Cultural landscapes are appreciated for the plethora of ecosystem services that they provide to society. They are, however, subject to rapid and fundamental transformations across Europe, mainly as a result of intensification or abandonment of land uses. Our objective is to assess the possible future drivers of cultural landscape changes and their likely impacts on ecosystem services provision as perceived by local actors. We present stakeholder-based scenarios for the Swabian Alb, a biosphere reserve in southern Germany, projected to the yr 2040. On their basis, we explore the possibilities and limitations of local civil engagement for landscape conservation and development in the face of increasing global influences. The steps of the process are (a) identifying the key driving forces of landscape change, (b) developing contrasting narratives about alternative landscape futures, (c) refining the narratives, (d) discussing scenario impacts, and (e) exploring local management strategies. Four contrasting scenarios created by the stakeholders are presented. Global-level drivers are state support/regulations vs. free- market economy, and energy-intensive lifestyles vs. low-energy economy. Local-level forces are high vs. low consumer demand for localized food, and high vs. low appreciation of local cultural landscapes. Outcomes show that cultural landscape development may come to a crossroads over the next 30 yrs, with either combined land abandonment and landscape industrialization scenarios or multifunctional, locally distinct landscape futures being possible. The scenario narratives envision that the most powerful way to develop and protect distinct landscapes is to foster local people's links to cultural landscapes, to build social capital around them, and to direct consumption patterns toward localized food production. We find that participatory scenario processes have strengths in terms of the credibility, transferability, and confirmability of the insights gained, but are often weak in ensuring dependability.


Incubation with endothelin (Endo) caused a time- and concentration-dependent increase in both ouabain-sensitive (OS) and ouabain-insensitive (OI) 86Rb+ uptake [half-maximal effective concentration (EC50) for OS component = 11 nM] in the rabbit aorta. Increase in the OS component [Na(+)-K(+)-adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activity] accounted for 70% of the 110% increase in total 86Rb+ uptake at a maximally effective concentration of Endo (100 nM). Protein kinase C (PKC) activator phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate (PDBU; 100 nM) increased total 86Rb+ uptake by 69%, with 42% of the increase in the OS component. Stimulation by Endo and PDBU was not additive. Staurosporine (STA; 100 nM) inhibited stimulation of total 86Rb+ uptake by Endo and PDBU by approximately 60%. With ouabain and STA added together, inhibition of Endo-stimulated total 86Rb+ uptake (90%) was greater than with either agent alone, suggesting that STA inhibits an OS as well as an OI component of 86Rb+ uptake. Stimulation of total 86Rb+ uptake by both Endo and PDBU were also inhibited by approximately 60% by the Na(+)-H+ exchange inhibitor 5-(N-ethyl-N-isopropyl)amiloride (EIPA). Endo-stimulated total 86Rb+ uptake was not further inhibited when ouabain was added together with EIPA, suggesting that Na(+)-H+ exchange is primarily linked to the OS component of 86Rb+ uptake. In contrast, Na(+)-K(+)-Cl- cotransport inhibitor bumetanide inhibited increases in total 86Rb+ uptake caused by Endo (30%) and PDBU (56%) due solely to its effects on OI 86Rb+ uptake. Results suggest that Endo stimulates Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity in rabbit aorta by activating PKC and Na(+)-H+ exchange.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


SUMMARY To examine the effects of a wide range of sodium intake on plasma and urinary norepinephrine values in normal man, we studied 14 men at six levels of sodium intake from 10 to 1500 mEq/24 hrs. Mean blood pressure increased from 83.8 ± 1 (SEM) to 1003 ± 3 mm Hg, while cardiac index increased from 2.6 ± 0.1 to 3.6 ± 0 3 llters/min/m1 (p < 0.001). Upright venous plasma norepinephrine concentration decreased from 467 ± 6 3 to 67 ± 24 pg/ml, while urinary norepinephrine excretion decreased from 543 ± 3.4 to 23.4 ± 2.9 Mg/24 hrs. There was no effect of sodium intake on blood pressure responses to isometric hand-grip contraction. The urinary sodium excretion was inversely correlated with urinary norepinephrine excretion (r = − 0.46, p < 0.001). There was a significant inverse multiple correlation of mean blood pressure and plasma and urinary norepinephrine values (correlation coefficient = 0.72, p < 0.001). These results indicate that sodium homeostasis has a signiflcant effect on plasma and urinary norepinephrine values. Sympathetic nervous system activity appears to decrease with sodium loading in normal subjects. These responses may have facilitated the excretion of massive salt loads in normal subjects and may nave modulated the increases in blood pressure.


Plumbagin is an important therapeutic compound of Plumbago zeylanica L., the commercial demand of this compound warrants optimizing a suitable method to isolate plumbagin in large scale. The present study was undertaken to obtain the maximum recovery of plumbagin content by employing different extraction methods viz., ultra-assisted extraction (UAE), maceration extraction (ME), soxhlet extraction (SE), serial soxhlet extraction (SSE), and serial maceration extraction (SME) from plant parts of P. zeylanica. Plumbagin content of two different sources such as field grown and hardened in vitro regenerated plants were quantified using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). For in vitro cultures, 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and Kinetin (KIN) were used for multiple shoot induction from nodal segments of P. zeylanica. Maximum percentage of shoot induction was obtained on MS medium fortified with BAP (6.66 µM) from nodal segments exposed for 6 weeks. Further multiple shoot proliferation and elongation was achieved in MS medium with a combination of BAP (6.66 µM) and KIN (4.44 µM), with the maximum number of shoots (47.3±0.06) and shoot length (2.0±0.06 cm) per explant after 6 weeks of culture. The optimum root induction was observed on MS medium supplemented with 1.23-µM indole-3 butyric acid (IBA) which produced 10.02±0.2 mean roots with 6.2±0. 8 cm root length. Among the extraction methods, the SME method yielded maximum recovery (99.5%) of plumbagin as compared to others. In vitro leaf extract yielded high content of plumbagin (152.02 mg/g-1 DW) as compared to other plant parts (root 115.41 mg/g-1 dry weight; stem 98.02 mg/g-1 dry weight) whereas in vivo leaf, stem and root samples yielded 96.7, 38.59, and 86.35 mg/g DW of plumbagin, respectively. The present observation suggests that the SME was more efficient for obtaining the maximum recovery of plumbagin and it was confirmed with HPLC quantification. Among the field grown and in vitro regenerated plants, the in vitro culture shows more accumulation of plumbagin and is found suitable for commercial extraction.

 Key words: Micropropagation, cytokinin, serial maceration extraction (SME), optimization, methanol, quantification.


Aim: An urgent need for the development of antibiotics with novel structures and unexploited targets. Materials & methods: Racemic chuangxinmycin was obtained via a novel synthesis route. Chiral preparative chromatography was used to separate chuangxinmycin from its epimers, and four stereoisomers were obtained. Fourteen derivatives were synthesized and their antibacterial activities were evaluated against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Results: Synthesized (3S, 4R)-chuangxinmycin showed antibacterial activity against S. aureus with minimum inhibitory concentration of 4-8 μg/ml (17.2-34.3 μM), which were consistent with the antibacterial activity of chuangxinmycin obtained by fermentation. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of other stereoscopic chuangxinmycin species and chuangxinmycin derivatives were >128 μg/ml. Conclusion: Results indicate that the antibacterial activity of chuangxinmycin is dependent on the stereoselectivity of structures, and that the electron cloud density and amphipathic properties of chuangxinmycin have little effect on its antibacterial activity.


New clinical tools are needed for the diagnosis and prognosis of cerebrovascular diseases. Cerebrovascular Reactivity (CVR) is a potential marker for brain health and can be induced using stressors to the brain like high carbon dioxide (hypercapnia) challenges. These challenges can be used to map CVR. Dual-echo pseudocontinuous Arterial Spin Labelling (pCASL) and Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) weighted imaging was combined with sinusoidally modulated and conventional block hypercapnic challenges to map CVR. Preliminary results show qualtitative improvements to pCASL based CVR maps when using sinusoidal hypercapnic challenges compared with the conventional block.


In this chapter, we summarize current knowledge about the effects of fire, logging, and grazing on coniferous forest birds and their habitats. We critically review the results of studies evaluating how these individual factors influence bird numbers, species diversity, nesting success, and habitat use in ponderosa pine forests. Documented and potential interactions among fire, fire exclusion, logging, livestock grazing, and range management are discussed in relation to habitat structure, succession, and avian use. Finally, we outline some areas where further research is needed to better understand the effects of fire, logging, grazing, and their interactions on birds and their habitats in Southwestern ponderosa pine forests.


This paper empirically studies the sizes of agricultural trade costs and productivity variation in the agriculture sector. In a general Ricardian trade model, I identify these two factors as possible causes of the observed low trade intensity of agricultural goods. Using data on bilateral trade flows, prices of agricultural goods, and sectoral production from a sample of 46 countries, I estimate the variation of agricultural productivity as well as trade costs on agricultural and manufactured goods. I find that trade costs are substantial, with agricultural trade costs roughly twice as large as manufacturing trade costs. Moreover, consistent with the existing literature, I find that distance is the dominant part in the estimated trade costs. Lastly, relative to existing estimates of the heterogeneity of manufacturing productivity, the heterogeneity of agricultural productivity is large. These findings suggest that high trade costs are the main impediments to agricultural trade and that there exist large unrealized gains from trading agricultural goods.


In today lives, daily trips of house inhabitants to out is made using closed staircase spaces or lobbies. Lack of a place for neighbourly relation results in less recognition and in some cases there is no neighbourly and friendly relationship. Families and especially kids surrounded in-house space so, today kids have less mobility and cause to depression of inhabitants of apartment houses. In apartments and today houses because of economic function of construction, almost it is seen that yard use as parking or cars commute. This research attempts to recognize yard importance in current residential architect and try to discover yard effects on house inhabitants. To do so, a fieldwork is done and existence aspects of a yard from three perspectives, quality, function and environmental condition regulation, in some houses are investigated and using a comparison of results the most important reasons of the yard are introduced. Generally, these reasons are categorized in two axes: human tends to collective life and a deep relation of the human with nature.


