The objective of the Chemistry & Biology of Tetrapyrroles Gordon Conference is to bring together researchers from diverse disciplines that otherwise would not interact. By bringing biologists, chemists, engineers and clinicians with a common interest in tetrapyrroles the conference provides a forum for cross-disciplinary ideas and collaboration. The perspective provided by biologists, chemists, and clinicians working in fields such as newly discovered defects in human porphyrin metabolism, the myriad of strategies for light harvesting in photosynthetic organisms, novel tetrapyrroles that serve as auxiliary chromophores or enzyme cofactors, synthetic strategies in the design of novel tetrapyrrole scaffolds, and tetrapyrrole based cell signaling and regulatory systems, makes this conference unique in the field. Over the years the growing evidence for the role of tetrapyrroles and their reactive intermediates in cell signaling and regulation has been of increasing importance at this conference. The 2010 conference on Chemistry & Biology of Tetrapyrroles will focus on many of these new frontiers as outlined in the preliminary program listed. Speakers will emphasize unpublished results and new findings in the field. The oral sessions will be followed by the highly interactive afternoon poster sessions. The poster sessions provide all conferees with the opportunity to present their latestmore » research and to exchange ideas in a more informal setting. As in the past, this opportunity will continue during the nightly social gathering that takes place in the poster hall following the evening lectures. All conferees are encouraged to submit and present posters. At the conference the best poster in the areas of biology, chemistry and medicine will be selected by a panel of previous conference chairs.« less


The sending of remittances is a decentralised decision of migrant workers, nevertheless it has its macroeconomic implication in providing insurance against domestic output shocks in the recipient economies – a phenomenon known in literature as risk sharing. Using a large sample of 86 developing countries for the period 1990–2010, we establish that remittance inflows serve as an important channel through which risk sharing takes place in the developing world. Although the extent of risk sharing on average stands at 3.3%, there is substantial cross-country variation found in our sample, ranging from 38% for Tajikistan to 13% for Haiti. Subsequently, we explore why the extent of risk sharing through remittances is so diverse across developing countries. The diversification of migrants turns out to be the leading explanation for the extent of risk sharing via remittances: the more diverse the migration destinations of a country, higher will be the amount of risk shared. In addition, the size of remittance flows appears to have a strong and statistically significant impact on enhancing risk sharing. We also find suggestive evidence that remittances originating from more distant countries facilitate more risk sharing compared to those originating from neighbouring or regional economies. Even after splitting the sample on the basis of country characteristics, our results remain robust. JEL classification: F15; F22; F24; F41


Bell nonlocality and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering are every important quantum correlations of a composite quantum system. Bell nonlocality of a bipartite state is a quantum correlation demonstrated by some local quantum measurements, while EPR steering is another form of quantum correlations, observed firstly by Schrodinger in the context of famous EPR paradox. In this paper, we give some remarks on Bell nonlocality and EPR steering of bipartite states, including mathematical definitions and characterizations of these two quantum correlations, the convexity and closedness of the set of all Bell local states and the set of all EPR unsteerable states. We also derive a EPR-steering criteria, with which the EPR steerability of the maximally entangled states are checked.


Loosening of cemented hip prostheses has been reported on occasion. Although a few laboratory experiments have replicated clinical failure modes, the methods appear to be very complicated and time consuming. In this analysis, the Finite Element Method was utilized to evaluate the stress distribution in a cement layer. Two distinct hip implant designs with and without grooves in the anterior/posterior surfaces were investigated. The results indicate that the features of the multiple grooves in these cemented hip implants may improve the rotational stability and reduce the cement stress at the implant-cement interface.© 2007 ASME


Historically, India has suffered from acute shortage of electricity. The power generation and distribution was done by either Public sector (owned by Government of India - GOI) companies or the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) of respective states creating their monopoly. In 2003, GOI brought power reforms in power sector through the enactment of ''The Electricity ACT 2003''. As a result, in the state of Gujarat, the Gujarat Electricity Board, (SEB) was unbundled into seven companies. Thus power sector no longer remained in monopoly. This was done to provide uninterruptible, adequate, clean and green power. This book studies the impact of reforms on power sector companies in Gujarat. It observes that independent power producers, private players and market have started expanding. The monopoly of SEBs has reached to oligopoly state. To convert the power sector company in perfect competition efficient strategic leadership is required. The book, having assessed different potential resources, derives a resultant model for growth of power sector, its new stakeholder''s position on map, characteristic of strategic leader and legal and technological implications of the Electricity Act 2003.


A type of optical observation for the study of very thin metal films is reported. The shape or intensity distribution of reflected interference fringes from an interferometer which involves the thin film as its front or incident surface is observed to undergo a cyclic change as the metal film increases in mass per unit area. The effect is studied throughout the visible spectrum for the metals Ag, Au, Al, Cu, and Cr, evaporated in such a manner as to form films of gradually increasing mass per unit area up to an equivalent thickness of 400 angstroms. The effect is sensitive to the rate of formation of the films, to effects of increased temperature of the substrate, and correlates with recent electron microscope observations on the stable form of thin films of these metals. Brief mention is made of the practical applications of the several types of reflection fringe intensity distributions which are possible, to current investigations of the mechanisms of slip and twinning in metal crystals.


The newsvendor model is designed to decide how much of a product to order when the product is to be sold over a short selling season with stochastic demand and there are no additional opportunities to replenish inventory. There are many practical situations that reasonably conform to those assumptions, but the traditional newsvendor model also assumes a fixed salvage value: all inventory left over at the end of the season is sold off at a fixed per-unit price. The fixed salvage value assumption is questionable when a clearance price is rationally chosen in response to the events observed during the selling season: a deep discount should be taken if there is plenty of inventory remaining at the end of the season, whereas a shallow discount is appropriate for a product with higher than expected demand. This paper solves for the optimal order quantity in the newsvendor model, assuming rational clearance pricing. We then study the performance of the traditional newsvendor model. The key to effective implementation of the traditional newsvendor model is choosing an appropriate fixed salvage value. (We show that an optimal order quantity cannot be generally achieved by merely enhancing the traditional newsvendor model to include a nonlinear salvage value function.) We demonstrate that several intuitive methods for estimating the salvage value can lead to an excessively large order quantity and a substantial profit loss. Even though the traditional model can result in poor performance, the model seems as if it is working correctly: the order quantity chosen is optimal given the salvage value inputted to the model, and the observed salvage value given the chosen order quantity equals the inputted one. We discuss how to estimate a salvage value that leads the traditional newsvendor model to the optimal or near-optimal order quantity. Our results highlight the importance of understanding how a model can interact with its own inputs: when inputs to a model are influenced by the decisions of the model, care is needed to appreciate how that interaction influences the decisions recommended by the model and how the model's inputs should be estimated.


The aim of this study was to prepare a superhydrophobic surface by coating poly(divinylbenzene-N-methacryloyl-amido-L-phenylalanine ethyl ester) [poly(DVB-MAPA)] cross-linked polymer onto a glass surface. N-methacryloyl-amido-L-phenylalanine ethyl ester (MAPA) and 1, 4-divinylbenzene (DVB) were used as a monomer and a cross-linker, respectively. The polymerization mixture was dispersed in 1, 4 butanediol (BDO) for phase separation and polymerized on the glass surface. The superhydrophobic surface was characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and contact angle measurements. The effect of the composition of a polymerization mixture on hydrophobicity was investigated by varying the cross-linker to monomer mol ratio. Additionally, the influence of the composition of monomer/BDO mixtures was determined. The prepared poly(DVB-MAPA) surface showed a superhydrophobicity with a high water contact angle (WCA) of 162° and a low sliding angle (SA) of 7°. Moreover, the poly(DVB-MAPA) surface has a good chemical, thermal and daylight stability.


This paper proposed a method in which location of a person is estimation with one active camera in real-time. The approach taken in this paper is as follows. First, we detect the person region with proposed method which is the region detection method based on short time distribution of the density to avoid the influence of the camera movement. Then we obtain his height and the gravity point. The rotate angle and the distance between the person and the camera are calculated by the information of the height and the gravity point. Experiments were applied with several examples. We obtained that the average error distance is less than 12[cm]. The average error distance is small enough in comparison with shoulder width of the persons. Our method can estimate the location in real-time.


Precursors of activated killer (AK) cells cytotoxic for human noncultured metastatic melanoma and colon carcinoma were characterized. These cells required 3 days incubation with recombinant interleukin 2 (rIL 2) and DNA synthesis for the induction of AK activity. Both negative and positive cell purification methods were used to identify the subpopulation of cells containing AK precursors. By complement-mediated cell depletion studies, AK precursors were largely present in the Leu-11+ fraction, and to a much lesser extent in the Leu-7+ and Leu-2a+ fractions; they were absent in Leu-3a+ and Leu-4+ cells. Lymphocyte subpopulations were then purified with a cell sorter to positively select for the subset containing AK precursors. Leu-11+ cells had the highest level of AK activity and proliferative response when cultured for 3 days with rIL 2 as well as the highest level of NK activity before culture. Leu-7+ cells had neither AK activity nor a proliferative response when cultured with rIL 2, although they still possessed high NK activity. The same levels of AK and NK activity were found in Leu-2a+ and Leu-2a- fractions, but both activities were absent among Leu-4+ and Leu-3a+ cells. Further fractionation with a two-step sorting technique showed that the highest AK activity resided in the Leu-7-Leu-11+ cell fraction. Morphologically, this subfraction was granular lymphocytes. Titration experiments or rIL 2-responsive cells showed that the number of cells required to achieve a comparable level of rIL 2 proliferative response were as follows: 35 X 10(3) cells from unseparated PBL, 10 X 10(3) cells from Leu-11+ cells, 3.3 X 10(3) from Leu-7-Leu-11+ cells, and 640 X 10(3) cells from Leu-7+ cells. These results indicate that the lymphocyte subpopulation that proliferates in the presence of rIL 2 and then develops AK activity was a subpopulation of Leu-11+ granular lymphocytes, which also possessed the highest NK activity. These Leu-11+ cells lacked the antigens defined by the Leu-7, Leu-3a, or Leu-4 antibodies. Although Leu-7+ cells did not respond to rIL 2 by themselves, they may play a role in the induction of AK activity.


The SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) is causing an ongoing pandemic and potentially fatal disease. Development of coagulopathy with thrombotic complications such as deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are emerging as factors for progression to severe disease and death. Also, a markedly increased level of D-dimer, a protein product of fibrin degradation, has been associated to mortality. Furthermore, activation of immune response due to virus infection may led to uncontrolled severe inflammation with damage to host cells and induction of endotheliitis and cellular apoptosis and pyroptosis. The use of low molecular weight heparin in early stage of the disease could prevent vascular complications and reduce the progression to severe stage of the disease. Aim of this paper is to summarize current evidence about vascular involvement in COVID-19 disease and potential antithrombotic therapy.


Concerns about groundwater depletion from conventional agricultural irrigation in the Mississippi Delta have led to the technological innovation of more-efficient irrigation practices. With Arkansas being the largest producer of rice and the tenth largest producer of soybeans in the United States, the irrigation demand of these crops has put pressure on producers to find ways to irrigate more efficiently. Research into water conserving irrigation techniques has helped preserve water resources, maintain yields, and maximize farm profits. As groundwater levels in the Delta continue to decrease, the price of pumping water increases, making the prospect of investment in new technologies more attractive. The paper will address potential returns on investment in efficient irrigation practices for furrow irrigated soybeans and flood irrigated rice. The depletion of the aquifer and the return on investment from efficient irrigation practices depends on the well-pumping decision of farms across the landscape. More farms adopting the efficiency-enhancing practices will increase the return on investment in those practices because these methods stabilize groundwater levels across the landscape. We explore how the rate of adoption of efficient irrigation practices on the landscape ultimately influence the return on investment.


A conserved helical peptide vaccine candidate from the M protein of group A streptococci, p145, has been described. Minimal epitopes within p145 have been defined and an epitope recognized by protective antibodies, but not by autoreactive T cells, has been identified. When administered to mice, p145 has low immunogenicity. Many boosts of peptide are required to achieve a high antibody titre (> 12 800). To attempt to overcome this low immunogenicity, lipid‐core peptide technology was employed. Lipid‐core peptides (LCP) consist of an oligomeric polylysine core, with multiple copies of the peptide of choice, conjugated to a series of lipoamino acids, which acts as an anchor for the antigen. Seven different LCP constructs based on the p145 peptide sequence were synthesized (LCP1→LCP7) and the immunogenicity of the compounds examined. The most immunogenic constructs contained the longest alkyl side‐chains. The number of lipoamino acids in the constructs affected the immunogenicity and spacing between the alkyl side‐chains increased immunogenicity. An increase in immunogenicity (enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) titres) of up to 100‐fold was demonstrated using this technology and some constructs without adjuvant were more immunogenic than p145 administered with complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). The fine specificity of the induced antibody response differed for the different constructs but one construct, LCP4, induced antibodies of identical fine specificity to those found in endemic human serum. Opsonic activity of LCP4 antisera was more than double that of p145 antisera. These data show the potential for LCP technology to both enhance immunogenicity of complex peptides and to focus the immune response towards or away from critical epitopes.


Background: In the near future Austria like many other European countries will face a shortage of GPs, especially in rural regions. The interest of young doctors to work in this profession is decreasing steadily. According to the literature, working in rural areas is often associated with a higher number of working hours and a higher number of patients, especially in singlehanded practices. It was the aim of this analysis to assess the workload of rural and urban GPs in Austria and to illustrate the infrastructure for their profession. Additionally, factors influencing the workload were analyzed and compared. Methods: The data collection took place between October 2011 and May 2012 within the context of the European QUALICOPC-study by using a standardized GP questionnaire with 60 questions. Via email and personal contacts, a stratified sample of 3.050 general practitioners was invited to participate in the study. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics and tests as well as correlations. Results: Data from 174 out of 184 returned GP questionnaires could be used. Their analysis shows that GPs in rural areas spent (excluding additional jobs) 5.1 hours per week more on direct patient care (33.6 h vs. 38.7 h; p = 0.010), 3.1 hours more on administrative issues (7.6 h vs. 10.7 h; p = 0.026), and had more than twice as much on-call duties (10.2 vs. 22.7; p < 0.001) within three months than their colleagues from urban areas. The average consultation length is similar in both groups with approx. 9 min per patient as well as the high self-rated workload-feeling. The number of patients, of home visits and of patient contacts is directly proportional to the weekly working hours. 91.7% of the urban and 87.6% of the rural offices were single-handed. Discussion: There is a significant difference between the workload of Austrian GPs in rural and in urban areas. In order to raise the attractiveness of primary care practice in rural areas and the interest of young doctors to work there, substantial changes in both working conditions and organizational structure for primary care services appear to be necessary; possibilities include shared duties in group practices consisting of primary health care teams, incentives, and adequate under- and postgraduate education and training. Key messages:
There is a significant and alarming difference between the workload of Austrian GPs in rural and in urban areas. Substantial changes in both working conditions and organizational structure for primary care services appear to be necessary in Austria.


Porous nitrogen-doped hollow carbon spheres (PNHCS) had been prepared by pyrolysis of hollow polyaniline spheres (HPS), which were synthesized by the use of sulfonated polystyrene spheres (SPS) as a hard template. PNHCS have a specific surface area of 213 m2 g−1 and a pore volume of 0.24 cm3 g−1. At a current density of 0.5 A g−1, the specific capacitance of the PNHCS prepared is ca. 213 F g−1. The capacity retention after 5000 charge/discharge cycles at a current density of 1 A g−1 is more than 91%. The enhanced electrochemical performance can be attributed to the unique carbon nanostructure and nitrogen-doping of the PNHCS electrodes. The hollow macro-structure plays the role of an "ion-buffering" reservoir. The micropores of the PNHCS enlarge the specific surface area, while the mesopores offer larger channels for liquid electrolyte penetration. Nitrogen groups in the PNHCS not only improve the wettability of the carbon surface, but also enhance the capacitance by addition of a pseudocapacitive redox process.


The patient, a 63-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with complaints of high-grade fever and left chest pain. The chest X-ray film taken on admission showed the presence of pleural effusion. The chest CT scan revealed left mediastinal enlargement. Examination of the pleural effusion showed a high concentration of adenosine deaminase (ADA) and the cytological examination showed no malignancy. We diagnosed pleuritis tuberculosa. His general condition worsened in spite of anti-tuberculosis therapy and soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) was elevated. The video-assisted thoracoscopic biopsy was negative. Soon after that the lymph nodes from the left supraclavicular region to the mediastinum became swollen. The diagnosis of peripheral T-cell lymphoma, unspecified (WHO classification) with CD56 expression, was established based on the results of lymph node biopsy and pleural effusion cytology. He was treated with cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine/prednisolone (CHOP) chemotherapy. Since two courses of chemotherapy were not effective we changed to carboplatin/ifosfamide/ etoposide/dexamethasone (DeVIC) chemotherapy. His condition improved and a complete response was obtained. In conclusion, the presence of a high level of ADA in the pleural effusion and resistance to anti-tuberculosis therapy should suggest a malignant lymphoma.


Introduction The UN Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in November 2020. In 2019, the mission's mandate and strategic engagement in the Central African Republic (CAR) shifted to supporting the implementation of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation signed earlier that year. Nearly one year later, the presidential, legislative, and local elections are seen as another pivotal moment in the country's political process and offer the mission another opportunity to refine its support to the country. In this context, the International Peace Institute (IPI), the Stimson Center, and Security Council Report co-hosted an online roundtable on October 8, 2020. This roundtable offered a platform for member states, UN stakeholders, and independent experts to share their assessments of the situation in CAR. The discussion was intended to help the Security Council make more informed decisions with respect to the strategic orientation, prioritization, and sequencing of the mission's mandate and actions on the ground. Participants largely agreed that MINUSCA's current mandate remains relevant and encompasses the areas necessary to facilitate the mission's effective engagement on political, security, and peacebuilding issues. They also highlighted that the mission is well positioned not only to prioritize its activities in response to changing dynamics in the country but also to deliver its support in an integrated manner. In particular, the mission has begun prioritizing integrated UN support for the elections with the goal of bolstering the integrity of the electoral process. Recognizing the fluidity of the country's political situation prior to the inauguration of the new elected government and the conclusion of local elections in 2021, participants cautioned against major changes to MINUSCA's mandate. Instead, they encouraged the mission to continue balancing between supporting the electoral process and encouraging full implementation of the peace agreement, on the one hand, and responding to humanitarian needs and protecting civilians, on the other. Participants called for the UN to continue advocating for more financial assistance for CAR to support governance, humanitarian, and development On October 8, 2020, the International Peace Institute (IPI), the Stimson Center, and Security Council Report organized a virtual workshop to discuss the mandate and political strategy of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). These discussions are part of a series of workshops that examine how the activities included in peace operations' mandates can be better prioritized, sequenced, and grounded in political strategy. This was the fourth consecutive year in which these partners convened discussions in support of the mandate negotiations on MINUSCA. This meeting note was drafted collaboratively by IPI, the Stimson Center, and Security Council Report. It summarizes the main points raised in the discussion under the Chatham House rule of non-attribution and does not necessarily represent the views of all participants. The project is funded with the support of the government of Germany.


