Objective: Purpose of this study was to know any existing correlation between haemoglobin and lung function tests for
respiratory status evaluation in young healthy individuals.
Study Design: Cross sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Physiology Laboratory of Yusra Medical and Dental College, Islamabad from January 2012 to
January 2013.
Materials and Methods: One hundred and sixty students of Yusra Medical and dental college were included in the study.
Blood samples of the subjects were collected for haemoglobin (Hb) estimation by Sahli method and measurement of the
lung function tests was done by Spirometry using volume Spirometer. Lung function tests included tidal volume (TV),
Inspiratory reserve volume (IRV), expiratory reserve volume (ERV) and vital capacity (VC).Data was analysed using SPSS
15and correlation was calculated using Pearson's correlation co-efficient between haemoglobin and the lung functions
tests.
Results: The p value indicates significant positive relation exist between haemoglobin and Inspiratory reserve volume(r =
0.39, p < 0.0001), expiratory reserve volume(r = 0.43, p < 0.0001) however, no significant relation exists between vital
capacity and haemoglobin (p=0.242).
Conclusion: There is positive correlation between haemoglobin and Lung Function Tests.


The use of self-reply questionnaires as a data collection instrument is common in tourism research. However, while there is a long tradition of use of these instruments in social science research, there has been little discussion of the particular needs and challenges created by tourism situations. This paper blends both theory, practical and experience to suggest a range of issues and guidelines which researchers may find useful in preparing a selfreply qu.estionnaire. A number of technical issues associated with surveys are also addressed. A number of principles and examples of good practice from the literature on survey methods and survey design together with the problems of using this positivist mode of data collection in tourism scenarios are developed.


There was made a quantitative study of the influence of 14 days space flight ("Kosmos-2044") on dendritic spine (DS) density of the layer V pyramidal neurons of rat sensomotor cortex. There was found an increase of the number of apical DS lying in the layers III-IV in the flight group only. Number of DS on oblique dendrites was increased in the III-IV cortical layers both in the flight and tail-suspended rats. There was also an increase in the number of DS on basal dendrites in all experimental groups. Obtained data are compared with similar 7 days flight results ("Kosmos-1667") and other data of nervous tissue plasticity in weightlessness.


Abstract An integrated tectonic and sequence stratigraphic analysis of the Cretaceous and Danian of the Danish Central Graben has led to significant new insights critical for our understanding of the chalk facies as a unique cool-water carbonate system, as well as for the evaluation of its potential remaining economic significance. A major regional unconformity in the middle of the Upper Cretaceous chalk has been dated as being of early Campanian age. It separates two distinctly different basin types: a thermal contraction early post-rift basin (Valanginian–Santonian), which was succeeded by an inversion tectonics-affected basin (Campanian–Danian). The infill patterns for these two basin types are dramatically different as a result of the changing influence of the tectonic, palaeoceanographic and eustatic controlling factors. Several new insights are reported for the Lower Cretaceous: a new depositional model for chalk deposition along the basin margins on shallow shelves, which impacts reservoir quality trends; recognition of a late Aptian long-lasting sea-level lowstand (which hosts lowstand sandstone reservoirs in other parts of the North Sea Basin); and, finally, the observation that Barremian–Aptian sequences can be correlated from the Boreal to the Tethyan domain. In contrast, the Late Cretaceous sedimentation patterns have a strong synsedimentary local tectonic overprint (inversion) that influenced palaeoceanography through the intensification of bottom currents and, as a result, the depositional facies. In this context, four different chalk depositional systems are distinguished in the Chalk Group, with specific palaeogeography, depositional features and sediment composition. The first formalization of the lithostratigraphic subdivision of the Chalk Group in the Danish Central Graben is proposed, as well as an addition to the Cromer Knoll Group.


Organophosphates are the most widely used pesticides throughout the world. The considerable amount brought out to the environment poses a risk on the whole population. As organophosphates are neurotoxic substances and their residues can persist in the environment for several weeks, their influence on the nervous system of humans and animals is of principal interest. In the present study, we investigated the alterations induced by dichlorvos, a common pesticide substance, in parameters of somatosensory evoked potentials and hippocampal evoked population spikes of rats. The changes of the cortical vs. hippocampal evoked responses were opposite and only hippocampal effects could be directly explained through an increased cholinergic activity.


The topic of my thesis is the complicated interconnection between deconstruction and structuralist semiotics, developed around the problematic of the sign and its limits. I argue that Jacques Derrida's project of deconstruction can be seen as an extension of the project of structuralist semiotics in two ways: on the one hand, it extends the applicability of its principles beyond the semiotic realm; on the other, it investigates its conditions of possibility. Thus, to a significant extent, deconstruction develops on the basis of structuralist semiotics; it needs structuralism both as its own foundation and as its exemplary object. I investigate the way deconstruction affects the structuralist definition of signification and its epistemological implications. Louis Hjelmslev and the linguistic Circle of Copenhagen occupy an exceptional position in this context. Derrida's quasi-meta-theory of signification looks in some ways very much like Hjelmslev's stratification, put into motion and thrown out of balance, flattened or multiplied ad infinitum. Moreover, glossematics is probably the closest semiotics can get to posing the question of its limits without exceeding a strictly immanent point of view. Throughout the history of Western metaphysics, signification was defined in terms of mediation and exteriority. Structuralism retains the structure of this definition, while completely emptying it of any metaphysical import. Derrida proceeds to question that same structure; nevertheless, he also retains a residue of dualism so as not to fall back into metaphysics. In a dualistic structure, the question of bridging is of utmost importance. Having defined the object of knowledge as constituted by the semiotic articulation, both structuralist semiotics and deconstruction are faced with the structural impossibility of bridging the epistemological gap. Therefore my thesis, which begins as a study of the limits of semiotics, epistemological and other, turns out also to concern the semiological limits of epistemology.


Suicide attempt with paliperidone overdose: a case report Suicide is a common problem seen in patients with schizophrenia. Taking overdoses of drugs is a well-known way for committing suicide. We report a case with schizophrenia, who attempted suicide with 243 mg. of paliperidone, a recently marketed atypical antipsychotic, and admitted to our emergency service with restlessness, agitation, mild confusion, and disorganized behavior. Gastric lavage, hydration, and 72 hours monitorization of the patient in intensive care unit ended without any sequelae. Our case, in addition to the limited available data, suggests paliperidone is a relatively safe drug in its overdoses.


Problems about future energy availability, climate changes, and air quality seem to play an important role in energy production. While current reactor generations provide a guaranteed and economical energy production, new nuclear power plant generation would increase the ways and purposes in which nuclear energy can be used. To explore these new technological applications, several governments, industries, and research communities decided to contribute to the next reactor generation, called "Generation IV." Among the six Gen-IV reactor designs, the Gas Cooled Fast Reactor (GCFR) uses a direct-cycle helium turbine for electricity generation and for a CO2-free thermochemical production of hydrogen. Additionally, the use of a fast spectrum allows actinides transmutation, minimizing the production of long-lived radioactive waste in an integrated fuel cycle. This paper presents an analysis of GCFR fuel cycle optimization and of a thermal-hydraulic of a GCFR-prototype under steady-state and transient conditions. The fuel cycle optimization was performed to assess the capability of the GCFR to transmute MAs, while the thermal-hydraulic analysis was performed to investigate the reactor and the safety systems behavior during a LOFA. Preliminary results show that limited quantities of MA are not affecting significantly the thermal-fluid-dynamics behavior of a GCFR core.


Studies of the occurrence and nesting habitat choice of waders were conducted at Finsefetene (1200 m a.s.l.), a high mountain sedimentation flat on the Hardangervidda plateau, South Norway during 1967-1984. Eight species occurred in the study area during the period, either regularly such as Calidris temminckii, Actitis hypoleucos, Charadrius hiaticula, Calidris alpina , or occasionally, such as Tringa totanus, Calidris maritima, Pluvialis apricaria and Phalaropus lobatus . The densities of the whole wader community on the sedimentation flat were related to the proportion of snow-free areas at Finse around 10 July, and on the date when Finsefetene becomes totally snow-free (DFSF). Of the eight species, only C. temminckii and P. lobatus were found to be positively correlated with the extent of snow-free area, while C. alpina and C. lobatus were positively correlated with DFSF. In low density years the nests were usually placed in the same locations, these obviously being optimal sites. The majority of C. temminckii nests were located in the two intermediate fen vegetation associations, and according to its availability the Caricion canescentis-nigrae was clearly selected for. Two other preferred plant associations on drier ground, Lactucion alpinae and Arctostaphyleto-Cetrarion nivalis, were also selected for. Nest location preferences for vegetation associations are also indicated for the other wader species, but the data on these are limited. Changes in river flow causing varying water levels in the surroundings are a pronounced ecological trait on Finsefetene. In years with a heavy spring flood many nests would be submerged. The location of the nests in relation to a so-called «Zero point», varied from 34 cm below to 210 cm above. In high density years the nests of the most common species, C. temminckii , were spread over most of the flat. In years with a late spring flood, after the nesting had started, some low situated nests were flooded. To visualize the wader community pattern, the distribution of the variable number and scattered nest locations were plotted on maps. Details in nest locations of C. temminckii are given for each year; for the other recorded species the map covers all years. The Finsefetene sedimentation flat proved to be a valuable high mountain habitat for wader populations on Hardangervidda.


