has been no increase in serum creatinine level over 684 +/- 102 days of follow-up (1.88 +/- 0.20 mg/dl before enalapril vs 1.81 +/- 0.17 mg/dl currently; p greater than 0.70). This is unlikely to be caused by the reduction in daily cyclosporine dose (492 +/- 60 mg/day before enalapril to 305 +/- 47 mg/day currently) because there were no significant changes in mean blood cyclosporine level (which has been maintained between 100 and 500 ng/ml). Treatment of hypertension with enalapril and a diuretic after heart transplantation may help prevent or delay the impairment of renal function often seen during prolonged cyclosporine therapy.


Two calcium-stimulated ATPases at optimal pH values of 5.0 and 7.0, which are designated as acid and neutral Ca(2+) -ATPase, respectively, were found in the membrane fraction of human milk, and their enzymatic properties were studied. For maximal activity, neutral Ca(2+)-ATPase required 0.45 mM Ca ion, while acid Ca(2+) -ATPase required 207 mM Ca ion. Neutral Ca(2+) -ATPase activity was not enhanced by adding the Mg ion at more than 0.1 mM. Among the nucleotides, neutral Ca(2+) -ATPase showed a higher substrate specificity to GTP, CTP, ITP, and UTP than to ATP, while ATP was the best substrate for acid Ca(2+) -ATPase. Neutral and acid Ca(2+) -ATPases had apparent Km values of 0.361 and 0.192 mM, and Vmax of 186 and 178 μmol ATP hydrolyzed/mg of protein per min, respectively. Both Ca(2+) -ATPases were potently inhibited by fluoride, lanthanide, vanadate, and p-chloromercuribenzoate, and inactivated by EDTA, EGTA, and CDTA, but were unaffected by N-ethylmaleimide, NaN3, ouabain, oxidized glutathione, or oligomycin, and were inactivated by heating at 60°C for 10 min. These enzymes were concentrated in the membrane fraction of the cream and skim milk membrane.


The method based on the deconvolution of the Raman spectra of glasses, proposed for the investigation of glazed ceramics by Colomban, is applied to archeological samples of glass of two different origins in an attempt to characterize the glass composition and the fictive temperature using a contactless, nondestructive spectroscopic technique. The samples investigated are glassy mosaic tesserae of Roman times from Massa Lubrense, Napoli, Italy, and medieval rosary grains found during the excavations in the church of San Martino di Rivosecco, Parma, Italy. The polymerization index, obtained as the ratio of the bending and stretching band amplitudes, suggests firing temperatures not less than 1000–1100 °C for both Roman and medieval glasses. From the wavenumber shift of some stretching bands at about 1050–1100 cm−1, the content of lead was estimated. The medieval samples show a lower Pb content, a result confirmed by elementary energy dispersive X-ray spectral data. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We present an analysis of supra-familial relationships of monocots based on a combined matrix of nuclear 18S and partial 26S rDNA, plastid atpB, matK, ndhF, and rbcL, and mitochondrial atpl DNA sequences. Results are highly congruent with previous analyses and provide higher bootstrap support for nearly all relationships than in previously published analyses. Important changes to the results of previous work are a well-supported position of Petrosaviaceae as sister to all monocots above Acorales and Alismatales and much higher support for the commelinid clade. For the first time, the spine of the monocot tree has some bootstrap support, although support for paraphyly of liliids is still only low to moderate (79-82%). Dioscoreales and Pandanales are sister taxa (moderately supported, 87-92%), and Asparagales are weakly supported (79%) as sister to the commelinids. Analysis of just the four plastid genes reveals that addition of data from the other two genomes contributes to generally better support for most clades, particularly along the spine. A new collection reveals that previous material of Petermannia was misidentified, and now Petermanniaceae should no longer be considered a synonym of Colchicaceae. Arachnitis (Corsiaceae) falls into Liliales, but its exact position is not well supported. Sciaphila (Triuridaceae) falls with Pandanales. Trithuria (Hydatellaceae) falls in Poales near Eriocaulaceae, Mayacaceae, and Xyridaceae, but until a complete set of genes are produced for this taxon, its placement will remain problematic. Within the commelinid clade, Dasypogonaceae are sister to Poales and Arecales sister to the rest of the commelinids, but these relationships are only weakly supported.


This paper presents a data-driven approach to model planar pushing interaction to predict both the most likely outcome of a push and its expected variability. The learned models rely on a variation of Gaussian processes with input-dependent noise called Variational Heteroscedastic Gaussian processes (VHGP) [1] that capture the mean and variance of a stochastic function. We show that we can learn accurate models that outperform analytical models after less than 100 samples and saturate in performance with less than 1000 samples. We validate the results against a collected dataset of repeated trajectories, and use the learned models to study questions such as the nature of the variability in pushing, and the validity of the quasi-static assumption.


Introduction Cerebral palsy is not a specific disease but a clinical syndrome caused by a non-progressive injury to the developing brain that results in a disorder of movement and posture that is permanent but not unchanging. It is the most common cause of physical disability affecting children in developed countries. The incidence is steady in most countries at approximately 2 per 1000 live births. The prevalence of cerebral palsy is much higher in children with birth weight under 1500 g and in those born earlier than 28 weeks of gestation. The location, timing and severity of the brain lesion are extremely variable, which results in many different clinical presentations. Despite the static nature of the brain injury, the majority of children with cerebral palsy develop progressive musculoskeletal problems such as posturing and muscle contractures (Koman et al ., 2004). Additionally, as pointed out in an expert consensus on cerebral palsy, it is important to recognize that there are also frequent yet inconsistent disturbances of sensation, cognition, communication and perception; abnormalities of behavior; and seizures (Bax et al ., 2005). Classification Cerebral palsy may be classified according to the cause of the brain lesion (when this is known), and the location of the brain lesion as noted on imaging such as MRI or CT. Clinically more useful classification schemes are based on the type of movement disorder, the distribution of the movement disorder (Box 15.1) and the gross motor function of the child.


This paper presents a study of the effects of seam parameters on the stiffness of woven fabrics with vertical plain seams. To investigate the stiffness of a sewn fabric, bending length and flexural rigidity must be obtained. In this study, the effects of seam parameters such as sewing thread size, stitch density and seam allowance on bending behaviour were evaluated. Cantilever test was used to determine the relationships between the bending properties and seam parameters of the sewn fabrics. It was found when sewing thread size , stitch density and seam allowance of a vertical plain seam on the cotton woven fabric increased, bending length, flexural rigidity and stiffness of fabric also increased. Therefore there is necessity to optimize the seam parameters such as sewing thread size, stitch density and seam allowance in order to decrease the stiffness of the fabric on the garment. The fabrics with the seams with 3 stitch/cm and 2 mm seam allowance and sewing thread with 140 ticket number had lower flexural rigidity and stiffness.


