Background/aim Bone morphogenetic protein-15 (BMP-15) is one of the maturation indicators of the ovarian follicular pool. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible difference of follicular fluid (FF) BMP-15 RNA expression among low, normal, and high responder women attending controlled ovarian hyperstimulation-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (COH-ICSI) cycles. Materials and methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with 75 FFs of COH-ICSI cycles performed at the IVF Unit of University Hospital. Twenty FF from low response (group 1), 27 FF from normal response (group 2), and 28 FF from high response (group 3) were recruited for the study between September 2014 and February 2015. Cycle parameters were collected from patient files. FF BMP-15 RNA expression was evaluated with real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS 16.0 version (SPSS Chicago, IL, USA). Results The mean age, infertility duration, and body mass index (BMI) of patients were 31.1 ± 4.4 years, 7.4 ± 4.5 years, and 25.6 ± 4.1 kg/m2, respectively. There was no significant difference among groups for age, infertility duration, and BMI. There was no significant difference among groups for fertilization rate, implantation rate, pregnancy rate, and live birth rate. Among the 3 groups, FF BMP-15 RNA overexpression and lower expression rates were not significantly different. In all groups, overexpression showed dominance. The pregnancy rate was 45% among women with lower expression and the pregnancy rate among women with overexpression was 26% (P = 0.02). BMP-15 overexpression showed impact on becoming pregnant (OR = 3.7, 95% CI = 1.245–11.299, P = 0.019). Conclusion In this study, there was no significant difference in FF BMP-15 RNA expression levels among low, normal, and high responder women. However, overexpression of FF BMP-15 RNA showed a negative impact on pregnancy rates of women who attended COH-ICSI cycles.


The objective of this study was to investigate the useful components and potential antioxidant activities of 30 marine algae, collected from Jeju Island in Korea. The contents of bioacitve substance of extracts from marine algae, such total polyphenol and carbohydrate, were determined. The extract of Distromium decumbens had the highest amount of total polyphenol content (21.27%), and that of Gracilaria incurvata Okamura had the highest amount of total carbohydrate content (10.18%). The antioxidant activities of extracts obtained from algae were tested through the evaluation of DPPH radical and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity. The extracts of Distromium decumbens, Sargassum hemiphyllum (Turner) C.Agardh, Sargassum serratifolium (C. Agardh) C. Agardh and Acrosorium yendoi Yamada were found to have more than 80% DPPH radical scavenging activity and that of Dictyota okamurae (Dawson) Hotning, Schnetter, et Prud"homme van Reine, Myagropsis myagroides (Martens ex Turner) Fensholt, Sargassum serratifolium (C. Agardh) C. Agardh and Cladophora wrightiana Harvey showed more than 50% hydroxyl radical scavenging activity. These results suggest that algae collected from Jeju Island would be good raw materials for antioxidant.


Under the condition of certain resource, the effects of mutual action among competition, property rights and management bring firm's performance. But that does not denote that SOEs must be reform meantime in the three aspects. The science means must be which SOEs must be reform based on the feature, field and develop phase of SOEs. Some of SOEs must mainly be reform in management, or property rights, or competition, others of SOEs must be reform in the three aspects of management and property rights and competition meantime.


Abstract Two investigations of point source chlorinated solvent pollution of groundwater from very different settings are described: an industrial site in Coventry underlain by a multi-layered Carboniferous sandstone-mudstone sequence, and a village site (Sawston) underlain by Chalk in rural eastern England. The investigations are probably two of the most comprehensive studies of point source pollution by solvents in the UK. Both followed a phased approach with key elements being soil gas surveys, and definition of vertical pollution profiles through development of multi-level groundwater sampling and pore-water extraction techniques. The studies identified very significant contamination by chlorinated solvents, trichloroethene and 1,1,1-trichloroethane in the case of the Coventry site, and tetrachloroethene in the case of the Sawston site. The non-aqueous solvent phase was not detected at either site. The main similarities and differences between the studies are brought out, and the successes and failures of the studies discussed. The main successes are considered to be the development of effective soil gas and pore-water sampling methods, and sampling methods for determining vertical variations in groundwater quality. The main failures are considered to be the occurrence of cross-contamination at the Coventry site and the failure to accurately define pollution plumes. An ideal methodology is presented for future investigations, involving a phased approach maximizing the quality of information gained in each phase and preventing cross-contamination.


The security of the network reduces due to increase in the size of the network, there are many intrusion detection and intrusion response strategies which are carried on the basis to find and stop the intruders in the network such as local and global. Preserving the availability and integrity of networked computing systems in the face of fastspreading intrusions requires advances not only in detection techniques and also in automated response techniques. Preserving the availability and integrity of networked computing systems in the face of fast-spreading intrusions requires advances not only in detection algorithms, but also in automated response techniques. In this paper, we propose a new approach to automated response called the response and recovery engine (RRE). Our engine employs a game-theoretic response strategy against adversaries modeled as opponents in a two-player Stackelberg stochastic game. The RRE applies attack-response trees (ART) to analyze undesired system-level security events within host computers and their countermeasures using Boolean logic to combine lower level attack consequences. In addition, the RRE accounts for uncertainties in intrusion detection alert notifications.The RRE then chooses optimal response actions by solving a partially observable competitive Markov decision process that is automatically derived from attack-response trees. To support network-level multiobjective response selection and consider possibly conflicting network security properties, we employ fuzzy logic theory to calculate the network-level security metric values, i.e., security levels of the system's current and potentially future states in each stage of the game. In particular, inputs to the network levelgame-theoretic response selection engine, are first fed into the fuzzy system that is in charge of a nonlinear inference and quantitative ranking of the possible actions using its previously defined fuzzy rule set. Consequently, the optimal network-levelresponse actions are chosen through a game-theoretic optimization process. Experimental results show that the RRE, using Snort's alerts, can protect large networks for which attack-response trees have more than 500 nodes.


Abstract
Purpose
Sub-Saharan African cities suffer from poor quality transport options, excessive congestion and pollution. The informal transport sector contributes to these problems, but also represents part of the solution. This chapter reflects upon research undertaken to better understand the nature of these services, in the hope of providing insights into possible remediation.

Design/methodology/approach
Three case cities were studied: Cape Town; Dar es Salaam; and Nairobi. Each was examined by resident universities with respect to the quantity and quality of paratransit services provided, user satisfaction, business models and industry governance.

Findings
Each city has differences, but there are recurring themes. All are experiencing population growth and increased motorization, which steadily deteriorates operating environments. Law enforcement capability is limited and sometimes impeded by corruption. Operating enterprises tend to be fragmented. Financial resources are typically limited such that vehicle maintenance and replacement suffers. The safety and quality of service for passengers are therefore often poor. The prevalence of paratransit services is, however, such that any strategy to reform public transport systems needs to consider a role for them within a scheduled-paratransit hybrid network. Numerous challenges will need to be overcome for successful integration, but significant improvements to service quality can be made in the near- to medium-term through supporting interventions in business development, operating environment, vehicle fleets and operations.

Research limitations/implications
Extension of the research programme could yield some significant improvements to operations and financial sustainability, through the piloting of innovative, lower cost technologies based on smartphone and other ICT technologies.

Originality/value
The chapter reveals that significant improvements to service quality can be made in the near- to medium-term through supporting interventions in business development, operating environment, vehicle fleets and operations.


Molybdenum (Mo), fundamental trace mineral for animals and plants, but undue Mo damages animal health. Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal that exists in the environment. Nevertheless, the mechanism of Mo and Cd on mitochondrial quality control are still indistinct. The objective of this research was to explore the effects of mitophagy on mitochondrial quality control via the FUNDC1-mediated by Mo and Cd in sheep kidney. Forty-eight 2-month-old sheep were stochastically divided into four groups, as shown below: control group, Mo [45 mg/kg body weight (BW)] group, Cd (1 mg/kg BW) group and Mo (45 mg/kg BW)+Cd (1 mg/kg BW) group, with 50 days feed technique. The results showed that Mo or/and Cd attract an unbalance of trace minerals and vacuoles and granular degeneration of renal tubular epithelial cells, and increase the number of mitophagosomes and vacuole-mitochondria and LC3 puncta and MDA and H2O2 contents, and decrease ATP content in the kidney. Moreover, Mo or/and Cd treatment could upregulate the mRNA levels of FUNDC1, LC3A, LC3B, PGAM5, DRP1, FIS1 and MFF, and the protein levels of FUNDC1, p-FUNDC1, LC3II/LC3I, DRP1, MFF and FIS1, downregulate the mRNA levels of MFN1, MFN2, OPA1, PGC-1α, SIRT1, SIRT3, FOXO1 and FOXO3, and the protein levels of MFN1, MFN2, OPA1 and PGC-1α. Notably, variations of above-mentioned factors in Mo and Cd group were more obvious than in Mo or Cd groups. Taken together, these results displayed that Mo and Cd co-treatment might induce mitochondrial quality control disorder via FUNDC1-mediated mitophagy in sheep kidney.


Competitive aerodynamic performance of a Formula One car relies upon total understanding of the downstream wake of exposed rotating wheels. Sensitivities to the downstream vortices and low stagnation-pressure regions lead to subtle design decisions in bargeboards, side-pods and the leading edge of the highly sensitive floor region. A significant proportion of an F1 aerodynamicist's time is spent dealing with front wheel wake structures and indeed much of the front wing is developed to provide pressure gradients and vortex structures to control this wake.

