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Introduction: The Ministerial Directive dated December 27, 2012 and the subsequent Circular dated March 6, 2013 for the identification of students with special educational needs (SEN), have planned a school that knows how to respond appropriately to all the difficulties of students by preventing them, in the perspective of a deeply inclusive school. Ianes & Cramerotti (2013) stated that in order to recognize the real needs of a student, it is necessary to understand their current and general situation of functioning; ICF (WHO, 2001), in fact, being fundamentally organic-psycho-social, obliges to consider the totality and complexity of the functionings of the people and not only organic and structural aspects. From this perspective, the didactic setting that is built during Physical Education and Sport, is an excellent valuation framework for the identification of SEN, because physical activity has always been recognized as a disciplinary area that allows students to express their personality, build dynamics of relationships, express motor behavior, etc. (IN 2012). The Personal Factors, in fact, were considered key elements for the construction of instruments with indicators and qualifiers, because according to the latest neuroscience research (Caruana & Borghi, 2013; Damasio, 2009; Gomez Paloma, 2013), they are particularly influencing into the learning process. The research involved 34 schools (2500 students) from four different regions. For data collection has been activated an online platform which allowed to the teachers to download the necessary tools for the assessment and enter the results at the end of the process. From the data analysis it was possible to understand that there is a significant and positive correlation between indicators encoded by ICF and indicators that detect situations, attitudes, behaviors and postures specially created for the identification of difficulties and special educational needs, affirming the validity and reliability of the tool and giving teachers the opportunity to apply strict criteria to identify pedagogically students and act in an inclusive way.


The Monro-Kellie doctrine was used as the basis for determination of the filtration coefficient of the capillaries of the cat's brain. An average value of 10.3 x 10–8 ml/sec/cm H2O/cm2 was found. A linear relation was observed between filtration rate and filtration pressure. The fact that the filtration coefficient of brain capillaries is somewhat higher than that of muscle capillaries suggests that lipoid insoluble molecules actually penetrate the brain capillary membranes readily, but are pumped back by a secretory process.


Recently, the impacts of spatiotemporal heterogeneities of human activities on spreading dynamics have attracted extensive attention. In this paper, we intend to understand how the heterogeneous distribution of response times at the individual level influences information spreading. Based on the uncorrelated scale-free networks without degree-degree correlation, we study the susceptible-infected spreading dynamics with adjustable power-law response time distribution, and find that the stronger the heterogeneity of response times is, the faster the information spreading is in the early and middle stages. Following a given heterogeneity, the procedure of reducing the correlation between the response times and degrees of individuals can also accelerate the spreading dynamics in the early and middle stages. However, the dynamics in the late stage is slightly more complicated, and there is an optimal value of the full prevalence time (i.e., the time for full infection on a network) changing with the heterogeneity of response times and the response time-degree correlation, respectively. The optimal phenomena result from the efficient allocation of heterogeneous response times.


Spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) is a human neurodegenerative polyglutamine (polyQ) disease caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the open reading frame of the ATXN7 gene. The allele-selective silencing of mutant transcripts using a repeat-targeting strategy has previously been used for several polyQ diseases. Herein, we demonstrate that the selective targeting of a repeat tract in a mutant ATXN7 transcript by RNA interference is a feasible approach and results in an efficient decrease of mutant ataxin-7 protein in patient-derived cells. Oligonucleotides (ONs) containing specific base substitutions cause the downregulation of the ATXN7 mutant allele together with the upregulation of its normal allele. The A2 ON shows high allele selectivity at a broad range of concentrations and also restores UCHL1 expression, which is downregulated in SCA7.


Graphene based two-dimensional carbon nanostructures serve as a support to disperse catalyst nanoparticles. Reduced graphene oxide is used as a support to anchor semiconductor and metal nanoparticles. Such a design strategy would enable the development of a multifunctional catalyst mat. This Perspective focuses on the interaction between graphene oxide−semiconductor (TiO2, ZnO) and graphene oxide−metal (Au, Pt) nanoparticles and discusses potential applications in catalysis, light energy conversion, and fuel cells.


The purpose of this thesis was to develop a conceptual framework of food retailers' ecological orientation that considers the interaction between ecological marketing and ecological management. In this context, the relationship was examined between ecological orientation and sales of ecological food products and the overall store performance of Swedish food retailers. To fulfil this purpose eco-orientation was conceptualised into two dimensions: eco-marketing and eco-management based on indications in the greening literature that companies' responses to ecological issues have often been skewed to the marketing side rather than integrated into strategic and operative substantive actions. The study contributes to the theoretical fields of green and retail marketing. In the empirical data, (based on a standardised questionnaire administered to a random sample of Swedish storekeepers) I found three distinct groups of stores. The three groups were positioned along the diagonal of the two dimensions of eco-orientation; thus the stores differed in the degree of eco-orientation and not by having skewed eco-orientations. In fact, the data showed consistency in the integration of eco-aspects in marketing and management over a wide area of functions and activities. The findings from the study indicated that there was a positive relationship between ecological orientation and sales of ecological food products as well as overall store performance. However, eco-orientation seems to contribute more to the explanation of the sales of the ecological range rather than to overall sales. This study not only supports the notions of the important role of the store for the sales and market development of ecological food products, but also indicates that the more a store integrates ecological aspects into both marketing and management the better the development of its sales of ecological food products. Moreover, the study indicated that those storekeepers who considered it possible to combine eco-concern with good business were more likely to integrate eco-issues into their store operations than storekeepers who only had a general positive attitude to eco-issues.


Imaging of cells is an interesting and challenging problem as they do not appreciably change the amplitude of the electromagnetic radiation interacting with them. Phase contrast techniques can be used to overcome this hurdle. Interferometric phase contrast techniques like digital holography can be used for quantitative phase contrast microscopic imaging of transparent objects and it yields the three dimensional profile of the object under investigation. These methods also have advantage of numerical focusing, allowing one to focus on to any desired object plane. But most of the interferometric quantitative phase contrast techniques require two beams as well as the adjustment of the beams for high fringe contrast, requiring stringent optical conditions. Here we present a single beam phase retrieval technique for quantitative phase contrast microscopy of cells. The phase information of the object is obtained by sampling the volume speckle field generated by the object at several axial planes. These intensity patterns are used iteratively in the diffraction integral to retrieve the phase information about the object. The advantages of this technique include compactness, immunity to external vibrations as well as the prospect of usage of low coherent sources.


In this paper we consider the Klebanov-Tseytlin background and its non-Abelian T-dual geometry along a suitably chosen SU(2) subgroup of isometries. We analyse the Penrose limits along various null geodesics of both the geometries. We observe that, the KlebanovTseytlin geometry does not admit any pp-wave solutions. However, the T-dual background gives rise to pp-wave solution upon taking the Penrose limit along some appropriate null geodesic. We comment on the possible gauge theory dual for our pp-wave background.


cloud computing the revolutionized technology of today includes ease of access and mobility. Cloud outsourcing is vulnerable to attack, as data's are deployed at hostile and unattended environmental nodes. They are not tamper resistant and outsourcing networks are not secure. End to- End data confidentiality assurance should be increased in this design. In this proposal Bilinear Programming (BLP) mechanism outsourcing provides a complete outsourcing solution. It develops a problem transformation technique that enables customer to secretly transform original BLP into some arbitrary one while protecting sensitive input/output information. This work proposes the "elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem" or ECDLP to ensure the result of secure computation outsourcing and Uses Duality Theorem (DT) to derive a set of necessary and sufficient condition for result verification. Bilinear programming computation estimates the bandwidth for uploading the files in the cloud server and also determines the space availability in the server to furnish secure computation for outsourcing.


Context
Understanding the environmental factors influencing the occurrence of wildlife has become increasingly important, contributing to better conservation actions for threatened species.

Aims
We aimed to understand the factors that influence the occurrence probability of the Southwest China serow (Capricornis milneedwardsii), a threatened species, thereby developing conservation interventions to save the species from local extirpation on the Cat Ba Archipelago, Vietnam.

Methods
An integrated approach, including literature reviews, interviews, field surveys, logistic generalised linear models and Bayesian networks, was applied to identify environmental variables and species occurrence, and model the occurrence probability of the species. Sensitivity analysis and scenarios were also performed to identify the influence of environmental variables on the probability of the species occurrence.

Key results
Distance to ranger station was found to be the most influential factor on serow occurrence, followed by total forest, distance to village, steepness and elevation. Hunting pressure has probably forced serows to inhabit the areas where they are well protected, and this need probably over-rides the effect of ecological variables.

Conclusion
Through combing knowledge of forest rangers and members of forest-protection groups, field surveys and logistic generalised linear models, a Bayesian network was developed to predict the occurrence probability of the threatened Southwest China serow on the Cat Ba Archipelago for conservation actions. The modelling results and findings from the present study provided further understanding of the relationships between environmental factors and the probability of the species occurrence, which have been rarely studied throughout the range of this species.

Implications
The modelling predictions give managers basic information for conservation and recovery planning in situations where integrated conservation interventions should be urgently conducted to save the threatened species from local extirpation.


