Human primed embryonic stem cells (pESCs) are known to be converted to cells with several trophoblast properties, but it has remained controversial whether this phenomenon represents the inherent differentiation competence of human pESCs to trophoblast lineages. In this study, we report that chemical blockage of ACTIVIN/NODAL and FGF signals is sufficient to steer human pESCs into GATA3-expressing cells that give rise to hormone-producing syncytia analogous to syncytiotrophoblasts of the post-implantation stage of the human embryo. Taking advantage of this system, we identified two distinct modes of cell-autonomous genetic programs and their coordinated actions to initiate the differentiation. We also found a transient population reminiscent of nascent amnion and then a spontaneous branch of differentiation trajectory leading to syncytiotrophoblast-like syncytial cells. These results provide insights into the possible extraembryonic differentiation pathway that is unique in primate embryogenesis and is relevant to the trophoblast competence of human primed pluripotent stem cells.


Automotive imaging radars require high angular resolution which can be achieved by a large antenna aperture. In order to obey Nyquist spatial sampling rate, a large number of array elements and receive channels is required. In practice, this solution results in a prohibitively high cost and complexity. This work proposes a new cognitive receiver configuration, in which a large number of sensor array elements is connected to a small number of receive channels via a switching matrix. The state of the switching matrix is sequentially updated using information from previous observations and prior information. According to the proposed scheme, denoted as cognitive antenna selection (CASE), the state of the switching matrix is obtained by the minimization of conditional Bayesian bounds on the mean-squared-error of the direction-of-arrival estimate. We show that the Bayesian Cramér-Rao bound (BCRB) is an inappropriate optimization criterion since it ignores the effect of ambiguity. This work proposes the Bobrovski-Zakai bound (BZB), which accounts for the effect of ambiguity, as a criterion for cognitive antenna selection. The performance of the proposed CASE-BZB approach is evaluated via simulations in single and multiple target scenarios. It is shown that the CASE-BZB outperforms random and linear switching algorithms both asymptotically and in the threshold region.


Companies that supply electricity for eventual retail use face an increased demand for stable and reliable power.3 A rude reminder of this fact came on August 14, 2003, when a massive blackout demonstrated to fifty million people in the United States and Canada that the transmission of electricity along our power grid, though usually dependable, is also fragile.4 In response to the blackout, some officials called for tighter federal regulations.5 At the same time, electric


Popular culture is a subcategory of culture. Today, mass and new media appear to be interfering with the evolved mechanisms that permit the acquisition and editing of culture. We know surprisingly little about these cognitive attentional processes that enable the information acquisition and editing packed into the term "cultural transmission." It was Michael Chance who first concluded that we attend to and learn preferentially from those high in status. For Chance, high status based on fear leads to agonistic attention and a constricted type of learning, while hedonic attention based on respect permits much broader learning possibilities. If Chance's theories are supported, then it would follow that much of the current unpredictability of popular culture and culture change in general reflects the replacement of family and community high-status figures by influential media celebrities, thereby damaging the transmission of local culture. Chance's approach would also explain why we seem to find it difficult to pay attention to those low in status and power. There may be attractors of attention involved in cultural transmission in addition to status, including physical attractiveness. We consider, from an evolutionary perspective, various researchable hypotheses that stem from Chance's and related work and from ethnography, we discuss this work's implications for how we understand culture and "popular culture," and we argue that the kind of research in cognitive and evolutionary psychology we espouse is also needed for the next generation of mathematical models of gene–culture coevolution. We conclude with a list of research questions.


After the U.S. declared COVID-19 a pandemic, cracks in the U.S.'s fragile privatized healthcare system were exposed. At the start of the pandemic, 74 million U.S. residents were already uninsured or underinsured. To date, over 7.7 million recently terminated employees have lost their employer-provided health insurance, while over 24.6 million individuals have been infected with COVID-19 and 800,000 have been hospitalized. As a result, coronavirus survival often comes with astronomical medical bills like the $1.1 million hospital bill received by Michael Flor, a 70-year-old survivor who spent 62 days in the hospital for treatment.This Article examines how the U.S.'s flawed healthcare system and federal bankruptcy law may work together to unfairly penalize debtors burdened with medical debts arising from treatment for an infectious disease, like COVID-19. The financial fate of many burdened with infectious-disease medical bills will depend on whether a court characterizes such bills as "consumer" debts. Under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, individuals with "primarily consumer debts" are subject to a complex calculation known as the "Means Test." Debtors who have their massive medical bills characterized as non-consumer debts are allowed to wipe out those bills quickly in a Chapter 7 case. Debtors who have such bills characterized as consumer debts and who fail the Means Test are forced into a five-year repayment plan in a Chapter 13 case, where they pay down their unsecured debts, including medical bills. As a result, courts are effectively penalizing debtors who lack adequate health insurance and who involuntarily contract a contagious disease.To prevent such perverse results, this Article proposes that bankruptcy law be amended to exclude infectious-disease medical bills from the definition of consumer debt. Also, to obviate the need for some individuals to file for bankruptcy relief, this Article proposes that workers' compensation ("workers' comp") laws be amended to include COVID-19 as an occupational disease for any "essential worker," as defined in each state, so that infected essential workers can have their medical bills paid from workers' comp funds. If a former U.S. president infected with COVID-19 was considered essential for the nation's survival and, therefore, entitled to taxpayer-funded medical care in state-of-the-art facilities, then front-line employees—who are required to work for the benefit and survival of us all—should absolutely receive COVID-19 treatment at no cost to them. Legislative action is especially needed due to the current spread of new, highly contagious mutations of COVID-19 in the U.S. With the proposed legislative amendments in place, the U.S. would ensure that survivors are protected from financial devastation due to involuntarily contracting an infectious disease.


INSTITUTIONS OF SETTLEMENT In the years following its establishment of a settlement at Jamestown in 1607, the Virginia Company set out to build an agricultural colony that would earn profits for investors. Toward this end, beginning in 1609 it raised both capital and labor through the device of a commercial company organized as a joint-stock venture. Shares in the company could be acquired either through a subscription of capital or through the pledge of one's labor in America for a period of seven years. The excitement created in England by earlier explorations in North America, fueled by optimistic reports sent back by early settlers in Jamestown, enabled the Virginia Company to raise one of the largest sums ever invested in an English maritime venture. An early failure of the settlement at Jamestown, marked by extremely high rates of mortality and shortages of food and fresh water that resulted in debilitating illness among many of those who survived, was met by a response from the company that would not have surprised English employers of the day. The colony's governor attributed the infamous starving time to the idleness of Virginia's labor force, and during the following years the company moved to eliminate this problem with sterner measures. From 1611 to 1618 the colony was ruled with iron discipline, with a detailed plan for all economic operations. All land was to be owned by the company and farmed collectively. The workers, all men, were to be treated as bound servants of the company for their specified terms.


[1] Global maps of hydrogen abundance near the surface of Mars, interpreted as the mass percent of water-equivalent hydrogen (WEH) have been generated from measurements of neutron leakage fluxes from Mars. Although these data provide an unambiguous indicator of the presence of WEH, quantitative details of its magnitude and burial depth depend on the model of the host regolith that is used to interpret the data. Previous models assumed a spatially uniform surface cover layer having a one-to-two mass percent of WEH and thickness D covering a semi-infinite ice-rich deposit. These assumptions allowed the derivation of the relative proportions of ice and regolith in the lower layer, which had been used to create global maps of WEH in the near surface. In this paper we develop a new method that determines, from the Mars Odyssey Neutron Spectrometer (MONS) data, a self-consistent model of the WEH content of both the upper and lower layers as well as the thickness (D) of the upper layer. The results of our model suggest that large areas at nonpolar latitudes may contain water ice deposits that have abundances that are larger than can be held by normal pore volumes. These deposits are buried less than about 1 m below the surface and may represent buried water ice or high concentrations of hydrous minerals. Intriguingly, the most definitive MONS evidence at intermediate latitudes for excess ground ice corresponds to a region of Arcadia Planitia within which High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) has observed fresh icy craters.


3D stacking of dies is a promising technique to allow miniaturization and performance enhancement of electronic systems. The complexity of the interconnection structures, combined with the reduced thermal spreading in the thinned dies and the poorly thermally conductive adhesives complicate the thermal behavior of a stacked die structure. The same dissipation will lead to higher temperatures and a more pronounced temperature peak in a stacked die package compared to a single die package. Therefore, the thermal behavior in a 3D-IC needs to be studied thoroughly. In this paper, a steady state and transient analysis is presented for hot spots in 3D stacked structures. For this analysis, dedicated test chips with integrated heaters and temperature sensors are used to assess the temperature profile in the different tiers of the stack and to investigate the impact of TSVs on the temperature profile. This experimental set-up is used to evaluated and improve the thermal models for the 3D stacks.


Many of the rivers of Kansas carry large amounts of suspended sediments. The construction of reservoirs has created an environment in which these sediments are deposited. This article describes the nature of these sediments as an environment for benthic organisms. Special attention is paid to sediment particle size distribution and to organic matter


An investigation was carried out to assess the possibility of exploiting heterosis for green fodder yield in maize and to identify parents with desirable genetic effects. Seven maize parents having forage value along with fodder maize variety African Tall were utilized to produce 21 hybrids through Diallel (without reciprocal) mating design. The hybrids along with parents were subjected to study general and specific combining ability for fodder yield and its contributing traits. The analysis of variance revealed that significant differences for general and specific combining ability which indicated the presence of additive as well as non additive gene effects controlling the fodder yield component traits. However, relative magnitude of these variances showed that non additive gene effects were more prominent for most of the traits studied except for leaf length, stem girth, leaf stem ratio and green fodder yield. The parent African Tall was identified as the best general combiner for fodder yield and its contributing characters. The crosses showing significant sca effect for fodder yield involved low × low and low × high gca parents which could be exploited for hybrid vigour. The mid and better parent heterosis expressed by the different crosses were ranged from-26.14 to 97.08% and-55.69 to 70.12% respectively for green fodder yield. Two crosses viz., FDM 7 x African Tall and FDM 37 x African Tall proved to be better and may be studied in future to produce promising fodder maize hybrids which would help to sustain the economic wellbeing of dairy farmers.


