Among sequences previously identified as potentially envolved in the resistance versus susceptibility of Theobroma cacao to the fungus Moniliophthora perniciosa, the MLO (Mildew resistance locus O) and the SBP (selenium binding protein) genes were found. The MLO gene is characterized as a plant defense and programmed cell death modulator, and the SBP gene was successfully used to increase the rice resistance to Magnaporthe grisea by plant transformation, among other applications. The objective of this work was to evaluate the expression of the MLO and SBP genes from T. cacao in cacao plants infected by M. perniciosa. Varieties of cacao resistant (TSH1188) and suceptible (Catongo) to M. perniciosa were inoculated with a suspension of fungus basidiospores (2.105. ml-1). After inoculation, the plants were kept for 24h at 25±2oC under 100% of humidity. Apical meristems were harvested in triplicates at 24, 48 and 72 hours after inoculation (hai) and 30, 60 and 90 days after inoculation (dai). Non-inoculated plants (controls) were kept and harvested in the same conditions. Total RNA was extracted using the RNAqueous Kit® (Ambion). First strand cDNA was obtained using the Revertaid Fisrt Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Thermo Scientific, Fermentas). Quantitative PCR (qPCR) of MLO and SBP was obtained using the standard settings of the ABI PRISM 7500 and System of Sequence Detection (SDS) software, v.1.6.3 (Applied Biosystems). The expression levels of MLO and SBP was analyzed on triplicates with the comparative Ct method (2-??Ct) using malate dehydrogenase and actin as endogenous reference genes, and non-inoculated plants (control) were used as a calibrator. At the early stages of infection and in the final stage of the disease, the MLO gene was more expressed in Catongo than in TSH1188. In TSH1188, the highest expression of MLO was observed at 30 dai. The SBP gene was highly expressed in TSH1188 at the late stages after infection while in Catongo, the expression was high at the early stages and then constant until the end of the disease. The involvement in the cacao-M. perniciosa interaction of both MLO and SBP genes is discussed. Financial Support: CNPq, BNB, FINEP/Renorbio, Cirad. (Resume d'auteur)


MicroRNA (miRNA, miR) are an important class of small, non-coding RNAs that function to regulate gene expression through transcriptional repression or degradation of the target transcript. Functionally, miRNAs have emerged as integral components of the oncogenic as well as the tumor suppressor networks, regulating nearly all cellular processes altered during tumor formation. Among these the miR-17-92 cluster has surfaced as a highly over-expressed miRNA with oncogenic properties in several lymphomas and solid tumors, including tumors of the lung, breast colon, pancreas and prostate. In contrast to most solid tumors, two members of this cluster, miR-17 and miR-20a, appear to be under-expressed in specific subtypes of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In this study, we quantified the expression of miR-17 and miR-20a by real-time PCR in lymphocytes from healthy donors (total and CD19+ sorted B-cells), nine tumor B-cell lines, and primary CLL cells (n=83). Compared to normal B-cells, miR-17 and miR-20a were over-expressed in all tumor B-cell lines (3.1 - 33.3 fold). Expression was highest in mantle cell lymphoma cell lines (average ratio 17.2, n=3) as compared to cell lines derived from follicular lymphoma (ratio 10.2, n=1), Burkitt9s lymphoma (average ratio 9.0, n=3), and multiple myeloma (average ratio 3.6, n=2). In contrast, miR-17 and miR-20 were significantly under-expressed in primary CLL cells as compared to normal B-cells (average ratios 0.33 and 0.48 respectively). Epigenetic mechanisms mediated by DNA methylation or the action of the histone deacetylases (HDACs) and related gene repressors represent one such mechanism by which miRNA may be silenced. We therefore evaluated the role of the HDACs in silencing the expression of miR-17 and miR-20 in CLL. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays against HDACs 1-3 revealed that silencing of miR-17 and miR-20a in CLL was associated with increased recruitment of HDAC1 and HDAC2 to the miR-17-92 promoter. Consequently, exposure of primary CLL cells to the HDAC inhibitor panobinostat resulted in the accumulation of the transcriptionally activating chromatin modification, H3K4me3 and re-expression of miR-17 and miR-20a in 22/83 (26%) and 25/83 (30%) cases respectively. Functional evaluation of miR-17/20 revealed that the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1 was a target of miR-17 in subset of CLL cases. Over-expression of anti-apoptotic proteins, including Mcl-1, is frequently observed in CLL and is associated with increased apoptotic resistance. Therefore, HDAC inhibitors may therefore offer a therapeutic strategy whereby the aberrant silencing of miR-17/20a in CLL can be reversed so as to target Mcl-1, thus lowering the apoptotic potential of the CLL cell. Microarray studies are currently ongoing to identify other functionally relevant targets of miR-17 in this disease. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 120. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-120