In the majority of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) patients, the peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP-22) gene maps within 1.5 megabase duplication on chromosome 17p11.2-12. The PMP-22 gene dosage is believed to be a major determining factor in the molecular pathology of CMT1A. Median nerve conduction velocities were below 35 m/sec in 17 CMT1A patients examined. Northern blot analysis showed that the mean relative ratio of PMP-22 mRNA levels in biopsied nerves of 5 patients with CMT1A is significantly higher than that in disease controls. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that Schwann cell cytoplasm including onion bulbs as well as the myelin sheath was positive for PMP-22 in some patients with CMT1A, while PMP-22 was expressed only on compact portion of the myelin sheath in non-CMT1A patients and normal subjects. A minority of CMT1A are known to carry dominant and recessive point mutations in PMP-22. Some patients with Dejerine-Sottas syndrome (DSS) also have dominant and recessive point mutations in PMP-22. Instead of being two completely distinct disease entities, DSS and CMT1A form a spectrum of inherited PMP-22 related neuropathies, including hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies which carries a deletion of the PMP-22 gene.


Most health care professionals who are involved in efforts to improve patient safety are aware of James Reason's "Swiss cheese" model of how accidents occur. Some elements and pressures of current obstetric practice may weaken defenses and safeguards against perinatal injury. Several components of obstetric care in labor and delivery units can be used as targets for tightening the "holes" in the Swiss cheese model. These include improving communications, preparing for rare critical events through simulation training, developing protocols for administration of important medications used in labor and delivery (oxytocin, misoprostol, and magnesium sulfate), increasing the in-house presence of obstetricians, developing an effective departmental infrastructure that includes effective peer review, providing risk management education about high-risk clinical areas that have the potential to result in catastrophic injury, and staffing the unit for all contingencies during all hours, day and night. Acceptance by the obstetric medical staff is critical to the implementation of these patient safety elements.


This paper reports the fabrication, characterization, and modeling of a chemical sensor constructed from a microfabricated silicon cantilever, coated with gold, which is modified using photolithography techniques to contain a silver feature on the free-standing edge. When immersed in a fuel solution such as hydrogen peroxide, catalytic reactions occurring at the bimetallic silver-gold junction cause a catalytic force to act on the cantilever. The catalytic reaction is detected by measuring change in resonance frequency of the cantilever using a position-sensitive split photodiode and atomic force microscopy instrument. A model based on the Cleveland method is developed to quantify the forces produced and to study the effect of change of hydrogen peroxide concentration on the magnitude of the force. The force is observed to increase linearly for lower concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and level off at higher concentrations. The chemical sensor offers a possible method for using catalytically produced forces in microelectromechanical systems and microfluidic devices.


An efficient synthetic route of novel 2′(α)-C-fluoro-2′(β)-C-methyl carbocyclic nucleoside analogues is described. The key fluorinated intermediate 7 was prepared from the epoxide intermediate 5 via selective ring-opening of epoxide. Coupling of 7 with nucleosidic bases under the Mitsunobu reactions followed by deprotection afforded the target carbocyclic nucleoside analogues. The synthesized compounds were evaluated as inhibitors of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Huh-7 cell line in vitro.


An economical method to protect offshore pipelines against corrosive ingredients of hydrocarbons is a double-walled (also called "lined" or "bi-metallic") pipe, in which a thick-walled low-alloy carbon steel ("outer pipe") is lined internally with a thin layer ("liner pipe") from a corrosion resistant alloy material. During the deep-water installation, a lined pipe is subjected to severe plastic loading, which may result in detachment of the liner pipe from the outer pipe forming short-wave wrinkles, followed by local buckling. In the current study, alternative lined pipe manufacturing processes are investigated, including elastic, plastic hydraulic and thermo-hydraulic expansion of the outer pipe, for different initial gaps between the two pipes. The problem is solved numerically, accounting for geometric non-linearities, local buckling phenomena and elastic-plastic material behaviour for both the liner and outer pipe. Two types of numerical models are developed, a quasi-two-dimensional model, examining the mechanical bonding between the pipes, and a three-dimensional model, repeating the manufacturing process and investigating its effect on the mechanical behaviour of a lined pipe subjected to monotonic bending. In addition, the influence of initial geometric imperfections on liner pipe buckling is investigated, showing the imperfection sensitivity of the lined pipe bending behaviour, for each fabrication process.


Finnish Outsiders. The Narration of Existential Feelings in Prose Fiction of the 1950s This study explores the narration of existential feelings, or feelings of being in the world, in post-war Finnish prose fiction. The book presents five case studies which address modern individuals' struggles in boundary situations of their lives. Rigorous readings of the works of Kerttu-Kaarina Suosalmi, Lassi Nummi, Marko Tapio, Tyyne Saastamoinen and Eeva-Liisa Manner all show the influence of French existentialism and its predecessors on post-war Finnish modernism for the first time in literary studies. The outsider figures and their experiences of the absurd, which have enticed the cultural imagination since ancient cults and the Book of Job, connect to the atmosphere of shared melancholy in post-war Finnish culture and society. The study participates in the rich contemporary debates on the effects of literature by focusing on less-discussed aspects of bodily feeling, affect, emotion and mood in late Finnish modernism. The book's methodological contribution to narrative theory is that it combines a phenomenological analysis of reading with a rhetorical theory of narrative and politically informed, multidisciplinary emotion studies. The five case studies show how modernist outsider prose fiction in Finland resorts to irony, metafiction, allegory and the imaginative to generate ethically challenging narrative tension and an ambivalence of negative and positive emotion in readers. The opposing impulses of the aesthetic response produce an openness of interpretation. This openness provides us with the possibility of a more complex cultural understanding of emotion and ethics in the lives of strangers within literature and outside it.


Solar cells of "classic" external contact structure with front and rear contacts applying a passivated and locally contacted rear are presented in this paper. A variety of rear surface passivation schemes deposited by PECVD are discussed and compared using illuminated I-V, reflection and internal quantum efficiency measurements with fixed and variable bias light intensities. All cells presented were contacted on the rear by laser-firing. It is shown that amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si) stacked with amorphous hydrogenated silicon oxide (SiOx) is reaching a comparable level of rear surface passivation as thermally grown silicon dioxide (SiO2) and that the bias-light dependence of such cells is lower than that of SiO2 or amorphous hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNx) stacked with SiOx passivated cells. Additionally, firing stable stacks of SiOx, SiNx and SiOx are compared to SiCx and the above mentioned layer systems.


CONTEXT
Clinicians and athletes can benefit from field-expedient measurement tools, such as urine color, to assess hydration state; however, the diagnostic efficacy of this tool has not been established.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the diagnostic accuracy of urine color assessment to distinguish a hypohydrated state (≥2% body mass loss [BML]) from a euhydrated state (<2% BML) after exercise in a hot environment.

DESIGN
Controlled laboratory study.

SETTING
Environmental chamber in a laboratory.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Twenty-two healthy men (age = 22 ± 3 years, height = 180.4 ± 8.7 cm, mass = 77.9 ± 12.8 kg, body fat = 10.6% ± 4.6%).

INTERVENTION(S)
Participants cycled at 68% ± 6% of their maximal heart rates in a hot environment (36°C ± 1°C) for 5 hours or until 5% BML was achieved. At the point of each 1% BML, we assessed urine color.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Diagnostic efficacy of urine color was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios.

RESULTS
Urine color was useful as a diagnostic tool to identify hypohydration after exercise in the heat (area under the curve = 0.951, standard error = 0.022; P < .001). A urine color of 5 or greater identified BML ≥2% with 88.9% sensitivity and 84.8% specificity (positive likelihood ratio = 5.87, negative likelihood ratio = 0.13).

CONCLUSIONS
Under the conditions of acute dehydration due to exercise in a hot environment, urine color assessment can be a valid, practical, inexpensive tool for assessing hydration status. Researchers should examine the utility of urine color to identify a hypohydrated state under different BML conditions.


This Clinical Science Forum addresses one of the mort vexing issues that faces a clinician when guiding patients in adjuvant therapy decisions – what to do for treatment "on the edges"? That is, when there is discordance between stage/risk of relapse and biology, which should most influence the choice of therapy? The first presentation will address bad stage or high risk disease but "good" biology, and the second talk will consider good stage/traditionally lower risk disease but a "bad" biologic profile. This abstract provides an overview of the first scenario. Historically, in the era predating knowledge about biologic subtypes and without systemic adjuvant therapy, surgical series reported probable cures in patients with large and even locally advanced tumors, as well as in a subset with positive nodes. This data base serves as a backdrop for more modern series in which there is a wide range of long-term survival potential for patients with tumors that have adverse prognostic features. Currently, it is considered standard of care to offer systemic adjuvant chemotherapy, endocrine therapy and/or HER2 targeted treatments to all such patients – with the particular therapeutic choice based on tumor biology. In particular, it is not wise to withhold therapy in these higher risk ("bad stage") scenarios when the disease is triple negative or HER2-positive. However, across the luminal subtypes, there is great variation in outcome even when tumors are large and or nodes are positive. Some of these patients will require only endocrine therapy despite the high risk status, whereas others need more creative therapeutic therapies to circumvent multi-pathway drivers of tumor growth and progression. Subsets defined by high levels of expression of the estrogen receptor and low proliferation have a better outcome and often are cured with endocrine therapy alone. Refinement of prediction of which groups may do very well with this approach alone has been possible with the advent of multigene assays such as the 21 gene Recurrence score or the 70 gene assay. In fact, it can be argued that many patients in the high risk ("bad stage") breast cancer group are over-treated with chemotherapy. For example, in SWOG S8814, a study in postmenopausal, ER+, node positive disease, the 10 year breast cancer specific survival was over 90% in those with a low 21 gene RS assay and this outcome did not vary whether the adjuvant treatment was tamoxifen alone or anthracycline-based therapy followed by tamoxifen. Similar findings were reported for higher risk, node-negative patients in NSABP B20. The current status of the three large prospective studies designed to validate and refine prediction of chemotherapy benefit will be updated (TAILORx, RxPONDER and MINDACT). Finally, there is the other group of patients with high risk ("bad stage") ER-positive disease whose risk remains high with tumor biology relatively resistant to standard chemotherapy and insufficient efficacy of the endocrine therapy. In this group, optimizing inhibition of cross talk with other pathways that take over driving tumor growth - despite the endocrine therapy blockade - is mandatory. Only then can "bad stage" be turned into an excellent outcome. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr CS1-1.


