In this volume ten of the contributors to the prestigious' Athiopistische Forschungen' series have united to pay homage to their general editor, Ernst Hammerschmidt, doyen of Ethiopian studies in Germany, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. It is perhaps indicative of the direction of modern scholarship that the entire book has been produced through the medium of the personal computer, despite the involvement of the Greek, Hebrew, and Ethiopic scripts, and an Anhang by U. GleBmer and S. Uhlig comments informatively on the problems of computer-based Ethiopic printing. The end result, however, is entirely satisfying. The book is visually attractive and compares well with its more conventional predecessors. It should help to dispel any misgivings the more traditionally minded may harbour regarding the intrusion of modern technology into their sacred territories. It may indeed encourage them to master the specialized techniques involved in multi-script word-processing. The studies presented here reflect the wide range of concern of the AF as a whole. Two authors offer addenda to their original contributions to that series, Bairu Tafla supplying the long-awaited general index to his A chronicle of Emperor Yohannes IV (1872-89) (AF, 1, 1977), while E. Ullendorff elaborates on some interesting points in his Tigrinya chrestomathy (AF, 19, 1985). The remaining articles may be read as independent studies, albeit still largely pertinent to their authors' original involvement in the series. Thus W. Leslau, who devoted AF 11 and 16 to the publication of Gurage texts, takes the opportunity to offer a list of Arabic loanwords in Amharic with phonological and morphological notes (pp. 87-109), supplementing his article in BSOAS, xix, 2, 1957, 221-44. E. Wagner, who published, some Harari religious texts in Arabic script in AF, 13, essays a literary analysis of the Harari corpus (pp. 203-15) which reminds us that materials of this sort are more than just fodder for the linguist but form a valid literature in their own right. C. Sumner, possibly the only western scholar concerned with philosophical thought in medieval Ethiopia, analyses a portion of the Ethiopic Mdshafd Falasfa tabiban (translated from Arabic c. 1510) and isolates some of the strands of Greek philosophical thinking which can be identified in that curious text (pp. 145-71). One may also single out for the lay reader, who might be forgiven for finding the rest of the book rather heavy going, S. Chojnacki's fascinating study of the Pieta motif in seventeenthand eighteenth-century Ethiopian painting (pp. 51-73), where he convincingly traces the motif back to a Luso-Flemish origin and hazards the guess that it may have been introduced by the painter Lazaro de Andrade, who accompanied the Portuguese mission of 1520—26 to Ethiopia. Further studies by F. A. Dombrowski on the Ethiopic chronicle Tanasee 16, R. Pankhurst on Muslim commercial centres in Christian Ethiopia up to the mid nineteenth century, H. Scholler on a new document from the Ethiopian Special Court, and S. Uhlig on the formulaic expressions of the Ethiopic anaphoras combine to make Collectanea aethiopica a stimulating volume which as much reflects credit on its authors as it bestows honour on its distinguished Jubilar. There can be no doubt that Ernst Hammerschmidt's initiative in promoting the Athiopistische Forschungen has provided a major stimulus to the scholarly investigation of Ethiopian culture and we have here a worthy tribute to his role in this process.


Abstract Embolic complications remain the major and unpredictable clinical event during carotid angioplasty and stenting. Cerebral protection devices could play an important role in the prevention of such emboli. Protection devices such as occlusion balloons, filters and reversed flow devices are currently undergoing clinical evaluation and appear to be promising in reducing the incidence of embolic events. This article provides an overview of the three different types of embolic protection devices.


We present a theoretical and computational framework based on fractional calculus for the analysis of the nonlocal static response of cylindrical shell panels. The differ-integral nature of fractional derivatives allows an efficient and accurate methodology to account for the effect of long-range (nonlocal) interactions in curved structures. More specifically, the use of frame-invariant fractional-order kinematic relations enables a physically, mathematically, and thermodynamically consistent formulation to model the nonlocal elastic interactions. In order to evaluate the response of these nonlocal shells under practical scenarios involving generalized loads and boundary conditions, the fractional-Finite Element Method (f-FEM) is extended to incorporate shell elements based on the first-order shear-deformable displacement theory. Finally, numerical studies are performed exploring both the linear and the geometrically nonlinear static response of nonlocal cylindrical shell panels. This study is intended to provide a general foundation to investigate the nonlocal behavior of curved structures by means of fractional order models.


This paper deals with the influence of tones on syllabic articulation in Thai. Motion capturing of 24 facial points in the face of a female speaker was performed using an Optotrak system as she uttered 24 sets of syllabic tokens covering the five different tones of Thai 12 times each. After rigid and non-rigid-movements had been separated, a PCA was conducted on the non-rigid data. In order to determine the influence of the tones on the facial movement the first PC reflecting the jaw opening was analyzed by aligning the derivatives of the first PCs with respect to the point of maximum velocity and averaging over all tokens of a syllable/tone combination. Analysis showed great similarities in the shapes of the resulting mean velocity contours. In some syllable sets, however, certain tones exhibited specific temporal alignments that were strongly correlated with the underlying syllable duration. This outcome suggests that certain syllable/tone combinations require a specific temporal alignment of articulatory and tonal gestures, though a consistent physiological explanation remains yet to be found.


Background/introduction With the efficacy of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) proven, provision of PrEP is currently being evaluated by commissioners. The question of who would wish to access PrEP, and where, is important in informing this process. Aim(s)/objectives To establish potential users' attitudes towards, and experiences of, PrEP. Methods Ethical approval was obtained to conduct a multi-centre, prospective, anonymised questionnaire study of 1000 HIV negative MSM accessing sexual health clinics. Sexual behaviour, drug use, STI history and previous post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) use were collected. Opinions and attitudes towards PrEP and PrEP availability were assessed. Results Of 386 analysed questionnaires the majority were British-born (203, 53%), white (300, 78%) men. 345 (89%) reported anal sex within the last month with 168 (43%) and 139 (36%) reporting unprotected insertive and receptive anal intercourse, respectively (103, (26%) and 64, (17%) with multiple partners). 194 (50%) had recently used recreational drugs (within 3 months; 34% "Chemsex" substances). 157 (41%) reported a recent STI (6 months). 223 (58%) reported that they strongly believed they would benefit from PrEP. However, 42/223 (19%) reported no condomless sex. Concerns around taking PrEP were cited by 76 (20%). 167 (43%) expressed a preference for daily PrEP; 139 (38%) for coitally-driven. 311 (80%) supported PrEP delivery by sexual health clinics to MSM, and 233 (60%) to any-one who requests it. 112 (29%) agreed a prescription charge was appropriate. 17 respondents (4%) reported having already taken PrEP: 35% using medication acquired as PEP, and 30% acquiring PrEP privately. 7/17 (41%) reported decreased condom since commencing PrEP. Discussion/conclusion This comprehensive questionnaire study demonstrates a high willingness to use PrEP in a cohort of at-risk MSM. These data should inform the commissioning process of this efficacious biological intervention.


This paper examines the history of aspiration in Eastern Balochi and aims to posit the course of its development
 and the extent to which it can be said to be contrastive. It uses primary data obtained by the author directly from various
 locales and compares sets of these data with the secondary data available on Balochi from 19th and early 20th century material. I
 maintain that, historically, voiceless aspiration arose word-initially in Eastern Balochi, in the sounds /p t č k/, and spread
 from there to other positions. In the discussion of aspiration, literature on Balochi has seen the question of influence from the
 neighbouring Indo-Aryan languages as an important problem. In this paper it is argued that equally relevant to the issue are two
 other important historical phenomena: post-vocalic lenition of stops and affricates, and gemination, a widely found but less well
 explored feature of Balochi. Also observed in Eastern Balochi, but less frequently remarked upon, is the breathiness found in
 voiced stops and affricate, a feature hitherto understood to be restricted to a small lexicon borrowed from Indo-Aryan. Focusing
 on a large number of Eastern Balochi varieties rather than seeing it as a unified whole, I attempt to show that contrastive status
 of aspiration appears to be gradually developing in these varieties. Many processes are leading in this direction, such as
 degemination and fortition of fricatives; among these one important diagnostic for the ultimate status of aspiration, I propose,
 is the transposition of glottal fricative.


Two environmentally friendly and efficient synthesis methods, NH3-assisted synthesis and solvent-evaporated conversion, have been developed for the synthesis of a series of M(NA)2 (M = Zn, Co, Cu, Cd; NA = nicotinate) flexible MOFs. The two-dimensional M(NA)2 (M = Zn, Co) and three-dimensional M(NA)2 (M = Cu, Cd) materials exhibit peculiar structural transformation. These frameworks can be obtained from dehydration of M(NA)2(H2O)4 (M = Zn, Co, Cu, Cd) which are zero-dimensional supramolecular structures. Interestingly, the structural transformation of M(NA)2 (M = Zn, Co, Cd) is reversible after liquid water adsorption. Due to the flexible structure of these MOFs, they exhibit abnormal NH3 adsorption properties. The two-dimensional Zn(NA)2 shows a gate-opening behavior for NH3 adsorption. Its layers opened at a pressure of 0.22 bar in the first cycle, resulting in a two-step NH3 uptake with a capacity of 10.2 mmol g−1 at 1 bar. The gate-opening pressure shifted to a lower value with cycles. Co(NA)2 has a huge NH3 uptake of 17.5 mmol g−1, which is top-ranking among the reported values. For the NH3 adsorption over Cu(NA)2 and Cd(NA)2, the adsorption rates increase and adsorption equilibrium is achieved faster after three cycles. Their maximum capacity at 1 bar is 13.4 and 6 mmol g−1, respectively. More importantly, all MOFs can be regenerated under vacuum and heating conditions of 150 °C for 70 min, and they all retained the capacity. The advantages of environmentally friendly synthesis, large adsorption capacity, and regenerable properties indicate that M(NA)2 (M = Zn, Co, Cu) are promising candidates for NH3 adsorption.


