Prewar Japanese labor policies were not only shaped by industrial mutations, the development of labor unions, and domestic political changes, but rather, were also inspired by ideas that circulated from one continent to the other through international contacts among labor unionist and social reformist. To date, there has been no detailed historical analysis that systematically draws on first-hand data of how Japan's membership in the International Labour Organization (ILO) changed the course of its labor governance strategy in the interwar period. ILO membership compelled the Japanese governing elites to face up to important questions regarding national economic development. For example, what was the better strategy to enrich and strengthen the nation: cheap, submissive labor or collective bargaining; improving working conditions to generate higher productivity? In light of the international geopolitical context that was unfolding, what was the more realistic option: free trade by means of diplomatic cooperation or expanding the country's economic bloc by means of territorial conquest? This article draws on the rich, hitherto unused ILO archives in Geneva, to focus on the developments in relations between the ILO and Japan from the organization's creation in 1919 through to the country's departure in 1938. It documents the changing and contingent reasons why the ILO was an important partner for Japan, while uncovering the pivotal role played by liberal social reformists throughout this period.


This work investigates if the current neural architectures are adequate for learning symbolic rewriting. Two kinds of data sets are proposed for this research -- one based on automated proofs and the other being a synthetic set of polynomial terms. The experiments with use of the current neural machine translation models are performed and its results are discussed. Ideas for extending this line of research are proposed and its relevance is motivated.


A charge of 2.3×1011 electrons in 2.5 ns at a laser wavelength of 757 nm with a corresponding quantum efficiency (QE) of 2.0% measured at 752 nm was extracted from a -120 kV biased, 20 mm diameter, GaAs–AlGaAs superlattice photocathode. The maximum electron polarization measured with material from the same wafer, but in a different system, was 71% at 757 nm for a QE of 1.0% measured at 752 nm. The quantity and temporal distribution of the extracted charge is consistent with a space charge limitation, rather than a cathode charge limit. The performance of this type of cathode makes it a possible candidate for future linear colliders.


Bureau of Tokyo Sewerage has 13 wastewater treatment plants and 82 pumping stations. In order to manage these facilities efficiently, collective operation in each treatment area is being promoted by making use of remote-control system. Promotion of remote control system leads to concentration of facilities monitored or controlled from the master facility, and, therefore, increases tasks of each operator, enhancing possibility of his human error. Also, due to pressing increase of age-limit retirees and strict restraint of employment, the number of operational staff is decreasing and, consequently, operational skills are being lost with veteran operators. Automatic operation can save some load of operation, but it is limited in use because WWTP deals with uncontrollable materials, rainfall and sewerage. As a solution to the problems, Operation Navigation System (ONS) was developed. ONS, a computer system to make use of its performance and capacity, is a guidance system that has human-friendly interface and flexibility. Developed ONS reduces operational tasks, functioning like car navigation. An operator can give operational instruction or action according to guidance message that is timely and pertinently shown on supervisory monitoring device. The target of ONS is to establish safe and stable plant operation by inexperienced operational staff. ONS uses data of the supervisory system to deduce the next action. The decision is shown as a guidance message or messages with other related information. In contrast with automatic operation, which has restriction that it can be applied only to fixed operations, ONS can deal with operations that require operator's judgment. To evaluate ONS, prototype ONS was installed in the Morigasaki WWTP. The field test, which was done from July 2005 to March 2006, demonstrated practicality of the guidance message system. We confirmed good consistency between ONS guidance and actual operation. For operations of indefinite timing, additional data from operator works. For ONS, operation know-how expressed in a form, such as document, manual, or flowchart is vital. ONS also asks for substantial improvement of operational data. Preparing the documented know-how and improving operational data is the key to introduce ONS to our WWTP.


Background. Despite recent advances in surgical techniques and treatment options, gastric cancer (GC) remains the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Besides DNA sequence mutations, epigenetic alterations have emerged as significantly major players in cancer development. A-to-I RNA editing is a post-transcriptional modification that converts adenosines to inosines in both coding and noncoding RNA transcripts, and has recently been recognized has a novel epigenetic mechanism in GC pathogenesis. More specifically, A-to-I editing of AZIN1 transcripts was shown to be regulated by an adenosine deaminase acting on RNA-1 (ADAR1), and edited AZIN1 resulted in an aggressive phenotype during disease progression in some human cancers. The aim of this study was to clarify the clinical consequences of RNA editing status of AZIN1 and the RNA editing enzymes (ADAR1 and 2) in GC patients. Methods. Two hundred eighty-eight gastric specimens from one hundred forty-four patients who underwent surgery for GC were evaluated. We analyzed the RNA editing status of AZIN1 by RNA editing site-specific quantitative PCR (RESSqPCR). RESSqPCR allows quantitation of RNA editing levels using wild-type or edited AZIN1-specific primers, and RNA editing levels are calculated by determining the ratios of Ct values between edited vs. wild-type transcript expression levels. Furthermore, expression levels of ADAR1 and ADAR2 were evaluated by qPCR in GC tissues. Results. We observed a higher frequency of the AZIN1 RNA editing in tumors compared with normal mucosa in GC. RNA editing status of AZIN1 was significantly increased in a stage-dependent manner, and high frequency of RNA editing in AZIN1 significantly correlated with advanced T stage and presence of lymph node metastasis in GC patients. Multivariate analysis revealed that high frequency of RNA editing in the AZIN1 gene was an independent prognostic factor for poor disease free survival and overall survival. Furthermore, significant upregulation of ADAR1 and downregulation of ADAR2 was also observed in GC tissues compared with matched normal mucosa, and these alterations also significantly correlated with disease progression factors and poor prognosis in GC patients. Interestingly, ADAR1 expression level was positively correlated with RNA editing status of AZIN1 in GC tissues. Conclusions. Our findings revealed that altered gene-specific A-to-I editing events mediated by ADAR1 promote disease progression in GC. We conclude that assessment of RNA editing status of the AZIN1 gene might offer a novel and superior biomarker for a more accurate diagnosis of disease staging and may help predict clinical outcomes in GC patients. Citation Format: Yoshinaga Okugawa, Yuji Toiyama, Kunitoshi Shigeyasu, Takashi Ichikawa, Satoshi Oki, Koichiro Mori, Yuka Nagano, Hiromi Yasuda, Shigeyuki Yoshiyama, Masaki Ohi, Koji Tanaka, Yasuhiro Inoue, Toshimitsu Araki, Yasuhiko Mohri, Motoyoshi Tanaka, Chikao Miki, Ajay Goel, Masato Kusunoki. Novel findings for the clinical significance of RNA editing status of AZIN1 and ADAR 1 and 2 expression levels in gastric cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4720. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4720


Wireless sensor network localization is an important area that attracted significant research interest. Recently, received signal strength indicator (RSSI)-based range measurement technology is widely used in sensor network for its low-cost. But the radio signal transmission is influenced by the factors of channel attenuation and shielding obstacles, etc. Therefore, the accuracy of RSSI-based localization algorithm is not high. In this paper, a new localization algorithm which is based on the probability distribution model is proposed. Firstly, the anchor node which is nearest to the unknown node is made as the reference node in order to correct the RSSI-based ranging distance. Secondly, the common communication area where the unknown nodes may exist is divided into a number of spatial grids. And then, the confidence degree of each grid is calculated out according to the probability model of radio signal space transmission. Finally, based on the centroids of spatial grids, the coordinates of the unknown nodes are calculated out. Through this algorithm, the localization accuracy is improved greatly compared with conventional RSSI-based localization algorithms, which has been demonstrated by the simulating results.


This paper proposes a method for adapting the traditional devices of model theory to the task of specifying the input/output behavior of artificial intelligence reasoning programs when viewed as inference engines. The method is illustrated by specifying two programs, one a toy example and the other a program for retrieving information from a declarative knowledge base. Close examination shows that many intuitions about the properties of a retriever can be stated rigorously in terms of inference and that the model-theoretic specification can then be used to prove that the retriever has these properties.


The involvement of polyamines in cellular growth and differentiation has prompted many studies of their possible role in cellular neoplasia, including prostatic carcinoma and benign hyperplasia, which represent increasingly important pathologies in men. The precise role of the polyamine system in cellular physiology remains to be clarified. Insight in the exact (sub)cellular localization of polyamine metabolic enzymes might greatly contribute to the elucidation of the specific functions of polyamines in (tumor) cell growth. As described in the first part, we developed cytochemical methods for the (sub)cellular localization of ornithine decarboxylase and polyamine oxidase, which are involved in the biosynthesis and catabolism of polyamines, respectively. The second objective of this thesis was to establish the use of polyamines as determinants of malignant cellular behavior and as potential targets for chemotherapy in prostate cancer. Biochemical analysis of various human prostatic tissues showed that concentrations of the polyamine spermine were substantially lower in prostatic carcinoma compared to normal or benign prostatic tissue. We explored if magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) could be used for the non-invasive determination of spermine in the prostate. Studies on prostatic biopsy samples showed that spermine can be detected and identified with MRS. Recent studies indicate that analogs of polyamines have significant antitumor activity in several human solid tumor models. We have studied the antitumor effect of the polyamine analog N1,N11-di(ethyl)norspermine (DENSpm) on prostatic cancer cells. The in vitro studies showed that all tested human prostatic cancer cells lines were sensitive to DENSpm. An in vivo study in athymic nude mice showed that DENSpm was able to inhibit tumor growth of xenografts of a human prostatic cancer cell line. In conclusion, the polyamine system provides an attractive target to study, to predict and to manipulate the cell kinetic behavior (cell growth, apoptosis) of tumor cells In addition, this study provided new tools and/or techniques for the in situ monitoring of polyamine metabolism


The rheology of 1-8% hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) solutions has been studied in the temperature range of 20-45 degrees Celsius. The results showed that the relative viscosity at each HPC concentration decreases with increasing temperature. The relative viscosity decreases drastically at about 43 degrees Celsius due to a phase transition. The influence of anionic surfactant, sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS), induced gelation of a 2% HPC solution. The HPC solutions gelled at surfactant SDS concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 1.0 critical micelle concentration (CMC). The gelation of the HPC/SDS hydrogel is explained in the surfactant SDD - bridged HPC linear polymer chains. The complex viscosity - concentration profile was determined below the CMC of the SDS - water pair. The peak itself was a function of frequency indicating the presence of two relaxation times within the gelled network.