Transtracheal Doppler, a procedure developed in the authors' laboratory, provides an estimate of cardiac output in endotracheally intubated dogs. The present study reports initial results in humans with a Doppler probe incorporated into an endotracheal tube. The system was first calibrated by empirically determining phi, the angle of the ultrasound beam with respect to the blood velocity vector. For a best least squares fit for phi, aortic diameters can be calibrated over a range of 22-37 mm. The calibration was then tested in a separate group of patients using the same empirically derived angle to calculate cardiac outputs. The transtracheal Doppler cardiac outputs show good correlation with those obtained by thermodilution over a range of cardiac outputs, 2.69-8.62 1/min, R2 = 0.835.


In this paper, Bi2O3 doped with different amount of La3+ was prepared. The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, UV-VIS diffuse reflectance and XPS. The results show that 3%La3+-Bi2O3 prepared has the highest BET surface area, pore volume, the smallest pore size. 3%La3+-Bi2O3 exhibits the best photocatalytic activity. The results of further experiments show that the specific surface area, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance and the binding energy all play an important role in promotion of photocatalytic activity of Bi2O3 nanostructure.


Many devices are expected to be networked with wireless appliances such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and wireless sensors, and the number of networked wireless appliances will greatly exceed the number of PCs and mobile telephones . This may lead to an essential change in the network architecture. This paper proposes a new network architecture called the appliance defined ubiquitous network (ADUN), in which wireless appliances will be networked without network protocol standards. Wireless space information rather than an individual appliance signal is carried over the ADUN in the form of a stream with strong privacy/security control. It should be noted that this is different from the architectural principles of the Internet. We discuss a network-appliance interface that is sustainable over a long term, and show that the overhead of the ADUN will be within the scope of the broadband network in the near future


AIM
The study aimed at providing the psychometric properties of Polish version of Peters et al. Delusion Inventory (PPDI) (1999) and assessing the prevalence of delusion-like experiences among healthy subjects in the Polish population.

METHODS
Polish version of PDI was developed on the basis of back translation procedure. The scale was completed by 421 adult subjects. On the basis of the scores, the factor analysis, the reliability of the scale and the frequency of delusion-like experiences in the Polish population were calculated.

RESULTS
The Polish version of Peters et al. Delusion Inventory has satisfactory reliability (Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.084 to 0.87). The examination of scree plot suggests a single factor solution. The participants confirmed the incidence of, on average, 12.5 (SD=6.9), out of 40 different experiences measured using PDI. In the current study the most frequently asserted delusion-like belief is that people say things with double meaning (79.8% of participants), while the least likely beliefs were those similar to delusions observed among psychiatric patients (2.37% of participants).

CONCLUSIONS
The Polish version of PDI is characterised by good psychometric properties and can be used for delusion-like experiences assessment in non-clinical population. The frequency of delusion-like experiences in the Polish population varies from 2 to 80% depending on their content.


Monolithic carbon nanofiber/carbon (M-CNF/C) composites were fabricated through facile liquid impregnation and hot pressing technologies, using monolithic carbon nanofibers and phenolic resin as reinforcement and carbon matrix precursor, respectively. The M-CNFs are uniformly dispersed in the M-CNF/C composites and display strong interfacial bonding with carbon matrix. Compared with powdered carbon nanofiber reinforced (P-CNF/C) composites, M-CNF/C composites exhibit significantly higher improvement in electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and mechanical properties. The M-CNF/C composites also exhibit much lower friction coefficients (0.09–0.12) and wear losses (0.12–0.43 mg) than those of P-CNF/C composites. The superior enhancement is attributed to the unique 3D interconnected structure and high integrity of M-CNFs, which could dramatically increase conductive channels, significantly improve mechanical properties and remarkably decrease friction coefficient and wear loss of M-CNF/C composites. Furthermore, the electrical, thermal, mechanical and tribological properties of M-CNF/C composites could be adjusted by using M-CNFs with different bulk densities. The present work suggests the M-CNF/C composites a widespread potential as high-performance tribological materials.


Two ornamental plants of Althaea rosea Cav. and Malva crispa L. were exposed to various concentrations of lead (Pb) (0, 50, 100, 200 and 500 mg·kg−1) for 70 days to evaluate the accumulating potential and the tolerance characteristics. The results showed that both plant species grown normally under Pb stress, and A. rosea had a higher tolerance than M. crispa, while M. crispa had a higher ability in Pb accumulation than A. rosea. Besides, lower Pb concentration (50 mg·kg−1) stimulated the shoot biomass in both plant species. Pb accumulation in plants was consistent with the increase of Pb levels, and the main accumulation sites were the roots and the older leaves. In addition, the photosynthetic pigments content and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters were influenced by Pb stress. In such case, both of the plants could improve the activities of antioxidant enzymes of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and the contents of the total soluble sugar and soluble protein, which reached the highest value at Pb 100 mg·kg−1, as well as the accumulation of the total thiols (T-SH) and non-protein thiols (NP-SH) to adapt to Pb stress. Thus, it provides the theoretical basis and possibility for ornamental plants of A. rosea and M. crispa in phytoremediation of Pb contaminated areas.


Abstract:Classical theories of the sublime—from Addison to Kant—privilege sight over the other senses, and disregard the temporality of the experience of the subject. Yet Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) also contains an alternative approach, namely an account of the sublime triggered by sounds, and crucially evolving in time. This article makes a case for Burke's temporal grammar of sublime sonic patterns being relevant for analyzing past and contemporary objects, such as musical representations of war.


ZED1227 is a small molecule tissue transglutaminase (TG2) inhibitor. The compound selectively binds to the active state of TG2, forming a stable covalent bond with the cysteine in its catalytic center. The molecule was designed for the treatment of celiac disease. Celiac disease is an autoimmune-mediated chronic inflammatory condition of the small intestine affecting about 1–2% of people in Caucasian populations. The autoimmune disease is triggered by dietary gluten. Consumption of staple foods containing wheat, barley, or rye leads to destruction of the small intestinal mucosa in genetically susceptible individuals, and this is accompanied by the generation of characteristic TG2 autoantibodies. TG2 plays a causative role in the pathogenesis of celiac disease. Upon activation by Ca2+, it catalyzes the deamidation of gliadin peptides as well as the crosslinking of gliadin peptides to TG2 itself. These modified biological structures trigger breaking of oral tolerance to gluten, self-tolerance to TG2, and the activation of cytotoxic immune cells in the gut mucosa. Recently, in an exploratory proof-of-concept study, ZED1227 administration clinically validated TG2 as a "druggable" target in celiac disease. Here, we describe the specific features and profiling data of the drug candidate ZED1227. Further, we give an outlook on TG2 inhibition as a therapeutic approach in indications beyond celiac disease.


The Inter Society of Radiation Oncologists of North America (ISRON) workload standard for linear accelerators is the one most widely used; it regards the treatment of 250 or more patients per year as an acceptable limit. Nevertheless, there is concern that this standard does not represent the current workload of linear accelerators, given that the complexity of techniques and equipment has increased significantly since the ISRON model was developed in the late 1980s. Delaney et al. recently validated a workload indicator for Australian (AUS) centres, known as the basic treatment equivalent (BTE). They showed that this was a better predictor of workload and that there was less variation between centres using this model than there would have been by using fields/hour. This centre attempted to validate this model for use in a Canadian centre, by collecting treatment data on all linear accelerator-treated patients during February 1998. The linear accelerators at this centre delivered 2,295 fractions (6,928 fields) in 662 hours during February 1998. When 15 minutes was used as a denominator, the BTE model functioned as a better workload indicator than simple measures such as fields/hour. It also had better performance in reducing variability between machines. A BTE of 3,403 was calculated for these machines. The mean value for fields/hour, BTE/hour and BTE/fraction for this centre fell within the range of values quoted by AUS centres. The BTE/fraction value for this centre was relatively high compared with the AUS mean, indicating this centre's reliance on the use of a high number of complex techniques. We recommend that the model should be further refined for the Canadian context by developing BTE values with the use of local time and motion studies, including factors such as multileaf collimators and enhanced dynamic wedges.


One of the biggest problems in high-level synthesis is to obtain a good schedule without the knowledge of exact computation time of tasks. While the target applications in high-level synthesis are becoming larger, a task in the applications such as arti cial intelligent systems or interface may have uncertain computation time. In this paper, an algorithm to schedule these repetitive tasks and optimize the schedule is presented. A probabilistic dataow graph is employed to model the problem where each node represents a task associated with the probabilistic computation time and a set of edges represents the dependences between the tasks. A novel polynomial-time probabilistic retiming algorithm for optimizing the graph and an algorithm for computing the optimized schedule, subject to the acceptable probability and resource constraint, are presented. The optimization algorithm also guarantees to give such a short schedule length with a given qualitatively provable, con dence level. The experiments show that the resulting schedule length for a given con dence probability can be signi cantly reduced.


Abstract For the purpose of increasing the capacity of foreign trade and attracting more foreign capital, Turkey began to modify its relevant economic laws and institutions in the 1980s. This restructural process proved its success, increasing the number of firms with foreign capital operating in Turkey 29 times between 1980 and 1997. However, considering other developing countries on a global scale, this increase rate was less than expected. When the conjuncture of global political systems undergoing dramatic changes since the previous century is regarded carefully, entering the twenty-first century as a country still in the process of developing, it is most probable that Turkey will become a country of significant power in this century with its historical, geographical, ethnic, and economic potentials in the Balkans, Middle Eastern and Caucasian regions. Due to the emergence of new opportunities in the Middle East, the Turkic Republics, Ukraine and the Federation of Russia since the beginning of the 1990s, in order to preserve its external appeal, Turkey has been obliged to adapt to the changes in the goals of this area. With the advantage of being a coastal city positioned at the crossroads of trade routes throughout history, Istanbul has been the centre of commercial control and coordination. Today the advantage of its geographical position makes Istanbul an important centre preferred by global capital for reaching local markets and resources. In other words, Istanbul is a candidate to be the centre of the functions of control and accessibility within these interregional networks. In this respect, the pattern of foreign direct investment (FDI) in producer services has been investigated. This paper represents a portion of the research conducted in Istanbul by Istanbul Technical University.


Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients may be an important indicator of metastatic disease and poor prognosis. However, the use of experimental models is required to fully elucidate the functional consequences of CTCs. The purpose of this study was to optimize the sensitivity of multiparameter flow cytometry for detection of human tumor cells in mouse models of breast cancer.


This study aimed to analyze the discourse on the meaning of love that arose from the mood in the twelve stories "Love Never Gets Old" by Benny Arnas in 2014. The mood of the story was analyzed based on various points of view of the characters that influenced the discourse in the story. Genette's Narrative Theory regarding mood was the main key to uncovering the most prominent discourse so that the meaning of the text could be carried out in an orderly manner. The mood was useful in the meaning of the text to determine the position of the narrator in each story character. The results of this study indicated that the most prominent meaning after determining the storyteller, the scene, and the form of speech was about the distance between the narrator and the reader of the work, which influenced the discourse on the meaning of love. The most dominant view in this collection of stories was "I", which correlated with the character Samin. Based on the dominant point of view, love has four types, namely love for fellow human beings, love for property and God, and a form of love for oneself. The results of the data analysis revealed that the meaning of love that emerged was Samin's love for himself.


Introduced large herbivores have partly filled ecological gaps formed in the late Pleistocene, when many of the Earth's megafauna were driven extinct. However, surviving predators are widely considered unable to influence introduced megafauna, leading them to exert unusually strong herbivory and disturbance-related effects. We report on a behaviorally-mediated trophic cascade between cougars (Puma concolor) and feral donkeys (Equus africanus asinus) at desert wetlands in North America. In response to predation of juveniles, donkeys shifted from nocturnal to almost exclusively diurnal, thereby avoiding peaks in cougar activity. Furthermore, donkeys reduced the time they spent at desert wetlands by 87%: from 5.5 hours a day to 0.7 hours at sites with predation. These shifts in activity were associated with increased activity and richness of other mammal species and reduced disturbance and herbivory-related effects on these ecologically-distinct wetland ecosystems, including 49% fewer trails, 35% less trampled bare ground, and 227% more canopy cover. Cougar predation on introduced donkeys rewires an ancient food web, with diverse implications for modern ecosystems.


The treatment of yellow fever is a subject of very great importance and secondary only to the question of prophylaxis or prevention. We are now able, by promptly instituting the proper measures, to control the spread of this disease, and if the treatment of the persons already affected be successful, the excitement and panic that so frequently follow its invasion may be averted. It is important to bear in mind that the disease is one of short duration, and if the patient's strength and vitality can be maintained throughout the critical period his recovery is practically assured, provided, of course, that he was previously in good health and free from organic lesion. Let us first review the treatment pursued by some of the older authorities and then, aided by the light of modern pathology, consider what modes of treatment will be simplest, safest and at the same time afford the


This paper examines the 2008 player auction used in the Indian Premier League (IPL). An argument is made that the auction was less than satisfactory and that future auctions be replaced by a draft where player salaries are determined by draft order. The salaries correspond to quantiles of a three-parameter lognormal distribution whose parameters are set according to team payroll constraints. The draft procedure is explored in the context of the IPL auction and in various sports including basketball, highland dance, golf, tennis, car racing and distance running.


The ruminant remains from the outcrops nearby the Dhok Bun Amir Khatoon (DBAK), district Chakwal, northern Pakistan. The outcrops have yielded remains of the ruminants that are part of the latest Middle Miocene belonging to the Lower Siwalik subgroup. Specimens collected from the DBAK localities belonging to Bovidae, Giraffidae and Tragulidae. The described specimens include horn core, isolated teeth and mandible fragments. The new material from the DBAK reinforces the idea that a variety of ruminants were present in the outcrops of the Lower Siwaliks during the latest Middle Miocene. The Dhok Bun Amir Khatoon ruminant fauna has similarities to the Middle Miocene Eurasian faunas. The analysis of the recovered dental characters was allowed individual variations and contributes knowledge about the Siwalik latest Middle Miocene ruminants.


This article addresses the theoretical concept of economic security of the enterprise (ESE) and discusses its features in post-Soviet countries based on a review of the Ukrainian scientific literature. This study includes an explanation of the specific conditions of economic and social transformation as well as of the developments in post-Soviet economic science that led to the introduction of the term "economic security of the enterprise". This research intends to explain the concept of ESE in post-Soviet economic thought and discusses its utility for different stakeholders. The main research questions are therefore: What are the approaches to a definition of ESE within the concept of ESE in Ukrainian economic thought? How can the main features of ESE be defined? What are the benefits of the concept of ESE for a firm's stakeholders? Our study is based on a qualitative content analysis of the Ukrainian economic literature considering ESE. We conducted a content analysis of the definitions of ESE presented in over 50 dissertations defended in Ukraine during the period 1999-2011. This analysis allows us to identify the distinctive features of the concept: ESE is presented as a generalizing concept, in which terms such as competitiveness, threats, and profitability point out only one aspect of the phenomenon neglecting others. The notion of economic security of the enterprise has a complex internal nature that includes a variety of structural interactions among internal elements of a firm and its external environment. Being a broader concept than other widely applied concepts, the concept of ESE can be of special interest for business managers as well as public authorities due to its ability to propose a solid foundation for economic security on local, regional and national levels. In this context, the economic security framework gives public authorities a basis for policy decisions regarding the future of enterprises.


Nighttime lights (night-lights) data are useful in predicting gross domestic product (GDP), a key economic indicator used by policymakers and economists. A persistent problem in such prediction is that night-lights under-represent economic activity in rural areas. Attempting to disaggregate night-lights using urban and rural regions is problematic, as the urban–rural dichotomy is increasingly tenuous due to changing economic structures. In response, this article presents a regionalization approach, which is data-driven. Utilizing transfer learning, we trained a model that takes fine spatial resolution daytime satellite sensor imagery and learns an optimal regionalization to disaggregate visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) night-lights for GDP prediction. To make national scale inference feasible, we formulate a novel Monte Carlo importance sampling scheme, and then performed a single-year cross-sectional study across 178 countries using 178 000 images. This achieved an $R^{2}$ between predicted and actual $\log _{10} \text{GDP}$ of 0.86 on the validation set and 0.89 on the whole study area. To benchmark, we perform a subnational study over 396 U.S. counties using 98 500 images in which our method outperformed comparable methods. Interpreting the regionalization, we found that the utility of the urban–rural dichotomy is not supported by the model and argue that seeing the night-lights of some land types as representative of the overall economy is a better way to understand the model.


Muscle translational-control RNA (tcRNA) has been separated into two classes, polysomal and messenger ribonuclear protein (mRNA - protein), which have different sizes as determined by acrylamide gel electrophoresis. While normally translation of mRNA - protein mRNA is inhibited by tcRNA derived from the same mRNA - proteins, this inhibition does not occur if the messenger is previously de-adenylated. This suggests that the poly(A) segment of mRNA is required for the tcRNA activity. Utilizing different mRNA - protein fractions from muscle, myosin mRNA - protein and small mRNA - proteins ( less than 30 S), we have been able to demonstrate that a degree of specificity exists in the interaction of tcRNA and mRNA derived from the same mRNA - proteins. This is illustrated by the facts that (a) each tcRNA only inhibits the translation of its respective mRNA and (b) the highest percentage of structural change occurs when each tcRNA is hybridized to its respective mRNA as measured by its resistance to T1 and T2 RNase.


Immune tolerance at the fetomaternal interface must be established during the processes of implantation and pregnancy. Monoclonal nonspecific suppressor factor beta (MNSFβ) is a secreted protein that possesses antigen-nonspecific immune-suppressive function. It was previously reported that intrauterine immunoneutralization of MNSFβ significantly inhibited embryo implantation in mice. In the present study, MNSFβ protein expression was up- or downregulated by overexpression or RNA interference, respectively, in HCC-94 cells and the culture supernatants used to determine effects of MNSFβ on the secretion of IL-4 and TNFα from mouse lymphocytes as detected by ELISA. A coculture model of mouse embryos and endometrial stromal cells was also utilized to determine the effects of a specific anti-MNSFβ antibody on hatching and growth of embryos in vitro. The results show that MNSFβ induced secretion of IL-4 and inhibited secretion of TNFα from mouse lymphocytes. Following immunoneutralization of MNSFβ protein in the HCC-94 supernatant, the stimulatory effect of MNSFβ on IL-4 secretion from mouse lymphocytes was reduced, while the inhibitory effect on secretion of TNFα was abrogated. Expression of MNSFβ was detected in both embryonic and endometrial stromal cells, and its immunoneutralization inhibited the hatching and spreading of embryos in an in vitro coculture model. These results indicated that MNSFβ may play critical roles during the peri-implantation process by regulating cytokine secretion of lymphocytes and by mediating the crosstalk between embryonic cells and endometrial stromal cells.


In 1899, Bayer and Vlliger showed that the oxidation of alicyclic ketones, menthone, tetrahydrocarvone, and camphor with permono-sulfuric acid led to the formation of lactones. Further studies using a variety of ketones or aldehydes and hydrogen peroxide or peracids in various media have established that the oxidation is of wide applicability. The oxidation, the Baeyer-Villiger reaction, is the subject of this review. As the oxidation normally employs mild conditions, gives reasonable yields, and shows a high degree of selectivity, it has proved useful in a variety of both synthetic and degradative studies. Recent investigations have led to a better definition of favorable experimental conditions and have extended the scope of the reaction.