In the course of evaluating a series of children in whom the primary diagnosis of pseudohypertrophic muscular dystrophy has been established, we have been impressed with the apparent fact that these children were functioning at intellectual levels significantly below those expected for normal children. Comprehensive psychological evaluations were performed by one of us (D. W. R.) as a part of our total evaluation of the patient in our Muscular Dystrophy Clinic. This Clinic, established at the Convalescent Hospital for Children in Cincinnati, serves patients with the established or suspected diagnosis of muscular dystrophy. The Clinic serves the area of southwest Ohio, adjacent areas of northern Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana. The majority of these patients are seen on an outpatient basis in our Clinic, but in individual cases they are admitted to the hospital for further evaluation and in some instances rehabilitative care. Review of Literature A review of the literature


ABSTRACT Online consumer reviews (OCRs) can function as a venue for digital collaboration among various stakeholders to better meet collaborate in consumer needs. The sheer volume of OCRs, however, has posed challenges to efficient search and navigation. Importantly, consumers' needs of product information may differ because of their different preferences in product features. Such differences remain underaddressed in the OCR literature. This research introduces a novel framework - Product feature based Personalized Review Ranking (P2R2), which predicts review helpfulness for individual consumers based on their preferences in product features using a latent class regression model. The framework also leverages the similarities among different consumers to derive consumer classes. An empirical evaluation of a prototype of P2R2 with a user study provides strong evidence that the review rankings produced by P2R2 are more similar to users' self-rankings than by a helpfulness vote based ranking method. The findings of this study offer theoretical insights, novel technical design artifacts, and empirical evidence for enhancing OCR platforms with review ranking personalization.


Artifacts and best practices reuse as a way of improving educational resources and easing and speeding up the authoring process have been an important theme since the earliest research efforts on Learning Objects (LOs). In such a context, authoring tools that allow teachers and tutors to create educational content without the need for advanced programming knowledge play an essential role. This paper presents the evolution of Cacuriá ---an authoring tool that supports the creation of interactive multimedia educational content for the Web and digital TV--- towards improved support for LOs reuse and analyzes the impact of the proposals as perceived by the users of the tool. The proposed evolution is based on previous work on reuse requirements and best practices on authoring LOs, which resulted in the inclusion of three new features on the tool: Layouts, Widgets, and Application Templates. Through these new resources, authors can build LOs by reusing resources created by other authors and reuse good practices, e.g., through previously validated pedagogical practices. The added functionalities were evaluated in a qualitative study with 11 teachers/tutors. The results of the study indicate that the participants believe that the new functionalities improved the creation of reusable LOs both in the creative aspect and in the reduction of the total development time.


In the course of the experiments undertaken by Professor Rutherford and myself to determine accurately the number of α-particles expelled from 1 gramme of radium, our attention was directed to a notable scattering of the α-particles in passing through matter. The effect of scattering is well known in the case of β -particles. A narrow pencil of β -rays emerges after passing through a metal plate as an ill-defined beam. A similar effect, but to a much smaller extent, was known to exist also for the α-particles. Professor Rutherford* showed that the image of a narrow slit produced by the α-rays on a photographic plate broadens out when the slit was covered with a thin sheet of mica, while a well-defined image was obtained in vacuum with the uncovered slit. The question of the actual existence of the scattering effect of the α-particles has been discussed further by Kucera and Masek,† by W. H. Bragg,‡ L. Meitner,§ and E. Meyer.|| Some experiments have been made, using the scintillation method to determine the magnitude of the scattering of the α-particles in passing through matter. The apparatus used is shown in fig. 1. The main part consists of a glass tube nearly 2 metres in length and of about 4 cm. diameter. The α-particles from a strong but small source placed at R passed through a narrow slit S and produced an image of this slit on a phosphorescent screen Z, which was cemented to the end of the glass tube. The breadth of the slit was 0.9 mm., and the breadth of the geometrical image on the screen was about 2 mm., depending upon the dimensions and the distance of the source. The numbers of scintillations at different points of the screen were counted directly by means of a suitable microscope M, of 50 times magnification. The area of the screen which could be seen through the microscope was about 1 mm.2 The number of scintillations counted varied between two or three a minute and about 80 per minute. As regards the microscope and the most convenient method to count thescintillations, the hints given by E. Regener* in his recent paper proved very useful. The microscope was mounted on a slide PP so that the scintillations produced at varying distances from the centre of the beam could be observed. The actual position of the microscope was read on a millimetre scale fixed to the slide.


This paper considers a hybrid evolutionaryalgebraic approach to the non-convex problem of designing low-order H ∞ optimal controllers. It is shown that using the closed-loop H ∞ norm as fitness measure in a population-based, evolutionary search does not require the computation of the H ∞ norm for each controller of the population. Instead, the fact that evolutionary algorithms assign fitness measures to individuals based on a ranking is exploited and a bisection approach is proposed that allows to trade accuracy that is not needed against computational efficiency without loosing information. Three design examples are used to illustrate the improvement in computational speed achieved with the proposed method.


The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of real earnings management on firm performance and the impact of corporate governance as an intervening variable in the relationship between real earnings management and firm performance. The object are companies include in Corporate Governance Perception Index during 2015-2019 and listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and analyzed by using path analysis method. Real earnings management has a significant effect on the firm performance. Furthermore, with corporate governance mechanism within the company, real earnings management significantly affect firm performance. This research is meaningful, but has limitations. The result cannot be generalizing because the sample only companies that listed in CGPI and IDX period 20152019. The research implication are as follows: top level management should be cautious about credit policy, cash flow from operation, discretionary expenditures, and production. Earnings management is one of variable that the most prevalent in recent studies but the proxy for earnings management in the recent studies used discretionary accrual. In this research, real earnings management is used to indicate earnings management which measured by abnormal cash flow from operation. Thus, it may provide some contribution to the literature.


The unprecedented severity of the Asian economic recession in Thailand came as a shock to the indigenous corporate sector. Businesses long habituated to record levels of growth were suddenly confronted with spiralling costs and declining sales. In response to this crisis a number of powerful Western corporations began 'downsizing' their Thai operations in order to boost profitability levels via the reduction of staff. Adopting a processual approach, this article seeks to explore the role of 'corporate' and 'national' cultures in the local employee reaction to these externally imposed directives. Drawing on years of participative experience, the author presents a rare internal case study tracing the initiation and progression of one revelatory programme of downsizing throughout its year-long phase of implementation. Initial findings point to the dangers of Western management underestimating the strength and resilience of indigenous Thai business culture. Implications for Western MNCs and future research are outlined, along with some tentative recommendations for practice.


This study empirically examined gamification as a new approach of getting performance from sales employees. It examined a sales man from the perspective of game player, thereby applying those factors that motivate a player to win a game such as points, the rewards, and achievement levels to get performance from salesmen. The sales performance we examined includes; customer, conversion ratio, referral rate, cancellation recovery rate and organizational profitability. The study was conducted on sales personnel of Nigeria Bottling Company Ltd South-West Region. The population of the study was 210 professional sales personnel of the company with the sample size of 138 using the Taro Yamane formula to determine the sample size. The simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed through test-re-test method. A pilot study was adopted to test the reliability of the instrument. Analysis of data was done through the use of SPSS. The study employed descriptive and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) type of inferential statistics to test the hypotheses. The study showed that earn point by salesman has positive impact on sales force performance. Also, sales achievement levels have significant impact on organizational performance. Based on these findings, the study therefore recommends that Nigeria Bottling Company should continue to use earn point and sales achievement levels as proxy to gamification which enhances sales performance, thereby improving the performance of the organization.


Snake fruit (Salacca zalacca) is one of the typical fruits from Indonesia. Pondoh is one of the snake fruit species largely found in Yogyakarta. The kernels of snake fruit are wastes, but contains a lot of cellulose. Cellulose can be processed into methyl cellulose And be used as food additive. This study aimed to understand the optimized the optimizing synthesis of methyl cellulose through the concentration of NaOH, dimethyl sulfate and reaction temperature. The study was conducted by extracting cellulose using 4 % NaOH concentrations. Dehemicellulose and bleaching were done to dilute hemicellulose and lignin. The optimization of methyl cellulose was done using Response Surface Methodology with various concentrations of NaOH (10, 15, 20, 25, 30%), dimethyl sulfate (2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ml), and temperature (45, 50, 55, 60, 65°C). NaOH could change cellulose crystalline region and formed Na-cellulose. Dimethyl sulfate can be acted as substitution agent, while temperature controlling plays role to obtain appropriate conditions for reaction. The results showed that the use of NaOH concentration, dimethyl sulfate and temperature affected the degree of substitution, OHC and lightness. The addition of NaOH and dimethyl sulfate in producing methyl cellulose had more effect on the increasing of degree of substitution than temperature treatment. The optimum condition of methyl cellulose were 0.91% NaOH; 3.52 ml of dimethyl sulfate, at 46.51°C temperature.


BackgroundCancer survivors show increased risk for non-communicable diseases and chronic low-grade inflammation characterizes the development of such diseases. We investigated inflammatory plasma protein profiles of survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in comparison to healthy controls and after an intervention with a home-based exercise program. ProcedureSurvivors of ALL aged 16-30 years (n=21) with a median time of 15.9 years from diagnosis, and sex- and age-matched healthy controls (n=21), were studied. Stored plasma samples were analyzed with Olink's 92-protein-wide Inflammation panel in 21 ALL long-term survivors at baseline, after a 16-week home-based exercise intervention (n=17) and in 21 age- and sex-matched controls at baseline. Protein expression levels were compared between the groups. ResultsInflammatory protein levels did not differ between the survivors and controls at baseline. Significantly reduced levels after the intervention were found in 11 proteins related to either vascular inflammation, insulin resistance, or both: TNFSF14, OSM, MCP-1, MCP-2, FGF-21, CCL4, TGF-alpha, TRAIL, ADA, CXCL6, and LAP TGF-beta-1. ConclusionsThe ALL survivors were not significantly more affected by inflammation than controls at baseline. The survivors' 16-week physical exercise intervention led to significant beneficial change in inflammation protein levels. Physical exercise should be promoted for survivors of cancer.