The article considers the impact of foreign direct investment on employment in Viet Nam, a country that received considerable inflows of foreign capital in the 1990s as part of its increased integration with the global economy. Despite the significant share of foreign firms in industrial output and exports, the direct employment generated has been very limited because of the high labour productivity and low ratio of value added to output of much of this investment. The article also shows that the indirect employment effects have been minimal and possibly even negative because of the limited linkages which foreign investors create and the possibility of "crowding out" of domestic investment.


A new octopod species, Graneledone gonzalezi sp. nov., is described from 19 specimens collected off the northern Îles Kerguelen. This is a bathyal octopus which is characterized by: the absence of supra-ocular papillae, short arms, a long ligula without copulatory ridges, a narrow head, six filaments per outer demibranch and radula exhibiting no archaic traits, medium size oocytes and a low number of very long spermatophores. Graneledone gonzalezi is compared with its other congeneric species and found most closely resemble G. antarctica. The geographic and bathymetric distribution of G. gonzalezi is also discussed.


The pressure dependence of the intensity for optical frequency breakdown of nitrogen and argon has been studied using single similar 20 ps, Nd3+ laser pulses at the fundamental and second harmonic frequencies. The gases were studied over a pressure range of similar 102-105 Torr at 1·06 μm and similar 104-105 Torr at 0·53 μm. The results lend support to the view that breakdown at both frequencies proceeds via cascade collisional ionization rather than by multiphoton ionization.


In Indonesia there are many industries from telecommunications services, including PT. Indosat, Telkomsel, Satelindo and so that is a telecommunications service industry which represents mobile phone operators based Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). PT. Indosat mempuyai four products which include: Mentari, IM3, Matrix Star One and each has its own advantages. The Sun itself has a product positioning is not changeable by reminding consumers will be free talknya hitherto remained and is still valid. However, Sun also continued launching facilities and new benefits that remain competitive in the market. While other products offer the advantage that is always changing in an effort to anticipate the competition. Methods of data analysis the authors use in an attempt to evaluate sales promotion strategies on the Prime Card Mentari at. Indosat branch Pandaan. The results of this study is in january targeted as much as 200 units of its realization is 170 cards were sold at the event or music event in SMUN 1 Pandaan, this may imply that the realization of the tergapai is 85%, for the month of february january targeted as much as 200 units sold as many as 165 at the music event in SEKUKO; Building Kartika Candra this may imply that the realization of the tergapai is 83%, for the month of April in January as many as 600 units are targeted at 390 units sold in the terminal this may imply that the realization of which is 65 tergapai %, june music event in SMUN 1 Pandaan targeted as many as 200 units sold is 192, this may imply that the realization of the tergapai is 96%, in August held a music event in SEKUKO; Kartika Chandra House in January of 1400 with targeted units card units sold in 1120, this may imply that the realization of which is 80% and tergapai september targeted 1,400 units sold 1185 units, this may imply that the realization of the tergapai is 85%. For the realization of the change in February amounted to 3% from January, in April amounted to 18% change in the realization of February, for the month of June fell 31% from April to August, rose again by 16% and in september down 5% from the realization of August.


The transition between nano-diamond(n-D) and nano-graphite(n-G) were modeled based on the extrapolation of the bulk diamond-graphite equilibrium phase boundary in the temperature-pressure diagram to the nano-size region. It is found that in comparison with n-G, the stability of n-D increases as size and temperature decrease. However, n-D is not the most stable phase in comparison with fullerenes(C60) at the nanoscale by considering the heat of formation.


This paper provides an exploration of the concept and content of agile manufacturing (AM). It describes the nature of the content of AM and synthesises the literature to propose a comprehensive definition of purpose and process. Real agile manufacturing (RAM) is viewed as a strategic process; it is about surviving and prospering in the competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets. The paper argues that RAM is evolutionary, in that it is developed from existing systems of management and technologies. However, it is also revolutionary because the full application of RAM involves a departure from existing systems. RAM is shown to be based upon four fundamentals. First, each partner must benefit; thus multiple winners (manufacturers, suppliers, customers) is the objective. Second, integration (recourses, methods, technologies, departments or organisations) is the means of achieving RAM. Third, IT is demonstrated to be an essential condition. Finally, core competence is seen to be the key.


We tested the hypothesis that NO synthase inhibition alters proinflammatory cytokine expression during acute lung injury in mice. Five-week-old CD-1 mice were pretreated with l-NAME or d-NAME and then received an intratracheal injection of endotoxin (or PBS). TNF-alpha and IL-6 ELISAs and RT-PCR were performed on lung homogenates sampled 6 h later. l-NAME increased TNF-alpha and IL-6 protein and mRNA expression in lungs. Immunostaining demonstrated that TNF-alpha was expressed predominantly by macrophages in the lung. l-NAME did not alter pulmonary macrophage concentration. To better understand the effect of NO synthase inhibition, elicited murine peritoneal macrophages were stimulated in vitro with LPS after addition of l-NAME, d-NAME, nitroprusside, or control. Nuclear proteins were extracted 3 h later and electrophoretic mobility shift and supershift assays were performed using radiolabeled NF-kappaB consensus sequence oligonucleotides. Endotoxin increased NF-kappaB p50/p65 heterodimer binding. Binding was further increased by l-NAME and decreased by nitroprusside. The effect of nitroprusside was not blocked by guanylate cyclase inhibition. We conclude that, in endotoxin-induced acute lung injury, NO synthase inhibition increases proinflammatory cytokine protein and mRNA expression in part because NO decreases the amount of NF-kappaB available for binding to the regulatory region of proinflammatory cytokine genes.


GPUs have been widely adopted to serve online deep learning-based services that have stringent QoS requirements. However, emerging deep learning serving systems often result in long latency and low throughput of the inference requests that damage user experience and increase the number of GPUs required to host an online service. Our investigation shows that the poor batching operation and the lacking of data transfer-computation overlap are the root causes of the long latency and low throughput. To this end, we propose Ebird, a deep learning serving system that is comprised of a GPU-resident memory pool, a multi-granularity inference engine, and an elastic batch scheduler. The memory pool eliminates the unnecessary waiting of the batching operation and enables data transfer-computation overlap. The inference engine enables concurrent execution of different batches, improving the GPUs resource utilization. The batch scheduler organizes inference requests elastically. Our experimental results on an Nvidia Titan RTX GPU show that Ebird reduces the response latency of inferences by up to 70.9% and improves the throughput by up to 49.3% while guaranteeing the QoS target compared with TensorFlow Serving.


LCL filters feature low inductance; thus, the injected grid current from an LCL -filtered voltage-source inverter can be easily distorted by grid-voltage harmonics. This problem is especially tough for the control system with inverter-side current feedback (ICF), since the grid-current harmonics can freely flow into the filter capacitor. In this case, because of the loss of harmonic information, traditional harmonic controllers fail to mitigate the grid-current distortion. Although this problem may be avoided using the grid-voltage feedforward scheme, the required differentiators may cause the noise amplification. In light of the above issue, this paper develops a simple method for the ICF control system to mitigate the grid-current harmonics without extra sensors. In the proposed method, resonant harmonic controllers and an additional compensation loop are adopted at the same time. The potential instability introduced by the compensation loop can be avoided through a special design of the compensation position. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method for harmonic rejection is verified by detailed experimental results.


To investigate the role of the yeast telomere-, silencing-, and UAS-binding protein RAP1 in telomere position effects, we have characterized two sets of mutant cells: (1) a set of rap1 alleles (termed the rap1t alleles) that produce truncated RAP1 proteins missing the carboxy-terminal 144-165 amino acids; and (2) null mutants of the RIF1 gene, encoding a protein capable of interaction with the carboxyl terminus of RAP1. The data presented here indicate that loss of the carboxyl terminus of RAP1 abolishes position effects at yeast telomeres and diminishes silencing at the HML locus. Elimination of position effects in these cells is associated with increased accessibility to the Escherichia coli dam methylase in vivo. Thus, the carboxy-terminal domain of RAP1 is required for telomere position effects. In contrast, rif1 deletion alleles increase the frequency of repressed cells. Using the rap1t alleles to generate wild-type cells differing only in telomere tract lengths, we also show that telomere position effects are highly sensitive to changes in the size (or structure) of the telomeric tract. Longer poly(G1-3T) tracts can increase the frequency of transcriptional repression at the telomere, suggesting that telomeric poly(G1-3T) tracts play an active role in the formation or stability of subtelomeric transcriptional states.


Generalized polyhedral interconversion coordinates are defined within the framework of Avnir's continuous shape measures. The application of such interconversion coordinates to the study of the potential energy surfaces that define the stereochemical choice in four-coordinate transition metal complexes with different spin states is presented, and the correlation between potential energy curves and distribution of experimental structures along the tetrahedron to square interconversion path is shown for the case of the d(6) transition-metal complexes.


Specific requirements for medical equipment apart from the general technology list of nomenclature of the product quality indices necessitated the introduction of the indices of disinfection, sterilization and, if necessary, the effect of the human body. The observance of the uniformity of understanding the established terminology both by technical and medical specialists is provided by the introduction of the product quality indices into the operational documentation.


In this paper we describe a mechanism for automated negotiation in which artificial agents can deal with a multi-issue negotiation in a one-to-many way based on some strategies. The negotiation process are governed dynamically by some strategies that emphasize on the diverse processing methods under the considering of different commodity attributes, including dynamic delayed evaluation and response to the received offers, generation of offer group with the same utility. Our analysis shows that the mechanism ensures that bargaining agents could reach a better agreement automatically. We also implement a prototype system to verify the advantages of our mechanism.