The matrix proteins of human plantar horny layers were extracted with deoxycholate, purified and examined with the light and electron microscopes, and their histochemical characteristics were investigated. About 44.3% of the total proteins was released into the 270,000 X g supernatant fraction, following incubation with deoxycholate, and the precipitate obtained by dialysing this supernatant fraction consisted of fine granular materials which were found to be electron dense, round material under the electronmicroscopy. Small electron dense dots were seen on the surface of this material. This pellet was positive with Pauly's reagent, toluidine blue and Harris hematoxylin-eosin. However, the material further purified by the molecular sieve chromatography was negative with Pauly's reagent. And it had been proved to be of keratohyalin granules origin by the indirect immunofluorescent study. Another protein fraction which was obtained by the molecular sieve chromatography was positive with diazotized sulfanilic acid and showed tinctorial properties as keratohyalin granules show in vivo.


Since the discovery of slow slip events, many methods have been successfully applied to model obvious transient events in geodetic time series, such as the widely used network strain filter. Independent seismological observations of tremors or low‐frequency earthquakes and repeating earthquakes provide evidence of low‐amplitude slow deformation but do not always coincide with clear occurrences of transient signals in geodetic time series. Here we aim to extract the signal corresponding to slow slips hidden in the noise of GPS time series, without using information from independent data sets. We first build a library of synthetic slow slip event templates by assembling a source function with Green's functions for a discretized fault. We then correlate the templates with postprocessed GPS time series. Once the events have been detected in time, we estimate their duration T and magnitude Mw by modeling a weighted stack of GPS time series. An analysis of synthetic time series shows that this method is able to resolve the correct timing, location, T, and Mw of events larger than Mw 6 in the context of the Mexico subduction zone. Applied on a real data set of 29 GPS time series in the Guerrero area from 2005 to 2014, this technique allows us to detect 28 transient events from Mw 6.3 to 7.2 with durations that range from 3 to 39 days. These events have a dominant recurrence time of 40 days and are mainly located at the downdip edges of the Mw>7.5 slow slip events.


As others have recognized, the satanic forces in Revelation counterfeit the Trinity. Satan is preeminently a counterfeit of God the Father. The beast, a kind of pseudo-incarnation of Satan, is a counterfeit unholy warrior opposed to Christ the holy warrior (compare Rev 13:1–10 to 19:11–21). The false prophet is a counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. By his deceiving signs the false prophet promotes worship of the beast. His actions are analogous to the manner in which the Holy Spirit works miracles in Acts to promote allegiance to Christ. Babylon the harlot is a counterfeit of the Church, the bride of Christ. The beast counterfeits Christ in a striking number of ways. He has a counterfeit resurrection in the form of a mortal wound that was healed (Rev 13:3). The miraculous character of his healing creates astonishment and followers for him, just as the miracle of the resurrection creates followers of Christ. The beast has ten crowns (13:1), parallel to Christ's many crowns (19:12). The dragon gives the beast "his power and his throne and great authority" (13:2), just as the Father gives the Son his authority (John 5:22– 27). Worship of the dragon and the beast go together (Rev 13:4), just as worship of the Father and the Son go together (John 5:23). The beast claims universal allegiance from all nations (Rev 13:7), just as Christ is Lord over all nations (7:9–10). Moreover, the beginning of Revelation 13, which introduces the beast, sets forth a parody of creation. Satan stands "on the shore of the sea" and calls up from the sea a beast in his own image, with seven heads and ten horns corresponding to the seven heads and ten horns of the dragon (12:3).


A short, mild, and highly chemoselective addition of organolithium reagents to a BF(2) complex of 3-oxopropanoates has been developed. The methodology allows straightforward preparation of various 1,3-dioxa-BF(2) complexes and subsequently leads to the formation of 1,3-diketones starting from the corresponding 3-oxopropanoates.


In order to support intelligent traffic management systems, future traffic sensors will need to provide more traffic variables, and more accurate data than provided by the commonly used sensors today. In particular, future systems will need to recognize vehicles from sensor to sensor in order to measure point-to-point traffic variables like travel time. One characteristic that may be used to match vehicles between sensors is color. This work describes a machine vision based traffic sensor under development that uses sophisticated color signatures as a key component.


Liquid atomization is expected to be a key process in Flame Spray Pyrolysis, as it determines the primary droplet size and velocity distribution, which represent initial conditions for flame shape and temperature field. A well-defined manipulation of atomization may be achieved by variation of nozzle geometry, injection parameter or fluid properties. However, change of fluid properties, e.g. varying solvents or increasing the precursor concentration, also influences the final particle properties. In this work, the influence of precursor concentration on fluid properties, spray and particle formation in Flame Spray Pyrolysis is experimentally investigated. High-speed shadowgraphy and Phase-Doppler measurements are conducted in a semi-closed combustion chamber with a well-defined burner geometry (SpraySyn burner) that is based on a coaxial atomization principle. By adding precursor to the flammable solvent, resulting spray characteristics, flame shape and appearance are changed in color, shape and mean droplet size distribution. Compared to resulting mean droplet sizes of pure solvent mixtures (D32 ≥ 22 μm), mean droplet sizes in the center of the precursor flame at 30 mm above the burner are generally smaller (D32 ≥18 μm). Persisting high share of small droplets in the droplet size distribution are presented, that presumably origin from an accumulation of metal organic precursor at the droplet surface during combustion, that acts as a diffusive barrier for high volatility solvent and thus reduces droplet evaporation. Sufficiently high above the nozzle exit, increasing the precursor concentration does not affect the radial distribution of mean droplet sizes but leads to increased mean particle sizes. More precursor presumably leads to higher concentrations of prime particles in the flame, thus probability of particle collusion and agglomeration. High-speed imaging at nozzle exit revealed random fluctuations of initial jet diameter, paired with jet axis shifting around ∼1000 Hz. These superposed fluctuations determine the initial conditions for atomization, induce pulsations in the flame and thus initiate the entire chain of the particle synthesis process.


Molecules with hypercoordinate planar centers have continued to receive enthusiastic attention due to their violation of the traditional models of three-dimensional chemical bonding and maximum tetracoordination. These electronic exotic but structurally aesthetic species have been optimistically conceived as building blocks in cluster-assembly for bulky materials. Recently, the planar hexacoordinate nitrogen (phN) unit, NB(6)(-), has been theoretically incorporated into a series of sandwich-like transition-metal compounds. However, the intrinsic stability of NB(6)(-) in both gas-phase and assembly has not been tackled, though it is the key factor for predicting the viability of any molecules. In this paper, at the CCSD(T)/6-311+G(2df)//B3LYP/6-311+G(d)+ZPVE level, we investigate for the first time the thermodynamic and kinetic stability of the phN unit, NB(6)(-), in both free and assembled ([NB(6)](2)Fe) forms. The calculated least barrier height of phN towards conversion is 9.2 and 4.4 kcal mol(-1) in free and assembled forms, respectively. Most importantly, the phN structure is thermodynamically rather unstable, by 102.8 and 162.1 kcal mol(-1) higher than the respective lower-lying conversion isomers. Therefore, in view of the combined thermodynamic and kinetic consideration, we propose that isolation of the phN structure of NB(6)(-) in either gas phase or assembly is unlikely. The present results manifest that for predicting any viable molecule with exotic structures, investigation of its "intrinsic stability" is highly necessary. The maintenance of the phN-NB(6)(-) is discussed at the 6-311+G(d)-B3LYP, MP2, CCSD and CCSD(T) optimization levels in comparison with the isoelectronic and milestone phC-CB(6)(2-).


Study Design. A prospective longitudinal study with 1-year follow-up. Summary of Background Data. Little is known about the consequences of having back pain and the patterns underlying the decisions to use medical care. Objectives. The aim of this study is to describe care utilization for low back pain (LBP) and to investigate which factors determine use of care for LBP. Methods. We used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data on individual, health-related, and work-related factors and the type of medical care sought among 529 employees of nursing homes and homes for the elderly in the Netherlands. Logistic regression models were used to present associations between aforementioned factors and care utilization for LBP. Results. A large proportion of the working population was afflicted with LBP, and only one third sought care. Individuals who use care had more intense pain, chronic pain, and functional limitations. Patients' characteristics varied among the different type of health care providers. Well-known work-related risk factors for the occurrence of LBP did not determine use of care for workers with LBP. Conclusions. Care utilization due to LBP was associated with severity and nature of back pain. Patients' characteristics vary among the different type of health care providers, but work-relatedness of LBP seems similar across all providers.


Obesity and osteoarthritis are frequently associated, particularly in older patients. Obesity increases the relative risk to develop knee or hip osteoarthritis, mainly in case of early obesity. This relative risk to develop osteoarthritis increases with body mass index, particularly in women. Early management of obesity, even a moderate weight loss, decreases the risk to develop knee osteoarthritis. Therapeutic management of obese patients is not different from those of non-obese patients; however, it is essential to integrate weight loss within the therapeutic project. Obesity should not be a contraindication to total knee or hip replacement, but weight loss has to be part of the pre- and post surgical management program of the obese patient.


Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was applied to the study of the interaction of molten LiF–NaF salts with candidate structural materials for a nuclear reactor-transmutor cooling circuit. At a working temperature of 680 °C structural materials of heat exchangers are attacked and the melt–alloy interaction provokes microstructural and composition changes of the contact surface. The resulting corrosion-influenced zones were studied by LA-ICP-MS and the maps of elemental distribution were created on the semiquantitative level using the procedure based on the normalization of particular isotopic signals to the sum of signals of all isotopes present in the examined zone. Consequently, LA-ICP-MS signals were measured for structural material constituents (Ni, Cr, Fe, W, Mo, Ti, and Mn) and for cationic constituents of the cooling medium (Li and Na). The hypothetical fluorine signal was calculated as a sum of Li and Na signals. Corrosion products in the exposed cooling medium were determined by ICP-OES after dissolution. Of the three examined candidate structural materials (pure nickel, nickel-based alloy A071EV and nickel-coated iron) pure nickel exhibits the best resistance.


Purpose: Imatinib is an efficacious drug against chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) due to selective inhibition of c-KIT and BCR-ABL kinases. It presents almost complete bioavailability, is eliminated via P450-mediated metabolism and is well tolerated. However, a few severe drug-drug interactions have been reported in cancer patients taking acetaminophen. Materials and Methods: Male ICR mice were given 100 mg/kg single dose of imatinib orally or imatinib 100 mg/kg (orally) coadministered with acetaminophen intraperitoneally (700 mg/kg). Mice were euthanized at predetermined time points, blood samples collected, and imatinib plasma concentration measured by HPLC. Results: Imatinib AUC0-12 was 27.04 ± 0.38 mg·h/ml, Cmax was 7.21 ± 0.99 mg/ml and elimination half-life was 2.3 hours. Acetaminophen affected the imatinib disposition profile: AUC0-12 and Cmax decreased 56% and 59%, respectively and a longer half-life was observed (5.6 hours). Conclusions: The study shows a pharmacokinetic interaction between acetaminophen and imatinib which may render further human studies necessary if both drugs are administered concurrently to cancer patients.


Durable and sustained suppression of HIV replication can be achieved as demonstrated in several recent clinical trials of antiretroviral (ARV) regimens. However, the efficacy demonstrated in the experimental setting does not always translate to effectiveness in the clinical setting. The frequency and number of medications (conventionally referred to as the pill count) contribute to regimen effectiveness. However, clinicians and HIV-infected patients recognise that there are several other characteristics of an ARV regimen that are equally important contributors to its effectiveness. Potency and durability, the potential for drug-drug interactions, and the occurrence of adverse events also contribute to the effectiveness and complexity of a drug regimen. A comprehensive consideration of factors associated with efficacy will optimise the translation to effectiveness for the individual infected with HIV.


Study Design One hundred patients underwent lumbar nerve root decompression without fusion. All patients were registered preoperatively in a computer-coded protocol and followed at regular intervals: 4, 12, and 24 months after surgery. A number of subjective and objective variables were investigated including data on preoperative and postoperative working conditions and sick listing. Patients' opinions on pain relief were assessed using a 4-grade scale. Objectives Surgical results and impact on sick leave and working conditions in patients who underwent surgery for lateral spinal stenosis were evaluated in a prospective, consecutive study. Summary of Background Data Preoperatively, 81 of the patients were employed, 21 in sedentary work, 36 in moderately heavy work, and 24 in heavy work. The majority of the patients (78%) were off work (sick listed) with a mean duration of 13 months. Mean preoperative duration of sciatic pain was 2.5 years. Methods Working conditions were classified into one of three categories: sedentary, moderately heavy, and heavy work. Distribution of working conditions preoperatively and postoperatively was assessed in conjunction with duration of sick leave. Change of work category postoperatively was evaluated and related to preoperative working conditions. Results The effect of decompression for sciatica due to lateral spinal stenosis was gratifying in most cases with excellent results in 65% and fair in 23% of the patients concerning leg pain. The majority of patients employed preoperatively (73%) returned to work after a postoperative sick leave of 5.5 months. Patients who received disability pension postoperatively had significantly inferior surgical result concerning back pain and were also sick listed significantly longer preoperatively. Conclusion Thus, lateral spinal stenosis was improved in the majority of patients (88%) who underwent surgery, and the majority of patients who were employed before surgery returned to work after.


In July 1968, a seminar was organized in Douala, attended by the directors of Cameroon's young new theater companies as well as by interested students and workers. The participants listened to a series of lectures stressing the challenges a new troupe has to meet in order to succeed, and witnessed an exhibition of photography on the theme of the theater. They took a positive step toward a better theater by creating the ANGT (Association Nationale des Gens de Theâtre) aimed at protecting the spectator by improving the quality of plays.


Objective—The role of insulin in atherosclerosis progression in diabetes is uncertain. We examined the effects of oral insulin supplementation on atherogenesis in apolipoprotein E-deficient (E0) mice. Methods and Results—One-month-old male E0 mice were orally supplemented with human insulin (0.1, 0.5, and 1 U/mL) or placebo for 3 months. At the end of the study, serum and macrophage oxidative stress and atherosclerosis progression were studied. Insulin reduced lesion size by 22% to 37% (P <0.05) in all study groups. Lipid peroxides serum levels were 18% lower (P <0.01), and serum paraoxonase activity was 30% higher (P <0.01) in mice supplemented with 1.0 U/mL insulin compared with controls. Insulin reduced mouse peritoneal macrophage (MPM) lipid peroxides content and superoxide anion release by up to 44% and 62%, respectively (P <0.01). In addition, oral insulin reduced MPM cholesterol content and cholesterol biosynthesis by up to 36% and 53%, respectively (P <0.01). In vitro incubation of E0 mice MPM with increasing insulin concentrations (0 to 100 &mgr;U/mL) resulted in a dose-dependent reduction of cholesterol synthesis by up to 66% (P <0.05). Conclusions—In E0 mice, oral insulin supplementation attenuates the atherosclerotic process. This may be attributable to insulin-mediated reduction of oxidative stress in serum and macrophages as well as reduction in macrophage cholesterol content.


The southern tip of the Thal desert in Pakistan harbors the remnants of the original tropical thorn forest, amounting to two percent, which covered the province of Punjab a hundred years ago. In the past three decades, there has been a progressive decline in woody species cover on dunes, which is directly related to the increase in population in the surrounding area. Stabilized and destabilized dunes were subjectively selected followed by quantification of cover and diversity of woody species on the top and lower slopes. Dunes closely resembling the overall cover were grouped to suggest corresponding restoration measures. The results suggest that trends of decrease in cover and diversity of woody species were evident in the upper slopes of some stabilized dunes having less than 50% cover. The destabilized dunes with less than 20% cover are highly vulnerable to erosion. A general trend observed among dunes was that with a decrease in the cover of upper slopes, there is a decrease in the cover on lower slopes. The number of desta-bilized dunes is increasing without effective restoration measures against the prevailing trends of disturbances. Ranking dunes on the basis of cover could help in proposing simple restoration measures as a first step towards developing an understanding of designing adaptive strategies to restore the woody cover.


The article deals with specific rating of research work for the faculty and identifying internal components of research work and their decomposition with further distribution into duties and setting norms for each element of the structure in research or project. Current approaches to research work were studied and recommendations on its structure were given with due respect to digitalization. Based on the analysis of research work rating the author formulated an approach of splitting workers with regard to their individual qualities. The information base of the article was formed by normative and legal acts of the Russian Federation, state programs, data of the Federal Service of State Statistics, analytical reports, guiding materials and methodological recommendations, periodical economic publications, data of rating agencies, materials of conferences, official information dealing with work rating for the faculty of Russian universities and publications in mass media and the Internet. The author identifies theoretical and methodological approaches to developing the mechanism of work rating and regulating for the faculty on the basis of new principles of labour distribution aimed at raising labour productivity and quality of specialists' training.


Domain adaptation (DA) tries to tackle the scenarios when the test data does not fully follow the same distribution of the training data, and multi-source domain adaptation (MSDA) is very attractive for real world applications. By learning from large-scale unlabeled samples, self-supervised learning has now become a new trend in deep learning. It is worth noting that both self-supervised learning and multi-source domain adaptation share a similar goal: they both aim to leverage unlabeled data to learn more expressive representations. Unfortunately, traditional multi-task self-supervised learning faces two challenges: (1) the pretext task may not strongly relate to the downstream task, thus it could be difficult to learn useful knowledge being shared from the pretext task to the target task; (2) when the same feature extractor is shared between the pretext task and the downstream one and only different prediction heads are used, it is ineffective to enable inter-task information exchange and knowledge sharing. To address these issues, we propose a novel Self-Supervised Graph Neural Network (SSG), where a graph neural network is used as the bridge to enable more effective inter-task information exchange and knowledge sharing. More expressive representation is learned by adopting a mask token strategy to mask some domain information. Our extensive experiments have demonstrated that our proposed SSG method has achieved state-of-the-art results over four multi-source domain adaptation datasets, which have shown the effectiveness of our proposed SSG method from different aspects.


The Variational Garrote is a promising new approach for sparse solutions of ill-posed linear inverse problems (Kappen and Gomez, 2012). We reformulate the prior of the Variational Garrote to follow a simple Binomial law and assign a Beta hyper-prior on the parameter. With the new prior the Variational Garrote, we show, has a wide range of parameter values for which it at the same time provides low test error and high retrieval of the true feature locations. Furthermore, the new form of the prior and associated hyper-prior leads to a simple update rule in a Bayesian variational inference scheme for its hyperparameter. As a second contribution we provide evidence that the new procedure can improve on cross-validation of the parameters and we find that the new formulation of the prior outperforms the original formulation when both are cross-validated to determine hyperparameters.