Keywords:

Baeyer-Villiger oxidation;
aldehdyes;
ketones;
polycarbonyl compounds;
side reactions;
experimental conditions;
procedures


The availability of high quality copy machines provides a large amount of printed document counterfeits. Numerous authentication techniques based on security printing, graphical codes, hashing or local hashing have been suggested earlier. In this paper, we propose a novel printed document authentication system based on sensitivity of a new two level QR (2LQR) code to copying process. This 2LQR code contains specific textured patterns, which are sensitive to printing and copying processes. Therefore, it can be used to detect unauthorized document duplication. Experimental results show the efficiency of this 2LQR code for copy detection.


Any technology adoption is shaped by a myriad of factors that sometimes conflict in their ultimate goals and outcomes. So is the case with mobile Internet (m-Internet) adoption and diffusion. This paper discusses this process from the stakeholders' and users' perspectives and confronts their understanding and attitudes towards this technology with three complementary theoretical models: network theory, activity theory, and the technology acceptance model (TAM).The study presents results for the use of m-Internet in a southern European country and frames those in light of the activities, here understood as effects of the network, undertaken by the users. We seek to assess whether individuals perform a different set of activities when using m-Internet and how different forms of access result in different network effects, adoption processes, and distinct forms of interaction. The depicted study involved a qualitative stage, consisting of a set of interviews to stakeholders of the mobile communications industry and a quantitative study that involved the survey of a nationally representative sample of individual users. The findings of these studies provide several contributions to the understanding of m-Internet adoption and diffusion and the role network effects play in them.


Objective: The aim of the present study was to formulate and evaluate the Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLNs) of Ropinirole Hydrochloride (ROP). Methods: ROP-loaded SLNs were prepared by a double emulsion method using glyceryl monostearate (GMS) as lipid and soya lecithin as a stabilizer. All formulated ROP-loaded SLNs were characterized for its particle size and size distribution, zeta potential, % Entrapment Efficiency (EE) and drug loading. The formulations were optimized in terms of GMS to soya lecithin ratio and sonication time of primary emulsion. Shape and surface morphology of the optimized formulation was studied using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. In vitro and ex vivo Study of optimized formulation was also performed and compared with a pure drug solution. Results: The particle size and polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential and EE of optimized formulation were found to be 320±5.15 nm, 0.260±0.012,-37.9±1.43, 56.13±2.33% respectively. In vitro and ex vivo permeation study revealed that percentage cumulative drug release of optimized formulation was found to be 58.45±1.75% and 53.75±1.34 % respectively in 24 h and more than 90% drug release from pure drug solution was found to be within 6 h. Drug release from the formulation is sustained as compared to the plain drug solution which release 97.74 % ( in vitro ) and 88.15 % ( ex vivo ) of the drug within 6 h. Conclusion: From the results, it concludes that drug released from SLNs follows sustained release pattern and it will enhance the overall activity of the drug.


Purpose: A new approach to production process monitoring in organization using control chart type X-R has been presented. Design/methodology/approach: The possibility of use of basic element of Statistical Process Control ( SPC method) is connected with continuous quality improvement of each production process in an enterprise. Interdependence of the quality research methods and production process's requirements have been taken into account. Findings: At the present time the metallurgical enterprises should integrate quality management system and quality control with customer's requirements, with defined both parameters of processes and quality methods. Such kind of strategy will enable to achieve success for these companies. Research limitations/implications: Control chart type X-R is very important quality tool. Its determined statistical measures are recorded properties of product obtained as a result of inspections taking randomly samples of products in the determined place of the process. Aim of control chart type X-R is observation and registration of the changeability of the characteristic of the researched element of the production process. Practical implications: The example of implementing control chart type X-R shows possibility of monitoring chosen parameters of production process according to an idea of defect prevention. Usage of this method allows for monitoring of production process, providing opportunities for cost reduction, and maintaining of production process stability. Originality/value: Application of basic element of Statistical Process Control in polish metallurgical companies have been presented.


Semanta provides a simple interface for semantic email.It enables machines to support email users with correctlyinterpreting, handling and keeping track of action itemswithin email messages, visualizing email workflows, andextracting tasks and appointments from email messages.


As electronic commerce environments become more and more interactive, privacy is a matter of increasing concern. Many surveys have investigated households' privacy attitudes and concerns, revealing a general desire among Internet users to protect their privacy. To complement these questionnaire-based studies, we conducted an experiment in which we compared self-reported privacy preferences of 171 participants with their actual disclosing behavior during an online shopping episode. Our results suggest that current approaches to protect online users' privacy, such as EU data protection regulation or P3P, may face difficulties to do so effectively. This is due to their underlying assumption that people are not only privacy conscious, but will also act accordingly. In our study, most individuals stated that privacy was important to them, with concern centering on the disclosure of different aspects of personal information. However, regardless of their specific privacy concerns, most participants did not live up to their self-reported privacy preferences. As participants were drawn into the sales dialogue with an anthropomorphic 3-D shopping bot, they answered a majority of questions, even if these were highly personal. Moreover, different privacy statements had no effect on the amount of information disclosed; in fact, the mentioning of EU regulation seemed to cause a feeling of 'false security'. The results suggest that people appreciate highly communicative EC environments and forget privacy concerns once they are 'inside the Web'.


The low-energy conformations for a series of peptides based on the sequence of the ras P21 protein from position 55 to position 67 have been computed using conformational energy analysis. These sequences differed at position 61 and contained Gln, Pro, Leu, Lys, and Arg at this position. P21 proteins with Gln, Glu, or Pro at this position do not cause cell transformation at normal levels of expression; proteins with substitutions of at least 14 other amino acids at this position (Leu, Lys, and Arg having been found in tumors in place of the normally occurring Gln-61) do cause malignant transformation of cells in culture. We find that the segments of residues 55-67 from the nontransforming proteins (Gln- or Pro-61) adopt a structure that is energetically unfavorable for the same segment with Leu, Lys, or Arg at position 61. The critical feature of this structure is an alpha-helix from residues 62 to 68. Residue 61 (Gln or Pro) adopts an extended conformation. On the other hand, the segment from transforming proteins can adopt two structures, one all alpha-helical from residue 61 to residue 68 and the other a less-regular, higher-energy structure. The segments from the normal protein can adopt the all alpha-helical structure, a finding that can explain the fact that elevated intracellular levels of the normal protein also cause cell transformation. The results of the calculations suggest that specific changes in the structure of this region can account for the oncogenic effect of the proteins in which substitutions occur.


The conservation of grasses and forage crops by drying involves either the drying of crops in the field, to produce hay, or dehydration at high temperatures using fossil fuels to produce dried forage. In this paper, current practice with regard to the production of hay and dried forage is first described in terms of the amounts that are produced and their average contents of metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP). The potential for ruminant animal production from hay and dried forage is considered, and some ways of improving the efficiency of these conservation methods are indicated.


Image mosaic is a very important step in big frame image measurement, its precision has a great effect on the measurement precision. Twice matching can make the mosaic precision beyond the pixel dimensions. And the pixels' gray rebuilding based on pixel position and pixel area distribution also has a great help to raise the measurement precision


A strategy is proposed for the identification and quantification of sources of variation in a manufacturing process. The strategy involves six steps: identification and selection of factors, model selection, design of the experiments, performing the experiments, estimation of sources of variation, and finally, interpretation of the results. This strategy helps in finding those factors that contribute mostly to the total variation apparent in analysis results due to the production process itself, sampling, and analysis of samples. The strategy is then applied to a case study in which sources of variation in steel analysis are identified and quantified. The study develops mixed (random and fixed) effect models for the three phases of steel manufacturing—stirring, tundish, and mold. The models show that differences between spectrometers can have an important influence on the total variation apparent in the final analysis results.


Significance Lack of human data on influenza virus aerosol shedding fuels debate over the importance of airborne transmission. We provide overwhelming evidence that humans generate infectious aerosols and quantitative data to improve mathematical models of transmission and public health interventions. We show that sneezing is rare and not important for—and that coughing is not required for—influenza virus aerosolization. Our findings, that upper and lower airway infection are independent and that fine-particle exhaled aerosols reflect infection in the lung, opened a pathway for a deeper understanding of the human biology of influenza infection and transmission. Our observation of an association between repeated vaccination and increased viral aerosol generation demonstrated the power of our method, but needs confirmation. Little is known about the amount and infectiousness of influenza virus shed into exhaled breath. This contributes to uncertainty about the importance of airborne influenza transmission. We screened 355 symptomatic volunteers with acute respiratory illness and report 142 cases with confirmed influenza infection who provided 218 paired nasopharyngeal (NP) and 30-minute breath samples (coarse >5-µm and fine ≤5-µm fractions) on days 1–3 after symptom onset. We assessed viral RNA copy number for all samples and cultured NP swabs and fine aerosols. We recovered infectious virus from 52 (39%) of the fine aerosols and 150 (89%) of the NP swabs with valid cultures. The geometric mean RNA copy numbers were 3.8 × 104/30-minutes fine-, 1.2 × 104/30-minutes coarse-aerosol sample, and 8.2 × 108 per NP swab. Fine- and coarse-aerosol viral RNA were positively associated with body mass index and number of coughs and negatively associated with increasing days since symptom onset in adjusted models. Fine-aerosol viral RNA was also positively associated with having influenza vaccination for both the current and prior season. NP swab viral RNA was positively associated with upper respiratory symptoms and negatively associated with age but was not significantly associated with fine- or coarse-aerosol viral RNA or their predictors. Sneezing was rare, and sneezing and coughing were not necessary for infectious aerosol generation. Our observations suggest that influenza infection in the upper and lower airways are compartmentalized and independent.


