Food habits of the dominant fishes collected from 1974 to 1980 at eight locations in Elkhorn Slough, California, and the adjacent ocean were investigated. Epifaunal crustacea was the major prey group identified from stomach contents of more than 2,000 fishes, followed by epifaunal and infaunal worms, and molluscs. Overall, 18 fish species consumed 263 different prey taxa, ranging from 10 taxa to 125 taxa per fish species and including 99 crustacean, 56 polychaete, and 39 molluscan taxa. Mean prey richness was greatest at stations near the ocean and lowest at inshore stations. Detailed dietary data for all prey taxa were summarized as trophic spectra for each fish species. Trophic spectra represented functional groups of prey and were used for comparisons of dietary similarity. Cluster analyses, based on trophic spectra, resulted in four feeding guilds of fishes. Of 18 fish species, seven (Amphistichus argenteus, Leptocottus armatus, Embiotoca jacksoni, Clevelandia ios, Gillichthys mirabilis, Cymatogaster aggregata, andCitharichthys stimaeus) fed principally on epifaunal crustacea. Four species (Pleuronectes vetulus, Platichthys stellatus, Phanerodon furcatus, andMyliobatus californica) consumed mostly molluscs and infaunal worms. Two species (Psettichthys melanostictus andTriakis semifasciata) fed on mobile crustacea, and five species (Hyperprosopon anale, Engraulis mordax, Clupea pallasi, Atherinopsis californiensis, andAtherinops affinis) fed largely on zooplankton and plant material. Our results suggest that high food availability enhances the nursery function of imshore habitats, and emphasize the importance of invertebrate prey populations and the indirect linkage of plant production to the ichthyofaunal assemblarly marine immigrant species that are likely 'estuarine dependent'.


Abstract Since the turn of the century, higher education policy in China has highlighted the importance of cultivating students' intercultural competences, particularly in the context of English language teaching. In spite of this, studies show that to this day Chinese ELT classrooms in higher education have rarely taken a cultural turn and teachers' understanding of interculturalism remains insufficient. This paper reports an action research study on how intercultural awareness was developed in the context of an English reading course at an independent college of a major Chinese university. The study followed a teaching flow that integrates intercultural learning with critical thinking by challenging students to select, analyze, and raise questions about English texts on aspects of Chinese culture. Mapping the outputs of a cohort of 77 second-year undergraduate students onto Baker's (2012; 2015) model of intercultural awareness, the study shows that a majority of participants demonstrated a level beyond basic awareness. The paper concludes that reading courses can be used to help foster intercultural awareness among Chinese students, and it offers some pedagogical and theoretical reflections on integrating intercultural learning with ELT, and formulates a number of suggestions for further studies.


In this study, we investigated the effects of dielectric materials for spacers on the performance characteristics of germanium (Ge)-based tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs). Direct current (DC), radio frequency (RF), and switching performance characteristics were analyzed using various spacer dielectric materials including recent interlayer dielectric (ILD) oxides, silicon dioxide (SiO2), silicon nitride (Si3N4), and hafnium oxide (HfO2). Since spacer dielectrics affect the band bending in the source and drain regions caused by fringing fields, a Ge-based TFET having a low-κ spacer dielectric showed a high current drivability owing to its steep energy-band bending on the source side. At the same time, outstanding switching and RF performance characteristics were achieved by reducing parasitic capacitances when a low-κ spacer dielectric was employed. On this basis, a Ge-based TFET with a low-κ spacer dielectric was designed with a drain underlap for satisfactory control of the ambipolar behaviors and for optimization of RF performance characteristics. It was proven that the drain underlap suppressed ambipolar current characteristics and reduced gate capacitance by minimizing the electric field induced by the gate electrode on the drain-side channel without degradation of current drivability.


A substantial narrowing of the plume of the cylindrical Hall thruster (CHT) was observed upon the enhancement of the electron emission from the hollow-cathode discharge, which implies the possibility for the thruster efficiency increase due to the ion-beam focusing. It is demonstrated that the miniaturized CHT can be operated in the non-self-sustained regime, with the discharge current being controlled by the cathode electron emission. The thruster operation in this mode greatly expands the range of the plasma and discharge parameters normally accessible for the CHT. The observed variation of the plasma potential, electron temperature, and plasma density with the cathode current in the non-self-sustained regime points to the fact that the cathode discharge can affect the electron cross-field transport in the CHT plasma.


This article presents results from a simulation-based study of inheritance inference, that is, inference from the typicality of a property among a "base" class to its typicality among a subclass of the class. The study aims to ascertain which kinds of inheritance inferences are reliable, with attention to the dependence of their reliability upon the type of environment in which inferences are made. For example, the study addresses whether inheritance inference is reliable in the case of "exceptional subclasses" (i.e., subclasses that are known to be atypical in some respect) and attends to variations in reliability that result from variations in the entropy level of the environment. A further goal of the study is to show that the reliability of inheritance inference depends crucially on which sorts of base classes are used in making inferences. One approach to inheritance inference treats the extension of any atomic predicate as a suitable base class. A second approach identifies suitable base classes with the cells of a partition (of a preselected size k) of the domain of objects that satisfies the condition of maximizing the similarity of objects that are assigned to the same class. In addition to permitting more inferences, our study shows that the second approach results in inheritance inferences that are far more reliable, particularly in the case of exceptional subclasses.


Syngas from biomass gasification can be used in downstream process industries such as city gas, hydrogen production, etc. In this review, the effects of biomass feedstock properties, and gasification reaction conditions (temperature, gasifier type, etc.) on syngas properties are systematically reviewed. In summary, the cracking and reforming of volatile fractions in the gasification process and the catalytic effect of alkali and alkaline earth metals in the ash on the gasification have a direct impact on the syngas yield. And biomass pretreatment (i.e., terrifying/hydrothermal carbonization) can reduce the moisture content, which can effectively reduce the energy required for gasification and enhance the calorific value and syngas yield further. The fixed-bed gasifiers produce lower amounts of syngas. The concentration of H2 is significantly increased by adding steam as a gasification agent. Additionally higher gasification temperatures produce more syngas, and an equivalence ratio of about 0.2–0.3 is considered suitable for gasification. For the influence of feedstock on syngas, this paper not only reviews the feedstock properties (volatile, ash, moisture) but also compares the influence of two pretreatments on syngas yield and proposes that the combination of torrefaction/hydrothermal carbonization and a multistage air bed gasifier is an important research direction to improve the combustible components of syngas. In addition to the summary of commonly used single gasification agents, two or more gasification agents on the concentration of syngas components are also discussed in the gasification parameters, and it is suggested that further research into the use of more than one gasification agent is also important for future syngas production.


Suspension plasma spraying (SPS) process is showing promising improvements for the Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) performance. This study will focus on the development of a low cost suspension plasma spray system with an axial feeding of yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) coatings. A unique twin-cathode plasma spray gun with three plasma torches; P-torch (reversed polarity: cathode nozzle and anode), and two N-torches (normal polarity: anode nozzle and cathode) was used. During operation, the electric power is supplied between P-torch anode and N-torches cathodes to maintain the plasma jet. The system requires only argon as plasma gas, since the enthalpy of plasma jet is enough high for melting ceramic powders, which makes it as cost reduction system. Moreover, the p-torch electrode is hollowed anode and therefore commercial dual tube nozzle was used for the axial feeding to increase the deposition efficiency. It was possible to fabricate dense and/or porous 8YSZ coatings with using only Ar plasma gas through using the twin cathode plasma spray system and the axial injection. The coating microstructure and porosity level can be controlled by appropriate changes in the solids amount in the suspension and the spraying parameters. To control the microstructure the main factor is controlling and adjusting the splat size.


One of the most important developments in the corporate loan market over the past decade has been the growing participation of institutional investors. As lenders, institutional investors routinely receive private information about borrowers. However, most of these investors also trade in public securities. This leads to a controversial question: Do institutional investors use private information acquired in the loan market to trade in public securities? This paper examines the stock trading of institutional investors whose portfolios also hold loans. Using the Securities and Exchange Commission filings of loan amendments, we identify institutional investors with Access to private information disclosed during loan amendments. We then look at abnormal returns on subsequent stock trades. We find that institutional participants in loan renegotiations subsequently trade in the stock of the same company and outperform trades by other managers and trades in other stocks by approximately 5.4% in annualized terms.


Magnetism in topological materials creates phases exhibiting quantized transport phenomena with potential technological applications. The emergence of such phases relies on strong interaction between localized spins and the topological bands, and the consequent formation of an exchange gap. However, this remains experimentally unquantified in intrinsic magnetic topological materials. Here, this interaction is quantified in MnBi2Te4, a topological insulator with intrinsic antiferromagnetism. This is achieved by optically exciting Bi‐Te p states comprising the bulk topological bands and interrogating the consequent Mn 3d spin dynamics, using a multimodal ultrafast approach. Ultrafast electron scattering and magneto‐optic measurements show that the p states demagnetize via electron‐phonon scattering at picosecond timescales. Despite being energetically decoupled from the optical excitation, the Mn 3d spins, probed by resonant X‐ray scattering, are observed to disorder concurrently with the p spins. Together with atomistic simulations, this reveals that the exchange coupling between localized spins and the topological bands is at least 100 times larger than the superexchange interaction, implying an optimal exchange gap of at least 25 meV in the surface states. By quantifying this exchange coupling, this study validates the materials‐by‐design strategy of utilizing localized magnetic order to manipulate topological phases, spanning static to ultrafast timescales.


The present investigation is engaged with a quantitative study of German compounds in the text of technical science. We have analyzed word classes for German compounds in Book "Wirtschaftsinformatik" by H. R. Hansen et al (2015). In such a way, 20 pages of the above-mentioned book have been studied with a sample of 221 German compounds. The data have been processed statistically. The results can be of great use for typological studies of compounds.


