— This paper presents a streaming-based E-Learning environment where closer integration between learning and work is achieved by integrating multimedia services into manufacturing processes. It contains a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the proposed E-Learning streaming framework, especially the adaption of streaming services to mobile environments. We first analyze several scenarios where E-Learning streaming services can be integrated into manufacturing processes. To allow systematic and tailor-made integration, we develop a model and a specification language for E-Learning streaming services and apply the model using practical scenarios from real manufacturing processes. Adaption of multimedia streaming services to mobile devices is discussed based on Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL). Last, we comment on the benefits of using E-Learning streaming services as part of manufacturing processes and analyze the acceptance of the developed system. The key components of our E-Learning environment are 1) an xml based streaming service specification language, 2) adaption of multimedia E-Learning services to mobile environments, and 3) Web Services for searching, registration, and creation of E-Learning streaming services.


In recent years, biofilm-forming diatoms have received increased attention as sea turtle epibionts. However, most of the research has focused on carapace-associated taxa and communities, while less is known about diatoms growing on sea turtle skin. The current study investigated diatom diversity on the skin of loggerhead sea turtle heads detached from the carcasses found along the Adriatic coast between 1995 and 2004 and stored frozen for a prolonged period of time. By using both light and scanning electron microscopy we have found diatom frustules in 7 out of 14 analysed sea turtle samples. Altogether, 113 diatom taxa were recorded, with a minimum of seven and a maximum of 35 taxa per sample. Eight taxa, Achnanthes elongata, Berkeleya cf. fennica, Chelonicola sp., Licmophora hyalina, Nagumoea sp., Navicula sp., Nitzschia cf. lanceolata, and Poulinea lepidochelicola exceeded 5% of relative abundance in any one sample. The presumably obligately epizoic diatom taxa, A. elongata, Chelonicola sp., and P. lepidochelicola, dominated in six loggerhead samples, contributing up to 97.1% of the total diatom abundance. These observations suggest that on the sea turtle skin highly specialised taxa gain even greater ecological advantage and dominance over the co-occurring benthic forms than in the carapace biofilms. The suitability of frozen sea turtle skin specimens for diatom analysis and limitations of this approach are discussed.


We consider algebraic affine and projective curves of Edwards \cite{E, SkOdProj} over a finite field $\text{F}_{p^n}$. Most cryptosystems of the modern cryptography \cite{SkBlock} can be naturally transform into elliptic curves \cite{Kob}. We research Edwards algebraic curves over a finite field, which at the present time is one of the most promising supports of sets of points that are used for fast group operations \cite{Bir}. New method of counting Edwards curve order over finite field was constructed. It can be applied to order of elliptic curve due to birational equivalence between elliptic curve and Edwards curve. We find not only a specific set of coefficients with corresponding field characteristics, for which these curves are supersingular but also a general formula by which one can determine whether a curve $E_d[\mathbb{F}_{p^n}]$ is supersingular over this field or not. The embedding degree of the supersingular curve of Edwards over $\mathbb{F}_{p^n}$ in a finite field is investigated, the field characteristic, where this degree is minimal, was found. The criterion of supersungularity of the Edwards curves is found over $\mathbb{F}_{p^n}$. Also the generator of crypto stable sequence on an elliptic curve with a deterministic lower estimate of its period is proposed.


Recently augmented regular expressions (AREs) have been proposed as a formalism to describe and recognize a non-trivial class of context-sensitive languages (CSLs). AREs augment the expressive power of regular expressions (REs) by including a set of constraints, that involve the number of instances in a string of the operands of the star operations of an RE. Although it has been demonstrated that not all the CSLs can be described by AREs, the class of representable objects includes planar shapes with symmetries, which is important for pattern recognition tasks. In this paper a general method to infer AREs from string examples is presented. The method consists of a regular grammatical inference step, aimed at obtaining a regular superset of the target language, followed by a constraint induction process, which reduces the extension of the inferred language attempting to discover the maximal number of context relations. Hence, this approach avoids the difficulty of learning context-sensitive grammars.


The authors present a review of information on the incidence éf obliterations of peripheral vessels, incl. their own experience, with a group of diabetic patients. Attention is paid to the pathophysiology of affections of peripheral vessels. In the final part data on the relationship of lipids or their fractions and the development of obliteration of peripheral vessels are presented.


T HERE IS AN EMERGING consensus that, although death rates due to leukemias have dramatically fallen over the past 30 years, the opposite seems true for the non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, particularly the B-cell lymphomas. With more than 35,000 cases per year in the United States, lymphomas take a


Currently, business processes are undergoing a transformation through digitalization. In the course of this development, "Industry 4.0" also has an impact on management accounting and IT systems. By promising technical development and improvement of management accounting processes, the conventional roles are challenged and the introduction of new occupational fields is prognosticated. However, in theory and practice, the impact of industry 4.0 (I4.0) on management accounting has not been considered adequately so far. Against this background, the primary goal of this study is to investigate the implications of I4.0 on management accounting by means of a triangulation approach. The results of expert interviews, a literature review and an analysis of job advertisements provide an overview on the development of competencies of Management Accountants (MA) in Germany. The results have highlighted a closer cooperation of MA and Data Scientists. Additionally, there will be a shift from traditional analysis towards statistical analysis


Pial arteriovenous fistula (AVFs) are a rare, although clinically significant, vascular anomaly affecting the pediatric population, consisting of a high-flow connection between one or more pial arteries and the venous. In children, the clinical presentation varies according to age, can present with high output cardiac failure, macrocrania, neurodevelopmental delay, seizures, venous infarctions due to venous stenosis or hemorrhage secondary to venous thrombosis. The treatment, is a multimodal approach, most commonly endovascular, is effective in the obliteration of AVF. A case is presented of a previously healthy infant boy with neurological deficit arising from pAVF of the middle and posterior cerebral artery. The pAVF was successfully treated with endovascular occlusion.


Background: Neonates are prone to hyperbilirubinemia or jaundice due to the immaturity of various organ systems and complications at birth.  Immature organ systems occur primarily in preterm babies and babies with low birth weight (LBW).  The incidence of hyperbilirubinemia is about 60% among term neonates and is higher in preterm neonates. This study aimed to determine the characteristics of neonates with hyperbilirubinemia. Methods: This study used a cross sectional research design. Samples were obtained from medical records of neonates with hyperbilirubinemia throughout 2019 at Annisa Medical Center Hospital, Bandung Regency. Data on neonates that met the inclusion criteria were selected, including gender, gestational age, birth weight, mode of delivery, bilirubin levels (before and after phototherapy), and duration of treatment. Data analysis was performed using univariate statistical calculations. Results: From 786 data obtained, t he prevalence rate of hyperbilirubinemia was 21.2%. Male neonates with hyperbilirubinemia were predominantly prevalent (n=103; 61.7%); whereas preterm neonates accounted for 51.5% (n=86), normal weight (85.6%), and born through vaginal delivery (n=116; 69.5%). After treatment, total bilirubin levels decreased, with the percentage of the >10 mg/dL group decreasing from 97.0% to 10.2%.  The average duration of treatment for neonates with hyperbilirubinemia was 4.4 days, however, the neonates who were treated less than the average were 71.3%. Conclusion: Preterm male is predominantly prevalent among neonates with hyperbilirubinemia, although they have conformed birth weight and vaginal delivery mode. The duration of treatment for neonates with hyperbilirubinemia mostly does not exceed 4 days, as long as the treatment reduces the total bilirubin level. Good therapeutic management in the first week of hyperbilirubinemia neonates is required.


A quarter-micron space-and-width linear periodic structures and an array of dot images are obtained with the Nd:YAG 4th harmonic laser irradiation on Kapton polyimide films, poly(ethylene terephthalate) films, spin-coated polyimide films and others. Our solid state Nd:YAG laser source is different from the excimer laser irradiation, in that it provides polarized beams without the need for a polarizer. Atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies have been carried out. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies of laser-exposed areas indicate that no significant chemical reactions took place on exposed areas.


The Neyman-Pearson statistical theory on testing hypotheses has in previous work been applied to the problem of the detection of nonfluctuating constant-amplitude signals embedded in noise. This work is extended in this paper to the case of signal power fluctuating according to a prescribed probability distribution. The effect on system performance of possible correlation between successive signal pulses is taken into account. The introduction of signal fluctuation leads in general to some loss in system performance as compared to the case of nonfluctuating signals. This loss is most pronounced when there is complete correlation between successive signals, and is quite small when successive signals are independent of one another.


The authors report the preparation of the nanometer Si crystallites constrained between a-SiN{sub x}:H barrier layers by means of KrF excimer laser induced crystallization. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman scattering spectra demonstrate that ultra thin a-Si:H well layers have been crystallized. The average grain size of Si crystallites is on the order of magnitude of a nanometer. Small-angle XRD spectrum indicates multilayer structures have not undergone laser damage. The results of TEM are presented to show smooth and abrupt interfaces of layered structures and nanometer Si crystallites arrayed one-by-one in the Si layer. The thermodynamics of KrF laser-induced crystallization of ultra-thin Si layer has been discussed.


Admissions to upper-tier universities have become increasingly competitive. The erosion of gains made during the Civil Rights Era is evidenced by recent legal actions at the University of Michigan. In this paper I argue that affirmative action programs remain a necessary means for achieving social justice. Further, I argue that more than mere affirmative action, what is also required is Nancy Fraser's "Transformative Action." To reach these conclusions, the paper is divided into three parts: (1) The continued assault on Affirmative Action; (2) the SAT and race; and (3) transformative action.