Background: Niosomes are the non-ionic surface-active agent primarily based vesicles. The Key obstacle of Asenapine maleate have oral bioavailability (<2%) and extensive first pass effect. Objectives: The objective key of the existing work was to formulate Asenapine maleate loaded niosomes using quality by design and rectify it with some evaluation parameters to increase bioavailability, to lead better therapeutic effect and to minimize the side effects. Methods: Formulation of niosomes was done by three methods organic solvent injection method. Factorial design (32) experiments are significantly used to screen and to observe the effect of independent variables cholesterol and span 60 (X1, X2) on dependent variables particle size and entrapment efficiency (Y1, Y2). Results: The results revealed optimized formulation ASP-niosome A2 amongst other formulations which was found lowest particle size 84 ± 5 nm and highest % EE 70 ± 2.0%. In-vitro drug release of optimized noisome was found 68 ± 1.20 % at the end of 8 hr and zeta potential was -17.53mV which stabilized the niosomal suspension. Characterization by SEM not only indicated the spherical shape of the niosomes but also confirmed the formation of vesicle. Locomotor activity was found to be significant in in-vivo pharmacodynamic study. Pharmacokinetic study carried out and it showed Cmax and t1/2 of 16.12ng/mL and 37.18 hr which is better than reported parameters for drug. Conclusion: Thus, concluded that Asenapine maleate loaded niosomes having effective anti-psychotic activity with increased bioavailability could be prepared successfully by organic solvent injection method using span 60 and cholesterol.


Tailoring nanocrystalline morphologies of organic semiconductors holds importance for organic electronics due to the influence of crystal characteristics on optoelectronic properties. Soluble additives that control crystal growth are commonly found in a variety of contexts such as biomineralization, pharmaceutical processing, and food science, while the use of ultrasound to modify crystal nucleation and growth has been routinely employed in producing crystals of food ingredients, biomolecules, pharmaceuticals, and inorganic materials. However, both methods have been applied to the growth of organic semiconductor crystals only in limited fashion. Here, we combine these two approaches to show that colloidally stable nanowire suspensions of a n-type small molecule, perylene diimide (PDI), can be prepared with well-controlled structures by sonocrystallization in the presence of a p-type polymer, poly(3-hexyl thiophene) (P3HT), as a soluble additive. By preferentially adsorbing on lateral crystal faces, P3HT dramatically reduces PDI crystal growth rate in the lateral directions relative to that along the nanowire axis, yielding nanocrystals with widths below 20 nm and narrow width distributions. With the use of uniform short PDI nanowires as seeds and extension with metastable solutions, controlled growth of PDI nanowires by "living crystallization" is demonstrated, providing access to narrowed length distributions and tailored branched crystal morphologies.


Has leisure increased over the last century? Standard measures of hours worked suggest that it has. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive measure of non-leisure hours that includes market work, home production, commuting and schooling for the last 105 years. We also present empirical and theoretical arguments for a definition of %u201Cper capita%u201D that encompasses the entire population. The new measures reveal a number of interesting 20th Century trends. First, 70 percent of the decline in hours worked has been offset by an increase in hours spent in school. Second, contrary to conventional wisdom, average hours spent in home production are actually slightly higher now than they were in the early part of the 20th Century. Finally, leisure per capita is approximately the same now as it was in 1900.


The present invention provides human neurotransmission-related proteins (NTRANs) and polynucleotides that identify and encode NTRANs. The present invention also provides expression vectors, host cells, antibodies, agonists and antagonists. The present invention also provides a method for diagnosing, treating or preventing a disease associated with abnormal expression of NTRAN.


Here is a quick look at some of the short courses planned for Wednesday, August 30th at the 2006 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. A complete listing of courses will be printed in the July issue of PS. For further details, and for information regarding pre-registration, transportation, and housing, visit www.apsanet.org. The online preliminary program, which will be released in May, provides information on panel schedules and the latest updates on the meeting.


The interaction of the Ferric Uptake Regulation (Fur) protein with the backbone of operator DNA was analyzed by hydroxyl radical footprinting and the ethylation interference assay. Comparison of the contacts made by Fur and those made by proteins containing the helix-turn-helix or related motifs shows that the mode of DNA binding by this repressor is unique. Ethylation interference experiments demonstrate that there are relatively few phosphate contacts of unique disposition while hydroxyl radical footprinting demonstrates that Fur-operator contacts are segregated on one face of the helix and span nearly three successive major grooves.


Membrane-bound angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells is proteolytically released in soluble form into the medium. We find that this release is stimulated up to 50-fold by phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate and also by the addition of fresh, serum-containing media. Concomitant with the enhanced release is a marked decrease in levels of membrane-bound ACE, down to 7% of resting levels in the case of phorbol ester stimulation. Staurosporine, a protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor, abolishes the phorbol ester effect. Kinetic analysis of the stimulated release rate indicates that it is first order, likely due to substrate depletion; calculated half times, t1/2, are 174 +/- 12 min and 40 +/- 6 min for the media-change and phorbol ester stimulated rates, respectively. Thus, release of membrane-bound ACE in CHO cells is regulated, in part, by a PKC-dependent mechanism.


Quantitation of antibodies to the spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) was performed for the detection of adaptive immune response in healthcare workers (HCWs) vaccinated with CorovaVac. We prospectively recruited HCWs from a university hospital in Turkey. Serum samples from 1072 HCWs were obtained following 28 days of the first, and 21 days of the second dose. Detection and quantitation of SARS‐CoV‐2 antispike antibodies were performed by the chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG II Quant; Abbott). Results greater than or equal to the cutoff value 50.0 AU/ml were reported as positive. After the first dose, antispike antibodies were detected in 834 of 1072 (77.8%) HCWs. Seropositivity was higher among females (84.6%) than males (70.6%) (p < 0.001) and was found to be highest in both women and men between the ages of 18–34. After the second dose, antibodies were detected in 1008 of 1012 (99.6%) HCWs. Antibody titers were significantly higher in those who had coronavirus disease‐2019 before vaccination than those who did not (p < 0.001). Antibody positivity and median antibody titers were significantly less in HCWs with chronic diseases compared to those without (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively). In conclusion, our findings indicated that a relatively high frequency (99.6%) of humoral immunity was produced in HCWs aged 18–59 after two doses of CoronaVac. Quantitation of antibodies may help facilitate longitudinal monitoring of the antibody response, which will be especially useful in deciding the dose of the vaccine in vulnerable groups such as those over 60 years of age and those with chronic diseases.


In this work, a mathematical model describing the transport mechanisms in a recently developed microstripper (Adiche, 2018) was established and analytically solved. Based on this model, the overall volumetric mass transfer capacity coefficient could be estimated according to a three-resistance mass transfer model and used subsequently in combination with the HTU-NTU concept for the theoretical prediction of the separation performance of the microstripper in terms of stripping degree (Adiche, 2018). Accordingly, a sensitivity analysis of the separation performance of the device to the relevant process parameters including the liquid channel depth and the volumetric flow rates of the feed solution and carrier gas nitrogen was conducted. The comparison of the estimated stripping degrees determined in this work with those obtained experimentally from a previous work (Adiche, 2018) indicates that the developed model-based approach allows a correct prediction of the separation performance of the microstripper and constitutes therefore a useful tool towards the design optimization of the device.


Both small-scale and large-scale partial self-focusing produce phase distortions which result in loss of optical quality of the beam. Both effects are herein studied and both can result in significant power loss. Incipient fine-scale self-focusing losses can be mitigated by spatial filtering. Nonlinear lensing, i.e., partial large-scale self-focusing, is more or less serious depending on the size of the target onto which the beam is to be focused.


Most scholarship on hookup culture has focused on college students' sexual activity and has overlooked the post-hookup "ritual retelling" as a subject of systematic research. This study examines the impact of gender beliefs regarding sexual activity, particularly the recreational and relational orientations of men and women, respectively, as well as the situational context, namely, the gender of their conversational partners. Results from a survey of college students (N = 470) reveal that men and women would be more likely to share a hypothetical hookup experience with same-sex than with cross-sex best friends. Moreover, women would be more likely than men to share relational rather than recreational details, though details vary by situational context. Results suggest that women's ritual retellings generally reflect gender beliefs, but men switch between a recreational and a relational emphasis depending on the gender of their conversational partners. This suggests that women face greater constraints than men in expectations regarding sexual activities.


New packing techniques can extend packing life and retain low stem leakage. The HPI can use these designs to avoid mandatory monitoring and repair schedules for valves that exceed the 500-ppm emission threshold. New EPA leakage limits will enforce monitoring and maintenance programs if more than 2% of the facility's valves exceed this limit. Because valves are dynamic, their control actions are prone to leakage. Also, the best fire-resistant packing material, graphite, has inherent deficiencies such as high compression stress and a high-friction coefficient that shortens its service life. Four basic principles overcome graphite packing's shortcomings for control valve applications. Examples show how these criteria improve sliding stem and rotary valve performance. Incorporating these principles into valve-packing designs can ensure long, low-maintenance service life, and the added benefit of low leakage. Graphite is a very important packing material for the HPI. Unlike fluoropolymer (e.g., PTFE) packing, graphite can tolerate high process temperature without decomposing or losing its sealing properties. More importantly, graphite packing is fire safe. It can survive a fire without a catastrophic failure that could add more flammable materials.


