Objectives: To examine if attendance in live performances was associated with change in cognition among African Americans (AAs) and European Americans (EAs). Method: The study consisted of 5,567 older adults with at least follow-up interview and analyzed using a linear mixed effects regression model adjusting for demographic and health variables. Results: We found that frequent performance attendance was associated with slower decline in composite cognitive function among older AAs and EAs. Attending 10 or more performances per year was associated with 23% slower cognitive decline among AAs and 31% slower cognitive decline among EAs compared with those who never attend any performance. However, this difference was not significant (p = .56). Attending live performances was also associated with slower decline in individual tests of perceptual speed, episodic memory, and mini-mental state exam (MMSE). Discussion: Our findings suggest that live performances form a valuable component of arts engagement and should be encouraged for potential cognitive benefits.


Abstract Purpose: Transcranial B-mode sonography (TCS) of brain parenchyma is increasingly used as a diagnostic tool for movement disorders. Accordingly, experimental B-Mode Assist software was developed to enable digitized analysis of the echogenicity of predefined brain regions. The aim of the study was to assess the reproducibility of digitized TCS image analysis of the insula. Materials and Methods: A total of 130 patients with an indication for neurosonological examination were screened for participation in the study. The insula was imaged from the right temporal bone window using Virtual Navigator and TCS-MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) fusion imaging. All subjects were examined three times by two experienced sonographers. Corresponding images of the insula in the axial thalamic plane were encoded and digitally analyzed. Interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used for the assessment of intra- and inter-reader as well as intra- and inter-investigator reliabilities. Results: TCS images of 114 patients were evaluated (21 patients with TIA, 53 patients with headache, 18 patients with essential tremor, 22 patients with neurodegerative disease). 16 patients were excluded from analysis due to insufficient bone window. The intra-reader, inter-reader, intra-investigator and inter-investigator ICCs/Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were 0.995/0.993, 0.937/0.921, 0.969/0.961 and 0.875/0.858, resp. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates a high reliability to reproduce echogenicity values of the insula using digitized image analysis and TCS-MRI fusion images with almost perfect intra-reader, inter-reader, intra-investigator and inter-investigator agreement.


Empirical evidence suggests that statistical properties of storm rainfall at a location and within a homogeneous season have a well-structured dependence on storm duration. To explain this dependence, a simple scaling model for rainfall intensity within a storm was hypothesized. It was shown both analytically and empirically that such a model can explain reasonably well the observed statistical structure in the interior of storms, thus providing an efficient parametrization of storms of varying durations and total depths. This simple scaling model is also consistent with, and provides a theoretical basis for, the concept of mass curves (normalized cumulative storm depth versus normalized cumulative time since the beginning of a storm) which are extensively used in hydrologic design. In contrast, popular stationary models of rainfall intensity are shown unable to capture the duration dependent statistical structure of storm depths and are also inconsistent with the concept of mass curves.


been shown to offer little additional advantage over regression models that have undergone rigorous goodness-of-fit tests.1,2 In addition, we agree that other unobserved confounders (such as socioeconomic status or education) may have contributed to some of the differences in outcomes observed across the cohorts, as acknowledged in the article. As is the case with all secondary analyses of administrative data, we were constrained in what we could adjust for based on the variables available in the data set.


Summary The great age of the Earth was first scientifically argued by Hutton in the eighteenth century. Next, a world-wide time-order scale of geological events was established using the biostratigraphic methods of William Smith. In the second half of the last century 'hour-glass' methods, based on salinity of the oceans and the maximum thickness of sediment, provided a framework for a rough time-scale, measured in years. The development of a reasonably detailed and satisfactory time-scale for geology is, however, an achievement of the present century and has been accomplished by using as an hour-glass method the rate of radioactive decay of certain elements present in rocks and minerals of known position in the time-order scale. In 1913, from tentative radiometrically established ages, Holmes produced a quantitative Phanerozoic time-scale, and he and others have gradually refined it. In linking the isolated dates obtained by radiometric methods with the biostratigraphic time-scale, use has usually also been made of the maximum thicknesses of sediments accumulated in the various intervals of the time-order scale, and this is believed to be still the most useful method.


The development of technology demands an increase in the quality of education invarious aspects, one of which is quality. This article aims to describe; 1) The history of TQM,and 2) The concept of school quality with a library approach. Total Quality Management(TQM) or the history of integrated quality is late in the West, although the ideas wereoriginally developed in the 1930s and 1940s by W. Edwards Deming. Deming beganformulating his ideas in the 1930s while conducting research on methods of eliminatingvariability and waste from industrial processes used by the Japanese government. Demingfirst visited Japan in the late 1940s to conduct a post-war census of Japan. Impressed by hisperformance, the Japanes Union of Engineers and Scientists invited Deming to return in 1950to teach the application of statistical process control to industry players in Japan. Japanpressed attention in reconstructing their war-damaged industry. This is where Japan initiallycampaigned for the quality movement. The concept of quality, quality as an absolute conceptin the category of goods, then quality goods are goods that are very valuable to someone, thegoods are physically very good, beautiful, elegant, luxurious, antique, without defects, strongand other sizes that usually associated with goodness (goodness), beauty (beauty), truth.


Which type of environmental communication do the media talk about? How many Natures are being told through the network of texts of environmental communication? Which is the influence of the new media on environmental communication at an expressive and narrative level? The aim of this paper is to answer these questions investigating some distinctive texts. The new possibilities to create meaning through environmental messages will be explored in the light of the evolution of media. At the same time we have to examine the targets of communication's competences and expectations. The requirements for the establishment of environmental communication as a discipline will be investigated starting from the possibilities of sense that the web offers in terms of expression and content.


This publication outlines the methodological variations in U.S. News and World Report's annual law school rankings between 1990 and 2010. A law school's ranking is based upon its overall score on a number of weighted attributes. When comparing school rankings over time, it is therefore useful to understand how the methodology differs from year to year. Not only have the definitions for many of these attributes changed over the years, but also their weight value in the overall scores. This report provides a table of the weight assigned to each attribute each year; a list of each attribute and the changes made to it each year; and a list of all methodology changes in each year. This study was originally published as an appendix to the July 15, 2010 Report of the ABA Special Committee on the U.S. News and World Report Rankings, Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. After the report was published, Brian Leiter noted that the chart does not indicate that in 1999 instructional expenditures were adjusted for differences in cost‐of‐living and "faculty resources rank" ceased to be listed. Seehttp://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2010/08/aba‐report‐on‐us‐news‐rankings.html. An updated chart with these changes will be posted at a later date.


Sharing the same corridor of the HVAC and HVDC transmission lines can efficiently increase the power transfer capacity of the limited corridor and will be erected in East China. An accurate and efficient numerical analysis method for analyzing the ion-flow field of the ac-dc hybrid lines is helpful for engineering design. In this paper, an upwind finite volume-based algorithm for the solution of the ac-dc hybrid ion-flow field is proposed, which can take the influence of the space charges generated by corona into account. The electric field is solved by the charge simulation method and the finite-element method, while the advection and recombination effects of the space charges are solved by a time-dependent finite volume method. The reduced-scale ac-dc hybrid models are analyzed and the calculating results by the proposed approach in this paper have good agreements with the experimental ones in the literature and in this paper. Finally, the ground-level electric field and ion current density of the hybrid UHVAC and UHVDC transmission lines in parallel are analyzed, providing a reference for the engineering design.


Geography causes African countries to experience a 'proximity gap'. To overcome this gap a 'big push' may be needed in infrastructure. The cross-border nature of such infrastructure requires regional cooperation in at least four issues: transport infrastructure, trade facilitation, decentralization and local economic development, and migration. Because incentives for regional cooperation in these aspects may not be symmetrical, commitments made may not be credible. Therefore, transport infrastructure at least should be bound in WTO rules on trade facilitation to provide third party enforcement. Incentives for cooperation could also be improved with transport corridor design and collective peer pressure by landlocked countries. Regional cooperation could be supported by the international community with aid, the assurance of full implementation and adherence to international law on the rights of landlocked countries to access to the sea, the extension of appropriate trade preferences to African regions and ensuring consistency of international agreements and trade preferences with current regional integration initiatives.


Policy makers are often interested in the distributional effects that a policy would have. In this paper I propose a method to estimate such effects when the treatment variable is endogenous, continuous, and has a heterogeneous effect. I consider a triangular system of equations in which the unobservables are related by a copula that captures the endogeneity of the model. The copula is nonparametrically identified by inverting the quantile processes conditional on a vector of covariates. I estimate both conditional quantile processes using existing quantile regression methods, and propose a parametric and a nonparametric estimator of the copula, showing the asymptotic properties of the estimators. I consider three kinds of counterfactual experiments: changing the distribution of the treatment, changing the distribution of the instrument, and changing the determination of the treatment, discussing the estimation for each counterfactual. I illustrate these methods by estimating several counterfactuals that affect the distribution of the share of food consumption.


As the density of wireless networks continues to grow with more clients, more base stations, and more traffic, designing cost-effective wireless solutions with efficient resource usage and ease to manage is an increasing challenging task due to the overall system complexity. A number of vendors offer scalable and high-performance wireless networks but at a high cost and commonly as a single-vendor solution, limiting the ability to innovate after roll-out. Recent Software-Defined Networking (SDN) approaches propose new means for network virtualization and programmability advancing the way networks can be designed and operated, including user-defined features and customized behaviour even at run-time. However, means for rapid prototyping and experimental evaluation of SDN for wireless environments are not yet available. This paper introduces Mininet-WiFi as a tool to emulate wireless OpenFlow/SDN scenarios allowing high-fidelity experiments that replicate real networking environments. Mininet-WiFi augments the well-known Mininet emulator with virtual wireless stations and access points while keeping the original SDN capabilities and the lightweight virtualization software architecture. We elaborate on the potential applications of Mininet-Wifi and discuss the benefits and current limitations. Two use cases based on IEEE 802.11 demonstrate available functionality in our open source developments.


