One of the numerous applications of the ICAN laser using the advantage of fiber optics with chirped pulse amplification (CPA), is the scheme of side-on initiation of a nuclear fusion flame in solid density fuel with laser pulses of shorter than picosecond (ps) duration and power in the petawatt (PW) and higher range. The ICAN Fiber optics has special advantages with the potential that >900 PW spherical laser pulses may ignite the proton reaction with 11 B (HB11) without the problem of dangerous radioactive radiation. Though secondary reactions can be estimated very roughly, the feasibility of a power station with the necessary energy gains can be concluded.


In State of Paraná, interest in sunflower crop has increased substantially, mainly due to increase of domestic demand for edible vegetable oils and also due to wide crop faculty. However, there is little information about total dry weight accumulation curve during the various stages of sunflower plant. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine dry weight accumulation curves in different plant organs, plant heights, number of leaves, leaf area and oil content in an hybrid plant in Brazil's current environments. The experiment was carried out in a Rhodic Eutrudox (eutroferric Red Latosol), in Londrina, State of Paraná, Brazil. The experimental design consisted in randomized blocks with four replicates. Experimental units had 14 lines, with 0.70 m among lines and 25 m length with a final density of 42,858 plants per hectare. Samples were collected every 14 days after emergence and were divided into petiole, leaf, stem, capitulum and achenes, in order to determine dry weight. Moreover, leaves were counted and plant heights were measured. The estimated shoot and achenes dry weight were 10,400 kg ha and 3.758 kg ha, respectively, with a highest score of 2.12 m height, 35 leaves, 0.80 m leaf area, and 49.53% oil content.


Of the countries hardest hit by the current outbreak of anti-Semitism in Europe, France poses a particular dilemma. For contrary to much of what is said today about anti-Jewish sentiment in France, its roots are to be found not in any specific Israeli policy with respect to the Palestinians. Rather, they lie deep within the French body politic. For this reason, it is a profound error to argue, as many have, that the problem will be resolved through a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, or that any of the conventional methods—such as increased law enforcement or public-awareness campaigns—will succeed in defeating it. Indeed, the current outbreak of anti-Semitism in France is little more than a symptom of a far deeper crisis confronting French Jewry.


Integrating a diverse set of land use types within a neighborhood is a central tenet of smart growth policy. Over a generation of urban planning research has heralded the transportation, land use, and public health benefits arising from a balanced supply of local land uses, including the improved feasibility for pedestrian travel. However, land use mixing has largely remained a transportation-land use planning goal without a conceptually valid set of environmental indicators quantifying this multifaceted spatial phenomenon. In this study, we incorporated activity-based transportation planning and landscape ecology theory within a confirmatory factor analysis framework to introduce a land use mix construct indicative of the paired landscape pattern aspects of composition and configuration. We found that our activity-related land use mix measure, and not the commonly adopted entropy-based index, predicted walk mode choice and home-based walk trip frequency when operationalized at three geographic scales.


A 54-year-old male, non smoker, began to suffer from persistent dyspnoea and fever. X-ray and CT scan showed a cystic lesion located in the left anterior mediastinum. This lesion was removed instead of the initially scheduled surgical resection with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) preceded by fine needle aspiration (FNA). A diagnosis of thymoma arising in the wall of thymic cyst was made. Such a rare tumour should be taken into consideration in treating patients with a cystic mediastinal lesion, before VATS and FNA.


Single chain variants of the heterodimeric gonadotropins were engineered by tethering the genes of the individual subunits into one polypeptide. In tethered human (h) gonadotropins, the carboxyl terminal peptide (CTP) of the choriogonadotropin (CG) beta subunit serves as an effective linker to enhance the secretion of the analogs compared to variants lacking the CTP. The gonadotropin subunits of non-primate, non-equid species lack a CTP domain that precludes the use of a homologous CTP in tethered analogs in many species. Here we used the bovine LH as a model to examine the impact of the CTP domain of the hCGbeta subunit (denoted as huCTP) and of a previously untranslated CTP-like sequence decoded from the bovine LHbeta gene on the secretion and bioactivity of tethered analogs. This cryptic CTP (designated boCTP) was incorporated into the bovine LHbeta reading frame by deletion frame-shift mutations analogous to these that presumably occurred in primates and equids. We genetically engineered single chain variants in which the beta and alpha subunit domains were linked directly or via the heterologous huCTP or the homologous boCTP sequences and expressed them in CHO cells. The data suggest that the tethered analogs were expressed and N-glycosylated, but unlike the huCTP, the boCTP appears as devoid of mucin O-glycans. The incorporation of the boCTP or huCTP linkers enhanced by about 3fold the rate and efficiency of secretion from the transfected cells. The tether variants were bioactive, as estimated by induction of steroid production in immortalized granulosa cells expressing the rat LH receptor. Furthermore, the variants were about equally potent, as judged by their EC50s (0.7-0.9 ng/ml). Thus, the hCGbeta CTP maintains pro-secretory determinants without inhibiting receptor activation when applied as a linker in tethered bovine LH, implying that these CTP features are preserved when the domain is incorporated into non-primate single chain analogs. The study suggests that the boCTP and huCTP domains are advantageous for the secretion of tethered bovine gonadotropins, and also demonstrates strategies for the design of bioactive LH analogs in ruminant species.


Chronic pain is regarded to be one of the common and refractory diseases to cure in the clinic. One hundred Hz electroacupuncture (EA) is commonly used for inflammatory pain and 2 Hz for neuropathic pain possibly by modulating the transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 1 (TRPV1) or the purinergic P2X3 related pathways. To clarify the mechanism of EA under various conditions of pathological pain, rats received a subcutaneous administration of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) for inflammatory pain and spared nerve injury (SNI) for neuropathic pain. The EA was performed at the bilateral ST36 and BL60 1 d after CFA or SNI being successfully established for 3 consecutive days. The mechanical hyperalgesia test was measured at baseline, 1 d after model establishment, 1 d and 3 d after EA. The co-expression changes, co-immunoprecipitation of TRPV1 and P2X3, and spontaneous pain behaviors (SPB) test were performed 3 d after EA stimulation. One hundred Hz EA or 2Hz EA stimulation could effectively down-regulate the hyperalgesia of CFA or SNI rats. The increased co-expression ratio between TRPV1 and P2X3 at the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in two types of pain could be reduced by 100Hz or 2Hz EA intervention. While 100Hz or 2Hz EA was not able to eliminate the direct physical interaction between TRPV1 and P2X3. Moreover, EA could significantly inhibit the SPB induced by the co-activation of peripheral TRPV1 and P2X3. All results indicated that EA could significantly reduce the hyperalgesia and the SPB, which was partly related to inhibiting the co-expression and indirect interaction between peripheral TRPV1 and P2X3.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Previously, the mutation status of KRAS was the only validated predictive biomarker for metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). While KRAS mutated tumors demonstrated resistance to epidermal growth factor (EGFR) inhibitors like cetuximab, KRAS WT and EGFR-expressing tumors were predicted to be responsive. However, KRAS WT metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) patients have a poor prognosis even with EGFR inhibitor therapy as not all KRAS WT CRCs are responsive to such targeted agents. A gene expression based RAS signature score was developed based on multiple tumor tissue samples to identify RAS activated tumors independent of mutations in the KRAS gene [1, 2]. To further refine this score and define technologies that can be used on FFPE samples isolated in a clinical setting, we analyzed DNA and RNA derived from fifty-five (55) FFPE preserved colorectal cancer tumor biopsies using multiple sequencing, digital and array-based technologies. These samples were selected from a CRC cohort in which the initial gene expression-based RAS signature score was calculated utilizing data compiled from fresh frozen (FF) tumor samples from the same 55 patients. The 55 samples were selected for this study as they had representative samples with high, medium and low RAS signature scores. Transcriptomic analyses (RNA-Seq, Affymetrix microarrays, Nanostring and Targeted RNA-Seq) were performed on all 55 FFPE samples and three new RAS scores were calculated from the gene expression datasets. These RAS scores were based on different gene signatures (1) an 18 gene signature (2) a 13 gene signature, and (3) a 147 gene signature. A significant correlation was identified between RAS scores calculated from the 18 and 13 gene signatures (Correlation coefficient ∼ 0.88 and ∼0.76 respectively, p-value < 0.0001). To further refine gene expression signatures, samples were grouped based upon their mutation status obtained by whole exome sequencing (WES) and targeted DNA sequencing data (Illumina TruSight and LifeTech Cancer Panels). In our sample set, the 18 gene RAS score was found to be dependent on the mutation status of KRAS. Further analysis is being carried out to better understand the relationship between the calculated RAS signature scores and the mutation status of other genes. This analysis will lead to the development of a novel genomic signature for better pharmacodynamic stratification of colorectal carcinoma patients.

1. Loboda A et al. A gene expression signature of RAS pathway dependence predicts response to PI3K and RAS pathway inhibitors and expands the population of RAS pathway activated tumors.

2. BMC Medical Genomics 2010, 3:26Dry JR et al. Transcriptional Pathway Signatures Predict MEK Addiction and Response to Selumetinib (AZD6244). Cancer Res. 2010 Mar 15;70(6):2264-73.

