The Escherichia coli argU gene encodes a rare arginine tRNA (anticodon UCU) that translates the similarly rare AGA codon. The argU10(Ts) mutation is a transition that changes the first nucleotide of the mature tRNA from G to A, presumably destabilizing the acceptor stem. This mutation, when present in haploid condition in the chromosome, reduces the growth rate at 30 degrees C and results in cessation of growth after 60 to 90 min at 43 degrees C. The mutation also preferentially limits (compared with total protein synthesis) translation of an induced gene that depends on five AGA codons, i.e., the lambda cI repressor gene. Translation of another inducible protein, beta-galactosidase, which does not involve AGA codons, was inhibited to a much lesser extent. The chromosomal argU(Ts) mutation also confers the Pin phenotype, that is, loss of ability of the host, as a P2 lysogen, to inhibit growth of bacteriophage lambda, probably the result of reduced translation of the P2 old gene, which contains five AGA codons (E. Haggård-Ljungquist, V. Barreiro, R. Calendar, D. M. Kurnit, and H. Cheng, Gene 85:25-33, 1989).


Books of poetry reviewed in this essay: Philokalia: New and Selected Poems. Scott Cairns. Lincoln, Nebraska: Zoo Press, 2002. Pp. 163. Water Lines. Luci Shaw. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Pp. 97. The Man Who Loves Cezanne. Dabney Stuart. Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 2003. Pp. 62. The Poetry of Rowan Williams. Rowan Williams. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002. Pp. 111. In his recent autobiography, Living To Tell The Tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez describes a society inflamed by poetry. In Columbia, he writes, "poetry [...] was a frenzied passion, another way of being, a fireball that went everywhere on its own. We would open the paper, even the business section or the legal page, or we would read the coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup, and there was poetry waiting to take over our dreams [...]. As Luis Cardoza y Aragon wrote 'poetry is the only concrete proof of the existence of man'" (252). When the new editors of Christianity and Literature, Paul J. Contino and Maire Mullins, asked me to write this essay for their first issue, I wondered, in this age of one-hundred-email-volume-days, why anyone would dare to report on the status of poetry in America. The decade we have just lived through has been appalling. Dana Gioia writes in his Preface to the National Endowment for the Arts report on reading in the United States that reading is in chronic decline, that the steepest fall has occurred among young adults, ages eighteen to twenty-four. If Americans read fewer novels than they did five years ago, it can only be imagined how much less poetry they are reading. And yet I cannot be entirely pessimistic. Over two thousand journals publish poetry. On-line poetry websites such as VerseDaily and PoetryDaily get hundreds of thousands of hits a year. Garrison Keillor's trendy radio almanac offers a poem per day and his anthology, Good Poetry, (whose title is rivaled only by that of Myrna Grant's, Poetry For A Good and Happy Life) is selling smartly. Indeed, the extravagant howls of delight and cries of philistinism Keillor's anthology has caused suggest that there is yet life in poetry. And poetry might have a more auspicious future than recent past. In August, The Poetry Foundation, which has been publishing Poetry magazine since its founding over seventy-five years ago, announced plans to begin using Ruth Lily's now legendary gift to them of a hundred million dollars to get poets talking to their audiences. John Barr, President of The Foundation, notes in a recent letter to Poetry subscribers that the endowment will be disbursed for the foreseeable future to "alter the perception that poetry is a marginal art by making it more directly relevant to the American experience." The Foundation plans a large-scale research study on the state of poetry. Then among other projects, it will initiate a major website for contemporary poetry, place poetry before children in schools, promote poetry in newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, and film, and endow new awards for under-recognized kinds of poetry. Envisioning an ardent and unfolding discussion between poets and their readers, Barr wistfully predicts a new Golden Age for poetry. And that seems almost possible. Why Read Poetry Now? In the days right after 9/11, numbed and wounded, many Americans--including some who had not previously thought much about poetry--turned to it to understand what had happened and their own savage emotions about that. I am thinking of the students in the "Introduction to Poetry" class I taught at 2 p.m. that Tuesday. Aware that some of the parents of these students lived in New York and might have perished that morning, I emailed the students that they were not obligated to come to class. I would be there as usual, I told them, in case they wanted to assemble. Though poetry had not interested most of them up to that point--they were taking the course as a requirement--nearly everyone showed up. …


Department of Education (DepEd) organizes nutritional programs to improve the health status of children in public schools. Likewise, the researcher believes that health awareness must be raised in private schools as well. This study aimed to affect the community to be aware and more knowledgeable about nutrition. Specifically, this study focused on the nutritional status of school age children in private elementary schools in Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija. It sought to determine the profile of the learners, anthropometrics, clinical data and the knowledg e of the learners as to dietary and the significant relationship between the profile of the learners and the nutritional status of the school aged children. With all the data gathered a meal management program was proposed. The study employed the quantitative description design. The study manifests that majority of the respondents were not yet aware of what they eat. In addition, age, greatly affects the respondent's anthropometrics as to height. More so, age, number of siblings and family income, greatly a ffect the respondents' anthropometrics as to weight. The researcher adopted the Nutritional Guidelines for Filipino program that was developed by the DOSTFNRI. Keywords— Anthropometrics, Nutritional Status, School Age Children.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate in vitro effects of nicotine on the non-small-cell lung cancer line A549.

METHODS
The case-control study was conducted at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University from 1st January to 30th June, 2014 and comprised A549 cells which were treated with a series of concentrations of nicotine (0.01 µM, 0.1 µM, 1 µM and 10 µM) for 24 hours. Control cells were incubated under the same conditions without the addition of nicotine. Cell growth was detected by monotetrazolium salt [3-(4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium] assay. Cell apoptosis was detected by Haematoxylin and Eosin staining, immunofluorescence analysis of Filamentous actin and electron microscope observation.

RESULTS
Nicotine had no significant effect on A549 cell growth at the dose of 0.01µM (p>0.05), but had significant growth inhibitory effects at the doses of 0.1µM, 1µM and 10µM (p< 0.05 each). A significant decrease in cell numbers was observed on staining (p< 0.05). Significant changes in the size and shape of cells and concomitant changes in cytoskeletons and organelles were observed by immunofluorescence and electron microscope observation (p< 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The growth inhibitory effects of nicotine on A549 cells were found to be dose-dependent.


The small dinitrile anion carbamoyldicyanomethanide, [C(CN)2-(CONH2)]- (cdm), reproducibly forms a hydrogen-bonded tape containing two different supramolecular synthons: a "heterotape". The tape incorporates both an amide dimer and a nitrile-containing ring. The robustness of the motif is confirmed by its persistence from an isolated tape in a separated ion-pair structure, [K(15c5)2](cdm) x H2O, to its incorporation into coordination complexes of octahedral metals, thus facilitating the formation of 2D sheets. Complexes containing coligands that occupy the equatorial coordination sites, [Cu(2,2'-py2NH)2(cdm)2] x 2 MeOH, [Ni(cyclam)(cdm)2], and [Cu(cyclam)(cdm)2] x 2 MeOH (cyclam = 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane, 2,2'-py2NH = di(2-pyridyl)amine), show retention of the heterotape motif, whilst the ethylene diamine complex [Cu-(en)2(cdm)2] (en = ethylene diamine) displays an alternative hydrogen-bonding motif due to interference from the diamine ligands.


This study was carried out in the summer of 2001 at the Lattecaldo open-top chamber research facility (Canton Ticino, southern Switzerland). The aim of this research study was to examine the behaviour of Fraxinus excelsior, Prunes avium and Viburnum lantana seedlings grown in charcoal-filtered (CF) (∼50% of the ambient O 3 ) and non-filtered (NF) (∼92% of the ambient O 3 ) air open-top chambers. Investigations included the assessment of visible foliar symptom development, anatomical and ultrastructural analysis of symptoms, measurements of direct chlorophyll a fluorescence (fluorescence findings were processed by means of the JIP test) and leaf gas exchange measurements. The three species displayed different foliar symptoms. In F. excelsior, symptoms consisted of punctiform stipples with necrotic cells (hypersensitive response, HR), whereas, in P. avium and V. lantana, reddening developed, revealing the accumulation of anthocyanins. In V. lantana, symptoms appeared earlier than in the other species; in F. excelsior, symptoms developed more rapidly and led to premature leaf abscission. In F. excelsior, at least at the beginning, the onset of symptoms was combined with an enhanced photosynthetic efficiency (compensation mechanism), whereas, in P. avium and V. lantana, this efficiency progressively decreased. The fluorescence parameters most closely connected to ozone stress were as follows: a reduction in performance index (PI ABS ) and active reaction centres (RC/CS 0 ), and an increase in the variable fluorescence relative to 30ms (V I ) and of the dissipation processes. Dissipation is a form of defence mechanism against oxidative stress and is related to the role of the deactivated reaction centres (the silent centres) as well as anthocyanins. Symptom development correlated in all three species with the reduction in reaction centres. Symptomatic leaves had a lower net photosynthetic rate (P n ). Net photosynthesis correlated with the reduction in V 1 , which suggests an accumulation of reduced plastoquinone, produced in the luminous phase of photosynthesis, which was not capable of reaching the dark phase reactions.


BACKGROUND
Cupressus pollen is one of the main causes of allergic respiratory disease in North America. In a previous study of pollen concentration in Monterrey, Cupressus occupied the 3rd place in frequency.

OBJECTIVE
To know the sensitization to Cupressus in patients treated at our center.

METHODS
We conducted an observational, cross-sectional and prospective study, with a questionnaire to assess potential exposure and allergic symptoms to pollen, skin tests with allergen extract of Cupressus 1:20 dilution, and skin tests with others 36 aeroallergens in our hospital.