In granting a faculty for the erection of a sign in a churchyard marking a public right of way, the chancellor reviewed the conflicting authorities on rights of way over consecrated ground. In reliance upon the decisions in Re Bideford [1900] P 314 and Re St Martin le Grand, York [1990] Fam 63, the chancellor concluded that a public or private right of way could be granted over a churchyard, although only with the authority of a faculty. In cases where the right of way had been exercised over a very long period it might be that the grant of a faculty was to be presumed in the absence of contrary evidence. [RA]


The European RainGain project and Paris Region RadX@IDF project will enable us to asses in four European metropolis (Brussels, London, Paris and Rotterdam) the interest for urban hydrology of rainfall data at a much finer resolution (about a factor ten) than usually provided by national weather services. However, there are a few scientific challenges to overcome to take advantage of the full extent of this recent X-band radar technology. We will emphasize the importance for the quality of retrieval algorithms of not only the dual polarimetry, due to the strong absorption in the X-band, but also to the strong heterogeneity of the raindrop distribution contrary to the usual assumptions. Indeed, the latter may introduce important statistical biases.


ABSTRACT.
 Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is an invasive annual known to negatively impact many shrub-dependent organisms; however, relatively little research has examined how it affects snake communities. Bromus tectorum is abundant at Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah, and could be a possible threat to snake populations. Study sites representing different B. tectorum coverage percentages were established to measure relative abundance of snakes. Snakes were captured from June to September 2005 primarily by using funnel traps attached to drift-fence arrays. Linear regression revealed a negative relationship between B. tectontm coverage (%) and the relative abundance of the Great Basin gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer deserticola) and the western racer (Coluber mormon). These results (1) suggest that B. tectorum invasions result in reduced snake abundance in shrubsteppe habitat on Antelope Island and (2) add to our understanding of the relationships between B. tectorum and native fauna.


. A one-dimensional model is developed for studying the electromagnetic properties of inductively coupled discharges with internal coils. Two different plasma boundary conditions are considered - a perfectly conducting cylinder and a freely radiating plasma-air boundary. Current and power densities. plasma impedances and radiated power are computed. Results are compared with those of previous workers for discharges with external coils.


The concept of communication principle course is abstract, complex and systematic. In addition, most students are weak in mathematical foundation, which results in the unsatisfactory effect of experimental teaching. In this paper, MATLAB is introduced into the experiment teaching of communication principle. Students use MATLAB to simulate the theory of communication principle, which to a certain extent increases students' understanding and digestion of communication principle knowledge, and greatly improves students' enthusiasm. At present, students majoring in Computer Science in Wuhan University of science and technology only use MATLAB simulation platform to complete the traditional experiment teaching, which leads to the failure to achieve the purpose of experiment teaching. The rapid development of micro course promotes the innovation of education reform. Flipped classroom reverses the teaching sequence of knowledge transfer and knowledge internalization, which is an innovation of traditional teaching mode. This paper aims at the lack of communication principle experiment box and other hardware experiment environment for computer major students of Wuhan University of science and technology in elective course of communication principle, and they only use MATLAB simulation platform to complete traditional experiment teaching. In the process of teaching reform of communication principle experiment course, this paper makes full use of micro course and MATLAB simulation software, and puts forward the flipped classroom teaching mode of micro course combined with MATLAB communication principle experiment. The teacher combines the theory and experimental content of the experimental course with "PPT + Voice explanation + MATLAB simulation results", and shares them to the students in the form of micro class video before class. From the final effect analysis, this teaching mode effectively enhances students' autonomous ability, cultivates students' interest, and improves students' experimental results.


NOB1, a transcription-associated protein, may play important roles in the development of many cancers. In this study, we have efficiently generated one monoclonal antibody (MAb) against NOB1. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and western blot were used to screen the hybridomas. As a result, one MAb named L6 (IgG1) effective in detecting the recombinant and the cellular NOB1 protein was characterized. Using L6, NOB1 was found to be upregulated in gastric cancer cells and tissues compared with normal gastric epithelial cells and nonneoplastic tissues. The expression of NOB1 was also found to be higher in multidrug-resistant gastric cancer cells than that of sensitive cells. This novel MAb will be valuable for investigating the role of NOB1 in carcinogenesis and multidrug resistance of gastric cancer.


Invertebrate communities in freshwater streams form the basis of many biomonitoring protocols that rely on coarse taxonomic resolution. Coarse resolution may group together species with different environmental preferences, masking the relationship between taxonomic composition and environmental variables. Alternatively, closely related species often share similar traits, and therefore, refining taxonomic resolution will not affect, or even may decrease, the strength of relationships between taxa and environment. To test these competing hypotheses, we characterized the metacommunity patterns of 5 orders (Coleoptera, Diptera, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera) and 1 subclass (Oligochaeta) of invertebrates in 21 streams in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. We determined community composition at family, genus, and species (DNA barcode cluster) levels. For each taxonomic level within each order, we computed the amount of variation explained by 20 local environmental and spatial variables. We also compared site diversity rankings, based on richness, Shannon index, and Simpson index values, between species–genus, genus–family, and species–family levels of resolution. We found evidence to support our 2nd hypothesis. Also, reducing taxonomic resolution decreased the consistency of site rankings for all 3 diversity indices. These results suggest the ecological interchangeability of species within genera, or even within families, given the environmental variables we measured. Furthermore, these results emphasize the importance of carefully considering taxonomic resolution for metacommunity work as well as biomonitoring.


Introduction. This article examines the use of taboos and euphemisms in birth-related vocabulary of the Bashkir language. Goals. The paper reveals both linguistic facts and those of traditional ritual culture, ethnic worldviews. The Bashkir birth-related taboo vocabulary has not been a subject of special research yet. Materials and Methods. Actual meanings of lexemes were identified through the use of author's field materials collected during comprehensive expeditions (2004 to 2008), lexical and phraseological data from dictionaries of the Bashkir and other Turkic languages, dialectal materials stored by the Institute of History, Language and Literature (Ufa Federal Research Centre of the RAS). The work employs a number of linguistic research methods, such as the ethnolinguistic and comparative-descriptive ones, component analysis method, and that of lexicographic selection. Results. As is known, this group of words is mainly tabooed in the Bashkir language. The vocabulary associated with birth rites is sacred and reflects a complex set of ideas about a pregnant woman. Ritual actions, magical prohibitions are aimed at protecting the health of women and at the birth of a healthy offspring. In this case, the vocabulary denoting a childless woman, a pregnant woman and the concepts of 'childbirth' and 'obstetric aid' were tabooed. The paper clarifies that the concepts associated with birth rites in the Bashkir language are expressed by euphemisms to protect the mother and child from evil spirits and the evil eye. The author has recorded a large number of euphemisms denoting a pregnant woman (auyrly, auyrғakalyu, auyrayҡly, auyry bar, auyrkүtүreә, auyrlau, yөklө, etc), a childless woman (balakүrmәgәn, biҙәү, tүlһeҙ, ҡyҫir, irғoraҡ and others), and those denoting the concept of 'childbirth' (bala tabyu, kureneү, bәpeslәү, bәpәilәү, ҡotolou, bushanyu, donyaғa keileү, etc.). Taboos and euphemisms of birth rites play an important role in the development of the vocabulary of the Bashkir language. The available materials on this topic require further systematization with the involvement of linguistic analysis. Over time, many archaisms disappeared from the modern vocabulary, while others have been used only in certain dialects of the Bashkirs. Almost all euphemistic vocabulary is represented by word combinations from common Turkic lexemes used in figurative meanings. The latter reflect the ethnic ritual traditions, good manners, politeness, observance of the rules of decency ― rules of ethics. They represent the speech etiquette and identity of the Bashkir people, being a valuable linguistic and cultural source for the study of the traditional folk beliefs of the Bashkirs.


A suitable virtual network function (VNF) placement considering a node availability schedule extends service continuous serviceable time by suppressing service interruption caused by function reallocation and node unavailabilities. However, function placement cannot avoid service interruption caused by node unavailabilities. This paper considers a primary and backup VNF placement model to avoid service interruption caused by node unavailabilities by using backup functions. The considered backup functions have a period of startup time for preparation before they can be used and the number of them is limited. The proposed model is formulated as an integer linear programming problem to place the primary and backup VNFs based on the availability schedule at continuous time slots. We aim to maximize the minimum number of continuously available time slots in all service function chains (SFCs) over the deterministic availability schedule. We obverse that the proposed model considering the limited number of backup functions outperforms baseline models in terms of the minimum number of longest continuous available time slots in all SFCs. We introduce an algorithm to estimate the number of key unavailabilities at each time slot, which can find the unavailable nodes which are the bottlenecks to increase the service continuous available time at each time slot.


Summary

The effects of clarifying agents, including bentonite, polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP), gelatin and chitosan, on the quality attributes of pasteurised palmyra palm sap were evaluated. After clarification and pasteurisation, the lowest polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and invertase activities were detected in the sample clarified with bentonite. PVPP and gelatine were found to be the most effective for removing polyphenol content. In addition, the sample treated with chitosan had the highest transmittance values. However, the sucrose, glucose and fructose contents were not affected by clarification. During storage, the PPO activity, invertase activity, polyphenol content and sucrose level decreased, while the fructose and glucose levels increased with the storage times. According to the Thai Community Product Standard, all pasteurised samples treated with a clarifying agent were acceptable for up to 25 days, whereas the nonclarified sample was spoiled because of the microbial loads. Thus, the clarification process prior to pasteurisation was able to improve the quality and microbiological shelf life of the pasteurised palmyra palm sap for at least 25 days.


Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are chaperones whose importance in protein homeostasis is exemplified by dozens of missense mutations associated with tissue-specific disease states. Despite decades of studies, the structure, dynamics, and mechanism of chaperone activity remain unclear. Here we show that the human sHSP HSPB5 distinguishes native lens protein γD-crystallin from damaged γD-crystallin even though the mutant/damaged client is folded. The disordered N-terminal region of HSPB5 (NTR) is essential for its chaperone activity, whereas the structured domain (ACD) has no intrinsic activity. Nevertheless, two sHSP mutational hotspots associated with disease, D109 and R120, are located in the ACD. Our studies on wild-type HSPB5 oligomers reveal that distinct regions within the NTR interact with specific grooves presented on the ACD dimer and/or with other NTR sub-regions and that the number of binding partners is greater than the number of binding sites, leading to a large, but finite number of potential combinations of interactions at any given time. The ACD mutations result in increased dynamics and accessibility of the disordered NTR and enhanced chaperone activity in vitro. Our findings reveal that HSPB5 quasi-order is delicately balanced and that perturbations arising from mutations within the structured core cause alterations that contribute to misbalance in eye lens protein homeostasis that lead to cataract formation.


Sequence datasets are encountered in a plethora of applications spanning from web usage analysis to healthcare studies and ubiquitous computing. Disseminating such datasets offers remarkable opportunities for discovering interesting knowledge patterns, but may lead to serious privacy violations if sensitive patterns, such as business secrets, are disclosed. In this work, we consider how to sanitize data to prevent the disclosure of sensitive patterns during sequential pattern mining, while ensuring that the nonsensitive patterns can still be discovered. First, we re-define the problem of sequential pattern hiding to capture the information loss incurred by sanitization in terms of both events' modification (distortion) and lost nonsensitive knowledge patterns (side-effects). Second, we model sequences as graphs and propose two algorithms to solve the problem by operating on the graphs. The first algorithm attempts to sanitize data with minimal distortion, whereas the second focuses on reducing the side-effects. Extensive experiments show that our algorithms outperform the existing solution in terms of data distortion and side-effects and are more efficient.


Many law enforcement agencies have recently shown interest in automated automobile recognition and tracking technologies such as license plate reading or GPS tracking. However, some criminals may drive vehicles that have false license plates or are not equipped with GPS tracking devices, making the pursuit of such vehicles difficult. This project aims to create a computer vision system capable of taking real-time input from a static camera and identifying passing cars by make and model in order to assist law enforcement agencies in the tracking of suspect or stolen vehicles. Vehicle identification is accomplished using a combination of old and new algorithmic image processing techniques.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

ATM (ataxia telangiectasia mutated) and ATR (AT and Rad3 related) protein kinases play a crucial role in cellular DNA damage responses. The inhibition of these kinases and/or related signaling molecules lead to an abolishment of one such signal pathways termed as checkpoints. It is expected that the discovery of checkpoint modulator such as natural products will be an effective assistance of anti-cancer therapy with lower side effect. In the present study, we demonstrated the inhibitory effect of Squalene (SQ), flavonoids derived from Persimmon leaves (PL) and Schisandrin-B (SchB) on ATM/ATR-dependent checkpoint signaling pathway. The cell viability was decreased by SQ, PL or SchB treated A549 adenocarcinoma after gamma-irradiation (IR) or UV exposure. In each SQ, PL and SchB treated cells, G2/M checkpoint activity was abolished in DNA damaged cells. In vitro kinase assay revealed that PL and SchB inhibits ATM and ATR, respectively. SQ, on the other hand, showed no effect on both kinases. Interestingly, SQ increased Wip1 protein expression in unperturbed cells, and suppressed ATM activation in IR treated cells. Consistent with potential inhibition of ATM by SQ or PL, IR-induced phosphorylations of ATM effectors such as p53 (S15) and Chk1 (S317) were remarkably inhibited by the treatment of SQ or PL. SchB inhibited the specific phosphorylation of these effectors by ATR. Moreover, Xenograft and allograft studies with natural products were demonstrated that the tumor growth of both cancer cells in vivo were obviously inhibited by SQ, PL or SchB treatment. These results suggest that some natural products such as SQ, PL and SchB might be applicable to the sensitization of anti-cancer therapies such as radio- /chemotherapy.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2971. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-2971


A comparative study of feeding and host preference was made among immatures of Ixodes dammini Spielman, Clifford, Piesman & Corwin, I. scapularis Say, and I. pacificus Cooley & Kohls, using white laboratory mice, Eumeces lizards, and chickens (3-4 d old) as hosts. Larval feeding of each species when placed on hosts was greater (P less than 0.05) on mice than on chickens and lizards and higher on lizards than on chickens (P less than 0.05). When larvae of the three species were given a choice between mouse and lizard and mouse and chicken, they preferred mice (except no statistical difference was found between mice and chickens for I. pacificus larvae). When given a choice between lizard and chicken, no significant difference in host preference was seen. Nymphs of I. dammini, I. scapularis, and I. pacificus displayed no statistical difference in feeding ability between mice and lizards when placed on these hosts, but more ticks fed on mice and lizards than on chickens. Nymphs of all three species also showed no preference between mice and lizards but preferred either of these hosts to chickens (however, no statistical difference was found between mice and chickens for I. dammini nymphs or between lizards and chickens for I. pacificus nymphs).


Although intellectual property law is a distinctively Western, modern, and relatively young body of law, it has spread all over the world, now encompassing all but a very few outsiders such as Afghanistan, Somalia, and Vanuatu. This article presents three legal transfers that contributed to this development: first, from real property in land and movables to intellectual property in the late 18th century in Western Europe; second, from Western Europe, in particular from the United Kingdom and France to the rest of the world during the colonial era in the 19th and early 20th century; third, from the protection of new knowledge to the protection of traditional knowledge, held by indigenous communities in developing countries, on 5 August 1963. This story illuminates how legal transfers in a broad sense – including, but not limited to legal transplants drive the evolution of law.


BACKGROUND
Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a neuropeptide that has been demonstrated to produce anxiolytic effects when administered centrally. To examine the hypothesis that NPY might play a role in alcohol-seeking behavior, this study took advantage of the genetic differences of the alcohol-preferring (P) rats and alcohol-nonpreferring (NP) rats, as well as the high alcohol-drinking (HAD) rats and low alcohol-drinking (LAD) rats, in voluntary alcohol consumption to examine if NPY neurons in the brains differ between these selected lines.

METHODS
The NPY immunoreactivity (NPY-I) was measured using an established radioimmunohistochemical assay in discrete brain structures including the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN), arcuate nucleus (ARC), and central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA).

RESULTS
The quantitative data indicated that there was more NPY-I in the PVN and ARC of P rats than NP rats, whereas there was less NPY-I in the PVN and ARC of HAD rats than LAD rats. However, the NPY-I in the CeA was less in both the P and HAD rats than in the NP and LAD rats, respectively. Therefore, the data indicate that there are innate differences in the NPY-I in the brain between selectively bred rats with high and low alcohol preference.

CONCLUSION
Because both P rats and HAD rats have high alcohol preference, the disparate finding between these two lines of rats suggests that the hypothalamic NPY neurons are probably not associated with alcohol preference. In contrast, consistent findings in the CeA of both P rats and HAD rats suggest that NPY in the CeA of P and HAD rats may contribute to the regulation of alcohol consumption. This is substantiated by a recent report showing that NPY-knockout mice drink significantly more ethanol, and transgenic mice that overexpress the NPY gene drink less alcohol, than wild-type mice. Together, the findings support the notion that NPY agonists that would enhance NPY function in the amygdala might be useful for the treatment of anxiety and alcoholism.


Background Osteosarcoma (OS) is a malignant bone tumor common in children and adolescents. The 5-year survival rate is only 67-69% and there is an urgent need to explore novel drugs effective for the OS. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the common drug targets and have been found to be associated with the OS, but have been seldom used in OS. Methods The GPCRs were obtained from GPCRdb, and the GPCRs expression profile of the OS was downloaded from the UCSC Xena platform including clinical data. 10-GPCRs model signatures related to OS risk were identified by risk model analysis with R software. The predictive ability and pathological association of the signatures in OS were explored by bio-informatics analysis. The therapeutic effect of the target was investigated, followed by the investigation of the targeting drug by the colony formation experiment were. Results We screened out 10 representative GPCRs from 50 GPCRs related to OS risk and established a 10-GPCRs prognostic model (with CCR4, HCRTR2, DRD2, HTR1A, GPR158, and GPR3 as protective factors, and HTR1E, OPN3, GRM4, and GPR144 as risk factors). We found that the low-risk group of the model was significantly associated with the higher survival probability, with the area under the curve (AUC) of the ROC greater than 0.9, conforming with the model. Moreover, both risk-score and metastasis were the independent risk factor of the OS, and the risk score was positively associated with the metastatic. Importantly, the CD8 T-cells were more aggregated in the low-risk group, in line with the predict survival rate of the model. Finally, we found that DRD2 was a novel target with approved drugs (cabergoline and bromocriptine), and preliminarily proved the therapeutic effects of the drugs on OS. These novel findings might facilitate the development of OS drugs. Conclusion This study offers a satisfactory 10-GPCRs model signature to predict the OS prognostic, and based on the model signature, candidate targets with approved drugs were provided.


