PURPOSE
To evaluate the change in body and uterine weights of rats in persistent estrus, a model developed to mimic polycystic ovary syndrome treated with selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) tamoxifen and raloxifene.

METHODS
Sixty Wistar-Hannover rats induced by a single subcutaneous dose of 1.25 mg testosterone propionate were divided into three groups of 20 animals: Group I (placebo); Group II (tamoxifen, 250 microg/day) and Group III (raloxifene, 750 microg/day). At 90 days of life, the treatment began for 30 consecutive days, in which the animals were weighed weekly. On the 31st day, the animals were sacrificed and the uterus removed. Data were analyzed statistically by analysis of variance and by the Tukey-Kramer multiple comparisons test (p<0.05).

RESULTS
Means of body and uterine weights (g) after treatment were: 227.3+/-2.20 and 0.40+/-0.01; 185.3+/-2.45 and 0.25+/-0.01; 186.4+/-2.20 and 0.27+/-0.01 in Groups I, II and III, respectively (p<0.001). There was no statistical difference between groups II and III for body and uterine weight (p=0.727 and p=0.646, respectively).

CONCLUSION
The present results indicate that, at the doses and during the time of treatment used, both tamoxifen and raloxifene reduce in a similar way the body and uterine weights of rats in persistent estrus showing a possible antiestrogenic effect of SERMs under high levels of estrogens.


Atomically ordered Rh2P nanoclusters encapsulated within a high-surface-area hollow mesoporous carbon nanoreactor are catalytically active for hydrogen production via the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction and the room-temperature dehydrogenation of ammonia borane.


Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) is widely regarded as a key to improving the quality of healthcare in the
United States and potentially reducing its cost. Yet, its implementation is a continuous challenge for the healthcare
industry. In this article, we report the results of a survey distributed to CEOs and CIOs at 1400 U.S. hospitals
regarding their perceptions of the key information technology (IT) issues in healthcare. Among the top ten issues,
the implementation of electronic medical records is ranked the highest. Included in the top ten are issues related to:
improving healthcare quality by the use of information technology; change management, privacy, security, and
accuracy of electronic records; and decision support applications. While some differences existed, we found much
similarity between the views of the CEOs and the CIOs with both groups being characterized as conservative and
risk-averse in their entrepreneurial orientation. No major differences were observed between urban and rural
hospitals, or large and small hospitals. Given the heightened interest in healthcare IT, these results have wide
implications for many stakeholders in this burgeoning industry


Based on French firm-level data over around 15 years we evaluate the contribution of the micro-level profit shifting –through tax haven foreign direct investments to the aggregate productivity slowdown measured in France. We show that firm measured productivity in France declines over the immediate years following the establishment in a tax haven, with an average estimated drop by 3.5% in labor apparent productivity. We argue that this productivity decline, following a presence in a tax haven, is most likely explained by multinationals' tax optimization, where domestic productivity is underestimated as profits are not recorded anymore in the home country. The fall in productivity is especially strong for firms that are intensive in intangible capital and is equivalent to 4.1% (versus 2.7% for low intangible intensive firms), reflecting the fact that these types of assets are more easily shifted across countries and facilitate tax planning. Our results additionally suggest that the mismeasurement has strong dynamic effects, as the decline becomes more important the longer the firm remains in a tax haven. Finally, given these firms' weight in the economy, our results imply an 8% loss at the aggregate in terms of the level of the labor productivity throughout the whole sample period, which is equivalent to an annual loss of 9.7% in terms of the aggregate annual labor productivity growth.


Venezuela, a vibrant and dynamic country located in the northern part of South America, is the fourth largest producer of oil in the world. It has a population of 26 million and has relatively low levels of illiteracy. It was a colonized country until it was freed by Simón Bolívar (the national hero), who led the war of independence not only in Venezuela, but also in a number of other South American countries. Since that time, Venezuela has experienced political instability like many of our Latin American neighbours (Galeano 1995). Currently, Venezuela is the longest lasting democracy (since 1958) in Latin America. Although it has a strong tradition of government funding in all sectors of society, including sports, and a remarkable interest in baseball (its number one sport), Venezuela is not considered a sportive nation.


Purpose: Today religious travel, tourism and hospitality is a dynamic $18 billion global industry with 800 million travelers. Most people embark on religious travel for the primary purpose of sharing faith and fellowship as they explore the world. The present paper is an attempt to bring forth the rich cultural heritage of the tourist pilgrimage town of Puri, which over the centuries have drawn millions of communities every year, turning it into an greatest TOURISM INDUSTRY of eastern India. Puri's accessibility, and Jagannath, its proximity to the sea, enhances the glory and universality, the romance and riddle that surrounds Jagannath and attracts numerous pilgrim tourists. Methodology: I have applied a single case study approach. Random sampling technique has been chosen and a sample structure is created from the data obtained.( interviewing the tourists),which are then studied and analysed. Findings: Puri has experienced the gloomy and glory, the din and bustle of a tourist town. Here pilgrimage has been taken to the fold of tourism in course of time. My case study is based on tourist reaction(which is very much mixed) who come to this pilgrim centre and the benefits they receive as well as the problem they face in this famous tourist spot of eastern India.This greatly determines the future status of the emerging tourist industry out here. Research limitations/implication: Being a popular religious centre many denied to unfold their problems due to the fear of receiving a curse from their immediate lord. (A common belief of the hindus). Practical implications: This study highlight the present status of the tourist town of Purl and also points out the pitfalls and drawbacks with stands on the way of progress of this tourist town which has to be removed for the development of tourist industry here. Originality/value of the paper: Today religious travel, tourism and hospitality is a dynamic $18 billion global industry with 800 million travelers. In travel and tourism and tourist destinations, cultural centers have something rolled pack with the myths and legends, ancient rituals and festivals and Puri, (Orissa, in eastern India) is one such place. It is this place, and to the temple and lord Jagannath that for several centuries people from different communities(buddhists, Sikhs, Bengalis etc)have thronged - weary footsore and feverish, yet ever patient under fatigue and hardship-to get the sight of their god who they believe obliterates the transgressions of a whole life. Such an important tourist town deserves a special mention. All the research is based on primary survey, and data analysis.


A traditional post-installation impact evaluation of industrial energy efficiency programs is conducted several years after the completion of energy projects. Because this rearview mirror approach has its limitations, such as missed opportunities for pre-installation metering and baseline definition, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Industrial and Process Efficiency (IPE) program has implemented a unique concurrent evaluation process in which impact evaluators work alongside program implementers on the largest and most complex projects in real time. In general, projects chosen for this process have large preliminary savings estimates and complicated baselines. This often means the selected projects have the highest risk of differences between projected and realized savings. The concurrent review process seeks to reduce this risk by including evaluator input on key issues throughout the project life cycle – from incentive commitment to final reported savings. Concurrent evaluation also benefits the program and evaluation process by requiring fewer touch points for the customers while improving engineering rigor and quality. This paper assesses the effectiveness of the concurrent evaluation process through the lens of a recently completed impact evaluation of NYSERDA's IPE program. It builds on previous work summarizing the early lessons learned through the concurrent evaluation process and discusses how these changes have improved process efficiency. The paper also provides implementer and evaluator perspectives on the concurrent review process itself, its mission, its impact on the realization of industrial energy efficiency savings in New York State, and its applicability to other programs and jurisdictions. Industrial and Process Efficiency (IPE) Program Description NYSERDA's Industrial and Process Efficiency (IPE) Program provides technical assistance and installation incentives to manufacturing, agricultural, mining, wastewater, and data center customers. Incentives are available for the implementation of both electric and natural gas projects that include custom and site-specific commercially available energy efficient technologies. Both existing and new facilities are eligible to participate in the IPE program. The program employs technical reviewers who review and generate savings estimates for each project that is encumbered by the program. These technical reviewers are engineers and energy managers who work with customers and NYSERDA's program managers to ensure that accurate project savings and incentives are calculated using the best available information. The program's typical IPE project flow and savings calculation process is outlined in Figure 1.


This paper explores which classroom and teacher factors are associated with post-16 mathematics aspirations, mathematics intrinsic motivation and mathematics self-concept. Few studies explore all three outcomes amongst the same set of students nor make linkages across the factors that are important to these outcomes. The analysis is based on the survey responses of 761 year 8 (age 13) and 715 year 10 (age 15) students from 17 London schools as learners of mathematics. The analysis indicates that teaching for engagement is important for intrinsic mathematics motivation but not for future mathematics aspirations. In addition, students' emotional responses to mathematics lessons are important for their mathematics self-concept but not for future mathematics aspirations. Advice-pressure to continue with mathematics post-16, extrinsic material gain motivation and mathematics self-concept underpin mathematics aspirations (even after controlling for the support students received from their families in mathematics attainment). The gender difference within mathematics self-concept among these young Londoners was higher than that found across England, although there were substantially fewer gender differences in relation to questions that explored students' perceptions of their mathematics lessons and teachers. The article concludes with some suggestions for both national and London policymakers because the study of mathematics is seen as of considerable importance to both young people and the economic life of the capital.