The strategy of innovation-driven development marks that China's economy has changed from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development. At the same time, it also puts forward new and deeper requirements for financial functions. How to give full play to the leading role of fiscal policy in enterprise innovation and how to use positive fiscal policy to promote economic restructuring have become the focus of the current work of the Chinese government. As an important policy tool on the demand side, government procurement has been used by many countries in Europe and the United States to formulate and implement government procurement policies aimed at promoting innovation. It has also been paid attention to in China very early. With the increasing scale of government procurement, its position and role in the financial policy system cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is a key issue to actively reflect on and promote the formulation of government procurement supporting independent innovation policy that meets the international environmental requirements and effectively reflects the needs of domestic economic restructuring. However, from the theoretical point of view, the research on the actual policy effect of government procurement supporting enterprise independent innovation has not been paid enough attention to, and the relevant research conclusions have not been agreed.Based on the comprehensive consideration of regional policy environment and independent innovation policy factors, this paper empirically examines the relationship between government procurement and enterprise innovation, taking the state of government procurement orders and patent applications obtained by national enterprises from 2015 to 2017 as the research object. The research shows that the policy of government procurement supporting independent innovation has a good effect on the whole level of government procurement. After paying attention to the influence of regional policy environment factors, the implementation of government procurement supporting independent innovation policy has failed to play its due role in the level of local government procurement, showing a "protective effect"; while it has an effective effect on the level of government procurement in other places, showing a "spillover effect". In promoting the quality of independent innovation of enterprises, the effect of the implementation of government procurement supporting independent innovation policy has the phenomenon of "emphasizing application, despising invention". In addition to providing direct support for innovation resources, government procurement also shows signaling mechanism to support enterprises' independent innovation. At the same time, combined with the characteristics of government procurement departments, supplier enterprises and regional characteristics, the mechanism of government procurement supporting independent innovation of enterprises has the characteristics of scale and specialty, and pays more attention to non-listed companies, foreign-funded companies, non-state-owned capital companies and large and medium-sized companies, and there are obvious differences in different regions.The policy implication of this paper is that the premise of the function of government procurement supporting independent innovation policy is to ensure a fair market competition environment for government procurement, and pay attention to maintaining the openness of government procurement market in different regions. At the same time, the function of government procurement supporting independent innovation policy requires government procurement implementing agencies with clear responsibilities, giving full play to professional implementation capabilities, and defining scientific implementation standards.


Cellular decision-making is driven by dynamic behaviours, such as the preparations for sunrise enabled by circadian rhythms and the choice of cell fates enabled by positive feedback. Such behaviours are often built upon ultrasensitive responses where a linear change in input generates a sigmoidal change in output. Phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycles are one means to generate ultrasensitivity. Using bioinformatics, we show that in vivo levels of kinases and phosphatases frequently exceed the levels of their corresponding substrates in budding yeast. This result is in contrast to the conditions often required by zero-order ultrasensitivity, perhaps the most well known means for how such cycles become ultrasensitive. We therefore introduce a mechanism to generate ultrasensitivity when numbers of enzymes are higher than numbers of substrates. Our model combines distributive and non-distributive actions of the enzymes with two-stage binding and concerted allosteric transitions of the substrate. We use analytical and numerical methods to calculate the Hill number of the response. For a substrate with phosphosites, we find an upper bound of the Hill number of , and so even systems with a single phosphosite can be ultrasensitive. Two-stage binding, where an enzyme must first bind to a binding site on the substrate before it can access the substrate's phosphosites, allows the enzymes to sequester the substrate. Such sequestration combined with competition for each phosphosite provides an intuitive explanation for the sigmoidal shifts in levels of phosphorylated substrate. Additionally, we find cases for which the response is not monotonic, but shows instead a peak at intermediate levels of input. Given its generality, we expect the mechanism described by our model to often underlay decision-making circuits in eukaryotic cells.


Within the Northern Calcareous Alps fold-and-thrust belt of the Eastern Alps, multiple deformation phases have contributed to the structural grain that localised deformation at later stages. In particular, Jurassic rifting and opening of the Alpine Tethys 15 led to the formation of extensional basins at the northern margin of the Apulian plate. Subsequent Cretaceous shortening within the Northern Calcareous Alps produced the enigmatic Achental structure, which forms a sigmoidal transition zone between two E-W striking major synclines. One of the major complexities of the Achental structure is that all structural elements are oblique to the Cretaceous direction of shortening. It was therefore proposed to be a result of forced folding at the boundaries of the Achental basin. This study analyses the structural evolution of the Achental structure through integrating field 20 observations with crustal-scale physical analogue models, to elucidate the influence of pre-existing crustal heterogeneities on oblique basin inversion and the prerequisites for the formation of a sigmoidal hanging wall that outlines former basin margins. From brittle-ductile models, we infer that shortening oblique to pre-existing extensional faults can lead to the localisation of thrust faults at the existing structure within a single deformation phase. Prerequisites are 1) a weak basal décollement that is offset by an existing normal fault, 2) the presence of topography in the hinterland, 3) a thin-skinned deformation style. 25 Consequently, the Achental low-angle thrust and corresponding folds was able to localise exactly at the basin margin, with a vergence opposite to the Jurassic normal fault, creating the characteristic sigmoidal morphology during a single phase of NW-directed shortening.


There is introducing the concepts of relative economic potential in the article. Relative economic potential taking into account results of the non-operating activities. It shows that the relative economic potential more sensitive to the crisis, compared with profitability ratios.


The seed of Persea americana was extracted with four different solvents and subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening which revealed the presence of steroids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids and cardiac glycoside. Antimicrobial activity of the seed extracts against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi was carried out using the disc diffusion techniques. The ethylacetate extract demonstrated pronounced activity against the test organisms. The activity of methanol extract against S. aureus was (31 mm) while that of petroleum ether was (5mm) against E.coli. However, S. typhi and E. coli were resistant to chloroform and methanol extracts. The activity of ethylactate, chloroform and methanol extracts compared favourably with that of the antibiotics erythromycin used as standard. The antimicrobial activities displayed by the various extracts could be attributed to the presence of secondary metabolites identified in the phytochemical screening and also signifies the potential of Persea americana seed as an anti-microbial therapeutic agent. Keywords:Persea americana, antibiotics, erythromycin, anti-microbial and phytochemicals.


The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has reawakened old arguments over the impact of the intellectual property (IP) system on public access to essential medicines. As used here, essential medicines are those needed in symptom management, palliative care, and in the treatment of infections, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), malaria, tuberculosis, and sleeping sickness in places like sub-Saharan Africa. Some argue that patents will further inhibit access to these medicines in sub-Saharan Africa. Others, however, argue the opposite. The latter maintain that patent protection under TRIPS can promote the growth of the pharmaceutical industry in places like sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, they assert that pharmaceutical patents are not responsible for the limited access to essential medicines in sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, they trace the problem of access to non-patent factors, such as poverty, the lack of supportive infrastructure, and poor governance. This paper set out to assess these contrasting arguments, with a view to determining the actual impact that pharmaceutical patents may be having on access to essential medicines in sub-Saharan Africa. Keyword search of electronic databases was conducted, in addition to a review of relevant literature from print sources. A manual analysis then followed. It was found that, rather than a single set of factors, both patent and non-patent factors combine to inhibit access to essential medicines in sub-Saharan Africa. It is imperative for sub-Saharan African countries to review current tariff and taxation policies, take steps to improve the supply of vital infrastructure, and strengthen their overall healthcare systems. They should also ensure that their IP systems are supportive of public healthcare needs. Equally important, is that TRIPS and the IP system should be more supportive of sub-Saharan Africa's struggle to bear its disease burden, rather than focusing narrowly on profit maximisation for pharmaceutical companies. Sub-Saharan Africa also needs increased international financing, private-public collaboration in research, and the sharing of benefits in order to cater effectively for the health needs of its citizens.


The economic potential of a behind-the-meter (BTM) PV-battery system depends greatly on how the battery is dispatched. Different utility rates, system sizes, generation and load profiles can all require different dispatch strategies. This paper presents price signals dispatch, a new algorithm for automated economic dispatch of BTM PV-battery systems, which utilizes 24-hour PV and load forecasts, degradation data, and utility rates. The algorithm is integrated with the System Advisor Model (SAM) tool and is tested with a nonlinear generic electrochemical battery model. Price signals dispatch outperforms SAM's existing algorithms in cases requiring a balance between demand charge management and energy arbitrage, and in cases where battery degradation imposes a significant cost.


Idiopathic anaphylaxis (IA) has been described as a clinical entity by North America authors. The symptoms are brisk and relapsing episodes of angioedema, urticaria, bronchospasm, digestive symptoms, cardio-vascular collapse. Adults, females more than males, are mainly concerned. The seriousness is linked to laryngeal angioedema or to hypotension. Nevertheless lethality is rare. The first step of the procedure is aimed at the detection of several rare pathologies mimicking IA: the paroxystic capillary leak syndrome induced by a monoclonal gammapathy or by a release of cytokines, a carcinoid syndrome, cutaneous or visceral mastocytosis, hereditary or acquired deficiency of C1 esterase inhibitor, relapsing benign flushes and factitious anaphylaxis. These diseases being excluded, the diagnosis of anaphylaxis is established, and the diagnostic process searches for exceptional causes: food allergy elicited by unusual trophallergens, exercise-induced anaphylaxis, allergy to parasitic antigens, to inhalants, or hormonal allergy. The negativity of thorough investigations establishes the plausibility of IA. Several unconfirmed pathogenic hypotheses have been put forward: abnormal easiness to non specific release of mediators from mast cells and/or basophils, anti-IgE antibodies as a specific kind of auto-immunity, angiotensin II deficiency. Treatment of emergency relies on self-administration of epinephrine. A daily therapeutic regimen using corticosteroids and anti-H1 drugs is currently prescribed and can be efficient, but no randomized studies have asserted the validity of this management. The lack of immunological studies, contrasting with numerous clinical reports, questions whether IA is really an entity or solely anaphylaxis in search of unknown eliciting allergenic agents.