A rapid and simple analytical method was developed for the simultaneous and quantitative determination and separation of hydrophilic imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C(4)mim]Cl; 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C(6)mim]Cl; 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C(8)mim]Cl; 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [Amim]Cl; or 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide, [Amim]Br) with miscible ethyl acetate and EtOH and their mixtures using reverse phase liquid chromatography coupled with refractive index detection (RPLC-RI). The influence of 60 to 100% (volume percentage) methanol in the mobile phase on the IL systems ([C(4)mim]Cl, [C(6)mim]Cl, [C(8)mim]Cl, [Amim]Br, or [Amim]Cl)-ethyl acetate-EtOH was investigated. The optimum mobile phase for the system [C(8)mim]Cl-ethyl acetate-EtOH, [C(4)mim]Cl-ethyl acetate-EtOH, [Amim]Br-ethyl acetate-EtOH and [Amim]Cl-ethyl acetate-EtOH was methanol/water (60:40, v/v), and methanol/water (70:30, v/v) for [C(6)mim]Cl-ethyl acetate-EtOH. Under optimum mobile phase conditions for each system, the RSD of the retention time ranged from 0.02 to 0.04%, and the RSDs of the peak area percent ranged from 0.23 to 1.85%, which showed good reproducibility of the RPLC-RI method. The RPLC-RI method can determine IL, ethyl acetate, and EtOH simultaneously in 5 min, and the analytes, especially IL, can be eluted completely. The results show that the RPLC-RI method can be used to separate and determine ILs in mixtures with organic compounds simultaneously and quantitatively.


An alternative analgesic to morphine is methadone, which is used to control chronic pain and is used in opioid rehabilitation treatment programs due to methadone having a long half-life and being relatively inexpensive as compared to extended-release forms of morphine. Despite its benefits, methadone accumulates in adipose tissue due to being lipophilic, binds strongly to plasma proteins, and is metabolized in the liver by the cytochrome P450 system causing methadone levels to be variable and subject to influence according to the individual body compositions and concurrent use of cytochrome P450 inhibitors. In addition to methadone being able to cause both respiratory and central nervous system depression, methadone can also prolong the QT interval and cause potentially life-threatening arrhythmias including torsades de pointes. The susceptibility of unintentional overdosing of methadone due to its varied pharmacologic properties and potentially fatal induction of arrhythmias may cause the risks of methadone use to outweigh its benefits and therefore must be closely monitored.


All the Articles in the UN 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child can apply to babies from birth as shown in this chapter. It begins by examining legal and natural rights. Natural rights that are inalienable to all human beings especially apply to babies. Protection, provision and participation rights are reviewed in turn for their relevance to babies as well as to every age group. Babies' rights are better understood as human all-age rights than as separate junior versions of rights. Recent psychological research on preverbal babies' moral and scientific understanding opens new insights into how 'human' young babies are. The authors draw on the research literature and also on their daily experiences of living with babies, Ren in Tokyo Japan and Kolbe in Dorset England. The chapter aims to illustrate the practical meaning of the UNCRC's 'recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family'.


INTRODUCTION The units of life in our bodies are the cells of which our organs and tissues are composed. In order that we may be in health, all the cells of our bodies must be in normal condition and must function in harmony. Inasmuch as these cells are living, growing and multiplying, they must have a supply of normal food, and since these cells are made up of protein to a large extent they must be supplied with protein food. The digestive functions of the alimentary canal have been developed for the purpose of preparing proteins for the body-cells to feed on. The proteins of our food are normally broken up in the digestive tract into amino-acids. These are absorbed through the intestinal walls and serve for the nourishment of the body-cells. The blood and lymph carry to all the cells of the body the prepared and absorbed protein split


Human capital of a firm may be viewed as consisting of highly skilled, creative, motivated, collaborative and knowledgeable people who understand the dynamic business environmental context and the competitive logic of their enterprise and the critical requirements thereof. They understand and realize their own broad role and responsibility for the vision, values and competitive viability of their organization. For this purpose, they continually learn, develop, share, integrate and use their knowledge both individually and collaboratively to cultivate enterprise competencies/ capabilities, innovation, expertise and speedy business processes in a proactive manner. They are focused on the success of their enterprise in facing the challenges of both today and tomorrow.


We construct the relationship between nonrenormalizable, effective, time-reversal violating (TV) parity-conserving (PC) interactions of quarks and gauge bosons and various low-energy TVPC and TV parity-violating (PV) observables. Using effective field theory methods, we delineate the scenarious under which experimental limits on permanent electric dipole moments (EDM's) of the electron, neutron, and neutral atoms as well as limits on TVPC observables provide the most stringent bounds on new TVPC interactions. Under scenarios in which parity invariance is restored at short distances, the one-loop EDM of elementary fermions generate the most severe constraints. The limits derived from the atomic EDM of 199Hg are considerably weaker. When parity symmetry remains broken at short distances, direct TVPC search limits provide the least ambiguous bounds. The direct limits follow from TVPC interactions between two quarks.


Local adaptation to contrasting biotic or abiotic environments is an important evolutionary step that presumably precedes floral diversification at the species level, yet few studies have demonstrated the adaptive nature of intraspecific floral divergence in wild plant populations. We combine a population‐genomic approach with phenotypic information on floral traits to examine whether the differentiation in metric floral traits exhibited by 14 populations of the southern Spanish hawk moth‐pollinated violet Viola cazorlensis reflects adaptive divergence. Screening of many amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) loci using a multiple‐marker‐based neutrality test identified nine outlier loci (2.6% of the total) that departed from neutral expectations and were potentially under selection. Generalized analysis of molecular variance revealed significant relationships between genetic distance and population divergence in three floral traits when genetic distance was based on outlier loci, but not when it was based on neutral ones. Population means of floral traits were closely correlated with population scores on the first principal coordinate axis of the genetic distance matrix using outlier loci, and with the allelic frequencies of four of the outlier loci. Results strongly support the adaptive nature of intraspecific floral divergence exhibited by V. cazorlensis and illustrate the potential of genome scans to identify instances of adaptive divergence when used in combination with phenotypic information.


The widespread use of Latin Bibles in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is an illustrative example of Latin as a unifying factor in a world of ethnic and linguistic multiplicity. My paper deals with the various humanistic Latin versions of the Old Testament from its Hebrew original in the Reformation and post-Reformation period, 1500-1750. This subject has remained an uninvestigated field of research, but has a great significance for Neo-Latin philology bearing upon the analysis of biblical passages in Neo-Latin literature. The paper provides a survey of the Latin versions of the Hebrew original that successively were available to Neo-Latin authors from the sixteenth century and onwards. The main stress falls on the the methods of translation followed by the translators and the linguistic marks of their versions. The paper also presents a view of the reception of a special version, viz. that by Sebastian Casttellio, in the Republic of Letters in the mid eighteenth century.


A smooth flagellum moves in the opposite direction of the propagation of flagellar waves. Conversely, a flagellum covered with appendages perpendicular to the main flagellum, called mastigonemes, moves in the same direction as the propagation of flagellar waves. Inspired by mastigoneme structures in nature, we report the reversal of the swimming direction of magnetically actuated artificial helical microswimmers. The main flagella and mastigonemes of these microswimmers are fabricated together using three-dimensional lithography and electron beam evaporation of ferromagnetic thin films. The results show that the swimming speed and direction can be controlled by changing the length/spacing ratio of the mastigonemes.


Observability and bad data analysis in the context of the recently developed blocked sparse approach are discussed for power system analysis. The factorization-based observability analysis is extended to this method. Important statistical derivations involving the blocked augmented matrices are presented. The computational aspects of performing bad data analysis as well as guidelines for computing residual variances and sensitivity matrices are discussed. An efficient implementation of a bad data analysis algorithm based on normalized residuals and nonlinear residual computations is described. >


Non-destructive eddy current diagnostics of the structure, composition, physical and mechanical properties of ferromagnetic materials, as well as eddy current monitoring of the operational parameters of products manufactured from them, requires knowledge of the magnetic characteristics of these materials. In eddy current measurements, the results obtained are influenced by a significant number of factors — magnetic and electrical properties of materials, geometric characteristics of products, measurement conditions, design features of an eddy current sensor, etc. Also, the magnetic properties themselves have high structural sensitivity. Thus, identification of the diagnosed parameters puts great importance on the tasks to separate the influencing factors and isolate the contribution of the magnetic properties.
This paper describes the measuring and computing system that allows automatic determination of the magnetic permeability of soft magnetic ferromagnetic materials at various values of the strength of the external magnetizing field. The system has been tested using soft magnetic ferrites samples. An experimental dependence of the magnetic permeability on the magnitude of the magnetic field for the initial section of the main magnetization curve is presented. The obtained initial magnetic permeability is compared with the data of independent indirect measurements.
The proposed system provides an increase in the reliability and accuracy of the results of the experimental determination of magnetic characteristics and can be used for non-destructive diagnostics of products made of soft magnetic ferromagnetic materials.


monetary neutrality exerts essential importance on the making of monetary policy targets, and its effect. This paper, by employing IRF and AIRF, tests the characteristic of monetary neutrality in china, plus fluctuation features as well. The testing results show: monetary stock, whatever defined by M0, M1, or M2, presents non-neutrality feature, increase of growth rate of M2 can bring permanent accumulative loss on real output; there is oscillation feature from real output, by giving monetary growth shock. Its underlying policy suggestions are: money in the short-run cannot be taken as stabilizer of economic growth; there are trade-offs between target of economic stable and growth; stable speed of money growth benefits economy stabilization


