ABSTRACT In the fields of oil and gas exploration, various quantitative seismic interpretation techniques have been developed to identify lithology and pore fluids based on the rock physics. However, discrimination between oil and brine in pores is often difficult because the seismic response of oil and brine are similar. Poisson impedance (PI) is an effective indicator for distinguishing oil from brine in pores. Target correlation coefficient analysis (TCCA) is widely used to calculate the "c" factor of PI. However, PI analysis using the TCCA method can lead to misinterpretation when the resistivity log is affected by lithology and porosity, as well as the pore fluid type. To overcome this problem, we developed a more effective PI workflow composed of three steps that focus on lithology impedance, porosity impedance, and fluid impedance. In each step, we exclude the unnecessary area for hydrocarbon exploration such as shale, tight, and brine-saturated areas. We applied our method to marine field data that contained shale and tight intervals and demonstrated that the proposed approach can be used to identify potential oil reservoirs more effectively from seismic data.


Computer tools are rational artifacts determined by the cultural background of designers and users. Communicating design assumptions, choices, and goals is a complex task, subject to constant misunderstandings that lead to a wide spectrum of breakdowns in human-computer interaction. This paper presents a method to help HCI practitioners evaluate the communicability of interactive systems, not only in terms of the effectiveness of their direct messages to users but also of the afforded conversational paths that should allow breakdowns to be circumvented. The whole proposal is tied to a semiotic background within which systems are like "discourse deputies" of their designers.


The spectrum of doubly ionized xenon has been investigated. The study is based on photographic recordings of xenon spectra in the 490-8900 A range. The number of classified lines has been increased from about 300 to about 1400. The lines have been classified as transitions between 73 even levels belonging to the 5s25p4, 5s25p36p, 4f, 5f and 5s05p6 configurations, and 83 odd levels belonging to the 5s5p5, 5s25p36s, 7s, 5d and 6d configurations. In particular, the classifications include most of the Xe III laser lines. The experimentally observed level structures are compared with the results of Hartree-Fock calculations and least-squares fits. A comparison is also made between the results of the present analysis and the published data on the Xe N4,5 OO Auger spectrum.


Non-monotonic reasoning constitutes an approach to reasoning with incomplete or changing information and is significantly more powerful than standard reasoning, which simply deals with universal statements. Defeasible reasoning, a member of the non-monotonic reasoning family, offers the extra capability of dealing with conflicting information and can represent facts, rules and priorities among rules. The main advantages of defeasible reasoning, however, are not only limited to its enhanced representational capabilities, but also feature low computational complexity compared to mainstream non-monotonic reasoning. This paper presents a system for non-monotonic reasoning on the Semantic Web called VDR-Device, which is capable of reasoning about RDF metadata over multiple Web sources using defeasible logic rules. It is implemented on top of the CLIPS production rule system and features a RuleML compatible syntax. The operational semantics of defeasible logic are implemented through compilation into a generic deductive rule language. Since the RuleML syntax may appear complex for many users, we have also implemented a graphical authoring tool for defeasible logic rules that acts as a shell for the defeasible reasoning system. The tool constrains the allowed vocabulary through analysis of the input RDF documents, so that the user does not have to type-in class and property names.


When South Africa's land reform programme finally reached rural Umbumbulu, a potential for conflict over land emerged unexpectedly. Strategically located near a major urban centre, residents of this region have long relied on wages and social welfare grants. Land was valued primarily for residential security and as a symbolic representation of community membership, rather than for productive purposes. This emphasis on community membership, however, created the potential for conflict when a local chief challenged a civil society group over their authority to claim land. With the government's continued hesitancy to challenge the authority of chiefs, land reform provided an opportunity for local chiefs to reinforce their position and potentially to expand the amount of land under their jurisdiction. This agenda conflicted both with the government's interest in developing commercial agriculture and local residents' desire for rural land as security in the context of high levels of unemployment.


The number of media streams that can be supported concurrently is highly constrained by the stringent requirements of real-time playback and high transfer rates. To address this problem, media delivery techniques, such as Batching and Stream Merging, utilize the multicast facility to increase resource sharing. The achieved resource sharing depends greatly on how the waiting requests are scheduled for service. Scheduling has been studied extensively when Batching is applied, but up to our knowledge, it has not been investigated in the context of stream merging techniques, which achieve much better resource sharing. In this study, we analyze scheduling when stream merging is employed and propose a simple, yet highly effective scheduling policy, called Minimum Cost First (MCF). MCF exploits the wide variation in stream lengths by favoring the requests that require the least cost. We present two alternative implementations of MCF: MCF-T and MCF-P . We compare various scheduling policies through extensive simulation and show that MCF achieves significant performance benefits in terms of both the number of requests that can be serviced concurrently and the average waiting time for service.


This paper presents an investigation into control of sealed conical bores. Beginning with an impedance model of the enclosure, frequency domain and state-space models of the system are developed as functions of the geometric and mechanical properties of the cone. A discussion of coupling this acoustic model with the electrical and mechanical dynamics of a permanent magnet speaker are also presented. Using a sample geometry, the accuracy of this coupled model is validated against experimental results, indicating accuracy levels of 1.75% or lower in prediction of resonance frequencies. This paper concludes with a study on applying Linear Quadratic Regulator techniques to this system, relating trade-offs between average pressure and control voltages. The results of our simulations indicate that pressure reductions of 40.5% are attainable with average control voltages of 3.26 volts when subject to low level impulse disturbances, as applied to an example geometry.


A survey of 100 young women's body measurements was undertaken during 1992/93. The findings are the basis of Part 3, which aims to explain how size charts are developed for garments; to evaluate the measuring equipment used and to compare the size chart body measurements with those proportionally derived by traditional formulae. A size chart is the artificial dividing of a range of measurements which are concise and consistent. There are different types of size charts. Some are of body measurement for specific proportion and shape. Others are for garments including ease allowances which vary according to the garment style and type of fabric. Size charts can be developed in three stages commencing with the raw survey data, which is then rounded to the nearest 1.0 cm or 0.5 cm and finally ease allowance is added for the finished garment. During the survey some measurements were repeated using different measuring equipment so that a comparison could be made to select the most suitable for pattern construction. The use of the anthropometer is limited as it can only take linear measurements. However, it is helpful when analysing body proportion, whereas the tape measures attached to the harness and a metal tape measure can record the contour surface of the body, which is more appropriate for clothing. The adjustable square and angle were a little difficult to position correctly but were useful to check the formulae used for pattern construction. A comparison is made between the survey body measurements and traditional formula to derive body measurements which are difficult to take. The dividing of the height by eight heads is useful for length proportions. The derived neck shape and survey measurements were comparable. Head measurements suitable for hoods were similar for all bust and neck sizes. Only the height showed any progression in size. This concludes the three articles which explain the taking of body measurements, methods of analysing the data and applying it to clothing pattern construction. It is hoped that this will aid those in industry and education who wish to undertake research and to develop new technology.


A questionnaire survey of three groups of teachers who received copies of A Directory of Physics Resource Materials (for teachers, produced by industrial and commercial organizations, Ed. PF Bullett, The Association for Science Education, Hatfield, 1985, pp.22) establishes: the characteristics of the sample of teachers and of their schools; their previous knowledge and use of Industrially Produced Resource Materials (IPRM); the effect of the Directory in encouraging them to obtain further examples of IPRM; their access to and use of audio-visual aids (a necessary precondition for the use of some formats of IPRM); the use of various formats of materials in their teaching: and the means by which they are Informed about IPRM.

Analysis of the replies indicates that this non-random sample of 99 teachers was generally aware of, and obtained, very few of the resource materials produced by industrial companies, and these materials largely failed to meet their perceived needs. The findings of two national surveys which are reviewed support these conclusions, and recommendations are made for producers of IPRM.

Case-studies of six successful projects, which used teacher-writers and generated Industrial Resource Material (IRM), identify effective strategies and suggest approaches to future good practice.

The lack of evaluation and effective dissemination of IRM are identified as crucial weaknesses in many current initiatives, and strategies of proven value are suggested which might find application in this context.

A model of curriculum resource diffusion and utilization is suggested as providing a conceptual frame-work for the discussion of teachers' use of IRM and defines critical parameters which would allow measures of both diffusion and utilization in future research.

The historical, economic and political perspectives of the school/industry Interface are outlined to provide the context for IPRM.


Background We test the hypothesis that adding TPEP or IPPB to standard pharmacological therapy may provide additional clinical benefit over pharmacological therapy only in patients with GOLD 3 and 4 severity of airflow limitation COPD Methods Thirty patients were randomized in three groups: a group was treated with IPPB,a group with TPEP and a group with pharmacological therapy alone. Primary outcome measures included dyspnea, cough, and sputum scales, as well as daily life activity evaluations (MRC,CAT,BCSS). Secondary outcome measures were pulmonary function testing, arterial blood gas analysis,and hematological examinations. Results Both patients in the IPPB group and in the TPEP group showed a significant improvement in two of three test of quality of life assessment (MRC,CAT) compared to the control group.However,in the group comparison analysis for the same variables between IPPB group and TPEP group we observed a significant improvement in the IPPB group (p≤ 0.05 for MRC and p≤0.01 for CAT). Discussion The two techniques improves quality of life and lung function in patients with severe COPD.IPPB demonstrated a significant greatest effectiveness to improve dyspnea and quality of life tools (MRC,CAT) than TPEP.


