SUMMARY The effects of early diagenetic processes are widespread in shallow marine and non-marine (deltaic) sediments of the Ravenscar Group. These can be related to both lateral variations in ground water chemistry within the original depositional environment on the lower coastal plain, and to the introduction of sea water into the non-marine sediments and of fresh water into the marine sediments. In the non-marine sediments lateral (catena) variations in soil profiles can be related to floodplain aggradation and abandonment. Near the major channel sands in the Saltwick Formation at Whitby West Cliff, a ganister and seatearth formed in elevated and well drained sediments that were frequently flushed with fresh water. In more distal floodplain areas, ground-waters were influenced by fresh water, but remained generally suboxic, as a result of which siderite cementation occurred. The influence of meteoric water is indicated by the isotopic composition of the cements that formed ( δ 13 C PDB −3.7 to −9.6 ‰, δ 18 O PDB −6.0 to −8.5 ‰). Rhombic siderite cemented the sands, and siderite nodules formed in both sands and shales. Siderite spheruliths formed within more distal soil horizons (such as the Long Nab Member at Crook Ness) where bacterial processes dominated the supply of bicarbonate into the ground water, and in non-marine sediments on abandoned and subsiding delta lobes. Bacterial influence is reflected in the more negative carbon isotopic composition relative to that of the nodules ( δ 13 C PDB −16.2 ‰, δ 18 O PDB −3.5 ‰). Sea water was introduced onto the floodplain locally, providing sulphate ions that were reduced and incorporated into the pyrite that precipitated in the siderite soil horizons. In the marine Millepore Bed sediments at Yons Nab early diagenetic, possibly aragonite, fringes formed on bioclasts and ooliths. These were subsequently deformed by the weight of overburden following renewed progradation. Grain-to-grain contact dissolution and kaolinite precipitation occurred as the fresh groundwater invaded these marine carbonates from the prograding delta above.


Fusarium oxysporum is an ubiquitous inhabitant of soils with an important role as an endophyte in several plant species, being a neutral, benefic or pathogenic endophyte. Neutral and pathogenic strains have been reported for vanilla crops (F. oxysporum f. sp. vanillae), and a polyphyletic distribution of pathogenic strains has been demonstrated. However, there is no study of a molecular genetic comparison between both groups associated with vanilla. This study is aimed to evaluate if a genetic differentiation is possible between both groups. Different microsatellite regions were amplified and data were used for genetic and statistic comparisons between pathogenic and non-pathogenic endophytes. Further, the Sequence Type of TEF-gen was determined and a phylogeny was constructed. Also, SIX gene presence was evaluated using universal primers. Results show that, based on microsatellite data, a differentiation between the two groups is not possible, however, UPGMA and CA analysis suggest that the pathogenic group is a subgroup of the non-pathogenic group. Phylogeny confirms that the ability to infect vanilla is a polyphyletic trait, but comparison with UPGMA shows that some strains have a similar genotype by convergent evolution. A Bayesian approach suggests that strains can be divided into three genetic groups. For SIX genes, amplification was not possible, thus, we hypothesized three possible explanations. Genetic differentiation among pathogenic and non-pathogenic F. oxysporum endophytes from vanilla is not possible with microsatellite data, which corresponds with the Horizontal Gene Transference hypothesis. However, the SIX genes were no-detected in any pathogenic strain, three hypotheses are planted to explain this results.


A novel measurement method based on antenna diversity principle is proposed for mobile digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) performance assessment. The method relies on an integrated measurement station and follows a measurement procedure that allows the direct comparison of A/V video signal quality and the respective electric field levels on a geo-referenced basis. The results of a wide measurement campaign performed in the urban area of Bolzano not only allow the validation of the method but also outline the necessity to enhance the practical application of the common link budget model, which predicts the minimum median field strength in a target area, as a function of the specific combining technique used at the receiver side.


Large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia was induced in 40 F344 rats by inoculating them with neoplastic cells to evaluate the effect of acute leukemia on bone remodeling and calcium balance. The rats developed leukemia and splenomegaly by 9 days after inoculation. The rats had reduced body weight (day 12), food intake (days 4, 8, 12), urine production (day 12), and fecal output (day 12). Serum calcium and phosphorus and urinary excretion of calcium and phosphorus were decreased on days 8 and 12 in leukemic rats. Static bone histomorphometry of trabecular bone in lumbar vertebrae demonstrated reduced bone area, no change in the number of osteoclasts, and reduced osteoclast perimeter at day 12. Dynamic bone histomorphometry revealed reduced double labeled perimeter, mineralizing perimeter, trabecular mineral appositional rate, and bone formation rate in rats with LGL leukemia at days 9 and 12. There was no change in periosteal mineral appositional rate. Rats with leukemia and intramedullary neoplastic cells had a reduction in bone formation rate that resulted in a loss of trabecular bone.


This paper primarily addresses a dataset relating to cellular, chemical and physical conditions of patients gathered at the time they are operated upon to remove colorectal tumours. This data provides a unique insight into the biochemical and immunological status of patients at the point of tumour removal along with information about tumour classification and post-operative survival. The relationship between severity of tumour, based on TNM staging, and survival is still unclear for patients with TNM stage 2 and 3 tumours. We ask whether it is possible to predict survival rate more accurately using a selection of machine learning techniques applied to subsets of data to gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between a patient's biochemical markers and survival. We use a range of feature selection and single classification techniques to predict the 5 year survival rate of TNM stage 2 and 3 patients which initially produces less than ideal results. The performance of each model individually is then compared with subsets of the data where agreement is reached for multiple models. This novel method of selective ensembling demonstrates that significant improvements in model accuracy on an unseen test set can be achieved for patients where agreement between models is achieved. Finally we point at a possible method to identify whether a patients prognosis can be accurately predicted or not.


We give an example of a spacetime having an infinite thin rotating cylindrical shell constituted by a charged perfect fluid as a source. As the interior of the shell the Bonnor–Melvin universe is considered, while its exterior is represented by Datta– Raychaudhuri spacetime. We discuss the energy conditions and we show that our spacetime contains closed timelike curves. Trajectories of charged test particles both inside and outside the cylinder are also examined. Expression for the angular velocity of a circular motion inside the cylinder is given.


Background Proliferation is a key feature in breast cancer and also a clinical important factor for prognosis and treatment prediction. In the St Gallen Consensus of 2011, immunohistochemically analysed Ki67 was adopted as a surrogate marker to distinguish the "luminal A" from the "luminal B" subtype, in order to select patients with estrogen receptor positive disease expected to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. The mouse monoclonal antibody MIB1 is the generally accepted antibody for assessment of Ki67. However, other antibodies have been developed, e.g. the rabbit monoclonal antibody SP6. The assessment of Ki67 with MIB1 is unfortunately associated with a considerable lack of reproducibility. Rabbit monoclonal antibodies generally tend to have higher specificity without loss of sensitivity, compared to corresponding mouse monoclonal antibodies. SP6 has also been found to have reduced background staining compared to MIB1. According to these advantages, SP6 may be an alternative to MIB1 for routine staining of Ki67. Any methodological modification should, according to international recommendations, be compared against a clinically validated assay and demonstrate acceptable concordance before being introduced in clinical routine. The analysis of Ki67 with SP6 therefore needs to be evaluated and compared to MIB1 in a cohort of breast cancer patients with clinical follow-up. Aims To compare the antibodies SP6 and MIB1 for immunohistochemical assessment of Ki67 in primary breast cancer regarding prognostic strength and reproducibility of the evaluation. Methods Tissue microarray from a cohort of 237 premenopausal women with node-negative breast cancer was used for assessment of Ki67, with both SP6 and MIB1, by three different investigators. The 7th decile was applied for defining cut-off. Distant disease-free survival (DDFS) was used as endpoint and the follow-up was restricted to 5 years. Results Ninety per cent of the samples were classified into the same group, either high or low Ki67, irrespective of antibody used. Ki67 (high vs. low), analysed with both antibodies was associated to DDFS (34 events) in the univariable analyses (SP6: HR 2.6, 95% CI 1.3-5.2, p = 0.01 and MIB1: HR 2.8, 95% CI 1.4-5.7 p = 0.004) and showed borderline significance for DDFS in the multivariable analyses, also including HER2, age, and tumour size (SP6: HR 2.0, 95% CI 0.93-4.5, p = 0.074 and MIB1: HR 2.2, 95% CI 0.97-4.8, p = 0.058). The agreement between different assessors was somewhat higher for MIB1 than for SP6 (kappa-values 0.83-0.88 vs. 0.72-0.77). Conclusions SP6 was not superior to MIB1 and the two antibodies were comparable in the assessment of Ki67 for prognostic considerations in primary breast cancer. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P2-11-15.


Rhizomucor pusillus , Rhizopus rhizodiform and Absidia corymbifera were first isolated from Mucormycotic foci on the abomasum of milk cow in China and their morphologies,physiobiochemical characteristics,virulence and drug sensitivity were studied The results showed that the colony and morpholoical characteristics of the three fungi have no significant difference with that of the same fungi isolated from nature except that the rhizoid of Rhizomucor pusillus is seldom seen The three fungi grow splendidly at 37 ℃ Various expanded cells produced by hyphae schizogony can be observed with scanning electron microscope in kidney tissue of rabbit The difference among the biochemical reactions of the three fungi provide basis for identification of the pathogens The rabbits,cavies,mice,chickens,pigs and goats infected with the three fungi all revealed the typical pathological changes indicating the intensive lethality Hyphae invasing blood vessel wall observed with light microsope in tissue showed strong virulence Mucormycosis of animal and poultry can be treated by combinating traditional Chinese medicine with western medicine,and the therapeutic effect is remarkable


Annotation. Reforming medical education, changing the paradigm towards ensuring the quality of professional training of future doctors, forming a modern educational space and harmonization with international standards on innovative technologies was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russian military aggression. The relevance of the conducted research is called by determination of the directions of educational innovation, implemented by medical institutions of higher education in wartime conditions. The methodological base of the research is the methods of scientific acknowledgement, structural and logical analysis. The scientific novelty of the issue lies in the comprehensive study of the peculiarities of organizing the training of higher medical education applicants through the prism of innovative educational technologies and interactive teaching methods use. Based on the results of the research it is recommended to use a number of modern innovative technologies that are not yet sufficiently known to the general educational community. Among such we may note «flipped classroom», gamification, brainstorming, quest-task, training based education, STEM education. However, the implementation of the specified technologies and methods should be selected according to the individual capabilities and conditions for study of medical education applicants. The research also determines the peculiarities of knowledge assessment of higher medical education applicants in the conditions of innovative education and the change of the teacher's role in the educational process. The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility to organize the training of medical students in accordance with the tasks of training professionals of the new era.