Fishes of the order Alepocephaliformes, slickheads and tubeshoulders, constitute a group of deep-sea fishes poorly known in respect to most areas of their biology and systematics. Morphological studies have found alepocephaliform fishes to display a mosaic of synapomorphic and symplesiomorphic characters, resulting in great difficulties when attempting to resolve intra- and interrelationships. Molecular data recently added to the confusion by removing Alepocephaliformes from the Euteleostei and placed them as incertae sedis within the Otocephala. In the present study we attempt to further clarify relationships of Alepocephaliformes by adding newly determined whole mitogenome sequences from 19 alepocephaliforms in order to address 1) phylogenetic position of Alepocephaliformes within the Otocephala; and 2) intrarelationships of Alepocephaliformes. The present study includes 96 taxa of which 30 are alepocephaliforms and unambiguously aligned sequences were subjected to partitioned maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses.

Results from the present study support Alepocephaliformes as a genetically distinct otocephalan order as sister clade to Ostariophysi (mostly freshwater fishes comprising Gonorynchiformes, Cypriniformes, Characiformes, Siluriformes and Gymnotiformes). The disputed family Bathylaconidae was found to be an artificial assemblage of the two genera Bathylaco and Herwigia, with the former as the sister group of the family Alepocephalidae and the latter nested within Alepocephalidae. Platytroctidae was found to be monophyletic as sister clade to the rest of Alepocephaliformes. Previously unrecognized clades within the family Alepocephalidae are presented and a clade comprising Alepocephalus, Conocara and Leptoderma was recovered as the most derived. As long as the current classification is being followed, the genera Alepocephalus, Bathytroctes, Conocara and Narcetes were all found non-monophyletic. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 98, 923–936.


The supply of food is one of the most energy consuming tasks in a society. Even in highly industrialized countries more fossil energy is spent in the food sector than in industry. Usually some 30% of the overall fossil energy consumption is used just for feeding the population. This, however, includes everything -- from the production of fertilizers and agricultural machinery to the fueling of irrigation pumps and drainage systems; from energy use in cultivation and harvesting, to energy consumption in processing, storage, transportation, and preparation of food.

Only a small -- and declining -- proportion of the total fossil energy consumption in the food sector is spent for food production -- most of it (some 90%) goes to the processing, storage, conservation, transport and preparation of food. Contrary to conventional wisdom it is not the high-tech farmers who are responsible for the enormous energy consumption in the food sector. It is the food industries, food traders, restaurants and households which spend most of the fossil energy in the food system. This is the reason, why lifestyles are much more important for studying energetic efficiency in food chains than the frequently analyzed input-output rates in agricultural production.

This paper argues that the energy efficiency of food must be analyzed for whole food chains - including production, harvesting, slaughtering, processing, storage, transportation and preparation in the household.


The characterization of focal liver lesions is very important. Magnetic resonance imaging is considered the best imaging method for evaluating such lesions, but does not allow for the diagnosis in all cases. The use of hepatobiliary contrast agents increases the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging and reduces the number of non-specific liver lesions. The main indications for the method include: differentiation between focal nodular hyperplasia and adenoma; characterization of hepatocellular carcinomas in cirrhotic patients; detection of small liver metastases; evaluation of biliary anatomy; and characterization of postoperative biliary fistulas. The use of hepatobiliary contrast agents may reduce the need for invasive diagnostic procedures and further investigations with other imaging methods, besides the need for imaging follow-up.


Recently researchers have been shifting their focus towards learned 3D shape descriptors from hand-craft ones to better address challenging issues of the deformation and structural variation inherently present in 3D objects. 3D geometric data are often transformed to 3D Voxel grids with regular format in order to be better fed to a deep neural net architecture. However, the computational intractability of direct application of 3D convolutional nets to 3D volumetric data severely limits the efficiency (i.e. slow processing) and effectiveness (i.e. unsatisfied accuracy) in processing 3D geometric data. In this paper, powered with a novel design of adversarial networks (3D-A-Nets), we have developed a novel 3D deep dense shape descriptor (3D-DDSD) to address the challenging issues of efficient and effective 3D volumetric data processing. We developed new definition of 2D multilayer dense representation (MDR) of 3D volumetric data to extract concise but geometrically informative shape description and a novel design of adversarial networks that jointly train a set of convolution neural network (CNN), recurrent neural network (RNN) and an adversarial discriminator. More specifically, the generator network produces 3D shape features that encourages the clustering of samples from the same category with correct class label, whereas the discriminator network discourages the clustering by assigning them misleading adversarial class labels. By addressing the challenges posed by the computational inefficiency of direct application of CNN to 3D volumetric data, 3D-A-Nets can learn high-quality 3D-DSDD which demonstrates superior performance on 3D shape classification and retrieval over other state-of-the-art techniques by a great margin.


West Antarctica developed as the tectonically active margin separating East Antarctica and the Pacific Ocean for almost half a billion years. Its dynamic history of magmatism, continental growth and fragmentation are recorded in sparse outcrops, and revealed by regional geophysical patterns. Compared with East Antarctica, West Antarctica is younger, more tectonically active and has a lower average elevation. We identify three broad physiographic provinces within West Antarctica and present their overlapping and interconnected tectonic and geological history as a framework for future study: 1/ The Weddell Sea region, which lay furthest from the subducting margin, but was most impacted by the Jurassic initiation of Gondwana break-up. 2/ Marie Byrd Land and the West Antarctic rift system which developed as a broad Cretaceous to Cenozoic continental rift system, reworking a former convergent margin. 3/ The Antarctic Peninsula and Thurston Island which preserve an almost complete magmatic arc system. We conclude by briefly discussing the evolution of the West Antarctic system as a whole, and the key questions which need to be addressed in future. One such question is whether West Antarctica is best conceived as an accreted collection of rigid microcontinental blocks (as commonly depicted) or as a plastically deforming and constantly growing melange of continental fragments and juvenile magmatic regions. This distinction is fundamental to understanding the tectonic evolution of young continental lithosphere. Defining the underlying geological template of West Antarctica and constraining its linkages to the dynamics of the overlying ice sheet, which is vulnerable to change due to human activity, is of critical importance.


Railways nodes are considered as a combination of heterogeneous elements such as medium-large passenger stations, service stations, and lines for their interconnection. Their management is important to make more efficient rail transport and to promote a new urban mobility. This paper analyzes the critical features of railways existing nodes, looking mainly at the notion of railways capacity. Railway capacity is a dynamical concept strictly related to railways system's components. Those components are unpredictable; it means that the capacity varies according to train types, timetables, infrastructure layout and real operation conditions. The analysis takes into account all those factors with particular regard to infrastructures (paths of the lines, topological configurations of the stations, etc.), technology (signalling systems, conduct, etc.), and management (traffic regulations, operating models, etc.). Finally, some solutions are suggested to solve the problems connected to railways nodes. The increase of commercial speed, the reduction of propagation delay, the improvement of services' quality and the creation of new high-speed lines can be useful actions to increase efficiency and quality in railways sector.


The article considers the issues of self-assessment of occupational health by medical personnel of psychiatric service. The main issues and areas of occupation health disorders are identified. The main directions of disorders prevention are presented.


This text, which comes with a CD-ROM, explores every facet of Web publishing, beginning with an exploration of Web publishers' connectivity options. It considers all of the technical and procedural aspects of Web publishing, including the use of the HTML markup language and HTML editors. Multimedia resources are explored, and tips and how-to instruction provided for creating MPEG videos, scanned GIF and JPEG images, Adobe Acrobat documents, and more. The author provides pointers on integrating the Web publishing enterprise with leading multimedia applications. An important function of this book is the full documentation of the rich new HTML tools created by Netscape Corporation for use with Netscape Navigator 1.1. These tools, including tables and other formats, are expected to become part of the emerging HTML 3.0 specification. The accompanying CD-ROM includes software essential for Web publishing.


Much effort has been devoted to identify ecological and life‐history traits which facilitate urban colonization by wild avian species, but surprisingly little is known about the population‐level mechanisms of urbanization processes. In general, two different patterns of urban colonization have been proposed: 1) the model of independent colonization predicts that birds colonize cities independently in different geographical regions; 2) the model of leapfrog colonization assumes a single colonization event, while additional urban populations are established from the initial urban populations. The aim of this paper was to determine the pattern of urban colonization in a common waterbird, the Eurasian coot Fulica atra. For this purpose, we analysed microsatellite variation in three pairs of urban and rural coot populations from central Poland. We found that a newly‐established urban population was genetically more similar to neighbouring rural populations than to long‐established urban populations, as indicated by the analysis of fixation index, genetic distance and Bayesian assignment of individuals to genetic clusters. These results are consistent with the model of independent colonization, where neighbouring rural populations are a source of individuals that colonize new urban areas. However, our analysis also showed significant differentiation between long‐established urban populations and adjacent rural populations, suggesting that genetic connectivity between two types of habitat decreases with increasing time since urbanization. Our study shows high complexity of urbanization processes in wild animal populations, as well as it underpins utility of molecular tools in studying population‐level mechanisms of urbanization.


Enactivism is a family of theories that construe action as constitutive of cognition and reject the need to postulate representations in order to explain all cognitive activities. Acknowledging a biologically basic, non-representational mode of cognition, however, raises the question of how to explain higher or more complex cognitive acts, what we call explanatory integration challenge. In this paper, we critically discuss some attempts to meet that challenge through scaling up basic cognition and through scaling down complex cognition within the enactivist research program.


