Abstract Climate change profoundly impacts ecosystems and their biota, resulting in range shifts, novel interactions, food web alterations, changed intensities of host—parasite interactions, and extinctions. An increasing number of studies have documented evolutionary changes in traits such as phenology and thermal tolerance. In this opinion paper, we argue that, while evolutionary responses have the potential to provide a buffer against extinctions or range shifts, a number of constraints and complexities blur this simple prediction. First, there are limits to evolutionary potential both in terms of genetic variation and demographic effects, and these limits differ strongly among taxa and populations. Second, there can be costs associated with genetic adaptation, such as a reduced evolutionary potential towards other (human‐induced) environmental stressors or direct fitness costs due to tradeoffs. Third, the differential capacity of taxa to genetically respond to climate change results in novel interactions because different organism groups respond to a different degree with local compared to regional (dispersal and range shift) responses. These complexities result in additional changes in the selection pressures on populations. We conclude that evolution can provide an initial buffer against climate change for some taxa and populations but does not guarantee their survival. It does not necessarily result in reduced extinction risks across the range of taxa in a region or continent. Yet, considering evolution is crucial, as it is likely to strongly change how biota will respond to climate change and will impact which taxa will be the winners or losers at the local, metacommunity and regional scales.


The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of endosialoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with sialolithiasis. Material and methods . 106 clinical observations were analyzed in which computed tomography (multislice spiral computed tomography or cone-beam computed tomography) without contrast, salivary gland ultrasound and endosialoscopy were used to diagnose and treat patients with sialolithiasis. In the process of diagnostic sialoscopy, the patency of the ducts, the presence of strictures and dilatations, the condition of their walls, the severity of the vascular pattern, the integrity of the epithelial lining, the contents of the ducts, the presence of mucus, pus, and, of course, the presence of sialolites, their number, size, shape, density were evaluated. Results and discussion. Endoscopy allows you to get unique information about sialolite and the state of the ductal apparatus, which determines the method of further treatment. Endosialoscopy can be used as a standard diagnostic method for suspected sialolithiasis and for the removal of sialolites (using endoscopic instruments) or as assistance. At the same time, diagnostic endosialoscopy is not an exhaustive method; therefore it should be carried out in conjunction with other methods – computed tomography or ultrasound of the salivary glands. The possibility of endoscopic sialolite removal depends on its mobility, size, location and condition of the duct. Attempts to capture and remove fixed sialolites, which are only partially visible and located in the deep sections of the salivary gland beyond the bend or stenosis section using endoscopic techniques, have been unsuccessful.


Wnt-4, a member of the Wnt family of locally acting secreted growth factors, is the first signaling molecule shown to influence the sex-determination cascade. In mice, a targeted deletion of Wnt-4 causes the masculinization of XX pups. Therefore, WNT-4, the human homologue of murine Wnt-4, is a strong candidate gene for sex-reversal phenotypes in humans. In this article, we show that, in testicular Sertoli and Leydig cells, Wnt-4 up-regulates Dax1, a gene known to antagonize the testis-determining factor, Sry. Furthermore, we elucidate a possible mechanism for human XY sex reversal associated with a 1p31-p35 duplication including WNT-4. Overexpression of WNT-4 leads to up-regulation of DAX1, which results in an XY female phenotype. Thus, WNT-4, a novel sex-determining gene, and DAX1 play a concerted role in both the control of female development and the prevention of testes formation. These observations suggest that mammalian sex determination is sensitive to dosage, at multiple steps in its pathway.


The kinetics of the thermal reactions of 1-methylbicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-en-7-one have been studied in the gas phase over the temperature range 489–565 K. The primary reaction appears to occur via two parallel first-order homogeneous isomerizations to yield 5-methylbicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-en-2-one and 2-methylhepta-1,3,6-trien-1-one. Under the experimental conditions employed, 2-methylhepta-1,3,6-trien-1-one undergoes rapid secondary reactions which have heterogeneous components. First-order rate constants for the disappearance of reactant, obtained by an internal standard technique, fit the Arrhenius relationship log k/s–1= 14·50 ± 0·28 –(183·8 ± 2·8 kJ mol–1)/2·303RT. The mode of reaction and Arrhenius parameters are different from those found for compounds with the bicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-en-6-one structure and can be rationalized by a diradical mechanism.


Large-scale stability of a homogeneous turbulent shear flow = (Sx2, 0, 0) is considered. Using a first order smoothing we have obtained the corresponding Reynolds equations. Exploiting the symmetries' property of back-ground flow we are able to obtain a complete set of modes for perturbations of unbounded flow. The flow is rigorously stable to linear disturbances of all wavenumbers. However, the intensive growth of 3-D perturbations at the inviscid stage during the finite times caused by non-zero small-scale helicity breaks the validity of the linear approximation. The growth perturbations are elongated along the basic flow. The influence of axial-symmetric helical turbulence on the evolution of large-scale perturbations of velocity is also under consideration.


There are provided a fuel cell system and operation method thereof capable of appropriately executing a special stop accompanying a substitution failure by a raw material gas in a fuel cell system. If stop of the fuel cell system (100) causes failure of substitution operation by the raw material gas, a control device (11) of the fuel cell system (100) sets the open/close state of fuel open/close means (26, 23, 24) for opening/closing an entrance of a fuel electrode (13a), oxidant open/close means (25, 28, 20, 27) for opening/closing an entrance of the oxidant electrode (13c), and hydrogen open/close means (21, 23, 22) for opening/closing an entrance of a hydrogen generation device (12) to a state different from the open/close state by the raw material gas in accordance with the content of the failure.


Abstract Water solubility in silica melts was determined at 100-600 MPa, 1200-1350 °C, and at each temperature (T) was found to increase with pressure (P). At P ≤ 250 MPa, the effect of T on water solubility in silica melts is small and within analytical precision (±0.15 wt% H2O). A positive correlation with T was observed at 400 MPa. Increasing solubility of water with increasing T was observed when large amounts of water are dissolved in silica and quartzofeldspathic melts (i.e., when molecular water is the dominant species in the glasses at room temperature), as already observed for feldspar melts. Change in water solubility (expressed in mol%) with decreasing SiO2 content of the melt is nonlinear along the silica-albite join. In the compositional range Ab100 to Ab25 (100 to 25 mol% albite, respectively, compositions calculated on an eight-oxygen basis), the solubility of water at 200 MPa decreases only slightly with decreasing Ab content (-0.1 ± 0.01 mol% H2O per mol% albite). However, at Ab contents less than 25 mol%, water solubility decreases sharply with increasing Qz content. Similar behavior was observed at 500 MPa. These results suggest that two different incorporation mechanisms of water in quartzofeldspathic melts must be considered: one corresponding to an NaAlSi3O8-H2O mechanism, the other to an SiO2-H2O mechanism.


ABSTRACT Employees who possess cross-cultural capabilities are increasingly sought after due to unparalleled numbers of cross-cultural interactions. Previous research has primarily focused on the bright side of these capabilities, including important individual and work outcomes. In contrast, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the cross-cultural capability of cultural intelligence (CQ) can lead to both positive and negative outcomes. Applying the general theory of confluence, we propose that expatriates high in CQ excel in customer relationship performance, while simultaneously behaving opportunistically. We also suggest that ethical relativism moderates these relationships. Using mixed methods, four separate studies generally support our predictions while also deepening our understanding of various forms of opportunism and the mechanism behind two seemingly opposing effects. Conceptual and managerial implications of CQ for opportunism, customer relationship performance, and ethics are discussed.


Abstract Nowadays only digital figures are accepted by the most important journals of taxonomy. These may be produced by scanning conventional drawings, made with high precision technical ink-pens, which normally use capillary cartridge and various line widths. Digital drawing techniques that use vector graphics, have already been described in literature to support scientists in drawing figures and plates for scientific illustrations; these techniques use many different software and hardware devices. The present work gives step-by-step instructions on how to make accurate line drawings with a new procedure that uses bitmap graphics with the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). This method is noteworthy: it is very accurate, producing detailed lines at the highest resolution; the raster lines appear as realistic ink-made drawings; it is faster than the traditional way of making illustrations; everyone can use this simple technique; this method is completely free as it does not use expensive and licensed software and it can be used with different operating systems. The method has been developed drawing figures of terrestrial isopods and some examples are here given.


The National Revolutionary Party was founded in 1929 to win elections and to resolve conflicts between different political groups after the Mexican Revolution. But it was also created in order to face the opposition of the Catholic hierarchy to the Constitution of 1917 and the measures that the revolutionary governments had established to "defanatize" the Mexican people and to limit the social influence and therefore the political power of the Catholic Church. In the past decades nevertheless, the PRI has evolved from initial anti-clerical and even antireligious positions towards more respectful positions of religious freedom, in line with the logic of a State that considers itself to be plural and respectful of differences. On the other hand, party authorities do not always respect their liberal and revolutionary tradition, the secularism of the state and the principle of separation that guarantees the moral autonomy of individuals against corporations. At times, the search for legitimacy generates political dependence and eventually leads to the imposition of the creeds and dogmas of majorities with respect to minorities of all kinds consequently eliminating the free will of broad sectors of the population that do not share those principles and expect the protection and guarantee of their rights by the secular State.


