We present a variant of the warped extra dimension, Randall-Sundrum (RS), framework which is based on five dimensional (5D) minimal flavor violation (MFV), in which the only sources of flavor breaking are two 5D anarchic Yukawa matrices. The Yukawa matrices also control the bulk masses, which are responsible for the resulting flavor structure and mass hierarchy in the low energy theory. An interesting result of this set-up is that at low energies the theory flows to next to MFV model where flavor violation is dominantly coming from the third generation. Low energy flavor violation is further suppressed by a single parameter that dials the amount of violation in the up or down sector. There is therefore a sharp limit in which there is no flavor violation in the down type quark sector which, remarkably, is favored when we fit for the flavor parameters. This mechanism is used to eliminate the current RS flavor and CP problem even with a Kaluza-Klein scale as low as 2 TeV! Our construction also suggests that economic supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric, strong dynamic-based, flavor models may be built based on the same concepts. Introduction. The standard model (SM) agrees very well with data. However, it is widely perceived to be an incomplete theory. In particular, in the SM, the hierarchy between the Planck scale and the electroweak (EW) symmetry breaking (EWSB) scale is unnatural since the Higgs mass is ultra-violet (UV) sensitive. Solutions to the hierarchy problem therefore involve extending the SM at just above the EWSB scale which, in general, spoils the good agreement of the SM with data when trying to explain flavor as well. Given this inherent tension, it is important to identify new physics (NP) frameworks that preserve the approximate symmetries of the SM. In this letter we consider the Randall-Sundrum scenario (RS1) [1], which potentially provides an elegant solution to the hierarchy problem. In this framework, due to warped higher-dimensional spacetime, the mass scales in an effective 4D description depend on location in an extra dimension: the Higgs sector is localized at the "TeV" brane where it is protected by a low warped-down fundamental scale of order a TeV while 4D gravity is localized near the "Planck" brane which has a Planckian fundamental scale. In the original RS1 model, the entire SM was localized on the TeV brane. In this set-up, flavor issues are sensitive to the UV completion of the RS1 effective field theory: there is no understanding of the hierarchies in fermion masses or of smallness of flavor changing neutral currents (FCNCs) from higher-dimensional operators that would be too large if suppressed only by the warped-down cut-off ∼ TeV. Similar tension arises when considering the model predictions regarding EW precision tests. Allowing the SM fermions and gauge fields to propagate in the bulk gives an opportunity to explain flavor, and makes flavor issues UV-insensitive as follows. The light fermions can be localized near the Planck brane (using a 5D fermion mass parameter [2, 3]) where the effective cut-off is much higher than TeV so that FCNCs from higher-dimensional operators are suppressed [3, 4]. Moreover, this results in small 4D Yukawa couplings to the Higgs, even if there are no small 5D Yukawa couplings [3, 4]. The top quark can be localized near the TeV brane to obtain a large 4D top Yukawa coupling. Because the fermion profiles depend exponentially on the bulk masses, this provides an understanding of the hierarchy of fermion masses (and mixing) without hierarchies in fundamental (5D) parameters, solving the SM flavor puzzle. However, with bulk fermions and gauge fields, calculable FCNCs from exchange of gauge Kaluza-Klein (KK) modes are induced. The couplings of light fermions to gauge KK modes are non-universal which induce FCNCs. Unlike the flat case, there is a significant protection from a built-in RS1-GIM [5] due to the approximate flatness of the KK gauge boson wavefunctions in the UV and a hierarchy in the fermion wavefunctions in the IR; nevertheless, the resulting contributions to FCNCs are nonnegligible. In [6] it was shown that at low energies this class of models flows to next to MFV (NMFV); that is, flavor changing effects are generated primarily through mixing with the third generation. Generically, within the NMFV framework flavor violation occurs through NP sources, with a typical scale of ΛNMFV, which breaks the


The International System of Quantities has to be used by scientific and engineering journals as well as by authors of their articles, conference papers, and corresponding books, especially textbooks. This paper describes the historical development and the state of the art of international communications in science, engineering, technology, production, and sustainable development. The International System of Quantities (ISQ) which systematically elaborated on the standards of the International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission on quantities and units (ISO/IEC 80000) still needs to be generally accepted and used. The list of standardized base and derived quantities with their symbols, and rules for terminology of other quantities are presented. In addition, names and symbols of base, derived, and "compound" units for these quantities are given. The most frequent mistakes and some recommendations about the use of quantities, units, prefixes, quantity value expressions, numbers, and symbols of chemical elements are shown, too. The standards shall be available in open access. The lack of standardized quantities regarding science, engineering, and economics is drawn to attention. Further development of the international systems of quantities and units could bring substantial synergies worldwide.


Leg 30 was the second cruise of D/V Glomar Challenger in the southwest Pacific arc and marginal sea complex (Figure 1). Previous drilling was carried out on Leg 21. The cruise commenced at Wellington, New Zealand on 24 April 1973 and ended on 13 June 1973 at Guam. During Leg 30 Glomar Challenger steamed 5273 nautical miles (9765 km) and drilling was carried out at five sites, although eight sites were planned for the leg. The reduction of the number of sites permitted longer than normal occupation of Sites 288 and 289 on the Ontong-Java Plateau (10 and 8 days, respectively). A downhole reentry of the hole was accomplished at Site 288. At the five sites occupied, a total of 250 cores was cut representing 2332 meters of section of a total penetration of 4140 meters; 1163.9 meters of core were recovered representing an overall recovery rate of 50%. Basement was reached at three sites and drilling was terminated in an intrusive sill at a fourth. In all 91.8 meters igneous rock was drilled, and 58.3 meters of core were recovered. Details of site locations, core recovery, etc., are given in Table 1. Routine underway measurements were made between sites. These included echo-sounding, seismic reflection profiling (airgun), and magnetic field measurement.


We have examined experimental data for reactions among anthophyllite, enstatite, forsterite, quartz, talc, and water, using linear programming methods, in order to examine the range of internally consistent thermodynamic data sets that is permitted by the experiments. Phase diagrams calculated using the derived thermodynamic parameters may have all topologies previously proposed to describe the anthophyllite stabitty field as well as others. Depending upon the experimental data analyzed, phase diagrams in close agreement with calorimetrically measured thermodynamic parameters may have the topology originally proposed by Greenwood (1963) or the topology he sketched (Greenwood, l97l) in revising his original ideas. The experimental data of Chernosky (1976) and Greenwood (1963) appear not to be consistent with the available calorimetric data for the above minerals within their stated uncertainties. This discrepancy is most easily explained if there exists a major difference between the properties of talcs used in the experiments and that used for calorimetric measurements or if the calorimetric measurements are incorrect. A similar di-fference in the properties of anthophyllite may also be indicated.


Abstract UdgX excises uracil from uracil-containing DNA to concurrently form a covalent bond with the resulting AP-DNA. Structurally, UdgX is highly similar to family-4 UDGs (F4-UDGs). However, UdgX is unique in possessing a flexible R-loop (105KRRIH109). Among the class-defining motifs, while its motif A (51GEQPG55) diverged to possess Q53 in place of A53/G53 in F4-UDGs, motif B [178HPS(S/A)(L/V)(L/V)R184] has remained unchanged. Previously, we proposed an SN1 mechanism resulting in a covalent bond between H109 and AP-DNA. In this study, we investigated several single/double mutants of UdgX. The H109A, H109S, H109G, H109Q, H109C and H109K mutants gain conventional UDG activity to varying levels. The crystal structures of UdgX mutants show topological changes in their active sites, rationalizing their UDG activities. The E52Q, E52N and E52A mutants reveal that E52 forms a catalytic dyad with H109 to enhance its nucleophilicity. The Q53A mutant supports that UdgX specific evolution of Q53 occurred essentially to stabilize the R-loop conformation. The R184A mutation (motif B) supports the role of R184 in substrate-binding. Taken together, the structural, bioinformatics, and mutational studies suggest that UdgX diverged from F4-UDGs, and the emergence of the characteristic R-loop in UdgX is functionally assisted by A53/G53 to Q53 changes in motif A.


Natural justice is a common law doctrine that provides important procedural rights in administrative decision-making. The doctrine now has a wide application and is presumed by the courts to apply to the exercise of virtually all statutory powers. But the courts have also accepted that natural justice can be excluded by legislation that is expressed in sufficiently clear terms. This article explains how the courts have made it increasingly difficult for parliaments to exclude natural justice and the principles that apply to its legislative exclusion. It is argued that the interpretive principles applied to legislation which purports to exclude natural justice are so strict that it is very difficult for parliaments to succeed in any attempt to exclude the doctrine.