Iridology is defined as a photographic science that identifies pathological and functional changes within organs via biomicroscopic iris assessment for aberrant lines, spots, and discolourations. According to iridology, the iris does not reflect changes  during  anaesthesia,  due  to  the  drugs inhibitory  effects  on  nerves  impulses,  and  in cases of organ removal, it reflects the pre-surgical condition.The profession of Homoeopathy is frequently associated with iridology and in a recent survey (2009)  investigating  the  perceptions  of  Masters of  Technology  graduates  in  Homoeopathy  of University of Johannesburg, iridology was highly regarded as a potential additional skill requirement for assessing the health status of the patient.This  study  investigated  the  reliability  of iridology  in  the  diagnosis  of  previous  acute appendicitis, as evidenced by appendectomy. A total of 60 participants took part in the study. Thirty of the 60 participants had an appendectomy due to acute appendicitis, and 30 had had no prior history  of  appendicitis.  Each  participant's  right iris  was  documented  by  photography  with  the use  of  a  non-mydriatic  retinal  camera  that  was reset for photographing the iris. The photographs were then randomized by an external person and no identifying data made available to the three raters.  The  raters  included  the  researcher,  who had little experience in iridology and two highly experienced  practising  iridologists.  Data  was obtained  from  the  analyses  of  the  photographs wherein  the  presence  or  absence  of  lesions (implying acute appendicitis) was indicated by the raters. None of the three raters was able to show a significant  success  rate  in  identifying  correctly the  people  with  a  previous  history  of  acute appendicitis and resultant appendectomies from those  who  had  no  previous  history  of  acute appendicitis.  Therefore the outcome of this study indicated an outcome that was subject to chance.The  null  hypothesis  that  states  that appendectomy due to acute appendicitis does not manifest in corresponding lesions in the iris, is supported. It is in the opinion of the researchers that the  association  of  iridology  with  homoeopathic practice may harm the credibility of the profession and that further research on iridology is needed to disprove this conviction. (S Afr Optom 2013 72(3) 127-132)


The purpose of this study is to analyze the legal construction of the Regional Property Management Agreement. Regional property in the form of land and/or buildings and other than land and/or buildings that have been handed over by the user to the manager can be utilized optimally in order not to burden the Regional Budget and Revenues particularly maintenance costs. This article are reviewing several types of agreements by analyzing the application of the legal agreement principles in the cooperation contract  in the management of property in Regional Government of Banyumas Regency. The principles of treaty law which is a concept of civil law applied in the concept of state administration law are interesting because the agreement is in the regulation of private law and public law. Government Contract is a routine legal act of government, to ensure legal certainty for the parties involved required legislation that specifically regulates commercial contracts by the government regarding procedures and authority limits.


The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the long- and short-run effects of crude oil prices on maize prices, taking into consideration the possible structural breaks in the relationship between them. Time-series analysis was used to estimate the dynamic linkages between variables under examination, while the Bai and Perron procedure was applied to endogenously identify the turning points. Data employed were collected from the World Bank's database Global Economic Monitors (GEM) for commodities, covering the time period from January 1960 to December 2012. The structural break was dated in early 2005, when the ethanol mandate in the US Energy Policy Act became effective. Empirical results from cointegration analysis support the hypothesis that crude oil prices consistently affect maize prices and this relationship has strengthen after the biofuel mandate in 2005 was issued in the US. Furthermore, the estimation of the ECM suggests that any deviation from equilibrium is corrected with nearly 48% over the following year. The results may call for serious policy implications. Directives and legal framework supporting the production and use of bioethanol should take into consideration the possible effect on food prices and especially grains, usually used for biofuel production.

 Key words: Crude oil, maize, cointegration, Bai and Perron, structural breaks.


Calotheca Heyden is a mostly sub-Saharan flea beetle genus, comprising twenty-seven species previously included in Blepharida Chevrolat. The examination of new material is revealing a high species richness, as there is high intraspecific variability. Calotheca luteomaculata sp. nov. from Zimbabwe and the Republic of South Africa, and C. luteotessellata sp. nov. from the Republic of South Africa are here described and attributed to the C. nigrotessellata (Baly) species group, mainly based on genitalic characters. Photographs of the main diagnostic characters are supplied, including the median lobe of the aedeagus and spermatheca. A forward stepwise discriminant function analysis, using morphometric variables, has been performed. It supports the attribution of the examined specimens to the three species here considered, thus adding characters useful for their identification. Information on geographical distribution and host plants are also provided.


AIMS
The objective is to study whether a heart rate (HR) response during exercise test independently predicts cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.

METHODS AND RESULTS
The subjects were a representative sample of 1378 men, 42-61 years of age, from eastern Finland with neither prior coronary heart disease (CHD) nor use of beta-blockers at baseline. HR was measured at rest and during a maximal, symptom-limited exercise test at 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% of maximal workload. During an average follow-up of 11.4 years, there were 56 deaths due to CVD. The slope of HR increase during exercise test was steeper in survivors when compared with those who died due to CVD during follow-up (P<0.001), and the difference in the steepness of HR slope between the groups was the strongest at interval 40-100% (P<0.001). In Cox-multivariable models, maximal HR-HR at 40% workload as a continuous variable was inversely associated with CVD (P=0.04), CHD (P=0.004), and all-cause (P=0.002) mortality after adjustment for known risk factors for CVD death.

CONCLUSION
By considering an HR response throughout an exercise test, we found that a blunted HR increase at 40-100% of maximal workload was associated with increased CVD mortality.


Many thousands of rehabilitated wildlife casualties and captive-reared orphans are released back to the wild each year. Most wildlife rehabilitators equate release with success, and very little is known about the post-release survival of rehabilitated wildlife. We measured the post- release survival of orphaned polecats Mustela putorius, a species of conservation concern and cur- rently a UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority species. Between 1997 and 2008, 137 polecats were admitted to the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre in northwest England. Of these, 89 (65%) were orphaned juveniles. Forty- three percent of adults and 89% of juveniles were released back to the wild following rehabilitation. Between 2005 and 2008, we radio-tracked 32 juvenile polecats at 5 release sites in Cheshire and North Wales, UK. These individuals were tracked for 3 to 104 d (median = 27.5). Of the 32 radio- tracked animals, 26 (81%) were still alive after 14 d, and a minimum of 16 (50%) were still alive after 1 mo. Twelve percent were known to have died in road traffic collisions, 22% shed their collars, and the signal was lost for 56%. Those for which the signal was eventually lost were tracked for 13 to 103 d (median = 38.5 d). Two female polecats trapped following release in 2007 had lost 30% and 18% of their body weight, respectively. The data suggest that the survival of rehabilitated polecats is sufficient to justify the resources used in the rehabilitation process and that the animals' long-term welfare is not compromised by being held in captivity.


Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are nowadays widely used in low-cost accelerators, characterized by limited computational resources. These models, and in particular DNNs for image classification, are becoming increasingly popular in safety-critical applications, where they are required to be highly reliable. Unfortunately, increasing DNNs reliability without computational overheads, which might not be affordable in low-power devices, is a non-trivial task. Our intuition is to detect network executions affected by faults as outliers with respect to the distribution of normal network's output. To this purpose, we propose to exploit Open-Set Recognition (OSR) techniques to perform Fault Detection in an extremely low-cost manner. In particuar, we analyze the Maximum Logit Score (MLS), which is an established Open-Set Recognition technique, and compare it against other well-known OSR methods, namely OpenMax, energy-based outof-distribution detection and ODIN. Our experiments, performed on a ResNet-20 classifier trained on CIFAR-10 and SVHN datasets, demonstrate that MLS guarantees satisfactory detection performance while adding a negligible computational overhead. Most remarkably, MLS is extremely convenient to conFigure and deploy, as it does not require any modification or re-training of the existing network. A discussion of the advantages and limitations of the analysed solutions concludes the paper.


Deed from Charles F. de Ganahl and Florence J. Ganahl to Edward B. Leigh acknowledging the sale of "the tract or parcel of land and improvements thereon situated in the county of Kerrl...described as follows..." Leigh paid $4,500 for the land "known as survey No. 38 in section No. 2," and the rest of the paragraph details the location, and borders of the given piece of land. The last sentence of the deed states: "The total amount of land intended by this conveyance to be conveyed, is five hundred and forty acres, more or less."


The holistic cyclic methodology of carrying organizational changes during the implementation of monitoring of business activity performed by an economic player is presented; Based on the contextual analysis of the characteristics of the new technology that induces organizational changes, the content of identification and realization phases of support of transformations in the type of organizational culture is defined. The implementation of the proposed methodology allows to take into account the cyclicity in operation of an economic player and on basis of the monitoring of business activities to implement a new management technology.


Most of new reclaimed soils in Egypt are light to medium in texture. They are mainly poor in physical and hydro-physical soil quality such as porosity, water retention capacity and available water content. The objective is to assess some bio-polymers and synthetic polymers to test their effects on the soil physical and hydro-physical properties and on Lettuce plant production. Seven treatments were applied using bio-polymers (2%dextran, 3%alginate and 3% xanthan) and two synthetic polymers (2 and 3% polyacrylamide and 2 and 3% diaper). These polymers were cheeked for their efficiency in enhancing soil properties of Toshka soil and the growth performance of Lettuce plant (Lactuca sativa) grown in soil for 55 days under open field conditions was considered. Fresh and dry weights of plant and nutrient contents were increased significantly with all biotreatments amendment. Whereas, synthetic polymers caused negative effects on the previously mentioned parameters. Concerning the effects on soil properties, dextran treatment recorded the lowest values of total drainable pores (TDP %), the highest values of porosity (%), and available water. Whereas, the Original Research Article El-Hafez et al.; AJSSPN, 4(1): 1-9, 2019; Article no.AJSSPN.46387 2 synthetic polymers amended soil attained negative effect with all these measured parameters compared with control treatment. The study declared beneficial order of enhancement of soil physical and hydro-physical properties and plant production as obtained with Dextran, followed by Alginate, and Xanthan bio-polymers, while synthetic polymers did not show such effects. Hence, the study recommend using biopolymers instead of synthetic polymers.


