Objectives To explore the role of individual-level and household-level characteristics for practice of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions. Design Secondary data analysis (cross-sectional). Setting West and Central Africa. Participants Data are from the Demographic and Health Surveys in the time period between 1986 and 2016. The final sample included between 116 325 and 272 238 observations depending on the outcome. Primary and secondary outcome measures Nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions were identified based on the UNICEF Conceptual Framework for child undernutrition. These were early breastfeeding initiation, minimum dietary diversity, full age-appropriate immunisation, iodised salt usage, vitamin A supplementation, iron supplementation, deworming in children aged 1 to 5, clean cooking fuel, safe drinking water and improved sanitation. Explanatory variables include household, mother and child characteristics. Linear probability models were fitted for each outcome, both unadjusted as well as fully adjusted including primary sampling unit fixed effects. Results Prevalence of early breastfeeding initiation was 54.31% (95% CI: 53.22% to 55.41%), minimum dietary diversity 13.89% (95% CI: 13.19% to 14.59%), full age-appropriate immunisation 13.04% (95% CI: 12.49% to 13.59%), iodised salt usage 49.66% (95% CI: 46.79% to 52.53%), vitamin A supplementation 52.87% (95% CI: 51.41% to 54.33%), iron supplementation 10.73% (95% CI: 10.07% to 11.39%), deworming 31.33% (95% CI: 30.06% to 32.60%), clean cooking fuel usage 3.02% (95% CI: 2.66% to 3.38%), safe drinking water 57.85% (95% CI: 56.10% to 59.59%) and improved sanitation 42.49% (95% CI: 40.77% to 44.21%). There was a positive education and wealth gradient for the practices of all interventions except deworming. Higher birth order was positively associated with the practice of early breastfeeding initiation, minimum dietary diversity, vitamin A supplementation and negatively associated with full immunisation and improved sanitation. Conclusions Household, maternal, and child-level characteristics explain practices of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions beyond intervention delivery at the regional level.


In the build-up calibration of precise coaxial ac-dc thermal voltage converters, separate thermal converter and multiplier modules are combined and intercompared. For routine calibration or testing to specification, ac-dc transfer errors associated with the thermal converter modules can usually be neglected. However, for the calibration of standards to the highest accuracy, where the uncertainty may be < 5 ppm at frequencies in the range 25 Hz to 100 kHz, thermal converter errors must be included. An expression is derived for ac-dc transfer error in a thermal converter-multiplier combination. Multiplier transfer error is subject to loading effects by the thermal converter module, and the sensitivity of multiplier transfer error to changes in converter loading is assessed. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the contribution of thermal converter voltage and current transfer errors to the error of the combination.


Background: Long-term caffeine intake decreases seizure susceptibility and has protective effect. This protective effect of caffeine may be due to the blockade of A2A adenosine receptors. Considering that activation of adenosine A2A receptors elevates nitric oxide production, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of chronic caffeine intake on the pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizure threshold and measurement of nitric oxide metabolites levels in mice. Materials and Methods: In this study, NMRI male mice (weighing 25-30 g) were divided into 3 groups including one control and two experimental groups (n=9 in each group). PTZinduced clonic seizure was measured following oral intake of caffeine in experimental groups (100 and 300 mg/L in the drinking water) or only tap water in the control group for 90 days. Measurement of nitric oxide metabolites in the brain tissues was done at the end of the experiments using the Greiss method. Results: The chronic caffeine intake at concentrations of 100 and 300 mg/L in the drinking water for 90 days did not change the seizure threshold. On the other hand, both concentrations of caffeine significantly decreased nitric oxide metabolites levels compared to the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study confirmed and extended previous studies that chronic caffeine intake has no effect on seizure. Reduced levels of nitric oxide metabolites and resultant decreased neuronal excitability may be the main protective mechanism of the chronic caffeine intake. Blockade of the A2A adenosine receptors following the chronic caffeine intake may be involved in decreased levels of nitric oxide metabolites.


Bulk solution assays have shown that the isolated CARMIL homology 3 (CAH3) domain from mouse and Acanthamoeba CARMIL rapidly and potently restores actin polymerization when added to actin filaments previously capped with capping protein (CP). To demonstrate this putative uncapping activity directly, we used total internal reflection microscopy to observe single, CP-capped actin filaments before and after the addition of the CAH3 domain from mouse CARMIL-1 (mCAH3). The addition of mCAH3 rapidly restored the polymerization of individual capped filaments, consistent with uncapping. To verify uncapping, filaments were capped with recombinant mouse CP tagged with monomeric green fluorescent protein (mGFP-CP). Restoration of polymerization upon the addition of mCAH3 was immediately preceded by the complete dissociation of mGFP-CP from the filament end, confirming the CAH3-driven uncapping mechanism. Quantitative analyses showed that the percentage of capped filaments that uncapped increased as the concentration of mCAH3 was increased, reaching a maximum of ∼90% at ∼250 nm mCAH3. Moreover, the time interval between mCAH3 addition and uncapping decreased as the concentration of mCAH3 increased, with the half-time of CP at the barbed end decreasing from ∼30 min without mCAH3 to ∼10 s with a saturating amount of mCAH3. Finally, using mCAH3 tagged with mGFP, we obtained direct evidence that the complex of CP and mCAH3 has a small but measurable affinity for the barbed end, as inferred from previous studies and kinetic modeling. We conclude that the isolated CAH3 domain of CARMIL (and presumably the intact molecule as well) possesses the ability to uncap CP-capped actin filaments.


is a tropical fruit that is widely produced and obsessively consumed, both for its delicious flavor and for its numerous medicinal benefits. is a tropical fruit that ranges in colour from orange red to yellow orange. The entire plant was used as medicine, including the fruit, leaves, roots, peel, bark, seed, and pulp. Papaya is the common name for this plant, and Papita is the Hindi name for it. It is now cultivated all over the world and used as an attractive tree in gardens. It was first introduced to India in the 17th century. Due to the presence of phenolics, flavonoid, and alkaloids as the active ingredients, papaya is recognised for its antioxidant, antibacterial, anticancer, antifertility, antiinflammatory, antiulcer, antidiabetic, and hepatoprotective properties, among others. phytochemicals that are important Many commercial goods made from diverse plant components are available on the market and are used for a variety of applications. This review discusses the fruit's origins and briefly examines its nutritional and pharmacological properties.


Phorid flies are well known myrmecophilic organisms and are often parasitoids of ants. In some cases, phorids live commensally with ants, with the colony offering protection and/or feeding opportunities. In this study we examined the phorid Commoptera solenopsidis in association with a new host species, Pheidole dentata . An ethogram was performed describing the fly and its association with different P. dentata castes. The flies spent most of their time performing grooming behaviors, allogrooming ants, or self-grooming and most commonly were associated with the major workers. We discuss the significance of this association as well as the possible evolutionary driving force behind C. solenopsidis having multiple hosts.


Microplasma has the advantage of reducing the discharge voltage compared with other atmospheric plasmas. It is generated at atmospheric pressure at only around 1.0 kV since its discharge gap is on the order of micrometers. The experiment was performed with air and argon as the process gases, to confirm the influence of different radical species in the microplasma, on the bacteria cultures. The process gas flows through the parallel plate electrodes with holes which were covered with dielectric material and energized at about 1.0 kV. The active species generated by the dielectric-barrier discharge microplasma flows toward the exposed Escherichia coli on the agar media at a distance of 2 mm from the electrodes. The process is known as remote microplasma sterilization method. Microplasma generated by both air and Ar is effective for sterilization. Observation by the scanning-electron-microscope images shows that the E. coli had a shrunk shape after the microplasma treatment.


Aim: The aim of the scoping review for the interpreting nursing metatheory study was to determine the presence or absence of metatheory in the nursing literature, to interpret nursing metatheory, and to determine if the Complexity Integration Nursing Theory is the primary metatheory for unifying the profession of nursing. Methods: Conducted a systematic interpretive scoping review using a modified Arksey and O'Malley framework involving 13 databases, gray literature, secondary sources of nursing theory textbooks, and six subjectively selected interdisciplinary metatheorieswith application to nursing published between 1987 and 2012 with nursing applications published within one year or up to 11 years. Evaluated identified nursing metatheories using the nine questions for interpreting nursing metatheory. Results: The interpreting nursing metatheory study retrieved seven nursing metatheories through electronic database searches, nursing theory textbooks, interdisciplinary metatheories, and gray literature; that met inclusion criteria for using the nine questions of interpreting nursing metatheory. One nursing metatheory, the Complexity Integration Nursing Theory, met all nine questions and acknowledged all nursing theories past, present, and future, and focused on the individual nurse regardless of nursing practice domain; one nursing metatheory met eight, one met seven, one met six, one met four, and two met three out of nine questions. Conclusion: The interpreting nursing metatheory scoping review provides an important high-level synthesis of nursing metatheory research, confirms the absence of nursing metatheory in primary and secondary nursing literature, and highlights the overall need for increased sophisticated methodological approaches to metatheory research in nursing especially with the trend towards interdisciplinary metatheory. The Complexity Integration Nursing Theory was the only nursing metatheory meeting all of the interpreting nursing metatheory questions and is the primary metatheory for unifying the profession of nursing.