Citation Format: Sharon Austin, Fang Yin Lo, Kellie Howard, Mollie McWhorter, Heather Collins, Amanda Leonti, Lindsey Maassel, Christopher Subia, Tuuli Saloranta, Nicole Heying, Leila Ritter, Kerry Deutsch, James Cox, Steven Anderson, Anup Madan, Timothy Yeatman. Pharmacodynamic stratification of metastatic colorectal cancer patients using genomic datasets. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4842. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4842


To investigate a possible correlation between cytodifferentiation, proliferation, and actin expression, smooth muscle cells from the 9-week-old rabbit aortic media were enzyme-dispersed into single cells and were plated in primary culture at different initial seeding densities. The volume fraction of myofilaments (Vv myo) in cells seeded moderately densely fell from 39.5% +/- 1.2% in the intact aortic media to 11.5% +/- 1.6% on Day 5, one day before the onset of logarithmic growth. The Vv myo remained low over the next 3 days, then began to rise as the density of cells increased, returning almost to the original levels after confluency and 1.84 cumulative population doublings (CPD). The expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin mRNA followed a similar time course of change, falling from 84.7% +/- 1.2% of total actin mRNA in freshly isolated cells to 54.0% +/- 6.5% on Day 5, returning to 87.5% +/- 0.5% after confluency. In these cultures, the alpha-smooth muscle actin protein content was 93.7% +/- 2.9% of total actin in freshly isolated cells, 68.7% +/- 3.1% on Day 5, and 73.3% +/- 2.5% 3 days after confluency. In densely seeded cultures, the Vv myo and expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin mRNA fell only slightly on Day 5 and rose to original levels upon confluency after 0.33 CPD. However, at the protein level, alpha-smooth muscle actin decreased on Day 5 and remained low on Day 12. The Vv myo, alpha-smooth muscle actin mRNA, and actin protein of sparsely seeded cells fell on Day 5 and then remained low throughout the culture period, including 5 days after confluency (Day 24), when the cells had undergone 5.37 CPD. Cells that were maintained subconfluent but quiescent on Day 7 in culture had the same low Vv myo, low alpha-actin mRNA expression, and low alpha-actin protein content as actively proliferating cells. The results show that Vv myo and alpha-smooth muscle actin mRNA undergo parallel changes during primary culture according to seeding density, but not to replication, and that alpha-smooth muscle actin protein decreases in culture then remains low irrespective of culture conditions.


The O I (³P → ¹D) transition cross section has been remeasured for a new set of incident energies. In addition, a new O2 (a ¹Δg ← X ³Σg−) reference cross section set has been used to normalize the relative measurements. The previous results of Doering and Gulcicek (1989) have been revised to reflect the improved reference cross section set. The new results combined with the revised Doering and Gulcicek (1989) values show that theory and experiment are in excellent agreement at incident energies greater than 9 eV. However, at lower incident energies, the experimental cross section rises to a sharp peak near 6 eV. The peak in the experimental cross section is 5.4 × 10−17 cm² (±35%) at 6 eV, approximately a factor of 2 larger than the theoretical cross section. The shape of this cross section vs. incident energy has many implications for aeronomy.


Ultrabright fluorescent particles (UFPs) have attracted increasing attention because of their outstanding signal amplification functions. However, there is still an urgent demand for designing novel UFPs with new components or structures as the existing ones can not satisfy the practical requirements due to their inherent disadvantages. Here we propose a novel ultrabright fluorescent particle platform by doping dyes of 5-aminofluorescein (5-AF) into silica core-based spherical poly (acrylic acid) brushes (SiO2@PAA@5-AF) and discuss their fundamental structure-fluorescence tuning principles. A series of brushes with different polymer chain lengths are successfully synthesized and then loaded with 5-AF through chemical binding. The high loading amount, suitable density or distribution, and enhanced quantum yield (QY) of 5-AF due to the amide bond formation with PAA chains on brushes are concluded as the three major reasons for the ultrabrightness of SiO2@PAA@5-AF. Therefore, a 2350 ± 445 times brighter brush particle in comparison to a single quantum dot (QD) is realized, and a 2.1 ± 0.4 times fluorescence improvement of a brush vs. a QD normalized by volume is also achieved when taking the hydrodynamic diameter into consideration (∼300 nm vs. ∼30 nm). Moreover, the excellent tolerance stabilities in normally applied environments and outstanding label effects to form 4-plexed encoded beads are demonstrated as well. The results in this work strongly indicate a promising potential of SiO2@PAA@5-AF as an ultrabright and stable signal amplification tool for biomedical related sensing, labeling, and biodetection.


On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy blew through the largely populated areas of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. It was, at the time, the largest storm in the region's history. While many areas lost electricity from the electrical grid, the few buildings equipped with Combined Heat and Power ("CHP") remained lit and heated. For example, many residential and commercial facilities lost power for days after the storm, but natural gas powered CHP systems at the Co-Op City apartment complex and New York University, Fairfield University, and Princeton University kept their buildings functioning. According to Ross Tomlin, an employee of Gulf Coast Clean Energy Application Center of the Department of Energy, "because CHP relies on natural gas delivered through underground pipelines, [the systems] can weather just about any storm." But minimizing the effects of natural disasters is only one of CHP's many benefits. CHP is the process of capturing heat from existing heat sources, such as boilers, and using the heat to power energy sources, such as steam-powered turbines, to create electricity, hot water, and heat. The technology not only reduces energy costs through efficiency—at least twenty to thirty percent more efficient than separate heat and power systems—but it also protects the environment by burning less fuel, and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. While this technology has seen continued barriers over the years, one company, Recycled Energy Development ("RED"), recognized that "the US lags far behind the world leaders when it comes to producing energy through [CHP]" and has taken steps to utilize the technology. The average increase in energy costs for households between 2001 and 2012 was forty-three percent. This increase in energy costs affects consumers and businesses alike, with electricity costs topping many businesses' lists of expenses. America undeniably faces a severe energy crisis both in the private sector, due to rising energy costs, and in the public sector, due to gridlock in government. Among the many green energy technologies currently available, CHP is "the least sexy" and considered "a 'homeless' suite of technologies" when compared to solar, wind, and hydropower energy systems. Recently, however, the federal government gave CHP a second look as it attempted to educate state governments and companies about the benefits of the CHP technology. The severe lack of effective and efficient state government incentive programs is hindering the CHP technology from reaching its full potential of providing cheap, sustainable power to businesses. This Comment will argue that, given the policy benefits of the CHP technology, the federal government should create an organization to establish and monitor a CHP legislative blueprint with three financial incentive program options; states should establish two of those three financial incentive programs; and states should include CHP in their Renewable Portfolio Standards. This Comment will analyze the financial barriers hindering effective widespread use of CHP among private sector companies, examine current effective and ineffective state financial incentive programs, and determine which financial incentive regulations the federal government should include in the legislative blueprint. Because this is mainly a state law issue, no "one size fits all" approach will suffice; however, a legislative blueprint can educate state legislatures about the financial incentives that can be put in place to allow for effective and widespread use of the CHP technology. Such a legislative blueprint must include: 1) a rebate for installed costs of the technology, 2) a feed-in tariff to entice companies to re-funnel excess power through the grid system, and 3) a provision of grants to companies who successfully complete CHP installations. Section II includes a background discussion of the CHP technology that will help facilitate an understanding of how the technology works and what financial incentives previously existed. Section III includes an analysis of financial incentives, illustrated by state examples that will help analyze how the incentives operate. Section IV includes an analysis of states with little financial incentive programs and demonstrates why it hinders the CHP technology. Section V discusses the proposed solution to this problem, as introduced above.


Wine phenolics have been reported to have health benefits, including protection against cardiovascular diseases and anticarcinogenic effects. White wines are usually made with the free-running juices without pomace, which has no contact with the grape skins. This is the main reason that the phenolic content of white wines is lower than that of red wines. However, white wine phenols have a comparable or higher antioxidant capacity than red wine phenols. Therefore, it is important to determine which phenolic compounds are present in white wines and which factors affect phenolic composition. We studied the influence of several factors, including variety and different technological processes, on phenolic composition. Significant differences were observed when any of these variables were considered. Consequently, if wine makers were to take these factors into consideration, the possible beneficial effects of their wines could be increased.


Field trials were conducted in 2004 and 2005 to identify sulfonylurea (SU) herbicides that would provide improved weed control, minimal soil residual, and crop safety to SU-resistant chicory. SU-resistant chicory had previously been selected in vitro for resistance to chlorsulfuron. Our research evaluated three commercial, nonresistant and three breeding lines of SU-resistant chicory. Each of the cultivars was treated POST at the two true-leaf growth stage with either foramsulfuron, rimsulfuron, rimsulfuron plus thifensulfuron, tribenuron, thifensulfuron, thifensulfuron plus tribenuron, triflusulfuron, flumetsulam, or imazamox at normal use rates. Established plant densities and root yields of SU-resistant chicory breeding lines were greater than or equal to the densities and root yields of commercial cultivars. The plant density of commercial chicory cultivars was reduced by rimsulfuron, rimsulfuron plus thifensulfuron, tribenuron, and thifensulfuron plus tribenuron, but SU-herbicides did not reduce the density of SU-resistant breeding lines. SU-resistant chicory differed in cross-resistance to SU-herbicides, with tribenuron causing the most crop injury and thifensulfuron, the least. Weed control varied between the SU-herbicides. The greatest reduction in weed biomass occurred with tribenuron, thifensulfuron plus tribenuron, and rimsulfuron plus thifensulfuron; the least reduction occurred with triflusulfuron, foramsulfuron, and rimsulfuron. Chicory root yields comparable to the hand-weeded treatment were achieved with rimsulfuron plus thifensulfuron and thifensulfuron plus tribenuron treatments. The SU herbicides that met the initial project objectives of crop tolerance and improved weed control were combinations of rimsulfuron plus thifensulfuron and thifensulfuron plus tribenuron. Nomenclature: Imazamox; flumetsulam; foramsulfuron; rimsulfuron; thifensulfuron; tribenuron; triflusulfuron; chicory, Cichorium intybus L. 'Beryl', 'Orchies', 'Turquoise', 'FD 28', 'FD 29', 'FD 30'.