Vocabulary learning has long been one of the most difficult areas for Chinese students in English learning. They spend a lot of time in memorizing words, but are still frustrated by those problems caused by vocabulary in listening, speaking, reading and writing. In recent years, researchers have investigated the factors that affect vocabulary learning, especially vocabulary learning strategies, and made some achievements. However, most of those researches are confined in specific strategies or regarding undergraduates as investigation subjects. Thus it is of necessity to research into learning strategies employed by postgraduates of non-English majors. With the help of questionnaire and SPSS, this paper revealed the beliefs and the overall pattern of learning strategies used by postgraduates of non-English majors. In addition, pedagogical implications of the research were put forward as well.


The use of a new indicator culture medium, Belo Horizonte medium, is proposed for better colony recognition and a presumptive identification of Campylobacter pylori. This medium, containing brain heart infusion sheep blood agar, was supplemented with 40 mg of 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride per liter in addition to vancomycin, nalidixic acid, and amphotericin B. On Belo Horizonte medium, Campylobacter pylori present unique golden colonies.


This paper discusses the challenges of producing CAR-T cells for cancer treatment and the potential for Artificial Intelligence (AI) for its improvement. CAR-T cell therapy was approved in 2018 as the first Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) for treating acute leukemia and lymphoma. ATMPs are cell- and gene-based therapies that show great promise for treating various cancers and hereditary diseases. While some new ATMPs have been approved, ongoing clinical trials are expected to lead to the approval of many more. However, the production of CAR-T cells presents a significant challenge due to the high costs associated with the manufacturing process, making the therapy very expensive (approx. $400,000). Furthermore, autologous CAR-T therapy is limited to a make-to-order approach, which makes scaling economical production difficult. First attempts are being made to automate this multi-step manufacturing process, which will not only directly reduce the high manufacturing costs but will also enable comprehensive data collection. AI technologies have the ability to analyze this data and convert it into knowledge and insights. In order to exploit these opportunities, this paper analyses the data potential in the automated CAR-T production process and creates a mapping to the capabilities of AI applications. The paper explores the possible use of AI in analyzing the data generated during the automated process and its capabilities to further improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of CAR-T cell production.


The paper investigates the nexus between inflation and stock index in Vietnam, a developing country with an emerging stock market. Data are collected quarterly in the period of fourteen years. The author employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach which is appropriate for empirical research with short data series to analyse the correlation between inflation and stock index in the short run and long run. The results reveal the unidirectional impact of inflation on stock index in the short run and long run, which is significantly negative. These findings are meaningful to economies around the world, especially developing countries like Vietnam. Based on these results, policymakers can develop suitable policies in order to keep inflation under control as well as develop a stable stock market. The valuable findings are also essential for consideration by investors in making wise decision in the short run and long run.


Host immune pressure and associated immune evasion of pathogenic bacteria are key features of host-pathogen co-evolution. A previous study showed that human T-cell epitopes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are evolutionarily hyperconserved and thus it was deduced that M. tuberculosis lacks antigenic variation and immune evasion. Here, we selected 173 clinical M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) isolates from China, amplified the genes encoding Rv2945c and Rv0309, and compared the sequences. The results showed that genetic diversity existed in these two genes among the MTBC strains and two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) presented higher polymorphisms. Antigen Rv2945c harbored a higher number of amino acid substitutions of its T-cell epitopes, which may reflect ongoing immune evasion. In addition, the high dN/dS value of Rv0309 suggested antigen Rv0309 might be involved in diversifying selection to evade host immunity. Finally, a small group of strains were identified based on the genetic diversity of these two genes, which might indicate that they interact differently with human T cells compared with other strains.


Sera from 13 patients with proven primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) were studied for the capacity to bind to the adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT) isolated from heart, kidney and liver mitochondria. Antibodies against the ANT from liver were detected in the serum of all PBC patients, while 10 of 13 sera were negative when tested with the ANT from heart. None of the sera showed a significant binding to the ANT from kidney. The specific binding and the organ specificity of the autoantibodies against the ANT from liver were also confirmed by immunoabsorption studies on the isolated proteins. To distinguish between antibody titre and antibody activity, we measured the ability of the antisera to inhibit the adenine nucleotide transport across inner mitochondrial membrane using isolated mitochondria from heart, kidney and liver. Six of 13 patient sera tested inhibited the adenine nucleotide transport from liver mitochondria, however, none of the sera inhibited the transport from heart or kidney mitochondria again indicating the organ specificity of the antigen and the autoantibodies.


The article is a contribution to the ethical discussion of autonomous lethal weapons. The emergence of military robots acting independently on the battlefield is seen as an inevitable stage in the development of modern warfare because they will provide a critical advantage to an army. Even though there are already some social movements calling for a ban on "killer robots," ethical arguments in favor of developing those technologies also exist. In particular, the utilitarian tradition may find that military robots are ethically permissible if "non-human combat" would minimize the number of human victims. A deontological analysis for its part might suggest that ethics is impossible without an ethical subject. Immanuel Kant's ethical philosophy would accommodate the intuition that there is a significant difference between a situation in which a person makes a decision to kill another person and a situation in which a machine makes such a decision. Like animals, robots become borderline agents on the edges of "moral communities." Using the discussion of animal rights, we see how Kant's ethics operates with non-human agents. The key problem in the use of autonomous weapons is the transformation of war and the unpredictable risks associated with blurring the distinction between war and police work. The hypothesis of the article is that robots would not need to kill anyone to defeat the enemy. If no one dies in a war, then there is no reason not to extend its operations to non-combatants or to sue for peace. The analysis presented by utilitarianism overlooks the possibility of such consequences. The main problem of autonomous lethal weapons is their autonomy and not their potential to be lethal.


A new method is proposed for modelling spherically symmetric inhomogeneities in the Universe. The inhomogeneities have finite size and are compensated, so they do not exert any measurable gravitational force beyond their boundary. The region exterior to the perturbation is represented by a Friedmann--Robertson--Walker (FRW) universe, which we use to study the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) induced by the cluster. All calculations are performed in a single, global coordinate system, with non-linear gravitational effects fully incorporated. An advantage of the gauge choices employed here is that the resultant equations are essentially Newtonian in form. Examination of the problem of specifying initial data shows that the new model presented here has many advantages over `Swiss cheese' and other models. Numerical implementation of the equations derived here is described in a subsequent paper.


The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of ownership structure on merger and acquisition (M&A) decisions of Brazilian listed companies.,This paper is an applied and explanatory research based on secondary data. The sample is comprises non-financial companies listed on the BM&FBovespa between 1998 and 2007. Considering that the dependent variable is binary, the authors estimate panel data logistic regression models. Considering the existence of conflicts of interest among those who have the decision-making power and the supplier of capital for M&A transactions, they draw upon the Agency Theory to develop the theoretical hypotheses.,The results show that, for a sample of Brazilian non-financial companies listed on the BM&FBovespa (B3), from 1998 to 2007, Brazilian firms present, on average, a highly concentrated ownership structure and the major controlling shareholders are families or the State. These characteristics are negatively related to the likelihood of M&A transactions, as most of these controlling shareholders are reluctant to adopt mechanisms that reduce their control.,With regard to the limitations, this study considered only the M&A definitions as stated by the Bureau van Dijk database. In this sense, future studies may analyze the effects of ownership structure based on other M&A definitions and typologies. In addition, the study is limited to the period from 1998 to 2007, which is prior to the international financial crisis. Future studies may extend the analysis period to include the post-crisis period (2008) to check if there are differences in M&A strategies before and after the crisis.,From a managerial perspective, the results show that minority shareholders have little or no influence over an M&A decision, so they cannot decide on the use of resources for fast growth and access to new markets through M&A. Thus, the investment decision must take into account the nature and the quality of the controlling shareholder.,This study shows a significant and negative effect of ownership concentration on the likelihood of M&A transactions. In part, this result demonstrates the importance of understanding the behavior of controlling shareholders before inferring on other key aspects that the M&A literature tends to make fundamental in explaining M&A decisions in publicly traded companies, particularly, in an environment of low minority shareholder protection.,Previous studies have partly found that the M&A decision is motivated by individual advantages obtained from increasing the size of the firm, or from managerial hubris. The results show that these hypotheses do not hold in the Brazilian context. Moreover, the results indicate that M&A decisions are associated with the characteristics of the controlling shareholder, their level of ownership concentration and their typology, contributing to the agency debate on whether the incentive or the entrenchment effect prevails in the context of the agency problem between controlling and minority shareholders, particularly, in an institutional environment of low shareholder protection.


Abstract : Seventeen Sprague-Dawley rats were injected intramuscularly and intraperitoneally with ruthenium-106. The amount of this isotope was determined daily for 5 weeks in the urine and feces. Animals were sacrificed at intervals and the various organs were analyzed for ruthenium. It was noted from this experiment that the pathways of absorption, metabolism, and excretion are dependent on the route of administration of ruthenium. (Author)


. Head erosion is one of the limiting factors in plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA). We present a study of head erosion with emittance growth in field-ionized plasma from the PWFA experiments performed at the FACET user facility at SLAC. At FACET, a 20.3 GeV bunch with 1.8 × 10 10 electrons is optimized in beam transverse size and combined with a high density lithium plasma for beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiments. A target foil is inserted upstream of the plasma source to increase the bunch emittance through multiple scattering. Its effect on beam-plasma interaction is observed with an energy spectrometer after a vertical bend magnet. Results from the first experiments show that increasing the emittance has suppressed vapor field-ionization and plasma wakefields excitation. Plans for the future are presented.