The regulation of the aircraft noise has been more strengthened with expansion of the environmental issue. This trend has encouraged the R&D of the noise reduction technology. In this paper, the international efforts for aircraft noise reduction and the related technology were investigated. The aircraft noise sources were also introduced briefly. Additionally, the noise prediction method was explained at the end of paper.


In this study, the indirect (i.e. boats not involved in dolphin viewing activities) impacts of boat traffic on the acoustic behaviour of Pacific humpback dolphins, Sousa chinensis, were assessed in Moreton Bay, Australia. Humpback dolphin acoustic behaviour is affected by transiting boat traffic. Boats' passage did not affect the rates at which dolphins produced click trains and burst pulse vocalizations. However, dolphins significantly increased their rate of whistling immediately after a boat moved through the area. This increase occurred only when boats were less than 1·5 km from the groups. Groups including mother–calf pairs showed an increase in whistles in response to boats' passage. Groups with no calves produced significantly fewer whistles. This evidence suggests that the noise from transiting vessels affects dolphins' group cohesion. Mother–calf pairs appear to be most disturbed by transiting vessels, and exhibit an increased need to re-establish vocal contact.


Non-Gaussian noise often causes in significant performance abatement for systems which are designed using Gaussian assumption. This report challenges the question of General Linear Model with White Gaussian Noise assumption in order to define the sensitivity of the performance of an optimal estimator. Gaussian noise models provide an important role in many signal processing applications. The Laplacian and Uniform signal are two worthy examples of noise that can be compared to the White Gaussian Noise, though the sensitivity which can be compared with any non-Gaussian. White Gaussian Noise has been considered for General Linear Models and deviation from whiteness would affect on our estimates under different circumstances. Moreover, new assumptions have been considered to generate different type of signals in order to evaluate the sensitivity of the General Linear Model.


Abstract Sanchezia dubia is described and illustrated as a new species from the department of Madre de Dios in southeastern Peru. Its morphology slightly resembles Sanchezia sprucei, but its most remarkable feature is its close similarity to Suessenguthia, even more so than to those of its own genus. This new species is distinguished from others by its glabrous stem and leaves, its inflorescence containing two to five serial cymose heads, which are sessile to short-pedunculate, with mostly two to four flowers each (occasionally one), its inner bracts ranging in length between 6 and 23 mm, and its androecium composed of two stamens and two mucronate staminodes. We suggest it is an endangered species based on its restricted geographic distribution, its few known populations, and the increasing threats to its habitats. Along with Suessenguthia koessleri, this new species seems to be a key taxon to understanding the phylogenetic relationship between these two genera, which is still uncertain. Additionally, we provide a key to identify the Sanchezia and Suessenguthia species of the Madre de Dios River basin from southern Peru to northern Bolivia.


The matrix metalloproteinase MT1-MMP is a central regulator of cell invasion in both physiological and pathological settings, such as tissue surveillance by immune cells and cancer cell metastasis. MT1-MMP cleaves a plethora of intra- and extracellular proteins, including extracellular matrix proteins, matrix receptors, and also other MMPs, and thus enables modification of both the cell surface proteome and the pericellular environment. Despite its importance for cell invasion, the pathways regulating MT1-MMP exposure on the cell surface are largely unknown. Recently, our groups discovered that a specific subset of RABGTPases, most notably RAB5a, is critical for MT1-MMP trafficking in primary human macrophages and carcinoma cells. Here, we discuss and contrast our findings for both cell types, pointing out common features and differences in the RABGTPase-dependent trafficking of MT1-MMP in health and disease.


A novel coefficient modeling technique, using a coefficient estimation method, is introduced for a brushless DC (BLDC) motor with a skewed permanent magnet and overhang structure. To construct the novel coefficient, the 3-D FEM and a design of experiment (DOE) are utilized along with the moving least square method (MLSM). Also, to verify the accuracy of the novel coefficient modeling, the conventional coefficient modeling using LSM is constructed and compared. Then the novel coefficient is combined with an approximate model constructed by 2-D FEM for use with an optimal design algorithm. For the searching process to obtain an optimal point, the genetic algorithm (GA) is used. Three-dimensional FEM simulation is used to verify the accuracy of the novel coefficient for the optimal design.


The relationship between the early cellular response to embryo implantation and subsequent embryo survival was explored. Immunohistochemistry using the anti-CD11b antibody (Mac-1) was used to localize and quantify maternal inflammatory cells present at the fetoplacental interface. CD 11b is expressed mostly on macrophages, but is also present on natural killer (NK) cells, neutrophils, and B cells. The occurrence of CD11b-positive cells at the fetoplacental interface was quantified in CBA/J females mated by DBA/2 males (20-30% embryo loss) and CBA/J females mated by BALB/c males (5-10% embryo loss) in order to investigate the relationship between infiltration by these types of cells and subsequent embryo loss. CD11b-positive cells were found to infiltrate decidua of each embryo starting at Day 6 of gestation. Their numbers sharply increased on Days 7 and 8, to a plateau on Days 8 to 10, well before any damage to the embryo is macroscopically visible on Days 10 to 12 of gestation. The resorption-prone mating of CBA/J female by DBA/2 male showed a significantly elevated number of CD11b-positive cells in 26% of the embryos on the eighth day of gestation compared to CBA/J female by BALB/c male matings which were taken as the reference mating. Moreover, experimental conditions modulating fetal survival in CBA/J mothers such as poly (I:C) treatment of DBA/2-mated females (lower survival) or mating with BALB/c males (higher survival than with the mating with DBA/2 males), were found to be associated with high or low numbers numbers of CD11b-positive cells at the fetoplacental interface. Furthermore, injection of anti-CD 11b into pregnant mice at Day 6 of gestation significantly reduced the subsequent incidence of resorption in the resorption prone CBA/J x DBA/2 mating. These results suggest that CD11b-positive cells are associated with the etiology of spontaneous abortion in this system.


A comparison has been documented between nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) and microcrystalline diamond (MCD) coatings deposited on cemented tungsten carbide (WC-Co) substrates with architectures of WC-Co/NCD & WC-Co/MCD, using hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) technique. In the present work, the frictional characteristics were studied using ball-on-disc type linear reciprocating micro-tribometer, under the application of 1–10N normal loads, when sliding against smooth alumina (Al2O3) ceramic ball for the total duration of 15min, under dry sliding conditions. Nanoindentation tests were also conducted using Berkovich nanoindenter for the purpose of measurement of hardness and elastic modulus values. The average coefficients of friction of MCD and NCD coatings decrease from 0.37 – 0.32 and 0.3 – 0.27 respectively, when the load is increased from 1–10N. However, for conventional WC-Co substrate the average coefficient of friction increases from 0.60–0.75, under the same input operating conditions. The wear tracks formed on the surfaces of CVD-diamond coatings and WC-Co substrate, after friction measurement were characterised using Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. However, the compositional analysis for the formation of tribo-layer observed on the wear tracks of CVD-diamond coatings was confirmed using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) technique. Therefore, maintaining an appropriate level of normal load and using appropriate type of diamond coating, friction may be kept to some lower value to improve mechanical processes.


Recycling gives second life to waste, thereby avoiding the use of virgin materials. In case of more difficult to recycle plastic fractions (e.g. the sink fraction after float-sink separation of post-consumer packaging waste), the recycled material is still mainly used in low-grade thick-walled products, e.g. street poles and benches, because of technical challenges. For waste suppliers, this can be an economic barrier to seek business opportunities with recycling companies, i.e. when the return from selling the waste seems not worth the effort of establishing a recycling value chain. Consequently, the waste might be incinerated and, thereby, ending the material's life. Recycling into high-grade applications on the other hand may require extra efforts before the waste stream is technically suitable to be used. These processing steps lead to additional resource consumption, which may question the environmental benefits of recycling. There is a need to investigate whether the benefits of avoiding the use of virgin materials outweigh extra efforts for recycling into high-grade products. Calculation of the recyclability benefit rate indicator, i.e. the ratio of the environmental savings that can be achieved from recycling the product over the environmental burdens of virgin production followed by disposal(1), fits this purpose. This study's objective was to apply this indicator to a case of plastic household waste recycling into a high-grade application, comparing to an incineration scenario. We focus on the difficult to recycle sink fraction, which is used to produce a green roof tile. The recycling chain is subdivided in two main parts. First, shredding, depollution, float-sink separation, drying, wind sifting and milling into granules. The second part includes steps to further process the sink fraction granules, i.e. PVC and aluminium removal, drying and injection moulding. Results will be presented at the conference.


Network protocols are critical software that must be verified in order to ensure that they fulfil the requirements. This verification can be performed using model checking, which is a fully automatic technique for checking concurrent software properties in which the states of a concurrent system are explored in an explicit or implicit way. However, the state explosion problem limits the size of the models that are possible to check. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a metaheuristic technique that has obtained good results in optimization problems in which exhaustive techniques fail due to the size of the search space. Unlike exact techniques, metaheuristic techniques can not be used to verify that a program satisfies a given property, but they can find errors on the software using a lower amount of resources than exact techniques. In this paper, we propose the application of PSO to solve the problem of finding safety errors in network protocols. We implemented our ideas in the Java Pathfinder (JPF) model checker to validate them and present our results. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that PSO is used to find errors in concurrent systems. The results show that PSO is able to find errors in protocols in which some traditional exhaustive techniques fail due to memory constraints. In addition, the lengths of the error trails obtained by PSO are shorter (better quality) than the ones obtained by the exhaustive algorithms.