The IEEE802.11e network provides different with QoS (quality of service) guarantee for different traffic streams. The Enhanced Distributed Channel Access(EDCA) in IEEE802.11e MAC protocol is proposed to support prioritized QoS on the basis of the Distributed Coordination Function(DCF) in IEEE802.11. This is first paper which assesses the effectiveness of the IEEE802.11e access mechanism in multi-hop wireless networks by quantitative analysis and simulation. We build a new modeling analysis methodology for the 802.11e access mechanism in multi-hop environments with hidden nodes problem. By using M/G/1/K queuing model, we can analyze a few MAC layer performance metrics of multi- hop wireless networks, such as MAC layer throughput, the mean packet delay and packet discard probability, and give better explanation to performance degradation in delay and throughput due to the impact of hidden nodes. The proposed model is calculated numerically and validated against simulation results, we observed a good match between the analytical model and simulation. Because the performance of 802.11e supporting class- based differentiated QoS degrades considerably in multi- hop environments, it is necessary to investigate the scheme which can resolve hidden nodes problem.


The level of higher education faces great needs and challenges in the use of computer technology. The technology-based learning process has several important priorities. In particular, the learning process is flexible and comfortable; It is much more exciting and creative; The learning material is comprehensive and teaching/ learning process is of high quality. However, the process, along with the priorities is fraught with many problems and challenges. In this paper, we aim to conduct research and determine what hinders the introduction of computer-based educational technologies and to work out the recommendations for the educators to enhance the quantitative and qualitative quality of the use of computer-based educational technologies. The survey was conducted using online survey, Interview, Focus group and Experiment methods. The following conclusions were made by analyzing the results: students preference is in favor of computer-based educational technologies;  Not all the staff implementing higher education programs use computer-based educational technologies in the educational process; HEIs have poorly renovated equipment; The quality does not meet modern requirements;  Professors lack of competence; Readiness to actively use computer-based educational technologies and participate in the trainings; To respond the results: It is important to review the training courses in the field of computer technology in the educational programs of HEIs and focus on the use of computer educational technologies; Making a mandatory requirement to use of computer-based educational technologies in the process of planning and implementing educational programs; Plan trainings in the field; To enhance the quality, the studies and surveys should be  conducted by HEI quality assurance services.


The Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire burned nearly 462,600 acres in north-central Arizona in the summer of 2002. The wildfire damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources and disrupted the hydrologic functioning within the impacted ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in a largely mosaic pattern. Impacts of the wildfire on ecosystem resources, factors important to hydrologic functioning, peak stormflow events and water quality constituents, and loadings of flammable fuels were evaluated on two watersheds in a ponderosa pine forest that was exposed to the burn - one experienced a high severity (stand-replacing) fire (Watershed A), and the other was exposed to only a low severity (stand-modifying) fire (Watershed B). Cumulative impacts of the wildfire on ecosystem resources, hydrologic functioning, and flammable fuels were more pronounced on Watershed A. Recovery of the Stermer Ridge watersheds from the Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire has been related to the respective fire severities that the two watersheds experienced. Watershed A converted from ponderosa pine to grasses, forbs, and a few shrubs. Recovery of the hydrologic functioning on this watershed has begun on a limited scale, but it is anticipated that the overall hydrologic functioning of Watershed A will not approach pre-fire conditions for many years. Flammable fuels represented by standing trees have been eliminated on Watershed A, but there has been an increase in stem sections, branches, twigs, and herbaceous fuels on the forest floor. While the possibility of a future crown fire has declined, the potential for surface fire remains. Much of Watershed B is slowly recovering from the impacts of the wildfire. Much of the hydrologic functioning of this watershed is also returning slowly to its pre-fire level. The post-fire loadings of flammable fuels were largely unchanged from their pre-fire estimates. Watershed B remains vulnerable to future wildfire events as a consequence.


A universal approach to the classification of video image sequences by hidden Markov models (HMMs) is presented. The extraction of low level features allows the HMM to build an internal image representation using standard training algorithms. As a result, the states of the HMMs contain probability density functions, so called image density functions, which reflect the structure of the underlying images preserving their geometry. The successful application of the approach to both the recognition of dynamic head and hand gestures demonstrates the universal validity and sensitivity of our method. Even sequences containing only small detail changes are reliably recognized.


Engagement of the adhesion receptor glycoprotein (GP) Ib-IX-V by von Willebrand factor (VWF) mediates platelet adhesion to damaged vessels and triggers platelet activation and thrombus formation in heart attack and stroke. GPIb-IX-V contains distinct 14-3-3zeta-binding sites at the GPIb alpha C-terminus involving phosphorylation of Ser609, an upstream site involving phosphorylated Ser587/Ser590, and a protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent site on GPIb beta involving Ser166. 14-3-3zeta regulates the VWF-binding affinity of GPIb-IX-V and inhibiting 14-3-3zeta association blocks receptor signaling, suggesting a key functional role for 14-3-3zeta. We used deletion mutants of GPIb alpha expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells to define the relationship of 14-3-3zeta binding to another GPIb-IX-V-associated signaling protein, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-kinase). Pull-down experiments involving glutathione S-transferase (GST)-PI3-kinase/p85-subunit and GST-14-3-3zeta indicated that both proteins interacted with contiguous GPIb alpha sequences 580 to 590/591 to 610. Deleting these, but not upstream sequences of GPIb alpha expressed in CHO cells, inhibited VWF/ristocetin-dependent Akt phosphorylation, relative to wild-type receptor, confirming this region encompassed a functional PI3-kinase-binding site. Pull-down experiments with GST-p85 truncates indicated the GPIb alpha-binding region involved the p85 breakpoint cluster region (BCR) domain, containing RSXSXP. However, pull-down of GPIb-IX was unaltered by mutation/deletion/phosphorylation of this potential 14-3-3zeta-binding sequence in mutant constructs of GST-p85, suggesting PI3-kinase bound GPIb alpha independently of 14-3-3zeta; 14-3-3zeta inhibitor peptide R18 also blocked pull-down of receptor by GST-14-3-3zeta but not GST-p85, and GST-p85 pull-downs were unaffected by excess 14-3-3zeta. Together, these data suggest the GPIb alpha C-terminus regulates signaling through independent association of 14-3-3zeta and PI3-kinase.


LEAP is a runtime environment for deploying agents on a network of Java-enabled devices. It complies with FIPA international standards for multiagent systems. The Lightweight Extensive Agent Platform project is the first attempt to implement a FIPA agent platform that runs seamlessly on both mobile and fixed devices over both wireless and wired networks.


Abstract ? Bound geodesic orbits around a Kerr black hole can be parametrized by three constants of the motion: the (specific) orbital energy, angular momentum, and Carter constant. Generically, each orbit also has associated with it three frequencies, related to the radial, longitudinal, and (mean) azimuthal motions. Here, we note the curious fact that these two ways of characterizing bound geodesics are not in a one-to-one correspondence. While the former uniquely specifies an orbit up to initial conditions, the latter does not: there is a (strong-field) region of the parameter space in which pairs of physically distinct orbits can have the same three frequencies. In each such isofrequency pair, the two orbits exhibit the same rate of periastron precession and the same rate of Lense-Thirring precession of the orbital plane, and (in a certain sense) they remain "synchronized" in phase.


This paper sets out to discuss the monolingual problem within computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research and CALL product development, namely a lack of knowledge about how CALL products and projects can support learners in using all their linguistic resources to achieve language-learning- and language-using-related goals, and a lack of CALL products and projects that realize this potential, or that support specific plurilingual skill development. It uses an analysis of CALL-related papers to demonstrate how far CALL is impacted by a monolingual bias that it inherited from language learning pedagogy. An analysis of articles from four CALL journals across 10 years shows that although the words bilingual and multilingual appear in these journals fairly regularly, terms such as plurilingual, third language, tertiary language, L3, translanguaging, and translingual are extremely rare. Also, only eight articles could be identified that use any of these eight keywords in their title. Trends across those papers are identified. In a discussion of existing CALL products and projects that incorporate more than one language, it is argued that while commercial products often include more than one language, this is frequently in a behaviorist or grammar-translation tradition, while innovative plurilingual products and projects tend to be non-commercial and often EU/EC-funded initiatives. The article argues that CALL research and product development can not only avoid this monolingual bias, but also actively contribute to our knowledge of how all linguistic resources can be used for language learning. It makes suggestions for relevant future research areas related to multilingual computer-assisted language learning (MCALL).


We present reduced and calibrated high resolution Lyman-alpha (Lyα) images for a sample of six local star-forming galaxies. Targets were selected to represent a range in luminosity and metallicity and to include both known Lyα emitters and nonemitters. Far ultraviolet imaging was carried out with the Solar Blind Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the F122M (Lyα online) and F140LP (continuum) filters. The resulting Lyα images are the product of careful modeling of both the stellar and nebular continua, facilitated by supporting HST imaging at λ ≈ 2200, 3300, 4400, 5500, Hα, and 8000 Å, combined with Starburst 99 evolutionary synthesis models, and prescriptions for dust extinction on the continuum. In all, the resulting morphologies in Lyα, Hα, and UV continuum are qualitatively very different and we show that the bulk of Lyα emerges in a diffuse component resulting from resonant scattering events. Lyα escape fractions, computed from integrated Hα luminosities and recombination theory, are found never to exceed 14%. Internal dust extinction is estimated in each pixel and used to correct Lyα fluxes. However, the extinction corrections are far too small (by factors from 2.6 to infinity) to reconcile the emerging global Lyα luminosities with standard recombination predictions. Surprisingly, when comparing the global equivalent widths of Lyα and Hα, the two quantities appear to be anticorrelated, which may be due to the evolution of mechanical feedback from the starburst. This calls for caution in the interpretation of Lyα observations in terms of star formation rates. The images presented have a physical resolution 3 orders of magnitude better than attainable at high redshifts from the ground with current instrumentation and our images may therefore serve as useful templates for comparing with observations and modeling of primeval galaxy formation. We therefore provide the reduced Lyα, Hα, and continuum images to the community.