Temperature seasonality has been proposed to be an important determinant of bat community structure in Atlantic Forest of South America and elsewhere. I characterized spatial and environmental patterns of species richness of phyllostomid bats in Atlantic Forest of South America and examined the degree to which temperature seasonality relative to other important environmental gradients was related to patterns of diversity across 60 heterogeneously sampled assemblages. I compared efficacy of different methods of accounting for inventory completeness (rarefaction, species estimation, minimum number of individuals and raw data) in characterizing gradients of bat diversity. I also compared levels of spatial autocorrelation generated by these methods and the degree to which such autocorrelation influenced results of regression analyses. Temperature seasonality was consistently the most important predictor of species richness across all methods of accounting for inventory completeness as well as between spatial and non‐spatial regression methods. Spatial autocorrelation of both species richness and regression residuals was lowest for species richness estimators and highest for data rarefied to the highest sample sizes. Strong and characteristic environmental gradients typifying Atlantic Forest of South America translate into coincident gradients of richness of bat assemblages. Although data were characterized by heterogeneous sampling efforts, relationships of species richness with seasonality of temperature were strong and easily detectable. Methods of accounting for inventory completeness improve assessment with species richness estimators performing better than rarefaction methods.


AIM : IgA Nephropathy (IgAN) has a rapid course in the Indian population. This case
control study was performed to study mycophenolate (MPA) in high risk IgAN.
METHODS : 41 IgAN cases at high risk of progression (24 hour proteinuria >3grams or e
GFR(MDRD) =107mmHg or
glomerulosclerosis involving >=50% of glomeruli) who were treated with MPA (dose
controlled with therapeutic drug monitoring) and steroids +/- ACE-I/ARB were compared
to two historical control groups, one that received steroids+/- ACE-I/ARB (control 1,
n=31) and the other, without immunosuppression +/- ACE-I/ARB (control 2, n=41).
RESULTS : Baseline characteristics of 3 groups were similar with respect to age, sex, MAP,
proteinuria whereas e GFR in control 1 was higher by 15 ml/min. (p=0.03). Mann-
Whitney test was used. In cases, control 1 and control 2, after 3 months of treatment,
median percent change in e GFR was 16.93,11.62, -8.23, %change in s. creatinine was -
12.5,-1.17,-1.32 and %change in proteinuria was -58.76, -45.31 and -48.53 respectively.
When cases were compared to control 2, there was a significant improvement in e GFR
and s.creatinine (p=0.004 and 0.005) respectively, whereas there was a trend towards
improvement in proteinuria in cases by 10% (p=0.313).On comparing cases to control 1,
there was a trend towards improvement of proteinuria and e GFR in cases by 13%
(p=0.548) and 5% (p=0.58) respectively. Sub group analysis of patients in the 3 groups
who received ACE-I/ARB revealed similar trends.
CONCLUSIONS : In high risk IgAN patients, MPA+steroids+ACE-I/ARB was beneficial
with respect to improvement in renal function when compared to ACE-I/ARB alone and
there was a trend towards better renal function when compared to steroids + ACE-I/ARB.


Globally, approximately two billion people are infected with the Hepatitis B virus with attributable death estimated at about half a million people annually across the globe. Chronic hepatitis B infection is also an important public health problem in Ghana. The main mode of transmission in endemic regions is the perinatal route. Mother-to-child transmission can be reduced by antiviral therapy especially in the last trimester and adherence to the national immunization schedule. The World Health Organization recommends to add the birth dose vaccine to the current expanded program on immunization (EPI) in all countries but especially for endemic regions. The evidence for the efficacy of the birth dose HBV vaccine is overwhelming and there is an urgent need for its introduction into the current EPI schedule in Ghana.


In this report the upcoming sustainable residential district of Ostra Sala backe in the city of Uppsala is studied. The aim of the thesis is to map and analyze the content of the chosen constructor's specific energy use and how they have calculated it. The aim is also to analyze how some actors in the energy sector recommend that the specific energy use should be calculated. The study is based on interviews with the constructors and reviews of their applications. With the information from the interviews the specific energy use could be mapped and compared. The result shows uncertainties in the presented values, mostly due to the early stage of the project. The project is the first of this kind in Uppsala but similar projects has been both planned and built in other Swedish cities. Differences and similarities between the earlier projects and Ostra Sala backe are considered.


The Water Editorial Office is issuing this expression of concern to alert readers to concerns regarding the authorship of [...]


Due to the sensitive nature of the data many wireless sensor networks are tasked to collect security of this data is an important concern. The best way to secure this data is to encrypt it using a secure encryption algorithm before it is transmitted over the air ways. However due to the constrained nature of the resources available on sensor nodes the cost, both in terms of power consumption and speed, of any software based encryption procedure can often out weigh the risks of the transmission being intercepted. We present a solution to reduce this cost of employing encryption by taking advantage of a resource already available on many sensor nodes; this resource being the encryption module available on the Chipcon CC2420 transceiver chip.


Fences were critical in the fight against rabbits in colonial Australia. Initially, domestic rabbits were farmed in pens or paddocks fenced with paling fences or walls. Wild-caught rabbits imported from England escaped and became serious pests from the 1850s. As their status changed from protected private property to a major pest, the functions of fences changed to fencing rabbits out. Legislation requiring or specifying rabbit-proof fences lagged several years behind recognition of rabbits as a problem. Most log and brush fences in infested districts were burnt to destroy rabbit harbour. Dry stone walls were modified in many ways; paling, slab, picket and stub fences were all tried, but were unsuccessful, and by 1886 netting was standard. Using examples from the rich agricultural Western District and the considerably poorer Mallee Region of Victoria, this article describes the many forms of rabbit fences used between the 1850s and the mid-1880s. All of the experimentation with different structures was by individual landholders, with colonial governments conspicuous by their lack of involvement until they erected rabbit-proof barrier fences.


Cross-national surveys run the risk of differential survey errors, where data collected vary in quality from country to country. Responsive and adaptive survey designs (RASDs) have been proposed as a way to reduce survey errors, by leveraging auxiliary variables to inform fieldwork efforts, but have rarely been considered in the context of cross-national surveys. Using data from the European Social Survey, we simulate fieldwork in a repeated cross-national survey using RASD where fieldwork efforts are ended early for selected units in the final stage of data collection. Demographic variables, paradata (interviewer observations), and contact data are used to inform fieldwork efforts. Eight combinations of response propensity models and selection mechanisms are evaluated in terms of sample composition (as measured by the coefficient of variation of response propensities), response rates, number of contact attempts saved, and effects on estimates of target variables in the survey. We find that sample balance can be improved in many country-round combinations. Response rates can be increased marginally and targeting high propensity respondents could lead to significant cost savings associated with making fewer contact attempts. Estimates of target variables are not changed by the case prioritizations used in the simulations, indicating that they do not impact nonresponse bias. We conclude that RASDs should be considered in cross-national surveys, but that more work is needed to identify suitable covariates to inform fieldwork efforts.


We describe the results of a study designed to identify cDNAs encoding Ca2+-transporting ATPases and other cation-transporting ATPases of the aspartylphosphate class. Rat brain, kidney, and stomach cDNA libraries were screened with an oligonucleotide hybridization probe corresponding to a 23-amino acid sequence from part of the ATP-binding site of the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase. This procedure resulted in the isolation of cDNAs encoding (i) the plasma membrane CaATPase, (ii) an apparent Ca-ATPase that exhibits high amino acid similarity to the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ pumps, (iii) a transport ATPase of unknown ion specificity and (iv) two Ca-ATPase isoforms encoded by the gene for the slow-twitch muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase. Several isoforms of the Na,KATPase and gastric H,K-ATPase that had been characterized previously were also identified. The complete nucleotide sequences have been determined for the two classes of cDNA derived from alternatively spliced transcripts of the slow-twitch muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca-ATPase gene. One of these cDNAs, isolated from the stomach library, encodes a Ca-ATPase that is identical to the skeletal muscle enzyme. The second class of cDNA, found in brain, kidney, and stomach libraries, is identical to that of the slow-twitch isoform throughout much of its length but encodes an alternative C terminus and has a different 3"untranslated sequence. Whereas the muscle isoform consists of 997 amino acids and terminates with the s quence Ala-IleLeu-Glu, the second isoform is 1043 amino acids in length due to the replacement of these last 4 amino acids with a 50-amino acid sequence that contains a potential transmembrane domain followed by a consensus sequence for an N-linked glycosylation site.


Visible light responsive Fe3O4–WSe2/NG (nitrogen doped graphene oxide) heterojunction nanocomposites were synthesized by a hydrothermal synthesis route, in which Fe3O4 and WSe2 particles were coated on the surface of NG. The samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, VSM, UV-vis DRS, TOC, and GC-MS techniques. The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of Fe3O4–WSe2/NG photocatalysts under visible-light illumination was higher than that of WSe2/NG owing to the narrow band gap energy and delayed electron–hole recombination, and Fe3O4 can be used in advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to degrade organic pollutants at pH 3 and 3.0 mM H2O2. Moreover, the mass fraction of Fe3O4 had a great effect on the photocatalytic activity of Fe3O4–WSe2/NG. Among the hybrid photocatalysts, 30 wt%Fe3O4–WSe2/NG (30 wt% of Fe3O4) exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity with a rate constant of 0.05589 min−1 for the degradation of MB in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation, and the removal efficiency reached 98.8% which was 1.6 times higher than that of WSe2/NG. More importantly, the magnetic properties of 30 wt%Fe3O4–WSe2/NG were analyzed and its reusability was also investigated after four successive runs by applying an external magnetic field.