Abstract US women, on average, had approximately two children in both the 1930s and in the 1970s, yet the fertility distribution in the 1930s was less concentrated. This implies change in reproductive behavior, which cannot be captured by models focusing on average fertility. To explain these changes, I have developed a model that makes a distinction between sons and daughters. In this model, the female labor force participation rate is the probability of each girl becoming an employed woman. This endogenizes the empirically observed difference in the propensity for an all-girl household to have another child compared to an all-boy household, generating large fertility differentials at low participation rates. Higher participation rates raise the expected return from an additional child, as well as the expected return from existing daughters. The first effect tends to increase fertility, while the second effect, for relatively concave utility functions, tends to decrease it, so that the distribution of completed fertilities becomes more concentrated.


Raman spectroscopy complemented with infrared spectroscopy has been used to study the rare-earth-based mineral decrespignyite [(Y,REE)4Cu(CO3)4Cl(OH)5· 2H2O] and the spectrum compared with the Raman spectra of a series of selected natural halogenated carbonates from different origins including bastnasite, parisite and northupite. The Raman spectrum of decrespignyite displays three bands at 1056, 1070 and 1088 cm−1 attributed to the CO32− symmetric stretching vibration. The observation of three symmetric stretching vibrations is very unusual. The position of the CO32− symmetric stretching vibration varies with the mineral composition. The Raman spectrum of decrespignyite shows bands at 1391, 1414, 1489 and 1547 cm−1, whereas the Raman spectra of bastnasite, parisite and northupite show a single band at 1433, 1420 and 1554 cm−1, respectively, assigned to the ν3 (CO3)2− antisymmetric stretching mode. The observation of additional Raman bands for the ν3 modes for some halogenated carbonates is significant in that it shows distortion of the carbonate anion in the mineral structure. Four Raman bands are observed at 791, 815, 837 and 849 cm−1, which are assigned to the (CO3)2−ν2 bending modes. Raman bands are observed for decrespignyite at 694, 718 and 746 cm−1 and are assigned to the (CO3)2−ν4 bending modes. Raman bands are observed for the carbonate ν4 in-phase bending modes at 722 cm−1 for bastnasite, 736 and 684 cm−1 for parisite and 714 cm−1 for northupite. Multiple bands are observed in the OH stretching region for decrespignyite, bastnasite and parisite, indicating the presence of water and OH units in the mineral structure. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We discuss the INTEGRAL capabilities to detect a high redshift population of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). First a simple comparison between other past or planned experiments (BATSE, SAX, HETE-2, Romer, Swift) and INTEGRAL instrumentation (IBIS, JEM-X) is shown. After this first view we will be focused on comparing the capabilities of the two most sensitive missions (INTEGRAL/IBIS and Swift) of detecting a further population of GRBs. We conclude that, if the GRB rate is proportional to the star formation rate, the capabilities of studying GRBs of INTEGRAL are complementary to the ones of missions like Swift and HETE-2, specially devoted to prompt localizations of GRBs. Whereas Swift and HETE-2 would detect a higher number of GRBs than INTEGRAL (~8 and ~22 more detections than IBIS and JEM-X respectively), INTEGRAL and specially IBIS would detect very high redshift (z > 15) GRBs, unreachable for Swift and HETE-2. This fact is very relevant for studying a population of GRBs further than z=15, which would be associated with the population III of stars. Therefore, the INTEGRAL mission (precisely IBIS) will be a very valuable tool to trace the primitive star formation rate at the early universe.


Cost-efficiency and training time are primary concerns in cloud-based distributed training today. With many VM configurations to choose from, given a time constraint, what configuration achieves the lowest cost? Or, given a cost budget, which configuration leads to the highest throughput? We present a comprehensive throughput and cost-efficiency study across a wide array of instance choices in the cloud. With the insights from this study, we build Srift, a system that combines runtime instrumentation and learned performance models to accurately predict training performance and find the best choice of VMs to improve throughput and lower cost while satisfying user constraints. With Pytorch and EC2, we show Srift's choices of VM instances can lead to up to 2x better throughput and 1.6x lower cost per iteration compared to baseline choices across various DNN models in real-world scenarios, leveraging heterogeneous setups and spot instances.


Measurements of the distribution of blood volumes between the splanchnic and peripheral beds of dogs have been made. The splanchnic blood volume was found to be 21% of the total blood volume. The fractionation of the splanchnic blood volume between hepatic, splenic and mesenteric beds indicated that these contained approximately 30, 30 and 40%, respectively. There were certain difficulties which precluded precise measurement of the splanchnic fractions.


In the last decade, Illinois has seen a significant decline in conservation program funding, which has culminated in the proposed closure of several state parks. In times like these, it is especially important that park managers and state policymakers understand how significant conservation and recreation areas are to people and what makes them meaningful.This paper presents a multidimensional place meanings model and introduces a scale that encompasses a range of emotional and functional meanings that people associate with conservation and recreation areas. The place meanings scale was administered to a sample of visitors to a state park in Illinois. The objectives of the paper are to 1) introduce a place meanings scale and explore its dimensional structure, 2) compare meanings and overall place significance between local and non-local park visitors, and 3) examine the relationship between specific place meaning dimensions, place of residence, and overall place significance. Study findings indicate that the park is highly meaningful to respondents as a whole. Meanings associated with the protection of nature and natural processes and provision of onsite experiences garnered the highest ratings. The place meanings scale was reliable, but the need for significant modifications to its dimensional structure was revealed through exploratory factor analysis. Local visitors have a different connection to the park than non-local visitors in that it contributes to the character of their community and supports their emotional identities. Several place meaning domains were significantly correlated to the park's overall significance and the new model with the inclusion of place of residence explained over 58 percent of the variation in overall place significance. These findings support expanding the traditional notion of parks and open spaces as recreation settings to include their roles in contributing to community character, maintaining local visitors' emotional identities, and providing ecosystem services that protect wildlife habitat and maintain air and water quality. Policy-makers must consider the significance of state parks to local communities. Park managers can use the study findings to justify the significance of state parks and to prioritize efforts to fortify the community-park relationship.?


The aim of this article is to study how the Swedish cities Linköping and Norrköping treated new working-class suburbs during the period from 1860 to 1890, by looking at the extension of piped water supply. The author concludes that working-class suburbs were located in poor, geographically unfavourable and unsanitary places, to which extensions of water could be technically demanding and expensive, which led to frequent urban inability or unwillingness to help. It is also suggested that by denying water cities separated spatially between city and suburb, thereby underlining already existing environmental and even spatial injustice between the two.


Heavy metals impurities in cosmetic products are common due to their natural abundance. However, they should be kept to a minimum wherever technically feasible. Most people, specially females, use cosmetic and their ingredients on a daily basis. Although human external contact with a substance rarely results in its penetration through the skin and significant systemic exposure, cosmetics produce local (skin, eye) exposure and are used in the oral cavity, on the face, lips, eyes and mucosa. Therefore, human systemic exposure to their ingredients can rarely be completely excluded.
Because metals can induce unwanted side effects in humans, to establish their contents in body-care cosmetics is important for quality and health controls. In this work we have selected nine most expensive brands of facial cosmetics (Base jelly, Whitener, Sheen and Face powder) from the Saudi market. Twenty-eight elements were detected by using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) and a flow injection mercury system (FIMS). The mean, maximum and minimum concentrations of each element are reported.


A randomized double blind trial of insulin and glibenclamide treatment vs insulin and placebo was carried out in 20 insulin-dependent diabetics. Nine patients were C-peptide secretors and all increased their C-peptide output during a 50 g OGTT at the end of the insulin and glibenclamide treatment period by a mean of 47%. At the same time their mean daily blood glucose fell from 8.4 +/- 1.7 to 7.4 +/- 1.5 mmol/l and their HbA1 from 8.1 +/- 0.5 to 7.5 +/- 0.9% (mean +/- SD). There was no change in any of the measurements of diabetic control in C-peptide non-secretors and no evidence for any extra-pancreatic effects of glibenclamide in this group of patients. Combined insulin and glibenclamide treatment may produce a useful improvement of diabetic control in insulin-dependent diabetics who still secrete some endogenous insulin, although further studies are required.


Economic empowerment reflects the challenges, the changes and the strategies of a large part of the South African population to have entry into industries, business sectors where the ownership and the skills were located in the hands of a few South Africans. The attempts of the private and public sector to address these inequalities as well as the skewed workforce balance has been directed by the economic empowerment agenda. The process of change impacted both private sector firms as well as public sector organizations. The paper will evaluate social equity as a concept within the casino industry as well as the regulators role as a government support policy for the advancement of the economic empowerment process. This paper will particularly focus on the policies, practices of the regulatory environment that could assist in stimulating and supporting social equity development as an imperative. Furthermore, this paper will determine the key success factors for the operationalisation of such social equity beneficiaries within the gambling environment and the reasons why such initiatives should focus on the support of empowerment initiatives and the possible stimulation of small and medium enterprises as an economic viable strategy. The main methodological approach will be reflecting on the case of the Western Cape as a provincial regulator within the gambling environment, the impact of social equity as an instrument and its possible lessons learnt and to duplicated or avoided.