. Grasp detection in a cluttered environment is still a great challenge for robots. Currently, the Transformer mechanism has been successfully applied to visual tasks, and its excellent ability of global context information extraction provides a feasible way to improve the performance of robotic grasp detection in cluttered scenes. However, the insufficient inductive bias ability of the original Transformer model requires large-scale dataset training, which is difficult to obtain for grasp detection. In this paper, we propose a grasp detection model based on encoder-decoder structure. The encoder uses a Transformer network to extract global context information. The decoder uses a fully convolutional neural network to improve the inductive bias capability of the model and combine features extracted by the encoder to predict the final grasp configuration. Exper-iments on VMRD datasets demonstrate that our model performs much better in overlapping object scenes. Meanwhile, on the Cornell Grasp Datasets, our approach achieves an accuracy of 98.1%, which is comparable with state-of-the-art algorithms.


LIM domain protein KyoT interacts with transcription factor RBP-J and modulates Notch signaling pathway. To study the function of KyoT, yeast two-hybrid was performed and proteins interacting with KyoT2 including Ring1 and hPc2 (human polycomb 2) that belong to PcG(polycomb group) were analyzed. The interactions between Ring1, hPc2, and KyoT2 were confirmed by changing vectors in two-hybrid analysis. Their interactions in vitro were confirmed by GST-pull down assay. Two-hybrid assay showed that the LIM domain of KyoT was responsible for interacting with the full-length Ring1 and hPc2. Moreover, the LIM domain also interacted with the C-terminus of hPc2. Interactions of KyoT2 with Ring1 and hPc2 suggested that PcG family might be involved in Notch signaling pathway.


This study aims to compare the performance of sharia listed in Jakarta Islamic Index, and non-sharia stock portfolio listed in LQ-45 index, whether there is significant difference or not, during the period of January 2012 to December 2019. Although number of sharia stocks dominated Indonesia Stock Exchange, level of literacy index of the Indonesian people in general towards the capital market, especially sharia capital market, is still low. This phenomenon drives this study in analyzing sharia portfolio in order to contribute to increasing the level of literacy index. This is a quantitative research using comparative and descriptive study. The analysis measurement is using portfolio return and risk-adjusted measure such as Treynor and Jensen method, and statistical tests such as one sample t-test and independent sample t-test. The samples were selected using purposive sampling, and populations are stocks listed in Jakarta Islamic Index and stocks listed in LQ-45 index. The result indicates that there is no significant different between sharia and non-sharia stock portfolio performance.


Members of networks are joined to other members by connections of varying types and often cluster into modules, groups, or communities. Identifying and characterizing these communities is a fundamental problem in network analysis. One way to tackle this problem is to optimize the quality function known as ''modularity'' over possible divisions of a network. Mark Newman reports a mathematical technique for quickly identifying and analyzing communities that form in large networks, and the algorithm may be useful for studying communities in social, computer, metabolic, and regulatory networks. Newman showed that network modularity can be expressed in terms of a ''modularity matrix,'' which leads to new formulas that reveal the community structure. The author tested the matrix method on classic and new networks, including social networks, the metabolic network of the worm C. elegans, coauthorships between condensed matter physicists, and networks representing the political leanings of blogs and books. The method was found to deliver more rapid, higher-quality results compared with three other published algorithm methods; in the case of the largest network, a collaboration network of 27,000 physicists, Newman's algorithm required only 20 min on a modern desktop computer to find community linkages. — P.D.


Smart sensors are increasingly being used to manage and monitor critical urban infrastructures, e.g., for telecommunication, transport, water, or energy networks, as well as for healthcare or smart buildings. Sensor-based monitoring systems offer ways of continuously monitoring low frequency activities, and open the door to new analytic and predictive applications in Smarter Cities. Such sensors generate "tricklets", i.e., noisy and continuous time series. Tricklets are typically misaligned, non-uniformly sampled, and comprise low frequency activities and recurring patterns. Storing and making sense of such data in a typical database management system is difficult, due to the impedance mismatch between classical (e.g., relational) data and tricklets. In this paper, we investigate the management of large amounts of tricklets from an architectural perspective, and propose MiSTRAL (MaSsive TRicklets anALysis), an architecture designed for executing low-latency analytics on time series warehouses. MiSTRAL uses a dictionary based representation for tricklets that allows queries to be run natively on compressed representations and thus to achieve the low-latency goal. The architecture of MiSTRAL is presented in detail in the following, along with early experimental results on several Smarter Cities datasets.


A. novel peroxo-niobophosphate was synthesized for the first time and used as a catalyst in the oxidation reaction of cyclic olefins with aqueous hydrogen peroxide to prepare dialdehy-des. The catalyst was characterized by elemental analysis, thermographic analyses, IR, UV/vis, 31P NMR and XPS spectra as [ π-C5H5N(CH2 )13 CH3 ]2 [ Nb4O6 (O2 )2 (PO4 )2 ] ·6H2O (PTNP). It showed high selectivity to glutaraldehyde in the catalytic oxidation of cyclopentene with aqueous hydrogen peroxide in ethanol.


We consider effects of zero-mean additive noise on systems that are undergoing supercritical blowout bifurcation, i.e., where a chaotic attractor in an invariant subspace loses transverse stability to a nearby on-off intermittent attractor. We concentrate on the low noise limit and two statistical properties of the trajectories; the variance of the normal component and the mean first crossing time of the invariant subspace. Before blowout we find that the asymptotic variance scales algebraically with the noise level and exponentially with the Lyapunov exponent. After blowout it is limited to the nonzero variance of the associated on-off intermittent state. Surprisingly, for a large enough Lyapunov exponent, the effect of added noise can be to decrease rather than increase the variance. The mean crossing time becomes infinite at and after the blowout in the limit of small noise; after the blowout there is exponential dependence on the Lyapunov exponent and algebraic dependence on the noise level. The results are obtained using a drift-diffusion model of Venkataramani et al. The results are confirmed in numerical experiments on a smooth mapping. We observe that although there are qualitative similarities between bubbling (noise-driven) and on-off intermittency (dynamics-driven), these can be differentiated using the statistical properties of the variance of the normal dynamics and the mean crossing time of the invariant subspace in the limit of low noise.


Vibration-based methods for damage localizations are often based on a damage feature defined in terms of changes of modal or operational shapes. These methods allow detecting variations of the damage feature that can be attributed to damage. Many of these methods are based on the detection of irregularities in the modal shapes of the structure. In this paper, the performance of several algorithms for damage localization is investigated and the results are compared both qualitatively, in terms of the capability to correctly localize damage, and quantitatively, in terms of relative information entropy. This parameter quantifies the gain of information obtained a given damage indicators with respect to a reference one. As reference damage indicator is assumed the prior probability of damage defined in terms of expert opinion or as a non-informative parameter. The investigation is carried out using responses simulated using the calibrated finite element model of a real Italian bridge permanently monitored by the Italian Seismic Observatory of Structures.


Studies on the nature of phosphate sorption by calcium carbonate indicate that when soluble phosphate fertilizers are added to calcareous soils, the reactions with calcium carbonate consist of rapid monolayer sorption on CaCO₃ surfaces and, at high phosphate concentrations in the vicinity of fertilizer particles, the precipitation of dicalcium phosphate, or a compound with similar properties. The initial products of these reactions are characterized by very high specific surfaces and greater phosphorus solubility than the stable hydroxyapatite or fluorapatite. Dynamic equilibrium in calcareous soils involves all of these forms of phosphate. Some of the effects of the ionic environment on solubility of calcium phosphates were calculated and experimentally verified.


ABSTRACT The signal recognition particle (SRP) targeting pathway is required for the efficient insertion of many polytopic inner membrane proteins (IMPs) into the Escherichia coli inner membrane, but in the absence of SRP protein export proceeds normally. To define the properties of IMPs that impose SRP dependence, we analyzed the targeting requirements of bitopic IMPs that are structurally intermediate between exported proteins and polytopic IMPs. We found that disruption of the SRP pathway inhibited the insertion of only a subset of bitopic IMPs. Studies on a model bitopic AcrB-alkaline phosphatase fusion protein (AcrB 265-AP) showed that the SRP requirement for efficient insertion correlated with the presence of a large periplasmic domain (P1). As previously reported, perturbation of the SRP pathway also affected the insertion of a polytopic AcrB-AP fusion. Even exhaustive SRP depletion, however, failed to block the insertion of any AcrB derivative by more than 50%. Taken together, these data suggest that many proteins that are normally targeted by SRP can utilize alternative targeting pathways and that the structure of both hydrophilic and membrane-spanning domains determines the degree to which the biogenesis of a protein is SRP dependent.


This article addresses the use of the polygraph, penile plethysmograph, and other practices for the management of sexual offenders as part of the 'Containment Approach', a strategy increasingly common in the United States which is, in part, being trialled in the United Kingdom. The polygraph has a tangled history with abnormal sexuality, as we describe in the context of homosexuality in the 1960s. We examine how these strategies target sex offenders as malleable in regard to sexual performances but also, through notions of risk management, paradoxically constitute offenders as fundamentally incurable and thus permanently risky. Using Foucault's notion of the 'abnormal', we investigate the implications of this risk management/performance paradox. We conclude that it reveals a certain anxiety about the relationship between abnormal and normal sexual behaviour in contemporary sex‐offender management discourse, which can help explain the emergence of these practices.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of shallow cross pipes insulated with extruded polystyrene insulation as a method to distribute differential heave over larger distances. Research consisted of field testing, instrumentation, and numerical modeling of insulated and uninsulated cross pipes at five selected sites across Maine. The effectiveness of the installation methods with extruded polystyrene insulation placed above and below the cross pipe were evaluated. Cross pipe installations were evaluated based on: influence of insulation, effect on pattern of frost penetration, surface frost heave, influence of soil type, and severity of the freezing season. Heave surveys indicated that pipes that develop heave have greater total heave away from the cross pipe than over the pipe resulting in differential heave. Results showed for sites that experienced significant total heave, the placement of insulation over the cross pipe increased both the magnitude and abruptness of the differential heave. This showed that the length of the transition insulation on each side of the cross pipe was inadequate. The maximum differential heave was observed to occur at the end of the freezing season and start of the spring thaw.


