Background: Ivacaftor increases CFTR channel activity and improves pulmonary function for individuals bearing a G551D mutation. Because ivacaftor structurally resembles quinolone antibiotics, we tested the hypothesis that ivacaftor possesses antibacterial properties. Methods: Bioluminescence, colony forming unit, and minimal inhibitory concentration assays were used to assess viability of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and multiple clinical microbial isolates. Results: Ivacaftor induced a dose-dependent reduction in bioluminescence of S. aureus and decreased the number of colony forming units. We observed a similar but less robust effect in P. aeruginosa following outer membrane permeabilization. Ivacaftor inhibited the growth of respiratory isolates of S. aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae and exhibited positive interactions with antibiotics against lab and respiratory strains of S. aureus and S. pneumoniae. Conclusion: These data indicate that ivacaftor exhibits antibacterial properties and raise the intriguing possibility that ivacaftor might have an antibiotic effect in people with CF.


An essential factor to the virulence of the genus Candida is the ability to produce enzymes and this may be crucial in the establishment of fungal infections. Aim: This study investigated in vitro enzymatic activities of Candida species and their virulence in an in vivo Galleria mellonella experimental model. Methods: Twenty-four clinical strains of Candida spp. isolated from the human oral cavity were evaluated, including the following species: C. albicans, C. dubliniensis, C. glabrata, C. tropicalis, C. krusei, C. parapsilosis, C. norvegensis, C. lusitaniae and C. guilliermondii. All Candida strains were tested in vitro for production of proteinase and phospholipase. The Candida strains were also injected into Galleria mellonella larvae to induce experimental candidiasis, and after 24 hours, the survival rate was assessed. Results: Phospholipase and proteinase activity were observed in 100% of the C. albicans strains. In the non-albicans species, proteinase and phospholipase activity were observed in 25 and 43% of the studied strains, respectively. The most pathogenic Candida species in G. mellonella were C. albicans, C. dubliniensis and C. lusitaniae, whereas C. glabrata was the least virulent species. Furthermore, a positive significant correlation was found between both enzymatic activities with virulence in G. mellonella. Conclusions: The virulence of Candida strains in G. mellonella is related to the quantity of proteinases and phospholipases production of each strain.


This article provides a practical introduction to the design trade-offs of the currently available 3D IC technology options. It begins with an overview of techniques, such as wire bonding, microbumps, through vias, and contactless interconnection, comparing them in terms of vertical density and practical limits to their use. We then present a high-level discussion of the pros and cons of 3D technologies, with an analysis relating the number of transistors on a chip to the vertical interconnect density using estimates based on Rent's rule. Next, we provide a more detailed design example of inductively coupled interconnects, with measured results of a system fabricated in a 0.35-/spl mu/m technology and an analysis of misalignment and crosstalk tolerances. Lastly, we present a case study of a fast Fourier transform (FFT) placed and routed in a 0.18-/spl mu/m through-via silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, comparing the 3D design to a traditional 2D approach in terms of wire length and critical-path delay.


Objective: This review intends to motivate and encourage researchers to explore new alternatives to treat different diseases with Artemisia annua L., an important plant of traditional Chinese pharmacopoeia that has been used for more than 2.000 years in the treatment of different diseases, mainly malaria . Methods: Data include currently available information about A. annua , its origin, traditional use in medicine, pharmacological activity, toxicity and main metabolites with reported clinical activity. The information was collected by literature search on web databases such as Pubmed and Google Scholar up to 2014 on publications about the medicinal uses of A. annua L ., in the treatment of different diseases that affect humans but also some animals. Results: Pharmacological activity against chronic and infectious diseases of various metabolites from A. annua , artemisinin and its derivatives, flavonoids and essential oils, reported in this review, is supported by preclinical experimental evidence both in vivo and in vitro and clinical observations in human beings of different parts of the plant, mainly leaves, in the treatment of malaria. Leaves, seeds and whole plant of A. annua have also proved pharmacological activity against parasites responsible of leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. Recently, the first report of in vivo efficacy of A. annua against dengue fever was published. Conclusions: This review highlights the pharmacological potential of the A. annua plant in the treatment of several infectious diseases and unveils its suitable profile of safety and tolerability.


There is an increasing number of researchers conducting empirical and theoretical investigations to better understand innovation and protection activities of service companies. In fact, previous analyses reveal that the protection topic is difficult to study, particularly when using traditional measurement concepts like patents. Thus, a different analytical conceptual frame has been developed in order to investigate deeper knowledge about service innovation protection and corporate strategic behaviors


email@example.com Tel.:+6285295400039 Received: Oct 1, 2016. Revised : 12 Nov 2016, Accepted: Nov 20, 2016, Published: 1 Dec 2016 DOI : 10.24273/jgeet.2016.11.6 Abstract Carbonate rock are important hydrocarbon reservoir rocks with complex texture and petrophysical properties (porosity and permeability). These complexities make the prediction reservoir characteristics (e.g. porosity and permeability) from their seismic properties more difficult. The goal of this paper are to understanding the relationship of physical properties and to see the signature carbonate initial rock and shally-carbonate rock from the reservoir. To understand the relationship between the seismic, petrophysical and geological properties, we used rock physics modeling from ultrasonic Pand Swave velocity that measured from log data. The measurements obtained from carbonate reservoir field (gas production). X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope studies shown the reservoir rock are contain wackestone-packstone content. Effective medium theory to rock physics modeling are using Voigt, Reuss, and Hill. It is shown the elastic moduly proposionally decrease with increasing porosity. Elastic properties and wave velocity are decreasing proporsionally with increasing porosity and shally cemented on the carbonate rock give higher elastic properties than initial carbonate non-cemented. Rock physics modeling can separated zones which rich of shale and less of shale.


This article was initially presented by myself in 2010 during the congress "Beyond the body: Perspectives on enhancement" at the ISEI, University of Manchester. I discuss here what enhancement is and how "human nature" has changed throughout human history and I argue that it will continue changing in such a way that by the year 2400 people could expect to live to around 1000 years, and within 40.000 years humans will be able to live around 10.000 years, which in practical terms could be called "immortality". I also argue that all and any human enhancement, even the changing of our human nature transforming us into immortals, will only be a true enhancement if it came with the moral enhancement of humankind as a whole and each of us as individuals.


Cross sections for the production of O- by electron attachment to NO are reported. It is found that the maximum value of the cross section is about 52% higher than the only other previous measurement of Rapp and Briglia (1965). Cross sections for the process of polar dissociation (e+NO to N++O-) have also been measured and the threshold energy for this process has been obtained.


Cryptococcus neoformans has been divided into four serotypes by specific agglutination in immune rabbit sera. Based on mating characteristics of the perfect state and epidemiologic and biochemical differences, the serotypes have been divided into two major pairs. In an attempt to characterize the serotypes further, the authors studied 22 strains of C. neoformans by the technic of horizontal starch-gel isoenzyme electrophoresis. The glucose-phosphate isomerase and phosphoglucomutase of serotypes A, C, D, and a subset of the serotype B strains migrated to distinguishable locations in this system. The activities of the remainder of the serotype B strains co-migrated with the serotype C strains. Thus, this technic distinguishes all the serotypes of C. neoformans except for a subset of serotype B and should be a useful adjunct for further elucidation of the epidemiologic and biochemical differences among serotypes.


This study analyzes revenue-maximizing strategies of online auction sellers in terms of setting up starting bids and buy-it-now options. To this end, a series of field experiments is conducted where women's hair accessories of unique designs are listed in an established online auction site. The results of the experiments argue that high starting bids could increase sellers' revenue while buy-it-now options have no significant effects. Our findings suggest that online auction sellers listing items with uncertain demand - mainly individual sellers - should be cautious with auction tips which generally support low starting buds.


Nursing sickness, the largest single cause of mortality in adult female mink (Mustela vison), is an example of a metabolic disorder, which develops when the demands for lactation require extensive mobilization of body energy reserves. The condition is characterized by progressive weight loss, emaciation, and dehydration with high concentrations of glucose and insulin in the blood. Morbidity due to nursing sickness can be as high as 15% with mortality around 8%, but the incidence is known to vary from year to year. Stress has been shown to trigger the onset of the disease and old females and females with large litters are most often affected. Increasing demand for gluconeogenesis from amino acids due to heavy milk production may be a predisposing factor. Glucose metabolism is inextricably linked to that of protein and fats. In obesity (or lipodystrophy), the ability of adipose tissue to buffer the daily influx of nutrients is overwhelmed (or absent), interfering with insulin-mediated glucose disposal and leading to insulin resistance. Polyunsaturated fatty acids of the n-3 family play an important role in modulating insulin signalling and glucose uptake by peripheral tissue. The increasing demand on these fatty acids for milk fat synthesis towards late lactation may result in deficiency in the lactating female, thus impairing glucose disposal. It is suggested that the underlying cause of mink nursing sickness is the development of acquired insulin resistance with 3 contributing key elements: obesity (or lipodystrophy), n-3 fatty acid deficiency, and high protein oxidation rate. It is recommended that mink breeder females be kept in moderate body condition during fall and winter to avoid fattening or emaciation. A dietary n-3 fatty acid supplement during the lactation period may be beneficial for improved glycemic control. Lowering of dietary protein reduces (oxidative) stress and improves water balance in the nursing females and may, therefore, prevent the development and help in the management of nursing sickness. It is also surmised that other, thus far unexplained, metabolic disorders seen in male and female mink may be related to acquired insulin resistance.