This study determined which knowledge sharing and learning (KSL) intervention best fits agriculture and non-agriculture students in the Philippines, and documented each of the student groups' commitments to be intermediaries to farmers. Six months after the data had been gathered through survey method, the research team documented which KSL intervention each student group shared to others. The study also determined whether the students' expressions of commitment had been concretized into action. Samples were randomly selected from higher education institutions in the Philippines, namely, Central Mindanao University in Bukidnon, Central Bicol State University of Agriculture in Camarines Sur, Father Saturnino Urios University in Agusan del Norte, and Camiguin Polytechnic State College. A total of 44 agriculture students and 59 non-agriculture students were compared. The study found that agriculture students involved themselves using their technical knowledge of information and communications technology (ICT)-based tools, whereas the other group of students employed nontechnical and practical ways to help their communities—specifically by encouraging people to save rice. Agriculture students reached more farmers than the non-agriculture students did. The results of this study could guide policymakers in developing policies that would enhance students' involvement in agriculture.


Women constitute about half of the population of Pakistan. The social status of women in Pakistan largely depends upon geographical location and the class from where she belongs to. Situation of Urban women is much better than rural women. According to the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, though women have equal rights like men in the state, but throughout the history she is facing discrimination and even has been killed by her own male family members in the name of so-called "Honour". But the irony is, it is hard to find "Honour" in honour killings. Though the government of Pakistan is serious to solve this problem but ill practices and so-called social customs are big hurdles in the way. The main objective of this research is to highlight such social and cultural evils, those are basic causes of gender inequality and discrimination in Pakistan. It is collective responsibility of our society and state not only to find better solutions of the problem of honour killing but it is also need of time to educate and empower women in Pakistan. So that she may become constructive element of the society.


To understand why conversion has become a controversial issue, this contribution examines its different meanings and regulations both in the religious legal systems and in State laws. This exam reveals the analogies of the religious legal mechanisms governing the adoption and change of a religion and how they can influence State rules. The different impact that conversion may have on the enjoyment of civil and political rights explains why in some countries conversion is unregulated by the State while in others is subject to controls and limitations. The article concludes that freedom of religion does not require that States refrain from regulating conversion always and everywhere. In some circumstances, and provided that freedom to change religion is not affected, some degree of State control is required by the fact that the legal status of citizens is affected by conversion


A high quality high frequency (HF) oblique ionosonde has been developed for use in propagation research and associated studies of the ionosphere. The ionosonde is known as ROSE (radio oblique sounding equipment) and requires the connection of a specially designed enhancement to a commercially available chirp sounder receiver (RCS-5) manufactured by the BR Corporation in the U.S.A. Two important features are brought about by the addition of this enhancement. Firstly, an increase in the resolution of an ionogram by a factor of approximatety three. This allows the fine structure in the ionospheric returns to be detected. Secondly, colour coding of the ionogram according to the amplitude of the received signal. Detailed mode amplitude information and comparisons of the relative strengths of propagating modes can be achieved through this. Additional features which are provided include display handling, data storage and off-line analytical facilities. This paper describes the system architecture of ROSE, its main features and its application to ionospheric research.


A theoretical and empirical view is taken of motorcycle lateral-directional dynamics, handling, and rider control behavior. The analytical development includes equations of motion for the vehicle and a multiple loop feedback model for the control response rider/cycle system. Connections with manual control and vehicle response data are shown. The effects of changing fork geometry, operating conditions, and tire lag properties are discussed. Implications are drawn for handling requirements, vehicle design, and rider control techniques.


Removal of uranium(VI) by zerovalent iron has been suggested as a feasible pathway to control uranium contaminations in seepage waters. Available information in the literature however presents discrepant evidence on the process responsible for the mitigation effect. On basis of an EH-pH diagram of uranium and iron, it is outlined that these discrepancies may be explained by the aqueous chemistry of uranium and iron. Additional effects contributing to the complexity of the system are given. Solubilization experiments using scrap iron together with water works sludge, MnO2, and pyrite indicate that U(VI) is immobilized by iron corrosion products after about 50 days.


The recent growth in bioenergy crop cultivation, stimulated by the need to implement measures to reduce net CO2 emissions, is driving major land‐use changes with consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem service provision. Although the type of bioenergy crop and its associated management is likely to affect biodiversity at the local (field) scale, landscape context and its interaction with crop type may also influence biodiversity on farms. In this study, we assessed the impact of replacing conventional agricultural crops with two model bioenergy crops (either oilseed rape Brassica napus or Miscanthus × giganteus) on vascular plant, bumblebee, solitary bee, hoverfly and carabid beetle richness, diversity and abundance in 50 sites in Ireland. We assessed whether within‐field biodiversity was also related to surrounding landscape structure. We found that local‐ and landscape‐scale variables correlated with biodiversity in these agricultural landscapes. Overall, the differences between the bioenergy crops and the conventional crops on farmland biodiversity were mostly positive (e.g. higher vascular plant richness in Miscanthus planted on former conventional tillage, higher solitary bee abundance and richness in Miscanthus and oilseed rape compared with conventional crops) or neutral (e.g. no differences between crop types for hoverflies and bumblebees). We showed that these crop type effects were independent of (i.e. no interactions with) the surrounding landscape composition and configuration. However, surrounding landscape context did relate to biodiversity in these farms, negatively for carabid beetles and positively for hoverflies. Although we conclude that the bioenergy crops compared favourably with conventional crops in terms of biodiversity of the taxa studied at the field scale, the effects of large‐scale planting in these landscapes could result in very different impacts. Maintaining ecosystem functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services will require a greater understanding of impacts at the landscape scale to ensure the sustainable development of climate change mitigation measures.


The 2012 Joint Varenna–Lausanne International Workshop on the theory of fusion plasmas was very fruitful. A broad variety of topics was addressed, covering turbulence, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), edge physics, and radio frequency (RF) wave heating. Moreover, the scope of the meeting was extended this year to include the physics of materials and diagnostics for burning plasmas. This evolution reflects the complexity of problems at hand in fusion, some of them triggered by the construction of ITER and JT-60SA. Long-standing problems without immediate consequences have sometimes become an urgent matter in that context. One may refer to, for instance, the choice of plasma facing components or the design of control systems. Another characteristic of these workshops is the interplay between various domains of plasma physics. For instance, MHD modes are currently investigated with gyrokinetic codes, kinetic effects are included in MHD stability analysis more and more, and turbulence is now accounted for in wave propagation problems. This is proof of cross-fertilization and is certainly a healthy sign for our community. Finally, introducing some novelty in the programme does not prevent from us respecting old traditions. As usual, many presentations were dedicated to numerical simulations. Combining advanced numerical techniques with elaborated analytical theory is certainly a trademark of the Varenna–Lausanne Workshop, which was respected again this year. The quality and size of the scientific output from this workshop is shown in this special issue of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion; a further 26 papers have already appeared in Journal of Physics: Conference Series in December 2012. We hope the readers will enjoy this special issue, and find therein knowledge and inspiration.


Abstract The traditional character of Hutsul villages and their spatial development has been changing slowly but inevitably over the course of time. Historically, single farmsteads were built separately and were mostly self-sufficient, the distance between them being considerable. Nowadays, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economic transformation brought along many changes, among these the fact that depopulation is taking place and alterations in spatial development are occurring again. The localisation of secluded farmsteads, situated far away from each other is no longer as important as it used to be. Reasons for the abandonment of farmsteads were examined, and factors such as altitude, distance from the village centre and the administration affiliation were taken into account. Land use changes were analysed in relation to the slope inclination. Some of the most important factors influencing the intensity and direction of these processes are high prices of land, improvement in living conditions, better access to services and the general 'westernisation' of lifestyles. The depopulation rate has been seen to increase in correlation with the rising altitude and distance from the village centre. On the other hand, there was no unambiguous link between the abandonment of farmsteads and administration affiliation. Mowed areas were localised on the slopes with the smallest inclination. Animal breeding has become unprofitable due to a lack in demand and low product prices, which has led to an increasing number of meadows and pastures lying fallow.


Longan yield estimation is an important practice before longan harvests. Statistical longan yield data can provide an important reference for market pricing and improving harvest efficiency and can directly determine the economic benefits of longan orchards. At present, the statistical work concerning longan yields requires high labor costs. Aiming at the task of longan yield estimation, combined with deep learning and regression analysis technology, this study proposed a method to calculate longan yield in complex natural environment. First, a UAV was used to collect video images of a longan canopy at the mature stage. Second, the CF-YD model and SF-YD model were constructed to identify Cluster_Fruits and Single_Fruits, respectively, realizing the task of automatically identifying the number of targets directly from images. Finally, according to the sample data collected from real orchards, a regression analysis was carried out on the target quantity detected by the model and the real target quantity, and estimation models were constructed for determining the Cluster_Fruits on a single longan tree and the Single_Fruits on a single Cluster_Fruit. Then, an error analysis was conducted on the data obtained from the manual counting process and the estimation model, and the average error rate regarding the number of Cluster_Fruits was 2.66%, while the average error rate regarding the number of Single_Fruits was 2.99%. The results show that the method proposed in this paper is effective at estimating longan yields and can provide guidance for improving the efficiency of longan fruit harvests.


The individualistic and colonial foundations of neoliberal socio-political ideologies are embedded throughout Australian health systems, services, and discourses. Not only does neoliberalism undermine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collectivist values by emphasizing personal autonomy, but it has significant implications for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) operate within Community-oriented holistic understandings of well-being that contradict neoliberal values that Western health services operate within. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the role of ACCHS in resisting the pervasive nature of neoliberalism through the prioritization of self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Utilizing a critical evaluative commentary, we reflect on Aboriginal political leadership and advocacy during the 1970s and 1980s and the development of neoliberalism in Australia in the context of ACCHS. Community controlled primary health services across Australia are the only remaining government-funded and Aboriginal-controlled organizations. Not only do ACCHS models resist neoliberal ideologies of reduced public expenditure and dominant individualistic models of care, but they also incontrovertibly strengthen individual and Community health. ACCHS remain the gold standard model by ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights to the self-determination of health in accordance with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.