Tecomella undulata is an important agro-forestry tree in the
western parts of India, which has been included in the list of
endangered plant species due to over exploitation. There is an
urgent need to formulate appropriate conservation and
breeding strategies to save this versatile tree. Quantification of
genetic diversity in the existing populations of T. undulata
prevalent in India, is an essential first step towards this
objective. The present work was undertaken to investigate the
utility of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)
markers in the assessment of genetic diversity and phenetic
relationship among 42 T. undulata plants collected from
different regions of India. Eight AFLP primer combinations
generated a total of 338 bands across the 42 T. undulata
accessions screened. On an average, 42 AFLP fragments were
amplified per reaction. Of the total 338 AFLP fragments, 71.7%
was polymorphic across all the accessions. From the AFLP data,
a similarity matrix based on Jaccard's coefficient was calculated
which was used for constructing a phenetic dendrogram using
UPGMA analysis. T. undulata accessions represented high
levels of genetic variation as indicated by GS values ranging
from 0.721 to 0.83, at which 42 T. undulata accessions
grouped together. The pattern of grouping in the phenogram
was highly consistent as indicated by high values of cophenetic
correlation (r = 0.87, P = 1) as also by high bootstrap
values at the key nodes. Principal correspondence analysis also
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Page 1 of 5 Scopus - Current Science: Assessing genetic diversity of Tecomella undulata (Sm.) - An endangered...
02/04/2008 http://www.scopus.com/scopus/record/display.url?view=basic&eid=2-s2.0-3
revealed that T. undulata accessions were scattered on the
plot. Based on our study, it may be concluded that there is a
high level of genetic diversity in T. undulata accessions
analysed, which may be attributed to its out-crossing nature.
Our study may be useful in identifying diverse genetic stocks of
T. undulata, which may then be conserved on priority basis.
Author Keywords
AFLP; Conservation; Genetic diversity; Molecular makers;
Tecomella undulata
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1. (1982) The Wealth of India, 10, pp. 134-136.
Publications and Information Directorate, CSIR, New Delhi, Anon
2. Jindal, S.K., Kackar, N.L., Solanki, K.R.
Evaluation of Tecomella undulata (Sm.) SEEM germplasm
from western Rajasthan in situ
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Phenology and breeding systems of Rohida (Tecomella
undulata (Sm.) SEEM)
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Germplasm collection and genetic variability in Rohida
(Tecomella undulata (Sm.) Seem) in western Rajasthan
(1987) Indian J. For, 10, pp. 52-55.
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Influence of trees on microorganisms of aridisol and its
fertility
(1989) Indian For, 115, pp. 680-683.
6. Azam, M.M.
Anti-HIV agents and other compounds from Tecomella
undulata
(1999) Orient. J. Chem, 15, pp. 375-377. Cited 2 times.
7. Dushyent, G., Bohra, A.
Toxic effects of various plant part extracts on the causal
organism of typhoid fever
(2000) Curr. Sci, 78, pp. 780-781. Cited 4 times.
8. Ahmad, F., Alam Khan, R., Rasheed, S.
Preliminary screening of methanolic extracts of Celastrus
paniculatus and Tecomella undulata for analgesic and
antiinflammatory activities
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Page 2 of 5 Scopus - Curr


The migration strategy of the globally threatened Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola needs to be known to ensure that effective action is taken to conserve its principal stopover sites. Using data from ringing stations during the autumn migration of reedbed warblers, we developed an index that allowed countries and sites to be compared in terms of their numerical importance to migrating Aquatic Warblers. According to this index, there was no significant decline in the number of Aquatic Warblers migrating through Europe during the 1990s. France appears to receive the largest numbers of this species in autumn compared with other European countries. Within France, only coastal regions are visited by the species (but not in the Mediterranean), with the largest numbers occurring in Normandy and Loire, while Brittany receives large numbers in some years but not in others. We also identified some French sites that are of major importance to migrating Aquatic Warblers depositing reserves on migration. France therefore plays a very important part in providing stopover sites for Aquatic Warblers, which means that France should play a major role in undertaking conservation measures for this threatened species.


Creating and animating subject‐specific anatomical models is traditionally a difficult process involving medical image segmentation, geometric corrections and the manual definition of kinematic parameters. In this paper, we introduce a novel template morphing algorithm that facilitates three‐dimensional modelling and parameterization of skeletons. Target data can be either medical images or surfaces of the whole skeleton. We incorporate prior knowledge about bone shape, the feasible skeleton pose and the morphological variability in the population. This allows for noise reduction, bone separation and the transfer, from the template, of anatomical and kinematical information not present in the input data. Our approach treats both local and global deformations in successive regularization steps: smooth elastic deformations are represented by an as‐rigid‐as‐possible displacement field between the reference and current configuration of the template, whereas global and discontinuous displacements are estimated through a projection onto a statistical shape model and a new joint pose optimization scheme with joint limits.


NADPH oxidase, specially located in plasma membrane of phagocytes, can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) to participate in host defense by killing or damaging invading microbes. NOX are the homologs of gp91phox, the catalytic subunit of the NADPH oxidase, existing in various non-phagocytic cells. So far NOX1, NOX3, NOX4, NOX5 have been characterized. All of them possess the ability of ROS generation like NADPH oxidase, though their expression is tissue-specific. Unlike the NADPH oxidase-derived ROS that is responsible for cell defense, NOX- derived ROS functions as a second messenger molecule to participate in the modulation of cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. In addition, NOX affects angiogenesis and bone resorption, and, as an oxygen sensor, regulates erythropoietin production.


This paper reports on a research study that maps the size and structure of the Co-operative and Mutual enterprise (CME) sector in Australia. The Australian CME Index (ACMEI) is a longitudinal study that can provide a better understanding of these firms and their economic and social contribution to the national economy. This year the study found a total of 2,040 active CMEs of which 81% were co-operatives, 15% mutual enterprises, 2.1% were friendly societies and 2% were member-owned superannuation funds. These firms had a combined active membership base of more than 28.7 million memberships1, generated around $100 billion in revenue, managed over $1,067 billion in assets, and employed at least 69,839 people. They encompassed a wide range of industry sectors and provided significant economic and social benefits to their members. The report outlines these contributions and offers a case study of a selected CME to illustrate them


In this study, we have investigated the effects of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) on cellular responses of primary human skeletal muscle cells and mouse C2C12 myoblasts. In human muscle, IGF-I stimulated proliferation and fusion of the cells and the expression of the differentiation marker desmin. These effects were completely inhibited by Rottlerin, the inhibitor of the protein kinase C (PKC)delta, but were not affected by the inhibition of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) or the phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI-3K) pathways. Furthermore, IGF-I initiated the selective translocation of PKCdelta to the nucleus. In C2C12 myoblasts, the growth-promoting effects of IGF-I were abrogated by inhibition of PKCdelta, but not by the inhibition of the PI-3K system. However, in contrast to the human data, the MAPK inhibitor PD098059 partially (yet significantly) also inhibited the action of IGF-I and, furthermore, IGF-I induced phosphorylation of the MAPK Erk-1/2. In addition, overexpression of constitutively active form of PKCdelta in C2C12 cells fully mimicked, whereas overexpression of kinase inactive mutant of the isoform prevented the action of IGF-I. Finally, the inhibition of PKCdelta suspended the IGF-I-induced phosphorylation of Erk-1/2 and, moreover, the inhibition of the MAPK pathway partially (yet significantly) inhibited the accelerated growth of C2C12 cells overexpressing PKCdelta. Taken together, these results demonstrate a novel, central and exclusive involvement of PKCdelta in mediating the action of IGF-I on human skeletal muscle cells, with an additional yet PKCdelta-dependent contribution of the MAPK pathway on C2C12 myoblasts.


The Taliban movement is a social force that emerged in the social base of Afghanistan. The life conditions of the Taliban, which is present in the socio-cultural structure of the Afghan society, have been merged with the support of external factors. This study focuses on the assumption that the Taliban movement is a social power that is generated by the conflict between ethnic groups of Afghan society. Whether the Post-Taliban era has any relation with the gaps and divisions between ethnic groups in Afghanistan will be examined through screening and analysis. As a result, it was concluded that the post-Taliban, as a social force in Afghanistan, caused new structures by using religious/sectarian and historical conflicts and contradictions between ethnic groups.


Newspaper clipping, 14"x15". Photo caption: Brrrrriny sailors prepare for HYC's First Annual Mid-Winter Regatta. Dressed in foul weather gear (left to right) yachtsmen Allene Wright, Mozelle and George Allen and Mrs. Earl Bradley polish up a Corinthian for this weekend's sail over the brrrriny. Also features Carla Smythe, Fleet Captain Earl Bradley, and Commodore Charles Smythe.


Indoor Air Quality perception in education centres has being a special concern based on their high occupancy and lack of ventilation. This study aims to present an overview of 20 relevant previous studies carried out in the last 5 years regarding monitoring and evaluating Indoor Air Quality in education centres. This analysis focuses on four specific aspects: general description of each study, ventilation typology, indicators measured and the number of locations measured. The results show that 60 % of the studies were located in an urban context, 75 % included primary schools and 75 % included naturally ventilated buildings. Indoor and outdoor was measured in 60 % of the studies. The most measured indicators were CO2 (60 %), PM2.5 (55 %), Temperature (50 %) and Relative Humidity (40 %) all indoor. In 60 % of studies were carried in more than five centres, mostly two rooms were measured and 35 % of studies placed one sensor per room. This can be a major limitation, as the monitored data may differ significantly from the actual situation. In conclusion, the greater correlations found relating to what indicators have been measured, were the ventilation typology and the location of the building, which influences what parameters and concentration can be expected.


The transmittance of dc magnetron-sputtered Mg thin films was measured in the 25–1300 eV spectral range. Freestanding Mg films protected with Al layers were characterized ex situ. Transmittance measurements were used to obtain the extinction coefficient k of Mg films. The obtained k values along with the data available in the literature, and with interpolations and extrapolations for the rest of the spectrum, were used to obtain the real part of the index of refraction n by the Kramers–Kronig analysis. Sum-rule tests indicated a good consistency of the data.


Climate change is increasingly threatening coastal communities around the world. This article reviews the literature on climate change impacts and adaptation in the Chesapeake Bay region (USA). We reviewed both climate impacts and adaptation literature (n = 283) published in the period 2007–2018 to answer the questions: (i) how are indicators of climate impacts measured and reported by different types of authors (e.g., scientists, government, and NGOs), document types (e.g., academic articles or reports), and geographic focus (e.g., State, region, county, or municipal level)? (ii) what are the current approaches for measuring the most pressing climate impacts in the Chesapeake Bay? We found that scientists produce the most amount of data but are increasingly shifting towards engaging with practitioners through reports and online resources. Most indicators focus on the Chesapeake Bay scale, but data is most needed at the local level where adaptive policies are implemented. Our analysis shows emerging approaches to monitoring climate hazards and areas where synergies between types of authors are likely to increase resilience in the 21st century. This review expands the understanding of the information network in the Chesapeake Bay and explores the institutional landscape of stakeholders involved in the production and consumption of environmental and social change data. The analysis and insights of this review may be extended to similar regions around the planet experiencing or anticipating similar climate hazards to the Chesapeake Bay.