In this paper, we present a new variational formulation for geometric active contours that forces the level set function to be close to a signed distance function, and therefore completely eliminates the need of the costly re-initialization procedure. Our variational formulation consists of an internal energy term that penalizes the deviation of the level set function from a signed distance function, and an external energy term that drives the motion of the zero level set toward the desired image features, such as object boundaries. The resulting evolution of the level set function is the gradient flow that minimizes the overall energy functional. The proposed variational level set formulation has three main advantages over the traditional level set formulations. First, a significantly larger time step can be used for numerically solving the evolution partial differential equation, and therefore speeds up the curve evolution. Second, the level set function can be initialized with general functions that are more efficient to construct and easier to use in practice than the widely used signed distance function. Third, the level set evolution in our formulation can be easily implemented by simple finite difference scheme and is computationally more efficient. The proposed algorithm has been applied to both simulated and real images with promising results.


Brown algae of the genus Cystoseira s. l. are key species in the Mediterranean basin, including the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. In addition to the typical attached forms of Cystoseira sensu lato (Ericaria crinita f. bosphorica (Sauvageau) S.S.Sadogurska, J.Neiva et A.Israel, and Gongolaria barbata (Stackhouse) Kuntze), an unattached form was previously described for the Black Sea. The taxonomic status of this taxon remained uncertain. According to the results of a comparative morphological analysis, it is shown that the Black Sea unattached samples belong to the species Gongolaria barbata. But unattached thalli, collected in the Dzharylhach Bay in the seagrass meadows of Zostera marina L., have morphological differences. Thalli are 30–50 cm long, light brown or yellow-brown; the holdfast is absent, the main axis is reduced or, if present, very short and thin (2–4 mm). Lateral branches are thin (2–3 mm), smooth; their length is 15–30 cm. The ultimate branches are filamentous, sometimes with oval-shaped aerocysts, single or arranged in chains. Receptacles are rarely present, spindle-shaped, 8–12 mm in length, without spines, but with a sterile mucron at the end. Therefore, a new nomenclature combination is proposed: Gongolaria barbata f. repens (A.D. Zinova & Kalugina) S.S. Sadogurska comb. nov. It is shown that the nomenclature combination Cystoseira concatenata f. repens A.D.Zinova & Kalugina is invalid. In addition, it is shown that the unattached Gongolaria barbata f. repens is not synonymous with the species Cystoseira aurantia Kützing sensu Orellana et al. (2019), which authors previouslyrearranged to the genus Cystoseira s.s. Analysis of phylogenetic trees from the works by different authors showed that unattached samples from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean do not belong to the Gongolaria barbata clade and may be unattached forms of other species.


The ClpB chaperone forms a hexamer ring and rescues aggregated proteins in co-operation with the DnaK system. Each subunit of ClpB has two nucleotide-binding modules, AAA (ATPase associated with various cellular activities)-1 and AAA-2, and an 85-A (1 A=0.1 nm)-long coiled-coil. The coiled-coil consists of two halves: wing-1, leaning toward AAA-1, and wing-2, leaning away from all the domains. The coiled-coil is stabilized by leucine zipper-like interactions between leucine and isoleucine residues of two amphipathic alpha-helices that twist around each other to form each wing. To destabilize the two wings, we developed a series of mutants by replacing these residues with alanine. As the number of replaced residues increased, the chaperone activity was lost and the hexamer became unstable. The mutants, which had a stable hexameric structure but lost the chaperone activities, were able to exert the threading of soluble denatured proteins through their central pore. The destabilization of wing-1, but not wing-2, resulted in a several-fold stimulation of ATPase activity. These results indicate that stability of both wings of the coiled-coil is critical for full functioning of ClpB, but not for the central-pore threading of substrate proteins, and that wing-1 is involved in the communication between AAA-1 and AAA-2.


High voltage direct current (HVDC) based transmission of electric power, in comparison with high voltage alternating current (HVAC) transmission over a distance of over 800 km, has the advantages of higher transmission capability, lower line loss, more confined damage by fault, and that all AC lines connected to an HVDC system do not need to be synchronized. However, under DC conditions the electric field across the insulation space remains unidirectional and stable, which results in charge accumulation, leading to significant differences in the dielectric behavior and flashover characteristics of insulation materials in comparison with those under AC conditions. There exists limited amount of test data and research results on HVDC insulation behaviour. It is therefore necessary to carry out in-depth study of the discharge mechanisms and behavioral characteristics of the insulation materials required for HVDC transmission systems. The research in this thesis aims at the understanding of the charge transport and accumulation process inside and around insulators made of epoxy composite material. Firstly, the physical mechanisms are critically reviewed with appropriate experimental results selected for model verification. The model developed in the work encompasses all important mechanisms. Material properties obtained under different conditions are reviewed and values for the cases investigated in the present work determined. Charge transport is dominated by the drift of two types of oppositely charged particles in electric field with nonlinear generation source terms, giving rise to extreme difficulties for convergence of computation in strong electric field. As a result, special code is developed for a commercial software package (COMSOL based on finite element method) to implement the model and also the complicated boundary conditions. To gain confidence in the model and its implementation including the boundary conditions and material properties the model is verified in the work against experimental cases with different gas, geometry and applied voltage. An experimental study of the effect of surface charge accumulation on the potential distribution along the surface of an epoxy insulator under HVDC stress was carried out under non-ideal conditions.


The paradigm of type-based termination is explored for functional programming with recursive data types. The article introduces Lambda(mu)(+), a lambda-calculus with recursion, inductive types, subtyping and bounded quanti. cation. Decorated type variables representing approximations of inductive types are used to track the size of function arguments and return values. The system is shown to be type safe and strongly normalizing. The main novelty is a bidirectional type checking algorithm whose soundness is established formally.


Transmission line overload initiate the cascading outages, which forces the system to collapse. The most practiced techniques for overload alleviation is generator rescheduling and/or load shedding. The appropriate selection of generators and load buses to perform the control action for overload alleviation is an important task for the operators. Local optimisation based overload alleviation requires appropriate selection of generator and load buses for minimum control action. This paper presents a new technique for selection of participating generators and load buses using direct acyclic graph (DAG). PSO solved the generator rescheduling and/or load shedding optimisation problem with in security constraints. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated for different contingency cases in IEEE 30 and 57 bus systems. The result shows that the proposed approach is computationally fast, reliable and efficient, in restoring the system to normal state after a contingency with minimal control actions.


Fresh human seminal plasma was demonstrated to contain a basic microprotein with the same size, electrophoretic mobility, isoelectric point and immunochemical properties as isolated human gamma-trace. The concentration of gamma-trace in 24 normal seminal plasma samples was found to be (mean +/- SD): 51 +/- 8.1 mg/l which is 36 times higher than the normal human blood plasma concentration of gamma-trace.


This study discusses the factors that influence the choices of Firm managers in regard to the debt to financial structure ratio. The study has been applied on service sector companies listed in Amman stock Exchange which are (54) firms, for the period of 2000-2006. The objective of this study lies in the revealing of the reliance extent of financial managers decision, on the firm's own Factors such as "size, Asset structure, Asset returns, and growth rate" in selecting and determining firms debt ratio Present study discusses the effect of factors of the firm itself, market on financial structure through the use of multiple regression equations. Furthermore, the study revealed the presence of statistically significant relationship among firm's own factors represented in (size assets structure, return on asset and growth rate), whereas firm's size and asset structure have a positive effect on the measurements of financial structures, while return on assets rate has a negative impact on financial structure measurements. In regard to growth rate, it has a positive effect on financial structure. In another aspect, results showed that, there are no effects of (Capital market) upon the firm's financial managers decisions and these factors do not explain the changes that occur in the financial structure.


James Ryan. Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence. London and New York: Routledge, 2012. xvii, 260 pp. Bibliography. Index. Endnotes. $155.00, cloth.In his revised doctoral dissertation, James Ryan examines Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin's ideas and directives on violence, its role in Marxist philosophy, its use as a revolutionary tactic, and the distinctions Lenin found between terror and revolutionary violence more broadly. Ryan has carefully analyzed Lenin's published writings and thoroughly mined a broad range of relevant Anglo-American secondary literature as well as Russian-language scholarly work on the topic.Studying Lenin's thought on violence from the 1890s to 1923, Ryan concentrates on the years when the Bolsheviks were in power. Of eight chapters, two discuss Lenin's thought up to 1917, one is devoted to the revolutionary year 1917, five cover the Civil War, and one the transition to the early years of the New Economic Policy. The chronological approach allows Ryan to trace change and continuity in Lenin's thought over time.Neither an apologist for Lenin nor one prone to ad hominem attacks on Leninist approaches, Ryan succeeds in carefully situating Lenin's ideological pronouncements, his policies, and directives in the context of important events in Russian and European history. Moreover, he understands that Bolshevism accommodated leaders with views that departed from those of Lenin, that Lenin's ideas often did not prevail, and that lower-level officials did not consistently implement Lenin's instructions or orders. Nevertheless, Lenin's ideas on violence are important to study separately, for he was "the leading and most influential figure" (p. 1) in the party and Soviet government.Ryan situates his analysis firmly in the middle of those who take very divergent approaches toward analyzing Lenin's personality and ideas, and toward the role of ideology or contingency in the creation of the Soviet regime. He believes that ideology alone did not determine Bolshevik policies, but that it influenced strongly how Lenin and other Bolsheviks reacted to circumstances; moreover, they often created "hostile circumstances" (p. 8) because of their ideological convictions. Nevertheless, Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders applied violent methods not from a love of force, but because they judged them necessary in order to overcome the violent opposition of the bourgeoisie. They also accepted and used other methods, including propaganda and non-violent pressure.An excellent introduction clearly lays out the author's intentions, and each chapter develops his analysis with little resort to jargon. …


Although neurologic pathology is a well-documented sequela of major electric burns, there are few reports of complications arising from less extensive electrically induced trauma. Two cases of patients with significant disease subsequent to minor electric burns are presented. In one patient with a 2% superficial partial-thickness burn of the right forearm, nerve conduction studies, electromyography, and somatosensory evoked potential studies were consistent with right median mononeuropathy at the wrist and a distal slowing of the right ulnar nerve. The second patient presented with persistent numbness, hyperpathia, and burning in his left hand after an electric shock in a telephone booth. He had a creatine phosphokinase of 2000m mu/mL but no surface burn. A left stellate ganglion block provided complete resolution of his symptoms and established a diagnosis of minor reflex sympathetic dystrophy.