Different from most scholars of Ushul Fiqh, al-Tufi tend to put theory maslahah independence of human reason. For al-Tufi vision of a more objective reason in positioning the criteria maslahah compared to antagonist nass with one another. Therefore, the validity of argument maslahah should be determinant above the arguments of others, not to mention al-nass al-shar'i though. Pattern of this determination, in analytical with an approach normative-juridical and nature descriptive content analysis. That pattern, departing from the view that to discover the existence of maslahah not have to wait information and support nass. The mind can independently determine the matters contained therein maslahah and things are mafsadah. However, in its application, maslahah must be observed whether related to religious and muqaddarât or related to mu'âmalât and 'âdat. If related to religious and muqaddarât it must have the support of legality nass and ijmâ'. Unlike the case with regard to issue mu'âmalât and 'âdat, then maslahah be the most powerful and independent argument, did not need a legality nass and ijmâ'. In fact, even if turns out maslahah contrary to nass and ijmâ', maslahah must keep favored either with takhsis (specialization) and bayân (explanation) against nass and ijmâ'.


Understanding the epidemiology of human influenza in Viet Nam is important for developing local policies and also for understanding the dynamics of influenza in tropical and subtropical southeast Asia. I have analysed an 18 year time-series of influenza-like-illness (ILI) surveillance data, and assessed the relationship of this time-series with climate variables and with sentinel influenza virus surveillance data. I also conducted a study of influenza A/H1N1 transmission within households.

ILI notifications in Viet Nam show a latitudinal gradient, with seasonality in the north but no seasonal pattern observed in low lying areas of central and southern Viet Nam. Seasonality is however observed in the elevated provinces of central Viet Nam, suggesting that the seasonal patterns are driven by climate. Principal component analysis finds that temperature and absolute humidity (AH) are positively correlated and together explain around 59% of total climatic variance, and that there is a strong latitudinal gradient in these variables. Regression tree analysis shows that provinces with strong seasonality of AH have strong ILI seasonality. Although virological surveillance data are limited, increases in ILI notifications are associated with an increase in the proportion of upper respiratory tract swabs that are influenza positive. In a prospective study of H1N1/2009 transmission in a household-based cohort, 11 of 59 household contacts were infected, giving a household secondary infection risk of 18.6% (95%CI 10.7-30.4%), but 5 (45%) did not develop symptoms. Virus genetic sequencing indicated that 10 of the 11 secondary cases (91%) were probably infected within the household rather than from the community. This research provides new insights into the seasonality and climatic determinants of ILI and influenza epidemiology in Viet Nam, and on the transmission of influenza within households. The findings are valuable for national influenza control policies and also add to the current state of knowledge of influenza epidemiology.


The formation and the blockage of plant equipment such as heat exchangers by heavy hydrocarbon (HHC) solids is an inherent risk in cryogenic natural gas processing. The accuracy of the gas mixture's compositional characterization significantly impacts the reliability of solid formaiton temperature predictions. Recently, we showed that complete characterization of the mixture is necessary to obtain accurate predictions of the melting temperature, as current methods based on pseudocomponent characterizations of HHCs are inadequate. Here, we present an improved method of characterizing HHCs that represents each pseudocomponent up to C14+ by a paraffinic, isoparaffinic, naphthenic and aromatic (PINA) composition and allocates an associated defined component to represent these sub-fractions. This new, extended PINA-based characterization of HHC pseudocomponents is derived from 46 different pipeline natural gas samples, and the method is validated against three representative gas samples that were fully characterized. The melting temperatures of the three gas samples based on their full characterizations are 263.2 K (14.1 °F), 260.1 K (8.5 °F) and 248.3 K (−12.8 °F), respectively. Predictions made with the new method match these within (1 to 2) K, while previous correlation methods under-predict them by (10 to 20) K. The improved performance arises from (1) the selection of suitable discrete components to represent each PINA fraction within a pseudocomponent, (2) the more representative distribution of PINA fractions as a function of carbon number, and (3) the use of discrete components to represent the pseudocomponent's thermodynamic properties in both the fluid and solid phases. These results show how the new characterization method can reliably predict HHC freeze-out conditions, particularly when a full compositional analysis is unavailable. Future research should aim to test the new method on natural gas samples from regions other than the US Gulf Coast.


We use monthly precipitation simulated by a high‐resolution global climate model (the MIROC4h) to examine the effects of spatial and temporal coverage on the estimation of mean, trend, and variability of precipitation for large land regions and the global land area. We consider spatial and temporal coverage typical of publicly available precipitation data sets of in situ station observations. We find that the spatial coverage of these data sets is not sufficient for the estimation of total precipitation for the global and hemispheric land areas and for some large regions considered. Estimates of global and hemispheric total land precipitation tend to be biased to higher values due to undersampling in low precipitation regions. The existing station coverage may nevertheless provide reasonable estimates for the magnitude of trend and variability in global to regional land area mean precipitation. However, the incomplete spatial coverage of the observational records results in larger sampling errors in trend estimates, making it harder to detect statistically significant trends. Publicly available gridded precipitation data that are based on larger collection of stations (all of which are not publicly available) may provide a better alternative for the time being.


INTRODUCTION
Colonoscopy is considered to be a gold standard for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Endoscopy training is an essential component of general surgery training program. Patients should receive care at the highest level possible, nevertheless residents need to gain experience. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of colonoscopy performed by general surgery residents by comparing quality indicators between surgical trainees and consultants MATERIALS AND METHODS: The analysis included 6384 patients aged 40-65 who underwent screening colonoscopy between October 2014 and February 2018. The patients were divided into two groups: group I - patients examined by residents, group II - patients examined by board certified general surgeons. Quality indicators such as cecal intubation rate, adenoma detection rate and patient tolerance scale were compared between the two groups.

RESULTS
Group I comprised 2268 (35.53%) and group II 4116 (64.47%) patients. The overall cecal intubation rate (CIR) was 95.99%, equal for the both groups (p=0.994). There was no statistically significant difference in adenoma detection rate: 29.30% in residents group and 27.66% among consultants (p=0.203). Patient tolerance for exam was very good (4-point scale) in consultants group in 78.98% of cases and in 75.18% cases among residents (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION
. Within a proper learning environment general surgery residents are able to perform high quality and effective screening colonoscopy. However, residents need to continue the progress in their technique to improve patient tolerance in order to reach the proficiency of the consultant.


Aim.  Evaluation of the biliary tract decompression methods and their use results, in patients with obstructive jaundice of various etiologies on the basis of our own clinical material. Material and Methods. A retrospective analysis of the biliary tract drain results in 6935 patients with obstructive jaundice with benign and tumor etiology. In 87% cases there was B Class of obstructive jaundice. In 93% we observed mild (A Class) obstructive jaundice. For the biliary tract drainage we used laparoscopic or open surgical access. The retrograde drain we used in sixty-seven percent cases with obstructive jaundice B Class. In sixty-six percent cases of obstructive jaundice C Class, we used antegrade drain. Results. The biliary decompression was effective in 98%. Regarding the rate and timing of bilirubin reduction, all the applied methods showed a similar result, however, the greatest number of complications and fatalities we recorded in patients after antegrade percutaneous drain of the biliary tract and transabdominal access. In 36% the performed interventions became the final treatment option, and the sixty-one percent of patients underwent two-stage treatment. The overall mortality rate was 3%. Conclusion.  The use of percutaneous drainage is justified for obstructive jaundice with tumor origin, and possible radical surgical treatment. Transabdominal access drainage for benign etiology of obstructive jaundice in compensated patients can be safely used. Transduodenal endoscopic drain is an alternative to other methods biliary tract drain in severe and medium obstructive jaundice of benign etiology. The same drain method can be used for drainage of biliary tract in patients with tumors of the hepatopancreatobiliary zone organs, as a palliative treatment.


Background. The microcirculatory system (MCS) is a network of blood vessels that includes arterioles, capillaries, venules, and terminal lymphatic vessels. Microcirculation is characterized by the constant variability. Factors of atherogenesis development due to MCS dysfunction include shear stress, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, systemic and local inflammation, hypoxia and endothelial dysfunction mediated by oxidative stress. Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) is used to study microcirculation in the clinical settings. The advantages of LDF include simplicity, accessibility and non-invasiveness.
Objective. To describe the features of microcirculation disorders and their elimination.
Materials and methods. Analysis of literature data on this topic; own study. The study involved 98 patients (59 females; 39 males) with a mean age of 52.0 years. The first group consisted of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and chronic heart failure of I-IIA grades, the second – of relatively healthy individuals. All patients underwent LDF, ultrasound examination of the carotid arteries, and determination of anthropometric parameters.
Results and discussion. MCS dysfunction is not only a risk factor for atherogenesis, but also a trigger for its acute complications (myocardial infarction, stroke, sudden death). Nitric oxide (NO) deficiency plays an important role in this. A potential target of therapeutic influence in the treatment of coronary heart disease is not only macrovascular system, but also vasa vasorum. The condition of the latter determines the course of atherosclerosis. According to the results of our own study, patients with CHD demonstrated a muscle mass decrease, an increase in waist and hip circumference, and in body mass index. In addition, the groups differed in thickness of the intima-media complex of both common carotid arteries (right common carotid artery: CHD group – 0.79±0.18 mm; group of relatively healthy individuals – 0.69±0.13 mm, p<0,05; left common carotid artery: CHD group – 0.81±0.19 mm, group of relatively healthy individuals – 0.70±0.14 mm, p<0,05). When assessing the indicators of wavelet analysis of LDF, a significant decrease in the rate of microcirculation and capillary blood flow reserve is revealed in the CHD group, as well as an increase in peripheral vascular resistance. According to previous own studies, sorbitol (Reosorbilact, "Yuria-Pharm") and pentoxifylline (Latren, "Yuria-Pharm") can be used to correct microcirculation disorders. The use of these drugs leads to vasodilation of precapillary sphincters and improvement of regional microperfusion.
Conclusions. 1. Disorders of MCS are the pathogenetic factors of the atherogenesis. 2. Laser Doppler flowmetry is used to study microcirculation in the clinical settings. 3. In patients with CHD there is an increase in neuro- and myotonus of the MCS, which is associated with the impaired release of nitric oxide. 4. Changes in microcirculation contribute to the development of atherosclerosis, which should be taken into account when choosing treatment for such patients. 5. Sorbitol (Reosorbilact) and pentoxifylline (Latren) can be used to correct microcirculation disorders.