Climate change is predicted to have a negative effect on the grasslands of the United States and will be detrimental to the economy and environment. The changing precipitation levels would also have an effect on the structural and functional potential of associated soil microbiome communities, which in turn will regulate the health of the plants during stressful conditions. In this study, we applied metagenomics analyses to capture the responses of the bacterial populations under drier soil conditions. We collected soil from two sites (dry and wet) at the Konza Long-Term Ecological Research field station in Kansas, which had characteristic features of the native prairies. Soil drying resulted in a significant shift in the bacterial population at the community level. Following that, fifteen bacterial genomes were short-listed based on the availability in the public database, higher relative abundance in dry soils than in wet, and also according to their contributions in drier soil. The potential microbial mechanisms were elucidated when an in-depth analysis of the functional genes was performed. Translation elongation factor EF-Tu, thiamine biosynthesis protein, and catalase were identified as a part of the overall stress functional responses in the bacterial population in this study. We speculate that these identified bacterial populations are important for maintaining the health of the soil under dry conditions. Genes and/or pathways found in this study provide insights into microbial mechanisms that these bacterial populations might employ to resist challenging drought conditions.


author өнімділігін арттырады. Abstract. The article discusses the features of innovation in agricultural sector, the direction of development of entrepreneurial activity in poultry industry based on integration processes. The aim of the study is to assess the efficiency of production in agro-industrial complex, in particular in poultry industry. Methods used in the work: comparison, synthesis, factor analysis of the main criteria, the level of specialization of an innovative enterprise through multiple regression. In the course of the study, the authors obtained the following results – promising areas of activity of poultry farms in the transition to an innovative development model were identified; assessed the possibilities of integration in the enterprises of the republic for production of poultry products in the form of expanding the production structure or merging with other companies; the predicted values of the poultry farming trend were calculated, the influence of factors on the basis of long-term economic data on the activities of poultry farms and poultry production program until 2025 have been identified in the course of studying. The achievements of LLP "Ordabasy kus" of Tur-kestan region, which carried out the modernization of production are presented. The authors de-veloped recommendations and presented conclusions on modernization of domestic production while simultaneously reducing labor costs and funds per unit of production of poultry industry in order to increase its efficiency based on integration and innovative technologies, which, in turn, will increase productivity


In the pattern of abdominal complications after cardiac surgery, acute mesenteric ischemia is rare but high-mortality pathology. In the initial stages, the disease has no specific signs, which makes it difficult to perform early multislice computed tomography to diagnose it. Risk stratification and an individual approach to the choice of diagnostic and therapeutic measures aimed at early restoration of mesenteric blood flow will reduce the mortality in this complication.


In South and East Asian countries a highly centralized government prevails, although recently some trends are moving toward a greater degree of decentralization. Also the two giants China and India, which cannot rely on a merely centralized Government, have experienced a greater or lesser degree of fiscal unionism. As to China the local government system provides four levels: provincial level; city level; county level; township level. Intergovernmental fiscal relations were revamped by the 1994 reform that established a new tax sharing system and gave local governments more control over the administration of local taxes but no significant degree of tax autonomy and no substantial expenditure assignments. The local financial revenue mainly derives from local taxes, shared taxes, and nontax revenue. As to India, the federal system is quite complex. The center-states relations are envisaged in the Constitution also for the financial aspects: two constitutional amendments adopted in 1992 made India one of the most politically decentralized countries among developing ones. However, the implementation of the decentralization program is still lagging: till now India seems to have considered decentralization mainly in terms of the local election system, without the transfer of all functions provided for devolution to local bodies. Only India set up a different system of local bodies in rural and urban areas with different expenditure responsibilities and financing powers. On the contrary, China has a unitary fiscal system. In India it is necessary to redesign the transfer system to improve accountability, incentives and equity, whereas in China, the fiscal revenue sharing schemes limit intergovernmental budget transfers. Finally, the rule of hard budget constraint in China is faced by all levels of government, while in India sub-national governments face soft budget constraint.


For inference operations in deep neural networks on end devices, it is desirable to deploy a single pre-trained neural network model, which can dynamically scale across a computation range without comprising accuracy. To achieve this goal, Incomplete Dot Product (IDP) has been proposed to use only a subset of terms in dot products during forward propagation. However, there are some limitations, including noticeable performance degradation in operating regions with low computational costs, and essential performance limitations since IDP uses hand-crafted profile coefficients. In this paper, we extend IDP by proposing new training algorithms involving a single profile, which may be trainable or pre-determined, to significantly improve the overall performance, especially in operating regions with low computational costs. Specifically, we propose the Task-wise Early Stopping and Loss Aggregation (TESLA) algorithm, which is showed in our 3-layer multilayer perceptron on MNIST that outperforms the original IDP by 32\% when only 10\% of dot products terms are used and achieves 94.7\% accuracy on average. By introducing trainable profile coefficients, TESLA further improves the accuracy to 95.5\% without specifying coefficients in advance. Besides, TESLA is applied to the VGG-16 model, which achieves 80\% accuracy using only 20\% of dot product terms on CIFAR-10 and also keeps 60\% accuracy using only 30\% of dot product terms on CIFAR-100, but the original IDP performs like a random guess in these two datasets at such low computation costs. Finally, we visualize the learned representations at different dot product percentages by class activation map and show that, by applying TESLA, the learned representations can adapt over a wide range of operation regions.


There has been considerable progress in computer vision, artificial neural network and pattern recognition in the last two decades, and there has also much progress in medical imaging technology in recent years. Although images in digital form can be processed by basic image processing techniques, effective use of computer vision can provide much useful information for diagnosis and treatment. In this paper we integrate computer vision and iridology practice for the detection of diabetes. Using iridology iris image is evaluated by detecting the presence of broken tissues and change in color pattern. According to iridology the abnormality in an iris of the human eye represent the abnormality of the corresponding organ conferred by the iris chart. In this research we examine pancreas organ which is at position 01:45 – 02:15 for the right eye and 07:15-7:45 for the left eye according to Dr. Jensen iris chart. We applied two methods to reach our conclusion, visual inspection method and color coding method. The artificial neural network is used for training and classification purpose. The entire process is showing a high accuracy detection of abnormality of pancreas organ which led to diabetes. The final result is compared with the insulin normality test for verification.


Four isolates of Yersina enterocolitica and six of Y. pseudotuberculosis were made from carcasses collected in Ontario in 1973. Y. enterocolitica was isolated from the following species: Canada goose, Branta canadensis (serotype 4,33), Pekin robin, Leiothrix lutea (serotype 6,30), beaver, Castor canadensis (serotype as yet unknown), and raccoon, Procyon lotor (serotype 5,27). Yersiniosis was apparently the cause of death of the beaver and the cause of liver abscesses in the raccoon; the significance of the isolates from the birds was not determined. Y. pseudotuberculosis isolations were from a crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos (serotype 1A), two purple martins, Progne subis (serotype 1B), and three beavers (serotype 1B). Yersiniosis was apparently the cause of abscesses in one of the beavers and the cause of death of the other cases. During the period from 1962 to 1972, Y. pseudotuberculosis had been isolated in this laboratory from four beavers and one snowshoe hare, Lepus americanus. There was no record of previous isolation of Y. enterocolitica. In most cases, septic abscesses were found in various tissues; however, significant pathological findings were absent in the Canada goose and the Pekin robin. All but the Pekin robin were free-living native animals.


SE-HPLC-DAD Analysis of Flaxseed Lignan Macromolecule and its Hydrolysates A lignan macromolecule (LM) was extracted from defatted flaxseeds using an ethanol-dioxan system (1:1, v/v) and purified using Amberlite column chromatography with water and methanol as mobile phases. The LM was subjected to chemical hydrolysis (base, acid, base & acid), as well as to enzymatic processing using pepsin, pancreatin, cellulase, and β-glucuronidase. The study revealed that lignan macromolecule in flaxseed was not homogenous. The chemical hydrolysis as well as enzymatic treatment using β-glucuronidase and cellulase released low molecular phenolic compounds from the lignan macromolecule. The liberation of secoisolariciresinol (SECO) and free phenolic acids (p-coumaric and ferulic acids) from flaxseed lignan macromolecule as a result of the base and acid hydrolyses was noted. The application of pepsin and pancreatin did not change the composition of the lignan macromolecule.


Abstract : A wind tunnel investigation was conducted to investigate the unsteady aerodynamic aspects of transonic Limit Cycle Oscillations (LCO) on fighter type aircraft wings. This investigation is a cooperative effort of General Dynamics (Fort Worth) and the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) of the Netherlands which is funded by the U.S. Air Force and the Dutch Ministry of Defense. Two tests were planned and the first test, conducted during September 1991, was concerned with a wing body configuration with wing stores and was restricted to incidences below 10 deg. The second test, planned for March 1992, will be for a simple wing-strake geometry and will cover incidences up to at least 30 deg. This paper presents results from the first test with the objective to obtain unsteady pressures and forces necessary for identifying the aerodynamic nature of transonic LCO which is currently encountered on many fighter configurations. The wing panel was oscillated in pitch at amplitudes and frequencies typical of LCO for flow conditions in which significant shock-induced separation is encountered. Unsteady pressure data were obtained for the wing panel in terms of both harmonic components and time-histories to highlight the nonlinearities. Unsteady forces and moments measured on the wing panel as well as on each wing store were also obtained to indicate the level of contribution of each element to the overall unsteady wing loads for pitching motions.