The drying process is a step of ceramic brick production which requires the control of process variables to provide a final product with a porous uniform structure, reducing superficial and volumetric defects and production costs. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an important tool in this process control, predicting the drying physical phenomenon and providing data that improve the industrial efficiency production. Furthermore, research involving CFD brick drying has neglected the effects of oven parameters, limiting the analysis only to the bricks. In this sense, the aim of this work is to numerically study the hot air-drying process of an industrial hollow ceramic brick in an oven at 70 °C. The results of the water mass and temperature distributions inside the brick, as well as moisture, temperature, velocity and pressure fields of the oven drying air at different process times are shown, analyzed and compared with experimental data, presenting a good agreement.


Lithium battery is the first choice for the energy source of explosion-proof electrical equipment because of its small size, light weight and large energy. In order to ensure the safety, improve the battery life and prolong the service life of the lithium battery, it is necessary to study the lithium battery management system. For this reason, the article uses the modular design idea to design a lithium battery intelligent management system. The system takes the microcontroller as the core to control the current voltage signal sampling, power indicator, serial communication and other management functions, and combined with the software process, the implementation of the system control algorithm is described in detail. Finally, combined with the system software and hardware function, and through repeated experiments and continuous improvement and improvement, it can be run safely and stably.


Abstract We propose the multiplicative explicit Euler, multiplicative implicit Euler, and multiplicative Crank-Nicolson algorithms for the numerical solutions of the multiplicative partial differential equation. We also consider the truncation error estimation for the numerical methods. The stability of the algorithms is analyzed by using the matrix form. The result reveals that the proposed numerical methods are effective and convenient.


Corrosion of carbon steel is an enormous problem of practical importance and there have been searches for optimal ways of preventing it in all quarters. A previous study has shown that Nigeria has abundant good-quality bitumen resources for sustained exploitation. Bitumen are common and economical coat-inhibitors of steel corrosion. In that study, the inhibition performances by various coating thicknesses from 0.81 to 1.46mm of bitumens obtained from the resources on resistance to the corrosion deterioration were evaluated through laboratory tests. The study intended to appreciate better, the capability levels of protective performance by the bitumen coatings. The performances by different quantities of sodium benzoate from 50 to 250ppm which are each per se treated to a similar corrosive test medium and under the same test procedures are evaluated on the other hand. Comparative assessment of all results, shows that 250ppm of the benzoate treatment shows the highest resistance to corrosion while 0.81mm coating thicknesses in inhibiting the corrosion has the least resistance.


State-of-the-art semantic segmentation methods require sufficient labeled data to achieve good results and hardly work on unseen classes without fine-tuning. Few-shot segmentation is thus proposed to tackle this problem by learning a model that quickly adapts to new classes with a few labeled support samples. Theses frameworks still face the challenge of generalization ability reduction on unseen classes due to inappropriate use of high-level semantic information of training classes and spatial inconsistency between query and support targets. To alleviate these issues, we propose the Prior Guided Feature Enrichment Network (PFENet). It consists of novel designs of (1) a training-free prior mask generation method that not only retains generalization power but also improves model performance and (2) Feature Enrichment Module (FEM) that overcomes spatial inconsistency by adaptively enriching query features with support features and prior masks. Extensive experiments on PASCAL-5<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^i$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:msup><mml:mrow/><mml:mi>i</mml:mi></mml:msup></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="tian-ieq1-3013717.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> and COCO prove that the proposed prior generation method and FEM both improve the baseline method significantly. Our PFENet also outperforms state-of-the-art methods by a large margin without efficiency loss. It is surprising that our model even generalizes to cases without labeled support samples.


According to Freud, the combination of children being sexual, and perhaps the repeated act of spanking, whipping, or beating, is believed to lead to a life of sadomasochism. If Freud's theory is correct, children who have experienced spankings or whippings will tend to be, or would tend to want to be a sadomasochist. Through Freud's psychosexual stages of development theory, a better understanding of the sexual deviation, "sadomasochism" will ideally be reached. The six psychosexual stages of development are oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. Through each of these different stages, Freud believed that sexual outcomes originate. Perhaps Freud's conclusions are true, but other social factors such as repression and knowledge of the social norm, allow sadomasochism to become better understood. Although supposedly uncommon, a better understanding of both the origins and the practice of sadomasochism, can allow it to become more socially acceptable and not such a taboo, allowing for more equality and less sexual preference profiling. Through a greater understanding and knowledge of both the history and the participants of Sadomasochism we as a society could come to a universal acceptance of this mysterious alternative lifestyle.


ABSTRACT Icy surfaces impose challenges for northern societies, wildlife and agriculture. However, there have been relatively few studies of the impacts of anoxic ground ice on non-agricultural plants. During the winter of 2009–2010, an extreme winter warming event led to thick ground-ice layer development in the world's northernmost botanical garden in Tromsø, in subarctic Norway, due to much rain on warm days interspersed with cold dry days. After ice melt in late spring, the authors assessed plant mortality and tested whether certain growth forms, geographical origins, or terrain features were more vulnerable to stress. They found that mortality was negatively correlated with terrain slope, that cryptophytes were most vulnerable, and that good soil drainage improved all plants' survival. Vegetation greenness (measured by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI) reached an unprecedented minimum in the summer of 2010 and remained low for two more years. The results suggest that more investigations of the impacts of ground ice are needed to understand better how alpine ecosystems might change with increasing climate change. In conclusion, the study revealed that botanical garden studies may be a valuable supplement to field studies, as plants of different origins could be studied under similar climatic conditions.


Iannis Xenakis(1922-2001), composer, architect, engineer and media artist, designed together with Le Corbusier the Philips-pavilion for the 1958 Brussels World Fair. This pavilion is an example of combined music and architectural space. This study aims to analyse working simultaneously in architecture and music and applying the same structures in two different fields. This study examines Philips-pavilion and Metastasis. Results of this study are as follows. 1.Xenakis's musical character is glissando. 2. Glissando has the lines which are skew directing lines and directing curves. 3 Xenakis was familiar with ruled surfaces, with hyperbolic paraboloid and conoid forms. What is interesting is not only the hyperbolic paraboloid form itself in its continuity and complexity but also the way Xenakis implemented this same structure in music and architecture. What is specific to Xenakis is the way he used these forms in different fields, transferred from one field to another, from music to architecture. ............................................................................................................................................. 키워드 : 제나키스, 음향덩어리, 글리산도, 필립스관, 쌍곡포물면


This study investigated the influence of substrate metallization on the microstructure and creep behavior of the pure tin solder joints. Both symmetric (Cu:Cu) and the asymmetric (Cu:Au/Ni) metallizations were tested. The solder joints with asymmetric substrates had lower creep rates than those with symmetric (Cu:Cu) substrates. (Cu-Ni)/sup 6/Sn/sup 5/ intermetallics formed on all substrates. However, a dramatic and anomalous intermetallic growth was observed on the Ni-side of the asymmetric joints; after typical reflow the intermetallic reached almost one third of the solder joint thickness. It appears that the abnormally thick intermetallic inhibits creep in the asymmetric joint and is the primary cause of the lower creep rates.


The conservation status of great apes (chimpanzees Pan troglodytes, gorillas Gorilla sp., orangutans Pongo sp., and bonobos Pan paniscus) is grave and zoological institutions are vital for maintaining numbers of these species and educating the public about their importance. Technology provides tools that can assist zoos in meeting these objectives. However, the extant research on technology use in zoos is potentially constrained by small sample sizes and there is no framework detailing the methodologies necessary for the successful incorporation of technology into great ape management. Therefore, this study aimed to determine current technology use in the management of captive great apes and whether technology-directed behaviour differs between ape genera. Primary carers of great apes in zoos were surveyed using a 43-question, online questionnaire. The purpose of integrating interactive technology into captive ape management was primarily for enrichment (53% of respondents), followed by research (20% of respondents). However, only 25% of respondents had apes directly engaged with technology. There were no differences in technology-directed behaviours between ape genera. By identifying differences in practice, this research marks the initial stage in developing a best practice framework for using technology.