Landslides are caused by changes in the structure of subsurface materials on steep slopes due to weathered rock conditions and soil pores in saturated conditions. This study used the geoelectric resistivity method to identify the type and structure of subsurface materials in landslide-susceptible areas in the Pacet-Trawas road corridor, in Pacet District, Mojokerto Regency. The research location was an area with undulating to mountainous morphology. The geoelectrical resistivity configuration used was dipole-dipole with a measuring path length of 100 meters at three measurement points. The measurement location was based on geological formations and the distribution of landslide points along the Pacet-Trawas road corridor. The three 2D models produced showed resistivity values between 8.11 Ohm.m to 390 Ohm.m. The subsurface materials consisted of groundwater, volcanic breccia, lava rock, tuffaceous breccia, conglomerate, and andesite-basaltic at a depth of 1.5 meters to 25 meters below the ground surface. The research area was dominated by the parent rock structure of lava, volcanic breccia, basalt, and andesite. Locations with a high landslide threat were located at points two and three with subsurface materials of the conglomerate type and volcanic breccia.
Keywords: geoelectrical resistivity, dipole-dipole, subsurface material


This paper show-cases and investigates two events in 1966 (Billy Klüver's 9 Evenings and Knut Wiggens' Visions of the Present ) that both can be seen as feed-back from an advanced Nordic art-tech-scene to an international scene from which appeared (at least) two different visions for technology and art that are still with us today. One vision could be termed a 'Nordic vision', which wanted art to be critical of and find alternatives to an increasingly technologically dominated culture and society; the other vision could be called a 'new American vision', but its roots were the same Nordic context. However, in this vision art is seen as a vehicle to techno-creative experiments, good at testing and creating 'new' more effective machines and solutions (ultimately, playing into the politically motivated competition with the Soviet Union at the time, most symbolically carried out in NASA's Apollo program and plan to land on the moon). Whereas the first vision remains a primarily North-European techno-critical discourse, the second gave birth to a 'New Media Art' and a pervasive design-driven discourse which dominates the global art-tech discourses today.


A doubled population 11-folded its Carbon consumption over the last 50 years to the #1 resource used, comprising 57% of global resource management. But in contrary to other resources like iron ore Carbon is used in a way as if it was a one-way package of energy and not consequently recycled for multiple re-use [1]. Whether in Agriculture or the Energy sector Carbon's role in Nature and Environment is grossly misjudged. Concerning Climate Change mitigation efforts, the world is misleadingly focused on Energy only, although the real battle will have to be won in Agriculture!


Trinorlabdane 1,5-diketones (7, 10a,b, 13a,b), which are easily prepared from labdane diterpenes, are directly converted into the corresponding 7-oxo-13-hydroxy-8,11,13-podocarpatrienes, immediate precursors of bioactive compounds, under basic treatment. Utilizing this strategy, the first enantiospecific synthesis of 13-hydroxy-8,11,13-podocarpatriene (20), a constituent of Taiwania cryptomerioides, was achieved starting from (-)-sclareol (5) after a seven-step sequence in 55% overall yield.


The Tanzania Disaster Management act of 2015 defines Vulnerability as the extent to which a community, structure, services, or geographical areas is prone to a particular hazard. The objective of this paper to document the extent of which Kondoa District is vulnerable to drought. The district is located along the border of two regions, namely Manyara and Arusha. The paper employed secondary data as main sources of data. These data were obtained from the district files, profile, documents report and research report written about the district. The study was based on the Pressure and Release Model (PAR) which developed by author Blaikie, et al. and modified by Wisner, et al. The finding reveals that the population is vulnerable to drought because of land degradation, low production, poor transportation and infrastructure, low price of commodities, poor market and a poor method of cultivation and a weather-related problem such as shortage of rainfall. No significant measures were taken by authorities to address the matter.


Mobile molecular communication (MC) attracts much attention in recent years where mobile nanomachines exchange information using molecules. In this paper, we consider a diffusion-based mobile MC system consisting of a pair of diffusive nanomachines. Due to the Brownian motion of nanomachines, the communication distance between the transmitter and the receiver is dynamic. Thus, the channel impulse response (CIR) is a stochastic process. The stochastic CIR brings the difficulty in the detection process. Contrast to the common static MC characterized by the deterministic CIR, in a mobile MC system, the receiver needs to estimate the dynamic distance for CIR reconstruction and detection threshold setting at each bit interval, which achieve high computational complexity. To tackle these difficulties, a new detection technique for mobile MC is proposed in this paper. It is unnecessary to estimate the dynamic communication distance at each bit interval. Instead, the receiver estimates the initial distance between it and the transmitter. The estimated initial distance can be used to reconstruct the statistical characteristics of CIR, setting detection threshold for all the bit intervals in advance. To achieve this goal, a novel two-step scheme based on maximum likelihood (ML) is proposed to estimate the initial distance. In the first step, the transmitter releases some molecules as a pilot signal before the information bits transmission. Then the receiver estimates releasing distance by observations of received signal. In the second step, the estimated value obtained in the previous step is used to estimate the initial distance by ML estimation. The performances of proposed two-step scheme and the detection technique are evaluated via particle-based simulation of the Brownian motion.


A possibility of identifying endocrine argyrophil cells of the fundic glands of man by the method of impregnation with argentum after Grimelius in sectional material was studied. The cells detected by this method were found to be enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cells. Enterochromaffin (EC) cells in the autopsy material were not retained. Morphotopographic characteristics of ECL-cells in sectional material and bioptic specimens of the gastric mucosa were identical. One of the manifestations of post-mortem changes was adhesion of specific argyrophil granules contained in ECL-cells.


The aim of this thesis is to apply computer technology, specifically data management systems, (commonly referred to as computer databases) to the study of the social history of the Royal Navy of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815). The muster, and to a lesser extent, pay and log books of three British Royal Navy frigates of the period HMS Trent, Amazon and Glenmore have been transcribed onto a series of Microsoft Access databases. The databases have then been interrogated in order to produce statistical information that has been applied to specific questions relating to the social history of the Royal Navy of the period.

The emphasis of the thesis is the men of the lower deck although one chapter looks specifically at commissioned officer development. The major questions addressed revolve around the duties of the ships and men (Chapter 2)recruitment of men to the three ships (Chapter 3), the use of child labour (Chapter 4), the recruitment and development of volunteers new to the sea (Chapter 5)and the development and career prospects of midshipmen.

The thesis provides a unique view of the men and boys who served on board Royal Navy vessels of the period that is not reliant on controversial memoirs but concentrates on exploiting primary sources recorded on a day-to-day basis. The findings demonstrate that the use of computer databases is a powerful weapon in the naval historian's armoury and have made a significant contribution towards answering some important social questions regarding the lower deck of Nelson's navy.


The global strategy of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from China started to emerge recently. While sizable components of their strategy and behavior are consistent with what we observe of MNEs from other countries, Chinese MNEs are characterized by three relatively unique aspects: (1) the previously underappreciated role played by the home country governments of MNEs as an institutional force, (2) the challenge of going abroad in the absence of significantly superior technological and managerial resources, and (3) the rapid adoption of (often high-profile) acquisitions as a primary mode of entry. Overall, this article argues that these three relatively unique aspects of emerging multinationals from China will have significant ramifications for future theory building and empirical efforts of the global strategy research community. Copyright © 2012 Strategic Management Society.


And a braking pressure calculating device 100 is to obtain the target value of the target cylinder pressure of the pressure in the brake cylinder 104 of the air brake, the target cylinder pressure obtaining section 120, a deceleration differential information acquisition section 141, and a target cylinder pressure correction value acquisition unit 142. the Target cylinder pressure obtaining section 120 is based on a required braking force and the target cylinder pressure correction value and obtains a target cylinder pressure. Deceleration difference information acquisition unit 141 also acquires the difference information indicating the difference between the deceleration and the actual value of the target deceleration and the deceleration. Target cylinder pressure correction value acquisition unit 142 has a deceleration on the basis of the difference information and acquires the target cylinder pressure correction value.


There have been reports of associations of infections with non-retroviral RNA viruses and tumour development. A hypothesis is proposed as to how non-retroviral RNA viruses may play a role in the development of neoplasia. It is based on a recent report of the detection of complementary DNA (cDNA) of the RNA virus lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus in mouse and hamster cells. This lends credence to the claim made in 1975 of the detection of cDNA copies of genomic DNA of three non-retroviral RNA viruses integrated into the DNA of host cells. Briefly, the hypothesis proposes that at least one cDNA fragment of a non-retroviral RNA virus is synthesized and integrated into the genome of the host cell in a way that could lead or contribute to tumour development. General approaches for testing the hypothesis are outlined.


This paper presents a synchronous 50% duty-cycle clock generator (DCCG). The proposed DCCG circuit comprises of a clock generator and a phase error integrator. The clock generator is edge-triggered by an input signal to produce an output whose pulse width is determined by a delay line. The delay line is controlled by the phase error integrator which detects the phase difference between the input and output signals. The proposed DCCG is designed such that when the phase error is zeroed, i.e., the input and output signals are synchronized, the delay is properly adjusted and the output signal duty cycle converges to 50%. The proposed DCCG is implemented in a 0.35-μm CMOS process. The circuit can operate from 70 to 500 MHz, and accommodates a wide range of input duty cycle ranging from 5% to 95%. The duty-cycle error of the output signal is less than 1.5%. Operated from a 3.3-V supply voltage, this circuit dissipates 7 mA at 500 MHz.