We report on the infrared (IR) and Raman studies of the three isostructural quasi-one-dimensional cation radical salts of 3,4-dimethyl-tetrathiafulvalene (o-DMTTF)2X (X = Cl, Br, and I), which all exhibit metallic properties at room temperature and undergo transitions to a semiconducting state in two steps: a soft metal-to-semiconductor regime change in the temperature region Tρ = 5–200 K and then a sharp phase transition at about TMI = 50 K. Polarized IR reflectance spectra (700–16 000 cm−1) and Raman spectra (50–3500 cm−1, excitation λ = 632.8 nm) of single crystals were measured as a function of temperature (T = 5–300 K) to assess the eventual formation of a charge-ordered state below 50 K. Additionally, the temperature dependence of the IR absorption spectra of powdered crystals in KBr discs was also studied. The Raman spectra and especially the bands related to the CC stretching vibration of o-DMTTF provide unambiguous evidence of uniform charge distribution on o-DMTTF down to the lowest temperatures, without any modification below 50 K. However, the temperature dependence of Raman spectra indicates a regime change below about 200 K. Temperature dependence of both electronic dispersion and vibrational features observed in the IR spectra also clearly confirms the regime change below about 200 K and shows the involvement of CH···X hydrogen bonds in the electronic localization; some spectral changes can be also related with the phase transition at 50 K. Additionally, using density functional theory methods, the normal vibrational modes of the neutral o-DMTTF0 and cationic o-DMTTF+ species, as well as their theoretical IR and Raman spectra, were calculated. The theoretical data were compared with the experimental IR and Raman spectra of neutral o-DMTTF molecule. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Following its introduction over 30 years ago, the Markov cohort state‐transition model has been used extensively to model population trajectories over time in health decision modeling and cost‐effectiveness analysis studies. We recently showed that a cohort model represents the average of a continuous‐time stochastic process on a multidimensional integer lattice governed by a master equation, which represents the time‐evolution of the probability function of an integer‐valued random vector. By leveraging this theoretical connection, this study introduces an alternative modeling method using a stochastic differential equation (SDE) approach, which captures not only the mean behavior but also the variance of the population process. We show the derivation of an SDE model from first principles, describe an algorithm to construct an SDE and solve the SDE via simulation for use in practice, and demonstrate the two applications of an SDE in detail. The first example demonstrates that the population trajectories, and their mean and variance, from the SDE and other commonly used methods in decision modeling match. The second example shows that users can readily apply the SDE method in their existing works without the need for additional inputs beyond those required for constructing a conventional cohort model. In addition, the second example demonstrates that the SDE model is superior to a microsimulation model in terms of computational speed. In summary, an SDE model provides an alternative modeling framework which includes information on variance, can accommodate for time‐varying parameters, and is computationally less expensive than a microsimulation for a typical cohort modeling problem.


In this work-in-progress paper, we will discuss the implications of adult learning theory (ALT) for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in fully online, distributed learning environment. Current approaches in online STEM education are grounded in a constructivist view of learning and based on the concept that students are active participants in their knowledge creation. We will re-examine these premises in the context of new findings and current developments in higher education landscape. More specifically, the increase in non-traditional and adult students using online platform to continue their education has presented a new challenge for learning activity design, development and delivery. ALT can be extended to the existing practices to help build greater process- and progress-oriented as well as individualized learning approaches. In this paper we will focus on reviewing the general ALT ideas and their potential for revamping online STEM education. The detail recommendations will be proposed in the next phase of the study.


Background: The clinical characteristics of chronic cough with pre-existing psychological co-morbidity (PCC) and chronic cough with secondary anxiety and depression (SCC) were compared to provide a basis for diagnosing and treating psychological co-morbidities in people with chronic cough. Methods: A prospective study was conducted to analyze the general clinical data between the PCC, SCC, and the chronic cough without anxiety and depression (CC) groups. A total of 203 patients with chronic cough were enrolled in the study. The final diagnosis was made in all cases using a combination of psychosomatic and respiratory diagnoses. The three groups' general clinical data, capsaicin cough sensitivity, cough symptom score, Leicester cough questionnaire (LCQ), and psychosomatic scale scores were compared among the three groups. The diagnostic value of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ)-9 and general anxiety disorder (GAD)-7 in patients with PCC and the follow-up information were analyzed. Results: Compared with the SCC group, the duration of cough in the PCC group was shorter (H = −3.54, p = 0.001), the night cough symptoms were milder (H = −4.60, p < 0.001), the total LCQ score was lower (H = −2.97, p = 0.009), and the PHQ-9 (H = 2.90, p = 0.011) and GAD-7 scores (H = 2.71, p = 0.002) were higher. When using PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores for the combined prediction and diagnosis of PCC, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.88, and the sensitivity and specificity were 90.0% and 73.85%, respectively. After 8 weeks of psychosomatic treatment, cough symptoms improved in the PCC group, but the psychological improvement was not significant. The psychological status of the SCC group improved after cough symptoms were ameliorated by etiologic or empirical treatment. Conclusion: The clinical characteristics of patients with PCC and SCC are different. The evaluation of psychosomatic scales is of value to distinguish between the two groups. Chronic cough patients with psychological co-morbidity benefit from the combined diagnosis of psychosomatic medicine in a timely fashion. PCC requires more attention in psychological therapy, but for SCC, targeting etiological treatment of the cough is preferred. Trial registration: The protocol was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trials Register (http://www.chictr.org.cn/) [ChiCTR2000037429].


Barbiturate poisoning is fairly common at the present time, yet there are few references to treatment of cases in this country. There is a fairly full American literature on the subject, but even there phenobarbitone, a frequently prescribed drug, is rarely incriminated. Phenobarbitone is one of the longest-acting of the barbiturates and, being slowly absorbed and excreted, is cumulative. Whitla (1943) says that not more than 3% is excreted after 24 hours, and after six days only 15%. We could find no authority on its rate of absorption. The place of picrotoxin in the treatment of barbiturate poisoning is now 'generally accepted, but in this country the large doses necessary are not always realized. Lovibond and Steel (1939) used 60 mg. over a period of 12 hours, with recovery of consciousness, and they emphasized the risk of relapse into unconsciousness if picrotoxin is discontinued too soon; this relapse into coma observed by other writers is confirmed here. Irving (1943) gave 992 mg. of picrotoxin to a patient, who died of pneumonia after five days. In America very large doses of picrotoxin have been given in barbiturate poisoning. The largest recorded is 2,134 mg. by Rovenstine (1938). ln a perusal of easily available literature we found no mention of the vital necessity for colonic lavage. In the case described below no less than 50% of the ingested drug was recovered undissolved by early colonic lavage. It is obvious that in this instance colonic lavage was much more than a ceremony.


(cid:50)(cid:47)(cid:50) thymocytes. The repressed transcription was not due to a lack in transcription factors since the three transcription factors known to regulate this locus were readily detected in IL-7R (cid:97) (cid:50)(cid:47)(cid:50) thymocytes. Instead, the TCR- (cid:103) locus was shown to be methylated in IL-7R (cid:97) (cid:50)(cid:47)(cid:50) thymocytes. Treatment of IL-7R (cid:97) (cid:50)(cid:47)(cid:50) precursor T cells with the specific histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A released the block of TCR- (cid:103) gene rearrangement. This data supports the model that IL-7R promotes TCR- (cid:103) gene rearrangement by regulating accessibility of the locus via demethylation and histone acetylation of the locus. Treatment of T Cell Precursors with a Specific Inhibitor of Histone Deacetylase Overcomes the Need for the IL-7R Signal.


The emergence of the term ecotourism in the 1980`s has brought forward numerous developments in ecotourism industry including the discovery of special niche segments, specifically the `ecotourists`, as well as specialist accommodation type, specifically the `ecolodges`. Although a number of studies have been published with regards to ecotourists` traits and ecolodges guideline, limited information is available on the domestic ecotourists` preferences towards the characteristics that ecolodges embody. Hence, this study is an attempt to address this deficiency by looking at the preferences of two contrasting ecotourist segments, namely, hard and soft domestic ecotourists in Kinabalu Park, a World Heritage Area in Sabah, Malaysia. A discriminant analysis was performed using 403 samples in Kinabalu Park, and it revealed two ecotourist segments with significant differences of preferences towards six constructs of ecolodges. It was also found that hard domestic ecotourists displayed significant differences in preferring eco-friendly attributes as compared to the soft domestic ecotourists on the variables measuring nature based attractions, services and comfort, location and type of accommodation. Soft domestic ecotourists tend to resemble the mass tourists as they placed importance towards services and comfort but disliked being in remote locations. The results of this study demonstrate that ecotourist segments deserve specific considerations by ecotourism managers to cater accommodation packages based on their specific preferences in order to ensure a quality ecotourism experience.


BACKGROUND
Although many Koreans travel each year to countries where malaria is present, few data are available on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Koreans with regards to malaria.

METHODS
The study was conducted in the departure lounge of Incheon International Airport in May 2006. A 22-item questionnaire was administered to Korean travelers whose travel destination was India.

RESULTS
Of 188 respondents, 24% had sought pretravel health information. Independent predictors for seeking pretravel health information were the following: being a Korean woman, longer duration of travel, planning to travel independently or to a rural area, and perceived risk of malaria. A total of 47% of travelers answered that they had not perceived any risk of malaria, and only 7% of travelers carried malaria prophylaxis.

CONCLUSIONS
There is an urgent need for increased awareness about travel-related infectious diseases (especially malaria) among Korean travelers, and they should be encouraged to seek pretravel health information.


Understanding the origin of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in surface-supported nanoclusters is crucial for fundamental research as well as data storage applications. Here, we investigate the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of bilayer cobalt islands on Au(111) substrate using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy at 4.6 K and first-principles theoretical calculations. Au(111) substrate serves as an excellent model system to study the effect of nucleation site and stacking sequence on MAE. Our measurements reveal that the MAE of bilayer islands depends strongly on the crystallographic stacking of the two Co layers and nucleation of the third layer. Moreover, the MAE of Co atoms on Au(111) is enhanced by a factor of 1.75 as compared to that reported on Cu(111). Our first-principles calculations attribute this enhancement to the large spin-orbit coupling of the Au atoms. Our results highlight the strong impact of nanometer-scale structural changes in Co islands on MAE and emphasize the importance of spatially resolved measurements for the magnetic characterization of surface-supported nanostructures.