RESULTS
We did Cupressus skin test in 256 patients (136 women), 130 younger than 18 years old and 126 adults. The skin test was positive in 39 patients (15.2%). Of the 36 aeroallergens tested, Cupressus occupied the 7th place in frequency. Of the 130 under 18 years, only 10 (7.7%) had a positive skin test. Among the other 129 adults, 29 (22.5%) had a positive skin test (p = 0.001). Patients with a positive skin test Cupressus had at least one positive skin test to other aeroallergen in 97% of cases (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Cupressus sensitization in our study group was high (15.2%). The routine use of allergen extract of Cupressus should be considered in patients with respiratory allergy. However, it is necessary to determine precisely the prevalence of sensitization and its possible clinical implications.


The odor transduction process has a large time constant and is susceptible to various types of noise. Therefore, the olfactory code at the sensor/receptor level is in general a slow and highly variable indicator of the input odor in both natural and artificial situations. Insects overcome this problem by using a neuronal device in their Antennal Lobe (AL), which transforms the identity code of olfactory receptors to a spatio-temporal code. This transformation improves the decision of the Mushroom Bodies (MBs), the subsequent classifier, in both speed and accuracy. Here we propose a rate model based on two intrinsic mechanisms in the insect AL, namely integration and inhibition. Then we present a MB classifier model that resembles the sparse and random structure of insect MB. A local Hebbian learning procedure governs the plasticity in the model. These formulations not only help to understand the signal conditioning and classification methods of insect olfactory systems, but also can be leveraged in synthetic problems. Among them, we consider here the discrimination of odor mixtures from pure odors. We show on a set of records from metal-oxide gas sensors that the cascade of these two new models facilitates fast and accurate discrimination of even highly imbalanced mixtures from pure odors.


In this paper, we study the interacting multiple model (IMM) estimator for networked control systems with packet loss but without packet acknowledgment (ACK). The ACK is a signal sent by the actuator to inform the estimator of whether control packets are lost or not. A system with ACK is usually called a transmission control protocol (TCP) like system; otherwise, it is called a user datagram protocol (UDP) like system. We show that the stability of the IMM estimator for UDP-like systems is determined by the observation packet arrival rate (p.a.r.) and is independent of the control p.a.r. and control inputs. The IMM estimator is stable if the observation p.a.r. is greater than a critical value. We show that this critical value is the same as the critical value for the stability of the optimal estimator for its corresponding TCP-like system. If control inputs eventually tend to zero, the error covariance of the IMM estimator converges to that of the optimal estimator for TCP-like systems. We characterize the impact of the control/observation p.a.r. and the control input on estimation performance. Finally, we prove that the average estimation performance of the IMM estimator approximates that of the optimal estimator within a finite bound, and is superior to that of the linear minimum mean square error estimator.


In the Oil and Gas industry, estimating a subsurface velocity field is an essential step in seismic processing, reservoir characterization, and hydrocarbon volume calculation. Full-waveform inversion (FWI) velocity modeling is an iterative advanced technique that provides an accurate and detailed velocity field model, although at a very high computational cost due to the physics-based numerical simulations required at each FWI iteration. In this study, we propose a method of generating velocity field models, as detailed as those obtained through FWI, using a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) with multiple inputs. The primary motivation of this approach is to circumvent the extremely high cost of full-waveform inversion velocity modeling. Real-world data were used to train and test the proposed network architecture, and three evaluation metrics (percent error, structural similarity index measure, and visual analysis) were adopted as quality criteria. Based on these metrics, the results evaluated upon the test set suggest that the GAN was able to accurately match real FWI generated outputs, enabling it to extract from input data the main geological structures and lateral velocity variations. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method, when deployed, has the potential to increase the speed of geophysical reservoir characterization processes, saving on time and computational resources.


In the perspective of smart grids, 'smart' electricity metres are distributed in European households. When households possess an immediate feedback on their consumption, it is usually stated that they can save between 5 and 15% of their electricity. How households learn to reduce their consumption is hardly ever addressed. In order to know whether 15% saving is a limit or not, it is necessary to understand what people do and learn with the use of an electricity monitor. This question is related to the way the societal energy transition could be achieved. Electricity is invisible, but it is produced, transported and consumed through material devices. This paper explores the dimension of material culture in household energy consumption through the introduction of electricity monitors in different types of households. Through a social experiment, we investigate both how households appropriate an electricity monitor and what they learn when using it. The paper addresses the question of appropriation of such monitors and how it is related to different dimensions: comfort, values, knowledge, skills, material culture. On the basis of an original protocol that intends to interfere as little as possible with users, we installed different metres in 21 Belgian households (including low-income households) and collected data on energy consumption, material culture (appliances, heating system, etc.), different representations of energy, energy-using practices and the effects induced by the introduction of the monitor. We have observed that the metre can change electricity perception, but that only households already interested or involved in energy savings are willing to use and learn with the monitor. We suggest that these devices should accompany a deeper transformation of the 'culture of energy', but they have to become much 'smarter' if their aim is to support more sustainable energy consumption patterns.


We present an elementary heuristic reasoning based on Arnold's theory of versal deformations in support of a straightforward algorithm for finding a correlation matrix near a given symmetric one.


We obtained R- and I-band CCD photometry of the soft X-ray transient/neutron-star binary Aql X-1 in 1998 June while it was at quiescence. We find that its light curve is dominated by ellipsoidal variations, although the ellipsoidal variations are severely distorted and have unequal maxima. After we correct for the contaminating flux from a field star located only 0.″46 away, the peak-to-peak amplitude of the modulation is ≈0.25 mag in the R band, which requires the orbital inclination to be greater than 36°. The orbital period we measure is consistent with the 18.95 hr period measured by Chevalier & Ilovaisky. During its outbursts the light curve of Aql X-1 becomes single-humped. The outburst light curve observed by Garcia et al. agrees in phase with our quiescent light curve. We show that the single-humped variation is caused by a "reflection effect," that is, by heating of the side of the secondary star facing toward the neutron star.


Not uncommonly, during the course of a workup for fever, the pediatrician will find that a patient has neutropenia. Neutropenia is defined as an absolute decrease in the number of circulating neutrophils in the blood. The lower limit for normal neutrophil counts is 1000/mm3 in infants between 2 weeks and 1 year of age; after infancy the corresponding value is 1500/mm3. Blacks have lower neutrophil counts, and the lower limit is 100 to 200/mm3 less than those cited for whites. These lower counts probably reflect a relative decrease in the storage pool of the bone marrow. CLASSIFICATION OF NEUTROPENIA Neutropenia can be classified as mild (neutrophil counts of 1000 to 1500/mm3), moderate (neutrophil counts of 500 to 1000/mm3), or severe (neutrophil counts less than 200/mm3). This stratification is useful in predicting risk of infection, but it provides no etiologic information. On the other hand, it is useful to classify patients as having an abnormality either in production or in destruction of neutrophils, because each of these processes is now frequently amenable to distinct therapies if needed. Susceptibility to bacterial infection, even in the face of severe neutropenia, is variable. Most patients with chronic neutropenia do not experience as many serious infections as those patients receiving cancer chemotherapy or those infected with human immunodeficiency virus who develop comparable degrees of neutropenia.


The majority of the population in Bandung is almost Muslim. On the other hand, the people of this region are of different ethnicities and religions that deal with each other in their daily lives. However, this situation of the religious life between Muslims and non-Muslims in Bandung is harmonious. If it is not properly managed, new problems with social stability may arise, and therefore living together in religious life in Bandung City should be maintained to promote social solidarity. Thus, this research came as a serious way to find points that are likely to be involved in the process of communication between different religions, to be carried out by scientists, experts and socialists while applying. This means that if the conditions prevailing in life are consistent or found problems among the Muslims themselves, and other religious people. the solution of these problems is concentrated in one of the potential sites, and this study works to create social communication through linguistic communication using the language of religiosity (religious terms). The data collection was taken through personal interview, observation and study of documents, and the number of persons examined in the interview reached thirteen people from all the religious leaders who are considered by their community scientists.


Abstract Widespread flooding across eastern Australia between November 2010 and February 2011 has again highlighted the country's susceptibility to natural disasters. The floods have also triggered discussion about flood awareness, risk information, and the role and responsibility of governments, insurance providers and residents. This paper examines the availability of flood hazard information on local government websites in Australia; it was completed in mid-2010 before the 2010–2011 flooding. The quality and accessibility of information is discussed, as are variations based on state and population size of different Local Government Areas (councils). Particular attention is given to those areas that experienced recent flooding, as well as to known areas of concentrated risk. There are large gaps in information availability, with less than 50% of councils provided flood risk information. A higher percentage of councils in the more populous states, some of which also have higher flood risk, provide information than those in less-populous states. Of those councils with a recognised flood risk, 67% provided flood information online.


Pursuing the greater energy density and longer life span of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are urgently needed to satisfy the dramatically increased demand in energy market, where the metal oxide-based anodes are being intensively studied due to the higher capacity over that of current graphite anode. Herein, we introduce a new and sustainable strategy to construct the metal oxide-based anode with high capacity and extremely long cycle life, in which the features of bio-inspired architectures and hetero-atom doping can contribute a lot for great performances. In detail, one-dimensional tube-like metal oxide (e.g., MnO) coated on N-doped carbon framework (i.e., MnO/N-C) is designed using the natural abundant and renewable Metaplexis japonica fibers (MJFs) as the bio-template and hetero-atom sources. Benefiting from the uniqueness of structure and compositions, as-prepared MnO/N-C demonstrates extremely high rate capacities of 951, 777, 497, 435 mAh g at the rates of 0.5, 2, 4 and 5 A g respectively with a good stability more than 1000 cycles. We find that the electrochemical performances are superior to most previous MnO-based anode, in which the faster kinetics of conversion reactions on the merit of the ion/electron transportation and morphological evolution is verified. We hope that the concept of bio-inspired architectures with hetero-atom doping can be applied in the wider applications for greater capabilities.