Abstract:This essay argues that the Situationist International (1957–72) and its early concepts of psychogeography (a city's sensorial impact on its residents), dérive (drift), and détournement (rerouting, recontextualization) can enliven our thinking about recent politically charged events—namely, a performance of Katori Hall's Our Lady of Kibeho at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City on December 4, 2014, and a spontaneous Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstration on August 14, 2014. Constellating or connecting these sites is the experience of the city under capitalism: Paris for the situationists (1950s and '60s), and a gentrified and redeveloped midtown Manhattan (1980s–2010s) for Hall's Kibeho and the BLM demonstration. For the situationists, postwar capitalism—or the "spectacle"—induced habits of passive consumption and alienation. Le Corbusier–style urban planning exacerbated this alienation and destroyed the liveliness of Parisian streets. By contrast, the situationist drift was a creative pedestrian practice responding to the emotional currents of the city—a negation of the passivity on which consumerism depends. The iconic situationist map, "The Naked City," uniquely records the effects of situationist drifts even as it wittily détourns the title of a famous film noir. Turning to New York, the essay discusses the cleanup of Forty-second Street and Times Square through development and gentrification, tools of what Neil Smith calls a "revanchist" city, one that puts corporate profits over the needs of its working poor and indigent citizens. Yet, developers were granted zoning exemptions to build higher and wider if they included theatres in their plans. The Signature Center, part of the MiMa apartment tower on Forty-second and Tenth Avenue, is a fortuitous part of this complex development story. This became clear, the essay suggests, when, at the third curtain call for Our Lady of Kibeho, the actors boldly raised their arms in the "hands up/don't shoot" gesture, thus linking their artistic effort to the antiracist, anticapitalist politics of the BLM movement—indeed, to the spontaneous BLM march up Broadway to Times Square and back down to Forty-second Street that took place four months earlier. Those marchers, the essay suggests, reactivated the city by behaving like situationist drifters, dodging around police barriers and tourist buses and bringing midtown Manhattan and a tourist-filled Times Square to a standstill. If a situationist-style map were to be made, the Signature Center and Times Square would become linked across time as revolutionary hubs of resistance. In sum, situationist theory and practice speaks across the decades, providing playful tools for imagining and enacting political resistance.


A combination of synthetic, organic, and biochemical approaches has been developed to study how protein and nucleic acid assemblies modulate the affinity, specificity and cooperativity of protein–nucleic acid interactions. These strategies have enabled formation of noncovalent peptide dimers on specific DNA sequences. A new framework from RNA and peptide into a stable complex of ribonucleopeptide was also developed to construct receptors and fluorescent sensors for small molecules. Attempts to design novel DNA-binding peptides, receptors and sensors will provide an ultimate test for our understanding of the principle of molecular recognition associated with protein–nucleic acid interactions.


This paper empirically investigates a possible convergence among the operational efficiency of financial institutions across countries. We explore (i) the relative performance of banking industries in two samples (European and global) over time, and (ii) whether banking industries are likely to attain the same level of efficiency in the long run as implied by international financial integration. We find that convergence in bank efficiency is incomplete and limited to European banking industries. Differing level of bank efficiencies across the globe may offer opportunities for international investors who would like to capitalize on such market imperfections. Our findings also have implications for policy makers who are concerned with the full integration and the stability of the global financial system.


A set of data-processing middleware for a high-powered neutral beam injection (NBI) control system is presented in this paper. The middleware, based on TCP/IP and multi-threading technologies, focuses mainly on data processing and transmission. It separates the data processing and compression from data acquisition and storage. It provides universal transmitting interfaces for different software circumstances, such as WinCC, LabView and other measurement systems. The experimental data acquired on Windows, QNX and Linux platforms are processed by the middleware and sent to the monitoring applications. There are three middleware deployment models: serial processing, parallel processing and alternate serial processing. By using these models, the middleware solves real-time data-processing problems on heterogeneous environmental acquisition hardware with different operating systems and data applications.


In this thesis we investigate the properties of k-closures of certain finite permutation groups. Given a permutation group G on a finite set Ω, for k ≥ 1, the k-closure G(k) of G is the largest subgroup of Sym(Ω) with the same orbits as G on the set Ωk of k-tuples from Ω. The first problem in this thesis is to study the 3-closures of affine permutation groups. In 1992, Praeger and Saxl showed if G is a finite primitive group and k ≥ 2 then either G(k) and G have the same socle or (G(k), G) is known. In the case where the socle of G is an elementary abelian group, so that G is a primitive group of affine transformations of a finite vector space, the fact that G(k) has the same socle as G gives little information about the relative sizes of the two groups G and G(k). In this thesis we use Aschbacher's Theorem for subgroups of finite general linear groups to show that, if G ≤ AGL(d, p) is an affine permutation group which is not 3-transitive, then for any point α ∈ Ω, Gα and (G(3) ∩ AGL(d, p))α lie in the same Aschbacher class. Our results rely on a detailed analysis of the 2-closures of subgroups of general linear groups acting on non-zero vectors and are independent of the finite simple group classification. In addition, modifying the work of Praeger and Saxl in [47], we are able to give an explicit list of affine primitive permutation groups G for which G(3) is not affine. The second research problem is to give a partial positive answer to the so-called Polycirculant Conjecture, which states that every transitive 2-closed permutation group contains a semiregular element, that is, a permutation whose cycles all have the same length. This would imply that every vertex-transitive graph has a semiregular automorphism. In this thesis we make substantial progress on the Polycirculant Conjecture by proving that every vertex-transitive, locally-quasiprimitive graph has a semiregular automorphism. The main ingredient of the proof is the determination of all biquasiprimitive permutation groups with no semiregular elements. Publications arising from this thesis are [17, 54].


Only half of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients in deep molecular remission are able to maintain treatment free remission (TFR) after tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) discontinuation. Identifying predictive markers for TFR remains a key issue. The immunological control or eradication of TKI insensitive leukemic stem cells may contribute to successful cessation, as recent work has demonstrated that differences in immune cell compositions can be associated with better probability of TFR.
 In order to understand the precise immunological changes in CML, we profiled over 170,000 cells from 25 CML samples from different clinical phases (untreated, during TKI therapy and after TKI cessation) using single-cell RNA and T cell receptor (TCR) αβ sequencing (scRNA+TCRab-seq). We profiled both CD45+ sorted peripheral blood samples (n=20) and CD34+ sorted bone marrow samples (n=5). To understand antigen-specific responses, we profiled TCRs specific to tumor-antigen PR1 (n=12) and compared these to unsorted TCRβ-sequenced samples from CML (n=137) and healthy donors (n=786).
 To understand the distinctive immunological features in CML, we compared the immune system in CML (n=20) to those in other hematological and solid malignancies profiled with scRNA+TCRab-seq (n=9). We discovered NK cells to be the most unique feature in CML, as NK CD56dim cells were more abundant in CML patients (Padj<0.001) and the NK cell repertoire was more transcriptionally heterogenous and included otherwise rarely seen exhausted NK population with upregulated HAVCR2 and TIGIT expression (Padj <0.0001). Further, the NK cell maturation changed during TKI-treatment from an effector CD56dim state towards an adaptive NK-cell state.
 We sought to understand whether the immunological activity differs before and after TKI discontinuation in different clinical outcomes following discontinuation. Therefore, we reclustered the discontinuation samples from three different outcomes: TFR, early relapse (<6 months after cessation) or late relapse (>6 months). In all clinical outcomes, TKI cessation invigorated NK cell exhaustion and the most upregulated pathways included IFNg and TNFa via NFkB pathways. Patients with successful TFR had less differences in their immune system after cessation in comparison to relapsing patients, which could hint that their immune subsets were better prepared for the cessation. Unlike the early relapse patients' quiescent immune cells, the late relapse patients' immune subsets were active, but under pronounced inhibitory Treg signals, providing a clinically interesting approach to alter the outcome of these patients.
 Next, to understand how malignant CML cells evade or interact with the immune system, we analyzed CD34+ cells and calculated a BCR-ABL1 activity score. The most primitive CD34+ cells had lower BCR-ABL1 score and not as many immunological ligand-receptor pairs as their less primitive, highly BCR-ABL1 pathway expressing, counterparts (P<0.0001). LGALS9, that is expressed on both BCR-ABL1 high and low CD34+ cells, arose as one of the most interesting ligands mediating tumor-immune cell interactions and it has many potential receptors expressed by NK cells, including HAVCR2.
 Finally, we found that tumor-antigen PR1 is preferentially expressed on CD34+ cells with high BCR-ABL1 score. Most TCRs recognizing PR1 are restricted to individuals, but they share short amino-acid motifs that are shared across patients. Thus, we were able to generate an in silico tool to recognize PR1-specific TCRs from unsorted TCR-seq samples with high accuracy (AUC 0.91 from 10-fold cross validation). With our tool, we were able to show that anti-PR1 responses were more frequent in CML than in healthy donors (P<0.0001), are more expanded in bone-marrow than in blood (P<0.0001) and diversified during TKI treatment (P<0.0001). In the scRNA+TCRab-seq data, the anti-PR1 response differed between TFR and early relapse patient significantly at phenotype level, where the TFR patient had cytotoxic anti-leukemic response before TKI cessation, in comparison to the early relapse patient's exhausted and less cytotoxic PR1-specific cells.
 In conclusion, our results provide high-resolution insights into anti-leukemic immune responses in CML and how we could harness and monitor them to enable successful TKI cessations.
 Figure

 Olsson-Strömberg: Pfizer: Research Funding. Hjorth-Hansen:Pfizer: Honoraria, Research Funding; Austrian Orphan Pharma: Honoraria, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding. Mustjoki:Pfizer: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; BMS: Honoraria, Research Funding.


The Court of Justice of the European Union (Second Chamber) pronounced on 11th November 2010 a judgement in the proceedings between Ms Dita Danosa and LKB Lizings SIA, a limited liability company, concerning the decision of the LKB general meeting of shareholders to remove Ms Danosa from her post as a member of the company's board of directors during her pregnancy. The Court's ruling could have significant repercussions on the appointment and termination of membership in board of directors of capital companies in Europe. Authors analyse the corporate effects of the judgement in various countries from the position of the dogmatics of Company Law and emphasise the difference of the contractual and corporate relationship between the company and members of the board of directors. When analysing the ruling of the Court authors also point out the differences between public limited companies (both dual and single board systems) and limited liability companies in the position of the members of the board of directors in the area  of the termination of membership in the board.


Reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI) have been implicated in the interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)-induced anti-microbial action of macrophages against a wide variety of pathogens. We have been studying the production of NO2- by macrophage lines derived from the bone marrow of either B10.A (Bcgs) strain mice (B10S cell lines), or their congenic BCG-resistant partners of the B10A.Bcgr (Bcgr) strain (B10R cell lines). We have discovered that there is a significant difference in the production of NO2- of B10S compared with B10R macrophages in response to IFN-gamma. By 48 hr following treatment with 10 U/ml IFN-gamma, B10R macrophages had produced an approximately threefold higher level of NO2- than B10S macrophages. Similar results were obtained when experiments were performed with total splenic cells harvested from the spleens of B10.A.Bcgr and B10.A strain mice. The bacteriostatic activity, as assessed by the [3H]uracil incorporation by Mycobacterium bovis BCG, was higher in B10R macrophages compared to B10S macrophages. The bacteriostatic activity of B10R and B10S macrophages correlated with the amount of nitric oxide produced by the macrophages. The anti-mycobacterial activity was inhibited by NgMMLA, a specific inhibitor of nitrite and nitrate synthesis from L-arginine. Addition of L-arginine to IFN-gamma-stimulated macrophages in the presence of NgMMLA restored nitrite production and bacteriostatic activity of macrophages. Northern blot analysis of macrophage nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) revealed that the difference in NO2- production by IFN-gamma-treated B10S and B10R lines was reflective of the difference in iNOS mRNA expression.


The collected book enhances current economic understanding of the firm as an institution and an organization, looking beyond the narrow boundaries of neoclassical economics to an interdisciplinary approach integrating accounting with law and economics. It represents the first synthesis of the authors' research work on the subject and provides the groundwork for the development of a comprehensive framework centred on the firm as an enterprise entity. The volume starts with a synthesis and a critique of the current state of the theory of the firm and further develops them through new insights and neglected lessons from different traditions of thought. The economic theory and analysis of the firm is given new insights here by looking at the firm as a whole and a dynamic system: as an institution and an organization, which has special functions and a distinct role in the economy and society. The current economic theories of the firm leaves some key issues fundamentally open. Recent crises in corporate governance and disclosure highlight the deficiencies and shortcomings of received approaches. The managerial and enforcement recommendations they advocate imply poor policy and sometimes huge economic and societal losses. In fact, at the time of high theory, great scholars have already raised the issues of the firm and suggested challenging ways to understand its role in the economy and society. In this context, the contribution of the book consists in: (i) general essays, that pay attention to these insightful lessons from the past that presently are at least partially neglected; (ii) specific essays, that contribute to the enhancement of the interdisciplinary perspective by exploring its consequences and implications for accounting, ontology, law and economics, business finance, and the governance of the firm as an enterprise entity; and (iii) reprints of often rare or neglected essays by H. Simon, M. Shubik, R. Coase, A.A. Berle jr., R.N. Anthony, J.H. Stauss, that allow the reader to rediscover the work of previous authors, issues and ideas, and shall prove to be fundamental in enhancing the interdisciplinary approach offered by the collection.


The arrival azimuths of coherent microbarom signals observed in Hawaii during 2003 are associated with high ocean wave activity in the Pacific Basin, the dominant wind directions in the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere, and the thermal structure of the atmosphere. Some of the seasonal trends in the microbarom observations can be explained by the winds in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere, while some of the daily variability can be explained by the winds in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. However, coherent energy from powerful swells may overcome the wind‐carried microbarom signals and arrive to the station through thermospheric ducting. Our observations suggest that either (1) the wind speeds in the troposphere, stratosphere and mesosphere may be underestimated in atmospheric models or (2) elevated leaky infrasonic waveguides are persistent propagation paths that should be investigated in more detail.


The expressiveness of the C/C++ preprocessing facility enables the development of highly configurable source code. However, the usage of language constructs like macros also bears the potential of resulting in highly incomprehensible and unmaintainable code, which is due to the flexibility and the "cryptic" nature of the preprocessor language. This could be overcome if suitable analysis tools were available for preprocessor-related issues, however, this is not the case (for instance, none of the modern Integrated Development Environments provides features to efficiently analyze and browse macro usage). A conspicuous problem in software maintenance is the correct (safe and efficient) management of change. In particular, due to the aforementioned reasons, determining efficiently the impact of a change in a specific macro definition is not yet possible. In this paper, we describe a method for the impact analysis of macro definitions, which significantly differs from the previous approaches. We reveal and analyze the dependencies among macro-related program points using the so-called macro slices.


Abstract Historically, interest in the infectious agents of prairie grouse (Tympanuchus spp.) (PG) mirrored trends in how North American wildlife scientists perceived host–parasite interactions. Increased ecological interest in host–parasite interactions since the 1980s led to increased awareness of PG–parasite interactions beginning in the 1990s Prairie grouse are hosts to parasitic arthropods (e.g., lice, mites, ticks) and helminths (e.g., nematodes, cestodes, trematodes), as well as microparasites such as protozoa, bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Although many of these infectious agents cause disease individual PG, few data address their potential influence on host population dynamics Based on existing data on the parasites of PG, studies of other grouse species, and the oretical perspectives, the macroparasites Dispharynx nasuta and Trichostrongylus cramae; the microparasites Eimeria dispersa, E. angusta, Leucocytozoon bonasae, and Plasmodium pedioecetii; and the infectious bronchitis and reticuloendotheliosis viruses exhibit characteristics that suggest they have the potential to regulate PG populations. Infectious agents such as Histomonas meleagridis, Pasteurella multocida, dispersa, E. angusta, and other microparasites that cause high mortality across a broad range of galliform hosts have the potential to extirpate small, isolated PG popu lations. Nonparasitic diseases caused by mycotoxins, pesticides, and other toxic com pounds also have the potential to influence population dynamics. Because there appears to be a behavioral component to PG population extinction, the fact that para sites might influence breeding behavior also requires further evaluation. Although it difficult to establish whether parasites regulate their host populations, research models such as that associated with T. tenuis in red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus) available for reference. These approaches could be used to determine whether relevant macro- and microparasites influence the dynamics of declining or at-risk PG pop ulations. Natural-resource policy-makers must become aware that macro- and microparasites of PG are not something they can safely ignore and should fund research designed to determine whether parasites regulate or have the potential to extirpate PG populations while there is still time for management intervention.


A placebo drug is defined as a treatment without any specific pharmacological efficacy, that works when the patient thinks to receive an active treatment, through a psychological and physiological mechanism. This study aimed to evaluate the use of placebo in French hospitals, in Polyvalent Medicine units. A questionnaire comprising 15 items was sent to 372 units. The analysis of 153 responses was conducted from dynamic crosstabs in Excel and using the R software available online. The survey confirmed that the use of placebos in hospital is frequent, with nearly 2/3 of professionals answering the questionnaire declared to use it. The oral capsule is the most commonly used form. Placebo is mainly administered at night, in case of pain, insomnia or anxiety, to so-called "difficult" patients. Placebo is not always given after medical prescription. In most cases, patients are not informed that they receive a placebo. The majority of professionals believed in the placebo effect but considered to be insufficiently informed and trained in the use of placebo in current practice. Although the placebo effect is now demonstrated, ethical and legal considerations recommend placebo treatment only on medical prescription, with the prior information of the patient. The placebo could be used as complementary therapy to conventional treatment in the cases of this therapeutic effectiveness has been demonstrated. Professionals should be trained in the use of placebo in order to avoid nocebo effect and potentiate beneficial effects of placebo.


In the ferric sulfate solution, benzene can be oxidized to phenol with a good yield above 170°C, when not irradiated, but at lower temperatures, when irradiated. In the ferrous sulfate solution, the yield of phenol is independent of irradiation, and somewhat larger than in the irradiated ferric sulfate solution. Such a high yield of phenol is due to the complexing of hydroxycyclohexadienyl peroxy radical, produced with OH radical and oxygen dissolved, with ferrous ions.


The Golgi apparatus is known to underpin many important cellular homeostatic functions, including trafficking, sorting and modifications of proteins or lipids. These functions are dysregulated in neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases, and the number of disease-related genes associated with Golgi apparatus is on the increase. Recently, many studies have suggested that the mutations in the genes encoding Golgi resident proteins can trigger the occurrence of diseases. By summarizing the pathogenesis of these genetic diseases, it was found that most of these diseases have defects in membrane trafficking. Such defects typically result in mislocalization of proteins, impaired glycosylation of proteins, and the accumulation of undegraded proteins. In the present review, we aim to understand the patterns of mutations in the genes encoding Golgi resident proteins and decipher the interplay between Golgi resident proteins and membrane trafficking pathway in cells. Furthermore, the detection of Golgi resident protein in human serum samples has the potential to be used as a diagnostic tool for diseases, and its central role in membrane trafficking pathways provides possible targets for disease therapy. Thus, we also introduced the clinical value of Golgi apparatus in the present review.


Colin Rowe's 'Transparency' is one of core ideas applied to 20th Modern Architecture. It implies not only an optical characteristic, the perfectly clear, but also a broader spacial order, a simultaneous perception of different spacial locations. The former connected with physical attribute itself, and the latter deeply with the metaphorical idea of time, 'Simultaneity', embodying a new spacial quality. However, If we analyze the meaning of "Simultaneity" implicated in "Transparency" with the perspective of Henry Bergson's "Duration", there would be only little possibility as a solution to the problem of embodying a new spacial quality in architecture. As such a question emerging, this paper attempts to point out the problem of Colin Rowe's idea, "Simultaneity", and suggest a new architectural design method to overcome its inconsistency by interpretation and application of Bergson's "Image and Rhythm".