A modified quenching and deformation dilatometer (TA instruments DIL 805A/D/T) is now in operation at the Heinz Maier‐Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ, Germany) neutron center. It is customized for running neutron scattering measurements during the temperature/deformation treatment of the sample, in particular neutron diffraction (phase, texture, and lattice strain) and neutron small angle scattering. The bulk length change of dilatometer specimens is successfully combined with in situ neutron diffraction patterns for analyzing dynamic processes in metallic materials. A detailed introduction to the unique dilatometer is given and examples of recent experiments highlight the use of the added insight provided by combining diffraction and dilatometry.


The low-frequency (1/f) noise of gate-all-around silicon nanowire transistors (SNWTs) with different gate electrodes (poly-Si gate, doped fully silicided (FUSI) gate, and undoped FUSI gate) is studied in the strong-inversion linear region. It shows that the gate electrodes have a strong impact on the 1/f noise of the SNWTs. The highest noise is observed in the SNWTs with a poly-Si gate, compared to their FUSI-gate counterparts. The observations are explained according to the number fluctuation with correlated mobility fluctuation theory by assuming that the correlated mobility scattering is better screened in the case of an undoped FUSI gate. However, the doped FUSI gate with silicidation-induced impurity segregation at the gate/SiO2 interface gives rise to extra mobility scattering.


Background: Iron deficiency anemia screening and iron supplementation in infants aged 6-12 months are recommended in the Guideline in Child Health Supervision. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of weekly iron supplementation compared with daily supplementation in improving the iron status in infants.Methods: A single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in infants aged 6 months visiting the Well Child Clinic between May 2019 and November 2020 at Burapha University Hospital, Chonburi, Thailand. The intervention consisted of either daily or weekly iron supplementation combined with iron-rich complementary food promotion for six months. The outcomes were the differences of serum ferritin and hematological variables before and after being iron supplemented. Results: Sixty-nine six-month-old healthy infants were randomized to receive either 10 mg Fe/day (daily group) or 30 mg Fe/week (weekly group). Forty-five infants (daily group; n = 24 and weekly group; n = 21) completed the intervention. After the six-month period of iron supplementation, the mean differences of serum ferritin in the daily and the weekly group were 8.78±37.21 and -13.05 ±17.53 ng/mL, respectively (95%CI: 4.54, 39.12; P=0.015). The mean differences of hemoglobin in the daily and the weekly group were 0.58±0.82 and 0.08±0.59 g/dL, respectively (95%CI: 0.06, 0.93; P=0.026). Daily supplementation could prevent iron deficiency more than weekly supplementation significantly (P=0.029), particularly in the exclusive breastfeeding subgroup (P=0.032).Conclusions: Daily iron supplementation is more effective than weekly iron supplementation in improving iron status and hemoglobin level in infants, especially in the exclusively breast-feds.Trial registration: TCTR20191107001, November 7th, 2019. Retrospectively registered, http://www.thaiclinicaltrials.org


Several antiseptic agents have been proposed  for  the  treatment of peri‐implantitis as a complementary therapeutic strategy in addition to mechanical devices. The aim of this study was to compare six different antiseptics, as well as alternative formulations of the same chemical agent, with respect to  their decontamination efficacy and  impact on chemical properties of  the  implant surface. Titanium disks with a micro‐rough surface, previously contaminated with Porphyromonas gingivalis and Streptococcus mutans biofilms, were treated for 2 min with different antiseptics (liquid sodium  hypochlorite  5.25%,  gel  sodium  hypochlorite  5.25%,  liquid  chlorhexidine  0.2%,  gel chlorhexidine 1%, gel citric acid 40%, and gel orthophosphoric acid 37%) or sterile saline solution (control) and their antibacterial activity as well as their ability to remove biofilm were assessed by viable bacterial count and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Spectroscopic analysis was also performed on non‐contaminated disks after exposure to the antiseptics, in order to detect any change  in  the elemental composition of  the  titanium  surface. All  the antimicrobial  formulations examined were effective against P. gingivalis and S. mutans biofilms. SEM analysis revealed however that  liquid  sodium  hypochlorite  5.25%  was  more  effective  in  dissolving  biofilm  residues. Spectroscopic analysis detected traces of the antiseptics, probably due to insufficient rinsing of the titanium surfaces. In conclusion, since gel formulations of these antiseptic agents possessed a similar antibacterial activity to the  liquid formulations,  these may be proposed as alternative treatments given their properties to avoid overflows and increase contact time without significant side effects on the bone.


A framework is introduced to investigate the indirect effect of aerosol loading on tropical deep convection using three-dimensional limited-domain idealized cloud-system-resolving model simulations coupled with large-scale dynamics over fixed sea surface temperature. The large-scale circulation is parameterized using the spectral weak temperature gradient (WTG) approximation that utilizes the dominant balance between adiabatic cooling and diabatic heating in the tropics. The aerosol loading effect is examined by varying the number of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) available to form cloud droplets in the two-moment bulk microphysics scheme over a wide range of environments from 30 to 5000 cm−3. The radiative heating is held at a constant prescribed rate in order to isolate the microphysical effects. Analyses are performed over the period after equilibrium is achieved between convection and the large-scale environment. Mean precipitation is found to decrease modestly and monotonically when the aerosol number concentration increases as convection gets weaker, despite the increase in cloud liquid water in the warm-rain region and ice crystals aloft. This reduction is traced down to the reduction in surface enthalpy fluxes as an energy source to the atmospheric column induced by the coupling of the large-scale motion, though the gross moist stability remains constant. Increasing CCN concentration leads to 1) a cooler free troposphere because of a reduction in the diabatic heating and 2) a warmer boundary layer because of suppressed evaporative cooling. This dipole temperature structure is associated with anomalously descending large-scale vertical motion above the boundary layer and ascending motion at lower levels. Sensitivity tests suggest that changes in convection and mean precipitation are unlikely to be caused by the impact of aerosols on cloud droplets and microphysical properties but rather by accounting for the feedback from convective adjustment with the large-scale dynamics. Furthermore, a simple scaling argument is derived based on the vertically integrated moist static energy budget, which enables estimation of changes in precipitation given known changes in surfaces enthalpy fluxes and the constant gross moist stability. The impact on cloud hydrometeors and microphysical properties is also examined, and it is consistent with the macrophysical picture.