Contributors to Volume 340. Preface. Volume in Series. Section I. Biophysical Approaches Analysis and Interpretations of Ligand-DNA Binding Isotherms, J.B. Chaires. Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor Analysis of RNA-Small Molecule Interactions, T.M. Davis, and W.D. Wilson. Simultaneous Measurement of Binding Constants and Unwinding Angles by Gel Eletrophoresis, S.M. Zeman and D.M. Crothers. Linear and Circular Dichroism of Drug-Nucleic Acid Complexes, M. Eriksson, and B. Norden. Rapid Screening of Structurally Selective Ligand Binding to Nucleic Acids, J. Ren, and J.B. Chaires. Calorimetric Techniques in the Study of High-Order DNA-Drug Interactions, I. Haq, B.Z. Chowdhry, and T.C. Jenkins. Volume Changes Accompanying Interactions of Ligands with Nucleic Acids, L.A. Marky, D.W. Kupke, and B.I. Kankia. Calculating Sequence-Dependent Melting Stability of Duplex DNA Oligomers and Multiplex Sequence Analysis by Graphs, A.S. Benight, P. Pancoska, R. Owczarzy, P.M. Vallone, J. Nesetril, and P.V. Riccelli. Thermal Denaturation as Tool to Study DNA-Ligan Interaction, C.H. Spink, and S.E. Wellman. Kinetics of Binding of Hoechst Dyes to DNA Studied by Stopped-Flow Fluorescence Techniques, S.Y. Breusegem, F.G. Loontiens, P. Regenfuss, and R.M. Clegg. Scanning Force Microscopy of Nucleic Acid Complexes, P.T. Lillehei, and L.A. Bottomley. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies of Drug-DNA Complexes in Solution, A.N. Lane. X-Ray Crystallography of DNA-Drug Complexes, M.E. Peek, and L.D. Williams. Molecular Modeling of Drug-DNA Complexes: An Update, J.O. Trent. Chemical and Molecular Biological Approaches Peptide Nucleic Acid Targeting of Double-Stranded DNA, P.E. Nielson. Drug Interaction with Triple-Helical Nucleic Acids, C. Escude, T. Garestier, and J-S Sun. Measurement of Covalent Drug-DNA Interactions at the Nucleotide Level in Cells at Pharmacologically Relevant Doses, C.J. McGurk, P.J. McHugh, M.J. Tilby, K.A. Grimaldi, and J.A. Hartley. Targeting DNA through Covalent Interactions of Reversible Binding Drugs, D.E. Graves. Chemical Cross-Linking of Drugs to DNA, R.A. Luce, and P.B. Hopkins. High-Resolution Footprinting Studies of Drug-DNA Complexes Using Chemical and Enzymatic Probes, K.R. Fox, and M.J. Waring. Drug-RNA Footprinting, M.P. McPike, J. Goodisman, and J.C. Dabrowiak. Footprinting Methods for Analysis of Pyrrole-Imidazole Polyamide/DNA Complexes, J.W. Trauger, and P.B. Dervan. High-Resolution Transcription Assay for Probing Drug-DNA Interactions at Individual Drug Sites, D.R. Phillips, S.M. Cutts, C.M. Cullinane, and D.M. Crothers. Use of DNA Molecules Substituted with Unnatural Nucleotides to Probe Specific Drug-DNA Interactions, C. Bailly, and M.J. Waring. Drug Interactions with Nucleosomes and Chromatin, J. Portugal. Locating Cobalt-Binding Sites on DNA Using Restriction Endonucleases, A.M. Snow, and R.D. Sheardy. Exploiting Anthracycline Scaffold for Designing DNA-Targeting Agents, W. Priebe, I. Fokt, T. Przewloka, J.B. Chaires, J. Portugal, and J.O. Trent. Design, Synthesis, and Characterization of Polyintercalating Ligands, V.M. Guelev, M.S. Cubberley, M.M. Murr, R.S. Lokey, and B.L. Iverson. Enzymology and Biological Approaches Targeting Telomeres and Telomerase, D. Sun, and L.H. Hurley. Rapid, High-Throughput Engineering of Sequence-Specific Zinc Finger DNA-Binding Proteins, M. Isalan, and Y. Choo. DNA Relaxation and Cleavage Assays to Study Topoisomerase I Inhibitors, C. Bailly. In Vitro Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Integrase Assays, C. Marchand, N. Neamati, and Y. Pommier. Use of Xenopus Egg Extracts to Study Effects of DNA-Binding Drugs on Chromatin Assembly, Nuclear Assembly, and DNA Replication, A. Kumar, H. Xu, and G.H. Leng. Author Index. Subject Index.


This paper explains theoretical studies concerning urban heritage conservation. One of the frequently occurring problems in urban heritage is obsolescence. During the rapid process of urban development, regeneration of urban historic quarters is important in establishing and maintaining the character and identity of a city. This could be done by recovering the urban areas from obsolescence through renewal of the physical fabric as well as by revitalizing their economic life. The city of Solo, Indonesia, provides an example how the Municipality through revitalization programs of several historic public open spaces has started some efforts concerning urban heritage conservation. Through the case studies, this papers tries to identify main problems faced by urban heritage of Solo especially by those historic public open spaces. It also intend to look at how the Municipality dealt with these problems through revitalization programs. It also tries to analyze several dimensions in urban conservation of both historic parks before and after the revitalization programs. This paper concludes by addressing several lessons learned from the case studies, that substantial identified problems concerning conservation and socio-cultural aspects were resolved through revitalization programs. Despite the city's success in restoring their original function as public space as well as rehabilitating the decaying structures within the areas, some challenges still remain concerning the issues of authenticity and sustainability of the urban heritage.


Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have strong effects on hibernation and daily torpor. Increased dietary uptake of PUFA of the n-6 class, particularly of Linoleic acid (LA, C18:2 n-6) lengthens torpor bout duration and enables animals to reach lower body temperatures (Tb) and metabolic rates. As previously hypothesized, this well-known influence of PUFA may be mediated via effects of the membrane fatty acid composition on sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+−ATPase 2a (SERCA) in the heart of hibernators. We tested the hypotheses that high proportions of n-6 PUFA in general, or specifically high proportions of LA (C18:2 n-6) in SR phospholipids (PL) should be associated with increased cardiac SERCA activity, and should allow animals to reach lower minimum Tb in torpor. We measured activity of SERCA from hearts of hibernating and non-hibernating Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) in vitro at 35°C. Further, we determined the PL fatty acid composition of the SR membrane of these hearts. We found that SERCA activity strongly increased as the proportion of LA in SR PL increased but was negatively affected by the content of Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; C22:6 n-3). SR PL from hibernating hamsters were characterized by high proportions of LA and low proportions of DHA. As a result, SERCA activity was significantly higher during entrance into torpor and in torpor compared to inter-bout arousal. Also, animals with increased SERCA activity reached lower Tb during torpor. Interestingly, a subgroup of hamsters which never entered torpor but remained euthermic throughout winter displayed a phenotype similar to animals in summer. This was characterized by lower proportions of LA and increased proportions of DHA in SR membranes, which is apparently incompatible with torpor. We conclude that the PUFA composition of SR membranes affects cardiac function via modulating SERCA activity, and hence determines the minimum Tb tolerated by hibernators.


Malaysian Muslim women's writing in English is a new literary phenomenon, and hence, there is not much critical literature. This paper examines some samples of writings in English by Malaysian Muslim women. It begins by providing the background of English language and literature in Malaysia in an attempt to address the complexities of writing in English in Malaysia. The paper also raises issues of importance to Malaysian Muslim women writers by focusing on the struggles and conflicts that they encounter, writing as Muslim women. This is because of cultural tensions faced as a result of urbanization and modernization, which bring in new values, very often based on Western mores. The paper examines how identities are fragmented as these women address taboo subjects like sex, sexuality, and illegal abortions. Their writings express the tension between succumbing to the dictates of society and the need to expose reality as it is. Muslim women writers are also at pains to voice their Muslim identity in a world so misinformed on matters relating to Islam and Muslim women. Muslims are expected to be virtuous by their religion, and where the women are concerned, the expectations are often higher than for men as interpretations of "good" behavior are often focused on women. This unbalanced representation of Muslim women, be it by Muslims themselves or Western media, has elicited gross misrepresentations of women in Islam or Muslim women in general. This paper documents the voices of Malaysian Muslim women writers in their attempts to represent themselves and their world but not without conflicts and predicaments. The paper focuses on the women's 'fragmented selves' as they struggle to define and redefine what it is like to have multiple roles as Muslim women.