Background: Mechanical forces associated with blood flow are critical in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) growth, migration, differentiation and apoptosis as fundamental features in the pathogenesis of vascular disease. We investigated the effect of pulse pressure on VSMC apoptosis. Methods: Using a perfused transcapillary co-culture system, bovine thoracic aortic SMC (BASMC) were exposed to increases in pulsatile flow (0.3–17 ml/min) and hence pulse pressure (amplitude of pulse 6–50 mm Hg) in the absence or presence of bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC). The extent of apoptosis was determined by measuring caspase-3 activity, the levels of pro- and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins, FasL and cellular apoptosis susceptibility (CAS) protein expression and the extent of DNA fragmentation. Results: Changes in pulse pressure resulted in a significant force- and time-dependent increase in caspase-3 activity in BASMC. This effect was maximal after 6 h, independent of BAEC presence, and attenuated following inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activity with PD98059. In parallel cultures, there was a significant increase in Bad and Bax expression, concomitant with an increase in DNA fragmentation, and a significant decrease in Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL expression. The pro-apoptotic effects of pulse pressure were specific for differentiated cells but independent of p53, inasmuch as FasL and CAS expression were enhanced in differentiated adult cells but decreased in de-differentiated embryonic cells in response to flow. Conclusions: These results suggest that pulse pressure promotes phenotypically distinct VSMC apoptosis in vitro in an endothelial-independent, MAPK-dependent, manner.


Artificial illumination is a catalyst for development and improves the quality of life, but it also consumes a large fraction of the world's energy resources [1]. Lighting has been one of the earliest applications of electric power and today utilizes approximately 20% of the world's grid-based electricity production. The inefficiency of existing light sources that waste most of the power they consume is the reason for this large share. The worldwide demand for lighting is increasing rapidly, in particular in the developing world, and is projected to compound its strain on available energy sources. Therefore, there is a strong motivation for improving the efficiency of light sources and mitigating their effect on worldwide energy consumption and global climate change. Historically, electric light bulbs have been of the incandescent type. Although this technology was developed more than 100 years ago, it is still in use today. Incandescent light bulbs operate by heating a tungsten wire in a vacuum bulb to a temperature of 3500 K. As a result of resistive heating, the wire glows white hot and emits a broad black-body radiation spectrum that covers the entire visible


It is shown theoretically that the mechanism of the rapid coagulation of metal nanospheres into a nanowire in a quantum vortex proposed by E. B. Gordon et al. (Low Temp. Phys., 2010, 36, 590) could not be realized, due to the enormous heat release expelling the nanospheres from the vortex. Also, Gordon's hypothesis on nanowire formation in quantum vortices contradicts the observations that nanowires form above the λ-point (where no quantum vortices exist) and on superfluid helium's surface (parallel to it), which is always perpendicular to the quantum vortices. The nanowire formation process in bulk and dropwise liquid helium is described as a special case of aggregation controlled by diffusion in an external electric field. The nanosphere charging occurs due to the thermoelectric emission from their overheating and also laser ablation. The charged nanospheres attract neutral ones to minimize the electrostatic energy and are also attracted to elevations (field concentrators) on the conductive surfaces surrounding the experimental volume. Both processes lead to nanowire formation and drift prevails over diffusion in both cases. The described mechanism leads to the formation of self-similar anisometric structures in agreement with experimental data.


The CHAMP satellite in its polar, low‐Earth orbit (450 km altitude) is a suitable platform for studying F region currents. High precision magnetic field measurements are used to detect and characterize these upper ionospheric currents on the Earth's nightside. A few examples are presented to illustrate the special features of the currents and a statistical study is performed on half a year of data revealing their global distribution. We find a spatial confinement of the currents to the near‐equatorial region bounded by the Appleton anomaly and their appearance in the pre‐midnight sector. The distribution with longitude exhibits high occurrence rates in the Atlantic sector and very few events in the Indian sector. The currents flow generally westward at a height‐integrated current density of several mA/m. Small‐scale fluctuations observed in current intensity are interpreted as an indication for plasma instabilities in the F region. Our analysis indicates that the appearance of F region currents is coupled with the presence of plasma bubbles.


Perisomatic inhibitory innervation of all neuron types profoundly affects their firing characteristics and vulnerability. In this study we examined the postsynaptic targets of perisomatic inhibitory cells in the hilar region of the dentate gyrus where the proportion of potential target cells (excitatory mossy cells and inhibitory interneurons) is approximately equal. Both cholecystokinin (CCK)- and parvalbumin-immunoreactive basket cells formed multiple contacts on the somata and proximal dendrites of mossy cells. Unexpectedly, however, perisomatic inhibitory terminals arriving from these cell types largely ignored hilar GABAergic cell populations. Eighty-ninety percent of various GABAergic neurons including other CCK-containing basket cells received no input from CCK-positive terminals. Parvalbumin-containing cells sometimes innervated each other but avoided 75% of other GABAergic cells. Overall, a single mossy cell received 40 times more CCK-immunoreactive terminals and 15 times more parvalbumin-positive terminals onto its soma than the cell body of an average hilar GABAergic cell. In contrast to the pronounced target selectivity in the hilar region, CCK- and parvalbumin-positive neurons innervated each other via collaterals in stratum granulosum and moleculare. Our observations indicate that the inhibitory control in the hilar region is qualitatively different from other cortical areas at both the network level and the level of single neurons. The paucity of perisomatic innervation of hilar interneurons should have profound consequences on their action potential generation and on their ensemble behavior. These findings may help explain the unique physiological patterns observed in the hilus and the selective vulnerability of the hilar cell population in various pathophysiological conditions.


The trajectory of a spherical magnet falling inside a cylindrical, conducting pipe is modeled considering both the rotation of the magnet and its horizontal displacement. The electromagnetic force and torque are obtained via a T-a 3-D FE formulation. The calculated trajectory and rotation are compared successfully with the experimental data for different pipe diameters.


The purpose of this study is to analyze local-based social welfare facilities to respond to secular change of the UR rental housing estates in Japan. The selected case studies for the analysis are Hibarigaoka, Hamakousien, Turumai UR rental housing estates constructed around 1960`s. The analysis was done through UR website, MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) and MHLW (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) policy report, and related literature. These case studies are connected with housing policy as well as welfare policy and performed to Stable Living Creation Project by Business Entry System for Stable Living. The types of local-based social welfare facilities are classified by welfare corporation and medical corporation. The results are as follows: 1) The implementation of cooperative and participative system not only the private sector (welfare and medical Corporation, etc.) but also the public (MLIT, MHLW, UR Renaissance Agency, Local government, etc.). 2) Repurposed of land through rent and transfer of land for local-based social welfare facilities in the process of housing stock renewal utilization. 3) The pursue of regional revitalization through attached to multi-generation facility or local community space for elderly in local-based social welfare facilities.


The Rough Sets
Theory is used in data mining with emphasis on the treatment of uncertain or vague
information. In the case of classification, this theory implicitly calculates
reducts of the full set of attributes, eliminating those that are redundant or
meaningless. Such reducts may even serve as input to other classifiers other
than Rough Sets. The typical high dimensionality of current databases precludes
the use of greedy methods to find optimal or suboptimal reducts in the search
space and requires the use of stochastic methods. In this context, the
calculation of reducts is typically performed by a genetic algorithm, but other
metaheuristics have been proposed with better performance. This work proposes
the innovative use of two known metaheuristics for this calculation, the
Variable Neighborhood Search, the Variable Neighborhood Descent, besides a
third heuristic called Decrescent Cardinality Search. The last one is a new
heuristic specifically proposed for reduct calculation. Considering some
databases commonly found in the literature of the area, the reducts that have been obtained present lower cardinality, i.e., a lower number of attributes.


Built 10 Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organlza tional Effectiveness. 2006. Edward E. lawler III and Christopher G. Worley. San Francisco: jesseyB" ,.334 pages. Built to Change (b2Change) provides an illuminating discussion, supported by organizational effectiveness theory and contemporary examples, ofhCM' organizations can successfully position themselves toeffectivelycepe with change. The concept is not simply 10 react to a changing busi ness environment, bUI to proactively build an organization to recogn ize, respond. and restructure in order to capitalize on theopportunities thai emerging conditions present. It is clearly slated thai planned responses to these inevitable changing conditions will take the organization beyond survival to a new level of organizational effec tiveness and success in the marketplace. The authors hypothesize that the reason organizations resist change. despite the plethora of material published in the academic and business press purporting preparation. is that existing theory and practice inorganization design explicitly encourages organizations to seek alignment, stabili ty, and equilibrium. (p. 3) To counter this they purport that an organization that encourages experimentation ,


As an essential approach of SAR image interpretation, a good pose estimation calls for two conditions: an accurate extraction of the scattering centers and a thorough exploration of the structural information among them. The article focuses on these two topics successively. Firstly, the power spectrum estimation methods are recommended to improve the scattering center resolution and the Minimum Variance Method (MVM) is chosen for its sidelobe suppressing ability and signal model independence. With the segmented MVM image, the axis extraction problem is then solved by a new strategy, namely the Angle Entropy of Radon transform (AER) strategy. Data from computational electromagnetics are used for experiments. It is shown that the MVM image shows better morphologic feature than the Fourier ones (both original and Hanning-windowed), and the AER strategy achieves more accurate and robust estimation compared with the edge-based Hough transform (HT) technique.