Background and aims The effects of haemodynamic changes on cerebral and systemic perfusion in infants with perinatal asphyxia are not well understood. We investigated the relationship between cerebral and systemic perfusion, and short-term outcome in infants with asphyxia. Methods Ten infants (gestation age >35 weeks) with asphyxia (Apgar score <7 at 1 min) were divided into 2 groups: those with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE; HIE group, n = 4) and those without HIE (non-HIE group, n = 6). Cerebral tissue oxygenation index (TOI) and cerebral fractional tissue oxygen extraction (FTOE) were measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) at 12, 24, 48, and 72 h after birth. Superior vena cava (SVC) flow and left ventricular cardiac output (LVCO) were simultaneously measured by echocardiography. Results TOI was significantly higher and FTOE was significantly lower in the HIE group (n = 4) than in the non-HIE group (n = 6) at all measurement time points. Although SVC flow and LVCO were not significantly different between the 2 groups, they were consistently higher in the HIE group than in the non-HIE group at all measurement time points. We found a positive correlation between SVC flow and LVCO in both groups, and between SVC flow and TOI in the non-HIE group. Conclusions Combined bedside monitoring of TOI and FTOE by NIRS and SVC flow may be useful for evaluating secondary energy failure and disrupted regulation of brain circulation in infants with asphyxia.


Abstract This paper explores the potential of Japanese tea ceremony to be an aesthetic space for inter-religious dialogue. Through a study of historical encounters that took place between European Jesuit missionaries and Japanese tea masters in the late 16th century, this paper elucidates the missionaries' experiences of tea ceremonies and discusses the validity and limitation of a tea house as a space for cross-cultural and interreligious dialogue. The fruit of tea ceremony in terms of interreligious dialogue includes a shared sense of aesthetic communion that is attained through communal enjoyment of the beauty of nature and drinking a cup of tea in an isolated tea house, where guests are invited to cast away worries of everyday business, as well as their social and religious differences; whereas its limitation pertains to marked indifference toward verbal communication that is characteristic to the way of tea, and thus the historical missionaries' experience was limited to aesthetic paradigm and did not lead to logical understanding of doctrinal differences between Buddhists and Christians.


A multiple scattering theory for elastic wave propagation in a discrete random media is presented. A self‐consistent multiple scattering formalism using the quasicrystalline approximation and a self‐consistent paircorrelation function is employed to study the phase velocity and coherent attenuation of elastic waves by a random distribution of cavities and elastic inclusions embedded in an elastic matrix. Both uniform and Gaussian size distributions are assumed. The theoretical results obtained in this study are shown to be in excellent agreement with experimental observations.


The methods used to model the dynamics of spot and futures markets ignore the effects of changes in the cost of carry (COC) on the dynamics of the basis and its rate of convergence. This is of particular importance given the historically low short term interest rates currently experienced in many countries. This paper proposes a bivariate model that exhibits long memory in volatility, basis convergence and regime switches that occur via a latent markov process. Monte carlo simulation reveals that the model parameters can be well estimated via maximum likelihood. The proposed model is supported by applications to equity and currency markets. It is found that regime switches in basis dynamics occur between high and low volatility states associated with high and low absolute values of the COC. In and out of sample forecasts generally support the proposed model, however minimum variance hedge ratio estimation provides mixed support.


Conjugate lateral eye movements (LEMs) have been used as a measure of contralateral frontal hemisphere activation when individuals carry out reflective tasks. In a previous study, schizophrenics were noted to produce significantly more R-LEMs than controls suggesting that they use the left hemisphere in general more often than controls when initiating thought. More specifically, schizophrenics initiated thought on spatial emotional material in their left hemisphere more often than normals. In an effort to replicate these findings, the present study contrasted a new sample of 13 schizophrenics first with the original schizophrenic sample, and then with 13 psychotic depressives, and the original controls. In addition, other group comparisons are reported. The data obtained replicate the original findings of increased R-LEM (i.e., increased left hemisphere activity) and the excessive processing of spatial and to a lesser extent emotional material in the left hemisphere of schizophrenics. Psychotic depressives were found to initiate reflective tasks more often in their right hemisphere than either schizophrenic or the original sample of normal controls. Significant group differences among schizophrenics, normal controls, and psychotically depressed patients were obtained. The data are consistent with emerging concepts of a left hemisphere locus of disturbance in schizophrenia and right hemisphere disturbances in affective disorders.


Data flow based visual programming languages are an active area of research in visual programming languages. Some recent data flow visual programming languages have implemented higher order functions, allowing functions to be passed to/from functions. This paper describes a data flow visual programming language in which the first class citizenship of programs have been taken a step further, and programs can be manipulated as data with the same kind of flexibility that LISP offers in manipulating programs as data.


Currently, the world is facing a health and socioeconomic crisis caused by the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared this disease as a pandemic The condition (COVID-19) is an infectious disorder triggered by a newly discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 Most of the COVID-19 infected patients will experience mild to moderate respiratory symptoms and recover without any unique therapy Assessment of the clinical and epidemio-logical characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 cases suggests the infected patients will not be contagious until the onset of severe symptoms and affects the other organs Well-differentiated cells of apical airway epithelia communicating with ACE2 were promptly infected to SARS-CoV-2 virus But the expression of ACE 2 in poorly differentiated epithelia facilitated SARS spike (S) protein-pseudo typed virus entry and it is replicated in polarized epithelia and espe-cially exited via the apical surface Limiting the transmission of COVID-19 infection & its prevention can be regarded as a hierarchy of controls In this article, we briefly discuss the most recent advances in respect to aetiology, pathogenesis and clinical progression of the disease COVID-19


Summary form only given. Collaboration services promise to improve the engagement and effectiveness of humans across geospatial, temporal, and organizational boundaries. However there also are many examples of collaboration failures. This article describes several successful deployments of state of the art collaboration environments and exemplifies and demonstrates the use of collaboration services to enhance team endeavors. We highlight both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration services such as conferencing (audio, video, text), data and application sharing, and workflow management and describe more sophisticated services including expertise location, translingual chat, and meeting transcription/summarization. We describe successful collaboration deployments in several domains including joint air operations, intelligence, and coalition operations. Operational outcomes have included dramatic effects such as a doubling the level of situational awareness, cutting in half the time to perform operations, significantly reducing forward deployed personnel, and transforming serial operations into parallel ones. Video and pictures from real world operations will highlight both enablers of and impediments to successful collaboration. This article does not evaluate or recommend any specific tools, rather report experiences and lessons learned from over a decade of experience with multiple collaboration environments in operational settings. We summarize key lessons learned and outline collaboration best practices that promise to increase the likelihood of successful collaboration. This includes efforts that address technology, process, and culture challenges that ensure successful awareness, information sharing, joint action, and, ultimately, goal alignment. We introduce a collaboration Capability Maturity Model (C-CMM) that describes key elements underlying collaboration process maturity


A 16-year-old girl underwent a total ovariectomy because of pyosalpingitides with abscess formation. The condition had been resistant to therapy. It is recommended that the girl be put on continual hormone substitution with either Presomen compositum or Cyclo-Progynova. The substitution will allow the girl to mature normally and will prevent physical complications such as disturbances of blood circulation in the extremities or the development of osteoporosis. Estrogen and gonadotropin levels in the blood should be measured to avoid overdosage. Psychotherapy may also be indicated in such cases.


One of the working induction generators is the self-excited induction generator (SEIG). In the self-excited mode, the generator can produce its voltage and frequency and for this it requires a capacitor. Determination of exciting capacitance of the induction generator (IG) is very important in adjusting the capacitance size. The effect of varying the capacitance of this capacitor on the generated output power, voltage, and its frequency has been studied. Besides, these three factors also differ inside by the value of the capacitor, the speed of the generator, the size and the change of the load, and the parameters of the generator. For this purpose, an experimental system, which consists of an AC driver, an induction motor, an induction generator, a step-down transformer, an AC/DC converter, and a controller, was installed. Various loading and excitation capacitor configurations of the IG were also examined at load and no-load. Thus, the experimental analysis of the powers gathered from the output of the generator has been achieved.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eie.23.1.13069


Objective To explore the influences of immediate and deferred treatment with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on relapse of epilepsy in newly diagnosed patients. Methods The clinical data of newly diagnosed epileptic patients were collected prospectively and the patients were divided into immediate (seizures≤2) and deferred (seizures>2) treatment groups according to times of seizures before treatment; these patients were treated with antiepileptic drugs reasonably. The patients were followed up for at least 2 years. Kaplan-Meier statistics was used to analyze the times to the first and second seizures after treatment. We also observed and compared their cumulative recurrence rate during the follow-up.Results One hundred and sixty-two patients were collected, 65 of which were in the immediate treatment group and 97 of which were in the deferred treatment group; The patients were followed up for 2-14 years(median 3 years). Times to the first and second seizures in the immediate treatment group were significantly longer than those in the deferred treatment group (x2=5.394, P=0.020; x2=7.210, P=0.007,respectively). Till the end of follow-up, 58.5% patients relapsed in the immediate treatment group, which was lower than that in the deferred treatment group (72.2%), but no statistical difference was noted (x2=3.289, P=0.07). The cumulative recurrence rates in the immediate and deferred treatment groups were 16.9% vs. 35.1% (x2=6.376, P=0.012), 26.2% vs. 48.5% (x2=8.098, P=0.004), 41.5% vs. 56.7% (x2=3.580,P=0.058) and 50.8% vs. 64.9% (x2=3.241, P=0.072) in the 3rd, 6th, 12th and 24th month of follow-up.Conclusion Immediate treatment with AEDs could reduce early recurrence rate of epilepsy in newly diagnosed epileptic patients with a few seizures (seizures ≤2).