The humic acid coating was influenced by graphene in the Fe3O4 nano-composite, which turned out to be an enhancing effect in the removal of arsenic from water. Earlier studies have shown the negative role of humic acid (ubiquitous in all natural water systems) in the removal of arsenic from natural water resources. Herein we present for the first time the positive influence of humic acid (HA) on graphene–Fe3O4 nano-composites for the removal of arsenic present in water. The Fe3O4 nanoparticles were assembled on graphene oxide (GO) sheets through the co-precipitation process and concurrently the humic acid coating was brought out. After coating with humic acid, the composite has shown almost double the removal efficiency of As(III) and As(V) at neutral pH.


Background/aims To investigate the factors associated with macular atrophy (MA) growth rates in neovascular age-related macular degeneration treated with either ranibizumab or aflibercept. Methods We obtained data from two identical prospective studies using ranibizumab or aflibercept under observe-and-plan variable dosing regimens. We analysed eyes that presented MA within 2 years. After applying square root transformations to MA sizes, we calculated MA growth rate from baseline to the year 2 endpoint and used univariate and multivariate analyses to detect ocular and treatment factors associated with the MA growth rate. Results Included were 109 eyes from 101 patients (mean age 80.6 years). The mean square-root-transformed MA growth rate was 0.54±0.34 mm/year. The univariate analyses revealed that MA growth rates were significantly associated with lower baseline visual acuities (p=0.001) and thicker subretinal tissue complexes (p=0.006) and near-significantly associated with the presence of pigment epithelium detachment (p=0.057) and choroidal neovascularisation subtypes (p=0.069). Our multivariate analysis confirmed the significance of lower baseline visual acuities (p=0.008) and pigment epithelium detachments higher than 200 µm (p=0.035). Furthermore, MA growth rates in neovascular eyes significantly correlated with MA growth rates in non-neovascular fellow eyes (n=61; p=0.003). Conclusion MA growth rates were associated with ocular factors in the study eyes and the fellow eyes but not with the drug or the number of injections within this variable dosing regimen.


During Cassini's approach to Saturn, the Cosmic Dust Analyser (CDA) discovered streams of tiny (less than 20 nanometers) high-velocity (∼100 kilometers per second) dust particles escaping from the saturnian system. A fraction of these impactors originated from the outskirts of Saturn's dense A ring. The CDA time-of-flight mass spectrometer recorded 584 mass spectra from the stream particles. The particles consist predominantly of oxygen, silicon, and iron, with some evidence of water ice, ammonium, and perhaps carbon. The stream particles primarily consist of silicate materials, and this implies that the particles are impurities from the icy ring material rather than the ice particles themselves.


Part 1 Immune responses in fish and shellfish and their implications for disease control: The innate and adaptive immune system of fish Crustacean immune responses and their implications for disease control Immune responses in molluscs and their implications for disease control Stress and resistance to infectious diseases in fish. Part 2 Advances in disease diagnostics, veterinary drugs and vaccines: Advances in diagnostic methods for mollusc, crustacean and finfish diseases Quality assurance in aquaculture disease diagnostics Antibiotics in aquaculture: reducing their use and maintaining their efficacy Considerations for the use of anti-parasitic drugs in aquaculture Developments in vaccination against fish bacterial diseases Developments in adjuvants for fish vaccines. Part 3 Development of specific pathogen free populations and novel approaches for disease control: Development of specific pathogen free (SPF) shrimp stocks and their application to sustainable shrimp farming The role of risk analysis in the development of biosecurity programmes for the maintenance of specific pathogen free populations Developments in genomics relevant to disease control in aquaculture Bacteria and bacteriophages as biological agents for disease control in aquaculture Managing the microbiota in aquaculture systems for disease prevention and control Natural antimicrobial compounds for use in aquaculture The potential for antimicrobial peptides to improve fish health in aquaculture Advances in non-chemical methods for parasite prevention and control in fish.


Identification of gene interactions is one of the very well-known and important problems in the field of genetics. However, discovering synergistic gene interactions is a relatively new problem which has been proven to be as significant as the former in genetics. Several approaches have been proposed in this regard and most of them depend upon information theoretic measures. These approaches quantize the gene expression levels, explicitly or implicitly and therefore, may lose information. Here, we have proposed a novel approach for identifying synergistic gene interactions directly from the continuous expression levels, using a minimum spanning tree (MST)-based algorithm. We have used this approach to find pairs of synergistically interacting genes in prostate cancer. The advantages of our method are that it does not need any discretization and it can be extended straightway to find synergistically interacting sets of genes having three or more elements as per the requirement of the situation. We have demonstrated the relevance of the synergistic genes in cancer biology using KEGG pathway analysis and otherwise.


To understand the molecular mechanism which controls the transcription of the insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) gene, we have cloned and sequenced the cDNA for the proximal promoter region of the tilapia IGFs gene and have characterized its activity by chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) transient transfected expression assays. Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) IGF-I cDNA (549 bp) was amplified by PCR from single-stranded cDNA of growth hormone (GH)-induced liver RNA using a pair of oligonucleotides specific for fish IGF-I as amplification primers. Tilapia IGF-I and IGF-II 5' termini were analyzed by rapid amplification of cDNA 5' ends (5'RACE). Analysis of the 5'RACE results revealed two transcription start sites in IGF-I and one transcription start site in IGF-II. Different fragments of the 5' flanking region were transfected into human lung adenocarcinoma cells. In the cell line, maximum promoter activity was located in the distal 657 basepairs of the IGF-I 5' flanking region and in the distal 450 basepairs of the IGF-II 5' flanking region. The in vivo actions of the IGFs promoter on developmental stage expression were investigated further in transgenic zebrafish in which an IGFs promoter-driven green fluorescent protein (GFP) encoding the cDNA transgene was microinjected into embryos. Morphologic and RT-PCR studies of the transgenic zebrafish indicated that IGF-I promoter-driven GFP transcripts appeared for the first time in the 1-K-cell stage and the IGF-II promoter-driven GFP transcripts appeared for the first time in the 32-cell stage. Fluorescent (GFP) distribution was apparent within 48 h in IGF-II-transgenic zebrafish embryos, especially in eye, muscle, corpuscle, floor plate, horizontal myoseptum, yolk sac extension, and yolk sac. These results indicate that the IGF-I and IGF-II promoters are active in tissue and in a development-specific manner. Our findings also indicate that the IGF-II promoter influences the growth of fish embryos earlier than does IGF-I, and IGF-II has higher levels of expression than does IGF-I. These results suggest that the IGF-II promoter plays a growth factor role in teleost embryo development.