The aim with this paper is to make clear and discuss the research approach as well as the ontological and methodological perspective of a project which focuses hard of hearing children in a dance educational setting. The goal with the project is to offer the children participation in dance activities, let them use and become aware about their bodies, and furthermore communicate and strengthen their self-esteem. One further thought is that an improved communication skill, in a longer perspective, can inspire to use the spoken language. I put questions as; in what ways do the children participate in the activities? What space does the interest and initiatives of the children in the activities get? How do they move and communicate in the activities? The dance educational setting is constituted by the children, the teachers, the room, the music and the relations between these parts. My starting-point is that you cannot separate any of those parts and the situation is also dependent on time and the participants'  arlier experiences. I have a life-world-phenomenological view on research, knowledge as well as communication. This project has an action research approach which includes video observation and written communication. I will make clear and discuss the consequences of this. Finally I take the opportunity to discuss the following points; what aspects are important in a further development of this study? Suggestions for important problems and possibilities in further work with analysis of the material. Consequences of approach, research-method and startingpoints?


Summary Objective - This study aims to improve the economic knowledge of major depression. It reports the investigation methodology and some preliminary indications on direct and indirect costs associated to this illness. Setting - Centro Psicosociale (CPS) USSL 72, Magenta (Mi) Italy. Design - We enrolled 10 patients (7F and 3M) with age between 34 and 65 (average 49.2 + 10.2 SD) at the first contact with CPS for an episode of major depression and we followed them up for 3 months. Main Measure Outcomes - At each visit we perform a clinical evaluation (HRS-D, CGI, DOTES) and we administered an interview to collect data in order to quantify social costs (direct and indirect) related to the observation period. Results - At the end of the 3 month period, all patients showed an improvement of the simptomatolgy as expressed by HRS-D (final score at least 50% below the initial one). Our accounting model estimated that the full cost of a psychiatric visit (on average lasting 47.8 minutes) is 107.537 Italian Liras. For the 10 patients under observation direct costs amounted to 9.402.000 It. Liras; psychiatric visits represented 70% of these costs. According to a conservative approach, indirect costs (value of labor time lost) amounted to 13.254.000 It. Liras if patients and relatives are considered and to 11.044.000 It. Liras if only patients time is evaluated. Conclusion - The paper presents a methodological proposal aimed to assess social costs of major depression. It also reports a first attempt to measure these costs in a prospective study performed in a public psychiatric centre. Our results have to be considered in the light of the limited sample of patients under observation and have to be regarded as strictly dependent on the specific context both in terms of the organizational settings and the characteristics of patients.


Abstract: Sentinel node mapping is successfully performed for the detection of cancer and nodal metastasis. There is a reported complication rate of 1.5%, most being mild allergic reactions, with a few rare reported cases of anaphylaxis. Isosulfan blue has been found to routinely create a modest artifactual desaturation via pulse oximetry, as well as a transient skin discoloration that may last for several hours to weeks. It causes discoloration of urine and has been detected in other body secretions, none of which have been found to be of clinical significance. This is a case report involving a 61‐year‐old woman who underwent sentinel node mapping and axillary dissection for breast adenocarcinoma. On postoperative extubation, the endotracheal tube was noted to be stained dark blue with isosulfan dye. This unusual complication is unreported to date and is likely the result of systemic absorption of the dye.


Wasserstein GANs with Gradient Penalty (WGAN-GP) are a very popular method for training generative models to produce high quality synthetic data. While WGAN-GP were initially developed to calculate the Wasserstein 1 distance between generated and real data, recent works (e.g. [23]) have provided empirical evidence that this does not occur, and have argued that WGAN-GP per-form well not in spite of this issue, but because of it. In this paper we show for the first time that WGAN-GP compute the minimum of a different optimal transport problem, the so-called congested transport [7]. Congested transport determines the cost of moving one distribution to another under a transport model that penalizes congestion. For WGAN-GP, we find that the congestion penalty has a spatially varying component determined by the sampling strategy used in [12] which acts like a local speed limit, making congestion cost less in some regions than others. This aspect of the congested transport problem is new, in that the congestion penalty turns out to be unbounded and depends on the distributions to be transported, and so we provide the necessary mathematical proofs for this setting. One facet of our discovery is a formula connecting the gradient of solutions to the optimization problem in WGAN-GP to the time averaged momentum of the optimal mass flow. This is in contrast to the gradient of Kantorovich potentials for the Wasserstein 1 distance, which is just the normalized direction of flow. Based on this and other considerations, we speculate on how our results explain the observed performance of WGAN-GP. Beyond applications to GANs, our theorems also point to the possibility of approximately solving large scale congested transport problems using neural network techniques.


Although relatively numerous accounts of late Tertiary canids have been reported from the western United States, records from Mexico are scarce. The three genera and species described and discussed in this paper come from Hemphillian and Blancan age deposits located in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. All specimens were collected within a stratigraphic context. One taxon, Borophagus diversidens, was recovered from Blancan age deposits, while both Osteoborus cyonoides and a new species of Canis, C. ferox, came from deposits of Hemphillian age. This new species of Canis appears to be directly ancestral to the extinct C. lepophagus, long considered the forerunner of the modern coyote, C. latrans. The new Mexican canid also appears to be the earliest true Canis yet reported.


Abstract Context: Ketoprofen is widely used to remove pain. A steady increase on allergic reactions and photoallergic contact dermatitis related to ketoprofen has been reported when there is topical use. However, there are few documented cases of hypersensitivity when it is administered systemically. Objective: Present a case of hypersensitivity reaction after systemic administration of ketoprofen for pain control in nephritis crisis. Case description: A 43-years-old Caucasian man diagnosed with renal colic (kidney lithiasis), who was initially treated with 100 mg of tramadol (IV), followed by 4 mg of thiocolchicoside (IM) which caused no relief. Then 100 mg of ketoprofen was administered (IV). Right after the patient began to show hypersensitivity reaction type I characterized by intense coughing, rhinitis, angioedema, periorbital edema, rash, and scleral jaundice. Discussion and conclusion: Maybe it was a case of drug-induced liver disease, however therapeutic dosages of all administered drugs only once. The mechanisms involved were not investigated, but may be the result of allergic and immunologic aspects caused by ketoprofen and facilitated by a history of hypersensitivity to other NSAIDs as reported by the patient. As for jaundice can be attributed to drug toxicity since laboratory parameters did not reveal any evidence of liver disease.


Indian ricegrass [Oryzopsis hymenoides (R. & S.) Ricker] is the dominant forage species on millions of hectares of rangeland in the western United States. Revegetation of degraded rangeland by seeding Indian ricegrass has been generally unsuccessful because of low seed germination. Our purpose was to evaluate the influence of acid seed scarification on germination of Indian ricepass seeds. Seeds of 'Paloma' and 'NezPar' Indian ricegrass were scarified in sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) from 0 through 45 min at 5-min intervals. Without scarification, germination of the seeds of these two cultivars was less than 10%. Seedlots from 1 to 11 years old were treated. Germination data were used to develop regression equations for the relationship between duration of acid seed scarification and germination for each cultivar. Seeds of Paloma Indian ricegrass required 25 to 35 min of scarification, whereas seeds of NezPar required 15 to 25 min scarification. The relative composition and morphological forms of the seed may explain the difference in duration of required scarification. The scarified seeds were incubated at 55 constant and alternating temperatures to obtain data with which to construct quadratic response surfaces for temperature-germination profiles. Even with scarification, the seeds of the two cultivars produced mean germination for the profiles of only 9 to 31%. The dormancy of Indian ricegrass seeds is controlled by complex interacting factors. Acid scarification is a very imprecise tool for enhancing the germination of dormant seeds of Indian ricegrass.


During 2004-2005, three consecutive category-5 hurricanes (Ivan, Katrina, and Rita) hit the central region of Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and damaged numerous drilling and production platforms including Noble Jim Thomson (NJT) drilling semi-submersible. In the present study, the progressive failure of the mooring system of a Mobil Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) similar to NJT during the hind-cast non-collinear hurricane Ivan wind-wave-current environment is numerically simulated. A time-domain vessel-mooring coupled dynamic analysis computer program is used to simulate the sequence of the progressive mooring-line failure of the original steel mooring system. The numerically simulated results are compared with the available NJT forensic-analysis data. An alternative polyester taut mooring system was also analyzed to determine if it could have survived the same extreme environment. The polyester system generally performed better and unexpectedly survived.


Research about the food habits and feeding habits of white snapper fish (Lates calcarifer Block) in Terusan Dalam (inside canal) waters, East coast of South Sumatera Province, had been done during March to June 2012. The purpose of this research was to analyze the food habits and feeding habits of white snapper fish (Lates calcarifer Block) on Terusan Dalam (inside canal) waters, East coast of South Sumatera Province. Sampling method of the fish was purposive sampling method using Tangsi net. The results of this research showed that the number of fish from March to June totaled 31 individuals of fish. Based on the Relative Importance Index (RII), the natural food of white snapper fish (Lates calcarifer Block) in March to June 2012 consisted of shrimp as the main food with the Relative Importance Index 72.37-99.51%, the fish was as the complement food with the Relative Importance Index 11.33-27.63%, and as the additional food was the worm with Relative Importance Index 0.49%.