Wind tunnel testing of scaled deformable tyres has become a common occurrence in F1 in recent years although there is a significant lack of available literature, academic or otherwise. Due to high vertical loads experienced by a grand prix car and the relatively high levels of camber used for mechanical advantage, the use of a rigid tyre is no longer considered suitable for the accurate simulation of an F1 wheel wake. This investigation has studied in detail the aerodynamic consequences born from sidewall bulge and contact patch parameters through the use of an innovative rotating sidewall scanning technique, static contact patch measurements, five-hole pressure-probe wake measurements, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and load-cell drag measurements. A table of three-dimensional coordinates for the maximum and minimum deformation levels has been included in this paper to enable further CFD studies to be undertaken.

For longevity of tyre and moving ground plane, deformation levels are often fairly conservative in industrial and race team applications. The work presented here includes a full range of on-track axle heights, which far exceed those usually tested in the aforementioned settings and the aerodynamic consequences of under-deforming have been identified. It has been concluded that insufficient deformation of the tyre sidewalls leads to a significant overestimate in the width of the wake as well as the aerodynamic loads associated with it. As a result of this study, the most sensitive parameters of a deformable tyre relating to aerodynamic testing have been identified and summarised. For development of an F1 car, a compromise in tyre pressure is considered less detrimental to the downstream wake compared to providing insufficient deformation with an incorrect axle height.


Two tricyclic antidepressants, amitriptyline and imipramine, were evaluated for their in vitro cytogenetic effects in human lymphocyte cultures. Peripheral blood cultures from three normal healthy donors were set up for 72 hr for each of the drugs. The drugs were added at the start (72-hr exposure), 24 hr (48-hr exposure), and 48 hr (24-hr exposure) after initiation of the cultures. The concentrations evaluated at each exposure time were 50, 250, 1,000, and 10,000 ng/ml for amitriptyline and 25, 500, and 5,000 ng/ml for imipramine. The first two concentrations correspond to the plasma levels of the respective drugs after therapeutic doses. All treatments for a donor were given at the same time. Untreated cultures served as controls for the baseline frequency of the parameters assayed. The parameters assayed were chromosome aberrations, mitotic index, and sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs). Amitriptyline was found to be nongenotoxic at plasma levels by all the parameters assayed. However, frequencies of chromosome aberrations and SCEs were significantly increased at concentrations 4 and 40 times the plasma level (1,000 and 10,000 ng/ml) although the actual increases was small. The mitotic index was not affected at any concentration. Through imipramine showed a significant increase in chromosome damage at the upper plasma level and at concentrations higher than that, SCE frequency was significantly increased only at concentration higher than the plasma level (5,000 ng/ml), the actual increase being small for both these parameters. The mitotic index was not affected at any concentration. These results suggest that amitriptyline may be a slightly safer drug than imipramine from a genetic point of view.


We consider optimization of hybrid imaging systems including a pupil mask for enhancing the depth of field and a digital deconvolution step. In a previous paper [Opt. Lett. 34, 2970 (2009)] we proposed an optimization criterion based on the signal-to-noise ratio of the restored image. We use this criterion in order to optimize different families of phase or amplitude masks and to compare them, on an objective basis, for different desired defocus ranges. We show that increasing the number of parameters of the masks allows one to obtain better performance.


Diabetes mellitus and estrogen deficit are known causes of osteopenia in animal models as well as in humans. In the present work, the combined effect of ovariectomy and diabetes was investigated. Diabetes was induced in ovary-intact and ovariectomized female Wistar rats with a single injection (50 mg/kg body weight, i.p.) of streptozotocin. The rats were administered insulin (I) daily or 17-beta estradiol (E2) on alternate days for a period of 35 days and sacrificed. Serum calcium (Ca2+), phosphorus (P), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), vertebral ALP, collagen, and glycosaminoglycans were estimated. The levels of serum Ca2+ and P increased in diabetic rats, but decreased after I or E2 treatments. Serum ALP and TRAP activity increased in the ovary-intact and ovariectomized diabetic rats. Vertebral ALP activity increased in ovariectomized diabetic rats, but decreased in diabetic rats, which were treated with I or E2. In the vertebrae, TRAP activity was elevated as a result of diabetes, but this was prevented by insulin or estradiol. Diabetes induced a decrease in total collagen in the vertebrae, while I or E2 treatment induced an increase. The levels of chondroitin sulphate and heparan sulphate decreased significantly in the vertebrae of both ovary-intact and ovariectomized diabetic rats, while hyaluronic acid increased. In conclusion, diabetes and ovariectomy each seem to affect the process of matrix formation and mineralization in the bone, and this is aggravated by the combination of diabetes and ovariectomy. The effects of I and E2 were similar, and both hormones reversed the changes brought about by diabetes.


This paper extends the prescribed-wake vortex lattice method (VLM) to perform aerodynamic analysis of dual-rotor wind turbines (DRWTs). A DRWT turbine consists of a large, primary rotor placed co-axially behind a smaller, secondary rotor. The additional vortex system introduced by the secondary rotor of a DRWT is modeled while taking into account the singularities that can occur when the trailing vortices from the secondary (upstream) rotor interact with the bound vortices of the main (downstream) rotor. Pseudo-steady assumption is invoked, and averaging over multiple relative rotor positions is performed to account for the primary and secondary rotors operating at different rotational velocities. The VLM solver is first validated against experiments and blade element momentum theory results for a conventional, single-rotor turbine. The solver is then verified for two DRWT designs against results from two computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods: (1) Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes CFD with an actuator disk representation of the turbine rotors and (2) large-eddy simulations with an actuator line model. Radial distributions of sectional torque force and angle of attack show reasonable agreement between the three methods. Results of parametric sweeps performed using VLM agree qualitatively with the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) CFD results demonstrating that the proposed VLM can be used to guide preliminary design of DRWTs.


New strategies including the blockade of TNFalpha showed excellent therapeutic effects even in so far refractory rheumatic diseases. Moreover, these approaches provided us with important informations about the pathogenic role of the mediators involved and distinct autoimmune cellular subsets. Here, we discuss recent data of a temporary B cell depletion using a monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody in the therapeutic arsenal of rheumatoid arthritis.


This paper proposes an empirical analysis of the sensitivity of Discrete Choice Model (DCM) to the size of the spatial units used as choice set (which relates to the well-known Modifiable Areal Unit Problem). Job's location choices in Brussels (Belgium) are used as the case study. DCMs are implemented within different Land Use and Transport Interactions (LUTI) models (UrbanSim, ILUTE) to forecast jobs or household location choices. Nevertheless, no studies have assessed their sensitivity to the size of the Basic Spatial Units (BSU) in an urban context. The results show significant differences in parameter estimates between BSUs. Assuming that new jobs are distributed among the study area proportionally to the utility level predicted by the DCM for each BSU (as in a LUTI model), it is also demonstrated that the spatial distribution of these new jobs varies with the size of the BSUs. These findings mean that the scale of the BSU used in the model can influence the output of a LUTI model relying on DCM to forecast location choices of agents and, therefore, have important operational implications for land-use planning.


Using grounded theory, I examined the experience of women and their families of prescribed activity restriction during pregnancy for treatment of preterm labor. The major finding in this study suggests that women and their families see themselves as "doing the best we can" as they attempt to balance the demands of activity restriction and the needs of individuals and the family. Invariably, maternal activity restriction resulted in increased emotional distress and, in some cases, family disruption. Those who succeeded in establishing a balance between these competing demands saw themselves as "doing okay" and found the emotional distress and family disruption to be manageable. In contrast, those who had difficulty balancing competing demands described themselves as "on the edge" and experienced uncomfortable levels of emotional distress and, occasionally, significant disruptions to the family. Conditions associated with these two modes of functioning, as well as consequences of this experience for women and their families, are identified.


Background Canakinumab, a human anti-IL-1β monoclonal antibody, has been licensed for the treatment of cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS), while few reports have shown benefit in patients with refractory familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). However, clinical experience regarding long-term administration of canakinumab in rare autoinflammatory syndromes, such as FMF, has not been described to date1,2. Objectives To report the long-term efficacy and safety of canakinumab in two adults with chronic arthritis associated with mutations in the MEFV gene, refractory to conventional treatments. Methods Two patients with refractory chronic autoinflammatory arthritis were treated with canakinumab for a total of 42 and 24 months, respectively. The first patient (P1) was a 25 year-old female, homozygous for the MEFV M694V mutation, suffering from typical FMF with additional severe destructive arthritis of both hips and the left knee. Her arthritis had been resistant to colchicine, prednisolone, methotrexate and etanercept, while anakinra elicited severe injection site reactions2. The second patient (P2) was a 26 year-old female, with clinical characteristics shared between CAPS and FMF, homozygous for the R202Q mutation in MEFV. She suffered from chronic inflammatory polyarthritis resistant to colchicine and glucocorticoids and, although she had initially responded to anakinra, the drug was discontinued due to hypersensitivity reactions. Background colchicine was maintained in both cases. Clinical assessments, VAS pain/morning stiffness of the affected joints, VAS global assessment and acute phase reactants (CRP, ESR) were recorded every 4 weeks. MRI of the affected joints were performed at baseline and after treatment initiation. Results In P1 canakinumab was administered at a dose of 150 mg at weeks 0, 8, 14, 20 and every 4 weeks thereafter. The dose interval was shortened aiming to keep the patient symptom-free for the whole inter-dose interval. In P2 canakinumab was administered at a dose of 150 mg/8 weeks. Both patients soon experienced a significant improvement of the articular symptoms and remained in clinical remission during the rest of treatment. Neither patient experienced any systemic inflammatory attack during the treatment period. Further, canakinumab produced a normalization of acute phase reactants in P2 and moderate reductions in P1. In P1 follow-up MRI demonstrated focal areas of bone marrow edema, thickened synovium and chronic subchondral degenerative changes, which, however, remained stable over the 3-year period. In P2 complete radiological remission was evident on MRI. In both patients, canakinumab treatment allowed colchicine reduction to a minimal dosage. Overall, canakinumab was well tolerated and no adverse events were noted. Conclusions Our report suggests that canakinumab is effective and safe in patients with difficult to treat chronic autoinflammatory arthritis. These observations encourage the conduct of prospective clinical trials of canakinumab in FMF. References Soriano A, et al. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2013;45:117. Mitroulis I, et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2011;70:1347. Disclosure of Interest : None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.2249