The key to conducting an accurate damage assessment of a structure that has been impacted by an orbital debris particle is the use of a robust assessment methodology. To accurately determine total structure damage, a damage assessment methodology must include the effects of descrete impacts by solid debris cloud fragments as well as impulsive loadings due to molten and vaporous debris cloud material. As a results, the amount of debris cloud material in each of the three states of matter must be known to accurately assess total damage due to a high speed orbital debris impact. This paper presents a first-principles based method to calculate 1) the amount of material in a debris cloud created by a perforating hypervelocity impact that is solid, molten, and vaporous, 2) the debris cloud leading edge, trailing edge, center-of-mass, and expansion velocities, and 3) the angular spread of the debris cloud material. The predictions of this methodology are compared with those of empirically based damage assessment schemes as well as against numerical and empirical results obtained in previous studies of debris cloud formation.


Introduction: Traditional medicine which includes Islamic faith healing centre is still an important place to seek treatment whether for psychiatric reasons or others. This study aims to determine the prevalence of psychiatric illness among attenders of an Islamic spiritual healing centre and to understand patients' illness attribution and their religiosity. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done with a systematic random sampling to obtain the prevalence of psychiatric illness which was diagnosed using Malay version of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I). Religiosity was measured using Hatta Islamic Religiosity Scale 1996 (HIRS96) and illness perception using Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ). Results: The prevalence of psychiatric illness among the attenders was 53.5%. Depressive disorder were more prevalent (41.5%) followed by anxiety disorder (28.3%), bipolar disorder (16.8%) and psychotic disorders (5.9%). More than half (58.8%) of attenders attributed their illness to supernatural causes but there were no significant difference between those with psychiatric illness and those without in terms of their attribution to supernatural causes, p=0.197.Generally, the patients had  a higher religiosity score. Conclusion : This high prevalence shows a need for collaboration with the spiritual healing practitioners to improve delivery of treatment to patient and this would be a more holistic approach.


Although the technology of endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is evolving that make it appealing for challenging anatomy, proximal aortic neck morphology, especially severe angulation, is still one of the most determinants for a successful procedure. We describe a patient of AAA with severely angulated proximal neck, in whom kinked stent graft limb occurred against severe angulation of proximal neck. Then, we suggested how to prevent this complication in the second patient. Our case demonstrated the stent graft limb could be kinked by severe aortic neck angulation, making it challenging. However, the kinked stent graft limb could be prevented by deploying stent graft limbs below the most severely angulated aortic neck intentionally.


ABSTRACT Temperature affects growth, metabolism, and interspecific interactions in microbial communities. Within animal hosts, gut bacterial symbionts can provide resistance to parasitic infections. Both infection and populations of symbionts can be shaped by the host body temperature. However, the effects of temperature on the antiparasitic activities of gut symbionts have seldom been explored. The Lactobacillus-rich gut microbiota of facultatively endothermic honey bees is subject to seasonal and ontogenetic changes in host temperature that could alter the effects of symbionts against parasites. We used cell cultures of a Lactobacillus symbiont and an important trypanosomatid gut parasite of honey bees to test the potential for temperature to shape parasite-symbiont interactions. We found that symbionts showed greater heat tolerance than parasites and chemically inhibited parasite growth via production of acids. Acceleration of symbiont growth and acid production at high temperatures resulted in progressively stronger antiparasitic effects across a temperature range typical of bee colonies. Consequently, the presence of symbionts reduced both the peak growth rate and heat tolerance of parasites. Substantial changes in parasite-symbiont interactions were evident over a temperature breadth that parallels changes in diverse animals exhibiting infection-related fevers and the amplitude of circadian temperature variation typical of endothermic birds and mammals, implying the frequent potential for temperature to alter symbiont-mediated resistance to parasites in endo- and ectothermic hosts. Results suggest that the endothermic behavior of honey bees could enhance the impacts of gut symbionts on parasites, implicating thermoregulation as a reinforcer of core symbioses and possibly microbiome-mediated antiparasitic defense. IMPORTANCE Two factors that shape the resistance of animals to infection are body temperature and gut microbiota. However, temperature can also alter interactions among microbes, raising the question of whether and how temperature changes the antiparasitic effects of gut microbiota. Honey bees are agriculturally important hosts of diverse parasites and infection-mitigating gut microbes. They can also socially regulate their body temperatures to an extent unusual for an insect. We show that high temperatures found in honey bee colonies augment the ability of a gut bacterial symbiont to inhibit the growth of a common bee parasite, reducing the parasite's ability to grow at high temperatures. This suggests that fluctuations in colony and body temperatures across life stages and seasons could alter the protective value of bees' gut microbiota against parasites, and that temperature-driven changes in gut microbiota could be an underappreciated mechanism by which temperature—including endothermy and fever—alters animal infection. Two factors that shape the resistance of animals to infection are body temperature and gut microbiota. However, temperature can also alter interactions among microbes, raising the question of whether and how temperature changes the antiparasitic effects of gut microbiota. Honey bees are agriculturally important hosts of diverse parasites and infection-mitigating gut microbes. They can also socially regulate their body temperatures to an extent unusual for an insect. We show that high temperatures found in honey bee colonies augment the ability of a gut bacterial symbiont to inhibit the growth of a common bee parasite, reducing the parasite's ability to grow at high temperatures. This suggests that fluctuations in colony and body temperatures across life stages and seasons could alter the protective value of bees' gut microbiota against parasites, and that temperature-driven changes in gut microbiota could be an underappreciated mechanism by which temperature—including endothermy and fever—alters animal infection.


PURPOSE
To track prostate motion during clinical arc radiotherapy using a novel statistical motion tracking algorithm in both phantom and patient systems.

METHODS
For the phantom study, a dynamic phantom with a custom tumor model and radiopaque fiducials was used. For the patient study, the clinical data from two prostate patients were acquired during volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). For each patient, two gold fiducials (X-Mark, 1cm and 2cm in length) were implanted in the prostate. A total of 35 fractions with 2-field full arcs were delivered. Beam's-eye- view (BEV) images were acquired in cine mode every five fractions at a frame rate of 2 fps.The prostate motion was measured by two sequential steps: fiducial detection and motion estimation. In the first step, a wavelet- based block matching filter was used to suppress the noise and enhance the fiducials in the BEV images. A trajectory of detected fiducials was generated along the projection angles. Sequentially, the prostate motion was tracked using a statistical maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm. The 3-D fiducial position was estimated by maximizing the probability of displacement of 2-D projections.

RESULTS
A total of 8,400 BEV images were processed for this study. The phantom experiments showed that the baseline accuracy of estimation is 0.69+/-0.56 mm. For patient 1, intra- fraction prostate motion was measured to be 0.98+/-0.51 mm for all fractions, and individual fraction motion less than 1 mm. For patient 2, intra- fraction motion was 1.12+/-0.65 mm for all fractions. However, an exceptionally large displacement was measured as 4.9+/-0.74mm in one of the fractions.

CONCLUSIONS
Prostate motion during arc-therapy can be rigorously tracked to an accuracy of one millimeter. This technique is well suited for in-treatment room target tracking and post-therapy evaluation. Varian Medical Systems Inc.


Over the past few decades both micro/ nanofabrication and microfluidics technologies have been crucial for the rapid development of Lab on a Chip systems. Here we present a few examples of this. Firstly, a capillary electrophoresis system on chip for blood analysis will be presented. Secondly, we show how nanostructures enable new chemical sensors and how they can be exploited to obtain highly sensitive and uniform SERS surfaces, enabling sensitive biomolecule detection and allowing simultaneous electrochemical experimentation. Then we present a microfluidic device in which we can trap and electroporate individual cells to study gene transfection. Finally, we show how Lab on a Chip systems can be used to realize so-called "Organs on Chip" that mimic functional organ behavior. In particular a Blood Brain Barrier ("BBB chip") is presented to study behavior of tight junctions, while we also demonstrate a microfluidic chip mimicking atherosclerosis, and show how thrombus formation around narrowing in the artificial blood vessel takes place. These examples clearly demonstrate the power and future potential of such microsystems for biomedical applications.


: The split attribute in the decision tree algorithm, especially C4.5, has an important influence in producing a decision tree performance that has high predictive performance. This study aims to perform an attribute split in the C4.5 algorithm using the value of the termination coefficient (R 2 /R Square) which is combined with the aim of increasing the performance of the model performance produced by the C4.5 algorithm itself. The data used in this research are public datasets and private datasets. This study combines the C4.5 algorithm developed by Quinlan. The results in this study indicate that the use of the R 2 value in the C4.5 algorithm has good performance in terms of accuracy and recall because three of the four datasets used have a higher value than the C4.5 algorithm without R 2 . Whereas in the aspect of precision, it has quite good performance because only two datasets have a higher value than the performance results of the algorithm without R 2 .


The Productivity of Indonesian researchers is still considered low at the International level. The researcher productivity is measured through the amount of scientific papers published. This study aimed to prove some factors affecting the research productivity. Specifically, this study aimed to empirically examine the effect of researcher characteristics, subjective well-being, knowledge sharing, and research competence on research productivity. With proportional random sampling technique we obtained a sample of 100 researchers in Agency for Research and Development and Training scattered in central and local units. Data were collected using questionnaires to measure research productivity, subjective well-being, knowledge sharing, and research competence. Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentiallly. We used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and path analysis which were processed with SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.80 (Student) for the inferential analysis. The results of ANOVA concluded that the productivity did not differ significantly by gender. However there were significant differences in the research productivity based on the academic qualification and the functional job of researchers. The results of path analysis concluded that subjective well-being and research competence had direct positive effect on the research productivity, knowledge sharing had direct negative impact on the research productivity but knowledge sharing had indirect positive effect through the research competence on the research productivity. Research compentence contributes the highest effect on the research productivity. From this study we recommend that the institution need to improve the research competence on quantitative research method with regard to statistical tools to collect, process, and analyze the research data.