"Policy Pathways to Health in the Russian Federation" was the name given to a project implemented in 2002-04 by IIASA in collaboration with the institute for Socio-economic Studies of Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The core activity of the project was organizing a workshop, held at IIASA in September 2003, at which national and international researchers and policy makers shared information and insights. Through workshop papers and discussions, sources of the poor health situation in Russia ranging from bad health behaviors to inadequate health care financing were discussed and analyzed. The focus throughout was on possible policy responses.

This IIASA Interim REport presents the Proceedings of the Workshop, followed by the workshop program and list of participants given as Annexes 1 and 2. The presentations published are condensed versions of project papers available at the workshop web site www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/RMS/TACIS03/?sb=19.


: The flow dynamics of two-dimensional liquid jets issued into still air were experimentally studied. Three injectors with a thickness of 0.35 mm and aspect ratios of 30, 60 and 90 were used. The experiments were performed for volume flow rates ranging from 10 to 120 liter per hour. High speed photography was employed for capturing physics of the jet flows. The flow development of two-dimensional liquid jets was categorized into four groups including 1) dripping regime, 2) column regime, 3) triangular regime, and 4) perforation regime. Also, different parameters of liquid sheet such as convergence angle, convergence length, and retraction velocity were also measured. The obtained results showed that the convergence length of the jets increases with aspect ratio. Furthermore, it was revealed that the convergence angle and retraction velocity were independent of the aspect ratio. Based on the experimental data, several empirical relations were developed for description of different flow parameters.


Risk management has been a topic of great interest to Michael McAleer. Even as recent as 2020, his paper on risk management for COVID-19 was published. In his memory, this article is focused on bankruptcy risk in financial firms. For financial institutions in particular, banks are considered special, given that they perform risk management functions that are unique. Risks in banking arise from both internal and external factors. The GFC underlined the need for comprehensive risk management, and researchers since then have been working towards fulfilling that need. Similarly, the central banks across the world have begun periodic stress-testing of banks' ability to withstand shocks. This paper investigates the machine-learning and statistical techniques used in the literature on bank failure prediction. The study finds that though considerable progress has been made using advanced statistical and computational techniques, given the complex nature of banking risk, the ability of statistical techniques to predict bank failures is limited. Machine-learning-based models are increasingly becoming popular due to their significant predictive ability. The paper also suggests the directions for future research.


Background

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a major cause of fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Since meconium microbiome is a critical component for the health of newborns, the aim of this study was to characterize the meconium microbiota in neonates with FGR compared with healthy controls.
Methods

To avoid bacteria contamination, all included neonates were delivered by elective C-section, with their samples collected in the operation room. We collected meconium samples from 14 neonates affected by FGR and 20 matched healthy newborns. The microbiome profiles were examined by using high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing and analyzed with customized bioinformatics pipelines.
Results

The β-diversity analysis demonstrated that FGR neonates clustered together that was distinct from control subjects. A number of taxa were found to be significantly depleted (e.g., Chryseobacterium) or enriched (e.g., Asticcacaulis) in the FGR group. In addition, the coordination network between various intestinal bacteria was found to be altered in FGR neonates.
Conclusions

FGR neonates exhibited alterations in the composition and symbiosis of microbiome, which will contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between the gut microbiota and FGR.


Astroblepidae face numerous threats in Ecuador, and their range is thought to be decreasing in most basins due to urban development, agriculture, oil and mineral extraction, dams, and introduction of exotic species. In the Napo River Basin, one of the largest and most-diverse river basins in Ecuador, Astroblepus vaillanti is also potentially being displaced by rainbow trout (Onchorynchus mykiss) introductions at higher altitudes, yet no published information exists on the habitat requirements and distribution of the species. In this study, we developed species–habitat relationships for a suite of physico-chemical variables and compared abundances of A. vaillanti in streams heavily impacted by agriculture and less impacted streams. Interestingly, we found significantly higher abundances of A. vaillanti in heavily impacted streams. We also found that A. vaillanti abundance was positively related to stream temperature, whereas the inverse was true for rainbow trout. Our study highlights the need for further study to understand the habitat requirements and diet of A. vaillanti as well as the impacts of rainbow trout on the species to inform conservation efforts of the species.


The section below contains reports on bioarchaeological remains recovered in the excavations in Areas D and C in the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, Poros, between 2003 and 2005. The excavations were directed by the late Berit Wells within a research project named Physical Environment and Daily Life in the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia (Poros). The main objective of the project was to study what changed and what remained constant over time in the everyday life and in both the built and physical environment in an important sanctuary of the ancient Greeks. The bioarchaeological remains, of a crucial importance for this type of study, were collected both by means of traditional archaeological excavation and by processing extensively collected soil samples. This text aims to providing the theoretical and archaeological background for the analyses that follow.


A sodium metal anode protected by an ion-rich polymeric membrane exhibits enhanced stability and high-Columbic efficiency cycling. Formed in situ via electropolymerization of functional imidazolium-type ionic liquid monomers, the polymer membrane protects the metal against parasitic reactions with electrolyte and, for fundamental reasons, inhibits dendrite formation and growth. The effectiveness of the membrane is demonstrated using direct visualization of sodium electrodeposition.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions


An efficient approach for the designing of ophthalmic lenses, based on the optimization of the aspherical surface coefficients is presented. We show that five optimization constraints are enough to both reduce the aberrations and prevent the development of inflection points along the aspherical surface. In particular, we solve the inflection point problem by counting the second derivative of the sag with respect to the height of the aspherical surface as one of the constraints. The design data indicate that nonconicoidal aspheric lenses can be made thinner and flatter than the equivalent spherical or conicoidal lenses. The traditional damped least-squares methods are used and design results are given for both aspherical negative lenses and aspherical positive lenses.


The results of organ-saving surgery performed for kidney tumor T1.2N0M0 in 21 patients are presented. The renal pole or a tumor-bearing sector of the parenchyma of the kidney was resected in all cases. Metastases developed in the retroperitoneal lymph nodes 6-9 months after pole resection in 2 cases of pT2N0M0 tumor in whom no lymphadenoctomy had been carried out. The remaining 19 patients have survived 6-48 months without any signs of recurrence or metastasis. Organ-saving surgery for kidney tumor T1N0M0 should be considered justified provided lymphadenectomy is performed.


The consumption domain is where an individual and objects are put in contact, pursuing sense, producing social meanings and distinctions. Concerning symbolisms and consumption meanings, products have been an excellent source of information about their consumers. At the same time, consumers' choices are made through a great variety of reasons, not easy to be predicted or understood. But frequently, consumers rely on the social meaning of products to mold their own image and talk about themselves through the customized goods that are consumed.. The present study aims at understanding the relation between the extended self construct and the consumption of luxury branded clothing among male homosexuals. In other words, it aims at figuring out how specific products, herein the luxury clothing market, may be considered in the extended self composition of such consumers. In this way, an exploratory qualitative survey was carried out. A bibliographic review over the related topics pointed out significant particularities within the market for luxurious products as well as showed a review over marketing principles linked to brands, focusing in its image and identity aspects. Finally, it brought back the theory of the extended self and its application to the consumer behavior. Following that, 12 in-depth-interviews took place with representative individuals within this subculture, aiming at picking up and analyzing their perception towards the focused matter. Qualitative information has been added, with deep analysis of the interviewees' perceptions, through the application of form with the Likert scale. Such approach aimed at evaluating the incorporation of clothing items to their extended self. Items which they have pointed out as relevant in their consumption of brands considered luxurious. At the end a conclusion is presented, showing that luxury brands clothing may have both a central or peripheral role in the composition of male homosexuals extended self.


We demonstrate a volatile organic compounds (VOC) gas detection using silicon based microring resonator devices. Polymer is chemically attached to sidewall of silicon waveguide and microring as a cladding layer. Absorption of VOC gases into the polymer film induces a resonance wavelength shift. A detection limit of 10 part per million (ppm) for both toluene and acetone has been achieved.


Activation of connexin hemichannels is involved in the pathophysiology of disorders that include deafness, stroke, and cardiac infarct. This aspect makes hemichannels an attractive therapeutic target. Unfortunately, most available inhibitors are not selective or isoform specific, which hampers their translational application. The absence of a battery of useful inhibitors is due in part to the absence of simple screening assays for the discovery of hemichannel-active drugs. Here, we present an assay that we have recently developed to assess hemichannel function. The assay is based on the expression of functional human connexins in a genetically modified bacterial strain deficient in K+ uptake. These modified cells do not grow in low-K+ medium, but functional expression of connexin hemichannels allows K+ uptake and growth. This cell-growth-based assay is simple, robust, and easily scalable to high-throughput multi-well platforms.


Introduction: This study examines participation patterns and environmental supports and barriers for children with and without disabilities within their home setting. Method: The Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (PEM-CY) is a newly developed, reliable parent/caregiver-report tool, which combines assessment of children's participation and the environment. The PEM-CY was completed online by 576 parents of children or youth (5 to 17 years old) with and without disabilities from Canada and the United States. ANOVA analyses were performed to examine group differences in PEM-CY summary scores. Item-level differences are presented descriptively using radar plots. Results: After controlling for age and income, significant differences between children with and without disabilities were observed for all home-based PEM-CY participation and environment summary scores. Differences between the two groups were also evident at the item level, particularly when comparing the percentage of children and youth who never participate in specific home-based activities and when comparing perceived barriers to participation. Conclusion: Although all children and youth participate frequently in home-based activities, those with disabilities tend to participate in less complex and quieter/sedentary activities. This, in addition to parental report of environmental barriers to participation, highlights the potential importance of home-based occupational therapy intervention to optimise participation in this setting.