In this thesis we attempt to predict the performance of a device, known as a flow coupler, which consists of an M.H.D. generator coupled to an M.H.D. pump so that one stream of fluid is induced to move by the motion of another.

The change of magnetic field experienced by a moving conductor as it passes into an M.H.D. device can cause large eddy currents to circulate within the M.H.D. duct. We have used apparatus in which we represent the moving stream of liquid by an annular disc of aluminium, to investigate the perturbation of the applied magnetic field and of the electric potential distribution caused by these eddy currents.

We then examine both experimentally and theoretically, devices in which large currents flow through a moving conductor and through an external circuit. These currents are injected into the moving conductor through electrodes which have a high resistance to currents in the direction of motion. We show that for compensated devices, that is, devices in which the external conductors are arranged so that they produce no transverse magnetic field, the perturbed magnetic field does not depend upon the current through the external circuit and is the same field that would exist if there were no contact between the moving metal and the external circuit.

We observe experimentally that when two conductors move side by side through the gap of a magnet the magnetic field in one moving conductor is little affected by the motion of the other.

We compare the measured performance of a simulated M.H.D. generator and of a real M.H.D. pump with their computed performances and we calculate the expected performance of a flow coupler.

We suggest that the presence of a slowly moving liquid in the boundary layers adjacent to the duct walls may adversely affect the performance of a flow coupler and we conclude that an efficient flow coupler would require non-conducting duct walls and a high magnetic field.


The refugee issue facing our country in recent years has triggered a heated debate in the social sciences about its impact on students. Most research focuses on the education of refugees and their smooth integration into society and the psychological support of families. However, there is a lack of interest in the research field for refugee reception about the teachers, pupils and parents' views and what their perspective is on this, as they directly and indirectly affect them. In this context, the present study focuses on the perspective of teachers, pupils and parents on the refugee issue, what they feel and how they perceive it, and we will examine whether the formal curriculum and informal curriculum through actions taken teachers can influence students' attitudes. In the direction indicated by the international literature, this research will be structured in a sample data collection (25 teachers, 25 students, 25 parents in Thessaloniki, Greece) through questionnaire and interview questions in primary school children on the perspective of teachers, students and parents on the refugee issue. The research findings are expected to illuminate the perspective of teachers, students, and parents on the current issue of refugee issue.


In this paper, we adopt stochastic geometry theory to analyze the optimal macro/micro BS (base station) density for energy-efficient heterogeneous cellular networks with QoS constraints. We first derive the upper and lower bounds of the optimal BS density for homogeneous scenarios and, based on these, we analyze the optimal BS density for heterogeneous networks. The optimal macro/micro BS density can be calculated numerically through our analysis, and the closed-form approximation is also derived. Our results reveal the best type of BSs to be deployed for capacity extension, or to be switched off for energy saving. Specifically, if the ratio between the micro BS cost and the macro BS cost is lower than a threshold, which is a function of path loss and their transmit power, the micro BSs are preferred, i.e., deploy more micro BSs for capacity extension or switch off certain macro BSs for energy saving. Otherwise, the optimal choice is the opposite. Our work provides guidance for energy efficient cellular network planning and dynamic operation control.


We propose a drone classification method based on convolutional neural network (CNN) and micro-Doppler signature (MDS). The MDS only presents Doppler information in time domain. The frequency domain representation of MDS is called as cadence-velocity diagram (CVD). To analyze the Doppler information of drone in time and frequency domain, we propose a new image by merging MDS and CVD, as merged Doppler image. GoogLeNet, a CNN structure, is utilized for the proposed image data set because of its high performance and optimized computing resources. The image data set is generated by the returned Ku-band frequency modulation continuous wave radar signal. Proposed approach is tested and verified in two different environments, anechoic chamber and outdoor. First, we tested our approach with different numbers of operating motor and aspect angle of a drone. The proposed method improved the accuracy from 89.3% to 94.7%. Second, two types of drone at the 50 and 100 m height are classified and showed 100% accuracy due to distinct difference in the result images.


We treat an inverse electrical conductivity problem which deals with the reconstruction of nonlinear electrical conductivity starting from boundary measurements in steady currents operations. In this framework, a key role is played by the Monotonicity Principle, which establishes a monotonic relation connecting the unknown material property to the (measured) Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator (DtN). Monotonicity Principles are the foundation for a class of non-iterative and real-time imaging methods and algorithms. In this article, we prove that the monotonicity principle for the Dirichlet Energy in nonlinear problems holds under mild assumptions. Then, we show that apart from linear and p-Laplacian cases, it is impossible to transfer this monotonicity result from the Dirichlet Energy to the DtN operator. To overcome this issue, we introduce a new boundary operator, identified as an average DtN operator.


Rapid advances of semiconductor technology lead to higher circuit integration as well as higher operating frequencies. The statistical variations of the parameters during the manufacturing process as well as physical defects in integrated circuits can sometimes degrade circuit performance without altering its logic functionality. These faults are called delay faults. In this paper we consider the quality of the tests generated for two types of delay faults, namely, functional delay and transition faults. We compared the test quality of functional delay tests in regard to transition faults and vice versa. We have performed various comprehensive experiments with combinational benchmark circuits. The experiments exhibit that the test sets, which are generated according to the functional delay fault model, obtain high fault coverages of transition faults. However, the functional delay fault coverages of the test sets targeted for the transition faults are low. It is very likely that the test vectors based on the functional delay fault model can cover other kinds of the faults. Another advantage of test set generated at the functional level is that it is independent of and effective for any implementation and, therefore, can be generated at early stages of the design process.


Swallow-tailed Gulls lay single-egg clutches, and so raise single-chick broods. As they are pelagic seabirds, this small brood size is expected to relate to proximate food limitation owing to infrequent food deliveries. However, a previous brood doubling experiment detected an 82% increase in fledging success from experimentally doubled broods compared to controls. We repeated the brood doubling experiment, and found that none of 50 enlarged broods produced more than one independent offspring. Control and experimental parents produced fledglings of similar body size, which also had indistinguishable rates of fledging and subsequent survival and reproduction. A variety of parameters estimating survival and breeding costs of reproduction showed no treatment effect. Since two-chick broods yield dramatically higher fledging rates at some times, apparently without excess costs of reproduction, selection on brood size appears to favour a two-chick brood. However, selection may not favour a two-egg clutch if egg production is very costly. Additionally, our estimates of reproductive success do not incorporate the performance of experimental and control offspring as adults, which could differ, since growth of chicks differed slightly by treatment.


This study aims to investigate the positioning of "Laura", a Filipino teacher who teaches English as a foreign language (EFL) in a secondary school in the district of Sai Yok in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand.  The concept of positioning helps to understand how individuals take up particular positions as a result of their obligations, acceptance, resistance, or negotiation with regard to other people or groups. Drawing upon a semi-structured interview transcript, the findings suggest that Laura's positioning is complex, shifting, and multiple as it interplays with a number of factors such as ethnicity,ว linguistic barriers, and sociocultural differences.  As a result, she positions Thai students as disrespectful, whereas she positions herself as a stranger in the school.  The findings reveal Laura's negative attitudes towards Thai students' classroom behaviour.  The pedagogical implications of this study are the recognition of Thai students' culture of learning, concerning classroom behaviour, attitudes, expectations, values and beliefs in a good learning and teaching methodology, which can promote positive positioning for both Laura and her students.  It is advisable to examine "non-Thai" EFL teachers from a wider linguistic, ethnic, and cultural background by exploring their attitudes towards school and classroom experiences because they create linguistic, ethnic, and cultural diversity in Thai schools.


During the 19th and 20th centuries modern Western education systems have become so globally embedded that alternative forms of educational provision-and goals-have become almost inconceivable. The article argues the likely need for a substantial reconceptualisation in the content, organisation and evaluation of contemporary education systems in response to the profound changes currently impacting on society. Comparative education, it is argued, has a unique capacity 'to make the familiar strange' but so far, despite the advent of exciting new methodologies and the rapidly increasing prominence of comparative studies as a tool for policy-making, comparative education has largely worked within the conventional 'delivery model' conception of education. By so doing, it has arguably helped to reinforce the status quo. Thus the second half of the article offers a prospective vision for the mode, purpose and context of comparative education studies which is in tune with the emerging new educational aspirations of the 21st century and the acknowledged shortcomings of conventional forms of educational provision. Such a 'neo-comparative education', it is argued, would focus on learning and its relationship with culture; would become perhaps better conceptualised as Wa 'comparative learnology' as the means of understanding how individuals can be encouraged to engage successfully with the many new forms of learning opportunity that are likely to characterise the third millennium.


Background: The development of metabolic acidosis can occur commonly during critical illness. It is a clinical disturbance characterized by a low arterial pH, a reduced plasma HCO3− concentration, and compensatory hyperventilation. An extensive search for objective tools that predict severity and outcome at the time of hospital admission remains a major challenge. Patients and Methods: Patients with acute pancreatitis presenting to our unit between January 2012 and November 2013 were prospectively studied. Arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis was done at admission, and development of organ failure, any need for intervention, and mortality were noted. The association between various parameters of ABG analysis and the development of organ failure or local complications, need for interventions (endoscopic/radiological/surgical), and mortality were analyzed. Results: In all, 100 patients (mean age: 36.25 ± 12.86 years; 47.0% males and 53.0% females) were studied. The etiology of acute pancreatitis was Gall stone disease in 52 (52.0%), Alcoholism in 35 (35%), and others in 13 patients (13%). Of the 100 patients, acute fluid collections developed in 84 patients (84%). Multiple organ failure developed in 18 patients (18%). Respiratory failure developed in 68 patients (68%) and renal failure developed in 15 patients (15%), whereas 13 patients (13%) developed shock. Seven of the 19 patients (36.84%) with pH ≤7.35 died when compared with 1 of 81 patients (1.23%) with pH >7.35 (P = 0.001). Seven of the 58 patients (13.79%) with bicarbonate ≤24 mEq/L died when compared with 1 of 42 patients (2.38%) with bicarbonate >24 mEq/L (P = 0.05). Seven of 36 patients (19.4%) with base deficit ≥−4.0 died when compared with 1 of 64 patients (1.56%) with base deficit >4.0 (P = 0.002). Conclusion: Low arterial pH, low bicarbonate levels, and higher base deficit at presentation predict an adverse outcome with more frequency of organ failure, need for intervention, and mortality.