Augmented reality provides factory workers and other touch laborers with visual information overlaid upon the workcell to aid in the performance of their tasks. This application of virtual reality technology requires high accuracy, wearable, tetherless, inexpensive, mechanically robust, and lightweight head tracking systems that operate in a highly noisy environment. The paper describes a prototype head tracking system, currently under development and testing, that is based on one small, lensless, quad-cell detector and a set of fixed location, active optical beacons, that can potentially meet these requirements.


Background Mothers with gestational diabetes are at risk of lactogenesis II delayed beyond the third postnatal day and early breastfeeding cessation, which may be overcome by prophylactic intervention. Research aim To evaluate the effect of oral metoclopramide commenced within twelve hours of delivery on lactogenesis II in mothers with insulin-dependent (iGDM) or diet-controlled (dGDM) gestational diabetes. Methods Between July 2006 and January 2009, 73 mothers of term neonates (iGDM, n=20 and dGDM, n=53) were randomized to the metoclopramide (n=37) or placebo groups (n=36). Mothers with gestational diabetes in the intervention group received 30mg of oral metoclopramide daily for the first postnatal week in a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled study. Primary outcome was lactogenesis II onset by postnatal day 3, while secondary outcomes included expressed human milk volumes (EHM) and exclusive breastfeeding rates and infant weight change.Results 40% more iGDM metoclopramide users achieved lactogenesis II by postnatal day 3 (p=0.01), with 4.8-fold EHM increase over controls (p=0.04); 50% of iGDM mothers perceived lactogenesis II onset by day 2 and more rapid EHM accumulation was observed in all metoclopramide users. Despite this, metoclopramide-users demonstrated less exclusive breastfeeding, earlier cessation and more frequent formula-feeding. Conclusions Short-term metoclopramide uses within the first 12 postnatal hours significantly improved daily EHM production and maternal perception of lactogenesis II onset in iGDM mothers. Treated iGDM mothers did not experience the natural EHM decrease of iGDM placebo-users. The low breastfeeding rate suggested that physiological breastfeeding barriers may not modifiable by metoclopramide or traditional lactation support.


BACKGROUND
Private health insurance plays a large role in the U.S. health system, including for many individuals with depression. Private insurers have been actively trying to influence pharmaceutical utilization and costs, particularly for newer and costlier medications. The approaches that insurers use may have important effects on patients' access to antidepressant medications.

AIMS OF THE STUDY
To report which approaches (e.g., tiered copayments, prior authorization, and step therapy) commercial health plans are employing to manage newer antidepressant medications, and how the use of these approaches has changed since 2003.

METHODS
Data are from a nationally representative survey of commercial health plans in 60 market areas regarding alcohol, drug abuse and mental health services in 2010. Responses were obtained from 389 plans (89% response rate), reporting on 925 insurance products. For each of six branded antidepressant medications, respondents were asked whether the plan covered the medication and if so, on what copayment tier, and whether it was subject to prior authorization or step therapy. Measures of management approach were constructed for each medication and for the group of medications. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to test for association of the management approach with various health plan characteristics.

RESULTS
Less than 1% of health plan products excluded any of the six antidepressants studied. Medications were more likely to be subjected to restrictions if they were newer, more expensive or were reformulations. 55% of products used placement on a high cost-sharing tier (3 or 4) as their only form of restriction for newer branded antidepressants. This proportion was lower than in 2003, when 71% of products took this approach. In addition, only 2% of products left all the newer branded medications unrestricted, down from 25% in 2003. Multivariate analysis indicated that preferred provider organizations were more likely than other product types to use tier 3 or 4 placement.

DISCUSSION
We find that U.S. health plans are using a variety of strategies to manage cost and utilization of newer branded antidepressant medications. Plans appear to be finding that approaches other than exclusion are adequate to meet their cost-management goals for newer branded antidepressants, although they have increased their use of administrative restrictions since 2003. Limitations include lack of information about how administrative restrictions were applied in practice, information on only six medications, and some potential for endogeneity bias in the regression analyses.

CONCLUSION
This study has documented substantial use of various restrictions on access to newer branded antidepressants in U.S. commercial health plans. Most of these medications had generic equivalents that offered at least some substitutability, reducing access concerns. At the same time, it is worth noting that high copayments and administrative requirements can nonetheless be burdensome for some patients.

IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICY
Health plans' pharmacy management approaches may concern policymakers less than in the early 2000s, due to the lesser distinctiveness of today's branded medications. This may change depending on future drug introductions.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Future research should examine the impact of plans' pharmacy management approaches, using patient-level data.


For animals discarded after fishing capture (unwanted bycatch), the effects of fishing-capture stress can extend beyond immediate or delayed death, causing long-term, sub-lethal effects such as injuries and physiological, behavioral, immune, energetic, and reproductive consequences. Given the importance of successful reproduction for population recruitment, investigating reproductive impairment is essential, even more so for animals with low reproductive rates such as chondrichthyans. However, data for these species are lacking, even though the poor conservation status of many chondrichthyan populations and the threats from overexploitation and discard require a better understanding of fishing-capture stress consequences. In this study, we investigated the reproductive consequences of trawling and air exposure stress when experienced by southern fiddler rays (Trygonorrhina dumerilii) during late pregnancy, with a focus on neonatal traits. Compared with neonates from unstressed mothers, neonates born from mothers subjected to capture simulation had significantly lower body mass and yolk sac volume at birth, showed a granulocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio indicative of a stressed condition, reduced growth, altered burying behavior, reduced boldness, and swam for shorter distances after a simulated predator attack. Smaller size and lower growth rate might expose neonates to a higher rate of predation, and similarly, the altered burying and swimming behaviors may reduce their ability to escape from predators. Decreased boldness could impact neonate survival by reducing their ability to compete and obtain food and resources. Further investigations are needed, but these initial results suggest that capture stress suffered by pregnant rays may alter traits and survival of their offspring with consequences for recruitment and population abundance.


'Today, therefore, the controlling factor in determining whether the exercise of a prerogative power is subject to judicial review is not its source but its subject matter.' So uttered Lord Scarman, expressing the view of the majority of the House of Lords in Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service (the GCHQ case). The Attorney General, in deciding whether to institute proceedings for the enforcement ofa public right, exercises a power vested in him by virtue of the royal prerogative. This power, it was previously held, was 'absolute and non-reviewable'. The question now arises as to whether the Attorney General's discretionary powers are embraced within that category of prerogative powers whose subject matter renders them amenable to judicial review, or whether they remain beyond judicial scrutiny.


Previous studies have shown the benefits of group therapeutic songwriting (GTSW) in the quality of life and well-being of caregivers of people with dementia. The objective of this study was to explore the experience of caregivers in a collaborative process of songwriting. Twenty-one caregivers divided into three groups received 12 60-min GTSW sessions led by a qualified music therapist. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze open-question questionnaires, a focus group, the last session video, and song lyrics. Four themes emerged: (1) GTSW generates a sense of connection, (2) it is a motivating, empowering, and meaningful experience, (3) it promotes emotional connection in a personal space, and (4) it increases well-being. Qualitative findings suggest that GTSW is a therapeutic tool that promotes caregivers' connectivity, expression of emotions, and well-being. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.


Abstract : The 2008 Air Force Association convention chief of staff keynote speech addressed the subject of deterrence, asserting that it is not a fading construct in national security. On the contrary, deterrence is reemerging and growing in importance as an aspect of U.S. defense policy. The keynote speech invited the audience to think about deterrence in a broader sense and how the U.S. Air Force can contribute in a fashion relevant to 21st-century national defense. The purpose of this article is to add to the growing body of literature that seeks a broader understanding of deterrence and how it fits with other forms of policy such as dissuasion, assurance, and insurance. Identifying and understanding the distinctions among these concepts and how they relate to U.S. policy are fundamental to explaining the relevance of deterrence to our collective security. This task is certainly ambitious, but the need demands consideration. Deterrence policy has shown itself an exquisitely beneficial tool in obtaining national security objectives. On the other hand, deterrence -- either misunderstood or misapplied -- can form the basis for incomplete or ill-advised U.S. policy, especially in terms of how and when to use military power to achieve high-stakes national security objectives. A variety of recent and historical examples attests to a vital requirement for understanding how disconnects between military capabilities, national policy, and the value of national purpose can cause unfavorable if not disastrous consequences.


Situation Recognition is the task of generating a structured summary of what is happening in an image using an activity verb and the semantic roles played by actors and objects. In this task, the same activity verb can describe a diverse set of situations as well as the same actor or object category can play a diverse set of semantic roles depending on the situation depicted in the image. Hence a situation recognition model needs to understand the context of the image and the visual-linguistic meaning of semantic roles. Therefore, we leverage the CLIP foundational model that has learned the context of images via language descriptions. We show that deeper-and-wider multi-layer perceptron (MLP) blocks obtain noteworthy results for the situation recognition task by using CLIP image and text embedding features and it even outperforms the state-of-the-art CoFormer, a Transformer-based model, thanks to the external implicit visual-linguistic knowledge encapsulated by CLIP and the expressive power of modern MLP block designs. Motivated by this, we design a cross-attention-based Transformer using CLIP visual tokens that model the relation between textual roles and visual entities. Our cross-attention-based Transformer known as ClipSitu XTF outperforms existing state-of-the-art by a large margin of 14.1\% on semantic role labelling (value) for top-1 accuracy using imSitu dataset. {Similarly, our ClipSitu XTF obtains state-of-the-art situation localization performance.} We will make the code publicly available.