H. opuntia is one of the green algae that distributes sufficiently dominant at the coastal of West Aceh. This research aims to screen the green algae H. opuntia that is potentia as an antioxidant agent. Extraction method in this research used mono maceration. The solvents that are used including ethanol (polar), ethyl acetate (semi-polar), and n-hexane (non-polar). With those three solvents it was obtained three crude extracts including ethanol crude extract, ethyl acetate crude extract, and n-hexane crude extract. Subsequently, the crude extracts were used to conduct the assay including phytochemical assay and the antioxidant activity with DPPH method. The results of phytochemical assay showed that ethanol crude extract of H. opuntia was detected to have active compounds including alkaloids, flavonoid, phenol, tannin, and steroids whereas ethyl acetate extract of H. opuntia was detected to contain phenol compound. Total phenol content of ethanolic extract of H. opuntia = 2460.25 mg GAE/g and ethyl acetate extract = 972.68 mg GAE/g. Antioxidant activity of ethanolic extract has IC 50 value = 143.63 mg/L whereas ethyl acetate extract has IC 50 value = 75.51 mg/L with Vitamin C as a positive control. This results show that extract of H. opuntia possesses a vital potency as an antioxidant agent that give value added in pharmacy industries.


Relative sea level in coastal regions of Newfoundland fell from late-glacial maximum levels to postglacial minima in several phases: (i) an early period of high relative sea level, when Late Wisconsinan ice was at the coast and discharging meltwater plumes into the ocean; (ii) a period of rapidly falling relative sea level, during which glaciers retreated inland; and (iii) a period without glacier ice, during which relative sea level continued to fall, but at decreasing rates. Falling relative sea level caused fluvial incision of glacial deposits in some coastal embayments, and culminated with the construction of lowstand marine deltas. These deltas were submerged during the subsequent Holocene transgression. Seismic reflection data from selected deltas show that they comprise wedges of sediment with prograded, seaward-dipping, foreset-style internal reflections. The depth of the relative sea-level lowstand varies spatially, and it was diachronous. It occurred relatively early and deep in peripheral regions (i.e., farther from the centre of the island), but was later and shallower landward, and close to its northern limits. Approximate ages of the lowstand are 9.5 + 1 ka in the St. George's Bay - Port au Port region, just over 8.6 ka in Hamilton Sound, before 7.0 ka at Swift Current, 8.7 ka at Connoire Bay, just over 8.2 ka in Bay d'Espoir, and ca. 6.5 ka on the Great Northern Peninsula. The relative sea-level minima range down to at least -30 m, and form a concentric pattern around central Newfoundland, similar to the pattern of raised marine limits.


Exothermic chemical reactions from nitrocellulose are coupled onto Sb2Te3 (antimony telluride) and Bi2Te3 (bismuth telluride) layers to generate self-propagating oscillating thermopower waves. P-type Sb2Te3 and N-type Bi2Te3 are employed due to their large Seebeck coefficients, high electrical conductivities and their complementary semiconducting properties. Sources based on both materials exhibit high power to mass ratios: up to 0.6 kW kg−1 for Sb2Te3 and 1.0 kW kg−1 for Bi2Te3. Having both P- and N-type semiconductors in the system, the combination of the outputs can be used for generating sources with polarities alternating in time.


This study indicates that hepcidin levels reported by various methods vary considerably but analytical variance is generally low and similar for all methods. See related perspective article on page 1631. The recently discovered iron regulatory peptide hormone hepcidin holds promise as a novel biomarker in iron metabolism disorders. To date, various mass spectrometry and immunochemical methods have been developed for its quantification in plasma and urine. Differences in methodology and analytical performance hinder the comparability of data. As a first step towards method harmonization, several hepcidin assays were compared. Worldwide eight laboratories participated in a urinary and plasma round robin in which hepcidin was analyzed. For both urine and plasma: (i) the absolute hepcidin concentrations differed widely between methods, (ii) the between-sample variation and the analytical variation of the methods are similar. Importantly, the analytical variation as percentage of the total variance is low for all methods, indicating their suitability to distinguish hepcidin levels of different samples. Spearman correlations between methods were generally high. The round robin results inform the scientific and medical community on the status and agreement of the current hepcidin methods. Ongoing initiatives should facilitate standardization by exchanging calibrators and representative samples.


In this study, finite element software ANSYS is used to model a three-dimensional finite element (FE) model to study the punching shear behavior of normal (NSC) and high strength concrete (HSC) flat plate slabs. The FE model is verified through application to experimental models, and high accuracy was obtained. The FE model was used to determine cracking load, ultimate load capacity, loaddeflection curves, stress-strain relationship, and failure modes for all tested slabs. Results of nine NSC and HSC flat plate slabs were tested under punching loading. The main variables considered were the concrete compressive strength varied from 40 to 110 MPa, and column eccentricities 0%, 50% and 100% of column size. The behaviors of the finite element models showed good agreement with those got from experimental results in all linear, nonlinear and final failure stages.


Yazd province is one of the arid provinces of Iran and such regions are expected to experience wind erosion. Unlike expectation, in the Zarak catchment area that is located at Yazd province, because of fixation of the soil surface, water erosion is more than wind erosion. On the other hand, due to daily temperature changes, geological formations split and then due to heavy showers, such split blocks provide ideal conditions for surface erosion. Of course, on slopes, rill erosion can be seen. Also in the waterways, when flow discharge increase, due to concentration of the kinetic energy of water in the bends of waterway, bank erosion is found.
Given the importance of soil protection programs and determining the methods of management of erosion and sediment as well as the reduction of calculation and the detailed design of the dam size at the storage dams, it is necessary to estimate total size of annual erosion and sediment in a catchment area. The Zarak catchment area is no exception. On the other hand with respect to the existence of multiple methods to do this, using a method with more reasonable data and saving cost and time, in addition providing acceptable and realistic answer is needed. Of course many parameters are involved. According to these matters, in this study, to study erosion and sediment, quantitative methods of modified Pacific Southwest Inter-Agency Committee (P.S.I.A.C) and Erosion Potential Method (E.P.M), also qualitative Bureau of Land Management (B.L.M) method were used and in the end, the results were compared. With using topographic maps and aerial photos, the initial map of each type of erosion was prepared and then by combining them with data and maps of rocks sensitivity, erosion, geology, geomorphology, slopes, vegetation types and land capabilities, etc. a base map was prepared. After that, by conducting field inspection, base map's information was controlled and status of various erosions, slope, vegetation, condition of the bed and banks of the waterways, width and depth and materials of the bed and waterways were determined. Also erosion forms classes and their ranges were identified and the most important factors involved in the intensification of erosion were identified with using modified P.S.I.A.C, E.P.M and B.L.M methods.In the end ,the results of the three methods were compared.


microRNA are small non coding RNA, which negatively regulate the expression of their targets. Due to their various targets, miRNAs play a key role in number of physiological processes and in oncogenesis. The identification of specific miRNA signatures in various types of tumours, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), highlights the dual role of miRNA, both oncogenes and tumour suppressors. Here, we review the current knowledge concerning the deregulation of miRNA expression in liver disease. All studies focusing on miRNAs argue for their possible use as diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic markers. Here, we preferentially discuss the promising therapeutic strategies based on miRNAs that have been tested in HCC.


Cytochrome P450 1B1 (CYP1B1) is recognized as a universal tumor biomarker and a feasible therapeutic target due to its specific overexpression in cancer tissues. Despite its up-regulation in prostate cancer (PCa), biological significance and clinicopathological features of CYP1B1 are still elusive. Here, we show that overexpression or hyperactivation of CYP1B1 stimulated proliferative, migratory and invasive potential of non-tumorigenic PCa cells. Attenuation of CYP1B1 with its specific small hairpin (sh) RNAs greatly reduced proliferation through apoptotic cell death and impaired migration and invasion in PCa cells. Intratumoral injection of CYP1B1 shRNA attenuated growth of pre-existing tumors. The antitumor effect of CYP1B1 shRNA was also observed in prostate tumor xenograft mouse models. Among the genes altered by CYP1B1 knockdown, reduction of caspase-1 (CASP1) activity attenuated the antitumor effect of CYP1B1 inhibition. Indeed, CYP1B1 regulates CASP1 expression or activity. Finally, CYP1B1 expression was increased in higher grades of PCa and overall survival was significantly reduced in patients with high levels of CYP1B1 protein. CYP1B1 expression was reversely associated with CASP1 expression in clinical tissue samples. Together, our results demonstrate that CYP1B1 regulates PCa tumorigenesis by inhibiting CASP1 activation. Thus, the CYP1B1-CASP1 axis may be useful as a potential biomarker and a therapeutic target for PCa.


BACKGROUND
Platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) is a type of natural source of autologous growth factors, and has been used successfully in various fields. However the use ofPRP in children is not well documented.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of adding PRP to a bone graft in the bone regeneration of cystic bony defects following cystectomy.

STUDY DESIGN
Study sample included 20 children who were randomly divided into two groups with 10 patients in each group; all underwent cystectomy In the first group (test group), after cystectomy the cystic defect was filled with PRP and bone graft. In the second group (control group) bone graft alone (without PRP) was used. Radiographs were recorded at 1 month, 2 months, 4 months and 6 months intervals after surgery to evaluate the defect bone fill in both groups.