Background: The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IBMYP) aims to produce a holistic transformation with creative and critically minded students. However, very little attention has been paid to the development of an instrument to measure the IB learner profile with good psychometric properties. Purpose: This study aims to develop an instrument with good psychometric properties, based on the Rasch measurement model and confirmatory factor analysis. Methods: The study consists of two phases of pilot and field studies involving 597 year four students from IBWS MOE. Results: The findings from the Rasch measurement model analysis have shown that 54 items meet the criteria of the item fit, unidimensionality, and reliability index. Meanwhile, confirmatory factor analysis found that 44 items have shown a valid item fit index. Conclusions: The combination of both analyses has shown the strength of 10IBLP-I psychometric properties that cover the aspects of validity and reliability. The findings also provide an implication to the theory, with empirical evidence that the IB learner profile consists of 10 constructs. Besides, the evidenced 10IBLP-I comprises good psychometric properties, which can be used to measure the level of IB learner profile among IBWS MOE students to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of IBMYP in Malaysia.


Information-centric networking (ICN) is a new communication paradigm that aims at increasing security and efficiency of content delivery in communication networks. In recent years, many research efforts in ICN have focused on caching strategies to reduce traffic and increase overall performance by decreasing download times. Since caches need to operate at line-speed, they have a limited size and content can only be stored for a short time. However, if content needs to be available for a longer time, e.g., for delay-tolerant networking or to provide high content availability similar to content delivery networks (CDNs), persistent caching is required. We base our work on the Content-Centric Networking (CCN) architecture and investigate persistent caching by extending the repository implementation in CCNx. We show by extensive evaluations in a YouTube and web server traffic scenario that repositories can be efficiently used to increase content availability by significantly increasing the cache hit rates.


In order to prepare a biosensor for the determination of xanthine, electropolymerization of pyrrole on Pt surface was carried out with an electrochemical cell containing pyrrole, ferrocene (as a electron mediator) and tetrabutylamonium tetrafluoroborat in acetonitrile by cyclic voltammetry between 0.0 and 0.9 V (vs SCE) at a scan rate of 50 mV/s upon Pt electrode. Xanthine oxidase was immobilized by a glutaraldehyde/bovine serum albumin (BSA) crosslinking procedure on to polypyrrole film after the electropolymerization processes. The response of the biosensor against xanthine was measured after 3–4 min following the application of a constant potential of +0.7 V (vs SCE). The resulting biosensor exhibits excellent electrocatalysis for the xanthine. The amperometric determination is based on the electrochemical detection of H2O2, which is generated in enzymatic reaction of xanthine. The effect of various experimental conditions was examined for the determination of the analytical performance. The sensor responds to xanthine with a detection limit of 1.0 × 10−6 M. The response current increases linearly with xanthine concentration up to 4.0 × 10−4 M. The sensor remains relatively stable for 45 days.


This article argues that bureaucratic capacity – the competence and reliability of the national bureaucracy – matters to the allocation of public spending among welfare state programmes since it is difficult for governments to justify high levels of spending on programmes that require bureaucrats to make case-by-case decisions, on a discretionary basis, if the bureaucracy is incompetent, corrupt or both. We expect bureaucratic capacity to have a positive effect on programmes that involve bureaucratic discretion, but weak or no effects on programmes that are more straightforward to implement. In order to test these hypotheses, we analyse public spending on active labour market programmes (which involve a lot of discretion) and parental leave benefits (which involve less discretion). Relying on data for twenty advanced democracies from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, we find that high bureaucratic capacity does have a positive effect on active labour market policy spending, but not on parental leave benefits.


Angiotensin IV (Ang IV) is a metabolite of the potent vasoconstrictor angiotensin II (Ang II). Because specific binding sites for this peptide have been reported in numerous tissues including the brain, it has been suggested that a specific Ang IV receptor (AT4) might exist. Bolus injection of Ang IV in brain ventricles has been implicated in learning, memory, and localized vasodilatation. However, the functions of Ang IV in a physiological context are still unknown. In this study, we generated a transgenic (TG) mouse model that chronically releases Ang IV peptide specifically in the brain. TG mice were found to be hypertensive by the tail-cuff method as compared with control littermates. Treatment with the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor captopril had no effect on blood pressure, but surprisingly treatment with the Ang II AT1 receptor antagonist candesartan normalized the blood pressure despite the fact that the levels of Ang IV in the brains of TG mice were only 4-fold elevated over the normal endogenous level of Ang peptides. Calcium mobilization assays performed on cultured CHO cells chronically transfected with the AT1 receptor confirm that low-dose Ang IV can mobilize calcium via the AT1 receptor only in the presence of Ang II, consistent with an allosteric mechanism. These results suggest that chronic elevation of Ang IV in the brain can induce hypertension that can be treated with angiotensin II AT1 receptor antagonists.


Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides containing internucleoside methylphosphonate linkages were examined for their ability to inhibit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-induced syncytium formation and virus expression. HIV inhibitory activity was found to be dependent on both chain length and the number of phosphonate residues. Introduction of 18 phosphonate groups in an oligomer of chain length 20 significantly increased HIV inhibitory activity relative to the parent oligonucleotide, whereas 5 such groups showed little or no increase in the HIV inhibition capacity. Methylphosphonate-linked oligomers are more stable to nuclease degradation and hence could be potentially useful in the treatment of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.


We present measurements of pure spin current absorption on lateral spin valves. By varying the width of the absorber we demonstrate that spin current absorption measurements enable to characterize efficiently the spin transport properties of ferromagnetic elements. The analytical model used to describe the measurement takes into account the polarization of the absorber. The analysis of the measurements allows thus determining the polarization and the spin diffusion length of a studied material independently, contrarily to most experiments based on lateral spin valves where those values are entangled. We report the spin transport parameters of some of the most important materials used in spinorbitronics (Co60Fe40, Ni81Fe19, Co, Pt, and Ta), at room and low (10 K) temperatures.


Background Low serum magnesium concentrations have been associated with cardiovascular disease risk and outcomes in some general population studies but there are no equivalent studies in diabetes. Metformin may have cardiovascular benefits beyond blood glucose lowering in type 2 diabetes but its association with hypomagnesemia appears paradoxical. The aim of this study was to examine relationships between metformin therapy, magnesium homoeostasis and cardiovascular disease in well-characterized type 2 patients from the community. Methods and Findings We studied 940 non-insulin-treated patients (mean±SD age 63.4±11.6 years, 49.0% males) from the longitudinal observational Fremantle Diabetes Study Phase I (FDS1) who were followed for 12.3±5.3 years. Baseline serum magnesium was measured using stored sera. Multivariate methods were used to determine associates of prevalent and incident coronary heart disease (CHD) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) as ascertained from self-report and linked morbidity/mortality databases. 19% of patients were hypomagnesemic (serum magnesium <0.70 mmol/L). Patients on metformin, alone or combined with a sulfonylurea, had lower serum magnesium concentrations than those on diet alone (P<0.05). There were no independent associations between serum magnesium or metformin therapy and either CHD or CVD at baseline. Incident CVD, but not CHD, was independently and inversely associated with serum magnesium (hazard ratio (95% CI) 0.28 (0.11–0.74); P = 0.010), but metformin therapy was not a significant variable in these models. Conclusions Since hypomagnesemia appears to be an independent risk factor for CVD complicating type 2 diabetes, the value of replacement therapy should be investigated further, especially in patients at high CVD risk.


In this paper general mechanisms and syntactic restrictions are explored in order to specify and merge rule bases in the Semantic Web. Rule bases are expressed by extended logic programs having two forms of negation, namely strong (or explicit) and weak (also known as default negation or "negation as failure"). The proposed mechanisms are defined by very simple modular program transformations, and integrate both open and closed world reasoning. These program transformations are shown to be appropriate for the two major semantics for extended logic programs: answer set semantics and wellfounded semantics with explicit negation. Moreover, the results obtained by both semantics are compared.


In this paper, we describe linear successive interference cancellation (SIC) based on matrix-algebra. We show that linear SIC schemes (single stage and multistage) correspond to linear matrix filtering that can be performed directly on the received chip-matched filtered signal vector without explicitly performing the interference cancellation. This leads to an analytical expression for calculating the resulting bit-error rate which is of particular use for short code systems. Convergence issues are discussed, and the concept of /spl epsiv/-convergence is introduced to determine the number of stages required for practical convergence for both short and long codes.


Structural materials represent the key for containment of nuclear fuel and fission products as well as reliable and thermodynamically efficient production of electrical energy from nuclear reactors. Similarly, highperformance structural materials will be critical for the future success of proposed fusion energy reactors, which will subject the structures to unprecedented fluxes of high-energy neutrons along with intense thermomechanical stresses. Advanced materials can enable improved reactor performance via increased safety margins and design flexibility, in particular by providing increased strength, thermal creep resistance and superior corrosion and neutron radiation damage resistance. In many cases, a key strategy for designing highperformance radiation-resistant materials is based on the introduction of a high, uniform density of nano-scale particles that simultaneously provide good high temperature strength and neutron radiation damage resistance.