Abstract : Many recent publications indicate that spark ignition (SI) engines equipped with the conventional port-injection fuel system (PIF) seem to have serious fuel-maldistribution problems, including the formation of liquid layers over the combustion chamber surfaces. It is reasonable to expect that such a maldistribution is an unfavorable condition for the flame propagation in the cylinder. The in-cylinder flame behaviors of a PIF-SI engine as fueled with gasoline are investigated by using the Rutgers high-speed spectral infrared imaging system. These results are then compared with those obtained from the same engine operated by gaseous fuels and other simple fuels. The results from the engine operated by gasoline reveal slowly burning fuel-rich local pockets under both fully warmed and room-temperature conditions. The local pockets seem to stem from the liquid layers formed over the surfaces during the intake period. The (invisible) post-flame oxidation of the rich pockets is observed to continue even after the exhaust valve opens. On the contrary, the same engine run with a gaseous fuel exhibits some predictable and 'clean' flame propagations. The new results obtained from the present study suggest that such a late oxidation of locally fuel-rich liquid pockets may be a significant cause for the emission of the engine-out unburned hydrocarbon (UHC). The sluggish consumption of the fuel there may also be a factor for reducing the thermal efficiency of the engine. A parametric study of this observation is performed to obtain a better understanding of the findings. (AN)


Both human (hu) and viral (v) interleukin-10 (IL-10) appear to be important cofactors in the survival and growth of lymphoblastoid cell lines infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). When mice with severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) are injected with human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from normal individuals who are seropositive for EBV, the majority of hu-PBL-SCID mice will develop an EBV-associated lymphoproliferative disease (EBV-LPD) of human B-cell origin, not unlike some cases of EBV-LPD that are seen in immunocompromised individuals. The role of huIL-10 or vIL-10 in this chimeric mouse model of EBV-LPD is unknown. In the present study, we show that hu-PBL-SCID mice that develop EBV-LPD have significant elevation of serum huIL-10 levels compared with mice that do not develop EBV-LPD (P = .005). vIL-10 was undetectable in all animals. The EBV+ tumor samples express transcript for huIL-10 and huIL-10 receptor, express huIL-10 protein by immunohistochemical staining, and show specific binding of recombinant (r) huIL-10. In vitro analysis of the functional consequences of rhuIL-10 binding to IL-10 receptors on fresh EBV+ tumor cells shows that rhuIL-10 can prevent programmed cell death as well as promote proliferation and can do so at concentrations of huIL-10 found in vivo. Thus, huIL-10 production by EBV+ tumor cells may contribute directly to their malignant outgrowth in the hu-PBL-SCID mouse by two autocrine mechanisms: prevention of programmed cell death and proliferation. The implications of such findings with regard to EBV-LPD in humans is discussed.


This article examines union responses to the reorganization of call centre work in Germany, drawing on case studies from the telecommunications, financial services and subcontractor industries. Service unions initially adopted innovative strategies to organize these workplaces, response to threats and opportunities presented by the rapid growth of a new 'sector. However, the new conglomerate service union, ver.di, has been unable to sustain these alternative strategies due to both institutional and organizational factors. The increasingly fragmented character the German industrial relations system provides growing exit options for employers, while union is disadvantaged by declining membership, resource scarcity and an organizational structure reflecting past industry (and union) boundaries. Ver.di thus finds itself in an institutionally enhanced innovation dilemma. Sustaining innovations necessary to organize new workplaces would require organizational slack and redundant resources. However, environmental pressures of changing employer strategies and institutional erosion limit the possibilities for mobilizing these resources.


—In this paper, the results of an on-body, line-of-sight (LOS), multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) channel sounding investigation are reported. Transmission takes place between on-body antennas and a uniform linear array, positioned at close range and within line-of-sight of each other. Due to the on-body location of the antennas, the influence of actual radio channel can no longer be separated from the effects of user behaviour and body proximity. This paper therefore argues that the composite channel must be considered. Post-processing of the recorded channels shows that their capacities outperform those from equivalent Rayleigh channels. Taking into account the clear LOS in the experiment, this appears counter-intuitive to the well-known fact that uncorrelated scattering results in high capacity. An analysis of the results highlights some less familiar facts and leads to an overview of capacity generating mechanisms in MIMO systems. The paper adds an analysis of the sensitivity of the capacity to the properties of the channel matrix, which is used for a discussion of the practical use of MIMO in personal and body area networks.


"Enterprising Women" is a study of the world-wide community of fans of "Star Trek" and other genre television series who create and distribute fiction and art based on their favourite series. This community includes people from all walks of life - housewives, librarians, secretaries and professors of medieval literature. They take settings, plots and characters from "Star Trek", "Blake's 7", "Miami Vice" and other science fiction and action-adventure series and modify the settings, rework the plots, create new characters and invent new interactions among old characters. The fiction and art that result from this recreation are published in magazines called "fanzines" and sold through an intricate network of conventions, word of mouth, cross-advertising and catalogues. All of the community's publications are underground and are not sold for profit. Using a theoretical framework drawn from ethnolinguistics, mass communications studies, literary theory, the sociology of play and feminist studies, and calling upon knowledge gained from years of observation and participation in the fan community, the author demonstrates how members of the community use their fiction and art to help them cope with real-life problems and to find support and comfort in the community.


Drawing from Hirschman's articulation of voice as a force to keep leaders on their toes, this proposed study attempts to apply the exit-voice framework to the problem of Leadership competencies that has be-devilled many Ugandan SMEs. Using a mixed methods research approach, follower influence over leadership competencies of SME owner-managers shall be analyzed. The objective is to determine the extent to which follower voice behaviour influences leadership competencies of owner-managers. It's worth noting that this is purely a preliminary analysis which is based on existing literature before empirical conclusions. A detailed methodological stance that the empirical study will adopt is presented.


Forty-three multiparous Holstein cows were used in a completely randomized design to evaluate the effects of protein supplementation and the use of bovine somatotropin (bST; Posilac, Monsanto Co., St. Louis, MO) in late gestation on animal metabolism and productivity in the periparturient period. Treatments were initiated 28 d prior to expected calving date and continued through parturition. Diets contained either 13.3 or 17.8% crude protein and were formulated to be similar in profile of protein fractions. Within each dietary treatment, cows were assigned to receive either 0 or 500 mg of sustained released bST once every 14 d until parturition. Following parturition, all cows were subjected to the same management and dietary treatments, and production measurements were followed until 42 d in milk. The use of bST increased plasma glucose and decreased plasma nonesterified fatty acids and beta-hydroxybutyrate prior to calving. Despite these changes in metabolism, bST did not affect concentrations of fat and triglyceride in the liver prepartum or postpartum. Feeding the 17.8% protein diet failed to stimulate glucose metabolism and tended to elevate plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate in late gestation. Cows treated with bST produced 3.3 kg/d more milk than did controls across the first 42 d of lactation; the difference was 4.6 kg/d in wk 6 of lactation. The use of bST in late gestation has considerable promise to alter cow metabolism positively. The results of these and other possible periparturient responses to somatotropin may increase milk production in early lactation.


Prevention capacity of local health organisations is associated with the performance and outcomes in public health. In Colombia, where cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, there is limited knowledge about the capacity of local health departments to prevent this condition. Efforts are needed to address problems, potential solutions and expected outcomes regarding cardiovascular disease. In this study, a conceptual model for cardiovascular disease prevention capacity in Colombian local health departments was developed, a questionnaire based on this model was validated, the overall cardiovascular disease prevention capacity in a subsample of these organisations was measured, and the association between cardiovascular disease prevention capacity and political, population, and organisational factors was examined. Once the acceptable performance of the questionnaire was verified, variability in cardiovascular prevention capacity was found among a subsample of local health departments. Furthermore, this study provides primary evidence regarding the association between the size of local health departments and overall cardiovascular disease prevention capacity in Colombia. Future studies should focus on measuring this capacity on a larger scale and developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions aimed at strengthening cardiovascular prevention capacity in Colombian local jurisdictions.


Despite decades of research, our understanding of the molecular interactions between drugs and polymers in drug-loaded polymer micelles does not extend much beyond concepts such as "like-dissolves-like" or hydrophilic/hydrophobic. However, polymer-drug compatibility strongly affects formulation properties and therefore the translation of a formulation into the clinics. Specific interactions such as hydrogen-bonding, π-π stacking, or coordination interactions can be utilized to increase drug loading. This is commonly based on trial and error and eventually leads to an optimized drug carrier. Unfortunately, due to the unique characteristics of each drug, the deduction of advanced general concepts remains challenging. Furthermore, the introduction of complex moieties or specifically modified polymers hampers systematic investigations regarding polymer-drug compatibility as well as clinical translation. In this study, we reduced the complexity to isolate the crucial factors determining drug loading. Therefore, the compatibility of 18 different amphiphilic polymers for five different hydrophobic drugs was determined empirically. Subsequently, the obtained specificities were compared to theoretical compatibilities derived from either the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters or the Hansen solubility parameters. In general, the Flory-Huggins interaction parameters were less suited to correctly estimate the experimental drug solubilization compared to the Hansen solubility parameters. The latter were able to correctly predict some trend regarding good and poor solubilizers, yet the overall predictive strength of Hansen solubility parameters is clearly unsatisfactory.


Many researchers try to understand a biological condition by identifying biomarkers. This is typically done using univariate hypothesis testing over a labeled dataset, declaring a feature to be a biomarker if there is a significant statistical difference between its values for the subjects with different outcomes. However, such sets of proposed biomarkers are often not reproducible – subsequent studies often fail to identify the same sets. Indeed, there is often a very small overlap between the biomarkers proposed in pairs of related studies that explore the same phenotypes over the same distribution of subjects. This paper first defines the Reproducibility Score for a labeled dataset as a measure (taking values between 0 and 1) of the reproducibility of the results produced by an arbitrary fixed biomarker discovery process for a given distribution of subjects. We then provide ways to reliably estimate this score by defining algorithms that produce an over-bound and an under-bound for this score for a given dataset and biomarker discovery process, for the case of univariate hypothesis testing on dichotomous groups. We confirm that these approximations are meaningful by providing empirical results on a large number of datasets and show that these predictions match known reproducibility results. We have also created a publicly available website, hosted at https://biomarker.shinyapps.io/BiomarkerReprod/, that produces these Reproducibility Score approximations for any given dataset (with continuous or discrete features and binary class labels).


Different social and psychological factors become roots of conflicts between groups. However, within a group, conflicts mostly root from psychological prejudice then developing into a more serious form of intergroup discrimination. Though not all conflicts between different groups stem from competition, it still cannot be avoided that people automatically discriminate against those who are not part of their own group. It also follows that since we instantly discriminate against the outsiders, we can also discriminate against others for no apparent reason aside from developed prejudice.