An optical access network should offer low-cost reliable services to its end users. To address this problem, an optimal solution is needed which can turn an optical access architecture into a self-healing system. Hence, we propose the Self-Healing Optical Access Network (SHOAN), in which two or more optical access architectures are partners of each other, and they are interconnected by elementary optical crossbar switches into a simple mesh network. In SHOAN, the crossbar switches can keep each access architecture as an independent and closed system for only serving its own end users in normal state. But the crossbars become open in fault scenarios. Whenever a failure occurs in the network, the fault can be monitored and affected services can be recovered by the partner of the access architecture that is affected. Such an interconnected optical access network can withstand failures in its transmission paths, and recover network services in a self-healing way. Compared to existing solutions (e.g., dual-home architecture), illustrative examples demonstrate that SHOAN has many desirable properties: (1) it is robust because risks are disjointed, (2) it is reliable because service recovery is given top priority, and (3) it has low cost because redundant backup components are not necessary since the partner's resources act as backup resources. Analysis results show that SHOAN can minimize disruption duration and network cost for broadband access services.


Peritoneovenous shunting has been successfully employed for several years in the treatment of severe ascites resistant to medical therapy. Many short and long term complications of this procedure have been documented, including thrombotic events and consumptive coagulopathy. Reported below is the finding of a single, continuous thrombus extending from the right atrium to the distal pulmonary arterial tree, a novel complication of peritoneovenous shunting with multiple possible causes.


Thinning is indispensable for the sustainable development and naturalization of forest plantations. In order to reveal the effect of different thinning intensities on the natural regeneration of a plantation of Pinus canariensis, we fol- lowed for two years the density of seedlings, saplings of 1 year, saplings of 1-2 years and saplings of > 2 years in plots at different thinning intensities (control, 20 and 50%). Our analysis revealed that seedling density and density of saplings > 2 years were higher in plots thinned by 50% of their total basal area, whereas the other categories were significantly more abundant in control plots. These results suggest an important impact of light in the germination of seedlings, while a more covered canopy will increase the probability of establishment of saplings 1 and 1-2 years old. However, for saplings > 2 years, the lack of space found in control plots largely determined their low abundance. We suggest that canopy openness should be much larger than is provided by the currently applied treatments, offering at least a 40-50% open canopy for a few years (it should ensure that trees around the gap are unable to close the canopy with their branches). As our results show, germination in 50% thinned plots is high, but high mortality is also expected, with probably no more than 5% of the individuals remaining after 3 years.


In this conceptual replication and extension of Rosenhan's study of civil rights activists, the sustained altruism (i.e., help that extends over time) of volunteers at a telephone crisis-counseling agency was examined. Using a prospective format, it was predicted that volunteers with a socialization history of exposure to nurturant parents who modeled altruism (autonomous altruists) would exhibit a greater degree of sustained altruism than those with a history of less nurturant parents who modeled altruism to a lesser degree (normative altruists). The altruism of the normative volunteers, however, was expected to increase given certain situational conditions (here, participation in a highly cohesive training group prior to the actual volunteer activity). As predicted, the rate of sustained altruism of normative volunteers in highly cohesive groups was increased to a level comparable to that of autonomous volunteers, while the altruism of autonomous volunteers was not affected by the training group experience. The implications of these findings for research on altruism and its development, as well as some applications to volunteerism, are discussed.


An amperometric biosensor for glucose based on a novel polymeric matrix is described. The sensor was prepared by electrochemical polymerization of p-aminophenol in the presence of glucose oxidase on Pt substrates in a KCl solution at a potential of 0.6 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). The chronoamperometric response of poly(p-aminopheno1)-glucose oxidase biosensor to hydrogen peroxide formed as the result of enzymatic reaction was measured at a potential of 0.7 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) in PBS solution. It was shown that a biosensor prepared by this one- step procedure has a linear range up to 6mM glucose, a response time less than 5 s and a lifetime around 15 days. The sensitivity of the electrode was superior to that of much publicized polypyrrole based glucose oxidase electrode. Also, the substrate selectivity of PAP/GOx electrode was tested for coexisting substances such as lactose, sucrose, urea, paracetamol, uric and ascorbic acid and no discernible anodic response was observed above the background current.


An orthotopic penetrating keratoplasty model was developed in the rat. An oversized (0.5 mm) graft was used and 8 interrupted sutures were applied. These sutures were not removed. Eleven grafts out of 13 were rejected by the 3rd week in the disparate group (Brown Norway rat to Lewis rat transplantation group), which was characterized by edema, opacity, and neovascularization. All grafts remained clear in the syngeneic group (Lewis rat to Lewis rat transplantation group). Immunohistochemical examination was performed. This model seems to be a reliable and reproducible one to evaluate rejection reaction in corneal transplantation.


In Brazil, the learning of a second language (L2) by native Brazilian Portuguese speakers has been extensively explored, but studies on language processing and language interaction among bilinguals are quite recent. The late bilingualism of the first-generation immigrants has been studied mainly from the perspective of their difficulties in learning Brazilian Portuguese. Brazil has numerous communities of heritage speakers of many languages such as Japanese, German, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian. However, the number of studies that focus on the bilingual speech of heritage speakers in Brazil is also quite limited. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the working memory in Russian-Brazilian Portuguese bilinguals as a function of the language and type of bilingualism. For this purpose, 49 first-generation Russophone immigrants and 28 older Russian heritage speakers, all residing in Brazil, were tested in Russian and Portuguese using a Month-Ordering task. We found that the working memory scores of the first-generation Russophone immigrants were not statistically different between both languages, but the median working memory score of the older Russian heritage speakers in Russian was 1.5-fold lower than in Portuguese. As next steps, we plan to verify the relation between the working memory capacity and narrative production abilities of the older Russian heritage-Brazilian Portuguese bilinguals in their heritage and societal languages.


Polyphenols are plant secondary metabolites with diverse biological and potential therapeutic activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer, among others. However, their extraction from the native plants is not enough to satisfy the increasing demand for this type of compounds. The development of microbial cell factories to effectively produce polyphenols may represent the most attractive solution to overcome this limitation and produce high amounts of these bioactive molecules. With the advances in the synthetic biology field, the development of efficient microbial cell factories has become easier, largely due to the development of the molecular biology techniques and by the identification of novel isoenzymes in plants or simpler organisms to construct the heterologous pathways. Furthermore, efforts have been made to make the process more profitable through improvements in the host chassis. In this review, advances in the production of polyphenols by genetically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae as well as by synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches to improve the production of these compounds at industrial settings are discussed.


Maintaining cyber security is a complex task, utilizing many levels of network information along with an array of technology. Current practices for combating cyber attacks typically use Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) to passively detect and block multi-stage attacks. Because of the speed and force at which a new type of cyber attack can occur, automated detection and response is becoming an apparent necessity. Anomaly-based detection systems, such as statistical-based or clustering algorithms, attempt to address this by analyzing the relative differences in network and host activity. Signature-based IDS systems are typically more accurate for known attacks, but require time and resources for an analyst to update the signature database. This work hypothesizes that the latency from zero-day attack to signature creation can be shortened via anomaly-based algorithms. In particular, the summarizing ability of clustering is leveraged and examined in its applicability of signature creation. This work first investigates a modified density-based clustering algorithm as an IDS, with its strengths and weaknesses identified. Being able to separate malicious from normal activity, the modified algorithm is then applied in a supervised way to signature creation. Lessons learned from the supervised signature creation are then leveraged for the development of unsupervised real-time signature classification. Automating signature creation and classification via clustering turns out satisfactory but with limitations. Density supports for new signatures via clustering can be diluted and lead to misclassification.


A mechanistic model is developed to predict the corrosion rate caused by CO2, H2S, organic acids and/or O2. The aim of this model was to provide the corrosion community with a theoretically sound, simple and effective corrosion model for internal corrosion of mild steel lines. This model is available in the open literature and can be easily accessed on the internet. All the background information, including theories behind, data used for calibration, limitations, etc. is shared with users. In addition, the source code of the model, which has been written in object-oriented fashion, is open to the public to encourage utilization of any individual modules and development of add-on modules by third parties. The main features of this model include: prediction of uniform corrosion rate by CO2, H2S, organic acids and/or O2, simulation of iron carbonate film and iron sulfide film growth, identification of major corrosive species by quantifying respective contributions from various species, capability of distinguishing CO2/ H2S dominant corrosion processes, display and manipulation of polarization curves for CO2 dominant processes, or display of H2S concentration profile as a function of distance from steel surface for H2S dominant processes, capability of modifying the corrosion calculation process by adding user-defined reactions or excluding any undesired reactions.