Naringin, the main flavanone of grapefruit, was reported to display numerous biological effects: antioxidant, hypocholesteremic, anti-atherogenic and favoring drug absorption. Naringin absorption mechanisms were studied in Caco-2 cells (TC7 clone). We investigated the possible involvement of several membrane transporters implicated in polyphenolic compounds intestinal transport (sodium-dependent glucose transporter 1, monocarboxylate transporter, multidrug-associated resistance proteins 1 and 2, and P-glycoprotein). Naringin was poorly absorbed by Caco-2 cells, according to its low value of apparent permeability coefficient (P(app) = 8.1 +/- 0.9 x 10(-8) cm/s). In the presence of verapamil, a specific inhibitor of P-glycoprotein, cellular uptake was increased by almost threefold after 5 min, and P(app) was doubled after 30 min. Our results indicated the involvement of P-glycoprotein, an ATP-driven efflux pump, capable of transporting naringin from the Caco-2 cell to the apical side. This phenomenon could explain, at least in part, the low absorption of this flavanone at the upper intestinal level.


This conference publication includes 41 papers and abstracts presented at the Flight Mechanics/Estimation Theory Symposium on May 17-19, 1994. Sponsored by the Flight Dynamics Division of Goddard Space Flight Center, this symposium featured technical papers on a wide range of issues related to orbit-attitude prediction, determination and control; attitude sensor calibration; attitude determination error analysis; attitude dynamics; and orbit decay and maneuver strategy. Government, industry, and the academic community participated in the preparation and presentation of these papers.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to reframe child forensic interviewing in terms of emotional labor. Child forensic interviewing practice illustrates a public service function that demands emotional labor yet fails to empower its workers with skills to preserve their personal wellbeing. Under an ethic of care, public servants are not the means to organizational ends. Failing to articulate emotional labor demands fosters occupational stress and burnout. While many studies examine negative psychological outcomes from public service work, few examine the impact on children's services workers, and even fewer explore emotional labor as a mechanism through which negative outcomes arise.


A thorough understanding of the spatial distribution pertaining to the histo-anatomic coronal structures and dynamic light interaction of the natural dentition provides the dental team with the ultimate strategic advantage with regards to optical integration of the final restoration. The second part of this two-part article will attempt to provide insight on the illumination interactivity and the spatial arrangement of the coronal elements of natural teeth through the utilization of this knowledge in the clinical and technical restorative approach. The main goals for this article are to cognize histo-anatomic visualization by introducing: (1) Dynamic light interaction, (2) the 9 elements of visual synthesis, (3) dynamic infinite optical thickness, and (4) amplified visual perception effect of the hard dental tissues. Furthermore, a diversification of photographic illumination techniques will be illustrated in order to juxtapose optical associations between the enamel/dentinoenamel complex/dentin nexus.


This research was designed to investigate listeners' ability to recognise melodic fragments representing two different tonal organisations. One hundred college students listened to 48 items each consisting of a 12-tone sequence having a structure of four three-tone groups, an interfering pattern, and a melodic fragment to be identified. The melodic fragment was extracted from the 12-tone sequence either within a melodic group or from adjacent groups. The interfering stimuli were of three types: melodic pattern, tones in octaves, and spoken number sequence. Results suggest that subjects encode the melody along the melodic structure as evidenced by the fact that recognition was more successful when the melodic fragment conformed with the built-in melodic structure. Recognition was reduced when the fragment was composed from two three-note groups rather than one, and only in this case were differential effects of the distracter stimuli observed. These data indicate that listeners encoded the original material with respect to the three-note groups. The results are consistent with notion of limited processing capacity that is assisted by melodic groupine.


Background: Throughout history, teething has been held responsible by parents and health professionals alike for a wide range of childhood illnesses like high fever and convulsion even though research suggests otherwise.
Aim: The study is designed to determine the current knowledge, beliefs and experiences of a cross-section of mothers in Port Harcourt about teething.
Methods: The study was conducted using a structured, anonymous open and close-ended questionnaire distributed among randomly selected female staff of University of Port Harcourt as instrument for data collection. The data was analyzed using SPSS 11.0 version.
Results: The respondents do not have a good knowledge of the number of Primary (deciduous) teeth and the period teething is usually completed, but they are aware that lower central incisors usually erupt first. Most of the respondents believed that teething period is a tasking period for mothers. Fever and diarrhoea were the commonest complaints ascribed to teething.
Conclusion: This initial report shows that mothers in Port Harcourt believed that the teething period is a tasking period for mothers and it is associated with major illnesses like fever and diarrhoea.
 Keywords : Knowledge, Beliefs, Experiences, Mothers, Teething PHMJ Vol. 2 (2) 2008: pp. 130-135


During the late early Miocene to early middle Miocene, the Owen Ridge was uplifted to a sufficient height as to be above the realm of turbidite deposition. Monsoonal-induced upwelling appears to have been initiated during the Miocene. On the Oman Margin, the effect of upwelling on the microplankton was established by the middle Miocene. However, the effects of upwelling on the Owen Ridge region were not realized until later, in the early late Miocene. A transition in the upwelling regime took place between the Pliocene and Pleistocene. While the Miocene and Pliocene sediments are dominated by the siliceous component, the Pleistocene sediments seem to be dominated by the calcareous component.


Angiogenesis is involved in the pathogenesis and progression of non‐Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL), and hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1α (HIF‐1α, also termed HIF1A) might contribute to this process. Currently, there is no direct evidence that the clinical progression of indolent NHL is associated with angiogenesis, and the expression of HIF‐1α at recurrence is unknown. Matched lymph node biopsies at diagnosis and recurrence of relapsed/refractory indolent NHL patients were analysed by immunohistochemical and morphometric analysis. We observed an increased vascular network and HIF‐1α protein expression in the second biopsy, providing direct evidence that angiogenesis is an essential process for disease progression.


The paper presents results of tests related to smoke optical density conducted on four various textile floor coverings for the needs of building interior design. Smoke emission is one of basic elements that characterize the fire environment. Consequently, the objective of the paper was to carry out a comparative analysis of smoke generation of chosen floor coverings for selected thermal exposures and in the presence or absence of a stimulus igniting the volatile gaseous phase (pilot flame). For the needs of our experimental research use was made of polypropylene, polyester, composite of wool, cotton, viscose and polyamide floor coverings. The highest value of the maximum specific optical density of smoke (494.7) was recorded for the floor covering consisting of 100% polypropylene (with higher fiber) under flameless combustion conditions (without the pilot flame). The polypropylene floor covering without underlay proved to be the best material from among all the tested ones with respect to smoke generating properties, and its samples offered the lowest value of optical density after 4 min for testing variants without the application of a pilot burner, with the flammable phase of decomposition products of this sample during the testing in which the burner was used to ignite at the latest. Experimental research has been carried out based on the standard ISO 5659–2:2017–08. The tests results were compared with international optical smoke density requirements for the interior design of ships and trains.


Lamprey and hagfish are the most ancient jawless vertebrates, which are serving as a "living fossil" of immunological origin and evolution. NICIP is a novel gene that we cloned from lamprey's lymphocyte-like cells. Structural analysis indicates that NICIP contains two Ig-like domains, a PKD domain, a TM region and a cytoplasm immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAM) region. It belongs to IgSF family and may involve in immune response, cell signaling and other functions. Our present research showed that there are interaction between NICIP and VLR, and this interaction can effectively inhibit VLR to transduce signal to intracellular.


… Objectives: To determine hepatoprotective effects of cornsilk extracts through laboratory and histopathological parameters in albino rats. Study Design: Experimental Animal study. Setting: Animal House and Histology Laboratory of Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Lahore. Period: April 2019 to April 2020. Material & Methods: The study was carried out on 30 albino rats and was divided among three groups having ten rats in each group. Group A was labelled as a control group. Groups B and C were labelled as experimental groups. Cellular steatosis as a histological parameter and ALT and AST levels are measured to access the hepatoprotective effects of corn silk. Results: It was found that the mean AST and ALT were also significantly different among the groups analyzing p-value < 0.001. Fisher's exact test showed that there was significant difference in the percentage of cellular steatosis among groups. Conclusion: It was found that cornsilk extract can be recommended as a hepatoprotective agent against DOX-induced hepatic damage.


Three Middle Palaeolithic sites are analysed by the ring and sector method. This is a simple method for intrasite spatial analysis, based on the use of rings and sectors around hearths. The main goal is to establish the presence or absence of dwellings, independently of structures evidentes . At Buhlen (Lower Site, Layer 4: Fiedler & Hilbert, 1987), a tent ring consisting of large stones was excavated, and the existence of a dwelling is confirmed by the ring and sector method. At Belvedere (Site C, Southern Concentration: Roebroeks, 1988), the analysis indicates that the hearth must have been in the open air. At Rheindahlen ( Westwand , Northem Concentration: Bosinski, 1966) no hearth was present; here the existence of a dwelling (' Behausung 1') was postulated by Thieme (1983). Using the middle of this postulated dwelling as the 'centre' for the ring and sector method, it can be shown that this concentration must have originated in the open air.