We have carried out Hall measurement on back-gated graphene field effect transistors (FET) with and without a top dielectric medium. The gate efficiency increases by up to 2 orders of magnitude in the presence of a high κ top dielectric medium, but the mobility does not change significantly. Our measurement further shows that the back-gate capacitance is enhanced dramatically by the top dielectric medium, and the enhancement increases with the size of the top dielectric medium. Our work strongly suggests that the previously reported top dielectric medium-induced charge transport properties of graphene FETs are possibly due to the increase of gate capacitance, rather than enhancement of carrier mobility.


We present a sample of 12 quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) that potentially act as strong gravitational lenses on background emission line galaxies (ELG) or Lyman-α emitters (LAEs) selected through a systematic search of the 297 301 QSOs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III Data Release 12. Candidates were identified by looking for compound spectra, where emission lines at a redshift larger than that of the quasar can be identified in the residuals after a QSO spectral template is subtracted from the observed spectra. The narrow diameter of BOSS fibers (2″) then ensures that the object responsible for the additional emission lines must lie close to the line of sight of the QSO and hence provides a high probability of lensing. Among the 12 candidates identified, nine have definite evidence for the presence of a background ELG identified by at least four higher-redshift nebular emission lines. The remaining three probable candidates present a strong asymmetrical emission line attributed to a background Lyman-α emitter (LAE). The QSO-ELG (QSO-LAE) lens candidates have QSO lens redshifts in the range 0.24 ≲ zQSO ≲ 0.66 (0.75 ≲ zQSO ≲ 1.23 ) and background galaxy redshifts in the range 0.48 ≲ zS, ELG ≲ 0.94 (2.17 ≲ zS, LAE ≲ 4.48). We show that the algorithmic search is complete at > 90% for QSO-ELG systems, whereas it falls at 40−60% for QSO-LAE, depending on the redshift of the source. Upon confirmation of the lensing nature of the systems, this sample may quadruple the number of known QSOs acting as strong lenses. We have determined the completeness of our search, which allows future studies to compute lensing probabilities of galaxies by QSOs and differentiate between different QSO models. Future imaging of the full sample and lens modelling offers a unique approach to study and constrain key properties of QSOs.


3,6-Disubstituted indole derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as inhibitors of human nitric oxide synthase (NOS). Bulky amine containing substitution on the 3-position of the indole ring such as an azabicyclic system showed better selectivity over 5- and 6-membered cyclic amine substitutions. Compound (-)-19 showed the best selectivity for neuronal NOS over endothelial NOS (90-fold) and inducible NOS (309-fold) among the current series. Compounds 16 and (-)-19 were shown to be either inactive or very weak inhibitors of human cytochrome P450 enzymes, indicating a low potential for drug-drug interactions. Compound 16 was shown to reverse thermal hyperalgesia in vivo in the Chung model of neuropathic pain. Compound 16 was also devoid of any significant vasoconstrictive effect in human coronary arteries, associated with the inhibition of human eNOS. These results suggest that 16 may be a useful tool for evaluating the potential role of selective nNOS inhibitors in the treatment of pain such as migraine and CTTH.