Report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Mines discussing mining and milling conducted in Hyde Park, Vermont. As stated in the introduction, "the report describes all phases of the mining methods for the open-pit operation and milling practices employed at the Vermont Asbestos mines in Lamoille and Orleans counties, Vermont" (p. 1). This report includes maps, tables, illustrations, and photographs.


Delay measurement-based IP Geolocation can gain better IP geolocation performance. However, there are still some defects needed to be improved, including inaccurate landmark information, incomplete traceroute information and inaccurate traceroute repairing information. To address the issues, the paper proposes a traceroute-based route gathering and repairing mechanism of client-independent IP geolocation system. The contributions include: 1) a landmark information filtering mechanism is presented to filter the noise data; 2) an Improved TraceRoute Gathering algorithm (ITRG) is proposed to increase the integrity of route information; 3) a Reverse Route Delay Repairing algorithm (RRDR) is presented to solve the problem of route inflation, guaranteeing that the delay value of current router is smaller than that of its next router. The experimental results show that using the improved IP geolocation mechanism proposed in the paper, the median error distance of IP geolocation is reduced to 5.42km from 9.60km. KeywordsIP Geolocation; traceroute; route inflation;


Abstract
This thesis describes the design, synthesis and characterisation of novel fluorescent purine nucleosides, which directly address the general lack of commercially available analogues for studying DNA and RNA polymerases in a biological context. C8 purine modification is an advantageous position for fluorescent-labelling that can potentially minimise interactions along the Watson-Crick base pairing edge. An organic rigid-rod system, namely a 'phenyl-ethynyl-phenyl-' group was linked to the purine, inducing adequate fluorescence properties. A series of C8-modified purine nucleosides, containing highly conjugated linear ethynyl linker motifs, were synthesised, employing Sonogashira cross-coupling chemistry and catalytic Pd/Cu. The development of new Pd catalysts capable of performing these reactions was deemed necessary for these Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions, exploiting the ligand properties of olefins (alkenes).
A series of dibenzylidene acetone (dba-Z) alkene ligands and their novel Pd complexes were synthesised and characterised. Detailed NMR spectroscopic and TEM analyses were required to determine the composition and structure of the dinuclear 'Pd-dba-Z' complexes. The Pd2(dba-Z)3 complexes were found to be useful catalysts for use in the cross-coupling reactions of suitably halogenated nucleosides. A library or adenosine and guanosine compounds has been prepared, using the newly developed Pd catalysts.
Molecular self-assembly is principal to many areas of study in biology and supramolecular chemistry. The biophysical behaviour of the synthesised fluorescent nucleoside compounds has been examined and a detailed study by UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The solvatochromism properties of the compounds are reported. DMSO showed the largest quantum yields in comparison with other solvents for all the fluorescent nucleosides. While in water, the quantum yields were found to be relatively small, values are workable in a biological context. The modified-guanosine and adenosine analogues exhibit photophysical characteristics which may prove useful in future studies.
The development of a C-H bond functionalisation methodology for the catalytic direct arylation of inosine at the C8 position has been investigated. Such chemistry is advantageous for the introduction of aromatic groups, avoiding pre-functionalisation (halogenation) of the nucleoside substrates, as compared to traditional cross-coupling reactions, e.g. Suzuki-Miyaura. Some limitations with the methodology have been identified.
In a separate strand to the thesis, the design, synthesis and characterisation of platinum complexes containing phosphine-alkene ligands, based on a chalcone-ferrocene framework, is detailed (within Appendix A). Platinum complexes containing either the 'Lei' ligand and/or 'ferrocenyl-derived-Lei' ligand have been further characterised.


A weak DC magnetic field is applied to an immersed helical resonator antenna in an RF plasma to study the effects of magnetic insulation on potential differences between plasma and antenna within the vacuum chamber. Past research suggests a link between minimizing antenna potential and mitigating self-sputtering effects within the chamber to minimize debris creation. Alteration of particle flux ratios at the sheath boundary affects this potential difference. A simplified theory of cross-field diffusion shows the trend of decreasing potential as a function of the Hall parameter. A Langmuir probe obtains experimental evidence showing a continuously decreasing potential at lower Hall parameters than theory predicts. Due to RF biasing of the plasma, alteration of the diffusion coefficient is not the only variable affecting the potential difference between plasma and antenna. Since the experiments focus on the transitional state between collisional and magnetized plasmas, inclusion of collisional physics in the next iteration of theory may predict trends in the potential difference between plasma and antenna potential more accurately. The normalized potential difference between plasma and antenna is shown to decrease by 35% over a ten-fold increase in the Hall parameter where simplified theory predicts no change.


W HEN JAMES I created the baronetage in May 1611, he was passing from one stage of his financial operations to another.' During the first years of his reign Salisbury had provided over-all guidance, and the combination after 1603 of improved international relations and the good will engen(lered by a new ruler had offered hope for a satisfactory economic adjustment. Salisbury's efforts to this end took shape in the Great Contract of 1610, a practical and realistic approach to seventeenth-century executive-legislative problems; but the failure of the Great Contract and the subsequent dissolution of parliament were followed by Salisbury's dleath in 1612. A new era began. The plan of creating baronets was one of many projects being circulated at that time.2 The middle years of James's reign brought a period of chronic financial distress which saw Suffolk replace Salisbury as lord treasurer. They also witnessed the pro-Spanish ascendancy of the Howards, a bias clearly reflected in foreign affairs and religion. Matters were made worse by James's lavishness to courtiers and above all to a few favorites, the most notorious being


The ion densities of low-frequency inductively coupled discharges are estimated from Langmuir probe ion saturation currents over a wide range () of plasma densities. The ion densities are compared to the corresponding electron densities obtained from microwave interferometry. For low plasma densities, the cylindrical probes tend to overestimate the ion densities by factors of up to three. These discrepancies correlate well with RF probe currents and can be reduced with RF compensation or with a symmetrical double probe. For high plasma densities, the ion densities from simple probes without RF compensation agree within 50% with the electron densities from the interferometer.


The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of heparin were studied in 10 healthy volunteers using the Hepcon/System B‐10. This coagulation‐monitoring system uses each patient's body weight, height, baseline activated clotting time (ACT), and heparin dose response values to determine initial heparin doses. We administered a calculated mean ± SD heparin dose of 85 ± 14 U/kg to 10 subjects to achieve a mean ± SD target ACT of 364 ± 29 seconds. This dose produced a mean ± SD measured peak ACT of 337 ± 53 seconds from a mean ± SD baseline of 121 ± 10 seconds. The measured peak ACT values resulting from the individualized heparin doses were within 20% of the desired peak in 9 (90%) of the subjects. Using the ACT values, the average mean residence time for heparin effect was 1.2 hours and half‐life was 0.8 ± 0.2 hours, with all the subjects' values returning to within 10% of baseline by 4 hours after the dose. Using the protamine‐derived heparin concentrations, heparin total‐body clearance ranged from 43 to 99 ml/hr/kg (mean ± SD 73.3 ± 14.5 ml/hr/kg). A linear relationship was found between heparin concentration and change in ACT that was described by ΔACT = 16.85 + 136.7 (heparin concentration). We conclude that this method is easy to perform and accurate for determining initial heparin dosage requirements, and could be an important improvement over existing approaches. In addition, it is a valuable research tool for studying heparin pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics.


Generalised convulsive status epilepticus, once eloquently described as the maximum expression of epilepsy, has long been recognised as being fatal if not promptly treated. Treatment algorithms for managing status epilepticus only became possible with the emergence of benzodiazepines in the 1960s and 1970s; and with the development of parenteral formulations of antiepileptic drugs and anaesthetic agents for example, intravenous propofol (1977) and intravenous midazolam (1978). Of particular importance was the availability of phenytoin (originally developed by Merritt and Putman in 1938) in intravenous formulation, with its first reported intravenous use in three individuals in 1956, although intravenous phenobarbital had been available since the 1920s. The availability of different therapeutic options led to treatment protocols from the mid-1970s, whereas before this, clinicians would advocate preferred single agents—for example, many considered intramuscular paraldehyde as the treatment of choice until then.1 ,2 All published protocols since the 1970s, including contemporary protocols, promote a staged approach to treatment.

A …


Objectives: To assess whether the right to adequate food (RtF) is realised by children and primary caregivers and what actions are required to fully realise this right. Design: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was undertaken using a mixed-methods approach. Setting and subjects: Rural and urban primary caregivers of children (one to five years old) were recruited if they had resided in the Blue Crane Route (Eastern Cape) for at least six months. Purposefully selected key informants (KIs) involved in nutrition and food security, health or governance participated in in-depth interviews. Outcome measures: Primary caregivers responded to interviewer-administered questionnaires (IAQ) (N = 161), which investigated various indicators supporting the realisation of the RtF. Statistical analysis of quantitative data examined relationships between urban and rural participants. Significance was considered at p < 0.05. In-depth interviews with key informants (KIs) examined the perceptions of 11 prominent community leaders. Qualitative data were coded deductively and common themes identified. Results: Based on the IAQ, half (51%) of the caregivers had experienced risk of, or food insecurity in the past month. Common themes indicative of suboptimal realisation of the RtF included insufficient employment opportunities, inadequate policies and programme implementation, and inadequate agrarian practices, while the child support grant partially supported the realisation of the RtF. Caregivers felt disempowered by a sense of inability to realise the right themselves without government assistance but KIs suggested that caregivers needed to take responsibility. Conclusion: The RtF of children and their caregivers is not fully realised in the Blue Crane Route. Concerted, multidisciplinary approaches using a rights-based approach to implement policies and programmes are needed, together with the empowerment of the community with necessary skills and resources to further the realisation of the RtF.