It is well known that power control plays a very important role in CDMA cellular system when mobile subscriber moves in the cell, especially when very close to the border; the realization of power control is practically based on the result of the detection of signal power. So different techniques are analyzed in details such as distributed balancing, distance based and constrained power control. Also Stepwise Optimal Removal Algorithm (SORA) is introduced and evaluated to enhance Carrier to Interference Ratio (CIR) and capacity compared with previous techniques where the outage probability remains relatively low at higher users.


2 Abstract: Nitta (Hyptis suaveolens Poit.) seed and leaf extracts obtained by extraction with methanol using a Soxhlet apparatus, were compared with the seed powder for their relative effectiveness against Khapra beetle, Trogoderma granarium Everts, in stored groundnut. Three adults of T. granarium (1 male and 2 females) were exposed to three concentrations (1%,2% and 3%) for exposure period of 72 hours. Experiments were carried out in the laboratory at 30± 3°C and 70± 5%. Nitta seed extract (NSE)(24.9%) gave more percent mean mortality as compared to nitta seed powder(NSP) and nitta leaf extract (NLE). Percent mortality of T. granarium increased with the increase in rates of treatment. The seed extract was significantly (P<0.05) more effective in enhancing adult mortality, reducing egg-laying and suppressing larval and adult emergence. However, all nitta plant products reduced/delayed development when compared to the control.


Framing of unitized curtain walls is dimensioned to carry wind load without taking advantage of potential composite contribution of glass. Subsequently, it is unnecessarily deep, occupying valuable space, and protrudes to the inside, causing visual disruption. Moreover, it is generally made of high thermal conductivity metal alloys, contributing to substantial thermal transmission at joints. An innovative frame-integrated unitised curtain wall has been developed that, compared to conventional systems, reduces structural depth significantly, allows an inside flush finish and reduces thermal transmission at joints. The idea is to adhesively bond a Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) frame to the edge of the Insulated Glass Unit (IGU), thereby achieving low thermal transmittance and composite structural behaviour. The frame is to fit within the glazing cavity depth. This paper provides a description of the proposed system and assesses its thermal transmittance and risk of condensation through comparative analytical and numerical thermal analysis with a conventional system taken as reference.


Studies of lymphoid tissue from HIV-infected individuals have provided critical insights into the pathogenesis of HIV disease. Systemic dissemination of virus via the lymphatic system occurs at a very early stage after infection. Explosive viral replication within lymphoid tissue ensues, before the development of cell-mediated and humoral immune responses. By the time potent immune responses downregulate viral expression, an immense viral reservoir within lymphoid tissue has already been established. During the stage of dichotomy in viral load between lymph node and peripheral blood, the viral reservoir is maintained by the ability of the follicular dendritic cells (FDC) network to efficiently trap extracellular virions, as well as by immunologic and microenvironmental factors favoring infection of susceptible cells and sequestration of cells already infected. Degeneration of the FDC network and wholesale disruption of lymphoid architecture herald late-stage disease. The dysfunctional lymphoid tissue contributes directly to immunodeficiency and to sharp increases in viral burden and replication as mechanical and immune controls are lost. Studies in HIV-infected long-term nonprogressors indicate that these individuals are able to maintain cell-mediated and humoral immune responses against HIV. These immune responses are responsible, at least in part, for the maintenance of intact lymphoid tissue architecture and the low levels of viral burden and replication detected in these individuals. Studies of the effect of antiretroviral therapy on HIV infection in lymphoid tissue show that decreases in plasma viremia are associated with and most likely are caused by decreases in viral replication within lymphoid tissue. Further understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms within lymphoid tissue will have important implications for early intervention aimed at inducing a long-term nonprogressor state (i.e., preventing disruption of lymphoid tissue integrity), and later intervention aimed at arresting or even reversing damage to the lymphoid system.


The concrete placing method using a pump equipped with pipes and an end-hose has been used extensively. But placing concrete is still, in general, one of the most labor intensive in construction. The Horizontal Concrete Distributor has solved diverse problems involved in moving the end-hose and relocating pipes. This robot mechanizes feed hose-nozzle relocation to improve the working environment as well as to save lavor in concrete placing works. The robot is a large manual manipulator with an overall length of 20 meters and four horizontally bendable articulations. The operating system of the robot is intelligent and sufficiently flexible to respond to any command given by the operator regarding direction of movement. The direction of movement of the nozzle can be input by a single universal lever. When the input is made, the computer determines the shape of the robot so that the nozzle can avoid obstacles such as columns in the vicinity, and the system controls the movement with 4 actuators. The development of both the automatic nozzle positioner and automatic obstacle avoidance system has greatly improved the safety and the operability of the Horizontal Concrete Distributor, while contributing toward largely improving concrete placing works.


PUTUT MARHAYUDI. MANAGEMENT OF SUSTAINABLE FOR FORESTRY IN WEST KALIMANTAN BORDER AREA. Under Supervision of CECEP KUSMANA, AKHMAD FAUZI, AND HARTRISARI HARDJOMIDJOJO. The policy of managing West Kalimantan border area that directly faced Malaysia is focused on security belt. This situation couse the unbalanced situation in the point of view of infrastructure development and economic activities. Regarding that natural ressources can play on important role for economic dimension, the policy should change to forest sustainable development. This research is aimed to develop a model of managing sustainable for forestry in West kalimantan border area. Identification of the sustainability factors of five dimensions should be identified and analiyzed using Rap-INSUSFORMA. Based on the result of RapINSUSFORMA and stakeholders assessment analysis, the model is developed using prospective analysis. The multidimensional index value based on 44 factors at present condition is 36,85 (range 0 – 100), categorized as less sustainable, which partially, economic, dimention has the highest value (53,17) and technology dimension is the lowest (23,17). Model of managing sustainable for forestry has 5 driving factors such as : (1) Utilization of non-wood ressources (2) "Ladang berpindah" activities, (3) mitigation technology for forest fire, (4) Conservation of flora and fauna, (5) Regulation of forest area. Simulation of future scenarios (optimist, moderat and pesimist) resulting the variation of index values of 22,90 from the present time to ideal phase. The priority of operating scenario will be the pesimistic, moderate, and optimistic to achive the ideal ones for the time frame of 20 years. The government should increase the utilization and exploration of non – wood ressources and the same time implementing the regulation consistently. The steps of conceptual and operational model area : stakeholders identification and assessment, deriving entry points, scenarios development and model simulation for achieving the strategic obyective.


Study of the decay rate with epicentral distance of P-wave amplitudes from nuclear explosions in the distance range 1° to 98° has revealed that instead of the continuous amplitude curve of Gutenberg, the amplitudes are most appropriately represented by six discontinuous curves. Corresponding to these six amplitude decay curves, magnitude relations were worked out. The new magnitude relations yield consistent magnitudes for nuclear explosions as well as earthquakes independent of epicentral distance over the entire distance range of 1° to 98°. The magnitude values are however slightly shifted towards the higher side by 0.22 magnitude unit (at M = 4.5) as compared to those predicted by the Gutenberg-Richter method. Magnitudes are evaluated for Logan, Blanca and Salmon explosions using the new magnitude relations and they agree fairly well with the published magnitudes for these events determined by other workers using the Gutenberg-Richter method.
 These amplitude decay curves when compared with the travel-time curves of Carder (1964) do show a reasonable correspondence between the starting points of amplitude curves and the distances where the deeply refracted phases from plausible velocity discontinuities in the mantle start appearing as first arrivals on the surface of the Earth.


ABSTRACT This paper presents the geomorphological mapping at a 1:100,000 scale of fluvial deposits in the middle Tocantins River. The region preserves an important sedimentary archive of environmental changes of the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. Yet, the region is under influence of diverse anthropogenic activities, including planned or operational hydropower plants, and detailed geomorphological mapping is lacking. The mapping combined interpretation of surface geomorphic features, morphometric analysis, and field surveys. Three main geomorphic units were defined: (i) fluvial plain, (ii) fluvial terraces, and (iii) paleo-alluvial fans. The detailed mapping survey allowed a hierarchical organization of geomorphological units as well as their relative chronology of formation. Our results improve the understanding on the complex geomorphological processes which shape the current fluvial landscape. Specifically, improving the understanding of the Tocantins River floodplains is crucial to support conservation of flooded forests, sustainable use of natural resources and minimize socio-economic losses and damages.


Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) enable their users to access Cloud computing and storage services from anywhere in quick and flexible manners through the Internet. With the basis of 'pay-as-you-go' model, it makes the interactions between CSPs and the users play a vital role in shaping the Cloud computing market. A pool of virtualized and dynamically scalable Cloud services that delivered on demand to the users is associated with guaranteed performance and cost-provisioning. It needed a costing scheme for determining suitable charges in order to secure lease pricing of the Cloud services. However, it is hard to meet the satisfied prices for both CSPs and users due to their conflicting needs. Furthermore, there is lack of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that allowing the users to take part into price negotiating process. The users may lose their interest to use Cloud services while reducing CSPs profit. Therefore, this paper proposes a generic costing scheme for Cloud services using General Equilibrium Theory (GET). GET helps to formulate the price function for various services' factors to match with various demands from the users. It is initially determined by identifying the market circumstances that a general equilibrium will be hold and reached. Specifically, there are two procedures of agreement made in response to (i) established equilibrium supply and demand, and (ii) service price formed and constructed in a price range. The SLAs in our costing scheme is integrated to satisfy both CSPs and users' needs while minimizing their conflicts. The price ranging strategy is deliberated to provide prices' options to the users with respect their budget limit. Meanwhile, the CSPs can adaptively charge based on users' preferences without losing their profit. The costing scheme is testable and analyzed in multi-tenant computing environments. The results from our simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed costing scheme provides better users' satisfaction while fostering fairness pricing in the Cloud market.