RESULTS
The post-operative successive radiographs in the test group showed a significantly greater regeneration of bone in the height of bony defects with application of PRP to bone graft as compared to the control group. In the test group, by the first post operative month, about 58% of the defect was filled, which gradually increased in each month and showed about 94% of defect-fill by 6 months. In the control group, similar observation revealed only 31% of defect-fill by the first post-operative month and a 47% defect-fill at 6 months.

CONCLUSION
The addition of PRP to bone graft appeared to enhance bone regeneration considerably. The combination of PRP and bone graft might have a potential for routine clinical use for regeneration of cystic bony defects in children.


Utilizing short-term climatological wind data can enhance wind speed and wind direction forecasts. An analysis of regional or tower-based wind rose summaries can be useful forecast guides especially when synoptic-scale pressure gradients are weak. Predictive data from multiple models can be plotted against short-term climatological wind data to assess deviations from expected norms and differences between forecast models. Site-specific comparisons between predicted data and observed climatological distributions can provide further insights to the forecaster. These methods can be applied to any location where sufficient climatological data (at least two years) is available.


his research studied about the organization of ideas in essay writing of the fifth semester at English Department University of Muhammadiyah Malang. Then, the purposes of this study are to investigate: 1) how the fifth semester students of English Department University of Muhammadiyah Malang organize ideas in essay writing, 2) the studentsÂ' problems in organizing ideas in essay writing, and 3) the studentsÂ' solutions to the problems in order to answer the statement of problem.

The method used in this study was a descriptive qualitative research. The researcher chose the class A of the fifth semester students at English Department University of Muhammadiyah Malang as respondents. Furthermore, the data of this research are the essay writings or compositions and the students statements obtained from the interview.

The results suggested that the students of the fifth semester in A class at English Department University of Muhammadiyah Malang have already understood how to organize ideas in essay writing. They also know what the problems they faced and how to solve them by giving the good solutions, among others; (1) they had to have high motivation to start writing, (2) they could make a good essay writing by reading a lot of sources, (3) they needed to learn more about grammar and vocabularies to increase their writing skill, (4) they could make an outline before they organize their ideas in writing an essay, (5) they should know what the topic they were really interested in and also learned about the grammar and the vocabularies to increase our idea in writing that connected with the topic, (6) they should know about the organization of the essay, (7) they could read the book about the topic they would like to write for making the easiest way to share their ideas into paragraphs, and (8) they had to find and read a lot of sources to get various ideas in writing the essay.


Isocyanic acid (HNCO), the most stable of the simplest molecules containing the four main elements essential for organic chemistry, has been observed in several astrophysical environments such as molecular clouds, star-forming regions, external galaxies, and comets. In this work, we model HNCO spectral line profiles towards the low-mass solar type protostar IRAS 16293-2422 observed with the ALMA interferometer, the IRAM, JCMT, and APEX single-dish radio telescopes, and the HIFI instrument on board the Herschel Space Observatory. In star-forming environments, the HNCO emission is not always in Local Thermodynamical Equilibrium (LTE). A non-LTE radiative transfer approach is necessary to properly interpret the line profiles, and accurate collisional rate coefficients are needed. Here, we used the RADEX package with a completely new set of collisional quenching rates between HNCO and both ortho-H2 and para-H2 obtained from quantum chemical calculations yielding a novel potential energy surface in the rigid rotor approximation. We find that the lines profiles towards IRAS 16293-2422 are very well reproduced if we assume that the HNCO emission arises from a compact, dense, and hot physical component associated with the hot corino, a warm component associated with the internal part of the protostellar envelope, and a cold and more extended component associated with the outer envelope. The derived HNCO abundances from our model agree well with those computed with the NAUTILUS chemical code.


A substantial literature has examined the nature of mobility and migration and the link to workforce participation. In general that literature has documented the disadvantages to women who move or migrate with a partner during the mobility or migration process, but it suggests, especially for the US, that the disadvantage is temporarily limited. This study of the same process in the British labour market reaffirms a temporary deficit-effect of two-worker migration for women, but unlike the US labour market the process of re-entry seems slower. There are modest monetary gains from mobility and migration, but these gains come for some families only when women enter the labour force after migration. The study reconfirms the importance of gender in the migration and mobility processes. Income, for women, recovers more slowly if a birth was registered in the migration interval. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Since the introduction of modern deep learning methods for object pose estimation, test accuracy and efficiency has increased significantly. For training, however, large amounts of annotated training data are required for good performance. While the use of synthetic training data prevents the need for manual annotation, there is currently a large performance gap between methods trained on real and synthetic data. This paper introduces a new method, which bridges this gap.Most methods trained on synthetic data use 2D images, as domain randomization in 2D is more developed. To obtain precise poses, many of these methods perform a final refinement using 3D data. Our method integrates the 3D data into the network to increase the accuracy of the pose estimation. To allow for domain randomization in 3D, a sensor-based data augmentation has been developed. Additionally, we introduce the SparseEdge feature, which uses a wider search space during point cloud propagation to avoid relying on specific features without increasing run-time.Experiments on three large pose estimation benchmarks show that the presented method outperforms previous methods trained on synthetic data and achieves comparable results to existing methods trained on real data.


The current advancement of video-blogs (vlogs) in YouTube channel among students of generation z has challenged teachers to make use of its potential for students' speaking enhancement. The present research aimed at elaborating the implementation of educational vlogs as well as lecturers' and students' perceptions in response to the use and the creation of educational vlogs to enhance their speaking proficiency and reduce their speaking hesitancy. The research piloted to university students who attended speaking for beginner course in Lamongan. This is mixed-method research employed 27 students who were purposefully selected as the sample based on their speaking proficiency level (good, average and less than average). The instruments obtained in data collection were notes of observation, students speaking scores, questionnaires, and interview guidance that were analyzed descriptively. The results of the study indicated that integrating vlogs to speaking classroom has positive feedback from both lecturers and students. Therefore, it is suggested to make use of the vlogs toward another classroom in different circumstances and skills.

Keywords: Technology integration, vlogs, speaking for beginner, speaking skill


Theory and Practice in Medicine: Orthodox Science and Comprehensive Cybernetics The problems of today's health care system require a radical change of view. With its orientation towards the modern materialistic-reductionistic natural science, the focus of university research moved from a subjective ascertainable healing towards pathogenesis, which is objectively measurable by physical and chemical methods. Natural science research is especially interested in the distinct pathological changes expressed by the various diseases and their causes, but not in the constantly similar normal condition of a healed person. This led to the idea that the reversal of the investigated causal chain equals healing; healing and disease are considered as opposites. This way of thinking led to growing problems, which result from the dubious nature of a causal principle, that is transferred from everyday thinking into the micro world. Each of those causal chains represents an artificial linearization of complex natural interrelations and, additionally, can never be followed up to its ends. This infinite regress of reductionistic thinking can only artificially be stopped by unlikely hypotheses, which are responsible for missing healing success and the manifold side effects of modern therapies – for the discrepancy between theory and experience. With an holistic-spiritual view of nature today cybernetics shows us a new route. Cybernetics leads to a lergely hypothesis-free insight into life''s processes and to a scientifically sound definition of disease: Disease and healing should not be considered as opposite, as healing is already laid down in the pathogenesis! Cybernetics will especially lead to the long-awaited scientific proof of homoeopathy and, apart from this, will prove that the healing principle of homoeopathy is the general natural principle of all successful therapies in the whole field of medicine.


Multi-scale image decomposition is crucial for image fusion, extracting prominent feature textures from infrared and visible light images to obtain clear fused images with more textures. This paper proposes a fusion method of infrared and visible light images based on spatial domain and image features to obtain high-resolution and texture-rich images. First, an efficient hierarchical image clustering algorithm based on superpixel fast pixel clustering directly performs multi-scale decomposition of each source image in the spatial domain and obtains high-frequency, medium-frequency, and low-frequency layers to extract the maximum and minimum values of each source image combined images. Then, using the attribute parameters of each layer as fusion weights, high-definition fusion images are through adaptive feature fusion. Besides, the proposed algorithm performs multi-scale decomposition of the image in the spatial frequency domain to solve the information loss problem caused by the conversion process between the spatial frequency and frequency domains in the traditional extraction of image features in the frequency domain. Eight image quality indicators are compared with other fusion algorithms. Experimental results show that this method outperforms other comparative methods in both subjective and objective measures. Furthermore, the algorithm has high definition and rich textures.


Coronary artery disease has been a number one killer worldwide and in India it has increased phenomenally
as the most important cause of sudden natural death of cardiac aetiology in the last few decades. Changing
lifestyles, stress, habits, presence of other predisposing pathologies etc have played direct as well as indirect
roles in its causation. Conventionally the predictors for coronary artery disease have been predominantly
risk factors. Notwithstanding this, of recently a number of extra cardio vascular physical parameters like ear
lobe crease have shown a reasonably promising trend in predicting the presence of coronary artery disease
thereby enabling prompt intervention which in turn can reduce cardiac mortality in the long run. The present
study focuses on this aspect of detecting an association between diagonal ear lobe crease and sudden death
due to coronary artery disease. A total of 188 cases brought for medicolegal autopsy was studied. It has been
revealed that diagonal ear lobe crease detected at autopsy has a statistically significant association with both
the presence of coronary artery disease as well as the severity of atheromatous occlusion in sudden deaths.
Hence diagonal ear lobe crease can have a reasonable predictive value in detecting coronary artery disease
that could be used for the early detection of individuals with coronary artery disease and thus pave the way
for early interventional strategies.