Discussion on whether syndicated loan structures may give rise to anticompetitive risks has been increasing thus the European Commission is performing a study on the impact syndicated lending structures have on competition in the credit markets. This thesis will cover the main aspects of syndicated loan structures and then examine Article 101 TFEU and anticompetitive conduct. Syndicated lending has been an evolving form of corporate finance for the past decades and the market now amounts to one third of leveraged finance in the Euro Area. The structure of the syndicated loan agreements offers economic benefits for both lenders and the borrowers. This thesis aims to cover comprehensive discussion on syndicated lending, a form of multibank loan contracts where lenders provide shares of the loan to the borrower on the same terms. This thesis will explore the main features of syndicated lending and potential anticompetitive risks that may occur between the participants in a syndicated loan agreement. (Less)


Apneic-event based sleep disorders are very common and affect greatly the daily life of people. However, diagnosis of these disorders by detecting apneic events are very difficult. Studies show that analyzes of airflow signals are effective in diagnosis of apneic-event based sleep disorders. According to these studies, diagnosis can be performed by detecting the apneic episodes of the airflow signals. This work deals with detection of apneic episodes on airflow signals belonging to Apnea-ECG (Electrocardiogram) and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) BIH (Bastons's Beth Isreal Hospital) databases. In order to accomplish this task, three representative feature sets namely classic feature set, amplitude feature set and descriptive model feature set were created. The performance of these feature sets were evaluated individually and in combination with the aid of the random forest classifier to detect apneic episodes. Moreover, effective features were selected by OneR Attribute Eval Feature Selection Algorithm to obtain higher performance. Selected 28 features for Apnea-ECG database and 31 features for MITBIH database from 54 features were applied to classifier to compare achievements. As a result, the highest classification accuracies were obtained with the usage of effective features as 96.21% for Apnea-ECG database and 92.23% for MIT-BIH database. Kappa values are also quite good (91.80 and 81.96%) and support the classification accuracies for both databases, too. The results of the study are quite promising for determining apneic events on a minute-by-minute basis.


Two patients had heavy metal intoxication resulting from industrial exposure to mercury vapors. One patient remained asymptomatic despite high urinary mercury levels. The second presented with a documented toxic reaction, including abnormal electromyograms and hematuria. Treatment was begun with 2,3-dimercaptopropane-1-sulfonate, and investigational drug used under Food and Drug Administration guidelines (IND 19,276). Use in both patients resulted in a dramatic change in excretion half-life of the mercury, from 33.1 days before treatment to 11.2 days during therapy. No significant toxic effects related to drug therapy were observed. Clearing of hematuria and reversal of electromyographic abnormalities were prompt in the symptomatic patient. Therapy with 2,3-dimercaptopropane-1-sulfonate was effective in these two patients.


The recent introduction of third generation assays for TSH has led to a considerable improvement of assay sensitivity. To assess the clinical significance of subnormal basal TSH (b-TSH) values (< 0.2 microU/ml), we investigated b-TSH and TRH-stimulated TSH (r-TSH) by means of a new, highly sensitive immunochemiluminometric assay in 105 euthyroid subjects, 45 patients with overt hyperthyroidism and 18 patients suspected of having subclinical hyperthyroidism. A weak, albeit statistically significant, correlation (r = 0.48) was found between b-TSH and r-TSH and also between b-TSH and delta-TSH (r = 0.31) in euthyroid subjects. Consideration of b-TSH alone correctly identified 90 % of euthyroid subjects in this group; 10 of 105 apparently euthyroid subjects presented delta-TSH suggesting subclinical hyperthyroidism. While b-TSH was detectable (> 0.04 microU/ml) in 8 of 45 (18%) of hyperthyroid patients, all (100%) were abnormal in both b-TSH and r-TSH. 14 of 18 (78%) of patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism exhibited a blunted TSH response to stimulation (delta-TSH < 2 microU/ml). These results suggest that although the new generation of TSH assays can be a valuable addition to the diagnostic arsenal of thyroid function tests, certain limitations must still be accepted. Specifically, b-TSH in the "grey zone" (0.1-0.2 microU/ml) appears to be a less than reliable predictor of thyroid function.


Background/Introduction The Phosphocreatine-to-Adenosine Triphosphate ratio (PCr/ATP) is an established indicator of cardiac energetic status. Measurement of the Creatine Kinase pseudo-first order rate constant (CKkf) provides a more sensitive measure of cardiac energetics, and allows calculation of ATP delivery rate through the Creatine Kinase shuttle (CK flux). The normal heart is metabolically flexible and so should maintain energetics and cardiac output regardless of substrate available for use (fatty acids, FA, or glucose). This flexibility may be impaired in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), contributing to diabetic cardiomyopathy. However, it is unknown to what extent flexibility can be influenced by artificially altering the substrate available for metabolism. Purpose To compare cardiac function and energetics in diabetic participants randomised to either Intralipid© or a glycaemic clamp, to increase FA and glucose supply respectively. Methods At 2 separate visits (> 7 days apart), fasted participants with T2DM and normal cardiac systolic function received intravenous infusions of either 20% intralipid© (Intra, 60ml/hr) or insulin/dextrose 20% (Ins/Dex, variable rate), before undergoing multi-parametric cardiac MRI at 3 Tesla with standard imaging for LV volumes and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and 31P MR spectroscopy for PCR/ATP ratio and CKkf (s-1). ATP delivery rate was calculated as CKkf .[PCR]. [ATP] was assumed to be 5.7μmol (g wet weight)-1, and [PCr] calculated as PCr/ATP x 5.7. Results Twelve participants (11 male, age 60.3 ± 7.4 years, BMI 27.9 ± 5.3 kg/m2) were recruited. LVEF was increased on Intra vs Ins/Dex (biplane calculation: 69.1 ± 6.4 % vs 63.3 ± 5.7 %, p=0.007; short axis stack calculation 64.3 ± 4.0 % vs 62.2 ± 4.9 %, p=0.065). In addition, peak circumferential strain was increased on Intra (-20.69 ± 2.26 % vs -18.96 ± 1.72 %, p=0.002). Despite this, altering substrate did not influence PCR/ATP (Intra 1.84 ± 0.37; Ins/Dex 1.80 ± 0.29, p = 0.99), CKkf (Intra 0.15 ± 0.07 s-1; Ins/Dex 0.18 ± 0.09 s-1, p= 0.28) or CK flux (Intra 1.60 ± 0.79 μmol (g wet weight)−1 s-1; Ins/Dex 1.85 ± 0.90 μmol (g wet weight)−1 s-1, p=0.32). Conclusion Participants with T2DM have increased systolic function when using fatty acid as opposed to glucose as their predominant metabolic substrate. However, there is no change in cardiac energetics, implying either improved metabolic efficiency or increased ATP delivery via a CK independent route. Conflict of Interest Nil


Synthesis of vanillin and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde from guaiacol and phenol, respectively, was investigated. The condensation of guaiacol and phenol with glyoxylic acid in an aqueous alkaline medium resulted in the formation of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxymandelic and 4-hydroxymandelic acid respectively. A process version for the condensation of the phenol with glyoxylic acid, wherein it was found advisable to add an aqueous solution of glyoxylic acid and part of alkali to a batch of the phenol in aqueous alkali, was found to give 77% yield of the mandelic acid based on glyoxylic acid. The oxidation of the mandelic acid could be more suitably carried out at 95°C using 0.51 mol of copper (II) hydroxide for every mole of the mandelic acid in a process where air is simultaneously passed. Taking 3-methoxy-4-hydroxymandelic acid as an example, 88% conversion to vanillin could be obtained. The reaction was found to be second order with respect to the mandelic acid.


The capacity of antigenic complexes of the causative agent of zoo- and anthroponotic trichophytosis for inducing the factors, that modify the functional activity of macrophages, in mice and in spleen cell cultures has been studied. These complexes are capable of inducing the T-lymphocyte-mediated suppression and of stimulating the fungicidal activity (and oxygen-dependent metabolism) of phagocytes. The production of fungicidal activity suppressing lymphokines is linked with the presence of alkali-insoluble components of fungal cell walls and cytoplasmic antigens (the latter appear only in interactions of antigens with the lymphocytes of immunized animals) in the above-mentioned complexes.


Microbes are found in almost every conceivable part of the Earth, from hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean basins [Huber et al., 2007] to the cold subglacial lakes of Antarctic ice sheets [Mikucki et al., 2009]. The role of microorganisms in transforming Earth systems (e.g., accelerating mineral weathering) by mediating different biogeochemical cycles over the past 4 billion years has been well documented in many studies [e.g., Banfield et al., 1999]. However, microbial processes are challenging to investigate in situ. Direct (e.g., microbial composition and population density) and indirect (e.g., alteration of mineral phases by microbial activity) evidence for microbial activity requires sampling from boreholes, which is costly and invasive and provides poor spatial coverage.


The HECA452 carbohydrate epitope, also termed cutaneous lymphocyte antigen, is known to bind to E-selectin and defines a human T cell subset preferentially found in inflamed skin. Activated T cells can express a functional form of the P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1), the major ligand known for P-selectin. Here we show that PSGL-1 can exist in two forms, of which only one carries the HECA452 epitope and binds to E-selectin, while the other only binds to P-selectin. We have analyzed the glycoprotein ligands for E- and P-selectin on the mouse CD8+ T cell clone 4G3 at 4, 8, and 12 days after antigen-specific activation. Only at day 4 did the cells bind to E-selectin, whereas cells at all three activation stages bound to P-selectin. Expression of the HECA452 epitope correlated with E-selectin binding. In affinity isolation experiments, PSGL-1 was isolated as the major ligand by E-selectin-IgG and by P-selectin-IgG; however, PSGL-1 only bound to E-selectin at day 4, whereas it bound to P-selectin at all three activation stages. Immunoprecipitated PSGL-1 from cells at day 4, but not from cells at days 8 and 12, was recognized in immunoblots by monoclonal antibody HECA452. In immunoblots of total extracts of cells at day 4, HECA452 recognized a 240/140-kDa pair of protein bands as the major antigen. These bands could be completely removed by depletion of cell extracts with anti-PSGL-1 antibodies. Our data suggest that the carbohydrate requirements for binding of PSGL-1 to P-selectin differ from those necessary for binding to E-selectin. Furthermore, we conclude that the major glycoprotein carrier for the HECA452 epitope on activated 4G3 cells is PSGL-1.