An experimental study was conducted on turbulent flow and mixing in a counter-flow type T-junction. We measured the velocity and concentration fields simultaneously by combining PIV and PLIF. Special attention was directed to the concentration fluctuation near the channel wall, which might bring about the high-cycle thermal fatigue in case of mixing of hot and cold flows. The velocity ratio of the counter-channel flow to the main-channel flow was changed from 1.0 to 5.0. The fluorescent dye was mixed in the main-channel flow. The dominant structures of the fluctuating velocity and concentration fields that cause the concentration fluctuation near the channel wall were analyzed by POD. It was found that the concentration fluctuation near the channel wall was caused by the superposition of the spanwise wobbling motion of the mixing interface of two flows and the rotational oscillation of the flows.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


We fertilized four separate areas of salt-marsh cord grass, Spartina alterniflora, in northwest Florida to examine the effect of increased foliar nitrogen on herbivorous insects. Two of the experimental plots were located where Spartina grew as a shoreline fringe; two others were pure isolated offshore islets of Spartina. Application of fertilizer in winter and early spring resulted in significant increases in foliar nitrogen through the following August at all sites. The two most common and damaging herbivores throughout the growing season were the planthopper Prokelisia marginata (Homoptera: Delphacidae) and the grasshopper Orchelimum fidicinium (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). Populations of planthoppers on islets responded positively to Spartina fertilization. The increase in Prokelisia densities disappeared in August shortly after nitrogen levels of fertilized islets dropped to approximate those of controls. In the fall, planthopper populations on islets increased dramatically, despite low nitrogen levels. On mainland patches, Prokelisia densities did not always increase on fertilized patches, and there were no large population outbreaks of Prokelisia in the fall. Densities of grasshoppers increased on mainland fertilized patches, whereas on offshore islets grasshoppers were rarely observed. These observations are consistent with the idea that grasshoppers can depress Prokelisia populations. Cage experiments confirmed that grasshoppers can reduce the numbers of Prokelisia. Simulation of grasshopper feeding by clipping of the tops of Spartina plants also reduced Prokelisia densities. On offshore islets, because grasshoppers were very rare, they did not have a sufficient effect to depress Prokelisia densities.


Local Convection in Dabie Mountains (LCDM) occurs more frequently over the Dabie Mountains and brings severe weather to adjacent areas. In order to understand the characteristics of LCDM, their spatial distribution, the monthly and diurnal variations, and possible mechanisms are investigated. Based on radar composite reflectivity data over the 5-y period of 2014–2018 during warm seasons (April–September), a total of 195 cases of LCDM are identified. The LCDM exhibits maximum frequency on the windward slopes of the Dabie Mountains with a secondary maximum on lee slopes. It is demonstrated that LCDM peaks in July and August, while their diurnal variation exhibits a major peak in the afternoon during 12:00–16:00 local solar time (LST). Most LCDM does not leave the Dabie Mountains (NoOut-Type), accounting for 89.7% overall, and has an average 3.5 h lifespan. In contrast, the lifespans of Out-Types (i.e., LCDMs that move away from the Dabie Mountains) are longer (5.8 h on average), while most Out-Type LCDMs develop on southern slopes ('South-Type') and a few are also reinforced on northern slopes ('North-Type'). The South-Type mainly produces short-duration heavy precipitation, while the 'North-Type' predominately generates thunderstorms high winds. It is suggested that LCDM is thermally induced, and that both the 'South-Type' and 'North-Type' are controlled by southerly wind perturbation. Lifting by upslope wind and heat sources over windward slopes has led to 'South-Type' development, while ascent induced by wave-like perturbations on lee slopes has led to 'North-Type'. These mechanisms should be further investigated in future work by using field experiments and numerical simulations.


This empirical survey study presents a success versus failure (SIF)prediction model (S/F = f [advisors, planning, education, minority business ownership, staffing, parents owned a business, record keeping and financial control, capital, industry experience, economic timing}). Using stepwise discriminant analysis, the predictor variables explained 54% of the variance in SIF. The model accurately predicted 75.00% of the surveyed 96 matched pairs firms as being successful or failed. The model will predict a group of businesses as successful or failed more accurately than random classification over 99% of the time (model p=. 0006).


This paper analyzes how the informality responds to the quality of the labor enforcement and the bundle of benefits that the formal workers receive in different countries of Latin America. Countries with different levels of informality were compared, highlighting the features that could induce these different levels. In a general equilibrium framework, the government chooses a level of government enforcement and a bundle of benefits maximizing the workers' utility subject to a budget constraint, a representative firm chooses the share of workers in formality and informality that they want to hire, and the workers offer a share of time in formality and informality. I estimate the main parameters of the model, the production function, the quality of government enforcement and the quality of benefits, for five countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. Differences in the quality functions of the government enforcement and benefits are found, as well as in the fines established to enforce the agents.


CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2008 Abstracts

Abstract #2070

Introduction: FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridisation) testing is the gold standard method for Her-2 status assessment in breast cancer yet is only employed in about 30% of tests carried out partly due to cost and labour considerations. Previously we described TMA-based (tissue microarray) testing1 to reducing cost constraints and now describe a rapid screening approach to eliminate unequivocally negative and positive cases and reduce time spent testing. Materials and methods: We examined TMAs (6 cores per case) from 89 cases of invasive breast cancer comparing formal FISH scoring with a rapid screening method using systematic examination of the entire core at x100 magnification without formal counting. Each core was screened by two observers and results recorded for each core as positive (P), equivocal (E) or negative (N). Formal counting and rapid screening methods were timed. Results: The results are given in Table 1. Where both observers agreed that every core in a particular case was negative (43 cases) or positive (10 cases) the predictive value was 100%. The three "Mixed" Groups were constituted as follows: (1) a predominance of positive observations, (2) a predominance of negative observations and (3) a predominance of equivocal observations. Comparison of the FISH scores for the five observational groups using Student's T Test showed significant or highly significant differences (Range: p=0.02-p=0.0001). Screening each 6 TMA core case at x100 magnification took 2 minutes and formal counting of each case took 12 minutes. ![][1] Conclusion: Using stringent criteria we show that rapid screening of TMAs for routine Her-2 FISH testing provides a safe, economical and time-efficient method for the assessment of Her-2 status in breast cancer. The technique ensures that all patients receive gold standard testing. 65% of Her-2 negative cases can be rapid screened and eliminated from formal counting with 100% confidence. Unanimous positive cases can also be appropriately categorised. The remaining cases require formal counting which takes no longer than is normally the case with whole section techniques. The TMAs also provide a valuable resource for future analyses. Reference: 1. Graham AD, Faratian D, Rae F, Thomas J St J. Tissue microarray technology in the routine assessment of Her-2 status in invasive breast cancer: a prospective study of the use of immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Histopathology 2008; 52 : 847-855.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 2070.

 [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif


Repeating and apparently non-repeating fast radio bursts (FRB) differ by orders of magnitude in duty factors, energy and rotation measure. Extensive monitoring of apparently non-repeating FRB has failed to find any repetitions. This suggests the two types differ qualitatively, rather than in repetition rate, and are produced by distinct kinds of sources. The absence of periodicity in repeating FRB argues that they are not produced by neutron stars. They may originate in dilute relativistic jets produced by low luminosity black hole accretion. Non-repeating FRB may be produced by catastrophic events such as the collapse of an accreting magnetic neutron star to a black hole or of an accreting magnetic white dwarf to a neutron star, during which a disappearing magnetic moment radiates dipole radiation that accelerates electrons in nearby matter. If they are emitted by collimated beams of relativistic particles or charge "bunches" with Lorentz factor $\gamma$, their radiation is collimated into a solid angle $\sim \gamma^{-2}$ sterad, reducing the energy requirement. If powered by magnetic reconnection, a pulse of length $\Delta t$ may draw on the magnetic energy in a volume $\sim \gamma^4 (c \Delta t)^3$, although only a fraction $\sim 1/\gamma^2$ of this may be dissipated without decollimation.


Abstract Oligolignans present in substantial amounts in Norway spruce and Scots pine knots were characterised. The hydrophilic knotwood substances were extracted and different chromatographic methods were applied to obtain fractions for analysis by GC, GC-MS, HR-EI-MS, LC-ESI-MS, NMR, and FTIR. β-O-4-Linked guaiacylglyceryl ethers of hydroxymatairesinol (Ia, Ib, Ic), secoisolariciresinol (II), lariciresinol (III), isolariciresinol (IV), lignan A (V), liovil (VI), conidendrin (VII), and pinoresinol (VIII) were identified in the spruce knotwood extract and β-O-4-linked guaiacylglyceryl ethers of nortrachelogenin (IX) and secoisolariciresinol (II) in the pine knotwood extract. The structures of allo-hydroxymatairesinol-4′-guaiacylglyceryl ether (Ia), hydroxymatairesinol-4-guaiacylglyceryl ether (Ib), hydroxymatairesinol-4′-guaiacylglyceryl ether (Ic), secoisolariciresisinol-4-guaiacylglyceryl ether (II), and lariciresinol-4′-guaiacylglyceryl ether (III) were determined via GC-MS, HR-MS, and 1H and 13C NMR analyses. The structures of (Ia), (Ic), (IV), (V), (VI), (VII), and (IX) have not been reported earlier. Spruce stemwood, both heartwood and sapwood, also contained oligolignans in small amounts. In addition, some dilignans with four phenylpropanoid units were tentatively identified in the hydrophilic knotwood substances.


A plastic ball grid array component interconnect has been experimentally investigated and modeled on the basis of micropolar theory. The experimental results were analyzed, and the data also provided the verification for the micropolar interface model. Two different interconnect cross sections, namely, one near the component boundary and the other in the center region beneath the chip, have been measured. The effects of thermal cycling on the interconnect deformation have been considered. The deformation fields, due to the mismatch of the material properties of the constituents in the assembly system, have been observed by means of a multifunction macro-micro-moire interferometer, whereby the displacement distributions have been obtained and analyzed for the different specimens. The interconnect layer is usually of smaller size as compared to the neighboring component, and there are even finer internal structures included in the interconnect. The scale difference makes conventional methods time consuming and of low efficiency. An interface model based on the micropolar theory has been developed, cf. Zhang, Y., and Larsson, R., 2007, "Interface Modelling of ACA Flip-Chip Interconnects Using Micropolar Theory and Discontinuous Approximation," Comput. Struct., 85, pp. 1500-1513, Larsson, R., and Zhang, Y., 2007, "Homogenization of Microsystem Interconnects Based on Micropolar Theory and Discontinuous Kinematics, " J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 55, pp. 819-841, aiming at predicting the interconnect behavior under thermal load, especially when there exist internal structures in the interface and the component/ structure sizes vary in a wide range. Numerical simulations, using the micropolar interface model, show a fairly good agreement between the experimental data and the numerical simulations.