Variance estimation of a general u-statistic with appllication to cross-validation Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of variance estimation for a general U-statistic. U-statistics form a class of unbiased estimators for those parameters of interest that can be written as E { φ ( X 1 , . . . , X k ) } , where φ is a symmetric kernel function with k arguments. Although estimating the variance of a U-statistic is clearly of interest, asymptotic results for a general U-statistic are not necessarily reliable when the kernel size k is not negligible compared with the sample size n . Such situations arise in cross-validation and other nonparametric risk estimation problems. On the other hand, the exact closed form variance is complicated in form, especially when both k and n are large. We have devised an unbiased variance estimator for a general U-statistic. It can be written as a quadratic form of the kernel function φ and is applicable as long as k ≤ n/ 2 . In addition, it can be represented in a familiar analysis of variance form as a contrast of between-class and within-class variation. As a further step to make the proposed variance estimator more practical, we developed a partition resampling scheme that can be used to realize the U-statistic and its variance estimator simultaneously with high computational efficiency. A data example in the context of model selection is provided. To study our estimator, we construct a U-statistic cross-validation tool, akin to the BIC criterion for model selection. With our variance estimator we can test which model has the smallest risk.


With the advancement of nanotechnology, there has been fervid research activity on new communication paradigms suitable for new challenging contexts, such as biological systems. Among different approaches, the most considered has been arti icial Molecular Communication, where entities such as synthetic molecules, enzymes, hormones, bacteria etc. are functionalized in order to implement information exchange with the surrounding system and with other entities. In this context, it is interesting to analyze speci ic features that could be exploited for effective communication paradigms. In this paper, we focus on chiral molecules (a.k.a. enantiomers) as novel enablers for a molecular commu‐ nication paradigm. Chirality is an interesting and appealing feature existing in nature and that can be replicated with strong emphasis in new types of materials, such as metasurfaces and metamaterials. A deep knowledge of chirality fea‐ tures and how chiral molecules interact with each other or with achiral molecules provides insights into designing a new molecular communication technique suitable for biological environments. In this contribution, we will highlight themain ap‐ plications of chiral molecules andwewill present chiral features as the viable way for realizing a nanocommunication system.


Thus, the results showing the presence of cholesterol synthetic enzymes in peroxisomes (see references 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, and 26), the reduced levels of cholesterol synthesis enzymes and cholesterol synthetic capacity of cells and tissues lacking peroxisomes, 26, 37, 39 and the low serum cholesterol levels in patients suffering from peroxisomal deficiency diseases40-43 demonstrate that peroxisomes are essential for normal cholesterol synthesis. A number of metabolic pathways require co-participation of enzymes located in both peroxisomes as well as enzymes found in other intracellular compartments. For example, the first steps of plasmalogen synthesis occur in the peroxisomes, while the terminal reactions are completed in the endoplasmic reticulum. Similarly, the oxidation of cholesterol to bile acids requires the participation of enzymes localized in the endoplasmic reticulum as well as peroxisomes. Little is known about the regulation of such pathways or about the shuttling of intermediates between compartments. The physiological importance of peroxisomal enzymes in the regulation of sterol metabolism remains to be clarified.


This paper determines the influence of lime and gypsum on the rehabilitation of a degraded sodic soil in a semi-arid environment 12 years after application. The aim was to assess rehabilitation strategies for sodic soils as alternatives to the application of gypsum alone. An experimental site was used where lime and gypsum combinations (L0G0, lime 0 t ha–1 and gypsum 0 t ha–1; L0G1, L0G2.5, L0G5, L1G0, L2.5G0, L5G0, L1G1, L2.5G1) had been applied 12 years prior, in 1994. An earlier study had reported on the effects after 3 years of the chemical ameliorants and tillage on a range of soil physical and chemical properties at the site. The current study, sampled in 2006, assessed the effects after 12 years of lime and gypsum on soil chemistry, stability, hydraulics, vegetative growth and soil respiration. Calcium, primarily from lime, was observed to have a major effect on soil health. Significant effects on soil chemistry were limited to increases in exchangeable calcium and decreases in exchangeable magnesium, although aggregate stability in water and hydraulic conductivity were significantly improved where L5G0 was applied. Vegetation patch width, total nitrogen and carbon, and soil respiration were significantly improved where lime had been added at 2.5 or 5 t ha–1. As no lime could be detected in the soil 12 years after application, it was deduced that lime had acted as a catalyst for increased functionality in soil and vegetation interactions. This increased soil functionality resulted in an increased rate of lime dissolution in the soil.


Inclusive Physical Activity Center (IPAC) is a community-based program that aims to include children with special needs together with their peers within sport activities. This project was developed on the basis of Bronfenbrenner's socioecological theory (1976) and covers actors who play an important role in the lives of children with special needs such as parents, peers, teachers and volunteers. The Center includes children with and without disabilities, support services, community based programs and school awareness programs. All participants with special needs are included with their peers without disabilities with the exception the infant group (aged 0-2) and two groups of children with severe disabilities. In IPAC, physical activity training is conducted in 90-minute sessions with some groups attending twice a week and others attending three times a week. School awareness programs including in " Paralympic School Days, " and " Get into it! Special Olympics " helps to create an accepting and supportive school environment. Community-based activities are out-of-school activities focusing on social inclusion by bringing students from all levels of the school system together with children with special needs via special days on disability awareness such activities. In-service PE teachers and APA graduate students from a local take an active role to implement all IPAC programs to promote awareness and understanding of disability. IPAC plays an important role in creating an acceptable and supportive atmosphere for people with disabilities in the community. Subscribe to PALAESTRA


Objectives: Knees undergoing revision ACL reconstruction (rACLR) have a high prevalence of articular cartilage lesions. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the prevalence of chondrosis at the time of rACLR is associated with meniscus status and lower extremity alignment. Methods: Data from the prospective Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) cohort was reviewed to identify patients with pre-operative lower extremity alignment films. Lower extremity alignment was defined by the weight bearing line (WBL) as a percentage of the tibial plateau width, while the chondral and meniscal status of each weight bearing compartment was recorded at the time of surgery. Multivariable proportional odds models were constructed and adjusted for relevant factors in order to examine which risk factors were independently associated with the degree of medial and lateral compartment chondrosis. Results: The cohort included 246 patients with lower extremity alignment films at the time of rACLR. Average (SD) patient age was 26.9 (9.5) years with a BMI of 26.4 (4.6). The medial compartment had more chondrosis (Grade 2/3: 42%, Grade 4: 6.5%) than the lateral compartment (Grade 2/3: 26%, Grade 4: 6.5%). Disruption of the meniscus was noted in 35% of patients on the medial side and 16% in the lateral side. The average (SD) WBL was measured to be 0.43 (0.13). Medial compartment chondrosis was associated with BMI (p=0.025), alignment (p=0.002)(see figure), and medial meniscus status (p=0.001). None of the knees with the WBL lateral to 0.625 had Grade 4 chondrosis in the medial compartment. Lateral compartment chondrosis was significantly associated with age (p=0.013) and lateral meniscus status (p<0.001). Subjects with 'intact' menisci were found to decrease their odds of having chondrosis by 64-84%. Conclusion: The status of articular cartilage in the tibiofemoral compartments at the time of rACLR is related to meniscal status. Preserving the meniscus at the time of ACL reconstruction has the potential to be chondroprotective, particularly in patients who go on to require rACLR. Lower extremity alignment and BMI are associated with medial compartment chondrosis, suggesting that optimizing alignment and minimizing weight gain may be important in these patients.


The objective of this work was to quantify the effect of age at first calving (AFC) on milk production in the first and second lactation of specialized diary Jersey cows. Records of 28 367 cows belonging to 545 specialized dairy herds, registered in the software VAMPP Bovino 3.0 between January 2000 and December 2010, were used. Descriptive statistics and linear mixed models were performed. The AFC average was 29.35 months (SD: 6.77), with a trend to increase during the study period. A significant effect of the AFC was observed on milk production (kg/305d) in the first two lactations (P 41 months. Cows without retained placenta (RMF) produced +450 kg/305 d (P= 0.0022) than those with RMF. On the other hand, the inbreeding coefficient and type of birth had no effect on milk production. In the second lactation, the independent variables affected the milk production similarly to first lactation; however, the age at second calving did not affect the subsequent production. This study demonstrates the linear effect of AFC on first and second lactation milk production; thus, AFC seems to have an effect not only on first lactation, but also in the productive performance of second lactation.


Baculovirus biopesticides are environmentally friendly insecticides and specifically infect invertebrates. UV radiation from the sunlight greatly reduces the activity of baculovirus biopesticides. ABSTRACT Baculoviruses have been used as biopesticides for the control of Lepidoptera larvae. However, solar UV radiation reduces the activity of baculovirus. In this study, an UV endonuclease, Bm65, was found encoded in the genome of Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV). Bm65 (the ortholog of AcMNPV orf79) was guided by a key nuclear localization signal to enter the nucleus and accumulated at UV-induced DNA damage sites. Subsequent results further showed that Bm65-mediated DNA damage repair was not the only UV damage repair pathway of BmNPV. BmNPV also used host DNA repair proteins to repair UV-induced DNA damage. In summary, these results revealed that Bm65 was very important in UV-induced DNA damage repair of BmNPV, and BmNPV repaired UV-damaged DNA through a variety of ways. IMPORTANCE Baculovirus biopesticides are environmentally friendly insecticides and specifically infect invertebrates. UV radiation from the sunlight greatly reduces the activity of baculovirus biopesticides. However, the molecular mechanisms of most baculoviruses to repair UV-induced DNA damage remain unclear. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a major DNA repair pathway that removes UV-induced DNA lesions. At present, there are few reports about the nucleotide excision repair pathway in viruses. Here, we showed for the first time that the baculovirus Bm65 endonuclease actually cleaved UV-damaged DNA. Meanwhile, we found that BmNPV used both viral-encoded enzymes and host DNA damage repair proteins to reverse UV-induced DNA damage. These results will provide a reference for the research of UV damage repair of other viruses.