A balance must be struck between cell growth and stress responses to ensure that cells proliferate without accumulating damaged DNA. This balance means that optimal cell proliferation requires the integration of pro-growth and stress-response pathways. mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) is a pleiotropic kinase found in complex 1 (mTORC1). The mTORC1 pathway governs a response to mitogenic signals with high energy levels to promote protein synthesis and cell growth. In contrast, the p53 DNA damage response pathway is the arbiter of cell proliferation, restraining mTORC1 under conditions of genotoxic stress. Recent studies suggest a complicated integration of these pathways to ensure successful cell growth and proliferation without compromising genome maintenance. Deciphering this integration could be key to understanding the potential clinical usefulness of mTORC1 inhibitors like rapamycin. Here we discuss how these p53-mTORC1 interactions might play a role in the suppression of cancer and perhaps the development of cellular senescence and organismal aging.


Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the leading genetic cause of infant and toddler mortality, and there is currently no approved therapy available. SMA is caused by mutation or deletion of the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. These mutations or deletions result in low levels of functional SMN protein. SMN2, a paralogous gene to SMN1, undergoes alternative splicing and exclusion of exon 7, producing an unstable, truncated SMNΔ7 protein. Herein, we report the identification of a pyridopyrimidinone series of small molecules that modify the alternative splicing of SMN2, increasing the production of full-length SMN2 mRNA. Upon oral administration of our small molecules, the levels of full-length SMN protein were restored in two mouse models of SMA. In-depth lead optimization in the pyridopyrimidinone series culminated in the selection of compound 3 (RG7800), the first small molecule SMN2 splicing modifier to enter human clinical trials.


The authors describe a new automated measurement system for the direct calibration of the 1.018-V outputs of Zener-based electronic voltage standards with a programmable Josephson array. It features a programmable bias supply and a multiplexer that introduces negligibly small thermal EMFs in the critical circuits. Detailed descriptions of the two devices are given in this paper. A validation program is in progress in parallel with the previous chain, as no instruments are shared between the two


Low pressure inductively coupled plasmas in planar geometry have found increasing interest as a means of plasma surface modification in the last few years. These discharges provide high plasma densities at simultaneously low impact energies of the ions. In this paper the formation of an ion energy distribution at a grounded wall of such a discharge is studied experimentally as well as theoretically. The ion energy distribution functions are measured via a retarding field analyser. The effect of a parasitic capacitive coupling from the induction coil is reported. The ion energy distributions observed experimentally are interpreted as being formed in the collisional presheath and being accelerated in the collisionless sheath. A quantitative analysis is presented on the basis of a simple model, which takes into account the non-thermal character of the electron energy distribution. It is shown that observed ion impact energies are correlated to non-Maxwellian electron distributions and that models that imply the assumption of a Maxwellian overestimate the ion impact energies.


The theory of fuzzy sets [1] proposed by Zadeh has achieved a great success in various fields. Out of several higher order fuzzy sets, the concept of an intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) introduced by Atanassov has been found to be highly useful to deal with vagueness/imprecision. IFS theory has been extensively applied to areas like Artificial Intelligence, networking, Soft decision making, Programming logic, operational research etc. One the promising role of IFS has been emerged in Decision making Problems. In some real-life situations, decision makers may not be able to accurately express their view for the problem as they may not possess a precise or sufficient level of knowledge of the problem or the decision makers are unable to discriminate explicitly the degree to which one alternative are better than others in such cases, the decision maker may provide their preferences for alternatives to a certain degree, but it is possible that they are not so sure about it [2]. Thus, it is very suitable to express the decision maker preference values with the use of fuzzy/intuitionistic fuzzy values rather than exact numerical values or linguistic variables [3-6]. To satisfy the need of decision making problem with imprecision and uncertainty many researchers have been concentrated on IFS theory. In this paper we reviewed the development of different approaches for solving decision making problem using IFS theory.


The ribosomal DNA cistron from the large raspberry aphid, Amphorophora idaei (Hemiptera: Aphididae), has been mapped by restriction analysis. The results showed that the map of A. idaeiwas similar to those of the previously characterized aphids Schizaphis grami‐num and Acyrthosiphon pisum. An extra Bglti site was found in some of the ribosomal DNA intergenic spacer repeats in A. idaei. Using in‐situ hybridization to aphid mitotic chromosomes it was demonstrated that probes derived from this region mapped to the pair of X chromosomes and it was therefore aphid in origin. Polymerase chain reaction using conserved rDNA primers also detected significant amounts of a fungal genome in the DNA samples. Microscopic investigation showed that the external surface of A. idaei harboured fungal propagules, hyphae and yeast‐like organisms.


The advent of Internet technologies, growing number of sophisticated hacking tools and mobile workforce creates a new dimension to the malicious insider problem for many organisations. In spite of the significant interest from researchers and industry experts, trusted employees with elevated access continue to pose insider challenges to organisation risk mitigation efforts. It is suggested that malicious insiders show certain personality traits, leave behind digital footprints and observable cyber risk behaviour in advance of an attack. This work offers a different perspective to address the insider problem by drawing concepts from behavioural theory, personality profiling and digital trails auditing. Instead of isolated treatments, our approach considers the intersection of different risk domains and aggregates risk scores from each as a predictor of malicious insider activities. This model has significant implication for security professionals, to draw insight from inextricably linked risk domains within the context of cybersecurity management. However, substantial empirical work is still needed to evaluate the model in real world cases.


CMS is in the process of commissioning a complex detector and a globally distributed computing infrastructure simultaneously. This represents a unique challenge. Even at the beginning there is not sufficient analysis or organized processing resources at CERN alone. In this presentation we discuss the unique computing challenges CMS expects to face during the first year of running and how they influence the baseline computing model decisions. During the early accelerator commissioning periods, CMS will attempt to collect as many events as possible when the beam is on in order to provide adequate early commissioning data. Some of these plans involve overdriving the Tier-0 infrastructure during data collection with recovery when the beam is off. In addition to the larger number of triggered events, there will be pressure in the first year to collect and analyze more complete data formats as the summarized formats mature. The large event formats impact the required storage, bandwidth, and processing capacity across all the computing centers. While the understanding of the detector and the event selections is being improved, there will likely be a larger number of reconstruction passes and skims performed by both central operations and individual users. We discuss how these additional stresses impact the allocation of resources and the changes from the baseline computing model.


Low-latitude rainfall variability on the daily to intraseasonal time scale is often related to tropical waves, including convectively coupled equatorial waves, the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO), and tropical disturbances (TDs). Despite the importance of rainfall variability for vulnerable societies in tropical Africa, the relative influence of tropical waves for this region is largely unknown. This article presents the first systematic comparison of the impact of six wave types on precipitation over northern tropical Africa during the transition and full monsoon seasons, using two satellite products and a dense rain gauge network. Composites of rainfall anomalies in the different datasets show comparable modulation intensities in the West Sahel and at the Guinea Coast, varying from less than 2 to above 7 mm day−1 depending on the wave type. African easterly waves (AEWs) and Kelvin waves dominate the 3-hourly to daily time scale and explain 10%–30% locally. On longer time scales (7–20 days), only the MJO and equatorial Rossby (ER) waves remain as modulating factors and explain about up to one-third of rainfall variability. Eastward inertio-gravity waves and mixed Rossby–gravity (MRG) waves are comparatively unimportant. An analysis of wave superposition shows that low-frequency waves (MJO, ER) in their wet phase amplify the activity of high-frequency waves (TD, MRG) and suppress them in the dry phase. The results stress that more attention should be paid to tropical waves when forecasting rainfall over northern tropical Africa.


The development of high-performance adsorbents for efficient removal of bilirubin from albumin-rich solution is still a considerable challenge. In this study, a magnetic nitrogen-doped porous carbon (m-NpC) was facilely synthesized through a simple one-pot route using the biomass chitosan and the iron salt Fe(NO3)3·9H2O as precursors, and NaCl as template agent, respectively. Intriguingly, the resulting m-NpC material showed a hierarchically micro–meso–macroporous structure, high surface area (289 m2 g−1), large pore volume (0.33 cm3 g−1), and good magnetic response. In particular, the basic site-rich surface of m-NpC obtained as a result of nitrogen doping could compete effectively with albumin for bilirubin binding. As such, the m-NpC was used as a magnetically separable bilirubin adsorbent and showed superior adsorption properties for bilirubin removal from a bovine serum albumin (BSA)-rich solution. Under optimized conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity of m-NpC was up to 72.4 mg g−1, which is significantly higher than the value achieved by magnetic non-nitrogen doped porous carbon (24.7 mg g−1), but also superior to those of many previously reported adsorbents for BSA-boned bilirubin removal. Moreover, as evidenced by hemolysis assay, this material exhibited only a negligible hemolysis effect. These results suggest that the composite developed in this work can be used as a promising adsorbent in blood purification application to mitigate the risk of excess bilirubin.