With the rapid developing of economy and the information communication, as well as the fierce competition of marketing, the consumer market of apparel is gradually matured. Also, the consumer has more requirements towards clothes, in terms of quality, style, price level and individuality. As a result, brand fashion, now, needs to accelerate the speed of every stage of producing, which is from designing to the following of finished goods in order to occupy the market share in a fast consuming, variety and individuality pursuing market. An increasing number of industries have focused on the SPA brand so as to adapt the competition of modern market. The paper mainly researches that the differences of purchasing behaviors towards SPA brand between 20`s-30`s Chinese female and 20`s-30`s Korean female. The analyzing results of purchase motivation showed difference in the `personal motivation` and `social motivation` factor. Purchase standard showed differences in the `image management` factor. The attitude toward the brand showed differences in the `practicality` and `trendiness` factor.


In the past, investing in housing has served as an engine of growth for many economies as it is widely recognized that poor housing conditions can have significant negative impacts on human health, education, and economic opportunities. To assess the housing-related quality of life, indicators such as housing quality, housing environment, and cost burdens can be applied. However, recent studies indicate that materials used for construction are critical. Permanent materials, as opposed to temporary materials, typically offer a range of benefits in terms of durability, low maintenance, improved energy efficiency, increased property value, and better safety. The ultimate aim is to identify the key drivers of housing conditions in Cambodia, with a particular focus on materials and water quality, and the legal status of housing. To find the empirical relationship between economic, socio-economic, and demographic variables on the one hand, and variables measuring housing and living conditions in Cambodia on the other, the analysis employs Ordinary Least Squares and Methods-of-Moments regression modeling. Results indicate that high employment rates and entrepreneurship increase home ownership, and improve the quality of drinking water available. Furthermore, in addition to employment and entrepreneurship, the higher-performing construction materials can also be empirically explained by a bigger labor force and variables capturing the wider macroeconomic environment.


Writing a coherent and engaging story is not easy. Creative writers use their knowledge and worldview to put disjointed elements together to form a coherent storyline, and work and rework iteratively toward perfection. Automated visual storytelling (VIST) models, however, make poor use of external knowledge and iterative generation when attempting to create stories. This paper introduces PR-VIST, a framework that represents the input image sequence as a story graph in which it finds the best path to form a storyline. PR-VIST then takes this path and learns to generate the final story via an iterative training process. This framework produces stories that are superior in terms of diversity, coherence, and humanness, per both automatic and human evaluations. An ablation study shows that both plotting and reworking contribute to the model's superiority.


Profesor Krystyna Pozaryska, an emintent Polish micropaleontologist, diedon21 October, 1989. She completed her studies at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Warsaw University in 1937. She worked with the Department of Geology and Palaeontology of the same University in years 1937 - 1939 and 1945 - 1953, then in Polish Academy of Sciences until her retirement in 1984. Krystyna Pozaryska began her scientific work with studies on Pleistocene of Poland, but since 1954 she worked on palaeontology, especially on the foraminifers of the Cretaceous and Palaeogene strata in the Polish Lowlands. She published 134 scientific papers, including monographs, publications on general problems of science, and popularization. Her achievements confirmed the significant position of Polish micropaleontology, so firmly established by Jozef Grzybowski at the end of the last century. Many pioneering papers by Krystyna Pozaryska dealt with foraminifers in the Upper Cretaceous of the Polish Lowlands. She studied guide foraminifers, presented in a paper from 1954, and published an extensive monograph "Lagenidae du Cretace superieur de Pologne" (1957). She defined Cretaceous/Palaeogene boundary in the non-Carpathian part of Poland on the grounds of foraminifers ('The Cretaceous — Tertiary boundary in Poland and adjacent areas" — 1966; 'The Upper Cretaceous and the Lower Palaeogene in Central Poland" — 1967). Many papers by Krystyna Pozaryska deal with Paleocene fonnanifers. Especially important is her monongraph from 1965 "Foraminifera and biostratigraphy of the Danian and Montian in Poland". It includes the description and analysis of the foraminiferal assemblage in the Paleocene of the non-Carpathian area of Poland, its comparison with equivalent faunas worldwide, and the discussion of the stratigraphical value, paleogeography, ecology, and migration of these faunas. Here belongs also the monograph "Foraminiferida from the Paleocene of Polish Carpathians (Babica Clays)" from 1974, written together with J. Szczechura. The rich foraminiferal assemblage includes elements known from the sediments of the Tethys Ocean and from the sediments of epicontinental seas, as the site of deposition of the Babica Clays was situated at the contact of the Carpathian geosyncline and the epicontinental basin of Central Poland. A team of authors (J. Salaj, K. Pozaryska, J. Szczechura) studied the paleontology of the hypostratotype of marine Paleocene in the Tethyan province. This study, "Foraminiferida, zonation and subdivision of the Paleocene of Tunisia" was published in 1976. At the last paeriod of her scientific activity, since 1968, Krystyna Pozaryska studied stratigraphy and foraminiferal ecology and paleogeography of Paleogene. She travelled during that period to Asia, North and Central America. She established cooperation with specialists overseas, and compiled comparative collections on the relevant subjects from all key localities. This enabled her to study Paleocene palaeogeographical provinces. She has discovered Paleogene microfaunas that were earlier unknown in Poland, the most important of them being the Priabonian one. This studies served to establish a closer correlation between the stratigraphy and palaeogeography of the west - and east - European basins. These studies were related to her leadership in the Polish group of the IGCP Project 124 The North-West European Tertiary Basin". The most important papers by Krystyna Pozaryska published in this period of her career include: "Les organismes planktoniques de l'Eocene superieur de Siemien, Pologne Orientale" (1967, together with S. Locker), "Upper Eocene Foraminifera of East Poland and their paleogeographical meaning" (1977), "Differences between the late Eocene foraminiferal faunas in Western and Eastern Europe" (1978), "Foraminifera and Calcareous Nannoplankton of Middle Oligocene on the Polish Lowlands" (1978), "Priabonian foraminifers of the Polish Lowlands" (1984, together with E. Odrzywolska- Bienkowa). Krystyna Pozaryska was involved in the teaching activity at the Geology Faculty of the Warsaw University. She was actively interested in the work of her younger colleagues, sharing her rich experience and suggesting interesting problems for research. She used her contacts with international Krystyna Pozaryska will remain in our memories as a wise and noble woman, full o f passion to science, profound knowledge and generosity.


This article adopts a Bayesian approach to derive an optimal maintenance policy following the expiration of non renewing warranty. If the system fails during its warranty period, it is replaced with a new one. If the system failure occurs after the warranty period is expired, then it is minimally repaired at each failure. As the criteria to determine the optimal replacement period, we use the expected cost and the expected downtime during the life cycle of the system. Under the replacement model considered, we first derive the formulas to compute the expected downtime per unit time and the expected cost rate per unit time in general. When the failure times are assumed to follow a Weibull distribution with unknown parameters, we propose an optimal maintenance policy based on the Bayesian approach, under which such unknown parameters are updated using the observed data. The overall value function suggested by Jiang and Ji (2002) is utilized to combine the expected downtime and the expected cost rate and to determine the optimal maintenance period. Numerical examples are presented for illustrative purpose.


This article is focused on an original control approach applied to a transportation system that includes a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) as the main energy source and supercapacitors (SC) as the energy storage backup. To interface the SC with the DC bus of the embedded network, a two-port bidirectional DC-DC converter was used. To control the system and ensure its stability, a reduced-order mathematical model of the network was developed through a nonlinear control approach employing a differential flatness algorithm, which is an attractive and efficient solution to make the system stable by overcoming the dynamic issues generally met in the power electronics networks of transportation systems. The design and tuning of the system control were not linked with the equilibrium point at which the interactions between the PEMFC main source, the SC energy storage device, and the loads are taken into consideration by the proposed control law. Besides this, high dynamics in the load power rejection were accomplished, which is the main contribution of this article. To verify the effectiveness of the developed control law, a small-scale experimental test rig was realized in the laboratory and the control laws were implemented in a dSPACE 1103 controller board. The experimental tests were performed with a 1 kW PEMFC source and a 250 F 32 V SC module as an energy storage backup. Lastly, the performances of the proposed control strategy were validated based on real experimental results measured during driving cycles, including motoring mode, ride-though, and regenerative braking mode.


Visual elements of food products can play an important role in determining food choice through shaping the attributes perception of consumers. Symbols and logos have the role of conveying information, but they can be interpreted in different ways. The product used as a case study is Extra-Virgin Olive Oil. The elements tested are: color of the bottle, sensory quality claims, organic production logos, country of origin (COO), and cold processing. An online questionnaire was completed by a sample of Dutch and Italian consumers in order to have cross-national results. Consumers' healthiness perception toward packaging alternatives with combinations of these elements were related to consumer traits through a contingent ranking method. Healthiness perception was enhanced by elements on the label such as: organic production, COO and by traits of the consumers such as familiarity and sustainability concern; while it was lowered by sensory indications of pungent properties. Somewhat unexpectedly, the color of container was the only element differently interpreted by the two nationalities.

Practical applications
Most of the packaging elements were perceived similarly by the Dutch and Italian consumers, this suggests that there is no need to create different labels for products sold in different countries. The exception relies in the indication to use dark bottles for products sold in Italy and transparent for products sold in The Netherlands. Pungent features, even if tied with superior healthy properties, are preferred by a small share of consumers. Label and packaging can be used to better communicate the healthiness of the products, so indicating the origin and the organic production can be useful for companies, regardless of the country in which they operate. A positive trend of preference toward olive oil in emerging consuming countries, as The Netherlands, is expected, as the use of this product is spreading within the population as healthy concerns about diet is becoming increasingly important.


In vitro and in vivo sieving coefficients (SC) have been determined for a spectrum of proteins ranging in molecular weight from 66,500 daltons (albumin) to 2.4 million (beta-lipoprotein) daltons for three commercially available membrane plasma separation devices: the Plasmaflo 0.1, Plasmaflo 02, and Plasmaflux. A model relating serum level of a protein to pretherapy level, plasma volume, plasma filtration rate, membrane SC, and duration of treatment has been used to investigate the influence of SC on exchange efficiency. Comparison of predicted and clinically obtained reductions in serum solute levels demonstrated the validity of the model. The results of the analysis suggest that all three plasma separators are capable of delivering equally acceptable therapy. The model further demonstrates the decreasing effectiveness, and increased cost in terms of replacement fluid per unit of solute removed, with prolonged treatment times.