Author(s): Choi, Seokwon | Advisor(s): Sturman, Peter C. | Abstract: Zeng Jing (1564–1647) was a professional portraitist in late Ming China who specialized in informal portraits of contemporary literati in the Jiangnan region. Zeng's portrait oeuvre embodies the Jiangnan literati's eremitic aspirations, illuminating the ways in which the literati visually constructed their reclusive personae. Zeng depicted members of Jiangnan cultural elite as commoners or as mountain men, integrating the literati heritage of eremitism with a range of pictorial traditions of representing reclusive figures. The casual dress, relaxed postures, and informal settings in Zeng's portraits functioned as visual signifiers of the political disengagement and reclusive lifestyle that his sitters pursued. Zeng's focus on individualized physiognomy indicates the politically frustrated literati's strong sense of self-awareness. Zeng designed all his portraits to convey the Jiangnan literati's values of political insubordination, cultural self-contentment, and collective identity of reclusion.Zeng Jing's portraits give visible form to the complex mindset of the reclusive literati and to the values and aspirations that characterized late Ming eremitism. Zeng's appropriation and reinterpretation of the conventional scholar-in-landscape composition concretizes the enduring notion of reclusion as communing with nature. Zeng's pictorial allusions to venerable recluses from earlier ages of Chinese history and his subtle use of Buddhist and Daoist iconography show how archaism and syncretism permeated the literati's ethos of reclusion. Zeng's portraits, coupled with the portrait encomia written by the sitters and their companions, emerge as both pictorial and literary testimonies of the Jiangnan literati's self-fashioning. Through the collective acts of appreciating and inscribing portraits, the Jiangnan literati used Zeng's portraits as a means to create camaraderie within reclusion. During Zeng's most prolific years, many members of Chen Jiru and Dong Qichang's coterie in Huating shared in the ideal of reclusion by sitting for portraits by Zeng, while the literary giant Chen collaborated with Zeng by providing encomia to Zeng's portraits. As focal points for individual expression, social posturing, and aesthetic experience, Zeng's portraits forged the Jiangnan literati's eremitic cultural identity in reaction to the sociopolitical unrest of the late Ming.


In our health care system, we strive to provide the right patients with the right care at the right time. The charter of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Value & Science-Driven Health Care states: "By the year 2020, 90% of clinical decisions will be supported by accurate, timely, and up-to-date clinical information, and will reflect the best available evidence."1 The optimal management of patients with ischemic stroke and a patent foramen ovale (PFO) remains unclear, although we applaud the novel analytic approach from the Tufts-based international consortium.2


Mutations in the gene encoding Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) result in X‐linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA), an immunodeficiency of antibody defect. By using base excision sequence scanning method (BESS) followed by direct sequencing we found in seven unrelated families with a classical XLA phenotype various mutations including six novel mutations (g.64512_64513insC, c.108_109insG, c.1700_1701insACTACAG, g.51375_51376GC>TG, g.63991_63992insGGTAGAAAAAA, c.1956_1957insCA) and a previously known silent polymorphism (c.2031C>T). Except for two mutations, the alterations affect the kinase domain. There was exceptionally high proportion of insertions in the cohort. Frameshift insertion was found altogether in five patients, three of which are on introns, one in upstream region, and one in exon 18 leading to frameshift mutation and truncation of the protein. In the intron 4 there is a substitution of two bases. Carrier detection was performed in four families. In one case the mutation was found to be de novo. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In an attempt to test the hypothesis that rat's can perform very similar behaviours to episodic memory in humans, we here develop a novel Paviovian conditioning procedure demonstrating integrated whatwhere-when representations. Rats explored two distinctive contexts, one in the morning and the other in the evening. Subsequently, either in the morning or the evening, they received a foot shock immediately upon entry into a third context that equally resembled the two explored contexts. When conditioned freezing was measured at an intermediate time of day, rats showed significantly more fear of the context congruent with the time of day of the foot shock. Thus, rats automatically form an integrated time-place memory that can be flexibly updated by future events, essential characteristics of episodic memory. Furthermore, it is shown that these memories rely upon some of the same neuroanatomical structures, including the medial prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, as are specifically required for episodic memory in humans.


The transient of a self-mixing interferometry (SMI) sensing system is investigated in this paper by solving the well known Lang and Kobayashi (LK) equations. Specifically, the influence of two important system parameters, i.e., the feedback level factor and the linewidth enhancement factor, on the transient is discussed, showing that the decay time and the oscillation period of the transient respectively increases and decreases with the increase of the feedback level factor, and both increase with the increase of linewidth enhancement factor. The results presented in this paper are useful for designing a stable SMI system.


UNLABELLED
Amiodarone (AMI) is a potent antiarrhythmic drug, but its metabolism has not yet been fully documented. Mono-N-desethylamiodarone (MDEA) is its only known metabolite. Our preliminary investigations using rabbit liver microsomes had shown that in vitro AMI was biotransformed to MDEA, and the latter was rapidly further biodegraded to other unknown products. The aim of the present study was to investigate the chemical structure of the biotransformed compound of MDEA. Upon incubation of MDEA with rabbit liver microsomes and NADPH as cofactor, MDEA was biotransformed into three unknown products: X1, X2, and X3. The products were purified using chromatography. The chemical structure of the major product, X1, was investigated in detail. HPLC-ESI-MS revealed that MDEA had been oxygenated. Hydrogen-deuterium exchange experiments showed that the X1 molecule contained one exchangeable hydrogen atom more than its precursor MDEA, indicating that MDEA had been hydroxylated. Further results from ESI-MS/MS analysis indicated that the site of hydroxylation was the n-butyl side chain. NMR analysis (1H NMR, one-dimensional-total correlation spectroscopy, and heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation spectroscopy) established the 3-position (omega-1) of the butyl moiety as the specific carbon atom that is hydroxylated. Rat liver microsomes were also able to catalyze MDEA hydroxylation. Compound X1, as analyzed by HPLC-ESI-MS and ESI-MS/MS, was detected in the liver, heart, lung, and kidney tissue of four rats receiving AMI, suggesting that the hydroxylated MDEA was a secondary metabolite of AMI.

CONCLUSION
in mammals, MDEA is hydroxylated to the secondary metabolite of AMI [2-(3-hydroxybutyl)-3-[4-(3-ethylamino-1-oxapropyl)-3,5-diiodobenzoyl]-benzofuran].


This paper presents a new approach to securing information stored in a database. It has three components including: an operation for indexing images using Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), which will constitute the reference images, asymmetric encryption operation using Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC), aiming to make confidential these reference images stored and a technique for comparing these images to a query image using the Euclidian Distance..


Although the organic production concept is characterised by an efficient and environmentally sound production that is based on a few off-farm inputs as well as recycling organically grown products. Organic products are often perceived as safer and more promotive to consumers' health as compared to products from conventional or integrated production systems. However, from a hygienic point of view, animal husbandry and plant crop production can share a larger contact interface in organic farming than in conventional or integrated production systems due to a higher usage of animal waste products and composts which are mainly used for soil health and fertility purposes. Furthermore, animals may also play an integral part in crop rotation/management (i.e., pasture) in organic horticulture. However, there are also organic systems which exclude any livestock inputs (vegan organic). This paper assesses the organic production of fruits and vegetables in light of the "one health"-concept. The "one health"-concept encompasses human medicine, veterinary medicine and husbandry science with zoonoses as the linking element. However, this concept does not consider plant foods as a potential health hazard. In light of the "one health"-concept, the organic production of fruits and vegetables, in particular for products that are consumed raw or after minimal processing, is a hotspot for the transmission of fecal pathogens and completes the pathogens' transmission cycle between animals and humans and/or humans and humans. This review focuses on four critical routes of transmission (i) soil and soil fertility management, ii) irrigation water, iii) presence of livestock and wildlife, iv) humans) and discusses the measures (risk assessment, hurdle concept, guidelines and risk based inspection regimes) to be taken for the organic (and conventional with livestock inputs) production of safe fruits and vegetables. We concluded that a mixture of measures is available to manage risks within the "one health"-concept and this includes a choice for consumers to source more vegan organic products that are produced without any animal inputs.


We discovered a novel therapeutic target critical for SARS-CoV-2, cellular infectivity and the induction of the cytokine release syndrome. Here, we show that the mammalian enzyme neuraminidase-1 (Neu-1) is part of a highly conserved signaling platform that regulates the dimerization and activation of the ACE2 receptors and the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) implicated in the cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Activated Neu-1 cleaves glycosylated residues that provide a steric hindrance to both ACE2 and TLR dimerization, a process critical to both viral attachment to the receptor and entry into the cell and TLR activation. Blocking Neu-1 inhibited ACE2 receptor dimerization and internalization, TLR dimerization and activation, and the expression of several key inflammatory molecules implicated in the CRS and death from ARDS. Treatments that target Neu-1 are predicted to be highly effective against infection with SARS-CoV-2, given the central role played by this enzyme in viral cellular entry and the induction of the CRS.


ABSTRACT We invited students beginning BA and MA courses in Translation Studies in Monterey and Vienna to formulate questions that they would like to see answered. The categorisation and analysis of 662 of their questions indicates that (1) by far the most questions concern financial and business aspects of the translation professions, (2) there is a widespread pessimistic discourse about the social status and future of these professions, (3) new technologies are predominantly seen as rivals of human translators rather than a set of aids, although this fear is less pronounced in the US context than in the European institution, (4) there is a persistent concern with the ways in which translation theory can help practice, with the widespread assumption in the US groups that it cannot, (5) there is genuine interest in the cognitive processes of translators and interpreters, and (6) the distribution of concerns varies significantly between institutions and sometimes between different years at the same institution. When taking account of such questions, course designers should be aware of the areas where professional advice does better than any academic discipline, where hands-on experimentation is the most valuable form of learning and where a few theoretical terms and concepts can be used to focus exchanges rather than being presented as a body of knowledge in themselves.