The natural healing capacity of the anterior or posterior medial meniscal attachment after radial transection and the effect of such procedures on knee joint cartilage were investigated in 28 skeletally mature New Zealand white rabbits. Either the anterior (n = 14) or the posterior attachment (n = 14) was radially transected in the right knee joint. Fifty percent of the rabbits with each procedure were euthanized at 6 weeks and 50% at 12 weeks. The histologic characteristics of the healing tissue were evaluated, including immunohistochemical demonstration of nerve fibers. Histologic changes in the synovium and articular cartilage were graded for severity and extent. The concentration of proteoglycan fragments in joint fluid was analyzed before operation and at euthanasia. After both procedures, the transected attachment healed in a prolongated position resulting in peripheral displacement of the meniscus. The healing tissue at 6 weeks was composed mainly of granular tissue. By 12 weeks, the healing tissue at the anterior attachment had a ligament like structure, but at the posterior attachment, fibrocartilage like tissue had formed. Nerve fibers were found in the healing tissue, but connections to nerves in normal attachment or meniscal tissues were not found. Increased concentrations of proteoglycan fragments, articular cartilage degeneration, and synovitis were found in the operated knees. These data indicate that although the meniscal attachment can heal in a prolongated position, such a meniscus has lost its mechanical functions. Further, a joint protective function of the neoneurons is doubtful because of the lack of continuity with the adjacent meniscus. Rigid fixation of the attachment seems essential for a functional meniscal substitute.


The " Ardeal " hop cultivar ( Humulus lupulus L., ssp europeus Ryb.) was created at "Hop and Medicinal Plants Crop Research Center" - U.S.A.V.M. Cluj-Napoca through clonal selection from the Hallertauer Magnum cultivar (temporarily called CN 21/96). Among the morpho-physiological, productivity and quality features of this hop cultivar some ought to be mentioned: it is semilate, with an average vegetation period of 138 days (90 days – the vegetative phase and 48 days the generative phase); 35 days from the coming up until the appearance of the lateral offshoots, 37 days until budding, flowering after 18 days, cone formation after 28 days and reaching technological maturity after 12 days; the habitus of the plant is cylindrical, the vines are green, the length is 8-10 m, with internodes of 15-23 cm and green offshoots of 70-120 cm; the leaves have 3-5 dark-green lobes; the cones are oval, uniform, dense, big, round-pointed; the blossom stem is of medium fineness, the bracts are large-medium, tightly fixed to the stem, oval pointed yellow-green, rich in lupuline (the lupuline is orange); in yield trials the average yields were of 2.5-2.8 t/ha dry cones; it is one of the bitter (superalfa) cultivars, medium-flavoured, with a high content of alfa acids (13.8-14.5%); the content of alfa-acids – 340- 360 kg/ha – is much higher than that of other hop cultivars cultivated in our country; it is resistant to mildew-powder, manna, and tolerant to aphides.


Certain bamboo species have mechanical properties that are compatible with construction material. Despite this, their low shear strength, the presence of nodes in their culms, and their circular geometry inhibit the expansion of the use of this material as construction material. One technique that can solve these problems is glued laminated bamboo (GLB). Based on such findings, this paper aims to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of glued laminated bamboo of the Dendrocalamus giganteus species. Two glues were used: resorcinol-formaldehyde (PRF) and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc). The following physical and mechanical characterization tests were performed on glued laminated bamboo: water absorption, density, compression parallel to fiber direction, tension parallel to fiber direction, shear parallel to the glue layer, shear parallel to fiber direction, and bending. The results, analyzed using statistical models, showed that the GLB has physical and mechanical properties comparable to those of hardwoods.


Early access to evidence-based help is crucial for adolescents with anxiety disorders. Internet-delivered acceptance and commitment therapy (iACT) may offer adolescents increased access to care and more flexibility in engaging with treatment when and how they prefer. Process-based therapies, such as ACT, focus on theoretically derived and empirically tested key mechanisms in treatment that enable change. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of iACT for adolescents with anxiety disorders. The study also assessed the relationship between psychological flexibility and treatment outcomes and the relationship between participating adolescents' and therapists' perceived alliance and treatment outcomes. This was a randomized controlled trial comparing a 10-week intervention group with a wait-list control group. The 52 participants, aged 15 to 19, were recruited from all over Sweden. The treatment was effective in increasing quality of life and psychological flexibility, with moderate between-group effect sizes based on observed values. Changes in psychological flexibility was associated with changes in anxiety symptoms. The results further showed a statistically significant between-group difference in post-treatment diagnoses. No significant time per group interaction was found for anxiety symptoms, as both groups improved. Working alliance was rated as high by both participating adolescents and therapists but showed no significant relationship with treatment outcomes. Participants found the treatment an acceptable intervention. This study shows promising results for iACT in treating adolescents with anxiety disorders. The results suggest the model of psychological flexibility as an important process of change in treatment outcomes. Future research should validate these findings in larger samples and clinical contexts.


The specialty of one of the things that underlies Yogyakarta is called a student city of course because of the educational climate in the region. With a work area that is relatively not too broad and the quantity of institutions that are not too many the Ministry of Religion is one of the government agencies, especially in the field of Islamic Education. This is certainly able to make it as an advantage and convenience in creating the development of Islamic education in the work area that is superior to other work areas. The research method used in this research is a qualitative descriptive study. Data collection techniques through observation, interviews, and study documentation. The results of this study indicate that in general educational policy in the aspect of developing / fostering Islamic Education in the Ministry of Religion in Yogyakarta is more guided than the RI Ministry of Religion program. However, in its implementation in the city of Yogyakarta, these programs are relatively easier to do, one of which is because the area coverage is not too broad. Institutionally, within the framework of the policy of developing Islamic education guidance in the Ministry of Religion of the City of Yogyakarta dividing management responsibilities to three work units, namely the Islamic Education Section (PAIS), the Madrasah Education Section (PENMAD) and the Diniyah Education Section and Islamic Boarding School (PD PONTREN). The Islamic Education Section (PAIS) has a working area on fostering and managing Islamic education in public schools at all levels, the Madrasah Education Section (PENMAD) in Islamic education houses all levels in Madrasas as well as the Diniyah Education and Islamic Boarding Schools (PD PONTREN) responsible responsible for fostering ongoing Islamic education in Madrasah Diniyah including TPA and Islamic Boarding School, so that each of these sections has a policy of developing Islamic Education in its own work program.


Abstract:Russell's statements in the immediate post-World War II period about war with the Soviet Union have generated considerable controversy. Some commentators interpret his declarations as if he advocated a preventive war against the Soviet Union. To the contrary, Russell advanced a strategy of conditional threat of war with the aim not of provoking war, but of preventing it. However, Russell was unable to satisfy his critics. Despite initial accuracy in his restatements of what he had originally said, Russell erred in later affirmations, lending credence to the erroneous view that he had something to hide.


In this paper, we address the issue of augmenting text data in supervised Natural Language Processing problems, exemplified by deep online hate speech classification. A great challenge in this domain is that although the presence of hate speech can be deleterious to the quality of service provided by social platforms, it still comprises only a tiny fraction of the content that can be found online, which can lead to performance deterioration due to majority class overfitting. To this end, we perform a thorough study on the application of deep learning to the hate speech detection problem: a) we propose three text-based data augmentation techniques aimed at reducing the degree of class imbalance and to maximise the amount of information we can extract from our limited resources and b) we apply them on a selection of top-performing deep architectures and hate speech databases in order to showcase their generalisation properties. The data augmentation techniques are based on a) synonym replacement based on word embedding vector closeness, b) warping of the word tokens along the padded sequence or c) class-conditional, recurrent neural language generation. Our proposed framework yields a significant increase in multi-class hate speech detection, outperforming the baseline in the largest online hate speech database by an absolute 5.7% increase in Macro-F1 score and 30% in hate speech class recall.


Beauveria sp. FO-6979, a soil isolate, was found to produce inhibitors of lipid droplet formation in mouse peritoneal macrophages. A new compound beauveriolide III was isolated along with a known compound beauveriolide I from the fermentation broth of the producing strain by solvent extraction, ODS column chromatography, silica gel column chromatography and preparative HPLC. Beauveriolides I and III caused a reduction in the number and size of cytosolic lipid droplets in macrophages at 10 microM without any cytotoxic effect on macrophages.


Summary Targeting food security interventions in sub‐Saharan Africa presents special difficulties and has rarely been successful. A case study of Darfur in Western Sudan shows that targeting can be improved. The key is to focus not just on safeguarding current income and food consumption, but also on long term livelihood interventions that reduce vulnerability; and to do this with programmes which are geographically specific, self‐targeting in administrative terms and designed inter alia to support traditional community food security arrangements. Consistency in food policy at macro and micro levels is also important.


Management control systems (MCSs) encourage university management to focus on achieving the expected performance. Unfortunately research on MCS in the public sector, has been very limited especially in the universities. It has been argued that MCS affects the Performance of Higher Education albeit in a weak manner. However, there are certain other variables that influence the role of MCS on higher education performance. Good university governance (GUG) is one of them. Kim (2008) states that GUG factors determine the success of management, quality control and organisational performance. This study seeks to examine the role of GUG under the influence of MCS on Performance. A study of 70 undergraduate accounting study programs in Indonesia using structural equation model has shown that MCS does affect performance. The effect is more pronounced with GUG being a mediator between MCS and performance. This suggests that the role of GUG should be optimised to enhance the role of MCS.