Abstract Aminocyclopyrachlor has provided excellent control of many perennial weed species including leafy spurge, but control of yellow toadflax has been inconsistent. 14C-aminocyclopyrachlor absorption was rapid in both leafy spurge and yellow toadflax and averaged 72% 48 h after treatment (HAT). However, translocation within the plant differed by species. More 14C translocated to the aboveground portion of yellow toadflax (28% of applied) compared to leafy spurge (16.5% of applied). There was rapid translocation of 14C-label to the roots of both species but more reached the belowground portion of leafy spurge than yellow toadflax. Over 12% of applied 14C translocated into leafy spurge roots within 24 HAT but declined to 2% by 192 HAT. In comparison, only 2% of applied 14C was found in yellow toadflax roots 24 HAT, and just 0.15% remained in belowground plant parts by 192 HAT. The inconsistent long-term control of yellow toadflax with aminocyclopyrachlor is likely due to poor translocation to the root system, which would allow for rapid regrowth in this hard to control perennial species. Nomenclature: Aminocyclopyrachlor; leafy spurge, Euphorbia esula L. EPHES, yellow toadflax, Linaria vulgaris P. Mill. LINVU.


The following studies are the edited versions of presentations to the Hungarian-Italian workshop on "Combating Discrimination, Racism and Xenophobia" held on 17 February 2011 at the Institute for Legal Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in Budapest. The organizers of the workshop were the Institute for Legal Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for International Legal Studies, National Research Council (ISGI-CNR) Italy.


Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) provides remote sensing and a quick and comprehensive technique for deviation analyses. Its application for precision surveying purposes is becoming a common practice. There are many interdependent parameters that determine whether the accuracy obtained during the data collection and registration is appropriate to perform deviation analyses. Also, the accuracy of deviation analyses is reflected on visualisation/demonstration of results. However, the focus of previous research works has often been on either data acquisition, data registration, deviation analyses, or visualisation of results. The research described in this paper consolidates and formalises the existing methods in the literature and practice for data acquisition and data processing. In doing so, the aim is to develop a holistic method termed Tolerance Compliance Measurement (TCM) using TLS to obtain results from deviation analyses with the desired accuracy. Moreover, unlike the previous research works that mainly focus on assessment of flatness of surfaces, the appropriateness of the most common algorithms for assessment of different types of geometric variation is explored. The results show that the application of TLS and commercially available software are versatile although not complete for analyses of different types of geometric variation.


Host–parasite antagonistic interaction has been proposed as a potential agent to promote genetic polymorphism and to favour sex against asex, despite its twofold cost in reproduction. However, the host–parasite gene–for–gene dynamics often produce unstable cycles that tend to destroy genetic diversity. Here, we examine such diversity destroying coevolutionary dynamics of host and parasite, which is coupled through local or global migration, or both, between demes in a metapopulation structure. We show that, with global migration in the island model, peculiar out–of–phase islands spontaneously arise in the cluster of islands converging to a global synchrony. Such asynchrony induced by the'pacemaker island' serves to restore genetic variation. With increasing fraction of local migration, spots of asynchrony are converted into loci or foci of spiral and target patterns, whose rotating arms then cover the majority of demes. A multi–locus analogue of the model reproduces the same tendency toward asynchrony, and the condition arises for an advantage of asexual clones over their sexual counterpart when enough genetic diversity is maintained through metapopulation storage—migration serves as a cheap alternative to sex.


We report methodological advances that enhance the phosphorescence efficiency of a blue-emitting calcium aluminate phosphor (CaAl2O4: Eu2+, Nd3+). The investigation of long-persistence blue-emitting phosphors is highly desirable due to their promising applications, such as white LEDs; however, the development of highly efficient blue-emitting phosphors is still challenging. Here, we have quantitatively characterized the phosphorescence properties of the blue-emitting phosphor CaAl2O4:Eu2+, Nd3+ with various compositions and directly related these properties to the quality of its luminescence. We optimized the composition of the activator Eu2+ and the co-activator Nd3+, the doping conditions with alkaline earth metals, alkali metals, and Si to create crystallographic distortions and, finally, the flux conditions to find the best parameters for bright and persistent blue-emitting phosphors. Our research has identified several doping compositions with good to excellent performance, with which we have demonstrated bright and persistent phosphors with afterglow characteristics superior to those of conventional phosphors.


This paper proposes the development of a methodology to analyze the performance of highways under concession through the capacity and level of service, with special attention to Brazilian highways. The trajectory of transport infrastructure provision in Brazil and its performance assessment framework are mentioned, as well as an approach of the level of service concept and the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). An inventory of the highway with the necessary data to the model is proposed. This database should incorporate information from multiple data sources and its use will be important for the processing and compilation of raw data in order to structure a full informational basis. Then, it is developed a method for segmentation of homogeneous road sections, as conceptualized by HCM, and proposed a way of level of service measurement. Finally, there are analysis of the use of HCM in some highways concession programs in Brazil. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2016.3514


We study the quasi-normal modes (QNM) of scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations of black holes in general relativity whose horizons have toroidal, cylindrical or planar topology in an asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. The associated QNM frequencies describe the decay in time of the corresponding test field in the vicinities of the black hole. In terms of the AdS/CFT conjecture, the inverse of the frequency is a measure of the dynamical timescale of approach to thermal equilibrium of the corresponding conformal field theory.


Abstract We exploit a quasi-natural experiment of military draftees in Russia during World War I to examine the effects of a massive, negative labor shock on agricultural production. Employing a novel district-level panel data set, we find that mass mobilization produces a dramatic decrease in cultivated area. Surprisingly, farms with communal land tenure exhibit greater resilience to the labor shock than private farms. The resilience stems from peasants reallocating labor in favor of the commune because of the increased attractiveness of its nonmarket access to land and social insurance. Our results support an institutional explanation of factor misallocation in agriculture.


This article extends the concept of input–output finite time stability (IO–FTS) to a class of hybrid systems, namely impulsive dynamical linear systems, which are systems that exhibit jumps in the state trajectory. Sufficient conditions are given for the analysis of IO–FTS and for the design of both static output and state feedback controllers, guaranteeing IO–FTS of the closed loop system. In the general case the presented results require to solve feasibility problems involving either linear matrix inequalities or bilinear matrix inequalities, which can be solved numerically in an efficient way by using off-the-shelf optimisation tools, as illustrated by the proposed examples.


The Canadian income trust organizational structure allows operating entities to pass on free-cash flows to unit-holders in a tax-efficient manner. This paper examines the market valuation of pro forma disclosures of free cash flows, known as distributable cash, disclosed by these income trusts in IPO prospectuses and annual reports and assesses whether the market fixates inappropriately on this measure.We collect distributable cash disclosures for a sample of business trusts that undertook initial public offerings on the Toronto Stock Exchange between 1997 and 2006.We have several key findings. First, when focusing on a single performance measure, we find that distributable cash is a better predictor of IPO date trading values than is net income. Following the IPO distributable cash continues to be the best predictor of market value, out-performing both net income and dividends. Second, based on a Mishkin test, we find that the market does not fixate on distributable cash levels. Finally, though distributable cash does a good job of explaining price levels, we show it is incomplete. Special items, a component of net income that is excluded from distributable cash, is statistically significant when added to distributable cash. Similarly, net income can be very useful as a performance measure provided the researcher uses a more complex valuation mapping such as a returns format. In total, the results suggest that, for the flow-through entities we examine, distributable cash is a simple and useful disclosure that appears to be treated by the market as close to permanent earnings as defined in Ohlson (2009). The market is sophisticated in incorporating this disclosure. However, the superiority of one measure over another depends on the taste of the researcher for model complexity.


Pediatric devices based on a capillary system may provide an alternative to vacuum tubes for canine blood sampling. The potential advantages are absence of vein collapse, limited blood volume sampled, and improved safety. The aim of this study was to compare routine plasma and hematological variables in seven healthy dogs using both techniques. Five biochemical analytes were measured, and a complete hematological examination and plasma exogenous creatinine clearance test were performed. No clinically relevant difference between the two techniques was observed for any variable or functional test assessed.


This article reveals the urgency of the problem of treating patients with closed olecranon fractures. The clinical-and-statistical characteristic of 103 patients at the age from 7 to 76 years with closed olecranon fractures, who have been managed at the FSI RISC ―RTO‖ within the period of 19702005. New techniques of transosseous osteosynthesis with the Ilizarov fixator have been modified and developed depending on olecranon fracture type. Long-term anatomic-and-functional results of treatment have been analyzed. High effectiveness of the transosseous osteosynthesis technologies used has been demonstrated in treatment of patients with olecranon fractures.


Language modeling is a fundamental research problem that has wide application for many NLP tasks. For estimating probabilities of natural language sentences, most research on language modeling use n-gram based approaches to factor sentence probabilities. However, the assumption under n-gram models is not robust enough to cope with the data sparseness problem, which affects the final performance of language models. In this paper, we propose a generalized hierarchical word sequence framework, where different word association scores can be adopted to rearrange word sequences in a totally unsupervised fashion. Unlike the n-gram which factors sentence probability from left-to-right, our model factors using a more flexible strategy. For evaluation, we compare our rearranged word sequences to normal n-gram word sequences. Both intrinsic and extrinsic experiments verify that our language model can achieve better performance, proving that our method can be considered as a better alternative for n-gram language models.