In general, the importance of cluster analysis is that one can evaluate elements by clustering multiple homogeneous data; the main objective of this analysis is to collect the elements of a single, homogeneous group into different divisions, depending on many variables. This method of analysis is used to reduce data, generate hypotheses and test them, as well as predict and match models. The research aims to evaluate the fuzzy cluster analysis, which is a special case of cluster analysis, as well as to compare the two methods— classical and fuzzy cluster analysis. The research topic has been allocated to the government and private hospitals. The sampling for this research was comprised of 288 patients being treated in 10 hospitals. As the similarity between hospitals of the study sample was measured according to the standards of quality of health services under fuzzy conditions (a case of uncertainty of the opinions of patients who were in the evaluation of health services provided to them, which was represented by a set of criteria and was measured in the form of a Likert five-point scale). Moreover, those criteria were organized into a questionnaire containing 31 items. The research found a number of conclusions, the most important is that both methods of hierarchical cluster analysis and fuzzy cluster analysis, classify the hospitals of the research sample into two clusters, each cluster comprises a group of hospitals that depend on applying health quality service standards. The second important conclusion is that the fuzzy cluster analysis is more suitable for the classification of the research sample compared to hierarchical cluster analysis.


Type 3 secretion systems (T3SS) are essential virulence factors of numerous bacterial pathogens and inject effector proteins into host cells. The needle-like T3SS machinery consists of more than 20 components, has a length of around 100 nm and a diameter of up to 30 nm according to EM studies. Its intrabacterial components are highly dynamic and in permanent exchange with other bacterial structures. Therefore, a temporally and spatially resolved visualization of the T3SS using fluorescence microscopy techniques has been challenging. In the present study, novel labeling strategies were combined with super-resolution microscopy such as STED, STORM and MINFLUX. MINFLUX nanoscopy allowed to visualize components of the T3SS machinery such as the dynamic sorting platform component YscL and the extrabacterial pore protein YopD at unprecedented resolutions. The presented results represent the basis for an in depth investigation of T3SS structure and function and therefore gain new insights into the infection process of human pathogens in order to develop novel treatment and prevention strategies.


ABSTRACT To reclassify phenotypically identified Staphylococcus intermedius strains, which might include true S. intermedius strains and novel species such as Staphylococcus pseudintermedius and Staphylococcus delphini, we analyzed molecular phylogenies and phenotypic characteristics of 117 S. intermedius group (SIG) strains tentatively identified as being S. intermedius by the Rapid ID32 Staph assay. From phylogenetic analyses of sodA and hsp60 sequences, the SIG strains were divided into three clusters, which belonged to S. pseudintermedius LMG 22219T, S. intermedius ATCC 29663T, and S. delphini LMG 22190T. All the SIG strains from dogs, cats, and humans were identified as being S. pseudintermedius. The wild pigeon strains, except one, were identified as being S. intermedius, and strains from all domestic pigeons, one wild pigeon, horses, and a mink were identified as being S. delphini. In addition, a phylogenetic analysis of nuc genes revealed that S. delphini strains were divided into two clusters: one was the cluster (S. delphini group A) that belonged to S. delphini LMG 22190T, and the other was the cluster (S. delphini group B) that was more related to S. pseudintermedius LMG 22219T than S. delphini LMG 22190T. The DNA-DNA hybridization results showed that S. delphini group B strains were distinguished from S. delphini group A, S. intermedius, and S. pseudintermedius strains. S. intermedius is distinguishable from S. pseudintermedius or S. delphini by positive arginine dihydrolase and acid production from β-gentiobiose and d-mannitol. However, phenotypical characteristics to differentiate S. delphini group A, S. delphini group B, and S. pseudintermedius were not found. In conclusion, SIG strains were reclassified into four clusters with three established and one probably novel species.


The optical fiber geometry is known for rugged, high power laser sources that are preferred for many applications, but is typically limited to the visible and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum due to the transmission limits of silica (< 2 µm). This wavelength range could be extended into the mid-infrared using transition metal doped, crystalline II-VI optical gain media, but these materials cannot be fabricated into optical fibers using conventional glass drawing methods. An in-situ high pressure chemical vapor deposition method for the fabrication of silica-cladded ZnSe fiber cores uniformly doped with Cr2+ is reported. Optical pumping experiments reveal that these doped fibers exhibit threshold behavior and thus function as mid-infrared optical fiber lasers. Finite element calculations show that undesirable thermal effects common in bulk II-VI crystals are mitigated in the fiber geometry.


This study confirms that resilience is embodied by the pragmatic function 'ego expansion' revealed in the poems of the above three poets. The poems in which the 'ego expansion' that is the foundation of resilience emerged revealed the process of meaning generation in a new light. The formation of the relationship between the medium and the goal by the pragmatic function 'ego expansion' contained in each text is illustrated by the meaning-generating process of resilience. The difference of the ego expansion from general growth is in relationality. Cognitive structures have emerged in which the medium and the goal by the connectivist spread resilience through the principle of sameness. Mental space, which is the operating element of ego expansion, was typed into 'time spaces', 'space spaces', 'domain spaces', 'hypothetical spaces', etc, to form a semantic space. In the poem of Yun Dongju, the resilience caused by the ego expansion into the multi-ego of ego is revealed as a type of mental space of 'domain spaces', 'hypothetical spaces' and 'time spaces'. In particular, the cognitive background of time spaces was generally implied, and cognitive settings that ruminate on the ego in time spaces were dominant. The ego expansion is revealed in the superego and the split ego, and the ego expansion into the split ego is highlighted. The resilience, the orientation of the superego to overcome the agony of ego that pursues the ideal goal to overcome the difficulty of the reality and the internal and external hardship is expressed was watched. Even in the trial product that calls the past ego and forms the split ego, the will of resilience of possitive future was expressed. In the poem of Han Yongun, the transitional ego expansion into the subject's object was represented by 'hypothetical spaces', and the type of mental space of 'space spaces' was revealed dominant and evidently so the resilience of transitional aspect into the object of the subject was clearly highlighted. The will to overcome the absolute pursuit of cognitive object and the cognitive distance with the cognitive object was expressed in the subject and objective ideology by conectivist's ego expansion of pragmatic function. The cognitive attitude to identify the subject and the object was reinforced through the transitional ego expansion into the object of the subject. The orientation into the identity of the subject and the object appeared in the text was firm, and the resilience of ego expansion by the mental action seen as the cognitive action principle was expressed. In the poem of Baek Seok, the 'time spaces' was lied in the text in the cognitive situation setting where the exclusive ego expansion into the community of the object is occurred, specially the 'domain spaces' was evidently revealed. That is because the multi-layer time spaces cognitively forms several activity areas of our life. On the other hand, it was possible to identify even the type of 'space spaces', and it shows the space that has no spatial limit of community. In the text, such symbols as the holidays, residential space, lifetool, agriculture, food, solar term, daily life were used to represent the resilience of family community and local community. In the part focused by community consiciousness that is originated from the natural object and object, the poetic setting that recognizes the community consciousness where the time spaces is expanded was focused. The generation of positivity and happiness that attract the resilience appeared in the text was seen as the community dimension rather than the personal dimension.


In this paper, energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analyses of a solar absorption refrigeration cycle with energy storage are conducted. In this cycle, nanofluid is used as the heat transfer fluid (HTF) in a flat plate collector to improve the performance of the cycle. Based on the results of the analyses, the type of nanofluid and working conditions that lead to lower cost of cooling effect and higher COP and exergy efficiency of the cycle are found. The results show that utilisation of CuO and Al2O3 nanofluids with 5% volume fraction increases the COP of the solar cycle by 17.98% and 14.51%, respectively, whereas the exergy-based cost rate of cooling decreases by 10.25% and 5.48%, respectively. Utilisation of the CuO nanofluid as the HTF is found to be more favourable for improving the performance of the cycle and decreasing the exergy-based cost of cooling.


Let k be a field of characteristic zero, and let X be a projective variety embedded into a projective space over k. For two natural numbers r and d let Cr,d(X) be the Chow scheme parametrizing effective cycles of dimension r and degree d on the variety X. Choosing an r-cycle of minimal degree gives rise to a chain of embeddings of Chow schemes, whose colimit is the connective Chow monoid C∞ r (X) of r-cycles on X. Let BC ∞ r (X) be the classifying motivic space of this monoid. In the paper we establish an isomorphism between the Chow group CHr(X)0 of degree 0 dimension r algebraic cycles modulo rational equivalence on X, and the group of sections of the Nisnevich sheaf of A-path connected components of the loop space of BC∞ r (X) at Spec(k). Equivalently, CHr(X)0 is isomorphic to the group of sections of the stabilized motivic fundamental group Π ∧A 1 (BC ∞ r (X)) at Spec(k).


Large construction projects are inherently complex and dynamic. Many projects start with good ideas, huge investments and great efforts. However, most of them do not achieve much success. A major contribution to unsuccessful projects is the lack of understanding on scope, time, cost and quality. Projects as powerful strategic weapons when initiated create economic value and competitive advantage. The objective of the research is to explicitly declare the scope of the research to by considering only the scope, time, cost and quality as process success parameters and how specifically the cost element would influence the project success when all other elements or factors other than cost are represented in terms of cost factor along with the contract conditions as basic rules or constraints that drive the strategic cost based on applying the CRASP methodology concept. The concept of benchmarking would provide right meaning of project success when allowing to properly distributing the meaning of customer profitability to the project providers (project owner and contractors).