This study explored the maternal genetic diversity in the pig genetic resources of India by analyzing a mitochondrial D-loop fragment and comparing it with the corresponding sequences of previously published studies involving domestic pigs and wild boars. Sequencing of 103 samples representing different domestic pig populations revealed existence of 32 maternal haplotypes. The indices of haplotype and nucleotide diversity in Indian domestic pigs were 0.9421 and 0.015, respectively. Median-Joining network revealed that Indian pigs belong to Clade A and show conformity to 6 haplogroups reported worldwide (D1a, D1a1, D1a2, D1e, D1h and D3a). Among these, D1e and D1a2 were shared with Asian wild boars too. Interestingly, haplotype sharing was evident between Indian pigs and samples from other countries representing Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania. This study substantiates India's contribution as a possible pig domestication center and highlights the importance of the Indian subcontinent in dispersal of the species to other continents. Additionally, genetic evidence suggested the influence of trading routes and historical interactions in shaping pig genetic exchange. Overall, this investigation provides valuable insights into the genetic diversity, historical migration, and domestication of Indian domestic pigs, contributing to the broader understanding of global pig genetic resources and their evolutionary history.


The stream habitats are formed by processes originating at
various spatial scales. We analyzed the structure of
oligochaete communities and its relationships to
characteristics of catchment, floodplain, channel morphology
and water chemistry. Substrate type is important component of
habitat characteristics affecting oligochaetes distribution.
The AQEM multihabitat sampling method was used for collecting
macroinvertebrate samples at 24 sites representing gradient of
organic pollution (14 sites) and morphological degradation (10
sites). All sites are small streams situated at altitude
between 200 and 500 m a.s.l., with catchment area ranging from
10 to 50 square km. Biological material was collected during
three periods - summer and autumn 2002 and spring 2003. Site
characteristics were obtained partly from field investigation
and partly from maps and GIS sources. The landuse, runoff
types, geology and slope were evaluated at catchment scale.
Landuse in the floodplain, riparian zone features and
hydromorphological field survey (River Habitat Survey)
represented factors recorded at the scale of river stretch.
Taxonomic composition of aquatic oligochaetes and their
functional role within macroinvertebrate communities were
analyzed. The environmental parameters related to oligochaete
community structure at studied sites were identified using
multivariate statistics. The effect of season was evaluated.


A field-based study was performed to broaden our knowledge of harvesting productivity, cost (stump-to-truck), and log value recovery between cut-to-length (CTL) and whole-tree (WT) harvesting working side-by-side in two mixed-conifer stands in northern Idaho. Each site included two replications of each of the harvesting options. Hourly harvesting productivity ranged from 1,163 to 5,428 ft 3 per productive machine hour (PMH) and 1,350 to 6,552 ft 3 /PMH for the CTL and WT harvesting machines, respectively. This result suggests that the WT harvesting system was more productive than the CTL harvesting because specific tasks were assigned to each machine. Higher productivity of the WT harvesting system resulted in lower harvesting costs, although the hourly machine rate for the WT harvesting system was slightly higher than for the CTL harvesting system. The CTL harvesting system costs were $0.34/ft 3 and $0.36/ft 3 while the WT harvesting costs were $0.22/ft 3 and $0.33/ft 3 at the two sites. Harvesting costs ($/ft 3 ) were highly influenced by skidding or forwarding distance, log length and diameter, and machine combinations. The WT harvesting recovered more sawlogs (large-end diameter > 8 in) and pulpwood (any snag, decayed log or log below mill specified lengths), but less ton-wood (a log of large-end diameter < 8 in and top minimum diameter of 4 in) than the CTL harvesting. Net revenue from the WT harvesting was higher than that from the CTL harvesting.


Dental traumas caused due to sports and other athletic activities are the connecting bridge between sports and dentistry. Studies show that 13-39% of all dental injuries are accounted for sports, out of which 11-18% are maxillofacial injuries. This editorial broadly discusses the interconnection between sports and dentistry. It highlights the importance of Parents', children's, sportspersons', and even dental practitioners' education on this topic of sports dentistry. The significant need for "team dentist" in schools and professional sports teams is also brought into the spotlight. Keywords: Dentistry, Injury, Sport, Trauma.