Networks not employing destination-side source address validation (DSAV) expose themselves to a class of pernicious attacks which could be easily prevented by filtering inbound traffic purporting to originate from within the network. In this work, we survey the pervasiveness of networks vulnerable to infiltration using spoofed addresses internal to the network. We issue recursive Domain Name System (DNS) queries to a large set of known DNS servers worldwide, using various spoofed-source addresses. We classify roughly half of the 62,000 networks (autonomous systems) we tested as vulnerable to infiltration due to lack of DSAV. As an illustration of the dangers these networks expose themselves to, we demonstrate the ability to fingerprint the operating systems of internal DNS servers. Additionally, we identify nearly 4,000 DNS server instances vulnerable to cache poisoning attacks due to insufficient---and often non-existent---source port randomization, a vulnerability widely publicized 12 years ago.


Thromboxane A2 and cysteinyl leukotrienes are highly effective microvessel constrictors in normally perfused myocardium. Their release during acute coronary thrombosis might augment myocardial underperfusion. The constrictor action of these substances could be modified substantially, however, by concomitant myocardial ischemia. We compared the effects of the two eicosanoid constrictors in normally perfused and ischemic myocardium of 24 open‐chest, pentobarbital‐anesthetized pigs. Left anterior descending coronary flow was measured after intracoronary bolus injections of the stable thromboxane A2 analog U46619 (1‐10 μg) or leukotriene D4 (LTD4, 1‐10 μg). Each dose was given before and during myocardial ischemia induced by a snare adjusted to produce 63 ± 2% decrease in coronary flow for 10 min. Marked dose‐independent inhibition of eicosanoid‐induced coronary flow decrease occurred during ischemia. With 10 μg U46619, coronary flow decrease in the unoccluded state (25 ± 2 from 55 ± 4 ml/min pretreatment baseline) was virtually eliminated during snare occlusion (1 ± 1 from 21 ± 3 ml/min pretreatment baseline, P < 0.001). Similar results occurred with LTD4. Distal coronary pressure during ischemia indicated a lack of microvessel responsiveness to the eicosanoids rather than a buffering of resistance change by the snare. U46619 and LTD4 did induce transient, small reductions in regional shortening fraction during ischemia. Our data suggest that eicosanoid‐induced constriction of myocardial resistance vessels is not a likely complication of acute coronary thrombosis. However, eicosanoids could depress residual contractility in moderately ischemic regions.— Laurindo, F. R. M.; Finton, C. K.; Ezra, D; Czaja, J. F.; Feuerstein, G. Z.; Goldstein, R. E. Inhibition of eicosanoid‐mediated coronary constriction during myocardial ischemia. FASEB J. 2: 2479‐2486; 1988.


Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the translucency of ceramic on water sorption and solubility of resin cements over time. Methods: Lithium disilicate ceramic slides (15x15x1 mm), A1 in color and with different translucencies (high-medium-low) were manufactured; and a glass slide with similar dimension was used as control. Under every slide, 15 specimens (8x0.5 mm) from each resin cement were prepared: light-cured (RelyX Veneer); conventional dual-cured (RelyX ARC); and self-adhesive dual-cured (Rely-X U200). The specimens were then sub-divided according to the period of evaluation (immediately, after 6 and 12 months of storage) (n=5). To evaluate the loss or gain of mass, the specimens were dried until a constant mass was reached. Subsequently, they were divided according to the respective period of storage at 37°C in distilled water and weighed immediately following removal from water. After each period, specimens underwent a new dehydration. Values from water sorption and solubility were calculated and statistically analyzed (Anova 3-way/Tukey test). Results: The lower translucency resulted in greater water sorption and solubility for all cements, regardless of the experimental period. The self-adhesive dual-cured cement showed higher water sorption under all experimental periods and had worse values after 1 year aging. Differences among solubility could only be detected after aging, and the light-cured material had higher values after 6 and 12 months. Conclusions: It could be concluded that the low degree of translucency can negatively influence the passage of light and interfere on the durability of the resin cement. The conventional dual-cured resinous agent seemed to be less affected by such condition.


With emphasis on a venture's institutional environment and its stage of development, the authors develop theory to explain how the quality of a nation's legal system and the level of political hazards affect venture capital (VC) investment strategies in developing countries. The data set consists of 433 VC investment transaction rounds occurring in 13 Latin American countries over the period 1995 to 2003. Different from previous research on the likelihood of investment occurrence, the authors consider the size of an investment transaction as a dependent variable. The authors find a negative relationship between investment size and the political hazards risk and that larger investments are associated with ventures operating in lower quality legal systems. The authors also propose the moderating role of these institutional dimensions in the relationship between a venture's stage of development and investment size. Findings indicate that in lower quality legal systems, conventional VC-staging strategies are not apparent, where middle and later stage ventures receive the largest investments, but with improvements to the legal system, increasingly larger investments go to early stage ventures. Regarding the stage interaction with political hazards, the authors find that the positive relationship between the venture's stage of development and investment size weakens as the level of political hazards increases, and when political hazards are high, conventional VC-staging similarly does not occur. In uncovering the unique impact of these institutional dimensions with respect to developing country entrepreneurship, these findings shed light on the acute challenges faced by developing country ventures seeking VC funding at varying stages of development.


The digital camera is one of the main successes in consumer electronics. However a typical digital camera remains tied to proprietary software on a personal computer. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a portable Java API to simplify end user access to digital cameras and to provide interconnectivity with a new generation of intelligent home appliances.


CONTEXT
Rapid postnatal weight gain has been associated with subsequent increased childhood adiposity. However, the contribution of rapid weight gain during specific infancy periods is not clear.

OBJECTIVE
We aimed to determine which periods of infancy weight gain are related to childhood adiposity and also to age at menarche in UK girls.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
A total of 2715 girls from a prospective UK birth cohort study participated in the study.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Routinely measured weights and lengths at ages 2, 9, and 19 months were extracted from the local child health computer database. Body composition was assessed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry at age 10 yr, and age at menarche was assessed by questionnaire (categorized into three groups: <12.0, 12.0-13.0, and >13.0 yr).

RESULTS
Faster early infancy weight gain between 0 and 2 months and also 2 to 9 months were associated with increased body fat mass relative to lean mass at age 10 yr and also with earlier age at menarche. Each +1 unit gain in weight sd score between 0 and 9 months was associated with an odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 1.48 (1.27-1.60) for overweight (body mass index > 85th centile) at 10 yr, and 1.34 (1.21-1.49) for menarche at less than 12 yr. In contrast, subsequent weight gain between 9 and 19 months was not associated with later adiposity or age at menarche.

CONCLUSIONS
In developed settings, rapid weight gain during the first 9 months of life is a risk factor for both increased childhood adiposity and early menarche in girls.


While theories of signaling and conspicuous consumption suggest that more explicit markers facilitate communication, this article examines the utility of subtle signals. Four studies demonstrate that while less explicit branding increases the likelihood of misidentification (e.g., observers confusing a high-end purchase for a cheaper alternative), people with more cultural capital in a particular domain prefer subtle signals because they provide differentiation from the mainstream. Such insiders have the necessary connoisseurship to decode the meaning of subtle signals that facilitate communication with others "in the know." Consistent with the notion that these effects are driven by outward communication, they are stronger in identity-relevant product domains and situations where consumption is more public. This work highlights the communication value of less explicit signals and discusses the implications for branding, signal persistence, and the communication of identity. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..


Many herbicides that control broadleaf weeds in wheat can antagonize grass herbicide efficacy, resulting in less grain yield due to competition. Also, the broadleaf herbicide carfentrazone-ethyl can injure wheat, leading to less grain yield because of physiological response. Experiments were conducted to evaluate carfentrazone-ethyl antagonism of fenoxaprop-ethyl, tralkoxydim, clodinafop-propargyl, imazamethabenz, and flucarbazone-sodium and injury to wheat with tank mixes of carfentrazone-ethyl plus each grass herbicide or thifensulfuron, tribenuron, metsulfuron, or imazamox. Carfentrazone-ethyl did not adversely affect control of wild oat or yellow foxtail by grass herbicides in wheat. Carfentrazone-ethyl alone caused 21% wheat injury 3 d after treatment. Adding flucarbazone-sodium to carfentrazone-ethyl resulted in the least wheat injury among treatments that included carfentrazone-ethyl. Fenoxaprop-P-ethyl or clodinafop-propargyl with carfentrazone-ethyl also resulted in less wheat injury compared with carfentrazone-ethyl alone, which was attributed to formulation safeners. Sulfonylurea herbicides provided safening of carfentrazone-ethyl similar to flucarbazone-sodium, while imidazolinones did not alleviate injury. Tralkoxydim plus carfentrazone-ethyl gave 28% wheat injury compared with 21% from carfentrazone-ethyl alone. Wheat injury was no longer visible by 20 d after treatment, and wheat yield was not affected by carfentrazone-ethyl injury when wild oat and yellow foxtail were present or controlled with herbicide. Nomenclature: Carfentrazone-ethyl; clodinafop-propargyl; fenoxaprop-P-ethyl; flucarbazone-sodium; tralkoxydim; yellow foxtail, Setaria glauca (L.) Beauv. #3 SETLU; wild oat, Avena fatua L. # AVEFA; wheat, Triticum aestivum L. 'Alsen', 'ND722', 'Oxen'. Additional index words: Antagonism, crop injury, safening with herbicides, imazamethabenz, imazamox, thifensulfuron, tribenuron, metsulfuron. Abbreviations: ALS, acetolactate synthase (EC 188.8.131.52); COC, crop oil concentrate; DAT, days after treatment; MSO, methylated seed oil; NIS, nonionic surfactant; PO, petroleum oil; UAN, urea and ammonium nitrate solution.