The significant growth of the fashion industry has made it an appealing sector to explore. This research aims to investigate how brand pleasure, brand arousal, and brand dominance influence brand loyalty in UNIQLO Indonesia. The study employed a quantitative approach using a survey method with 75 respondents. The research data was collected through online questionnaires and analyzed using multiple linear regression with SPSS software. The findings indicate that brand pleasure, brand arousal, and brand dominance have a positive relationship with brand loyalty. Furthermore, brand pleasure has the most significant impact on brand loyalty, while brand dominance has the least impact among the three dimensions in affecting brand loyalty in the case of UNIQLO Indonesia.


Metal complexation properties of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in freshwaters are recognized but poorly understood. Here, we investigated the release of free nickel from Ni-DOC complexes using nickel-polluted freshwaters from Sudbury (Canada). We used the Competing Ligand Exchange Method with Chelex-100 as the competing ligand to measure the rate of free Ni2+ ion released by the dissociation of Ni-DOC complexes. The kinetic studies showed that the fastest kinetically distinguishable component representing approximately 30-95% of the total nickel had a dissociation rate coefficient similar to that reported for [Ni(H20)6]2+. High concentrations of Ca2+ and Mg2+ caused a larger amount of the DOC-bound nickel to be released as free Ni2+ ion. Growth inhibition of the freshwater alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata was highly correlated with the Ni/DOC ratio, the free plus labile nickel concentration, and the dissociation rate coefficient. While the levels of metals were not sufficient to kill Daphnia magna, these test organisms were immobilized in the same samples that showed algal growth inhibition. Only one sample caused 22% death of Hydra attenuata. The algal toxicity tests were consistent with the kinetic speciation results and are consistent with the hypothesis that dissolved [Ni(H20)6]2+ plus other labile nickel species are toxic forms of Ni present.


Electron beam induced deposition (EBID) is a versatile method for the controlled fabrication of conducting, semi-conducting and non-conducting structures down to the nanometer scale. In contrast to ion beam induced deposition, EBID processes are free of sputter effects, ion implantation and massive heat generation; however, they have much lower deposition rates. To push the deposition efficiency further towards its intrinsic limits, the individual influences of the process parameters have to be explored. In this work a platinum pre-cursor is used for the deposition of conducting nanorods on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The study shows the influence of a beam defocus during deposition on the volume growth rates. The temporal evolution of volume growth rates reveals a distinct maximum which is dependent on the defocus introduced, leading to an increase of deposited volumes by a factor 2.5 after the same deposition times. The observed maximum is explained by an increasing and saturating electron yield contributing to the final deposition process and constantly decreasing diffusion abilities of the pre-cursor molecules toward the tip of the nanorods, which is further supported by dwell time experiments.


This study was undertaken to shed some light on problems that have arisen in measuring cognitive confrontation (monitoring) and cognitive avoidance (blunting) with a self‐report questionnaire, the Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS; Miller, 1987). For this purpose, variants of both coping styles were studied in a naturalistic setting: 37 women who underwent prenatal diagnosis were interviewed at home about their ways of coping with different stages of the procedure, a few days before they expected the diagnostic results. Interview fragments pertaining to cognitive confrontation and avoidance were selected and analysed by two investigators in order to generate categories of avoidance and confrontation coping strategies. For some of the fragments, inter judge reliability was assessed using new judges. A comparison between the categories found and the kinds of items used in the MBSS shows that in real life more coping variants occur than those represented in the MBSS, in particular variants that involve a combination of cognitive confrontation and avoidance. Implications for the dimensionality of both concepts and for their measurement are discussed.


Aims: To investigate acute and short-term effects of sirolimus (SRL) on glomerulo-tubular function, blood pressure (BP), and renal morphology in the rat. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing initially 140–180 g were treated with SRL in three series: SRL 0.2, 0.4, or 0.8 mg/kg/day intraperitoneally for up to 28 days after skin allo-transplantation from Lewis donors (to establish a dosage with significant immunosuppressive effect). SRL 0.4 mg/kg intravenously (acute effects). SRL 0.4 mg/kg/day intraperitoneally for 7 days (short-term effects). Inulin, lithium (CLi) and sodium clearance, and intra-arterial BP were measured in conscious catheterized rats. Morphological kidney studies were completed after post-mortem fixation. Results: Maximum immunosuppressive effect was achieved with SRL 0.4 mg/kg/day. SRL acutely increased GFR and CLi, whereas fractional proximal reabsorption (PFR) declined. In the short-term study SRL had opposite effects on GFR and CLi, unaffected proximal tubular reabsorption and PFR, raised BP, diminished food consumption, and slower increase in body weight. Morphological changes were non-specific. Conclusion: In a dosage giving maximum immunosuppressive effect, SRL revealed acute effects on glomerular and proximal tubular function thus indicating increased outflow from the proximal tubules whereas one week of SRL treatment produced a change resembling the known nephrotoxic effects of the calcineurine inhibitors.


The present invention aims to provide an antenna tower structure (10) comprising an essentially vertical elongated tower body (20) with an internal installation shaft (30) provided therein. The tower is arranged to house a radio base station (40) in the installation shaft in the vicinity of one or more associated antennas (50) at the top of the tower body. The tower body is comprised of two or more modular segments (Sl, S2....).There is also provided a modular antenna tower segment (Sl, S2....), a method for assembly of a modular antenna tower, a method for assembly of a modular antenna tower, and a method for assembly of a modular antenna tower.


The Northern Harrat Rahat consists of 300m of basalt lavas covering some 2,000 km 2 to the south-east of Al-Madinah in western Saudi Arabia. Like many basait sequences, the Rahat basalts form an important aquifer and groundwater resource. The aquifer has a saturated thickness of up to 60m and is made up of the weathered upper part of underlying basement, pre-basalt sands and gravels, and the fractured basalts. Since 1992, groundwater has been abstracted from the aquifer as part of the Al-Madinah water supply. To assess the potential of the aquifer, an assessment has been made based on pumping tests of about 70 wells. The hydraulic parameters have been shown to be highly variable, typical of the fractured domain. The aquifer contains good-quality water in storage, but receives limited recharge. Groundwater temperature anomalies indicate remnant volcanic activity locally. A numerical groundwater model has been constructed, which has been calibrated using limited groundwater head measurements, but with good abstraction records. Predictions of groundwater heads and the examination of several abstraction scenarios indicate that the aquifer can continue to support part of the Al-Madinah demand for the next several years, if certain well distributions are adopted. The predictions also show that the aquifer can only support the total demand of the city for a few days as a contingency resource.


The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is partnering with providers, caregivers, and patients to ensure appropriate use of antipsychotic medications for nursing home patients, the government announced last week.


Total amount of 4.355 records of honeybee colonies production characteristics was estimated on the 251 bee yards in Slovenia from 1993 to 2001. Queens were produced on 29 queen producing yards. The average lsmeans of honey yields increased by 0,41 kg a year. The swarming behaviour and the defensive behaviour of bees increased as well by 0,091 points, and –0,038 points respectively. According to the last two years records, the honey yields of bee colonies were significantly influenced by the drone gene pool at queen production yards. The swarming behaviour was in contrary more influenced by the queen mothers on queen production yards. The defensive behaviour of bee colonies and the daily varroa mite fall were not significantly influenced by parents.


In the last decades, both temperature and UVB (280-315 nm) radiation on the surface of the Earth increased at growing rates as a result of human activities. Many studies had evaluated the effects of temperature on aquatic ecosystems, but now the ルeld broadens as the combination and variations of temperature and radiation gains especial importance. In this work we attempt to revisit some of our knowledge about the effects of UVR and temperature on marine and freshwater plankton and ルsh from temperate regions (deルned here as latitudes between 30-60o), especially from the Patagonia area, due to the special characteristics found in these sites. UVR affects (often negatively) almost all processes, from carbon ルxation to behavior; and certainly all trophic levels in plankton, from virus to ルsh larvae. The most prominent UVR danger is probably the mutagenic action of UVB, which will affect a number of processes such as photosynthesis, growth and cell division, among many others. In metazoans, UVR may cause stress upon survival or show sublethal effects such as those in behavior and feeding. It is difルcult to extract a general pattern, even in a group of organisms, as responses to UVR appear to be species-speciルc and strongly inレuenced by local conditions (e.g., UVR penetration, PAR/UVR ratios, and acclimation). While in many cases signiルcant effects have been determined, a number of mechanisms are available to avoid and / or minimize the damage produced by UVR. However, this may not hold true for global temperature changes. In the case of ルshes for example, temperature appears as the main factor driving habitat distributions, so the biogeography must be taken into account to consider the potential outcomes of UVR and temperature changes. Even in the different scenarios predicted by climatic models (including ozone layer recovery and temperature rise over the next decades) more research combining UVR and temperature as factors will be needed to understand responses of aquatic ecosystems into the context of global change. [


The dibenzodiboracyclobutylidene 1 was recently shown to undergo photochemical rearrangement to the more thermodynamically stable dibenzodiborapentalene 2. In order to discover a more efficient thermal route for this isomerization, the redox chemistry of both 1 and 2 was explored. Radical anions can be formed and characterized by EPR spectroscopy by one electron reduction using potassium graphite. The [Cp*2Co]+ salt of the radical anion of 2 was characterized by X-ray crystallography. The dipotassium salts 1K2 and 2K2 can be prepared by using two equivalents of potassium naphthalenide; both were fully characterized. It was found that smooth rearrangement of 1K2 to 2K2 is mediated by weak Bronsted acids such as tert-butanol or 2,6-dimethylphenol; a mechanism based on similar rearrangements in the isoelectronic neutral all-carbon framework is proposed.