Most cancers of unknown primary are adenocarcinomas or undifferentiated tumors; less commonly they may be squamous carcinomas, melanoma, soft-tissue sarcoma, or neuroendocrine tumors. Osteoand chondrosarcomas rarely produce cancers of unknown primary. The most common primary sites of cancers of unknown primary are lung and pancreas, followed by colon and stomach, then breast, ovary, prostate, and solid-organ carcinomas of the kidney, thyroid, and liver. Conventional methods used to aid in the identification of the origin of a cancer of unknown primary include a thorough history and physical examination, computed tomography (CT) scans of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis; routine laboratory studies; and targeted evaluation of specific signs and symptoms. (2)


Construction business comprises a number of small and medium-sized contractors which form the major part of the industry. The existing research on the new ICT development is creating more and more sophisticated and complex systems which may not be applicable to the construction industry. With regard to general limitations as design criteria, this research used a collaborative approach to develop a cost control system for small and medium-sized contractors. Five suitable contractors were selected to participate in this research study. The new efficient cost control system can be developed using available ICT tools which are familiar and easy-to-learn. A collaborative approach can ensure the diffusion of technology to these companies.


Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are widely used in a variety of products, such as pigments, paints, paper, plastics, cosmetics, nano-fibers, food coloring and photovoltaic cells, and the industry is growing at anexponential rate. It is believed that by 2025, 2.5 million tons of nano-TiO2 will be manufactured annually. Thus far, there has been very little research in the environmental impact of nano-TiO2. There is a need to understand the fate and transport of nanoTiO2 to mitigate their effect on human health, the ecosystems and the environment in general. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of pH, flow rate and ionic strength on the deposition of nano-TiO2 in a saturated porous media (sand). Nano-TiO2 formed aggregates in solutions that had a pH near the point of zero charge for TiO2, which is at approximately pH 6.2 for TiO2. The formed aggregates showed very little mobility due to site blocking in the pores of the sandy medium, whereas at pH 7.5, the solutions' concentration was more stable than at pH 6.3 and more mobile up to 10 mM. Above 10 mM, a decrease in mobility, due to reduction in repulsive energy interaction between the medium and the nanoparticles could be observed. Flow rate had also a marked effect on the deposition, i.e., the slower the flow rate, the higher on deposition, because of an increase in attachment efficiency. To verify the experimental results, a finite element solution of the reactive transport equation in one dimension was used to compare the fit between observed and simulated results. The model was run in inverse mode, to determine unknown parameter values such as dispersivity and detachment rate. In general, it was possible to obtain a good fit to theexperimental BTCs.


Subclinical hyperthyroidism is defined as serum thyroid hormone levels within their respective reference ranges in the presence of low-undetectable serum thyrotropin-stimulating hormone levels. Subclinical hyperthyroidism is associated with important cardiovascular risk factors and negative effects on bone metabolism and structure. However, there are conflicting results on cardiovascular mortality and the risk of bone fractures. Treatment and management of subclinical hyperthyroidism is controversial. This article will address the necessity to treat this disorder in relation to the cause of hyperthyroidism, the patient's age, the degree of thyroid-stimulating hormone suppression and the presence of comorbidities.


During the 1940's various developments occurred, separately, in Europe, related to applications of gassolid chromatography with elution development. This chapter describes the contributions of Prof. Erika Cremer of the University of Innsbruck, Austria, to this technique, with attention to her theoretical and quantitative treatments and to the instrumentation constructed for these purposes.