Development of a commercially successful animal vaccine is not only influenced by various immunological factors, such as type of antigen but also by formulation and delivery aspects. The latter includes the need for a vector or specific delivery system, the choice of route of administration and the nature of the target animal population and their habitat. This review describes the formulation and delivery aspects of various types of antigens such as killed microorganisms, proteins and nucleic acids for the development of efficacious and safe animal vaccines. It also focuses on the challenges associated with the different approaches that might be required for formulating and delivering species specific vaccines, particularly if their intended use is for improved animal management with respect to disease and/or reproductive control.


An analysis of the modulation of an electromagnetic wave propagating through a magnetoplasma disturbed by an acoustic wave has been given. The analysis of the modulation of the transmitted and reflected waves from the boundary between the magnetoplasma and free space has also been given. Numerical calculations have been made to study the variation of modulation with electron density, collision frequency, magnetic field, acoustic power and distance from the acoustic wave source.


Antibactrial activity of Asteriscus graveolens methanolic extract and its synergy effect with fungal mediated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) against some enteric bacterial human pathogen was conducted. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by the fungal strain namely Tritirachium oryzae W5H as reported early. In this study, MICs of AgNPs against E. aerogenes, Salmonella sp., E. coli and C. albicans in order were 2.13, 19.15, 0.08 and 6.38 µg/mL, respectively, while the MICs of A. graveolens ethanolic extract against the same bacteria were 4, 366, <3300 and 40 µg/mL, respectively. The MIC values at concentration less than 19.15 and 40 µg/ml indicating the potent bacteriostatic effect of AgNPs and A. graveolens ethanolic extract. Increasing in IFA was reported when Nitrofurantion and Trimethoprim were combined with Etoh extract with maximum increase in IFA by 6 and 12 folds for, respectively. Also, 10 folds increasing in IFA was reported when trimethoprim was combined with AgNPs: Etoh extract. But, there were no synergistic effect between the antifungal agents (Caspofungin and Micafungin) combined with AgNPs and or A. graveolens ethanolic extract against C. albicans. The potent synergistic effect of A. graveolens ethanolic extract and/or NPs with the conventional antibiotics is novel in inhibiting antibiotics resistant bacteria. In this study, remarkable increasing in the antibacterial activity, when the most resistant antibiotics combined with A. graveolens ethanolic extract and/or NPs was reported.


When urban renewal projects require that smaller parcels be assembled into a single large one, owners who hold out for higher prices may either prevent or significantly delay socially efficient redevelopment. Local governments seeking private redevelopment currently have only the choice between either hoping that private bargaining will lead to efficient land assembly or taking the properties of these owners under eminent domain. We describe two mechanisms that solve the holdout problem and lead to efficiency in land assembly without resorting to governmental takings.


Elastomers are of interest for use as deformation elements in pressure and force sensors. In this paper, a custom designed programmable elastomer test rig (PETR) developed in order to allow the routine mechanical evaluation (compression mode) of small elastomer structures (0.3–30 mm thick) is described and characterized. The mechanical properties of two polyurethane and two silicone rubbers were investigated using the PETR. Silastic silicone (Dow Corning 9161) was found to display relatively low hysteresis and good elasticity. More in-depth investigation of this material revealed that the elastic modulus and the hysteresis were independent of the amount of catalyst used in its preparation over the range 2–6% (w/w). The Zener model was found to provide a good representation of the actual stress–strain behaviour of test specimens subjected to load–unload tests at strain rates in the range 1.25–60% min−1 (load rates 4–200 N min−1) and dynamic tests at frequencies in the range 0.001–0.1 Hz. The combined hysteresis and creep for a 1 h test period was not greater than 4%, with the creep contribution being up to 2.3% and occurring in a manner predicted by the Zener model. Specimen form-factor strongly influenced both the elastic modulus and the hysteresis. Increasing the form-factor from 0.5 to 2.6 increased the elastic modulus from about 3.0 to 7.6 MPa while also increasing the hysteresis from 2.4% to 25.2%.


The identity of Portugal has been developed through its culture, which has produced its pioneer works between the 12th and 18th centuries. The Pioneer Works of Portuguese Culture (Franco and Fiolhais, 2017) is a collection of innovative works, now in press, which contributed to shaping Portuguese language and culture.
The Pioneer Works aim to make the founding texts of Portuguese culture widely known. According to our criteria of selection, these are the texts written in Portuguese language that inaugurated certain areas of knowledge within the country borders. The introductory essays of each volume contain essential insights about these texts that created knowledge in the most diverse fields, including grammar, history, fictional literature, pedagogy, ethics, politics, theology, nautical sciences, botany, medicine, physics, chemistry, engineering, etc., besides literature and artistic creation. A project of this kind, based on a rigorous systematization and textual assessment of the original sources, allows the dissemination of research results achieved in the last decades, after the discovery of previously unpublished or little known sources.


Background Myositis ossificans circumscripta (MOC) is a focal benign heterotopic ossification in musculoskeletal tissues, often occurring in young adults. Early stages of MOC may be mistaken for infection or malignancy. Since magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has now a key role in the diagnosis of soft tissue masses, MR features of MOC have to be recognised. Objectives To compare the different features of MOC, as shown by the different imaging modalities (plain radiographs, computed tomography (CT) and MR examinations). Methods 19 cases (M/F: 0.9, mean age: 32 years) of MOC from several hospitals in Paris were retrospectively studied with a special focus on imaging features. Diagnosis of MOC was based upon clinical and radiological criteria. Pathological examination was also obtained for 6 patients. The lesions were analysed for margin definition, MR signal intensity, surrounding oedema and contrast enhancement. Results Post contrast enhancement was observed in the peripheral typical rim-like ossification, whatever the stage of the MOC. Enhancement of the calcified rim in mature lesions was an unexpected finding, since, to our knowledge, no mature calcified or ossified musculoskeletal lesions disclose such enhancement. The surrounding oedema was frequently observed on CT or RM examinations. It appeared in 3 patients as uncommon concentric intramuscular streaks. Oedema extension did not correlate with the early or mature stage of MOC. Synovitis or articular effusion were seen for 4 patients when MOC was located close to a joint. Conclusion In this study, imaging patterns of MOC, specially MR imaging, could be analysed. Interestingly, original findings could be observed, which could help early diagnosis, thus avoid needless invasive procedures. References De Smet AA, Norris MA, Fisher DR. Magnetic resonance imaging of myositis ossificans: analysis of seven cases. Skeletal Radiol. 1992;21:503–7 Shirkhoda A, Armin AR, Bis KG, Makris J, Irwin RB, Shetty AN. MR imaging of myositis ossificans, variable patterns at different stages. J Magn Reson Imaging 1995;5:287–92


Standard therapy for patients with poor-risk germ cell tumors remains four cycles of bleomycin, etoposide, and cisplatin (BEP) chemotherapy, which cures approximately 50% of this patient population. Randomized trials of conventional-dose chemotherapy have failed to identify a regimen with superior efficacy to BEP. Preliminary data suggesting efficacy for high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell or autologous bone marrow transplantation as initial therapy for poor-risk disease have led to two randomized trials of this approach as initial therapy for poor-risk patients. The recently developed International Germ Cell Consensus Classification provides a standard method for determining poor-risk status and should be uniformly applied for both clinical decision making and risk assignment in clinical trials.


Purpose We investigated 1) the impact of differences in intelligence quotient discrepancy (IQD) on motor skills of preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); 2) the relationships between IQD and motor skills in preschool-aged children with ASD. Methods A total of 127 ASD preschool-aged children were divided into three groups according to the size of the IQD: IQD within 1 standard deviation (1SD; EVENIQ; n=81), discrepantly higher verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ; n=22; VIQ>performance intelligence quotient [PIQ] above 1SD [≥15 points]), and discrepantly higher PIQ (n=24; PIQ>VIQ above 1SD [≥15 points]). Children's IQD and motor skills were determined with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence™ – Fourth Edition and the motor subtests of the Comprehensive Developmental Inventory for Infants and Toddlers (CDIIT), respectively. Results One-way analysis of variance revealed significant group differences for the fine motor domain of the CDIIT and the visual–motor coordination subtest (F=3.37–4.38, p<0.05). Children with discrepantly higher PIQ were associated with better fine motor skills than were children with even IQD and those with discrepantly higher VIQ, and vice versa. IQD (PIQ – VIQ) had significant positive correlations with the fine motor domain and fine motor subtests of the CDIIT (r=0.18–0.29, p<0.05). Conclusion The IQD can identify different levels of fine motor skills in preschool-aged children with ASD. This study suggests important implications for clinicians, therapists, and researchers: discrepantly higher PIQ could be related to better visual–motor coordination, and discrepantly higher VIQ could be related to poor visual–motor coordination. Furthermore, the results support that when therapists are working with preschool-aged children with ASD who are developing fine motor skills or undertaking fine motor tasks related to visual–motor coordination, they may need to pay attention to the children's IQD.


"Capitalism has as its basis not only the idea that capital is private property, but also that it is concentrated in the hands of a minority. Due to their lack of capital, the vast majority of people who have to work in order to survive, are forced to sell their capacity to produce to those who own the means of production. Therefore, capitalists have at their disposal a large supply of manpower begging to be hired, usually outstripping the demand.


UNLABELLED
PET studies were carried out on brain dopamine D1 receptors using two new ligands, [11C]SCH 39166 and [11C]NNC 756.