Most Thai text-to-speech systems on personal computers can synthesize sound in real time with acceptable quality. However, when porting the Thai TTS systems to limited-resource systems such as mobile devices, computational time has to be reduced. Hence, the quality of synthesized sound is decreased. Even though Flite_Thai, a unit concatenation synthesizer for Thai, can reduce the computational time into a real time system, the output sound is quite unintelligible. In this paper, we aim at selecting the appropriate speech unit for Flite_Thai in order to improve its intelligibility. We design a new speech corpus that consists of three different speech units: demi-syllable, diphone and a new speech unit called hybrid diphone. We use a non-sense carrier sentence technique for recording this corpus since we focus more on clear articulation of each speech unit. Our carrier sentence contains a speech unit or a set of similar speech units per sentence without concerning the meaning. We compare the quality of speech synthesized using four types of speech units, a diphone from the TsynC corpus recorded with natural sentences, and the three types of units from the new corpus recorded with non-sense carrier sentences. In terms of intelligibility, all of the speech units from the new corpus achieved higher MOS (Mean Opinion Score) than the existing Flite_Thai system which uses speech units from TsynC. Among the three unit types in the news corpus, demi-syllable obtained the highest score. Although hybrid diphone obtained higher MOS than the existing system and the diphone, it still suffers from a similar problem which is unsmooth joints between units.


The author provides a sound beginning point for better understanding the legal liabilities involved in risk sports and adventure programs and urges the establishment of professional safety guidelines.


The study examined gender differences in knowledge about HIVIAIDS, sexual violation, and risk)' sexual practices among new undergraduates of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. One hundred and eighty sexually-active fresh undergraduates, who attended a routine orientation program for new entrants participated. They were assessed using a 93-item questionnaire on sexual violation: rape or child sexual abuse (CSA), past and recent sexual practices, and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Results showed that 65.5% of males and 34.5% of females were sexually active. The lifetime prevalence of rape and CSA was 18.9% and 10%, respectively. In addition, female students were significantly more likely to have had history of rape and CSA with a non-family member than male students. In addition, CSA was more likely to have been perpetrated by a family member in male students. While males were more likely not to have used a condom at the last sex, females were significantly more likely to have exchanged sex for drugs and a place to stay. Male students reported significantly better HIV knowledge relating to precautionary measures (e.g., condom use) than females. The results suggest that although many new students were sexually naïve, substantial proportions. who were sexually active engaged in unsafe sex, The potential role of CSA in risky sexual practices among females, in particular; should be noted. It is suggested that sex education should be a critical component of an orientation program for new university students.


Construction projects are usually involved in disputes, the management of which causes a considerable cost increase and time delay. New research frontiers regarding methods able to guarantee a rapidly agreed settlement, reducing time and costs, are suggesting lawyers new criteria to assign earlier the most effective alternative dispute resolution methods in the precontract phase. For this purpose, different criteria were analyzed, alternatives were selected and translated in legal contract language to bring the cumulative experience to being inserted as a clause into construction agreement. Other impulsive increase in research also occurs when bringing disputing parties together and when suggesting possible solutions to reach an agreed settlement during the conciliation steps. The authors, exposing some cases histories, analyze the common claims between the parties in construction contracts: delays, changes, unforeseen circumstances, insufficient information, and conflicts. Even though the claims must be properly constituted and documented, and the causes and effects must be clearly demonstrated, the quantification usually overestimates the loss due to inefficient productivity, which is extremely difficult to assess. The authors underline the role of the technical expert in forensic engineer as specialized in analyzing causes and effects by contemporaneous records and in verifying additional costs that must be supported by the regarding documents.


In the last few years the market has been literally invaded by interspinous/interlaminar systems for motion preservation. The type of material, the surgical technique and moreover the placement of these devices (interspinous or interlaminar) substantially influence the ROM, but in different ways. The authors, that have been using these devices for about 10 years, analyse both the segmental mobility and the sagittal balance after these devices have been implanted. We resent a new device (INTRA Spine) for the treatment of the degenerative pathology of the lumbar spine. The device, in medical silicone 65 shore coated by a pure polyester therepthalate sleeve, has with respect to other posterior devices, the advantage that it may be implanted more anteriorly (interlaminar) and thus gets placed even closer to the centre of instantaneous rotation of the segment. The difference in compression ratio between the anterior and posterior parts of the device, do not limit the ROM. The results are undoubtedly in favour of interlaminar rather than interspinous systems and this seems obvious if we consider simply the different distances of the two types of implants from the axis of instantaneous rotation. The path we must take has yet to come to an end, but the consciousness and understan ding of this data by all those who use these devices appears fundamental for their correct use, but most of all so that the correct system be used for the various situations. We nevertheless feel we should recommend the use of this device after failure of conservative treatment, as a first choice over more invasive surgical operations and especially in the first phases of degenerative cascade in order to slow down its natural evolution.


The framework and field application of a simulation-based online system for travel time prediction are presented. The proposed system is designed to contend with most critical issues associated with real-time operations, which include estimation of missing volumes, detection of incidents, data filtering, and computation of traffic volumes for projected time intervals so as to activate the simulation function. The proposed system was deployed on two routes of 30 mi between Salisbury and Ocean City, Maryland, with a total of 10 detectors. The preliminary application results clearly indicate that with proper integration the proposed system offers a cost-effective tool for real-time travel time prediction.


Medical systematic reviews are crucial for informing clinical decision making and health-care policy. But producing such reviews is onerous and time-consuming. Thus, high-quality evidence synopses are not available for many questions and may be outdated even when they are available. Large language models (LLMs) are now capable of generating long-form texts, suggesting the tantalizing possibility of automatically generating literature reviews on demand. However, LLMs sometimes generate inaccurate (and potentially misleading) texts by hallucinating or omitting important information. In the healthcare context, this may render LLMs unusable at best and dangerous at worst. Most discussion surrounding the benefits and risks of LLMs have been divorced from specific applications. In this work, we seek to qualitatively characterize the potential utility and risks of LLMs for assisting in production of medical evidence reviews. We conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with international experts in systematic reviews, grounding discussion in the context of generating evidence reviews. Domain experts indicated that LLMs could aid writing reviews, as a tool for drafting or creating plain language summaries, generating templates or suggestions, distilling information, crosschecking, and synthesizing or interpreting text inputs. But they also identified issues with model outputs and expressed concerns about potential downstream harms of confidently composed but inaccurate LLM outputs which might mis-lead. Other anticipated potential downstream harms included lessened accountability and proliferation of automatically generated reviews that might be of low quality. Informed by this qualitative analysis, we identify criteria for rigorous evaluation of biomedical LLMs aligned with domain expert views.


OBJECTIVE:Little is known about the clinical features and natural history of segmental colitis associated with diverticula. Our aim was to evaluate the incidence of segmental colitis associated with diverticula in patients undergoing colonoscopy, its clinical picture, and its outcome.METHODS:This was a multicenter, prospective study. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-like lesions limited to colonic segments with diverticula were enrolled. Patients were treated with oral and topical 5-aminosalicylic (5-ASA) until remission was achieved; clinical and endoscopic follow-up was planned at 6 wk and 12 months.RESULTS:A total of 5457 consecutive colonoscopies were recorded at five participating institutions; 20 patients (0.36%) met the endoscopic criteria for segmental colitis associated with diverticula. All had lesions in the left colon, and one also had lesions in the right colon. In six cases, a specific diagnosis was made thereafter. The remaining 14 patients (0.25% of colonoscopies; eight men; age range, 49–80 yr) were in clinical and endoscopic remission at the first follow-up visit. At onset, 13/14 had hematochezia, seven had diarrhea, and five had abdominal pain; only one had weight loss. No subject had fever. In all but one case, blood chemistries were normal. Five patients had had similar symptoms previously. Thirteen of 14 patients were in clinical and endoscopic remission at 12 months.CONCLUSIONS:This endoscopic picture is not an exceptional finding. Hematochezia was the main clinical feature, and no relation with gender, age, or smoking habit was found. Blood chemistries were generally normal and the rectum was spared. The histological features were not diagnostic and most patients did not complain of any abdominal symptoms 12 months after enrolment.


Cross-sectional echocardiographic visualization of the interatrial septum in both normal persons and patients with atrial septal defects has been reported. Although septal defects can generally be visualized, false positives are frequently encountered. This study evaluated whether visualizing the patterns of contrast flow in the region of an apparent atrial septal defect by cross-sectional echocardiography could aid in the differentiation of true defects from false positives. We studied 25 patients 13 with intact interatrial septa and 12 with atrial septal defects. Contrast was visualized in the right atrium in 24 of 25 patients (all 13 normal patients and 11 of 12 patients with atrial septal defects). In all patients with intact interatrial septum, the peripherally injected contrast material homogenously filled the right atrium, delineating the position and integrity of the interatrial septum. In two of 11 patients with atrial septal defects, evidence of right-to-left shunting through the defect confirmed its presence. In the remaining nine patients, the flow of blood from left atrium to right atrium, following the path of the left-to-right shunt, produced an echo-free area along the right margin of the interatrial septum, or an area of negative contrast. This phenomenon was produced by the non-contrastcontaining blood flowing through the septum and displacing the contrast-containing blood from along the righthand portion of the septum. This study suggests that peripheral injection of echocardiographic contrast material may be of value in detecting atrial septal defects in patients with predominant left-to-right shunting when contrast flows are evaluated using cross-sectional echocardiography.