Key words:
Epilepsy;  Antiepileptic drug;  Relapse


We discuss the future detectability of gravitational-wave induced lensing from high-sensitivity cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. Gravitational waves can induce a rotational component of the weak-lensing deflection angle, usually referred to as the curl mode, which would be imprinted on the CMB maps. Using the technique of reconstructing lensing signals involved in CMB maps, this curl mode can be measured in an unbiased manner, offering an independent confirmation of the gravitational waves complementary to the B-mode polarization experiments. Based on the Fisher matrix analysis, we first show that with the noise levels necessary to confirm the consistency relation for the primordial gravitational waves, the future CMB experiments will be able to detect the gravitational-wave induced lensing signals. For a tensor-to-scalar ratio of $r < 0.1$, even if the consistency relation is difficult to confirm with a high significance, the gravitational-wave induced lensing would be detected at more than $3\,\sigma$ significance level. Further, we point out that high-sensitivity experiments will be also powerful to constrain the gravitational waves generated after the recombination epoch. Compared to the B-mode polarization, the curl mode is particularly sensitive to gravitational waves generated at low redshifts ($z < 10$) with a low frequency ($k < 10^{-3}$ Mpc$^{-1}$), and it could give a much tighter constraint on their energy density $\Omega_{\rm GW}$ by more than three orders of magnitude.


Diagnosis, treatment and follow‐up of 8 patients from 1955 to 1975 with extratesticular seminoma are presented. In 5 patients, the neoplasm developed in the mediastinum and in 3 in the retroperitoneum. All the patients were treated by radiation therapy after resection or biopsy. In the entire group, no tumor was diagnosed in the testes. Two patients expired with disease, one after 2 months due to pneumonia, and the other 5 years after diagnosis (10 months after treatment) due to cerebral metastases. Two patients died 12 and 16 years after diagnosis and treatment. At death, they were free of seminoma and the cause of death was a second malignancy. Four patients are alive and healthy, free of disease, 5, 10, 13, and 17 years after diagnosis and treatment. In essence, of the 8 patients, only one actually died of disease, and he was not adequately treated. We feel that this is an entity with an excellent prognosis if adequately and appropriately treated with radiation. We recommend not to perform an orchiectomy when the testes are clinically normal, and to follow the patient closely after treatment.


Background
The frequency of depression and anxiety symptoms in Spanish-speaking patients suffering from rheumatic conditions is unknown when using self-administered detection tools.

Methods
A single-center, cross-sectional survey including 413 patients (341 women) with well-defined rheumatic diseases was conducted. The patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)-7 questionnaires were used to detect depression and anxiety symptoms, respectively.

Results
A total of 193 patients (46.7%) reported depression symptoms, and increased PHQ-9 scores were more frequently observed in women than in men (23% vs. 13%; p = 0.038), particularly in association with osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, Sjögren's syndrome, and osteoporosis. From 88 patients (21.3%) with PHQ-9 scores ≥ 10 points (moderate-to-severe depression symptoms), 27 (30.6%) were previously diagnosed to have depression and only four were under antidepressant treatment. Anxiety symptoms were observed in 168 patients (40.6%) and classified as moderate-to-severe by elevated GAD-7 scores in 68 subjects (16.4%). Of them, 12 (17.6%) were previously diagnosed with GAD, but only 4 (5.8%) were under therapy.

Conclusions
An unexpected and unusually high frequency of undiagnosed depression and anxiety symptoms was found in rheumatic patients. Self-administered screening tools adapted to the Spanish language are useful and may help clinicians to suspect these conditions.


Serpulina hyodysenteriae is the causative agent of swine dysentery (SD), and Serpulina pilosicoli is the aetiological agent of intestinal spirochaetosis (IS). Infections with these two intestinal spirochaetes cause major economic losses to piggeries through poor feedconversion, weight loss, and mortality. Control of these diseases is complicated by difficulties in diagnosis, and a lack of knowledge of the epidemiology of the infections. In this study, some practical DNA-based techniques to identify, detect and characterise these species were developed and evaluated.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were developed to identify members of the genus Serpulina, including S. hyodysenteriae, S. pilosicoli, S. intermedia and collectively S. innocens and S. murdochii. These tests were optimised using up to 209 isolates of the various species in the genus Serpulina, and were found to be specific, although some problems were experienced with the test for S. intermedia when it was used on spirochaetes isolated from chickens.

A number of protocols to process faecal material prior to PCR testing were evaluated. The best method directly applied to faecal material was diatomaceous earth DNA extraction (DEX) which could routinely detect 106 S. hyodysenteriae cells in 0.2g of faeces. When a culture step was incorporated prior to DEX extraction of plate growth (CRDEX), approximately 1 o3. 104 S. hyodysenteriae cells or 104-105 S. pilosicoli cells in 0.2g of faeces were detected. Variation was observed with different faecal samples and different strains of spirochaetes used in seeding. The two techniques DEX and CRDEX also produced the best results when applied to faeces from experimentally or naturally infected pigs.

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was developed and evaluated as a molecular typing tool, and was successfully applied to 40 isolates of S. hyodysenteriae and 53 isolates of S. pilosicoli. The technique identified more genetic variation amongst isolates of S. pilosicoli (40 PFGE types) than amongst S. hyodysenteriae isolates (23 PFGE types). PFGE was a better means of differentiating S. hyodysenteriae isolates than were previous methods which have been used for subspecific differentiation, such as serotyping, DNA restriction endonuclease analysis and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis. Epidemiological studies, using PFGE, of isolates from nine farms naturally infected with spirochaetes showed more genetic variation amongst isolates of S. pilosicoli (12 PFGE types amongst 24 isolates from five farms) than for S. hyodysenteriae (seven PFGE types amongst 29 isolates from four farms).

An attempt was made to use PFGE to devise a physical map of the S. pilosicoli genome. The genome was estimated to be approximately 2.7Mb, and a partial physical map based on a small number of restriction digests was created.


During the early 21st century and the last decades of the 20th century, a systematic investigation of prehistoric settlements was conducted in the Trans-Nemunas region (Užnemunė). In the course of ten archaeological investigation seasons, over fifty Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age sites and isolated artefact find spots were discovered at Kubilėliai, Žiūriai, Padusys, Aradninkai, and Paveisiejai settlements and cemeteries and excavated.
The conditions for pottery to survive at the Trans-Nemunas region sites was not favourable; the cultural layers of all of the investigated settlements were in sand and in many places had been disturbed through ploughing or blown away by the wind. Although few in number or in poor condition, the Trans-Nemunas region pottery was very diverse and differed at the same sites. The publications devoted to the review of the investigated sites paid the most attention to the legacy of the Stone and Early Bronze Age, while the material from later periods was insufficiently illuminated. It is hoped that this article will fill this gap and bring new data to light about the development of Trans-Nemunas region pottery from the Neolithic to the mid-1st millennium.
Keywords: Neolithic forest culture pottery, Brushed Pottery culture pottery, Przeworsk culture pottery, Bogaczewo culture pottery.


The results of a mineral survey conducted in 1980 in the Strawberry Crater Roadless Areas, Arizona, indicate little promise for the occurrence of metallic mineral or fossil fuel resources in the area. The area contains deposits of cinder, useful for the production of aggregate block, and for deposits of decorative stone; however, similar deposits occur in great abundance throughout the San Francisco volcanic field outside the roadless areas. There is a possibility that the Strawberry Crater Roadless Areas may overlie part of a crustal magma chamber or still warm pluton related to the San Francisco Mountain stratovolcano or to basaltic vents of late Pleistocene or Holocene age. Such a magma chamber or pluton beneath the Strawberry Crater Roadless Areas might be an energy source from which a hot-, dry-rock geothermal energy system could be developed, and a probable geothermal resource potential is therefore assigned to these areas.


Abstract A high frequency viscoelasticity spectrometer, using the state-of-the-art ultrasonic technology, was constructed. The longitudinal and shear waves characteristics were measured in rubber compounds to obtain the attenuation coefficient, α, and sound velocity, v Preliminary results were obtained for a number of filled and unfilled polymers. The grade of carbon black used, filler loading, crosslinking density and filler dispersion were varied during the study. Temperature sweepS from −100°C to +60°C were also studied. It was found that the polymer type had a greater influence on α and v than did the grade of carbon black, loading or dispersion. The experimental data show that shear waves do not propagate in the rubbery state. Above the glass transition temperature, Tg, the longitudinal wave measurements could be sufficient to determine the high frequency dynamic properties of filled and unfilled polymers to characterize a tire tread compound. The temperature sweep measurements allowed the determinat...


When carbon is ignited off-centre in a CO core of a super-AGB star, its burning in a convective shell tends to propagate to the centre. Whether the C flame will actually be able to reach the centre depends on the efficiency of extra mixing beneath the C convective shell. Whereas thermohaline mixing is too inefficient to interfere with the C-flame propagation, convective boundary mixing can prevent the C burning from reaching the centre. As a result, a C-O-Ne white dwarf (WD) is formed, after the star has lost its envelope. Such a "hybrid" WD has a small CO core surrounded by a thick ONe zone. In our 1D stellar evolution computations, the hybrid WD is allowed to accrete C-rich material, as if it were in a close binary system and accreted H-rich material from its companion with a sufficiently high rate at which the accreted H would be processed into He under stationary conditions, assuming that He could then be transformed into C. When the mass of the accreting WD approaches the Chandrasekhar limit, we find a series of convective Urca shell flashes associated with high abundances of 23Na and 25Mg. They are followed by off-centre C ignition leading to convection that occupies almost the entire star. To model the Urca processes, we use the most recent well-resolved data for their reaction and neutrino-energy loss rates. Because of the emphasized uncertainty of the convective Urca process in our hybrid WD models of SN Ia progenitors, we consider a number of their potentially possible alternative instances for different mixing assumptions, all of which reach a phase of explosive C ignition, either off or in the centre. Our hybrid SN Ia progenitor models have much lower C to O abundance ratios at the moment of the explosive C ignition than their pure CO counterparts, which may explain the observed diversity of the SNe Ia.