The following is a chapter (slightly abbreviated) from Jack Belden's remarkable book China Shakes the World. First published in 1949, it has now been reissued by Monthly Review Press with a new introduction by Owen Lattimore, who ranks it as one of the three great classics by Americans about the Chinese Revolution (the others being Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China and William Hinton's Fanshen) and calls it a "neglected masterpiece." Jack Belden worked his way out to China as an able-bodied seaman and jumped ship in Hong Kong. "From the beginning," says Lattimore, "he seems to have distrusted the intelligentsia and to have had a fellowfeeling for the disinherited and the down-and-out. He was the man who knew what underemployed peasants, underpaid workers, and sullen soldiery did about sex and drink and drugs." The book which Belden produced, as the Communists were assuming full power throughout all of China, was indeed an unequalled panorama of the revolution as seen by the people themselves. We have chosen this chapter because it deals with the place of the women's struggle in the Revolution, and is therefore of special interest to today's developing movement for women's liberation. In the preceding chapter (too long for inclusion here but one which we hope all our readers will read), Belden has told the story of Gold Flower, a young woman who "turned over" and, aided by the women of her village, drove her husband out. —The Editors.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Lactones derived from hydroxy fatty acids have many applications. Compared to conventional chemical synthesis, lipases catalyzed synthesis of lactones is simple, mild and highly productive. The effects of hydroxy fatty acid chain length, solvents, lipase type and steric factor on the yield and on the distribution of the produced lactones were investigated.


Organic acids are natural antimicrobial compounds commonly used in the food industry. In this study, acetic, lactic, butyric, citric, and malic acid at minimum inhibitory concentrations and their combinations at optimal inhibition concentrations were used to treat E. coli, and the effects on the cell barrier and biofilm of E. coli were evaluated. Acetic acid showed the highest membrane-damaging effect, while citric acid and malic acid could specifically damage the cell wall of E. coli, leading to alkaline phosphatase leakage. The RT-qPCR results showed that organic acids upregulated the membrane-protein-related genes of E. coli, and the combination of organic acids had a wider range of effects than single organic acid treatment. Moreover, organic acids inhibited the formation of E. coli biofilm and cellular activity within the biofilm. This study showed that the combination of organic acids plays a synergistic inhibitory role mainly through multiple destructive effects on the cell barrier and exhibited synergistic anti-biofilm effects. The three–three combination of acetic, lactic acid, and a third organic acid (butyric, citric, or malic) can play a better synergistic antibacterial effect than the two-pair combination of acetic and lactic acid. These findings have implications for the usage, development, and optimization of organic acid combinations.


Bilateral sagittal split osteotomy is the most commonly used osteotomy of the mandible in orthognathic surgery. The authors describe their experience in evaluating the orthognathic patient with a mandibular deformity. The bilateral sagittal split osteotomy surgical technique used by the authors is reviewed along with postoperative management.


Land mobile communication using satellites has become widespread. However, estimation of its average bit-error rate is still challenging due to the complexity of various system components, such as the nonlinearity of traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs), intersymbol interference, spread spectrum under fading, or jamming conditions. The analytical approach using closed form solutions is very difficult if not impossible. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation can offer an alternative method of performance estimation; however, the use of MC simulation is often limited by an excessive computational burden. Importance sampling (IS) is an efficient simulation method that can greatly reduce this computational overhead although it requires additional modeling and a careful biasing scheme. We propose an integrated IS model which combines error event simulation, a conditional IS method, and an asymptotically efficient method for the effective estimation of the error rate. Simulation results conditioned on different channel parameters such as the backoff of a TWTA, jamming signal strength, and elevation angle of the low-Earth orbit satellite are provided. Comparisons between the proposed method and the MC method show that a great reduction in simulation time, as well as increased accuracy, can be achieved with the IS method.


The September, 1963, issue of the British Medical Bulletin is devoted to Antibodies . The subject is introduced historically by Prof A. A. Miles, and he proceeds in his introduction to justify the subsequent treatment of the "antibody face of the immunological coin." Following the introduction, there are 16 papers dealing with antibodies by different authors from England, Scotland, Canada, and Australia. Each of the papers is essentially a brief review of some phase of the subject. Some of the topics treated are: "Nature of the Reaction Between Antigen and Antibody," by N. C. Hughes-Jones; "Sensitivity and Specificity of Methods of Detecting Antibodies," by J. R. Marrack; "Chemical Structure of Gamma-Globulin and Antibodies," by R. R. Porter; "Development of Knowledge of Antitoxins," by C. G. Pope; "Reagins," by D. R. Stanworth; and "Experimental Production of Auto-Antibodies or of Auto-Immune Disease," by Sir Macfarlane Burnet. From these reppresentative titles, is is obvious


Background The term seronegative spondyloarthropathies (SpA) is used to define a specific group of disorders with certain common features, an increased incidence of HLA-B27, as well as negative rheumatoid factor and ANA being among them. The association of HLA-B27 within the group of SpA varies significantly, ranging from <50% in psoriatic, enteropathic, and inflammatory bowel disease-associated SpA, to 80% in reactive arthritis, to $><$ 50% in psoriatic, enteropathic and inflammatory bowel disease-associated SpA, to >95% in ankylosing spondilitis. The frequency of the HLA-B27 allele also varies widely across populations. The North-South and the East-West gradients are known with HLA-B27 high prevalence in Northern Eurasia and North America (10–16% of Scandinavians, 25–50% of Indigenous Northern Americans), and lower (2–6%) in Mediterranean regions, and decreasing prevalence from Southeast Asia (>12%) to China (1-6%) [1]. Objectives To determine the prevalence of HLA-B27 in Yakut children with SpA and in the population of healthy Yakuts Methods The prevalence of HLA-B27 was studied among 75 unrelated Yakut children with SpA (mean age 10.2±0,5 years, 41 boys and 34 girls, otherwise healthy) and among unrelated healthy adult Yakuts (mean age 39.5±1,2, 56 men and 36 women) reflecting the general population of Yakutia. HLA typing was performed by means of a standard single specific primer - polymerase chain reaction (Amplikit-27, Russia). Results In children association of SpA with HLA-B27 was revealed (p=0,022), 46,67% of them being HLA-B27 positive (OR =2, 22, CIOR: 1,17-4,22). Prevalence of HLA-B27 in total Yakut population was found to be 28.26%. Conclusions Our results show low prevalence of HLA-B27 haplotype in Yakut children with SpA and rather high prevalence in the total population of Yakuts, being at the level of prevalence in Koriaks and Cukchi [2,3]. HLA-B27 is known to encompass many different alleles while SpA has thus far been documented in subjects possessing any one of the first several subtypes. Low prevalence of HLA-B27 in children with SpA makes it important to investigate which of them are specific for Yakut population References Khan MA: HLA-B27 and its subtypes in world populations. Curr Opin Rheumatol 1995, 7:263–269. Pereverzeva VV. Prevalence of HLA-antigenes, genes and haplotypes in alien and native population of North-Eastern Russia. Diss. PhD. Tomsk, 2002: 191 pp. (in Russian) Krylov M., Erdesz S., Alexeeva L., Benevolenskaya L., Arnett F.C., J.D.Reveille. HLA Class II and HLA-B27 oligotyping in two native Siberian population groups. Tissue Antigens, 1995;46(5):382-6 Disclosure of Interest None declared


A new method of extracting depth from blurring and magnification of objects or local scene is presented. Assuming no active illumination, the images are taken at two camera positions of a small displacement, using a single standard camera with telecentric lens. Thus, the depth extraction method is simple in structure and efficient in computation. Fusing the two disparate sources of depth information, magnification and blurring, the proposed method provides more accurate and robust depth estimation. This paper describes the process of various experimentations performed to validate this concept and describes the present work that has been done in that field. The experimental result shows less than 1% error for an optimal depth range. The ultimate aim of this concept would be the construction of dense 3D maps of objects and real time continuous estimation of depth.


Traditionally, acute evacuations of traumatic intracranial hematomas are performed by neurosurgeons in university hospitals. However, most patients with traumatic brain injury are initially transported to regional hospitals that lack neurosurgical expertise. Thus, a trauma surgeon in a regional hospital may encounter a patient with an expanding hematoma that must be operated without delays. During 2006 to 2014, 14 craniotomies were performed at the North Karelia Central Hospital. Twelve patients were operated for acute traumatic subdural hematoma (ASDH): three patients made good recovery, two were left with severe disability, and seven died. Two patients operated with acute epidural hematoma (EDH) recovered well.


Background/Aims: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is increasing worldwide, and this condition is a risk factor for cardiovascular mortality. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the 3–18-year-old population in Szolnok City and the surrounding areas. Methods: Anthropometric data from healthy, white individuals recruited from nursery, elementary, and secondary schools were used to assess the prevalence of obesity and overweight in Szolnok City and the surrounding area, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, Hungary. Healthy subjects numbering 6,824 (54% boys) were included; overweight and obesity were defined according to the relevant guidelines. Results: Overweight individuals constituted 13.4% of the population and 6.6% were obese. The total prevalence was higher in boys (21.6%) than in girls (18.1%). The peak of the prevalence was observed at age 10 in both sexes (boys 33%, girls 27%) followed by a gradual decrease, which was more significant in the case of girls. Conclusions: On the basis of the recent Hungarian data, we have not detected any changes in overweight and obesity in the age group 3–9 years and we have found a significant decrease in the age group 7–14 years. Prevention of overweight and obesity in early childhood is essential.


