Dec. 5, 2022 Abstract This research was implemented at vegetable field of the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences University of Baghdad during fall seasons, 2018 and 2019. The experiment was conducted using factorial within Randomized Complete Block Design arrangement with three factors and replicates (3X3X2). The aqueous barley sprouts extract (B0, B1) (0, 100 g.L-1) represented the first factor. Trehalose (T0, T1, T2) (0, 50, 75 mmole. L-1) represented the second factor. Calcium (C0, C1, C2) (0, 1, 2 ml.L-1) represented the third factor. The research objectives are assessing the impact of the mentioned factors and their interaction on carrot growth and production. Results showed the superiority of three ways interaction treatment B1T2C1 in producing significant increases nitrogen percent in leaves (2.857, 2.9%), roots (1.273, 1.283%), and carrot production (161.6, 159 ton. ha-1) for both seasons respectively in compare with control treatment B0T0C0.


This in-vitro study evaluated the Moment-to-Force characteristics of symmetrical T-loops with different preactivations, constructed from superelastic NiTi wires and compared it with those of TMA wires. The study consisted of ninety samples of symmetrically placed T-loops made of two different alloys. Samples were divided into three groups, Group A: TMA, Group B: NiTi (furnace), Group C: NiTi (SMAS). Each group comprised of thirty samples. Ten samples for each degree of preactivation for all three groups were tested. Samples were constructed from commercially available 0.018 x 0.025 inch austenitic NiTi wire (3M Unitek) and 0.017 x 0.025 inch TMA wire (Ormco). The T-loop used had the following dimensions - height 7mm, width 10 mm and radius 2mm.
Preactivation bends of 0°, 15° and 30° were given at the junction of the vertical arm and the occlusal horizontal arm of the closing loops on both sides.
Two methods were used for the fabrication of NiTi T - Loops:
1. After forming the loop, it was incorporated in Orthocal and heated at 510°c for 9 minutes in a muffle furnace.
2. Using SMAS, a Shape memory alloy shaper (Jaypee General Agencies) which is a pulsed-heat induction device.
The measurements were taken for each sample at an interval of 1mm from the neutral position during the activation and deactivation range to maximum of 7 mm for TMA and 8 mm for NiTi closing loops.
A custom made loop testing apparatus (IIT Chennai) was used to measure the forces and moments generated.
The following conclusions were drawn:
1. The non preactivated T- loops failed to produce an optimum M:F for theoretical tooth movement via translation.
2. With increasing degrees of preactivation, the M:F also increased over the deactivation range for all the T-loops.
3. The M : F generated by NITi loops were greater than TMA T-loops over the deactivation range.
4. NiTi T-loop produced lower force levels which is considered as biologically acceptable, over its activation and deactivation range compared with the equivalent TMA T-loop specimens.
5. NiTi T-loops allowed greater range of activation and the M : F generated was high enough to produce translation and later root movement over a greater range of deactivation. This can be advantageous in the clinical scenario as in a premolar extraction case where complete space closure can be achieved with minimum adjustments.
6. Even though there is significant difference in the M:F generated by the two NiTi groups, both the groups provide sufficient M:F for bodily movement of teeth if appropriate preactivations are given. SMAS can be further modified to simplify the fabrication of NiTi T-loops and makes chair side adjustment of the NiTi closing loops possible.
Further studies are required to confirm these findings.


Background: Magnetic field inhomogeneity in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is caused by the inherent properties of the main magnet, external ferromagnetic components surrounding the magnet, and the patient itself. Significant deviations from magnetic field inhomogeneity can create artifacts in MRI images, thereby compromising image quality. Optimizing magnetic field homogeneity improves image quality and helps to reduce artifacts. The goal of this article therefore is to help radiographers and operators of MRI understand the clinical basis of magnetic field inhomogeneity and its effects on MR images. This would assist them to appreciate the trade-offs between sequence parameters and image quality metrics towards optimizing magnetic field inhomogeneity. Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted from relevant databases using search terms such as MRI, magnetic field inhomogeneity, optimization, magnetic field inhomogeneity artifacts, and MRI shimming. Results: Minimizing field inhomogeneities in MRI is not straightforward but involves a multitude of factors and steps. Magnetic field homogeneity could be optimized to improve MR image quality by choosing the most appropriate pulse sequence/imaging parameters that could best minimize distortion and increase SNR based on the anatomical region of interest (or tissue types) while complementing it with shimming and use of dielectric pads. Conclusion: Future works to investigate the association between the MRI pulse sequence parameters and measurements of MR image quality metrics, based on individual tissue densities, could provide a new window for reducing magnetic field inhomogeneity due to susceptibility and chemical shift effects.


We consider issues related to tachyonic inflation with inverse-power-law potential. We find the solution of the evolution equations in the slow roll limit in FRW as well as in the brane cosmology. Using the holographic entropy bound, we estimate the quantum-gravitational discreteness of tachyonic inflation perturbations. PACS number(s): 98.80.Cq, 98.80.Hw. e-mail:firstname.lastname@example.com e-mail:firstname.lastname@example.com e-mail:email@example.com


A graph $G$ is called $t$-node fault tolerant with respect to $H$ if $G$ still contains a subgraph isomorphic to $H$ after removing any $t$ of its vertices. The least value of $|E(G)|-|E(H)|$ among all such graphs $G$ is denoted by $\Delta(t,H)$. We study fault tolerance with respect to some natural architectures of a computer network, i.e. the $d$-dimensional toroidal grids and the hypercubes. We provide the first non-trivial lower bounds for $\Delta(1,H)$ in these cases. For this aim we establish a general connection between the notion of fault tolerance and the size of a largest component of a graph. In particular, we give for all values of $k$ (and $n$) a lower bound on the order of the largest component of any graph obtained from $C_n\Box C_n$ via removal of $k$ of its vertices, which is in general optimal.


Twin children participating in a longitudinal study were observed at 9, 12, 18, 24, and 30 months of age in two settings: unstructured free play and relatively structured test taking. Behaviors relating to adaptability to the two settings were rated and the scores analyzed for evidence of continuity both across settings and across ages. Age-to-age correlations for the adaptability scores for each setting yielded a simplex pattern of low-moderate order. Correlations of individuals' scores across settings were also of low-moderate order. Within-pair correlations indicated that identical twins were more similar that same-sex fraternal twins in both settings, but correlations were consistently stronger in the playroom setting. Analysis of variance was performed to test for within-pair concordance in the direction and degree of change. Identical pairs remained significantly more similar in adaptability from one setting to another even when change in adaptability occurred. Similar results were found for change across ages; however, these differences were significant only in the playroom setting. Results suggest that situation variables contribute to the low stabilities frequently reported for personality dimensions but that the direction and degree of behavioral change are genetically conditioned.


Overview. Experiential learning has become a common pedagogical approach to provide university students an opportunity to apply classroom-acquired knowledge and skills in real-world settings. Evaluation of such experiences from a student perspective is needed to improve experiential learning opportunities offered in higher education settings. Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate the experience of 13 university students who rotated with a healthy lifestyle program for middle schoolers. Method. The Peer-education About Weight Steadiness Club program was implemented by peer or adult educators, as a healthy lifestyle after-school intervention. Trainees participated in a learning rotation with the program for 16 weeks and were exposed to research coordination and implementation of the nutrition and healthy lifestyles program. After finishing their rotation, trainees completed a structured elicitation interview conducted by a faculty member and a graduate assistant. The 11-question individual elicitation interview, ranging from 16 to 40 minutes, queried trainees on elements of the learning experience. A grounded theory approach was used to guide data coding and analyses, which led to formulation of themes. Results. Forty codes were assigned to segments of the interview responses, which were then coalesced to formulate six themes and 16 subthemes. Identified themes include (1) program context, (2) roles and responsibilities of trainees, (3) professional development of trainees, (4) overall program implementation, (5) factors influencing implementation, and (6) health and behavioral outcomes. Conclusions. Student trainees gained program content knowledge, acquired skills transferable to their careers, valued this learning experience, and planned to apply lessons learned.


This paper examines how e-Portfolios have been used in relation to three different models of Personal Development Planning (PDP). It begins with a brief description of the context of the study at the University of Kent. Then, using Clegg and BradleyA¢â'¬â"¢s (2006) models of PDP, it identifies three case studies to review: Social Work (the professional model), Sports Studies (the employability model) and Physics (the academic model). The discussion centres on what has been learned from these case studies in relation to PDP practice and embedding of e-Portfolios. The paper will be of interest to academics and curriculum developers introducing e-Portfolios to support various models of PDP.


This letter considers an unfairness problem between uplink and downlink in 802.11 WLANs. One of existing solutions for this problem is giving a larger transmission opportunity (TXOP) limit to an AP than stations. This TXOP differentiation scheme, however, does not work well in error-prone environments since a packet bursting during a TXOP duration is terminated when a data transmission fails due to channel errors. To overcome this, we propose a new scheme in which an AP controls its minimum contention window size and TXOP limit dynamically according to the packet error rate and the number of stations. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides fair channel accesses between uplink and downlink in error-prone 802.11 WLANs.


In this paper, we consider learning scenarios where the learned model is evaluated under an unknown test distribution which potentially differs from the training distribution (i.e. distribution shift). The learner has access to a family of weight functions such that the test distribution is a reweighting of the training distribution under one of these functions, a setting typically studied under the name of Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO). We consider the problem of deriving regret bounds in the classical learning theory setting, and require that the resulting regret bounds hold uniformly for all potential test distributions. We show that the DRO formulation does not guarantee uniformly small regret under distribution shift. We instead propose an alternative method called Minimax Regret Optimization (MRO), and show that under suitable conditions this method achieves uniformly low regret across all test distributions. We also adapt our technique to have stronger guarantees when the test distributions are heterogeneous in their similarity to the training data. Given the widespead optimization of worst case risks in current approaches to robust machine learning, we believe that MRO can be a strong alternative to address distribution shift scenarios.