Abstract A novel single-layer metallo-dielectric superstructure is proposed in this paper. It is constructed by two asymmetric unit- cells optimally arranged on the same layer to construct a partially reflective surface to be placed over a multilayer microstrip slot antenna named feed antenna for enhancing its performances. The radiation is expected to be maximum at the center of the formed layer. Thus, to maintain a high-gain performance, the unit-cells placed at the center are designed to provide a quasi-optimal reflection phase with high reflectivity at the frequency band of interest. A prototype of the proposed antenna operating at 10 GHz with overall size of 2.133λ0 ×2.133λ0 ×0.56λ0 is successfully designed and fabricated. The calculated and measured antenna gain results indicate that the proposed antenna exhibits a wider radiation bandwidth performance of about 41.15% and 36.15%, respectively.


Dielectrophoresis (DEP) induced by activating a patterned two‐dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the interface of compound semiconductor AlGaN/GaN heterojunction has been demonstrated for the first time in our previous work. Briefly, with a peak voltage of ±10 V and a frequency from 100 kHz to 1 MHz, characteristics of both positive and negative DEP have been observed successfully manipulating 2 µm polystyrene microspheres in a drop of deionized (DI) water (pH ∼ 7 and conductivity 1 × 10−4 S m−1) over castellated 2DEG electrodes separated by critical dimensions 50 and 150 µm. This study reports a peculiar observation encountered when performing the DEP experiments under ultraviolet (UV) radiation: The microspheres have been repelled from the 2DEG electrodes yet remained on the surface during pDEP and then levitated upon switching to nDEP. This behavior is not observed in DEP with conventional microelectrodes and explained here by the UV‐induced electron–hole generation and the subsequent charge redistribution in the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure.


A sample of 101 specimens of the unisexual whiptail lizard Cnemidophorus nativo (Squamata; Teiidae) from a coastal site in Bahia State, Brazil were examined for the presence of endoparasites. Of these, 35 (34.7%) harboured helminths. Six helminth species were recovered from C. nativo, including five nematodes (Physaloptera retusa, Physalopteroides venancioi, Subulura lacertilia, Skrjabinelazia intermedia and Parapharyngodon sp., and one cestode (Oochoristica ameivae), all representing new host records. Most lizards were infected by a single species of helminth and none by more than three. Infection rates were neither significantly influenced by host body size nor by environmental factors. The results are compared with data from studies on other whiptail species in both South and North America.


[1] Considerable uncertainty remains about the combined effects of multiple limiting factors on oceanic phytoplankton, which constitute the base of the marine food web and mediate biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nutrients. I apply Bayesian statistical analysis to disentangle the combined effects of temperature and concentration on uptake of the important nutrient nitrate as measured by oceanic field experiments. This provides consistent estimates of temperature sensitivities for the maximum uptake rate and affinity (initial slope), the two parameters which define the shape of the uptake-concentration curve. No evidence is found that the temperature sensitivities of these two parameters differ, which implies that half-saturation constants, as commonly obtained by fits of the Michaelis-Menten (MM) equation, should be independent of temperature. This explains the robust relationship between half-saturation values and ambient nitrate concentration observed in compilations of data from diverse studies of uptake in marine and freshwater environments. Compared to the MM kinetics as applied in most large-scale models, accounting for a physiological trade-off between maximum uptake rate and affinity: (1) yields a more consistent model, which better describes observed changes in the shape of the uptake-concentration curve, and (2) implies a significantly greater inferred temperature sensitivity for nitrate uptake. These findings impact our understanding of how marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles will respond to climate change and anthropogenic nutrient inputs, both of which are expected to alter the relationship between nutrient concentrations and temperature in the near-surface ocean.


Using a model reduction method, a formula for the ideality factor of a pn junction as a function of the diffusion and generation terms of its reverse current is derived. Using this formula a method for separate computation of these two currents for a pn junction is presented. The validity of the method is investigated using computer simulations for an assumed diode with known ideality factor and total leakage current. Experimental results for two commercially available diodes validate the proposed technique.


The pros and cons of vertical housing development in Jakarta make me intend to raise the issue of the vertical kampung. In the kampung, there are social spaces where people interact to create a culture of rukun and gotong-royong. It is the terrace which become a container of social interaction. The purpose of this study is to reveal the meaning of the terrace in social interaction in the vertical kampung and its influence when the terrace room is not presented in the vertical kampung. The lost meaning of kampung when terrace is not presented in vertical kampung can be known through cognitive maps. Cognitive maps are the methodologies used to gain a human perception or view of life experiences in a particular place. This study involved several families in West Jatinegara Rusunawa to find out how people looked at the terrace in their life while in Kampung Pulo. Based on the cognitive maps method that has been done by the respondents, the terrace referred to by the villagers is an open space where people can see and interact with each other. Social space in the form of terraces which is needed by the kampung dweller, in fact is not a terrace house which is used as a place to receive guests and as a barrier between the fence and the body of the house.


Objective: The present investigation was aimed to perform biotransformation potential of Catharanthus roseus. Methods: Cell suspension culture of C. roseus were prepared by using Murashige and Skoog medium. Biotransformation of an important bioactive progesterone (4-pregnane-3, 20-dione) was confirmed by cell suspension culture of Catharanthus roseus . Results: Progesterone, which was used as precursor in cell suspension culture, was found to be bio transformed within three days into a new product through a regioselective hydroxylation process. The results confirmed that most of the progesterone added, was hydroxylated at its 17α-position leading to 17α-hydroxyprogesterone as a major biotransformation product after twelve days of incubation with 20% v/v cell density. The optimum biotransformation was achieved with the concentration of 100μg/ml progesterone at pH 5.5. Similarly, glucose was found as the most suitable source of carbon. The optimum incubation time was observed to be 12 days at 20% v/v cell density. Also higher progesterone biotransformation was observed using un immobilized cells as compared to immobilized cells. Conclusion: The results of present work suggest that C. roseus can successfully biotransformed to the product similar to an original organic substrate, which is entirely synthetic. Such a biotechnological process could be of great interest for production of new chemical compounds like cortisone, hydroxycortisone and other important steroids.


Civil engineering is a discipline with very strong practicality. "Principle of Reinforced Concrete Structures" is one of the major courses of civil engineering discipline, which has close connection with the practical engineering. With the hasty improvement of the computer technique, and with the rapid development of civil engineering structural scale, structural style, structural system, most reinforced concrete structures are designed by the special engineering softwares. According to the course characteristic of "Principle of Reinforced Concrete Structures", it is proposed that the engineering software can be introduced into the process of course teaching. Based on the personal teaching experience in the course teaching of "Principle of Reinforced Concrete Structures", objectives of education reform on the course-education of "Principle of Reinforced Concrete Structures" are analyzed and discussed in detail as well.


Tocoming is a translation of the poem "Avenir" by Henri Michaux.
A note on the title: "Tocoming" is a an obsolete english term meaning "what is to come, what lies in the future." I chose this title as an attempt to retain part of the word play in the source text: where "Avenir/ siecles a venir" becomes "Tocoming/ centuries to come".

Dawson F. Campbell has finished his last year of study in French and World Literature at SFU. He is passionate about reading and writing and has developed a preoccupation for putting those two things together in the act of translation—the art of forcing poets to speak his language while moulding his words to speak like theirs.


Correlational evidence indicates that materialistic individuals experience relatively low levels of well-being. Across four experiments, we found that situational cuing can also trigger materialistic mind-sets, with similarly negative personal and social consequences. Merely viewing desirable consumer goods resulted in increases in materialistic concerns and led to heightened negative affect and reduced social involvement (Experiment 1). Framing a computer task as a "Consumer Reaction Study" led to a stronger automatic bias toward values reflecting self-enhancement, compared with framing the same task as a "Citizen Reaction Study" (Experiment 2). Consumer cues also increased competitiveness (Experiment 3) and selfishness in a water-conservation dilemma (Experiment 4). Thus, the costs of materialism are not localized only in particularly materialistic people, but can also be found in individuals who happen to be exposed to environmental cues that activate consumerism—cues that are commonplace in contemporary society.


This study was planned to clarify the clinical and angiographic attributes of patients with exercise induced silent myocardial ischaemia. The study sample consisted of 102 patients who had ischaemic exercise electrograms (greater than = 1 mm ST segment depression) and significant angiographic stenosis (greater than = 50% diameter stenosis), in at least one of the major coronary arteries. In 61 patients (60%) painful ischaemia was observed during exercise (group A) while in 41 patients (40%) only SD depression (silent ischaemia) occurred (group B). The groups were similar with respect to age, sex, history of diabetes and all angiographic parameters including the Gensini coronary score. A history of prior myocardial infarctions was observed more frequently (p less than 0.01) in patients with silent ischaemia (group B). Prior myocardial infarction may be a factor causing silent myocardial ischaemia.


Human natural killer (NK) cells comprise 2 main subsets, CD56(bright) and CD56(dim) cells, that differ in function, phenotype, and tissue localization. To further dissect the heterogeneity of CD56(dim) cells, we have performed transcriptome analysis and functional ex vivo characterization of human NK-cell subsets according to the expression of markers related to differentiation, migration or competence. Here, we show for the first time that the ability to respond to cytokines or to activating receptors is mutually exclusive in almost all NK cells with the exception of CD56(dim) CD62L(+) cells. Indeed, only these cells combine the ability to produce interferon-gamma after cytokines and proliferate in vivo during viral infection with the capacity to kill and produce cytokines upon engagement of activating receptors. Therefore, CD56(dim) CD62L(+) cells represent a unique subset of polyfunctional NK cells. Ex vivo analysis of their function, phenotype, telomere length, frequencies during ageing as well as transfer experiments of NK-cell subsets into immunodeficient mice suggest that CD56(dim) CD62L(+) cells represent an intermediate stage of NK-cell maturation, which after restimulation can accomplish multiple tasks and further develop into terminally differentiated effectors.