Well-stocked mature longleaf pine (Pinus palust r is Mill . ) s tands were cut tofive res idual basal areas in 1957, namely 9,18,2 7.36, and 45 ft' per ac, to observe the effect of s tand densi ty on seed product ion and seedl ing establ ishment . Seedl ings, mainly from the 195.5 or 1961 seed crops, were establ ished in treated stands. Al l pines on net 0.9 ac plots were remeasured in I991 to determine rhe effect of res idual pine den@ on development of the regenerat ion. Even the l ightest residual overstory converted the structure of 29to ?Syr-old ingrowth in to rhe reverse-Jdiameter class dis tr ibut ion characteris t ic of uneven-aged stands. Four or s ix residual trees , now compris ing 7 co IO ft' basal area (ba)lac, reduced ingrowth basal area to about half that of same-aged stands releasedfrom overstory competi t ion. Merchantable volume of ingrowth under these low residual densi t ies averaged 40% of that in released stands. Mean annual per ac volume increment of ingrowth averaged 21 to 22 fi" under the 9 fedens@ but did not exceed 7fti under any residual densi ty above this . The potent ia l impact of signi f icant growth reduct ions should be taken into account when considering uneven-aged management methods for longleaf pine. South. J. Appi. For. 17( I ):IO-IS. L ongleaf pine (Pinuspalustris Mill .) is generally considered the most intolerant of the southern pines (Baker 1949). It is notoriously intolerant of competition from any source, espycially overtopping trees including parent pines. Longleaf pine regeneration in old-growth forests was largely confined to openings where it was free to develop (Wahlenberg 1946), and some seedlings could reach a fire-resistant size in a relatively short time. The early growth of seedlings under a pine canopy, if they survive, is very slow (Boyer 1975, Maple 1977), even under a light overstory. Growth rapidly declines as overstory density increases. About 70% of the growth reduction observed under an overstory of 90 ft* ba/ac was reached under 30 ft* (Boyer 1963). Thecompeti t ive influenceof individual seed trees or forest wal ls on longleaf pine seedlings decreases with distance, but may extend 50 ft or more from the base of parent trees into an opening, well beyond the influenceof thecrown (Smith 1955, Walker and Davis 1956, Boyer 1963). This suggests competi t ion for moisture and nutr ients . The competi t ion zone seems to extend farther from the parent tree on poor than on good si tes . As an early successional species, maintained through periodic fire, longleaf pine has appeared best adapted to management in even-aged stands. Alternatives to traditional evenaged management are now being promoted for this species. They include uneven-aged management, such as group selection, and also variations on even-aged management that 10 SJAF 17(l) I993 include retention of a few or many residual trees through all or most of a second rotation, resulting in a stand comprised of two distinct age classes. Such alternatives to conventional even-aged management wil l maintain a relat ively continuous cover of mature trees and are expected to improve and extend habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker and other fauna and flora associated with these condit ions. The potential impact of residual t rees on the development, structure, and yield of the replacement stand is not known due to the lack of information on the long-term growth response of longleaf pine regeneration retained under a parent dverstory. Such information is needed in order to adequately evaluate the consequences of management systems that lead to stands consist ing of two or more age classes. An opportunity to gain some timely information on the question of s tand development under residual longleaf pines was available on the Escambia Experimental Forest' in southwest Alabama. There, a study was begun in 1957 to determine the effect of longleaf pine s tand densi ty on seed production and seedling establishment. Longleaf pine regeneration was established shortly before or soon after parent stands were thinned to prescribed densi t ies . Two addit ional s tudies, superimposed on parts of the original s tudy, provided some information on development of the regeneration. I Maintained by the Southern Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service. i n c o o p e r a t i o n w i t h t h e T . R . M i l l e r M i l l C o m p a n y .


The translation of the Hebrew phrase צוד היום נדול (literally "the day is still big") in Genesis 29:7 in the Hebrew Bible is shown to be problematic in the large variety of translations that exist for this phrase. In Biblical Hebrew words and phrases have traditionally been translated literally, based on dictionaries which were written according to certain linguistic methodologies. The comparative philological and structuralist approaches failed to provide a solution to this problem, as can clearly be seen in the differing translations. This paper suggests that there is conceptual metaphor underlying this phrase which should be identified. The phrase in Genesis 29:7 is analysed according to the cognitive metaphor theory. The cultural and social background of this phrase is also discussed. Based and the analysis conceptual metaphor is suggested, namely A DAY IS A CONTAINER WITH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES. A new translation for this verse is also suggested.