The field of bioethics has spawned sub-specialties during the past two decades, one of which, clinical ethics, has only recently received the attention it deserves. A comprehensive literature now exists to address particular problems of the clinician-patient encounter, scholarly journals have emerged, and professional associations have been created, whose focus is on the provision of clinical ethics 'consultation'. As befits a new specialty, healthy debate is occurring about what the specialty consists in and who ought to be qualified to engage in it. These


Background The risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is largely influenced by lifestyle. Interestingly, cohort studies show that anxiety in general is associated with increased risk of IHD, independent of established risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Health anxiety is a specific type of anxiety characterised by preoccupation of having, acquiring or possibly avoiding illness, yet little is known about lifestyle and risk of disease development in this group. Aim Investigate whether health anxiety is prospectively associated with IHD, and whether a potential association can be explained by the presence or absence of established risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Methods Incident IHD was studied among 7052 participants in the community-based Hordaland Health Study (HUSK) during 12 years follow-up by linkage to the Cardiovascular Diseases in Norway (CVDNOR) project. Scores above 90th centile of the Whiteley Index defined health anxiety cases. Associations were examined with the Cox proportional regression models. Results During follow-up, 6.1% of health anxiety cases developed IHD compared with 3.0% of non-cases, yielding a gender-adjusted HR of 2.12 (95% CI 1.52 to 2.95). After adjustments for established cardiovascular risk factors, about 70% increased risk of IHD was found among cases with health anxiety (HR: 1.73 (95% CI 1.21 to 2.48)). The association followed a dose–response pattern. Conclusions This finding corroborates and extends the understanding of anxiety in various forms as a risk factor for IHD. New evidence of negative consequences over time underlines the importance of proper diagnosis and treatment for health anxiety.


What organizational, technological and training developments will become crucial in the coming years, and what consequences will they have for human resource development? These questions have led to a study carried out by the faculty of Educational Science and Technology at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. The ultimate aim of the study was to create an inventory of trends and developments which professionals deem to be influential with regard to the future HRD field. One direct catalyst for the study was the report of a similar study in the United States, involving HRD executives, carried out by the American Society for Training & Development. Following a brief explanation of the research plan and methods, this article describes the findings of the Dutch study an compares these with the results of the American research. It concludes with comments regarding the implications of the information obtained through this investigation.


In this paper, we present a new regularization paradigm for inverse based regularized image reconstruction techniques. These methods usually attempt to minimize a cost function expressed as the sum of a data-fitting term and a regularization term. The trade-off between both terms is determined by a weighting parameter that has to be set by the user since this trade-off is data dependent. In the approach we present here, we first concentrate on finding a set of eligible candidates for the data fitting term minimization and then select the most appropriate candidate according to the regularization criterion. The main advantage of this method is that it does not require any weighting parameter, and guarantees that no over-regularization can occur. We illustrate this method with a super-resolution reconstruction technique to show its efficiency compared to other competitive methods. Comparisons are carried out with simulated and real data.


We conducted a prospective, noncomparative, multicenter study to assess the safety and efficacy of doxycycline and netilmicin in the treatment of human brucellosis. The study included 64 patients who had acute brucellosis without endocarditis or neurobrucellosis. The treatment schedule consisted of the administration of 100 mg of doxycycline (or 5 mg/[kg.d] if body weight < or = 40 kg) twice a day orally for 45 days, plus 300 mg of netilmicin (6 mg/[kg.d] if body weight < or = 50 kg) intramuscularly once daily for 7 days. Therapeutic failure was noted in 5 patients (7.7%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.5%-17.1%), of whom 2 had spondylitis, 1 had sacroiliitis, and 1 had a splenic abscess that required splenectomy. Relapse was noted in eight patients (12.5%; 95% CI, 5.6%-23.2%). When relapse was considered in combination with initial lack of efficacy, 13 patients (21.9%; 95% CI, 12.3%-33.9%) failed to respond to therapy. Fifteen patients (23%; 95% CI, 13.5%-35.2%) had adverse effects, and one patient (1.5%) had a treatment-limiting adverse effect. Combination therapy with netilmicin/doxycycline may be effective in treating acute brucellosis. However, prospective controlled trials must confirm these results.


ABSTRACT Roughly 10% to 15% of insect species host heritable symbiotic bacteria known as endosymbionts. The lice parasitizing mammals rely on endosymbionts to provide essential vitamins absent in their blood meals. Here, we describe two bacterial associates from a louse, Proechinophthirus fluctus, which is an obligate ectoparasite of a marine mammal. One of these is a heritable endosymbiont that is not closely related to endosymbionts of other mammalian lice. Rather, it is more closely related to endosymbionts of the genus Sodalis associated with spittlebugs and feather-chewing bird lice. Localization and vertical transmission of this endosymbiont are also more similar to those of bird lice than to those of other mammalian lice. The endosymbiont genome appears to be degrading in symbiosis; however, it is considerably larger than the genomes of other mammalian louse endosymbionts. These patterns suggest the possibility that this Sodalis endosymbiont might be recently acquired, replacing a now-extinct, ancient endosymbiont. From the same lice, we also identified an abundant bacterium belonging to the genus Rickettsia that is closely related to Rickettsia ricketsii, a human pathogen vectored by ticks. No obvious masses of the Rickettsia bacterium were observed in louse tissues, nor did we find any evidence of vertical transmission, so the nature of its association remains unclear. IMPORTANCE Many insects are host to heritable symbiotic bacteria. These heritable bacteria have been identified from numerous species of parasitic lice. It appears that novel symbioses have formed between lice and bacteria many times, with new bacterial symbionts potentially replacing existing ones. However, little was known about the symbionts of lice parasitizing marine mammals. Here, we identified a heritable bacterial symbiont in lice parasitizing northern fur seals. This bacterial symbiont appears to have been recently acquired by the lice. The findings reported here provide insights into how new symbioses form and how this lifestyle is shaping the symbiont genome.


Despite the progress in the management of COVID-19, effective oral antiviral agents are still lacking. In the present review, the potential beneficial effects of molnupiravir in the management of COVID-19 are discussed. A literature search in Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed and clinicaltrials.gov for the relevant articles regarding the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and clinical trials of molnupiravir in the management of COVID-19 is conducted. Most of the preclinical studies and available clinical trials showed a favorable short-term safety profile of molnupiravir; however, given its possible genotoxic effects, further trials are required to confirm the long-term efficacy and safety of molnupiravir in patients with COVID-19.


In scientific computing and machine learning applications, matrices and more general multidimensional arrays (tensors) can often be approximated with the help of low-rank decompositions. Since matrices and tensors of fixed rank form smooth Riemannian manifolds, one of the popular tools for finding low-rank approximations is to use Riemannian optimization. Nevertheless, efficient implementation of Riemannian gradients and Hessians, required in Riemannian optimization algorithms, can be a nontrivial task in practice. Moreover, in some cases, analytic formulas are not even available. In this paper, we build upon automatic differentiation and propose a method that, given an implementation of the function to be minimized, efficiently computes Riemannian gradients and matrix-by-vector products between an approximate Riemannian Hessian and a given vector.


Abstract The objectives of this study were to examine whether the personality trait of stress reaction (SR), as assessed with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire-Brief Form (MPQ-BF), (1) influences prefrontal and limbic area activity during overt sentence reading and if (2) SR and associated individual differences in prefrontal and limbic activations correlate with sensorimotor cortical activity during overt sentence reading. Ten vocally healthy adults (22–57 years) participated in a functional MRI study using an event-related sparse sampling design to acquire brain activation data during sentence production tasks (covert, whispered, overt). The outcome measure was the blood oxygenation level-dependent signal change in prefrontal, limbic, and primary somatosensory (S1) and motor cortices (M1). Significant positive correlations were found between SR scores and S1, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (both r =.73, p <.05), and periaqueductal gray (r =.88, p <.01) activity. M1 activity was positively correlated with SR (r =.64, p <.05) and negatively with social potency (r = −.70, p <.05). Our findings suggest that motor cortical control subserving voice and speech production varies with expression of selected personality traits. Future studies should investigate the functional significance of personality differences in the central neural control of vocalization.


The theory and application of the Cox (1972) failure time regression model has, almost without exception, assumed an exponential form for the dependence of the hazard function on regression variables. Other regression forms may be more natural or descriptive in some applications. For example, a linear relative risk regression model provides a convenient framework for studying epidemiologic risk factor interactions. This note uses the counting process formulation of Andersen and Gill (1982) to develop asymptotic distribution theory for a class of intensity function regression models in which the usual exponential regression form is relaxed to an arbitrary non-negative twice differentiable form. Some stability and regularity conditions, beyond those of Andersen and Gill, are required to show the consistency of the observed information matrix, which in general need not be positive semidefinite.


This research aims at investigating the main discourses around the training of the "physical education directors" during the foundational process of the Southamerican Technical Institute of the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) created in 1922. This text is part of a wider research about the discourses of physical education teacher education in Uruguay. Our interest in this study arouse because of the impact that this training has had in our country, mainly in the first two decades of its existence, when there was no other training programme with these characteristics. The theoretical and methodological perspective chosen is based on the analysis of discourse of Pecheux (1990) and the contributions by Foucault (1991) in relation to the constitution of the modern episteme. This study takes as the main sources of information the syllabus of this training programme, as well as the foundational documents of the Institute. The main findings that stand out are, on the one hand, the great influence that the Northamerican Christian Association had on this training and, on the other hand, this training has some appearances of a normalist discourse with components of a technicist discourse and a bit of professionalism.