Background: Pectin is a key substance involved in cell wall development, and the galacturonosyltransferases (GAUTs) gene family is a critical participant in the pectin synthesis pathway. Systematic and comprehensive research on GAUTs has not been performed in cotton. Analysis of the evolution and expression patterns of the GAUT gene family in different cotton species is needed to increase knowledge of the function of pectin in cotton fiber development. Results: In this study, we have identified 131 GAUT genes in the genomes of four Gossypium species (G. raimondii, G. barbadense, G. hirsutum, and G. arboreum), and classified them as GAUT-A, GAUT-B and GAUT-C, which coding probable galacturonosyltransferases. Among them, the GAUT genes encode proteins GAUT1 to GAUT15. All GAUT proteins except for GAUT7 contain a conserved glycosyl transferase family 8 domain (H-DN-A-SVV-S-V-H-T-F). The conserved sequence of GAUT7 is PLN (phospholamban) 02769 domain. According to cis-elemet analysis, GAUT genes transcript levels may be regulated by hormones such as JA, GA, SA, ABA, Me-JA, and IAA. The evolution and transcription patterns of the GAUT gene family in different cotton species and the transcript levels in upland cotton lines with different fiber strength were analyzed. Peak transcript level of GhGAUT genes have been observed before 15 DPA. In the six materials with high fiber strength, the transcription of GhGAUT genes were concentrated from 10 to 15 DPA; while the highest transcript levels in low fiber strength materials were detected between 5 and 10 DPA. These results lays the foundation for future research on gene function during cotton fiber development. Conclusions: The GAUT gene family may affect cotton fiber development, including fiber elongation and fiber thickening. In the low strength fiber lines, GAUTs mainly participate in fiber elongation, whereas their major effect on cotton with high strength fiber is related to both elongation and thickening.


Monetary theory and policy have been revolutionized in the two decades since October 1979, when the Federal Reserve under the leadership of Paul Volcker moved to stabilize inflation and bring it down. On the side of practice, the decisive factor was the demonstration that monetary policy could acquire and maintain credibility for low inflation, and improve the stability of both inflation and output relative to potential. On the theory side, the introduction of rational expectations was decisive because it enabled models of monetary policy to incorporate forward-looking elements of aggregate demand and price-setting, long known to be critically important for policy analysis, so as to understand how monetary policy achieved the favorable results found in practice.


Aerosol particles affect the global climate due to its influence on the scattering and absorption of short-wave and long-wave radiation. The extent of the influence of aerosol particles on the climate varies a lot by time and space, and needs to be quantified. One of the most important natural sources of atmospheric particles is new particle formation (NPF). However, the contribution of NPF events on the aerosol concentrations in different regions need to be better quantified before they can be realistically described in climate models. This is of great interest due to the ongoing climate debate. Atmospheric NPF events are typically studied at stationary measurement sites, at which the observed changes in particle number concentration and size can be linked to both temporal and spatial changes in the particle formation and growth parameters, even though the spatial component is often neglected. The goal of this study is to examine how common the spatial variations in particle formation and growth parameters are, and how they affect the observed NPF events.
The method used to examine this was to first use an improved version of an existing model to simulate different NPF cases assuming spatially and/or temporally varying input parameters. From these simulations the "fingerprints" for the different parameter variations were identified. Thereafter we analyze 8 years of particle number size distribution data from measurement sites Pallas and Varrio, in Finnish Lapland, and compared the observations of NPF events to the fingerprints of the different variations in cases when the same air mass was observed at both sites.
Our results indicate that the beginning of the event is typically time dependent which could be explained by the diurnal evolution of a turbulent boundary layer. The end of the NPF event tends to be more typically dependent on location. In our observations in Northern Scandinavia this could be connected to the air mass arriving from sea to land or over the Scandinavian mountains. These findings indicate that the spatial variations of the particle formation and growth parameters cannot be neglected when analyzing NPF events.


Premature ejaculation (PE) is a commonest male sexual dysfunction clinically, with a complex pathogenesis and unsatisfactory treatment results. To clarify the etiology of PE is essential for the improvement of the therapeutic effect, and the animal model is an important tool for investigating its pathogenesis and treatment protocols. Currently there are various animal models for this purpose, each with its own characteristics and some suitable for animal experiments only. The application value of an animal model of PE depends on its repeatability, efficiency, and ability of fully simulating the clinical features of humans. This paper presents an overview on the most commonly used animal models of PE, compares their advantages and disadvantages, and provides some evidence for choosing the most suitable ones for PE studies.


Interest in microbubbles as vehicles for drug delivery has grown in recent years, due in part to characteristics that make them well suited for this role and in part to the need the for localized delivery of drugs in a number of applications. Microbubbles are inherently small, allowing transvascular passage, they can be functionalized for targeted adhesion, and can be acoustically driven, which facilitates ultrasound detection, production of bioeffects and controlled release of the cargo. This article provides an overview of related microbubble biofluid mechanics and reviews recent developments in the application of microbubbles for targeted drug delivery. Additionally, related advances in non-bubble microparticles for drug delivery are briefly described in the context of targeted adhesion.


Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction can effectively return athletes to the playing field, but they are still at risk of developing posttraumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). No studies have used multivariable analysis to evaluate the predictors of radiographic PTOA in the lateral compartment of the knee at short-term follow-up after ACL reconstruction. Purpose: To determine the predictors of radiographic joint space narrowing in the lateral compartment 2 to 3 years after ACL reconstruction in a young, active cohort. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. Methods: A nested cohort of 358 patients from the Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network (MOON) prospective cohort who were aged ≤33 years, were injured playing a sport, and had never undergone surgery on the contralateral knee were followed up 2 years after ACL reconstruction with questionnaires and with weightbearing knee radiographs using the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint technique. The joint space width in the lateral compartment was measured using a semiautomatic computerized method, and multivariable predictive modeling was used to evaluate the relationship between meniscus treatment, cartilage injury, graft type, and joint space while adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and Marx activity score. Results: The mean lateral joint space width was 0.11 mm narrower on the ACL-reconstructed knee compared with the contralateral healthy knee (7.69 mm vs 7.80 mm, respectively; P < .01). Statistically significant predictors of a narrower joint space width on the ACL-reconstructed knee included lateral meniscectomy (P < .001) and a Marx activity score less than 16 points (P < .001). Conclusion: This study identifies lateral meniscectomy and a lower baseline Marx activity score to be predictors of radiographic joint space narrowing in the lateral compartment 2 to 3 years after ACL reconstruction in young, active patients without a prior knee injury.


Drug discovery is a complex and interdisciplinary research, often with conflicting goals and a complex large data used for the development of a balanced clinical candidate. Written from the perspective of drug discovery, it is a practical guide for the analyst and ADME scientists and advanced students in this field. Separate chapters discuss each important aspect, covering the fundamental concepts of separation science, mass spectrometry and pharmacokinetic (PK) studies discussed with minimum mathematical equations. The present book provides in-hand solutions for offline and online sample extraction methods, column switching techniques, chiral separations and validation of the optimized methods as per the standard protocol and FDA guidelines. With practical details obtained in analytical laboratory…synthesis of drug metabolites and related substances, their characterization, separation, validation and applications in PK studies, book provides a successful approach to design, planning, execution and interpretation of research studies. This book will serve as a practical reference in regular use for researchers and scientist interested in drug discovery.


Protein glycosylation plays a critical role in post-translational modifications of proteins in the organism and is involved in many diseases. However, the huge challenge for glycoproteins to be highly specific isolated and adsorbed from complicated biological samples results from their low abundance and interference. In this work, a novel dual-functionalized magnetic metal-organic frameworks nanoparticle for selective enrichment of glycoproteins was synthesized for the first time. Due to the abundant amino groups and grafted phenylboronic acid, the proposed nanoparticles have the dual properties of hydrophilicity and boronic acid affinity. The obtained nanoparticles show high binding capacities toward glycoproteins under physiological state (pH 7.4) such as ovalbumin (327.28 mg/g), transferrin (241.17 mg/g), horseradish peroxidase (530.79 mg/g). Furthermore, the nanoparticles still have excellent enrichment performance after being used six times repeatedly. More importantly, the prepared nanoparticles also have great potential applications in the adsorption of glycoproteins from complex biological specimens.


Single domain GdBaCuO bulk superconductors have been fabricated by applying the melt-textured method with doping Gd211 particles of different initial sizes in air. The fine Gd211 phase was synthesized by Pechini method. Compared to Gd211 phase fabricated by solid state reaction, the distribution of the size and shape of the fine Gd211 particles is homogenous. The enhancement of critical current density has been observed for the sample with the employment of fine Gd211 starting powder, in which Jc has reached 5.3 ? 104 A/cm2 at 77 K and self-field. This can be ascribed to the refinement of Gd211 inclusions trapped in bulk superconductors


We study the formal neighborhoods at rational nondegenerate arcs of the arc scheme associated with a toric variety. The first main result of this article shows that these formal neighborhoods are generically constant on each Nash component of the variety. Furthermore, using our previous work, we attach to every such formal neighborhood, and in fact to every toric valuation, a minimal formal model (in the class of stable isomorphisms) which can be interpreted as a measure of the singularities of the base-variety. As a second main statement, for a large class of toric valuations, we compute the dimension and the embedding dimension of such minimal formal models, and we relate the latter to the Mather discrepancy. The class includes the strongly essential valuations, that is to say those the center of which is a divisor in the exceptional locus of every resolution of singularities of the variety. We also obtain a similar result for monomial curves.