Antidiscrimination law and scholarship for a long time has been engaged in the debate over whether a discriminatory intent or disparate impact test best captures the type of discrimination the law should, or can, prohibit. In this article, I suggest that we move beyond this dichotomous debate and focus instead on how courts reason about discrimination cases brought under both the intent and impact doctrines. I identify a distinct pattern, or framework, in the way courts reason about discrimination in both types of cases that defies neat doctrinal labels. This reasoning process, which I short handedly refer to as causation, is at the heart of evidentiary structures in both intent and impact actions. Unfortunately, the reigning distinction between intentional and disparate impact discrimination, an increasingly blurry one, has obscured the more important focus on the element of causation which, in my view, constitutes the normative core of antidiscrimination law. Beyond illustrating this common causal element, a close examination of the causal reasoning processes in antidiscrimination law provides a window into understanding why, despite the existence of generous evidentiary mechanisms, intent and impact actions have ceased being a viable avenue of relief for discrimination plaintiffs. What this examination reveals is that courts in intent and impact actions share a common way of reasoning about discrimination and, in particular, the causal inquiry at the heart of discrimination claims. Both intent and impact causes of action are premised on a three-step process of causal inquiry: status inference, neutral explanation, and causal attribution. This three-step causal inquiry is itself based in, and reliant upon, two types of reasoning processes - counterfactual and contrastive thinking - that social scientists have found dominate causal determinations. These two reasoning processes not only permeate causal thinking, but are also shaped by various influences - normative expectations and cognitive biases, for example - that critically shape these reasoning processes and can have a determinative role on causal attributions. Informed by this research, I illustrate that the causal inquiry at the heart of evidentiary structures in both intent and impact actions has, over time, become vulnerable in two respects. First, the evidentiary structures employed to discern causation in intent and impact cases are deeply vulnerable to attribution mistakes that may occur as a result of unconscious stereotypes and cognitive biases that can distort the causal attribution judgments by legal fact finders. As others have written, unconscious biases and cognitive stereotypes account for much of modern day discrimination. Legal decision makers and fact finders not apt to detect these biases either in themselves or in others when evaluating discrimination claims. This article demonstrates how the same cognitive biases that give rise to discrimination in the society can also distort causal judgments about that discrimination. This danger is embedded in the evidentiary frameworks in both intent and impact cases, which allow the causal inquiry underlying discrimination claims to be determined by comparative reasoning exercises - i.e. explanations and analysis seeking to distinguish disparately treated and affected individuals and groups - that invite reliance on the very stereotypical categorization structures at the root of status discrimination. Many discrimination claims fail because courts are uneven at best, and often neglectful, in evaluating these explanations against existing antidiscrimination norms. But there is a deeper vulnerability in the evidentiary structure of antidiscrimination law that is more destabilizing to the causal inquiry which lies at its center. That is the erosion of certain normative presumptions that underlie evidentiary structures in intent and impact cases. The Court has rooted its evidentiary frameworks in a set of normative assumptions about the existence, operation, and prevalence of status discrimination in our society. Based on these assumptions, the Court has aided plaintiffs in establishing an inference of discrimination (or status influence) by employing a counterfactual heuristic that imagines what decision making processes and outcomes would look like in a world free of discrimination and deems deviations from those processes and outcomes as evidence of discrimination in a particular case. However, despite the formal retention of these evidentiary structures over time, there has been steady erosion of the normative assumptions underlying them. The erosion of these presumptions has had a correspondingly devastating impact on the ability of plaintiffs to prove status discrimination especially given the increasing distance from the worst and most overt forms of discrimination, the increasing subtle and structural nature of discrimination, and the shift in public attitudes about the existence of status bias. This analysis, then, calls into question the belief among civil rights advocates that survival of the disparate impact cause of action and the dismantling of the intent standard will preserve the civil rights gains of the past. While certainly these two steps would give the appearance of stemming the rollback of these gains, they would ultimately prove to be insufficient and unsatisfactory. Unless this understanding changes in the near future, courts will continue to be an inhospitable forum for discrimination victims and no amount of doctrinal reform will significantly alter the odds that the court will see the increasingly subtle and sophisticated nature of contemporary discrimination.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of water temperature and prey concentrations (Artemia nauplii) on the initial development of Lophiosilurus alexandri larvae. The experiment was conducted using a 4 x 2 factorial design, with four water temperatures (23, 26, 29 and 32 °C), two different initial prey concentrations (P700 and P1,300) and three replicates. Feeding was increased during the fifteen-day experiment. At the end of the experiment, the survival and condition factor were affected only by prey concentrations, with elevated numbers of Artemia nauplii leading to higher averages of these variables. The total length (TL) and specific growth rate were separately influenced by temperature and prey concentration, without interaction between them, and weight showed an interaction with these factors. In general, an increase of temperature (23 to 32 °C) improved the growth and nitrogen gain in L alexandri larvae. For TL, the optimal temperatures estimated were 31.4 and 31.0 °C for P700 and P1,300, respectively. Similar mean body weight larvae and nitrogen gain were observed at 23 °C for both levels of prey concentrations. For other temperatures, the P1,300 level provided greater weight gain for L. alexandri. Therefore, it is suggested that temperatures between 29-32 °C combined with a higher level of prey concentration maximise the development and nitrogen gain in L. alexandri larvae. Moreover, this is the first result about nitrogen incorporation in neotropical fish larvae.


Summary form only given. Important questions arise in the field of materials processing regarding the nature and extent of photochemical processes induced in the laser ablation of molecular substrates. These phenomena can affect the short and long-term integrity of the substrate and play a critical role to the success of applications including laser cleaning of coated surfaces as for example those of painted works of art.


The paper begins with a short historical account, which is very incomplete. For instance, BAcLEssE as well as the literature after 1938, seem to be unknown to the author. It is evident from a short chapter headed "Technik" that roentgenologic technique is something which is unfamiliar to the writer. Later on the normal lateral appearances of the larynx and its anatomic variations are discussed. The main part of the paper consists of short case reports on different pathologic conditions, illustrated by lateral views of the larynx. The illustrations are, as in most German books, very good. The author states: "Warum sich das Kehlkopfrontgenbild bei den Laryngologen doch nicht so durchgesetzt hat ..... lag einmal darin, dass man allein dem Rontgenologen das Feld uberliess ....." If one were to insist that laryngoscopic examinations must not be left to the laryngoscopists, but be performed by roentgenologists, the author would certainly object and rightfully so. This work is an illustration of the fact that in certain countries it appears that a clinician without knowledge of roentgen diagnosis is considered capable of publishing papers on roentgenologic subjects. E. Lindqren.


Alcaraz, PE, Abraldes, AJ, Ferragut, C, Rodríguez, N, Argudo, FM, and Vila, H. Throwing velocities, anthropometric characteristics, and efficacy indices of Women's European Water Polo Subchampions. J Strength Cond Res 25(11): 3051–3058, 2011—Water polo is a team sport characterized by a high-intensity, intermittent activity, where technical and tactical aspect are of a great importance. For that reason, the main aim of this study was to define the anthropometrical characteristics, maximum isometric grip strength, training and competition throwing velocities, and the efficacy indices in female high-level water polo players. A second purpose was to examine the differences between the throwing velocities in training vs. European championships in the water polo female national team. Ten elite trained female water polo players participated in this study. Before the competitive phase of their season, the following measures were taken: standard anthropometry, static and dynamic training throwing velocities, and hand-grip dynamometry. In the competitive phase, efficacy indices, average and maximum throwing velocities from all the participants were also determined. Significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were found between different training situations and different competitive throwing velocities. We concluded that elite female water polo players modify their throwing velocity depending if the throw is performed during training or competitive situation.


A simple HPLC-PAD-MS method was established to quantitatively analyse two spiroether isomers (cis-en-yn-dicycloether and trans-en-yn-dicycloether) and the main coumarin, herniarin, in chamomile herbs, simultaneously. By using this method, the contents of these three compounds in the flowers of two chamomile species, Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) and pineapple weed (Matricaria matricarioides), as well as in different parts of pineapple weed, were investigated. It was found that the flowers of both herbs contained large amounts of cis-en-yn-dicycloether and trans-en-yn-dicycloether, with the trans-form being more abundant than the cis-form. The leaves of pineapple weed were found to have the highest concentration of cis-en-yn-dicycloether and herniarin than the other parts. HPLC-PAD-MS-guided isolation and identification of other constituents are also discussed.


Numerical solution of many integral transforms using Gauss Legendre Quadrature rules mainly resulted in ill conditioned system of nonlinear equations. In some recent works in numerical improvement of integrals new nodes and weights are applied to improve the solution. The main problem in these approaches is still available, in this paper we use a new modified form of Gauss Legendre Quadrature rules and determine the nodes and weights such that minimize the error of integration. This determination reduces to a system of nonlinear equations with some irregular conditions due to the ill-conditioned matrices. We have presented an explicit solution to the fast calculation of inversion of the matrix. Finally, we compare the results with exact solutions to see the improvement.


Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 46, 2005

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Aim: Estrogen receptor alpha (ER) expression in random periareolar-fine needle aspiration (RPFNA) is being studied as a predictive biomarker for antihormonal treatment in cancer prevention trials. The intensity and specificity of ER immunostaining in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded human breast tissue is dependent upon the antigen retrieval and immunostaining protocol. Here we report an optimized method of ER immunostaining for use with thin layer preparations of modified Cytolyt-fixed benign breast tissue harvested by fine needle aspiration from women at high risk for development of breast cancer. Methods: Benign breast tissue cytology specimens obtained by RPFNA from high risk women (n=7 subjects) and MCF-7 cell line controls were fixed in modified Cytolyt (9 ml Cytolyt + 1 ml 10% neutral buffered formalin) and processed as thin layer preparations using a Cytyc 2000 platform. Cells were tested for effects of antibody titer, antigen retrieval temperature (90° or 115°C) and buffer (20% nuclear decloaker, pH 9.3 or 10mM citrate buffer, pH 6), blocking solution (0.01% glucose oxidase or 3% hydrogen peroxide) on ER immunostaining. Non-immune serum was used as negative control. The prevalence (%) of positively stained breast epithelial cells and the mean intensity of ER staining on a scale of 0-4 were evaluated by 3 independent observers blinded to sample identity and immunostaining protocol. Results: Benign breast cytology specimens and MCF-7 cells processed using alkaline nuclear decloaker and low temperature antigen retrieval had more immunopositive breast epithelial cells (p < 0.0001) and increased staining intensity (p < 0.05) compared to samples prepared with citrate buffer and high temperature antigen retrieval. Glucose oxidase resulted in a significantly greater percentage of immunopositive cells in comparison to hydrogen peroxide (p = 0.04) when combined with low temperature antigen retrieval and the use of nuclear decloaker. Staining was minimal (intensity < 1 on a scale of 0 to 4) for all negative controls regardless of protocol. Conclusions: The extent and intensity of ER immunostaining of benign breast cytology specimens obtained by random periareolar fine needle aspiration is dependent upon antigen retrieval and immunostaining protocol. The combined use of low temperature antigen retrieval, an alkaline nuclear decloaker and glucose oxidase is an optimal immunostaining protocol for ER.


It has been recently found that mice lacking IL-12 specific receptor subunit, namely IL-12Rβ2, developed more severe clinical and pathological signs of in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of human multiple sclerosis. However, whether this phenomenon is also true in other autoimmune disorders and the mechanism underlying this phenomenon is not known. We in the present study have shown that IL-12Rβ2-deficient mice also develop earlier and more severe disease in the streptozotocin-induced model of diabetes, indicating a universal susceptibility to autoimmune diseases in IL-12Rβ2-deficient mice. IL-12Rβ2-deficient mice exhibited significantly higher effector T cell proliferative responses not only to autoantigens, but also to non-specific stimuli. Compared to wild type mice, IL-12Rβ2-deficient mice exhibited significantly reduced capacity to develop regulatory T cells (Treg) in vivo in the thymus and in vitro upon stimulation with TGF-β. Further, naturally-occurring Treg cells from these mice were less functional in suppressing effector T cells. These findings indicated that signal via IL-12Rβ2 plays an essential in developing high quantity and quality of Treg cells, which confers a novel mechanism underlying the regulation of autoimmune diseases by the IL-12 pathway.


Currently, little is known regarding the prevalence and diversity of epiphytic yeasts on apples. Therefore, in this study we attempted to identify and characterize yeasts on apples for their potential cider-making performance. A total of 754 yeast strains were isolated from the skins of apples collected from eight provinces in the two main ecological regions of China, i.e., the Loess Plateau and Bo Hai Gulf regions. More than 71 species belonging to 24 genera were identified and Aureobasidium (A.) pullulans and Hanseniaspora (H.) uvarum were the most predominant yeast species. We did not observe any Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains on the associated apple samples. Correspondence analysis revealed the following connection between yeast genera and the provinces: Hanseniaspora in Shaanxi, Rhodotorula in Liaoning, Candida in Shandong, Aureobasidium in Shanxi and Pichia in Hebei. No dominant genera were observed in apples from Gansu, Henan and Ningxia. Although genetic differences among the 23 H. uvarum strains were identified, there was no clear link between the isolates as to origin, genotype and phenotype following RAPD-PCR analysis and some qualitative evaluation of the yeast biochemical activities.


Prevention of dental caries in children can be done with topical fluoride as well as pit and fissure sealant. Topical fluoride application followed by pit and fissure sealant is still controversial because it allegedly could impair the bond between pit and fissure sealant materials to the teeth, so that it can lead to microleakage. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of  5% NaF  and 1.23% APF  on microleakage of RMGIC and flowable composite as pit and fissure sealant materials. Thirty extracted premolars  were prepared and then divided into three groups: without topical fluoride, with application of  5% NaF  (Enamelast, USA), and with application of 1.23% APF (60 Second Taste, USA); then filled using RMGIC (GC Fuji II LC, Japan) and flowable composite (Esthet.Xflow, USA). The teeth were soaked in methylene blue and then cut buccolingually. Microleakage was observed using stereomicroscope and scored in an ordinal scale. The Kruskal-Wallis test on RMGIC groups was not significant, while in the flowable composite groups was significant (p <0.05). Mann-Whitney test showed a significant difference between the RMGIC and flowable composite groups after application of 1.23% APF. It can be concluded that microleakage of pit and fissure sealant using a flowable composite was higher than RMGIC after application of 1.23% APF.


The aim of the paper is to estimate the impact of global financial crisis of 2008 on countries where the dominant components were private and government consumption as well as sizeable current account deficits, which is the structure that most emerging European economies (EEE) share, and to observe the resulting change in the GDP composition caused by the shock. For those countries the crisis meant a strong decrease in external and domestic demand coupled with uncertainties over financial stability as well as dramatic reduction in capital flows (sudden stop), which had formed an essential part of the growth model during the period of transition. Taking the expenditure approach, in this paper we treat the expansion and composition of output (GDP growth) using a sample of selected EEE countries in the period 2000-2009. Based on our findings we plan to provide recommendations with regard to the strategy of rebalancing the sources of economic growth in EEE and ensuring sustainable growth dynamics in the region.


Summary Eighteen 1-phenyl-, 1-thiocarbamoyl-and 1-N-substitutedthiocarbamoyl-3-phenyl-5-heteroaryl-2-pyrazoline derivatives were synthesized and tested for their antidepressant and anticonvulsant activities. Their chemical structures were proved by spectral and microanalysis. The antidepressant activities of the compounds were investigated by the "forced swimming test". Results showed that compounds II-a,b,c, III-1b,1c,4a showed activities equivalent to or higher than pargyline hydrochloride (CAS 306-07-0) and tranylcypromine sulfate (CAS 13492-01-8) that were used as reference antidepressant drugs. Anticonvulsant activities of the compounds were determined by maximal electroshock seizure (MES), subcutaneous metrazol (ScMet.) and rotarod toxicity tests in mice according to the phase I tests of the Antiepileptic Drug Development programme. Compounds I-a, II-a,b,c, III-1b,2a,2c were found protective against MES and III-1b,1c,2a,2c were found protective against ScMet.


A kind of capacitive humidity sensor with high sensitivity constructed with nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), graphene oxide (GO) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is presented in this work, via a simple ultrasonic dispersion and freeze drying technology. The NFC and GO with a strong adsorption for water molecules were used as a substrate for the promotion of capacitive response of the humidity sensor. Moreover, anhydrous ethanol was added to inhibit the generation of big cracks in the humidity sensor in the freeze drying process, so as to obtain a regular network porous structure, then providing a great deal of conduction channels and active sites for molecular water. Also, the addition of PDMS can effectively enhance the flexibility and stability of its porous structure. The results confirmed that the humidity sensor with 30 wt% GO showed an excellent humidity sensitivity (6576.41 pF/% RH), remarkable reproducibility, low humidity hysteresis characteristic in 11–97% relative humidity (RH) at 25 °C, and short response/recovery times (57 s/2 s). In addition, the presented sensor exhibited small relative deviation of the measured relative humidity value compared with the commercial hygrometer. The realization of the high sensitivity can be attributed to the theories about interaction of the hydrophilic group, proton transfer of water molecules and the three-dimensional network transport structure model. Therefore, the NFC/GO/PDMS humidity sensor finally realizes stable, reproducible and fast humidity sensing via an eco-friendly process, exhibiting promising potential for wide practical application.


The epitaxial growth and characterization of dilute Ga1−xInxAs1−yNy films and quantum wells are presented. Starting with the epitaxy on GaAs, recent results on the local bonding of nitrogen in Ga1−xInxAs1−yNy are reviewed, revealing that bonding of nitrogen is controlled by an interplay between bond cohesive energy and reduction of local strain. Thus, III–N bonding in Ga1−xInxAs1−yNy can be changed from Ga–N to In–N by post-growth thermal annealing. Nitrogen loss due to the annealing process is not observed. We then adopted this concept for the epitaxy on InP substrates, which is equivalent to a drastic increase in indium content of the Ga1−xInxAs1−yNy system and thus an extension to longer wavelengths. The low-energy shift of quaternary pseudomorphically strained Ga0.4In0.6As1−yNy double quantum wells upon nitrogen incorporation is reported. The deterioration of the photoluminescence characteristics in terms of reduced peak intensity and increased linewidth with increasing nitrogen incorporation can be partially compensated by rapid thermal annealing, which is accompanied by a blueshift with respect to the as-grown samples. Within the resolution limits of our secondary ion mass spectrometry experiments, no annealing-induced loss of nitrogen was observed even for the high indium content Ga1−xInxAs1−yNy quantum well structures. The results on indium-rich highly strained Ga0.22In0.78As0.99N0.01 quantum wells on InP substrate are reported, showing room temperature photoluminescence at wavelengths up to 2.3 µm. We finally conclude with the demonstration of multi quantum well lasers emitting at wavelengths beyond 2 µm.