Background GM2gangliosidosis is a group of neurodegenerative disorders, characterised by the malfunctioning HexosaminidaseA (HexA) enzyme, for which there is no treatment. HexA is composed of two similar, but non-identical subunits, alpha and beta, which interact to hydrolyze GM2gangliosides. Mutations in either subunit result in the development of GM2gangliosidosis. The malfunctioning HexA is unable to cleaving GM2ganglioside, whose accumulation within the neurons of the central nervous system (CNS) is neurotoxic. The resulting neuronal death induces the primary symptoms of the disease; motor impairment, seizures, and sensory impairments. Objectives The aim of this study is to observe the long-term in vivo affects of a novel Hex isoenzyme, HexM treatment in a Sandhoff (beta-deficient) mouse model. Design/method Our methods include intravenous injections of neonatal mice with self-complementary vector expressing HexM at day 0–1. We monitored one cohort for 8 weeks and another cohort long-term for biochemical and behavioural analyses. Results Through the enzymatic and GM2ganglioside lipid analyses, we see that with a slight increase in enzyme activity, there is a significant increase in the clearance of GM2gangliosides. On behavioural tests, the treated mice outperform their knockout age matched controls. While the untreated controls die by 15 weeks, treated animals survived to x̄=41.77 weeks. The molecular analyses reveal a uniform distribution of the vector in the CNS. Conclusions The neonatal delivery of our newly synthesised viral vector expressing HexM to the Sandhoff mice provided long-term correction of the disease. This study will have implications not only for treatment of Sandhoff, but also Tay-Sachs disease (alpha-deficiency).


The production of ammonium-exchanged zeolite X (NH 4 -LTX) and its soil amendment activity is presented. The ammonium-exchanged zeolite X was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, particle size analysis and Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The addition of NH 4 -LTX increased the pH, total nitrogen, potassium, sodium content and water retention capacity of the soil. Consequently, the fresh weight, dry weights, plant heights, stem thickness, stem length, number of leaves, leaves areas was remarkably greater for both maize and okro planted in soils containing NH 4 -LTX compared to plants in soil without NH 4 -LTX.


The sea turtle (Caretta caretta) is the most common sea turtle in the Mediterranean, where incidental catches due to fishing activities are considered the main threat to its conservation. Over 50,000 capture events and likely over 10,000 deaths are estimated to occur in the Italian waters alone. However, current knowledge on the interaction of sea turtles with fishing gears and the implementation of mitigation measures are still poor to hinder the decline of turtle populations in the Mediterranean. In this basin, where fisheries are multispecies, multi-gears and multinational, making demersal fishing activities profitable while preserving sea turtles is a challenge. This study aimed to develop Bycatch Reducer Devices (BRDs) and alternative fishing gears to mitigate the impact of demersal fishing gears on sea turtles: a) hard and flexible Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) were tested in bottom trawling to immediately exclude turtles from the net; b) visual deterrents (ultraviolet LEDs) were used to illuminate set nets and to alter turtle visual cues, avoiding entanglement during depredation activity. The results showed the different devices did not affect the commercial catch, while bycatch reduction was instead evident. Thus, the study highlights that introducing mitigation measures to reduce sea turtle bycatch in the Mediterranean, where the bycatch of vulnerable species seems as a global issue, can be possible at least in certain areas and periods. Considering fishermen reticence to change the gear traditionally used, determining the optimal gear configuration to minimise commercial loss while reducing bycatch, is the main issue while introducing new technologies. Therefore, a global effort should be done to introduce BRDs in different areas and fisheries of the Mediterranean.


P. clarkii juvenile crayfish were exposed during 60 days to sublethal concentrations of glyphosate (G), polyoxyehtylene amine (P) or a combination of both (G+P), together with a control group of aged tap water (C). At the end of the experiment, the following statistical differences were noted, with respect to control: 1) a lower metabolic rate in both G and G+P groups, 2) a higher glycemia in G group with no differences in hemolymphatic lactate levels, 3) a lower muscle glycogen levels in both P and G+P groups, 4) a lower level of protein muscle in the P group. Taken together, these results suggest that glyphosate may cause a metabolic arrest. Additionally, under chronic exposure conditions, polyoxyehtylene amine acts as a strong stressor, leading to the utilization of both muscle carbohydrate and protein reserves.


Some characteristics of stone technology in the three outer arc islands of Nusa Tenggara during several phases of human occupation are examined. The data derive mainly from the results of my excavations on Rote and Sawu, that are compared with the results of earlier excavations in East Timor by Ian Glover. There is an indication that stone technology in the region changed entering the last glacial maximum, as indicated by the disappearance of large tools with Hoabinhnian-like technologies. But the sample is very minimal for statistical testing. There are also lithic technological changes after the Mid-Holocene.


Selection of an antibiotic to use in the treatment of an infection should be based on benefittoxicity ratios, particularly in critically ill patients with marginal renal function and potentially le...


The increased dependence on the electric power grid, coupled with the increasing number of new customers, motivates the need to improve the reliability and resilience of the electric distribution systems. Modern distribution systems are becoming more resilient against power outages due to the increasing integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and the availability of efficient mechanisms for load shedding. Several studies considered fault detection and Service Restoration (SR) as separate problems without considering the implementation feasibility of integrating both solutions. To ensure the resiliency in the power system, it is important to have proper mechanisms which integrate sensing, detection, and SR as one problem while considering the load shedding and DER for improved capacity. Hence, this study proposed an IoT-based-sensor network framework with an enhanced algorithm coupled with a Binary Bat metaheuristic algorithm for SR integrating sensing, detection, and restoration. The proposed algorithms have been tested in Tanzania's electrical distribution network, considering the inclusion of DERs and load shedding. The results showed that DERs' size and locations significantly impact restoration schemes' performance with a power loss reduction of 74%. Therefore, efficient SR schemes should consider optimal DERs placement and a combination of load shedding and DERs integration for improved performance.


. Changes in size and spatial arrangement of plant populations established on an initially bare peat surface were described over a period of 5 yr by following plant individuals on a 1-cm grid in an area of 10 m x 25 m. The spatial pattern of populations and association between species was analyzed statistically. The study site was very slowly colonized by 14 perennial plant species. The early successional stage was dominated by Carex rostrata, with a clumped spatial distribution, and the homogeneously distributed Eriophorum vaginatum and Pinus sylvestris. Both the growth in size of populations and changes in their spatial distribution were interpreted as a result of species dispersal ability, tolerance to severity of the substrate and pattern of reproduction.


For machine learning-based prognosis and diagnosis of rare diseases, such as pediatric brain tumors, it is necessary to gather medical imaging data from multiple clinical sites that may use different devices and protocols. Deep learning-driven harmonization of radiologic images relies on generative adversarial networks (GANs). However, GANs notoriously generate pseudo structures that do not exist in the original training data, a phenomenon known as"hallucination". To prevent hallucination in medical imaging, such as magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain, we propose a one-shot learning method where we utilize neural style transfer for harmonization. At test time, the method uses one image from a clinical site to generate an image that matches the intensity scale of the collaborating sites. Our approach combines learning a feature extractor, neural style transfer, and adaptive instance normalization. We further propose a novel strategy to evaluate the effectiveness of image harmonization approaches with evaluation metrics that both measure image style harmonization and assess the preservation of anatomical structures. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in preserving patient anatomy while adjusting the image intensities to a new clinical site. Our general harmonization model can be used on unseen data from new sites, making it a valuable tool for real-world medical applications and clinical trials.


Objectives The purposes of this study were to describe the clinical characteristics of febrile infants younger than 90 days with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections, to investigate the prevalence of serious bacterial infections (SBIs) in these infants, and to compare the risk of SBI in SARS-CoV-2–positive febrile infants with sex- and age-matched SARS-CoV- 2–negative febrile infants. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study conducted from March to November 2020 in a tertiary children's hospital. Patients were identified by International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision codes and included if age was younger than 90 days, a SARS-CoV-2 test was performed, and at least 1 bacterial culture was collected. Positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 were age- and sex-matched to negative controls for analysis. Serious bacterial infection was defined as a urinary tract infection, bacterial enteritis, bacteremia, and/or bacterial meningitis. Results Fifty-three SARS-CoV-2–positive infants were identified with a higher rate of respiratory symptoms and lower white blood cell and C-reactive protein values than their SARS-CoV-2 matched controls. The rate of SBI in the SARS-CoV-2–positive infants was 8% compared with 34% in the controls; the most common infections were urinary tract infections (6% vs 23%). There were no cases of bacteremia or bacterial meningitis in the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) infants and 2 (4%) cases of bacteremia in the controls. The relative risk of any SBI between the 2 groups was 0.22 (95% confidence interval, 0.1–0.6; P ≤ 0.001). Conclusions These results suggest that febrile infants younger than 90 days with COVID-19 have lower rates of SBI than their matched SARS-CoV-2–negative controls. These data are consistent with previous studies describing lower risks of SBI in febrile infants with concomitant viral respiratory tract infections.


This commentary is premised on more than three decades of research into architectural education and design pedagogy. It argues that architectural education in the Muslim world must be able to operate effectively within the global condition. It contends that the body of knowledge on architectural education can be enriched and its scope can be expanded when both historical and contemporary imperatives are clearly contextualized. The text raises important questions for future discussions on this theme. Notwithstanding, the articles discusses some of the negative idiosyncrasies that follow models inherited from the past and adopt techniques practiced by their Western counterparts. It proposes a framework for incorporating Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a paradigm for critical consciousness and the way in which it key techniques can be utilized. The thrust is that these techniques offer students learning opportunities that invigorated their capabilities to shift from passive listeners to active learners and from knowledge consumers to knowledge producers.