Nowadays, large data collections are made available on-line for free. The liberalized data is predominantly accessed via Web services. The interaction with such Web services is facilitated by RESTful Web APIs and programming libraries that provide a convenient means for Web developers to build intelligent applications and mash-ups. However, for typical Web developers it is still hard to include the growing amount of e-commerce data on the Semantic Web in applications. Fetching useful data from public SPARQL endpoints requires substantial expertise, such as regarding the popularity of competing RDF modeling patterns, data cleansing heuristics, etc. In this paper, we propose an architecture and implementation of a PHP library for consuming e-commerce data in RDF expressed in terms of the GoodRelations vocabulary. Our approach (1) provides an efficient way of fetching information about stores, offers, product models, and opening hours from a SPARQL endpoint, and (2) hides the complexity of SPARQL and GoodRelations modeling patterns. We show that our approach significantly reduces the amount of time for a respective implementation. Furthermore, our approach has been applied successfully in a real-world application.


This is a pdf transcription of an interview with embedded images and links, along with a scanned life tribute booklet in pdf, and a pdf of the interview questionnaire.


A matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS) method for quantification of D-glucosamine-6P (GlcN-6P) that allows the kinetic study of glucosamine-6P synthase (Glms) is presented. The present report describes the optimization of the different steps of a new enzymatic assay for Glms based on in situ N-acetylation of GlcN-6P and MALDI-TOFMS analysis using N-(13C2)acetylglucosamine-6P as internal standard. Since no isotopically substituted GlcN-6P was available, the N-(13C2)acetyl derivative, easily obtained from (13C4)-acetic anhydride, was used as internal standard. Validation of the assay was achieved by measuring the fructose-6P Michaelis constant, in full agreement with reported values, and by studying the inhibition properties of arabinose-5P oxime.


Plant cells contain two types of energy producing organelles: chloroplasts, which convert solar into chemical energy, and mitochondria, which convert stored energy into ATP. Cell organelles comprise thousands of various proteins; most of them are encoded by nuclear genes; only few genes, which encode mainly the components of the system of gene expression per se and of the respiratory (in mitochondria) or photosynthetic (in chloroplasts) chains, are localized in the genomes of organelles. Thus, the maintenance of cell organelle functional activity during cell growth and development depends predominantly on the nuclear genome encoding most organelle proteins and their own genomes encoding the limited but substantial number of proteins. In this connection, organelle ribosomes, photosystems, complexes of mitochondrial respiratory chain are mosaic in their origin; they are multiprotein complexes comprising subunits encoded by the nucleus and organelles. Therefore, special mechanisms are required for coordination of gene expression in various cell compartments. Since the nuclear genome plays a key role in the biogenesis and functioning of cell organelles, the main recent attention was paid to the analysis of so called anterograde regulation, which controls the flow of information from the nucleus and cytoplasm to organelles. Along with anterograde regulation, retrograde signaling occurs in the cells, when signals emitted by organelles control gene expression in the nucleus (Pesaresi et al. 2007; Yurina & Odintsova, 2007). In this review, we summarize the recent understanding of chloroplast-to-nuclear and mitochondria-to-nuclear retrograde regulation in plant, which involves multiple potential signaling pathways in relation to abiotic stress.


In this article, we suggest the use of Mathematical Relationships as a possible way to decrease the students' disinterest in Mathematics. First we made a consideration of the environment of the classroom from the perspective of teachers and students and compare it with what is proposed in PCN's, sought to show that the application of mathematical concepts is already part of the daily lives of students, although they not relate to the material taught in schools, also brought some examples of operating environments, situations and movies that help in the preparation of generating themes for math classes, finally, we invite teachers to reflect on their roles as mediators in classroom.


The paper presents the dynamic analysis of an anisotropic rotor system with fluid interaction by using modal nonsynchronous perturbation testing and dynamic stiffness approaches. The anisotropic rotor system produces more complex rotor behavior than an isotropic system. In particular, the existence of the quadrature resonance phenomenon for backward precession is demonstrated. A symmetric rotor supported anisotropically by one fluid lubricated bearing and one rolling element bearing simulates rotating machinery behavior. A dynamic stiffness anisotropy algorithm which includes fluid terms is used to process experimental data in order to identify lightly loaded journal fluid film force parameters. The existence of the quadrature resonance for backward precession obtained from the experiment is compared with the analytical model. The results from modeling show strong agreement with experimental results.


The spatial and temporal variability observed during the last 25 years at Punta Rasa sandspit is studied in this work. Five images Lansat TM (30 m spatial resolution) corresponding to the years 1987, 1994, 2001, 2007 and 2011 were selected in this study. Each one covers an area of 185 km x 172 km but, for this analysis, a smaller area from latitude 36°19´40" to 36°17´08" S and from longitude 56°44´10" to 56°47´25" S was selected. A remarkable retrogression of the sandspit and a gradual widening of the sector located adjacently southward the sandspit was observed by comparison of the selected images. The hypothesis discussed in this work is that such variability would be associated to a change in the wind wave climate which arose a slight change in the long shore wave energy flux and in sand transport. Finally, it is highlighted that the mean sea level rise and the increasing in frequencies and intensities of storm surges in the Rio de la Plata could play an important role in the observed erosion.


Thirty-four girls with precocious puberty (27 idiopathic, 6 cerebral, 1 McCune-Albright syndrome) were treated with cyproterone acetate (CPA) for 1.2-8.4 years (3.71 +/- 0.31; mean +/- SEM) at a daily dosage of 66-150 mg/m2 (103.7 +/- 6.2). The mean chronological age (CA) and bone age at the beginning of treatment were 5.99 +/- 0.31 and 8.6 +/- 0.39 years, respectively, and 9.78 +/- 0.19 and 12.44 +/- 0.22 years, respectively, at the end of therapy. At the last evaluation, mean CA was 14.23 +/- 0.4 years, and 32 girls had reached final height. The control group consisted of 10 girls with idiopathic precocious puberty who, at their parents' request, were not treated. Mean CA at the onset of pubertal signs was 6.05 +/- 0.25 years. All patients had reached final height at the time of the last observation. There was no significant difference between final height of treated (152.43 +/- 1.36 cm) and untreated (149.55 +/- 1.99 cm) girls. Final height was significantly lower than target height in both treated (155.08 +/- 0.92 cm; p < 0.025) and untreated (156.45 +/- 1.29 cm; p < 0.0005) patients, but the mean height of treated patients is nearer to target height than that of untreated ones. A positive correlation was found between final height and target height both in treated (p < 0.005) and untreated (p < 0.05) patients. After the discontinuation of CPA treatment all girls resumed the progressive course of puberty.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Q-switched pulses of duration 10 ns and energy of 0.5 J have been amplified to multi-gigawatt powers using a large, single stage Nd3+: POCl3:ZrCl4 liquid laser. The general design of the amplifier is described together with the gain characteristics and derived laser parameters. Stored energies of 300 J l-1 have been achieved of which more than 50% could be extracted with 10 ns pulses at an overall amplifier efficiency of 0.4%.


White campion is a dioecious plant with heteromorphic X and Y sex chromosomes. In male plants, a filamentous structure replaces the pistil, while in female plants the stamens degenerate early in flower development. Asexual (asx) mutants, cumulating the two developmental defects that characterize the sexual dimorphism in this species, were produced by gamma ray irradiation of pollen and screening in the M1 generation. The mutants harbor a novel type of mutation affecting an early function in sporogenous/parietal cell differentiation within the anther. The function is called stamen-promoting function (SPF). The mutants are shown to result from interstitial deletions on the Y chromosome. We present evidence that such deletions tentatively cover the central domain on the (p)-arm of the Y chromosome (Y2 region). By comparing stamen development in wild-type female and asx mutant flowers we show that they share the same block in anther development, which results in the production of vestigial anthers. The data suggest that the SPF, a key function(s) controlling the sporogenous/parietal specialization in premeiotic anthers, is genuinely missing in females (XX constitution). We argue that this is the earliest function in the male program that is Y-linked and is likely responsible for "male dimorphism" (sexual dimorphism in the third floral whorl) in white campion. More generally, the reported results improve our knowledge of the structural and functional organization of the Y chromosome and favor the view that sex determination in this species results primarily from a trigger signal on the Y chromosome (Y1 region) that suppresses female development. The default state is therefore the ancestral hermaphroditic state.


In Reply We appreciate the interest in our analysis1 by Xia and colleagues and their discussion of our use of the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) for code validation. As they have indicated, the positive predictive values of ICD-9-CM codes 692.71 (first-degree sunburn) and 692.76 (second-degree sunburn) support our search criteria. The remaining code used in our search criteria, ICD-9-CM code 692.77, is for third-degree sunburn. This event is highly unusual, so it is not a surprise that they found no cases with this code in their data set. Although we did not analyze our data by specific codes, we did note that there were only 11 (0.15%) visits in our data set with a code of 692.77. We acknowledge the potential pitfalls with the validity of hospital administrative data. Since the data used were deidentified and not linked to medical records, we were unable to validate the billing codes for this particular analysis. National data on sunburn are generally collected through self-report and are therefore also subject to validity concerns, albeit of a different sort (eg, we know that peoples' perception of sunburn varies and is subjective). Despite these limitations, we found that nearly 34 000 visits were made to an emergency department in 2013 to seek treatmentforsunburn,atacostofover$11million.Thesefindingshighlight the importance of reducing overexposure to UV radiation in an effort to prevent sunburns and future cases of skin cancer.