The number of anticancer agents that fail in the clinic far outweighs those considered effective, suggesting that the selection procedure for progression of molecules into the clinic requires improvement. The value of any preclinical model will ultimately depend on its ability to accurately predict clinical response. This review focuses on the major contributions of preclinical screening models to anticancer drug development over the past 50 years. Over time, a general transition has been observed from the empirical drug screening of cytotoxic agents against uncharacterized tumor models to the target-orientated drug screening of agents with defined mechanisms of action. New approaches to anticancer drug development involve the molecular characterization of models along with an appreciation of the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties of compounds [e.g., the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) in vitro 60-cell line panel, hollow fiber assay, and s.c. xenograft]. Contributions of other potentially more clinically relevant in vivo tumor models including orthotopic, metastatic, and genetically engineered mouse models are also reviewed. Although this review concentrates on the preclinical screening efforts of the NCI, European efforts are not overlooked. Europe has played a key role in the development of new anticancer agents. The two largest academic drug development groups, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer and Cancer Research UK, have been collaborating with the NCI in the acquisition and screening of compounds since the 1970s. As with the drug development process internationally, rational pharmacodynamic approaches have more recently been adopted by these two groups.


ABSTRACT : Wall thickness is an important parameter for casting design. Thin wall sections cause breakage of parts during manufacturing or during usage of the part. Thick wall sections cause problems in castings and increase weight, needs more material thus increasing the cost. Optimal wall thickness is also important for adequate and sufficient strength of parts. The current process of wall thickness measurement involves taking sections of the design along standard axis and then measuring those sections using tools available in Computer Aided Design (CAD) Software. Designers use these methods to measure wall thickness. It takes couple of week's time to analyze a complete casting for power train parts. Moreover, the process is not accurate and error prone. Most of these errors may be detected during simulation and analysis phase. This phase is a complex and time consuming process. Also it requires specialized knowledge to use these software's. In this paper, we describe an easy and efficient process related to wall thickness check for power train design, where design checks are performed in an automated fashion by the designer. This helps to correct many of the defects arising out of the wall thickness of the model. By providing this process right at the design stage, valuable time and effort is saved. Also high quality of the part guaranteed right at the design stage.


Three studies examined cultural and situational influences on the tendency for people to use their current life satisfaction to predict future life events. On the basis of the self-enhancement literature, it was predicted that either writing about a positive personal experience or reading about another's negative experience would lead European Americans to focus their attention on internal attributes and thus would lead them to use their current life satisfaction in predicting the future. Conversely, on the basis of the self-criticism literature, it was predicted that these same conditions would lead Asian Americans to focus their attention on external factors and, therefore, would decrease their likelihood of using their current life satisfaction to predict the future. Studies 1 and 2 supported these hypotheses. Study 3 showed that these patterns could be obtained by subliminally priming concepts associated with individualism and collectivism.


Revenue sharing contract with consignment is prevalent in internet commerce, video rental, vending machine, and used-book merchandising. Under such a contract, the study models the decision-making of a supply channel with one manufacturer and one retailer as a Stackelberg game. The retailer, acting as the leader, offers the manufacturer a revenue sharing contract, which specifies the percentage allocation of revenue between her and the manufacturer. The manufacturer chooses a retail price as a response. The study conducts equilibrium analysis for both the centralized and decentralized channel settings with and without cooperation. The study reveals that the profit loss due to non-cooperative decentralization is significant, and it tends to have a consistent bias that is setting higher retail price by the manufacturer and higher revenue-sharing percentage by the retailer. Notably, the loss is increasing in the price elasticity of demand and decreasing in the retailer's cost-share. In other words, the cooperative decentralization will generate more profit than that of the non-cooperative if the retailer's cost-share is small and/or the elasticity is high. In addition, a profit-sharing scheme through slotting allowance is proposed to achieve perfect coordination, which leads to Pareto improvements among channel participants.

 Key words: Game theory, supply chain management, channel coordination, revenue-sharing.


Inverted papillomas (IPs) are benign sinonasal epithelial tumors that are locally aggressive and has a preponderance to recur if incompletely excised. This is a retrospective report describing 13 patients who underwent endoscopic excison from March 2004 to December 2010. Data was summarized into age, sex, location of tumor, surgical outcome and disease free status. Majority of the patients were males with the remaining 3 females, with a mean age of 50.9 years (range 24-76 years). Two patients needed an additional procedure of endoscopic dacrocystorhinostomy (EDCR) for epiphora. Out of the 13 patients surveyed, three patients underwent revision surgery for recurrences, of which one was a referred from another instituition. All patients are currently disease free. The mean follow-up period is 40 months.


Mesoscopic Traffic Simulation is an important tool in traffic analysis and traffic management support. The balance between traffic modeling details and performance has made Mesoscopic Traffic Simulation one of the key solutions for traffic controllers and policy makers. Mesoscopic traffic simulators offer acceptable speed in simulating normal traffic. However, when traffic prediction and optimization for large scale networks come into context, the performance of mesoscopic traffic simulators is unsatisfactory in optimizing a massive number of control parameters for a much longer prediction horizon. This issue again emphasizes the need to further speed up mesoscopic traffic simulation. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework to massively speed up mesoscopic traffic simulation using GPU without compromising its correctness and realistic modeling property. It also gives an in-depth analysis into the trade-off between simulation correctness and performance speedup. By combining the power of GPU with optimal design and data structures, mesoscopic traffic simulation is able to speed up to more than 6 times compared to original CPU implementation.


A single item of food at times tells many things about a society. The present paper aims to look at the importance and properties of jagua nakam, an item that is hugely sought-after among Garos, a tribe from north-eastern India and northern Bangladesh. Its importance lies in its gastronomic appreciation and habitual consumption. Narratives point to a similar feature. Interestingly, this single item of food consumption tells us much more about the people and their society.


A large-eddy simulation (LES) initialized and forced using observations is used to conduct a process study of ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) turbulence in a 2-km box of ocean nominally under Hurricane Irene (2011) in 35 m of water on the New Jersey shelf. The LES captures the observed deepening, cooling, and persistent stratification of the OSBL as the storm approaches and passes. As the storm approaches, surface-intensified Ekman-layer rolls, with horizontal wavelengths of about 200 m and horizontal-to-vertical aspect and velocity magnitude ratios of about 20, dominate the kinetic energy and increase the turbulent Prandtl number from about 1 to 1.5 due partially to their restratifying vertical buoyancy flux. However, as the storm passes, these rolls are washed away in a few hours due to the rapid rotation of the wind. In the bulk OSBL, the gradient Richardson number of the mean profiles remains just above (just below) 1/4 as the storm approaches (passes). At the base of the OSBL, large-aspect-ratio Kelvin–Helmholtz billows, with Prandtl number below 1, intermittently dominate the kinetic energy. Overall, large-aspect-ratio covariance modifies the net vertical fluxes of buoyancy and momentum by about 10%, but these fluxes and the analogous diffusivity and viscosity still approximately collapse to time-independent dimensionless profiles, despite rapid changes in the forcing and the large structures. That is, the evolutions of the mean temperature and momentum profiles, which are driven by the net vertical flux convergences, mainly reflect the evolution of the wind and the initial ocean temperature profile.


Introduction Individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) should be considered a susceptible group for pulmonary dysfunction. So, we aimed to evaluate the sensation of breathlessness in this population by administering two well-validated questionnaires. Methods This is a crosssectional study with 592 people without known respiratory disease (353 with T2D) who answered the modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) questionnaire. In addition, 47% also responded to the St George Respiratory Questionnaire, a specific instrument designed to be applied to patients with obstructive airway disease. Results Patients with T2D showed a higher mMRC score in comparison to the control group [1.0 (0.0 – 4.0) vs. 0.0 (0.0 – 4.0), p<0.001]. A higher prevalence of subjects with mMRC ≥2 was observed in T2D that in the control group (20.2% vs. 11.6%, p=0.004). Participants with T2D and mMRC ≥2 showed a higher HbA1c (8.2 ± 1.6% vs. 7.8 ± 1.6%, p=0.048), longer T2D evolution and higher prevalence of nephropathy. In the multivariate analysis, the presence of T2D [OR=1.95 (1.19 to 3.22), p=0.008] in all the population, and HbA1c [OR=1.19 (1.01 to 1.41), p=0.034] and the presence of diabetic nephropathy [OR=2.00 (1.14 to 3.52), p=0.015] in patients with T2D, predicted a mMRC ≥2. Finally, no differences were observed regarding the SGRQ score among groups. Conclusions Patients with T2D showed a greater sensation of dyspnea than subjects with normal carbohydrate metabolism. Risk factors included poor metabolic control and the presence of renal disease.


Yeasts play a significant role in a wide range of fields, and the fascination they arouse stems from their incredible diversity in natural habitats. Among these habitats we focused on the soil of a unique biotope (oasis) in the Algerian Sahara, where yeasts have received little attention. For the first time, the distribution of yeasts, was determined depending on the plant and seasons. Their metabolic activity represented in the PGP effects, benefits the studied plant (chickpea) at the soil level involving the production of NH3, IAAs, the solubilization of inorganic phosphorus and zinc oxide, and even the micro-symbionts by the stimulation of nodulation. The isolated yeasts were also shown to possess PGP properties that largely exceed those of the reference strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with the strain RSZ1 of Kodamaea ohmeri having the best solubilization and production indices. When compared to the non-infected control and those inoculated with the reference strain S. cerevisiae, these characteristics enhanced the dry biomass yield of the examined plant by three to four or even six times. Another effect was nodulation, in which the number of nodules significantly increased compared to the control. Yeasts have a high-temperature tolerance limit of 43°C, posing a significant challenge in this biotope. This little-known role of yeasts, particularly in Algeria, is interesting, and can be used with other microorganisms as an alternative to hazardous chemical fertilizers and as bio-inputs in the improvement of healthy agricultural production, revegetation of degraded sites, and the establishment of life in these biotopes.