Humans are exposed to N-nitroso compounds from both endogenous and exogenous sources. Many N-nitroso compounds can be metabolically activated to give diazoacetate, which can result in the carboxymethylation of DNA. The remarkable similarity in p53 mutations found in human gastrointestinal tumors and in shuttle vector studies, where the human p53 gene-containing vector was treated with diazoacetate and propagated in yeast cells, suggests that diazoacetate might be an important etiological agent for human gastrointestinal tumors. The O6-carboxymethyl-2′-deoxyguanosine was previously detected in isolated DNA upon exposure to diazoacetate and in blood samples of healthy human subjects. The corresponding modifications of thymidine and 2′-deoxyadenosine have not been assessed, though significant mutations at A:T base pairs were found in the p53 tumor suppressor gene in human gastrointestinal tumors and in shuttle vector studies. To understand the implications of the carboxymethylation chemistry of thymidine in the observed mutations at A:T base pairs, here we synthesized authentic N3-carboxymethylthymidine (N3-CMdT) and O4-carboxymethylthymidine (O4-CMdT), incorporated them into DNA, and demonstrated, for the first time, that they were the major carboxymethylated derivatives of thymidine formed in calf thymus DNA upon exposure to diazoacetate. The demonstration of the formation of N3-CMdT and O4-CMdT in isolated DNA upon treatment with diazoacetate, together with the preparation of authentic oligodeoxyribonucleotide substrates housing these two lesions, laid the foundation for investigating the replication and repair of these lesions and for understanding their implications in the mutations observed in human gastrointestinal tumors.


The effect of soil type on power and energy requirements of some selected agricultural field machinery (plough, harrow, ridger, rotovator and planter) in south – east Nigeria were studied to enable farmers and users of the equipment select and match appropriately the size of implements and speed of operation to machine (tractor) size to improve the field capacitive performance of the machines based on soil types (clay – loam, loamy – sandy, and sandy – clay soil) in the study area. Results showed that plough recorded the highest fuel (energy) consumption rate of 21.60 l/ha to24.67 l/ha, followed by harrow with fuel consumption rate of 17.21 to 21.66 l/ha, rotovator (15.22 to 19.72 l/ha) and least was planter with fuel consumption rate range from 14.42 to 15.62 l/ha. The highest fuel consumption was recorded on clay-loam soil, followed by sandyclay and least was on loamy-sandy soil. The plough also had the highest draft force (10.8 kN/m), followed by the harrow and ridger with equal draft force of 10.5 kN/m, planter (8.4 kN/m) and the least was the rotovator with draft force of 5.1 kN/m. Furthermore, the plough gave the highest wheel slippage (15.7 %) followed by harrow (13.3 %), rotovator and planter with equal value of wheel slippage (12.8 %) and least was ridger with wheel slippage of 12.4 %. Sandy-clay soil recorded the highest tyre slippage for all the implements, followed by loamy-sandy and the least tyre slippage was recorded on clayloam soil. However, all the implements in different soils corded average wheel slippage below the top limit of wheel slippage (20 %), showing that the soils were trafficability.


This paper investigates if the influence on image quality using physical transducers can be simulated with an sufficient accuracy to reveal system performance. The influence is investigated in a comparative study between Synthetic Aperture Sequential Beamformation (SASB) and Dynamic Receive Focus (DRF). The study is performed as a series of simulations and validated by measurements. The influence from individual element impulse response, phase, and amplitude deviations are quantized by the lateral resolution (LR) at Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM), Full Width at One-Tenth Maximum (FWOTM), and at Full Width at One-Hundredth Maximum (FWOHM) of 9 points spread functions resulting from evenly distributed point targets at depths ranging from 10 mm to 90 mm. The results are documented for a 64 channel system, using a 192 element linear array transducer model. A physical BK Medical 8804 transducer is modeled by incorporating measured element pulse echo responses into the simulation software. Validation is performed through measurements on a water phantom with three metal wires, each with a diameter of 0.07 mm. Results show that when comparing measurement and simulation, the lateral beam profile using SASB can be estimated with a correlation coefficient of 0.97. Further, it is shown that SASB successfully maintains a constant LR though depth at FWHM, and is a factor of 2.3 better than DRF at 80 mm. However, when using SASB the LR at FWOHM is affected by non-ideal element responses. Introducing amplitude and phase compensation, the LR at FWOHM improves from 6.3 mm to 4.7 mm and is a factor of 2.2 better than DRF. This study has shown that individual element impulse response, phase, and amplitude deviations are important to include in simulated system performance evaluations. Furthermore, it is shown that SASB provides a constant LR through depth and has improved resolution and contrast compared to DRF.


by : Fatemeh • Afrady TM purpose of this study is 10 determine the effect of mothers' knowledge on the treatment quality of their children immunization in health centers of the Ministry of Health , and medical education in Tehran in 1994 . The samples were 150 mothers who went to health centers to immunize their children . The subjects were selected randomly and data gathering was accomplished through a well-organized questionnaire during a one-session interview . This questionnaire was prepared in two parts. The first part focused on demographic data and the second pan was to determine the mother's knowledge about vaccination.


The author considers utopia and utopism as the more important component of the social aim-making. In such way he explores this phenomena as mental and practical artifacts. According to this theoretical reconstruction utopia and utopism are constituted in their ambivalent appearance: as a community process with its own structural-functional foundation and as a phenomenon of the mentality with existential attitudes of : historical subject at the same time.


Low-carbon steels deoxidized by aluminum are the main group of structural steels produced in Russiaand all over the world. These steels work in key sectors of the economy – construction, automotive, mining and transportation of minerals, etc. The deoxidation of steel melt by aluminum leads to the formation of non-metallic inclusions, which can significantly affect quality of rolled products and reduce the manufacturability of production due to overgrowth of submerged nozzles during continuous casting. So, ceteris paribus, only due to contamination of steel with non-metallic inclusions, the following differences in technical and economic indicators can be observed: sorting by surface defects, reduced yield of cast slabs, increased corrosion wear rate, sorting by ultrasonic inspection defects, etc. Due to the particular shape, size and state of aggregation, non-metallic inclusions based on aluminum deoxidation products are difficult to remove from the steel melt. An effective way to reduce steel pollution by similar inclusions is modifying their composition to a liquid state of aggregation with calcium, which requires careful preparation of the molten slag and metal. The article describes in detail the main thermodynamic features of this process. On the example of IF-steel, we present calculation of the target range of calcium content to ensure the inclusion modification to a liquid state depending on aluminum concentration in the steel melt. The limiting sulfur concentrations in the metal melt are determined depending on aluminum and calcium contents, which ensure prevention of the formation of refractory sulfide shells on oxide non-metallic inclusions.


"A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Astrophysics"; M.S. -- Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Notre Dame University, Louaize, 2019; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-51).


The Netherlands is an example of a European country in which the commercialization of knowledge is hampered by a somewhat risk-averse culture at universities and a shortage of venture capital for early growth of start-up firms. This article addresses the policy programme in the Netherlands to improve the situation for the life sciences since the early 2000s. The target number of newly established firms could easily be achieved and the programme was able to improve the business climate for new firm establishment. However, the programme could not improve conditions for growth of new firms because it could not achieve a comprehensive turn in the business climate, due to the short cycle-time of the programme (4--5 years). In addition, the programme did not take advantage of existing critical mass in the largest cluster or from any other competitive strength of particular clusters. These circumstances were influencing a relatively large number of small and vulnerable firms. The article concludes with a set of insights from which lessons can be drawn.


Surveys on wave propagation in dispersive media have been limited since the pioneering work of Sommerfeld [Ann. Phys. 349, 177 (1914)] by the presence of branches in the integral expression of the wave function. In this article, a method is proposed to eliminate these critical branches and hence to establish a modal expansion of the time-dependent wave function. The different components of the transient waves are physically interpreted as the contributions of distinct sets of modes and characterized accordingly. Then, the modal expansion is used to derive a modified analytical expression of the Sommerfeld precursor improving significantly the description of the amplitude and the oscillating period up to the arrival of the Brillouin precursor. The proposed method and results apply to all waves governed by the Helmholtz equations.


This paper describes various methods of fiber length measurement used in fundamental studies of wood properties as well as those used in the more applied area of pulp quality control. Methods described include direct measurement of cells from microscopic images (from either tangential longitudinal sections or macerated tissue), through measurement of projected images, to fiber classification using classical mechanical fractionation techniques through to the most recent optical and laser scanning methods. A semi-automatic measurement system using a 35-mm slide projector and measuring wheel linked to a data processor designed for use in the Forest Products Laboratory of the University of California is described.


Recently, micro valves to control some kinds of fluids in channels in a microchip have been developed. Now we pay attention to in-chip somatic cell cloning with microfluidic technology. There are some steps, cell supply, cutting, sorting, coupling, fusion and so on, for this work. And we focused on a cell supply system spending cells one by one in microfluidic chip, and attempt to transport an individual cell to objective course by the control of pressure valves. Here, we made three kinds valves, a) open channel 2-layer valve, b) open channel 3-layer valve, and c) close channel 2-layer valve. We compare these valves about interception condition of micro channel flow and time to take for open/close. And then we evaluated them with suitable for the smooth cell transportation by these comparisons.