Undoubtedly, inter-religious dialogues modelled on the West are greatly influenced by the Christian ecumenical concept. This paper intends to present inter-religious dialogues from the comparative religions perspective and within the Islamic framework. Both ḥiwār dīnī and jidāl as mentioned in the Qurʾān are conceptually consistent with the kind of dialogue carried out with tasāmuḥ  and  maḥabbah which enables every individual to interact in harmony. It is also part of the tawḥīd vocation in ensuring dialogue sustainability while simultaneously strengthening religious beliefs. Also encouraged is the dialectical approach, as well as analysis of religious phenomena, which is to be done during dialogues. All the aforementioned shall render the dialogue participant open-minded in finding a common ground and avoiding biasness towards other religions. Hence, the streamlining of both the ethics stemming from tawḥīd and the application of the comparative religions methodology, as argued herein, shall help participants in interreligious dialogue realise a harmonious and meaningful dialogue.


Sexuality is a major aspect of intimacy and includes components such as sexual desire, activity, attitudes, body image, and gender-role identity. Sexuality is integral to most marital or romantic relationships and is central to one's self-concept, self-esteem, and mental and physical health. The centrality and complexity of sexuality continue throughout the lifespan. This review examines the following issues of sexuality in older adults: normal physical changes associated with aging and strategies to compensate for those changes, patterns of change in sexual behavior psychosocial and cultural aspects of sexuality, sexual dysfunction, and some of the unique concerns in working with cognitively impaired and physically disabled older adults. Assessment of sexual function and treatment of dysfunction are beyond the scope of this review. For a review of these issues, see Zeiss, Zeiss, and Davies (1999) and McConaghy (1996). Throughout this article, we attempt to frame information in ways that are relevant to heterosexual and gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals. While it can be easy to slip into assumptions that all older adults are heterosexual and in coupies, this clearly is not the reality. It is important to recognize the needs and interests of older gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults, as well as those of heterosexual individuals. Unfortunately, little research on sexuality and aging has been conducted on self-identified gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults. PHYSICAL CHANGES WITH AGING A reasonable place to start examining the effects of aging on sexuality is to consider the physical response to sexual stimulation in older adults as compared to younger adults. The organized pattern of response to sexual stimulation is called the "sexual response cycle." Characteristic physiological changes during the sexual response cycle do occur with aging (Masters and Johnson, 1966; see Meston, 1997, for a recent review), but there also are great individual differences in the extent and timing of these changes. Some of the individual differences are accounted for by general health factors, but in addition, continued sexual activity lessens changes; that is, the more sexually active the older person, the fewer physical changes the person is likely to experience in her or his pattern of sexual response. Among postmenopausal women, age is associated with a reduction in estrogen, progesterone, and androgen levels. Loss of estrogen results in a thinning of the vaginal walls and decreased or delayed vaginal lubrication in response to sexual stimulation. Both of these changes can result in pain during intercourse or any vaginal penetration. Vaginal penetration also may be more difficult, given that the labia no longer fully elevate during sexual arousal to create the funnel-like entrance toward the vagina. Additionally, the vaginal barrel shortens and narrows, and the cervix may descend into the vagina, increasing the chance of cervical bumping during intercourse, which can be painful. Orgasmic (and multiorgasmic) response remains, but vaginal contractions are fewer and weaker, and general body involvement is reduced. Once a sexual interaction is completed, older women also return to the pre-aroused state more rapidly than when they were younger. Among older men, age is associated with decreased testosterone levels. However, loss of testosterone seems to have limited impact on sexual functioning, as only a minimal level of testosterone is necessary for adequate sexual functioning (Meston, 1997). Older men require more direct stimulation of the penis, and for a longer duration, to experience erection. The maximum level of erection may be less than too percent (e.g., 80-go percent). Orgasmic response remains but, as with women, orgasm consists of fewer and weaker contractions and reduced general body response. Both the force and amount of ejaculation may be reduced. The refractory period, or the time during which a man cannot be restimulated to erection, can lengthen, to hours or days, from a few minutes in younger men. …


Introduction: SIN-E-STRES is an adjunct Internet-based intervention for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Patients interact with the program via a weekly monitoring email and by visiting a website that provides access to psychoeducational information and distance counseling. Aim: to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of SIN-E-STRES. Methods: forty-five adult PTSD patients were registered to use SIN-E-STRES for three months. This study explores feasibility in terms of patients' interest in joining the program, reported connectivity and use of the website components, and adherence to monitoring. Acceptability is evaluated through the satisfaction expressed by the participants, their opinions regarding the usefulness of the program, and their evaluation of its positive and negative aspects. Results: most of the patients invited to the program were interested in using SIN-E-STRES, and 73% of the registered patients completed at least one of the monitoring assessments and most of them interacted with the website. The overall monitoring response rate was 35%. Most patients stated that the feedback messages helped them remember themes covered in therapy, they also valued the psychoeducational resources on the website. Conclusions: The program may be especially useful for patients who are frequent Internet and email users. The intervention can be enhanced by improving the monitoring and feedback components as well as by adding complementary psychoeducational information. More research about adherence and dropout of PTSD interventions is necessary. The alignment and coherence of SIN-E-STRES with the main treatment contributes to reinforcing treatment indications and consequently may promote treatment adherence and recovery.


After conflict aceh development much more developing and industrialized in various sectors, aceh start rise from bankruptcy economy, social and cultural, political, infrastructure. Resurrection aceh in development pascakonflik caused by participation of various parties and the in aceh, including the perempuan.studi aims to see and understand political participation daughters of development in aceh pascakonflik as learning to daerah-daerah in indonesia even negara-negara else in the world which still experience conflict or development problems in doing rekontruksi and rehabilitation after conflick.The theory of the research is theory political participation focusing on women involvement in the decision, planning, implementation, the use of the development and the evaluation aceh pascakonflik development. Studies show that women aceh have been involved active in the development , however the impact of participation in political sector is still very low against the construction of aceh .In the context of economic and political, women aceh still have a great opportunity struggling to get a reasonable rights should be equal treatment with the laki-laki in development aceh because undang-undang aceh give space all its citizens participate in development without except for .Because bias gender, where yardstick chance and ability often seen from the sexes put women position at a lower, besides the ability to improve the quality of women in an effort to their involvement through the political in aceh developmentKeywords: women, political participation aceh, development.


Each olive oil extraction system should combine the best product quality and the highest efficiency. At the same time, the innovative technologies can develop only if they provide sustainable processes. To reach these goals, academic and industrial researchers need to understand the key elements that allow to modulate the events that occur during oil extraction. In the past years, many emerging technologies, that is techniques perceived as capable of changing the present situation, have been developed. Among these, ultrasounds applications seem to be the most promising for their mechanical and slightly thermal effects, without affecting sustainability. In order to explain the maturity of this emerging technology, the main effects of the ultrasounds application in the olive oil extraction process are discussed, the developed plants are presented, and the patents are reported.


Fournier's gangrene is a rare and potentially fatal infectious disease characterized by rapidly progressive necrotic fasciitis of the genital, perineal and/or perianal region. It affects any age and gender. Vulvar Fournier's gangrene has a low incidence in women, but a high mortality rate, due to differences in female genital anatomy. Clinical suspicion is essential for diagnosis, due to the low frequency of presentation. Treatment should be aggressive, with prompt administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics and early interdisciplinary approach by multiple medical specialties. Thus, a complete understanding of the pathophysiology of the condition is necessary to increase the patient's survival rate. A case of vulvar Fournier's gangrene is presented.


This revealing selection from the Queen's papers provides essential clues to her character, tracing her development from shy princess to the formidable and uncompromising grande dame of Europe. How did she feel on hearing that she had become queen? How close was she to her eldest grandchild, who became Kaiser Wilhelm II? Why was she so reluctant to yield the crown to her son and heir, the future King Edward VII? What did she really think of Gladstone and Disraeli? These questions and many more are answered clearly and candidly in the Queen's own words. Victoria's passionate adoration of Prince Albert is evident throughout her journals, and later extracts give a touching insight into her feelings of loneliness and susceptibility after his death. Illustrated with some of the Queen's own drawings, this book presents an absorbing account of one of the most remarkable personalities of the nineteenth century.


A mathematical expression is proposed to describe the relationship between the photosynthetic capacity (Pmax) of natural assemblages of motile benthic diatoms and temperature. Experiments were performed in 2 different seasons to document the response of Pmax to a rapid increase in temperature (3*C h-1). In both cases, there was a progressive increase in Pmax up to an optimum temperature (Topt), beyond which Pmax declined rapidly. Topt did not change from September to December 1995, but the maximum photosynthetic capacity (PMAX, i.e. Pmax at Topt) was twice as high in September as in December.


A Fortran program has been developed for the reduction of single-crystal diffraction data from a sequence of adjacent rotation pictures recorded at a fixed X-ray wavelength by an electronic area detector. The electronic pictures (data frames) covering the first 5° of crystal rotation are used to locate strong diffraction spots and to estimate the background. The orientation of the crystal is derived automatically from the list of observed spots and all parameters describing the diffraction pattern are refined. The only input required from the user is the specification of the space group, approximate cell dimensions and detector setting. When the initialization step is finished the program goes back to the first picture and evaluates all data frames in the order they arrive from the measurement. Each element of an electronic picture (pixel) is labelled by the indices of the nearest reflection using the current refined parameters describing the diffraction geometry. If the pixels close to its nearest reflection the counts contribute to the three-dimensional profile; otherwise the counts are used to update the background. Each profile is represented as if the reflection had followed the shortest path through the Ewald sphere and had been recorded on the surface of the sphere. Reflections close to the Ewald sphere are kept in a hash table to allow rapid access for updating the profiles. Reflections which have completely passed through the Ewald sphere are removed from the table and saved for further processing. Intensities are estimated by fitting their profiles to an average shape learned from strong neighbouring reflections. Smoothly varying scaling factors are applied to the Lp-corrected intensities which minimize discrepancies between symmetry-related reflections and fit to a reference data set if available.