The first edition of this book was entitled Psychology and Medicine: Psychobiological Dimensions of Health and Illness and appeared in 1979, soon after the campaign for behavioural medicine was launched in North America. The theoretical emphasis is on the mind-body interface which the author calls 'psychobiology', a term that is employed with seemingly no awareness of Adolf Meyer's concept. The heavily clinical nature of the content may be seen from the chapter headings: body-mind integration, emotions, stress, the immunology system, psychopharmacology and pain. The health psychologists are seemingly attempting to pick up the mantle of psychosomatic medicine.


The observed line intensity ratios of the Si ii λ1263 and λ1307 multiplets to that of Si ii λ1814 in the broad-line region (BLR) of quasars are both an order of magnitude larger than the theoretical values. This was first pointed out by Baldwin et al., who termed it the "Si ii disaster," and it has remained unresolved. We investigate the problem in the light of newly published atomic data for Si ii. Specifically, we perform BLR calculations using several different atomic data sets within the CLOUDY modeling code under optically thick quasar cloud conditions. In addition, we test for selective pumping by the source photons or intrinsic galactic reddening as possible causes for the discrepancy, and we also consider blending with other species. However, we find that none of the options investigated resolve the Si ii disaster, with the potential exception of microturbulent velocity broadening and line blending. We find that a larger microturbulent velocity ( ) may solve the Si ii disaster through continuum pumping and other effects. The CLOUDY models indicate strong blending of the Si ii λ1307 multiplet with emission lines of O i, although the predicted degree of blending is incompatible with the observed λ1263/λ1307 intensity ratios. Clearly, more work is required on the quasar modeling of not just the Si ii lines but also nearby transitions (in particular those of O i) to fully investigate whether blending may be responsible for the Si ii disaster.


Coal fly ash is a complex mixture of anthropogenic materials produced during the combustion of pulverised coal in coal fired power plants. They pose environmental concerns that lead to air and water pollution. Effort has been done to reduce the production of coal fly ash or to extract potentially valuable products from coal fly ash, such as cenospheres. Cenospheres are light, low density, thin-walled hollow ceramic microsphere with unique properties. Conventional cenosphere production methods involve the separation of cenospheres from coal fly ash. Due to its small quantities in fly ash (1 % wt.), separation process results in low production of cenospheres. In this work, an attempt by applying a vertical thermal flame (VTF) process is done to produce cenospheres from coal fly ash. Particle size of coal fly ash 63 to 90 μm and 90 to 126 μm are selected to undergo the VTF process. Effect of size of precursor, number of passes through the thermal process, density, morphology and particles size of generated spheres are evaluated. The results show that different sizes of coal fly ash and number of passes through the VTF process affect the morphology of obtained spheres and the overall real density. Further optimization of the VTF process design in terms of heat source and the feeding mechanism are required to increase the transformation of coal fly ash to cenospheres.


Tabs Batak people originate from Tapanuli, North Sumatra around Lake Toba. This tribe has their own language which is TB language. Compared with other tribes, TB people started their contact with other cultures later. The eastern part of Indonesia, fOr example, had been having contact with the Portuguese since the sixteenth century while the TB people only started in 1861. Later, the TB also had contact with the Dutch, the British and the Germans which resulted in the spread of Christianity amongst TB people. It was the missionaries or the Batak mission who first encouraged education amongst the TB because they wanted to encourage the TB to understand the Gospel. Thus, the formal education in the T8 areas started after the arrival of Christianity. Meanwhile, education brought by the Christian mission gave rise to the TB ambition towards progress or what they called Hamajuon Salak or 'Batak Progressivism'. These missionarires not only gave education in the TB areas but also sent the TB members overseas. Some researchers like Kruger and Peeeesen believe that TB people were cannibals in the past, even after the penetration of Christianity began. They suspected that missionaries like Lyman and Munson were eaten bv the TB (Pedersen, 1970).


Fluorescence imaging in the second near‐infrared (NIR‐II) region has become one of the most powerful tools in clinical diagnosis and therapy assessment because of its high spatial resolution, rapid feedback, radiation safety, and low cost. Conjugated polymer nanoparticles (Pdots) based on donor‐acceptor (D‐A) polymers are some of the most promising fluorescent probes which have many superior characteristics, such as a high fluorescence brightness, good photostability, facile functionalization, and low cytotoxicity. While there has been tremendous progress in developing fluorescent polymers for use in the NIR‐II wavelength range, the types of monomer structures used as building blocks for NIR‐II fluorophores are still limited compared to those for organic solar cells and organic transistors. This review summarizes the NIR‐II fluorescent polymers reported in the past few decades. The donor/acceptor unit structures of the polymers are systematically classified and discussed, which will provide new insights into the logical molecular design of donor/acceptor units for the development of high‐brightness NIR‐II Pdots.


Research articles (RAs) have been recognized as a distinct genre in the English-using discourse community because of their unique writing conventions. Despite the great number of studies on the analysis of the textual or phrasal aspects of abstracts of RAs, few have been transformed into actual teaching materials for EFL graduate students. The purpose of this study is to extend the results of abstract analysis to the development of online course content for the explicit teaching of abstract writing in Applied Linguistics. Results of the comparison of patterns found in the corpora of 50 abstracts of RAs published in journals and 50 abstracts of papers given at conferences--written by novice, nonnative writers--to patterns in a learner corpus formed the core of the online course content, along with principles of L2 writing and CALL task design. An academic concordancer and a synchronous peer review tool were incorporated into the Moodle-based course. Formative evaluation of the unit on abstract writing was conducted with 35 students. The abstract-writing unit was then incorporated into an academic writing course in which the analysis of students' writing samples demonstrated some improvement in their writing. The study suggests that corpus-informed online instruction that includes learner corpus insights can facilitate EFL academic writing.


Lack of disability accessible services is commonplace in many African countries. This includes health care, educational, recreational and transportation services amongst many others. In Zimbabwe in particular, the deteriorating socio-economic situation has exposed the glaring insufficiencies of the public transport system. The expression that best describes this situation is neglect and discrimination. This paper illustrates the inaccessibility and discriminatory nature of public transport in Zimbabwe and highlights the causes and consequences of this situation. Mixed qualitative methods including observations and a review of various literature sources have been used to support the assertions made in this paper. The findings discussed here reveal that the discrimination of persons with disabilities emanates from within government structures, thus making it difficult for any progress to be made, as far as developing accessible public transportation services for persons with disabilities.

 Key words: Disability, Zimbabwe, public transport, discrimination, accessibility.


Understanding the brain is a fascinating challenge, captivating the scientific community and the public alike. The lack of effective treatment for most brain disorders makes the training of the next generation of neuroscientists, engineers and physicians a key concern. Over the past decade there has been a growing effort to introduce neuroscience in primary and secondary schools, however hands-on laboratories have been limited to anatomical or electrophysiological activities. Modern neuroscience research labs are increasingly using computational tools to model circuits of the brain to understand information processing. Here we introduce the use of neurorobots - robots controlled by computer models of biological brains - as an introduction to computational neuroscience in the K-12 classroom. Neurorobotics has enormous potential as an education technology because it combines multiple activities with clear educational benefits including neuroscience, active learning, and robotics. We describe an introductory neurorobot workshop that teaches high school students how to use neurorobots to investigate key concepts in neuroscience, including spiking neural networks, synaptic plasticity, and adaptive action selection. Our do-it-yourself (DIY) neurorobot uses wheels, a camera, a speaker, and a distance sensor to interact with its environment, and can be built from generic parts costing about $150 in under 4 hrs. Our Neurorobot App visualizes the neurorobot's visual input and brain activity in real-time, and enables students to design new brains and deliver dopamine-like reward signals to reinforce chosen behaviors. We have tested the Neurorobot Workshop with high school students (n = 3 workshops, 9 students total) and have found that students were able to complete all exercises in under 3 hrs. In a post-workshop survey, students reported having gained the ability to develop neural networks that perform specific functions, including goal-directed behavior and memory. Here we provide DIY hardware assembly instructions, discuss our open-source Neurorobot App and demonstrate how to teach the Neurorobot Workshop. By doing this we hope to accelerate research in educational neurorobotics and promote the use of neurorobots to teach computational neuroscience in high school.


This thesis examines how the mid sixteenth century madrigal phenomenon was
perceived and interpreted by Spanish composers through a close reading of the text-music
relationship in the manuscript collection MadM 6829, commonly referred to as Cancionero
de la Casa de Medinaceli, a title taken from the modern edition edited by Miguel Querol
Gayalda. MadM 6829 contains a significant number of musical settings of the wildly popular
Italianate poetic forms that were intimately connected with the madrigal, but although the
manuscript has been in modern edition for almost sixty years, the collection has received
little scholarly attention. No previous study has considered the contents of the manuscript in
relation to the contemporary innovations that changed the way European composers viewed
the rhetorical power of music and its expression of text. This study helps to clarify the
process by which the Spanish composers may have taken the text as a basis for musical
composition and identifies the features of the text that were given primacy in determining
compositional procedure.
The study begins with an introduction to the broad repertory of Spanish musical
settings of Italianate poetry during the sixteenth century, and moves to establish the position
of the manuscript within the historical tradition of secular song in Spain. The remainder of
the thesis focusses exclusively on MadM 6829, examining the text-music relationship of the
Italianate settings in two ways: (1) a consideration of the particular types of poetry that were
chosen for musical settings; and (2) an analysis of the formal and stylistic devices that
composers used to express important textual features.
This thesis challenges the assumption that the Spanish settings of sixteenth century
Italianate poetry were less musically expressive than contemporary Italian settings. Indeed,
the entire basis by which composers interpreted poetry and important poetic features seems
to have differed from the culturally more familiar Italian tradition. Typically, the composers
chose to express important textual details with direct and immediately audible musical
manipulations of rhythm, melody, or musical texture. Additionally, there are several cases in
which composers expressed emotional climaxes of the text or other formal poetic
considerations with more complex and subtle structural musical manipulations.
This study demonstrates that although the musical expressionexpression of text did not involve the
profound harmonic developments that characterized the Italian madrigal phenomenon, this
restraint in musical language did not prevent the composers from employing distinctive and
effective models of musical expressivity.