Animals pervade Mark Twain's entire literary output, from the famous jumping frog of 1865 to "A Horse's Tale" in 1906, and provide a rhetorical means for some of his commentary on human behavior. Although several scholars have collected and praised Twain's animal sketches, none has attempted to trace a changing pattern in his manner of treating this literary menagerie. Throughout his career Twain was a sharp observer of human attitudes and behavior and, as a result, the more he dissected his fellow man, the more he admired animals and, consequently, elevated them in his writings while simultaneously relegating man to "the lowest animal." Men became cruel, exploitative, and fanatical as animals assumed the anthropopathic qualities of loyalty, generosity, and reason. This shift in viewpoint did not occur suddenly, but intensified during a lifetime of writing, with Twain modifying his use of animals as his opinion of man sank increasingly lower. Therefore, as man falls in Twain's opinion, animals rise inversely, and more importantly, animals parallel his movement from humorist to satirist to cynic. MARK TWAIN'S ZOO: THE HIGHER ANIMALS In his later writings Mark Twain makes obvious his opinion that what we usually call "the lower" animals are superior to humans, and he often portrays humanity finishing a poor second to the brutes in what is conventionally called•"human dignity": I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the 'lower animals' (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one . . . named the Descent 1 of Man from the Higher Animals. This passage from "The Lowest Animal," written in 1897, is typical of Twain's numerous invidious comparisons of humans with animals, and in fact, his prolific use of animal stories links Twain to the early fabulists. He took the venerable beast fable, colored it with the folklore of erstwhile slaves and the South western humor of his America, and polished such stories into satire. "His fresh handling of the materials and techniques of backwoods story-tellers," remarks Henry Nash Smith, "is the clearest example in our history of the adaptation'of a folk art to serious literary 2 uses." This "serious literary use" grew as America did, with Twain using his animals to embody not only frontier humor but also serious criticism of man's moral, social, and political obtuseness. Twain's menagerie could fill an entire volume, and in fact, four scholars have recently done just that. In 1966 Robert Rodney and Minnie Brashear compiled an anthology containing approximately thirty of Twain's animal stories. Then in 1972, Janet Smith edited a much larger compilation, containing some seventy-five of his animal sketches. More recently, in 1976, Maxwell Geismar, with the help of illustrator Jean-Claude Suares, produced a comprehensive collection which, though it contains no commentary (as do the first two), presents an interesting bestiary which, with a little alpha3 betical juggling by Geismar, stretches from A to Z. Even though these scholars were solely concerned with collecting Twain's animal stories for presentation in one book, they recognize Twain's talent for animal portrayal. Rodney and Brashear praise "Twain's perception of human traits in these birds and beasts" as well as "the natural and unconscious dignity he reveals in animal behavior" (viii,ix). Geismar credits Twain's "journalistic nose for sniffing out.', the real nature of things" and his "remarkably rich, fresh, open and encyclo pedic mind" for the memorable Twain menagerie (Intro.). Despite their praise of Twain's animal collection, none of the scholars attempts to trace a changing pattern in his manner of treating this menagerie. Animals pervade Mark Twain's entire literary output from the famous jumping frog of 1865 to "A Horse's Tale" in 1906, and provide a medium for his commentary on human behavior. Initially, Samuel Clemens was a journalist, and his sharp


In this work, nano ferrite spinel NiFe 2 O 4 was synthesized by sol-gel method and characterized by SEM, XRD, FT-IR, and VSM. In second step Schiff base made from salicylaldehyde and amino propyl triethoxy silane was used for modification of the synthesized nano ferrit. In the third step removal of Ni(II) was done using modified adsorbent and 95% efficiency was achieved. The removal rate was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. These studies showed that the Freundlich isotherm model was fitted well with adsorption data. Moreover, the pseudo-second order kinetic model was fitted very well with experimental data. The results demonstrated that NiFe 2 O 4 @SalenSi nanoadsorbent can be used for the removal and recovery of metal ions from wastewater over a number of cycles, indicating its suitability for the design of a continuous process. KEY WORDS : Nano ferrite, Sol-gel method, Schiff base, Removal of Ni(II), Magnetic nanocomposite Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2018 , 32(1), 77-88 DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v32i1.7


Self-supervised Contrastive Learning (CL) has been recently shown to be very effective in preventing deep networks from overfitting noisy labels. Despite its empirical success, the theoretical understanding of the effect of contrastive learning on boosting robustness is very limited. In this work, we rigorously prove that the representation matrix learned by contrastive learning boosts robustness, by having: (i) one prominent singular value corresponding to each sub-class in the data, and significantly smaller remaining singular values; and (ii) {a large alignment between the prominent singular vectors and the clean labels of each sub-class. The above properties enable a linear layer trained on such representations to effectively learn the clean labels without overfitting the noise.} We further show that the low-rank structure of the Jacobian of deep networks pre-trained with contrastive learning allows them to achieve a superior performance initially, when fine-tuned on noisy labels. Finally, we demonstrate that the initial robustness provided by contrastive learning enables robust training methods to achieve state-of-the-art performance under extreme noise levels, e.g., an average of 27.18\% and 15.58\% increase in accuracy on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 with 80\% symmetric noisy labels, and 4.11\% increase in accuracy on WebVision.


Due to the large variations of environment with ever-changing background and vehicles with different shapes, colors and appearances, to implement a real-time on-board vehicle recognition system with high adaptability, efficiency and robustness in complicated environments, remains challenging. This paper introduces a simultaneous detection and tracking framework for robust on-board vehicle recognition based on monocular vision technology. The framework utilizes a novel layered machine learning and particle filter to build a multi-vehicle detection and tracking system. In the vehicle detection stage, a layered machine learning method is presented, which combines coarse-search and fine-search to obtain the target using the AdaBoost-based training algorithm. The pavement segmentation method based on characteristic similarity is proposed to estimate the most likely pavement area. Efficiency and accuracy are enhanced by restricting vehicle detection within the downsized area of pavement. In vehicle tracking stage, a multi-objective tracking algorithm based on target state management and particle filter is proposed. The proposed system is evaluated by roadway video captured in a variety of traffics, illumination, and weather conditions. The evaluating results show that, under conditions of proper illumination and clear vehicle appearance, the proposed system achieves 91.2% detection rate and 2.6% false detection rate. Experiments compared to typical algorithms show that, the presented algorithm reduces the false detection rate nearly by half at the cost of decreasing 2.7%–8.6% detection rate. This paper proposes a multi-vehicle detection and tracking system, which is promising for implementation in an on-board vehicle recognition system with high precision, strong robustness and low computational cost.


Escherichia coli strains that cause septicemia of poultry often possess F1 (type 1) fimbriae (encoded by pil [fim] homologous gene clusters) and/or P fimbriae (encoded by pap homologous gene clusters). These fimbriae are thought to be involved in infection and colonization. To study the dynamics of infection due to E. coli with different virulence determinant profiles and to examine the expression of these fimbriae in vivo, three pathogenic E. coli isolates--O1 (pil+/pap+), O2 (pil+/pap), and O78 (pil+/pap+)--were administered intratracheally to 1.5-week-old chickens. Chickens were euthanatized from 3 to 144 hr after infection. The three isolates caused lesions in 30 to 55% of birds. Colonization rates of the trachea, lungs, internal organs, and pericardial fluid were similar for all three isolates, whereas significant differences among isolates were observed in colonization of the air sacs and blood. Bacteria appeared rapidly in the blood, liver, and spleen, whereas presence in the pericardial fluid generally occurred only after 24 hr postinoculation. The dynamics of colonization of the air sacs varied among isolates. Immunofluorescence of frozen tissue sections demonstrated F1 fimbriae (pil expressed) but not P fimbriae on all three isolates colonizing the trachea and on the O1 and O78 isolates colonizing the air sacs. Results suggest that F1 fimbriae are involved in the early stages of development of colisepticemia by promoting association of pathogenic E. coli with the trachea and air sacs of chickens.


This book explores the ways in which early Christian writers and communities, from late antiquity through the New Testament period, interpreted the scriptures of Israel, as they sought to understand Jesus and the Gospel in relation to God's revelation and past acts in history. These essays represent work on the growing edge of studies of the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament. The contents, authored by both veteran and younger scholars, treat methods and canons, Jesus and the Gospels, and Acts and the Epistles.


Soil organic matter is often realized as an indicator of soil fertility, however, agricultural practices are expected to cause changed. This study was conduct to evaluate the relationship of soil practices and organic matter content. Fifty-eight plots were sampled (0- to 30-cm depth) from three different study areas. These are included two areas from high performance cropping system, and the remainder from low intensive practices. The soil management, including tillage, fertilizer and pesticide application, was also considered. To compare the difference of organic matter levels among three areas, together with fertilizer, pesticide and tillage practices, one-way ANOVA and the independent t-test were performed. The means of organic matter do differ significantly among three study areas (P 0.05). Basic agricultural practices show the highest levels of organic matter. Evidence regarding intensive soil performance to obtain high economic yield is raised with result of this study.


The diagnostic potential of brain positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is limited by low spatial resolution. For solving this problem we propose a technique for the fusion of PET and MRI images. This fusion is a trade-off between the spectral information extracted from PET images and the spatial information extracted from high spatial resolution MRI. The proposed method can control this trade-off. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to build a multiscale fusion model, based on the retinal cell photoreceptors model. This paper introduces general prospects of this model, and its application in multispectral medical image fusion. Results showed that the proposed method preserves more spectral features with less spatial distortion. Comparing with hue-intensity-saturation (HIS), discrete wavelet transform (DWT), wavelet-based sharpening and wavelet-a trous transform methods, the best spectral and spatial quality is only achieved simultaneously with the proposed feature-based data fusion method. This method does not require resampling images, which is an advantage over the other methods, and can perform in any aspect ratio between the pixels of MRI and PET images.


In this experiment, we studied the rate of production in Picochlorum oklahomense under different conditions of light. Our goal was to determine the optimum setting for which algal production is highest; algae can be used as a source of biofuel in order to create a greener and healthier environment, so the enhanced production of algae is very important in sustainability. We subjected Picochlorum oklahomense to red and white light and compared the cell count of the two in order to determine which light led to a higher rate of algal production. We found that algae has a higher rate of growth in white light than it does in red light. This result is most likely due to the fact that white light is composed of many different colors and in turn, provides many different wavelengths available for the chlorophyll to absorb, while red light only provides one.