This paper firstly reviews of the analysis of the nonlinear behavior of the vehicle lateral dynamics. The (αf, αf) phase plane is used in order to quantify the stability region of the vehicle under different forward speed, steering angle and road adhesion. The tire-road interaction forces are modeled using Pacejka's magic formula. In a second step, the exact linear sectors procedure is used for representation of nonlinear functions in order to derive a Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy model. This model copes the behavior of the lateral tire forces including the linear, decreasing and saturated regions. Thereafter, a Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy output feedback is designed for yaw motion control. The controller acts through the steering of the front wheels and the differential braking torque generation. The computation of the controller is performed in such a way that the trajectories of the controlled vehicle remain inside an invariant set even when it is under disturbance input. This is achieved using quadratic boundedness theory and Lyapunov stability. Simulation tests show that the controlled car is able to satisfactorily perform standard maneuvers such as the ISO3888-2 transient maneuver and the roundabout maneuver.


H. JEROME KEISLER. Limit ultrapowers. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 107 (1963), pp. 382-408. Let p be an ordinal, p t w", and 21 = (A, /?*>,, <p a relational system of type p. If / is a nonvoid set and D a filter on / then the reduced power 2li> = <.A'D , RDA>^<P is well known. In this paper the author considers certain subsystems of reduced powers which are called limit reduced powers. These systems contain the "almost constant" elements of A'D , in a sense given by another filter G in / x /. For/D « A'D (i.e.,/e A') let eq(/) = {</,/> | /(/) = f(J)} and A'D\G = {acA'D\ eq(/) « G for some ft a}. The limit reduced power of 21 (under /, D, G), 21£>|G, is the subsystem of 21D with universe A'D\G. If G, H are both filters on / x / and G £ H then 21J>|{/ x /} s 21{,|G £ 2l'D|// £ 21L|5(/ x / ) . The first system is the isomorphic image of 21 under the diagonal function d (which has the value (A/a)/D for a e A); the last system is 2l{,. If D is an ultrafilter, then 2lo|G is called a limit ultrapower. Some properties which make ultrapowers a useful tool in model theory apply also to limit ultrapowers. Le t / = Xnfn e (A'y, fID = Xn(JJD), f(i) = Xnfn(i), and eq(/"n) e G for all n * a>. Then f\D satisfies <p in <&'D\G iff {i \ f(i) satisfies <p in 21} c D. From this follows that 21£>|G is elementarily equivalent to 21 and, in fact d is an elementary embedding, and the inclusions mentioned above correspond to elementary extensions if D is an ultrafilter. In a previous paper (XXVII 357) the author proved, assuming the generalized continuum hypothesis (GCH), that 21 = 93 (21 and 93 elementarily equivalent) iff 21 and 93 have isomorphic ultrapowers. In this paper the author proves, without using GCH, that 21 = 93 iff 21 and 93 have isomorphic limit ultrapowers. Furthermore |2| u |2| is an upper bound for the cardinality of such limit ultrapowers. The author applies limit ultrapowers to improve a theorem of Rabin (XXV 169): "If \A\ = \A\ then 21 has a proper elementary extension of power \A\." The converse theorem "If 21 is complete and \A\ > \A\, then 21 has no proper extension of power \A\" was proved by Rabin with the assumption " A is accessible and GCH." The author improves this by weakening the assumption to "|-4| is not measurable." Compare with the next review however. If 2( is the system of rational numbers with the usual ordering the author shows that each of the following conditions implies the next but not vice versa: (I) 23 is isomorphic to % (2) 23 is isomorphic to some ultrapower of 21, (4) 93 is isomorphic to some limit ultrapower of 21, (5) 21 < 93 (i.e., 21 is elementarily embeddable in 93). The author also discusses the notion of strong limit ultrapower. Again 21 as 93 iff 21 and 93 have isomorphic strong limit ultrapowers (there is no simple bound on the cardinalities, however). Furthermore, (3) "93 is isomorphic to some strong limit ultrapower of 21" is intermediate between (2) and (4) above (assuming the continuum hypothesis). The limit ultrapower construction yields "more" systems than the other algebraic constructions discussed and comes "nearest" to elementary embeddability. It is important to note that this notion coincides with some weaker type of embeddability. Let 21 < 93 mean that there is a complete system 21' (of type p' 2 p) and a system 93' such that 21' -< 93', 21 = 21' f p, 93 = 93' T MThis means that for any set of relations adjoined to 21 corresponding relations can be adjoined to 93 such that the resulting systems are elementarily equivalent. In still other terms: any class of PCA containing 21 also contains 93. Then 93 is isomorphic to some limit ultrapower of 21 iff 21 •< 93. ARNOLD OBERSCHELP


In our shaken world of energy crisis and inadequate supply in relation to the increased demand of our country, it is important that all companies have a good control of their energy consumption which is synonymous with gain of profit for the country, And on the other hand to relieve demand. The objective of this work is to find the correlations between the sulfur consumed and the thermal energy produced (high pressure steam) of a Moroccan company which is one of the five largest fertilizer companies in the world and the leader in the field of phosphate industry. These correlations will then make it possible to realize a simulator which will be used to optimize the energy bill on the basis of linear programming.


Eight, ten and twelve year old children were tested on a novel procedure involving the successive presentation of the standard and comparison stimuli. Two hypotheses were evaluated, one dealing with memory effects, and the other with children's pre-testing of choice responses in spatial information processing. It was found, in general, for both spatial perception and coordination of perspectives tasks, that there was no short memory decay for spatial information, but that opportunities to pre-test choice responses improved performance. It was inferred from these data that the performance superiority under simultaneous than successive conditions is attributable to opportunities to pre-test responses and not to memory effects, as opposed to successive conditions is attributable to opportunities to pre-test responses and not to memory effects.


Recent research has suggested that mental health problems are over-represented in the homeless population. Currently mental health services are under-utilised by this group in proportion to need. It is often assumed that psychological intervention is unlikely to be helpful with a client group where basic needs are often not met.

The Transtheoretical Model of Change is used as a framework to describe the complex, dynamic processes that are likely to impact on a homeless person with mental health problems' ability to seek help for their mental health difficulties. This model is also applied to services. The empirical evidence for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a help or hindrance to help-seeking behaviour is examined. This study asked homeless people to identify their own needs and explored current working practices of the few clinical psychologists who work with them directly.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to explore the role for clinical psychology for homeless people. A pilot study was conducted. In the main study, nine men from two day centres/night shelters (one rural and one inner city) were recruited opportunistically. Five clinical psychologists working within the homelessness field were recruited.

Psychopathology of the homeless participants was measured using the GHQ-12 and BPRS. Within a user-designed approach a semi-structured interview was developed for the main study from the pilot study.


HIRSCHSPRUNG'S disease, or intestinal aganglionosis, is generally characterized by abdominal distention with constipation secondary to a functional colonic obstruction; an aganglionic segment of bowel usually in the rectosigmoid area lacks coordinated propulsive contractions. Anatomically, the aganglionic portion is narrowed and the proximal colon is dilated and hypertrophied. Several complications are known to result from the compromised ability to evacuate colonic contents: intestinal obstruction, enterocolitis, spontaneous rupture of the colon, anemia, hypoproteinemia and edema, and retarded growth. 1 Enemas to facilitate colonic evacuation are recommended treatment for this disease. However, because the enema may be retained and because a large surface area is available for absorption, tap-water enemas are known to produce water intoxication, and their use is not recommended. Recently the use of other types of enemas has been suggested, among them hypertonic phosphate enemas. 1 Our experience with four children in whom two additional complications of enemas, hypernatremic dehydration


A theoretical model of farmland valuation is developed to explicitly account for three effects of urban sprawl: conversion of farmland to urban uses, effect on agricultural returns, and speculative effect as represented by farmland conversion risk. This model is estimated using county-level data in the continental United States. Evidence is found for all three effects of urban sprawl on farmland values. Counties more accessible to major urban centers have higher net agricultural returns. Subsidiary evidence supports that the latter effect may be attributed to survival of (or conversion to) high-valued agriculture around urban centers.


The subject of study in the article is the discourse specifics of representation of economic entities in German newspaper and magazine texts of the last two decades. The purpose of the analysis is to elucidate the factors that stimulate univerbation in connection with the generation and textual integration of co-referential structures different in genesis, structural properties, semantic characteristics and stylistic potential.
The study, conducted on the basis of a functional-communicative approach to language, relies on methods and results of studies on text linguistics considering text as a whole structural-semantic unit.
Conclusions. 1) Mentioning of a company name is accompanied by integration of the univerb indicating the relevant industry into the text. Along with a two-member chain of co-referential nominations, a three-member chain is also possible (the location of a company is mentioned). 2) Co-referential pairs of the type "company name ‒ collective designation of employees according to headquarters location" (Siemens ‒ Münchener) are characteristic, which demonstrates the lability of univerb toponym semantics. 3) The integration of a proper name into the text requires the usage of characterizing common nouns in order to prepare the reader for the perception of unique names, which is a factor motivating univerbation. 4) Synthetic compounds of the nomina agentis type (Autobauer, Stromversorger) are widely used to describe the kind of activity of an enterprise. In such cases a lexeme with the expected semantics is eliminated (Unternehmen 'company', Konzern 'concern' etc.). The reduction of the base lexeme of a compound as well as representation of the verb lexeme in the form of nomen agentis has an impact on the semantics and stylistics of the univerb.
The results of the study can be used both in research activities on problems of word-formation, semantics and in the training of business translators.