The administration of d-amphetamine sulphate resulted in a restoration of intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) suppressed by tetrabenazine (TBZ). A dose-dependent increase in the rate of ICSS was seen after L-dopa in animals pretreated with TBZ. d-Amhetamine is believed to act by facilitating the nerve-impulse induced release of central catecholamines (CA) whereas the blockage of the granular uptake-storage mechanism by TBZ will prevent the storage of CA formed from the administrated L-dopa and thereby interfere with their release by nerve-impulses. Thus, in the latter case, an activation of central CA receptors in all probability will be due to a dose-dependent diffusion of CA from nerve terminals. It is suggested that the failure to completely antagonize the TBZ-induced suppression of behaviour by L-dopa is due to the fact that a direct activation, independent of the nerve-impulse flow, of central CA receptors easily results in an overstimulation and a reduced specificity in behaviour.


This study analyzes the main features associated with biological use practices and management of forest resources in the Colombian Amazon. The theoretical cut proposal contrasts biological level, the forms of appropriation of forest resources in indigenous and urban contexts depending on the importance that such activity involves the establishment of management strategies biodiversity in Colombia. In this way, provides an integrative perspective that will address conflict situations considering environmental factors not only biological but cultural in various scenarios , to give sustenance to the decisions made and provide a reasonable treatment that enables the implementation of environmental regulation mechanisms in especially in areas such as strategic biological Colombian Amazon. Finally, reflect on the importance of facilitating the functional analysis of the connections and interrelationships of ecosystem components, including human communities, sketching involving both biological and social guidelines for sustainable use of biodiversity.


Digital transformation requires new views and strategies for edge computing for Industrial Internet of Things applications. In this work, we elaborate the importance of time-aware data spaces as a conceptual entity for a digital and scaleable approach in a data-driven world. This work introduces these small data spaces deployed and distributed through edge analytic boxes. The concept time-aware data space is more suitable than single sensors for this type of application. It is particularly suitable in the edge-to-cloud continuum to build robust solutions and allow a new view on these types of applications. Moreover, we use this approach in a production environment. The requirements are a suitable application area for our time-aware data spaces. They can be used to monitor the environment, the machines or the production processes. Such an approach can also be integrated into other existing solutions with reasonable efforts.


In this paper, secure transmission with simultaneous information and energy multicast in the presence of multiparty eavesdropper (EVE) collusion is investigated. In the considered system, legal users simultaneously decode information and harvest energy through dynamic power splitting (PS), whereas EVEs form multiple eavesdropping-collusion parties to cooperatively decode signals. A novel optimization problem is formulated to maximize the overall achievable secure multicast capacity while satisfying the maximum transmit power constraint at the transmitter, guaranteeing the minimum harvested energy requirements at each legal user and restricting the wiretapping capability of each EVE party. Since the formulated problem is nonconvex and hence difficult to solve, it is decomposed into a power minimization subproblem and a rate optimization subproblem and then solved in a nested manner. By leveraging the properties of the objective function, it is proved that through the proposed algorithm the optimal secure multicast capacity can be achieved, with the optimal transmission strategy, i.e., optimal beamforming matrix, optimal artificial noise (AN) covariance matrix, and optimal PS factors, obtained. Moreover, the case of imperfect channel state information (CSI) is considered in which a robust secure multicast scheme is designed by considering the channel uncertainty of EVEs and maximizing the worst-case achievable secure capacity. Simulation results confirm the optimality of the proposed algorithm, show its capability of adapting to the dynamic joining and departure of multicast users and EVE parties, and verify its superiority over existing schemes for both the perfect CSI and imperfect CSI cases.


The passage of the European Union (EU) Restriction on the use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and other worldwide environmental legislation has dramatically altered the competitive landscape in the US. Beginning July 1, 2006, for example, companies may no longer ship most electrics into the EU that contain certain restricted substances. This type of legislation has created: (1) Major disruptions and long cycle times in the electronic components supply chain (2) Quality and reliability issues due to significant changes in materials and manufacturing processes (3) Increased costs-scrap costs due to noncompliant inventory, increased cost of new compliant inventory which utilizes more expensive raw materials, increase in engineering design, verification and analysis time (4) More complex customer relations - Customers are requesting ldquogreenrdquo products before manufacturers are able to convert and verify long term reliability. Customers are also requesting ldquogreenrdquo products in areas not affected by the legislation (such as in monitoring and control applications). On the opposite end, high reliability customers do NOT want ldquogreenrdquo products precisely due to the quality and reliability issues they might face. (5) More complex supplier relationships - Suppliers have had to manage dual inventories of compliant and noncompliant parts and have had to set up elaborate documentation and verification systems to support the legislation. Suppliers and manufacturers have had to work closely together to share information and plan appropriately. (6) A shifting of purchasing away from US companies towards Asian/EU companies that are better prepared for the legislation. The legislation has driven significant changes to old ways of doing business and has forced quick adaptation and modification of processes to support the new global economy. This paper illustrates a case study of how National Instruments has navigated and adapted to these new requirements.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to find out whether autopsy of children with cancer should be recommended after terminal care, or whether in those circumstances it could be abandoned.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
One hundred pediatric patients with cancer treated at the Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki, Finland, died during 1987-92. Seventy children died while in organized terminal care. The underlying diagnoses were brain tumors (21), other solid tumors (24), and leukemias (25). The method was a retrospective analysis of patients' records and autopsy reports, in addition to a structured interview of the two parents separately.

RESULTS
Autopsy was performed in 40 (57%) of these 70 cases. It was more often performed on children dying in hospital (69%) than in those dying at home (39%). The autopsy rate also varied with the underlying disease: 68% of patients with leukemia, 50% of those with solid tumors, and 52% of those with brain tumors were autopsied. Autopsy afforded totally new medical information in 20% of cases, and important additional information in 55%. Nothing unexpected was found in 25%. Almost all the parents (94%) who agreed to autopsy felt that it was appropriate. Of both mothers and fathers, 50% felt that knowing the findings at autopsy was helpful for them, and all the parents except one mother thought that the autopsy of their child would at least be helpful to other patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Autopsy often provides important and even unexpected information in those dying after terminal care. The majority of our parents felt that autopsy was an acceptable and appropriate practice. We recommend that autopsies should be performed, with the parents' consent, even after terminal care.


A clinical whole organ pancreas transplantation program for patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus complicated by end-stage renal disease was initiated at Henry Ford Hospital in 1987. Five patients have received pancreatic allografts after a previous kidney transplant (phase 1), and six patients had simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplants (phase 2). Ten patients had functioning pancreatic grafts after surgery, and all of them had normal carbohydrate tolerance with appropriate plasma free insulin responses to an oral glucose tolerance test three months after transplantation. As long as 28 months postsurgery six patients remained free of insulin requirements; however, one patient rejected the pancreatic allograft, and three patients died because of cytomegalovirus pneumonia. Two of the latter patients had functioning pancreatic allografts at the time of their demise. These results compare favorably with those of the International Pancreas Transplant Registry which reflects the world experience. Pancreas transplantation is a unique experimental treatment with the potential of restoring euglycemia and improving the prognosis of insulin-dependent diabetic patients.


Two programming models for parallelizing the Angular Domain Decomposition (ADD) of the discrete ordinates (S{sub n}) approximation of the neutron transport equation are examined. These are the shared memory model based on the POSIX threads (Pthreads) standard, and the message passing model based on the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard. These standard libraries are available on most multiprocessor platforms thus making the resulting parallel codes widely portable. The question is: on a fixed platform, and for a particular code solving a given test problem, which of the two programming models delivers better parallel performance? Such comparison is possible on Symmetric Multi-Processors (SMP) architectures in which several CPUs physically share a common memory, and in addition are capable of emulating message passing functionality. Implementation of the two-dimensional,(S{sub n}), Arbitrarily High Order Transport (AHOT) code for solving neutron transport problems using these two parallelization models is described. Measured parallel performance of each model on the COMPAQ AlphaServer 8400 and the SGI Origin 2000 platforms is described, and comparison of the observed speedup for the two programming models is reported. For the case presented in this paper it appears that the MPI implementation scales better than the Pthreads implementation on both platforms.


Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of rosuvastatin drug on the histological structure of the skeletal muscle fiber of adult male albino rats and the possible protective role of coenzyme Q10. Background Rosuvastatin has been proven to be effective in improving serum lipid profiles. It decreases the risk for mortality in patients with coronary heart disease. It was reported that some patients treated with various statins have developed symptoms of myopathy. Coenzyme Q10 has a powerful antioxidant activity and affects membrane stability in many tissues, including skeletal muscle. Materials and methods A total of 54 adult male albino rats were used in this study and divided into four groups: group I rats served as negative controls, group II rats served as positive controls, group III rats were treated with rosuvastatin orally for 4 and 12 weeks, and group IV rats were treated with rosuvastatin and Coenzyme Q10 orally for 4 and 12 weeks. The gastrocnemius muscle was dissected and prepared for light and electron microscopic study. Results The light microscopic study of the gastrocnemius muscle of rats treated with a high therapeutic dose of rosuvastatin for 4 and 12 weeks (group III) showed variation in size, mononuclear cellular infiltration, splitting, and focal degeneration of myofibers with increased collagen fiber deposition between muscle fibers. Electron microscopic study showed mitochondrial accumulation between myofibrils and in the subsarcolemmal space, mitochondrial degeneration, and dilatation of sarcoplasmic reticulum cisterna. Coadministration of coenzyme Q10 with rosuvastatin for 4 and 12 weeks ameliorated most of the above-mentioned histological alterations in the rat skeletal muscles. Conclusion Rosuvastatin drug caused skeletal muscle fiber damage. Coenzyme Q10 leads to the protection of the skeletal muscle fibers when given concomitantly with rosuvastatin.