Study Design. Cost-effectiveness analysis with decision analysis and meta-analysis. Objective. To determine the relative cost-effectiveness of anterior cervical discectomy with fusion (with autograft, allograft, or spacers), anterior cervical discectomy without fusion (ACD), and cervical disc replacement (CDR) for the treatment of 1-level cervical disc disease. Summary of Background Data. There is debate as to the optimal anterior surgical strategy to treat single-level cervical disc disease. Surgical strategies include 3 techniques of anterior cervical discectomy with fusion (autograft, allograft, or spacer-assisted fusion), ACD, and CDR. Several controlled trials have compared these treatments but have yielded mixed results. Decision analysis provides a structure for making a quantitative comparison of the costs and outcomes of each treatment. Methods. A literature search was performed and yielded 156 case series that fulfilled our search criteria describing nearly 17,000 cases. Data were abstracted from these publications and pooled meta-analytically to estimate the incidence of various outcomes, including index-level and adjacent-level reoperation. A decision analytic model calculated the expected costs in US dollars and outcomes in quality-adjusted life years for a typical adult patient with 1-level cervical radiculopathy subjected to each of the 5 approaches. Results. At 5 years postoperatively, patients who had undergone ACD alone had significantly (P < 0.001) more quality-adjusted life years (4.885 ± 0.041) than those receiving other treatments. Patients with ACD also exhibited highly significant (P < 0.001) differences in costs, incurring the lowest societal costs ($16,558 ± $539). Follow-up data were inadequate for comparison beyond 5 years. Conclusion. The results of our decision analytic model indicate advantages for ACD, both in effectiveness and costs, over other strategies. Thus, ACD is a cost-effective alternative to anterior cervical discectomy with fusion and CDR in patients with single-level cervical disc disease. Definitive conclusions about degenerative changes after ACD and adjacent-level disease after CDR await longer follow-up. Level of Evidence: 4


A novel ultra-thin partial silicon-on-insulator (PSOI) LDMOS with n-type buried (n-buried) layer (NBL PSOI LDMOS) is proposed. The new PSOI LDMOS features an n-buried layer underneath the n-type drift (n-drift) region close to the source side, providing a large conductivity region for majority carriers to significantly improve the self-heating effect. A combination of uniform and linear variable doping (LVD) profile with highly initial concentration is utilised in the n-drift region, which alleviates the inherent tradeoff between specific on-resistance (R on,sp) and breakdown voltage (BV), as well as achieving low power dissipation. With a 60-µm n-drift region length, the NBL PSOI LDMOS obtains a high BV of 940 V with a low maximum temperature (T max) of 327 K at a power (P) of 1 mW/μm, which is reduced by around 56 K in comparison to the conventional SOI LDMOS using an LVD profile for the n-drift region (LVD SOI LDMOS). Moreover, R on,sp of the NBL PSOI LDMOS is lower than that of the LVD SOI LDMOS for a wide range of BV from 400 to 900 V.


Bandura's self-efficacy source hypothesis was examined by testing whether success and a vicarious experience of success would enhance self-efficacy among 159 7th graders (81 boys, 78 girls). Unknown to themselves or their classmates, 20 students (Success condition) were presented with easier anagram tasks, allowing them to outperform their 60 classmates (Control condition). The Success and Control students had been paired with classmates (Cheerers; Vicarious condition) who were to cheer on their partners during the task. The participants rated their self-efficacy for the anagram task before and after the performance. The results showed that successful performance significantly promoted the self-efficacy of Success students. However, the cheerers of Success students did not have increased self-efficacy through the vicarious success experience.


The mining industry has a huge environmental and social impact in the country/region where is located, consequently its contribution for sustainable development has been widely discussed. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) represents a challenge for this industry, namely, its inclusion as a common management practice integrated in the company´s management control system. For such, it´s imperative that there is a balance between the economic, environmental and social company's concerns. The aim of this article is to study that challenge in a Portuguese subsidiary belonging to a Japanese economic group. The data were collected through interviews and document analysis. The results suggest that CSR practices are not integrated in the management control system, are not part of a long-term environment strategy, and only reflect compliance with Portuguese legislation. It is expected, with this study, to contribute for the literature enrichment about CSR in multinationals companies operating in the extractive industry.


Zinc‐alpha 2‐glycoprotein (AZGP1) is involved in lipid metabolism and was suggested as a candidate prognostic biomarker in prostate cancer. To evaluate the clinical impact and relationship with key genomic alterations in prostate cancer, AZGP1 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray containing 11,152 prostate cancers. Data on ERG status and PTEN, 3p13, 5q21 and 6q15 deletions were available from earlier studies. AZGP1 expression was strong in benign prostatic glands but absent in 38.0% of 8,510 interpretable prostate cancers. Reduced AZGP1 expression was associated with TPMRSS2:ERG fusions, both by FISH and immunohistochemical analysis (p < 0.0001 each). For example, AZGP1 was absent in 54.6% of 2,029 ERG IHC positive but in only 28.1% of 2,398 ERG negative cancers. Irrespective of the ERG status, reduced AZGP1 expression was tightly linked to high Gleason score, advanced pathological tumor stage, positive nodal status and early PSA recurrence (p < 0.0001 each). Reduced AZGP1 expression was also strongly associated with PTEN deletions. AZGP1 immunostaining was lacking in 62.7% of 842 PTEN deleted but in only 37.3% of PTEN non‐deleted cancers but retained strong prognostic influence in both subgroups (p < 0.0001 each). The prognostic role of AZGP1 expression was also independent of Gleason score, pT stage, pN stage, surgical margin status and preoperative PSA, irrespective of whether preoperative or postoperative variables were used for modeling. In conclusion, the results of our study demonstrate that reduced AZGP1 expression is strongly related to adverse prostate cancer prognosis, independently of established clinic‐pathological variables and PTEN deletions.


This study addresses the problem of shadows in multi-temporal imagery, which is a key issue with change detection approaches based on image comparison. We apply image-to-image radiometric normalizations including histogram matching (HM), mean-variance (MV) equalization, linear regression based on pseudo-invariant features (PIF-LR), and radiometric control sets (RCS) representing high- and low-reflectance extrema, for the novel purpose of normalizing brightness of transient shadows in high spatial resolution, bi-temporal, aerial frame image sets. Efficient shadow normalization is integral to remote sensing procedures that support disaster response efforts in a near-real-time fashion, including repeat station image (RSI) capture, wireless data transfer, shadow detection (as precursor to shadow normalization), and change detection based on image differencing and visual interpretation. We apply the normalization techniques to imagery of suburban scenes containing shadowed materials of varied spectral reflectance characteristics, whereby intensity (average of red, green, and blue spectral band values) under fully illuminated conditions is known from counterpart reference images (time-1 versus time-2). We evaluate the normalization results using stratified random pixel samples within transient shadows, considering central tendency and variance of differences in intensity relative to the unnormalized images. Overall, MV equalization yielded superior results in our tests, reducing the radiometric effects of shadowing by more than 85 percent. The HM and PIF-LR approaches showed slightly lower performance than MV, while the RCS approach proved unreliable among scenes and among stratified intensity levels. We qualitatively evaluate a shadow normalization based on MV equalization, describing its utility and limitations when applied in change detection. Application of image-to-image radiometric normalization for brightening shadowed areas in multi-temporal imagery in this study proved efficient and effective to support change detection.


Initial electrical characterisation of epitaxial AlN/Nb2N heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy on 6H-SiC substrates is presented. Metal–insulator–metal (MIM) devices of varying diameter were used for current–voltage and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements at various temperatures. From C–V measurements, a dielectric constant of 10.1 was extracted along with a linear dependence of capacitance on temperature of 0.02 nF/cm2/°C. Leakage current was determined to be consistent with a Poole–Frenkel conduction mechanism at electric fields >1.25 MV/cm with an extracted trap ionisation energy of 0.82 eV. Electric field breakdown ranged between 3.4 and 5.6 MV/cm with some dependence on the diameter of the MIM device. These initial findings demonstrate the potential for high-power devices based on AlN.


Free thyroxine (FT4) has been measured in two groups of patients, before and after heparin, using equilibrium dialysis (ED) and two radioimmunoassays, RIA-I and RIA-II. In Group A, nine patients were tested before and after 12-24 hr of intravenous heparin, FT4 (ED) rose from 1.9 +/- 0.5 to 2.8 +/- 3.0 ng/dl, and RIA-I from 1.37 +/- 0.37 to 1.89 +/- 1.21 ng/dl, whereas RIA-II results fell from 0.97 +/- 0.38 to 0.66 +/- 0.32 ng/dl. In Group B, ten patients were tested before and after 15 min of intravenous heparin. FT4 (ED) rose from 1.7 +/- 0.7 to 3.2 +/- 1.6 ng/dl (p less than 0.02), and RIA-I rose from 1.3 +/- 0.46 to 2.02 +/- 0.01 ng/dl (P less than 0.05), whereas RIA-II results fell from 1.07 +/- 0.38 to 0.63 +/- 0.31 ng/dl (P less than 0.02). The correlation coefficient between FT4 (ED) and RIA-I in 38 paired results was 0.96, but there was no correlation between FT4 (ED) and RIA-II results.


Postpartum mothers who suffer from perineal injury if not properly maintained and improper care of the perineum can result in infection of the perineum. Care for perineal wounds is carried out by the Indonesian community, one of which is by using green betel leaf decoction water that has an antibiotic effect, based on the effect of this therapy, betel can also be used as material for wound care that is usually used by means of worms. Research to find out whether betel leaf water can accelerate the healing process of perineal wounds in post partum mothers. The research method is pre-experimental using a pretest and posttest design in one group. The sample in this study 31 respondents using non-likely sampling techniques using consecutive sampling method. The results of the study the effect of giving green betel leaf decoction to the healing of perineal wounds in post partum mothers pre-test post-test p-value 0.018 <α = 0.05 Ho is rejected, Ha Accepted which means there is an influence of perineal wound healing with green betel leaf decoction in pera simalingkar B clinic, Medan tuntung sub-district, Medan in 2019.