The review analyzes the features of coronary artery disease (CAD) and risk factors (RFs) of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in military population. Despite the urgency of the problem in recent years, there are only few publications on this topic. This paper presented data of international and Russian studies of CVDs and related RFs among various military personnel and war veterans, taking into account the age and social characteristics of the groups. There is a tendency towards an increase in CVD prevalence, which is due not only to age, but also to multiple RFs. Along with conventional RFs, the specifics of military service in general, special situation, active restructuring of activity areas, increased stress, intensive physical and professional training are specific cardiovascular risk factors and affect the risk of CAD. Regular medical examinations with primary and secondary prevention with correction of biological, behavioral and social factors can reduce the rate of CAD among military population.


This study investigated quality changes and functions of low-molecular soymilk according to hydrolysis time (30, 60, and 90 minutes). According to the results, pH of hydrolyzed groups were lower than that of the control group but it did not show a large difference according to hydrolysis time while sugar content was reduced with longer hydrolysis time. Although degree of hydrolysis and calcium tolerance increased with longer hydrolysis time, there was not a significant difference according to the time. Among free sugars, contents of glucose and fructose grew while those of sucrose and maltose tended to decline with time. Total free sugar content was the largest with 60 minutes of hydrolysis time recording 827.65 ㎎%. Total amino acid content was also the highest with hydrolyzed for 60 minutes recording 85.80 ㎎% and those of all hydrolyzed groups were higher than that of the control group. In addition, the content of essential amino acid increased significantly with time. In SDS-PAGE, checked for the tendency of becoming low molecules, molecular weights were found to be 33 kDa or less kDa in all hydrolyzed groups. When functional characteristics of soymilk such as electron donating, superoxide radical scavenging and ACE inhibitory activities were compared, longer hydrolysis time led to higher activities. From these results, overall quality of low molecular soymilk was superior when hydrolyzed for 60 minutes and the findings should be viable in the development of various types of functionally strengthened low-molecular soymilk in the future.


The Wiener solution of a multichannel restoration scheme is presented. Using matrix diagonalization and block-Toeplitz to block-circulant approximation, the inversion of the multichannel, linear space-invariant imaging system becomes feasible by utilizing a fast iterative matrix inversion procedure. The restoration uses both the within-channel (spatial) and between-channel (spectral) correlation; hence, the restored result is a better estimate than that produced by independent channel restoration. Simulations are also presented. >


Tal Ilan, in her recent "Notes and Observations On a Newly Published Divorce Bill from the Judaean Desert," attempts to turn the "old view of Jewish divorce on its head." She suggest that, "Perhaps in ancient Jewish practice women could divorce their husbands, and it is an accident of our transmission history that this fact is not amply illustrated." This suggestion rests on her reading of Papyrus Se'elim 13, published and identified by Jonas C. Greenfield and Ada Yardeni as a receipt for the payment of the requisite money ("kethuba money") promised at the time of marriage to be paid in the event of divorce. Ilan argues that this document is in fact a bill of divorce, and that it was given by a woman to her husband.


In this letter the authors highlight the presence of an error appearing in the discussion of the note 'The use of the Henyey–Greenstein phase function in Monte Carlo simulations in biomedical optics' previously published by them (Binzoni et al 2006 Phys. Med. Biol. 51 N313). In the light of this error, the discussion and conclusions in the original paper are revised in this letter and the role of the use of the phase functions in MC simulations, interpreted in probabilistic terms, is better clarified. The exact definition for the probability density function for the deflection angle, in the case of the Henyey–Greenstein model, is also given.


Background: Portable chest radiograph for COVID-19 positive patients and persons under investigation can be acquired through glass doors or walls of isolation rooms to limit exposure to the pathogen and conserve resources. Purpose: To report our initial experience with acquiring portable chest radiographs through glass doors of isolation rooms. Methods: Only 1 of 2 radiology technologist team members donned personal protective equipment and stayed inside the isolation room, while the second technologist and the radiography unit remained outside during the procedure. First hundred radiographs acquired through glass at the emergency department of our institute formed the "through glass radiograph" group. Hundred consecutive portable chest radiographs performed in a conventional manner formed the "conventional radiograph" group for comparison. Imaging database and feedback from operations leader were used to identify occurrences of a failed procedure. Suggestion of repeating the study and comments related to quality of the study were recorded from the reports of the staff radiologist. Results: There was no instance of failed acquisition, nondiagnostic examination, or suggestion of repetition in both groups. No significant difference in the number of reports with quality related remarks (P > .05) was found between the 2 groups. Radiography through glass doors was associated with increased suboptimal positioning related remarks in radiology reports (P < .05). No significant association was identified among other comments about image quality. Conclusion: Our initial clinical experience suggests that the acquisition of portable chest radiographs through the glass doors of isolation rooms is technically feasible and results in diagnostic quality studies.


Introduction The clinical diagnostic scoring system for AA that combines history, symptoms, physical signs and laboratory indices, the Alvarado score, has sensitivity 82% and specificity 81%. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of US for the diagnosis of AA. Method A systematic search of literature from January 1994 to October 2014 was performed. The reference standard was pathology report on tissue obtained at surgery. Summary sensitivity, specificity and post-test probability of AA after positive and negative result of US with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. We used Review Manager and METADAS macro for SAS for statistical calculations. Results Out of 3306 references identified through searches, 17 reports met the inclusion criteria, with 2841 participants. The sensitivity and specificity of US for diagnosis of AA were 69% (95% CI 59%–78%) and 81% (95% CI 73%–88%). At the median pretest probability of AA of 76.4%, the post-test probability for a positive and negative result of US was 92% (95% CI 88%–95%) and 55% (95% CI 46%–63%), respectively. Conclusion US does not seem to have a role in the diagnostic pathway for diagnosis of AA in suspected patients. The summary sensitivity and specificity of US do not exceed that of physical examination. Patients that require additional diagnostic workup should be referred to more sensitive and specific diagnostic procedures, such as computed tomography. References . Howell JM, Eddy OL, Lukens TW, et al. Clinical policy: critical issues in the evaluation and management of emergency department patients with suspected appendicitis. Ann Emerg Med2010;55:71–116. . Nasiri S, Mohebbi F, Sodagari N et al. Diagnostic values of ultrasound and the modified Alvarado scoring system in acute appendicitis. Int J Emerg Med 2012;5:26. . Reitsma JB, Glas AS, Rutjes AWS et al. Bivariate analysis of sensitivity and specificity produces informative summary measures in diagnostic reviews. J Clin Epidemiol 2005;58:982–990. . Takwoingi Y, Deeks JJ (2015) MetaDAS: a SAS macro for metaanalysis of diagnostic accuracy studies, version 1.3. http://srdta.cochrane.org/sites/srdta.cochrane.org/files/uploads/METADAS_v1.3_txt.txt. Accessed on 15 Jan 2015. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