This article has the objective of emphasizing the most relevant aspects of the productive milk chain in Brazil. The work is descriptive and was done through bibliographic research based on specialized literature on dairy activities and economics. The study showed that the external environment has a great significant influence in the competitiveness of the national dairy sector, on account of a set of political and economical factors and on those that are related to the legislation and regulation, about which the productive chain agents have little or almost none power of intervention. It also showed that these factors cause a series of distortions resulting either from public polices intrinsically domestic, or subsidized ones adopted by the European Union and the United States. Finally it is concluded that this set of factors, external to the dairy chain, has been decisive for the competitiveness in this sector and for those direct or indirect involved in the activity or for those representing the public power.  Key words: milk, productive chain, external environment.


Heavy elements (X = Ta/W/Re) play an important role in the performance of superalloys, which enhance the strength, anti-oxidation, creep resistance, and anti-corrosiveness of alloy materials in a high-temperature environment. In the present research, the heavy element doping effects in FCC-Ni(γ) and Ni3Al(γ′) systems are investigated in terms of their thermodynamic and mechanical properties, as well as electronic structures. The lattice constant, bulk modulus, elastic constant, and dopant formation energy in non-spin, spin polarized, and spin–orbit coupling (SOC) calculations are compared. The results show that the SOC effects are important in accurate electronic structure calculations for alloys with heavy elements. We find that including spin for both γ and γ′ phases is necessary and sufficient for most cases, but the dopant formation energy is sensitive to different spin effects, for instance, in the absence of SOC, even spin-polarized calculations give 1% to 9% variance in the dopant formation energy in our model. Electronic structures calculations indicate that spin polarization causes a split in the metal d states, and SOC introduces a variance in the spin-up and spin-down states of the d states of heavy metals and reduces the magnetic moment of the system.


This study measured the impact of an awareness campaign to reduce food waste on campus. Information cues were installed at strategic locations in a canteen to engage university students in food waste prevention. Stickers with food ordering tips were placed in front of the food vendors. Information cards about resource use in food production were placed on dining tables to remind students to finish what they had ordered. Other materials of the save food campaign such as posters and banners carried messages and images to elicit a pro-environmental norm. Students were also encouraged to share their support through social media in order to increase the visibility of the actions. The analysis showed that carefully designed information was effective in changing behaviors. Based on the visual analysis of returned food containers, the share of those who finished all their food nearly doubled after the campaign. The types of food waste on the information cards were also significantly reduced. However, the results showed that voluntary behavior changes are limited to actions requiring little additional effort. Other types of interventions such as rule-based measures, economic incentives and changes in physical settings and how food is served should be considered to further food waste prevention. In addition, reuse and recycling options are needed for fluid and other unavoidable food waste.


Woman centred care is a concept frequently promoted as a core aspect of midwifery practice, policy and education. However, woman centred care often remains ill-defined and an elusive feature of clinical practice. The impact of woman centred care as part of pre-registration midwifery education is underreported and has largely only been investigated as a theoretical concept. Consequently, there is limited evidence of how pre-registration midwifery education not only understands woman centred care but how the concept is contextualised into clinical practice environments.

A case study methodology, according to Yin's deductive framework (Yin, 2014) was utilised to investigate student midwives, midwifery lecturers, Heads of Midwifery and the Lead Midwife for Education perceptions and experiences of woman centred care as part of a pre-registration midwifery programme. The single case study was based on a UK based university that typified pre-registration midwifery programmes. The case study methodology identified pre-ordained theoretical propositions and related variables that guided the entire research design. The case study also aligned to a critical realism ontology with a belief that there was an objective reality to be discovered.
The sampling strategy involved programme documents, semi structured telephone interviews and a focus group. Collectively these were analysed using Yin's (2014) pattern matching and explanation building data analysis strategy. This strategy identified the extent to which the findings aligned to pre-ordained theoretical propositions alongside the identification of rival explanations that could not be explained through the data.

The case study found that the theoretical concepts of choice, control, mutual collaboration, continuity of care and individualised care were indicative of a pre-registration midwifery programme promoting woman centred care. However, there was differentiation in the understanding and experiences of these concepts that impacted on the ability for woman centred care to be contextualised in clinical practice. The differentiation was influenced by the powerful tendencies of professional identity, type of clinical context, ideologies, the profile of a woman and organisational aspects such as time constraints and policies. As a result, the student midwives were caught between often competing expectations between the university and the clinical practice context.
The study contends that woman centred care needs to be reconceptualised so able to integrate often currently competing ideologies and therefore, able to meet the changing future needs of woman centred care. New models for a critical realist framework and a programme planning tool for a contextual application have been developed as part of new understanding for woman centred care in pre-registration midwifery education.


Since the Benedictine Reform of Cluny, religious orders became a domain of international exchange. In the 13 th century, mendicants inherited this tradition, which became consolidated during the next centuries, based primarily on their missionary spirituality and their obedience vows. The passage of religious from one province to another was constant during the last medieval centuries and the main organizers were the orders' authorities themselves, established in Rome, and often also the Pope. Some monarchs, such as St. Louis IX of France, who was a Franciscan Tertiary, sent religious as ambassadors to China, although this was apparently an exceptional case. It was therefore until the 16 th century, with the discovery of America, that a Crown (the Spanish Crown) took direct part in sending missionaries to the New World, submitting even the religious authorities in Rome to its plans. From that moment on, the Monarchy became the main actor in charge of ordering, controlling and economically sustaining the sending of religious. This influenced the traveling dynamics of religious orders in both directions. At first, it was more common to send missionaries to the Indies, and then visitadores , or inspectors, and officials (such as Comisarios ), but in time, as mendicant and Jesuit provinces consolidated, there was a constant flow of indianos to the Metropolis (and sometimes to Rome, but always via Spain), sent as procuradores or attorneys to solve different problems –from disputes with bishops to processes of beatification, attendance to general chapters, or procedures to obtain teaching authority ( magisterium ). Examples such as Brother Alonso de la Veracruz, Brother Diego Valades, Brother Jeronimo de Mendieta, Brother Jose Sicardo or Francisco de Florencia will serve to illustrate the different reasons for such journeys.


Little attention has been given to the possible differences in bullying at private and public schools. Little significant research exists on bullying at private schools, its characteristics, and its differences from public schools. Inattention to this segment of the population can lead to broad and inappropriate generalizations that what works in public schools will work in private schools. This dissertation investigated to what degree there were differences between the number of incidences, types of bullying, and locations of bullying that took place at a public and private school in a small Midwestern community. The research examined the following factors and their relationship to bullying: gender, faith affiliation, number of years in residence in the current school system, race, and the socio-economic status of the school. The methodology used to answer these questions was a quantitative based study where 412, sixth through eighth grade students from one public and one private school were surveyed about bulling. Five research questions guided the focus of this dissertation: (1) How many bullying incidences occur in both public and private schools? (2) What types of bullying activities take place in both public and private schools (Physical, verbal, cyber-bullying, etc.)? (3) Where does bullying occur within private and public school buildings and campuses? (4) To what degree are there differences between the number of incidences, types, and locations of bullying that take place at public and private schools? (5) How do traits such as gender, faith affiliation, number of years in residence in the current school system, and race relate to participation in bullying behaviors (Prevalence, type, and location of bullying)? Within the limits of the study, the following conclusions were reached: (1) No statistically significant difference existed between the amount of bullying at the public and private school. (2) A statistically significant difference did exist in some types of bullying between the public and private school. (3) When comparing the two school systems a statistically significant difference did exist in some specific locations where bullying occurred. (4) A variety of relationships existed between certain student characteristics and the survey questions. (5) The lack of a statistically significant difference in the amount of bullying that occurred at the public and private school allows educators to apply research findings from public schools research to private schools within the parameters of this research.


This article describes the development of the tallest and most powerful windmill of its kind in the U.S. Known as a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT), the machine is meant for testing new concepts in vertical axis turbine design. As part of its overall testing program, the turbine will supply electricity to automated water pumps used in irrigation research at the Research Laboratory in Bushland, Texas. Excess power will go to the Southwestern Public Service Company for the area power system.


The relatively recent resumption of large international capital flows and the Asian crisis have revived interest in capital controls - taxes or restrictions on international transactions in assets like stocks or bonds. For many years economists considered capital controls to be obviously detrimental to the allocation of productive resources; they have been gradually phased out in the developed world during the last 50 years. This Review article introduces readers to the debate on capital controls, explains the purposes and costs of various types of controls and why some advocate their reintroduction. Shaded inserts examine case studies in capital controls: the U.S. Interest Equalization Tax of 1963, the Chilean Encaje of the 1990s, and the restrictions imposed by Malaysia in September 1998.