Cylindrical light diffusers (CLDs) are often employed for the treatment of large tumors by interstitial photodynamic therapy (iPDT) and photoimmunotherapy (PIT), which involves careful treatment planning to maximize therapeutic dose coverage while minimizing the number of CLDs used. There is, however, a lack of general guidelines regarding optimal positioning of CLDs, in particular when they are inserted in parallel to treat head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the CLD-CLD distances maximizing the necrosis for different geometries of CLD positions and shed light on the influence of different optical parameters on this distance, in particular when HNSCCs are treated by interstitial PIT with cetuximab–IR700 using up to seven CLDs. To that end, Monte-Carlo simulations of the light propagation around CLDs inserted perpendicularly in a semi-infinite tumor were performed to determine the volume receiving a fluence larger than a therapeutic threshold. An optimization algorithm was then used to calculate and maximize the necrosed tumor volumes. Tumor optical properties were derived from published data. Our findings suggest that optimal CLD positioning maximizing the volume of necrosed tumor during interstitial PIT for typical HNSCC optical properties corresponds to a CLD-CLD distance between 11.5- and 13-mm. Variations of the absorption and reduced scattering coefficients have the greatest influence on CLD placements, while tissue anisotropy factor, CLD insertion geometry, CLD length, and the angular dependence of the radiance emitted by the CLDs have minimal influence. At first approximation the influence of these optical parameters on optimal CLD-CLD distance are independent. Our data also suggests it is possible to derive new treatment plans using knowledge of previous treatment plans.


OBJECTIVE
Irradiation of urinary bladder tumors produce early and late complications. The former is characterized by acute cystitis and the latter by fibrosis with loss of volume and more or less persistent hematuria. The present study was conducted to analyze the incidence of complications of radiotherapy in patients with invasive bladder cancer.

METHODS
Toxicity was evaluated by the RTOG/ EORTC and SOMA LENT scales.

RESULTS
The Spanish Toxicity Register showed 4.7% toxicity in a total of 782 patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Although the microscopic and clinical changes caused by radiotherapy are well described, there are no reliable percentages in the studies on large series that evaluated the toxicity caused by radiotherapy for invasive bladder tumors.


The paper presents three-dimensional magnetic field analysis of recently developed electromagnetic valve actuator. Permanent magnet is employed in the actuator construction in order to reduce the energy consumption. Finite element method using magnetic vector potential formulation with edge elements is employed. Results are obtained for the magnetic field distribution and the static force of the actuator. Force-displacement characteristics for different values of the magnetomotive force arc also obtained.


A 74-year-old man with a history of atrial fibrillation and mild left ventricular impairment presented with breathlessness and ascites. Symptoms worsened despite treatment with diuretics and he eventually underwent a diagnostic ascitic tap and drain. The fluid proved exudative yet a full hepatic screen including tumour markers was normal and subsequent …


Position location information (PLI) has become a crucial requirement for the provision of multiple location-based services in cellular and wireless ad hoc networks. As sensor networks and Internet of Things scenarios proliferate, 3-D position location becomes more relevant as a solution enabler for location-based services and applications. Nevertheless, PLI acquisition techniques in 3-D ad hoc and sensor networks present several challenges. For instance, conventional triangulation algorithms may not be applicable as a direct line of sight between concerned nodes and fixed references cannot be guaranteed. In this letter, a PLI acquisition algorithm suitable for 3-D ad hoc environments is proposed based on space discretization. Feasibility of the algorithm is examined through analysis and simulation. Algorithm improvements are also proposed.


In this article it is argued that language can be seen as a dynamic system, i.e. a set of variables that interact over time, and that language development can be seen as a dynamic process. Language development shows some of the core characteristics of dynamic systems: sensitive dependence on initial conditions, complete interconnectedness of subsystems, the emergence of attractor states in development over time and variation both in and among individuals. The application of tools and instruments developed for the study of dynamic systems in other disciplines calls for different approaches to research, which allow for the inclusion of both the social and the cognitive, and the interaction between systems. There is also a need for dense data bases on first and second language development to enhance our understanding of the fine-grained patterns of change over time. Dynamic Systems Theory is proposed as a candidate for an overall theory of language development.


Patients with a coronary aneurysm alone do not generally exhibit continuous murmurs; however, murmurs may be detected in the presence of a fistula. A 57-year-old woman with chest pain was referred to us with a suspected diagnosis of a ruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysm owing to the presence of a continuous murmur that was detected on physical examination. However, CT revealed a giant right coronary artery aneurysm draining into the right atrium. Consequently, surgery was performed. This case highlights the importance of implementing multiple imaging modalities for adequate differential diagnoses of patients presenting with continuous murmurs.


A 48-year old female patient was admitted to the emergency department with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Endoscopy showed large esophageal varices that were treated with band ligation. She had been treated with cyclophosphamide, melphalan, lenalidomide and corticosteroids for POEMS syndrome (polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy or edema, M protein, skin changes). She had no other risk factors for chronic liver disease. Laboratory and radiological examinations could not confirm the etiology of portal hypertension. The liver biopsy suggested hepatoportal sclerosis, compatible with idiopathic portal hypertension (IPH). Under a band ligation program, with beta-blocker, diuretics and prophylactic anticoagulation, the patient remains stable. In POEMS syndrome, a rare multi-systemic disease, the most frequent liver manifestation is hepatomegaly(1). To the best of authors' knowledge, IPH has been reported only 3 times in POEMS syndrome(2,3,4) and this is the second case reporting the occurrence of histological findings compatible with IPH. As the precise etiopathogenesis of IPH is not fully elucidated and as it is an extremely uncommon manifestation in POEMS, it is not yet certain whether IPH is part of the syndrome or whether it develops independently. While some investigators believe that there is a congenital vascular anomaly involving the changes in the portal tract, the majority support an acquired vascular defect hypothesis(5). The acquired IPH hypothesis emphasizes a possible role of various pathogenic determinants: infections, prothrombotic states, prolonged exposure to several medications and toxins, immunological basis and progressive fibrosis of the portal veins (5). In this hypothesis, a hepatic circulation defect secondary to POEMS syndrome, which includes pro-inflammatory (VEGF, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1ß, tumor necrosis factor-α, tumor growth factor-ß) and pro-thrombotic factors (aberrations in the thrombin-antithrombin complex)(1) which have been documented in the IPH and POEMS syndrome, may contribute to a possible association between these entities. Although the association between these two entities is yet to be confirmed, the authors present this case in order to contribute to its elucidation.


The research paper focuses on the dystopian reality depicted in Suzanne Collins's the Hunger Games trilogy. I shall primarily discuss the social and political relations established in the post-apocalyptic country – Panem, and how they affect the quotidian life. Crucial here is the clash between two realms comprising the world represented in the novels – dystopian districts and the seemingly utopian Capitol. The juxtaposition of two completely different 'constituents' of the country shapes the mutual relations between the Panem inhabitants – these within the districts, amongst them and between the center and the peripheries. The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010) consecutively portray the history of dystopian civilization from the entropic reality succeeding after the Dark Days, through a coincidental chain of events initiated during the 74th Hunger Games, to the ultimate armed conflict bringing hope and the promise of a new beginning. Pivotal in the oppressive world is the concept of the savior in the person of Katniss Everdeen who, initially unconsciously and unintentionally, contributes to igniting the final revolt against the dictatorial regime of President Snow. The aim of the paper is to analyze how the author represents the realm of Panem with regard to the complex relations between the center and the periphery.