: This paper reviews the clinical recognition, diagnosis, and management of ectopic pregnancy at the Queen of Angels Hospital for the past 15 years. The incidence of ectopic pregnancy to deliveries is 1:195. Pain is the cardinal symptom of ectopic pregnancy, and amenorrhea of some degree was present in all cases. Pelvic inflammatory disease is a factor in the development of tubal pregnancy in some women. A careful history and thorough physical examination are important in making a careful diagnosis. The only laboratory procedures which are of any value are the blood type and the Rh determination. While examination of endometrial tissue obtained by biopsy or curettage has proved useful in ectopic pregnancy diagnosis, it is not totally decisive. Culdocentesis has proved to be the diagnostic procedure of the greatest value in recognizing intraperitoneal hemorrhage and it increases the correct preoperative diagnosis from 65-70% to 95%. Laparoscopy is useful when the physician is in doubt about the nature of the problem and it has produced an increase in the number of ectopic pregnancies diagnosed. Ultrasound is another useful tool in confirming a diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy; its accuracy ranges from 70-92%. A newly developed pregnancy test is more sensitive than conventional pregnancy tests and would be positive for pregnancy. Women who have had a previous ectopic pregnancy have a higher subsequent incidence of persistent infertility, recurrent ectopic pregnancy, and pregnancy wastage; the risk of another ectopic pregnancy increases 30-50 fold. While extopic pregnancy does recur, it is true that about 1/3 of those women do have successful pregnancies. Where previous induced abortion has occurred, there is a 10-fold increased risk of ectopic pregnancy. Women who become pregnant accidentally with an IUD in place have a greater likelihood of experiencing an extrauterine pregnancy. Abdominal pregnancy is often encountered as an aborting ectopic pregnancy during the 1st trimester. In cases such as this, there can be local excision and hemostasis. Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura was another encountered complication. Salpingectomy is inappropriate and even dangerous when used with an ectopic pregnancy. Early diagnosis and prompt surgery can help increase the survival rate. However, conservative surgery which preserves the tube is feasible and practical using salpingotomy and partial salpingectomy. Maternal death resulting from ectopic pregnancy is usually the result of sudden massive hemorrhage. The initiation of therapy prior to rupture is helpful. Ectopic pregnancy rate has remained fairly consistent among the white population but has decreased significantly in the nonwhite population. This is likely tied to an improvement in socioeconomic status, better patient education, and a greater awareness of medical needs. To decrease the maternal mortality rate from ectopic pregnancy, obstetricians and gynecologists must be more aggressive in research and treatment of ectopic pregnancy.


Capillary telangiectasia is often found incidentally on magnetic resonance imaging and may be associated with minor neurologic symptoms, but there has been little evidence about whether such lesions are responsible for these symptoms. Here we report a case of capillary telangiectasia of the right mid pons, which was associated with the abrupt onset of tinnitus and sensorineural hearing loss. Examination of the auditory brain stem responses showed abnormalities of waves III and IV on the left and bilateral prolongation of the interwave intervals. Optokinetic nystagmus showed slight left-right asymmetry.


Measurements of the intergalactic medium (IGM) temperature provide a potentially powerful constraint on the reionization history due to the thermal imprint left by the photoionization of neutral hydrogen. However, until recently IGM temperature measurements were limited to redshifts 2 ≤z≤ 4.8, restricting the ability of these data to probe the reionization history at z > 6. In this work, we use recent measurements of the IGM temperature in the near-zones of seven quasars at z∼ 5.8–6.4, combined with a semi-numerical model for inhomogeneous reionization, to establish new constraints on the redshift at which hydrogen reionization completed. We calibrate the model to reproduce observational constraints on the electron scattering optical depth and the H i photoionization rate, and compute the resulting spatially inhomogeneous temperature distribution at z∼ 6 for a variety of reionization scenarios. Under standard assumptions for the ionizing spectra of Population II sources, the near-zone temperature measurements constrain the redshift by which hydrogen reionization was complete to be zr > 7.9 (6.5) at 68 (95) per cent confidence. We conclude that future temperature measurements around other high-redshift quasars will significantly increase the power of this technique, enabling these results to be tightened and generalized.


Domestic Hot Water (DHW) production can account for a quarter of the energy consumed in UK dwellings and this proportion is likely to increase as the energy required for space heating reduces in order to achieve demand reduction targets. As the margins for improving the performance of heating system technologies diminish, the need for improving modelling accuracy and precision increases. Although studies have considered DHW use, there is a lack of reflection on the consumption and performance of systems in contemporary UK dwellings. This paper is based on two family homes and investigates heat losses from DHW networks using high resolution demand data combined with an analytical model. The model estimates are compared to widely used building performance models and it is found that the models may over estimate the heat losses by a significant amount and that short draw-offs are particularity influential in determining the amount of heat wasted.


Paediatrics is a branch of medicine which is concerned with wellbeing of infants, children, adolescents, their physical, mental, and psychological development. Paediatric forensic autopsy is useful to evaluate us the natural and unnatural childhood deaths, their reasons, steps for prevention and their management, which is both useful to the branch of Forensic Medicine and the Medical researchers. A 3year retrospective study was conducted in M.P. Shah Government Medical College, Jamnagar during the period of January 2014 to December 2016. Out of total 3743 autopsies performed, a total of 253 cases belonging to paediatric age-group were the material of the study. Accidental deaths are the most common manner of deaths and mostly affected age-group is 12-17 years. The leading cause of death are burns, drowning, road traffic accidents and snake bite. Accidental burns and suicidal hanging were more common in females in the agegroup 12-17 years. Accidental drowning and RTA were common in the males. In the present study, snake bite envenomation was also one of the leading causes of unnatural deaths in children and was mostly seen in the age range of 2-10 years. In India, both natural and unnatural childhood deaths are emerging as major public health problem. Various educational programmes, preventive strategies, and dissemination of information are necessary to create awareness and is must to reduce the unnatural deaths.


This paper proposes a knowledge-guided fashion network to solve the problem of visual fashion analysis, e.g., fashion landmark localization and clothing category classification. The suggested fashion model is leveraged with high-level human knowledge in this domain. We propose two important fashion grammars: (i) dependency grammar capturing kinematics-like relation, and (ii) symmetry grammar accounting for the bilateral symmetry of clothes. We introduce Bidirectional Convolutional Recurrent Neural Networks (BCRNNs) for efficiently approaching message passing over grammar topologies, and producing regularized landmark layouts. For enhancing clothing category classification, our fashion network is encoded with two novel attention mechanisms, i.e., landmark-aware attention and category-driven attention. The former enforces our network to focus on the functional parts of clothes, and learns domain-knowledge centered representations, leading to a supervised attention mechanism. The latter is goal-driven, which directly enhances task-related features and can be learned in an implicit, top-down manner. Experimental results on large-scale fashion datasets demonstrate the superior performance of our fashion grammar network.


Abstract This paper reviews the evidence for novel physiological functions of oligosaccharides. A history of the research and development and the types of health benefits are discussed. A key property of the physiological functions lies in the indigestibility of oligosaccharides, which gives rise to fermentation in the large intestine, followed by an increase of Bifidobacteria and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production. This property leads to several kinds of physiological functions, classified into three types of health benefits. The first is the improvement of gastrointestinal conditions, including a normal stool frequency, less constipation, and healthy intestinal microflora. The second is the promotion of mineral absorption, including an increase of bone density and relief of anemia. The third is an immunomodulation effect, such as allergy and cancer prevention.


PURPOSE
To prospectively determine whether fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) early dynamic blood flow estimates could be used to discriminate hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from background liver and to characterize HCC in patients with and those without angioinvasion; and to evaluate the association between blood flow measures at FDG PET/CT with metabolism in HCCs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Institutional review board approval and written informed consent were obtained for this prospective study. Twenty-one consecutive patients (mean age, 65 years) with 30 established HCCs (mean size, 5.5 cm; seven lesions in five patients with angioinvasion) underwent a blood flow study with an FDG dynamic scan divided into 18 sequences of 5 seconds each and a standard PET/CT scan. On the dynamic study, three independent operators obtained volumes of interest (VOIs) for which three blood flow estimates were calculated (hepatic perfusion index [HPI], time to peak [TTP], and peak intensity [PI]). On the late study, a VOI was placed on the fused scan for each HCC, and maximum standardized uptake value (SUV(max)) was obtained. By using a mixed-effects model analysis, comparison of blood flow estimates between HCC with and that without angioinvasion and background liver was performed. The association between blood flow estimates and SUV(max) was also assessed.

RESULTS
HPI and TTP showed better performance than did SUV(max) for discriminating HCC and background liver (areas under receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.96, 0.95, and 0.83, respectively; P < .05). HPI was higher in HCC in patients with angioinvasion (0.91 ± 0.15 [standard deviation]) than in those without angioinvasion (0.80 ± 0.18; P = .03). There was no difference in SUV(max) between HCC in patients with and those without angioinvasion (7.8 ± 2.9 vs 6.3 ± 3.4; P = .85). No clear association was found between HPI, PI, or TTP and SUV(max) (P = .49, .77, and .91, respectively).

CONCLUSION
Early dynamic blood flow FDG PET/CT may be used to help discriminate and characterize HCC tumors.


Although wearable interfaces can enable computer operation anywhere and at any time, many current devices are too cumbersome or socially unacceptable to wear in daily life. In contrast, a ridge of cloth produces a wrinkle that forms naturally on clothes, and the shape of these wrinkles can be recognized by their tactile sensations. Hence, they can achieve eye-free input and output functions. We therefore propose an interface that uses the wrinkles on clothes to input and output information. The interface generates several wrinkles on an item of clothing when an application requires input. The user senses the current state and number of choices by touching these wrinkles. The user can then input commands by selecting one wrinkle. The wrinkles disappear after the operation is complete. We implemented a prototype of this interface and investigated the social acceptance of the device position. The results show that the various device positions (excluding the armpit) achieve a moderate level of social acceptance. We mounted the prototype on the front of the right thigh of a pair of trousers and evaluated the recognition accuracy of the wrinkle patterns as well as the learning curve with respect to input accuracy and time. The participants achieved a recognition rate of 89.4%, input accuracy of 95% or more, and an input time of approximately 2 s. This device has the potential to provide unobtrusive and eyes-free operation and the current results indicate directions for its future development.


The melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), is an important pest of cucurbit crops. Application of poison baits is the major strategy recommended by the government for the melon fly control. This study was conducted to screen out effective neonicotinoids and antibiotic insecticides with no-choice (only a poisoned bait being provided) and choice (a non-poison bait being provided together with a poisoned bait) tests in the laboratory. It helps in providing important information for the selection of low-toxic insecticide additives for melon fly baits that reduces the harmful effects imposed on the environments and the farmers, as well as increasing the insecticide options to reduce the development of insecticide resistance. Results of no-choice tests showed that the neonicotinoidsthiamethoxam, clothianidin, and dinotefuran, and the antibiotic insecticides-emamectin benzoate, spinetoram, and spinosad added to the adult foods elicited high lethal effects to the melon flies. These selected neonicotinoids resulted in approximately 50% mortalities which was a little lower than 60% mortalities caused by the selected antibiotic insecticides. However, both insecticide groups all made the melon fly mortalities reached 95% at the end of 72-h experimental periods. Results also showed that the rates of melon fly mortalities induced by emamectin benzoate and spinetoram were faster than that induced by spinosad, a registered insecticide additive for fruit fly food baits, and the mortality rates by the thiamethoxam, clothianidin, and dinotefuran were similar to the spinosad. Choice tests indicated that both the selected neonicotinoids and antibiotic insecticides caused limited deterrent effects, but substantial insecticidal toxicities to the melon flies. Collectively, this study suggests that the above selected insecticides and abamectin, the one with a little less lethality, deserve further investigations for their potential as effective insecticide additive in the melon fly baits.


The Centre for Cervical Cancer Prevention in Sweden has noted in its annual report a substantial increase in the incidence of invasive cervical cancer, especially during the two years 2014 and 2015. I have sub-grouped the data according to age, using the same statistical database of the National Board of Health and Welfare as used by the authors of the above-mentioned report. The increase in the incidence of cervical cancer was shown to be most prominent among women 20-49 years of age while no apparent increase was observed among women above 50. The FDA has noted in the clinical trials referred to it for marketing approval that women exposed to the human papilloma virus (HPV) prior to vaccination had an increase in premalignant cell changes compared with placebo controls. I discuss the possibility that HPV vaccination could play a role in the increase in the incidence of cervical cancer by causing instead of preventing cervical cancer disease in women previously exposed to HPV. A time relationship exists between the start of vaccination and the increase in the incidence of cervical cancer. The HPV vaccines were approved in 2006 and 2007, respectively and most young girls started to be vaccinated during 2012-2013.


Radio frequency interference (RFI) is a significant problem for current and future radio telescopes. We describe here a method for postcorrelation cancellation of RFI for the special case of an extended source observed with an interferometer that spatially resolves the astronomical signal. In this circumstance the astronomical signal is detected through the autocorrelations of each antenna but is not present in the cross correlations between antennas. We assume that the RFI is detected in both autocorrelations and cross correlations, which is true for many cases. The large number of cross correlations can provide a very high interference‐to‐noise ratio reference signal which can be adaptively subtracted from the autocorrelation signals. The residual signal is free of interference to significant levels. We discuss the application of this technique for detection of the spin‐flip transition of interstellar deuterium with the Allen Telescope Array. The technique may also be of use for epoch of reionization experiments and with multibeam feeds on single‐dish telescopes.


The nucleolar organizer region-associated proteins (AgNOR) staining technique and estrogen receptor (ER) detective technique were applied to endometrial adenocarcinoma in grade 1-4 and endometrial cystic hyperplasia. The results showed that there was no significant difference of AgNOR numbers between the grade I endometrial adenocarcinoma and endometrial cystic hyperplasia, while a significant difference of the number, size and localization of the nuclei was observed between endometrial adenocarcinoma and grade 2-4 endometrial adenocarcinoma (P < 0.001). The ER content in well differentiated endometrial adenocarcinoma was more than poor differentiated ones.


The purpose of the research presented in this paper is the development of the optimal micro configuration for vibration monitoring of pumping aggregate, based on Microchip's microcontroller (MC). Hardware used is 10-bit MC, upgraded with 12/bit A/D converter. Software for acquisition and data analysis is optimized for testing turbo pumps with rotation speed up to 2000 rpm. This software limitation is set for automatic diagnostics and for individual and manual vibro-diagnostic; the only limitation is set by accelerometer performance. The authors have performed numerous measurements on a wide range of turbo aggregates for establishing the operational condition of pumping aggregates.


Teachers who are organizing a science fair or evening thinking about organizing a science fair will see all the how-to steps here.


A century of diligent R&D has resulted in a wide range of ceramic dielectrics and processing technologies. The technology used to manufacture an MLCC (multilayer ceramic capacitors) that costs pennies was unimaginable 30 years ago. The present trends of enhanced mobility, connectivity, and reliability in consumer, industrial, and military electronics will continue to drive future innovations in ceramic capacitor technology. In addition, power electronics applications are an emerging market in which ceramic capacitors will play an increasing role through improved breakdown strength, enhanced dielectric stability in harsh environments, and innovative packaging. The investment made by the US government to develop high energy density and high temperature capacitor technology will also contribute to the advancement of dielectric materials technology for pulse and power electronic capacitors.


For many data access applications, the availability of the most updated information is a fundamental and rigid requirement. In spite of many technological improvements, in wireless networks, wireless channels (or bandwidth) are the most scarce resources and hence are expensive. Data access from remote sites heavily depends on these expensive resources. Due to affordable smart mobile devices and tremendous popularity of various Internet-based services, demand for data from these mobile devices are growing very fast. In many cases, it is becoming impossible for the wireless data service providers to satisfy the demand for data using the current network infrastructures. An efficient caching scheme at the client side can soothe the problem by reducing the amount of data transferred over the wireless channels. However, an update event makes the associated cached data objects obsolete and useless for the applications. Frequencies of data update, as well as data access play essential roles in cache access and replacement policies. Intuitively, frequently accessed and infrequently updated objects should be given higher preference while preserving in the cache. However, modeling this intuition is challenging, particularly in a network environment where updates are injected by both the server and the clients, distributed all over networks. In this thesis, we strive to make three inter-related contributions. Firstly, we propose two enhanced cache access policies. The access policies ensure strong consistency of the cached data objects through proactive or reactive interactions with the data server. At the same time, these policies collect information about access and update frequencies of hosted objects to facilitate efficient deployment of the cache replacement policy. Secondly, we design a replacement policy which plays the decision maker role when there is a new object to accommodate in a fully occupied cache. The statistical information collected by the access policies enables the decision making process. This process is modeled around the idea of preserving frequently accessed but less frequently updated objects in the cache. Thirdly, we analytically show that a cache management scheme with the proposed replacement policy bundled with any of the cache access policies guarantees optimum amount of data transmission by increasing the number of effective hits in the cache system. Results from both analysis and our extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed policies outperform the popular Least Frequently Used (LFU) policy in terms of both effective hits and bandwidth consumption. Moreover, our flexible system model makes the proposed policies equally applicable to applications for the existing 3G, as well as upcoming LTE, LTE Advanced and WiMAX wireless data access networks.


The paper proposes an overview of decision support systems in order to define the role of a system to assist decision in university management. The authors present new technologies and the basic concepts of multidimensional data analysis using models of business processes within the universities. Based on information provided by scientific literature and on the authors' experience, the study aims to define selection criteria in choosing a development environment for designing a support system dedicated to university management. The contributions consist in designing a data warehouse model and models of OLAP analysis to assist decision in university management .


ABSTARCT Urinary tract infection (UTI) includes a spectrum of Asymptomatic Bacteruria (ABU), Cystitis, Prostitis and Pyelonephritis. Except in ABU, UTI is represented by symptomatic disease that warrants antimicrobial therapy. 1 Many of the studies have shown increasing antibiotic resistance to these agents. This study consists of a retrospective observational study of culture and sensitivity of 150 urinary samples, collected from patients who presented with symptoms of UTI, in a tertiary care teaching hospital, Northern Kerala, irrespective of their age and sex for a period of six months from June 2015 to November 2015. These results are then analyzed to find common organisms causing UTI in different age groups in either sex and their respective antibiotic resistance are noted. Out of 150 urinary samples 69.34% were sterile, while 30.66% were culture positive. Among the culture positive patients sex distribution was almost equal, with a slight female predominance, having a contribution of 54.35% females and 45.65% males. The most common organism was found to be E.coli, which contributed more than 50 per cent of total culture positivity (54.35%). Others include Staphylococci, Klebsiella Pnuemoniae, Proteus species, Pseudomonas, Enterococci, Candida Albicans etc. Collateral damage is an ecological adverse effect that resist the use of a highly efficacious drug to be considered as first line agent. Our study shows that drugs causing minimal collateral damages like Nitrofurantoin and Fosfomycin can be used as first line agent for treatment of UTI.