We present a comprehensive investigation of the dissociation dynamics following photoexcitation of 1,1-dichloroacetone (CH(3)COCHCl(2)) at 193 nm. Two major dissociation channels are observed: cleavage of a C-Cl bond to form CH(3)C(O)CHCl + Cl and elimination of HCl. The branching between these reaction channels is roughly 9:1. The recoil kinetic energy distributions for both C-Cl fission and HCl elimination are bimodal. The former suggests that some of the radicals are formed in an excited electronic state. A portion of the CH(3)C(O)CHCl photoproducts undergo secondary dissociation to give CH(3) + C(O)CHCl. Photoelimination of Cl(2) is not a significant product channel. A primary C-C bond fission channel to give CH(3)CO + CHCl(2) may be present, but this signal may also be due to a secondary dissociation. Data from photofragment translational spectroscopy with electron impact and photoionization detection, velocity map ion imaging, and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy are presented, along with G3//B3LYP calculations of the bond dissociation energetics.


Batik Tulis in the Klang Valley has motif and pattern design that identified its own identity. The purpose of this study is to find out the development of the Batik tulis industry in the Klang valley from year 2000 until 2018. Next, it also to study the design and identity of the Batik tulis motif and pattern in the Klang valley from year 2000 until 2018. This study used several methods and approach for data collection consist of interviews, observations and photo documentation. Three Batik tulis manufacturers in Klang Valley have been identified in carrying out this study. The data were then analysed using analytical design approach. The findings showed that, each product of Batik tulis has a uniqueness in terms of subject matters as well as assertions in pattern and designs used. The development of the Batik tulis industry has been changed in terms of design according to the demand of batik users themselves who want differentiation in the design concept of batik products. Most of the batik products in this Klang valley are more focused on the concept of modern and contemporary design. It involves the use of colours, the type of fabrics and the selection of motifs characterized by flora and fauna in modern style. In conclusion, Batik tulis designs and identity in the Klang Valley from year 2000 until 2018 are still retain the originality of the flora and fauna motifs themselves but have made the design of the traditional style to a more modern and contemporary design. However, the design aspect of Hand drawn Batik products in the Klang Valley today needs to be disclosed to the public so that, it can maintain the textile arts, especially the Batik tulis as a Malay textile heritage.
Keywords: Klang Valley; batik Tulis; Design; Manufacturer; Identity.


The benefits of nature tourism, or nature-based travel, are plentiful. For example, participation in nature tours has positively impacted environmental attitudes and behaviors. Unfortunately, while psychologically beneficial, nature-based tourism can hurt the environment through a myriad of factors. Therefore, we must continue to explore ways to make the benefits of nature-based travel more sustainable and impactful. Research suggests that nature-based travel in virtual reality (VR) may impart numerous travel benefits, such as improving conservational behavior and interconnectedness with nature. While these early findings are promising, questions remain regarding the theoretical mechanisms underlying the effects of nature-based VR travel. Therefore, this study explores how VR may provide an avenue to make nature tourism more environmentally friendly while simultaneously making people more environmentally connected and conscious. Furthermore, a theoretical framework is posited that combines concepts from the spatial presence and narrative persuasion literature to help explain the effects. To accomplish these goals, an experiment was conducted using a two-condition (VR travel vs. TV control) between-subjects factorial design with random assignment. The participants were 66 college students from a large Midwestern University in the United States. Results indicated that there wasn't a statistically significant difference between the VR travel condition and the television (TV) control condition regarding the environmental outcome variables. However, while the nature-based VR travel experience did not appear to influence the environmental outcome variables directly, it did indirectly affect them through the mediating roles of spatial presence and narrative engagement.


Ornamental rock production, such as marble and granite plates, have great importance in the southeastern region of Brazil. Its residues are composed of some compounds used in continuous casting as mould fluxes. Therefore, the aim of this article was to study these residues to formulate mould fluxes. First, the raw materials were chemically characterized by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and two new fluxes were developed based on two different commercial fluxes used for peritectic and low carbon steels. All fluxes were analyzed for their ability to form crystalline phases, by performing the modified Stollberg test. The slag formed was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thin section microscopy (TSM) technique, and a mathematical model for comparison. Also, sample fluidity was measured using the known "boat test" and viscosities were predicted by FactSage® software. Crystallinity and fluidity of new fluxes were compatible with those observed for the commercial fluxes. The FactSage® simulations identified crystalline phases, such as cuspidine (Ca4Si2O7F2), for all fluxes. In commercial low carbon flux (CLC) and new low carbon flux (NLC), X-ray results have shown that non-crystalline phases are formed. And in commercial peritectic flux (CP) and new peritectic flux (NP), X-ray results have shown crystalline phases. The results showed similar characteristics between the new fluxes and the commercial ones; however, further tests in an industrial setting are required to obtain additional information and confirm equivalent behavior during their industrial use.


Because of the progression of genetics and genomics, the demand for prenatal diagnosis (PD) for inherited genetic diseases has increased. However, several incidental findings may emerge during PD, like misattributed paternity, the evidence of disease in a parent, and the possible misinterpretation of the results because of complex alleles or de novo mutations that have several implications. In a retrospective observational study on all the couples referred to our Medical School (1993–2018) for PD of genetic inherited diseases (n = 1502), we selected the cases of PD for cystic fibrosis (CF, n = 239) and hemophilia A and B (HA, HB, n = 47), revising all incidental findings previously mentioned. We found one case in which a technical error led to PD of carrier in two siblings that were born affected by CF, four cases of misattributed paternity, eight cases of asymptomatic parents revealed as affected by CF transmembrane regulator (CFTR)-related disorders, a case of a novel complex allele that could have caused the diagnosis of CF in a carrier fetus, and a case of a de novo mutation in a mother (already a carrier) that caused hemophilia in a child that PD had revealed as healthy. We present these conditions as clinical cases and discuss the technical, clinical, ethical, and legal aspects to be considered.


Halogenated and brominated compounds are important groups of chemicals and have varied applications in several fields. Cross-coupling reactions in organic chemistry can be performed via aromatic functionalization process with halide aromatic compounds. Therefore, in coupling reactions like Heck, Suzuki, Sonogashira and hetero coupling reactions, halide compounds are the key fragments. Br2 is the old reagent for the formation of brominated compounds. Using Br2 caused to produce HBr as a corrosive chemical, need accurate control of temperature and control of amount of Br2. So, established better brominating agents have been developed in recent years. To this purpose, NBS was used for brominating reactions and several conditions in organic reactions have been reported to activate the halogenating ability of NBS. 2-iodoxybenzoic acid, IBX, has gained massive interest as an efficient and useful oxidant which can be used for the oxidation of alcohols. In addition of this, magnetic form of catalysts have more advantages compare to normal form of them due to their simply work-up procedures. So, to gain better nanocatalyst with the advantages of magnetic catalysts, we used a simple method to prepare magnetized IBX. To develop efficient catalysts for oxidation reaction, we report the catalytic application of a magnetized IBX as an efficient and recoverable catalyst in the presence of NBS for oxidation reaction.


In 18 patients on regular haemodialysis treatment, the dialysate magnesium concentration (dMg) was lowered (from 0.5 to 0.25 mmol/litre) and the correlation between serum Mg level (sMg) and nerve conduction velocity was investigated before and one year after dMg variation, in order to ascertain whether hypermagnesaemia plays a role in the pathogenesis of peripheral neuropathy in patients on regular dialysis. The normalization of sMg (from 1.27 +/- SD 0.16 to 0.98 +/- 0.09 mmol/litre) did not result in any improvement in nerve conduction velocity, though such improvement has previously been reported; however, this discrepancy could be explained by the fact that sMg was not excessively high at the beginning of the study.


We present results from the Austral Winter 2003 observing campaign of SPARO, a 450 μm polarimeter used with a 2 m telescope at the South Pole. We mapped large-scale magnetic fields in four GMCs in the Galactic disk: NGC 6334, the Carina Nebula, G333.6-0.2, and G331.5-0.1. We find a statistically significant correlation of the inferred field directions with the orientation of the Galactic plane. Specifically, three of the four GMCs (NGC 6334 is the exception) have mean field directions that are within 15° of the plane. The simplest interpretation is that the field direction tends to be preserved during the process of GMC formation. We have also carried out an analysis of published optical polarimetry data. For the closest of the SPARO GMCs, NGC 6334, we can compare the field direction in the cloud as measured by SPARO with the field direction in a larger region surrounding the cloud, as determined from optical polarimetry. For purposes of comparison, we also use optical polarimetry to determine field directions for 9-10 other regions of similar size. We find that the region surrounding NGC 6334 is an outlier in the distribution of field directions determined from optical polarimetry, just as the NGC 6334 cloud is an outlier in the distribution of cloud field directions determined by SPARO. In both cases the field direction corresponding to NGC 6334 is rotated away from the direction of the plane by a large angle. This finding is consistent with our suggestion that field direction tends to be preserved during GMC formation. Finally, by comparing the disorder in our magnetic field maps with the disorder seen in magnetic field maps derived from MHD turbulence simulations, we conclude that the magnetic energy density in our clouds is comparable to the turbulent energy density.


In many parts of the nation, tense relations between the police and private citizenry have placed law enforcement operations under intense public scrutiny. From coast to coast, commissions and internal affairs units are being employed to investigate allegations of law enforcement misconduct and corruption. These investigations typically culminate in the issuance of an investigatory report. The Article provides a thoughtful analysis of this important question: Are investigatory reports of law enforcement activities admissible in federal civil rights actions brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, challenging the constitutionality of the conduct of law enforcement officers? The admissibility of governmental investigatory reports typically raises difficult contentious issues. This Article examines the various evidentiary issues pertaining to the admissibility of investigatory reports in § 1983 actions. The discussion commences with an overview of the law governing § 1983 claims arising out of encounters with law enforcement officers, and then provides an overview of the Federal Rule of Evidence 803(6) business records rule, the Rule 803(8) public records rule, and the relationship between these two rules. The Article then turns to the heart of the matter, analyzing the various facets of the Rule 803(8)(C) hearsay exception for investigatory reports, with special attention given to the critical issues of "trustworthiness." Following that is a discussion of the aspects of relevance, including Rule 403 balancing and the Rule 407 exclusionary rule for subsequent remedial measures. The Article concludes with an exploration of the potentially applicable governmental privileges.


Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell malignancy of bone marrow. In the present study, we aimed to study the function and potential mechanism of the antisense non-coding RNA in the INK4 Locus (ANRIL) in MM. The expression levels of ANRIL in MM patients and healthy donors were evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The effects and mechanisms of ANRIL in MM were evaluated by cell viability assay, BrdU incorporation assay, tumor xenograft model, flow cytometry, western blot, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), transcriptome RNA sequencing, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). We found that ANRIL was upregulated in MM patients and cell lines, and associated with advanced international staging system (ISS) stage and poor overall survival. Enforced ANRIL expression promoted proliferation and tumor xenograft growth of MM cells, while knockdown of ANRIL exhibited opposite effects. Moreover, ANRIL overexpression increased the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of bortezomib and reduced bortezomib-induced apoptosis in MM cells. ANRIL was found to accumulate in the nucleus of MM cells, and interact with EZH2 by RIP assay. Transcriptome RNA sequencing identified PTEN as a target of ANRIL in MM cells. In ChIP assay, knockdown of ANRIL reduced EZH2 occupancy and H3K27me3 binding to the promoter region of PTEN. Furthermore, EZH2 knockout or PTEN restoration abrogated the effects caused by ANRIL overexpression in MM cells. Our results indicated that ANRIL exerted oncogenic functions and conferred chemoresistance of MM cells by EZH2-mediated epigenetically silencing of PTEN.


The prefrontal cortex of the primate brain has a modular architecture based on the aggregation of neurons in minicolumnar arrangements having afferent and efferent connections distributed across many brain regions to represent, select and/or maintain behavioral goals and executive commands. Prefrontal cortical microcircuits are assumed to play a key role in the integration of signals across cortical layers and the selection of executive variables. Recent research suggests that cognitive abilities emerge from corticocortical interactions between interlaminar prefrontal cortical microcircuits, while their disruption are involved in a broad spectrum of neurologic and psychiatric disorders like autism, and drug addiction. Based on recent technological progress it has been demonstrated that microstimulation of infragranular cortical layers with patterns of microcurrents derived from supragranular layers led to an increase in cognitive performance. This suggests that interlaminar microcircuits are playing a causal role improving cognitive performance. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the new interest in cortical modularity coming from the impressive progress in understanding anatomical, physiological and pathological facets of cortical microcircuits and the promise of neural prosthetics for patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders.


Abstract Introduction: Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) is an antioxidative enzyme manly associated with high density lipoproteins (HDL) in the peripheral blood. The aim of this study was to determine the PON1 paraoxonase and arylesterase activities in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We also aimed to determine the concentration of reduced thiol groups as a marker of protein oxidation. Materials and methods: The study included 105 patients with stable COPD and 44 healthy controls. PON1 activities and thiols concentration were assayed in sera by spectrophotometry. Results: PON1 basal (POX) and salt-stimulated paraoxonase activity (POX1) as well as arylesterase activity (ARE) were significantly reduced in COPD patients. In addition, concentration of reduced thiol groups was significantly decreased in COPD group. PON1 activities were similar in patients with different disease severity (GOLD stages). However, a significant reduction in POX, POX1 and ARE was observed already in GOLD II stage when compared to controls. POX and POX1 showed modest while ARE yielded very good power for discrimination between healthy subjects and COPD patients. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that ARE is a good COPD predictor. Conclusion: Reduction of PON1 activity observed in COPD patients could be partly caused by oxidative environment. Lower concentrations of reduced thiol groups in COPD patients suggest that a decrease in PON1 activity could reflect oxidative changes of enzyme free cysteine residues. Furthermore, decreased PON1 arylesterase activity might indicate a down-regulation of PON1 concentration. Our results suggest that ARE could be considered as potential biomarker for COPD diagnosis.


Because our country is a mountainous country, in engineering construction process, inevitably involve a lot of high cutting slopes. Summarized the relevant research achievements of predecessors, we put forward the type optimization scheme based on the current problems of smaller longitudinal slope degrees at bottom interface of high cutting slopes. Setting some slower longitudinal slope degrees at the bottom interface of high cutting slopes, which will reduce excavation volume to a certain degree, thus reduce energy consumption, reduce the influence of excavation on the surrounding environment, and reduce relevant expenses to restore the slope environment. After setting some slower longitudinal slope degrees, the slope toe drainage will be more unobstructed, the slope height will be reduced, and the slope will be more stable, thus reduce the work amount of slope retaining. For each year, thousands of kilometers mountainous highway will be built, bottom interface type optimization of high cutting slopes will have very big economic value. Therefore, which is worth to recommend in construction and designing of high cutting slopes.


Business magazines provide need-to-know information to decision makers and professionals. Prices, product variety, and diversity of those magazines follow from publishers' differentiation strategies, which in turn depend on market characteristics. Competition and concentration stimulate differentiation strategies, whereas they have opposite effects on prices. However, cost structures and demand conditions make differentiation strategies dependent on the willingness of audiences to pay high subscription prices. Also, noncommercial publishers adopt strategies other than commercial ones. In combination, these factors determine prices, product variety, and magazine diversity in markets for agricultural, business services, and transportation magazines in the Netherlands in the 1990s.


We reported a case of children's OSAHS caused by the huge fibrolipoma in pharynx nasalis. The patient was a 10-years-old child who went to the hospital with the chief complaint of "Snoring and mouth breathing during sleep for 10 years". Imaging tests found one huge tumor in pharynx nasalis before the operation. The tumor was resected totally. The postoperative pathological diagnosis was fibrolipoma. No recurrence was noted during the follow-up visit one year postoperatively. The clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, pathology and prognosis were reviewed herein.


What is Augustine's commentary on Alypius' curiosity (curiositas) at the gladiatorial show in Confessiones 6, 8, 13 fundamentally about? Augustinian scholars have interpreted the story widely. Following recent scholarly developments, this work argues for a distinctively Thomistic reading of Alypius' curiositas. In 1987, Joseph Torchia interpreted this passage as putting only a secondary focus on the story's emphasis on, in his words, «conflict with God, its inner self, and others». However, this triadic conflict is found in Aquinas: in his Commentary on the Gospel of John (14, 7), Aquinas argues that a conflict with God, self and others is what it means to lack peace (pax). Confessions 6, 8, 13 is read here through a Thomistic lens: the presentation of Alypius' curiositas is fundamentally a statement about Alypius' lack of peace.


Transmission of top-down control from fish to phytoplankton via crustacean mesozooplankton is a cornerstone of limnetic plankton ecology. Such trophic cascades are less frequently reported from the marine pelagic. In this article a case is made for consideration of scale issues and for the distinction between full (affecting entire trophic levels) and partial (affecting only some functional groups) trophic cascades. Partial cascades are more widespread while the full cascades are either ephemeral or depend on the suppression of compensatory growth of the predation-resistant size-fractions of phytoplankton. This suppression can only be achieved if there is a persistent coexistence between zooplankton feeding on different parts of the phytoplankton size spectrum. This condition is fulfilled in plankton communities where microphageous cladocerans (mainly Daphnia) and microphageous copepods coexist (many lake communities) or where krill and copepods coexist (high latitude marine communities). It is not fulfilled in many temperate and low-latitude marine communities where copepods effectively suppress filter-feeding appendicularians. Thus, the observed difference in the frequency of marine and limnetic pelagic cascades is considered real.

Are all trophic cascades wet?


Accentedness and comprehensibility research has greatly evolved since its infancy in in the 1980s. As language learner trends have shifted from native-like mastery to being comprehensible to listeners, a broader range of factors, such as speaker rates, and lexical/grammatical measures have since been evaluated for research and pedagogical purposes. This paper attempts the break down the major methodological procedures used in accentedness and comprehensibility research, chiefly, by examining the types of speakers and listeners that are most commonly present in studies, the types of stimuli and rating methods, the various features of accentedness and comprehensibility and listener attitudes, to name a few. Finally, this review briefly highlights what new components should be added in order to further our understanding in this field, both for academic interest and practical pedagogical purposes.


In the standard Bayesian framework data are assumed to be generated by a distribution parametrized by $\theta$ in a parameter space $\Theta$, over which a prior distribution $\pi$ is given. A Bayesian statistician quantifies the belief that the true parameter is $\theta_{0}$ in $\Theta$ by its posterior probability given the observed data. We investigate the behavior of the posterior belief in $\theta_{0}$ when the data are generated under some parameter $\theta_{1},$ which may or may not be the same as $\theta_{0}.$ Starting from stochastic orders, specifically, likelihood ratio dominance, that obtain for resulting distributions of posteriors, we consider monotonicity properties of the posterior probabilities as a function of the sample size when data arrive sequentially. While the $\theta_{0}$-posterior is monotonically increasing (i.e., it is a submartingale) when the data are generated under that same $\theta_{0}$, it need not be monotonically decreasing in general, not even in terms of its overall expectation, when the data are generated under a different $\theta_{1}.$ In fact, it may keep going up and down many times, even in simple cases such as iid coin tosses. We obtain precise asymptotic rates when the data come from the wide class of exponential families of distributions; these rates imply in particular that the expectation of the $\theta_{0}$-posterior under $\theta_{1}\neq\theta_{0}$ is eventually strictly decreasing. Finally, we show that in a number of interesting cases this expectation is a log-concave function of the sample size, and thus unimodal. In the Bernoulli case we obtain this by developing an inequality that is related to Tur\'{a}n's inequality for Legendre polynomials.