In this paper, a computer‐aided image‐analyzing method for measuring cloth fell position directly in a non‐contact manner is introduced. The method measures the cloth fell position from an image taken by means of a camera which is mounted over the woven fabric and warp region including cloth fell on a weaving loom. Laser light lines are used as reference lines. The image containing the reference lines, the fabric and warp system is decomposed using wavelet transforms. Horizontal detail coefficient matrix is filtered with local standard deviation of a kernel for textural feature extraction and grouping achieved by means of k‐means clustering in order to determine the cloth fell position. Due to the fact that reference line positions remain the same on the fabric, cloth fell position alterations can be calculated by measuring the distance between the reference line and the cloth fell. The conversion of the distance between the cloth fell position and the reference line, measured by the number of pixels, can be accomplished by using the known distance between reference lines as a means of calibration.


Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)–secreting tumor cell immunotherapy in combination with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) blockage in preclinical models. Experimental Design: Survival and immune response were monitored in the B16 melanoma and the CT26 colon carcinoma models. VEGF blockade was achieved by using a recombinant adeno-associated virus vector expressing a soluble VEGF receptor consisting of selected domains of the VEGF receptors 1 and 2 (termed sVEGFR1/R2). Dendritic cell and tumor infiltrating lymphocyte activation status and numbers were evaluated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis. Regulatory T cells were quantified by their CD4+CD25hi and CD4+FoxP3+ phenotype. Results: The present study established that GM-CSF–secreting tumor cell immunotherapy with VEGF blockade significantly prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. Enhanced anti-tumor protection correlated with an increased number of activated CD4+ and CD8+ tumor-infiltrating T cells and a pronounced decrease in the number of suppressive regulatory T cells residing in the tumor. Conversely, overexpression of VEGF from tumors resulted in elevated numbers of regulatory T cells in the tumor, suggesting a novel mechanism of VEGF-mediated immune suppression at the tumor site. Conclusion: GM-CSF–secreting cancer immunotherapy and VEGF blockade increases the i.t. ratio of effector to regulatory T cells to provide enhanced antitumor responses. This therapeutic combination may prove to be an effective strategy for the treatment of patients with cancer.


PURPOSE
Existing real-time imaging uses dual (orthogonal) kV beam fluoroscopies and may result in significant amount of extra radiation to patients, especially for prolonged treatment cases. In addition, kV projections only provide 2D information, which is insufficient for in vivo dose reconstruction. We propose real-time volumetric imaging using prior knowledge of pre-treatment 4D images and real-time 2D transit data of treatment beam and kV beam.

METHODS
The pre-treatment multi-snapshot volumetric images are used to simulate 2D projections of both the treatment beam and kV beam, respectively, for each treatment field defined by the control point. During radiation delivery, the transit signals acquired by the electronic portal image device (EPID) are processed for every projection and compared with pre-calculation by cross-correlation for phase matching and thus 3D snapshot identification or real-time volumetric imaging. The data processing involves taking logarithmic ratios of EPID signals with respect to the air scan to reduce modeling uncertainties in head scatter fluence and EPID response. Simulated 2D projections are also used to pre-calculate confidence levels in phase matching. Treatment beam projections that have a low confidence level either in pre-calculation or real-time acquisition will trigger kV beams so that complementary information can be exploited. In case both the treatment beam and kV beam return low confidence in phase matching, a predicted phase based on linear regression will be generated.

RESULTS
Simulation studies indicated treatment beams provide sufficient confidence in phase matching for most cases. At times of low confidence from treatment beams, kV imaging provides sufficient confidence in phase matching due to its complementary configuration.

CONCLUSION
The proposed real-time volumetric imaging utilizes the treatment beam and triggers kV beams for complementary information when the treatment beam along does not provide sufficient confidence for phase matching. This strategy minimizes the use of extra radiation to patients. This project is partially supported by a Varian MRA grant.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of oral myofunctional therapy on the superior and inferior orbicularis oris (OOS and OOI) and mentalis (MT) muscles at rest and with lips closed in mouth breathing patients with no nasal airway obstruction. The sample consisted of 13 children aged 5-10 years. Clinical and electromyographic evaluations were performed before and after treatment. The results showed that muscles (P < 0.05) and functions (P < 0.01) improved after therapy, which can be observed by clinical evaluations. The electrical activity increase between rest and closed lip positions was statistically significant for the muscles studied. Before therapy the significant minimal level (s.m.l.) was P < 0.01 and after therapy it was P < 0.05. When the difference between the rest and closed lip positions before and after therapy was compared, a statistically significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the electrical activity of the OOI and MT muscles was observed. There was no correlation between the root-mean-square (RMS) of the OOI and MT muscles with the morphological and functional evaluations. The therapy can improve morphology and function of the muscles in mouth breathing patients with no nasal airway obstruction.


High hydrogenated silicon-rich silicon nitride(SiNx∶H)thin films are deposited on the glass and monocrystalline silicon(110) substrates by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using SiH4 and H2 as the main reaction gas with doping the N2. The ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrum, Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectrum are applied to characterize the changes of the band gap, the microstructure and related photoluminescence properties of the nitrogen-doped silicon film. It shows that hydrogen atoms can suppress the defects in the film and make film present silicon-rich under the low SiH4/H2 flow ratio, but they are not beneficial to the formation of silicon clusters in a hydrogen atmosphere. With the incorporation of nitrogen atoms, all the content of Si-N bonds, band gap and the degree of disorder in the microstructure of the films increase, films produce light emission related to the defect states. While the content of doped nitrogen atoms are further increased, it appears the band tail emission. Then the relationships between several light emissions and microstructure to be discussed. These results are useful for the optimization of light emission and microstructure for the silicon-rich silicon nitride film material prepared by PECVD.


Understanding and controlling the processes occurring at electrode/electrolyte interface are very important in optimizing energy conversion devices. Cyclic voltammetry is a very sophisticated and accurate electroanalytical method enables us to explore the mechanism of such electrode reactions. In this work, electrochemical experiments using cyclic voltammetry were performed in aqueous KCl solution containing potassium ferricyanide, K3[Fe(CN)6] at a glassy carbon disc working electrode and the mechanism of the reactions is highlighted. The CV measurements shows that the ferricyanide [Fe(CN)6]3− reduction to ferrocyanide [Fe(CN)6]4− and the reverse oxidation process follows an outer sphere electrode reaction mechanism. Voltammetry analysis further indicates that the reaction is reversible and diffusion controlled one electron transfer electrochemical process. The peak currents due to [Fe(CN)6]4− oxidation and the peak current due to [Fe(CN)6]3− reduction increase with increase of concentration and scan rate increase. The diffusion co-efficient was determined by applying Randles-Sevcik equation. The report could be helpful for university students to understand the basics of electron transfer in redox processes and cyclic voltammetry.


Organic anion transporting polypeptides (OATPs; gene symbol SLCO) are membrane transporters that mediate the transport of wide ranges of compounds. The expression of different OATP members has been reported in the kidney, liver, placenta, brain, and intestine. Because of their broad substrate spectra and wide distribution within the human body, these transporters have been proposed to play key roles in the influx transport of many oral drugs. Inflammation is known to regulate the expression and functions of many drug-metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters. As a proinflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) has been shown to affect the expression of different drug transporters, including OATP family members. In the present study, a putative nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) binding site ranging from −1845 to −1836 was identified at the proximal promoter region of OATP1A2 coding gene SLCO1A2. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that nuclear extracts from both breast cancer cell MCF7 and liver cancer cell HepG2 interacted with an oligonucleotide probe containing the putative NFκB binding site and that the DNA-protein complexes contained both p65 and p50 subunits of NFκB. Further study revealed that the binding site may be responsible in part for the suppression effect of TNFα toward SLCO1A2 expression because the treatment of TNFα significantly increased. Treatment of TNFα significantly increased formation of the DNA-protein complexes and mutations at essential bases of the putative NFκB binding site abolished responsiveness to the TNFα neutralizing antibody, suggesting that the binding site may be responsible in part for the suppression effect of TNFα towars SLCO1A2 expression.


In this essay, we seek to answer two closely related questions: first, why socialists in advanced capitalist countries should want to move beyond social democracy; and secondly, what are the requirements and implications of such a move. Until not so long ago, the first of these questions would have seemed rather indecent: of course all serious socialists wanted to move beyond social democracy. Today, no such intention or desire can be taken for granted. For even where there is sharp criticism of the limitations and derelictions of social democracy, there is also an implicit acceptance of it, based upon a despairing uncertainty about what else is possible.So both questions do need to be probed.


Local traded‐goods employment multiplier estimates play an important role in the decision making of local policy makers. Therefore, it is important to understand the robustness of the approaches and quality of the data used in empirical studies. The local employment multiplier estimates by Moretti (AER; 2010) are a good benchmark for departure. In this paper, I find the traded‐goods multiplier falls within the range of 1.17 to 1.93, which is substantially lower than the estimate of 2.6 obtained by Moretti. I use multiple estimators in combination with two data sets, a range of controls and different ways of classifying traded industries to show the robustness and variability of local employment multiplier estimates. Finally, I demonstrate the sensitivity of Moretti's results. The most notable result being that Moretti's multiplier for separate skilled or unskilled workers in the nontraded sector is overestimated by a factor of 2.