In recent years, the development of the chemical industry has been moving in a
green, safe and efficient direction. Oxidation reactions are one of the most important types of
reactions and have key applications in food, medicine, cosmetics, and petrochemicals. However,
the occurrence of the oxidation reaction is accompanied by a strong exothermic phenomenon,
and improper control can easily lead to safety problems and even explosions. The
realization of an environmentally friendly oxidation reaction is a key industrial milestone.
The unique structural characteristics of microreactors result in good mass and heat transfer
performance, precise control of the reaction temperature, reduced risk of explosion, improved
safety production and selectivity of products. These unique advantages of the microreactor
determine its significant application value in oxidation reactions. In this paper, the research
progress of several typical oxidation reactions, including alkane oxidation, alcohol oxidation,
aldosterone oxidation, aromatics oxidation and olefin oxidation combined with microreactors,
is reviewed systematically.


Stendahl here offers the knowledgeable layman and the scholar fresh perspectives on Paul in a collection of four independent essays. The volume takes its name from the opening paper, which is based upon lectures delivered at Austin Presbyterian Seminary and the Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1963 and 1964 respectively. 'The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West' (reprinted from the Harvard Theological Review, 1963), 'Judgment and Mercy' and 'Glossolalia-The New Testament Evidence' (reprinted from M. P. Hamilton, The Charismatic Movement [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975]) follow and variously expand upon exegetical insights of the title essay. Stendahl's concluding bibliographical remarks ('Sources and Critiques') are intended to offset the lack of footnotes in the transcribed lectures. The exegesis of Paul, according to the author, has been overly influenced by the concerns of Augustinian and Lutheran theology with the conscience of the believer. Accordingly, the psychological problem of 'legalism' and the putative predicament of life under the Law are traditionally seen as generative of, and central to, Pauline thought. Stendahl, by contrast, argues that Paul possessed a 'robust' conscience and that his writings and career did not emerge from any dissatisfaction with Judaism. Time and time again Paul's deliberations on Jews, Judaism, and the processes of salvation appear derivative of, and secondary to, his defence of the full status of Gentiles qua Gentiles as members of the church-that is,


The application of the box integration method in Technology CAD environments is investigated. A particular difficulty arises from physical models like the impact ionization rate or the high-field mobility within the drift-diffusion carrier transport equations which rely on vector quantities. We discuss different methods how generation rates can be approximated in the box scheme and how the requirements for the applied vector discretizations are. Simulation results of devices operated near break-down are presented using implementations of the presented schemes. Advantages and disadvantages in respect to implementation, to errors, and to convergence behavior are presented.


In this study, we demonstrate the use of a microscopic circular polariscope to measure the flow-induced birefringence in a microfluidic device that represents the kinematics of fluid motion optically. Unlike the commercial birefringence microscope employed in the previous studies, our approach is able to provide direct measurement of retardance, which quantifies the difference in refractive index of the fluid experienced by the ordinary and extraordinary rays, from one single image frame. This capability facilitates unsteady full-field quantitation of flow-induced birefringence in microfluidics that has never been achieved before. At low flow rates, we find that the value of the retardance is independent of the microfluidic design and proportional to the nominal strain rates. This linearity bridges the measurement of birefringence and the deformation rate in the microflow environment, which yields the stress information of the fluid flow. In addition, the μPIV results confirm that both extensional and shear strain rates contribute to the flow-induced birefringence so that the retardance distribution can be used to represent the field of the principal strain rate in a microfluidic device. The outcome of this study proves that our approach provides a non-invasive method that enables an intuitive full-field representation of stress in the instantaneous flow field in a microfluidic device.


Pneumococcal infection(PI) in COPD patients leads to exacerbation and aggravation in its morbidity. Vaccines have been used to prevent invasive PI. Thus, it is of great clinical relevance to assess the association betweenvaccination and the number of exacerbations in COPD patients. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether patients with COPD who underwent pneumococcal vaccination have fewer exacerbations compared to not vaccinated. Cross-sectional and retrospective study. Patients enrolled at the clinic of COPD outpatient respiratory clinic from December 2011 to July 2012. 200 patients with COPD were interviewed, 133 had informed use of pneumococcal vaccine on least year. 36 had been vaccinated, 97 had not. Was verified that the number of exacerbations patients experienced the previous year. How exacerbation in the previous year was understood: the demand for emergency change in the patients usual symptoms, use of antibiotics and / or systemic corticosteroids with or do not need hospitalization RESULTS: Crossing the pneumococcal vaccine to the presence of exacerbation in the previous year found a tiny positive relationship (0.066) without statistical significance (p = 0.518). CONCLUSION: This study found no statistically significant difference in the number of exacerbations in COPD patients vaccinated or unvaccinated.


Purpose The primary aim of this study was to test the effect of a school-based physical activity intervention on adolescents' performance in mathematics. A secondary aim was to explore potential mechanisms that might explain the intervention effect. Methods The Activity and Motivation in Physical EDucation intervention was evaluated using a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial in 14 secondary schools located in low socioeconomic areas of Western Sydney, Australia. Study participants (n = 1173) were grade 8 students (mean age = 12.94 yr, SD = 0.54). The multicomponent intervention was designed to help teachers maximize students' opportunities for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during physical education (PE) and enhance students' motivation toward PE. Mathematics performance was assessed as part of national testing in grade 7, which was the year before the trial began and then again in grade 9. Potential mediators were: (i) proportion of PE lesson time that students spent in MVPA and leisure time MVPA (%), measured using Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometers, and (ii) students' self-reported engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive) during mathematics lessons. Mediators were assessed at baseline (grade 8) and follow-up (grade 9, 14–15 months after baseline). Results The effect of the intervention on mathematics performance was small-to-medium (&bgr; = 0.16, P < 0.001). An intervention effect was observed for MVPA% in PE (&bgr; = 0.59, P < 0.001), but not for leisure time MVPA or any of the engagement mediators. There were no significant associations between changes in potential mediators and mathematics performance. Conclusions The Activity and Motivation in Physical EDucation intervention had a significant positive effect on mathematics performance in adolescents. However, findings should be interpreted with caution as the effect was small and not associated with changes in hypothesized mediators.


Local heterogeneities in the structure and properties of metallic glasses have recently been predicted by computer simulations and also observed in experiments. These heterogeneities are important in understanding the stability and performance of metallic glasses. Progress has been made in measuring heterogeneities in elastic properties and local density down to length scales of less than 10 nm. In this review, we focus on studies of structural and mechanical heterogeneities with emphasis on those achieved by transmission electron microscopy which has an excellent spatial resolution, multifunctional detection modes, as well as in-situ testing capabilities. We argue that the next important step in understanding the behavior of metallic glasses lies in understanding the spatial and temporal correlations between the various structural and mechanical heterogeneities.


Connecting tubule glomerular feedback (CTGF) is a mechanism where an increase in sodium (Na) concentration in the connecting tubule (CNT) causes the afferent arteriole (Af-Art) to dilate. We recently reported that aldosterone within the CNT lumen enhances CTGF via a nongenomic effect involving GPR30 receptors and sodium/hydrogen exchanger (NHE), but the signaling pathways of this mechanism are unknown. We hypothesize that aldosterone enhances CTGF via cAMP/protein kinase A (PKA) pathway that activates protein kinase C (PKC) and stimulates superoxide (O2-) production. Rabbit Af-Arts and their adherent CNTs were microdissected and simultaneously perfused. Two consecutive CTGF curves were elicited by increasing the CNT luminal NaCl. We found that the main effect of aldosterone was to sensitize CTGF and we analyzed data by comparing NaCl concentration in the CNT perfusate needed to achieve half of the maximal response (EC50). During the control period, the NaCl concentration that elicited a half-maximal response (EC50) was 37.0 ± 2.0 mmol/l; addition of aldosterone (10-8 mol/l) to the CNT lumen decreased EC50 to 19.3 ± 1.3 mmol/l (P ≤ 0.001 vs. Control). The specific adenylyl cyclase inhibitor 2',3'-dideoxyadenosine (ddA; 2 × 10-4 mol/l) and the PKA inhibitor H-89 dihydrochloride hydrate (H-89; 2 × 10-6 mol/l) prevented the aldosterone effect. The selective PKC inhibitor GF109203X (10-8 mol/l) also prevented EC50 reduction caused by aldosterone. CNT intraluminal addition of O2- scavenger tempol (10-4 mol/l) blocked the aldosterone effect. We conclude that aldosterone inside the CNT lumen enhances CTGF via a cAMP/PKA/PKC pathway and stimulates O2- generation and this process may contribute to renal damage by increasing glomerular capillary pressure.


Speed permeates nearly every aspect of modern society. Businesses must deliver information, goods, and services at an ever-increasing pace to match the expectations of the high speed society we live in in the twenty-first century. However, the legal system must work and evolve at its own pace to accommodate such fundamental aspects as due process and zealous advocacy. This article explores the conflict that arises between a society accustomed to instant gratification and constant flux when confronted with a legal system that must operate deliberately and change infrequently by design. Beginning with a discussion of how human beings understand and interact with time, the article then explores the rise of the modern fast-paced society. The article then explores the pace of the American justice system and the difference between the speed at which the legal system operates as compared to other industries or institutions. Finally, the article examines methods for combatting the rushed nature of the modern era in the hope of preserving the ideals that the legal system represents.