ABSTRACT The roles of epigenetic mechanisms, including small-RNA-mediated silencing, in plant meiosis largely remain unclear, despite their importance in plant reproduction. This study unveiled that rice chromosomes are reprogrammed during the premeiosis-to-meiosis transition in pollen mother cells (PMCs). This large-scale meiotic chromosome reprogramming (LMR) continued throughout meiosis I, during which time H3K9 dimethylation (H3K9me2) was increased, and H3K9 acetylation and H3S10 phosphorylation were broadly decreased, with an accompanying immunostaining pattern shift of RNA polymerase II. LMR was dependent on the rice Argonaute protein, MEIOSIS ARRESTED AT LEPTOTENE1 (MEL1), which is specifically expressed in germ cells prior to meiosis, because LMR was severely diminished in mel1 mutant anthers. Pivotal meiotic events, such as pre-synaptic centromere association, DNA double-strand break initiation and synapsis of homologous chromosomes, were also disrupted in this mutant. Interestingly, and as opposed to the LMR loss in most chromosomal regions, aberrant meiotic protein loading and hypermethylation of H3K9 emerged on the nucleolar organizing region in the mel1 PMCs. These results suggest that MEL1 plays important roles in epigenetic LMR to promote faithful homologous recombination and synapsis during rice meiosis. Summary: Large-scale chromatin remodeling with dynamic alteration of H3K9 modifications occurred during male meiosis I in rice. This impacted on pivotal meiotic events and was dependent on the germline-specific Argonaute protein MEL1.


Addiction is an ominous social process that affects badly on quality of addicts� lives and their families. The factors that lead to unsatisfaction of addicts's spouses in addition to the factors that define quantity and quality of satisfaction should be known because the knowledge lead to formation of positive senses and motivations for giving up opium derivates. Thus, we decided to define the amount of satisfaction and it's correlation with age, sex, education, kind of opium derivates, duration of addiction, etc, in addicted ones and their spouses. Methods and Materials: Among addicts referred to renouncement clinics of Mashhad in 2004-2005, 146 subjects consist of addicted ones and their spouses agreed to fill the questionnaire which has been confirmed by a group of specialists. We decided to assess the correlation between marital satisfaction and age, sex, education, kind and duration of addiction in addicts and their spouses. For definition the questionnaire reliability we used alpha- Cronbach. Satisfaction quantities were classified by using Z. score. Results: Among 146 subjects in three groups (90 addicted husbands and nonaddicted wives in group 1, 26 nonaddicted husbands and addicted wives in group 2 , 30 addicted husbands and wives in group 3) marital satisfaction level was moderate. There was not significant difference between the marital satisfaction of husbands who were addicted and their wives who were nonaddicted, mostly (p=0.76). Correlation between marital satisfaction of addicts and their ages (p-0.012), kinds of opium derivates (p= 0.045), and their educations (p=0.029) were meaningful. Conclusions: Marital satisfaction of addicts and their spouses were assessed moderately that is contrary to the destructive effects of addiction on the basis of family. Thus, there must be the personal or manneral causes leading to this finding. Cooperation of addicted people and their partners for treatment of addiction based upon health programs specially, when this manner leads to renouncement and a happy, fortunate and without opium life is probable cause of getting moderate level of marital satisfaction in them.


George Rightmire: President of Ohio State (pp. 1, 3, 19)
 -- Brandon Rightmire: son of George Rightmire (p. 1)
 -- William H. Cowley: advocate for improving student experiences at OSU (p. 2)
 -- Miss Vogel: influential secretary to Howard Bevis (p. 4)
 -- Howard Bevis: President of Ohio State (pp. 4, 7-8)
 -- Mrs. Howard Bevis: first university wife to play a prominent role in university affairs (p. 4)
 -- Wells Reeder: Junior Dean, first Coordinator of Freshman Week (p. 5)
 -- Howard Hamilton: Secretary of the College of Arts and Sciences (p. 5)
 -- Harlan Hatcher: Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (pp. 6-8, 20-21)
 -- Bland Stradley: preceded Hatcher as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (pp. 7-8)
 -- Jim Fullington: Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (p. 8)
 -- Fred Heimberger: Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (pp. 8-9)
 -- Novice Fawcett: President of Ohio State (pp. 8, 10-11, 25)
 -- Joe Park: first Dean of Men at OSU (pp. 12, 19)
 -- Mylin Ross: second Dean of Men at OSU (pp. 12-13)
 -- Esther Allen Gaw: early feminist and Dean of Women (p. 12)
 -- Florence Allen: Judge, early feminist (p. 12)
 -- Charlie Gambs: legal counselor (pp. 13-17)
 -- Mars Fontana (pp. 14-15)
 -- The Lantern: student newspaper (pp. 15-16)
 -- Dean Snyder: Asst. Administrator of FERA in Ohio (p. 18)
 -- General Henderson: FERA administrator in Ohio (p. 18)
 -- Ralph Smiley: organized 3-C camps in Ohio in the 1930's (p. 18)
 -- Founta Green Pollard: replaced Guthrie as Director of Student Financial Aids ( p. 20)
 -- Dean Stradley: Dean and VP (pp. 20-21)
 -- Christine Conaway: Director of Counseling, Office for College of Arts and Sciences (pp. 20-21)
 -- John Galbreath: prominent businessman in Columbus (p. 24)
 -- John Bricker: Senator and Governor (pp. 24-25)
 -- The Wolfe family: owners and publishers of the Columbus Dispatch (p. 26)


Tomato accessions PI 128644 (Lycopersicon peruvianum var. dentatum Mill.) and PI 406966 (L. esculentum Mill.) were identified in preliminary screening trials as being relatively nonresistant and resistant to root-zone flooding, respectively. A comparative study of these accessions was undertaken to examine adaptive responses to inundation. Root and shoot growth of both accessions were inhibited by 120 hr of flooding. Aerobic respiratory capacity of secondary roots of both accessions decreased to a similar extent after 24 hr of inundation. Flooding did not significantly affect anaerobic root respiration rate of either accession. Stomatal conductance decreased after 24 hr of flooding for both accessions, with some recovery by PI 406966 after 168 hr of treatment, coinciding with development of adventitious roots on lower stems. Few adventitious roots formed on flooded PI 128644 plants. Leaf water potential of both accessions initially increased as a result of flooding, but declined to near control level by 120 hr of treatment. Total phenol content of PI 128644 roots decreased with 72 hr of flooding, while that of PI 406966 roots was not significantly affected. Factors underlying the greater resistance of PI 406966 to flooding remain unclear, but may include a lower root respiratory requirement for O2 and greater ability to sequester or eliminate toxic substances during inundation.


Analyses of histone H3 from 10 rat tissues using a Middle Down proteomics platform revealed tissue-specific differences in their expression and global PTM abundance. ESI/FTMS with electron capture dissociation showed that, in general, these proteins were hypomodified in heart, liver and testes. H3.3 was hypermodified compared to H3.2 in some, but not all tissues. In addition, a novel rat testes-specific H3 protein was identified with this approach.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the variety of affective emotions that are evoked in extant project management (PM) practitioners by various PM artefacts.

Design/methodology/approach – A phenomenological methodology is used for eliciting, through self-reporting and observation of gesture, the affective responses and consequential emotions experienced by PM practitioners as they interact or recount previous interactions with various
artefacts of PM.

Findings – This paper suggests that PM is prevalent in the Western corporate environment because project managers obtain an emotional affect from aspects of the PM experience, and project managers utilise various PM artefacts to emotionally manipulate their environment to their own advantage.

Practical implications – The paper argues for a PM environment which is founded on evidence-based practices. It suggests that future research should explore the links between PM, social architecture and flow theory.

Originality/value – This paper advances the evolutionary framework for PM research.


This dissertation concerns the problem of free will. Particularly, it aims to shed light on the hierarchical theory of freedom, firstly presented by Harry Frankfurt in 1971. The preliminary hypothesis of this dissertation is that the problem of free will is appropriately understood in the terms suggested by the concept of grounding. I articulate the relevant claims about freedom in such terms, and I ask consequently what circumstance or condition can make the case that the agent is exercising freedom. Following this hypothesis, the goal of this work is to show that a revised hierarchical theory of free will constitutes a promising answer to the grounding question about freedom. I develop my arguments in support of this claim in two steps. First, I propose a critique of Frankfurt's original theory of free will and its later developments. The objective of my analysis is to show that Frankfurt's hierarchical theory of free will is ambiguous between different definitions of freedom and, hence, between different criteria for grounding freedom. At the same time, Frankfurt's later proposals are not successful in the task of justifying free will. As a result, I argue that Frankfurt's theory of freedom lacks a grounding element motivating the ability to exercise free will. Secondly, I develop an original hierarchical account of free will. Building upon my critique of Frankfurt, my proposal combines the main elements of Frankfurt's original theory (hierarchical levels of desires, identification) with new elements from Frankfurt's late reflection about the psychological structure of agents (caring, volitional essence). The main aim of my proposal is to equip a hierarchical theory of free will with a new grounding element, the volitional identity of the agents. In light of this, I conclude that free will is adequately defined as the agent's wholehearted identification with psychic elements which belong to her volitional identity.


In this study we apply Support Vector Machine (SVM) to the prediction of geo-effective halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The SVM, which is one of machine learning algorithms, is used for the purpose of classification and regression analysis. We use halo and partial halo CMEs from January 1996 to April 2010 in the SOHO/LASCO CME Catalog for training and prediction. And we also use their associated X-ray flare classes to identify front-side halo CMEs (stronger than B1 class), and the Dst index to determine geo-effective halo CMEs (stronger than -50 nT). The combinations of the speed and the angular width of CMEs, and their associated X-ray classes are used for input features of the SVM. We make an attempt to find the best model by using cross-validation which is processed by changing kernel functions of the SVM and their parameters. As a result we obtain statistical parameters for the best model by using the speed of CME and its associated X-ray flare class as input features of the SVM: Accuracy=0.66, PODy=0.76, PODn=0.49, FAR=0.72, Bias=1.06, CSI=0.59, TSS=0.25. The performance of the statistical parameters by applying the SVM is much better than those from the simple classifications based on constant classifiers.