Incidentalomas (incidental lesions [ILs] discovered on diagnostic imaging [DI], unrelated to the patient's clinical presentation) are increasingly common. For example, about 5% of abdominal CT scans lead to ILs; thyroid nodules are found in up to 70% of neck ultrasound exams performed for non-thyroid problems; incidental lung nodules are common. This prevalence is due to: (a) the increasing number of patients undergoing DI; (b) the high resolution of modern equipment; (c) the largely untargeted nature of cross-sectional imaging. With regard to (a), up to about a third of DI requests are inappropriate. The drivers for inappropriate imaging arise from: referrers (a knowledge gap, defensive medicine, time constraints on patient consultations and an abandonment of the clinical paradigm in favour of imaging); from radiologists (reluctance or failure of radiologists to act as gatekeepers; marketing by radiology practices); and from patients' expectations engendered by the media and internet. Some ILs are of fortuitous benefit to the patient (e.g aortic aneurysms), but others are of debatable benefit and still others –the majority – are of little or no significance. However the latter often lead to anxiety, and the cost and risk of further investigation. The resulting problem of over-investigation and over-diagnosis is increasingly recognised – so-called 'cascade syndrome'. The causes of this phenomenon overlap with the drivers of inappropriate imaging (above): defensive medicine and the perceived need for certainty, the abandonment of the clinical diagnostic paradigm, a knowledge gap on the part of imaging specialists and/or referrers regarding the significance or otherwise of some ILs, and economic gain in a competitive radiological marketplace. Confounding the issue is the relative lack of consensus and consistency among radiologists in reporting and managing ILs. Improvement in the management of incidentalomas is contingent on several factors. Radiologists need to fulfill their roles as gatekeepers and consultants thus reducing inappropriate imaging and achieving appropriate management by (a) effective and meaningful consultation between radiologist and referring doctor; (b) a more narrative, nuanced and/or discretionary approach to reporting - taking account of the patient's age and co-morbidities as well as the natural history of the IL, while being mindful of potential ethical issues of such an approach; (c) the involvement of patients in decision-making in regard to their imaging findings.. There is a need for greater availability of multidisciplinary evidence-based guidelines for the commoner ILs and for increased research into their natural history. This workshop will expand on the above issues with the following structure: 1. Introduction - Richard Mendelson Incidental lesions (ILs) – the extent of the problem? Categories – beneficial, don't know, insignificant Examples of each of above Reasons for increase in prevalence Outline of drivers of (a) increased imaging/inappropriate imaging, and (b) follow–up (over)investigation of ILs Possible solutions 2. Some common examples of ILs - Assoc Prof Tom Sutherland MBBS MMed Grad Dip Clin Ed. FRANZCR Radiologist, St Vincent's Hospital, Victoria, Australia Thyroid nodules Some abdominal ILs Lung nodules 3. 'Over-diagnosis from the radiology perspective' - Dr Lorna Gibson MBChB, FRCR Radiologist, University of Edinburgh 4. What does the GP expect/want from the radiologist in relation to incidental findings - Dr Iona Heath CBE FRCGP General Practitioner and Past President of Royal College of GPs (UK) 5. Discussion


This paper presents an overview of foreign and domestic research to the approaches of employees assessment in terms of their competitiveness. Based on the experience of large industrial enterprises the dominant elements that form employee competitiveness were determined. A different methodology that takes into account the impact of economic globalization was given. Its validity is based on mathematical calculations and use of software.


Objective Congenital heart block may develop in the fetus of Ro52 autoantibody positive women. The reported recurrence rate for autoantibody associated congenital heart block is however only 10–25%, indicating that other factors than maternal autoantibodies influence the disease development and fetal outcome. The most potent genetic influence on susceptibility to autoimmune diseases is the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) locus, and as there is a strong and well-known HLA-DR*03 allele association with systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome and production of Ro/SSA autoantibodies, the authors hypothesised that specific alleles of the HLA locus may render the fetus susceptible to congenital heart block induced by maternal autoantibodies. Methods Genotyping was performed for 561 490 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in DNA from Swedish Caucasian families with a Ro/SSA autoantibody positive mother and with at least one case of congenital heart block. Full HLA-A, HLA-C and HLA-DRB1 allele typing was performed by single specific primer PCR in 60 families with complete trios. Swedish Caucasian population-based healthy controls were used in case-control association analysis. Genetic linkage was analysed by transmission disequilibrium test. Results A case-control analysis between the index cases and population-based controls revealed an association of congenital heart block with six SNPs in the 6p21 major histocompatibility complex (MHC) locus at a genome-wide significance of p<5×10−8 (OR 2.57–3.12). In family-based association analysis of distinct MHC class I and II alleles the authors observed an association of the HLA-DR*04 (p=0.01), DR*13 (p=0.02) and Cw6 (p=0.03) alleles with congenital heart block. HLA-DR*04 was significantly more often transmitted to children who developed congenital heart block, while the opposite was true for HLA-DR*13 and Cw6. Conclusions This study identifies HLA-DRB1*04 as a novel fetal genetic variant that confers susceptibility to develop congenital heart block in response to exposure to Ro/SSA autoantibodies, while HLA-DR*13 and Cw6 provide resistance.


The Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) tree, encoding the generative process of an object by a recursive compositional structure of bounded primitives, constitutes an important structural representation of 3D objects. Therefore, automatically recovering such a compositional structure from the raw point cloud of an object represents a high-level reverse engineering problem, finding applications from structure and functionality analysis to creative redesign. We propose an effective method to construct CSG models and trees directly over raw point clouds. Specifically, a large number of hypothetical bounded primitive candidates are first extracted from raw scans, followed by a carefully designed pruning strategy. We then choose to approximate the target CSG model by the combination of a subset of these candidates with corresponding Boolean operations using a binary optimization technique, from which the corresponding CSG tree can be derived. Our method attempts to consider the minimal description length concept in the point cloud analysis setting, where the objective function is designed to minimize the construction error and complexity simultaneously. We demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our method with extensive experiments on real scan data with various complexities and styles.


This paper presents development of a two-fingered robotic device for amputees whose hands are partially impaired. In this research, we focused on developing a compact and lightweight robotic finger system, so the target amputee would be able to execute simple activities in daily living (ADL), such as grasping a bottle or a cup for a long time. The robotic finger module was designed by considering the impaired shape and physical specifications of the target patient's hand. The proposed prosthetic finger was designed using a linkage mechanism which was able to create underactuated finger motion. This underactuated mechanism contributes to minimizing the number of required actuators for finger motion. In addition, the robotic finger was not driven by an electro-magnetic rotary motor, but a shape-memory alloy (SMA) actuator. Having a driving method using SMA wire contributed to reducing the total weight of the prosthetic robot finger as it has higher energy density than that offered by the method using the electrical DC motor. In this paper, we confirmed the performance of the proposed robotic finger by fundamental driving tests and the characterization of the SMA actuator.


In conditions of severe water-pollution and dormant community acceptance of accumulating environmental damage, the regulator's role goes beyond pollution prevention and more towards remediation and solutions based on the community's long-term expectations of economic benefits from clean water. This paper suggests a method to enable these benefits to become perceptible progressively, through participatory clean-up operations, supported by staggered pollution charges. It analyses the relevant literature on pollution prevention and applies a cost-based "willingness to pay" model, using primary basin-level data of total marginal costs. It develops a replicable demand-side approach imposing charge-standard targets over time in urban-industrial basins of developing countries.


The morphology and taxonomy of two new and two poorly known ciliate species of Ancistrum, found in the mantle cavity (mainly on gills) of marine molluscs from culture beds and pools along the Chinese coast of the Yellow Sea, were investigated using living observation and silver impregnation. Ancistrum haliotis n. sp. was isolated from the abalone Haliotis discus hannai Ino, A. crassum Fenchel, 1965 from the purple clam Saxidomus purpuratus (Sowerby), A. acutum n. sp. from the surf clam Mactra veneriformis Reeve, and A. japonicum Uyemura, 1937 from both the venus clam Cyclina sinensis (Gmelin) and from Dosinia japonica (Reeve). Ancistrum haliotis differs from its most similar relative A. mytili (Quennerstedt, 1867) by the body outline (anterior portion narrower vs. wider than the posterior portion), the macronuclear shape (broadly ellipsoidal vs. reniform or sausage-like), and by having fewer somatic kineties (28-32 vs. usually more than > 40). Ancistrum crassum is characterized by the naked area at the apical end of the cell, the relatively short buccal field occupying about two thirds of the body length, and the posterior-dorsal cone-shaped prolongation. Ancistrum acutum n. sp. and A. japonicum are almost identical in morphometry, but differ distinctly in the live morphology (anterior end pointed and posterior end rounded vs. anterior end narrowly rounded and posterior-dorsal end protruded) and ciliary pattern (all right-side kineties extend to posterior body end vs. all right-side kineties excluding somatic kinety 1 distinctly shortened posteriad, forming a glabrous zone). We neotypify Ancistrum japonicum and discuss the taxonomic status of the four species. Based on an evaluation of all nominal species of Ancistrum and Ancistrumina, we recognize nine valid species of Ancistrum and provide a tabular guide to their identification. Fenchelia Raabe, 1970 is regarded as a junior synonym of Ancistrum Maupas, 1883. We synonymize Ancistrumina nucellae Khan, 1970 with Ancistrum japonicum Uyemura, 1937 and Ancistrum edajimanum Oishi, 1978 with A. crassum Fenchel, 1965.


The ontogeny of the lens crystallin antigens throughout development of three marine cephalopod embryos, Loligo vulgaris, Sepia officinalis and Octopus vulgaris has been investigated using the indirect immuno-cytochemical staining against respective homologous anti-total lens protein antiserum. The cellular mechanism of lens development appears to be the same in all species investigated and so does the ontogeny of the lens crystallins. The first positive immuno-fluorescence reaction appears simultaneously and in equal intensities over the lens and lentigenic area confirming the relationship between the two.


The telicity behavior of degree achievements has been a puzzling problem to many linguists. The most successful and currently standard theory (Kennedy & Levin 2008) treats them as degree expressions lexicalizing different types of scales, which in turn influence the resulting evaluative or non-evaluative interpretation. While it may account for English, this theory does not hold up cross-linguistically. We challenge the scalar theory with new Slavic data and show that verbal prefixes influence the (non-)evaluative interpretation of degree achievements more than their underlying scales do. This proposal is formalised as an addition of two type shifters, morphosyntactically realised as prefixes, which, in result, have an evaluative/non-evaluative effect on the given degree achievement.


This paper describes how a person extracts a unknown object with pointing gesture while interacting with a robot. Using a stereo vision sensor, our proposed method consists of two stages: the detection of the operators' face, the estimation of the pointing direction, and the extraction of the pointed object. The operator's face is recognized by using the Haar-like features. And then we estimate the 3D pointing direction from the shoulder-to-hand line. Finally, we segment an unknown object from 3D point clouds in estimated region of interest. On the basis of this proposed method, we implemented an object registration system with our mobile robot and obtained reliable experimental results.