Feature selection has the two main objectives of minimising the classification error rate and the number of features. Based on binary particle swarm optimisation (BPSO), we develop two novel multi-objective feature selection frameworks for classification, which are multi-objective binary PSO using the idea of non-dominated sorting (NSBPSO) and multi-objective binary PSO using the ideas of crowding, mutation and dominance (CMDBPSO). Four multi-objective feature selection methods are then developed by applying mutual information and entropy as two different filter evaluation criteria in each of the proposed frameworks. The proposed algorithms are examined and compared with a single objective method on eight benchmark data sets. Experimental results show that the proposed multi-objective algorithms can evolve a set of solutions that use a smaller number of features and achieve better classification performance than using all features. In most cases, NSBPSO achieves better results than the single objective algorithm and CMDBPSO outperforms all other methods mentioned above. This work represents the first study on multi-objective BPSO for filter-based feature selection.


Abstract. We demonstrate experimentally that mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) operating under external optical feedback exhibit extreme pulses. These events can be triggered by adding small amplitude periodic modulation, with the highest success rate for the case of a pulse-up excitation. These findings broaden the potential applications for QCLs, which have already been proven to be a semiconductor laser of interest for spectroscopic applications and countermeasure systems. The ability to trigger extreme events paves the way for optical neuron-like systems where information propagates as a result of high intensity bursts.


Epidermis bullosa is a genetically inherited disease in which painful blistering of the skin or mucous membranes occurs after minor trauma. It is a lifelong problem. The diagnosis should be confirmed by a specialist, preferably at a specialist unit where a treatment plan and follow-up arrangements for professionals and families can be put in place. Nurses will be involved in frequent dressings of wounds, after extra analgesia, and may need to be alert to any need for further specialist referral, especially in the case of complications such as infection, deformities, gastrointestinal strictures and possible skin cancers. Genetic counselling should also be offered to families, especially when considering the possible risks to future pregnancies.


Two models of spaceborne radiometers for measuring atmospheric radiation at the Earth's limb radiance profiles have been designed in Estonia and used aboard several Russian orbital stations from 1971 to 1993. Calibration was carried out with a Teflon flat-plate diffuser and a DXW lamp traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and an integrating sphere with a 1,2 m diameter and an 0,4 m aperture. The absolute spectral radiance of the aperture was determined by comparison with a tungsten ribbon standard lamp, calibrated at the All-Russian Research Institute for Optophysical Measurements (VNIIOFI), Moscow. The field-of-view responsivity was investigated by using a special collimator facility. The following characteristics of the spaceborne radiometers were determined: absolute responsivity constant, spectral characteristics, field-ofview responsivity and off-axis rejection, amplitude transfer function (nonlinearity) and temperature dependence of responsivity. The in-flight checking of long-term responsivity changes was carried out by using internal reference lamps and radiation from the Moon and the Sun.


Selective queries are not uncommon in large-scale data analytics, for example, when drilling down into a specific customer in a dashboard. Traditionally, selective queries are accelerated by creating secondary indexes. However, because of their large size, expensive maintenance, and difficulty to tune and automate, indexes are typically not used in modern cloud data warehouses or data lakes. Instead, such systems rely mostly on full table scans and lightweight optimizations like min/max filtering, whose effectiveness depends heavily on the data layout and value distributions.We propose SPA as the vision for automatically optimizing selective queries for immutable copy-on-write data formats. SPA adaptively indexes subsets of the data in an incremental and workload-driven manner. It makes fine-grained decisions and continuously monitors their benefit, dynamically allocating an optimization budget in a way that bounds the additional cost of indexing. Furthermore, it guarantees a performance improvement in the cases where indexes—potentially partial ones—prove to be beneficial. When indexes lose their benefit due to a shifting workload, they are gradually deconstructed in favor of optimizations that accommodate recent trends. As SPA does not require information about updates performed on the data, it can also be employed as an accelerator for systems that do not control the data, e.g., in cloud data lakes.


catheter in four women and found a coefficient of variation similar to that reportcd by Neuman et al. (1972). In our institution we have compared the Gaeltec catheter with the fibre-optic catheter in ten women. The tracings were identical in most cases and the coefficient of variation was <lo%. Differences between our findings and others might be due in part to the fact that the fluidfilled catheter produced suboptimal readings due to the possibility of blockage or compression. Certainly this fact needs further study. D r Goodlin's comment that 'it is of no more clinical use than uterine palpation' or even external tocography has to be verified by randomized clinical studies and such a study is nearing completion in our institution. It is our opinion that it is useful when external tocography is not satisfactory. The importance of recording uterine contractions, especially with the use of oxytocic drugs in a woman with a scarred uterus is obvious, especially in the litigious climate of obstetrics today. M. F. Gibb Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry Denmark Hill London SE5 8RX S. Arulkumaran I. lngemarsson Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology National University of Singapore National University Hospital Lower Kent Ridge Road Singapore 0511


Introduction The following studies were undertaken to evaluate three components of school health programs which consume a major portion of nurse and physician time spent in schools in the United States. These are: physical health appraisal, absence surveillance, and care given to pupils on visits to the school health room. The population observed was that of pupils attending a four-year high school in Dormont, a middle-class, all-white suburb of Pittsburgh. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the forementioned activities in meeting health needs of pupils, it was necessary to describe pupil health status and to identify certain factors influencing pupil health. Children were characterized as to findings on physical examination, certain screening tests for detection of disease, causes and frequency of absence and health room visits, level of academic achievement (including school dropout), physical fitness tests, answers to a health questionnaire, and patterns of extracurricular activities (including hours of


Abstract:  For comparative glass examinations, the refractive indices (RIs) of recovered glass fragments are often compared to a test interval defined by measurements from a broken glass object. RI measurements from five modern float glasses were used via resampling to assess the frequencies of false exclusion errors for eight test criteria as functions of the number of measurements. The test criteria were based on ranges, fixed intervals, and multiples of standard deviations of the known source measurements. The observed error rates for the eight tests studied are between zero and c. 35%, depending upon the match criteria, the number of measurements, and the RI distribution for a glass source. The results of this study can be used to predict the false exclusion rate for a test criterion under a given set of conditions or to select test criteria that result in a desired error rate for these typical sheet glasses.


Despite the proliferation of big data and quantitative information available for marketing decisions, surprisingly, we know little about which metrics marketers use for their decisions or how marketers make trade-offs between such metrics. To overcome this gap, we first propose a model based on over 200 interviews conducted and a multi-disciplinary literature review of managerial metric preferences. Second, we obtain responses from 563 managers with authority on over $1 million marketing budgets who selected metrics to include in 1,126 idealized build-your-own (BYO) conjoint choice marketing budget dashboards, and rank-ordered these metrics for 2,252 decision tasks. Finally, we estimate managers' preferences by proposing a random utility model that combines the BYO choice and ranking tasks to correct for selection effects. We find systematic differences in metric utility based on type of marketing decision and detect substantial heterogeneity in preferences among managers. From this, we develop an understanding of contextual drivers of preferences for metric use, offering several important managerial takeaways.


We report a case of ultrasound-guided infraorbital nerve block with a hockey stick typed probe in plane approach. Individual difference of infraorbital anatomy makes it difficult to puncture the infraorbital for a man, and the risks include bleeding, double vision and paranasal sinus puncture. The advantage of ultrasound-guided nerve block has been reported. Compared with conventional land mark method approach, ultrasound technique is thought to be easy to perform, more quickly and safely without any complications. From our results, we have demonstrated that ultrasound-guided infraorbital nerve block assisted by hockey stick typed probe could become one of the safe methods for this purpose.


The three transition-metal complexes, (meso-5,7,7,12,14,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane-κ⁴N)bis(perchlorato-κO)copper(II), [Cu(ClO₄)₂(C₁₈H₄₀N₄)], (I), (meso-5,7,7,12,14,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane-κ⁴N)bis(nitrato-κO)zinc(II), [Zn(NO₃)₂(C₁₈H₄₀N₄)], (II), and aquachlorido(meso-5,7,7,12,14,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane-κ⁴N)copper(II) chloride, [CuCl(C₁₈H₄₀N₄)(H₂O)]Cl, (III), are described. The molecules display a very similarly distorted 4+2 octahedral environment for the cation [located at an inversion centre in (I) and (II)], defined by the macrocycle N₄ group in the equatorial sites and two further ligands in trans-axial positions [two O-ClO₃ ligands in (I), two O-NO₂ ligands in (II) and one chloride and one aqua ligand in (III)]. The most significant difference in molecular shape resides in these axial ligands, the effect of which on the intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonding is discussed. In the case of (I), all strong hydrogen-bond donors are saturated in intramolecular interactions, while weak intermolecular C-H∙∙∙O contacts result in a three-dimensional network. In (II) and (III), instead, there are N-H and O-H donors left over for intermolecular interactions, giving rise to the formation of strongly linked but weakly interacting chains.