The work authors have used 52 strains of F. oxysporum for the collection of cultures of the Department of Physiology and Taxonomy of Micromycetes of IMV of the NAS of Ukraine. The strains were isolated from three habitats--grain cultures, cultivated and noncultivated soils of different regions of Ukraine. Activity of some hydrolytic (cellulose, endo-1,4-beta-xylanase, beta-glucosidase and amylase) and redox (monophenol-monooxygenase and peroxidase) enzymes of F. oxysporum strains. It has been shown that strains isolated from plant substrates produced more actively hydrolytic enzymes--cellulose, endo-1,4-beta-xylanase and beta-glucosidase. As to the degree of these enzymes activity the studied strains were distributed in the following order: strains from plants (P) > strains from cultivated soil (CS) > strains from noncultivated soils (NS). The soil strains NS > CS > P proved to be more active as to activity manifestation of the redox enzymes (monophenol-monooxygenase and peroxidase).


The awareness of the importance of subaerial exposure in the diagenesis of limestones has led to the recognition of a variety of subaerial phenomena in carbonate sequences such as vadose cements and calcrete crusts. Other such phenomena include paleokarsts, of which there are surprisingly few detailed descriptions. One problem in recognizing paleokarst is to differentiate it from both Holocene and ancient interstratal (or subadjacent) karst. This is a post-burial effect which can create subsurface karstic surfaces along unconformities or bedding surfaces. The unconformity between the Lower and Upper Carboniferous in South Wales displays karstic features which have formed interstratally and have overprinted and were controlled by the original erosional relief along the unconformity. Interstratal karst can be differentiated from true paleokarstic surfaces by simple stratigraphic criteria. Paleokarsts are common in the Mississippian limestones of Britain, and three types can be recognized in the shelf sequences in South Wales. First, there are large clay-filled hollows interpreted as solution dolines; second, there are mammillated karstic surfaces overlain by paleosols and calcrete crusts with abundant alveolar fabrics (rootlet tubules), interpreted as a type of deckenkarren analogous to Holocene South African Makondo karsts. Third, there are unusual paleokarstic zones consisting of bands of rubbly limestones containing large, irregular fluted blocks surrounded by clay-filled solution pipes and fissures and analogous to Holocene Kavornossen karren, Puerto Rico. The paleokarsts provide information on the paleoclimate, paleohydrology, and the vegetation cover existing at the time of their formation and are useful paleoenvironmental indicators. They are the raw material for paleogeomorphology and obviously can provide excellent sites for hydrocarbon accumulation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 645------------


A workshop to discuss environmental issues related to marine biomass production was held in Napa, California. The participants included 40 experts from a wide range of marine disciplines including biological, chemical and physical oceanography. The workshop identified and evaluated potential environmental issues of an open ocean biomass system and made research recommendations to GRI for needed environmental studies. Several critical issues were identified that need to be addressed by the GRI environmental research program. A detailed assessment is needed of the particulate organic matter (POM) flux from the kelp to the deep water column and sediments in order to determine the impact of kelp farming on ocean oxygen budgets, considering kelp fragments and residues from the anaerobic digestion process. Also, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of upwelled water especially related to nutrient availability and uptake. In addition, from an engineering and operations aspect, a critical test farm experiment is required of the farm structure, including its associated pumps (wave-driven) and attachment lines. Finally, the issue of digester residue disposal must be evaluated to suggest environmentally acceptable disposal or utilization practices.


In the present research, molecular modeling methods were used to study novel porous soy protein conjugates with gelatin or alginate, which were recently developed as potential scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Gelatin (protein) and alginate (polysaccharides) were chemically crosslinked to soy protein isolates (SPI) in order to obtain a porous 3D network. Computational tools were applied to estimate the crosslinking degree and compare the degradation rate of soy–gelatin or soy–alginate conjugates. Soy protein 3D structure was obtained from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Alginate and gelatin structures were built and subjected to dynamic simulation using the molecular modeling package Material Studio 7.0. The crosslinking degree was estimated by the miscibility of the two reactants and the interaction with the crosslinking agents 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) or glyoxal. The calculations revealed that soy protein mixes well with gelatin but not with alginate. Radial distribution function (RDF) calculations showed that the interaction distance between alginate and EDC is significantly shorter than between gelatin and EDC, probably because of ionic attraction between the ammonium groups of EDC and the carboxylate groups in alginate, which facilitates the crosslinking reaction. The degradation rate of soy protein conjugates was related to their interaction with water. It was found that the solubility of soy–gelatin in water is higher than soy–alginate and that water molecules form more hydrogen bonds with soy–gelatin than with soy–alginate. These findings might be the reason for the observed difference in degradation rate of the two conjugates; the soy–gelatin degrades faster than soy–alginate. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In high speed communication networks, the determination of a transmission rate is critical for the stability of a closed-loop network system with the congestion control scheme. In this paper, a new rate-based congestion control scheme using an exponential weighted moving average algorithm is proposed to build an efficient feedback control law for congestion avoidance in high speed communication networks. The proposed congestion control scheme assures the stability of switch buffers and higher link utilization of the network.


Purpose Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the worldwide leading cause of blindness among the elderly. Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified AMD risk variants, their roles in disease etiology are not well-characterized, and they only explain a portion of AMD heritability. Methods We performed pathway analyses using summary statistics from the International AMD Genomics Consortium's 2016 GWAS and multiple pathway databases to identify biological pathways wherein genetic association signals for AMD may be aggregating. We determined which genes contributed most to significant pathway signals across the databases. We characterized these genes by constructing protein-protein interaction networks and performing motif analysis. Results We determined that eight genes (C2, C3, LIPC, MICA, NOTCH4, PLCG2, PPARA, and RAD51B) "drive" the statistical signals observed across pathways curated in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), Reactome, and Gene Ontology (GO) databases. We further refined our definition of statistical driver gene to identify PLCG2 as a candidate gene for AMD due to its significant gene-level signals (P < 0.0001) across KEGG, Reactome, GO, and NetPath pathways. Conclusions We performed pathway analyses on the largest available collection of advanced AMD cases and controls in the world. Eight genes strongly contributed to significant pathways from the three larger databases, and one gene (PLCG2) was central to significant pathways from all four databases. This is, to our knowledge, the first study to identify PLCG2 as a candidate gene for AMD based solely on genetic burden. Our findings reinforce the utility of integrating in silico genetic and biological pathway data to investigate the genetic architecture of AMD.


The influence of molecule size and structure on the lubricity of liquids: An experimental study In the 1980s, the sulphur content of diesel oil was reduced for environmental reasons. As a result of this, breakdowns of diesel engine injection equipment due to extensive wear were observed. It appeared that the cause of this was the contribution of sulphur containing species to the lubricity of the fuel. The lubricity of a liquid is defined as its ability to protect the surfaces in the boundary lubrication regime. The wear was reduced, as it is today, by addition of anti-wear agents to the fuel. In order to establish the adequate amount of additive, laboratory tests appeared based on a steel ball sliding on a steel disk, the contact only being lubricated by the tested fuel. The result of a test is the measure of the size of the wear scar on the ball. In 1995 a new clean fuel for diesel engines appeared: Dimethyl Ether (DME). DME is a volatile fuel meaning that it has to be pressurised in order to stay liquid. Recently a lubricity test capable of handling DME was developed [1], as well as a volatile fuel viscometer [2]. As a result of this development it has become possible to test the lubricity of small hydrocarbons such as propane and butane as well as liquids with larger molecules. The results of these tests are very well suited for comparison with the outcome of friction and wear models [3], as only simple molecules can be included in these today.


Laser-programmed connections between metal lines on the same level of metallization have been developed as a means to achieve high density linking for customization in programmable gate arrays and for additive redundancy in restructurable integrated circuits. This work reports on the linking of aluminum based metal interconnect using a Q-switched diode pumped solid state laser where perfect yield was achieved. The links were formed by focusing the laser between two adjacent lines of metal, one of which was connected to a lower level of metal through a contact via. The resistance of the connections was approximately 3.0 /spl Omega/, including two vias and a connecting length of lower level metal. >


Various procedures are used for mapping of multidimensional data onto the plane. Sammon's method of simultaneous nonlinear mapping onto the plane is very popular. In addition, sequential nonlinear mapping has been created for watching the data in real time. The essence of mapping is to preserve the inner structure of distances among the vectors in multidimensional space after mapping them onto the plane. The mapping error characterizes the mapping quality, and it depends on initial conditions and data structure. The paper deals with investigations of how data structure influences on mapping quality. Plenty experiments have been executed at various number of parameters and various number of vectors using regular data (having information about clusters) and random data. The experiments allowed to draw conclusions that mapping error increases increasing the number of parameters, and it remains almost constant increasing the number of vectors. Besides, mapping error of regular data is several times less than that of random data. Ill. 11, bibl. 7 (in Lithuanian; summaries in Lithuanian, English and Russian).