Summary The IEEE 802.16 provides wireless broadband access for Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN). Due to support for mobility and high bandwidth, it has captured everyone's attention. Cost of the deploying IEEE 802.16 equipment is high, so, it is vital that the network is simulated before deployment. This paper presents the design of 802.16 MAC simulator which implements true frame format, with TDM / TDMA and TDD. QoS and Admission control is also simulated by designing Bandwidth and Service Flow Managers. Simulation topology for a typical wireless network is also presented.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Brain metastasis affects an estimated 10% of cancer patients with metastatic disease, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in these patients. The most common primary tumors causing brain metastasis are adenocarcinoma of the lung or breast. While recent studies have demonstrated the genetic basis of such metastases, the molecular cause(s) of brain metastases remains largely elusive. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) has been shown to control various cellular functions and regulates the immune response. STAT3 is activated in various aggressive carcinomas. We hypothesize that STAT3 may play a role in metastatic brain tumors. Metastatic brain tumors were analyzed for expression of activated STAT3Tyr705 by immunohistochemical analysis. Gene expression profiling (17,000 gene chip) was performed in metastatic tumor samples, and STAT3 regulated genes were evaluated. Functional analysis such as cell motility and proliferation were investigated by chemotactic migration and MTT assay, respectively. The results of this study showed that a significant number of metastatic tumors to brain (75%) demonstrated nuclear expression of pSTAT3Tyr705. A significant number of these tumors also expressed mutant-p53 and activated MAPK. Gene expression analysis demonstrated that 32 STAT3-associated genes were significantly altered. Upregulated genes included stathmin-1 and stathmin-like 3 that control mictotubule dynamics in migrating cells and are associated with STAT3-related migration. The upregulation of stathmin-like 3 (also called SCG10-like-protein or SCLIP) also interacts with STAT3 in the maintenance of cellular dynamics involved in cell-cell attachment. The gp130-related interleukin 6 signal transducer gene, which is generally involved in STAT3-dependent glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) induction during nerve regeneration, was inhibited. The suppression of STAT3-regulated gene oncostatin M receptor, which regulates metastasis, was observed. Furthermore, protein inhibitor of activated STAT3 (PIAS3), that suppresses activated STAT3 levels, was downregulated. Functional analysis revealed that cell proliferation of breast cancer cells (MCF7 cells) was enhanced in an astrocytic environment. Chemotactic analysis showed that breast cancer cells migrated toward astrocytic media. In addition, co-culture analysis demonstrated that astrocytes and tumor cells have an affinity for each other and make genuine cell-cell contact. These results indicate that STAT3 activation plays a significant role in brain metastasis by itself as well as by altering downstream target genes that regulate various cellular functions. Furthermore, the astrocytic milieu promotes the metastatic potential of tumor cells. Therefore, the activation of STAT3 promotes metastasis to brain, and may serve as a target for therapeutic intervention.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3399.


The complex and rugged potential energy landscape has made protein structure prediction a challenging task in computational biology. Here, we propose an efficient protein structure prediction method combining both template-based and template-free methods. Specifically, the initial protein conformations can be built by a non-redundant protein database and random sampling method with constraints of the secondary structure of the proteins. Three different structure evolution methods including improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, random perturbation and fragment substitution are employed to update the protein structures while keeping the secondary structures the same. The present method is benchmarked on several known protein structures with distinct folding patterns, including α proteins, β proteins and αβ proteins. The high success rate and the accuracy of the results demonstrate the reliability of this method.


Beliefs and preferences drive investors' trading and risk-taking behavior, but what shapes their beliefs and preferences? Using a unique combination of brokerage records and matching monthly survey measurements, we examine how individual investors update their beliefs (return expectations and risk perceptions) and preferences (risk tolerance) in response to individual return and risk experiences. Past returns positively impact return expectations and risk tolerance, and negatively impact risk perceptions. Realized risk, however, does not impact investor beliefs and preferences. Investors' lack of awareness of realized risk is related to the complexity of standard risk measures, sophistication, and potentially the salience of return signals.


This paper introduces the class ofmean de ned supermodular games. The characteristic feature of these games is that, given an order on the strategy sets of the players, the payo to each player depends on his own strategy and the average of the population play. We characterise the set of the Nash equilibria and analyse their dynamic properties under payo monotonic selection dynamics. Weak Nash equilibria, both in pure and mixed strategies, are unstable. The only asymptotically stable equilibria of the game are symmetric strict equilibria where each player uses the same strategy. We show that the strategies that do not survive the process of iterated deletion of strictly dominated strategies vanish in the long run. As a corollary to this latter result, we show that if the game is dominance solvable then the dynamics converges from any initial interior state.


Two new end-capped sexithiophene derivatives (10a and 10b) have been synthesised and characterised by absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and UV-vis spectroelectrochemistry. Both oligomers undergo two reversible, sequential oxidation processes (10a: E1½
 =
 +0.61 V, E2½
 =
 +0.97 V; 10b: E1½
 =
 +0.70 V, E2½
 =
 +0.91 V vs. Ag/AgCl) and the electronic band gaps of the materials are ca. 2.2 eV (solid state). Sexithiophene 10a has been incorporated as an electron donor material, with C60 as acceptor, in a bilayer photovoltaic device. The power conversion efficiency is a modest 0.12%, whilst the maximum IPCE at 350 nm gave an external quantum efficiency of ca. 12%.


This essay examines Kuroda Toshio,s analysis of the concept of shinkoku (land of the kami) as it evolved in medieval Japan, and the part this con cept played in the development of a state ideology. Kuroda showed that the shinkoku discourse developed within the exo-esoteric system (kenmitsu taisei),the dominant politico-religious ethos of the times, as a reactionary ide ology employed against new tendencies and movements in medieval Japanese society that were potentially disruptive for the ruling regime. This discourse eventually came to constitute the basic conceptual paradigm for reactionary ideology and politics in Ja/ban until the present day.


Abstract : In 2015, the U.S. Army developed a vision to win in a complex world called the Army Human Dimension Strategy (AHDS). The AHDS elevates the importance of optimizing individuals and teams as a hedge against the future world challenges (2015). While the AHDS applies to all warfighting functions, this thesis investigates the Human Dimension Strategy transformation efforts applied to the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence (USAICOE) as the enterprise within the larger Human Dimension Enterprise (HDE). The ability of the HDE to provide optimized human performance depends on the interaction and alignment of numerous stakeholders across three levels enterprise, organization, and individual. The HDE is a system of systems that requires a systems approach for investigating the transformation of the HDE. The authors intent is to capture key insights for implementing the AHDS. The research methodology includes a literature review, case study, and a systems approach using architecting innovative enterprise strategy (ARIES), systems architecture heuristics, and systems requirements. The research analyzes the interfaces of the enterprise boundaries such as the Individuals, Instructors, Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate (CDID), and Centers of Excellence (COE) [IICCE]. By focusing on these key interfaces, the HDE will be able to streamline the value creation and capture more value. A systems approach provides a more holistic understanding of the AHDS. The human dimension strategy objectives are achievable with the alignment of the enterprise goals, system level requirements, organizational programs, and individual stakeholder needs. The research recommends that the AHDS transformation leverage the synergies with three existing Army programs - Performance Triad (P3), Center for Enhanced Program (CEP), and Tactical Human Optimization, Rapid Rehabilitation, and Reconditioning (THOR3).


Abstract The modelling of the heat conduction in electrical cables is a complex mathematical problem. To get a quantitative description of the thermo‐electrical characteristics in the electrical cables, one requires a mathematical model for it. It must involve the different physical phenomena occurring in the electrical cables, i.e. heat conduction, convection and radiation effects, description of heat sources due to current transitions. Since the space in mobile systems is limited and weight is always reduced, wire conductor sizes must be kept as small as possible. Thus the main aim is to determine optimal conductor cross‐sections for long standing loads. In this paper we develop and validate a set of mathematical models and numerical algorithms for the heat transfer simulation in cable bundles. The numerical algorithms are targeted to the two‐dimensional transient heat transfer mathematical models. Finally, a validation procedure for the coefficient validation of the differential equations is carried ou...


Review of cases and of published reports of patients with bilateral Wilms' tumor revealed a significantly higher mortality rate in those who had received a renal transplant than in those who had not. The increased mortality is attributed to overwhelming sepsis resulting from chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunosuppression. Growth of the tumor did not appear to be accelerated by immunosuppression and transplantation.


Volume I tells you how to perform bioassays for plant and insect hormones, regulators, and pathogens. Moreover, it presents extensive tables that provide the information you need to select the most appropriate bioassay for a particular plant growth regulator or hormone. In addition to the chapters on bioassays, Volume I provides a solid introduction to the theory and practice of natural pesticide use, including in-depth discussions of integrated management systems for weed and pest control, k the state-oof-the-oart use of computers in pest management, and allelo-chemicals as natural protection. Guidelines on toxicological testing and EPA regulation of natural pesticides are also detailed.


This article is the latest in a series that deals with psychological factors connected with obesity and its management in women members of the TOPS ("Take Off Pounds Sensibly") organization. Successful weight losers have MMPI profiles that differ from those of non-losers, and both show "normalization" of MMPI profiles and improvement in weight control after 16 weeks of group therapy. The present investigation attempted to assess the effectiveness of different types of nonprofessional "therapy" (the interactions of members at local TOPS chapter meetings) in helping members to achieve greater weight control. Nineteen TOPS chapter meetings were rated on 18 scales descriptive of member interaction, leader behavior, stress on nutrition, exercise, psychological factors in weight control, group and individual attitudes toward each other and toward the TOPS organization, and the like. Twelve of the 18 scales showed significant interjudge reliability, and for 10 chapters on which complete data were available (N = 108) 5 of these 12 scales significantly differentiated relatively successful from unsuccessful chapters. Those 5 were "attitudinal" or "interactional" variables such as emotional concern and enthusiasm rather than "content" or "procedural" variables such as emphasis on diet or exercise or reinforcement procedures.


To have a large impact, bleeding-edge mass market standards must do two things: diffuse widely and provide new functionality. Curiously, however, although these standards are often built from advanced technologies, they cannot deploy on a wide scale without building upon other widely deployed routines or less-advanced processes. A new standard's ultimate impact is often uncertain at the time of deployment for numerous reasons. Technical constraints or simple lack of imagination, for example, might prevent participants from designing a perfect standard at the outset.