The interannual variability of near-coastal eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones is described using a data set of cyclone tracks constructed from U.S. and Mexican oceanic and atmospheric reports for the period 1951-2006. Near-coastal cyclone counts are enumerated monthly, allowing us to distinguish interannual variability during different phases of the May-November tropical cyclone season. In these data more tropical cyclones affect the Pacific coast in May-July, the early months of the tropical cyclone season, during La Nina years, when equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures are anomalously cool, than during El Nino years. The difference in early season cyclone counts between La Nina and El Nino years was particularlypronounced during the mid-twentieth century epoch when cool equatorial temperatures were enhanced as described by an index of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Composite maps from years with high and low near-coastal cyclone counts show that the atmospheric circulation anomalies associated with cool sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific are consistent with preferential steering of tropical cyclones northeastward toward the west coast of Mexico.


The purpose of this panel is to present a broad range of best practices of SOA strategization and operationalization in the use of Web services in real-world SOA implementations. The focus will be on the common challenges and issues encountered in SOA projects. Topics include, but are not limited to, tenets, methodology, architecture, service management, standards, tools, process, organization, governance, security, and quality of services. Practitioner's guides and anti-patterns as well as trends will be discussed in the context. Real-life pragmatic solutions to business problems will be exemplified and illustrated in case studies.


Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive cancer with poor patient prognosis. A cellular stress response mechanism called the unfolded protein response (UPR) has been implicated in PDAC progression. More recently, nucleobindin 1 (NUCB1), a calcium-binding protein, has been shown to control the UPR but its precise role in PDAC has not been explored. Here, we found that downregulation of NUCB1 was associated with poor prognosis in patients with PDAC. Functionally, NUCB1 overexpression suppressed pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and showed additive effects with gemcitabine (GEM) in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, by controlling ATF6 activity, NUCB1 overexpression suppressed GEM-induced UPR and autophagy. Last but not least, we uncovered METTL3-mediated m6A modification on NUCB1 5′UTR via the reader YTHDF2 as a mechanism for NUCB1 downregulation in PDAC. Taken together, our study revealed crucial functions of NUCB1 in suppressing proliferation and enhancing the effects of gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer cells and identified METTL3-mediated m6A modification as a mechanism for NUCB1 downregulation in PDAC.


ABSTRACT Purpose: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common human cancer along with higher incidence and mortality, and this study aimed to identify the effect of cincumol on CRC and its potential mechanisms. Methods: CRC cell line HCT116 was used as the material. Cell proliferation was evaluated by CCK-8 assay, and cell migration was detected by scratch test and Transwell assay. TUNEL staining assay was used to evaluate cell apoptosis. The expression of target genes was detected by qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot assays. Results: Cincumol significantly reduced the proliferative and migratory rate and enhanced apoptotic rate of HCT116 cells. Meanwhile, the elevated levels of RBUsuh, Nicd and Tace was also observed in cincumol-treated HCT116 cells. Moreover, our findings revealed that additional cincumol inhibited the expression of p-PI3K and p-AKT, suggesting the inhibition of PI3K/AKT signaling might be involved in the protective role of cincumol on the malignant phenotypes of CRC cells in vitro. Conclusions: Cincumol inhibited the malignant phenotypes of CRC cells in vitro through inactivating PI3K/AKT signaling, suggesting that cincumol might be a potential anti-CRC agent.


The goal of this study was to assess the performance characteristics of the Automated Cellular Imaging System (ACIS III) for HER2 immunohistochemical analysis. The study was performed on 187 biopsy slides from patients who underwent HER2 testing between January and February 2008. Three scoring methods by the ACIS III were compared with the manual score and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) results for HER2 amplification. The equal distribution score (EQD) method, in which 2 areas each of high-, moderate-, and low-intensity staining were measured, most closely matched the FISH HER2 amplification result. The numbers of immunohistochemically negative (0 or 1+)/FISH+ cases were equivalent for all methods. The EQD method had significantly fewer 2+ cases (n = 16) (P < .001) vs the manual method (n = 35) and yielded a higher positive predictive value (38%) for HER2 amplification compared with the manual method (20%). The EQD method may more accurately identify FISH-amplified HER2 cases with fewer 2+ cases that would be "reflexed" to FISH compared with the manual method.