Companies need programs to facilitate easy movement of employees across bor¬ders. To establish a global program, the companies should first step back and make sure that the culture and belief structures in various countries will support the type of program they intend. In this millennium, international human resources (HR) will undergo a rapid trans¬formation. Strategic areas such as the integration of compensation, global staffing and busi¬ness strategy, and various issues of international HR are challenging. Expatriate compensa¬tion, for example, is presently the hottest issues in today's discussion of international HR Compensation system should support the overall strategic intent of the organization but be customized for local condition. Keywords: Global, Compensation, Expatiate.


The combination of surface modification and nanotechnology was applied to modify the surface properties of metal materials. Titanium ions were implanted into the surface nanocrystalline copper by using metal vapor vacuum arc (MEVVA). Titanium implantation was QOCCWSR)cbObbVSQV)aS?W)?R)aSa(o� 17 ions/cm 2 and the energy of 40 keV. The surface microstructure and concentration distribution of implanted ions were characterized by using transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The results showed that after the surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT) the microstructure of the surface layer may be refined into the nanoscale. The concentration of implanted ions followed Gauss distribution. The specimens after ion implantation have a remarkable enhancement of corrosion resistance with respect to the specimens without the surface treatment.


Objective. To identify and build consensus on priority leadership and professionalism attributes for pharmacy student development among faculty, preceptors, and students. Methods. One hundred individuals (27 faculty members, 30 preceptors, 43 students) were invited to participate in a three-round, modified Delphi. Published literature on leadership and professionalism informed the initial attribute list. In the first round, participants reviewed and provided feedback on this list. In the second round, participants prioritized attributes as highly important, important, or less important for pharmacy student development. Leadership and professionalism attributes that achieved an overall consensus (a priori set to ≥80.0%) of being highly important or important for pharmacy student development were retained. In the third round, participants rank ordered priorities for leadership and professionalism attributes. Results. Fifteen leadership and 20 professionalism attributes were included in round one while 21 leadership and 21 professionalism attributes were included in round two. Eleven leadership and 13 professionalism attributes advanced to round three. Consensus was reached on the top four leadership attributes (adaptability, collaboration, communication, integrity) and five professionalism attributes (accountability, communication, honor and integrity, respect for others, trust). Differences were observed for certain attributes between faculty members, preceptors, and/or students. Conclusion. The modified Delphi technique effectively identified and prioritized leadership and professionalism attributes for pharmacy student development. This process facilitated consensus building and identified gaps among stakeholders (ie, faculty, preceptors, students). Identified gaps may represent varying priorities among stakeholders and/or different opportunities for emphasis and development across classroom, experiential, and/or cocurricular settings.


We have investigated factors that may have an effect on dsRNA analysis of citrus tristeza virus (CTV). Storage of bark tissue and purified dsRNA at -20 C for up to at least 4 yr and repeated freezing and thawing of each of them appeared to have no detrimental effect on the quality of dsRNA detected by polyacrylamide gel eletrophoresis. The aqueous phase following phenol extraction could be stored at room temperature or at 4 C with or without ethanol (adjusted to 16.5%) for at least 2 weeks. Buffer saturated phenol which has been kept at room temperature for 2.5 yr was still useful for CTV ds RNA extraction. DsRNA extraction could be done without adding nuclease inhibitors, i.e. bentonite or macaloid. Precipitated dsRNA could be recovered by centrifugation immediately after addition of ethanol and sodium acetate. Hosts which yielded good dsRNAs were Pineapple, Navel, and Valencia sweet orange and the scions of Madam Vinous sweet orange on sour orange rootstock. Shoots from the sour orange rootstock gave poor results. Green bark tissue from the older part of the current shoot usually gave a better result than tissue from the young tender shoot tip and the old brown stem from previous flushes. DsRNA results were least acceptable in the summer from various well infected screenhouse grown citrus species. Citrus virologists have attempted to develop several techniques for the identification of strains of citrus tristeza virus (CTV) and these may now be used to complement established methods which rely on biological indexing in seedlings of C i t m s spp. (9). The newer methods include the use of monoclonal antibodies (10,15,20), nucleic acid hybridization probes (6,7,16, 17,18), and double-stranded (ds) RNA analysis (3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13). DsRNA analysis has been used to discriminate between multiple strains since each is often clearly distinguished from all others. The other techniques are better suited for grouping strains into broad categories based on their reactivity or not with a single reagent. Correlations with biological properties have been obtained with all methods, but much more work will be needed before they can be used with confidence to type any strain for virulence without resort to biological indexing. Dodds et al. (6,8) and Lee (13) have demonstrated the value of dsRNA analysis for CTV detection, diagnosis and for identification of strains. In subsequent studies, the value of the technique for investigating host-virus interactions including host passage effects, seasonal variation, and field surveys has been demonstrated (5,7,11). In the course of doing these various experiments we have gained additional insight into factors that need or do not need critical attention in order to obtain reliable results. We have also had numerous requests to provide information and share our experiences in order to solve problems with dsRNA analysis. This article summarizes several experiments which were designed to answer questions about dsRNA analysis of CTV using cellulose chromatography purification and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for analysis. Some of the experiments (PAGE) selected for inclusion in this report will be of special interest to those with limited resources who would like to adopt the technique or simplify the process while reducing overall costs without sacrificing the quality of the results. In addition, experiments which are extensions or continuations of previous studies (more strains, additional hosts, other growth conditions, etc.) are also


In a case now famous for its unconventionality, Irvin Yalom had his financially strapped patient submit written reports of the experience of her therapy sessions rather than pay a monetary fee. He also wrote reports of each session, and the two of them shared royalties from the book, Every Day Gets a Little Closer, eventually produced. The arrangement yielded enough process detail to warrant examination through Robert Langs's method of listening and formulating. From that perspective, it seems Yalom did not understand the encoded messages from his patient in reaction to the frame deviations, which resulted in a deterioration of the communicative field and treatment alliance. Yalom did help his patient to become more appropriately assertive, but her inner fragmentation was untouched.


We show that the probability that a multilinear polynomial $f$ of independent random variables exceeds its mean by $\lambda$ is at most $e^{-\lambda^2 / (R^q Var(f))}$ for sufficiently small $\lambda$, where $R$ is an absolute constant. This matches (up to constants in the exponent) what one would expect from the central limit theorem. Our methods handle a variety of types of random variables including Gaussian, Boolean, exponential, and Poisson. Previous work by Kim-Vu and Schudy-Sviridenko gave bounds of the same form that involved less natural parameters in place of the variance.


The study aimed to determine the effect of starter cultures (kefir grains and natural kefir starter culture without grains) on Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) survival and on the quality characteristics of kefir. To this end, the viability of probiotic L. rhamnosus GG strain and the rheological properties and quality parameters of kefir beverages were tested during storage over 21 days at 4 °C. The final LGG counts were 7.71 and 7.55 log cfu/mL in natural kefir starter culture and kefir grain, respectively. When prepared with probiotic bacteria, the syneresis values of kefir prepared using natural kefir starter culture was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than that of kefir made using grains. However, the viscosity indices, hysteresis loop, and dynamic moduli were similar between kefir made with natural kefir starter culture and other kefir formulations (p > 0.05). Moreover, all samples showed shear-thinning behavior. The flavor scores for kefir prepared using natural kefir starter culture were significantly higher than for the other samples (p < 0.05), but overall acceptability was similar at the 10-day assessment across both starters (with and without grain) after the addition of probiotic bacteria (p > 0.05). Overall, the results indicate that natural kefir starter culture could be a potential probiotic carrier.


Testicular descent is a complex mechanism influenced by hormonal and anatomical factors. Whatever the age of the patient or the descent technique used for either one or both testes, there is a risk of degeneration and sterility counts. Anatomical studies and the results of sperm are important, hence the importance of establishing a precise anatomical and therapeutic classification.


It is important to study the recent malaria incidence trends in urban areas resulting from rapid urbanization that can lead to changes in environmental conditions for malaria. This retrospective study assessed trends in malaria patients, their distribution according to parasite species, patient demographics, and weather data for the past 8 years at a malaria clinic in the National Institute of Malaria Research, New Delhi, India. We overlaid the effects of environmental factors such as rainfall, relative humidity, and temperature on malaria incidence. The malaria data were digitized for a period spanning 2012 to 2019, during which 36,892 patients with fever attended the clinic. Of these, 865 (2.3%) were diagnosed with malaria microscopically. Plasmodium vivax was predominant (96.2%), and very few patients were of Plasmodium falciparum (3.5%) or mixed infections (0.3%). The patients with malaria were within a 10-km radius of the clinic. Males (70.9%) were more commonly affected than females (29.1%). Of the total malaria patients, a majority (∼78%) belonged to the > 15-year age group. A total of 593 malaria patients (68.6%) received primaquine. These patients were most commonly diagnosed in April through October. Furthermore, there was a lag of 1 month between the rainfall peak and the malaria case peak. The peak in malaria cases corresponded to a mean temperature of 25 to 30°C and a relative humidity of 60% to 80%. This analysis will be useful for policymakers in evaluating current interventions and in accelerating malaria control further in urban areas of India.


In On Virtue Ethics I offered a criterion for a character trait's being a virtue according to which a virtuous character trait must conduce to, or at least not be inimical to, four ends, one of which is the continuance of the human species. I argue here that this does not commit me to homosexuality's being a vice, since homosexuality is not a character trait and hence not up for assessment as a virtue or a vice. Vegetarianism is not up for such assessment either, for the same reason, but, as a practice, may well be required by the virtue of compassion, and sacrificing one's life for an animal or alien may be required by courage. The clause about the continuance of the human species in my criterion does not specify a foundational value, because, following McDowell, I reject foundationalism.