During the ICIS 2018 conference, in San Francisco, two interesting panels addressed themes related to the recurrent debate within the IS domain about the relevance of IS research. One panel - Seeking Public Intellectuals in the Information Systems Discipline: Towards an Impact and Engagement Agenda - discussed the influence (or lack of) of the IS research community on public policies and on public opinion in what concerns problems that affect the society. The other panel - the Senior Scholar Panel - focused on the relationship between IS research and IS professional practice. The perception, by IS academics, that IS research is of little relevance for IS practitioners was addressed once more. These are two different dimensions of the relevance of IS research. Both are important to a pivotal domain in the modern society that creates scholarly knowledge crucial to understanding, influencing and leading the transformations that society is undergoing. Those dimensions are also critical if IS seeks to become a "vibrant, socially relevant and influential" domain as recently mentioned by Hassam and Mathiassen [1]. This article focuses on the relationship between IS research and IS professional practice. I share the view of those that consider that the IS domain encompasses both, an academic facet and a practical facet. The two facets are interdependent and demand forms of collaboration between academics and practitioners that are only perceptible within an overarching view of scientific knowledge and of its production and use. This article aims at proposing such a view. A main feature of the proposed view is that it involves distinguishing among different types of scientific knowledge and different modes of doing research. In particular, it involves emphasizing a form of research that is overlooked in IS - clinical research. Insights from the medicine domain are used to illustrate the place of clinical research and its role in connecting researchers and practitioners.


Cerebral palsy (CP) is a condition where children have problem controlling their movement, body position and coordination as a result of either retarded development or damage in the brain. Since the disorder is usually caused by a trauma to the brain, the speech function is often damaged as well. Additional problems in communicating can come from the inability to motion or communicate using the body language. Speech is a human express orally through a series of complex movements that alter the basic tone created by voice. So, CP's speech is a rare and unique from the normal human because of the error of connections between the cortex and other parts of the brain such as the cerebellum. Normal human feels really hard to understand the CP's speech when they communicate each other. Technology is one of the solutions that can help the CP's speech problem by creating software that can convert the speech or voice to the text.


We present calculations of magnetic potential functions associated with the perturbation of Saturn's planetary magnetic field by a rotating, equatorially situated disc of plasma. Such structures are central to the dynamics of the rapidly rotating magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter. They are 'fed' internally by sources of plasma from moons such as Enceladus (Saturn) and Io (Jupiter). For these models, we use a scaled form of Caudal's Euler potentials for the Jovian magnetodisc field. In this formalism, the magnetic field is assumed to be azimuthally symmetric about the planet's axis of rotation, and plasma temperature is constant along a field line. We perturb the dipole potential ('homogeneous' solution) by using simplified distributions of plasma pressure and angular velocity for both planets, based on observations by the Cassini (Saturn) and Voyager (Jupiter) spacecraft. Our results quantify the degree of radial 'stretching' exerted on the dipolar field lines through the plasma's rotational motion and pressure. A simplified version of the field model, the 'homogeneous disc', can be used to easily estimate the distance of transition in the outer magnetosphere between pressure-dominated and centrifugally dominated disc structure. We comment on the degree of equatorial confinement as represented by the scaleheight associated with disc ions of varying mass and temperature. For the case of Saturn, we identify the principal forces which contribute to the magnetodisc current and make comparisons between the field structure predicted by the model and magnetic field measurements from the Cassini spacecraft. For the case of Jupiter, we reproduce Caudal's original calculation in order to validate our model implementation. We also show that compared to Saturn, where plasma pressure gradient is, on average, weaker than centrifugal force, the outer plasma disc of Jupiter is clearly a pressure-dominated structure.


Four ecotypes of Eragrostis curvula, namely, Cape Province 5, Ermelo, Pearston 204 and Makwassie 150 were evaluated in a grazing trial with sheep, at three stocking rates, during two growing seasons. Under conditions of very lenient utilization, where the animals could select freely, the animals on Cape Province 5 had significantly higher mass gains than on any one of the other ecotypes. The sheep on Pearston 204, on the other hand, showed higher live mass gains, although these were not significant, under conditions of more intensive utilization. There were no significant differences in the dry matter production and chemical composition of the clipped samples of the ecotypes. Keywords: afrikaans; chemical composition; dry matter production; ecotypes; eragrostis curvula; grazing; live mass; live mass gains; open rotational grazing system; production; sheep; south africa; stocking rates; university of pretoria; utilization


Objectives : Anti-obesity drugs that have been developed so far have limited efficacies and considerable adverse effects affecting tolerability and safety. Therefore, most anti-obesity durgs have been withdrawn. We tried to develop anti-obesity agent by combinations from herbs that are used in food ingredients as well as in traditional medicines. Methods : The 80% (v/v) ethanol extracts from Bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescence) leaf (BL) and Scutellaria baicalensis (SB) and their 1:1 combination (BLSB) was evaluated on high fat diet induced obese mice compared to Omega-3 as a positive control. The mice were divided into six groups (n=5), one group fed a normal diet (ND), and the others fed a high fat diets for eight weeks. Two weeks after starting feeding the diets, the high fat diet groups were orally administered vehicle and Omega-3, BL, SB, and BLSB at dosage of 200 mg/kg/day for six weeks. All groups were assayed for body weights, food efficiency ratio, blood biochemistry parameters, and organic tissue weights. Results : BLSB group showed significant reductions in body weight gain and fat weights of liver and epididymal adipose tissue compared to BL or SB alone as well as control. Total-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels significantly decreased, and HDL-cholesterol level increased. In liver tissue, macrovesicular steaotisis was remarkably improved and its fat cell size was also significantly decreased. Conclusions : These results suggested that a combination preparation of bamboo leaf and S. baicalensis has anti-obesity effect and have synergistic effect compared to bamboo leaf or S. baicalesis.


Treatment of the N-unsubstituted 3-methyl-1H-1, 2-thieno[2, 3-c]diazepine (3) with ethyl chloroformate, acetyl chloride, or benzoyl chloride in benzene resulted in ring-conversion to give the corresponding 3-acyl-3H-1, 3-thieno[2, 3-d]diazepines (4), whereas similar treatment of the N-substituted thieno[2, 3-c]diazepine (6) gave the exo-methylene compound (7) and treatment of the fully unsubstituted thieno[2, 3-c]diazepine (8) gave the thieno[2, 3-b]pyridine derivatives (9) and (10). On the other hand, the N-unsubstituted 3-methyl-1H-1, 2-benzo[c]diazepines (16), upon treatment with ethyl chloroformate in benzene, gave the exo-methylene compounds (17), and in the case of the diazepines (16b, c) having an electron-donating group in the 7-position, the 3-acyl-3H-1, 3-benzo[d]diazepines (19) were also formed. The mechanisms of these acylations are discussed.


The cell wall of mycobacteria contains mycobacteria-specific long-chain fatty acids, called mycolic acids, and mycolic acid-containing glycolipids. This highly hydrophobic structure of the cell wall of mycobacteria is critical not only for their acid-fast properties but also for their resistance to a variety of chemical attacks from the host cells, supporting their ability to survive for years within the host. On the other hand, the host T cells are capable of recognizing these critical lipid components of the cell wall of mycobacteria, such as glucose monomycolates, that are captured by group 1 CD1 molecules. These T cells are able to eliminate mycobacteria-infected cells. This opens the possibility for a new type of lipid-based vaccines against tuberculosis.


This paper presents three-dimensional numerical simulation of thermomechanical constitutive model for shape memory polymers. Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are a class of smart materials with high potential for application to automotive, aerostructures, and medical devices, which can benefit from its intrinsic shape changing properties. In particular, looking at its application to aerospace substructure such as morphing wings, thermomechanical behavior of the SMPs needs to be well established and predicted.In order to predict the thermomechanical behavior of SMPs structures, a one-dimensional rheological thermomechanical constitutive model was adopted and a numerical simulation of this model was developed using a commercial finite element analysis package ABAQUS. The particular one-dimensional model was selected due to its potential to represent the key material behaviors of SMP with a relatively low number of required material constants, which is practical for engineering industrial applications. The model was expanded to a three-dimensional isotropic model and then incorporated into the finite element method by means of an ABAQUS user-defined subroutine (UMAT). The methods of three-dimensional expansion and numerical implementation are presented in this work. A time evolution of the analysis was conducted by making use of the backward difference method, which was applied to all quantities within the model including the material properties. A comparison of the numerical simulation results was carried out with the available experimental data.Numerical simulation results clearly exhibit the thermomechanical properties of the material, which include shape fixity, shape recovery, and recovery stress. Finally, a preliminary set of predictions for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) morphing wing skin are also presented.© 2013 ASME


Visfatin responses to exercise training have previously been reported which has adipocytokine exerting insulin-mimicking effects. This study evaluated the effect of eight weeks aerobic exercise on visfatin level in non-athletic young women, Southern Iran. Thirty non-athletic young women were randomly divided into two equal groups. Group 1 performed 8 weeks aerobic exercise on a fixed bicycle 3 times per week with an intensity of 60% in the first week for a period of 20 minutes. Two minutes were added ach week to the activity and the intensity increased 5% each two weeks to reach 75% of previous heart rate up to a period of 34 minutes. Visfatin level was measured before and after exercise session. Plasma visfatin level significantly decreased from 18.515±14.61 to 15.98±14.53 ng/ml before and after exercise training protocol, respectively. In control group, the changes were from 18.040±4.267 to 18.023±3.782 ng/ml at 1 week and after 8 weeks, respectively. We found that st plasma visfatin level decreased after exercise training with weight loss suggesting that changes in visfati n concentration may be associated with beneficial effect of exercise. More studies seem necessary to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for the effects of exercise on plasma visfatin level.