The mechanisms that are responsible for sarcopenia are numerous, but the altered muscle protein anabolic response to food intake that appears with advancing age plays an important role. Dietary protein quality needs to be optimized to counter this phenomenon. Blending different plant proteins is expected to compensate for the lower anabolic capacity of plant-based when compared to animal-based protein sources. The objective of this work was to evaluate the nutritional value of pasta products that were made from a mix of wheat semolina and faba bean, lentil, or split pea flour, and to assess their effect on protein metabolism as compared to dietary milk proteins in old rats. Forty-three old rats have consumed for six weeks isoproteic and isocaloric diets containing wheat pasta enriched with 62% to 79% legume protein (depending on the type) or milk proteins, i.e., casein or soluble milk proteins (SMP). The protein digestibility of casein and SMP was 5% to 14% higher than legume-enriched pasta. The net protein utilization and skeletal muscle protein synthesis rate were equivalent either in rats fed legume-enriched pasta diets or those fed casein diet, but lower than in rats fed SMP diet. After legume-enriched pasta intake, muscle mass, and protein accretion were in the same range as in the casein and SMP groups. Mixed wheat-legume pasta could be a nutritional strategy for enhancing the protein content and improving the protein quality, i.e., amino acid profile, of this staple food that is more adequate for maintaining muscle mass, especially for older individuals.


We have previously isolated mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from the tracheal aspirates of premature neonates with respiratory distress. Although isolation of MSCs correlates with the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the physiologic role of these cells remains unclear. To address this, we further characterized the cells, focusing on the issues of gene expression, origin, and cytokine expression. Microarray comparison of early passage neonatal lung MSC gene expression to cord blood MSCs and human fetal and neonatal lung fibroblast lines demonstrated that the neonatal lung MSCs differentially expressed 971 gene probes compared with cord blood MSCs, including the transcription factors Tbx2, Tbx3, Wnt5a, FoxF1, and Gli2, each of which has been associated with lung development. Compared with lung fibroblasts, 710 gene probe transcripts were differentially expressed by the lung MSCs, including IL-6 and IL-8/CXCL8. Differential chemokine expression was confirmed by protein analysis. Further, neonatal lung MSCs exhibited a pattern of Hox gene expression distinct from cord blood MSCs but similar to human fetal lung fibroblasts, consistent with a lung origin. On the other hand, limiting dilution analysis showed that fetal lung fibroblasts form colonies at a significantly lower rate than MSCs, and fibroblasts failed to undergo differentiation along adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic lineages. In conclusion, MSCs isolated from neonatal tracheal aspirates demonstrate a pattern of lung-specific gene expression, are distinct from lung fibroblasts, and secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines.


We provide evidence on wage profiles of immigrants using Current Population Survey data from 1979 to 2003, taking into account that changes in labor market conditions impact natives and immigrants differently. High rates of immigrant wage assimilation, in general, and relatively high wages of immigrant cohorts that arrived during the 1990s, in particular, can to a large extent be explained by a negative trend in unemployment in the data. Relating immigrant and native period effects to local labor market unemployment, we find that wage assimilation among lesser-educated immigrants is negligible. For high-school and college-educated male immigrants, rates of wage assimilation during early years in the United States are procyclical, suggesting that rising unemployment slows accumulation of U.S.-specific human capital.


AIM: to evaluate changes of anorectal manometry parameters and clinical symptoms of fecal incontinence 3 months after fistulectomy with primary sphincteroplasty. MATERIALS AND METHODS: fifty-two patients (37 males) with complex anal fistulae of cryptoglandular origin underwent fistulectomy and primary sphincteroplasty. The fistulas were recurrent in 13 (25 %) cases, 8 (15,4 %) patients had preoperative fecal incontinence. Fecal incontinence Wexner score was 0,46 (0-8) before surgery. Anorectal manometry was performed before and 3 months after surgery. RESULTS: three months days after surgery mean and maximum resting anal pressure were not significantly low compared with the baseline. In patients with initially normal data before the surgery (n=22), resting anal pressure was significantly lower (before surgery M=56,1 ± 7,6 [46,1-69,0], after surgery 45,5 ± 8,8 [38,0-63,0], p=0,006, Wilcoxon test). There were no significant changes in squeezing anal pressure. Resting anal pressure has become below the normal after surgery in 13 (59.1 %) patients. Clinical symptoms of fecal incontinence was detected in 10 patients postoperatively (gas incontinence and soiling). Fecal incontinence Wexner score was 1,64 (0-11) after surgery (p=0,007). CONCLUSION: fistulectomy with primary sphincteroplasty leads to change of resting anal pressure basically in patients with initially normal pressure and mainly - in patients with anterior fistulas. Fecal incontinence symptoms after with surgery produced 26,3 % patients. These data confirm the need of individual approach when choosing the method of surgical treatment of analfistulae.


The competition between pyridine ligand loss in square planar Pt(II) complexes has been examined using the doubly and singly charged ions of complexes consisting of platinum(ethylenediamine) coordinated to two different substituted pyridines. Collision induced dissociation (CID) of [Pt(en)Py(1)Py(2)](2+) (where Py(1) = one of ten different substituted pyridines and Py(2) = pyridine) results in loss of the protonated pyridines to yield the singly charged platinum ions [Pt(en)Py(1)-H](+) and [Pt(en)Py(2)-H](+). In contrast, fragmentation of [Pt(en)Py(1)Py(2)-H](+) results in neutral pyridine loss to yield the ions [Pt(en)Py(1)-H](+) and [Pt(en)Py(2)-H](+). In the latter case, the correlation between relative losses of each pyridine compared to their gas-phase proton affinities is poor. A novel chloride ion abstraction reaction occurs for the fragmentation of [Pt(en)Py(1)Py(2)](2+) when Py(1) = o-C(5)H(4)CIN and Py(2) = C(5)H(5)N, to yield the [Pt(en)(Cl)Py(2)](+) and [o-C(5)H(4)N](+) pair of ions. In order to model this process the competition between nitrogen and chlorine binding in [Pt(NH(3))(3)(o-NC(5)H(4)Cl)](2+) has been examined using density functional theory (DFT) calculations at the B3LYP/LANL2DZ level of theory. Both adducts are minima with the N adduct being more stable than the Cl adduct by 22.7 kcal mol(-1). Furthermore, the Cl adduct exhibits a significant stretching of the C-Cl bond (to 1.935 A), consistent with the observed chloride ion abstraction reaction, which is endothermic by 9.0 kcal mol(-1) (relative to the N adduct).


This paper describes a study which was conducted to simultaneously optimize several diesel engine design and operating parameters for low exhaust emissions using the Taguchi method. A single cylinder, research, diesel engine equipped with a high pressure, cam-driven, electronic unit injector was used in this optimization experiment. The major effects of key engine design parameters on exhaust emissions were quantified and optimum parameter settings were determined. Measurement of exhaust emissions using the optimum parameter settings showed that particulates and NO{sub x} emissions were significantly lower than those obtained for the baseline engine. The Taguchi method was found to be a useful technique for the simultaneous optimization of several engine parameters and for predicting the effect of various design parameters on diesel exhaust emissions.


Three different communication situations are considered for the general nondegraded discrete memoryless broadcast channel with two components. In the most general situation, common and separate information is sent to both receivers. In another situation, only separate information is sent, and in a third, one Common and one separate message is sent. For each communication situation a random coding inner bound on the capacity region is derived. An example is presented which Shows that in the most general situation the inner bound strictly dominates the family of rates obtained by time-sharing. The capacity region for the general situation is characterized by a limiting expression. The relationship with the degraded broadcast channel and the connection with other multiway channels, such as the channel with two senders and two receivers, is shown.


Previous studies have proposed that the early elucidation of brain injury from structural Magnetic Resonance Images (sMRI) is critical for the clinical assessment of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Although distinct aetiologies, including cortical maldevelopments, white and grey matter lesions and ventricular enlargement, have been categorised, these injuries are commonly only assessed in a qualitative fashion. As a result, sMRI remains relatively underexploited for clinical assessments, despite its widespread use. In this study, several automated and validated techniques to automatically quantify these three classes of injury were generated in a large cohort of children (n = 139) aged 5–17, including 95 children diagnosed with unilateral CP. Using a feature selection approach on a training data set (n = 97) to find severity of injury biomarkers predictive of clinical function (motor, cognitive, communicative and visual function), cortical shape and regional lesion burden were most often chosen associated with clinical function. Validating the best models on the unseen test data (n = 42), correlation values ranged between 0.545 and 0.795 (p<0.008), indicating significant associations with clinical function. The measured prevalence of injury, including ventricular enlargement (70%), white and grey matter lesions (55%) and cortical malformations (30%), were similar to the prevalence observed in other cohorts of children with unilateral CP. These findings support the early characterisation of injury from sMRI into previously defined aetiologies as part of standard clinical assessment. Furthermore, the strong and significant association between quantifications of injury observed on structural MRI and multiple clinical scores accord with empirically established structure-function relationships.


The recent policies of the United States Administration threaten the entire structure of international law. Widespread concern in the US and elsewhere has been expressed in a different cluster of principles, in particular in the report of the Canadian‐based Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. Its report states that the primary responsibility of a state is to protect its citizens; such protection includes prevention, reaction and rebuilding. The implications of this for military intervention are discussed; this must be a last resort after all non‐military options have failed in response to the actual or probable large‐scale loss of life and the objective to prevent further suffering. The action must be authorized by the United Nations Security Council or, if this fails to respond, the General Assembly. A further commission should examine how the international community should respond to states that refuse to comply with international law regarding weapons of mass destruction.