The major share of raw materials needed to sustain our present lifestyle and even more importantly, required for the crucial green transition, are sourced outside Europe. The European Commission aims to enhance Europe's resilience and strengthen domestic sourcing. Although Europe has a long tradition of mining and extractive activities, it is acknowledged that there are several challenges to achieve European sourcing of certain raw materials such as the critical raw materials. A basic prerequisite to enable access to domestic raw materials is information on raw material occurrences, current and past mining activities, resources and reserves. The Geological Survey Organisations (GSOs) of Europe play a key role in generating, compiling, gathering, and storing the most up to date information as well as long-term data series on raw materials at national and regional levels. Over the last decade, the GSOs have joined forces and taken essential steps to harmonise and share data on raw materials. The results of this cooperation are illustrated as interactive maps on the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI). This paper describes the data compiled in cooperation between the GSOs, and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of as well as opportunities for and threats towards the data.


Fever is an abnormal increase in body temperature that occurs as part of a specific biologic response mediated and controlled by the central nervous system. Despite the fact that most fevers are viral in origin, approaching a febrile child is always a concern for any physician. There is still a significant gap between current practice and scientific evidence. According to research, we are at a crossroad, with strong research evidence accumulating over the last few decades supporting a positive role for fever and the ongoing pressures of current practice to lower body temperature. Despite the fact that most pediatricians agree that treating a febrile child with antipyretics is primarily for the relief of fever symptoms, many continue to prescribe antipyretics for any child with fever, ignoring important research messages. By prescribing antipyretics to children who are only mildly febrile, pediatricians may contribute to fever phobia. We give parents the impression that fever is harmful and that antipyresis is beneficial when we focus on treating the fever. The purpose of this review is to present the evidence that is currently available regarding the management of the febrile child.


The recent introduction of several techniques provides a means to examine the release of neurotransmitter from living cells. These techniques exploit the use of small slices of neural tissue, and also enzymatically isolated neurons, in conjunction with an enzymatic assay to demonstrate release of specific endogenous neurotransmitters from the cells. In particular, release of the most common neurotransmitters in the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS) have been observed. These transmitters are glutamate and /spl gamma/-aminobutyric acid (GABA). The techniques thus provide a valuable approach to examine the release of specific neurotransmitters from visually identified, living tissue and cells.


To characterize the nature of thyroid peroxidase (TPO) autoantibodies present in the sera of patients with autoimmune thyroid disease, we cloned three IgG1/kappa Fab fragments which bind 125I-TPO. This was accomplished by the molecular cloning and expression in bacteria of IgG gene fragments from B cells infiltrating the thyroid of a patient with Graves' disease. The three Fab fragments (SP2, SP4, and SP5) are coded for by a common heavy chain (VH1, D, JH3) and three related, but different, light chains (VK1, JK2). The SP Fab fragments bind specifically to TPO with high affinities (6 x 10(-11)-2 x 10(-10) M) comparable to those of serum TPO autoantibodies. TPO autoantibodies represented by the SP Fab fragments are present in all 11 patients studied, constitute a high proportion (36-72%) of serum TPO autoantibodies in individual patients and interact with a conformational epitope on TPO.


Various congenital and acquired forms of heart disease have been reported in captive lowland gorillas, and heart disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in geriatric humans. However, the prevalence of heart disease is unknown in nonhuman great apes species. Indeed, little is known about heart disease in chimpanzees, although the species has been used in research for decades. This report details the clinical presentation and diagnostics (thoracic radiography, electrocardiography, and echocardiography) utilized to diagnose idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy in a 27-year-old male chimpanzee. Treatment decisions--indicated by follow-up diagnostics including repeat electrocardiography, echocardiography, and clinical laboratory data--over the 22-month period during which he continues to be treated are described. In addition, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings obtained from 20 clinically normal adult (11 female and 9 male) chimpanzees are presented for comparison.


Quercetin has been demonstrated to produce DNA damage in the presence of metal ions. In the present study, 7 natural and 5 semi‑synthetic glycosylated flavonoids were utilized to investigate the cupric ion (Cu2+)‑dependent DNA damage in vitro. The reaction mixture, containing single‑stranded DNA, different concentrations of flavonoids and cupric ion in the buffer, was incubated at three different temperatures. DNA damage was then assessed by gel electrophoresis followed by densitometric analysis. The reaction mixture with quercetin at 4, 20 and 54˚C induced DNA damage in a concentration‑ and temperature‑dependent manner. Furthermore, only the reaction at 54˚C resulted in DNA damage in flavonoids with glucosyl substitution of the hydroxyl group at the 3‑position on the C ring in quercetin. By contrast, loss of the hydroxyl group at the 3‑position on the C ring, or at the 3'‑ or 4'‑position on the B ring of quercetin, did not portray DNA damage formation at the investigated experimental temperatures. In addition, the experimental results suggested that the hydroxyl group at the 3‑position on the C ring produced the strongest capability to induce DNA damage in the presence of cupric ions. Furthermore, hydroxyl groups at the 3'‑ or 4'‑position on the B ring were only able to induce DNA damage at higher temperatures, and were less efficient in comparison with the hydroxyl group at the 3‑position on the C ring. Cupric ion chelating capacity was also assessed with spectroscopic analysis, and quercetin presented the largest chelating capacity among the tested flavonoids. Hydroxyl radical formation was assessed with a luminol reaction, and quercetin presented faster consumption of luminol. These results suggest that the 3‑position hydroxyl group of the C ring is required to induce DNA damage at low temperatures. Furthermore, the results of the present study also indicated that the presence of cupric ions will decrease the activity of the glycosylated quercetins, in terms of their ability to induce DNA damage.


The goal of this paper is to provide information on Danish lighting trends. The agenda is to present a method for documenting sensory qualities of light, which are often described as subjective preferences and not documentable. The impacts of light on the atmosphere are discussed against sociocultural aspects of light. By analysing 3,483 images in the Danish trend magazine BO BEDRE in the period 1961–2010, the study investigates the identifying marks of arranging artificial light in a horizontal tripartition of a space: High Lighting Zone (HIGH), Centre Lighting Zone (CENTRE) and Low Lighting Zone (LOW). The results show that a horizontal tripartition can be used to describe the various uses of light in Danish homes and, thereby, the sociocultural trends in residential lighting. In the living room, dining room, multifunctional rooms and rooms for sitting activities, lighting placement dominates in the CENTRE. The HIGH and CENTRE are normally used in rooms for standing activities. In rooms such as corridors and the bathroom, most light is arranged in the HIGH, and finally the LOW characterizes bedroom lighting. Finally, the paper discusses results, advantages and disadvantages of the analysis and the method for collecting data.


Structural Functional Synergistic Resolution Recovery (SFS-RR) is a technique that uses supplementary structural information from MR or CT to improve the spatial resolution of PET or SPECT images. This wavelet-based method may have a potential impact on the clinical decision-making of brain focal disorders such as refractory epilepsy, since it can produce images with better quantitative accuracy and enhanced detectability. In this work, a method for the iterative application of SFS-RR (iSFS-RR) was firstly developed and optimized in terms of convergence and input voxel size, and the corrected images were used for the diagnosis of 18 patients with refractory epilepsy. To this end, PET/MR images were clinically evaluated through visual inspection, atlas-based asymmetry indices (AIs) and SPM (Statistical Parametric Mapping) analysis, using uncorrected images and images corrected with SFS-RR and iSFS-RR. Our results showed that the sensitivity can be increased from 78% for uncorrected images, to 84% for SFS-RR and 94% for the proposed iSFS-RR. Thus, the proposed methodology has demonstrated the potential to improve the management of refractory epilepsy patients in the clinical routine.


Presented for the first time, a comparative table of the contents of the databases that list the journals in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH)named JournalBase has been published, in June 2009, in Cybergeo. The study covers the AHCI and the SSCI of the Web of Science (published by Thomson Reuters) and Scopus (published by Elsevier), as well as the European Reference Index for Humanities (ERIH) (published by the European Science Foundation) and the lists of the French Agence pour l'Evaluation de la Recherche et de l'Enseignement Superieur (AERES). The research was carried out in 2008 with the financial support of the TGE Adonis of the CNRS. With some 20,000 entries, corresponding to 10,000 different journals, this is an almost exhaustive overview of the wealth of publications in the Social Sciences and the Humanities, at last made available in this table, adopting the same nomenclature for classifying the journals according to their disciplines as the one used in 27 headlines of the European Science Foundation. The multiple assignments reveal the multidisciplinarity of the journals, which is quite frequent in SSH, but also sometimes the inconsistency of databases that have not been corrected.The article presents the history of the project, the methodology established by the authors, the difficulties encountered in comparing the data. The first results reveal a broader coverage of the ERIH list for the human sciences and an over-representation of the Anglophone journals in the commercial databases throughout the disciplines. The objective of this work is to provide information about the contents of these databases, at a time when bibliometric tools are raising much discussion about their application in the field of the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH).


The electrical behavior of anisotropic BSCCO single crystals is modeled by mutually coupled long Josephson junctions. For the basic fluxon modes with one fluxon per layer, the fluxons will arrange themselves in an anti phase configuration (triangular lattice) because of the mutual repulsion. We are interested in the in-phase modes (square lattice) desired for many potential applications. We consider two mechanisms (i) intrinsic locking by out of phase oscillations at the trailing edge and (ii) locking by an external high-Q resonator with a resonance frequency corresponding to fluxon in-phase motion. The resulting model is a set of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations. By direct numerical simulations we have demonstrated that the qualitative behavior of the combined intrinsic Josephson junction and cavity system can be understood on the basis of general concepts of nonlinear oscillators interacting with a resonator. For some region of the parameter space it is possible to reach the desired synchronous state, making the system potentially suitable for applications. We also consider the system in the flux flow mode under a high magnetic field.


CONTEXT
Scapular dyskinesis has been identified as a possible risk factor for injury in overhead athletes. There is a need to develop a simple, inexpensive, time-efficient field-based test that can establish the presence and severity of both scapular dyskinesis and its individual components in a musculoskeletal preparticipation screening. To ensure confidence in the test results, high reliability must be displayed.

OBJECTIVE
To establish the intertester and intratester reliability of a simple field-based screening tool for scapular dyskinesis.