Accurate forecasting of dissolved gases content in power transformer oil is very significant to ensure safe work of entire power system. In order to realize accurate forecasting of these dissolved gases, particle swarm optimization-based RBF neural network (PSO-RBFNN) is proposed in the paper. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has strong global search capability. Thus, PSO is adopted to determine training parameters of RBF neural network. The PSO-RBFNN forecasting performance is validated by engineering cases. The experiment results indicate that PSO-RBFNN has higher forecasting accuracy than GM, RBFNN in forecasting dissolved gases in transformer oil.


In pre-colonial Africa, Indigenous Knowledge (IK) was very effective in conserving natural forests because it was free from the current challenges. Therefore, this paper assesses effectiveness and sustainability of IK in conserving natural forests. It also examines the impact of modernisation on IK. The study employed mixed research methods to triangulate information. Thus, the data were collected through in-depth interview, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), field observation and household survey. The study composed of 242 respondents, of whom 88 respondents participated in in-depth interview and FGDs, whereas 154 respondents participated in a household survey. The study found that IK lost its power hence affecting its effectiveness in conserving natural forests. Modernisation and missionary religion played a central role in weakening the power of IK. It was further found that the relevance and sustainability of IK was questionable because IK faces many challenges, which threaten its existence. Therefore, the study recommends that to ensure the sustainability of IK, there is a need for elders to transfer IK to young generation based on the local environment. It is also imperative for the government to take part in conserving forests owned by clans. This is because IK has lost the power, which contributed in conserving natural forests.


This study aimed to describe the neonatal outcomes of infants whose mothers had premature rupture of membranes during pregnancy. This is a retrospective, descriptive, quantitative study performed in a public maternity in Fortaleza-CE, Brazil, with 166 neonates of mothers with premature rupture of membranes, in 2010. Data were collected through research in medical records using a pre-structured form. There was a predominance of newborns at term with good birth weight and adequate vitality. Statistical analysis showed significant association between prematurity and prolonged latency and neonatal variables: need for respiratory support, neonatal infection and antibiotic use. It was concluded that gestational age has fundamental importance to conduct clinical management and prognostic evaluation of perinatal outcomes, as the main health problems related to premature rupture of membranes result from prematurity.


Film-cooling effectiveness has been studied by using a computational approach based on solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. A wind tunnel test configuration is considered with a total of four cooling hole geometries as a cylindrical hole, a cylindrical hole with an upstream wedge (called 'ramp' thereafter), a shaped diffuser, and a double console slot. In all cases, the hole centre-line has an inclination angle of 35 against the mainstream airflow and the blowing ratio is unity. Choosing the cylindrical model as a baseline, simulations have been carried out for grid convergence and turbulence model influence studies. Results are comparedwith available experimental data and other numerical predictions and good agreement has been achieved. Further computations continue with three remaining geometries, using the baseline flow conditions and configuration. Comparing to the results from the baseline model, it was found that the centre-line adiabatic cooling effectiveness has shown incremental increases for the 'ramp'model, while results from the console slotmodel and the shape diffusermodel have exhibited significant improvements by a factor by 1.5 and 2, respectively. The reason for such a step change in cooling effectiveness is mainly due to the weakening of the vortex structures in the vicinity of the hole exit, thus significantly reducing the entrainment of surrounding 'hot' fluids.


Alpine gravel-bed rivers are characterized by very poorly sorted sediments and significant grain sorting is generally observed on gravel bars. The grain size variability may significantly influence the inception of movement for each of the classes represented over a gravel bar. The purpose of this paper is to present some field measurements achieved on the Arc en Maurienne River, France. The main objective is to characterize the dynamics of fine and coarse sediments for conditions close to the incipient motion of gravels and for different degrees of clogging of the river bed. The field campaign was carried out on a gravel bar located 10 km downstream of St Jean de Maurienne during the dam flushing event on June 17th, 2014. Six patches including tagged pebbles (using PIT-tag) were built up with three different characteristics: clean patches formed with gravels and pebbles only, patches with a natural mixture where tagged pebbles were substituted to naturally arranged ones, and patches artificially clogged with fine sediments. These patches were located on the side of a secondary channel on the gravel bar. Surface grain size analyses of the gravel (using the Woolman method and photo analyses using BaseGrain) as well as topographic measurements were achieved the day before the event. During the flushing event, surface velocities over the gravel bar were measured thanks to video analysis (LSPIV). Water levels and mean slope in the secondary channel were measured thanks to pressure gauges positioned on the side of the secondary channel. An estimation of the bed shear stresses over the patches was thus possible all along the event. Intense water sampling was also carried out both upstream and downstream the secondary channel. During the post-event survey the day after, the PIT-tag search showed that the coarse particles did not move. On the other hand, a significant amount of fine sediments were deposited on the patches and infiltrated on the clean patches. Grain size analysis showed that deposited sediments were much coarser than sediments in suspension. An estimation of the fine sediment deposition rate and a discussion on the sediment dynamics is proposed from these measurements.


Li‐rich layered oxides (LLOs) are fascinating high‐energy cathodes for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs), but still suffer from critical drawbacks that retard their practical applications. Although surface modification is effective to protect LLOs from structural deterioration, the delicate design of structures on a grain surface with promising scalability for industrial application is still challenging. Herein, using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique, a composite nanostructure comprising a uniform LiTaO3 coating layer (≈3 nm) and a spinel interlayer structure (≈1 nm) is constructed on the grain surface of industrial LLO (Li1.13Mn0.517Ni0.256Co0.097O2) agglomerated spheres. The surface composite nanostructure can not only enhance the structural/interfacial stability of the LLO, but also facilitates Li+ diffusion, thereby significantly improving its cycle stability, rate performance, thermal stability, and voltage maintenance. Specifically, the LLO coated with 10 ALD cycles exhibits a small voltage decay rate of 0.9 mV per cycle, a reversible capacity of 272.8 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, and a capacity retention of 85% after 200 cycles at 1 C, suggesting the important role of surface composite nanostructure for improving the electrochemical performance. This work provides new insights into the composite nanostructure design on the grain surface of cathode materials for high‐performance LIBs.


ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to understand the role of climate-smart villages (CSVs) in promoting gender empowerment and equality in East Africa. This paper uses data collected from 280 and 305 randomly selected farm household heads in Doyogena (Ethiopia) and Nyando (Kenya), respectively. To analyse the data, the gender empowerment index for climate resilient agriculture (GEI-CRA) and the gender parity index (GPI) were constructed based on guidelines from the literature. In both Doyogena and Nyando, households in CSVs scored higher GEI. Comparing men and women in the CSVs, women were found to be more empowered compared to men and comparing between the two sites, household heads in Doyogena were more empowered than those in Nyando. Regarding gender parity index (GPI), in both sites, majority of the women in the empowered households in CSVs were either at equal status with men or even at higher status than men. These findings shed light on the potential of CSVs in enhancing gender empowerment and promoting gender equality. The positive contribution of CSVs may guide policymakers to scale up these practices with a better-targeted approach that recognize and adequately address the implementation of CSA practices so that men and women can equally benefit.


The Theatre of the Absurd, an avant-garde experiment in the theatrical enterprise, was devised in the 1950s and early 1960s by radical European and American dramatists to express their frustrations at the waste and hopelessness of human existence, particularly after the First and the Second World Wars. Operating from philosophical and metaphysical levels, Absurd dramatists artistically communicate non-realistic unconventional images that are designed to express the incomprehensible complex world that human beings are condemned to live in. The aesthetics of this theatre abandon logical flow of actions; the plays are plotless, characters lack individuality, language used by the characters is sheer "gibberish," and often the plays contain no believable stories.
Following the footsteps of the Absurd playwrights, Rotimi, an African playwright
has constructed an experimental play, Holding Talks, which he labels "Absurd." This paper
is a critique of this experiment. The paper examines the concept of the Absurd in the
African vis-a-vis the Nigerian world-view. The play (Holding Talks) is critically evaluated
with the intention of determining its relevance to African theatrical praxis and its effect on
the developing Nigerian audiences. The paper concludes that African dramatists should be
cautious in their theatrical experiments in order not to render the theatre "deadly." Keywords : theatre of the absurd, Ola Rotimi, Holding Talks , experimental theatre, anti-realism, audience. MARANG Vol. 18 2008 pp.153-160


We have studied the charge-injection characteristics and electrochemical impedance of sputtered ruthenium oxide (RuOx ) films as electrode coatings for neural stimulation and recording electrodes. RuOx films were deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering, using a combination of water vapor and oxygen gas as reactive plasma constituents. The cathodal charge storage capacity of planar RuOx electrodes was found to be 54.6 ± 9.5 mC/cm2 (mean ± SD, n = 12), and the charge-injection capacity in a 0.2-ms cathodal current pulse was found to be 7.1 ± 0.3 mC/cm2 (mean ± SD, n = 15) at 0.6 V positive bias versus Ag|AgCl, in phosphate buffer saline at room temperature for ~250 nm thick films. In general, the RuOx films exhibited high charge-injection capacities, with or without a positive interpulse bias, comparable to sputtered iridium oxide (SIROF) coatings. The charge-injection capacity increased monotonically with film thickness from 120 to 630 nm, and reached 11.30 ± 0.34 mC/cm2 (mean ± SD, n = 5) at 0.6 V bias versus Ag|AgCl at 630 nm film thickness. In addition, RuOx films showed minimal changes in electrochemical characteristics over 1.5 billion cycles of constant current pulsing at a charge density of 408 μC/cm2 (8 nC/phase, 200 μs pulse width). The findings of low-impedance, high charge-injection capacity, and long-term pulsing stability suggest the suitability of RuOx as a comparatively inexpensive and favorable choice of electrode material for neural stimulation and recording.