Each communities involves in literary field to reflect their origin and uniqueness. Sangam Period on behalf of Tamil language and Pre Islamic Era on behalf of Arabic language are the mostly involvement periods in literary field. Both periods are still talked about in the field of literature that shows theirs antiquity and literary excellence. Literary discussion of these two different language literatures is an essential nowadays. According to this, the significant of this research indicates that each period has been analyzed separately in many views. But comparative analysis is deficiency. Therefore, this research uses comparative descriptive methodology to analysis literary characteristics among them. This paper aims to increase comparative literature discussions among the periods. Understanding the literature through another literature is the important. Therefore, this research will promote comparative studies among Tamil and Arabic literatures in the future.


UNLABELLED
A growing number of studies have highlighted impairments in the ability of individuals with autism spectrum disorders to recall specific, personally experienced material. These difficulties have been related to underlying problems with autonoetic consciousness, namely the subjective awareness of one's own existence in subjective time. The current paper describes the manifestation of these difficulties in three individuals diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. For the people described, lifelong collecting and hoarding behaviours appeared to serve the function of constituting and maintaining aspects of their sense of self, particularly the sense of continuity and agency over time. On the basis of this clinical information and previous research into self-related processes in people with autism spectrum disorders, an initial model of collecting and hoarding behaviours amongst individuals with Asperger syndrome was formulated. The implications of this formulation for both clinical practice and future research are discussed.

KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE
People with Asperger syndrome can have problems in developing a functional sense of self. Collecting and hoarding behaviour by people with Asperger syndrome may reflect such underlying difficulties in their sense of self rather than being symptoms of comorbid mental illness. Interventions need to take account of the function of such behaviours rather than solely regarding them as discrete pathological signs.


In this paper, the Lagrangian formulation of variable-rate vector quantization is extended to quantization with simultaneous constraints on entropy and codebook size, including variable- and fixed-rate quantization as special cases. The formulation leads to a Lloyd quantizer design algorithm and generalizations of Gersho's approximations characterizing optimal performance for asymptotically large rate. A variation of Gersho's approach is shown to yield rigorous results partially characterizing the asymptotically optimal performance.


Reconstruction of neuronal populations from ultra-scale optical microscopy (OM) images is essential to investigate neuronal circuits and brain mechanisms. The noises, low contrast, huge memory requirement, and high computational cost pose significant challenges in the neuronal population reconstruction. Recently, many studies have been conducted to extract neuron signals using deep neural networks (DNNs). However, training such DNNs usually relies on a huge amount of voxel-wise annotations in OM images, which are expensive in terms of both finance and labor. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for dense neuronal population reconstruction from ultra-scale images. To solve the problem of high cost in obtaining manual annotations for training DNNs, we propose a progressive learning scheme for neuronal population reconstruction (PLNPR) which does not require any manual annotations. Our PLNPR scheme consists of a traditional neuron tracing module and a deep segmentation network that mutually complement and progressively promote each other. To reconstruct dense neuronal populations from a terabyte-sized ultra-scale image, we introduce an automatic framework which adaptively traces neurons block by block and fuses fragmented neurites in overlapped regions continuously and smoothly. We build a dataset "VISoR-40" which consists of 40 large-scale OM image blocks from cortical regions of a mouse. Extensive experimental results on our VISoR-40 dataset and the public BigNeuron dataset demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our method on neuronal population reconstruction and single neuron reconstruction. Furthermore, we successfully apply our method to reconstruct dense neuronal populations from an ultra-scale mouse brain slice. The proposed adaptive block propagation and fusion strategies greatly improve the completeness of neurites in dense neuronal population reconstruction.


The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) of Lake Taupo, New Zealand provide an exceptional opportunity to explore the contemporary adaptation of an introduced aquatic species. Recently it has become evident that their spawning migration time has shifted to later in the season. I investigated the genetic basis of these changes in spawning time by (1) using genetic markers to determine the origins of Taupo trout in California, (2) determining the pattern and extent of spatial population genetic variation throughout the Lake Taupo catchment and in comparison to nearby Lake Tarawera in the Rotorua district, (3) analysing genetic variation at the OtsClock1b spawning time gene in temporal replicates from several sites from Taupo, and (4) comparing contemporary genetic variation at this gene and microsatellite markers to genetic variation from three Taupo tributaries in 1980s. I compared the ability of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and microsatellite markers to determine the origins of Lake Taupo rainbow trout, translocated from California around 120 years ago. Data were collected from 15 microsatellite and 93 SNP markers, using samples from the Lake Taupo population and ten populations throughout California, which included all historically indicated populations of origin. Results revealed that the Lake Taupo population has significantly diverged from Californian populations at both microsatellite and SNP loci. These analyses also showed that the Lake Taupo population was probably derived from several sources in California (the most likely origins being the McCloud River and Lake Almanor), and an indeterminate California coastal population. This conclusion was supported with simulations of founder events, which suggested that the genetic patterns of a single source of introduction would still be detectable 100 years post-founding, but with multiple introductions exact source populations become more difficult to detect. Approximately 50 individuals from 10 locations throughout the catchment were then analysed using 15 microsatellite loci to determine if there was any spatial population genetic differentiation. There was no significant difference in genetic distance between locations within Lake Taupo, although there was a significant difference between these populations and Rotorua and Waipakihi, which are isolated by geographic barriers. Lake Taupo rainbow trout do appear to diverge at markers potentially under selection, though, because genotyping of the poly-Q region of the timing locus OtsClock1b shows significant differentiation between individuals sampled at different times in the Waipa River. Two other sites, however, did not show the same pattern of significant seasonal variation in OtsClock1b allele frequencies. This suggests that genotypes at this locus could be influencing spawning migration time, but that this variation could also be site specific, and therefore have a strong environmental component. Scale samples from the 1980s show no significant divergence at 5 microsatellites and OtsClock1b, indicating that allele frequencies have not changed significantly over the last 20 years at neutral markers or markers under selection. I therefore conclude that while Taupo rainbow trout have diverged from their origins in California, they have only slightly diverged within their new environment, and do not show a consistent pattern of genetic change over time. This information will contribute not only to the management of the Taupo fishery but also to the current understanding of the population genetic structuring of introduced salmonids.


The exchange rate is an important macroeconomic variable used as a parameter for determining international competitiveness. It is regarded as an indicator of competitiveness of any currency of any country and an inverse relationship between this competitiveness exists. The study empirically examines the impact of the exchange rate on clothing exports in South Africa, for the period 1994Q1 to 2017Q4 by using the time series data from Quantec Easy Data and the South African Reserve Bank. The study uses a three-step estimation approach in the form of a unit root testing, cointegration analysis and the Vector Error Correction Model to determine the long-run and the short run relationships and to determine the level of impact of exchange rate on clothing exports. The results revealed the presence of a long-run and a negative relationship between the two variables under study. The findings and conclusions are valuable for the clothing sector and the government. The government should make South Africa's exchange rate to be a fixed exchange rate, so that South Africa exports more than it imports having a competitive advantage and more employment.


This article offers a Thirteenth Amendment analysis of "guest worker programs." In these visa programs, non-United States citizens may come to work in the United States for a limited period of time. Under most of these programs, the worker must leave if they get fired or quit. The article offers a historical perspective of agricultural guest worker programs from 1770 through today and concludes that poorly crafted guest worker programs may violate the Thirteenth Amendment.


A case of immediate replantation of an avulsed scalp by microvascular anastomosis is presented. Microvascular replantation of the scalp seems to offer significant social and psychological advantages over secondary reconstructive procedures. The significance of the case presented is the regaining of the motor neural function of the facial nerve after 38 months.


Case series summary In this report, we provide detailed clinical, laboratory, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic descriptions of two Toxoplasma gondii-positive cats diagnosed with transient myocardial thickening (TMT) and acute myocardial injury (MI). In both cases, aetiological diagnosis was based on the antibody screening test (all cats had IgM titres ⩾1:64) and MI was demonstrated by a concomitant severe increase of the serum concentration of cardiac troponin I (5.1–23.6 ng/ml; upper hospital limit <0.2 ng/ml). In both cats, TMT and MI were aggravated by left atrial dilation and dysfunction, as well as congestive heart failure. In one cat, atrial standstill was also documented, while the other cat showed an intracardiac thrombus. Both cats underwent an extensive diagnostic work-up aimed at excluding additional comorbidities that could contribute to able to contribute to TMT and MI, and received appropriate antiprotozoal (ie, clindamycin) and cardiovascular therapy (eg, furosemide, pimobendan and clopidogrel). This was followed by a simultaneous decline in T gondii serology titres, normalisation of troponin level and the resolution of clinical, electrocardiographic, radiographic and echocardiographic abnormalities. In the light of these results, therapies were interrupted and subsequent controls ruled out any disease relapse. Relevance and novel information Although T gondii represents an often-cited cause of myocarditis in feline medicine, the existing literature on the demonstration of T gondii-associated cardiac compromise in cats is extremely limited. Accordingly, this report provides a useful contribution to pertinent scientific literature since it describes TMT and acute MI in two T gondii-positive cats.


The invention belongs to the field of agricultural chemicals and discloses a synergistic insecticidal composition containing tolfenpxrad and S-fenvalerate and an application thereof. The insecticidal composition takes the tolfenpxrad and the S-fenvalerate as main active ingredients, wherein the weight ratio of the tolfenpxrad to the S-fenvalerate is (0.1-80):(0.5-80). The insecticidal composition has the effects of expanding a control spectrum and realizing synergy, can reduce the cost of medication, can be prepared into missible oil, wettable powder, micro-emulsion, aqueous emulsion, suspension and water dispersible granules, and can be used for preparing insecticidal medicaments for controlling lepidoptera, homoptera, hymenoptera, coleoptera and other various pests.