Eccentricity-related faults are very common in induction motors and that is the reason for the extensive and worldwide research on their prompt diagnosis during the past decades. Previous works have shown that traditional diagnostic methods cannot offer reliable results for principal slot harmonics (PSH) induction motors. Moreover, most works were focused in the detection of dynamic and mixed, rather than static eccentricity. This paper is focused on the detection of the static eccentricity fault and its severity in PSH induction motors. The proposed method is original and proves to be reliable for the static eccentricity fault detection, even when the severity of the fault is low. The work was carried out with both finite element method (FEM) simulations and experimental testing.


To understand how neural circuits process information, it is essential to identify the relationship between computation and circuit organization. Rich clubs, highly interconnected sets of neurons, are known to propagate a disproportionate amount of information within cortical circuits. Here, we test the hypothesis that rich clubs also perform a disproportionate amount of computation. To do so, we recorded the spiking activity of on average ∼300 well-isolated individual neurons from organotypic cortical cultures. We then constructed weighted, directed networks reflecting the effective connectivity between the neurons. For each neuron, we quantified the amount of computation it performed based on its inputs. We found that rich-club neurons compute ∼160% more information than neurons outside of the rich club. The amount of computation performed in the rich club was proportional to the amount of information propagation by the same neurons. This suggests that in these circuits, information propagation drives computation. In total, our findings indicate that rich-club organization in effective cortical circuits supports not only information propagation but also neural computation. Author Summary Here we answer the question of whether rich-club organization in functional networks of cortical circuits supports neural computation. To do so, we combined network analysis with information theoretic tools to analyze the spiking activity of hundreds of neurons recorded from organotypic cultures of mouse somatosensory cortex. We found that neurons in rich clubs computed significantly more than neurons outside of rich clubs, suggesting that rich clubs do support computation in cortical circuits. Indeed, the amount of computation that we found in the rich clubs was proportional to the amount of information they propagate, suggesting that in these circuits, information propagation drives computation.


Recent advances in cDNA microarray technology have made it possible to analyze expression of more than 8000 genes. Using this technology, gene expression in the hippocampus containing neurofibrillary tangle-associated lesions from an Alzheimer's disease (AD) patient was compared with expression in the parietal cortex from the same patient that lacked these lesions. We also compared gene expression using a control brain. The top 20 named genes significantly up-regulated or down-regulated only in the AD brain were determined. The most up-regulated gene proved to be calcineurin Abeta mRNA (CAbeta). In situ hybridization histochemistry revealed that CAbeta was significantly up-regulated in pyramidal neurons of the hippocampus in the AD brain. RT-PCR analysis revealed that CAbeta was up-regulated in the hippocampus from two out of three AD brains while there were no changes in three control brains. Our study suggests that CAbeta may play a crucial role in the pathophysiological mechanisms in AD.


PURPOSE
To report the first case of corneal graft rejection presumably associated with pembrolizumab immunotherapy.

METHODS
Case report and literature review.

RESULTS
An asymptomatic 85-year-old woman with a history of bilateral penetrating keratoplasty presented for a follow-up visit with bilateral diffuse keratic precipitates and subepithelial infiltrates. There were no anterior chamber cells. Bilateral subclinical corneal graft rejection was suspected. Three months previously, pembrolizumab immunotherapy was started for a metastatic urothelial cell tumor. Corneal graft rejection was managed with topical dexamethasone drops, which were tapered slowly. Pembrolizumab treatment was continued with careful ophthalmological follow-up. Unfortunately, recurrence of corneal graft rejection was observed 8 weeks after cessation of topical dexamethasone drops. After consulting the treating oncologist, pembrolizumab treatment was stopped to prevent recurrent corneal graft rejection.

CONCLUSIONS
We report the first case of corneal graft rejection presumably associated with pembrolizumab immunotherapy. Corneal graft rejection may be successfully managed with corticosteroid therapy. However, constant vigilance and follow-up are advised because of the risk of recurrence in case of continued pembrolizumab treatment. Given the subclinical presentation, baseline ophthalmological screening is advised in all corneal graft patients after initiating immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.


Globally, traffic associated with roads that pass through protected areas are the cause of many negative impacts on wildlife, such as wildlife roadkill, which has occurred within the Serengeti ecosystem. A 200 km stretch of gravel road networks that passes through the Serengeti ecosystem was surveyed in 2015 for five consecutive days during each study period during the wet and dry seasons, between March and August 2015, to document the magnitude, patterns and composition of wildlife roadkill. We found a total of 51 wildlife roadkills that consisted of 26 species of wild animals and included 18 bird and 8 mammal species. Bird species (60.8%) were more frequently killed than mammal species (39.2%). Moreover, a higher incidence of wildlife roadkill was recorded in the morning (56.9%) than in the afternoon (43.1%) and more mammals (51.7%) than birds (48.3%) were recorded in the morning. Greater numbers of wildlife roadkill were recorded along road segments with good road conditions (69.4%) that were wider (>8 m) and with higher traffic volumes than along roads with poor conditions (30.6%). Overall, the Cape hare (Lepus capensis) was the most frequently killed species (17.6%) among the mammals, whereas the helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris) (13.7%) was most frequently killed among the avifauna. To reduce the number of roadkill incidents, we recommend changing driver speeding behaviours by installing wildlife-warning signage that consists of picture-based signs, because they have been proved to be more effective than word-based signs to reduce speeds and hence, reduce collisions. Additionally, the responsible management authorities should provide education to drivers on safe driving and enforcement of laws and regulations. Further, policy briefings that focus on wildlife roadkill should be made available to assist decision-makers and engineers to improve road design in protected areas.


An analysis is presented of the effect on radiation pattern of random errors in the construction of a two-dimensional scanning array. Translational and rotational errors in the positions of all elements are assumed together with errors in the electrical excitations themselves. Translational errors are found to cause the dominant effect. A formula connecting side lobe level and errors is derived and representative curves are shown. For a given tolerance, pattern deterioration is found to decrease as the array is enlarged. For the same tolerance, pattern deterioration is less for a planar array of size L^{2} - than it is for a linear array of length L . Side lobe increase due to random errors does not depend on scan angle.


Although many atypical proteinaceous cell wall components that belong to a group of multitasking, "moonlighting" proteins, have been repeatedly identified in numerous pathogenic microorganisms, their novel extracellular functions and secretion mechanisms remain largely unrecognized. In Candida albicans, one of the most common fungal pathogens in humans, phosphoglycerate mutase (Gpm1) - a cytoplasmic enzyme involved in the glycolysis pathway - has been shown to occur on the cell surface and has been identified as a potentially important virulence factor. In this study, we demonstrated tight binding of C. albicans Gpm1 to the candidal cell surface, thus suggesting that the readsorption of soluble Gpm1 from the external environment could be a likely mechanism leading to the presence of this moonlighting protein on the pathogen surface. Several putative Gpm1-binding receptors on the yeast surface were identified. The affinities of Gpm1 to human vitronectin (VTR) and fibronectin (FN) were characterized with surface plasmon resonance measurements, and the dissociation constants of the complexes formed were determined to be in the order of 10-8 M. The internal Gpm1 sequence motifs, directly interacting with VTR (aa 116-158) and FN (aa 138-175) were mapped using chemical crosslinking and mass spectrometry. Synthetic peptides with matching sequences significantly inhibited formation of the Gpm1-VTR and Gpm1-FN complexes. A molecular model of the Gpm1-VTR complex was developed. These results provide the first structural insights into the adhesin function of candidal surface-exposed Gpm1.


This article analyses the problems of Russian world in center of ideological and political confrontation. The author describes the models of perception of the Russian world in the West, CIS and Russia.


Background : Few current autophagy inhibitors may have beneficial effects for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients in clinical phases. However, there is a strong need to figure out which settings should be activated or inhibited in autophagy pathway to prevail drug resistance and improve current treatment options in leukemia. This study aimed to compare the effects of 3 well-known inhibitors of autophagy (3-MA, BafA1 and HCQ) in human leukemia KG1 and HL-60 cells exposed to ATO and/or ATRA. Methods : Cell proliferation and cytotoxicity of KG-1 and HL-60 cells were examined by MTT assay. Autophagy was studied by evaluating the development of acidic vesicular organelles, and the autophagosomes formation was investigated by acridine orange staining and transmission electron microscopy. Gene and protein expression levels of autophagy markers ( ATGs , p62/SQSTM1 and LC-3B) were also performed by qPCR and western blotting, respectively. The rate of apoptosis (annexin-V/PI staining) and cell cycle were evaluated using flow cytometry. Result: We compared the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of arsenic trioxide (ATO) and/or all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) in KG1 and HL-60 cells, and demonstrated that some autophagy markers can be upregulated in this context. Also, autophagy blockers HCQ and/or BafA1 could potentiate the cytotoxic effects of ATO/ATRA, which were more pronounced in KG-1 cells compared with HL-60 cell line. Conclusion: This study showed the involvement of autophagy during treatment of KG1 and HL-60 cells with ATO/ATRA.also, this study propose was to propose that combination therapy of ATO/ATRA with the autophagy inhibitor HCQ can be considered as a more effective strategy for targeting leukemic KG-1 cells. Key words: Autophagy, AML, ATO, ATRA


The aim of this work was to evaluate binding capacity of quinidine, disopyramide and metoprolol to melanin in vitro. The antiarrhythmics studied cause adverse reactions to the eye. Synthetic DOPA-melanin was used in the studies and a UV spectrophotometric method was employed to determine the drugs. The studies of the kinetics of the formation of quinidine-melanin, disopyramide-melanin and metoprolol-melanin complexes indicate that for all the complexes investigated the maximum time to reach reaction equilibrium is 24 h. Binding parameters, i.e., the numbers of independent binding sites and the association constants were determined on the basis of the Scatchard plots. An analysis of the binding curves obtained supports our conclusion that both strong (n1) and weak (n2) binding sites are involved in the formation of the complexes investigated. The total numbers of binding sites in synthetic DOPA-melanin complexes with quinidine, disopyramide and metoprolol were 0.525, 0.493 and 0.387 micromol/mg, respectively. The quinidine-melanin complex is characterized by greater stability (K1 = 3.00 x 10(5) M(-1), K2 = 1.75 x 10(3) M(-1)) in comparison with biopolymer complexes with disopyramide (K1 = 1.12 x 10(4) M(-1), K2 = 6.04 x 10(2) M(-1)) and metoprolol (K1 = 1.42 x 10(4) M(-1), K2 = 7.89 x 10(2) M(-1)). The ability of these drugs to form complexes with melanin in vitro may be one of the reasons for their ocular toxicity in vivo, as a result of their accumulation in melanin in the eye.