Oxovanadium (IV) complexes of ONO donor hydrazone ligand derived from 2-hydroxy aryl ketones and 2imidazolyl mercaptoaceto hydrazide (LH2) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analyses, molar conductance, magnetic susceptibilities, electronic, IR, ESR and thermal studies. Elemental analyses show 1:1 metal to ligand stoichiometry for oxovanadium (IV) complexes. The IR spectra of the complexes indicate that the ligand LH2 acts as a dibasic tridentate nature hence the ligand exhibits in enol form in newly prepared oxovanadium (IV) complexes. Spectral data indicates that square pyramidal geometry of monomeric five coordinated oxovanadium (IV) complexes with the general formula [VO(L)H2O] is confirmed by thermal studies. The hydrazone and their complexes were screened for their invitro antibacterial activity against E.coli and S.aureus. Antifungal activity against T.polysporum and C. albicans.


This paper describes the investigation of the generation of spherical silica particles, which could potentially be used as alternative calibration aerosol for substituting DOP (dioctylphthalate) particles. Silica particles were generated by a spray drying method using a nanometer-sized colloidal silica suspension as the starting material. The generated silica particles have a spherical morphology, are nearly monodispersed and their size can be controlled at submicron order. The smoothness of the particle surface is greatly affected by the size of the colloidal silica particles used. Silica aerosol particles were also generated by the spray pyrolysis of an aqueous solution of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), in order to compare their properties with those of silica particles obtained by spray drying method. The electrical mobility equivalent diameter of silica particles generated by spray drying method is in good agreement with the diameter determined by SEM observation. The light scattering characteristics of the silica aerosol particles were also measured using a laser particle counter and compared with a polystyrene latex (PSL) aerosol. By increasing the drying temperature of the silica sol droplets to 1200°C, the change of scattered light intensity with particle diameter shows a tendency similar to that of spherical PSL particles. Consequently, the spherical submicron silica particles generated by the present spray drying method appear to be applicable to the test of air filters.


Introduction: Digital biomarkers have significant potential to transform drug development, but only a few have contributed meaningfully to bring new treatments to market. There are uncertainties in how they will generate quantifiable benefits in clinical trial performance and ultimately to the chances of phase 3 success. Here we have proposed a statistical framework and ran a proof-of-concept model with hypothetical digital biomarkers and visualized them in a familiar manner to study power calculation. Methods: A Monte Carlo simulation for Parkinson's disease (PD) was performed using the Captario SUM® platform and illustrative study technology impact calculations were generated. We took inspiration from the EMA-qualified wearable-derived digital endpoint stride velocity 95th centile (SV95C) for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and we imagined a similar measurement for PD would be available in the future. DaTscan enrichment and "SV95C-like" endpoint biomarkers were assumed on a hypothetical disease-modifying drug pivotal trial aiming for an 80% probability of achieving a study p value of less than 0.05. Results: Four scenarios with different combinations of technologies were illustrated. The model illustrated a way to quantify the magnitude of the contributions that enrichment and endpoint technologies could make to drug development studies. Discussion/Conclusion: Quantitative models could be valuable not only for the study sponsors but also as an interactive and collaborative engagement tool for technology players and multi-stakeholder consortia. Establishing values of digital biomarkers could also facilitate business cases and financial investments.


Until recently, the North of the Kara Shelf was completely unexplored by seismic methods. Seismic and seismo-acoustic data that have appeared in recent years have made it possible to decipher features of the regional geological structure. This study solves the urgent problem of determining the prospects for the oil and gas potential of the North Kara sedimentary basin. The relevance of the research is associated with determining the prospects of the oil and gas potential of the North Kara sedimentary basin. The aim of the study is to clarify the age of the reflecting horizons using data on the geology of the island, as well as to determine the tectonic position of the sedimentary cover and basement structures in the north of the Kara shelf. The sedimentary cover is divided into three structural levels: Cambrian (?)-Devonian, Middle Carboniferous (?)-Cretaceous, Miocene (?)-Quarter. The Cambrian-Devonian complex fills the deep troughs of the North Kara shelf. The most noticeable discontinuity is the base of Carboniferous (?)-Permian rocks, lying on the eroded surface of folded Silurian-Devonian seismic complexes. The blanket-like plate part of the cover is composed of thin Carbon-Quarter complexes. The authors came to the conclusion that the fold structures of the Taimyr-Severozemelskiy fold belt gradually degenerate towards the Kara sedimentary basin and towards the continental slope of the Eurasian basin of the Arctic Ocean. A chain of narrow uplifts within the seabed relief, which correspond to narrow anticlines is traced to the West of the Severnaya Zemlya islands. Paleozoic rocks have subhorizontal bedding further to the West, within the Kara shelf. Mesozoic folding in the North of the Kara Sea is expressed exclusively in a weak activation of movements along faults. At the neotectonic stage, the shelf near Severnaya Zemlya was raised and the Mesozoic complexes were eroded. The modern seismic activity of the North Zemlya shelf is associated with the ongoing formation of the continental margin.


Sissay M.M., 2007. Helminth parasites of sheep and goats in eastern Ethiopia: Epidemiology, and anthelmintic resistance and its management. Doctoral thesis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. ISSN 1652-6880, ISBN 978-91-576-7351-0 A two-year epidemiology study of helminths of small ruminants involved the collection of viscera from 655 sheep and 632 goats from 4 abattoirs in eastern Ethiopia. A further more detailed epidemiology study of gastro-intestinal nematode infections used the Haramaya University (HU) flock of 60 Black Head Ogaden sheep. The parasitological data included numbers of nematode eggs per gram of faeces (EPG), faecal culture L3 larvae, packed red cell volume (PCV), adult worm and early L4 counts, and FAMACHA eye-colour score estimates, along with animal performance (body weight change). There were 13 species of nematodes and 4 species of flukes present in the sheep and goats, with Haemonchus contortus being the most prevalent (65–80%), followed by Trichostrongylus spp. The nematode infection levels of both sheep and goats followed the bi-modal annual rainfall pattern, with the highest worm burdens occurring during the two rain seasons (peaks in May and September). There were significant differences in worm burdens between the 4 geographic locations for both sheep and goats. Similar seasonal but not geographical variations occurred in the prevalence of flukes. There were significant correlations between EPG and PCV, EPG and FAMACHA scores, and PCV and FAMACHA scores. Moreover, H. contortus showed an increased propensity for arrested development during the dry seasons. Faecal egg count reduction tests (FECRT) conducted on the HU flocks, and flocks in surrounding small-holder communities, evaluated the efficacy of commonly used anthelmintics, including albendazole (ABZ), tetramisole (TET), a combination (ABZ + TET) and ivermectin (IVM). Initially, high levels of resistance to all of the anthelmintics were found in the HU goat flock but not in the sheep. In an attempt to restore the anthelmintic efficacy a new management system was applied to the HU goat flock, including: eliminating the existing parasite infections in the goats, exclusion from the traditional goat pastures, and initiation of communal grazing of the goats with the HU sheep and animals of the local small-holder farmers. Subsequent FECRTs revealed high levels of efficacy of all three drugs in the goat and sheep flocks, demonstrating that anthelmintic efficacy can be restored by exploiting refugia. Individual FECRTs were also conducted on 8 sheep and goat flocks owned by neighbouring small-holder farmers, who received breeding stock from the HU. In each FECRT, 50 local breed sheep and goats, 6–9 months old, were divided into 5 treatment groups: ABZ, TET, ABZ + TET, IVM and untreated control. There was no evidence of anthelmintic resistance in the nematodes, indicating that dilution of resistant parasites, which are likely to be imported with introduced breeding goats, and the low selection pressure imposed by the small-holder farmers, had prevented anthelmintic resistance from emerging.


Over a few decades ago, meta-analysis has rapidly developed in various
fields of studies to improve the quality of previous research by quantitative review.
Quantitative review assesses an overall magnitude of the effect from multiple studies.
Hence, the objective in this dissertation is to determine the methods of finding effect
sizes for different conditions in meta-analysis. Two key findings of this study are as
follows: Firstly, vote-counting method will be applied if the effect size estimates are
not available. Next, fixed effects and random effects methods will be used in
combining the effect size estimates when effect size estimates can be calculated. 55
Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) on Tamoxifen treatment for early breast
cancer patients are observed according to recurrences and mortality cases,
respectively. The data is then analysed by using the latest statistical software,
Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) version 2.0. CMA is found to be beneficial
and interactive in the process of meta-analysis. The selection bias as well as the
publication bias should be avoided in order to produce better quality meta-analysis.


The measurement of sexual attitudes is important, and ease of scale usability is one key aspect of measurement. This paper details three studies conducted to develop a briefer and thus more efficient version of the multidimensional Sexual Attitudes Scale (43 items; S. Hendrick & Hendrick, 1987b). The first two studies (I and II) employed existing data sets to develop a 23‐item version of the Sexual Attitudes Scale, using exploratory factor analysis in Study I and confirmatory factor analysis in Study II. The same four subscales of Permissiveness, Birth Control (formerly called Sexual Practices), Communion, and Instrumentality were retained in the 23‐item measure, called the Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale. Study III was a prospective data collection using only the 23 items composing the Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale. The four subscales were hypothesized to correlate with a number of relationship measures in predictable ways. Results indicated that the Brief Sexual Attitudes Scale is a reliable and valid measure of the four sexual attitudes and has strong psychometric properties. It should be effective and efficient for both research and clinical uses.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Highly aggressive cancer cells often are associated with resistance to caspase-dependent apoptosis, due, in part to loss in function or mutation in caspase effectors. Such apoptotic defects in caspase signaling pathway may provide a selective growth advantage for tumor cells and potentiate their aggressiveness and resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. Here, we test the responsiveness of the highly aggressive prostate cancer cell line PC3 cells to the apoptotic function of the novel, caspase-independent anoikis effector Bcl2 inhibitor of transcription (Bit1). Overexpression of the cytoplasmic localized Bit1 in PC3 cells results in significant induction of apoptosis as evidenced by the increased levels of histone-DNA fragments. Furthermore, PC3 cells transfected with the mitochondrial localized Bit1 exhibit significant apoptosis following loss of cell attachment as compared to vector treated cells, and such induction of anoikis is associated with increased levels of Bit1 in the cytosol. In contrast, both the control and Bit1 transfected PC3 cells show the same level of spontaneous apoptosis when grown attached to a culture dish. We also tested whether Bit1 alters the chemoresistant phenotype of PC3 cells. Consistent with the induction of anoikis sensitivity, overexpression of mitochondrial Bit1 also renders PC3 cells more sensitive to etoposide-induced apoptosis. Interestingly, the Bit1-mediated apoptosis in PC3 cells is correlated with increased NFkappa B activity as evidenced by increased nuclear translocation and transcription factor activity of the p65 subunit. Taken together, these findings indicate that activation of the caspase-independent Bit1 apoptotic pathway may serve as a preferred alternate approach in triggering apoptosis in aggressive prostate cancer cells. Bit1 may thus serve as a future therapeutic target for the treatment and alleviation of the chemoresistance characteristic of prostate cancer.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 135.