Pump flow ripple is a source of noise and pressure fluctuation that can result in unwanted behavior and failure of a hydraulic system. The intent of this paper is to present and model a novel method to reduce flow ripple using piezoelectric actuators, which are currently limited to applications in micro-scale pumps. The paper presents two methods for reducing pump flow ripple in a hydraulic system. The first method uses a piezoelectric actuated valve which governs the pump displacement. The second method employs a piezoelectric actuated cylinder that acts directly on the outlet fluid to reduce the flow ripple from the pump. Method one was not able to reduce the flow ripple due to the bandwidth limitations of the swash plate actuation cylinder. Method two was able to reduce the flow ripple significantly. Further improvements on method two were achieved by increasing the number and size of the piezoelectric actuated cylinders acting at the pump outlet. After optimization, it was found that method two was found to decrease pump ripple by up to 53.5% from the baseline pump output. Though method one is largely unsuccessful, it is found that method two is successful and becomes more effective as the number and size of the piezoelectric actuated cylinders increase.


We used 37 years of North American Breeding Bird Surveys to test for effects of periodical cicada (Magicicada spp.) emergences on the abundance and spatial synchrony of 24 species of avian predators in hardwood forests of the eastern United States. Fifteen (63%) of the bird species exhibited numerical changes in abundance apparently associated with emergences of the local periodical cicada brood, and intraspecific spatial synchrony of bird abundance was significantly greater between populations sharing the same cicada brood than between populations in the ranges of different broods. Species exhibited at least four partially overlapping temporal patterns. (1) Cuckoos ( Coccyzus spp.) occurred in high numbers only during emergence years and subsequently declined in abun- dance. (2) Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus), Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cris- tata), Common Grackles (Quiscalus quiscula), and Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) increased significantly 1-3 years following emergences and then declined. (3) Red- headed Woodpeckers (Melanerpes erythrocephalus ), American Crows (Corvus brachyryn- chos), Tufted Titmice (Baeolophus bicolor), Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis), and Brown Thrashers (Toxostoma rufum) were found in significantly low numbers during emer- gence years, underwent significant numerical increases in the following year, and then stabilized. (4) Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina), Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus po- lyglottos), Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis), and House Sparrows (Passer do- mesticus) exhibited significantly deviant population numbers 1-2 years prior to emergences, below the long-term mean in the first two species and above the long-term mean in the latter two. These results suggest that the pulses of resources available at 13- or 17-year intervals when periodical cicadas emerge have significant demographic effects on key avian predators, mostly during or immediately after emergences, but in some cases apparently years following emergence events.


O-N January 11, 1847, Valentin G6mez, Farias, vice president of Mexico, signed a law which authorized the government to appropriate ecclesiastical property and goods to the maximum value of fifteen million pesos.' One third of this sum was to be taken from the regular and secular clergy within the archbishopric. The purpose of this radical measure was to obtain the funds which General Antonio L6pez de Santa Anna had insisted were necessary if he was to continue to prosecute the war against the invading United States army. In spite of the military danger, both public and clerical reaction to the law was immediately hostile, and within four days rumors of imminent armed rebellion to force repeal of the law were reported in the press.2 Faced with this threat, G6mez Farias moved a regiment and a battalion of the National Guard, suspected of revolutionary intentions, to barracks located at some distance from the National Palace.3 Then on January 16 the clergy, who had been openly condemning this latest assault on the wealth of the Church, were forbidden by the government to make political speeches. Still the bishops and their chapters in every Mexican diocese continued to denounce the law in numerous representations hurriedly dispatched to the central government and to the Congress.4 Furthermore, the proclerical press lost no time in rousing


This paper introduces a phase-aware probabilistic model for audio source separation. Classical source models in the short-time Fourier transform domain use circularly-symmetric Gaussian or Poisson random variables. This is equivalent to assuming that the phase of each source is uniformly distributed, which is not suitable for exploiting the underlying structure of the phase. Drawing on preliminary works, we introduce here a Bayesian anisotropic Gaussian source model in which the phase is no longer uniform. Such a model permits us to favor a phase value that originates from a signal model through a Markov chain prior structure. The variance of the latent variables are structured with nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). The resulting model is called complex Itakura–Saito NMF (ISNMF) since it generalizes the ISNMF model to the case of nonisotropic variables. It combines the advantages of ISNMF, which uses a distortion measure adapted to audio and yields a set of estimates which preserve the overall energy of the mixture, and of complex NMF, which enables one to account for some phase constraints. We derive a generalized expectation-maximization algorithm to estimate the model parameters. Experiments conducted on a musical source separation task in a semiinformed setting show that the proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art phase-aware separation techniques.


A novel approach is described for obtaining a drug that will be a potent non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking agent with he potential for a short duration of action and little cumulative effect. This approach led to the discovery of Org NC 45, from the pancuronium series.


Throughout the ages, love has both delighted and puzzled those in its thrall. People knew how wonderful it was to be in love and in a close relationship but had difficulty expressing the exact definition of that feeling. As Beilby Porteus wrote in the late 1700s, "Love is something so divine, Description would but make it less; 'Tis what I feel, but can't define, 'Tis what I know but can't express" (as cited in Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2002, p. 355). Despite Porteus's urging for us not to describe love, researchers have been determined to do just that. Hence, many psychologists developed assessment tools designed to measure love (Berscheid, 1988; Berscheid, Snyder, & Omoto, 1989; Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986; Lee, 1977; Rubin, 1970; Steinberg, 1986, 1997). In the attempt to clarify and measure such an indefinable concept as love, researchers quickly encountered problems, and diverging viewpoints emerged. Some believed love was a unidimensional concept. For example, Lee (1977) hypothesized six different styles of love, explaining everything from friendship love (storge) to altruistic love (agape). However, others disagreed with this view, theorizing that love was a multidimensional concept. One of the most influential theorists to articulate the multidimensional point of view was Sternberg (1986, 1988, 1997), who developed a triangular model of love. According to this model, love comprises three dimensions--passion, intimacy, and commitment--that form the vertices of a triangle. Various combinations of the three components can describe six different kinds of love (e.g., liking), but Sternberg (1988) believed that consummate love, the most fulfilling kind of love, was created by the presence of all three. The creation and refinement of measures of love and dose relationships were particularly useful to counselors in helping to enhance the relationships of couples, because it gave such professionals a concrete way to measure specific behaviors and feelings. The concept of intimacy in particular stood out as something worth examining. According to Sternberg's (1997) definition, intimacy seemed to be the crux of relationships. "Intimacy refers to the feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in loving relationships" (Sternberg, 1997, p. 315). As such, many counselors believed creating or solidifying intimacy within a loving relationship was one way to both maintain and enhance relationships (Napier, 1999; Prager, 1999; Schnarch, 2001). If intimacy is such an important part of love relationships and can be quantified, it seems that it would be important in the context of therapy. Couples having difficulty feeling close to one another or even couples just wanting to improve their relationship could be assisted in seeing what intimate behaviors and/or feelings were lacking and work on improving them. Responses to measures of intimacy could also be used in counseling to help each partner in a couple to discover what the other needs and wants in intimate interactions. Consequently, it is important to have the means to measure intimacy if it is to be an important aspect in counseling couples regarding their relationship. THE COMPONENTS OF INTIMACY Intimacy is a multidimensional concept that means different things to various people. This is especially true for individuals from different cultural backgrounds, because other cultures do not view intimacy as a necessity or even in the same way as it is viewed in the Western world (Hatfield & Rapson, 1993). Therefore, when discussing intimacy, the point of view from which it is being considered must be presented. The discussion of intimacy in this article is mainly from a Western, heterosexual, love dyadic point of view. Although much of what we discuss can be applied to other kinds of intimate relationships, including cross-cultural ones, the information presented herein should be viewed through such a lens. Although opinions differ on a definition of intimacy, many theorists agree on the features that constitute an intimate interaction (Berscheid, 1985; Hatfield & Rapson, 1993; Levine, 1991; Prager, 1995, 1999). …


Analyses of the complete genomes of sequenced denitrifying bacteria revealed that approximately 1/3 have a truncated denitrification pathway, lacking the nosZ gene encoding the nitrous oxide reductase. We investigated whether the number of denitrifiers lacking the genetic ability to synthesize the nitrous oxide reductase in soils is important for the proportion of N2O emitted by denitrification. Serial dilutions of the denitrifying strain Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 lacking the nosZ gene were inoculated into three different soils to modify the proportion of denitrifiers having the nitrous oxide reductase genes. The potential denitrification and N2O emissions increased when the size of inoculated C58 population in the soils was in the same range as the indigenous nosZ community. However, in two of the three soils, the increase in potential denitrification in inoculated microcosms compared with the noninoculated microcosms was higher than the increase in N2O emissions. This suggests that the indigenous denitrifier community was capable of acting as a sink for the N2O produced by A. tumefaciens. The relative amount of N2O emitted also increased in two soils with the number of inoculated C58 cells, establishing a direct causal link between the denitrifier community composition and potential N2O emissions by manipulating the proportion of denitrifiers having the nosZ gene. However, the number of denitrifiers which do not possess a nitrous oxide reductase might not be as important for N2O emissions in soils having a high N2O uptake capacity compared with those with lower. In conclusion, we provide a proof of principle that the inability of some denitrifiers to synthesize the nitrous oxide reductase can influence the nature of the denitrification end products, indicating that the extent of the reduction of N2O to N2 by the denitrifying community can have a genetic basis.