Neutron stars in close binary star systems often accrete matter from their companion stars. Thermonuclear ignition of the accreted material in the atmosphere of the neutron star leads to a thermonuclear explosion which is observed as an X-ray burst occurring periodically between hours and days depending on the accretion rate. The ignition conditions are characterized by a sensitive interplay between the continuously accreting fuel supply and depletion by nuclear burning via the hot CNO cycles. Therefore the ignition depends critically on the hot CNO breakout reaction O15(alpha,gamma)Ne19 that regulates the flow between the beta-limited hot CNO cycle and the rapid proton capture process. Until recently, the O15(alpha,gamma)Ne19 reaction rate was not known experimentally and the theoretical estimates carried significant uncertainties. In this paper we report on the astrophysical consequences of the first measurement of this reaction rate on the thermonuclear instability that leads to type I X-ray bursts on accreting neutron stars.


Introduction: It is known that physical exercise (PE) can provide many benefits to individuals with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). However, few studies investigate the effects of PE on nasal mucociliary transport (NMT) in this patients. Aim: To evaluate the NMT of patients with COPD who performed regular exercise. Methods: 33 subjects participated in the study and were divided into 3 groups: COPD exercise (n=11, 68±3 years old; 26±2 kg/m 2 ); COPD sedentary (n=12; 72±2 years old; 25±2 kg/m 2 ); and control group (n=10; 50±2 years old; 29±1 kg/m 2 ). The assessment of nasal mucocilar clearance was evaluated by saccharin transit time (STT) at two periods: baseline (M0) and after two months of regular exercise (M1). Results: The COPD exercise group presented a significant improvement in NMT after 2 months of PE (8±3,7 min) compared to COPD sedentary group (17,68±7,46 min), p=0.0001. Furthermore, COPD sedentary group in M1 presented a significant worsening of NMT (17,68 ± 7,46 min) compared to crontol group (8,1±2,92 min), p=0.0001. The COPD exercise group showed significant improvement in NMT after two months of PE, p=0.0291. Conclusion: Regular exercise promoted an significant increase in nasal mucociliary clearance in individuals with COPD, improving their transportability after two months of intervention.


The association of fish with natural and experimental drifting objects was investigated in the coastal waters near Sydney, Australia (during 1990). Controlled experiments were conducted using small fish attraction devices (FADs) and algae obtained from reefs to test the effects of drift time, size, color and type of object on the fish attracted; 'control seines' were done in open water. Total densities of fish were generally higher around the natural drift algae and experimental drift objects than in the adjacent open water. Although well pigmented juvenile fish were most abundant, some larvae and a few adults were also caught around drift objects. Families of fish associated with the drift algae included juvenile mullids, pomacentrids and teraponids as well as larval ambassids and gerreids. Fish were quickly attracted to FADs of different sizes and colors and to experimental algae. Patterns of colonization by fish to drifting objects varied among sampling times, often due to very low numbers of fish captured on some sampling occasions. Families of fish caught around FADs in great numbers that were present in low abundance in open water included pelagic, reef and estuarine-associated fish as follows: juvenile carangids, sphyraenids, mullids, mugilids and larval ambassids, sillaginids, sparids and gerreids. When large numbers of fish were captured, similar densities and types of fish were attracted to all types of FADs and experimental algae. Many larval fish demonstrated no affinity for algae with high numbers caught in open water and around the drifting objects (e.g., clupeids and atherinids). Drift objects influence the distribution of fish in surface waters. FADs provide a useful method for the collection of small fish and as tools for conducting controlled experiments.


Success in Officers Candidate School (OCS) occurs at the same rate regardless of whether the candidates received a mental aptitude qualification waiver based upon their score on the electronics portion of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). However, these rates do change with race and time; and the result is an apparent contradiction because the macro rates (those rates computed overall without discriminating race and time) exhibit different success rates depending upon the presence of a waiver or not. The data are studied to expose the contradiction and develop sharper models.


Load balancing is crucial to ensure scalability, reliability, minimize response time, and processing time and maximize resource utilization in cloud computing. However, the load fluctuation accompanied with the distribution of a huge number of requests among a set of virtual machines (VMs) is challenging and needs effective and practical load balancers. In this work, a two listed throttled load balancer (TLT-LB) algorithm is proposed and further simulated using the CloudAnalyst simulator. The TLT-LB algorithm is based on the modification of the conventional TLB algorithm to improve the distribution of the tasks between different VMs. The performance of the TLT-LB algorithm compared to the TLB, round robin (RR), and active monitoring load balancer (AMLB) algorithms has been evaluated using two different configurations. Interestingly, the TLT-LB significantly balances the load between the VMs by reducing the loading gap between the heaviest loaded and the lightest loaded VMs to be 6.45% compared to 68.55% for the TLB and AMLB algorithms. Furthermore, the TLT-LB algorithm considerably reduces the average response time and processing time compared to the TLB, RR, and AMLB algorithms.


The regulation of speech is a highly sensitive and always evolving ethical, political, and legal issue. On the one hand, hateful and hurtful speech is on the rise, especially, but not exclusively, with regard to the relationship between Islam and the West. We can also think of the radicalization of discourse brought about by the interactive phase of the Internet. On the other hand, demands for the suppression of certain forms of speech proliferate. After reviewing the argument for freedom of expression, I argue that while the notion of harm defended by Millian liberals is too narrow, an "offence principle" is too broad. After defending hate speech laws, I concede that such laws need to target only the speech acts that express the most severe forms of aversion and denigration toward the members of a specific group. I then reflect on the status of "hurtful speech", which I see as including the performative utterances that stop short of being hateful but nonetheless erode, through their illocutionary force and perlocutionary effects, the social standing and bases for self-respect of those who are targeted. I conclude that the free speech debate reveals a limit of liberal political morality and leaves liberal normative theorists with an uncomfortable predicament, as they have to rely more on the complementary role of pro-social personal dispositions and civic virtues than they generally wish to.


BACKGROUND
Thyroid carcinoma (TC) is a common malignant tumor in human and its incidence has been increasing in recent years. Studies have shown that receptor type protein tyrosine phosphatase epsilon (PTPRE) is a key regulator of tumorigenesis in cancer progression, but its role in TC has not been revealed.

OBJECTIVE
Here, in this work, we explored the essential role of PTPRE in TC progression.

METHODS
The expression of PTPRE in TC clinical samples and cell lines was detected by RT-qPCR and Western blot. Cell proliferation was measured by MTT and cell cycle analysis. Cell migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were analyzed by wound healing, transwell, and immunofluorescent staining assays. AKT and ERK1/2 signaling pathway related protein level was analyzed by Western blot.

RESULTS
PTPRE was highly expressed in TC clinical samples and cell lines, especially anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC). High level of PTPRE was associated with tumor size and TNM stage. Upregulated PTPRE promoted cell proliferation, and enhanced the migration, invasion and EMT of TC cells, whereas the knockdown of PTPRE suppressed these behaviors. Importantly, we confirmed that the AKT and ERK1/2 signaling pathways were activated by PTPRE, reflected by the enhanced protein level of phosphorylated AKT and ERK1/2.

CONCLUSION
Accordingly, we indicated that PTPRE plays an oncogenic role in TC progression via activating the AKT and ERK1/2 signaling pathway. These findings indicated that modulation of PTPRE expression may as a potential strategy to interfere with the progression of TC.


Context. It is generally accepted that, in Classical T Tauri Stars, the plasma from the circumstellar disc accretes onto the stellar surface with free fall velocity, and the impact generates a shock. The impact region is expected to contribute to emission in different spectral bands; many studies have confirmed that the X-rays arise from the post-shock plasma but, otherwise, there are no studies in the literature investigating the origin of the observed UV emission which is apparently correlated to accretion. Aims. We investigated the effect of radiative heating of the infalling material by the post-shock plasma at the base of the accretion stream with the aim to identify in which region a significant part of the UV emission originates. Methods. We developed a 1D hydrodynamic model describing the impact of an accretion stream onto the stellar surface; the model takes into account the gravity, the radiative cooling of an optically thin plasma, the thermal conduction, and the heating due to absorption of X-ray radiation. The latter term represents the heating of the infalling plasma due to the absorption of X-rays emitted from the post-shock region. Results. We found that the radiative heating of the pre-shock plasma plays a non-negligible role in the accretion phenomenon. In particular, the dense and cold plasma of the pre-shock accretion column is gradually heated up to few $10^5$\;K due to irradiation of X-rays arising from the shocked plasma at the impact region. This heating mechanism does not affect significantly the dynamics of the post-shock plasma. On the other hand, a region of radiatively heated gas (that we consider a precursor) forms in the unshocked accretion column and contributes significantly to UV emission. Our model naturally reproduces the luminosity of UV emission lines correlated to accretion and shows that most of the UV emission originates from the precursor.


A new photochemical synthetic route to species of the type [Ru(terpy)(pp)(CO)]2+ has been elaborated [terpy = 2,2′∶6′,2″-tetrapyridine; pp = a bidentate α,α′-diimine ligand such as 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), 4,4′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine (dmbpy) or 4-(2-methylpropyl)-2,2′-bipyridine (mpbpy)]. For the species [Ru(terpy)(mpbpy)(CO)]2+ containing the new unsymmetrically substituted ligand (mpbpy) the two possible geometric isomers were separated by cation-exchange chromatography. The carbonyl groups can readily be removed and the vacant site substituted with pyridine, triphenylphosphine and chloride, with retention of the stereochemistry at the metal centre. By the correct choice of monodentate ligand at the sixth co-ordination site, the MLCT absorption maximum in the electronic spectra can be shifted by up to 150 nm, and the RuIII–RuII redox couple by over 1 V.