DESIGN
Reliability study.

SETTING
Athletic therapy facilities.

PARTICIPANTS
15 physically active men (19.46 ± 0.63 y) free from any orthopedic or neurological disorders, recruited from a convenience sample of college students.

INTERVENTION
Testers underwent 3 training sessions where the instructions and scoring system of the test were explained, demonstrations of the tests were given, and opportunities to practice the test were provided. Three testers independently rated 3 trials, and the process was repeated at the same time the following week.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Scapular dyskinesis was assessed using the following components: winging, loss/lack of control when lifting, loss/lack of control when lowering, and scapular asymmetry. A 0-3 rating (0 = no issue, 1 = slight issue, 2 = moderate issue, 3 = severe issue) was provided by the tester independently on each side separately and on scapular asymmetry. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), 95% confidence intervals, and standard error of measurement (SEM) were computed to establish reliability.

RESULTS
Excellent ICC values were found for intertester reliability (ICCs .80-1.00) and good to excellent intratester reliability (ICCs .60-1.00 for tester A, .63-1.00 for tester B, and .75-1.00 for tester C) for all components of the test. The SEM was not found to be clinically significant.

CONCLUSIONS
The simple field-based screening tool developed to assess scapular dyskinesis demonstrates high reliability and so is a reliable tool to use in preparticipation screenings. Future research should establish its validity.


Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a complex construct composed of the means and the motivations by which a person harms his or her intimate partner. Existing measures only assess forms of IPA perpetration while neglecting to measure the motivations for aggressing. The present study sought to fill this lacuna by adapting and validating an existing measure of the forms and functions of adolescent peer aggression to assess IPA perpetration in adults. This new measure-the Forms and Functions of Intimate Partner Aggression (FFIPA)-comprises 4 latent dimensions of IPA (i.e., overt, relational, proactive, and reactive). Participants were 341 heavy-drinking heterosexual couples (N = 682) with a recent history of psychological and/or physical IPA recruited from 2 metropolitan cities in the United States. The FFIPA demonstrated good model fit and internal validity. Unique patterns of convergent and criterion-related validity supported the 4 dimensions of the FFIPA. Results also indicated women perpetrated significantly more overt and relational aggression than men. Findings support the FFIPA as a valid measure of the forms and functions of IPA perpetration. More important, as the only instrument that parses the forms and functions of IPA perpetration, the FFIPA delineates the unique motivations of an aggressive partner separately from the form of his or her aggressive behavior(s). Further replication is needed to generalize this measure to nonconflictual and other types of intimate relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


Background Both kappa and lambda free light chain (FLC) levels appear to be elevated the serum of patients with pSS, in comparison to healthy controls [1,2]. Consequently, FLCs may represent potential biomarkers for disease activity in pSS. Objectives To investigate the relationship between kappa and lambda serum levels and disease activity in the UK primary Sjögren's syndrome registry (UKPSSR), a cohort of clinically well-characterised patients and healthy controls [3]. Methods Serum samples for 599 pSS patient and 287 healthy controls were tested using the Freelite (kappa and lambda), BAFF, and B2M assays, and using Combylite, a new assay of both kappa and lambda chains in a single test. Additional subjective and objective clinical data, including ESSDAI, ESSPRI and immunological markers, were retrieved from the UKPSSR database [3]. Comparison of baseline patient and controls FLC levels was by ANOVA. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated for patient characteristics and serum levels. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine independent predictors for ESSDAI. All statistical analyses were performed in R [4]. Results Both the kappa and lambda FLC levels, and the Combylite combined FLC level, were significantly higher in pSS patients in comparison with the healthy controls. Of the 599 patients, 339 (57%) had abnormal FLC levels (high kappa, high lambda or abnormal kappa:lambda ratio). The three FLC levels were all significantly correlated with one another. In addition the FLC levels correlated significantly with a number of clinical factors, including B2M, IgG and average Schirmer's but not with BAFF levels, age or disease duration. The kappa free light chain levels had higher correlations with clinical data than the lambda in the majority of cases, with the combined Combylite scores falling between the two in most cases. Multivariate analysis indicated that BAFF and B2M are independent predictors of ESSDAI score, while FLC levels are not. Conclusions The combined Combylite assay produces a FLC measurement that is comparable with the separate kappa and lambda assays. Serum FLC levels are increased in patients with pSS in comparison with healthy controls and correlate with several clinical factors. However, multivariate analysis indicates that BAFF and B2M, but not FLC levels, are predictors of disease activity. References Gottenberg JE, Seror R, Miceli-Richard C, et al. PLoS One 2013; 8(5): e59868. Gottenberg JE, Aucouturier F, Goetz J, et al. Ann Rheum Dis 2007; 66(1): 23-7. Ng WF, Bowman SJ, Griffiths B, et al. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2011; 50(1): 32-9. R Core Team, R Foundation for Statistical Computing. 2013 http://www.R-project.org Disclosure of Interest : None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.4986


GATA-binding protein 3 (GATA3) acts as the master transcription factor for type 2 T helper (Th2) cell differentiation and function. Fine-tuning GATA3 transcription activity is critical for effectively expelling extracellular parasites and preventing allergic disorders. However, it is still elusive how GATA3 function is regulated in Th2 cells. Here, we report that the transcription factor B-cell Lymphoma 11b (Bcl11b) is a novel component of the GATA3 transcriptional complex executing GATA3-mediated gene expression. Bcl11b binds to GATA3 through protein-protein interaction; ChIP-Seq analysis showed co-localization of Bcl11b and GATA3 at many important cis-regulatory elements in Th2 cells. The expression of type 2 cytokines, including IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, is up-regulated in Bcl11b-deficient Th2 cells both in vitro and in vivo; such up-regulation is completely GATA3 dependent indicating that Bcl11b inhibits GATA3-mediated cytokines production. Genome-wide analysis of Bcl11b- and GATA3-mediated gene regulation (RNA-Seq) and co-binding pattern (ChIP-Seq) suggests that GATA3/Bcl11b complex are involved in limiting Th2 gene expression as well as inhibiting non-Th2 gene expression. Thus, Bcl11b, a previously unknown GATA3 binding protein, fine-tunes GATA3-mediated gene expression in Th2 cells.


Most cropping farms in Western Australia must deal with the management of herbicide-resistant populations of weeds such as annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) and wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum). Farmers are approaching the problem of herbicide resistance by adopting integrated weed management systems, which allow weed control with a range of different techniques. These systems include non-herbicide methods ranging from delayed seeding and high crop seeding rates to the use of non-cropping phases in the rotation. In this paper, the Multi-species RIM (resistance and integrated management) model was used to investigate the value of including non-cropping phases in the crop rotation. Non-crop options investigated here were haying and green manuring. Despite them providing excellent weed control, it was found that inclusion of these non-cropping phases did not increase returns, except in cases of extreme weed numbers and high levels of herbicide resistance.


Introduction: Schoolchildren have to carry their backpacks every day on routes with different characteristics and slopes. However, the knowledge available on its effects on walking biomechanics is very limited. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effects of backpack carriage in different weights and gradients on the kinetics of schoolchildren's gait. Materials and Methods: 18 primary schoolchildren living in Tehran City, Iran, with age range of 10-12 years completed 7 randomized trials of walking on a treadmill (three tasks on a flat surface, including without a backpack and with backpacks with 10% and 15% of body weight load as the control group, two tasks on a 15% positive gradient, and two tasks on a 15% negative gradient). The values of the vertical ground reaction force parameters including the first force peak, second force peak, mid support force, loading rate, push-off rate, and time-to-peak (TTP) were extracted. Results: The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the effect of gradient on the first and second peaks, loading rate, rate of push-off, and TTP of gait was significant (P ≤ 0.001), but the effect of backpack weights on the kinetics was not significant Conclusion: Carrying backpacks downhill will has more impacts on the children's motor system, so that it seemed to have a different motor control strategy. The modification of backpack carriage methods can be one of the leading strategies to reduce the negative effects of stress on the musculoskeletal system of children.


Fifty-years following the first successful report, cardiac transplantation remains the gold-standard treatment for eligible patients with advanced heart failure. Multiple small-animal models of heart transplantation have been used to study the acute and long-term effects of novel therapies. However, few are tested and demonstrated success in clinical trials. It is of critical importance to evaluate new therapies in a clinically relevant large-animal model for efficient and reliable translation of basic studies' findings. Here, we describe a pre-clinical large-animal (porcine) model of orthotopic heart transplantation that has been firmly established and previously used to investigate novel cardioprotective strategies. This procedure focuses on acute ischemia-reperfusion injury and is a reliable method to investigate novel interventions which have been tested and validated in smaller experimental models, such as the murine model. We demonstrate its usefulness in assessing cardiac performance during the early post-transplantation period and other potential possibilities enabled by the model.


Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an emerging multi-drug-resistant global opportunistic pathogen of environmental, mainly plant-associated origin. It is also used as a biocontrol or stress protecting agent for crops in sustainable agricultural as well as in bioremediation strategies. In order to establish effective protocols to distinguish harmless from harmful strains, our discussion must take into consideration the current data available surrounding the ecology, evolution and pathogenicity of the species complex. The mutation rate was identified as one of several possible criteria for strain plasticity, but it is currently impossible to distinguish beneficial from harmful S. maltophilia strains. This may compromise the possibility of the release and application for environmental biotechnology of this bacterial species. The close relative S. rhizophila, which can be clearly differentiated from S. maltophilia, provides a harmless alternative for biotechnological applications without human health risks. This is mainly because it is unable to growth at the human body temperature, 37∘C due to the absence of heat shock genes and a potentially temperature-regulated suicide mechanism.