A method detecting pathogenic Vibrio anguillarum and its virulent metalloprotease is reported in this paper. The metalloprotease is isolated from extracellular product (ECP) of V.anguillarum by the cellophane plate technique and purified by gel filtration and ion exchange chromatography. Anti sera are prepared by injecting V.anguillarum cells and metalloprotease into the rabbits. Slide Agglutination Assay is used to detect V.anguillarum in the infection experiment and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) is carried out to detect concentration of metalloprotease. The result shows that bacterium strain M3 is able to diffuse into the viscera of infected fish through the blood circulating system 10 hours after intramuscular infection, and ELASA is a sensitive method to detect the metalloprotease with detectable amount of 7.8ng. The aim of this study is to establish a sensitive and specific method to observe the infection of V.anguillarum in the host.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
On June 4, 2021, Italy launched the COVID-19 vaccination of adolescents to pace down the COVID-19 spread. Although clinical trials have evaluated mRNA vaccine effectiveness in adolescents, there is limited literature on its real-world effectiveness. Accordingly, this study aimed to estimate the effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infection and mild or severe COVID-19 in a cohort of Sicilian adolescents within a six-month observation period.

METHODS
A retrospective cohort study was conducted with adolescents aged 12-18, residents of Sicily, that were followed from July 15 to December 31, 2021. SARS-CoV-2 infections, mild and severe COVID-19, and COVID-19-related intubation or deaths during the study period were compared between subjects vaccinated with two doses of mRNA vaccines and unvaccinated individuals. The Cox regression analysis, adjusted for age and sex, was performed to compare the two groups.

RESULTS
Overall, the study included a total at-risk population of 274,782 adolescents with 61.4% (168,633) of them having completed the vaccination cycle by the end of the study. Unvaccinated subjects had higher incidence rates of SARS-CoV-2 (1,043 x 10,000 vs. 158.7 x 10,000 subjects), mild COVID-19 (27.7 x 10,000 vs. 1.8 x 10,000 subjects) and severe COVID-19 (1.41 x 10,000 vs. 0 subjects) compared to the vaccinated population. The estimated adjusted vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection was 71.2%, reaching 92.1% and 97.9% against mild and severe COVID-19, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides rigorous evidence of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines effectiveness in protecting adolescents from both SARS-CoV-2 infection, and mild or severe COVID-19.


Successfully implemented transit-oriented development (TOD) does not happen overnight. TOD literature is typical in the use of case studies, which are generally descriptive and randomly chosen. This article seeks to be a first step in understanding the role of institutional incentives and the processes of institutional innovation that have led to successful TOD. This paper proposes a framework to understand this very interplay of institutional path dependence and innovation by starting with a quick-scan survey of TOD 'best practices' across the world to eventually allow for selection in-depth case studies for that very purpose. The selection criteria based on initial hypotheses will help to negate the anecdotal nature of 'best practices' case studies in which the role and process of institutional incentives controlling and allowing for success are not readily discernible. The framework for case selection aims to contribute to an understanding of the role of institutional incentives in leading to TOD through institutional learning and transfer.


Activities are reported in programs to collect, compile, and analyze geological data and prepare geological structure maps for eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia. Efforts to determine if structural types and styles and surface lineations for productive areas of black shales differ from those in nonproductive areas are summarized. Work is also reported and devoted to identification and definition of those geologic parameters that control gas production from the shales. Studies to determine the feasibility of using shallow penetration resistivity and seismic surveys to detect near surface faults and fractures and demonstrate their relationship to lineations observed on airborne imagery are reported. Studies are also reported on the relations between groundwater movement and shale gas productivity and on methods for selecting areas for drilling shale wells that have a potential for gas production.


In our recent work, a new integrated model was proposed to describe the back-stress evolution based on the dislocation substructure and texture. By relating the back-stress to the dislocation density in cell walls and in the cell interior, this model is able to capture the back-stress evolution of ECAP processed pure aluminium. In this paper, the model is used for another FCC material, namely copper. The aim is to check whether this model is able to predict the tension/compression asymmetry (due to the back-stress) of copper. The results show that this is indeed the case and it is also found that the strain rate ratio proposed in our previous work [1] is a function of the dislocation density ratio.


Background: This study aimed to improve physicians' understanding of the treatment circumstances and needs of outpatients with schizophrenia at risk of nonadherence, by naturalistically assessing antipsychotic treatment patterns, clinical outcomes, and health care service use in this little-studied patient population. Methods: In this one-year, prospective, multicenter, noninterventional, observational study, patients considered at risk of nonadherence by their physicians were switched from their primary oral antipsychotic to another oral or a depot antipsychotic at study entry. All cause treatment discontinuation (antipsychotic switch, augmentation, or discontinuation) during the study was assessed using Kaplan–Meier survival analyses and descriptive statistics. Patients' illness severity, quality of life, attitude towards medication, patient-reported adherence, and health care resource utilization were assessed during the study. Results: Of the 406 enrolled patients, 43 (10.6%) were switched to depot and 363 (89.4%) were switched to oral antipsychotics at study entry. During the study, 99 (24.4%) patients switched, augmented, or discontinued their antipsychotic (all cause treatment discontinuation). Of the 99 patients who switched, augmented, or discontinued their antipsychotic, 8 (18.6%) were taking depot and 91 (25.0%) were taking oral antipsychotics. These patients were switched to either depot (n = 15) or oral (n = 78) antipsychotics, or discontinued their antipsychotic medication (n = 6). Inadequate response was the most frequently reported reason for medication discontinuation. During the study, patients' clinical and functional status improved significantly and service use was low. Most patients considered themselves to be adherent at study entry, and this favorable self-perception increased during the study (from 68.5% to 88.1%). Conclusion: Although identified as at risk of nonadherence, few patients in this naturalistic study discontinued their prescribed antipsychotic medication during the study. The discrepancy between the physicians' perception of their patient's medication adherence and the patients' self-perceived adherence highlights the need to better understand the underlying reasons for this phenomenon.


To determine whether analysis of lymphocyte surface markers adds clinically useful information to the Lukes-Collins classification of lymphomas, tumors from 107 adults were histologically classified and studied for surface markers. Ninety-six cases were histologically classified as Lukes-Collins B-cell lymphomas; 87 showed B and one showed T surface markers, whereas eight had neither marker. Eleven lymphomas were histologically T-cell tumors; four of the 11 showed T surface markers, and seven had neither marker. Both the Lukes-Collins classification and surface markers identified patient groups with different clinical characteristics, chemotherapeutic responsiveness and survival. However, by combining surface markers and histologic features, additional important therapeutic and prognostic information was obtained. In each histologic class, patients whose lymphomas failed to express immunologically the histologically predicted marker had fewer responses to chemotherapy and shorter survivals than patients whose lymphomas expressed the predicted marker. Our data suggest that the analysis of surface markers in combination with the Lukes-Collins classification identifies many patients who respond poorly to current therapy and who thus require new therapeutic approaches.


OBJECTIVE
The current study aimed to validate the Performance Validity Test Coin in Hand-Extended Version (CIH-EV) in groups of healthy older adults and older adults with dementia.

METHOD
Using an analog simulation paradigm, the healthy control group and the clinical group were instructed to perform to the best of their ability, whereas the feigning older adults were instructed to simulate a memory deficit to obtain allowance, financial aid, or early retirement.

RESULTS
Results showed that the control and clinical groups performed more optimally than the feigning group, although the clinical group had superior response times. The CIH-EV was insensitive to sociodemographic variables and neurocognitive functioning in all groups, demonstrated good convergent validity with other performance validity measures, and showed a reduced rate of false positives.

CONCLUSIONS
This study corroborates the CIH-EV's effectiveness in detecting the simulation of cognitive deficits in healthy older adults and older adults with dementia.


Orf is an infectious disease caused by an epitheliotrophic double stranded deoxyribonucleic acid parapoxvirus which primarily affects sheep and goats but humans can also be infected by contact with infected animals. In Muslim countries, especially after the Feast of Sacrifice, the incidence of human orf increases. Although orf infection is benign and self limiting, it can interfere with work and result in repetitive visits to the emergency. Also recently, complications including erythema multiforme (EM) and bullous pemphigoid like eruptions, papulovesicular eruptions, epidermolysis bullosa acquisita have been reported with orf. Awareness of orf infection and related possible hypersensitivity reactions by the physicians, can reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics and visits to the emergency.


Proper supply chain management in tilapia commodities in Toba Samosir Regency is needed to add value, maintain stock and quality, and can be easily reached by consumers/ communities. This study aims to determine the production process, analyze the actors involved, and analyze product flow, money flow and information flow in the tilapia fish supply chain in Toba Samosir Regency. This research is a qualitative descriptive study. Data analysis method is carried out in several steps: 1) Data Collection, 2) Data Reduction, 3) Data Display, 4) Drawing Conclusion and Verification. The results of this study are 1) Tilapia fish production process in Toba SamosirRegency is carried out with two systems, namely the first fish cultivation is done starting from the nursery and the second is cultivation for enlargement. 2) The actors involved in the supply chain system for the freshwater fish industry in Toba Samosir Regency are Fish Cultivators, Collectors, Diluents, Fish Processing Industries, Consumers. 3) There are product flow, money flow and information flow in the supply chain of the freshwater fishing industry in Toba Samosir Regency. Product flow flows from upstream to downstream, financial flow flows from downstream to upstream and information flows flow in both directions. Keywords: Industry; Supply Chain; Tilapia; Toba Samosir Regency.


Polymerization of carbazole dicarboxaldehydes and lysine derivatives by imine and acylhydrazone formation afforded peptide-derived molecular biodynamers. Characterization of their physicochemical properties revealed an interesting morphology change upon polymerization from monomers forming submicrometer spherical micelles to nanometer-sized rigid-rod-shaped polymeric particles. A combination of light-scattering methods, small-angle neutron scattering, and transmission electron microscopy enabled a detailed investigation of this morphological change. Moreover, we investigated by dynamic and static light scattering how the pH affects the fluorescence and size of the biodynamers. These morphological and pH-dependent changes are expected to open the door to a myriad of applications of molecular biodynamers.