It is essential for managers of multinational corporations to identify which foreign exchange risks the company is exposed to and how these risks affect the firm's strategic business plan. A majority of modern multinational company's have incorporated foreign exchange risk policy into their operations in order to manage these risks. The risk management strategies of multinational companies have been the subject of intense theoretical and empirical research. However, the actual hedging practices of multinational firms have to a lesser extent been researched. We therefore found it interesting to conduct a detailed investigation of how two multinational corporations develop, implement, and execute their foreign exchange risk management. The selected companies were Autoliv and Sapa, two multinational sub-suppliers. We addressed three general research questions: Why do Autoliv and Sapa manage foreign exchange risk? How do Autoliv and Sapa structure their foreign exchange hedging program? How do Autoliv and Sapa execute their hedges?


Approx. 2% of the Neisseria meningitidis genome consists of small DNA insertion sequences known as Correia or nemis elements, which feature TIRs (terminal inverted repeats) of 26-27 bp in length. Elements interspersed with coding regions are co-transcribed with flanking genes into mRNAs, processed at double-stranded RNA structures formed by TIRs. N. meningitidis RNase III (endoribonuclease III) is sufficient to process nemis+ RNAs. RNA hairpins formed by nemis with the same termini (26/26 and 27/27 repeats) are cleaved. By contrast, bulged hairpins formed by 26/27 repeats inhibit cleavage, both in vitro and in vivo. In electrophoretic mobility shift assays, all hairpin types formed similar retarded complexes upon incubation with RNase III. The levels of corresponding nemis+ and nemis- mRNAs, and the relative stabilities of RNA segments processed from nemis+ transcripts in vitro, may both vary significantly.


Product development in highly competitive times frequently implies very short time-to-market deadlines and product designs that need to deliver high performance at low investment and operation costs. These conflicting objectives can sometimes be accomplished by starting from existing designs and optimizing for better performance defined by some set of excellence criteria.

This paper develops a systematic procedure that starts by using a 3D scan of the existing design, defines an efficient shape parameterization for the part of the object that shall be redesigned, and develops an evolutionary shape optimization model. This is accompanied by developing a numerical workflow to handle this demanding process and an implementation that provides solutions in reasonable computer time. The workflow is developed based on existing specialized applications for geometric modeling, numerical analysis, finite-element simulations, and optimization, and therefore makes a rather heterogeneous system. It uses and runs different applications on the 'as-needed' basis and provides for corresponding synchronization and data mining. The procedure is in this paper applied to the optimum design of 2D airfoils for wind-turbine blades.


A system for medical information has been developed. The system is a general and flexible one which without reprogramming or new programs can accept any alphabetic and/or numeric information. Coded concepts and natural language can be read, stored, decoded and written out. Medical records or parts of records (diagnosis, operations, therapy, laboratory tests, symptoms etc.) can be retrieved and selected. The system can process simple statistics but even make linear pattern recognition analysis. The system described has been used for in-patients, outpatients and individuals in health examinations. The use of computers in hospitals, health examinations or health care systems is a problem of storing information in a general and flexible form. This problem has been solved, and now it is possible to add new routines like booking and follow-up-systems. •


Waterborne polyurethane (WPU) is a waterborne coating with excellent physicochemical properties. Its deficiencies of water resistance, chemical resistance, staining, and hardness have limited the wide application of polyurethane in the wood lacquer market. In this study, polycarbonate diols (PCDL) were used as soft segments and WPCU was modified by cross-linking using Trimethylolpropane (TMP) to prepare polycarbonate type WPU (WPCU) with cross-linked network structure. The new wood lacquer was prepared by adding various additives and tested by applying it on wood board. The successful synthesis of WPCU was determined by FTIR testing, and the cross-linking degree of WPCU was probed by low-field NMR. The viscosity of the cross-linked WPCU emulsion showed a decreasing trend compared to the uncross-linked WPCU emulsion, and WPCU-2 had the smallest particle size. Compared with the uncrosslinked WPCU film, the crosslinked WPCU film had lower water absorption (2.2%), higher water contact angle (72.7°), excellent tensile strength (44.02 MPa), higher thermomechanical, and better water and alcohol resistance. The effect of crosslinker content on the microphase separation of WPCU chain segments on the surface roughness of the film was investigated by SEM. The wood paint prepared by WPCU emulsion has good dry heat resistance, chemical resistance, and adhesion, and the hardness of the wood paint when the TMP content is 3% reaches H. It also has good resistance to sticky stains, which can be used to develop new wood lacquer.


Previous studies have shown that patients with deletion of distal human chromosome arm 8p may have congenital heart disease and other physical anomalies. The gene encoding GATA-4, a zinc finger transcription factor implicated in cardiac gene expression and development, localizes to chromosome region 8p23.1. To examine whether GATA-4 deficiency is present in patients with monosomy of 8p23.1 with congenital heart disease, we performed fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with a GATA4 probe on cells from a series of patients with interstitial deletion of 8p23.1. Four individuals with del(8)(p23.1) and congenital heart disease were found to be haploinsufficient at the GATA4 locus by FISH. The GATA4 gene was not deleted in a fifth patient with del(8)(p23.1) who lacked cardiac anomalies. FISH analysis on cells from 48 individuals with congenital heart disease and normal karyotypes failed to detect any submicroscopic deletions at the GATA4 locus. We conclude that haploinsufficiency at the GATA4 locus is often seen in patients with del(8)(p23.1) and congenital heart disease. Based on these findings and recent studies showing that haploinsufficiency for other cardiac transcription factor genes (e.g., TBX5, NKX2-5) causes congenital heart disease, we postulate that GATA-4 deficiency may contribute to the phenotype of patients with monosomy of 8p23.1.


This study explored the associations among achievement approach goal orientations, academic selfefficacy beliefs, and academic help seeking behaviors of Turkish college students. A self-report survey was administered to 98 junior college students in a teacher training department of a major research and teaching university in Istanbul. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The findings showed that mastery approach goal orientation was significantly positively associated with college students' perceived academic self-efficacy beliefs and academic help seeking behaviors. Performance approach goal orientation, on the other hand, was not significantly related to academic self-efficacy beliefs but significantly negatively associated with students' academic help seeking behaviors. Overall, the structural model explained 31% of the variance in academic self-efficacy beliefs and 39% of the variance in academic help seeking behaviors of college students. The practical implications and future directions along with the limitations of the study are discussed


We consider a game in which firms' owners assign to their managers a delegation scheme weighting profits and market shares. Managers then compete in quantities. We show first that this delegation scheme typically leads to quantities being strategic substitutes or complements depending on firms relative size. Second we consider a game of entry and show that the incumbent may achieve entry deterrence using this delegation scheme. When entry is deterred, the incumbent acts as a pure monopolist. . keywords: entry deterrence, market shares, strategic delegation JEL Classification: L13, L22


The problem of waves propagating on the surface of a two-dimensional ideal fluid of infinite depth bounded above by an elastic sheet is studied with asymptotic and numerical methods. We use a nonlinear elastic model that has been used to describe the dynamics of ice sheets. Particular attention is paid to forced and unforced dynamics of waves having near-minimum phase speed. For the unforced problem, we find that wavepacket solitary waves bifurcate from nonlinear periodic waves of minimum speed. When the problem is forced by a moving load, we find that, for small-amplitude forcing, steady responses are possible at all subcritical speeds, but for larger loads there is a transcritical range of forcing speeds for which there are no steady solutions. In unsteady computations, we find that if the problem is forced at a speed in this range, very large unsteady responses are obtained, and that when the forcing is released, a solitary wave is generated. These solitary waves appear stable, and can coexist within a sea of small-amplitude waves.


The main parameters of an atmospheric hybrid gliding arc discharge in air-water, which is generated between at least two metal electrodes with an alternating current high voltage, are measured. They are the electrical parameters, arc velocity, length, and diameter. The voltage cycles are characterized by a moderate increase in tension, which is represented by a peak followed by an abrupt decrease and a current peak in the half period (10 ms). Photographs taken with a high-speed camera clearly show gliding arcs that operate according to successive ignition-lengthening-extinction cycles. The major reactive radicals such as ldrOH are identified by means of spectral scans.


This paper illustrates the mechanics of buying stock on margin with the ability to account for buying or selling more of the same stock as the price changes (assuming one uses the same broker). This latter component allows the student to see how the margin set for stock purchases at different prices interact. Further, it is very easy to demonstrate how margin calls become frequent when a stock price plummets. This compliments much of what is now being taught with trading simulation software and student managed funds.


© B O R K / SH U TT ER ST O C K R esearchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center looking at objective measures of sedentary behavior and cancer mortality found that greater inactivity was associated with an independently associated risk of dying from cancer—the most sedentary individuals had an 82% higher risk of cancer mortality in comparison with the least sedentary participants. Published in JAMA Oncology, the study was the first to examine the connection and show a strong association between these 2 objective measures.1 Furthermore, the amount of time that a person spends sitting before a cancer diagnosis is predictive of the time to cancer death, notes lead author Susan Gilchrist, MD, a professor of clinical cancer prevention at MD Anderson. The study also indicated that replacing 30 minutes of sedentary time with moderate physical activity (eg, cycling) was associated with a 31% lower risk of cancer death. Meanwhile, light-intensity activity such as walking was associated with an 8% lower risk of cancer death. The study involved more than 30,000 U.S. adults from the national REGARDS study, which recruited participants older than 45 years between 2003 and 2007. The researchers' aim was to study long-term health outcomes. To analyze sedentary behavior, 8,002 participants who did not have a cancer diagnosis wore accelerometers on their hips during waking hours for 7 consecutive days. Data were gathered between 2009 and 2013 with a mean follow-up of 5 years. After that period, 268 participants died of cancer. Longer durations of sedentary behaviors were associated with a greater risk of cancer death. The study points to the importance of sitting less, moving more, and incorporating 30 minutes of activity into one's daily life to reduce cancer mortality risk, says Dr. Gilchrist, who also leads MD Anderson's Healthy Heart Program. She tells her patients to consider standing for 5 minutes every hour at work or taking the stairs instead of the elevator because even light exercise can have an impact on cancer survival. Next, Dr. Gilchrist and her colleagues plan to investigate how objectively sedentary behavior affects site-specific cancer incidence as well as how and whether sex and race factor into the equation.