Matrine has a wide range of pharmacological effects including antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo. Autophagy is closely associated with tumors and plays an important role in human tumor suppression, so inducing autophagy is a potential therapeutic strategy in adjuvant chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not autophagy is involved in antitumor effects of matrine on human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells, and to further elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms. Sulphorhodamine B (SRB) assay was used to examine matrine's cytotoxicity against SGC-7901 gastric cancer cells. The effects of matrine on the cell cycle and apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry, and cellular morphology was observed under an inverted phase contrast microscope and transmission electron microscope. Monodansylcadaverine (MDC) staining was used to detect autophagy. The expression levels of Bax and Beclin 1 in SGC-7901 cells were monitored by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results showed that matrine significantly inhibited the proliferation of SGC-7901 gastric cancer cells and induced G1-phase cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, both autophagy and apoptosis were activated during the matrine-induced death of SGC-7901 cells. Beclin 1 is involved in matrine-induced autophagy and the pro-apoptotic mechanisms of matrine may be associated with its up-regulation of Bax expression. These findings indicate that matrine is a potent antitumor agent for treating gastric cancer. The ability of matrine to induce autophagy underlines its potential utility as a new gastric cancer treatment modality.


The problem, say hospitals and some analysts, is that rating hospital quality is not so straightforward. How a hospital delivers care is multifactorial and complex, they argue, so trying to cram that into a single score is misleading and can end up like rating a restaurant on its parking.


This study investigated the possibility that the amount of content children include in their stories is affected by how stories are presented. Simple stories were presented to kindergarten and Grade 2 children in 3 conditions: orally (oral only), pictorially (pictures only), and combined oral and pictures. The kindergarteners recalled more content in the combined condition than in pictures, only. The 2nd graders recalled more content in the oral only and combined conditions than in pictures only. The grades differed in both conditions involving oral presentation, but not in the pictures only condition. Thus, children in both grades provided more story information when they retold a story presented orally than when they told the story from pictures alone.


The need for reconfigurable, high power density, and low-cost configurations of DC-DC power electronic converters (PEC) in areas such as the transport electrification and the use of renewable energy has spread out the requirement to incorporate in a single circuit several topologies, which generally result in an increment of complexity about the modeling, control, and stability analyses. In this paper, a reconfigurable topology is presented which can be applied in alterative/changing power conversion scenarios and consists of a reconfigurable Buck, Boost, and Buck-Boost DC-DC converter (RBBC). A unified averaged model of the RBBC is obtained, a robust controller is designed through a polytopic representation, and a Lyapunov based switched stability analysis of the closed-loop system is presented. The reported RBBC provides a wide range of voltage operation, theoretically from to volts with a single power source. Robust stability, even under arbitrarily fast (bounded) parameter variations and reconfiguration changes, is reported including numerical and experimental results. The main advantages of the converter and the robust controller proposed are simple design, robustness against abrupt changes in the parameters, and low cost.


DUN06 seismic survey was done in the northern part of the Great South Basin of New Zealand with a total of 3110km of high resolution 2D seismic data by Pacific Titan in 2006. This study focuses on 2D seismic interpretation using Petrel Software to interpret the horizons or geological boundaries of different formations based on the extracted well tops from Toroa well which was drilled in the area of interest. The primary objectives of this study are to deduce the structural and stratigraphic information as well as the trapping mechanism of petroleum system if any. Possible indications of the presence of hydrocarbon were also sorted out. There are seven horizons having age ranging from upper Cretaceous to Eocene. Also, approximately 160 faults were interpreted; with two different strike directions; northwest and northeast striking. Several time and depth structure maps were generated. Upon inspection of the facies on the cross section of the seismic images, they areassumed to be deltaic or river channel deposits. The whole structural deformation is classified as syn-rift and post-rift deformation. The latter is divided into first, second and third post rift event. The first two horizons marked the first post-rift event with transgression followed by a set of delta and river channel indicating regression and second post-rift event. The reservoir unit is determined to be PaleoceneDannevirkeTeurian formation and the Early Eocene Paleocene formation acts as the stratigraphic seal and trap for the reservoir unit.


At the meeting of the American Medical Association held at Washington, in May, 1884, an amendment to Regulation II was adopted, which provides that membership in the Association shall be obtainable by any member of a State or County Medical Society recognized by the Association, upon application endorsed by the President and Secretary of said Society; and shall be retained so long as he shall remain in good standing in his local Society, and shall pay his annual dues to the Association. Hitherto attendance as a delegate at an annual meeting has been necessary in order to obtain such membership. Application for membership, accompanied withFive Dollars, for annual dues, and the Certificate of Membership in the local Society, should be sent directly to the undersigned, on receipt of which the weeklyJournal of the Associationwill be forwarded for one year.


Data Envelopment Analysis is a potentially useful technique for measuring production efficiency and is being increasingly applied to health care services, as with other areas. However, some fundamental concerns need to be addressed before Data Envelopment Analysis can be accepted widely as a routine tool. These include issues of validity and specification error. This paper suggests a broad framework for assessing validity, which should be developed further, and gives illustrative examples of the problems in a real application within health care. Data from 75 Scottish acute hospitals for three years from 1991-94 are analysed. Internal validity is assessed by examining the effect on the results obtained of the choice of inputs and outputs selected for analysis. External validity is assessed by examining differences in the results obtained from the data for each of the three years. In both cases, it is concluded that there is a disturbing lack of concordance between the different results obtained. Caution must therefore be exercised in using Data EnvelopmentAnalysis in the health sector and in looking at its results, particularly those from a single time period.


Purpose
This study aims to investigate the correlation between neural indexes of attention and behavioral indexes of attention and detect the most informative period of brain activity in which the strongest correlation with attentive performance (behavioral index) exists. Finally, to further validate the findings, this paper aims at the prediction of different levels of attention function based on the attention score obtained from repeatable battery for the assessment of neurophysiological status (RBANS).

Design/methodology/approach
The present paper analyzes electroencephalogram (EEG) signals recorded by a single prefrontal channel from 105 elderly subjects while they were responding to Stroop color test which is an attention-demanded task. Beside Stroop test, subjects also performed RBANS which provides their level of functionality in different domains including attention. After data acquisition (EEG during Stroop test and RBANS attention score), the authors extract the spectral features of EEG as neural indexes of attention and subjects' reaction time in response to Stroop test as behavioral index of attention. Then, they explore the correlation between these post-cue frequency band oscillations of EEG with elderly response time (RT). Next, the authors exploit these findings to classify RBANS attention score.

Findings
The observations of this study suggest that there is significant negative correlation between alpha gamma ratio (AGR) and RT (p < 0.0001), theta beta ratio (TBR) is positively correlated with subjects' RT (p < 0.0001), these correlations are stronger in a 500ms period right after triggering the cue (question onset in Stroop test), and 4) TBR and AGR can be effectively used to predict RBANS attention score.

Research limitations/implications
Because of the experiment design, the pre-cue EEG of the next trail was very much overlapped with the post-cue EEG of the current trail. Therefore, the authors could analyze only post-cue EEG. In future study, it would be interesting to investigate the predictability of subject's future performance from pre-cue EEG and mental preparation.

Practical implications
This study provides an insight into the research on detection of human attention level from EEG instead of conventional neurophysiological tests. It has also potential to be used in implementation of feasible and efficient EEG-based brain computer interface training systems for elderly.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is among very few attempts for early prediction of cognitive decline in the domain of attention from brain activity (EEG) instead of conventional tests which are prone to human errors.


This article examines the factors shaping longitudinal patterns of housing insecurity in the wake of the Great Recession, with a focus on whether housing assistance helped renters who received it. We use data from the first two waves (2009–10 and 2011) of the Michigan Recession and Recovery Study, a population-representative sample of working-age adults from Southeast Michigan. We use detailed reports from renters and other nonhomeowners to construct measures of instability and cost-related housing problems at both waves, and we compare the changes in these over follow up between housing assistance recipients and their income-eligible but nonrecipient counterparts. Our findings suggest that receiving housing assistance reduced the chance of experiencing housing insecurity problems over follow up regardless of baseline housing insecurity.


Background Although a number of international and national HIV/AIDS conferences exist, there is not a national conference in Tanzania focusing on disseminating HIV/AIDS research conducted in the country. This creates a missed opportunity for researchers to share their research findings with local policy makers and HIV program implementers who can influence the adoption and implementation of locally promising research to public health and clinical practice settings. This paper reports on the findings from a brainstorming session conducted at the first HIV/AIDS Research Forum designed to enhance local dissemination efforts of HIV/AIDS research conducted in Tanzania. Method During the second day of the Forum, which was held in Morogoro, Tanzania, a 1-hour structured brainstorming session was conducted with the Forum participants. Participants included researchers, medical professionals, policymakers, representatives from different ministries. Transcription of the brainstorming session was analyzed to identify benefits of the Forum, perceived challenges for organizing similar HIV/AIDS research dissemination events, and recommendations for addressing the challenges. Results Overall, 50 participants attended the Forum and they perceived the forum to be beneficial because it brought together researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders working in HIV/AIDS programs and implementers. Having policymakers and researchers in the same place enhance the likelihood of policymakers using research findings to inform policies and influence adoption and implementation of effective interventions. Forum participants identified several potential challenges of similar local HIV/AIDS research dissemination efforts including the costs and lack of funding for organizing and hosting such forums or having repetitive presentations. To address these concerns, they recommended a biennial national conference in order to allow more time to raise funds to cover the costs associated with organizing such a conference. Conclusion The benefits identified for the Forum highlight the importance of developing a national level HIV/AIDS conference in Tanzania. However, the potential challenges discussed need to be addressed in order to develop a sustainable national HIV/AIDS conference by incorporating the recommendations that forum attendees proposed.