The Quaternary deposits in the Bethune-Bruay-Allouagne-Chocques area are exposed on two hills composed of marine and continental (Ostricourt sands) facies of Landenian sands. The Ostricourt sands are overlain by a podzolic paleosol which underlies sandy loams and clays previously considered as Sparnacian. However, the presence of such periglacial phenomena as ice wedges and mammilliform sandstones in the podzols, and pergelisol pebbles in the loams and clays suggests that these deposits may actually be very early Quaternary. Overlying these deposits is a series of three soilflows alternating with paleosols, and separated from the Mindel-Riss interglacial by a hiatus. Eolian sands compose the Mindel deposits which are overlain by numerous soilflows of the Riss. The Wuerm is represented by three loess deposits sometimes intercalated with flows of leached rubble.


The study aims to develop the students' learning motivation in the physical education lesson by explaining the role of the physical education teacher skills, which is the main focus on which the student relies in the learning process and has the largest role in the learning motivation. Therefore, the teacher had to develop skills and ways to influence the students 'motivation in learning. The researcher has focused on clarifying the most important methods and skills affecting the student. The researcher focused on important skills that simulate the student's psyche and his development and increase the motivation to learn his skills through three axes: experience- personality- communication with the student and adopted the descriptive approach, which is considered one of the best research methods, as it is objective. The research sample are first, second, and third intermediate students, consisting of 150 Male and female students were chosen randomly, and the research hypothesis was that there is a correlation between important skills (personality- experience- communication) with the student's learning motivation in a physical education lesson or session. According to these axes, the paragraphs of the questionnaire were developed and the results of the statistical analysis SPSS proved the existence of a correlative force and a statistical relationship Among the research axes and its impact on the student's learning motivation and these are the most important results of the statistical analysis, the experience axis obtained an arithmetic mean of (2.59), The news axis also obtained an arithmetic mean (2.73) and the axis of communication obtained an arithmetic mean height of (2.62), which are results that give a wide range of accepting hypotheses, so we must recommend the adoption of an educational model that makes the learner the focus of the educational process, so it has become imperative for those in the teaching process to direct the cadre of teachers in the subject of physical education on the importance and extent of its impact on increasing students' motivation to learn in the physical education lesson inside and outside the lesson.


To have or not to have a grand theory is the question asked and deliberated by contemporary geographers although some or many had already dismissed the legitimacy of the question altogether . This paper addresses the problem of grand theory in contemporary (Western) human geography from an Islamic perspective. It is driven by the hypothesis that the de-legitimation or the debunking of an epistemological grand theory in contemporary human geography is neither absolute, nor final, nor universal. It is essentially a Western scholarship problem presented as if it is universal. It then proceeds to demonstrate how and why an epistemological grand theory is not a problem in the Islamic approach to knowledge. Recapitulating the gist of an earlier attempt, it provides a brief account of how an Islamic epistemology would grapple with three of the main issues and challenges facing a grand theory in human geography, namely, integrating the theoretical with the empirical, unifying multi-scalar analyses, and transcending the divide between the human and the natural sciences. Keywords: democratisation of knowledge, epistemology, grand theory, human geography, Islamic scholarship, Western scholarship


SUMMARY Gene expression in members of the family Bacillaceae becomes compartmentalized after the distinctive, asymmetrically located sporulation division. It involves complete compartmentalization of the activities of sporulation-specific sigma factors, σF in the prespore and then σE in the mother cell, and then later, following engulfment, σG in the prespore and then σK in the mother cell. The coupling of the activation of σF to septation and σG to engulfment is clear; the mechanisms are not. The σ factors provide the bare framework of compartment-specific gene expression. Within each σ regulon are several temporal classes of genes, and for key regulators, timing is critical. There are also complex intercompartmental regulatory signals. The determinants for σF regulation are assembled before septation, but activation follows septation. Reversal of the anti-σF activity of SpoIIAB is critical. Only the origin-proximal 30% of a chromosome is present in the prespore when first formed; it takes ≈15 min for the rest to be transferred. This transient genetic asymmetry is important for prespore-specific σF activation. Activation of σE requires σF activity and occurs by cleavage of a prosequence. It must occur rapidly to prevent the formation of a second septum. σG is formed only in the prespore. SpoIIAB can blockσ G activity, but SpoIIAB control does not explain why σG is activated only after engulfment. There is mother cell-specific excision of an insertion element in sigK and σE-directed transcription of sigK, which encodes pro-σK. Activation requires removal of the prosequence following aσ G-directed signal from the prespore.


The allocation of the computational load across different processing elements is an important issue in parallel computing. Indeed, an unbalanced load distribution can strongly affect the performances of a parallel system caused by an excess of synchronization idle times due to less loaded processes waiting for more loaded ones. In this article, we focus on the load balancing issues in the context of the parallel execution of spatial-related applications where the domain space is partitioned in regions that are assigned to different processing elements. In particular, without loss of generality, we consider the well-known spatial-related Cellular Automata computational paradigm for evaluating the proposed dynamic load balancing approach. The main contribution of this article is the derivation of simple closed-form expressions that allow to compute the optimal workload assignment in a dynamic fashion, with the goal of guaranteeing a fully balanced workload distribution during the parallel execution. Based on these expressions, an algorithm for balanced execution of cellular automata is presented and implemented using the MPI technology. Eventually, an experimental section practically shows the behaviour of the proposed dynamic load balancing approach and proves its performance improvement, compared to the not-balanced version, as witnessed by the appreciable reduction of execution times.


Fullerenes are used extensively in organic electronics as electron acceptors among other uses; however, there are still several key mysteries regarding their formation such as the importance of graphitic intermediates and the thermokinetics of initial cage formation. To this end, we have conducted density functional tight binding molecular dynamics (DFTB-MD) calculations on disintegrated Ih-C60 to investigate the formation mechanisms of fullerenes at high temperature conditions. From the results of these DFTB-MD calculations we were able to develop a thermokinetic model to describe the free energies and kinetics of fullerene formation at a range of temperatures. Direct observation of the mechanism revealed fullerenes readily forming in nanosecond times between 2000 and 3000 K but were hindered above this temperature window. Analysis revealed temperature dependent formation mechanisms where at low temperatures (<2750K) flat graphitic bowls play an important part as metastable intermediates while highly curved bowls follow a direct fast transformation. Meanwhile at higher temperatures (>2750 K), flat bowls become the transitory structure between chains and fullerene. Free energy analysis from our thermokinetic model shows this change in graphitic bowls to being transitory hinders fullerene formation at high temperatures compared to lower temperatures, essentially kinetically trapping C60 as chain networks. This investigation gives new key insights into the formation mechanisms of C60 fullerenes and highlights important intermediates while also illuminating the temperature window for fullerene formation, facilitating better optimization of experimental methods.


Objective: To compare routines and results regarding immediate postnatal treatment of preterm infants between three hospitals prior to the introduction of Kangaroo Care in the delivery room in order to ensure comparable baseline data for a study group and a control group for a future study. To compare infants delivered vaginally with infants delivered by caesarean section.Methods: This was a descriptive multicentre pilot study using retrospective data from medical records at St. Olavs Hospital, Vestfold Hospital and University Hospital of North Norway. Inclusion criteria were infants born at 32 to 35 weeks of gestation in a stable condition right after birth. Primary outcomes were hypoglycaemia, hypothermia and feeding routines.Results: A total of 63 preterm infants were included. The incidences of the primary outcomes were comparable between the infants delivered vaginally, but not between those delivered vaginally and those delivered by caesarean section. Procedures regarding feeding and blood glucose measurements were different in different hospitals, but not significant.Conclusion: The pilot study was helpful in discriminating between infants eligible for a future study where infants using Kangaroo Care will be compared to infants immediately transferred to an NICU after delivery. The data also revealed procedures that need to be revised. These are important adjustments that may influence the success of the future study.


Benefit management is a valuable approach, promoted and supported by strategic management for maximizing organizational benefits. It has also been recognized as a means of improving project performance, though more research is needed to understand how it works. This research adds to the contemporary literature on public sector project management by studying the links between project governance, benefit management, and project performance from a developing country perspective. This study provides insights for project professionals who are working in government organizations for optimizing the benefits of investment. The study provides a reference to formulate strategies for managing and governing the performance of government-funded projects in developing countries like Pakistan. The research uses a positivist approach and quantitative design. The quantitative technique is employed to address all the aspects of the study. The structural equation modeling revealed that benefit management acted as a mediating factor in the relationship between project governance dimensions and public sector project performance. This study highlights the importance of incorporating a comprehensive benefit management approach to streamline the benefit management process by aligning projects with the organizational strategy for sustaining project performance. These findings stress the need for a comprehensive benefit management approach in improving the project performance of government-sponsored projects. The study attempts to improve the understanding of project professionals about the role and significance of benefit management, which will be helpful to get organizational support for the employees who are striving to improve the project performance in Pakistan.


Abstract Synoptic conditions associated with strong winds and snowfalls on January 2014 in Bulgaria and Romania are investigated in this paper. The Romanian authorities established the orange and red codes while the Bulgarian ones the orange code. A first peak was recorded in northern and especially northeastern Bulgaria and south-eastern Romania on January 25-26 and a second one on January 29 2014. The purpose is to understand what regulates the duration and intensity of these events. For their study, NCEP-500/700/850 and SLP analyses, different model outputs and soundings as well as data from 12 weather stations have been used.