Brittany appears to be an 'invisible nation', in as much the nationalist movement fails to establish a hegemonic representation of the Breton society as a nation in resistance against French nation building. This brief analysis of Breton historiography intends to show that two historiographical cycles (1830-1964 and from 1964 onwards) offer a contrasting narrative of the historicity of the Breton society. After a static and 'ontological' stage, the more recent conception of historical development is centred on a dynamic conception of the nation, highlighting the overlap of national and social issues in each historical phase. This 'refondation' contributes to a real inclusion of nationalism in the current Breton society but, too, nourishes severe polemics in the media around the history and historiography of the nationalist movement. Finally, the lately intervention of the scientific knowledge is welcomed: it helps to reframe these debates around significant facts, even if work is still needed to really understand the pending Breton paradox: a strong and recognised identity, which lacks any determinant political translation up to now.


Diasporic Arab writers substantially differ in how they represent aspects of contemporary Arabic culture(s) in their literary works and diasporic Arab women writers have represented Islam even more differently in their works. The study investigates how Islam is portrayed in the fiction of two diasporic Arab women writers, Leila Aboulela (b. 1964) and Mohja Kahf. (1967). General literary research has been conducted on these two writers and how they represent Islam in their writing; however, firstly, most of the conducted literature is about the veil and what it adds to Muslim women living in the West. Secondly, most of the previous research tackles each writer alone. Nevertheless, the current study is predominantly different as it shows how Islam is represented in both Aboulela's Minaret (2004) and Kahf's The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006) as a religion that provides an ethical pathway and empowers its adherents socially, politically and psychologically, thus lending purpose to one's life. It also fills the gap in discussing the works of two writers from different backgrounds and in different settings and contexts in one study.


Pain is a medical condition that interferes with normal human life and work and reduces human well-being worldwide. Human voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.7 (hNaV1.7) is a compelling target that plays a key role in human pain signaling. The 33-residue peptide μ-TRTX-Hhn2b (HNTX-I), a member of NaV-targeting spider toxin (NaSpTx) family 1, has shown negligible activity on mammalian voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs), including the hNaV1.7 channel. We engineered analogues of HNTX-I based on sequence conservation in NaSpTx family 1. Substitution of Asn for Ser at position 23 or Asp for His at position 26 conferred potent activity against hNaV1.7. Moreover, multiple site mutations combined together afforded improvements in potency. Ultimately, we generated an analogue E1G–N23S–D26H–L32W with >300-fold improved potency compared with wild-type HNTX-I on hNaV1.7 (IC50 0.036± 0.007 μM). Structural simulation suggested that the charged surface and the hydrophobic surface of the modified peptide are responsible for binding affinity to the hNaV1.7 channel, while variable residues may determine pharmacological specificity. Therefore, this study provides a profile for drug design targeting the hNaV1.7 channel.


OBJECTIVE
(i) To assess the efficacy of bronchodilators in wheeze associated respiratory tract infection (WRTI); and (ii) To compare L-adrenaline with salbutamol in wheeze associated respiratory tract infection.

DESIGN
Randomized controlled trial.

METHOD
Ninety one children in age group of 2 months to 2 years with their 1st or 2nd episode of wheezing in association with fever and/or coryza were enrolled. Of these, 45 received L-adrenaline (0.1ml/kg/dose in 1 in 10,000 solution) (Group A) and 46 received salbutamol (0.1mg/kg/dose) (Group B). Three doses of each drug were given, nebulized with oxygen at 20 minutes intervals. Respiratory rate, RDAI score, clinical status and pulse oxymetry was recorded before intervention and 10 minutes after each dose. Patients who showed significant relief were discharged after an observation period of three hours while those who did not were admitted.

RESULTS
Both L-adrenaline and salbutamol caused significant improvement in mean symptom score and oxygenation. However, the adrenaline group showed a significantly better improvement in the study parameters than the salbutamol group. More children in the adrenaline group could be sent home after the emergency treatment.

CONCLUSION
Adrenergic agonists both specific and non specific are beneficial in WRTI. Adrenaline is more effective than salbutamol and is thus a better, inexpensive and relatively safe alternative.


Consumer protection against resellers infringing intellectual property (IP) is not guaranteed based on Consumer Protection Act No. 8 of 1999 because it is argued that it is already regulated under IP laws, such as patent, trademark, and copyright laws, prohibiting the production or sale of products infringing IP law. However, because the nature of IP is to protect private rights, how can trademarks protect consumers? This paper analyzes trademark theories and the Trademarks Act No. 20 of 2016 to establish whether trademarks protect consumers. This research concludes that most scholars use utilitarian and economic theories, supporting that trademarks protect consumers by balancing the trademark holder's economic right with the interests of the public as consumers. However, Trademarks Act No. 20 provides very limited protection with only legal, philosophical arguments. Further protection is limited to simply safeguarding consumers from being misled or deceived by stipulation that a potential trademark is distinctive and not registered in bad faith. It neither provides any legal instrument for consumers injured or having suffered any loss nor allows consumers to report counterfeit goods or be reimbursed for loss or injury from buying those goods. Therefore, protecting customers is not the Indonesian trademark law's primary objective.


In the thoracic muscles of Homarus vulgaris and •Palinurus vulgaris the presence of receptor elements of various kinds has been recorded. Muscle receptor organs belonging to the same category as described previously in the abdomen have been found in the two posterior (7th and 8th) thoracic segments. Like those in the six abdominal segments they are linked with the system of the extensor muscles. The topography and the structure of these organs have been described. The byssus threads, periostracum, hinge and ground substance of the shell and the supporting material of the gills of Mytilus edulis were examined by physical, chemical and histochemical means. The byssus threads, periostracum and hinge were shown to consist of a quinone-tanned protein. The byssus threads are formed in the posterior groove of the foot from the secre-tions of two glands, the ' white' gland which supplies the bulk of the protein of the thread and the ' purple' gland which supplies the aromatic material responsible for the tanning. The periostracum is secreted by gland cells in the epithelium of the outer lobe of the mantle edge. The supporting material of the gills is a fibrous protein without quinone-tanning. This protein is in some respects similar to the untanned protein of the byssus.


We studied the changes in central lenticular thickness in 40 porcine corneal specimens subjected to refractive modification on the "Hamburg Refractive Bench." The changes in thickness attempted were +0.1 mm (group 1), +0.2 mm (group 2), -0.15 mm (group 3), and -0.25 mm (group 4). The lenticular thickness was determined by ultrasound in nine positions. When the intended changes in central corneal thickness were compared with the actual changes, the findings were +0.1047 in group 1, +0.169 in group 2, -0.1047 in group 3, and -0.2185 in group 4. We conclude that minor modifications in lenticular thickness can be achieved with high precision, but for large corrections in the hyperopic direction, only 85% of the desired changes can be accomplished.


High-speed I/O circuits, once used only for PHYs, are now widely used for intra-system signaling as well because of their bandwidth, power, area, and cost advantages. This technology enables chips with over 1 Tb/s of I/O bandwidth today and over 10 Tb/s of bandwidth by 2010 as both signaling rates and number of high-speed I/Os increase with process scaling. Key technologies that enable this growth in I/O performance include low-jitter clock circuits and equalized signaling. An analysis of clock jitter and channel interference suggests that signaling rates should track transistor performance to rates of at least 40 Gb/s over boards, back-planes, and short-distance cables.


Src, a non-receptor type of tyrosine, was recently reported to modulate multiple signaling pathways in human tumors. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the expression and distribution of Src on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The expressions of total Src (t-Src) and an active form of Src [phosphorylated (p-) Y416Src] were analyzed in 52 northern Chinese patients with HCC using immunohistochemistry. The positive expression rates of t-Src and p-Y416Src in HCC tissue were 65.38 and 42.30%, respectively, which is significantly higher than that in adjacent non-tumor tissue (30.76 and 13.46%; P<0.001 and P=0.010, respectively). The staining intensity of t-Src and p-Y416Src were also significantly higher in HCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues (P<0.001 and P=0.023, respectively). t-Src expression was positively and significantly correlated with tumor stage (P=0.002), cellular differentiation (P=0.007), metastasis (P=0.030) and the expression level of CA19-9 (P=0.016), while p-Y416Src expression was only significantly correlated with tumor stage (P=0.010). The expression of t-Src and p-Y416Src were also investigated using immunocytochemistry in two HCC cell lines with different metastatic potentials (MHCC97-L and HCCLM3) that are derived from a single HCC patient. Consistently, the expression of t-Src and p-Y416Src were stronger in the cells with higher metastatic potential compared with those exhibiting lower metastatic potential. Taken together, the current data indicate that Src expression is elevated and active in Chinese patients with HCC and that t-Src may have a key role in promoting HCC metastasis.


This paper investigates the on-line validation of streaming XML documents with respect to a DTD, under memory constraints. We rst consider validation using constant memory, formalized by a nite-state automaton (fsa). We examine two avors of the problem, depending on whether or not the XML document is assumed to be well-formed. The main results of the paper provide conditions on the DTDs under which validation of either avor can be done using an fsa. For DTDs that cannot be validated by an fsa, we investigate two alternatives. The rst relaxes the constant memory requirement by allowing a stack bounded in the depth of the XML document, while maintaining the deterministic, one-pass requirement. The second approach consists in re ning the DTD to provide additional information that allows validation by an fsa.


We studied the levamisole toxic effects in adjuvant therapy for colorectal cancer. The therapy toxic effects on 127 patients were statistically more important in the levamisole-treated group compared to patients treated with folinic acid and 5-fluorouracil alone. Randomized studies in progress will demonstrate the real therapeutic value of levamisole.