Background and objective: Abdominal ultrasound can provide an effective, non-invasive, fast, inexpensive, and safe procedure with no risk of radiation to patients. Accordingly, this study aimed to assess the role of ultrasonography in differentiating causes of right iliac fossa pain among patients admitted to emergency hospitals in Erbil City.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 120 patients with acute abdominal pain and tenderness of right lower quadrant (iliac fossa) region, clinically suspected to have acute appendicitis admitted to the emergency hospitals in Erbil city were included in the study, from April 2011 to February 2012. The data was collected through a direct interview of patients, followed by a sonographic examination.
Results: The prevalence of true positive sonographic examination was 60.8%, with only 30% true negative findings. Around 69% of the cases had acute appendicitis, followed by ovarian cyst and right ureteric stone (11.1% and 7.4%, respectively). The sensitivity of sonographic examination in identifying appendicitis was 90.1%, the specificity was 92.3%. The positive predictive was 96%, while the negative predictive value was 81.8%. Sonographic characteristics of the positive patients with appendicitis showed that 58.0% of the patients had swollen appendix, and a diameter of 7.1- 8 mm was the most imaging finding. Also, appendicitis was significantly (P = 0.02) more common (58%) in males, and negative appendectomy was prevalent among females.
Conclusion: Appendicitis was the major cause of the right iliac fossa pain. Abdominal ultrasound was a reliable method in the diagnosis of the majority of patients with right iliac fossa pain and can decrease the rate of negative appendectomy.


Surface sand samples were collected from a number of stations arranged down a transect of the beach at Komimbo Bay, west Guadalcanal. The included interstitial sand animals have been identified to generic level and their distribution and relative numbers are described. The transect was surveyed and the sand samples have been subjected to a particle size analysis.


Imaging-based evaluation of cardiac structure and function remains paramount in the diagnosis and monitoring of congenital heart disease in childhood. Accurate measurements of intra- and extracardiac hemodynamics are required to inform decision making, allowing planned timing of interventions prior to deterioration of cardiac function. Four-dimensional flow magnetic resonance imaging is a nonionizing noninvasive technology that allows accurate and reproducible delineation of blood flow at any anatomical location within the imaging volume of interest, and also permits derivation of physiological parameters such as kinetic energy and wall shear stress. Four-dimensional flow is the focus of a great deal of attention in adult medicine, however, the translation of this imaging technique into the pediatric population has been limited to date. A more broad-scaled application of 4-dimensional flow in pediatric congenital heart disease stands to increase our fundamental understanding of the cause and significance of abnormal blood flow patterns, may improve risk stratification, and inform the design and use of surgical and percutaneous correction techniques. This paper seeks to outline the application of 4-dimensional flow in the assessment and management of the pediatric population affected by congenital heart disease.


This paper presents a comprehensive picture of operating-voltage constraints in SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors, addressing breakdown-related issues as they relate to technology generation, bias configuration, and operating-current density. New definitions for breakdown voltage, adopted from standard measurements, are presented. Practical design implications and physical origins of breakdown are explored using calibrated 2-D simulations and quasi-3-D compact models. Device-level analysis of ac instabilities and power performance, which is relevant to mixed-signal circuit design, is presented, and implications of the relaxed voltage constraints for common-base operation are explored.


The structure of oriented 1-stearoyl-2-docosahexaenoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine bilayers with perdeuterated stearoyl- or docosahexaenoyl hydrocarbon chains was investigated by neutron diffraction. Experiments were conducted at two different relative humidities, 66 and 86%. At both humidities we observed that the polyunsaturated docosahexaenoyl chain has a preference to reside near the lipid water interface. That leaves voids in the bilayer center that are occupied by saturated stearoyl chain segments. This uneven distribution of saturated- and polyunsaturated chain densities is likely to result in membrane elastic stress that modulates function of integral receptor proteins like rhodopsin.


Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) provides an insight into the fine details of normal fibroglandular tissues and abnormal lesions by reconstructing a pseudo-3D image of the breast. In this respect, DBT overcomes a major limitation of conventional X-ray mammography by reducing the confounding effects caused by the superposition of breast tissue. In a breast cancer screening or diagnostic context, a radiologist is interested in detecting change, which might be indicative of malignant disease. To help automate this task image registration is required to establish spatial correspondence between time points. Typically, images, such as MRI or CT, are first reconstructed and then registered. This approach can be effective if reconstructing using a complete set of data. However, for ill-posed, limited-angle problems such as DBT, estimating the deformation is complicated by the significant artefacts associated with the reconstruction, leading to severe inaccuracies in the registration. This paper presents a mathematical framework, which couples the two tasks and jointly estimates both image intensities and the parameters of a transformation.
We evaluate our methods using various computational digital phantoms, uncompressed breast MR images, and in-vivo DBT simulations. Firstly, we compare both iterative and simultaneous methods to the conventional, sequential method using an affine transformation model. We show that jointly estimating image intensities and parametric transformations gives superior results with respect to reconstruction fidelity and registration accuracy. Also, we incorporate a non-rigid B-spline transformation model into our simultaneous method. The results demonstrate a visually plausible recovery of the deformation with preservation of the reconstruction fidelity.


This article analyses the relationship between international law and literature from the point of view of its form of expression. Using insights from Deleuze and Guattari's analysis of Kafka's oeuvre as a 'minor literature', it argues that stylistic conventions of international law present a serious barrier to the full development of the truly revolutionary potential of international law. International law is situated in proximity to minor literature. Therefore, the constraints imposed on the use of language by the discipline of international law produce particularly distorting results within international law scholarship. These distortions reflect the need to open the language of international law up to new uses that allow for the precedence of expression over content, as in a minor literature.


Remodelling of the actin cytoskeleton in response to external stimuli is obligatory for many cellular processes in the amoebic cell. A rapid and local rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton is required for the development of the cellular protrusions during phagocytosis, trogocytosis, migration, and invasion. Here, we demonstrated that EhC2B, a C2 domain-containing protein, is an actin modulator. EhC2B was first identified as an effector of EhRab21 from E. histolytica. In vitro interaction studies including GST pull-down, fluorescence-based assay and ITC also corroborated with our observation. In the amoebic trophozoites, EhC2B accumulates at the pseudopods and the tips of phagocytic cups. FRAP based studies confirmed the recruitment and dynamics of EhC2B at the phagocytic cup. Moreover, we have shown the role of EhC2B in erythrophagocytosis. It is well known that calcium-dependent signal transduction is essential for the cytoskeletal dynamics during phagocytosis in the amoebic parasite. Using liposome pelleting assay, we demonstrated that EhC2B preferentially binds to the phosphatidylserine in the presence of calcium. The EhC2B mutants defective in calcium or lipid-binding failed to localise beneath the plasma membrane. The cells overexpressing these mutants have also shown a significant reduction in erythrophagocytosis. The role of EhC2B in erythrophagocytosis and pseudopod formation was also validated by siRNA-based gene knockdown approach. Finally, with the help of in vitro nucleation assay using fluorescence spectroscopy and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we have established that EhC2B is an actin nucleator. Collectively, based on the results from the study, we propose that EhC2B acts like a molecular bridge which promotes membrane deformation via its actin nucleation activity during the progression of the phagocytic cup in a calcium-dependent manner.


!  Introduction: The current investigation evaluated the psychometric properties and confirmed factor structure stability of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SASA) in a sample of Iranian adolescents. Method: The Persian version of the SASA and the Questionnaire about Interpersonal Difficulties for Adolescents, the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale-Brief Version, and the Big Five Inventory were administered to a sample of 500 adolescents (276 females and 224 males). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), convergent validity, and internal consistency were used to compute the factor structure, validity, and reliability of the SASA, respectively. Results: Both alpha coefficient and test-retest correlations indicated high reliability for the forms of the SASA. The results of principle component analysis (PCA) and oblique rotation replicated the two-factor structure of the SASA. The results of a CFA revealed that while one factor model in the SASA had an acceptable fit to the data, the two factor model consisted of apprehension and fear of negative evaluation. Tension and inhibition of social contact demonstrated a superior fit. The significant positive correlation between the forms and SASA total score with subscales, the FNES-B total score with subscales, the QIDA total score and neuroticism, as well as the significant negative correlation with extraversion extended empirical support for the convergent validity of the SASA. Conclusion: These findings speak to the robustness of the SASA and reveal its relatively stable structure, and, consequently, its potential usefulness as a valid measure of social anxiety for Iranian adolescents.


Background: Kit lot change in clinical biochemistry labs leads to variations in patient results. This study planned to identify variations during 60 reagent lot changes in our laboratory during the period from June 2018 to May 2019. Methods: A statistical analysis was performed to identify the difference between patient samples results variations and QC results. The long term drift was analyzed using a regression test. Results: There was a significant difference between the patient and QC results in 16.7% of reagent lot changes. Moreover, the extent of variation in QC results was 3.3%. No long-term drift was seen in three analytes which were studied using regression analysis. Conclusions: Our results showed that, during reagent kit lot change, along with QC material, the patient samples should also be run in order to identify the variation. However, this practice is presently ignored by most of the laboratories. There was no accumulated effect in our laboratory due to reagent kit lot change.