Numerous computational and spectroscopic studies have demonstrated the decisive role played by nonadiabatic coupling in photochemical reactions. Nonadiabatic coupling drives photochemistry when potential energy surfaces are nearly degenerate at avoided crossings or truly degenerate at unavoided crossings. The dynamics induced by nonadiabatic coupling are challenging to comprehend; here we describe a versatile one-dimensional model that is numerically tractable and illustrates fundamental aspects of nonadiabatic quantum dynamics. This model reinforces and builds on concepts taught in graduate-level quantum mechanics and therefore should be accessible to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. We use the model to demonstrate how the local topography of an unavoided crossing can affect a photochemical quantum yield.


Soil moisture is known to be important in hydrology, agronomy, flood and drought forecasting. Acquisition of in situ soil moisture data is time consuming, costly, and does not cover the scale required for basin analysis. The consideration of remotely-sensed soil moisture is therefore promising. However, considering the limitations of satellite data, there is a need to check their validity prior to their utilization for impact studies. This, in turn, poses a problem in the absence of in situ soil moisture. The present study suggests a methodology for testing the validity of remotely-sensed soil moisture without in situ soil moisture. Hydrological models with a detailed soil moisture routine are calibrated and validated with measured stream flows. Simulated soil moisture data of the most behavioural solutions from the models are averaged, and then used as proxy measurements. This methodology was applied to the Yankin Basin (8,171 Km 2 ), a tributary of the Niger River Basin. The soil moisture of three hydrological models (UHP-HRU, SWAT and WaSiM) used as proxy was compared with the daily ESA-CCI soil moisture for a four year period (2005-2008). The coefficient of determination (R 2 ), bias and visual inspection were used as quality criteria. A rather small bias ranging from -0.01cm 3 /cm 3 (SWAT & UHP-HRU) to -0.04cm 3 /cm 3 (WaSiM &UHP-HRU) was determined as well as good R 2 varying between 0.71 (SWAT & UHP-HRU) and 0.81 (WaSiM & SWAT & UHP-HRU). The ESA-CCI soil moisture was therefore judged as reliable for the study area.


A fundamental understanding of liquid-vapor phase transitions, mainly boiling phenomenon, is essential due to its omnipresence in science and technology. In industries, many empirical correlations exist on the heat transport to get an optimized and efficient thermal design of the boiling equipment. But nevertheless, a physical understanding of these phenomena remains inconclusive. This is because of the complexity present in the problem due to interconnections between mass, momentum and thermal energy of solid, liquid, and vapor phases. How to understand the observed heat transport and the flow dynamics based on a suitable model with the proper physics of boiling? Boiling phenomena of water at 100 °C under normal pressures in a Rayleigh-Benard (RB) cell are understood through numerical simulations. Our work highlights the importance of nucleated vapor bubbles on the local and the global properties of the flow (e.g., energy dissipation rates, velocity, temperature, heat flux etc.) in a boiling convection.
What we found is vapor bubbles absorb heat from the hot plate (and also from surrounding liquid), grow in size and rise in the flow due to enhanced buoyancy. While in motion, they condense by releasing heat when they encounter a cooler liquid or by reaching the cold plate. Their complex interactions with the liquid significantly change the mentioned local and global properties of the flow. While this study therefore does not address the real phenomenon of boiling, but it is useful to illuminate the relative importance of enhanced convection due to the increased buoyancy of vapor bubbles and their motion relative to the liquid in both the laminar and the turbulent states. This work is a preliminary step to better understand boiling thermal convection in the perspective of fluid dynamics and heat transfer.


We study symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases of matter in 2D protected by symmetries acting on fractal subsystems of a certain type. Despite the total symmetry group of such systems being subextensively large, we show that only a small number of phases are actually realizable by local Hamiltonians. Which phases are possible depends crucially on the spatial structure of the symmetries, and we show that in many cases no non-trivial SPT phases are possible at all. In cases where non-trivial SPT phases do exist, we give an exhaustive enumeration of them in terms of their locality.


This study aims to investigate oxide layers formed during corrosion of Zircaloy-4 samples, ranging in thickness from 1 μm to 100 μm. The aim is to establish trends between oxide thickness and the nature of the oxide/metal interface as well as the cracking patterns in the oxide. By taking scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures of cross-sectional oxide samples, qualitative comparisons are made between samples. Because the reaction rate is controlled by a processes taking place at the oxide-metal interface, the nature of the interface can play a significant role in corrosion kinetics. The variation of the interface with oxide thickness was examined. Furthermore, in the oxide, horizontal cracks form. The possible periodicity in the occurrence of these cracks was studied, as was the presence of oxide "veins," which may be connected to oxide growth. Additionally, a sample of an oxide layer formed in crystal bar zirconium (as opposed to Zircaloy4) was also studied. The oxide layer in this sample has partially flaked away, a characteristic of a nonprotective oxide layer. There are still some sections of adherent oxide, the structure of which was examined and compared. In this study, the stability of the oxide formed in Zircaloy-4 was seen, especially in contrast with the unstable pure zirconium oxide. The oxide/metal interface in the Zircaloy-4 has a flat average front, with smooth, low-amplitude oscillations. Due to the volumetric expansion of the oxide, stresses form. At a critical level, the oxide begins to crack to relieve the stress. These cracks are parallel to the oxide/metal interface. After cracking, further oxidation occurs, stress builds, and another layer of cracks forms to relieve it. In Zircaloy-4, these cracks are roughly 2 μm apart. Perpendicular to the interface are oxide "veins", paths from the interface to the surface free of cracks, that may be used to transport oxygen to the interface to cause further corrosion.


Treatment of influenza virus concentrates with alkaline solvents releases a major fraction of the viral structural protein content. As determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the surface glycoprotein substructures, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, are the primary solubilized products. Two forms of hemagglutinin antigen are recovered, a 39S active hemagglutinin and a 23S blocking antigen. Dose-response assays in mice demonstrate that hemagglutination-inhibiting and neuraminidase antibodies are induced. Antibody responses are comparable to those resulting from immunization with inactivated whole virus. On the basis of demonstrated purity, high yields of protective antigens, immunogenic potency, and absence of deleterious reagents, alkaline-extracted influenza protein preparations merit consideration as subunit vaccines for human use.


INTRODUCTION
Trichinellosis is an anthropozoonosis caused by Trichinella spiralis. Central nervous system complications can occur during the course of this disease. This paper presents a case of neurotrichinellosis, assayed by using indirect immunofluorescence test.

CASE REVIEW
A patient aged 30, was admitted to the Clinic on the fifth day after onset of the disease, which was gradual, starting with flu-like symptoms. Two days before admittance, the diseased became somnolent, disconcerted and disoriented. On admission, the patient was highly febrile (39 degrees C), dehydrated, with eyelid edema. Right hemiparesis was present. The disease was confirmed by indirect immunofluorescence test, showing an increase of trichinella antibody titre (1:20, 1:160 and 1:640). The cerebrospinal fluid was cytobiochemically normal. Electroencephalographic findings exhibited a moderate cerebral dysfunction. Multifocal unspecific changes were established by magnetic tomography. The diseased was treated by mebendazole and prednisolone. The course of the disease was favourable and the patient was cured without sequelae.

DISCUSSION
Recognition and diagnosis of Trichinellosis are complicated due to its polymorphid symptomatology. In the case reviewed, the disease started with clinical features of flu-like symptoms and febrile gastroenteritis. According to some authors, central nervous system manifestations occurred in 10-15% of the diseased.

CONCLUSION
When examining clinically manifested encephalitis, Trichinelosis should be taken into consideration as a cause of the disease.


A young woman showed a significant decrease in lumbar bone mass after one year of endurance running. She succeeded in running the Boston marathon. In spite of her lifestyle, that was supposed to be beneficial with a high calcium intake (1000 mg/day) and high weight bearing physical activities (7000 MET's/week), she was not able to maintain lumbar bone mineral density (15% decrease). Reasons can be the concomitant 16% decrease in body weight. It is assumed that the weight bearing effect of her lower body weight during the day is an important factor for maintain the bone mineral density in her lumbar spine.


An enhanced hypercube is obtained by adding 2/sup n-1/ more links to a regular hypercube of 2/sup n/ processors. It has been shown that enhanced hypercubes have very good improvements over regular hypercubes in many measurements such as mean internode distance, diameter and traffic density. This paper proves that in the aspect of diagnosability, enhanced hypercubes also achieve improvements. Two diagnosis strategies, both using the well-known PMC diagnostic model, are studied: the precise (one-step) strategy proposed by Preparata, Metze and Chien (1967), and the pessimistic strategy proposed by Friedman (1975). Under the precise strategy, the diagnosability is shown to be increased to n+1 in enhanced hypercubes. (In regular hypercubes, the diagnosability is n under this strategy). Under the pessimistic strategy, the diagnosability is shown to be increased to 2n. (In regular hypercubes, the diagnosability under this strategy is 2n-2). Since the failure probability of one node is fairly low nowadays, so that the increase of diagnosability by one or two will considerably enhance the system's self-diagnostic capability, and considering the fact that diagnosability does not "easily" increase as the links in networks do, these improvements are noticeable. >


We present a complete calculation of the higher-order perturbative QCD corrections to inelastic photoproduction of J/ψ particles. A comprehensive analysis of total cross sections and differential distributions for the energy range of the fixed-target experiments and for inelastic J/ψ photoproduction at HERA is performed. The cross section and the J/ψ energy spectrum are compared with the available photoproduction data including first results from HERA. This analysis will not only provide information on the gluon distribution of the proton but appears to be a clean test for the underlying picture of quarkonium production as developed so far in the perturbative QCD sector. ⋆ E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


The high-entropy concept was applied to the synthesis of transition-metal antimonides, M1-xPtxSb (M = equimolar Ru, Rh, Pd, and Ir). High-entropy antimonide samples crystallized in a pseudo-hexagonal NiAs-type crystal structure with a P63/mmc space group were successfully synthesized through a conventional solid-state reaction and subsequent quenching. A detailed investigation of the composition and equilibration conditions confirmed the reversible phase transition between a multiphase state at low temperature and an entropy-driven single-phase solid solution at high temperatures. Electrical resistivity, magnetization, and heat capacity measurements of single-phase M1-xPtxSb (x = 0.2) samples revealed a bulk superconducting transition at 2.15(2) K. This study demonstrates that the high-entropy concept provides numerous opportunities for the discovery of new functional materials such as superconductors.