A new species of Pterolebias from Caceres, Paraguay River Basin, State of Mato Grosso, Brazil, is described. It was found in a temporary lagoon on the Brazilian Central Cerrado and seems to have the same annual habits of the other species of the group. The new species differs from all other species but P. staeckiin the colour pattern on the sides of the body, which consists of longitudinal stripes. From P. siaecki it differs in the relative length of the pelvic-fin and of the predorsal area and by the number of scales in the longitudinal series. The similarity between P. bokermanni and P. longipinnis is discussed.


A study was conducted to determine non-invasively the effects of endurance training on the size of the inferior vena cava in humans. Twelve healthy male subjects were assigned to either an exercise-trained group (ET, n=7) or a sedentary control group (S, n=5). The ET group underwent cycle-endurance training for 8 weeks (80%•¬o2max, 40 min/day, 4 days/week). The S group led normal lives during the 8-week period. Before and after the training period, cross-sectional areas (CSA) of the inferior vena cava and the ascending and abdominal aorta were measured by echography. The CSA of the inferior vena cava after training was significantly larger than that before training in the ET group. There was no significant difference in the S group. These results indicate that the inferior versa cava can be morphologically altered as an adaptive response to endurance training. We consider that this adaptation partly contributes to the improvement in the efficiency of venous return from exercising muscles to the heart. Although the present training also increased the CSA of the aorta, the degree of change was smaller than that seen in the inferior vena cava, implying that the factors of adaptation and adaptability to endurance training in the inferior vena cava differ from those in the aorta. (Jpn. J. Phys. Fitness Sports Med. 1999, 48: 91•`98) key words : circulation, morphometry, training, ultrasonography


: In this study, a compact pattern reconfigurable antenna structure is proposed. The proposed antenna is a half-wave square microstrip patch antenna divided into two quarter-wave antenna portions by a conducting wall. This wall forces potential zero at the connection point; therefore, it separates the antenna into two independent quarterwave portions. Pattern reconfiguration is achieved by separate feeding of the quarter-wave portions. Phase difference between excitations of antenna ports result in variation at the maximum beam direction. Hence, pattern reconfiguration is achieved. Within such a compact antenna, beam steering up to 40 0 is achieved.


Carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule (CEACAM) 20 is an immunoglobulin-superfamily transmembrane protein that contains an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM) in its cytoplasmic region. However, the mechanism for tyrosine phosphorylation of, or the physiological function of, this protein remains largely unknown. Here we have shown that CEACAM20 is indeed tyrosine-phosphorylated by either treatment with pervanadate or forced expression of c-Src. In addition, Tyr522, Tyr559 or Tyr570, the latter two of which are within the ITAM, is likely important for such tyrosine phosphorylation. Forced expression of Myc-tagged wild-type CEACAM20 promoted the phagocytic activity of cultured cells for microbeads coupled with anti-Myc antibodies. By contrast, such phagocytic activity was markedly reduced when a mutant form of CEACAM20, in which Tyr559 and Tyr570 were substituted with phenylalanine, was expressed. Furthermore, the CEACAM20-mediated phagocytic activity was markedly prevented by the treatment with an inhibitor for either Src family kinases (SFKs), Syk, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) or phospholipase C-γ (PLCγ). Inhibition of actin polymerization by Cytochalasin D significantly inhibited the CEACAM20-mediated phagocytosis. These results thus suggest that tyrosine phosphorylation of CEACAM20 likely promotes phagocytic activity of the cells. The CEACAM20-mediated phagocytic activity requires the activation of SFKs, Syk, PI3K or PLCγ.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic values by detecting sera autoantibodies to eight tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) of P53, IMP1, P16, cyclin B1, P62, C-myc, Survivn and Koc full-length recombinant proteins for the screening of high-risk subjects and early detection of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect autoantibodies against the eight selected TAAs in 567 sera samples from four groups, including 200 individuals with normal esophageal epithelia (NOR), 214 patients with esophageal basal cell hyperplasia (BCH), 65 patients with esophageal dysplasia (DYS), and 88 patients with ESCC. In addition, the expression of the eight antigens in esophageal tissues was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Statistically significant distribution differences were identified among the four groups for each of the individual autoantibodies to six TAAs (P53, IMP1, P16, cyclin B1, P62, and C-myc); the detection rates of antoantibodies were positively correlated with the progression of ESCC. When autoantibody assay successively accumulated to six TAAs (P53, IMP1, P16, cyclin B1, P62, and C-myc), a stepwise increased detection frequency of autoantibodies was found in the four sera groups (6% in NOR, 18% in BCH, 38% in DYS, and 64% in ESCC, respectively), the risks to BHC, DYS, and ESCC steadily increased about 3-, 9-, and 27-folds. The sensitivity and the specificity for autoantibodies against the six TAAs in diagnosing ESCC reached up to 64% and 94%, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the six anti-TAA autoantibodies was 0.78 (95% confidence interval 0.74-0.83). No more increasing in sensitivity was found with the addition of new anti-TAA autoantibodies. A combination detection of autoantibodies to TAAs might distinguish ESCC patients from normal individuals and the patients with esophageal precancerous lesions.


The objective of this study is to examine the natural resources role on GDP on one side, and to know the contribution of the growth of natural resources on economics growth on the other side. The study has been applied on Saudi Arabia economics since 1975 up to 2005. The researcher has used six functions, four of which is linear and two logarithmic according to following: At linear function (1) the researcher depend on the total value of natural resources. At linear function (2) the researcher has refuted constituents of natural resources soley, and also the same thing for No (3) and (4) linear functions, that is to verify and identify the contribution of natural resources to GDP. Equation (5) was directed to know the relation between the growth of natural resources and the growth of GDP. For equation (6) it was interested by the relation between the growth of each constituent of natural resources and the growth of GDP. After analysising the results, the researcher concluded that regression models of linear and logarithmic by using the total natural resources value had achieved a positive relation with a high significant. And for the regression models of linear and logarithmic of natural resources separately. The analysis of the results showed that there is a strong relation with high significant for sectors of crude oil and natural gas, but the sectors of agriculture, forests, fishy, and mining activities it is not like that . Finaly the researcher recommended in this study for sectors of agriculture , forests, fishy, and mining activities to go on utilization these sectors and on industries depending on it, and to find a foreign markets, which has the ability to absorb the surplus of these resources production .