Four separate studies were conducted to evaluate the feed value of indigenous browses of Botswana. In the first study, browse seeds from nine Acacia species were analysed for proximate composition and in vitro dry matter digestibility. Nutrient composition of the seeds varied, crude protein content of Acacia robusta was 12.52 p.100 while Acacia erubescens was 21.82 p.100. The second study was to evaluate the influence of processing on fibre content and in vitro digestibility of seeds from five browse species using three physical forms of the seeds namely whole seeds, coarsely ground and finely ground. Physical forms of the seeds affected the neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre and dry matter digestibility of all seeds evaluated. The third study was to evaluate the tannin content and crude protein degradation of leaves and twigs from indigenous Acacia species in Botswana rangelands. Correlation between crude protein was found to be negative (-0.582). The fourth study was a feeding trial lasting 98 days using 12 yearling Tswana malegoats fed buffalo grass hay as basal diet and Acacia fleckii or Acacia tortilis as supplements and lucerne to the control group to evaluate animal performance on these browses. Average daily dry matter intake of goats on Acacia fleckii as supplement was 768.40 g and 790.79 g for those on Acacia tortilis as supplements. The average daily body weight gain was higher for goats on lucerne 81 g compared to 72 g and 76 g for those on Acacia fleckii and Acacia tortilis as supplements respectively. Goats fed on the Acacia species consumed the leaves, twigs and even the thorns leaving only the stalks.


In April 2002, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) released guidance on cost effective pharmacological treatment of tobacco addiction.1 This endorsement allows every health authority in England and Wales to provide nicotine replacement or bupropion for patients who are dependent on tobacco and request treatment. Whether smokers will ask for and receive these drugs depends on many factors. Two scenarios, from the United Kingdom and the United States, illustrate the struggle between the press and medical experts to investigate and report concerns about the safety of new drugs for smoking cessation and the effect this struggle has on reported attempts to quit smoking.

The NHS advanced the treatment of the tobacco dependence movement with three initiatives: a white paper that established a priority for the treatment of tobacco dependence in 1998,2 a national plan for expanded smoking cessation services launched in 1999-2000, and the approval of bupropion in 2000 and nicotine replacement in 2001 for inclusion in the NHS reimbursement scheme. The Royal College of Physicians …


The effect of alpha-tocopherol on in vitro proliferation of murine splenic lymphocyte cultures supplemented with various concentrations of the vitamin has been measured at sub-optimal, optimal and supra-optimal levels of the T-cell mitogen Concanavalin A (Con A). In the concentration range (1-25 micrograms/ml), tocopherol enhanced proliferation when administered up to 24 hours after exposure to sub-optimal and optimal concentrations of Con A; however, at supra-optimal levels of the mitogen, it appeared to inhibit proliferation. In the concentration range 50-100 micrograms/ml, tocopherol supplementation only enhanced proliferation in response to sub-optimal concentration of Con A. The spontaneous proliferation of lymphocytes in the absence of mitogens was increased by tocopherol supplementation at all concentrations tested. In contrast, there appeared to be only slight stimulation of B-cell proliferation in response to optimal concentration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) by lower levels of vitamin E. Tocopherol supplementation of cultures over a broad range of concentrations (0.5-100 micrograms/ml) had no significant effect on cell viability before onset of proliferation at 18 hours after exposure to Con A, nor was there evidence of earlier onset of DNA synthesis in response to mitogen in the presence of 5 micrograms/ml of the vitamin. Although macrophage depletion of cultures impaired proliferation induced by Con A, tocopherol supplementation continued to stimulate proliferation at optimal and sub-optimal levels of mitogen.


Geochemical zoning of the high-sulfide (40–45 wt.% sulfides) and low-carbonate (3 wt.% dolomite) waste at the Berikul gold mine, Kemerovo region, Russia, was studied in order to understand the processes controlling As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn migration from the waste. The following zones were distinguished from bottom to top: (1) slightly altered waste, (2) cemented hardpan zone, (3) melanterite zone, (4) intermediate zone and (5) jarosite zone. A sequential scheme of extraction was used to separate (a) water-soluble, (b) exchangeable, (c) carbonate, (d) phases bound with Fe 3+ , and (e) residual fractions of Fe, As, Zn, Cu and Cd. The two basal zones reflect an early stage of weathering, where acid generated by sulfide oxidation is neutralized by carbonate. Neutralization processes promote coprecipitation of As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in Fe 3+ phases, such as amorphous Fe sulfo-arsenate and jarosite. An intermediate stage, recorded in the melanterite and intermediate zones, is identified by the disappearance of the carbonates and a decrease in the pH of pore solutions. At low pH, sulfides are oxidized by Fe 3+ , producing Fe 2+ , SO 4 2− , and liberating As, Zn, Cu and Cd, which accumulate in the pore water. This step results in the precipitation of Zn-, Cu- and Cd-bearing melanterite. The intermediate stage of weathering continues until most of the sulfide fraction has been oxidized. Then, as shown in the upper jarosite zone, the concentration of Fe 3+ again increases in the pore waters because it is not being utilized in sulfide oxidation, and Fe 3+ phases, such as jarosite, precipitate. By this stage, significant amounts of As, Zn, Cu and Cd have been leached from the weathered residue, but Pb precipitates in the jarosite.


This paper deals with the diagnosability of discrete event systems (DES) modeled by labeled Petri nets (LPNs). An additional parameter K ∈ ℕ, which is the number of observable events after an unobservable fault to ensure diagnosability, is discussed. With the incremental search of K, we transform the diagnosability problem into a series of K-diagnosability problems. For bounded diagnosable systems, Kmin, the minimum value of K to ensure diagnosability, can be eventually found. The state space is generated on the fly, without investigation of unnecessary states. This is a notable advantage compared with some existing methods, since just a part of the state space can often be sufficient to assess diagnosability.


The mesolimbic dopaminergic system has been implicated in mediating morphine and electroacupuncture analgesia. In the present study, Fos immunoreactivity was used as a marker of neuronal activity to investigate if electroacupuncture could activate the dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. Electroacupuncture stimulation significantly increased the number of Fos-positive dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), whereas no significant c-fos expression in the dopaminergic neurons was observed in the substantia nigra (SN). These results indicate that the VTA rather than the SN may play a role in mediating electroacupuncture analgesia.


Introduction Obese asthmatics appear to benefit more from antileukotriene drugs when compared with leaner asthmatics. However, it is unknown whether leukotriene (LT) levels are associated with body mass index (BMI) or leptin in these patients. Objective Describe the association of BMI and leptin with serum and urine leukotriene levels in asthmatics and nonasthmatic adults. Methods Moderate to severe asthmatics and nonasthmatic controls were invited to participate. All asthmatics were free from an exacerbation, were current nonsmokers, had an FEV1/FVC > 0.70, and were on inhaled corticosteroids. Participants provided urine samples for urinary LTE4 and plasma samples for LTB4, LTE4, and adipokines. All subjects also performed spirometry and exhaled nitric oxide (NO). Results A total of 65 asthmatics and 43 controls participated in the study. The average BMI was 32 (95% CI 31-35) in asthmatic subjects and 31 (29-33) in controls. A total of 54% of asthmatics were taking monteleukast. In asthmatics, the levels of plasma LTB4, LTE4, und urinary LTE4 (pg/mL) were 106 (95% CI 94-118), 620 (546-694), and 1,077 (846-1,309) respectively, whereas in controls these were 102 (80-125), 625 (537-714), and 1,050 (876-1,225). These levels were not statistically different. Plasma LTE4 levels were marginally lower in obese asthmatics compared with asthmatics with normal BMI (p = .06). Urinary LTE4 was also associated with increased exhaled isoprostane levels, independent of BMI (p Conclusions There were no consistent associations between BMI and leptin with leukotriene levels. Urinary LTE4 does appear to be associated with airway oxidation in asthmatics, independent of BMI.


The aim of this qualitative study is to investigate how young citizens engage with urban inquiries activities on Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). This work analyses how educators can design and assess short inquiry activities as well as how students use a PLE to interact and collaborate for creating scientific questions. Participants of this qualitative study were 5 researchers from Higher Education, 2 science teachers and a class with 26 teenagers of a secondary school in the UK. The outcomes indicate the most popular pedagogical tools used by teachers and researchers, the most used co-inquiry components by learners, difficulties and recommendations for implementing urban inquiries through two open platforms: weSPOT and nQuire.


Bone-conducted (BC) speech in an extremely noisy environment is stable against surrounding noise so that it may be able to be used instead of air-conducted (AC) speech for communication. However, it has very poor sound quality and its intelligibility is degraded when transmitted through bone conduction. Therefore, voice-quality and the intelligibility of BC speech need to be blindly improved in actual speech communication and this is a challenging new topic in the speech signalprocessing field. We proposed an LP-based model to restore BC speech to improve its voice-quality in a previous study. While other methods such as Long-term Fourier transform need to use numerous AC speech parameters to restore BC speech, the proposed model can blindly restore BC speech by predicting BCLP coefficients from AC-LP coefficients. We improved the proposed model by (1) extending long-term processing to framebasis processing, (2) using LSF coefficients on LP representation, and (3) using a recurrent neural network for predicting parameters. We evaluated the improved model in comparison with other models to find out whether the model could adequately improve voice quality and the intelligibility of BC speech, using objective measures (LSD, MCD, and LCD) and carrying out Modified Rhyme Tests (MRTs). An evaluation of these three improvements to the LP-based model proved the practicability of blind-BC restoration.