Abstract 2D NMR is an immensely powerful structural tool but it is time‐consuming. Targeting individual chemical groups by selective excitation in a 1D experiment can give the information required far more quickly. A major problem, however, is that proton NMR spectra are often extensively overlapped, so that in practice only a minority of sites can be selectively excited. Here we overcome that problem using a fast, single‐scan method that allows selective excitation of the signals of a single proton multiplet even where it is severely overlapped by other multiplets. The advantages of the method are illustrated in a selective 1D NOESY experiment, the most efficient way to determine relative configuration unambiguously by NMR. The new approach presented here has the potential to broaden significantly the applicability of selective excitation and unlock its real potential for many other experiments.


Physiologically, Insulin is a hormone that helps the body's cells to absorb glucose (sugar) so it can be used as a source of energy. In diabetics however, due to pancreatic production of insufficient amounts of insulin or failure of body's cells to respond to available insulin, blood and urine glucose levels build up to cause excessive urination, thirst, hunger, and problems with fat and protein break down. Recently, medicinal herbs have been implicated in traditional medical practice for the treatment of this ailment (Diabetes Mellitus, DM). Present study sought to investigate the effect(s) of oral administration of aqueous and ethanol extracts of Buchholzia Coriacea on the liver, pancreas and kidney in normal and alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Forty adult rats of both sexes were randomly assigned into two groups (normoglycemic and hyperglycemic). While group 1 (normoglycemic) had normal control, metformin, aqueous extract (250 mg/kg) and ethanol extract (250 mg/kg) treated sub-groups respectively, Group 2 (hyperglycemic) contained the diabetic control, metformin, aqueous extract (250 mg/kg), and ethanol extracted (250 mg/kg) treated sub-groups dosed daily by oral gavage for 14 days. At the end of treatment, rats were euthanized via cervical dislocation; with selected visceral (liver, pancreas and kidney) harvested and observed for histo-architectural changes. Blood samples were also collected and checked for sugar levels. Slight modulations were seen in the histo- morphology of the pancreas, liver and renal tissues as Buccholzia Coriacea apparently posed some hypoglycemic effects. Hitherto, there was an appreciable improvement and merit in the use of the extract in the management of diabetes across groups.


This paper introduces a scalable framework to coordinate the net load scheduling, sharing, and matching in a neighborhood of residential prosumers connected to the grid. As the prosumers are equipped with smart appliances, photovoltaic panels, and battery energy storage systems, they take advantage of their consumption, generation, and storage flexibilities to exchange energy with neighboring prosumers through negotiating on the amount of energy and its price with an aggregator. The proposed framework comprises two separate multi-objective mixed integer nonlinear programming optimization models for prosumers and the aggregator. Prosumers' objective is to maximize the comfort level and minimize the electricity cost at each instant of time, while aggregator intends to maximize its profit and minimize the grid burden by matching prosumers' supply and demand. The evolutionary nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-III (NSGA-III) is employed to generate a set of feasible nondominated solutions to the optimization problem of each individual prosumer and the aggregator. As a bilateral negotiation between each prosumer and the aggregator results in significant computational and communication overhead, a virtual power plant is introduced as an intermediator on behalf of all prosumers to proceed the negotiation with the aggregator in a privacy-preserving noncooperative environment, where no private information is shared. Hence, an automated negotiation approach is embedded in the framework, which enables the negotiators to reactively negotiate on concurrent power and price using private utility functions and preferences. To converge to an acceptable agreement, the negotiation approach follows an alternating-offer production protocol and a reactive utility value concession strategy. The effectiveness of the framework is evaluated by several economic and environmental assessment metrics through a variety of numerical simulations.


Mexican immigrants were historically clustered in a few cities, mainly in California and Texas. During the past 15 years, however, arrivals from Mexico established sizeable immigrant communities in many "new" cities. We explore the causes and consequences of the widening geographic diffusion of Mexican immigrants. A combination of demand-pull and supply push factors explains most of the inter-city variation in inflows of Mexican immigrants over the 1990s, and also illuminates the most important trend in the destination choices of new Mexican immigrants – the move away from Los Angeles. Mexican inflows raise the relative supply of low-education labor in a city, leading to the question of how cities adapt to these shifts. One mechanism, suggested by the Hecksher Olin model, is shifting industry composition. We find limited evidence of this mechanism: most of the increases in the relative supply of low-education labor are absorbed by changes in skill intensity within narrowly defined industries. Such adjustments could be readily explained if Mexican immigrant inflows had large effects on the relative wage structures of different cities. As has been found in previous studies of the local impacts of immigration, however, our analysis suggests that relative wage adjustments are small. *We are grateful to Elizabeth Cascio and Christian Dustmann for helpful discussions, and to Georger Borjas, Lawrence Katz, and other seminar participants for comments and suggestions. Card's research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.


BACKGROUND
To characterize cross-cultural sleep patterns and sleep problems in a large sample of mothers of children (ages birth to 6 years) in multiple predominantly Asian and predominantly Caucasian countries.

METHODS
Mothers of 10,085 young children (predominantly Asian countries/regions: China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand; predominantly Caucasian countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States) completed an internet-based expanded version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

RESULTS
Mothers in predominantly Asian countries/regions had later bedtimes, decreased number and duration of night wakings, more nighttime sleep, and more total sleep than mothers from predominantly Caucasian countries, P < 0.001. More than half (54.7%) of mothers reported having poor sleep, ranging from 50.9% of mothers in Malaysia to 77.8% of mothers in Japan. Sleep disturbance symptoms were quite common, especially symptoms related to insomnia, and were more likely to be reported by mothers in predominantly Caucasian countries. However, psychosocial factors, including having children of a younger age, being unemployed, and having a lower education level were the best predictors of poor sleep, whereas culture was not a significant predictor.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, mothers in predominantly Asian countries/regions reported later bedtimes but sleeping better and longer than mothers from predominantly Caucasian countries, which is dissimilar to cross-cultural findings of young children. Psychosocial factors were found to be the best predictors of poor sleep, irrespective of culture. Further studies are needed to understand the impact of these findings.


Deep wide-field CCD images in the optical and near-infrared have been acquired for 14 of the 16 known or suspected members of the IC 342/Maffei Group of galaxies, one of the closest groups to the Milky Way, and probably the closest group to M31. Because of their low Galactic latitude, all galaxies are heavily extinguished, and myriads of foreground stars are superimposed. A sophisticated algorithm built around DAOPHOT has been developed which successfully removes the foreground stars, making possible comprehensive morphological and photometric studies. The cleaned near-infrared images reveal the true morphology and extent of many of the galaxies for the first time, three of which are among the largest in the northern sky. Besides surface brightness profiles, precise total magnitudes and colors have been measured. Many of the results represent substantial revisions to previous estimates. The data will make possible new determinations of the distances and masses of the galaxies, which are crucial for evaluating the impact the group may have had upon the dynamical evolution of the Local Group.


Maintaining the natural complexity of water temperature regimes is a key to maintaining diverse biological communities. Insect communities, food webs, and fish respond to the magnitude and duration of water temperature fluctuations. Disruption of these natural patterns has the potential to alter physiological processes, behavioural adaptations, and community structure and dynamics. We analysed multiple >300‐day time series of water temperature from the Willamette River basin, Oregon, to assess the impact of large multi‐purpose dams on water temperature variability at temporal scales ranging from 1 to 32 days, short temporal scales that are commonly ignored. We applied wavelet analysis to quantify the variability of water temperature at multiple temporal scales simultaneously. We compared water temperature regimes above and below dams and before and after dam construction. The advantages of wavelet analysis are the ability to examine all temporal scales simultaneously and independently as well as the ability to preserve the temporal context of the wavelet coefficients. We were able to detect significant (p < 0.0001) reductions in water temperature variability, defined as the variability of the wavelet coefficients, as a result of dams at the 1‐, 2‐, 4‐, and 8‐day scales. There were no significant differences in water temperature variability between managed and natural flows at the 16‐ and 32‐day scale (p = 0.80). In addition to the well‐documented effects of dams on seasonal patterns in water temperature or on water temperature extremes, our results demonstrate that dams have significantly muted the small temporal scale variance in water temperature patterns to which many organisms may have been adapted. Conserving or restoring natural temperature patterns in rivers will require attention to these small‐scale complexities. Published in 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


New benzimidazole derivatives and their N-substituted acyclic nucleoside analogues were prepared. The synthesized compounds were tested for their antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus, Salmonella typhi and Salmonella para typhi. The synthesized compounds were tested also against fungi species such as Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigates, Aspergillus ochraceus and Candida albicans. Most of tested compounds exhibited moderate to high antimicrobial activity while few compounds were found to exhibit little or no activity against the tested microorganisms.


The current study aimed at discovering the relationship between social frustration levels, and emotional reactions patterns among an available sample of students at the University of Jordan and King Faisal University at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to some demographic variables, The sample consisted of (426) male and female students registered for the first semester of the academic year (2011-2012) academic year. To achieve the goals of the study and to answer its questions two tools were used, the first one was the social frustration levels, and the second one is the Emotional Reactions Patterns Scales. After administration of the two tools, and collecting the needed data, and statistically analyzing it, the study, results showed existence of positive correlation relationship between the social frustration levels, and the euphoria emotional reaction pattern, Pearson correlation coefficient was (0.27). And there was negative correlation relationship between the social frustration levels, and dysphoria emotional reaction pattern, Pearson correlation coefficient was (-0.21) among the overall study sample individuals in light of the study results, the investigator recommends the importance of activating the psychological and educational guidance and counseling centers at both Universities to work at constructing aimful counseling programs to help suit an emotionally appropriate a tmpos-here an campus. That is to read both the social frustration levels, and the emotional reaction patterns. For that these variables are crucial in the University student personality.