Knölker's iron-based catalysts have some value in "green" transformations given the relatively low toxicity of iron compared to more commonly used precious-metal catalysts. Density functional methods have been used to extensively explore the use of an iron catalyst for hydrogen-transfer processes. Several inner- (with substrate coordination) and outer-sphere mechanisms (with no substrate coordination) were analyzed using a semi-simplified system. An outer-sphere route involving a concerted hydrogen-transfer to the substrate was found to be the most kinetically feasible mechanism, with a free energy barrier of only 10.2 kcal mol(-1). This mechanism was then used to explore the complete system at the same theoretical level. The real system had a higher free energy barrier (20.7 kcal mol(-1)) which is due to the steric effect of the substituent group. All the calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental results.


From the year 2009, the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of the Free State (UFS) has expected the final-year students to write a "scientific article" as an outcome of the fourth-year research module.  These articles have to adhere to the standards of submission for publication, as specified in the South African Journal for Occupational Therapy (SAJOT) 1 . The aim of this study was therefore to determine the knowledge and skills of the fourth-year Occupational Therapy students at the UFS regarding the writing of scientific articles.  The research module is presented over two semesters and consists of 16 credits.  The module is presented by the departments of Occupational Therapy and Biostatistics at the UFS.  At the end of the first semester, the students are expected to have the knowledge and skill to carry out basic statistical analyses and data interpretation. Towards completion of the second semester, students are expected to have acquired knowledge of the research process with respect to doing a literature study and writing a protocol.   Students work in groups of 5-7 students. A study leader from the department of Occupational Therapy and a biostatistician are involved in advisory and assessor capacities during the phases of planning the research project and data interpretation. The final outcome of the research module is the writing of a research article. For this purpose, two hours lecturing time are allocated for the evaluation of the structure of published articles according to SAJOT's instructions for authors 1 . Methods The data for this descriptive study were obtained by means of a pilot tested questionnaire completed by the students. In the questionnaire, students were asked to indicate on a scale from 0 – 5 how they would rate (i) their level of enjoyment regarding the research process, (ii) the quality of guidance given by their study leader, (iii) the knowledge of their study leader, (iv) their skill, and (v) acquired knowledge as a result of the course. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences, UFS. All (34) fourth-year Occupational Therapy students of the year 2009 who completed an article for their fourth-year research project at the Department of Occupational Therapy, were approached to participate.  Descriptive statistics, namely frequencies and percentages for categorical data and medians and percentiles for continuous data, were calculated. Results Twenty-nine (85.3%) students participated in the study.  The students' median age was 22 years, ranging from 21 to 24 years.  The phases of the research process were evaluated by the students regarding enjoyment, guidance quality, skill and knowledge (See Table 1).  Table 1. Students' evaluation of the different phases of the research process. ---TABLE----- Levels could be indicated from 0 to 5 (low-high)  More than half (55.2%) of the students indicated low levels of enjoyment regarding the literature study at the beginning of the course. However, by the end of the process (finishing touches of the final product, 10.3%) there was a statistically significant improvement in their attitude as they became more positive towards this aspect of producing a research paper (95% Confidence Interval for the paired median difference [ 1 ; 3 ]). Although the quality of guidance by study leaders was viewed as relatively high on a score of 3, some students indicated a level of less than 3 for literature study, data interpretation and discussion.   Most students (65.5%) indicated that they would do research in the future. Students viewed themselves as having relatively (median of 3) good skills and knowledge regarding the research phases (Table 1). Some (62.1%) students enjoyed the process of writing an article, most (93.1%) students thought they were prepared for writing an article in the future, and some (58.6%) also indicated they had the skill to write an article in future. Almost all (96.6%) students experienced obstacles during the writing of an article. The stages at which they experienced problems were as follows: 85.7% students experienced problems interpreting the results, 46.4% writing the abstract, 42.9% writing the discussion, 39.3% using references, 35.7% writing the methodology, 21.4% writing the introduction, and 7.1% writing the conclusion. Some students (68.9%) found that their language skills were an impediment to the writing of the article. Of these, most (80.0%) thought their ability to write a good article would have benefited from exposure to scientific writing during the first two years of study. Discussion The students began the research process with low levels of enjoyment and then became more positive. Sixty-nine percent of students found their language skills in using a second language an obstacle. These obstacles included spelling, sentence construction, grammar and the use of English as a second language. This needs attention as Turner 2 notes that correct use of language, especially written language, is part of academic communication.  Students indicated a low level of skill and knowledge regarding the literature study and data interpretation. Even though students indicated the reasons for obstacles as the  lack of experience and exposure, overall they had a positive view on their own skill and knowledge of writing a scientific article. The results of this study reflect a sense of satisfaction and self-confidence, as displayed by the students' self-evaluation regarding their knowledge and skill, with reference to the writing of a scientific article.  Lecturers find it encouraging to see students apply the input of their course, with writing of an article as a final outcome of the research module. References 1.    South African Journal for Occupational Therapy.  Instructions to authors. http://www.otasa.org.za/otasa_journal/instruction_to_authors.html (Accessed on 12/06/09). 2.    Turner J. 2004. Language as academic purpose. Journal of English for Academic Purposes . 3: 95-109.


One hundred and twenty one-day-old, Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomized into 1 control and 3 experimental groups each containing 30 birds. Each group was further divided into one main and two replicate subgroups. Group I (control) was fed the basal diet, group II (HE) was fed a high energy diet (3250 kcal/kg as starter diet; 3300 kcal/kg as grower diet), group III (HE+Se) was fed the HE diet supplemented with 1 mg/kg Se as sodium selenite, group IV (HE+Vit C) was fed the HE diet supplemented with 250 mg/kg vitamin C as ascorbic acid. The highest feed intake values were observed in the HE+vitamin C (P<0.01) during 4−40 days of age. Performance of the animals was positively affected by the supplementation of vitamin C and selenium, and the crude protein retention increased only in Group IV. Relative liver weight was the highest in group II (P<0.05) and relative thyroid weight − in the control group (P<0.05), but the relative weights of heart, lung, spleen and gizzard did not differ significantly among groups. With these results, we may suggest the supplementation of vitamin C and selenium in broilers exposed to cold environment instead of feeding them only with high energy.


This paper provides experimental evidence on the effects of vocational and entrepreneurial training for Malawian youth, in an environment where access to schooling and formal sector employment is extremely low. It tracks a large fraction of program drop-outs -- a common phenomenon in the training evaluation literature -- and examines the determinants and consequences of dropping out and how it mediates the effects of such programs. The analysis finds that women make decisions in a more constrained environment, and their participation is affected by family obligations. Participation is more expensive for them, resulting in worse training experience. The training results in skills development, continued investment in human capital, and improved well-being, with more positive effects for men, but no improvements in labor market outcomes in the short run.


Cross-flow pressure regulating valve structures are attractive for high-flow pressure control applications due to the decreased actuation force required and the reduced device footprint area. A knife gate valve was fabricated, controlling a flow of 1.3 Nl/min at a supply pressure of 1.5 bar. The valve was microfabricated using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) and silicon fusion bonding. The use of micromachined knife gate valves in pressure control systems enhances performance and cost savings can be realized.


In this paper, we analyze the fractional modeling of the giving up the smoking using the definitions of Liouville-Caputo and Atangana-Baleanu-Caputo fractional derivatives. Applying the homotopy analysis method and the Laplace transform with polynomial homotopy, the analytical solution of the smoking dynamics has obtained. Furthermore, using an iterative scheme by the Laplace transform, and the Atangana-Baleanu fractional integral, special solutions of the model are obtained. Uniqueness and existence of the solutions by the fixed-point theorem and Picard-Lindelof approach are studied. Finally, some numerical simulations are carried out for illustrating the results obtained.


A data-based approach is presented for modeling and controller design of a dual-stage servo actuator in a hard disk drive. The servo actuator in this hard disk drive consists of a conventional voice coil motor and a piezo-electrically actuated suspension. A weighted Hankel matrix based realization algorithm that uses frequency domain data is applied to estimate a discrete-time model of the voice coil motor and the piezoelectric actuator. Based on the discrete-time models, different dual-stage track-following controllers were designed using classic and H∞ loop shaping techniques. The controllers were implemented in real-time in the investigated hard disk drive. A stable feed-back control and good agreement between measurements and simulations show the promising result of data based modeling and control.