The FePt(30 nm)/MgO bilayer films with various MgO(200) underlayer thicknesses of 0 to 30 nm are in-situ deposited on Si substrates. A weak (111)FePt peak as well as strong (001)FePt and (002)FePt peaks are observed in XRD pattern of single-layered FePt film with no MgO underlayer. When a 5 nm thick MgO film is introduced under the FePt film, the (111)FePt peak almost disappears and both the (001)FePt and (002)FePt peaks are enhanced greatly. This indicates that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of FePt film can be improved by introduction of a thinner MgO underlayer. However, a weak (111)FePt peak appears again as the MgO underlayer is increased to 10 nm, revealing that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of FePt film will be deteriorated by introducing a thicker MgO underlayer.


As the debates over cloning and stem cell research indicate, issues raised by biotechnology combine research into the genetic sciences, perspectives and contexts articulated by the social sciences, and the ethical and anthropological concerns of philosophy. Consequently, we argue that intervening in the debates over biotechnology require supradisciplinary critical philosophy and social theory to illuminate the problems and their stakes. More specifically, we will demonstrate problems with the cloning of animals that for now render the cloning of humans unacceptable. In addition, we take on arguments for and against stem cell research and contend that it contains positive potential for medical advances that should not be blocked by problematic conservative positions. Nonetheless, we believe that the entire realm of biotechnology is fraught with dangers and problems that require careful study and democratic debate of key ethical and political issues.


We prepared a novel wrinkled adhesive interface of hydrogels for strong adhesion via spatial control of polymer networks, including the density, distribution, and mobility of interactive units. A wrinkle structure was formed by the elasticity mismatch of hydrogels and adhesive polyion complex layers when electrophoresis was carried out between cationic and anionic semi-IPNs. The wrinkling wavelength of interfaces was controlled by Young's modulus of hydrogels. The role of wrinkle structure in adhesion was investigated by the measurement of the adhesive strength of hydrogels which were adhered under the compression, resulting in the disappearance of the wrinkle structure by compression that induced a decrease in adhesive strength. These results indicate that strong hydrogel adhesion was achieved by both the spatial design of interactive units and wrinkle formation.


This study has been undertaken in the light of constructivist view of teacher education. Participant observation, unstructured interview and questionnaire were used to explore the process and the role of practicum in science teacher education. The subjects were 19 student teachers majoring in physics education: 8 had participated at boys junior high school, 11 at senior high school. The student teachers had very critical and negative perception on their school days` science lessons. They had expected to do `better` in their practicum but there were only 3 to 5 opportunities of teaching under the umbrella of textbook. Explanation in the classroom and solving exercise problem were the main features of student teachers` lessons. Much of the lessons were similar when it is to same topic and the main reference for their lesson preparation was the textbook. The student teachers felt the design of teaching approach as the most difficult thing during their lesson preparation. They realized that teaching is harder than they thought and they should consider students` level and responses. Though they had become to have more positive perception on teaching job through their field experiences, their decision on job preference did not change. More than half did not want to be a teacher. The student teachers recognised the courses related with science education as the most useful to their teaching in practice among the program of college of education which they had taken. The experience of writing one lesson plan or teaching in front of their peers, designing a new demonstration equipment were recognised as valuable and helpful element of the courses. They proposed to reduce the amount of general education courses and to emphasize the courses relevant with science education and practicum. The limited opportunity of teaching in practicum was pointed out as problematic. Though the practicum was recognized as a `good` experience to student teachers, it was confined by textbook and limited teaching opportunity. In conclusion, the practicum was not organized and implemented as a meaningful experience of science teaching and learning. There should be more structured studies on what kind of perceptions and experiences the student teachers had brought to the science teacher education program, how they interact with the elements of the program and how they affect to their science teaching. The structure and content of practicum also should be studied and developed so as to make practicum as a meaningful experience of science teaching and learning.


This paper presents the application of distributed memory parallel computes to field scale reservoir simulations using a parallel version of UTCHEM, The University of Texas Chemical Flooding Simulator. The model is a general purpose highly vectorized chemical compositional simulator that can simulate a wide range of displacement processes at both field and laboratory scales. The original simulator was modified to run on both distributed memory parallel machines (Intel iPSC/960 and Delta, Connection Machine 5, Kendall Square 1 and 2, and CRAY T3D) and a cluster of workstations. A domain decomposition approach has been taken towards parallelization of the code. A portion of the discrete reservoir model is assigned to each processor by a set-up routine that attempts a data layout as even as possible from the load-balance standpoint. Each of these subdomains is extended so that data can be shared between adjacent processors for stencil computation. The added routines that make parallel execution possible are written in a modular fashion that makes the porting to new parallel platforms straight forward. Results of the distributed memory computing performance of Parallel simulator are presented for field scale applications such as tracer flood and polymer flood. A comparison of the wall-clock times formore » same problems on a vector supercomputer is also presented.« less


The access to non-formal and extension education is limited for females in Pakistan. In this case study of district Muzaffargarh, a multi stage random sampling technique was employed. Main findings indicated that majority of husband and wife respondents were illiterate. Women received relatively less benefit from different sources of information that not only hindered them to avail better sources of employment but also made their position pity at home and community level. These women were also neglected by Agriculture Extension Department where all the extension agents were male who were restricted socially, customary and religiously to meet with women farmers which ultimately resulted in quite serious state of gender inequality in the field of extension education. The main obstacles to gender mainstreaming in Agricultural Extension include restriction to meet males other than blood relations, socio-economic insecurity, inadequate political empowerment, improper transportation, residential problem for female extension workers, and male ego in respect of their vested dominance.


In this work, an array of electromechanical systems driven by an electrical line of Fitzhugh-Nagumo neuron is analyzed. It is shown that a single electromechanical system can display different dynamical behaviors such as single and multiple pulse generation, transient chaos, permanent chaos, and antimonotonicity according to the system parameters. In the case of an array of the electromechanical system constituted of a series of coupled discrete Fitzhugh-Nagumo neuron, the numerical simulation shows that as the action potential flows in the discrete array, each electromechanical system executes a pulse-like motion coming at each resting state as the electrical signal passes the node. The electromechanical system analyzed can be seen as a model for multi-periodic actuation processes or a leg model in a millipede system. Furthermore, this line can also carry an envelope of action potential and can be useful for various kinds of information processing systems.


This study deals with the investigation of postdischarges resulting from a pulsed magnetron sputtering process. To vary the working conditions in a large range, different sputtering targets and gases are used. The diagnosis of the post-discharge is mainly achieved by a Retarded Field Energy Analyzer (RFEA) and a mass spectrometer. These two techniques enable time resolved characterization of the post-discharge. The study will focus on the ion beam collected under specific HiPIMS regimes as well as the influence of the sputtering target material.


This paper discusses the application of genetic algorithms for the scheduling of electric rolling stock maintenance. The main objective is to improve the automated train scheduling system of uniformity maintenance process with a variety of maintenance resources, including the limited resources. The methods of graph theory and Bellman principle allow us to get the entire set of suitable maintenance schedules and choose which maintenance corresponds to the train schedule, and the minimum differs from the optimal one according to the selected criteria. Traditionally, it takes a significant amount of time and the main problem is using the criterion of uniformity maintenance under limited resources. In this case, we used genetic algorithm for optimization. The results showed that the genetic algorithm is an effective tool for optimization of maintenance scheduling.


Objective Approximately 2.4 million people in the United States are living with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The objective of our study was to describe demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, liver disease–related risk factors, and modifiable health behaviors associated with self-reported testing for HCV infection among adults. Methods Using data on adult respondents aged ≥18 from the 2013-2017 National Health Interview Survey, we summarized descriptive data on sociodemographic characteristics and liver disease–related risk factors and stratified data by educational attainment. We used weighted logistic regression to examine predictors of HCV testing. Results During the study period, 11.7% (95% CI, 11.5%-12.0%) of adults reported ever being tested for HCV infection. Testing was higher in 2017 than in 2013 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.27; 95% CI, 1.18-1.36). Adults with ≥some college were significantly more likely to report being tested (aOR = 1.60; 95% CI, 1.52-1.69) than adults with ≤high school education. Among adults with ≤high school education (but not adults with ≥some college), those who did not have health insurance were less likely than those with private health insurance (aOR = 0.78; 95% CI, 0.68-0.89) to get tested, and non–US-born adults were less likely than US-born adults to get tested (aOR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.68-0.87). Conclusions Rates of self-reported HCV testing increased from 2013 to 2017, but testing rates remained low. Demographic characteristics, health behaviors, and liver disease–related risk factors may affect HCV testing rates among adults. HCV testing must increase to achieve hepatitis C elimination targets.


The objective of the research concerned here was to know the factors that hinder the accessibility of children with special needs in their education at inclusive primary school. The research sample consisted of 100 children with special needs who were having education at 20 inclusive primary schools in four districts, in particular region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Through questionnaire use, documentation, and structured and in-depth interviews, the data were analysed descriptively in quantitative and qualitative manners. The results indicated that this study seems to be quite a complicated and complex problem to realize the accessibility for children with special needs at inclusive primary school. The core point of this attainment refers to the realization of the accessibility still encountering many hindrances because it is very complicated and expensive and the government is quite limited in its resources and so on. Moreover, the realization of accessibility in public facilities for children with special needs only a matter of the good will of the policy maker to enforce the policy concerned and the will of the educational institution to always safeguard the enforcement of the policy. The significant value to enhance the entire attempts on realizing the accessibility in the education at inclusive primary school should be considered to give insights into regaining the human dignity of minority groups, which include children with special needs.