A study by the Centers for Disease Control revealed detectable levels of the environmental toxin Bisphenol A (BPA) in urine samples from over 92% of people in the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) study. BPA is a small molecule used in the polymerization of polycarbonate plastics. These plastics are widely used in food containers, water bottles, dental fillings and toys, among many other products. BPA is similar to the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbesterol (DES) and can bind to estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) or estrogen receptor beta (ERβ). Because BPA is lipophilic and has been detected in mammary gland fat in humans, we hypothesize that BPA is an estrogen mimic in the stromal adipocytes in the breast and can induce stem cell proliferation and survival, leading to breast tumor formation. Indeed, BPA increases the size and number of mammospheres from normal mouse mammary gland and from human MCF7 breast cancer cells. Adipocytes co-cultured with mammospheres increased the size of the spheres, and BPA further increased the size of adipocyte co-cultured mammospheres. BPA upregulates the stem cell markers Nanog, OCT4 and SOX2 in mammospheres. ERα and pCREB were shown to bind to an enhancer downstream of the SOX2 gene after BPA treatment. Finally, BPA increased the size of tumor xenografts in NUDE mice. Together these experiments demonstrate that BPA may induce breast cancer via ERα and pCREB regulation of breast cancer stem cells. Citation Format: Cydney Nichols, Xiangming Ding, Gustavo Miranda-Carboni, Susan Amy Krum. The environmental estrogen bisphenol A (BPA) regulates mammary gland stem cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3192. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3192


Abstract In this article, I make two comments with regard to the Bayesian probabilistic analysis of anaphoric comprehension in discourse put forward by Kehler and Rohde: (i) the account should take into consideration the typological differences displayed by so-called pragmatic languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and (ii) in contradiction to Kehler and Rohde's claim, the expectation a comprehender has about coherence relations has to do with the type of referring or anaphoric expression that is or is not used. I have also shown that some of Kehler and Rohde's examples can be better re-analysed using my version of the neo-Gricean pragmatic theory of anaphora.


Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging of amides at 3.5 ppm and fast‐exchanging amines at 3 ppm provides a unique means to enhance the sensitivity of detection of, for example, proteins/peptides and neurotransmitters, respectively, and hence can provide important information on molecular composition. However, despite the high sensitivity relative to conventional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), in practice, CEST often has relatively poor specificity. For example, CEST signals are typically influenced by several confounding effects, including direct water saturation (DS), semi‐solid non‐specific magnetization transfer (MT), the influence of water relaxation times (T1w) and nearby overlapping CEST signals. Although several editing techniques have been developed to increase the specificity by removing DS, semi‐solid MT and T1w influences, it is still challenging to remove overlapping CEST signals from different exchanging sites. For instance, the amide proton transfer (APT) signal could be contaminated by CEST effects from fast‐exchanging amines at 3 ppm and intermediate‐exchanging amines at 2 ppm. The current work applies an exchange‐dependent relaxation rate (Rex) to address this problem. Simulations demonstrate that: (1) slowly exchanging amides and fast‐exchanging amines have distinct dependences on irradiation powers; and (2) Rex serves as a resonance frequency high‐pass filter to selectively reduce CEST signals with resonance frequencies closer to water. These characteristics of Rex provide a means to isolate the APT signal from amines. In addition, previous studies have shown that CEST signals from fast‐exchanging amines have no distinct features around their resonance frequencies. However, Rex gives Lorentzian lineshapes centered at their resonance frequencies for fast‐exchanging amines and thus can significantly increase the specificity of CEST imaging for amides and fast‐exchanging amines.


We report here observations of magnetic waves recorded by the Voyager spacecraft in the solar wind near Jupiter that are possibly the result of excitation by newborn pickup H+. Consideration of growth rates due to the known interstellar ion sources strongly disfavor an interstellar source. To determine the likely source of the waves, we compute the minimum ion production rate by equating wave growth to turbulent cascade rates and derive a lower limit for the production of H+ at the times of observations. The only available source of neutral H at these times and at the levels required is the Jovian system, most notably charge exchange between energetic protons and the neutral clouds around Io and Europa's orbits. Further refinement of the source identity is not possible at this time. We provide an estimate for the neutral H source subject to assumptions of the latitudinal extent of the population which is not constrained by observation.


Trans women incarcerated throughout the world have been described as "vulnerable populations" due to significant victimization, mistreatment, lack of gender-affirming care, and human rights violations, which confers greater risk of trauma, self-harm, and suicide compared with the general incarcerated population. Most incarceration settings around the world are segregated by the person's sex characteristics (i.e., male or female) and governed by strong cis and gender normative paradigms. This analysis seeks to better understand and appreciate how the "instructions" and the "authorities" that regulate trans women's corporeal representation, housing options and sense of self-determination implicate and affect their agency and actions in handling intimacies related to their personal life. Drawing upon lived incarcerated experiences of 24 trans women in Australia and the United States, and employing Ken Plummer's notion of intimate citizenship, this analysis explores how trans women navigate choices and ways "to do" gender, identities, bodies, emotions, desires and relationships while incarcerated in men's prisons and governed by cis and gender normative paradigms. This critical analysis contributes to understanding how incarcerated trans women through grit, resilience, and ingenuity still navigate ways to embody, express and enact their intimate citizenship in innovative and unique ways.


In this paper, we have developed an analytical and empirical case study of the Saraiki region based on Kymlicka's understanding of cultural exclusion.11 The study discusses that the Saraiki nation suffers cultural exclusion along with economic and political exclusions in Pakistan. In particular, the paper focuses on the aspects of cultural exclusion. To materialize the claims made in this paper, we have argued that the Saraiki people have started to disregard their language and they are becoming passive to exhibit their identity. Their language, culture, history, art and heritage are badly affected due to suppression of their identity. Consequently, they are beginning to infer that their culture and language are inferior. The members of Saraiki community feel discomfort in practicing their culture and values. The parents hesitate to speak their indigenous language the Saraiki language with their children. The school students lack self-confidence while speaking Saraiki in public domains. Consequently, these people are deviating from their cultural heritage, heedlessly ignoring their festivals and funfairs. Their cultural representation on national-level has been marginalized, whereas their art, culture, and handicrafts are being disregarded. Thus, state should take serious measures to promote cultures and languages of people in general and Saraki region in particular.


In this paper we compare and test several channel estimation algorithms in the case of LTE (Long Term Evolution) Systems applied in a high mobility environment. In particular, we propose a novel algorithm, based on the observation of OFDM block energy, to perform a semi-blind tracking of the channel between pilot blocks. This algorithm is compared to more traditional approach based on 1D estimation and interpolation. In addition, an Expectation Maximization (EM) is used to improve the overall channel estimation.


This study deals with the role of national parliaments in the perspective of European integration. It examines the relationship between national parliaments and the European Parliament. In order to find a solution to the problem of the democratic deficit in the EU, the author concludes that it is vital for European integration to create an efficient decision making process which is best served by centralization and majority voting. However, this runs counter to democratic legitimation, which is dependent on institutions at the national level.


The widely used intracerebral tumor implantation method by freehand injection into parietal or hippocampal areas of the rat brain has proven inadequate for reliable experimental therapeutic studies. Problems include poor intracerebral growth yields and significant rates of spread to extracranial tissues, lungs, and spinal cord. Major variables have been examined experimentally on a model using nitrosourea-induced nervous system tumor cell lines in sygeneic rats. A rapid stereotaxic method greatly improved the consistency of tumor placement. The optimal site was found to be the caudate nucleus. The production of a spheroid intracerebral growth was further facilitated by the use of 1% agar in the cell suspension medium and by an injection volume of 10 mu1 containing at least 10(4) cells. Further improvements involved injection technique and flushing of the operative field. These modifications have resulted in a 99% to 100% yield of intracerebral growth, with a marked reduction in the number and size of extracranial extensions and with distant metastasis rates of 0% to 5%. These results have continually improved with further experience. The method is satisfactory for radiation and chemotherapeutic trials in which survival time as an index of tumor size may be used an an end point.


The city of Siheung in the Kyunggi-do Province has various natural resources such as the ocean, mountains, wide farmland, various types of wetlands, streams and rivers. In addition, the city has a big greenbelt, which consists of two-thirds of the area, where development has been regulated. Since the city has a relatively well-preserved natural environment, it offers a great potential for regional development. The purpose of this study is to create an eco-tourism resource plan for the Mulwang reservoir, which offers many opportunities for ecotourism in the city of Siheung. This study includes a literature review for planning elements and suggests a comprehensive plan that includes conservation, eco-restoration, route program and practice program for ecotourism in and around the site. The plan also includes eco-farming, a visitor center, an ecovillage, the chance to experience livestock farming, opportunities to learn about and experience the forest, tracking, eco-learning, an environmental interpretation facility, fishing and aquatic-oriented leisure activities. This study''s process and results show possibilities that can be applied to other areas where eco-tourism using natural resources is used for regional development.