The Farm Service Agency (FSA) administers two types of loan programs – Direct and Guaranteed – which cater to borrowers in different financial situations. These programs are considered to be temporary and last resorts for distressed farmers. This study sought to validate the contention that the FSA operates as a "lender of last resort" for farm borrowers considered highly risky by other lenders and that the FSA performs its role without discriminating against socially disadvantaged applicants. The loan portfolio data are for Georgia for the period 1999 to 2002. The hypothesized model contains the common components of previous credit scoring models plus binary variables to capture differences in regional lending practices and identified probable indicators of discriminatory lending practices. According to the findings of this study, the FSA seems to be living up to its primary role as the lender of last resort for farmers who have experienced hardships. The FSA seemingly does not scrutinize the financial backgrounds of borrowers as one would expect from commercial lenders. Thus, the financial background of a borrower appears not to have a significant effect on the size of loans granted by the FSA. This is apparent for both FSA loan types – Direct and Guaranteed.


For pt.I see ibid., vol.4, no.9, p.1371 (1978). A complete solution is presented to the novel disconnectedness problem encountered in a recent study of a simple field-theory model of the NN pi system. The five disconnectedness classes of the problem, coupled through a non-Abelian 'disconnectedness-multiplication' law, are summed by a system of coupled equations, which in the framework of the model also provides a complete account of the connection between the renormalisation and disconnectedness problems. A 5*5 system of generalised Fadde'ev equations is derived which acquires a connected kernel after one iteration. On the basis of these equations, modified, effective transition operators between two-cluster channels are constructed and shown to obey integral equations of a generalised Alt-Grassberger-Sandhas type.


There are views prevalent in the noncovalent chemistry literature that i) the O atom in molecules cannot form a chalcogen bond, and ii) if formed, this bond is very weak. We have shown here that these views are not necessarily true since the attractive energy between the oxygen atom of some molecules and several electron-rich anionic bases examined in a series of 34 ion-molecule complexes varied from the weak (ca –2.30 kcal mol -1 ) to the ultra-strong (–90.10 kcal mol -1 ). The [MP2 /aug-cc-pVTZ] binding energies for several of these complexes were found to be comparable to or significantly larger than that of the well-known hydrogen bond complex [FH···F] – (~ 40 kcal mol -1 ). The nature of the intermolecular interactions was examined using the quantum theory of atoms in molecules, second-order natural bond orbital and symmetric adaptive perturbation theory energy decomposition analyses. It was found that many of these interactions comprise mixed bonding character (ionic and covalent), especially manifest in the moderate to strongly bound complexes. All these can be explained by an n (lone-pair bonding orbital) ® s * (anti-bonding orbital) donor-acceptor charge transfer delocalization. This study, therefore, demonstrates that the covalently bound oxygen atom in molecules can have a significant ability to act as an unusually strong chalcogen bond donor. problem data chemical system interpretation, paper and and AV; Editing and Review: and


The grinding process induces residual stresses and scratch cracks near the surfaces of ceramic work-pieces. In order to reduce the influences of the surface damage layers, the effects of annealing on the bending strength of alumina specimens ground with a #170 diamond wheel were investigated. Surface residual stresses were measured by the X-ray diffraction method and the effects of residual surface stresses on the bending strength were discussed using a simplified model. As a result, the annealing process restored the surfaces damage layers and bending strengths of ground alumina specimens to the initial condition. The compressive residual stress influenced the micro-cracks perpendicular to the grinding direction and consequently the bending strengths increased slightly, however, they hardly influenced the deep scratch cracks parallel to the grinding direction.


Three experiments examined the role of causal expectations in sentence integration. Subjects read narratives that did or did not elicit strong expectations about upcoming events (high-expectation vs. low-expectation texts). Subjects were faster to judge a target sentence to be unrelated when it followed a high-expectation text than when it followed a low-expectation text. Subjects were slower to read an unimportant, expectation-violating sentence embedded in a high-expectation text. Subjects were faster both to read and to judge an expectation-fulfilling target sentence when it followed a high-expectation text. Three models of the generation and use of expectations are considered. The results support a model in which expectations are generated selectively. Once generated, expectations become the focus of upcoming sentence integration processes such that correct expectations help and incorrect expectations interfere. A third experiment found no evidence that expectations took the form of highly specific predictions.


When sarcoidosis is in clinical remission, complaints of chronic fatigue often persist. The exact features of this post-inflammatory fatigue are unknown. This study assesses the severity of fatigue and the presence of fatigue-related symptoms in sarcoidosis-in-clinical-remission. Furthermore, we evaluate psychological distress, pain and patient-reported sleep quality, and record physical activity levels and muscle strength as objective assessments of fatigue. Lastly, we assess the severity of fatigue at a follow-up. Methods: Seventy-five patients with sarcoidosis-in-clinical-remission were evaluated with the Checklist Individual Strength (fatigue), the SymptomChecklist-90 (psychological distress), the McGill Pain Questionnaire (pain), standardized interview (fatigue-related symptoms), sleep diary, accelerometer and muscle strength tests. Results: Fatigue severity mean score in sarcoidosis patients in-clinical-remission was high (fatigue-severity score: 30.5±15.5), and fatigue-related symptoms were significantly more present in the fatigued patients. Median time since diagnosis was 9 years. Fatigue was significantly associated with increased psychological distress, higher pain severity scores and more pain points, reduced physical activity and reduced muscle strength. Scores on sleep quality were normal. Response at follow-up was 87%. Fatigue severity scores of the responding group were significantly increased compared to a year before. Conclusions: Fatigue in sarcoidosis patients in clinical remission is a long-lasting and severe problem that deteriorates over time. This post-inflammatory chronic fatigue is associated with a constellation of psychological and physical symptoms.


A hexachloro congener (Q1-hex) of the natural heptachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole Q1 was recently observed as a byproduct of the Q1 synthesis. NMR investigation confirmed that Q1-hex has a proton on a carbon in beta-position to a nitrogen. Three isomers are possible that fulfill this prerequisite; unfortunately, however, the NMR data were not sufficient to distinguish among the three structural variants. Because only one isomer of Q1-hex is expected to be chiral, we utilized enantioselective gas chromatography and two chiral stationary phases to separate the atropisomers. Baseline separation of the Q1-hex atropisomers was obtained on 10% chemically bonded permethyl-beta-cyclodextrin. In the full-scan mode, it was found that Q1-hex was racemic and that both atropisomers had identical mass fragmentation patterns. Partial resolution of the Q1-hex atropisomers was obtained on 25% tert-butyldimethylsilylated beta-cyclodextrin diluted in PS086. In concert with previous NMR data, these enantioseparations prove that the structure of Q1-hex is 2,3,3',4',5,5'-hexachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (5). To our knowledge, this is the first gas chromatographic separation of atropisomers of an axially chiral 1,2'-bipyrrole derivative.


Summary Recent evidence suggests that agricultural and horticultural crops may be able to take up significant quantities of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON). Our aims were to determine the effects of supplying different forms of N on growth and on the activities of N-assimilatory enzymes in tomato. Two genotypes of tomato were grown in sterile hydroponic culture without N (control), with NO3– or NH4+ (3 mM), or with organic-N in the form of glycine (1.5, 3.0, or 6.0 mM). The results showed that biomass production and N-contents were similar in both genotypes when supplied with NO3– or with glycine, and that this growth was much greater than in plants supplied with NH4+ alone, or without added N. In addition, the production of plant biomass was positively correlated with the concentration of glycine-N used; however, the magnitude of the response was genotype-dependent. The form of N supplied also significantly affected the activities of several key N-assimilatory enzymes in roots and shoots. For example, addition of glycine increased the activities of NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase (NADH-GDH), glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), and glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) in roots, compared with the NO3– or NH4+ treatments. Our results clearly demonstrate the intrinsic ability of tomato plants to use DON as a sole source of N. Further studies to investigate the functional significance of DON in horticultural systems under non-sterile conditions are therefore warranted.


Sound is one of the unique and distinguishable parts of the human body. Voice recognition technology is one of biometric technology that does not require much cost and does not require specialized equipment. One of the techniques of speech recognition is with artificial neural networks, where this method uses a working principle similar to the workings of the human brain. This thesis aims to apply artificial neural networks to voice recognition and create programs that simulate this method using Matlab 7.1 software.
The data used in the form of sound recordings are converted into numerical values with the Linear Predictive Coding process. The steps taken in Linear Predictive Coding include Pre-emphasis process, frame blocking, windowing Autocorrelation Analysis, Linear Predictive Coding Analysis, and change the Linear Predictive Coding parameter to the cepstral coefficient. This cepstral coefficient is a series of observations used as inputs on artificial neural networks, and will also be used for the training and testing process. In this research, artificial neural network architecture used is Learning Vector Quantization. In the process of Learning Vector Quantization neural network training using data as many as 35 votes, with learning rate 0.01, max depth 100, dec alpha 0.02 and min alpha 0,00001. Validation test results for 15 votes, obtained the conclusion that 73.34% of all validation votes successfully recognized..


The present essay is based on the paper by Verrecchia (2001) and seeks to present and discuss the analytical models developed from the theory of disclosure. Initially, research on this subject is classified into three categories: based on association, discretion and efficiency. Mathematical relations are shown for each category seeking to represent the disclosure phenomenon and the variables related to it. Besides this, game theory is presented as another possible approach to model the disclosure process. It is hoped that such models will serve as a theoretical base to develop hypotheses and conduct further research for empirical verification of these hypotheses, and consequently, based on such evidence, to improve the models to better represent the reality of the disclosure process.