The contention that deteriorating terms of trade exists in countries that rely heavily on the exploitation and export of natural resources motivated us in this study. We therefore sought to investigate the impact of terms of trade on economic growth in natural resource-rich sub-Saharan African countries. We carried out the study using annual series that span a period of 1990-2019 under the framework of panel Random and Fixed effects. Our findings indicate that a long run relationship exists between GDP and the explanatory variables used in the study. Results also show that, while cross-section random effects indicates that terms of trade positively impacts on GDP, period fixed effects shows that terms of trade negatively impacts on GDP even though it is not significant. Results of our study also show that in all the models, labour force total and FDI have positive impact on GDP, while trade openness impacts on GDP negatively. We therefore recommend that the SSA natural resource-rich countries should diversify their economies away from the traditional natural resources base. Also human capital should be improved through sound education and training, while all the bottlenecks that constrain the inflow of foreign direct investment should be dismantled.


This article describes the role of moderate character education in strengthening peace education in the era of the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. Strengthening peace education is important to avoid opportunities for conflicts in society. This conflict is horizontal and vertical. The situation in the Covid-19 Era has hit the economic conditions of some residents. This then spreads, causing social anxiety in the community. Moderate Islamic values include religious, tolerance, democratic, peace-loving, and social characteristics. Meanwhile, the value of nationalism includes the character of the spirit of nationality and love for the country, That is, moderate character education is not only responsible for the formation of righteous and noble human beings it also forms people who have a responsibility to maintain peace. The focus of this study discusses the potential for conflict due to COVID-19 based on Moderate Character Education to strengthen peace education using a conflict study approach combined with a structural approach. One of the main arguments of this paper is that the fear of the emergence of conflict is rooted in ignorance of the elements that are pre-conditions for the conflict situation. Conflict, then, is an accumulation of various factors that are intertwined with one another. So that with the strengthening of peace education through moderate character education it can be an alternative solution for a more peaceful and civilized Indonesia.


Purpose: Transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) via a wire loop has been regarded as a standard procedure dealing with nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) for a long time, and en-bloc resection of bladder tumors (ERBT) is a promising alternative to conventional transurethral resection of bladder tumor.
A few studys assessing the two techniques were reported. The objective of our study is to review the published literature and compare en-bloc resection for non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with conventional transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) in terms of safety and efficacy. Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-randomized controlled trials(nRCTs) and some retrospective studys which were searched and sreened. A systematic search up to the 1st of March 2019 was conducted in the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science,the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Embase. Data such as resection techniques, morbidity, specimens' quality, and recurrence were collected from the manuscripts.Results: Sixteen studies were included in this systematic review finnally.No statistical difference is detectded between the two techniques regarding operative time,the 2-year recurrence-free survival and the occurrence of ureterostenosis.Analysis of some complications showed that ERBT was better than TURBT for NMIBC, including obturator nerve reflex, cystic stimulation rate, bladder perforation, operation time,duration of catheterization, postoperation duration of postoperation bladder irritation and length of hospital stay. In addition, detrusor miss rate is lower in ERBT group,the 1-year and 3-year recurrence-free survival improved in the ERBT group than in the TURBT group. Conclusions: This systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that ERBT technique is a feasible, safe procedures that may provide an alternative treatment for NMIBC.


During 1987, exploration continued its decline from the 1985 high. Four exploration wells were drilled or drilling in 1987 compared to 14 in 1986. Three of these wells were in the Arctic (onshore and offshore); the fourth was in the Cook Inlet basin. Seismic crew-months were 18.6 for 1987 compared to 30.3 months for 1986. Production, mainly from the super giant Prudhoe Bay field, increased to an average of 2.06 million BOPD, making Alaska the top oil-producing state. One new field, the Lisburne pool of Prudhoe Bay field, was put into production in late 1985, and a new field, the Endicott, was placed in production in 1986. Endicott field produces the first oil from a field in the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. As 1987 closed, prospects for the restart of Conoco's Milne Point field and the announcement by Standard Alaska Production Company that it planned to develop its Beaufort Sea Niakuk discovery indicated that development would be in the offing in 1988.


Before stressing about the ways of incorporating culture into English as a foreign language classroom, it should be mentioned that culture plays a great role in teaching and learning language.Due to the usage of authentic materials and effective techniques for presenting culture in the classroom, the teachers almost totally aim their pedagogical goals: clear explanation of the topic and strong, understandable process by students. As a proof of our words, we can emphasize that learner of a foreign language comprehends the topic if it is covered with culture-awareness activities.It has been widely recognized that culture and language is used as a main medium through which culture is expressed. Taking all this into consideration, the intention of this article has been to provide necessary information for the foreign language teachers and learners so that they can establish a good connection with the target language and its culture.


Charge redistribution dynamics after electrical stress in a thin oxide layer was observed by scanning capacitance microscope. Image contrast and local capacitance spectroscopy show the kind of trapped charges and their behavior in the oxide with time. After high negative-voltage stress on a local area, electrons trapped initially are detrapped away and rather slow positive mobile carriers are attracted by the trapped electrons. These carriers are spread away from each other by the repulsive interaction among them and finally form a donut-shaped structure with the inside of electron traps.


This single-institution experience retrospectively reviewed the outcomes in 21 patients with primary duodenal adenocarcinoma. Twelve patients underwent curative surgery, and 9 patients underwent palliative surgery at the Chiba University Hospital. The maximum follow-up period was 8650 days. All pathologic specimens from endoscopic biopsy and surgical specimens were reviewed and categorized. Twelve (57.1%) patients underwent curative surgery (R0): 4 pancreaticoduodenectomies (PD), 4 pylorus-preserving PDs (PpPD), 2 local resections of the duodenum and 2 endoscopic mucosal resections (EMR). Palliative surgery was performed for 9 patients (42.9%) following gastro-intestinal bypass. The median cause-specific survival times were 1784 days (range 160-8650 days) in the curative surgery group and 261 days (range 27-857 days) in the palliative surgery group (P = 0.0003, log-rank test). The resectability of primary duodenal adenocarcinoma was associated with a smaller tumor size, a lower degree of tumor depth invasiveness, and less spread to the lymph nodes and distant organs.


After many years of earnest disputation, we remain fascinated by the question of what the United States' genetic identity really is, especially in regard to religion. In the previous century, academics memorably battled over Charles Beard's Marxist economic interpretation of the American founding. Today, the religious question preoccupies us. Was America a Christian nation? If it was, then is it still one today? Does the past set a claim on the present or the future? More questions crop up. Were early Americans actually predominantly Christian? Did they go to church? What about the separation of church and state? Did the founders envision a warm relationship between the two entities or a strict division? Even among the separationists, was the impulse more about protecting the church from corruption or preventing religious fanatics from imposing their beliefs on everyone? Hunter Baker, "Review Essay: Is Christian America Invented? And Why Does It Matter?" Journal of Markets & Morality 18, no. 2 (Fall 2015): 391-400.


BACKGROUND
Aging is a complex process accompanied with the decline of the different physiological functions. Numerous differentially expressed genes (DEGs) have been found in the aging brain of senescence-accelerated mouse P8 (SAMP8), however, it was challenging to screen out the crucial ones.

OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to explore the crucial genes and pathways in aging brain of SAMP8 mice, which would be beneficial for understanding the pathogenesis of brain aging.

METHODS
Firstly, 430 genes that are differentially expressed in SAMP8 mice versus SAMR1 mice were obtained from 9 gene expression studies, and gene-gene network was constructed. Clustering analysis and topological analysis were used to single out the hub genes from this network. Secondly, pathway enrichment analysis was utilized to identify the key pathways from the 430 DEGs, and the DEGs in key pathways were considered as functional genes. Thirdly, the inner-network between hub genes and functional genes was constructed, and the key genes were predicted. Parts of the key genes were experimentally verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and the associated transcription factors (TFs) were predicted.

RESULTS
Our results revealed that 12 crucial genes might affect brain aging, including Trp53, Bcl2, Tnf, Casp9, Fos, Il6, Ptgs2, Il1b, Bdnf, Cdkn1a, Pik3c3, Rps6ka1, among which Casp9, Fos, Ptgs2, Cdkn1a, Pik3c3, and Rps6ka1 had been verified by qRT-PCR in 10-moth-old SAMP8 mice. Five functional groups including mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, neurotrophin signaling pathway, Hepatitis B, Alzheimer's disease and Oxytocin signaling pathway were significantly changed during aging process in SAMP8 mice. Two key transcription factors of c-Fos and C/EBPbeta were predicted by constructing a TF-target gene network.

CONCLUSION
These putative genes and pathways are closely related to brain senescence and our results would gain new insight into the pathogenesis of brain aging.


Strains of Escherichia coli K-12 mutant in the genes controlling excision repair (uvr) and genetic recombination (rec) have been studied with reference to their radiosensitivity and their ability to repair X-ray-induced single-strand breaks in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Mutations in the rec genes appreciably increase the radiosensitivity of E. coli K-12, whereas uvr mutations produce little if any increase in radiosensitivity. For a given dose of X-rays, the yield of single-strand breaks has been shown by alkaline sucrose gradient studies to be largely independent of the presence of rec or uvr mutations. The rec+ cells (including those carrying the uvrB5 mutation) could efficiently rejoin X-ray-induced single-strand breaks in DNA, whereas recA56 mutants could not repair these breaks to any great extent. The recB21 and recC22 mutants showed some indication of repair capacity. From these studies, it is concluded that a correlation exists between the inability to repair single-strand breaks and the radiosensitivity of the rec mutants of E. coli K-12. This suggests that unrepaired single-strand breaks may be lethal lesions in E. coli.


We examined perceptions of risk for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 296 high school students living in or near a major urban center. We hypothesized that students with a dispositional tendency to deny threat would be more likely to misperceive their risk of contracting AIDS. Results indicated that study participants, overall, used their behaviors as a basis for assessing personal risk in the sense that they perceived higher risk when their behavior was in fact riskier. However, this relation did not hold for those students classified as repressors on a repression-sensitization scale; repressors' perceptions of absolute (but not comparative) risk were negatively correlated with degree of behavioral risk. In a secondary analysis, perceived absolute risk was found to be a significant predictor of intention to change AIDS-risk behaviors. This study provides support for a motivational interpretation of perceived invulnerability and has implications for the development of models of health behavior change.