This paper proposes a security-constrained forward market clearing algorithm within which the inherent characteristics of demand flexibility are acknowledged when the provision of reserve from the demand side is considered. In the proposed formulation, we co-optimize the cost of scheduling the appropriate resources to guarantee the security of the system and the expected cost of operating under any credible system state. In addition, we consider that consumers can offer to provide spinning reserve capacity deployable by voluntary load reductions in response to contingencies. Due to the load recovery effect (i.e., since energy usage is essentially postponed when demand-side reserve is deployed), in post-contingency states, any voluntary reduction in the load has to be accompanied by a subsequent increase in demand from the initial forecast. We demonstrate that the marginal value of the reserve provided by the demand can only be calculated taking into account the cost of supplying the recovery consumption. Flexible consumers can reduce their payments on average if energy is settled through real-time prices.


BACKGROUND
Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a chronic debilitating disease and a premalignant condition of the oral cavity characterized by generalized submucosal fibrosis. Myofibroblasts are contractile cells expressing α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and are considered primary producers of extracellular matrix after injury. Their accumulation has been established as a marker of progressive fibrosis in organs like lungs, liver, kidney and skin. This study aims to evaluate the presence of myofibroblasts in various histological stages of OSMF.

MATERIALS AND METHOD
Seventy cases of OSMF, which were further categorized histologically into early (35 cases) and advanced (35 cases), were subjected to immunohistochemistry using α-SMA antibody for detection of myofibroblasts. Fifteen normal oral mucosa specimens were also stained as controls.

RESULTS
The number of α-SMA-stained myofibroblasts in OSMF was significantly increased when compared to that of the normal controls (P<0.001). Additionally, a statistically significant increase in the myofibroblasts population between early and advanced stages was observed (P=0.000).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results corroborate the possibility that OSMF actually represents an abnormal healing process in response to chronic mechanical and chemical irritation because of areca nut chewing as demonstrated by the increased incidence of myofibroblasts in this disease. Furthermore, the progressive increase in myofibroblasts from early to advanced stages suggests their potential use as markers for evaluating the severity of OSMF.


Low leaf biomass yields coupled with small land sizes are some of the major constraints faced by smallholder farmers that grow protein-rich fodder trees and shrubs. Given these challenges, availability of highly productive seed sources would be important to enable farmers to produce leaf fodder in sufficient quantities. 14 accessions of Acacia angustissima were evaluated for leaf, wood and total biomass production at two subtropical sites with uni-modal rainfall in Zimbabwe, with the objective of identifying high leaf biomass yielding accessions. There were up to fourfold difference in biomass yield between the accessions. Leaf dry matter yield ranged from 1.65 to 8.81 Mg ha -1 and 3.7 to 12.4 Mg ha -1 for wood biomass at the higher altitude site (1530 m a.s.l.) but were much lower at 1272 m a.s.l. where they ranged between 0.37 and 4.88 Mg ha -1 for leaf and 0.4 and 7.2 Mg ha -1 for wood. The most productive accessions for leaf biomass were 16231 and 18579 at the higher altitude site, while 18586 and 18501 had the highest yields at the lower altitude. Although no one accession was consistently high yielding across the two sites, the least productive accessions were consistently poor at both sites. The advantage of using selected superior accessions over the unselect bulk seed was up to 85%. These findings underscore the need to promote the use of only high yielding accessions rather than unselect bulk seed. This study identified new, more productive accessions of A. angustissima that potentially widens the genetic base of the germplasm assembled in Zimbabwe. Key words : Leaf biomass, accession, accession × site interaction, Acacia angustissima .


Chronic pancreatitis was not a clinical entity until around 1960 in Japanese gastroenterology. The diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis had been vague and difficult to ascertain. The diagnostic criteria for chronic pancreatitis were first proposed in 1971, and they were subsequently revised in 1983. Patient numbers of chronic pancreatitis were summed by national surveys under each of the common diagnostic criteria. Total patient number and incidence rate of chronic pancreatitis are recognized as increasing throughout Japan, based on results of two national surveys of chronic pancreatitis. The diagnostic criteria for chronic pancreatitis in Japan were again revised in 1995, because the 1983 criteria were too complicated, and there had been more recent progress in clinical investigations of the pancreas. The essential revised points of the Diagnostic Criteria, 1995, are introduced in this review along with some discussion.


When Paul Ehrlich 1 in his. early experiments with dyestuff and tissue staining succeeded in simplifying the identification of the blood cells, the basis of hematology was established. The application of these principles to the microchemical reaction of tissue to dyestuff resulted in the introduction of the theory of selective affinity between chemical substances and protoplasm. Moreover, the observations from all those experiments led Ehrlich to outline his side-chain theory. In spite of the adverse criticisms of this theory, it proved to be a valuable link in the development of the science of immunity and serum reactions. After the discovery of immune bodies in syphilized blood, Ehrlich assumed that special antitoxins would not be effective in treating protozoan diseases. This conclusion initiated a series of trial and error experiments to find a therapia sterilisans against syphilis. As arsanilic acid was useful in the treatment of spirillar infections, compounds of this


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Conventional imaging for men with biochemical recurrence after definitive treatment of clinically localized disease is usually normal, especially when prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels are low. Early and precise localization of disease recurrence may guide treatment, leading to a chance of cure when tumor burden is limited and amenable to targeted therapy. 18F-Fluciclovine is approved for use with positron emission tomography (PET) in Europe and the USA for men with suspected recurrence of prostate cancer. LOCATE was a prospective trial to assess the impact of 18F-fluciclovine PET/CT findings on management of men with prostate cancer recurrence after curative intent primary therapy and negative/equivocal conventional imaging. Here, we characterize sites of recurrence according to PSA using data from LOCATE, and explore the potential for 18F-fluciclovine PET/CT to evaluate oligometastatic disease. METHODS: Eligible men (≥ 18 y; prior curative intent treatment of prostate cancer; recurrence based on rising PSA; negative/equivocal findings on standard imaging) underwent 18F-fluciclovine PET/CT according to standard protocols. Results were stratified by baseline PSA levels. Oligometastatic disease was defined as 1-5 extraprostatic lesions (⩽ 3 lesions in any single organ system) in men with negative prostate/bed imaging (as a surrogate for primary tumour control). RESULTS: Between June 2016 and May 2017, 213 patients (median PSA 1.0 ng/mL, 164 [77%] prior prostatectomy) were scanned. As shown in the table, 18F-fluciclovine PET/CT detected lesions in 122 (57%) men. Patient level and pelvic region detection rates were broadly proportional to baseline PSA. At PSA < 1.0 ng/mL, substantial detection was noted in pelvic nodes (9.3%), retroperitoneal nodes (5.6%) and bone (6.5%). In total, 53/213 (25%) had oligometastatic disease; 52 (24%) with 1-3 metastases and 1 (0.5%) with 5 metastases. Twenty (38%) of the oligometastatic patients had PSA ⩽ 1.0 ng/mL. CONCLUSIONS: Even at low PSA levels, 18F-fluciclovine PET/CT identified a diverse pattern of recurrence missed with conventional imaging. One quarter of men had oligometastatic disease raising the potential for 18F-fluciclovine PET/CT to guide targeted treatment of oligometastases. Table. No title available. Source of Funding: Blue Earth Diagnostics


BACKGROUND
Bone mineral density (BMD) changes during the course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The present study was designed to investigate the status of BMD in patients with RA treated with anti-rheumatic drugs.

METHODS
BMD at the femoral neck (FN-BMD) and lumbar spine (LS-BMD) were measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) method using Norland densitometer. Disease activity (DA) was assessed by calculation of DAS28 score. The patients with at least twice BMD measurements were included and those who received treatment for osteoporosis were excluded. The mean FN-BMD and LS-BMD changes from baseline between the two BMD measurements was determined.

RESULTS
Nineteen patients (17 females, 2 males) with the mean age of 54.5±7.7 years, with mean disease duration of 141.8±58 months were treated for an average period of 2.9±1.9 years. All the patients were treated with low-dose methotrexate (MTX) up to 15 mg/week alone or with combination of hydroxychloroquine and/or sulfasalazine and 5 mg prednisolone daily. At the end of study period, the value of FN-BMD gr/cm2 decreased by - 4.24% (p=0.12) and LS-BMD gr/cm2 by - 6.57% (p=0.009). The mean FN BMD Z-score increased by +7.66% (p=0.64) and LS-BMD Z-score decreased by - 14.7% (p=0.120).

CONCLUSION
The findings of this study indicate that bone loss in RA continues despite anti-inflammatory treatment. The lower rate of bone loss from FN compared with LS may be attributed to suppression of hip synovitis with anti-inflammatory treatment.


A physical space is needed to answer the social requires and create essential opportunities to gain social experiences; public space has a significant capacity to answer this aspect of human's life in societies. Therefore, considering this significant capacity and emphasis on social aspect of a human and space, this article is going to survey the effective factors on preserving community and quality of sociability in public spaces.


The probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 is known to enhance immunity in animal models, following oral delivery. In this study, we investigated the immunoenhancing effects of HN001 delivered to mice in different milk-based substrates, including: whole (full-fat) milk supplemented with HN001; fermented milk supplemented with HN001; or whole milk which had been part-fermented by HN001. Direct oral feeding of mice with HN001 in whole milk was shown to enhance the phagocytic activity of blood and peritoneal cells. Similar effects on phagocytosis were observed when HN001 was offered to mice in the form of a milk- or fermented milk-based diet. The degree of immune enhancement conferred by HN001 was similar whether the probiotic was used as an additive or as a fermentative agent. These studies confirm that Lb. rhamnosus HN001, derived originally from dairy food, enhances immune function following oral delivery in different milk bases.