Since the cessation of conflict, Mozambique has achieved impressive economic growth and has become an example of successful post conflict reconstruction and development, moving from a one-party state to a multiparty democracy and from a socialist, command economy to a market-based economy. Mozambique's development has been strongly supported by foreign aid, and since 2001 average annual disbursements of official development assistance (ODA) have amounted to over 1 billion dollar, or 12 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Strong economic growth has contributed to a decline in income poverty, but the level of overall poverty remains high. This country program evaluation (CPE) focuses on the Bank's program for FY2001-08, examining the following questions: did the Bank correctly assess the problems Mozambique faced?; was the Bank's strategy appropriate for meeting the country's development needs?; how effective was Bank assistance in implementing those strategies?; what were the outcomes of the assistance?; and to what extent did the Bank, other development partners, the government, or exogenous forces contribute to outcomes? The CPE is organized as follows: Chapter one assesses Mozambique's economic and social development and identifies major development priorities and constraints facing the country. Chapter two is an overview of the Bank's program of lending and analytic and advisory activities (AAA). Chapters three, four, and five cover thematic aspects: stabilization and growth (including infrastructure and agriculture development), poverty reduction and human development, and governance. Chapter six covers International Finance Corporation (IFC) activities in Mozambique, and chapter seven assesses partnership and harmonization. The last chapter contains conclusions, lessons, and recommendations.


OBJECTIVES
The present study was designed to investigate the characteristic effects of anabasine on secretion of catecholamines (CA) from the isolated perfused rat adrenal gland and to establish its mechanism of adrenomedullary secretion.

METHODS
The adrenal gland was isolated by a modification of the Wakade method, and perfused with normal Krebs-bicarbonate solution. The content of CA was measured using fluorometry.

RESULTS
The perfusion of anabasine(30-300 microM) into an adrenal vein for 60 min resulted in great increases in CA secretions in a dose-dependent fashion. Upon repeated injection of anabasine (100 microM) at 120 min-intervals, CA secretion was rapidly decreased after the third injection of anabasine. However, there was no statistical difference between the CA secretory responses of both 1st and 2nd treated groups by the successive administration of anabasine at 120 min-intervals. Tachyphylaxis to the releasing effects of CA evoked by anabasine was observed by repeated administration. Therefore, in all subsequent experiments, anabasine was not administered successively more than twice at only 120 min-intervals. The CA-releasing effects of anabasine were depressed by pretreatment with chlorisondamine (selective neuronal nicotinic receptor antagonist, 1 microM), atropine (muscarinic receptor antagonist, 2 microM), nicardipine (L-type dihydropyridine Ca2+ channel blocker, 1 microM), TMB-8 (anti-releaser of intracellular Ca2 +, 30 microM), and perfusion of EGTA (Ca2+ chelator, 5 mM) plus Ca2+ -free medium. In the presence of anabasine (100 microM), the CA secretory responses induced by acetylcholine (5.32 mM), high K+ (direct membrane-depolarizer, 56 mM), DMPP(selective neuronal nicotinic receptor agonist, 10(-4) M), and McN-A-343 (selective muscarinic M1 receptor agonist, 10(-4) M) were maximally enhanced in the first 4 min. However, as time elapsed, these responses became more inhibited at later periods. Furthermore, the perfusion of nicotine (30 microM) into an adrenal vein for 60 min also caused a great increase in CA secretion, leading to peak response in the first 0-5 min period. In the presence of nicotine (30 microM), the CA secretory responses induced by acetylcholine, high K+, DMPP and McN-A-343 were also enhanced for the first 4min, but later reduced to less than the control release.

CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, these experimental results indicate that anabasine affects rat adrenomedullary CA secretion in a calcium-dependent fashion. This facilitatory effect of anabasine may be mediated by activation of both cholinergic nicotinic and muscarinic receptors, which is relevant to both stimulation of Ca2+ influx into adrenomedullary chromaffin cells and Ca2+ release from cytoplasmic Ca2+ Anabasine may be less potent than nicotine in rat adrenomedullary CA secretion. Anabasine, in addition to nicotine, alkaloids present in tobacco smoke may be a risk factor in causing cardiovascular diseases.


This book, which is the result of my work within the project Conversion and Change of Confession, deals with Catholic mission and conversion in Scandinavia in the 19th and 20th cetries. I focus on Denmark, but the Danish situation is studied in a comparative Nordic pespective and against the background of the general religious, ideological and church-political development at the time. Up to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Catholic Church strongly emphasised its claim to be the only true Church, and as a consequence, all non-Catholic regions were regarded as missionary areas. The Nordic countries, which until 1953 had the status of apostolic vicariates under the supervision of the Roman Congregation of Mission, were thus subjected to Catholic missionary activity, aimed at bringing the Nordic peoples to convert to the Catholic Church. Following Vatican II this claim was modified, which paved the way for co-operation in the ecumenical movement and a new view of conversion.

As a theoretical frame for my study, I make use of theories and models of confessionalism, identity, modernisation, and religious conversion. An important source of inspiration is theories of Catholicism as a counter-culture in modern society. In its defence of traditional values the Catholic Church used the means and methods of the modern age. Through this strategy separate Catholic societies were built up, and the growing prestige of papal authority and the centralisation of the Church contributed to make Catholicism into a powerful force in modern society. Another point of departure is the theories of conversion as a change in the system of interpretation. In the pre-conciliar period, a Catholic conversion was not only an expression of personal conviction of faith but also a manifestation of a pronounced disassociation from the former religious community of the convert, and from many norms and values of the non-Catholic environment. This gave the Catholic conversion movement a provocative character. Finally, I engage with theories of the connection between confessional culture and national identity in modern society. In Lutheran Scandinavia, many people regarded Catholicism as a threat to Nordic national and cultural unity and integrity.