We have done a study on 7 subjects suffering from Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and 15 subjects suffering from multiinfarct dementia (MID) to see whether they manifest any changes of amplitudes or latencies concerning event-related potentials (ERP) compared to a group of normal controls and how three months of treatment with piracetam affects those changes. We found that the latencies of all waves are longer in the groups of subjects suffering from AD and MID compared to the normal controls, except for the N100 wave, which showed shorter latency in the AD group. Amplitudes were lower in the groups of patients suffering from AD and MID. These changes were most prominent for the P300 wave. Treatment with piracetam reduced those changes in the precognitive part, though it seemed to have no effect on the cognitive part.


Companies involved in the nuclear energy domain, like component and platform manufacturers, system integrators, and utilities, have well-established yearly trainings on Nuclear Safety Culture. These trainings are typically covered as part of the annual quality assurance-related refresher trainings, introductory courses for new employees, or indoctrinations of temporary staff. Gradually, security awareness trainings are also addressed on a regular basis, typically with a focus on information technology, the daily office work, test bay, or construction site work environment, and some data protection and privacy-related topics. Due to emerging national nuclear regulation, steadily but surely, specialized cybersecurity trainings are foreseen for integrators and utilities. Beyond these safety, physical security and cybersecurity specific trainings, there is a need to address the joint part of these disciplines, starting from the planning phase of a new nuclear power plant (NPP). The engineers working on safety, physical protection, and cybersecurity must be aware of these interrelations to jointly elaborate a robust instrumentation and control architecture (defense-in-depth, design basis events, functional categorization and systems classification) and a resilient security architecture (security by design, security grading, zone model or infrastructure domain, security conduits, forensic readiness, security information, and event management). This paper provides more in-depth justification of when and where additional training is needed, due to the ubiquitous deployment of digital technology in new NPPs. Additionally, for existing NPPs, the benefits of conveying knowledge by training on specific interfaces between the involved disciplines will be discussed. Furthermore, the paper will address the need of focused training of management stakeholders, as eventually, they must agree on the residual risk. The decision-makers are in charge of facilitating the interdisciplinary cooperation in parallel to the allocation of resources, e.g., on security certifications of products, extended modeling-based safety and security analyses and security testing coverage.


This work combines electrochemical studies of thin epitaxial metal and metal oxide films with advanced in situ and operando surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD). This combination enables the correlation of reactive processes with the structure of the interfaces at which they occur. In the focus of our studies are Co oxides which are promising candidates for the precious-metal-free catalysis of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER).

In a first attempt to grow thin epitaxial metal oxide film catalysts, the anodic oxidation of Co deposited on Au(111) was investigated. A different approach, in which Co3O4 and CoOOH were directly electrodeposited on Au(111) substrates, produced well defined oxide films. These films were structurally characterized under operation conditions, i.e. under strong gas evolution and current densities of up to 150 mA/cm^2. Aside from the OER motivated studies, magnetic Pd/Co/Au(111) stacks were investigated. Furthermore, transmission surface diffraction (TSD), a novel high-energy SXRD technique, was developed.


Particle-turbulence interaction for dilute gas-particle flows over a backward-facing step geometry is numerically investigated. An Eulerian two-fluid model with additional turbulence transport equations for particles is employed in this investigation. RNG based k- model is used as the turbulent closure with additional transport equations solved, to better represent the combined gas-particle interactions. Two different particle classes with same Stokes number and varied particle Reynolds number are considered in this study. The turbulence modulation of the carrier phase in the presence of the dispersed particulate phase is simulated and compared against the experimental data. However prior to this endeavour, the simulated flow field is validated for mean streamwise velocities and fluctuations for both the phases. Despite the fact that the two particles used in this study share the same Stokes number their behavior is found to be considerably different in the turbulent flow field, which basically underlines the fact that the Stokes number alone is not enough to fully describe the behavior of particles, thereby, herein particle Reynolds number is also investigated to fully understand their behavior. Two other turbulence modulation models were also tested against our own formulation, and our model was found to compare better with the experimental findings.


Movements of southern right whales between Gough Island and South Africa, and between Argentina and Tristan da Cunha, southern Brazil, and South Georgia are documented through matching of six photoidentified individuals. These include the resighting of a male in a mid-oceanic locality some 4,424 km away from (and 11 yr after) its last sighting in a coastal area where it had been seen in six of the preceding eight years, a female photographed in mid-Atlantic resighted with a calf in a coastal nursery area 2,769 km away, resightings of females with calves in different nursery areas 2,05 1 km apart in different years, and the first example of a link between a coastal nursery area and a feeding ground in high latitudes. The possible implications of these movements for estimates of calving interval and survival rate based on resightings in coastal waters are discussed. The potential for intermingling between populations on either side of the South Atlantic seems greater than was previously considered likely from a comparison of animals photographed in coastal waters.


By combing the relevant literatures of college students business incubators, it was found that there was a lack of research on the performance evaluation of college students business incubators, and there were many researches on the performance evaluation of business incubators. This study drew on the performance evaluation indicators of existing business incubators. Based on this, combined with the characteristics of college students business incubators, we put forward some suggestions for improvement on the existing evaluation index system of college business incubators. The research helped to enrich the construction theory of college students business incubator evaluation; at the same time, it helped to optimize the construction and operation management of college students business incubators. 高校大学生创业孵化器绩效评价研究综述 梅小安, 叶爽文 江西财经大学工商管理学院,中国南昌 *通讯作者


The paper explains how the People's Republic of China has developed its strategy on three dierent levels: domestic, regional and global to manage its interests, focusing on the objectives and choices available at the end of China. The purpose to conduct this research is to critically analyze how the objective of peaceful rise is grad- ually, but coherently in the right direction, by the application of ideological, economic and defense means in well-articulated way. The crux of utilization of these foreign policy instruments, reects that Confucius-ism and tributary system's legacy is applied in dealing with smaller neighboring states and four regional powers, both engagement and containment are adopted. On the global front, the geography of China contributes a lot in her favor, whereas several global engagements of the United States as hegemon prevent her to wage an eective check on China either through a global strategy of containment or engagement.


Abstract Embedding the watermark is still a challenge in image watermarking. The watermark should not reduce the visual quality of the image being watermarked and hard to distinguish from its original. Embedding a watermark of a small size might be a good solution. However, the watermark might be easy to lose if there is any tampering with the watermarked image. This research proposes to increase the visual quality of the watermarked image using the Walsh Hadamard transform, which is applied to the singular value decomposition-based image watermarking. Technically, the watermark image is converted into a low bit-rate signal before being embedded in the host image. Using various watermark sizes, experimental results show that the proposed method could produce a good imperceptibility with 47.10 dB on average and also gives robustness close to the original watermark with a normalized correlation close to 1 on average. The proposed method can also recognize the original watermark from the tampered watermarked image at different levels of robustness.


Flax phloem fibers achieve their length by intrusive-diffusive growth, which requires them to penetrate the extracellular matrix of adjacent cells. Fiber elongation therefore involves extensive remodelling of cell walls and middle lamellae, including modifying the degree and pattern of methylesterification of galacturonic acid (GalA) residues of pectin. Pectin methylesterases (PME) are important enzymes for fiber elongation as they mediate the demethylesterification of GalA in muro, in either a block-wise fashion or in a random fashion. Our objective was to identify PMEs and PMEIs that mediate phloem fiber elongation in flax. For this purpose, we measured transcript abundance of candidate genes at nine different stages of stem and fiber development and found sets of genes enriched during fiber elongation and maturation as well as during xylem development. We expressed one of the flax PMEIs in E. coli and demonstrated that it was able to inhibit most of the native PME activity in the upper portion of the flax stem. These results identify key genetic components of the intrusive growth process and define targets for fiber engineering and crop improvement.


The authors use mainly data from the European Social Survey carried out in 2008 to compare Russian basic values and the values of the thirty-one other European countries as measured by the Schwartz Portrait Values Questionnaire.


The focus of the present study is to investigate the immunostimulant effect of Kalayak ghrita, an herbal formulation. The study of this formulation in respect to humoral and cell-mediated immune response showed that oral administration of Kalayak ghrita enhanced the antibody titre as well as foot pad swelling response to the antigenic challenges with sheep red blood cells. The herbal formulation belongs to the Panchgavya class of ayurvedic formulations in which one or more of the five bovine products (milk, ghee, curd, urine and dung) are used along with herbs. The formulation was administered at doses 50,100, 150 and 200 mg/kg/day to healthy rats. Results of the present study suggest a dose-dependent immunostimulant effect of Kalayak ghrita in rats.


Research Aims Learning System Development of Entrepreneurship for Higher Education. Problems of entrepreneurial learning, such as: low entrepreneurial motivation, difficult to develop business ideas, not running feasibility studies, weakness of grand design and low start up entrepreneurial business. The research method used is: development of model entrepreneurship instructional design at university, by doing design analysis of ADDIE learning design (analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation). The design is done in terms of curriculum planning, SAP, GBPP, Syllabus, Guidebook and Course Module. In terms of systems do SDLC Development and design OOAD, among others: use case, class, activity, and design UID. The results of the study are the Development of Entrepreneurial Learning System as well as the Design of multimedia standard KKNI Based. The continuation of the research is to development the system implementation and Evaluation of Multimedia standard KKNI Based Entrepreneurial Learning System Design. Keywords—development of learning system; entrepreneurship; addie; sdlc; ooad


— We define some rings of power series in several variables, that are attached to a Lubin-Tate formal module. We then give some examples of (φ,Γ)-modules over those rings. They are the global sections of some reflexive sheaves on the p-adic open unit polydisk, that are constructed from a filtered φ-module using a modification process. We prove that we obtain every crystalline (φ,Γ)-module over those rings in this way.