The conventional x-ray standing wave (XSW) technique [1, 2] is a phase sensitive and element specific Fourier technique, which is commonly used to analyse single crystals on the millimetre to centimetre scale. Here, we present an advanced microprobe technique based on the XSW method demonstrating that structural analysis can be achieved with chemical sensitivity on a microscopic scale. We apply the XSW microscopy technique to study the crystallographic polarity from inversion domains in GaN-based lateral polarity heterostructures. We focus the x-ray beam by a refractive lens [3] into a micrometre slice and generate the XSW field by Bragg-reflection from the (0002) diffraction planes recording the GaKα fluorescence as a function of the incidence angle. In this first demonstration of microscopic polarity determination with x-rays, we analyse the reversion of polarity across a inversion domain boundary with a spatial resolution of 1.5 μm. The new micro-XSW technique will permit microscopic examinations of the crystalline structure of modern semiconductor devices with chemical sensitivity and structural resolution on the picometre scale.


Resistive random-access memory (ReRAM)-based processing-in-memory (PIM) architectures have recently become a popular architectural choice for deep-learning applications. ReRAM-based architectures can accelerate inferencing and training of deep learning algorithms and are more energy efficient compared to traditional GPUs. However, these architectures have various limitations that affect the model accuracy and performance. Moreover, the choice of the deep-learning application also imposes new design challenges that must be addressed to achieve high performance. In this talk, we present the advantages and challenges associated with ReRAM-based PIM architectures by considering Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) as important application domains. We also outline methods that can be used to address these challenges.


This study focuses on people's choices between electronic mail and voice mail. We found that users generally preferred electronic mail over voice mail for most communication purposes. These results do not support a hypothesis derived from media richness theory that voice mail would be preferred to e-mail for ambiguous situations. A more important finding is that other medium features besides richness influence individuals' media choices, specifically, medium features useful for retrieving and preparing messages and for working In group settings. From this and other evidence, we conclude that a complex set of social factors governs organizational media use in ways that neither theory can fully explain. Our findings have some interesting implications for designers of multimedia communication systems and for people like human resources specialists who are concerned with improving the effectiveness of professional work and the quality of working life.


. In this paper we introduce a coupled system of kinetic equations of B.G.K. type and then study its hydrodynamic limit. We obtain as a consequence the rigorous derivation and existence theory for a coupled system of kinetic equations and their hydrodynamic (conservation laws) limit. The latter is a particular case of the coupled system of Boltzmann and Euler equations. A fundamental element in this study is the rigorous derivation and justification of the interface conditions between the kinetic model and its hydrodynamic conservation laws limit, which is obtained using a new regularity theory introduced herein.


Measurement of the velocity of stress waves in concrete provides valuable information on the state of the material. Recently, a number of papers have been published on wave velocity measurements in concrete when access to only one surface of the structure is possible, such as for the case of concrete pavements. In this paper, the existing one-sided methods for stress wave measurement in concrete are reviewed. Then, a modified method for one-sided stress wave velocity determination in concrete is introduced; the novel aspect of the modified technique is the data collection and processing system, which more accurately determines the arrival of the generated longitudinal and surface waves. The modified method, which is demonstrated on a variety of materials including steel, PMMA, and concretes of varying composition, is shown to be superior to existing one-sided techniques. Using the developed technique, the significant effect of the moisture content gradient within concrete on one-sided velocity measurements is demonstrated. Finally, one-sided velocity measurements are shown to be useful for monitoring the strength gain of early age concrete.


The concept of transhumanism is based on a specific understanding of human limitations that should or could be transcended. Among them, the question of overcoming our own corporeality through the delaying of ageing or death is of major importance for a new understanding of human plasticity and fluidity when shaping ourselves and our environment. As transhumanism advocates for human enhancement through technological means, it considers ageing and death as diseases and criticizes their necessity in the human evolutionary process. In light of this transhumanist question, this article discusses ageing and death as diseases for which there must be technological solutions. It underlines that a philosophical approach is necessary to highlight how correlated and interrelated those subjects are and tries to go beyond humanist dichotomies to make clearer how major notions (health, enhancement, etc.) are intertwined with each other and consequently shape our socio-political subjectivities. Given this context, this article discusses the fact that medicine is traditionally structured on a limit that seems to be more and more plastic to pave the way for new debates, such as human enhancement, morphological freedom, and biocultural capital. It then discusses how transhumanism tries to transcend what is considered human structures by examining death as a fatal degeneration that could be overcome through biological amortality and informational immortality.


The objective of this work was to correlate climatic and parasitological data from laboratory and field samples. The experiment was executed from March to June of 2004, using 110 naturally infected five months old calves. The counting of eggs per gram of feces (EPG), fecal culture and the number of larva on pasture was evaluated every 15 days in relation to decidual climatic data. The EPG increased during the study. The same observation occurred with the pluviometric level. Coproculture revealed the presence of 60% of Trichostrongylus spp. and 40% of Cooperia spp. as well as Moniezia spp. and Eimeria spp. oocists. The temperature during all the experimental periods was favorable to infecting larvae survival and development on pasture. The area with higher larvae count had the higher dry matter of "capim arroz" (Echinochloa spp.). It can be concluded that in optimal climatic conditions, there is a rapid pasture contamination with infecting larvae after the naturally contaminated animals are transferred to the area after corn harvest.


The purpose of this study was to develop poetrytherapy program and to test it's effect on emotional intelligence of middle school students. Sixty-six(male 33, female 33) middle school students participated in this study. Thirty-three students were assigned to experimental group and control group respectively. The program which is composed of 14 sessions was applied to experimental group for 16 weeks. Subjects completed Emotional Intelligence Test. Collected data were analyzed using t-test and ANCOVA. The results of statistical analyses showed that there were statistically significant differences in emotional intelligence test scores between experimental group and control group. Based upon these results, it is concluded that poetrytherapy program was effective in improving emotional intelligence of middle school students.


A 57-year-old man, who was a chronic axillary crutch user as a result of childhood poliomyelitis, was referred to our hospital because of a sudden onset of right forearm ischemia. The right forearm had no pulse, and three-dimensional computed tomography (3DCT) showed an aneurysm of the right brachial artery associated with arterial occlusion. The thrombosed aneurysm of the brachial artery was resected and the brachial artery was successfully revascularized by interposing a saphenous vein graft. Postoperative 3DCT revealed an asymptomatic left brachial artery aneurysm. His postoperative course was uneventful under warfarin anticoagulation therapy.


Due to the low germination of annatto seeds (Bixa orellana L.), it is necessary to test different techniques that facilitate and enable its production, such as the use of the physiological conditioning method. Here, we aimed to characterize the germination of two annatto seed lots under physiological conditioning. For this, two lots of seeds (newly-collected and stored) were submitted to physiological conditioning using an aerated solution of 1) deionized water; 2) cathodic water; 3) potassium nitrate 0.3%; 4) sodium nitroprusside 100 μM; for 24h and 48h, and an additional treatment (control) without conditioning. After the germination test, ungerminated seeds were submitted to a tetrazolium test at 0.075% at 30 °C, in the dark for 24 h. We used a completely randomized factorial design (4 x 2 + 1) with four replications of 25 seeds per treatment. Despite the low germination already mentioned in the literature for this species, we obtained high germination without any type of dormancy-break pretreatment, even in lots stored for over 10 years with a water content of 8%, characterizing this species as non-dormant. The germination and viability of Bixa orellana were influenced by seed water content decrease. The conditioning agents were not efficient to increase annatto seed germination. Further studies are needed to classify these seeds according to their storability.


Open hole gravel packing (OHGP) is one of the primary completion techniques in sandstone reservoirs with sanding tendencies. As companies are becoming more experienced with these operations they are starting to explore the options for completing more challenging wells; including longer open holes and more tortuous trajectories. Conventional techniques have limits when it comes to the maximum length and angles that can be gravel packed based on a defined set of parameters. In order to ensure the success of the gravel packing operations in these challenging wells new techniques need to be adopted.
 This paper includes a review of the methods that can be utilised to extend the operating limits of open hole gravel packs, so that they can be used in the long geosteered wells that are becoming more common in the North Sea. It includes a case review of the first well gravel packed in the North Sea using Ultra-Lightweight (ULW) proppant, which was also the first ever combined use of ULW proppant and diverter valves. These technologies were required due to the long interval length, 4,880ft, and high angle, maximum 103°. A history match of the gravel pack model was also performed to evaluate the performance of the ULW proppant during a long horizontal gravel pack.


A theory is presented of the electrical nature of capacitatively coupled RF discharges of the type commonly encountered in microcircuit fabrication. Using arguments bearing on ion and electron fluxes associated with the cathode and anode, an expression is developed relating the ratio of the DC self-bias, VDC, and the applied RF voltage, V0, to the relative electrode areas, and a formula is given for the plasma potential. Good agreement is achieved for a range of experimental data of V0, VDC and plasma potential and the observed relationship in the work of Coburn and Kay (1972) between the ratio of the sheath voltages and the electrode area ratio is convincingly reproduced. The theory promises considerable predictive power which may be of value for the design of RF reactors, especially with regard to the control of ion impact energies at substrate surfaces.