This report, Volume IV of the International Linear Collider Reference Design Report, describes the detectors which will record and measure the charged and neutral particles produced in the ILC's high energy e+e- collisions. The physics of the ILC, and the environment of the machine-detector interface, pose new challenges for detector design. Several conceptual designs for the detector promise the needed performance, and ongoing detector R&D is addressing the outstanding technological issues. Two such detectors, operating in push-pull mode, perfectly instrument the ILC interaction region, and access the full potential of ILC physics.


A kinetic method has been developed to measure selectivity constants of pairs of anions in phase-transfer catalytic systems. The method is based on the study of the poisoning effect produced by the presence of catalytic amounts of different salts in the kinetic behaviour of the phase-transfer-catalysed isomerization of 4-allylanisole to 4-methoxy-β-methylstyrene in basic medium. The kinetic profiles experimentally obtained for this reaction are numerically analysed and Ksel values for different anions are subsequently derived. Particular attention is given to alkoxide anions, formed in situ by contact of alcohols with concentrated NaOH. A selectivity constant parameter that includes the acidity of the alcohols is defined.


There are limited reports about the impacts of long-term irrigated and non-irrigated cropping and land-use systems (CLUS) on soil properties and nutrient stocks under smallholder farmers' conditions in developing countries. The objective of this research was to examine variation in soil properties and OC and TN stocks across the different CLUS in Dura sub-catchment, northern Ethiopia. Surveys and discussions on field history were used to identify nine CLUS, namely, tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc) Trot)) mono-cropping (TM), maize (Zea mays L.) mono-cropping (MM), cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis)-maize intercropping (IC1), red beet (Beta Vulgaris)-maize intercropping (IC2), cauliflower-tef-maize rotation (R1), onion (Allium cepa L.)-maize-onion rotation (R2), treated gully (TG), untreated gully (UTG), and natural forest system (NF). A total of 27 composite soil samples were collected randomly from the CLUS for laboratory analysis. Data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance and PCA. The lowest and highest bulk density was determined from NF (1.19 Mg m-3) and UTG (1.77 Mg m-3), respectively. Soil pH, EC and CEC varied significantly among the CLUS. The highest CEC (50.3 cmolc kg-1) was under TG followed by NF. The highest soil OC stock (113.6 Mg C ha-1) and TN stock (12.2 Mg C ha-1) were found from NF. The PCA chosen soil properties explained 87% of the soil quality variability among the CLUS. Such soil properties and nutrient stocks variability among the CLUS suggested that introduction of suitable management practices are crucial for sustaining the soil system of the other CLUS.


Abstract : The purpose of this study was to determine if xenon has a neuroprotectant effect in an vivo animal model of TBI. The Specific Aims were to determine the effect of inhaled xenon on brain histopathology, behavior, in short- and long-term fluid percussion (FP) and controlled cortical impact (CCI) rat models of TBI compared to controls. A unique xenon-recirculation delivery device in which the concentration of xenon and oxygen are reproducibly and accurately controlled and conserved was developed and manufactured. Outcome measures planned included histology and neurobehavioral measures. Data from initial experiments reported in 2010 using the CCI model and 50% xenon administration could not be utilized, as we discovered that although IACUC and VA Research Approvals were in place, ACURO approval was not in place. ACURO application documents were submitted again directly. Furthermore, the rat line that was utilized for the TBI model was discontinued by the supplier, necessitating a change to a different rat line. Extensive administrative and financial revisions to the SOW and budget subsequently ensued to try to feasibly achieve the revised scientific ends of the project. Administrative and financial issues between DoD and the primary recipient organization were not resolved before the final expiry of the project and before any studies could proceed with appropriate approvals in place.


Early postnatal programming of Th2 polarized memory to house dust mite (HDM) represents a major risk factor for the subsequent development of asthma. We previously reported that CD11b+ conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) is the main HDM presenting DC subset in the lungs. We now show that in neonatal mice this DC subset is very low in absolute numbers and hardly detectable in the lungs. Despite these low numbers sensitization to aero-allergens can take place directly after birth due to excellent HDM-antigen uptake and migratory capacity of the very few neonatal CD11b+ cDCs around. Even more, neonatal CD11b+ cDCs showed a much stronger Th2 skewing activity compared to their adult counterpart. This difference in Th2 skewing capacity was present at birth due to DC intrinsic IL-12p70 deficiency of neonatal CD11b+ cDCs but increased significantly between postnatal day (PND)7 to 21. This age window is characterized by rapid postnatal alveolarization and lung growth and coincided with highly increased baseline and HDM-induced IL-33 levels as well as high numbers of innate lymphoid cells type 2 (ILC2). Due to a direct Th2 skewing effect of these high IL-33 levels on neonatal lung CD11b+ cDCs but also on monocyte derived (Mo)DCs PND14 mice were increased susceptible to HDM sensitization. As a consequence, in vivo blockade of IL-33 via administration of recombinant soluble ST2-receptor during HDM sensitization had a much stronger effect on reducing lung inflammation in PND14 than in PND3 or adult mice.


The yield of secondary electrons emitted from insulating materials subjected to negative-ion bombardment was studied. In general, such measurements for insulating materials are difficult because surface charging due to ion implantation makes the apparent yield unity. We used silicon dioxide (SiO2) film and a small ion current for the yield measurements. As a result, charge compensation due to the leakage current minimized the surface charging and the true yield was obtained. The experimental results showed that secondary electrons emitted due to negative-ion bombardment consist of electrons due to both kinetic emission and detachment from negative ions. In addition, it was found that the yield depends on the ion species. It was concluded that the same tendencies as those for negative-ion-implanted conductive materials are observed.


The goal of program transformation is to improve efficiency while preserving meaning. One of the best known transformation techniques is Burstall and Darlington's unfold-fold method. Unfortunately the unfold-fold method itself guarantees neither improvement in efficiency nor total-correctness. The correctness problem for unfold-fold is an instance of a strictly more general problem: transformation by locally equivalence-preserving steps does not necessarily preserve (global) equivalence.
This paper presents a condition for the total correctness of transformations on recursive programs, which, for the first time, deals with higher-order functional languages (both strict and non-strict) including lazy data structures. The main technical result is an improvement theorem which says that if the local transformation steps are guided by certain optimisation concerns (a fairly natural condition for a transformation, then correctness of the transformation follows.
The improvement theorem makes essential use of a formalised improvement-theory; as a rather pleasing corollary it also guarantees that the transformed program is a formal improvement over the original. The theorem has immediate practical consequences:
• It is a powerful tool for proving the correctness of existing transformation methods for higher-order functional programs, without having to ignore crucial factors such as memoization or folding. We have applied the theorem to obtain a particularly simple proof of correctness for a higher-order variant of deforestation.
• It yields a simple syntactic method for guiding and constraining the unfold/fold method in the general case so that total correctness (and improvement) is always guaranteed.


The effect of ply and laminate thickness on the fracture of graphite/epoxy laminates induced by delamination was investigated. Five laminate types were manufactured from AS1/3501-6 graphite/epoxy and tested: [±15n]s, [±15n/0n]s, [0n/±15n]s, [±45n/0n]s, and [[0/±15]s]n. "Effective ply thickness" was varied by stacking several plies of the same angular orientation together. It was found that an increase in effective ply thickness caused a decrease in fracture stress resulting from delamination in all cases. Interlaminar stress calculations indicate that this results from the fact that the region of high interlaminar stresses increases as the effective ply thickness increases. These calculations also suggest that interlaminar shear stresses are at least as important in causing delamination as interlaminar normal stresses. "Back-to-back" [[0/±15]s]n laminates were found to have the same strength for values of n from one to three. This indicates that reductions in strength are not simply a laminate thickness phenomenon but are related to the effective ply thickness.


The article presents a research review on the problem of teacher burnout syndrome and the human resources of general education institutions in connection with the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standard (FSES). Researchers note an increase in the proportion of teaching staff at risk of emotional burnout at work, as well as professional deformations of the teacher's personality. The article substantiates the relevance of consideration of management issues related to the development of the human resources of educational institutions through the prism of effective interaction of managers with the teaching staff and the teacher's personality in the context of preventing their emotional burnout. The abundance of research on the problem of burnout indicates the continued interest of scholars of humanities and natural sciences for quality of life, psychological health, personal and professional development of teachers of general education schools designed to act as carriers of new ideas and innovative technologies, the moral and socio-economic transformation of society. The authors consider the concepts associated with the development of human resources, making the main emphasis on the role of the human factor, and the reserves of the teacher's personality, propose to create a kind of Internet platforms in each city, namely, virtual pedagogical sites as an alternative to motivating pedagogical creativity, as well as offer systematization of various burnout factors and prevention measures.


Abstract Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease with severe joint inflammation and destruction characterized by marked hyperplasia of the lining layer of the synovium. Fibroblast-like synovial cells (FLS) is a key cellular component within the synovia; it plays pivotal roles in RA pathogenesis by unfavorable behaviors such as producing inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and hyperproliferation. MicroRNAs are evolutionarily conserved small non-coding RNAs (length is 18–25 nucleotides) that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. There is increasing interest in the involvement of microRNAs in autoimmune diseases including RA. Recent studies revealed the regulation of the function of FLS by microRNAs. Here, we review the known functional microRNAs in RA and summarize the potential uses of these small molecules in the treatment of RA.