Sarcoma of the urachus is an uncommon condition, as demonstrated by the recent report of Butler and Rosenberg.1This prompted the publication of the following case report. Report of Case The patient, aged 3 years, was first admitted to The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, on Aug. 25, 1959, with a 3-day history of intermittent crampy, lower abdominal pain and dysuria. She had increasing anorexia and constipation. There was no history of vomiting or of rectal bleeding. Examination revealed an acutely ill child with a temperature of 101 F. Abdominal examination initially demonstrated marked rigidity of the abdominal muscles, but later a grapefruit-sized mass was felt arising out of the pelvis and extending up to the umbilicus. This mass persisted after catheterization. The hemogram was normal. Urinalysis was negative and the blood urea nitrogen was 15.6 mg. %. A roentgenogram of the abdomen revealed a midline suprapubic mass. Barium enema


CD22 is a cell-surface molecule on most B-cells and B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). A panel of anti-CD22 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) were developed and characterized. Some anti-CD22 mAb bind CD22 but do not stimulate intracellular signaling. However, HB22.7 is an anti-CD22 mAb that binds a unique CD22-epitope, blocks ligand binding, and its binding initiates an intracellular signaling cascade. Sodium orthovanadate (NaV) is a non-specific phosphatase inhibitor whose effect on CD22-mediated signaling in NHL cells was tested with and without HB22.7. Compared to other B-cell receptors, the SHP-1 tyrosine phosphatase is disproportionately associated with the cytoplasmic domain of CD22; NaV inhibits SHP-1. The SHP-1/CD22 interaction presents an opportunity to manipulate CD22-mediated signaling and thus has implications for NHL therapy. Methods: Cultured human NHL cell lines were assessed by trypan blue exclusion for efficacy of treatment with varying concentrations of NaV and HB22.7. Flow cytometry was used to assess how pre-incubation of NHL-cells with NaV before treatment with HB22.7 effected the internalization of CD22 and its cell-surface concentration. Intracellular staining for phospho-p38 and activation of SAP kinase were assessed by flow cytometry. Finally, nude mice bearing Raji (human NHL) xenografts were treated with HB22.7 with and without repeated administrations of oral NaV. Tumor volume, response rate and survival were assessed over the 84-day study period. Results: NaV (1– 100 μM) caused a dose dependent killing of Ramos NHL cells in vitro . When HB22.7 (10 or 30 μg) was given along with NaV cell death was augmented. Flow cytometry of three NHL cell lines (DOHH-2, Karpas, and Ramos) demonstrated that pre-treatment with NaV resulted in less internalization, and more persistence of CD22 on the cell-surface after ligation with HB22.7 than did cells not pretreated with NaV. P38 is a known mediator of CD22 signals. When Ramos cells were pre-treated with NaV a substantial enhancement of phospho-p38 was detected when CD22 was ligated with HB22.7 as compared to either agent alone. Similarly, pretreatment of Ramos cells with NaV resulted in a substantial increase in HB22.7-mediated phosphorylation of SAP kinase as compared to the controls. Pretreatment with NaV did not affect IgM-mediated signals. Studies in nude mice bearing Raji NHL xenografts showed that the in vitro data had applicability to this murine model. Control (untreated) mice and those treated thrice weekly with NaV (150 μg) showed relentless tumor growth and no pattern of response. Mice treated with HB22.7 (2.1 mg, intravenously; 4 doses) had slowing tumor growth by day 21, then regression; there was a 50% complete response rate. Mice treated with the same doses of both NaV and HB22.7 had a more rapid anti-NHL response, less tumor growth, 80% complete responses and the best survival rate. No toxicity could be detected in mice due to NaV treatment. Conclusion: NaV can increase the expression and/or persistence of cell-surface CD22, effect signaling stimulated by HB22.7, and alter or enhance intracellular signaling pathways in ways beneficial to NHL cell killing without observed toxicity in the mouse model. Further experiments will refine the use of these agents in pre-clinical studies of NHL therapy.


20 This paper documents substantial improvements to the original automated avalanche terrain exposure mapping (AutoATES v1.0) algorithm. The most significant drawbacks of AutoATES v1.0 have been addressed by including forest density data, improving the avalanche runout estimations in low-angle runout zones, accounting for overhead exposure and open-source software. The algorithm also supports the new ATES v2.0 terrain class ' extreme ' terrain. We used two benchmark maps from Bow Summit and Connaught Creek 25 to validate the improvements from AutoATES v1.0 to v2.0. For Bow Summit, the F1 score (a measure of how well the algorithm performs) improved from 64.01% to 77.30%. For Connaught Creek, the F1 score improved from 39.81% to 71.38%. The main challenge limiting large-scale mapping is the determination of optimal input parameters for different regions and climates. In areas where AutoATES v2.0 is applied, it can be a valuable tool for avalanche risk assessment and decision. Ultimately, our goal is for AutoATES v2.0 to 30 enable efficient, large-scale, and potentially global ATES mapping in a standardized manner rather than based solely on expert judgement.


The resonance Raman spectroscopy in conjunction with the density functional theory calculations were used to study the excited state structural dynamics of 2-mercapto-1-methylimidazole (MMI). The experimental UV absorption bands were assigned according to the time-dependent density functional calculations. The vibrational assignments were done for the A-band resonance Raman spectra of MMI in water and acetonitrile on the basis of the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and FT-Raman measurements in solid, in water and in acetonitrile and the corresponding B3LYP/6-311+G(d, p) computations. The dynamic structures of MMI were obtained by analysis of the resonance Raman intensity pattern and normal mode analysis. The differences in the dynamic structures of MMI and thiourea were revealed and explained. The structural dynamic of MMI was found to be similar to that of 2-thiopyrimidone in terms of major reaction coordinates and thus favored the intra-molecular proton transfer reaction. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


'England's Population' is the first single-volume demographic history of England covering the entire period since the Norman conquest. It charts the magnitude and characteristics of population change in England since the eleventh century, describes the major explanations for population change which have been proposed by historians over the years, and introduces the main historical sources which have been used to analyse the population history of England. Our knowledge of the population history of England has been transformed during the last 40 years by the research of historians and demographers. 'England's Population' emphasises throughout the process by which ideas and evidence interact to create knowledge, using the latest research. It assumes no prior knowledge of technical demography and the few technical terms and concepts which are used are clearly explained. Three appendices describe the main documentary sources and how they can be exploited to yield vital demographic data. 'England's Population' should appeal to anyone interested in how our ancestors lived: how they were born, grew up, courted, married, had children and died. It will be especially useful to students taking courses in English population history and society.


Ribonucleases appear to have physiologic roles in host defense against cancer, viruses, and other parasites. Previously it was shown that select ribonucleases added to cells concurrently with virions blocked human immunodeficiency virus, type I (HIV-1) infection of H9 cells. We now report that a ribonuclease homologous to RNase A, named onconase, inhibits virus replication in chronically HIV-1-infected human cells without killing the virally infected cell. Examining the mechanism of this inhibition shows that onconase enters the infected cells and degrades HIV-1 RNA without degrading ribosomal RNA or the three different cellular messenger RNAs analyzed. The homologous human pancreatic RNase lacks anti-viral activity. Comparing recombinant forms of onconase and a onconase-human RNase chimera shows that the N-terminal 9 amino acids and the pyroglutamyl residue of onconase are required for full anti-viral activity. Thus extracellular ribonucleases can enter cells, metabolize select RNAs, and inhibit HIV virion production within viable replicating cells.


This study reports Tintinnopsis corniger Hada, 1964 for the first time from the Turkish coastal waters and contributes to the regional check-list of the plankton species in the Turkish seas. This species has generally been reported from the Japanese waters. It has also been reported from the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, northern Mediterranean, Italy and Egypt. The specimens were collected in August and October 2010 from subsurface (0.5m) neritic waters in the Gulf of Gemlik, the Sea of Marmara. The primary hydrographic parameters, such as temperature (18-28oC), salinity (16-18 ppt) and dissolved oxygen (7.96-13.10 mg l) were recorded at the sampling stations. Thirteen species belonging to genus Tintinnopsis were recorded from the Turkish seas with the contribution of this study.


Tandem mass spectrometry is shown to improve the effective mass resolution in electrospray mass spectrometry. The technique involves selecting a population of ions within a narrow range of mass-to-charge values and allowing the ions to undergo proton transfer reactions. The shifts in mass-to-charge ratios associated with product ions formed by proton transfer allow for mass and charge assignment. The success of the technique relies on the relative enrichment of ions of a particular charge state that occurs in the mass-to-charge selection step. This approach can be used to extend the polymer mass range amenable to measurement, analyze mixtures that might otherwise be too complex for reliable mass measurements, and improve mass measurement precision when a mixture of cations is present within a given charge state. The technique is illustrated with a quadrupole ion trap using multiply-charged ions of cytochrome c, transfer ribonucleic acid from E. coli, strain W, and a synthetic deoxyribonucleic acid 30-mer.


Identifying the minimum rainfall thresholds necessary for landslides triggering is essential to landslide risk assessment. The Italian Alps have always been affected by shallow landslides and mud-debris flows, which caused considerable damage to property and, sometimes, casualties. We analysed information provided from different sources carrying on the most thorough research conducted for this alpine area. Thousands of documents and reports of rainfall values recorded over 80 years by rain gauges distributed in Sondrio and Brescia Provinces define the mean annual precipitation (MAP)-normalized intensity–duration thresholds for the initiation of shallow landslides and mud-debris flows. The established curves are generally lower compared to those proposed in literature for similar mountain areas in Italy and worldwide. Furthermore, we found that landslides occurred primarily at the same time or within 3 h from the maximum peak of rainfall intensity in summer events and in a period from 0 to 5 h or later in spring-autumn events. The paper provides a further contribution to the knowledge framework on the rainfall conditions required for the initiation of surficial landslides and mud-debris flows and their expected timing of occurrence. This knowledge is crucial to develop better warning strategies to mitigate geo-hydrological risk and reduce the socio-economic damage.