Observational studies revealed altered gut microbial composition in patients with allergic diseases, which illustrated a strong association between the gut microbiome and the risk of allergies. However, whether such associations reflect causality remains to be well-documented. Two-sample mendelian randomization (2SMR) was performed to estimate the potential causal effect between the gut microbiota and the risk of allergic diseases. 3, 12, and 16 SNPs at the species, genus, and family levels respectively of 15 microbiome features were obtained as the genetic instruments of the exposure dataset from a previous study. GWAS summary data of a total of 17 independent studies related to allergic diseases were collected from the IEU GWAS database for the outcome dataset. Significant causal relationships were obtained between gut microbiome features including Ruminococcaceae, Eggerthella, Bifidobacterium, Faecalibacterium, and Bacteroides and the risk of allergic diseases. Furthermore, our results also pointed out a number of putative associations between the gut microbiome and allergic diseases. Taken together, this study was the first study using the approach of 2SMR to elucidate the association between gut microbiome and allergic diseases.


The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to tackle a range of environmental challenges and deliver large efficiency gains in industry by embedding computational intelligence, sensing and control in our physical environment. Multiple independent parties are increasingly seeking to leverage shared IoT infrastructure, using a similar model to the cloud, and thus require constrained IoT devices to become microservice-hosting platforms that can securely and concurrently execute their code and interoperate. This vision demands that heterogeneous services, peripherals and platforms are provided with an expanded set of security guarantees to prevent third-party services from hijacking the platform, resource-level access control and accounting, and strong isolation between running processes to prevent unauthorized access to third-party services and data. This paper introduces Polyglot CerberOS, a resource-secure operating system for multi-tenant IoT devices that is realised through a reconfigurable virtual machine which can simultaneously execute interoperable services, written in different languages. We evaluate Polyglot CerberOS on IETF Class-1 devices running both Java and C services. The results show that interoperability and strong security guarantees for multilingual services on multi-tenant commodity IoT devices are feasible, in terms of performance and memory overhead, and transparent for developers.


This paper demonstrates an improved four cascaded single stage distributed amplifier, which operates over the frequency range from DC to 20 GHz. Simulation results show that the proposed circuit offers superior baseband performance over the existing cascaded single stage distributed amplifier topology. In addition, it provides 10 dB higher gain than the conventional distributed amplifier using the same amount of active devices.


Particle effects in games nowadays is taken for granted. Almost every game engine that exists today have a complete system for emitting and handling particles. This thesis paper presents a way to utilize the particle system that is provided with the Gamebryo game engine. A basic overview in how to design a smoke effect system is presented. After that a overview of some Gamebryo and Clusterball II classes is given. Then a discussion about the results of this project is held.


Previous work by LeMaster and Trost (1994) and Otis (1994) developed and evaluated statistical models for incorporating wood ducks (Aix sponsa) banded between 15 April and 30 June into band recovery analyses to estimate survival and recovery rates. In this study, we analyzed wood duck band recovery data from 1982-1992 in the proposed mid-Atlantic wood duck management unit and evaluated the impact of past early season banding on precision of the esti- mates. Based on statistics compiled from the wood duck nest box program in South Carolina, we then used computer simulation to evaluate potential impact of state and regional scale banding of adult females in nest box programs. Addi- tional early season banding in the mid-Atlantic region could slightly improve esti- mates of annual and summer survival rates for adults, but replacement of presea- son banding with early season banding to achieve banding quotas can result in substantial decreases in precision of some parameters. Proc. Annu. Conf. Southeast. Assoc. Fish and Wildl. Agencies 49:618-628


The field of volume visualization has undergone rapid development during the past years, both due to advances in suitable computing hardware and due to the increasing availability of large volume datasets. Recent work has focused on increasing the visual realism in Direct Volume Rendering (DVR) by integrating a number of visually plausible but often effect-specific rendering techniques, for instance modeling of light occlusion and depth of field. Besides yielding more attractive renderings, especially the more realistic lighting has a positive effect on perceptual tasks. Although these new rendering techniques yield impressive results, they exhibit limitations in terms of their exibility and their performance. Monte Carlo ray tracing (MCRT), coupled with physically based light transport, is the de-facto standard for synthesizing highly realistic images in the graphics domain, although usually not from volumetric data. Due to the stochastic sampling of MCRT algorithms, numerous effects can be achieved in a relatively straight-forward fashion. For this reason, we have developed a practical framework that applies MCRT techniques also to direct volume rendering (DVR). With this work, we demonstrate that a host of realistic effects, including physically based lighting, can be simulated in a generic and flexible fashion, leading to interactive DVR with improved realism. In the hope that this improved approach to DVR will see more use in practice, we have made available our framework under a permissive open source license.


We present a systematic review of the literature on power and its interpersonal consequences. Our review, comprising 339 studies published in 145 research articles, shows that this line of research has primarily examined how powerholders attend to and act towards powerless individuals, or others in general. We therefore know surprisingly little about how powerholders attend to and act towards other powerhold-ers. To address this issue, we present a conceptual framework that outlines how an actor's power interacts with a target's power to influence prosocial and antisocial beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. We identify two routes in the literature detailing how powerholders respond to one another. First, building on rivalry literature, we present a competitive route suggesting that powerholders rival each other and engage in conflict. Second, building on social identity and social dominance literature, we present a harmonious route suggesting that powerful peers will show compassion and care for each other. Finally, we bring forth suggestions for how future research could test these two perspectives, by presenting moderators that determine when each of these two routes is activated. In doing so, we offer important implications for the power literature and open a new line of inquiry for future research.


Abstract Analytical relations are developed that relate the Monin-Obukhov parameter to a modified bulk Richardson number expressed in terms of measured wind speed and vertical temperature difference. Measured Monin-Obukhov parameters and Richardson numbers are compared with those calculated using these relations as well as those using the conversion schemes developed earlier by Golder. Measured surface heat and momentum fluxes under unstable conditions are also compared with those predicted using the present simple estimating scheme. Effects of different choices of parameters in the flux-profile relationship with respect to the predicted stability parameters and to the plume dispersion parameters are discussed.


A multipurpose railroad hand truck comprising mainly of a frame, swinger arm, connecting rod, crank shaft, gears, wheels and brake was designed and fabricated to reduce the cost of material handling in small scaled manufacturing industries. The frame and other major components of the hand truck were fabricated with mild steel bars, shafts and sheets while the guide rail was constructed using 50mm by 50mm mild steel angle bar. The hand truck is hand paddled and requires no prime mover (electric motor, IC engine, etc.), hence incurring minimal operational cost. The hand truck will be used to convey tools, materials and work pieces from one part of the workshop to another on guide rails. Results of its performance test indicated that the hand truck can carry loads up to 250kg. All materials used for the fabrication were sourced locally. Keywords : railroad, truck, paddled, swinger, multipurpose


We have analyzed the distribution of nuclear and nucleolar proteins during the period of oocyte's growth. Oocytes were isolated mechanically or enzymatically from ovaries of juvenile mice of various ages (from 1 to 28 days after birth). Small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), the splicing factor SC-35, and a protein linked to cell proliferation (p-120) were detected by indirect immunofluorescence. snRNP distribution is consistent with the prophase state of oocyte's nuclei, while SC-35 (and p-120) exhibit a "speckled" distribution throughout the entire period of growth. The number of speckles (or foci) appears maximal around 10 days after birth, i.e., in the period of maximal transcriptional activity, and is sensitive to alpha-amanitin treatment. On the other hand, the immunofluorescent distribution of of nucleolin and p-103 (a nucleolar marker of the granular component) is compared to the ultrastructural distribution of the granular component analyzed by electron microscopy on oocytes of the same age.


In current state-of-the-art systems for object detection and classification a huge amount of data is needed. Even if large databases are available, some classes are typically underrepresented and therefore the classifier is not able to capture the variability in appearance. In this work we present a novel method to enrich the training database with natural looking synthetic images. The method can be used to transfer the object appearance from one image (template image) to another image (base image) containing a different object of the same or a similar category. In order to preserve natural appearance and avoid artifacts we only use the gray-level values of the base image for synthesis. The main contribution of this work is an extension of the shift-map approach [1]. An appropriate optimization criteria for the used Markov Random Field (MRF) is defined and the MRF is embedded into a general framework for training data synthesis, which is exemplary tailored to the generation of traffic signs. The influence of using synthetic images is evaluated using a convolutional neural network (CNN).


Abstract We assessed the content of some major and trace elements and lichen compounds as well as antioxidant activity in eight lichen species representing four families collected in areas > 1 km distant from Bellingshausen (King George Island) and > 1 km distant from Molodezhnaya (Thala Hills, Enderby Land) research stations. Content levels of Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn and As in Physcia caesia, Physconia muscigena, Umbilicaria aprina, Umbilicaria decussata and Usnea aurantiaco-atra thalli were similar to or lower than previously reported for these species in the Maritime and Continental Antarctic, as well as from reference sites. The first data on the contents of 15 elements in Ramalina terebrata and Thamnolecania brialmontii thalli from the Maritime Antarctic are reported. Our analyses confirmed the presence of the main photosynthetic pigments in the species examined (chlorophyll a and b, phaeophytin a and b, neoxanthin, violaxanthin, lutein and β-carotene). We identified protolichesterinic acid in T. brialmontii thalli for the first time. Antioxidant activity varied from 190 μg/g dry weight (U. decussata) to 14,740 μg/g dry weight (T. brialmontii). The data obtained complement previous research while also providing new baseline data that will have utility in monitoring and identifying future change.


Wireless networks have contributed to the technological advance that popularized the use of mobile devices, and fostered the development of applications targeted to these devices. However, issues such as mobility and communication intermittency, as well as processing, storage and battery constraints demand changes in the traditional software testing process. This paper aims to present testing requirements that are specific to applications developed for mobile devices. We also show that these requirements can improve productivity and efficacy in the testing process of an application.