Software lives longer than most organizations expect-a mean age of 9.4 years for applications of fundamental importance to the organization, according to one study. And it is living longer than before, up from 4.75 years in 1980. Nonetheless, software should live longer yet. Long-living software has many advantages. First, as a software application survives, it works. It benefits the organization that created it and the users that use it, and it pays back its development cost. Second, as a software application survives, it changes continually, functionality being added and modified to meet changing needs. In this continual evolution or maintenance, software fulfills one of its characterizing functions: its modifiability, its capacity for change, its softness. Functions are embodied in software instead of in hardware expressly because they can be changed. Change, and the resources that go into change, are its mission. Finally, as a software application survives, its quality improves. Errors are encountered or found, and removed. An operational profile emerges, and the software is adapted to it. The users who access it and the applications that connect to it explore, exploit, and optimize its capabilities.


Secnidazole is a nitroimidazole anti-infective agent which has chemical structure susceptible to degradation. It shows activity against anaerobic micro-organisms and appears effective in the treatment of amoebiasis, giardiasis, trichomoniasis and bacterial vaginosis. In this work forced degradation studies of secnidazole were carried out by developed & validated spectroscopic method. A simple, accurate, precise and economical spectroscopic method have been developed and validated for the determination of secnidazole in their bulk and pharmaceutical formulation at 320 λ max in double distilled water by using UV-spectrophotometer. Beer's law was obeyed in the concentration range of 4-12 ppm. Good accuracy (90.50%), precision (%RSD 1.50), LOD (0.33μg/ml), LOQ (1.003μg/ml) and linearity (0.993) were obtained. The stress degradation study was carried out according to the ICH requirements (Q1A (R2) and Q1B) include acid, alkali, H2O2, and photolytic degradation. The result showed that the drug degrades more under alkaline (37.76%) and acidic (21.33%) condition than other stress conditions. The proposed method and stress degradation study can be used for routine quality control analysis of secnidazole in bulk and pharmaceutical formulation.


Background: Current studies have indicated a high ratio of psychological problems in functional dyspepsia (FD) which causes disturbance in its management, so recognition these problems help the process of treatment. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with a sample size of 4763 carried out in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2011. Modified ROME III questionnaire was used to evaluate FD symptoms. Hospital anxiety and depression scale and 12-item General Health Questionnaire-12 was used to assess the psychological issue. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association of psychological problems and FD. Results: We showed that overly 654 (13.7%), 1338 (28.1%), and 1067 (22.4%) of participants, respectively had anxiety, depression, and of psychological distress. Seven hundred and ten (15.5%) participants were diagnosed with FD. Of all participants Mean scores of anxiety (P < 0.001), depression (P < 0.001), and psychological distress (P < 0.001) in participants with FD were significantly more than those with no FD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that psychological problems, whether in the form of psychological distress odds ratio (OR): 2 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3–3) and OR: 1.3 (95% CI: 1.1–1.7) in males and females, respectively, anxiety OR: 2.4 (95% CI: 1.5–3.9) and OR: 2.3 (95% CI: 1.7–3.2) in males and females, respectively) or depression OR: 2.2 (95% CI: 1.5–3.3) and OR: 1.7 (95% CI: 1.3–2.3) in males and females, respectively) were significantly linked to FD in both genders. Conclusions: The prevalence of FD is less in males than females, but psychological links were stronger in males. Thus, it is essential to consider and detect the psychological distress in these patients.


To the Editor: Where are the readers? In several years of reading]VIB, I have watched eagerly for material to appear about the those faceless voices in the recording booths, the readers of bookson-tape. High-tech and computerese seem the constant topic of discussion, but unless voice synthesizers have reached a state-of-the-art beyond my awareness, our services as human voices are still needed. I am beginning my third year of reading for the blind and visually disabled and have recorded over 2,250,000 feet of tape. I read for the Volunteers of Vacaville, Inc., a.k.a. "The Blind Project" located at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville. Our work is utilized by private clients throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as textbook reading for C.D.H.S., Special Education, Cal. Dept. of Education. Where are the readers of tomorrow going to come from? With time as a more precious commodity, who can sit in a recording booth 5 to 8 hours per day? An important niche of human ecology would be overlooked, a reciprocity of needs missed, if the huge incarcerated population of the United States were passed by as a resource of human service. Men and women in prison have a surplus of time and insufficient meaningful and constructive programming to occupy their days. The Volunteers of Vacaville has abundantly proven over its 28-year history the positive influence a prison population can be to the blind population, and vice versa. We do receive frequent enquiries from various correctional facilities throughout the U.S., beginning to see us as a pilot project for expansion of this trend. Glad as I am to see this occurring, I realize it cannot adequately fill the need. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, a Lutheransponsored group called Ephphatha Services produces material for the blind. Many churchand temple-related recording and transcribing guilds exist around the country, and the message I hear is that attracting new, fresh talent is proving difficult in these times. Bow may we better draw together the people who need each other? Unfortunately, in our prison environment those persons who qualify as readers are few and far between. Simply knowing how to read subvocally is a quantum world away from reading aloud. The educational mean in prison is very low, and much material is too sophisticated for the general readers. But what about the many schools of broadcasting and radio announcing in the U.S.? Why not a hands-on feel of experience with very gifted and critical listeners? On a closing note, where may our listeners have an open forum to evaluate the quality of our recordings? They should speak out more publicly, and dare to be critical of us when we are not at our best, dare to share some criticisms I've heard of Talking Books, and other organizations. We, the various groups who read books on tape, need such fair and reasonable criticism, or approval, if we are to improve the quality of reading for the blind. I think it time we spoke our words more than on tape, and not artificially synthesized but from the heart. Readers and listeners, please, speak out so as not to be drowned by all this hightech hullaballoo. We forget so easily the Emperor's New Clothes were nada. Stephan H. Johnsrud C-17326 P-220 P.O. Box 2000 Vacaville, CA 95696


The various skills and talents that need to be developed in the librarians for their professional growth and enhancement are discussed. Copyright, web knowledge, research skills and interview skills are identified to be some of the key factors that need to be introduced to these librarians.


We present three examples how complex spatio-temporal patterns can be linked to hyperchaotic attractors in dynamical systems consisting of nonlinear biochemical oscillators coupled linearly with diffusion terms. The systems involved are: (a) a two-variable oscillator with two consecutive autocatalytic reactions derived from the Lotka–Volterra scheme; (b) a minimal two-variable oscillator with one first-order autocatalytic reaction; (c) a three-variable oscillator with first-order feedback lacking autocatalysis. The dynamics of a finite number of coupled biochemical oscillators may account for complex patterns in compartmentalized living systems like cells or tissue, and may be tested experimentally in coupled microreactors.


Feature economy is a principle of sound systems according to which languages tend to maximise the ratio of sounds over features. The major goal of this study is to confirm the predictions of feature economy at the synchronic level, using an objective sampling technique applied to a genetically and areally balanced sample of the world's languages. It also shows that feature economy can be used as a tool in phonological feature analysis, and offers voiced aspirates, voiceless sonorants and various types of glottalised sounds as illustrations. Feature economy applies not only to distinctive feature values, but to redundant values of features that are distinctive or phonologically active elsewhere in the system. Feature economy cannot be reduced to a purely phonetic principle of gesture economy, but may reflect a general principle of linguistic organisation according to which the active categories of a grammatical system tend to be used to maximal effect.


Linkage disequilibrium (LD, association of allelic states across loci) is poorly understood by many evolutionary biologists, but as technology for multilocus sampling improves, we ignore LD at our peril. If we sample variation at 10 loci in an organism with 20 chromosomes, we can reasonably treat them as 10 'independent witnesses' of the evolutionary process. If instead, we sample variation at 1000 loci, many are bound to be close together on a chromosome. With only one or two crossovers per meiosis, associations between close neighbours decay so slowly that even LD created far in the past will not have dissipated, so we cannot treat the 1000 loci as independent witnesses (Barton ). This means that as marker density on genomes increases classic analyses assuming independent loci become mired in the problem of overconfidence: if 1000 independent witnesses are assumed, and that number should be much lower, any conclusion will be overconfident. This is of special concern because our literature suffers from a strong publication bias towards confident answers, even when they turn out to be wrong (Knowles ). In contrast, analyses that take into account associations across loci both control for overconfidence and can inform us about LD generating events far in the past, for example human/Neanderthal admixture (Fu et al. ). With increased marker density, biologists must increase their awareness of LD and, in this issue of Molecular Ecology Resources, Kemppainen et al. ( ) make software available that can only help in this process: LDna allows patterns of LD in a data set to be explored using tools borrowed from network analysis. This has great potential, but realizing that potential requires understanding LD.


There are as many sign languages as there are deaf communities in the world. Linguists have been collecting corpora of different sign languages and annotating them extensively in order to study and understand their properties. On the other hand, the field of computer vision has approached the sign language recognition problem as a grand challenge and research efforts have intensified in the last 20 years. However, corpora collected for studying linguistic properties are often not suitable for sign language recognition as the statistical methods used in the field require large amounts of data. Recently, with the availability of inexpensive depth cameras, groups from the computer vision community have started collecting corpora with large number of repetitions for sign language recognition research. In this paper, we present the BosphorusSign Turkish Sign Language corpus, which consists of 855 sign and phrase samples from the health, finance and everyday life domains. The corpus is collected using the state-of-the-art Microsoft Kinect v2 depth sensor, and will be the first in this sign language research field. Furthermore, there will be annotations rendered by linguists so that the corpus will appeal both to the linguistic and sign language recognition research communities.


This article describes several ways to automatically create music from the XML-formatted execution trace of the resolution of a Constraint Satisfaction Problem. These ways are essentially based on associations between trace events and music events. Multiple channels are used to auralize different informations of the solver's execution. The result is surprisingly musical. The structure of a piece is not linear but follows the shape of a tree (the one used to search for the problem's solutions) and forks into many different detailed developments. We present some of these associations here, with a description of which information of the trace it is possible to hear through the music generated. Finally, the interests, both for a musician and for a programmer, are listed.