The author contends that some contemporary hypnosis theories are restricted and narrow in scope, rendering them unnecessarily isolated from mainstream models of human development, psychopathology, and personality functioning. They seem to explain hypnosis and little else. The author contrasts this with psychoanalysis, which, although sometimes overly expansive, does nonetheless lend itself to the generation of specific hypothesis via careful deduction from a general theory of human behavior and experience. For illustrative purposes, the author criticizes the sociocognitive perspective of hypnosis contending that at present it is too narrowly inductive in focus, overvalues social influence, and has its own problems with reification. The author suggests remedies for these difficulties.


Areas that experience permanent ground deformation in earthquakes (e.g., surface fault rupture, slope failure, and/or liquefaction) typically sustain greater damage and loss compared to areas that experience strong ground shaking alone. The 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake generated ≥220 km of surface fault rupture. The amount and style of surface rupture deformation varied considerably, ranging from centimetre-scale distributed folding to metre-scale discrete rupture. About a dozen buildings – mainly residential (or residential-type) structures comprising single-storey timber-framed houses, barns and wool sheds with lightweight roofing material – were directly impacted by surface fault rupture with the severity of damage correlating with both local discrete fault displacement and local strain. However, none of these buildings collapsed. This included a house built directly atop a discrete rupture that experienced ~10 m of lateral offset. The foundation and flooring system of this structure allowed decoupling of much of the ground deformation from the superstructure thus preventing collapse. Nevertheless, buildings directly impacted by surface faulting suffered greater damage than comparable structures immediately outside the zone of surface rupture deformation. From a life-safety standpoint, all these buildings performed satisfactorily and provide insight into construction styles that could be employed to facilitate non-collapse performance resulting from surface fault rupture and, in certain instances, even post-event functionality.


Abstract 1294 Conditional inactivation of both the essential non-homologous DNA end-joining repair gene XRCC4 and the tumor suppressor gene p53 in mature B cells in mice frequently leads to mature B cell lymphomas. The majority of B lymphomas recurrently harbor reciprocal IgH/c-Myc translocations, activating c-Myc, a hallmark characteristic of Burkitt9s lymphoma. We designed an integrated tumor RNA-Seq transcriptome profiling and miRnome based approach to dissect the interplay of signaling pathways and oncogenic signatures that lead to the development of the tumors in our model. Differential expression analysis of mRNA and 709 miRNAs reveal specific alterations in distinct signaling pathways, including upregulation of both Wnt and PI3K pathway signaling. For example, we found that Wnt10b, the wnt ligand expressed in B cells is upregulated. Correspondingly, frizzled receptors and it9s downstream effector disheveled are also upregulated, factors that contribute to beta-catenin stabilization. Our studies also reveal increased expression PIK3CD, a PI3K catalytic isoform expressed in B cells, with corresponding downregulation of miRNAs with seed matches to 39UTR of PIK3CD in the tumor; a factor that likely contribute to the stabilization of PIK3CD mRNA. Our analyses reveal an interplay of multiple pathway proteins and genes that serve as novel therapeutic targets for human B lymphoma. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


It is unclear how patient-reported outcome in patients with Legg–Calvé–Perthes disease (LCPD) is correlated with radiographic outcome. It was therefore the aim of our long-term follow-up to evaluate the agreement of patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) with radiographic outcome in patients with a history of unilateral LCPD and a femoral head involvement of more than 50%. We further investigated to what extent the functional outcome (range of motion and Trendelenburg sign) correlates with PROM and radiographic outcome. At a mean follow-up of 28 years (15–42), 61 patients were investigated clinically and by plain radiography to evaluate the sphericity deviation score, femoral head enlargement and femoral neck growth inhibition. The patients also completed questionnaires for generic measures of health-related quality-of-life (ED-5D, EQ-visual analogue scale), the joint-specific Harris hip score and the nonarthritic hip score questionnaire. The radiographic measures sphericity deviation score, femoral head enlargement and femoral neck growth inhibition were strongly correlated with the joint-specific PROMs (Harris hip score and nonarthritic hip score) but not with EQ-5D and EQ-visual analogue scale. Inferior range of flexion and abduction and a positive Trendelenburg sign were associated with an inferior patient-reported outcome. Our findings highlight the importance of supporting femoral head re-modelling and containment and balancing trochanteric and femoral neck growth in patients with LCPD. To capture the whole picture of the outcome after LCPD, future studies should include a combination of radiographic measurements and joint-specific and generic outcome scores. Level of Evidence: Level III.


A new fungal strain isolated from a soil microcosm was investigated due to the finding that it could biodegrade free-gossypol on agar plates. Benzyl chloride was used for extracting fungal genomic DNA which was isolated from mycelium grown in liquid culture, then 18S rDNA was specifically polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified using a pair of primers EF4/EF3 (1.4 kb). The strain was further identified as a member of the genus Aspergillusthrough the morphological and molecular biological methods. The isolated strain had a high tolerance of free-gossypol and 2 g/L was chosen as the best addition amount. Furthermore, the dry weight method was employed to determine the growth curve and optimum temperature of the gossypol-degrading fungus in different carbon sources. The results showed that it was best to be researched after incubation for 72 h at 30°C. To the extent of our knowledge, this is the first report on biodegradation of gossypol on solid plates without other carbon sources and this might help in decomposing some anti-nutritional factors in feed resources.

 Key words: Free-gossypol, fungus, biodegradation, isolation, growth characteristics.


Cell contents of foetal fluids obtained separately from amniotic and allantoic cavities of live cows by transvaginal amniocentesis and by aspiration from pregnant uteri immediately after slaughter were studied using Papanicolaou's staining procedure. The samples obtained belonged to cows which were between ten to 24 weeks of gestation. Cell scrapings from foetal and membranous surfaces normally in contact with the foetal fluids were also stained simultaneously with foetal fluid smears by Papanicolaou's method to determine the probable origin of the cells detected in the amniotic and allantoic cavities. The cell types were classified according to morphology and tinctorial patterns and their origin was deduced on the basis of similarity to cell scrapings from the surface layers of foetus and foetal cavities. The evaluation of foetal fluid cells revealed that a majority of cells are of foetal origin and that the cytological features of these cells may be useful in assessing the condition of the foetus.


Everyday accounting and management teachers face the challenge of creating learning environments that motivate students. This chapter describes the Business Simulation (BS) experience that has taken place at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Institute of Accounting and Administration (IPP/ISCAP). The chapter presents students' perceptions about the course and the teaching/learning approach. The results show that pedagogical methods used (competency-oriented), generic competencies (cooperation and group work), and interpersonal skills (organisational and communication skills) are relevant for future accounting professionals. In addition, positive remarks and possible constraints based on observation, staff meetings, and past research are reported. The chapter concludes with some recommendations from the project implementation.


Wettability is a critical reservoir and petrophysical evaluation parameter that is often ignored. Both disciplines often assume the formations are water-wet for simplicity and because wettability measurement on cores often carries a high degree of uncertainty. With the expansion of unconventional carbonate reservoirs development and interest in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the importance of understanding wettability at the native state and its variability with various injection fluids is becoming critical. For practical purposes, a fast and accurate determination method, ideally at in-situ conditions, is desired.
 It is widely recognized that nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is very sensitive to the strength of the fluid-rock interactions, and therefore, has been long considered as a good candidate for wettability determination. The NMR methodology was first applied in the laboratory using T2 relaxation measurements. For instance, sample wettability is inferred from a shift of the oil peak to shorter T2 values compared with the bulk T2 response of a live oil in the case of oil-wet system. The main practical limitation to the applicability of the T2 shift-based evaluation of wettability is the usually poor separation of oil and water peaks in the T2 spectrum. Furthermore, the bulk T2 of live oils must be measured and the core sample must be perfectly cleaned to quantify the NMR surface relaxation effect. Recently, a method based on two-dimensional mapping of NMR diffusion versus T2 was developed and validated with Amott-Harvey and USBM lab measurements. This method has two advantages. First, separation between the oil and water signals is greatly improved compared with the one-dimensional T2. Second, key properties such as tortuosity, represented by the electrical cementation factor m, and effective surface relaxivity can be inferred from the two-dimensional NMR maps using the restricted-diffusion model. The wettability index can then be estimated from the effective surface relaxivities.
 The laboratory results on cores suggest that it is possible to obtain reservoir wettability using downhole NMR measurements. This requires high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) data and improved processing techniques to separate oil and water signals. We examined the NMR restricted-diffusion wettability technique utilizing log data collected in an observation well completed with plastic casing. This well is used to monitor oil desaturation during different phases of an EOR pilot consisting of water, alkaline surfactant (ASP), and polymer floods. A downhole NMR tool that simultaneously records T1, T2 and diffusion at multiple depth of investigation (DOI) was used. This device allowed to periodically collect high-quality NMR data with SNR higher than 50. The targeted reservoir is a sandstone containing hydrocarbon with viscosity of 90 cP. The computed wettability consistently showed mildly oil-wet condition at the selected depth and over the analyzed time intervals.