Background and Objectives: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of a multimodal pain therapy (MPM) regarding the objective parameter muscle strength of segment-dependent lower limb muscle groups before and after such a treatment. Materials and Methods: 52 patients with a history of low back pain and/or leg pain received standardized multimodal pain management. Strength of segment indicating lower limb muscles were assessed for each patient before and after ten days of treatment by handheld dynamometry. Results: Overall strength increased significantly from 23.6 kg ± 6.6 prior to treatment to 25.4 ± 7.3 after treatment, p ≤ 0.001. All muscle groups significantly increased in strength with exception of great toe extensors. Conclusions: Despite lower basic strength values at the beginning of treatment, all investigated muscle groups, except for the great toe extensors, showed a significant increase of overall strength after completion of the multimodal pain management concept. Increased overall strength could help with avoiding further need of medical care by supporting patients' autonomy in daily life activities, as well as maintaining working abilities. Thus, our study is the first to show a significant positive influence on lower limb strength in patients with low back pain after a conservative MPM program.


Abstract Drawing on identity theory, this study examined the extent to which the salience (i.e. importance) individuals in dual-earner couples attached to their respective work and family roles determined their partner's experience of work-to-family (W-F) and family-to-work (F-W) conflict through crossover effects. Using matched surveys, data were collected from a sample of 94 Australian dual-earner couples. Consistent with our predictions, results supported couple-level crossover effects of role salience to influence each partner's experience of W-F and F-W conflicts. In addition, the impact of crossover effects on W-F and F-W conflicts was found to be more pronounced for women than men. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.


Pompe disease is a generalized lysosomal glycogenosis affecting essentially the skeletal muscles and the heart. It is due to the deficiency of acid alpha-glucosidase, also called acid maltase, involved in glycogen degradation by the cleavage of alpha-1,4 and alpha-1,6 glycosidic linkages. The severe infantile, milder juvenile, and late-onset or adult forms are associated under the generic name of glycogenoses type II. The clinical picture can differ according to these variants, forming a clinical spectrum from cardiorespiratory failure with early death in the infantile variant to late muscular weakness or respiratory problems in the adult variant. Enzymatic pre- and postnatal diagnoses and mutation characterization are available. Different therapeutic attempts have been conceived and some of them have come to clinical trials. Several pilot studies have demonstrated the feasibility of gene therapy and remarkable advances have been realized. Of particular interest, strategies for gene therapy in a generalized disease like Pompe disease must be accompanied by the secretion and uptake of the corrective enzyme by more distant cells or tissues in order to obtain efficient results. Preliminary positive results have been obtained in animal models, and new approaches with improvements in the access to muscle and heart, in the efficacy and innocuity of vectors, and in the clinical evolution are proposed. Gene therapy is a promising strategy for Pompe disease. However, several steps must be explored before this method becomes clinically successful.


"We explore the hypothesis that the social system (society) is not composed of human beings, but by their interactions and communications (Luhmann, 1984). Social order can then be considered as the complex dynamics of the expectations exchanges among us." (SISN syntegration outcome resolve - Light Blue group, 2001)

Notes on rapportage:
This report attempts to capture the ideas presented and discussed during the Light Blue group's Spring Seminar presented by Dr. Loet Leydesdorff (15Feb2002). They are not intended as a chronological summary of the presentation, but rather aim to (re)present key themes identified by the rapporteur and felt to be of transferable general interest to the whole Systems and Information Society Network.

This reporting process may in fact be seen as another example of the communication process as suggested by Luhmann; consisting of information, utterance and understanding. My notes here reflect my utterance of a personal understanding of the meanings intended within our February seminar. I hope that Loet and the other attendees will find some resonance with their own interpretations , and that where this is not the case the difference itself may create some useful further discussion.


This study was aimed at comparing the force–velocity relationship during cycling and arm cranking in males and females. Thirty-two male and twenty-two female healthy volunteers performed a force–velocity test on a cycle ergometer and a cranking ergometer in a randomly selected order. The theoretical values of the maximum force at zero speed (F0) and the maximum velocity at zero braking force (v0) for the lower and upper limbs were determined, and the maximum anaerobic power (Pmax) was calculated from the individual force–velocity relationship. The Pmax and F0 of the upper limbs related to the lower limbs correspond to 78.2 ± 14.3% and 80.1 ± 17.3% in men and 65.5 ± 12.5% and 74.5 ± 6.5% in women, respectively. The theoretical maximum velocity v0 of the upper limbs to the lower limbs attained 129.1 ± 29.0% in men and 127.4 ± 26.4% in women. The results of the study can serve as reference data for the force–velocity characteristics of the upper and lower limbs of male and female athletes. The results can be used both in training and rehabilitation programs, where the starting point is the objectification of possible strength deficits in various areas of the force–velocity characteristic spectrum of the muscles of the upper and lower limbs.


Powdery mildew caused by Microsphaera diffusa has recently received more attention because of yield losses caused by the disease and has even been reported as a limiting factor on soybean production in a certain soybean plantation areas. The aim of the research was to examine resistance potential of several yellow and black soybean genotypes in order to develop powdery mildew-resistant soybean varieties. The experiment was conducted in rainy season of 2013 at the Ciparanje Experimental Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Padjadjaran, Jatinangor, West Java, using a Randomized Block Design with 61 soybean genotypes as treatments that replicated two times. Each genotype was planted in plot (5 m long) consisted of 25 plants from which 6 plants per plot were sampled randomly. The disease intensity and soybean yield were assessed. The result showed that 15 genotypes were not infected by the disease, namely UP-104, UP-106, UP-108, UP-111, UP-112, UP-113, UP-114, UP-125, UP-127, UP-130, UP-136, UP-137, Argomulyo, Arjasari and Mintani, whereas other 46 genotypes were infected with the highest disease intensity of around 40%. Genotypes showing resistance potential are considered as a potential source of resistance genes that valuable in the disease-resistant soybean breeding. Keywords: Soybean; resistance; powdery mildew ; Microsphaera diffusa


This paper presents an iterative learning control (ILC) based method for trading off both individual and formation tracking for multiple agents with heterogeneous dynamics. The proposed framework provides precise trajectory tracking for systems involving repetitive, cooperative motion. The frequency domain based controller has the capability of being able to shift weighting between the desire for precise formations amongst the agents and precise trajectory tracking for each individual agent. Stability and convergence conditions are shown and the proposed controller is validated through simulations.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


The chemical evolution of groundwater in the Palfris marl at Wellenberg has been simulated using a reactive transport model. The results were tested against the chemical and stable carbon isotopic composition of water samples from exploratory boreholes. Water chemistry is constrained by mineral and cation exchange equilibria. To reproduce measured CO2(tot) and delta(13)C values requires H+ ion exchange. Matching measured ratios between Cl- and other dissolved constituents constrains the relative amounts of reacting water and rock to porosities between 1 and 10%. NaHCO3 waters sampled from the Palfris are formed by replacement of the initial Na-Cl water by one to five pore volumes of infiltrating Ca-HCO3 recharge water. To entirely exhaust the exchange capacity of the formation so that Ca-HCO3 water persists requires several hundred to several thousand pore volumes of flow. The agreement between model results and measured water chemistry demonstrates a quantitative understanding of the geochemical processes controlling the chemistry of water naturally present in the Palfris mad. These processes will also determine the behaviour of material that might emanate from a repository. In addition, the modelling provides water flow information of use in testing groundwater flow models.


The agonistic behaviour of juvenile Blennius pholis, L. was observed in tanks of 28 x 43 x 30 cm and 75 x 40 x 30 cm, the larger tanks thus having a floor area 2.5 times that of the smaller tanks. The smaller tanks contained two fish, the larger ones either two or five fish. Those containing five fish thus had a population density equivalent to the smaller tanks. Eight main elements of agonistic behaviour were observed. They were; advancing, threatening, charging, snapping, fleeing, chasing, retreating and submitting. It was found that charging, fleeing, and chasing were by far the most common elements performed. Charging, threatening and chasing were performed most frequently by dominant fish, fleeing and retreating by subordinate fish. Advancing was performed more or less equally by both dominant and subordinate fish. It is suggested that submission is a displacement activity. Size difference was the main factor deciding dominance and the intensity of aggression, but the onset of light, food, available space, and the activity of the fish concerned were also of importance. The size of the tank and the number of fish it contained had an effect upon the relationship between size difference and the intensity of aggression. In the smaller tanks the intensity of aggression was directly related to the difference in size between the two fish. This relationship was not as clear in the larger tanks. Territoriality in the normally accepted sense of the word was not observed, because the fish were not seen to defend any particular area of the tank against others. A hypothesis suggesting the existence of 'individual distances' is put forward, in which the fish are considered to defend a particular area of space around themselves. These individual distances fluctuate in size according to the state of the aggressive drive of the individual and the amount of space available to it for movement. An attempt is made to relate the behaviour observed in the laboratory to that occurring in nature.


Probabilistic evolution theory (PREVTH) forms a framework for the solution of explicit ODEs. The purpose of the paper is two-fold: (1) conversion of multinomial right-hand sides of the ODEs to purely second degree multinomial right-hand sides by space extension; (2) decrease the computational burden of probabilistic evolution theory by using the condensed Kronecker product. A first order ODE set with multinomial right-hand side functions may be converted to a first order ODE set with purely second degree multinomial right-hand side functions at the expense of an increase in the number of equations and unknowns. Obtaining purely second degree multinomial right-hand side functions is important because the solution of such equation set may be approximated by probabilistic evolution theory. A recent article by the authors states that the ODE set with the smallest number of unknowns can be found by searching. This paper gives the details of a way to search for the optimal space extension. As for the second purpose of the paper, the computational burden can be reduced by considering the properties of the Kronecker product of vectors and how the Kronecker product appears within the recursion of PREVTH: as a Cauchy product structure.