Radiowave propagation models are very useful for assessing the quality of service (QOS) of mobile communications compared to the direct measurements. In this paper, signal data are acquired under different environmental conditions and for various cases depending on whether transmitter and receiver are in motion or stationary. The radio transmissions vary from VHF to S-band frequencies. Field strength, PDF and CDF of these cases are presented. The results indicate interesting features of both environment and mobility of transmitter and receiver at various frequencies. In this paper practical aspects of data acquisition, processing and analysis are dealt with.


Rationale Different biomarkers have shown utility in the management of infectious diseases in immunocompetent patients; however its role in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) remains controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the value of biomarkers in the management of respiratory complications (RC) in HSCT recipients. Methods We conducted a prospective observational study. A cohort of 175 patients was follow-up for 1 year after HSCT. A total of 62 RC were identified. C-reactive protein (CRP), pro-adrenomedullin (pro-ADM) and procalcitonin (PCT) were measured within the first 24-48 hours after the identification of the RC. Results Forty-six episodes (74%) were respiratory infections and 16 (26%) were non-infectious complications. Table 1 shows CRP, pro-ADM and PCT values in the different groups studied. Patients dying of the RC had levels of pro-ADM and PCT (but not CRP) significantly higher than those who survived [(4.7±3.8 vs 2.6±2.3 nmol/L, p=0.05) and (15.1±22.6 vs 1.9±5.5 ng/mL, p=0.03), respectively)]. PCT was the biomarker that presented the best area under de curve, in the ROC analysis: 0.78, 95% CI 0.64-0.92, p=0.003. Conclusions Alhough biomarkers can not differentiate between respiratory infections and non-infectious episodes; they can be useful tools for differentiating bacterial from viral infections. PCT value on admission is a good prognostic marker in HSCT-recipients with RC.


According to Saud (1988) and Shad (1986), the institution of Zakat, is a divine obligatory sort of taxation acting as the most effective measure in upgrading the financial condition of the destitute. This institution strives to achieve objectives, which are broader in nature. This is because, not only does it aim at providing the society with financial security, but it also, as a whole, inculcates moral, social and spiritual values in each individual. In view of the institution of Zakat aiming at achieving broader objectives, this research therefore, seeks to prove that the institution of Zakat may not only form the basis of today's modern social security system, but also brings some other benefits to the society. The whole research however, is divided into several sub-sections besides a conclusion. It therefore, presents the foundation of the institution of Zakat followed by the evaluation of whether the institution of Zakat can provide a meaningful social security along with a justification that, the institution of Zakat is capable of providing a result oriented alternative to the modern social security system.

Keywords: Zakat, poverty eradication, sustainability, social security
JEL Classification Code: E62, H21,P51


We earlier reported that Zn2+ chelation improved recovery of synaptic potentials after transient oxygen and glucose deprivation in brain slices. Such an effect could be because of reduced accumulation of Zn2+ in postsynaptic neurons, or could also be due to prevention of the onset of spreading depression-like events. A combination of optical and electrical recording was used here to show that Zn2+ chelation is effective because it delays spreading depression-like events. If the duration of oxygen/glucose deprivation was sufficient to generate a spreading depression-like event, irrecoverable Ca2+-dependent loss of synaptic potentials occurred, regardless of Zn2+ availability. These results identify a key mechanism underlying protective effects of Zn2+ chelation, and emphasize the importance of evaluating spreading depression-like events in studies of neuroprotection.


This data set contains point locations for data stations in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Region off Boston, Massachusetts, an area of approximately 1100 nautical square miles. The Stellwagen Bank NMS Mapping Project is designed to provide detailed maps of the Stellwagen Bank region's environments and habitats and the first complete multibeam topographic and sea floor characterization maps of a significant region of the shallow EEZ. Stations represent the location of a sediment sample and/or the end of a video transect. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) was recorded for each station location; latitude and longitude were later extracted from a GPS navigational log file using this time.


This study investigates the presence and status of environmental education principles, as well as factors for encouraging positive environmental behaviour in students, within three sixth grade curricula in Nova Scotia, Canada: science, social studies, and health education. The results of the research show a strong reliance on knowledge-based connections to the environment and less importance shown to experiential learning, attitudes and values. The results also reveal a significant decline in the time and resources allotted to environmentally focused education of these subjects. The effect is a diminished and marginalized environmental education presence in sixth grade education of Nova Scotia within the context of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.


The results of the investigation of impact of pulse humidity changes on the parameters of dynamic current-voltage loops and charge-voltage loops, and also dynamic transient currents for Pt/LiNbO3-film/Pt:Ti/SiO2/Si and porous Si/Si structures are presented. The peculiarities of current-voltage loops and transient currents curves are characteristic for poling processes in the space charge region similar to that observed in the case of ionic semiconductors. The efficiency of using the methods of dynamic electrophysical characterization for studying characteristics of various under fast humidity changes was demonstrated. The results are considered from the standpoint of applications in high-speed humidity sensing.


A chromatographic method was developed to separate all 10 regio- and stereoisomers of caffeoylglucose. Following chromatographic separation on reversed phase, the fragmentation behavior of all 10 regio- and stereoisomers of caffeoylglucose has been investigated using LC-MS(n). It is possible to discriminate between each of the isomers based on their characteristic fragment spectra and order of elution, including those for which commercial standards are not available. On the basis of the synthesis of authentic standards for 6-caffeoylglucose and 3-caffeoylglucose and nonselective further synthesis of suitable mixtures of isomers, it was possible to fully assign regiochemistry of all 10 isomeric compounds and stereochemistry of eight isomeric compounds. Their fragmentation pattern was rationalized based on assuming different hydrogen-bonding arrays of gas-phase ions opening distinct fragmentation pathways. An analysis of yerba maté extract showed all 10 regio- and stereoisomers of caffeoylglucose to be present in this dietary material, which could all be assigned to regioisomeric level and eight to stereoisomeric level.


In this paper, security issues in on-demand grid and cluster computing are analyzed, a corresponding threat model is presented and the challenges with respect to authentication, authorization, delegation and single sign-on, secure communication, auditing, safety, and confidentiality are discussed. Three different levels of on-demand computing are identified, based on the number of resource providers, solution producers and users, and the trust relationships between them. It is argued that the threats associated with the first two levels can be handled by employing operating system virtualization technologies based on Xen, whereas the threats of the third level require the use of hardware security modules proposed in the context of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA). The presented security mechanisms increase the resilience of the service hosting environment against both malicious attacks and erroneous code. Thus, our proposal paves the way for large scale hosting of grid or Web services in commercial scenarios


Abstract National Priority Regions (NPRs) are one of Israel's most robust tools for redistribution: a resource allocation governmental plan that favors some regions over others, mostly according to their socioeconomic status and peripherality. Drawing on archival research, this article is the first to focus on this topic and provide a detailed description and analysis of this measure. It provides historical and theoretical accounts of NPRs, tracing their history, starting in the 1970s, over three periods and showing how they have been used and abused. This allows for some important observations about the stakes of using a "color-blind" place-based distributive mechanism, and about the complex relationship between redistribution, development, and settlement. At the national level, this article shows how NPRs changed over the years from a discriminatory tool that excluded almost all Palestinian-Arab localities into a more inclusionary mechanism, but one that also works to support and incentivize Jewish settlement in the Occupied West Bank. At the theoretical level, this article lends itself to and supports a 'region-skeptic' approach that sees the regional scale, much like other seemingly "race-neutral" criteria, mostly as an elusive exercise of power that often deepens inequality. However, drawing on Israel's experience with NPRs, this article provides some more specific cautionary tales that can, I suggest, work to improve the regional scale rather than eliminate it altogether.


Background and Objective: Glibenclamide (GB) is showing promising results in central nervous system (CNS) injuries treatment where intravenous administration of GB could overcome the oral limitations and assure maximum bioavailability. Dry powder of GB nanoparticles reconstituted for parenteral administration was prepared through electrospraying. Methods: The drug was incorporated with two polymers, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and Soluplus ® (SP), at ratios 1:4 and 1:2 (GB/polymer). Different solvent mixtures were used to formulate the particles. Physicochemical characteristics were investigated. Results: The size of the GB-PVP nanoparticle ranged between (409-775) nm with a spherical, disk, fractured and, agglomerated morphology, while those of the GB-SP nanomicelles were of Original Research Article Al-Ghezi et al.; JPRI, 33(53A): 241-260, 2021; Article no.JPRI.77284 242 (447-785) nm with mostly irregular morphology, in consequence to the used solvents mixtures. The high encapsulation efficiency ≥ 98% reflects the well dispersed drug molecules within the polymer matrix, further confirmed by X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. GB-SP colloidal dispersions showed neutral zeta potentials with a cloud point of 36  ̊C, indicating prolonged circulation time and stability after parenteral administration. GB/SP nanomicelles at ratio 1:4 showed a sustained drug release reaching ≥ 94% in 36 hours. Conclusion: The GB-SP nanomicelles with extended drug release and regarding physicochemical properties represent a remarkable drug delivery system for parenteral administration.


This article is based on work to develop an interactive documentary learning game called HEALTHSIMNET, which is intended for improving practice in a health care network. The authors look briefly at past work done to develop interactive narratives using structural artificial knowledge representation techniques. They illustrate a method for collection and analysis of documentary data acquired during semi-structured interviews with participants of a network of health practitioners in the HIV field. The article reviews the expansive theory of learning and explains how the technique can yield interactive narrative. They discuss the design implications of this work for their interprofessional learning game. They end with a description of the game and a discussion of the extent to which games developed using this method can be said to sustain the kind of learning described by activity theory.