The present study analysed university students' critical thinking ability on their listening skills. With this purpose in mind, 25 students taking listening subject participated in the study were chosen as the sample of this study. To gather the data, the essay test of critical thinking skill developed by Facione were administered to the participants after they had listened to related audio of conversation and/or monologue. The obtained data were then analysed using holistic critical thinking scoring rubric. The results showed that the core critical thinking skill of interpretation possessed by the students is 61% categorized as low, analysis skill is 65% classified as medium, inference skill holds 68% ranked as medium, evaluation skill gets 56% categorized as low, explanation skill is 54% classified as low, and self-regulation is 68% classified as medium. To add, the total average of students skill related to critical thinking is 62% and is categorized as low. Considering that students in higher education is faced with complex problem and decision making, education practitioner are called to develop critical thinking in language teaching particularly listening skill. Thus, the development of critical thinking in listening would contribute to successful communication.


The development of new technology has spawned different ideas and new approaches to engaging with people around the world. One such development is the ability to approach public diplomacy based on the methodology employed in the production of open-source software. This approach provides the means to engage with communities of other concerned actors, communicatae through human voices, place emphasis on understanding lessons from previous initiatives, and vitally engage on the bases of the interests of those communities. Ideas can no longer be seen as owned by a country; mass communication provides the means to see beyond national claims of unity. Recognizing this and embracing the means to engage with communities that are defined by ideology rather than physical borders provides the potential to render public diplomacy initiatives more relevant to the target audience and ultimately more influential.


Previously reinforced, and later extinguished, responding recurs when environmental conditions change. When studying recurrence, its magnitude (i.e., how much responding recurs) can be assessed by means of absolute and relative measures. These measures, however, highlight different aspects of recurrence that, if not taken into account, may lead to ambiguous interpretations of results. In the present article, first, absolute and relative measures of recurrence are described. Next, interpretations of hypothetical results are presented to illustrate that these measures provide different, but complementary, information about recurrence. That is, absolute response rates in the Test phase and response rates in the Test phase expressed as a proportion of response rates in the immediately preceding phase index how much responding recurs after undergoing extinction. On the other hand, response rates in the Test phase expressed as a proportion of response rates in the Training phase index how closely responding approaches its rate when previously reinforced. Considering the different, but complementary, information provided by each measure might lead to more precise descriptions and interpretations of empirical findings in the experimental analysis of recurrence.


Popular representations of history are taking on new forms and reaching wider audiences. The search for usable pasts is branching out into active appropriations of history such as historical theme parks, housing developments, and live-action role play. Drawing on themed environments across the continents, the articles in this volume focus on how these appropriations bypass, are different from, or even contradict traditional as well as scientific modes of disseminating historical knowledge. Bringing together theorists and practitioners, they provide the basis for an interdisciplinary as well as a transcultural theory of how pasts are staged in various social contexts.


The development of factor VIII concentrates has greatly facilitated hemophilia care and has made the home care of hemophilia possible. However, factor VIII concentrate that has been produced using traditional methods contains large amounts of foreign proteins and viruses. This has resulted in the development of immunologic abnormalities in many hemophiliacs and has exposed many of these patients to blood-borne viruses such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis viruses. Factor VIII circulates in plasma in complex with the von Willebrand factor (vWF). Both factor VIII and vWF have been purified and monoclonal antibodies (mAb) have been generated to both of these proteins. When bound to a solid support, these mAb's can be used to isolate selectively the proteins of interest. Recently, two separate procedures have been used in the immunoaffinity purification of factor VIII on a commercial scale. One product (Monoclate) has been prepared using a mAb to the vWF bound to a chromatography column. The other product (Hemophil M) uses immobilized mAb to the factor VIII molecule. Factor VIII concentrate purified using either of these approaches is far more pure than traditional factor VIII concentrates. In addition, the use of both viral purification and viral inactivation procedures has greatly reduced the risk of viral contamination. Early clinical studies have demonstrated that these products are effective in treating bleeding episodes and that the risk of viral infection with HIV or hepatitis viruses is low. Factor VIII concentrate produced using mAb technology appears to be the product of choice in previously untransfused hemophiliacs. Its role in the treatment of patients who have already been infected with HIV is less clear.


ABSTRACT The present study investigates the nature of Iranian student teachers' reflections and their professional development in the context of teacher education practicums. The participants were student teachers (N = 41) enrolled in teacher education colleges at Farhangian University in Tehran, Iran. A total of 620 reflective writing excerpts were coded using deductive content analysis across three cohorts in three different practicums during a two-year period. To analyse the data, this study applied a rubric for evaluating student teachers' reflections developed by Ward and McCotter. The analysis also involved Friedman's test and follow-up Wilcoxon tests. The results show that routine levels of reflection significantly decreased across the three practicums, while technical levels of reflection significantly increased. The higher levels of reflection, namely dialogic and transformative levels, were rarely found in student teachers' reflective writings across the practicums. This study discusses the need both to develop appropriate methods to guide student teachers in centralized contexts such as Iran and to investigate further aspects that enhance or hinder progress in the quality of reflection in teacher education.


Central Bureau of Statistics of West Nusa Tenggara released that in February 2021, almost all farmers experienced a decrease in the exchange rate of farmers, including horticultural farmers. This study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the constraints farmers face in garlic farming in Sembalun District as a centre of garlic production nationally. The was used qualitative descriptive method by determining 30 respondents who did garlic farming before and during the covid 19 pandemic. Based on the results, the income of garlic farmers in Sembalun District before the Covid-19 pandemic was significantly different from that of garlic farming during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the biggest obstacle faced by garlic farmers was price fluctuations, and marketing was due to the need for a good market chain.
Keywords: Garlic, The Covid-19, Income, Sembalun, Farming


A 48-year-old female patient was found to have a paraumbilical vein saccular aneurysm, which is a rare consequence of portal hypertension. She presented with right upper quadrant pain and had a known diagnosis of alcoholic liver disease. This had progressed since her last admission. We discuss the multimodality images obtained, diagnosis and complications associated with this pathology.


For the realization of scalable solid-state quantum-bit systems, spins in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are promising candidates. A key requirement for quantum logic operations is a sufficiently long coherence time of the spin system. Recently, hole spins in III–V-based QDs were discussed as alternatives to electron spins, since the hole spin, in contrast to the electron spin, is not affected by contact hyperfine interaction with the nuclear spins. Here, we report a breakthrough in the spin coherence times of hole ensembles, confined in the so-called natural QDs, in narrow GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells at temperatures below 500 mK. Consistently, time-resolved Faraday rotation and resonant spin amplification techniques deliver hole-spin coherence times, which approach in the low magnetic field limit values above 70 ns. The optical initialization of the hole spin polarization, as well as the interconnected electron and hole spin dynamics in our samples, are well reproduced using a rate equation model.


The phase space of a relativistic system can be identified with the future tube of complexified Minkowski space. As well as a complex structure and a symplectic structure, the future tube, seen as an eight-dimensional real manifold, is endowed with a natural positive-definite Riemannian metric that accommodates the underlying geometry of the indefinite Minkowski space metric, together with its symmetry group. A unitary representation of the 15-parameter group of conformal transformations can then be constructed that acts upon the Hilbert space of square-integrable holomorphic functions on the future tube. These structures are enough to allow one to put forward a quantum theory of phase-space events. In particular, a theory of quantum measurement can be formulated in a relativistic setting, based on the use of positive operator valued measures, for the detection of phase-space events, hence allowing one to assign probabilities to the outcomes of joint space-time and four-momentum measurements in a manifestly covariant framework. This leads to a localization theorem for phase-space events in relativistic quantum theory, determined by the associated Compton wavelength.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of control integrative measures which persist in snail eradication and chemotherapy on schistosomiasis transmission-interruption in hilly areas.

METHODS
The data of integrated control and endemic situation of schistosomiasis from 2004 to 2014 were collected, and the control effect of integrated measures was evaluated.

RESULTS
From 2004 to 2014, both the Oncomelania hupensis snail area and density of living snails of Jurong City were reduced from 43.13 hm2 and 1.48 snails/0.1 m2 to 0; the residents' seropositive rate declined continuously; the residents' and students' awareness rates on schistosomiasis control were increased from 88.43% and 82.04% to 92.56% and 95.74% respectively; the snail area was significantly negatively correlated with the coverage rate of snail control (r = -0.864, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
In the hilly areas, the schistosomiasis control integrated measures which persist in snail eradication and chemotherapy could control the endemic situation rapidly and steadily, accelerating to achieve the goal of schistosomiasis transmission-interruption.