My study is centred on two poles: mission and conversion. The two first chapters deal with Catholic missionary activities and with Catholic converts, their journey to the Catholic Church, and their importance for the development of Scandinavian Catholicism up to the 1930s. I thus look at missionary strategies, the relations between the apostolic vicars and Rome, the missionary work of the priests and sisters, and the efforts made to create a Catholic "milieu" with schools, hospitals, periodicals etc. Catholic schools and hospitals were used as missionary tools, and most pupils and patients were Protestants. I study conversions both as an individual and as a social phenomenon. Of special interest is the question of national and religious identity, and the efforts made to create a genuine Nordic Catholic culture. This was certainly no easy task, as most of the priests and sisters were foreigners. The reports from priests and sisters show that there were great many conflicts on this subject. Also evident is the nationalistic atmosphere of the time, and the latent antagonism between the different nationalities, not least between Danes and Germans.

It was the liberal reforms that opened the way for the return of the Catholic Church in the Nordic countries. Denmark was the first country to introduce total religious freedom, and it was also in Denmark that "re-Catholization" first emerged. The numbers of Catholics consequently increased from about 800 at the beginning of the period to about 25 000 in the early 1930s. The strongest expansion occurred between 1895 and 1920, when the Danish Catholic minority increased by about 15.000 members. This expansion was partly caused by immigration, but was primarily a consequence of conversion. At the turn of the 20th century, the number of Danish converts averaged 230 per year. This number was considerably greater than the average reported in other Scandinavian countries. A common trait is, however, that the converts played a dominant role within Scandinavian Catholicism. The native converts gave the parishes, with their foreign, mostly German and French, priests and nuns, a Scandinavian character. Among those converts, we find academics, artists, politicians and former Protestant priests. Even some members of the aristocracy found their way to the Catholic Church. The majority of the converts, however, came from the lower strata of the population.

Some of the leading authors published conversion narratives and thus contributed to create models for Nordic Catholic conversion. In these literary narratives as well as in the inquiries about conversion motives made among ordinary converts, conversion is described as a process leading to change of confession. If one looks at the reasons for entering the Catholic Church it is obvious that for many converts, the hierarchic and authoritative principles of pre-conciliar Catholicism as well as the anti-modernistic character of Catholic social doctrine played an important role. Certainly, the conversion process also contained a form of moral conversion, culminating in the obligatory general confession that preceded the ceremony of reception in the church. But on the discursive level, this moral conversion played a secondary role, and the central point is instead the development of a conviction of the Catholic Church as the only true church. A confessional model can be recognised, where repudiation of Protestantism is clearly marked and where Catholicism is experienced as representing values such as truth, tradition, authority and security. The Catholic conversions took place in a cultural context where, on the one hand, re-Catholization (mission) and, on the other, delimitation (aversion) from non-Catholic value systems both played a crucial role.

At the beginning of the 20th century, groups of converts tried to integrate parts of the Nordic Protestant heritage, especially the hymn tradition, into Catholic religious life. This was especially apparent in Denmark, where many converts had their roots in the Grundtvigian movement. Through these converts, the Grundtvigian tradition, with its hymn singing, its educational ideals, and its specific popular and national character entered the life of the Catholic parishes. The aim was to create a genuinely Danish and Scandinavian Catholicism instead of the previously dominating German Catholic spirituality and the pious ideals of Ultramontanism. This development, which was part of a new spiritual movement within European Catholicism, was the first step towards the break-down of the pre-Conciliar Catholic system, later on completed by the theological reorientation introduced by Vatican II.

In the last chapter, my analysis is put into a contemporary perspective. Here I make comparisons, on the one hand, with the contemporary Catholic Church and with Moslem minority groups in Scandinavian society and, on the other, with Catholic traditionalist in Western society of today, still keeping the norms and values of pre-Vatican II Catholicism. There are many interesting similarities between contemporary Catholic traditionalists and the former Catholic missionaries working in the Nordic countries, and it can be seen that Moslems are looked upon in almost the same way as were Catholics at the beginning of the 20th century. The reforms initiated by Vatican II, which paved the way for ecumenical dialogue and for a more open form of Catholicism, changed the discourse of conversion. In post-Conciliar Scandinavian conversion narratives it is not longer the hierarchical structure of the Catholic church that is emphasised but spiritual values, such as the feeling of the presence of God, mysticism, and personal sanctification.


Eucommia ulmoides is one of the popular tonic herbs for the treatment of low back pain and bone fracture and is used in Korean medicine to reinforce muscles and bones. This study was performed to investigate the effects of E. ulmoides extract on longitudinal bone growth rate, growth plate height, and the expressions of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP‐2) and insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF‐1) in adolescent female rats. In two groups, we administered a twice‐daily dosage of E. ulmoides extract (at 30 and 100 mg/kg, respectively) per os over 4 days, and in a control group, we administered vehicle only under the same conditions. Longitudinal bone growth rate in newly synthesized bone was observed using tetracycline labeling. Chondrocyte proliferation in the growth plate was observed using cresyl violet dye. In addition, we analyzed the expressions of BMP‐2 and IGF‐1 using immunohistochemistry. Eucommia ulmoides extract significantly increased longitudinal bone growth rate and growth plate height in adolescent female rats. In the immunohistochemical study, E. ulmoides markedly increased BMP‐2 and IGF‐1 expressions in the proliferative and hypertrophic zones. In conclusion, E. ulmoides increased longitudinal bone growth rate by promoting chondrogenesis in the growth plate and the levels of BMP‐2 and IGF‐1. Eucommia ulmoides could be helpful for increasing bone growth in children who have growth retardation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Although a large number of methods exist to control the dynamics of populations to a desired state, few of them have been empirically validated. This limits the scope of using these methods in real-life scenarios. To address this issue, we tested the efficacy of two well-known control methods in enhancing different kinds of stability in highly fluctuating, extinction-prone populations of Drosophila melanogaster. The Upper Limiter Control (ULC) method was able to reduce the fluctuations in population sizes as well as the extinction probability of the populations. On the negative side, it had no effect on the effective population size and required a large amount of effort. On the other hand, Lower Limiter Control (LLC) enhanced effective population size and reduced extinction probability at a relatively low amount of effort. However, its effects on population fluctuations were equivocal. We examined the population size distributions with and without the control methods, to derive biologically intuitive explanations for how these control methods work. We also show that biologically-realistic simulations, using a very general population dynamics model, are able to capture most of the trends of our data. This suggests that our results are likely to be generalizable to a wide range of scenarios.


It allows the converters to seamlessly regulate the output voltage at any desired level without suffering large leakage current and latch-up. In addition, an automatic supply voltage multiplexing scheme is presented to significantly improve power efficiency and reduce chip area. The proposed ASSM circuit was fabricated with an IBM 130-nm CMOS process. Experimental results show a 4.44-mV/ns switching speed with a switching voltage ranging from 0.9 to 2.5 V. Due to an accurate voltage comparison, the tracking error in steady state is effectively minimized below 5 mV. The circuit only occupies a 0.015-mm2 silicon area, with maximum static power of 227 μW.