The authors show in the two-band Hamiltonian for CuO layers that holes bind due to gauge fields induced by antiferromagnetic fluctuations. Superconductivity appears as a superfluid transition of pairs of holes.


This paper considers the joint design of source-relay precoders in OFDM systems where power constraint is specified for a contiguous block of subcarriers. The design criteria considered are the popular Arithmetic sum of average Bit Error Rate(ABER) and Arithmetic sum of average Mean Square Error(AMSE) criteria. The proposed algorithm optimizes the precoders for a block of subcarriers. For the ABER criterion, it gives a performance improvement of about 3 dB at an ABER of 10-3 when compared to a system with equal power allocation on all subcarriers. However, the same approach for the AMSE criterion does not give any significant improvement in performance. This behavior is reasoned by plotting the performance surface of ABER and AMSE criteria.


The L5178Y/TK+/- leads to TK-/- mouse lymphoma mutagen assay, which allows selection of forward mutations at the autosomal thymidine kinase (TK) locus, uses a TK+/- heterozygous cell line, TK+/- 3.7.2C. Quantitation of colonies of mutant TK-/- cells in the assay forms the basis for calculations of mutagenic potential of test compounds. We have evaluated the banded karyotypes of the parent TK+/- heterozygous cell line, as well as homozygous TK-/- mutants, in order to relate the genetic and morphological properties of mutant colonies. The parent cell line displays karyotype homogeneity, all cells containing normal mouse chromosomes, readily identifiable chromosome rearrangements, and cell line specific marker chromosomes. Mutant TK-/- colonies of the TK+/- 3.7.2C cell line form a bimodal frequency distribution of colony sizes for most mutagenic or carcinogenic test substances. Large-colony (lambda) TK-/- mutants with normal growth kinetics appear karyotypically identical within and among clones and with the TK+/- parental cell line. In contrast, most slow-growing small-colony (sigma) TK-/- mutants have readily recognizable chromosome rearrangements involving chromosome 11, which contains the thymidine kinase gene locus. It is possible that the heritable differences in growth kinetics and resultant colony morphology in lambda and sigma mutants are related to the type of chromosomal damage sustained. Large-colony mutants receive minimal damage, possibly in the form of point mutations at the TK locus, while small-colony mutants receive damage to other genetic functions coordinately with loss of TK activity, implying gross insult to chromosomal material. It seems likely that lambda and sigma mutants result from 2 different mutational mechanisms that may be distinguished on the basis of mutant colony morphology.


Abstract We affirm a conjecture of Sacks [1972] by showing that every countable distributive lattice is isomorphic to an initial segment of the hyperdegrees, . In fact, we prove that every sublattice of any hyperarithmetic lattice (and so, in particular, every countable, locally finite lattice) is isomorphic to an initial segment of . Corollaries include the decidability of the two quantifier theory of , and the undecidability of its three quantifier theory. The key tool in the proof is a new lattice representation theorem that provides a notion of forcing for which we can prove a version of the fusion lemma in the hyperarithmetic setting and so the preservation of ω1 ck . Somewhat surprisingly, the set theoretic analog of this forcing does not preserve ω1. On the other hand, we construct countable lattices that are not isomorphic to any initial segment of .


Ensemble Kalman inversion (EKI) is a derivative-free optimizer aimed at solving inverse problems, taking motivation from the celebrated ensemble Kalman filter. The purpose of this article is to consider the introduction of adaptive Tikhonov strategies for EKI. This work builds upon Tikhonov EKI (TEKI) which was proposed for a fixed regularization constant. By adaptively learning the regularization parameter, this procedure is known to improve the recovery of the underlying unknown. For the analysis, we consider a continuous-time setting where we extend known results such as well-posedness and convergence of various loss functions, but with the addition of noisy observations for the limiting stochastic differential equations (i.e. stochastic TEKI). Furthermore, we allow a time-varying noise and regularization covariance in our presented convergence result which mimic adaptive regularization schemes. In turn we present three adaptive regularization schemes, which are highlighted from both the deterministic and Bayesian approaches for inverse problems, which include bilevel optimization, the maximum a posteriori formulation and covariance learning. We numerically test these schemes and the theory on linear and nonlinear partial differential equations, where they outperform the non-adaptive TEKI and EKI.


Haptoglobin is one of the major acute phase proteins in ruminants. Its use has a great potential as an
early indicator of infl ammatory conditions, trauma and metabolic disorders, besides having importance in
determining the prognosis and monitoring specific diseases. One of the main clinical applications of haptoglobin
is an indicator of subclinical mastitis thorough its determination in milk samples, having more sensibility than
other traditionally used indicators as somatic cells counting. The present work describes the relations between
haptoglobin with some infl ammatory conditions, mastitis and metabolic disorders, such as ketosis, acidosis and
hepatic lipidosis and indicates new research areas that may be explored in the future.


UNILATERAL convulsive therapy (ECT) is a technique in which a current is passed across the nondominant cerebral hemisphere, producing a generalized convulsion as a treatment modality. A lessened degree of memory disturbance is claimed as compared to the bilateral procedure. This research project was aimed at comparing the effect of the unilateral and bilateral procedures. A well-known psychiatrist who had received a course of bilateral ECT treatment wrote as follows: One of the most celebrated effects of ECT is the memory loss it induces. This can be alarming, as whole tracts of memory seem to be expunged without trace. Memory for recent events, during the week or so preceding treatment, appears to be the most severely affected. Memories for events of several years ago seem to be impaired hardly at all. This subjective report has been confirmed by the work of Cronholm and Molander, 1 who


Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) report worse functional status and quality of life hence the association has important clinical implications. FMS can be challenging to treat, and the current evidence recommends a multidisciplinary treatment approach focused on symptom management.

 Information regarding the current prevalence of FMS in RA patients is lacking. Thus, this study aims to address the prevalence and predictors of FMS in seropositive RA patients and demonstrate our clinical practice in the management of FMS.

 Participants' data was gathered from Aseer central hospital (ACH) rheumatology clinics and daycare units over a period of 2 years. Subjects were assessed using the 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for FMS. Data were collected from medical records, including patient demographics, comorbidities and concomitant FMS-related data.

 Out of 310 seropositive RA patients, 15% (n = 47) fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for FMS. Of them, 29, 11 and 7 were on pregabalin, amitriptyline and duloxetine, respectively. Half of FMS patients showed one or more therapy changes. A significant difference between RA patients with and without concomitant FMS was observed, including age, gender and comorbidities.

 In this retrospective study, a high prevalence of FMS in individuals with seropositive RA was identified. This study explores real-world practice in the treatment of FMS with remarkable findings regarding underdosing and lower discontinuation rate of pregabalin.


This article revisits Arnold Van Gennep's Rites de passage from the point of view of gift theory. Gifts emerge as quasi-omnipresent and in association with all sorts as well as all phases of rites of passage in Van Gennep's text. However, he never explicitly addresses nor problematizes this pervasive connection between gifts and rites of passage. In contrast with Marcel Mauss's later Essai sur le don, moreover, Rites de passage tends to relate to gift-exchange in either mere instrumental, economic terms, or as a rather simple and efficient, binding and "unifying" mechanism, while displaying none of Mauss's complementary attentiveness to the agonistic as well as more complex and contradictory features of gift processes. Yet, precisely the ideas of margin and liminality for which Van Gennep's became best known, but which did not seep at all into his own treatment of gifts, may be drawn upon to approach gift interactions as ritual processes, perhaps even rites of passage, with liminal phases and anti-structural features of their own kind. Such an angle of analysis happens to converge with current approaches to the gift that have underscored the part it may play in fraught dynamics of mutual definition and recognition in human interactions. It might also suggest new ways of interpreting the deep, recurrent association between gifts and rites of passage, which Rites de passage unwittingly contributed to highlight, but still needs to be further explored and conceptualized.


There is currently no established method to monitor muscle architecture throughout exercise intervention. This work investigates the value of DTI and fiber tractography to detect changes in fiber length in the quadriceps caused by resistance training. Five human subjects participated in a three-month training regimen, and DTI scans of their quadriceps were acquired. Through DTI tractography, fiber lengths were measured and compared between quadricep muscle components. There were no statistically significant changes in fiber length after three months of exercise, showing further optimization is needed to utilize DTI tractography for monitoring fiber length changes due to exercise.