Introduction
Chlamydia trachomatis is the most frequently reported infectious disease in the United States, with high reinfection rates and highest prevalence among adolescents and young adults. National guidelines suggest testing for reinfection 3 months after chlamydia treatment, and 3 to 4 weeks after treatment during pregnancy. Our needs assessment evaluated retesting rates among adolescent and young adult patients across several clinical settings within one community.

Methods
We performed retrospective chart reviews to examine chlamydia retest rates among 14 to 21-year-old patients treated for chlamydia within three different settings: an academic primary care site with family medicine and pediatrics clinics, an adolescent health center, and a group of school-based health centers (SBHCs). Per CDC guidelines, the goal treatment window was defined as retests conducted between 60 to 183 days after documented treatment for nonpregnant patients, and those conducted within 21 to 42 days posttreatment for pregnant patients.

Results
Overall, 77/134 (57.5%) of patients were retested, with 59/143 (44%) retested within the goal time frame. Site rates of retesting within guideline timeframe were as follows: 38.5% at the academic family medicine site, 46.2% at the academic pediatrics site, 42.7% at the adolescent health center, and 55.0% at SBHCs. The reinfection rate among those appropriately retested was 22.0% (13/59). Of patients not retested appropriately, 25.3% had return visits at which they were not retested (a missed opportunity).

Conclusions
Our results indicate a need for interventions that encourage patients to return for retesting, and that trigger retesting during unrelated return visits.


This feature section, originally published in the literary journal Metamorphoses, introduces the poets Titsian Tabidze, Galaktion Tabidze, and Paolo Iashvili to an English readership. These three major exponents of the Georgian Literary Modernism were all either executed (Titsian) or committed suicide (Paolo and Galaktion) as a result of Stalin's and Beria's repressive policies. Collectively, these texts movingly testify to the intimate relation between politics and poetics in Georgian literature, as in other literatures of the former Soviet Union. An introduction called "The Twlight of Georgian Literary Modernism" is followed by the original Georgian texts and English translations of the following poems -- Titsian Tabidze: "Gunib," "Galaktion Tabidze," "Sergei Esenin," "Black Sea," "Bandits Killed Me on the Banks of the Aragvi," "My Village in Spring,"; Paolo Iashvili: "From the Heights," "My Table - My Parnassus," "Poetry"; Galaktion Tabidze: "Exile," "Amirani." "Blue Horses."Neither the translations nor the Georgian texts are easily available. It is hoped that posting this material will stimulate interest in the the work of these visionary poets among scholars of world literature and literary modernism.


As the Nation moves into the 21st century, the reduction of juvenile crime, violence, and victimization constitutes one of the most crucial challenges of the new millennium. To meet that challenge, reliable information is essential. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report offers a comprehensive overview of these pervasive problems and the response of the juvenile justice system. The National Report brings together statistics from a variety of sources on a wide array of topics, presenting the information in clear, nontechnical text enhanced by more than 350 easy-to-read tables, graphs, and maps.


Major factors of efficiency of the economy of Ukraine, which influence is formalized in the form of valid regression models, are revealed. On the basis of the constructed models the forecast of dynamics of the basic parameters of efficiency of the economy of Ukraine for 2006-2007 is carried out. The features and tendencies of dynamics of the basic parameters of efficiency of economy of Ukraine are revealed.


This book provides you with highly detailed information on all of the most important BI features of the new SAP NetWeaver 2004s Release. Readers gain a profound understanding of SAP BI and quickly learn how to master the new release, while avoiding costly errors. Familiar subjects like data modeling, ETL, web reporting, and planning are combined with expert insights on essential new BI functions and core concepts, making this reference an invaluable companion for your daily work. The authors provide exclusive details on advanced developments in BEx Analyzer and BEx Web Application Designer, as well as the BEx Report Designer, BI-integrated planning, the BI Accelerator and the SAP Visual Composer, ensuring that your most important questions are addressed with practical guidance. Real-life examples, volumes of screen captures and detailed graphics, as well as step-by-step instruction, enable you to quickly and easily familiarize yourself with all of the new BI functions. The book is intended for SAP consultants, team members and managers in the areas of IT, BI, and controlling. Highlights Include: Business Intelligence Concepts New Features of SAP NetWeaver 2004s Data Modeling in the Administrator Workbench Data Retrieval Performance Optimization with Aggregates and BI Accelerator Redesign Functions: Repartitioning and Remodeling BEx Query Designer BEx Analyzer BEx Web Application Designer Report Designer BI Integrated Planning Visual Composer


* International Center for Young Scientists, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba 305-0047, Japan. ** Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK. *** High Voltage Electron Microscopy Station, National Institute for Materials Science, 3-13 Sakura, Tsukuba 305-0003, Japan **** Advanced Science Research Laboratory, Saitama Institute of Technology, 1690 Fusaiji, Fukaya 369-0293, Japan ***** Quantum Dot Research Center, National Institute for Materials Science, 3-13 Sakura, Tsukuba 305-0003, Japan ****** Advanced Nano-characterization Center, National Institute for Materials Science, 3-13 Sakura, Tsukuba 305-0003, Japan


Red single crystals of AgTl3(Cr2O7)2 were prepared via high oxygen pressure synthesis as well as by hydrothermal autoclave techniques. Initially, AgTl3(Cr2O7)2 was obtained from a reaction of stoichiometric mixtures of Ag2O, Cr and TlNO3 under elevated oxygen pressures. Following an optimized approach, the title compound can be synthesized at mild hydrothermal conditions, starting from AgNO3, TlNO3 and K2Cr2O7 in aqueous solution. AgTl3(Cr2O7)2 crystallizes in space group C2/c (no. 15) with a = 10.3638(3), b = 10.4817(3), c = 13.4717(4) Å, β = 106.55(1)◦ , V = 1402.80(5) Å3, and Z = 4. The structure refinement was based on 3554 independent reflections and resulted in R1 = 2.13 %, wR2 = 4.54 %. The crystal structure contains independent Cr2O72− anions, which are surrounded by silver and thallium cations forming layers that are stacked perpendicular to the bc plane.


This paper discusses the design of a video encoder which will enable PALplus compatible HDTV transmission, by embedding a digital residual component within the standard analogue PALplus television signal. The design strategy includes a 2-D diagonal prefilter, together with a QMF band-splitting filter pair, from which the residual is initially derived. The performance of these filters is reviewed, especially in respect of the errors introduced by aliasing and crosstalk distortion. A number of different digital modulation techniques are then examined for the transmission of the residual signal and a qualitative appraisal of their effectiveness presented.


The effects of age of acquisition (AoA) and long-term repetition priming on object naming times were studied in young (20- to 33-year-old) and old (80- to 95-year-old) adults. In the first stage of the experiment, participants performed one of three priming tasks: Picture naming, word reading, or lexical decision. There was an AoA effect in all tasks (although it was not reliable for word reading) that did not differ reliably for old and young participants. In the second stage of the experiment, all participants named pictures. The repetition priming effect was large from the prior naming of the same pictures, less from reading aloud the object names, and was not reliable from making lexical decisions to the object names. There was a reliable AoA effect on naming times that did not differ reliably for old and young participants (and, indeed, was actually slightly larger for the older participants). The results offer no support for the cumulative frequency hypothesis and suggest that the accessibility of words for spoken production is determined by when a word is acquired and remains broadly fixed throughout life.


Development of a successful shoot tip cryopreservation method for Arabidopsis thaliana L. will enable researchers to use molecular tools to study processes important for successful cryopreservation in this model organism. We demonstrate that Arabidopsis can be successfully cryopreserved using either plant vitrification solution 2 (PVS2) or plant vitrification solution 3 (PVS3) as cryoprotectants prior to rapidly cooling shoot tips in liquid nitrogen (LN). Shoot tip regrowth after PVS2 cryoprotectant treatment was improved after cold acclimation treatments of 8 or 18 days. All of the shoots tips regrew after LN exposure when cryoprotected with PVS3 for 60 min at 22 degree C. In addition, shoot tips could be cryopreserved using a two-step cooling procedure with PGD (polyethylene glycol-glucose-dimethyl sulfoxide) as a cryoprotectant. The high levels of shoot formation after LN exposure of Arabidopsis shoot tips makes this a desirable system in which molecular tools can be used to examine how alterations in biochemical, metabolic and developmental processes affect regrowth after cryoprotective treatments.


Quantum well composition intermixing is a thermal induced interdiffusion of the constituent atoms through the heterointerface. The intermixed structures created by both impurity induced and impurity free or vacancy promoted processes have recently attracted high attention. The interdiffusion mechanism is no longer confined to a single phase diffusion for two constituent atoms, but it can now consist of two or multiple phases and/or for multiple species, such as three cations interdiffusion and two pairs of cation-anion interdiffusion. A review on the impact of intermixing on device physics is presented with many interesting features. For instance, both compressive or tensile strain materials and both blue or red shifts in the bandgap can be achieved depending on the types of intermixing. The recent advancement in intermixing modified optical properties, such as absorption, refractive index as well as electro-optics effects are discussed. In addition, this paper will place a strong emphasis on the device application of the intermixing technology. The advantage of being able to tune the material provides a way to improve the performance of photodetectors and modulators. Attractive distributed-feedback and vertical cavity laser dynamics have been shown due to some unique device physics of the quantum well intermixing. Several state-of-the-art results will be summarized with an emphasis on its future development and directions.