I In this paper, an optimization procedure for complex manufacturing processes is presented. The procedure is based on advanced empirical modeling techniques and will be presented in two parts. The first part comprises the selection and generation of the empirical surrogate models. The process organization and the design of experiments are taken into account. In order to analyze and optimize the processes based on the empirical models, advanced methods and tools are presented in the second part. These tools include visualization methods and a sensitivity and robustness analysis. Moreover, the obtained surrogate models are used for a model-based multi-objective optimization in order to explore the gradation potential of the processes. The procedure is applied to two thermo-mechanical processes for the functional gradation of polymers - a monoxiale stretching of polycarbonate films and a compression moulding process for polypropylene sheets.


In buffalo respiratory bacterial infection is very common which occurs sporadically or enzootically all over Bangladesh causing high economic loss. The study was performed with a view to proper control of respiratory bacterial infection in Buffalo. A total of 40 samples were collected on the basis of clinical signs. The samples were then subjected to isolation, identification and characterization of the bacterial agents using cultural, biochemical and molecular techniques. Antibiogram profiles of the isolated agents were studied by disc diffusion method. Pasteurella multocida, Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli were successfully isolated and identified from the collected samples. The isolated Pasteurella multocida produced small, round, opaque colonies on blood agar; Staphylococcus aureus produced golden yellow colony in mannitol salt agar; E. coli produced black color colonies with metallic sheen on EMB agar. Pasteurella multocida showed Gram negative, bipolar rods. Staphylococcus aureus showed Gram positive, cocci shaped and E. coli showed Gram negative, small rod shaped. On the basis of cultural and biochemical characteristics, among 40 nasal samples 5 were found to be positive for Pasteurella multocida, 4 for Staphylococcus aureus and 3 for E. coli. Pasteurella multocida was further confirmed by PCR where isolates showed positive band at 620 bp. The antibiogram study concluded that amoxicillin, gentamicin, & ciprofloxacin should be the first choice of treatment for respiratory bacterial infection caused by the isolated 3 bacteria.
Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. December 2018, 4(4): 416-421


OBJECTIVES
(1) To assess the recurrence rate of pre-eclampsia in women with this history before 34 weeks of pregnancy and thrombophilia. (2) To evaluate the effects of low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) on pregnancy outcome.

METHODS
In a multicentre retrospective study subsequent pregnancies of women with a history of pre-eclampsia necessitating birth before 34 weeks and thrombophilia were analysed. Of 58 women, 26 received LMWH and aspirin (ASA) and 32 ASA (22) or no (10) medication in their subsequent pregnancies.

RESULTS
In eight women treated with LMWH and ASA and in 16 women receiving ASA or no medication pre-eclampsia recurred in the subsequent pregnancy. (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.15-1.31) There were no significant differences in birth weight or gestational age between both groups.

CONCLUSIONS
The recurrence rate of pre-eclampsia in women with thrombophilic disorders is high in this small retrospective study. No positive effect was found for LMWH treatment. A multicentred randomised study has been started to reach an adequate number of patients to evaluate the influence of LMWH treatment.


Rotordynamic data are presented for a rocker-pivot tilting pad bearing in load-on-pad (LOP) configuration for (345―3101 kPa) unit loads and speeds from 4000 rpm to 13,000 rpm. The bearing was directly lubricated through a leading edge groove with five pads, 0.282 preload, 60% offset, 57.87 deg pad arc angle, 101.587 mm (3.9995 in.) rotor diameter, 0.1575 mm (0.0062 in.) diametral clearance, and 60.325 mm (2.375 in.) pad length. Measured results were reported for this bearing by Carter and Childs (2008, "Measurements Versus Predictions for the Rotordynamic Characteristics of a 5-Pad, Rocker-Pivot, Tilting-Pad Bearing in Load Between Pad Configuration, " ASME Paper No. GT2008-50069) in the load-between-pad (LBP) configuration. Results for the LOP are compared with predictions from a bulk-flow Navier―Stokes model (as utilized by San Andres (1991, "Effect of Eccentricity on the Force Response of a Hybrid Bearing," STLE Tribol. Trans., 34, pp. 537―544)) and to the prior LBP results. Frequency effects on the dynamic-stiffness coefficients were investigated by applying dynamic-force excitation over a range of excitation frequencies. Generally, the direct real parts of the dynamic-stiffness coefficients could be modeled as quadratic functions of the excitation frequency, and accounted for by adding a mass matrix to the conventional [K][C] model to produce a frequency-independent [K][C][M] model. Measured added-mass terms in the loaded direction approached 60 kg. The static load direction in the tests was y. The direct stiffness coefficients K yy and K xx depend strongly on the applied unit load, more so than speed. They generally increased linearly with load, shifting to a quadratic dependence at higher unit loads. At lower unit loads, K yy and K xx increase monotonically with running speed. The experimental results were compared with predictions from a bulk-flow computational fluid dynamics analysis. Stiffness orthotropy was apparent in test results, significantly more than predicted, and it became more pronounced at the heavier unit loads. Measured K yy values were consistently higher than predicted, and measured K xx values were lower. Comparing the LOP results to prior measured LBP results for the same bearing, at higher loads, K yy is significantly larger for the LOP configuration than LBP. Measured values for K xx are about the same for LOP and LBP. At low unit loads, stiffness orthotropy defined as K yy /K xx is the same for LOP and LBP, progressively increasing with increasing unit loads. At the highest unit load, K yy / xx = 2.1 for LOP and 1.7 for LBP. Measured direct damping coefficients C xx and C yy were insensitive to changes in either load or speed, in contrast to predictions of marked C yy sensitivity for changes in the load. Only at the highest test speed of 13,000 rpm were the direct damping coefficients adequately predicted. No frequency dependency was observed for the direct damping coefficients.


Osteoporosis is disease causing bone mass loss and deterioration of the trabecular structure. The trabecular network is very important to establish the mechanical competence of the skeleton. It is known that the trabecular microarchitecture can improve the fracture risk prediction up to 90%, for this reason the trabecular bone investigation has become of great interest for the scientific community. Several parameters provide structural details of the bone mechanical competence, however, the trabecular network tortuosity has not been seriously taken into account yet and its contribution is unknown. This paper directs attention to the trabecular tortuosity estimation and its correlation to the connectivity, through Euler-Poincaré characteristic, from in vitro distal radius bone samples by micro-computed tomographic images. A method to estimate the trabecular bone tortuosity is presented and its value is computed for both directions of the three volume axis. The results indicate that the trabecular tortuosity depends on the trabecular network quality and a positive correlation (r = 0.64) with the Euler-Poincaré characteristic. Inasmuch, it has been observed that the tortuosity tends to get aligned in the direction of main stress imposed on trabecular bone network. These results support the tortuosity as an important structural parameter.


This paper develops a humped spiral antenna of top inductively coupled plasma with variable gap. Comparing with planar spiral antennae, it investigates the performance of humped spiral antennae in the calculated electromagnetic configurations and experimental results. It finds that the humped antenna has the improved uniformity of plasma density in the radial direction and the decreased electron temperature in the top inductively coupled plasma. By experimental and theoretical analyses, the plasma performance in the case of humped antennae is considered to be the combined results of the uniform electromagnetic configurations and the depressed capacitively coupling effect.


Modified picture of the Earth's crust structure in the Northern Carpathians and their foreland (Fig. 1) is discussed. Karlovy Vary - Radom - Chernigov deep fracture is implied, being introduced as a northern boundary of the Meta-Carpathian range. This fracture cuts both Paleozoic and pre-Vendian (East European) platforms as far as Dnepr-Donetz aulacogen (Fig. 2). According to author's new analysis the western extremity of the Skole flysch near Brzesko is connected with the southern extension of western slope of the Mid-Polish aulacogen. Since Campanian mobile San massif (southern part of the Mid-Polish anticlinorium) was a source area for submarine slumpings and olistolites in the Skole flysch of Przemyśl region. Thrust directions of the Carpathian flysch masses are discussed.


Rosacea is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease, characterised by wavy course – exacerbation alternates with remission. Currently rosacea is not completely curable, but using appropriate pharmacological treatment, medical devices, appropriate daily skin care routine and educating patients, is possible to control a rosacea activity. This study aims on testing whether there is skin barrier improvement leads to associated rosacea symptoms decrease after the application of the products developed on natural emollient emulsion base with active ingredients of natural origin without the use of traditional preservatives and preservatives of natural origin with irritating potential. This was a prospective, single-centre, placebo-controlled, double-blind randomised pilot study. The enrolled participants were randomised to receive one of four interventions. The testing was performed by clinical grading, assessment of facial skin condition and determination of qualitative parameters with skin diagnostic device. The results show reduction in redness and red spots, which indicates the blood vessel-strengthening and anti-inflammatory properties of the product ingredients. The decrease of porphyrins was observed in all participant groups. The decrease of porphyrins was observed in all participant groups of the study, which is explained by the high quality of the product emollient base developed with plant oils.


This study aimed to identify vulnerability patterns in psychological, physiological and neural responses to mild psychosocial challenge in a population that is at a direct risk of developing depression, but who has not as yet succumbed to the full clinical syndrome. A group of healthy and a group of subclinically depressed participants underwent a modified Montreal Imaging Stress task (MIST), a mild neuroimaging psychosocial task and completed state self-esteem and mood measures. Cortisol levels were assessed throughout the session. All participants showed a decrease in performance self-esteem levels following the MIST. Yet, the decline in performance self-esteem levels was associated with increased levels of anxiety and confusion in the healthy group, but increased levels of depression in the subclinical group, following the MIST. The subclinical group showed overall lower cortisol levels compared with the healthy group. The degree of change in activity in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex in response to negative evaluation was associated with increased levels of depression in the whole sample. Findings suggest that even in response to a mild psychosocial challenge, those individuals vulnerable to depression already show important maladaptive response patterns at psychological and neural levels. The findings point to important targets for future interventions.