It is a fact, that African Traditional Religions are embedded in the Traditional life of Africans; therefore, there is a great difficulty on understanding it outside of the daily activities of the indigenous people; the reason why is simply, because religion enters into every aspect of African people's lives. Therefore, its study has to go in accordance with the study of the people who practise the religion. The fallowing article presents ATR as an existential reality to be understood out of the wrong ideas created in the past, rather acknowledging first of all, essential features as carriers of its identity, as well its sense of belonging to the people who lives immersed in it. Keywords: African traditional religion, African traditional life, Superstition, Animism, Fetishism, Ancestor worship, Magic or Fetishism, Heathenism. African Traditional Religions (ATRs) will be discussed within the context of which it belongs to, the African traditional life (ATL). Let's begun by saying that ATR, refer to the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Africans. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, and which is being practiced today in various forms and various shades and intensities by a very large number of Africans, including individuals who claim to be Muslims or Christians. (J. O. Awolalu 1976).


ABSTRACT The curved space-time produced by black holes leads to the intriguing trapping effect. So far, metadevices have enabled analogous black holes to trap light or sound in laboratory spacetime. However, trapping heat in a conductive environment is still challenging because diffusive behaviors are directionless. Inspired by black holes, we construct graded heat-conduction metadevices to achieve thermal trapping, resorting to the imitated advection produced by graded thermal conductivities rather than the trivial solution of using insulation materials to confine thermal diffusion. We experimentally demonstrate thermal trapping for guiding hot spots to diffuse towards the center. Graded heat-conduction metadevices have advantages in energy-efficient thermal regulation because the imitated advection has a similar temperature field effect to the realistic advection that is usually driven by external energy sources. These results also provide an insight into correlating transformation thermotics with other disciplines, such as cosmology, for emerging heat control schemes.


The last 20 years have seen the introduction of automation into clinical chemistry on a large scale and much of the once familiar equipment - burettes, pipettes, test tubes etc., have largely disappeared. Manual error can be minimized and complex procedures for quality control successfully applied. A wide range of instruments are now available from simple dispensers and diluters to complex, fast, computer controlled twenty channel analysers producing twenty results every 12 s. The value of the most expensive item of equipment in the laboratory has increased from £30 to £100 000 and it is important that expensive items are fully evaluated for cost effectiveness and efficiency so that the right purchase is made for each situation.


Background Epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) and differential gene expression analyses are generally performed on tissue samples, which consist of multiple cell types. Cell-type-specific effects of a trait, such as disease, on the omics expression are of interest but difficult or costly to measure experimentally. By measuring omics data for the bulk tissue, cell type composition of a sample can be inferred statistically. Subsequently, cell-type-specific effects are estimated by linear regression that includes terms representing the interaction between the cell type proportions and the trait. This approach involves two issues, scaling and multicollinearity. Results First, although cell composition is analyzed in linear scale, differential methylation/expression is analyzed suitably in the logit/log scale. To simultaneously analyze two scales, we applied nonlinear regression. Second, we show that the interaction terms are highly collinear, which is obstructive to ordinary regression. To cope with the multicollinearity, we applied ridge regularization. In simulated data, nonlinear ridge regression attained well-balanced sensitivity, specificity and precision. In real data, nonlinear ridge regression detected signals consistently over the examined cases. Conclusion Nonlinear ridge regression performed cell-type-specific association test on bulk omics data more robustly than previous methods. The omicwas package for R implements nonlinear ridge regression for cell-type-specific EWAS, differential gene expression and QTL analyses. The software is freely available from https://github.com/fumi-github/omicwas


Hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is an acute infectious disease caused by various enteroviruses. Recently, large HFMD outbreaks caused by enterovirus type 71 (EV71) have been frequently reported in China, posing great threats on children's health. There is no specific antiviral therapy for severe HFMD, and patient management mainly depends on supportive and symptomatic treatment. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is a pharmaceutical preparation of human IgG that is pooled from thousands of healthy blood donors, and contained neutralization antibodies against various enteroviruses, including EV71. IVIG therapy should be carefully administrated for severe HFMD considering its role on passive immunization against EV71 and immune regulation.


Introduction: The risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is increased in cancer patients, compared to subjects without cancer. The Khorana score (KS) is used to stratify VTE risk in cancer outpatients and recent society guidelines recommend thromboprophylaxis for patients with KS≥2. The burden of VTE in cancer, current use of thromboprophylaxis and performance of the KS in the Israeli setting are lacking. This data is needed to drive health-care policies regarding risk stratification and thromboprophylaxis.
 Aim: Define the clinical need for thromboprophylaxis in an Israeli population of cancer outpatients by determining the cumulative VTE incidence, VTE risk factors and anticoagulation (AC) use.
 Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted using the comprehensive computerized patient-level databases of Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), a nationwide healthcare insurer-provider organization for a quarter of the population in Israel, including 2.4 million members. All newly diagnosed cancer patients aged ≥18 years identified from the MHS cancer registry (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) who initiated systemic anti-cancer treatment between 2010 and 2018 were included in the study. The cancer registry includes patients with cancer diagnostic codes from the Israel Ministry of Health, linked to cancer medication approvals and pathology reports. Subjects with prior VTE or AC within 3 months prior index were excluded. Patients were indexed on the first day of anti-cancer treatment and baseline variables were extracted, as well as data on AC post-index. The KS was used to stratify VTE risk as low (0-1) or high (≥2) at index. The main outcome was VTE at any site, defined using a validated algorithm based on diagnostic codes and AC prescription data (Sanfilippo et al, Thrombosis Research 135 (2015)). Cumulative incidence of VTE (95% confidence intervals [CI]) at 12 months was calculated and stratified for KS risk group. Univariate and multivariate analysis identified associations between baseline variables and VTE within 12 months.
 Results:
 The study cohort included 15,388 cancer patients of whom 35% were female with a mean age 58.8 (SD 13.6) years, 85% had a solid tumor, and 46% received chemotherapy as the index anti-cancer therapy. Of these, 338 (2.2%) had a VTE within one year after cancer diagnosis (24% pulmonary embolism with or without deep vein thrombosis [DVT], 76% DVT). Table 1 shows baseline characteristics according to VTE status at 12 months. The 12-month cumulative incidence of VTE (95% CI) was 2.3% (2.1%-2.6%) overall, 1.6% (1.3%-1.8%) in the low-risk KS group and 5.6% (4.7%-6.4%) in the high-risk KS group, as shown in Figure 1.
 A multivariate model considered baseline variables shown in Table 1, as well as socioeconomic status, year of diagnosis, district and use of granulocyte colony stimulating factors. In this multivariate model, the following variables were associated with increased risk of VTE in the first year since index date: females, subjects living in the south of Israel, older age, increasing co-morbidity, and high KS. All non-chemotherapy anti-cancer treatments were associated with decreased VTE risk, compared to chemotherapy. Table 2 shows the hazard ratios with 95% CI.
 A total of 2896 patients (19%) initiated prophylactic AC after index date (LMWH/unfractionated heparin (UFH) in 2452 (85%)). Among patients with a VTE at any time post-index, 574 (90%) started AC within a median of 2 days (IQR: 0,7) after VTE diagnosis. AC used to treat cancer-associated VTE (defined as AC class 30-days post VTE diagnosis) included LMWH/UFH in 341(74%), direct oral anticoagulant in 74 (16%) and vitamin K antagonists in 43 (9%). Median time on AC after index VTE was 22.1 months (95% CI 17.2-38.4).
 Conclusion:
 This study confirms that the Khorana score identifies a population of cancer outpatients at higher risk of VTE, and that patients receiving chemotherapy are at highest risk. The association between VTE risk and geographical location in Israel suggests possible health care disparities. The majority of cancer patients with VTE received long term therapy with LMWH.
 Funding: This research was sponsored by Pfizer
 Conflict of Interest Statement: A. Leader is an employee of Rabin Medical Center who was paid as a consultant to Pfizer in connection with this study. O. Friedman-Mazursky & M. Tirosh are employees of Pfizer Israel. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

 Friedman: Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd.: Current Employment. Tirosh:Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd.: Current Employment. Chodick:Novartis Pharma AG: Other: Institutional grant. Leader:Bayer Healthcare: Other: personal fees ; Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd.: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: personal fees .


For many young democracies, the institutionalization of civilian control over the military is a crucial task for democratic consolidation. This is especially true for South Korea. After Korea gained independence in 1948, the military was the most powerful player in Korean politics. However, in the 1990s, the pattern of civil-military relations changed dramatically from military dominance over civilian politics to civilian supremacy over the military. This article explores the dynamics of the institutionalization of civilian control in South Korea in four steps. In the first part, the study clarifies the concept of civilian control. The second part formulates an analytical frame of favorable and unfavorable conditions for successful institutionalization of civilian control. Thereafter the evolution and state of civil-military relations in South Korea before and after democratization is illuminated. Finally, some conclusions are drawn about why civilian control successfully became institutionalized in democratizing Korea.


Downstream part of the watershed is an area of lowland Sekampung with +3.00 to +4.00 elevation above sea level. Area located between the border regions of South Lampung regency and East Lampung. Originally this area was flooded reservoir area, the Swamp Sragi and surrounding areas, but along with the development of this area is used as a residential area, pertaniandan pond area for the people around the area. Padatahun 2002 River Way Sekampung experience overflow caused flooding in downstream areas which suffered losses of up to 38 billion rupiah In this study analyzed the incidence of flooding that may occur based on rainfall data available. Based on the results of the input stream and cross sectional design flood discharge is seen that when the flood began when the river reaches flood discharge Q50-year anniversary. In this study flood control analysis performed on the three methods are: the construction of levees, making retention ponds and dredge rivers. The third input method results in HEC RAS 3.1.3 shows that building levees to reduce flooding by 32%, on a flood retention pond can be reduced up to 45% and normalization of the river is only able to reduce flooding by 20%. Most effective flood management recommendation is to build two retention ponds and technical cost reduction by flooding.