George Palade, a founding father of cell biology and of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), established the ultrastructural framework for an analysis of how proteins are secreted and membranes are assembled in eukaryotic cells. His vision inspired a generation of investigators to probe the molecular mechanisms of protein transport. My laboratory has dissected these pathways with complementary genetic and biochemical approaches. Peter Novick, one of my first graduate students, isolated secretion mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and through cytological analysis of single and double mutants and molecular cloning of the corresponding SEC genes, we established that yeast cells use a secretory pathway fundamentally conserved in all eukaryotes. A biochemical reaction that recapitulates the first half of the secretory pathway was used to characterize Sec proteins that comprise the polypeptide translocation channel in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane (Sec61) and the cytoplasmic coat protein complex (COPII) that captures cargo proteins into transport vesicles that bud from the ER.


In patients with signs of intracranial hypertension caused by subdural haematoma or brain oedema following craniocerebral trauma significantly increased concentrations of HVA and 5-HIAA were found in the cerebrospinal fluid obtained by means of lumbar punction in relation to a control group comprising patients with lumbar disc prolapse. In patients after craniocerebral injuries with open fracture of cranial bones without disturbances of consciousness dopaminergic system hyperactivity was observed lasting up to the 7th day after injury. In patients with symptoms of brain commotion after craniocerebral trauma a significant rise in 5-HIAA concentration was observed in the cerebrospinal fluid on the 7th day after trauma. This may suggest increased serotonin turnover early after trauma.


Background: Through a genome-wide association study, we discovered an association of the electrocardiographic QT interval with polymorphisms in the NOS1AP (CAPON) gene. The purpose of the current study was to replicate this association in the Old Order Amish. Methods: Four NOS1AP SNPs were selected that captured all major haplotypes in the region of interest (∼120 kb segment). Genotyping was completed in 763 subjects from the Heredity and Phenotype Intervention (HAPI) Heart Study. Association analyses were performed using a variance components methodology, accounting for relatedness of individuals. Results: Heritability of the QT interval was 0.50 ± 0.09 (p = 1.9 × 10–9). All four SNPs were common with a high degree of correlation between SNPs. Two of the four SNPs (pairwise r2 = 0.86) were significantly associated with variation in adjusted QT interval (rs1415262, p = 0.02 and rs10494366, p = 0.006, additive models for both). SNP rs10494366 explained 0.9% of QT interval variability, with an average genetic effect of 6.1 ms. Haplotypes that contained the minor allele for rs10494366 were associated with longer QT interval. Conclusions: This study provides further evidence that NOS1AP variants influence QT interval and further validates the utility of genome-wide association studies, a relatively new approach to gene discovery.


Numerical diffusion or filter are used in most numerical models in order to eliminate small-scale (near two-grid intervals in wavelength) waves. However, conventional diffusion or filter schemes introduce the noise, and indeed few people realized, by filters themselves. For instance, most filters are troubled when they are put to use on meteorological fields with sharp gradient or with steep slope and consequently, the recurrence of undesirable numerical high-frequent oscillations (overshooting and undershooting) seems to be inevitable. Particularly when diffusion or filter is implemented in limited-area models, serious side effects on the limited-area boundaries often contaminate the modeling results. The merits and demerits are surveyed for commonly used diffusion or filter operations. A new type of monotonic digit filter is suggested to prevent overshooting and undershooting (due to the computational shock and Gibbs oscillation) nearby the discontinuous or nearly discontinuous locations when the filtering process was carried out, meanwhile the high selective property of damping is retained. Moreover, the new filter is designed on the implicit framework so that it can easily handle the problem of boundary diminishing in limited-area modeling.


We measured plasma insulin-like growth factor I/somatomedin-C (IGF-I/SmC) concentrations and mean 24-h GH secretion serially before and during therapy with the long-acting somatostatin analog SMS 201-995 in 21 patients with acromegaly. When mean plasma GH was elevated above 12.0 +/- 0.6 (+/- SE) micrograms/L, plasma IGF-I/SmC concentrations were uniformly high, but a decline of mean plasma GH below this value was accompanied by a linear decrease in IGF-I/SmC concentrations (r = 0.89; P less than 0.001). Even mildly abnormal mean GH concentrations (greater than 4.6 but less than 10 micrograms/L) were accompanied by high plasma IGF-I/SmC values. The log dose-response interrelation between mean 24-h plasma GH and IGF-I/SmC concentrations was linear (r = 0.86; P less than 0.001). We conclude that 1) an excellent log dose-response correlation between mean 24-h plasma GH and IGF-I/SmC concentrations is present in patients with acromegaly; 2) normalization of plasma IGF-I/SmC occurs only in patients with mean daily GH output within the normal range; and 3) determination of plasma IGF-I/SmC is an accurate indicator of normalcy of GH secretion and should be used in the diagnosis of active acromegaly as well as in monitoring the progress of therapy.


Eric Hanushek is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy and Director of the W. Allen Wallis Institute of Political Economy at the University of Rochester. He joined the University of Rochester in 1978 and has previously been Director of the university's Public Policy Analysis Program and Chairman of the Department of Economics. From 1983–85, he was Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office.


Polymer-based magnetoelectrics are identified as a newly emerging area of research due to their profound potential applications centered on spintronic technology. In line with this, we have developed a novel, flexible nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4)-PVDF-TrFE (NF-PVDF-TrFE) polymer based magnetoelectric film, with excellent magnetoelectric coupling at room temperature. Nanocomposite films were prepared by the solution cast method, in which the nickel ferrite nanoparticles with different weight percentages (2, 4, 8 and 16%) were incorporated in the electroactive PVDF-TrFE polymer matrix. The ferroelectric β-crystalline phase of PVDF-TrFE was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman studies. Dielectric and thermal properties of the composite films were found to be substantially improved with the addition of magnetic nanoparticles. Ferroelectric and magnetic characteristics of the composite films were also considerably improved with an increase in NiFe2O4 concentration. A magnetic saturation (Ms) of 4.81 emu g-1 and a ferroelectric maximum polarization of 18.9 μC cm-2 were shown by the composite film at room temperature for 16 wt% loading of NF nanoparticles. Besides these functionalities, ac and dc magnetoelectric coupling coefficients of 69 mV cm-1 Oe-1 and 90 mV cm-1 Oe-1 were obtained for 16NF-PVDF-TrFE along with excellent mechanical stability. These flexible and self-standing magnetoelectric composite films with enhanced magnetoelectric coupling coefficients at room temperature could be suitable candidates for the development of ultramodern information storage devices, memory devices, signal processing devices etc.


Bone mineral loss is a serious health issue all over the globe resulting in osteoporosis, without showing any pre-indication of its occurrence. Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry test is a widely accepted method for its diagnosis which gives areal information about the bone mineral. Other methods like Quantitative Computed Tomography (QCT) and Peripheral QCT give volumetric information. Application of these methods for mass screening is not recommended due to the use of ionizing radiations. Few non-ionizing methods, namely Bioelectric Impedance Analysis and Quantitative Ultrasound, have evolved in the past few decades. Bioelectric Impedance Analysis, a non-invasive and low-cost tool, has been immensely recognized for its promising use in estimating body composition and body fluids. Similarly, Quantitative Ultrasound is another non-invasive technique for determining bone density at fixed locations, making noninvasive assessment much faster, easier to use, and portable. A multi-parametric approach combining these two modalities has yielded higher efficiency for the detection of bone mineral loss. These developments are briefly reviewed in this paper.


Concerns about the negative effects of agriculture on soil physical quality and soil organic carbon (SOC) pools have spurred on the adoption of conservation tillage systems in tropical regions. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term impacts (16th year) of conventional (CT), minimum (MT) and no-tillage (NT) practices and different cover crops (sunn hemp and a bean/ millet sequence) on soil physical properties and SOC content of a corn cultivated Ultisol in the northeast of Brazil. Soil bulk density (Bd), soil penetration resistance (SPR), soil aggregation, and total aggregate-associated carbon (C) (4-2 mm) were evaluated. Tillage practices exerted strong control on soil physical properties and total aggregate-C content but were influenced by cover crop species. Minimum tillage presented the lowest Bd, irrespective of cover crop, while NT with bean/millet sequence resulted in the lowest SPR. However, as regards soil aggregation and total aggregate-C, the results indicated that there were no differences between MT and NT, with both systems presenting greater mean weight diameter (MWD) and total aggregate-C content than CT. Total aggregate-C content in the 0.00-0.05 m soil layer in conservation tillage was increased by the adoption of a bean/millet sequence. Increased mechanical disturbance through CT practices was harmful to Bd, soil aggregation and SOC accrual. Overall, more conservative tillage practices and the proper choice of cover crops might yield greater soil quality. Low intensity of soil disturbances due to the adoption of MT favors soil aggregation and the accrual of SOC in weakly structured soils through increases in contact between organic and mineral particles while not causing significant destruction of soil aggregates.


A specific antibody to rat collagen proline hydroxylase has been used to measure the amount of "enzyme" protein in cultured mouse fibroblasts (L-929 cells) during normal growth, and under other conditions that cause an increase in enzyme activity. Collagen proline hydroxylase activity per mg of cell protein increased 24-fold as the cells progressed through the logarithmic to the stationary phase of growth, while the cellular concentration of immunologically reactive protein changed only slightly. Similar results were obtained with cells in early log phase in which enzyme activity was stimulated severalfold by cell concentration or lactate treatment without a corresponding change in cellular antigen. It has also been shown that the enzymatically inactive antigen in these fibroblasts competes effectively for antibody-binding sites with partially purified enzyme. It is concluded that early-log-phase fibroblasts contain an inactive form of collagen proline hydroxylase which may be a precursor of the functional enzyme.