This paper reviews the empirical literature on growth and convergence that has addressed the importance of spatial factors. An important distinction in this literature is the one between absolute and relative location. The literature on absolute location predominantly uses non-spatial econometric techniques, and is strongly linked to the economic growth literature. In contrast, studies on relative location tend to be weakly linked to theory, but apply relatively sophisticated econometric techniques to account for spatial effects. Most studies of the latter type are regional in nature, although there is a growing interest in extending the analysis to a cross-country setting. Both regional and cross-country studies typically make use of so-called spatial process models. Rather than modeling the impediments of space and distance directly, spatial process models start from exogenously provided information about the spatial structure. Our review shows that the usage of simple spatial autoregressive lag and error models abounds in the spatial econometrics literature. We assess the appropriateness of such models, and identify areas of potential concern. The rather weak linkage between theory and operational models, the dominance of "global" over "local" spatial association patterns, and the implicit restrictions on spatial interaction induced by many of the habitual specifications of the spatial weights matrix concurrently constitute areas where improvements can be made.


Main source of URN(underwater radiated noise) which is related to the ship's survivability is divided into two groups. Cavitation is the main source of URN when the speed of ship is upper than CIS(cavitation inception speed). But when the speed of ship is lower than CIS, the main source of URN is the structure-borne noise on the hull which is originated from propulsion system, pump system and trnasmitted vibration of the pipe system. In this paper, to reduce the vibration of discharge pipe and valve system, back flow prevent globe valve and new rubber mount are applied to the ship. As the result of applying new valve and mount, the vibration is reduced drastically.


Abstract Ionic motion and local structure of phenethylammonium ion (C6H5CH2CH2NH3+) in a series of phenethylammonium lead(II) halides, [C6H6CH2CH2NH3]2PbX4 (X = Cl, Br, I) were studied by means of 13C cross polarization/magic angle sample spinning (CP/MAS) NMR technique. Among the three salts, remarkable differences in the spectra were observed in the signals corresponding to the phenyl carbons. The peaks from C2, C3, C5, and C6 in the phenyl group were split into three for the chloride and into two for the bromide, although in the iodide those were observed as a single peak. Coalescence of those peaks, as well as line broadening were observed on heating. This indicated that peak split brings about disorder of the orientation in the phenyl group around the C1-C4 axis, suggesting to have three and two orientations for the chloride and the bromide, respectively. Above room temperature the phenyl group undergoes chemical exchange among these orientations, and at higher temperature, reorientation with a large amplitude takes place around its axis. The apparent activation energies of the reorientation of the phenyl group for the chloride and bromide were estimated from the temperature dependence of the linewidth of the resonance peaks to be about 24 kJ mol-1 , 25 kJ mol-1 , respectively, which is similar to in the iodide (25.0 kJ mol-1). Ab initio molecular orbital energy calculation was carried out to evaluate the potential barrier of the internal rotation of the phenyl group in a free phenethylammonium ion. The intramolecular interaction was evaluated to be 13.9 kJ mol-1 from the calculation, and the intermolecular interaction results to be 10 kJ mol-1 .


Sketch recognition is the automated recognition of hand drawn diagrams. Military course-of-action (COA) diagrams are used to depict battle scenarios. The domain of military course of action diagrams is particularly interesting because it includes tens of thousands of different geometric shapes, complete with many additional textual and designator modifiers. Existing sketch recognition systems recognize on the order of at most 20 different shapes. Our sketch recognition interface recognizes 485 different freely drawn military course-of-action diagram symbols in real time, with each shape containing its own elaborate set of text labels and other variations. We are able to do this by combining multiple recognition techniques in a single system. When the variations (not allowable by other systems) are factored in, our system is several orders of magnitude larger than the next biggest system. On 5,900 hand-drawn symbols drawn by 8 researchers, the system achieves an accuracy of 90% when considering the top 3 interpretations and requiring every aspect of the shape (variations, text, symbol, location, orientation) to be correct.


Smart home technologies refer to devices that provide some degree of digitally connected, automated, or enhanced services to household occupants. Smart homes have become prominent in recent technology and policy discussions about energy efficiency, climate change, and the sustainability of buildings. Nevertheless, do they truly promote sustainability goals? Based on an extensive original dataset involving expert interviews, supplemented with a review of the literature, this study elaborates on an array of social, technical, political, and environmental risks facing smart home innovation, with clear implications for research, policy, and technology development. Only with a more thoughtful and coordinated mix of policies in place will smart home adoption begin to fulfill some of the sustainability objectives their advocates continually promise.


A semi-automated method for detecting eyelid-related pathologies is presented. The authors describe a novel approach for extracting significant features of the palpebral contour of the human eye in order to assist eyelid-related pathologic diagnosis. Image-processing techniques are used to better perform palpebral morphology analysis and quantification. On its practical side, it consists of a semi-automated method to detect eyelid contour using a Laplacian-of-Gaussian operator, analyze it, and treat its parameters. The main advantage of this approach is to avoid subjectivity of the traditional clinical approach.


The effects of tree species on soil organic carbon (SOC) content have been evaluated in many studies, but only with a relatively small number of sample plots, resulting in ambiguous conclusions. Here we used a total of 595 forest plots in South Korea to investigate the role of four grouped tree species—pines, oaks, other conifers, and other deciduous trees—in the forest SOC content in both forest floors and mineral soils. Significant differences were observed in SOC content among the groups. Pines contained 7.12 Mg C/ha of organic carbon in forest floors, whereas oaks and other deciduous trees contained 5.39 and 5.41 Mg C/ha, respectively. In contrast, oaks and other deciduous trees contained ~66 Mg C/ha of organic carbon each in mineral soils (0‐ to 30‐cm depth), whereas pines contained 49.50 Mg C/ha. The total SOC content including both forest floors and mineral soils was the largest under oaks and the smallest under other coniferous trees, due to SOC being approximately an order of magnitude higher in mineral soils than in forest floors. The effects of tree species on SOC storage became apparent for the forest stands with >20‐year‐old trees, which suggests that the observed differences in the SOC content are likely due to the current stands rather than remnants of previous stands. The decomposition rates of organic materials could be a controlling factor affecting SOC storage, rather than inputs of photosynthesized products to soils.


A dioxin-like compound (DLC) is a halogenated aromatic compound that has toxicological properties similar to those of the reference toxicant 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). The DLCs include other halogenated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (especially those that are chlorinated in the 2-,3-,7-, and 8-positions), and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). They associate with the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) protein, and share some biological end-points with TCDD, notably the induction of Phase 1 monooxygenase enzymes. Because DLCs normally occur as complex mixtures in environmental and biological samples, it is common to refer to the TCDD equivalent concentration [toxic equivalence (TEQ)], which is obtained by summing for each congener its actual amount or concentration by an empirical toxic equivalency factor (TEF). Conventional analysis of DLCs by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is cumbersome and expensive, and much attention has been given to developing bioassays that will yield a measure of the TEQ in a single determination. Many such bioassays are mechanism-based, meaning that the assay end-point is one of the steps along the pathway of the mechanism of action.

This article begins with an overview of bioassay methods in general, pointing out similarities and differences between chemical assays and bioassays, before describing particular assays that have been developed for DLCs. Among mechanism-based assays, AhR binding assays are well established, and are useful because they include the dioxin-like activity of both productive and unproductive compounds. In assays based on subsequent stages of the mechanism of action, unproductive substances can antagonize the responses of productive compounds, a phenomenon that is explicable in terms of target molecule antagonism, in which the AhR protein is the target molecule.

Immunoassays for DLCs have recently received much attention; although their spectrum of cross-reactivity does not always correlate well with TEFs, there has been important recent progress in terms of the sensitivity and detection limit (DL) of these assays. Finally, early life stage bioassays are becoming increasingly important as research has revealed the toxicological effects of DLCs during development.


Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) type IV, also known as vascular EDS, is an inherited connective tissue disorder with an estimated prevalence of 1/100,000 to 1/250,000. In EDS type IV, vascular complications may affect all anatomical areas, with a preference for large- and medium-sized arteries. Dissections of the vertebral and carotid arteries in their extra- and intra-cranial segments are typical. The authors report the case of a patient with EDS type IV for whom the diagnosis was established based on clinical signs and who developed internal carotid artery dissection at the age of 44 years. In the absence of a specific treatment for EDS type IV, medical interventions should focus on symptomatic relief, prophylactic measures, and genetic counseling. Invasive imaging techniques are contraindicated, and a conservative approach to vascular complications is usually recommended.


We report for the first time the nuclear magnetic resonance cryoporometry (NMRC) pore size distribution study of polypropylene homopolymer fluffs in a wide range from several nanometers up to almost one micrometer. The method, being applicable to fragile materials, provides an opportunity to employ a set of different probe molecules, such as dodecane and hexadecane in this study, to characterize the pore sizes and swelling effect of the polymers. The fluffs have been proven to be essentially macroporous with a minor mesopore part and negligible pore volume of micropores. The residual silica porosity analysis performed to understand the origin of polymer macroporosity emphasize the porosity hidden by the main mesoporosity peak of silicon oxide. This residual macroporosity would seem similar to the macroporosity of the PPH fluffs in terms of PSD. NMRC has been shown to provide robust interconsistent and reproducible pore size distributions of polymers and silicas within the range from several nanometer up to 2 micrometers.


We have used our robotic TIGRE facility to closely monitor the star τ Boo during the last three observing seasons 2013–2016 and to determine its S -index variability from the strength of its Ca ii H and K line cores in order to study its characteristic cyclic chromospheric variations and determine its rotation period. We furthermore reanalyze archival X-ray data of τ Boo taken with the XMM-Newton satellite. Using Lomb-Scargle periodograms, we find a strong periodic signal in our data with a period of about 122 days with extremely high significance, which is also consistent with the observed long-term X-ray variability. Furthermore, the epochs of magnetic field reversals observed in τ Boo with the technique of Zeeman Doppler imaging are consistent with the hypothesis that they are produced at activity maximum. In line with previous studies of τ Boo, we therefore interpret our data as evidence of a very short activity cycle in analogy to the solar cycle, but the cycle period of τ Boo may also show some slight variability and may show substantial phase shifts. The chromospheric signal of τ Boo is found to vary on the rotational timescale of somewhat more than three days only during one out of the available three observing seasons. The available data suggest that persistent cyclic magnetic activity can occur on timescales much shorter than the decadal timescale observed for the Sun and many other late-type stars.