In this master thesis a category of men otherwise often taken for granted is examined: noncriminal,non-violent men. With the help of in-depth interviews with young men who havepreviously lived a life with drugs and criminal behaviour, I examine the young men's identityand masculinity projects. To do this, I use theories by researchers R.W. Connell and MichaelS. Kimmel, among others. It turns out that the young men use othering, distancing anddichotomization in their identity projects, and that they work very hard to build a newmasculinity, constructed as totally separated from their former one. They also work very hardto dichotomize their identities, separated in now/then, followed by dichotomies such aspure/impure, honest/criminal, good/bad, deep/shallow and communicative/closed-off. Theirpresent masculinity projects must be seen in a context of what can be called a regionalSwedish masculinity, where equality, fatherhood, communication and respect for women arecentral features. I claim that the young men in their masculinity projects work exceptionallyhard to reach this kind of masculinity, and that they, in their struggle to do this use discoursesof embodiment, class, (dis)ability, sex, and authenticity.


Abstract—In the research of spatial data mining, gridding/tessellation mapping is a common technique to aggregate the locational data points in smaller regions (namely grids or tiles) so that properties of those data points can be observed. It is a natural way to study spatial related information because such information is dependent to the locational proximity in most of the cases, and it significantly reduces the effort needed to learn useful insights from the data of the entire area. In this work, we propose an adaptive tessellation mapping (ATM) method to decompose the entire area of interest to tiles with variable sizes so that spatial data mining can be carried out more efficiently, purposefully and dynamically. In particular, we show that human behavior can be understood better with ATM with some examples.


As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions switched to distance learning in March 2020. The study focuses on how the sudden transition affected the level of teachers' anxiety and professional burnout. A total of 282 teachers from general education schools participated in the study. The results showed that the teachers successfully coped with the transition: the level of anxiety and burnout was similar to the results of previous studies of teachers before the pandemic. A significant role in the adaptation of teachers to the urgent transition to online education was played by their attitudes. In particular, those who adapted to the change and were able to get used to the distance format of work showed the lowest levels of anxiety compared with other groups who resisted the change and experienced difficulties. An important condition for successful distance learning, according to teachers, is the detailed regulation of infrastructural aspects of the educational process by the administration. The article discusses the next steps to improve the quality of distance learning based on experience.


A Vehicular Sensor Network (VSN) is a sensing platform composed of smart onboard sensor nodes (vehicles) and roadside units, in which vehicles continuously collect sensor data from the road network to enable a range of real-time data-intensive applications, such as traffic pattern/congestion analysis, road surface diagnosis, and urban pollution monitoring. However, due to lossy links, limited bandwidth and highly dynamic network topology, it is very challenging to efficiently collect the data generated by vehicles on the road, especially under dense traffic situations. In this paper, we propose to deploy mobile agents for collecting sensor readings from a given road segment of interest. The mobile agent migrates among vehicles within the segment via wireless broadcast and uses local on-board computational resources to process and collect data as required. Since the wireless links are generally lossy, a broadcast may not reach all the vehicles within the segment; thus, to improve the reliability of the scheme, we further propose a termination decision algorithm based on recursive Bayesian estimation by which the agent decides whether all vehicles within the segment have been visited. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed agent-based data collection scheme achieves close to 100% data collection coverage under a wide range of vehicular traffic densities, while retaining a small communication overhead.


Both biological visual systems and image understanding systems are forced by resource limitations to reduce input data to their essential part, to keep the amount of data manageable in succeeding processing levels and to maintain a realistic chance to achieve real-time performance even for complex tasks. We present a new design and implementation of a visual attention control system (GOAL) for a significant reduction of data while maintaining salient information. The visual attention system deals not with synthetic images or simple static images but is developed for complex dynamic real image sequences emphasizing arbitrary traffic scenes recorded from a car built-in camera. GOAL is part of the image understanding system MOVIE for real-time interpretation of traffic scenes and supports the model-based scene analysis (MOSAIC) by directing high-level vision processes to salient regions. Based on a model of human attention (the guided search model from Wolfe and Cave) requirements for the module `visual attention' of an image understanding system are derived. GOAL combines different knowledge sources (both motion and shape-oriented) to achieve a robust, spatially restricting, and expectation-driven attention control system. The knowledge sources consist of four very basic image operations, namely (1) enhanced difference image method, (2) direct depth method, (3) local symmetry detection, and (4) 2D - 3D line movement. Each knowledge source contributes to an accumulated evidence for the existence of attention fields. The knowledge sources are temporally stabilized by using a Kalman filter. The nonlinear combination of multiple knowledge sources makes the selection of attention fields much more robust even with merely increasing computational power. This is shown with results from various real image sequences.


We studied the transmission spectrum of a one-dimensional photonic crystal containing a defect layer in which electromagnetically induced transparency is possible. The analysis is performed taking into account the spatial inhomogeneity of interacting fields in the photonic crystal. It is found that the transmission spectrum of such a photonic crystal depends on the spatial overlap of defect modes excited by probe and control radiations. It is shown that electromagnetically induced transparency can result in a considerable narrowing of the defect mode spectrum.


We show that by employing accidental degeneracy, dielectric photonic crystals can be designed and fabricated that exhibit Dirac cone dispersion at k=0 at a finite frequency. Under some circumstances, effective medium theory can be used to relate the photonic crystal to a material with effectively zero permittivity and permeability at and near the Dirac point frequency. This concept can also be extended to acoustic and elastic waves. For the case of acoustic waves, we can find direct correspondence with the photonic crystal system. For the case of elastic waves, we show that Dirac cone dispersion at k=0 can be related to a special kind of elastic crystal in which only longitudinal wave is allowed in certain directions and only transverse wave is allowed in some other directions. Effective medium theory finds that this phononic crystal has effectively zero mass density and zero effective 1/ C 44 at the Dirac point.


For many applications it is useful to sample from a finite set of objects in accordance with some particular distribution. One approach is to run an ergodic (i.e., irreducible aperiodic) Markov chain whose stationary distribution is the desired distribution on this set; after the Markov chain has run for M steps, with M sufficiently large, the distribution governing the state of the chain approximates the desired distribution. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to determine how large M needs to be. We describe a simple variant of this method that determines on its own when to stop and that outputs samples in exact accordance with the desired distribution. The method uses couplings which have also played a role in other sampling schemes; however, rather than running the coupled chains from the present into the future, one runs from a distant point in the past up until the present, where the distance into the past that one needs to go is determined during the running of the algorithm itself. If the state space has a partial order that is preserved under the moves of the Markov chain, then the coupling is often particularly efficient. Using our approach, one can sample from the Gibbs distributions associated with various statistical mechanics models (including Ising, random-cluster, ice, and dimer) or choose uniformly at random from the elements of a finite distributive lattice. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Sir,

We found the article by Deb et al.(1) both interesting and thought provoking. It was noted that all forms of cardiovascular diseases were included in their study and it was therefore hypothesized that persons with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) may have different risk factors. We report our findings of risk factors among intensive care unit (ICU) patients with ACS from rural Kerala.

A retrospective study of patients admitted to the ICU with ACS during the year 2006-2007 was analyzed. A total of 130 patients were identified from the records. Of these 130 cases, 74.6% (97) were males and 25.4% (33) females with a mean age of 58.4 ± 12.5 years with a range between 24 and 91 years. Of those getting admitted with ACS, 27.9% were above the age of 70 while 66.3% were between the ages of 40 and 60 showing that middle-aged persons were more affected by ACS in this community.

The risk factors [Table 1] for ACS seen in this set-up in rural Kerala were: hypertension (HT), smoking, previous myocardial infarction (MI) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Alcohol consumption, dyslipidemia and obesity were seen in fewer people. HT was seen to occur in 82.3% of those with ACS. The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) classification was used to stratify persons into pre-HT, stage-1 HT and stage-2 HT [Table 1].(2) Most persons in this area were found to have stage-1 HT. Comparison with other studies was not possible due to the variation in classification systems used to grade HT.

Table 1

Risk factors for acute coronary syndrome

Smoking was seen to be a major risk factor in 50.4% of the patients. A recent study from West Bengal found that 20.5% of the persons with ischemic heart disease were smokers. (3) The high rate of smokers observed here could be due to lack of awareness on the effects of smoking and its relation to coronary artery disease (CAD) in rural Kerala. (4)

Previous MI and type 2 DM were found to occur among 43/130 persons. Of the 33.1% with type 2 DM, 18.5% had it under control with appropriate measures. The number of persons with type 2 DM and CAD was higher in this area than those reported from other parts of India. (1,5,6)

A recent study by Gupta et al.,(7)found a low prevalence of multiple risk factors among young people which increased considerably between the age of 30-39 years. In this sub-group of persons admitted to the ICU, the high rates of risk factors were mainly seen between the ages of 40-49 years. As this age group was not studied by Gupta et al.,(7) it can only be assumed that a similar rising trend of risk factors is present in this area as well.

In conclusion, different parts of India seem to demonstrate the same risk factors, but in varied proportions. This sample is not a true representation of the community burden as only cases admitted to the hospital were included. Therefore, large-scale studies covering more geographical areas will be necessary to investigate the risk factors of a particular area and the required preventive measures needed to reduce the prevalence of ACS. Patient education and awareness programs are of great importance in the rural areas to help reduce the burden of ACS.