Despite the diversity of mesocarnivores and the broad geographic ranges of these species, our understanding of their behaviour and ecology at multi-species and community levels is limited. Our study was conducted between April and mid-July 2015 and used data collected over 105 days from 39 camera traps to quantify activity patterns of sympatric mesocarnivores in riparian and grassland habitats of Telperion Nature Reserve, South Africa. A total of 13 mesocarnivore species were detected within this relatively small (∼7350 ha) reserve. Sufficient records (≥10 records) were obtained for rusty-spotted genet (Genetta maculata), black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), otter species (African clawless otter, Aonyx capensis, and spotted-necked otter, Hydrictis maculicollis), serval (Leptailurus serval ), slender mongoose (Galerella sanguinea), yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata) and marsh mongoose (Atilax paludinosus). Generalized linear models were used to investigate whether species ID, temperature, vegetation characteristics or moon phase best predicted temporal activity. To assess which species had the highest potential for competitive interaction, we also quantified the coefficient of activity overlap. Our results show that species ID and temperature were the best predictors of mesocarnivore activity. Slender and yellow mongooses displayed the highest coefficient of activity overlap (0.90), followed by marsh mongoose and rusty-spotted genet (0.80), and serval and rusty-spotted genet (0.79). These species are likely to have the highest potential for competitive interactions, but preferences for different vegetation characteristics and variations in the estimated relative abundance may point to coexistence through spatial and fine-scale temporal partitioning. The other species exhibited lower coefficients of activity overlap with each other, suggesting they may coexist through temporal partitioning of resources.


The ensemble Kalman filter method can be used as an iterative particle numerical scheme for state dynamics estimation and control-to-observable identification problems. In applications it may be required to enforce the solution to satisfy equality constraints on the control space. In this work we deal with this problem from a constrained optimization point of view, deriving corresponding optimality conditions. Continuous limits, in time and in the number of particles, allows us to study properties of the method. We illustrate the performance of the method by using test inverse problems from the literature.


In the original paper of W.T. Qian and C.C.H. Ma (ibid., vol. 37, p. 132-7, 1992), a variable structure sliding mode controller (VSSMC) design for the tip position control of a flexible one-link manipulator has been presented, where a switching line constructed from the tip position and its derivative was employed for the design. The claim was that if the slope of this line is chosen positive and the system variables are made to stay on this line, they will converge to zero exponentially, thus yielding a stable system in sliding mode (SM). The purpose of this comment is to show that the choice of a positive constant as the slope for this switching line will not guarantee the stability of the system in SM because, in view of the functional relationship of the tip position with the generalized coordinates of the system through the mode shape functions, what is presented as a switching line is in fact a switching hypersurface. Hence, the stability of the system in SM is guaranteed only if the motion on this hypersurface is asymptotically stable. A positive value for the slope of the switching line employed by Qian and Ma will not guarantee this stability because variations in the mode shape functions due to varying payload conditions or other disturbances at the tip will lead to a varying switching surface. These variations can be such that the resulting sliding motion becomes unstable. Also, the varying switching surface implies that the controller will fail to maintain sliding mode motion.


The complex nature of bone material results in a locational variation of fracture and mechanical properties. The heterogeneity associated with bone material and complex hierarchical assembly results in several toughening mechanisms, such as plasticity, micro-cracking, viscoplasticity, etc. These toughening mechanisms and presence of water in bone material makes the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) inapplicable in such materials. The present work is focused on the elastic-plastic fracture mechanics (EPFM) approach to estimate the locational variation in fracture properties of buffalo cortical bone for longitudinal, as well as transverse orientation of cracking. Samples from upper, middle, and lower locations of bone diaphysis were tested using compact tension and single-edge notch-bending testing methods for longitudinal and transverse orientation of cracking, respectively. The crack-tip opening displacement (CTOD) approach was applied to determine fracture properties, such as CTOD toughness (δc), J integral (Jcδ), and equivalent fracture toughness (Kδc) at different locations of bone diaphysis. The effect of orientation and location on mechanical properties of cortical bone, such as elastic modulus (E) and yield strength (σys), was also analyzed with the help of tensile testing. The equivalent fracture toughness values (Kδc) obtained in the present work were found to be three times higher than the corresponding values reported in the previous reports where the LEFM approach was applied favoring the application of EPFM for bone materials. The mechanical properties, as well as the fracture properties, were found to be maximum at middle location and minimum at lower location of bone diaphysis. The locational variation in fracture and mechanical properties observed in the present work are considered to be because of locational distribution of collagen fibrils, minerals, porosity, and density at different locations of bone diaphysis.


The aim of this article is to describe the evolution of different concepts of the human body according to machine, automaton, engine, robot and cyborg models.


Background: Several epidemiological studies have focused on the association between polymorphisms in toll-like receptors (TLRs) and asthma. However, the results remained inconclusive. Methods: We systematically reviewed the database of PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CNKI, and Google scholar for all related articles on TLR polymorphisms and asthma. We used the software STATA 12.0 to conduct the meta-analysis. The heterogeneity and publication bias were examined, respectively. Results: Eighteen studies consisting of 3538 asthma cases and 4090 controls were selected into the meta-analysis. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) show that rs3804099 was associated with asthma in dominant model (OR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.17–1.96, P = .002), and rs4986791 was associated with asthma in additive model (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.64–1.02, P = .07) and dominant model (OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.60–0.97, P = .025). Conclusion: The combined results show that rs3804099 in TLR2 and rs4986791 in TLR4 were significantly associated with asthma risk. Polymorphisms in TLRs play important roles in asthma.


Aim: To evaluate the increase of pharyngeal airway space (PAS) in patients undergoing mandibular advancement. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed in thirteen patients who underwent mandibular advancement and were evaluated by cephalometric tracing in pre and postoperative lateral radiographs. In cephalometric tracing, the PAS was assessed by measuring the distance from the lower portion of the soft palate to the posterior pharyngeal wall (UP-PHW) and from the tongue base to the posterior pharyngeal wall (TB-PHW). Results: Patients' age ranged from 22 to 42 years with an average of 28.54 ± 2.23 years. A preoperative mean of 9.20 ± 4.56 mm in the UP-PHW measure and 10.53 ± 5.84 mm in the TB-PHW measure were obtained. The mean values found for those measurements in the postoperative period were 11.61 mm and 13.95 mm, respectively. There was an average increase of 2.4 mm in the UP-PHW and of 2.95 mm in the TB-PHW. The mean mandibular advancement in evaluated patients was 5 mm. There was no statistical correlation between PAS increase and the amount of mandibular advancement for UP-PHW (p=0.058) and TB-PHW (p=0.53), as there was no such correlation either between PAS increase and the age of patients for UP-PHW (p=0.16) and TB-PHW (p=0.26). A greater effect of the retrolingual dimension in mandibular advancement was observed, with an average increase of 24.52% while in the retropalatal dimension an average increase of 20.75% was obtained. Conclusions: Surgical advancement of the mandible increases the size of the pharyngeal airway space.


Spinal injury is one of the most devastating traumas that can be sustained in a motor vehicle crash. In passenger car crashes, the most common injuries related to the spine is whiplash injury or Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD); however, the injury was relatively unknown in Malaysia. This study explored the possibility of elucidating whiplash injury locally by studying the insurance claims made by passenger car occupants involved in traffic crashes. The objectives of the study were to investigate the prevalence and to identify the injury pattern of the spine and whiplash injury. The data were collected retrospectively from closed files of the Third-Party Bodily Injury (TPBI) insurance claims database for the year 2013-2015. Each occupants' injuries were extracted from the medical report and were classified according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). A total of 500 cases of passenger car crashes were obtained from the insurance database and out of the total occupants involved, 866 injured occupants were included in the analysis. The results demonstrated that spine injuries have very low occurrence in Malaysia relative to other injury types, and whiplash-specific injuries are even rarer among passenger car crash victims in Malaysia. The most common vertebra level to be affected was the cervical spine, especially the C5-C6 vertebra, and this can be seen mostly for the drivers and front passengers. The low occurrence of spine injury is comparable to other countries, but the rare whiplash injury may indicate the 'whiplash culture' is not prevalent in Malaysia.


If the operator can not approach the teaching position of the wafer transfer any provides a control method for teaching the robot it can become conveying system and a transfer robot for. In the transfer robot system comprising a mounting portion robot controller 9 that controls the robot 1 and the robot (1) for transporting objects having a mounting for an object representing a thin shape, is mounted on the robotic placement section image pickup jig 3 and the image processing unit 8 for processing the image picked up by the imaging means 4, the robot controller 9 and the image processing unit top control part for controlling (8) from the top with means (4) and a 10.


Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adults is associated with a poor prognosis, with many patients suffering from treatment-resistant relapse. Novel targeted therapies are needed. Immune Receptor Expressed by Myeloid Cells (IREM-1), a member of the CD300L gene family, is an inhibitory receptor expressed by myeloid cells. We have generated monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) specific for IREM-1, characterized IREM-1 expression in AML blasts and explored the therapeutic potential of these antibodies in AML. Methods: mAbs were generated against the extracellular domain of IREM-1. Fresh peripheral blood or bone marrow cells from AML patients, healthy donors, or cell lines OCI-AML-2 (IREM-1+) and K562 (IREM-1−) were used for expression studies by flow cytometry (FC) with FITC-conjugated mAbs. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was carried out on Tissue Microarrays (TMAs) of normal human tissues. mAbs were evaluated for their ability to induce lysis in Complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) assays against cell lines in vitro and AML patient cells ex vivo. Results: By IHC, normal tissues lacked expression of IREM-1, with the exception of spleen and tonsil. However, using FC, expression of IREM-1 was demonstrated on monocytes, granulocytes and dendritic cells, but not on lymphocytes and platelets. FC of AML blasts showed that 18/24 (75%) cases expressed IREM-1 (range: 23.8–93.2%). The 6 negative cases of IREM-1 include 2 AML cases of inv (16) (p13q22). IREM-1 was not detectable in acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) blasts (n=5). CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells of control bone marrows were largely negative (n=7), only one case shown low level expression. Functionally, anti-IREM-1 antibodies mediated CDC in OCI-AML-2, while no effect was seen in IREM-1 negative K562 cells. Human embryonic kidney 293 cells only became susceptible to anti-IREM-1 antibody mediated killing after transfection with IREM-1. Furthermore, an anti-IREM-1 mAb showed dose-dependent CDC activity in all IREM-1+ AML cases tested (n=4), while no CDC activity was observed against IREM-1− AML cases (n=3) and ALL blasts (n=3). Conclusion: Our study identifies IREM-1 as a novel cell surface antigen expressed in majority of AML blasts. We have generated mAbs that are capable of mediating CDC activity against AML blasts. Currently we are testing the killing activity of anti-IREM-1 chimeric Ab and undertaking mouse xenograft model to evaluate the therapeutic impact of this target in vivo, which would offer opportunities for therapeutic intervention.


Notes on the GSW function gsw_SP_from_R  Notes updated 27th February 2011  This function calculates Practical Salinity (SP) from the conductivity ratio (R) at given values of in situ temperature ( C  , ITS‐90) and pressure (sea pressure, dbar ) using the algorithm of the Practical Salinity Scale of 1978 (PSS‐78, (Unesco (1981, 1983))). The dimensionless conductivity ratio, R, is equal to the conductivity C divided by the present best estimate of C(SP=35, t_68=15, p=0) which is 42.9140 mS/cm (=4.29140 S/m), (Culkin and Smith, 1980). Note that Practical Salinity is defined by PSS‐78 only in the range P 2 42. S   For values of Practical Salinity less than 2, Millero et al. (2008) and IOC et al. (2010) outline the following method for estimating the Practical Salinity of a seawater sample. First Absolute Salinity is measured (via a direct measurement of density) and also Absolute Salinity Anomaly is estimated so that the Reference Salinity can be calculated from


Multiple clinical studies have shown that interstitial photodynamic therapy (I-PDT) is a promising modality in the treatment of locally-advanced cancerous tumors. However, the utilization of I-PDT has been limited to several centers. The objective of this focused review is to highlight the different approaches employed to administer I-PDT with photosensitizers that are either approved or in clinical studies for the treatment of prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, head and neck cancer, and brain cancer. Our review suggests that I-PDT is a promising treatment in patients with large-volume or thick tumors. Image-based treatment planning and real-time dosimetry are required to optimize and further advance the utilization of I-PDT. In addition, pre- and post-imaging using computed tomography (CT) with contrast may be utilized to assess the response.


The 25 March 1990 (Mw = 7.0) subduction megathrust earthquake that occurred offshore the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, produced a large number of aftershocks on the subduction plate interface as expected and preceded an unusual sequence of earthquakes 75 km inland that had two periods of significant increase, one at 60–90 days and one near 270 days, following the main shock. This inland sequence of events would not typically fall within the classification of aftershocks given their spatial and temporal distance, and we show here that this sequence was likely triggered by the 25 March main shock. We compute stress changes on representative faults within this inland region using both a simple half‐space model as well as with a 2‐D finite element model that incorporates variable rheologic properties. The half‐space model predicts a minor increase in Coulomb stress changes and a large amount of unclamping in this region, likely enough to cause triggering on the inland right‐lateral strike‐slip faults. Models that include a viscoelastic response also indicate stress increases that may link to triggering, particularly related to the time delay. Earthquakes on the subduction zone thrust along Costa Rica should be considered in hazard assessments for the inland populated region as several sets of strike‐slip faults have been mapped in the fore‐arc region.


Synthetic or artificial speech has been developed steadily during the last decades. Especially, the intelligibility has reached an adequate level for most applications, especially for communication impaired people. This thesis is concerned with the development of deployable text to speech (TTS) systems for Indian languages. The research described here was conducted with two principle aims: To build stable, scalable and unrestricted synthesis systems for Indian languages; and to design such systems by (a) making observations about the structure of the data and (b) keeping the human in loop so that we end up with systems both acceptable and efficient. In order to do that, I first present a baseline synthesis system for Indian languages built employing unit selection and concatenation as the algorithm and syllables as the basic unit with reduced vowel epenthesis based backoff to handle the missing units. During synthesis, the required utterance specified as a string of syllables help in the selection of appropriate units from the stored database. The system uses word to phone mapping to handle the words from a different language (English) and the selected units are concatenated using a variant of Waveform Similarity Overlap Addition (WSOLA) based method. Two extensions to the system are discussed. • Inspired by the smoothness of the speech obtained after the backend concatenation algorithm, a method is presented to exploit the signal correlation as a join cost in the viterbi algorithm itself with an aim to further improve the naturalness of the system. Two variants of signal similarity are examined cross correlation based and average magnitude difference function based. • Modeling the prosodic characteristics is an important trait for a text to speech system. Deep generative models which are the standard today benefit from a low dimensional continuous input rather than an array of 1-hot k encoding for the phonemes as is used today. A method has been discussed to obtain continuous representation for the phonemes using a matrix factorization approach and show that the representation can be used to model prosody, by predicting the phoneme durations. The system can be retrained in 6 hours on the same languages and should take approximately the same amount of time for any new language.


Quality and efficiency of credit appraisal play a key role in the overall credit risk management framework of banks by addressing the troika of adverse selection, exposure risk, and default risk. Traditional approaches for credit appraisal primarily use techniques of financial statement analysis for assessment of the creditworthiness of potential borrowers. However, such analysis fails to provide a 360-degree view of the potential borrower and therefore, requires the implementation of better, incisive, and comprehensive methods. Use of balanced scorecard in credit appraisal expands the horizon of analysis and provides a holistic view about the risk, repayment capacity, and future prospects of the potential borrower.


SUMMARY: The wall of basidiomycetous and related yeasts showed a lamellar structure in sections of both budding cells and hyphae fixed with potassium permanganate. The yeasts also had a typical way of bud formation and septation. These features differ from those recorded for ascomycetous yeasts. In the hyphae of some species septal pores were observed which were either dolipores or simple pores.


This paper explores product liability law as a driver of food safety measures in firms. Its purpose is to widen the debate on liability law to include discussion of the actual impact on firm behaviour. Liability law is assumed to promote food safety. The author distinguishes three ways in which liability law could act as an incentive for firms to implement enhanced food safety controls: liability claims, liability insurance and direct effects of liability law on management strategy. The paper concludes that the assumption that liability laws make firms sensitive to the prevention of food safety risks is too optimistic. However, liability law could stimulate a culture within firms to take responsibility for food safety. Existing economic and legal analysis would gain from a sociological analysis of the actual impact of liability on company decisions.


Suicide is the major cause of premature death in patients with schizophrenia. Among these patients, 40% report suicidal thoughts, 20% to 40% make unsuccessful suicide attempts, and 9% to 13% end their lives by suicide. Traditional antipsychotic drugs undertreat many schizophrenic patients and can produce serious side effects, such as tardive dyskinesia. Clozapine is the only antipsychotic drug that has been shown in controlled clinical trials to be effective in reducing both positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenic patients who fail to respond to typical neuroleptic drugs. The potential decrease in suicide among schizophrenic patients treated with clozapine is estimated to be as high as 85%. Treatment with clozapine is cost-effective, and the significant decrease in the risk of suicide far outweighs the very low risk of mortality from agranulocytosis. Clozapine should be considered for treatment of both neuroleptic-resistant and neuroleptic-responsive schizophrenic patients who have persistent suicidal thoughts or behavior.


Access to sustainable, affordable and secure energy is one of the major Australian strategic priorities to maintain and improve the health of Australians, sustain economic growth, and to mitigate climate change. Australia is investing in clean, efficient, reliable energy systems to secure a prosperous and, environmentally sustainable future. In addition, exploring the options to ensure energy security by diversification of energy sources is an important aspect for securing stability in meeting and delivering the future energy requirements of different industry sectors. This paper discusses options to manage the production of electricity in Australia using available Australian resources while maintaining international competitiveness.


Despite the increasing evidence about the inappropriate use of medications by older people, there is very little published evidence about the control and monitoring of neuroleptic drugs used in nursing homes. As others have indicated, this is all the more worrying when set in the context of the paucity of research on nursing home care and the trend to replace registered nurses with untrained care assistants. In the United States, legislation in the form of the Nursing Home Reform Act (OBRA 1987) was introduced, in part, to regulate the prescribing and administration of neuroleptic (antipsychotic) drugs. No such legislation exists in Canada or the United Kingdom. In the case of the latter jurisdiction, the recent Royal Commission on Long‐Term Care for older people (The Stationery Office, 1999) has recommended a national care commission to monitor care, and set assessment and quality benchmarks. In Canada this debate has not even begun, and the purpose of this paper is not to ignite controversy, but to raise questions about the use of these drugs with nursing home residents. Voluntary guidelines and education of physicians, nurses and care attendants would be infinitely better than legislation. In the meantime, we need research to address the following questions: For what reasons should these drugs be given to older people? Are these drugs being used appropriately? Is the risk of side‐effects too great with these drugs? Are the numbers and type of staff employed in nursing homes adequate/qualified to detect and report side‐effects? How well do these drugs manage the behaviours they are given to control? Are they being used as chemical restraints or to make the older person compliant? Are the so‐called 'atypical' neuroleptic drugs any better? What we offer in this article is background information that might encourage others to not only review their practice but also to address these questions.