Introduction: Hypoxia is an important hallmark of the tumor microenvironment and contributes significantly to radiotherapy resistance in solid tumors. Exosomes are nanosized vesicles actively released from tumor cells, and recent studies support their central role in the aggravated biology caused by tumor hypoxia through their miRNA cargo. In this study, we aimed to characterize miRNAs of exosomes from hypoxic colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines and investigate these miRNAs in circulating exosomes from rectal cancer patients with poor response to neoadjuvant radiotherapy. Methods: Five CRC cell lines were cultured in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with 1% bovine serum albumin under normoxia (21% O2) or hypoxia (0.2% O2) for 24 hours. Exosomes were isolated from conditioned media by differential ultracentrifugation, and integrity and size were determined by cryo-electron microscopy and NanoSight tracking analysis and further characterized by Western blot and flow cytometry analyses. In a prospective biomarker study, plasma samples were collected from 29 patients with rectal cancer at the time of diagnosis, and histologic tumor response (tumor regression grade, TRG) to neoadjuvant radiotherapy was evaluated. Exosomes were isolated from plasma using the miRCURY™ Exosome Isolation Kit (Exiqon). Expression profiling of exosomal miRNAs of the CRC cell lines and the patients' plasma samples was conducted using the miRCURY LNA™ Universal RT microRNA PCR Human panel I (Exiqon). Data normalization was performed based on global array mean. Results: Normoxic and hypoxic CRC cells released vesicles, 30-150 nm in size, that expressed proteins known to be enriched in exosomes (CD9, CD63, CD81, Alix) and with absence of markers of the endoplasmic reticulum (GRP78, Calnexin) and the Golgi apparatus (GM130). Exosomes from the CRC cell lines harbored strong cell line-specific miRNA profiles; however, when comparing the hypoxic cell lines collectively with the normoxic counterparts, four exosomal miRNAs (miR-195-5p, miR-423-3p, miR-622, miR-663a) were significantly down-regulated by hypoxia. Of these, circulating exosomal miR-663a was lower (p = 0.033) in rectal cancer patients with poor tumor response (TRG 2-3) to neoadjuvant radiotherapy. Conclusion: Vesicles released from CRC cell lines were characterized as exosomes carrying miRNAs that were retrieved in the circulation of rectal cancer patients, where low level of exosomal miR-663a at the time of diagnosis was associated with poor tumor response to neoadjuvant radiotherapy. These findings suggest that repressed release of miR-663a from tumor cells into the circulation may be a marker of radiotherapy resistance caused by tumor hypoxia. The results are currently under validation in an independent patient cohort. Trial registration: NCT01816607 Citation Format: Tonje Bjornetro, Karianne R. Handeland, Sebastian Meltzer, Rampradeep Samiappan, Lars G. Lyckander, Caroline Jegerschold, Linda Sonstevold, Nirujah S. Thusyanthan, Kathrine R. Redalen, Anne H. Ree. Low release of exosomal miR-663a from hypoxic tumor cells and poor tumor response to neoadjuvant radiotherapy in rectal cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4514. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4514


The human auditory system performs many remarkable feats; we only fully appreciate how sophisticated these are when we try to simulate them on a computer. Through building such computer models, we gain insight into perceptual processing in general, and develop useful new ways to analyze signals. This thesis describes a transformation of sound into a representation with various properties specifically oriented towards simulations of source separation. Source separation denotes the ability of listeners to perceive sound originating from a particular origin as separate from simultaneous interfering sounds. An example would be following the notes of a single instrument while listening to an orchestra. Using a cochlea-inspired filterbank and strategies of peak-picking and track-formation, the representation organizes time-frequency energy into distinct elements; these are argued to correspond to indivisible components of the perception. The elements contain information such as fine time structure which is important to perceptual quality and source separability. A high quality resynthesis method is described which gives good results even for modified representations. The performance and results of the analysis and synthesis methods are discussed, and the intended applications of the new domain are described in detail. This description also explains how the principles of source separation, as established by previous research in psychoacoustics, will be applied as the next step towards a fully functional source separator.


From recent laboratory research monofilament and fibrillated polypropylene fibres were used in structural concrete and have been tested against 150 freeze/thaw cycles. The findings show monofilament fibres to play a significant role in protecting the concrete matrix against the forces encountered. External cube integrity was shown to be a poor indicator of structural condition. A significant aspect of the work is the range of tests applied to the freeze/thaw concrete cubes against the control sample. Strong evidence of condition was obtained from ultrasonic, compressive strength and weight loss. Surface scaling was not a satisfactory indication of the structural condition of the concrete.


Introduction: Thirty-day readmission risk is widely accepted as an indicator of quality of care. Sickle cell disease (SCD) has one the highest hospital readmission risk with a wide variation between different studies. In recent studies, older age, insurance status, and systemic complications including sepsis, renal and liver disease increased the risk of readmission whereas blood transfusion reduced the risk. During hospital stay, patients experience a variety of changes in their symptoms and laboratory measures. Evidence on the role of these changes on readmission risk is limited. In the current study, we aimed to assess the clinical and laboratory predictors of 30-day readmission risk in SCD adult patients in a tertiary health care system.
 Methods: Medical record discharge abstract files which cover visits for the SCD patients at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) were extracted from electronic health records. Laboratory test results were obtained for each admission and were linked to discharge data. For each admission ICD 9/10 codes were used to identify the comorbidities. Blood transfusion information was recorded during each the admission. Natural language processing was used to extract medical concepts from chest X-ray and CT scan reports during patient's admission. Acute chest syndrome/pneumonia were identified from a combination of ICD codes and radiologic reports. For each laboratory value, a single rate of change (trajectory) was calculated with a random coefficient model from any measures during the hospital stay. Rate of changes were categorized to negative and positive trajectory. We used Generalized Estimating Equations models to assess predictors of 30-day readmission risk including the relationship between negative trajectory of any laboratory values duration the admission.
 Results: During January 2010 to May 2016, data for 2,108 hospital admissions in 173 SCD unique adult patients (median age of 32, 57% female and 59% SS genotype) were extracted. Risk of 30-day readmission was 41.2%. Older age (P <0.001) but not genotype (P = 0.8) predicted a lower readmission risk. Blood transfusion reduced readmission risk by 15% (Figure a). This effect was more significant in younger age (P for interaction with age = 0.045, Figure b). The most common discharge diagnoses were chronic pulmonary heart disease (23%), acute chest/pneumonia (22%), chronic renal disease (12%) and chronic liver disease (7%). Trajectory of neutrophil and WBC count changes were negative in 85% and 78% of admissions, respectively. These values were 67% for hemoglobin, 71% for creatinine and 46% for platelet count. During the period of hospital stay, decline in WBC (OR = 0.47, P = 0.030), neutrophil count (OR = 0.37, P = 0.023) or creatinine (OR = 0.40, P = 0.004) was associated with lower readmission risk.
 Conclusions: These results support that cardiopulmonary comorbidities are unexpectedly common in adult SCD patients. Blood transfusion in younger SCD patient reduced the readmission risk. Renal complications and leukocytosis in these patients contributed to health care utilization. Using advanced predictive models can help us to define patients who are at higher risk of readmission and generate strategies to reduce hospital readmission.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


The present study used a rat model in which algogenic chemicals were infused into the pericardial sac to evoke spasmlike contractions in paraspinal muscles. The following techniques were used to study the roles of sympathetic (SCA) and vagal cardiac afferents (VCA) in electromyographic (EMG) responses to pericardial algogenic chemicals: chemical stimulation, electrical stimulation, and nerve transection. Activation with bradykinin (n = 46) produced a significantly higher peak response than infusion of an algogenic mixture (n = 53) containing chemicals that also activate VCA. Electrical stimulation of SCA produced bilateral EMG activities (7 of 7). Electrical stimulation of VCA did not evoke EMG activity but inhibited the chemically evoked EMG response (12 of 12). The chemically evoked response was decreased after transection of the left sympathetic chain (n = 22) and was increased after bilateral vagotomy (n = 19). These results suggest an excitatory and inhibitory role for SCA and VCA, respectively. Therefore, in addition to spinothalamic convergence of somatic and visceral afferents, activation of SCA to generate spasmlike muscle contractions could account in part for anginal pain, and VCA activation could attenuate this effect.


The insertion of an olefinic C=C bond into a metal-carbon bond is of potential interest as a preparative route to new products and as results of C-C coupling reactions to organic compounds. The allyl compounds of Mg, react with an olefin by inversion of the allyl group via a six center transition state. These precyclic reactions may be one of the most important classes of organic reactions. The reactions of C3H5MgX (X=F, Cl, Br, I) with ethylene will be discussed in light of computational studies using ab initio methods (RHF/631G*HRBF/6-31G* level). The investigation of the structural properties, theoretical thermodynamic and kinetic data i.e. ArG, AG# and rate constants of the reactions at 298°K will be presented.


Researchers studying exogenous processes in developing countries have to deal with the problem of scarcity of rainfall data. With satellite measurements, such as those provided by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), it may be possible to overcome this limitation. In this work we link the TRMM rainfall measurements with two examples of exogenous processes from southwest Angola: landslide processes, focused on the events at the Leba road in early 2011, and flow conditions, based on the water level determined in gauging stations from rivers Cavaco and Catumbela. It is demonstrated that major mass flow movements occur when specific TRMM rainfall thresholds are reached. Regarding the flow conditions, the water level in two gauging stations is strongly conditioned by other factors beside the atmospheric precipitation in their watersheds (retention and release of water from reservoirs, channel obstruction, etc.), but short term oscillations are closely linked with the rainfall in the proximity. TRMM data is found to be very useful for the analysis of specific extreme events or the patterns of behavior of natural systems and, consequently, constitute a valuable tool in natural risks assessment.


Software development is largely dependent on libraries to reuse existing functionalities instead of reinventing the wheel. Software developers often need to find analogical libraries (libraries similar to ones they are already familiar with) as an analogical library may offer improved or additional features. Developers also need to search for analogical libraries across programming languages when developing applications in different languages or for different platforms. However, manually searching for analogical libraries is a time-consuming and difficult task. This paper presents a technique, called XLibRec, that recommends analogical libraries across different programming languages. XLibRec collects Stack Overflow question titles containing library names, library usage information from Stack Overflow posts, and library descriptions from a third party website, Libraries.io. We generate word-vectors for each information and calculate a weight-based cosine similarity score from them to recommend analogical libraries. We performed an extensive evaluation using a large number of analogical libraries across four different programming languages. Results from our evaluation show that the proposed technique can recommend cross-language analogical libraries with great accuracy. The precision for the Top-3 recommendations ranges from 62-81% and has achieved 8-45% higher precision than the state-of-the-art technique.