Gold is one of the most important sources of currency entry in the economics of any state. Besides mining raw materials, fit for effective gold extraction, residues of gold extraction factories are the source of this precious metal. Moreover, the role of industrial wastes, which has a rich source of nonferrous and noble metals, increases. Processing expediency of complicated wastes is determined by their harmful ecological influence on the environment. Involving to processing of gold, the enumerated sources demands the use of high leading technologies, taking into account the variety of their composition. One of the ways of increasing effectiveness of processing the gold-containing materials may be introduction of direct hydrometallurgy processes. Hydrometallurgical methods of processing differ in low power capacity, simplicity of implement process, decreasing pollution of the environment. It is necessary for this not only to sort out selective solvents, but also to elaborate methods of regeneration and recycling of the used solutions and solvents. At present leaching of gold-containing raw materials by cyanide is the main hydrometallurgical process and the main advantage of cyanide is high selectivity with regard to gold. However, leaching by cyanide solutions has a set of substantial drawbacks: process duration, high cost of the reagent, nonadaptability of "stubborn" ores and concentrates, absence of possible regeneration of cyanide solutions and the main thing is high toxicity of cyanide compounds. Therefore elaboration of new hydrometallurgical methods of extracting gold using selective nontoxic reagents, in particular, iodine solutions is important scientific and practical task.


We present a system for detecting and tracking the lanes of high-speed roads, in order to warn the driver of accidental lane departures. The proposed method introduces a novel variant of the classic Hough transform, better equipped to detect and locate linear road markings with a common vanishing point. This is combined with a simple model of the lane and an Extended Kalman Filter to make detection and tracking more robust. This allows detection of lane changes, resistant to visual interference by traffic and irrelevant road markings.


Quality of life reflects the health of individuals, physically and mentally. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of life among university students. A total sample of N=377 full-time students from various faculties of a single university were recruited following a cross-sectional study design. The World Health Organization QOL-BREF questionnaire was administered to measure the quality of life in four domains: physical quality, psychological quality, social relationship quality and environment quality. The total quality of life score obtained was 64.33 ± 8.02, which is in the fair category. For demographic comparisons, all domains were similar in distribution, except for age groups in the psychological health domain and sports involvement in the physical health domain. Older students reported a significantly higher mean scores for psychological health compared to the younger age group, while student-athletes scored higher in physical health than the non-athletes. Environment was scored lowest at (13.25 ± 1.78), while social relation was rated highest at (15.10 ± 3.07) among the participants. The overall quality of life and general health, and physical domains exhibited significant positive relationships, but some nonsignificant relationships were observed among student-athletes. Understanding the quality of life among university students would provide a beneficial information on their well-being. This study should become a benchmark to conduct other studies on similar topic especially among young adults. University counsellors and student's affair departments should acknowledge this study as a reference for organizing students development programs and planning for intervention in improving students' productivity if needed.


This paper examines how intercultural communication (ICC) and the notion of culture are framed in on-line promotional discourse of higher education intercultural communication courses. It analyses a specialised corpus comprised of 14,842 words from 43 course websites of master's programmes in intercultural communication in the UK and the US— internationally, the two largest providers of such programmes. Through combining corpus tools with a 'situated meaning' approach, the analysis reveals that while a small number of courses acknowledge cultural 'complexity', culture is still very often reduced to an essentialised and static notion, despite growing criticism against such an approach in ICC literature. Intercultural communication is valorised as a combination of desirable skills and knowledge conducive to effective communication of different cultural groups and for those working in international arenas. Significant differences between the UK and US courses are identified with regard to the extent of associations with diversity-related social categories. The lack of interpretive, critical and constructivist positions on culture in promotional discourse is discussed in the context of neoliberal discourse and the current thinking towards professional competences dominant in Britain, North America, and other parts of the world.


Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is one of the most common post transplant malignancies. A variety of factors appears to contribute to the development of KS including genetic factors, sex hormones, immunosuppression and oncogene viruses. We present 3 cases with concurrent KS and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in the first year after kidney transplantation. The suspicion on KS due to the skin lesions was confirmed by biopsy. The diagnosis of CMV infection was made by detecting pp65 antigen in blood. The KS lesions were limited to the skin in 2 patients, while skin and gastrointestinal tract were involved in 1 patient. Many factors are reported to be involved in KS development, but the simultaneous occurrence of KS and CMV infection in our three cases suggested CMV as an inducing factor for KS.


We suggest a family bargaining model where human capital investment decisions are made non-cooperatively in a first stage, while day-to-day allocation of time is determined later through Nash bargaining, but with non-cooperative behaviour as the fall-back. One finding is that overinvestment in education may be even more of a problem in such a semi-cooperative model than in a fully non-cooperative one. Even though both the semi-cooperative model and the fully non-cooperative model predict overinvestment in education, policy conclusions that follow from the two models are distinctly different.


Virtual Reality (VR) is a powerful education/training tool, and its interactive immersive
environment is particularly suitable for the illustration of complex concepts involving spatial
relationships. Although many virtual reality applications have been developed for education and training,
the wide spread use of this technology has been primarily limited by the high cost of VR systems. We
have developed VRSEMLAB, a low cost VR application to teach the complex subject of semiconductor
device physics to undergraduate students. VRSEMLAB demonstrates an effective method for using
virtual reality to model complex 3D systems in an experimental environment free of concerns of physical
safety, equipment limitations, and size limitations.


Background Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with high rates of suicide risk and problems related to sleep, including insomnia and nightmares. The purpose of the current study was to assess the potential indirect effect of BPD traits on suicide risk through both/either insomnia and nightmares. Methods Participants (N = 281) were recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk to complete the study remotely online. Participants completed measures of BPD traits and symptoms, suicide risk (history of suicidal thoughts and behaviors), insomnia symptoms, and distress and impairment related to nightmares. Results BPD traits and symptoms were moderately to highly correlated to suicide risk, insomnia, and nightmares. In parallel mediation models, BPD traits had a significant indirect effect on suicide risk through insomnia symptoms but not nightmares. Limitations The current study assessed problems within the general population and not in a clinical sample. Second, the study relied solely on self-report measures. Futures studies would benefit from investigating these relations in clinical samples utilizing observer-report and interview methods. Conclusions BPD traits appear to relate to increased risk for suicide through the relation with sleep concerns, particularly insomnia symptoms. Therefore, assessing and treating sleep problems within individuals with BPD may result in a lower risk for suicide.


The major cause of serious banking problems over the years continues to be directly related to lax credit standards for borrowers and counterparties, poor portfolio risk management, or a lack of attention to deterioration in the credit standing of a bank's counterparties. According to BIS, credit risk is most simply defined as the potential that a bank borrower or counterparty will fail to meet its obligations in accordance with agreed terms. The effective management of credit risk is a critical component of a comprehensive approach to risk management and essential to the long-term success of any banking organization. Since exposure to credit risk continues to be the leading source of problems in banks world-wide, banks and their supervisors should be able to draw useful lessons from past experiences. Hence, in this paper, we try to address how banks assess the creditworthiness of borrowers. We understand that banks consider, among other factors, the current and prospect patrimonialisation and profitability, the borrower's history, as well as its industrial sector and how the borrower is positioned in it. The objective of the paper is to develop an internal credit rating model for banks which will improve their current predictive power of financial risk factors. The study aims at validating the efficiency of Altman's Z-Score model for credit risk evaluation through empirical data. Further a new revised model is developed for Indian banks. We try to fit-in credit risk models like the Altman's Z-Score Model (with modifications of some variables) to the Indian Banks, and try to arrive at an equation of the Z-Score, which will enable the banks to predict future defaulters, and hence take the necessary actions accordingly. Both the models are applied and tested on a sample of 60 default and non default companies. The revised Altman's model is able to predict default one year prior with an accuracy of over 80%. This is further verified on a separate holdout sample.


We provide a framework to study the interfaces imposed by Dobrushin boundary conditions on the half-plane version of the Ising model on random triangulations with spins on vertices. Using the combinatorial solution by Albenque, Menard and Schaeffer ([2]) and the generating function methods introduced by Chen and Turunen ([8], [9]), we show the local weak convergence of such triangulations of the disk as the perimeter tends to infinity, and study the interface imposed by the Dobrushin boundary condition. As a consequence of this analysis, we verify the heuristics of physics literature that discrete interface of the model in the high-temperature regime resembles the critical site percolation interface, as well as provide an explicit scaling limit of the interface length at the critical temperature, which coincides with results on the continuum Liouville Quantum gravity surfaces. Overall, this model exhibits simpler structure than the model with spins on faces, as well as demonstrates the robustness of the methods developed in [8], [9].


Fast arithmetic transforms are used in the generation of discrete arithmetic expansions of Boolean functions that are their integer representations such as probabilistic expansions, decision diagrams, etc. In this article, new properties of factored and permutation matrices for fast Arithmetic transforms have been introduced. Different algorithms to generate the square permutation matrices being the basis of fast algorithms for an arbitrary polarity of arithmetic expansions have also been shown.


Indonesia as a multi-ethnic and pluralistic democracy lives along multiple faultlines – social, regional, geographic, cultural, ethnic, religious, linguistic, native versus migrant, highlanders versus lowlanders, and so on. These faultlines have come to shape both Indonesia's internal as well as external expressions. Today a rising Indonesia exudes a different sense of confidence in its global projection as a moderate and the largest Muslim democracy, living somewhat in harmony with its multi-layered and multi-pronged diversities.


Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is an aggressive and life-threating immune dysregulation syndrome characterized by persistent activation of the mononuclear phagocytic system leading to uncontrolled systemic hyperinflammatory response. The proliferation and activation of histiocytes and lymphocytes lead to production of large amounts of cytokines, also called cytokine storm. Hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues are directly involved while other organs are damaged by circulating cytokines. Primary HLH is attributed to genetic defects of the immune system and secondary HLH is usually seen in adults secondary to malignancy, infection, or autoimmune diseases. Zoonotic diseases including fungal infections are an important cause of HLH. Secondary HLH can delay the recognition of the underlying zoonoses. We report the case of a 61-year-old female with history of rheumatoid arthritis with histoplasmosis associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.