The rules by Rechtschaffen and Kales present numerous problems; they sometimes even contradict physiological facts. This is due on the one hand to the manual being limited to central leads only, and on the other hand to rules which are partly too narrow, partly too broad and partly too complex. Furthermore, there are situations and physiological facts for which the manual does not have any rules. The exclusive evaluation of central leads has to result in a different scoring for numerous epoches of stages than an evaluation of leads from all hemisphere electrodes. In addition, frontal or occipital graphoelements such as mitten-pattern and sleep lambda are not even included. It is often difficult to make a distinction between an "alpha-sleep type" and pre-arousals (micro-arousals); the latter also applies to alpha groups in REM sleep. In particular however, if frontal, parietal and occipital leads are included, then the stage 2, above all however stages 3 and 4 will be represented more frequently, as sigma spindles, K-complexes and delta-waves are frequently found in a recognizable form only in the non-central leads. Further difficulties result from different paper speeds of 15 or 10 mm/s and from the rule concerning the allocation from stage 1 to stages 2 or REM.


This study aims to integrate, clean and analysis through automated data mining techniques. Using data mining (DM) techniques is one of the processes of transferring raw data from current educational system to meaningful information that can be used to help the school community to make a right decision to achieve much better results. This proved DM provides means to assist both educators and students, and improve the quality of education. The result and findings in the study show that automated system will give the same result compare with manual system of integration and analysis and also could be used by the management to make faster and more efficient decision in order to map or plan efficient teaching approach for students in the future.


This paper presents details of a compact 132 kV insulator arrangement developed for use with unlinked optical voltage and current transducers (OCT and OVT). The measured temperature characteristics of terbium gallium garnet, the Faraday rotator in the OCT, are given and compared to previously published results. The application of this data to a temperature compensation system for the OCT is discussed. In addition, research results associated with the identification of piezoelectric resonance in the OVT is presented and a solution proposed and tested.


A logistics network management system controlling the entire supply chain was designed to reduce the total cost and to achieve an efficient system. The interactions between inventory and transportation strategies in the logistics network are presented in this paper. Demand volumes and shipping sizes were simulated as part of a new conceptual model by using a discrete event simulation to minimize the total cost in the supply chain. The experiments indicate that the Full Truckload scenario leads to cost-efficiency and the larger demand size results in smaller cost per unit based on economies of scale. Considering the interaction effects, the demand size has a greater impact on the cost reduction than the shipping size.


Channel Structure, Assembly, and Degradation: Gap Junction Structure: New Structures and New Insights, G. Sosinsky. Degradation of Gap Junctions and Connnexins, J.G. Laing and E.C. Beyer. Channel Forms, Permeability, and Conductance: Homotypic, Heterotypic, and Heteromeric Gap Junction Channels, P.R. Brink, V. Valiunas, and G.J. Christ. Heteromultimeric Gap Junction Channels and Cardiac Disease, S. Elenes and A.P. Moreno. Ion Permeation through Connexin Gap Junction Channels: Effects on Conductance and Selectivity, R.D. Veenstra. Phosphorylation of Connexins: Consequences for Permeability, Conductance, and Kinetics of Gap Junction Channels, H.J. Jongsma, H.V.M. van Rijen, B.R. Kwak, and M. Chanson. Intercellular Calcium Wave Communication via Gap Junction-Dependent and -Independent Mechanisms, E. Scemes, S.O. Suadicani, and D.C. Spray. Voltage Grating: Membrane Potential Dependence of Gap Junctions in Vertebrates, L.C. Barrio, A. Revilla, J.M. Gomez-Hernandez, M. de Miguel, and G. Gonzalez. A Reexamination of Calcium Effects on Gap Junctions in Heart Myocytes, B. Delage and J. Deleze. Chemical Grating: Distinct Behaviors of Chemical- and Voltage-Sensitive Gates of Gap Junction Channel, F.F. Bukauskas and C. Peracchia. A Molecular Model for the Chemical Regulation of Connexin43 Channels: The "Ball-and-Chain" Hypothesis, M. Delmar, K. Stergiopoulos, Nobuo Homma, G. Calero, G. Morley, J.F. Ek-Vitorin, and S.M. Taffet. Mechanistic Differences between Chemical and Electrical Gating of Gap Junctions, I.M. Skerrett, J.F. Smith, and B.J. Nicholson. Behavior of Chemical- and Slow Voltage-Sensitive Gates of Connexin Channels: the "Cork" Gating Hypothesis, C. Peracchia, X.G. Wang, and L.L. Peracchia. Molecular Determinants of Voltage Gating of Gap Junctions Formed by Connexin32 and 26, T.A. Bargiello, S. Oh, Y. Ri, P.E. Purnick, and V.K. Verselis. Regulation of Connexin43 by Tyrosine Protein Kinases, A.F. Lau, B. Warn-Cramer, and R. Lin. Gating of Gap Junction Channels and Hemichannels in the Lens: A Role in Cataract?, R. Eckert, P. Donaldson, J. Lin, J. Bond, C. Green, R. Merriman-Smith, M. Tunstall, and J. Kistler. Hemichannels: Biophysical Properties of Hemi-Gap-Junctional Channels Expressed in XenopusOocytes, L. Ebihara and J. Pal. Properties of Connexin50 Hemichannels Expressed in Xenopus laevisOocytes, S. Eskandari and G.A. Zampighi. Invertebrate Gap Junctions: Gap Junction Communication in Invertbrates: The Innexin Gene Family, P. Phelan. Diseases Based on Defects of Cell Communication: Hereditary Human Diseases Caused by Connexin Mutations, M.V.L. Bennett and C.K. Abrams. Trafficking and Targeting of Connexin32 Mutations to Gap Junctions in Charcot-Marie-Tooth X-Linked Disease, P.E.M. Martin and W.H. Evans. Molecular Basis of Deafness Due to Mutations in the Connexin26 Gene (GJB2), X. Estivill and R. Rabionet. "Negative: Physiology: What Connexin-Deficient Mice Reveal about the Functional Roles of Individual Gap Junction Proteins, D.C. Spray, T. Kojima, E. Scemes, S.O. Suadicani, Y. Gao, S. Zhao, and A. Fort. Role of Gap Junctions in Cellular Growth Control and Neoplasia: Evidence and Mechanisms, R.J. Ruch. Gap Junctions in Inflammatory Responses: Connexins, Regulation, and Possible Functional Roles, J.C. Saez, R. Araya, M.C. Branes, M. Concha, J.E. Contreras, E.A. Eugenin, A.D. Martinez, F. Palisson, and M.A. Sepulveda. Cx43 (a 1) Gap Junctions in Cardiac Development and Disease, R.G. Gourdie and C.W. Lo. Gap Junctional Communication in the Failing Heart, W.C. De Mello. Gap Junctions Are Specifically Disrupted by Trypanosoma cruzi Infection, R.C.S. Goldenberg, A. Goncalves, and A.C. Campos de Carvalho. Index.


We report a first-principles study of Ge/Si and Si/Ge core/shell nanowires (NWs) along the [112] direction with a diameter of ∼20 A using density-functional theory. Our results show that for both NW structures the band gaps are indirect and are significantly larger than the gaps of the bulk crystalline Si and Ge. The quantum well confinement effect in these NWs is found to be modified by a type II lineup of band structures. Moreover, the carriers on the conduction band minimum are strongly localized in the Si region while the carriers on the valence band maximum are located mainly in the Ge region. The charge separation and localization characters make the NWs good candidates for nanochannels in field effect devices, solar cells with higher efficiency and high mobility heterostructures due to the spatial separation of one-dimensional electron gas and one-dimensional hole gas.


VTEC are a group of strains of E. coli, which cause severe bloody diarrhoea. VTEC infections can lead to the development of haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is the main cause of kidney failure among children. HUS can cause other life-long complications including seizures, bowel perforation and blindness. Ireland currently has the highest incidence of VTEC infections compared to any other European country. There are no vaccines available to protect children and immunocompromised adults against VTEC infections. Due to the risk of patients experiencing severe symptoms and complications, there is an urgent need for a vaccine against this infection. Bacterial proteins involved in host cell attachment have previously been shown to be efficacious prophylactic vaccine antigens for other infections. We have shown that an O157 strain, NCTC12900 has 1.3-fold higher binding to HT29 cells than the commensal strain, HS (P=0.0162). We have used a proteomic approach to identify the bacterial proteins involved in attachment to two human gastrointestinal epithelial cell lines, HT29 and Caco-2. We have identified seven host cell attachment proteins in VTEC, strain NCTC12900, that are not found in commensal strain, HS. These antigens will be examined for their ability to protect mice from VTEC challenge.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the prenatal diagnosis procedure for a 45,X male fetus.

METHODS
A 31-year-old women underwent amniocentesis due to a moderate risk of trisomy 21. The fetal cells were subjected to chromosomal karyotyping, BACs-on-BeadsTM (BoBs) assay, chromosomal microarray analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization.

RESULTS
Combined analyses revealed that the whole of Yp has translocated to 21p, which yielded a fetal karyotype of 45,X,dic(Y;21)(q11;p11).ishdic(Y;21)(SRY+,CEPY+;CEP21+).

CONCLUSION
BoBs and modified N-banding method are helpful for the diagnosis of 45,X male fetus with Yp translocation.