METHODS
Four normal subjects and eight predominantly unilateral patients with early Parkinson's disease were investigated. Each of them underwent both a PET scan with [11C]SCH 39166 and one with [11C]NNC 756. A dose of about 185 MBq (5 mCi) of these ligands was administered intravenously and a dynamic PET scan with an ECAT 931/08 PET camera was carried out. Ratios between the striatal and cerebellar uptake of these compounds were calculated.

RESULTS
Both [11C]SCH 39166 and [11C]NNC 756 accumulated in the striatum. There was also some neocortical binding; 75% of the striatal value in the case of [11C]SCH 39166 and 60% with [11C]NNC 756 which displayed higher (p < 0.01) uptake in the striatum than [11C]SCH 39166. There were no significant side-to-side differences in the controls nor in the parkinsonian patients.

CONCLUSIONS
These results imply that both [11C]SCH 39166 and [11C]NNC 756 can be used in PET studies for the visualization and quantification of dopamine D1 receptors. Since [11C]NNC 756 has a significantly better signal-to-noise ratio in the striatum than [11C]SCH 39166, it seems to offer definite advantages for studies of D1 receptors.


The largest class of hyperstructures is the one which satisfy the weak axioms. These are called Hv-structures introduced in 1990 and they proved to have a lot of applications on several sciences. The main tool in the study of Hv-structures is the 'fundamental structure' which is based on the 'fundamental relations'. These relations connect the hyperstructures with the corresponding classical structures. One cannot find the fundamental classes in an analytic way since they depend on the results of hyperoperations used. In this paper we focus on the fact that the fundamental classes depend on the results which gives new proofs and a lot of new important, for applications, large classes of hyperstructures. Article Information Corresponding Author: T. Vougiouklis; Received: November 2019; Accepted: Invited paper. Paper type: Original.


Sex manipulation technologies allow predetermination of the sex of animal offspring by altering the normal reproductive process. In livestock production, the difference in type and gender can translate into significant economic benefits, including alleviation of severe food shortages. In livestock, however, the commercial application of sex manipulation technologies is currently available for cattle only. In this review, we described the brief history of sex manipulation, and the research progresses of common methods used in sex manipulation thus far. Information presented in this review can inform future studies on expanding the scope and use of sex manipulation technologies in livestock.


Background:An assessment of the process of changes in growth indices of children basaed on gender differences not only does provide the required information of the child's growth pattern, rather it also prepares the ground for a dynamic comparison of gender differences as a sensitive indicator of gender discrimination. The current research has been designed and implemented for depicting the growth patterns of children under two years old.Methods:Through a secondary analysis based study, the health files of 1336 children under 2 years old (700 boys and 636 girls) in the maternal and child health care system in Kohkiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province in 2017 were analyzed in terms of the nutritional status and in view of underweight and skinniness (wasting) and stunting (stunted growth) based on WHO standardization indicators.Results:The average difference of weight, height and head circumference of male and female children in the early days of their birth were respectively 67 g, 0.36 and 0.37 cm. Although z standardized score charts for average weight, height, and head circumference did not show a significant difference in the course of two-year period among boys and girls, the percentage ratio of boys as compared to girls in low weight at birth, six months, one year and two years old are respectively 0.98, 1.7, 12.4 and 1.5 for weight loss index 2.4, 1.73, 2.9 and 1.9, and for the short height (stunted growth) indexes 1.3, 1.48, 1.4 and 1.6, and for the head circumference index 0.48, 2.27, 1.56 and 1.6, and these indicate a constant gap between the boys with low weight, skinny and low head circumference measure and girls.Discussion and conclusion:In spite of the closeness of weight, height and head circumference differences in newborn girls and boys, their growth difference over the two-years period was associated with boys' superiority. In other words, boys had a more desirable growth trend than girls in terms of averaging indices. On the other hand, the percentage of male children with low weight, wasting and short height in the whole course of the study was more than female subjects. The research findings not only lay an emphasis on the gap between boys and girls in view of the studied indices, but also underlines the fact that in epidemiological studies, comparisons of averages are not an appropriate approach for comparing populations, and this in turn reveals the urgent need to pay more attention to frequency-based indicators. The recent attitude shift that has occurred among Iranian familes in terms of giving much care to girls as compared to boys against the previous inverted approach seems to be one of the most important justifications for this difference in growth trend.


Chest pain represents a frequent motivation for consultation in which the differential diagnosis is not always easy. We present a case where a misdiagnosis lead to serious complications. Therefore we review the clinical and electrocardiographic characteristics of the evoked diagnosis.


Homelessness in the United States is a multifaceted problem that appears to be growing. However, very little is known about the geography of homelessness. This paper will document the daily lives of the homeless in Kansas City, Missouri, within the milieu of the emergency shelter. The purpose of this study continues in the humanistic tradition, which is attempting to restore human subjectivity to a field considered to have been dominated for too long by scientific objectivism. Fieldwork took place in Kansas City from 1988 to 1993. Two types of shelters were identified: street and transitional. The street shelters primarily served individual men and were best characterized by the rescue mission. Transitional shelters, on the other hand, catered for men and the more recent additions to the homeless population, single women and families with children. The spatial activity of the homeless was constrained as a result of living in a shelter. One typical response to homelessness was apathy and depression. After approximately 30 days in a shelter, a homeless person often underwent a change in physical appearance and activity. This shelterization meant that homeless men and women became increasingly isolated and conformed to the view of themselves imposed by their fellow homeless, the caretakers, and society at large. Homelessness is more than simply lacking a roof over one's head; it is a process of institutionalization into the milieu of the emergency shelter. Shelter facilities in the US are transforming into long-term caretaking institutions.


ABSTRACT This study analyzed the predictive power of sociodemographic (age, sex) and medical variables (months since diagnosis and in treatment, immunotherapy, number of environmental allergens, food allergies or atopic dermatitistypes) on the quality of life of patients with rhinoconjunctivitis and bronchial asthma, using models based on comparative qualitative fuzzy analysis to compare them according to the pathology(s). Retrospective cross-sectional design.Sixty-four adolescents (65.60% boys) diagnosed with rhinoconjunctivitis and/or bronchial asthma aged between 12 and 16 years old (M= 14.02; SD = 1.45). The data were collected between February 2019 and January 2020 using the Brief Disease Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ), the Adolescent Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (AdolRQoLQ) and the Respiratory Disease Questionnaire Self-administered and Standardized Chronicle (CRQ-SAS). Qualitative comparative analysis models (QCA) were used. In the QCA models, the various combinations indicated that the variables that predicted a higher quality of life for both rhinocojuntivitis symptoms and respiratory symptoms were receiving longer-term immunotherapy and a perceived lower threat of the disease. The consistencies of the models vary between 23–29%. In conclusion, the patients' QoL was explained by the presence of longer-term immunotherapy and a less threatening perception of the disease. Therefore, early multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment is important.


The effect of peripherally administered oxytocin (OT) on gastric ischemia-reperfusion injury (GI-RI) and its possible mechanism were investigated. The Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into different treatment groups (n = 6). The animal GI-RI model was established by clamping the celiac artery for 30 min to induce ischemia and then released to allow reperfusion for 1 h, and the degree of GI-RI was assessed by scoring the gastric mucosal damage index (GMDI), the gastric fluid output, gastric fluid output, gastric acidity were measured and the surgical preparations of vagotomy and sympathectomy were used to investigate the possible mechanism of OT on GI-RI. The results were as follows. Compared with the control group (NS plus GI-R only, GMDI 121.33P10.40, n = 6), the intra peritoneal (ip) administration of oxytocin (20, 100 μg/0.5 mL) obviously attenuated GI-RI (P<0.05), GMDI were 82.33P14.26, 53.5P5.58 respectively (n = 6); the gastric fluid output and the gastric acidity (evaluated by pH) of the control group were (430.17P87.36) μL, 1.55P0.25 (n = 6), and those of the OT group were (102.45P48.00) μL, 2.65P0.40 (n = 6) res pectively; differences had statistical significance (P<0.01). The effect of oxytocin was reversed by atosiban, a selective oxytocin receptor antagonist. The GMDI of the group given atosiban 10 min before OT was 138.17P24.06 (n = 6), which had no significant difference with the control group. Oxytocin further attenuated GI-RI after vagotomy and sympathectomy (GMDI 6.83P8.89, 29.67P5.54, n = 6), compared with the GI-R group and the oxytocin group (P<0.01). These results indicated that the oxytocin could significantly protect gastric mucosal against injury induced by ischemia-reperfusion, and the oxytocin receptor was involved. This effect of oxytocin may be mediated through the vagus and sympathetic nerve, and then lead to the reduction of gastric juice output and the depression of gastric acidity.


Uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) is a DNA repair enzyme in the base excision repair pathway and removes uracil from the DNA strand. Atlantic cod UDG (cUDG), which is a cold-adapted enzyme, has been found to be up to 10 times more catalytically active in the temperature range 15-37 °C as compared with the warm-active human counterpart. The increased catalytic activity of cold-adapted enzymes as compared with their mesophilic homologues are partly believed to be caused by an increase in the structural flexibility. However, no direct experimental evidence supports the proposal of increased flexibility of cold-adapted enzymes. We have used molecular dynamics simulations to gain insight into the structural flexibility of UDG. The results from these simulations show that an important loop involved in DNA recognition (the Leu272 loop) is the most flexible part of the cUDG structure and that the human counterpart has much lower flexibility in the Leu272 loop. The flexibility in this loop correlates well with the experimental kcat/Km values. Thus, the data presented here add strong support to the idea that flexibility plays a central role in adaptation to cold environments.