Familial hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HOKPP) is an autosomal dominant muscle disorder characterized by episodic attacks of muscle weakness with concomitant hypokalemia. Mutations in either a calcium channel gene (CACNA1S) or a sodium channel gene (SCN4A) have been shown to be responsible for this disease. The combination of sarcolemmal depolarization and hypokalemia has been attributed to abnormalities of the potassium conductance governing the resting membrane potential. To understand the pathophysiology of this disorder, we examined both mRNA and protein levels of delayed rectifier potassium channel genes, KCNQ3 and KCNQ5, in skeletal muscle fibers biopsied from patients with HOKOur results showed an increase in the cytoplasmic level of KCNQ3 protein in patients` cells exposed to 50 mM external concentration of potassium. However, mRNA levels of both channel genes did not show significant change in the same condition. Our results suggest that long term exposure of skeletal muscle cells in HOKPP patients to high extracellular potassium alters the KCNQ3 localization, which could possibly hinder the normal function of this channel protein. These findings may provide an important clue to understanding the molecular mechanism of familial hypokalemic periodic paralysis.


The 2008 presidential campaign controversy surrounding Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons had the potential to derail Barack Obama's candidacy. At the heart of the controversy was race, specifically Whiteness. Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union" is perhaps one of the most significant political speeches addressing race to date, and warrants analysis. However, Barry Brummett's book Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture (1991) argues the critic should not be limited to discrete traditional texts, rather should be able to break outside such traditional speaker-focused boundaries. Brummett's mosaic model allows an exploration of the intersection between popular and political rhetoric of Obama and The Daily Show. I will argue from the intersection we see the emergence of the comic frame as a homology that links the disparate texts of Obama and TDS. I will argue the reason the comic frame emerges from the texts is because there is a societal mandate for the comic frame. Thus, I will ultimately argue the mandate for the comic frame can be better understood as a social movement. However, it is a movement comprised of numerous individual movements, and warrants a new term: metamovement. Obama and TDS are not leaders of this meta-movement, but instead should be seen as contributors. Brummett urges the critic to consider "the political or ideological interests served by ordering a rhetorical transaction in a certain way" (1991, p. 98). I will argue constructing the rhetoric of Obama and TDS with the comic frame serves the ideological interests of those who are fighting for social justice and working to subvert Whiteness. Thus, I have named the meta-movement to which Obama and TDS contribute a critical optimist movement, because the comic frame provides the tools to be critical of hegemony while ultimately reinforcing the optimistic assumption of the comic frame: all humans are ultimately both flawed and good.


All 25 strains of Candida spp. tested were able to grow in medium supplemented with 25% nonoxynol-9 in vitro. Adhesion of Candida spp. to HeLa cells was found to increase in the presence of 5% nonoxynol-9 (2.2- to 6.6-fold; P less than 0.001) and, to a lesser extent, in 12.5% nonoxynol-9. Adhesion of Candida strains cultured in medium supplemented with nonoxynol-9 varied, with five of six strains of Candida albicans and the single strain of Candida tropicalis demonstrating increases of 1.4 to 4.0 times control levels (P less than 0.05). The increased adhesion did not correlate with altered yeast cell surface hydrophobicity or germ tube formation.


Ti-Al-N hard films have been prepared by cathodic arc deposition by using an unipolar pulsed bias. In the present study, Ti-Al-N films were deposited on stainless steel and silicon wafers. The deposition rate, micrograph, preferred orientation and composition were systematically investigated by usingx-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). It is shown that substate bias duty cycle and frequency have a great effect on film structure. A simple explanation for the results is also presented.


WOMEN AND WAR: POWER AND PROTECTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY Kathleen Kuehnast, Chantai de Jonge Oudraat and Helga Hernes (eds) United States Institute of Peace Press, 2011 172 pages, paper, $16.95SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN CONFLICT ZONES: FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO THE ERA OF HUMAN RIGHTS Elizabeth D. Heinman (ed) University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011 342 pages, hardcover, $59.95WOMEN WAGING WAR AND PEACE: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES OF WOMEN'S ROLES IN CONFLICT AND POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION Sandra I. Cheldelin and Maneshka Eliatamby (eds.) New York, Continuum, 2011 305 pages, paperback, $39.95The three books reviewed offer accounts of the role and experiences of women in war and post-conflict peace. While Elizabeth Heinman's book Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones: From the Ancient World to the Era of Human Rights specifically deals with rape in times of war through historical perspective, other two books raise an issue of wartime rape as a significant theme that has been closely analysed by feminist scholars and practitioners after the 1990s. As Inger Skjclsbck in Women and War: Power and Protection in the 21st Century argues, although rape has been depicted of war and part of historical accounts for centuries, it has been largely dismissed from any form of political or historical analysis (p.65). "Thanks to" Yugoslav wars and genocide in Rwanda, sexual violence in war has become a focus of attention to feminist scholars and practitioners and international organizations and agencies working within a realm of gender analysis of armed conflicts. Mass rapes in the wars in the former Yugoslavia and during the Rwandan genocide also received widespread and unprecedented media coverage galvanizing worldwide systematic efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and to ameliorate the effects of wartime sexual violence.A book Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones: From the Ancient World to the Era of Human Rights grew out of a conference held at the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights titled "The History of Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones" (April 2006). The book provides an impressive historical perspective on sexual violence in war, from ancient warfare to medieval England, from the American Revolution and pre-colonial warfare in Tanzania, from the Bangladeshi war to World War II. What sets apart this book from a growing literature written on the theme of sexual violence in war is that the book is situated within a field of history and written almost exclusively by historians.The authors acknowledge that while there is a rampant increase of attention to the various forms of violence that women experience during an armed conflict, they argue that an interest in the historical record of sexualized violence in specific context is still in "its infancy" (p. 7). However, the attention to a historical record of women's experiences of violence is vital to gain deeper understanding of patterns and particular forms of sexual violence that take place in conflicts. They analyze the contextual, social and political factors that could make the type of sexual violence experienced in conflict zones more or less likely. The authors argue that by exploring the historical specific nuances, it is possible to gain a better understanding of the commonality of victims' experiences, the consequence of each form of violence for the victim and the nuanced relationship between wartime and peacetime sexual violence.A final paper in this book written by the late Rhonda Copelon, addresses how far legal approaches to sexual violence have come and how much farther they need to go. Copelon argues that recognition of sexual violence in war as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are all "but a starting point" (p. 254). The issues of enforcement, deterrence, prevention, and prosecution "must be taken seriously" (p.255) if we want to end long tolerated impunity for sexualized violence and respond to women's needs to effectively protect themselves from the crime. …


Fe-6.5%Si(mass fraction) alloy possess perfect magnetic properties,though intermetallics of Fe_(14)Si_2 phase brought 6.5%Si leads to room temperature brittleness and hinder this significant materials industrialization.Nb was adopted into micro-alloying of Fe-6.5%Si high silicon steel. OM,thermal simulated test machine and XRD were employed to study the influence of Nb on high silicon steel in processing stages.Textures of warm-rolled high silicon steel strips were determined by XRD.The results indicate that Nb could refine the grains during fabrication of high silicon steel. Comparing to the non-Nb micro-alloyed high silicon steel,the grain size were reduced 17.50%,24.51% and 30.13%in as-cast,forged and hot-rolled microstructure.Compression strength of as-cast specimen was enhanced from 1365 MPa to 1520 MPa with elongation rate from 0.225%to 0.400%.Tensile strength of warm-rolled strip was increased from 573 MPa to 621 MPa with elongation rate from 0.018%to 0.026%.XRD was carried out to indicate the surface texture evolution of warm-rolled high silicon steel with thickness from 0.30—1.68 mm during the warm rolling.The original(011)〈100〉 Goss texture totally transformed to(100)〈011〉 rotating cube texture with single pass deformation of 26.2%. Then,rotating cube texture completely transformed to {111} fiber texture which remains until the thickness of 0.30 mm with single pass deformation of 22.6%.


The phenomenon of quantum antiresonance (QAR), i.e., exactly periodic recurrences in quantum dynamics, is studied in a large class of nonintegrable systems, the modulated kicked rotors (MKRs). It is shown that asymptotic exponential localization generally occurs for $\eta$ (a scaled $\hbar$) in the infinitesimal vicinity of QAR points $\eta_0$. The localization length $\xi_0$ is determined from the analytical properties of the kicking potential. This ``QAR-localization" is associated in some cases with an integrable limit of the corresponding classical systems. The MKR dynamical problem is mapped into pseudorandom tight-binding models, exhibiting dynamical localization (DL). By considering exactly-solvable cases, numerical evidence is given that QAR-localization is an excellent approximation to DL sufficiently close to QAR. The transition from QAR-localization to DL in a semiclassical regime, as $\eta$ is varied, is studied. It is shown that this transition takes place via a gradual reduction of the influence of the analyticity of the potential on the analyticity of the eigenstates, as the level of chaos is increased.


This thesis critically analyses the rollout of solar energy technology in Bangladesh and the consequences for the solar energy market and for the everyday lives of on-grid, off-grid households. Electricity is seen as one of the key drivers for economic and social development in countries such as Bangladesh, which has been struggling to ensure sustainable energy access and an uninterrupted electricity supply to all citizens since the independence of the country in 1971. Low carbon energy is rising in importance globally and Bangladesh is heralded as a prime example of the successful implementation of solar energy technology in the Global South, where solar technologies are seen to provide an alternative source of electricity supply and a solution to the longstanding power crisis. By paying attention to the spaces and places of energy transition, this thesis highlights the differentiated outcomes of solar energy provision in urban and rural areas in Bangladesh. Contributing to the growing field of energy geographies, energy for development and other energy social science studies, the thesis draws on ethnographic field research in Bangladesh to expand understandings of solar energy transition. Following a multi-scalar network of actors involved in the implementation of solar energy technology, participant observation, interviewing and visual methods are used to capture the experiences of solar energy integration in both rural (off-grid) and urban (on-grid) lives. In doing so, the thesis makes three arguments. Firstly, that the way solar advocates construct energy problems and advance technical solutions does not recognise spatially constructed and complex relations of power, conflicts of interest, and everyday market politics at a range of scales. Secondly, that energy policy approaches need to recognise the heterogeneity of energy users and the complex ways in which access to, and control over, energy resources varies according to multiple, interlocking and hierarchical systems of differentiation including the intersectionality of class, gender and other social relations. Lastly, that experiences of energy transition are shaped not only by geographical space, but also socio-cultural space in which the geographical situatedness of rural and urban areas shapes the experience of low carbon energy transition.