Insect cuticular hydrocarbons are known to have a protection and a pheromonal role. Quantitative changes in the cuticular hydrocarbons of Diptera occur over time and were used in a preliminary attempt to age-grade of mosquitoes. Halofenozide (RH-0345) is an insect growth regulator belonging to the class of non-steroidal ecdysone agonists. In a previous study, halofenozide was found to be effective against larvae of Culex pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae) and exerted its toxicity primarily by the induction of a precocious lethal molting (Boudjelida et al., 2005). In this study, newly molted 4th instar larvae of C. pipiens were exposed to halofenozide (23% EC) for 24 h at LC50 (12.58 µg/l) and LC90 (28.58µg/l) concentrations under standard laboratory conditions according to WHO recommendations. Then, to better understand the mode of action of halofenozide, the profiles of the cuticular hydrocarbons in treated and control larvae were evaluated using gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).


Understanding the relative effects of the many factors that may influence recruitment of ungulates is fundamental to managing their populations. Over the last 4 decades, average recruitment in some populations of elk (Cervus elaphus) in Oregon, USA declined from >50 to <20 juveniles per 100 females, and several competing hypotheses address these declines. We developed a priori models and constructed covariates spanning 1977–2005 from hunter-killed elk, elk population estimates, cougar harvest, and weather statistics to evaluate abiotic, bottom-up, and top-down factors that may explain annual variation and long-term trends of pregnancy, juveniles-at-heel in late autumn, and recruitment of juvenile elk in spring. In models of pregnancy status, August precipitation, age, and cougar index had positive effects, whereas previous year (t − 1) winter severity or winter precipitation(t−1) and elk density had negative effects. In models of juvenile-at-heel in late autumn, August precipitation, August precipitation(t−1), cougar index × elk density(t−1), and age had positive effects, whereas cougar index, elk density(t−1), and winter precipitation(t−1) had negative effects. Juvenile recruitment was best explained by positive effects of August precipitation(t−1), lactation rate, and cougar index × elk density(t−1) and negative effects of cougar index and elk density(t−1). Winter severity, precipitation, and temperature were not significant in explaining variation in elk recruitment. Annual variation in pregnancy, juvenile-at-heel, and recruitment was most influenced by August precipitation, whereas long-term trends in recruitment were most influenced by cougar densities with relatively weak effects of elk density. These results provide insight into causes of year-to-year and long-term trends of elk recruitment and provide a basis for more rigorous evaluation of factors affecting recruitment of elk. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.


Tropospheric ozone levels around urban and suburban areas at Europe and North America had increased during 80's–90's, until the application of NOx reduction strategies. However, as it was expected, this ozone depletion was not proportional to the emissions reduction. On the other hand, rural ozone levels show different trends, with peaks reduction and average increments; this different evolution could be explained by either emission changes or climate variability in a region. In this work, trends of tropospheric ozone episodes at rural sites in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula were analyzed and compared to others observed in different regions of the Atlantic European coast. Special interest was focused on the air quality sites characterization, in order to guarantee their rural character in terms of air quality. Both episodic local meteorological and air quality measurements along five years were considered, in order to study possible meteorological influences in ozone levels, different to other European Atlantic regions.


Scientists and engineers working with nanotechnology and thin film optical devices often make use of "Tauc plots" to determine band gaps and evaluate the effect of processing conditions on the quality of coatings made for these applications. Broad-band optical data are easy to acquire and usually exhibit a region of reasonable transparency and then a sharp rise in absorption with increasing photon energy as the band-gap energy is exceeded. The shape of the onset of absorption is diagnostic of whether the band-gap is direct or indirect. Then, an appropriate linear regression can be used to extrapolate to the band gap value, though sometimes the extrapolation is quite far in absolute energy terms from the data used to make the extrapolation. This paper covers some of our recent work where we use known materials to standardize the fitting protocols and assess the accuracy of this simple method. INTRODUCTION In our earlier work with thin films (and for many studies in the literature that use the Tauc method) we've noticed that the distance of extrapolation in the fitting process may be relatively large, and the tail of sub-band-gap absorption can also be quite large. This raised the basic question about how accurate the Tauc method would be, and how to establish procedures that improve the accuracy of the fitting results[1]. We delved deeply into this problem by looking at ZnO thin films because they are an extremely well-studied material and ZnO is known to have a direct band gap. By looking closely at a population of over 120 thin film Tauc fits we found the band-gap results overall were consistent with a value of 3.27 +/0.05 eV, with evidence for two small outlier populations [1]. A subpopulation of higher gap values appeared to be caused by nanoparticle quantum confinement effects (not surprisingly), while a subpopulation of lower gap values appeared to be correlated with more defective samples. These were essentially cases that had stronger sub-band-gap absorption, which has the mathematical effect of shifting the intercept point somewhat to the left and making the confidence interval of the band-gap determination wider (less accurate). To quantify this effect and provide a figure of merit for identifying the more accurate samples, we introduced the "near-edge absorptivity ratio (NEAR)". And, when using the NEAR to focus on the more accurate data sets, we found that the Tauc method generally gave an experimental distribution of results with a standard deviation of only 0.033 eV, thus emphasizing the relatively high accuracy of the method in general. We extend that work to the case of indirect band-gap materials and examine accuracy limits based on absorption coefficient values and coating thickness effects that can influence the signal-to-noise ratio of real optical absorption data. Indirect band-gaps are more difficult to characterize because their absorption intensities are characteristically weaker, which provides an added difficulty when most optical data are determined from thin film samples. We address this problem by working with single crystal data from silicon, probably the most well-characterized indirect band-gap material available. BACKGROUND The seminal work of Tauc, Grigorovici, and Vancu [2] presented a simple method that uses broad band absorption spectra and interpreted the shape of the absorption edge to arrive at a


A numerical investigation on the dynamic behavior of self-pulsating three-section distributed feedback (3S-DFB) lasers has been carried out in great detail using a time-domain travelling-wave model. For the first time, the system parameters of the recovered clock, such as the conditions for clock recovery and the jitter of the recovered clock, have been calculated, also considering a realistic data signal of a 2/sup 13/ - 1-bit sequence affected by chirp, jitter, and limited extinction ratio. This analysis has confirmed the great potential of these 3S-DFB devices.