Paleoenvironmental science provides important context for assessing ongoing and projected changes in Earth's climate and has informed research on central issues such as greenhouse gas variability, abrupt climate change, and ice sheet dynamics. Studies of the past have provided insight into natural climate variability at interannual to glacial/interglacial timescales and have fostered appreciation for a systems approach to global environmental change.

As a contribution to the future of paleoscience, the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project, an international effort sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Swiss and U.S. National Science Foundations to coordinate and promote past global climate change research, convened its 1st Young Scientists Meeting (YSM) in July 2009, as an adjunct to the subsequent 3rd Open Science Meeting. Early career researchers were given the opportunity to broaden their knowledge base, build international and cross-disciplinary networks, tackle emerging issues of concern to the paleoscience community, and learn about international science infrastructures.


By adopting the revised WinEPIC model, a simulation study was conducted to investigate the responses of the apple yield and deeper soil moisture content to 7 planting densities in the appl orchards in Yan'an of Shaanxi and in Jingning of Gansu in 1965-2009. Under the 7 planting densities, the annual yields of the 4-45 years apple orchards increased rapidly at early growth stage, and then decreased with fluctuation after reached the maximum. The higher the planting density, the higher the annual yield was obtained at early growth stage, but the yield at late growth stage fluctuated dramatically with annual precipitation. The orchards with different planting densities had the similar soil water stress process, i. e., no water stress at early growth stage, and water stress occurred and fluctuated dramatically with increasing planting years. The days of water stress at late growth stage changed oppositely to annual precipitation. At early growth stage, the soil available moisture content in 0-15 m layer under the 7 planting densities all decreased rapidly with strong fluctuation, ranged in a low level of 0-600 mm after 17-22 years in Yan' an and after 13-20 years in Jingning. The soil moisture content in 0-15 m layer changed similarly under different planting densities, i. e., decreased gradually with the deepening of soil desiccation, and the stable depth of drying layer could reach 12 m. Considering the apple yield and the soil available moisture content in 0-15 m layer, the reasonable planting density of apple orchard was 650-800 plants x hm(-2) in Yan'an and 550-700 plants x hm(-2) in Jingning.


Carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase consists of an amidotransferase domain or subunit (GLN) that hydrolyzes glutamine and transfers the ammonia to the synthetase component (CPS) where the biosynthetic reaction occurs. The CPS domain is composed of two homologous subdomains, CPS.A and CPS.B, that catalyze different ATP-dependent reactions involved in carbamoyl phosphate synthesis. When the individual CPS.A and CPS.B subdomains were individually cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli (Guy, H. I., and Evans, D. R. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 13762–13769), they were found to be functionally equivalent and could each independently catalyze carbamoyl phosphate synthesis. The proposal was advanced that, although the monomers could catalyze the individual partial reactions, overall synthesis of carbamoyl phosphate required a homodimer of CPS.A or CPS.B. To test this hypothesis, the GLN-CPS.B dimer was reversibly dissociated at 1500 bar in a high pressure cell. Dissociation was accompanied by a loss of both glutamine- and ammonia-dependent CPSase activity. Activity was recovered once the protein was returned to atmospheric pressure. If the sample was cross-linked before exposure to high pressure, there was no dissociation and no loss of biosynthetic activity. In contrast, the bicarbonate-dependent ATPase and the carbamoyl phosphate-dependent ATP synthetase activities were largely unaffected by pressure-induced dissociation. These experiments confirmed the hypothesis that the synthesis of carbamoyl phosphate requires the concerted action of the two active sites within the homodimer.


A cross-sectional, school based study was carried out in a rural area to assess the nutritional status among the adolescents in the age group of 10-15 years. Out of 321 study subjects, 178 (55.5%) were boys and 143(44.5%) were girls. The height correlated positively with age and increased with the increase in age in boys and girls. In present study the prevalence of stunting in 10-15years age group was 16.9% among boys and 6.3% in girls with an overall prevalence of 11.6%. In the present study the prevalence of thinness was 41.6% in boys and 28.1% in girls, with overall prevalence of 34.8%. There was statistically highly significant association between socioeconomic status and prevalence of stunting and thinness. Regular health check-up with concerted effort towards nutrition along with focused health education can improve the health and nutritional status of these school going rural adolescents.


2 Abstract: A total number of 224 cloacal swabs were examined for hemagglutinating activity from 4 different poultry farms of Noakhali district in Bangladesh. Out of the total samples 15 exhibited positive reactions with chicken erythrocytes. Among the 15 positive samples, 11 were found to be positive for Newcastle disease virus. The highest (100%) prevalence of Newcastle disease virus was found in Ram Nagar union and the lowest (66.66%) were found in Rajapur union. Seventy five percent prevalence was found in Jaylashker and Matubhuyian union. The overall prevalence of Newcastle disease virus was found to be 79.17% in the four unions. No egg drop syndrome virus and avian influenza viruses were identified in the samples those gave positive result in hemaggluntination test.


We can smell, taste, feel, hear and see the gifts of nature but we have always had that curiosity or a strong desire to measure those senses in a more systematic manner and record those values/store those values. Sound from a speaker is loudThis is the reading given by our ears which is one of the five sense organs, but we would like to measure it in terms of units like decibels dB, frequency Hz etc... This is necessary for systematic analysis. For this we need a sensor that is sensitive to the real time processes and their outcome, a processing unit, connectivity elements and output display/elucidation unit. In this paper we carry out real time measurements of %vol of vapour of a volatile liquid (Alcohol), Leakage of hazardous gasses like LPG, Climate-Humidity and temperature and the distance between the source and the obstacle using ultrasonic sensors. All these real time sensor data is monitored wirelessly using a third party developed Android application and installed into an Android OS powered Smartphone and stored into the internal or SD card memory (external memory) of the Smartphone. We have designed an android application named "Sense_graph" which can wirelessly record and monitor real time values. In this paper we also mention the key considerations in sensor selection and operation, they are Accuracy and Resolution, Precision, Sensitivity, Reliability, Response time, Practicality and Cost.


Therapy-related myelodysplasia/acute myeloid leukemia (t-MDS) is a lethal complication of cytotoxic cancer treatment. The incidence of t-MDS is particularly high in patients undergoing autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (aHCT) for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). To better understand pathogenetic mechanisms underlying development of t-MDS we are prospectively following a cohort of patients undergoing aHCT for lymphoma at our center. In previous studies using samples from this cohort we identified altered expression of genes related to mitochondrial function in pre-aHCT samples from lymphoma patients who later developed t-MDS (cases) compared to patients from the cohort who did not develop t-MDS (controls) (Cancer Cell 2011 20:591). Altered mitochondrial gene expression was associated with increased levels of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) in samples from patients who subsequently developed t-MDS. These results suggest a possible role for mitochondrial dysfunction and increased ROS in pathogenesis of t-MDS. Somatic mutations of mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) are observed at increased frequency in many malignant conditions. Somatic mtDNA mutations may reflect increased susceptibility to mutagenesis, and could contribute to altered mitochondrial function in patients with t-MDS.

Here we sought to investigate the role of mitochondrial genomic instability in t-MDS development by analyzing the mutation profile of mtDNA in hematopoietic cells from pre-HCT samples obtained from cases that developed t-MDS and controls that did not develop t-MDS after aHCT for lymphoma. We isolated myeloid and lymphoid cell populations from t-MDS cases (n=13) and controls (n=18) using flow cytometry, amplified mtDNA by PCR using specific primers, and sequenced pooled, barcoded amplicons using next generation sequencing on a Illumina Hi-Seq instrument. Sequences were alighted to the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (rCRS) in the MITOMAP database.

We did not identify significant differences in abundance of variations between controls and cases in protein coding genes (control 13.9, case 14.9), hypervariable region (control 7.7, case 6.6) and rRNA/tRNA genes (control 5.7, case 5.6). In addition we did not observe differences in the abundance of variation between cases and controls in individual genes. We also did not detect significant differences in the abundance of SNPs resulting in non-synonymous amino acid changes in lymphoid compared to myeloid populations from both cases (lymphoid 5.0, myeloid 4.7) and controls (lymphoid 5.3, myeloid 4.3). Several new variations in both coding and noncoding regions were identified that were not previously reported in the rCRS database, which were present in greater abundance in myeloid (control 5.3, case 5.3) compared to lymphoid cells (control 1.7, case 2.2). Amongst new variations, the top 5 protein coding genes with the highest number of mutations were found in myeloid cells and included NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2, 4, and 5, and cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and 2. We also analyzed the specific mutations that displayed a variation frequency greater than 25% in myeloid control and case samples. Interestingly, the A10398G mutation, in the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 3 (ND3) coding region, associated with metabolic syndrome and increased risk for breast cancer, was found in ∼30% of t-MDS myeloid case samples.

In summary our data suggests that there is increased abundance of novel variations in mtDNA in myeloid compared to lymphoid populations. Although several new, previously unreported variations were identified, we did not observe any significant differences in type of lesions, abundance of lesions in coding and non-coding regions, or in individual genes between cases and controls. We conclude that changes in mtDNA sequence are not significantly different between patients that later develop t-MDS after aHCT (cases) compared to controls that do not develop t-MDS. These observations suggest that differences in mtDNA sequence cannot by itself explain the alterations in altered mitochondrial function seen early during the course of development of t-MDS.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


A two-dimensional (2-D) digital filter named a three-terms separable-denominator (3TSD) filter is considered and its spatial-domain design techniques are presented. The transfer function of the approximated filter is obtained by solving a set of bilinear equations iteratively. The 3TSD filter also offers some benefits as an SD filter. For example, the stability of the SD filter is easy to check and the filter is simple to implement. An example is presented to illustrate the utility of the proposed technique. >