Background The British Columbia Children's and Women's Hospital has an international reputation for the air ambulance services it provides to the largest geographic area in the world (1,000,000 sq km) served by a single ambulance service. As a consequence of this expertise we are frequently asked by parents for advice with regards to air travel for them and their children. As we currently do not have material available to provide advice for parents, our research question looked at what material airlines provide for parents concerning how to optimize travel experiences for children on regular commercial airlines. Methods A questionnaire consisting of qualitative and multiple choice type questions was mailed to the 23 airlines. The questionnaire was sent to commercial airline companies flying from Vancouver International Airport in Vancouver, BC (YVR). Respondents were asked to provide feedback on their policies concerning infant passengers and recommendations given to the public regarding a variety of topics, including how caregivers can access information regarding traveling with children; car seat, stroller, and sky cot provisions; child-friendly meals and entertainment; medical advice given to caregivers; and commonly encountered problems when traveling with children. Results This study collected 10 surveys. Airlines provide information through a combination of Web-based materials (8/10) and answers from booking agents (7/10) and other airline staff (5/10). Personal car seats are allowed on the flight by 3/10 airlines. All airlines offer special meals to accommodate various preferences; 2/10 airlines offered special children's meals. Strollers can be used between check-in and boarding gates by 10/10 airlines. Other recommendations included discussing children's needs with the airline at the time of booking; bringing snacks, boxed drinks, and spare diapers and changes of clothing; and encouraging feeding during take-off and landing to minimize ear discomfort. Conclusion We anticipate being able to compile information that pediatricians can share with families to optimize travel with children through greater awareness of common issues that can negatively impact their air travel. International regulations mandate many practices, including the ability of parents to have their child travel using car safety seats, the accommodations made for children with special needs, and the travel of unaccompanied minors.


Background: A genetic variation was described in the promoter region of the human MMP-1 gene, and this genetic variation has been associated with risk of inflammatory diseases. We aimed to evaluate the association between the MMP-1 promoter gene genetic variation (1G/2G at -1607) and incidence and severity of chronic periodontitis (CP) susceptibility in an Iranian population. Methods: In this analytic cross-sectional study, 100 Iranian subjects were allocated to case (with CP, n=50) and control (with normal periodontium, n=50) groups. Clinical indices (plaque index, clinical attachment loss, bone loss, and probing pocket depth) were measured before genetic analysis. Genomic DNA was obtained from whole blood samples. MMP-1 promoter genetic variations (-1607) were genotyped using PCR-RFLP method and the clinical and genetic data were analyzed with t, Chi-square, Mann- Whitney, and Fisher's exact tests. Results: Genotype analyses revealed no significant differences in the distribution of MMP-1 promoter (G1/G2) genotype (at -1607 locus) between the two groups (P=0.495). There was significant correlation between MMP-1 genotype 1G/2G with clinical attachment loss and age in the CP group (P=0.046 and 0.047 respectively), but no significant correlation was found between MMP-1 genotype 1G/2G and other periodontal indices (bone loss, probing pocket depth and plaque index). Conclusion: MMP-1 genetic variation does not increase the susceptibility to chronic periodontitis in patients CP, while there is an association between attachment loss and MMP-1 genetic variation.


S BOOK – Sessions C1.2_C1.3: ECTP2014 ECTP2014, Porto, Portugal SPONSORS & PARTNERS Local organizers ECTP2014 sincerely acknowledge the support and partnership of the following companies and organizations who contributed to the success of this event


A total of 73 species of Argia Rambur, 1842 are reported as present from Mexico, Central America and the Lesser Antilles, of which five are new to science and are described here: Argia annae n. sp. (holotype ♂: MEXICO, Veracruz, Puente Texolo, roadside seepages near bridge, 19.4028°N, 96.9867°W, 1065 m, 17 June 2009, Rosser W. Garrison & Natalia von Ellenrieder leg., in CSCA), Argia gonzalezi n. sp. (holotype ♂: MEXICO, Chiapas, 3.5 mi east of Rayón, stream, approximately 17.2058°N, 92.9700°W, 1676 m, 16 July 1965, Dennis R. Paulson leg., in CNIN), A. noveloi n. sp. (holotype ♂: MEXICO, Veracruz, Puente Texolo, 19.4028°N, 96.9867°W, 1065 m, 26 August 1988, Rosser W. Garrison leg., in INECOL), A. paludicola n. sp. (holotype ♂: U. S. A., Arizona, Apache County, Bog Tank, north of Highway 260, 34.0467°N, 109.683°W, 1400 m, 1 July 2016, Pierre Deviche leg., in CSCA) and A. paulsoni n. sp. (holotype ♂: COSTA RICA, San José, 7.5 km northeast of Londres, on road to Rancho Tinamú Lodge, 9.4856°N, 83.9911°W, 700 m, 5 July 2019, William A. Haber leg., in UNH). Redescriptions of male and female are provided for the following species: Argia calida (Hagen, 1861), A. chelata Calvert, 1902, A. deami Calvert, 1902, A. fulgida Navás, 1934, A. herberti Calvert, 1902, A. johannella Calvert, 1907, A. mayi González-Soriano, 2012, A. percellulata Calvert, 1902, A. pocomana Calvert, 1907, A. rogersi Calvert, 1902, A. talamanca Calvert, 1907, A. terira Calvert, 1907, A. underwoodi Calvert, 1907, and A. variabilis Selys, 1865. All 73 species are measured, illustrated, and distinguished from their congeners. The following synonymies are suggested based on examination of type material: A. wilsoni Calvert, 1902, a junior synonym of A. calida (Hagen, 1861), A. plana Calvert, 1902, a junior synonym of A. funebris (Hagen, 1861), and A. trifoliata Fraser, 1942 (Fig. 736), a junior synonym of A. variegata Förster, 1914. Lectotypes are designated for Agrion calidum Hagen, 1861, Agrion funebris Hagen, 1861, and Argia variabilis Selys, 1865. Keys to the 73 known Argia species from Mexico, Middle America and the Lesser Antilles are provided as well as distribution maps based on an examination of over 16,000 specimens.


Localization of calcium‐activated neutral protease (CANP) in the rat peripheral nerve was studied by an indirect immunofluorescent method, using rabbit antiserum against CANP extracted from chicken skeletal muscle. Its specificity to CANP, as well as its cross‐reactivity with rat CANP, were confirmed by the Ouchterlony immunodiffusion procedure and immunoreplica method. CANP was demonstrated in the axon, but not in the myelin sheath or endoneurium. We could not conclude whether or not CANP in axons exists in association with neurofilaments.


In many levitation systems superconductors are used in combination with permanent magnets. In this paper we considered three types of magnetic assemblies that are most often used: with magnets oriented in one direction, oppositely oriented magnets and the Halbach array. Based on the H-formalism, we performed modeling of a magnetic field and levitation force in a system consisting of the high temperature superconductor (HTS) tape stack and the assembly of permanent magnets. It was shown that if a spatial distribution of a gradient magnetic field changes in height it is necessary to take into account the magnetic history of the superconductor. The proposed computational model includes a combination of scalar and vector potentials, as well as modeling the real movement of an HTS tape stack in a levitation system. The simulation results were verified by corresponding experiments. The proposed approach is universal for modeling levitation systems of complex configurations.


Background: The S4 voltage sensor in voltage-gated channels comprises triads of amino acids. Results: The microenvironment of the S3–4 linker is also arranged in similar triads. Conclusion: S4 initially moves in a canal following the S3–4 linker but may subsequently take a more liberal move like a paddle. Significance: This provides a novel synthesis reconciling the currently controversial models of S4 movement. The highly conserved fourth transmembrane segment (S4) is the primary voltage sensor of the voltage-dependent channel and would move outward upon membrane depolarization. S4 comprises repetitive amino acid triads, each containing one basic (presumably charged and voltage-sensing) followed by two hydrophobic residues. We showed that the triad organization is functionally extended into the S3–4 linker right external to S4 in Shaker K+ channels. The arginine (and lysine) substitutes for the third and the sixth residues (Ala-359 and Met-356, respectively) external to the outmost basic residue (Arg-362) in S4 dramatically and additively stabilize S4 in the resting conformation. Also, Leu-361 and Leu-358 play a very similar role in stabilization of S4 in the resting position, presumably by their hydrophobic side chains. Moreover, the double mutation A359R/E283A leads to a partially extruded position of S4 and consequently prominent closed-state inactivation, suggesting that Glu-283 in S2 may coordinate with the arginines in the extruded S4 upon depolarization. We conclude that the triad organization extends into the S3–4 linker for about six amino acids in terms of their microenvironment. These approximately six residues should retain the same helical structure as S4, and their microenvironment serves as part of the "gating canal" accommodating the extruding S4. Upon depolarization, S4 most likely moves initially as a sliding helix and follows the path that is set by the approximately six residues in the S3–4 linker in the resting state, whereas further S4 translocation could be more like, for example, a paddle, without orderly coordination from the contiguous surroundings.