Petunia hybrida ovule-specific cDNA libraries were screened for genes encoding homologues of protein kinases known to be involved in developmental processes. Two cDNAs, PSK4 and PSK6 (Petunia hybrida shaggy related protein kinase), homologous to GSK-3 from rat, MDS1 from yeast and to the segment polarity gene shaggy/zeste-white 3 (sgg/zw3) from Drosophila were characterized in detail. Southern blot analysis showed that the PSK4 and PSK6 genes belong to a small multigene family in P. hybrida. The PSK4 and PSK6 proteins, which are 70% identical to sgg/zw3 and its functional homologue GSK-3 over the protein kinase catalytic domain and 55% identical to MDS1, represent two different subgroups of protein kinases. RNA gel blot and RT-PCR analyses revealed that the PSK4 gene is expressed during the vegetative phase and the female reproductive phase of development and the PSK6 gene predominantly during the male and female reproductive phases. In situ hybridization on developing flower buds confirmed that PSK4 is expressed throughout the different developmental stages from ovule primordium formation until embryo sac maturation, while PSK6 showed expression during anther cell differentiation and at pollen maturity, and an expression pattern similar to PSK4 in the female reproductive organs. The results also revealed transcripts of a PSK gene in embryos at the globular stage.


Report on the clinical picture of a Paget's disease with predominant alterations of the temporal bone, producing a mixed deafness and tinnitus. The AA. take advantage of this opportunity for describe briefly the chief bone dystrophies that could evolve in the temporal bone.


The article, after the general introduction on general education and its relationship to the Church in post-war Poland, discusses the connections between the diocesan seminary in Tarnow, the Gimnazjum, and later First Liceum in Tarnow. These relationships were in fact particular. In 1837 was established the Institute of Philosophy, which was placed in a newly constructed building of the Seminary. In 1849 the Institute of Philosophy combined with the Gimnazjum as the two highest classes, which were still housed in the Seminary buildings. It is only after the construction of a new building for the Gimnazjum in the immediate vicinity of the Seminary, and partly on its territory, that Gimnazjum pupils not longer occupy space in the building of the Seminary. Once created the so called Minor Seminary (1901), his pupils were students of that Gimnazjum and after their graduation became the Seminary alumni. After World War II (1950) Communist authorities removed the alumni of the Minor Seminary from the Gimnazjum and Liceum, but the immediate vicinity of these institutions meant that a large percentage of Gimnazjum pupils were reported to enroll in the Seminary. The number of Gimnazjum graduates who chose the priesthood is impressive.


Transformer-based deep NLP models are trained using hundreds of millions of parameters, limiting their applicability in computationally constrained environments. In this paper, we study the cause of these limitations by defining a notion of Redundancy, which we categorize into two classes: General Redundancy and Task-specific Redundancy. We dissect two popular pretrained models, BERT and XLNet, studying how much redundancy they exhibit at a representation-level and at a more fine-grained neuron-level. Our analysis reveals interesting insights, such as: i) 85% of the neurons across the network are redundant and ii) at least 92% of them can be removed when optimizing towards a downstream task. Based on our analysis, we present an efficient feature-based transfer learning procedure, which maintains 97% performance while using at-most 10% of the original neurons.


Objective: The aim of the study was to validate the noninvasive resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) method in infants in comparison with the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method, and to evaluate the carotenoid status in preterm infants fed with mother's milk or formula. Methods: In the first phase of the study, resonance Raman measurements were made on male term infants' skin and correlated with tissue harvested at the time of circumcision. Each baby's foreskin was weighed, enzymatically digested, and the total carotenoids were extracted and quantitated by the HPLC. Next, to evaluate the carotenoid status of preterm infants (BW <1500 g), the skin and serum carotenoids in infants fed with either human milk or preterm formula were studied from the start of feedings and every 2 weeks until hospital discharge. Skin carotenoids were measured by RRS and the serum total carotenoids by HPLC. Results: Foreskin carotenoid levels measured by RRS correlated with HPLC measurements of total serum carotenoids (R = 0.52, P < 0.01, n = 16). Forty preterm infants were studied for their carotenoid status. Thirty-two infants were fed mother's milk, whereas 8 were fed a preterm infant formula that was not enriched with carotenoids. The gestation and birth weight of the 2 feeding groups were similar. The infants fed human milk had a higher serum total carotenoid concentration and skin Raman counts than formula-fed infants. The skin Raman counts and total serum carotenoid correlated (R = 0.44, P = 0.01). The human milk–fed infants' serum total carotenoid concentrations and Raman values did not change during the study period; however, the formula-fed group's total serum and skin carotenoid decreased significantly during the study. Conclusions: RRS of infant's skin reliably assesses total carotenoid status noninvasively. Human milk–fed preterm infants have higher serum and skin carotenoids than formula-fed infants suggesting that formula-fed infants may benefit from carotenoid supplementation.


It is vital for manufacturing companies not only to cope with frequent product changes and fluctuating demands, but also to reduce the impact of disturbances on the overall manufacturing performance. In this paper a real-time scheduling mechanism for dynamic discrete manufacturing is presented. Modified mean flow time performance for different scheduling approaches is compared through off-line simulation experiments, under dynamic manufacturing environments that are subjects to disturbances such as machine breakdowns. These experimental results are used as reference indices for the real-time scheduling mechanism to select the better scheduling approaches for further evaluation based on the actual manufacturing conditions. Discrete event simulation is used on-line to evaluate the selected approaches and the corresponding schedules to determine the best solution. The selected schedule is used until the deviation of actual performance from the estimated one exceeds a given limit, or when a major event occurs. A new simulation is then performed with the remaining operations to select a new schedule.


1. IntroductionPesticides are used in order to protect valuable assets such as crops and human health against potential adverse impacts from pest, insects, weeds, and pathogens. As such, pesticide use is a major foundation of the agricultural intensification observed since the middle of the 20th century (Masia et al., 2014; Silva et al., 2019). The global amount of pesticides used has been estimated at approximately 6 billion pounds in 2011 and 2012 (USEPA, 2017). This amount keeps increasing, particularly in low and middle income countries (Akter et al., 2018; Balmer et al., 2019; Phillips McDouglas Agribusiness Intelligence, 2019). The extensive and improper use of pesticides can also have negative impacts, e.g. on the crop itself, on human health and on ecosystems, especially in aquatic environments (Verger and Boobis, 2013; Tsaboula et al., 2016; Kapsi et al., 2019). In order to prevent such negative impacts, the marketing and use of pesticides are strictly regulated in most countries.Appropriate management of pesticides requires information on the types and amounts of pesticides used. Eurostat (2008) advocates collection of usage statistics in particular for: (1) provision of annual usage estimates in countries; (2) monitoring changes over time (Coupe and Capel, 2016); (3) environmental protection; (4)  consumer protection: providing information for residue monitoring; (5) operator protection (improving or optimizing use); (6) monitoring the potential movement of pesticides into water; (7) policy advise during review programs (reviewing use of existing pesticides); (8) providing information for approval of new pesticides. However, the public availability of pesticide use data is generally scarce, i.e. because of proprietary data issues, poor registration, lacking regulations or the costs involved. Eurostat (2008) stipulates that the cost benefits for gathering actual usage statistics far outstrip the investments. An excellent example of collecting usage data is the Pesticide Use Reporting Program in California in which farmers are required to monthly report pesticide use (California Department of Pesticide Regulation, 2000).Pesticide use data can take the form of sales data and usage data. Sales data are more generic and cannot be related directly to the actual use in time and space since they do not provide details on crop, timing, spatial variation and the dose applied (Eurostat, 2008). These details are needed in order to estimate pesticide emissions, model surface water contamination, estimate risks, set priorities and identify mitigation measures (Herrero-Hernandez et al., 2017; Bidleman et al., 2002; Konstantinou et al., 2006; Al-Khazrajy & Boxall, 2016; Van Gils et al., 2019). Usage data do provide the kind of detail needed to satisfy this kind of governance, research and management needs. Unfortunately, usage data is typically unavailable or difficult to obtain for all crops produced in an area, particularly in low and middle income countries like Indonesia (Mariyono et al., 2018).The aim of the present study was to determine the pesticide use by farmers in the Upper Citarum River Basin (UCRB) and make the data open access. The study was initiated to obtain input data required for predicting surface water concentrations of pesticides in the UCRB. In order to acquire the data, a survey among 174 farmers was conducted, focusing on the types and amounts of pesticides used on major crop types.


Uniform illumination is a key requirement in different research fields. However, this requirement is often difficult to achieve when high intensity is required at the same time. Recent advancements in LED lamps allow nowadays for compact and economical solutions. In this work we present a suitable solution for various laboratory purposes requiring stable, uniform and high intensity illumination. The system is composed of four identical high power white LED arrays of 30 mm diameter each, placed on a supporting and cooling structure having a minimum volume of 26 cm x 26 cm x 8 cm. A numerical model has been developed, based on a ray tracing software, in order to simulate the performances. These have then been experimentally validated with measurements of the power density map, carried out with a 1% uncertainty pyranometer. Data show that the built system is very stable over time and provides an illumination uniformity higher than 98%, on a surface of 50 mm radius, which reduces to 95% on a surface of 75 mm radius. The power density can be adjusted in the 390-1360 W m-2 range, not affecting uniformity.