Aims: A significant decrease in upper-limb functionality occurs after stroke. There are two different approaches to the upper-limb rehabilitation of stroke patients: unilateral and bilateral protocols. The main aim of this study was to assess the differences in the functionality of the hemiparetic upper-limb between individuals with chronic hemiparesis submitted to a unilateral protocol and those submitted to a bilateral protocol. Methods: Eight individuals with stroke and chronic hemiparesis were recruited and randomly assigned to one of two groups (four participants in each group). All participants were observed over a period of six weeks, and were evaluated at four different moments of the intervention protocol using the FulgMeyer Assessment Scale (FM) (Fulg-Meyer et al, 1975) and the Purdue Pegboard (PP) (Tiffin, 1948). The statistical procedures included percentage evolution and descriptive analysis for each participant. Findings: The findings suggest that the unilateral protocol provides better results, when compared with the bilateral protocol. Conclusions: This study suggests that unilateral protocols are at least as effective as bilateral protocols for hemiparetic upper-limb rehabilitation.


The nature of -ing nominals has been widely debated since the early days of generative grammar (e.g., Lees 1960, Chomsky 1970), and at least since Vendler 1967, -ing forms also have played a central role in debates over natural language ontology for abstract objects. This paper attempts to simplify the ontology and account for the uses and interpretations a wide range of -ing forms using only a distinction between event types and event tokens. A core insight will be that the different constructions reflect different paths by which the -ing form may come to have type or token reference. A central contrast present among these different paths involves whether the event types/tokens are individuated through nominal morphology or through temporal anchoring.


This paper traces the development of the first private company set up by Aboriginal people in Western Australia. This company, Northern Development and Mining (Nodom), was formed in the late 1940s to enable Aboriginal members of the company to develop an economic base from mining and pastoralism in the Pilbara region in northwestern Australia. The methods by which this company operated and the impetus behind its formation, which stemmed from a pastoral strike and associated social movement, are instructive today. Nevertheless, this paper does not attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of this early movement and the associated companies of Pindan and Nomad. Rather, it aims to draw out and interrogate structural elements of these early organisations that can shed light on management issues of contemporary Indigenous organisations set up to harness economic and social development from major mines in the Pilbara region. As such, anthropological field research was undertaken to inform this contemporary project. Hence, the selective historical mapping within this paper focuses on the structure of leadership and the associated issues surrounding access to benefits within these early organisations. Questions are raised that will assist in the analyses and formulation of effective governance structures in this same region today. Researching the history of settlement and early development is an essential prologue to contextualising current Indigenous responses to mining and associated development.


ABSTRACT Despite improved therapeutic strategies for early-stage breast cancer, the most common cancer type in women, relapse remains common and the underlying mechanisms for this progression remain poorly understood. To gain more insight, we studied the DNA-binding protein HMGA2 in breast cancer development and stemness. We demonstrated that HMGA2 is overexpressed in breast cancer tissues at the mRNA and protein levels (P value <0.0001). HMGA2 knockdown and overexpression in breast cancer cells revealed that HMGA2 promotes cell proliferation and protects against apoptosis via the intrinsic pathway. HMGA2 knockdown also causes cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase. In addition, we found that HMGA2 increases breast cancer cell migration and invasion (P value <0.001) and promotes the acquisition of cancer stem cell features, both in vitro, in colony formation (P value <0.01) and spheroid assays, and in breast cancer tissues. Overexpression of HMGA2 in breast cancer spurs the acquisition of several hallmarks of cancer, including increased cell proliferation, migration, invasion and stemness, and decreased apoptosis. Thus, targeting HMGA2 could represent an effective strategy to block breast cancer progression.


The purpose of this series of studies was to refine and evaluate the psychometric properties of a measure of the concerns of impoverished minority women who were homeless and/or drug addicted. A comprehensive review of the literature and qualitative focus groups conducted with homeless and drug-addicted minority women were used to refine the inventory of Current Concerns (ICC) (Weisman, Worden, & Sobel, 1980). A 31-item revised Community-Based Inventory of Current Concerns (CICC) was critiqued by measurements and content experts, and content validity was established. The CICC was administered to 978 black and Hispanic women who were residents of drug recovery programs or were homeless and residing in shelters, single room occupancy hotels, or with family or friends. Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation resulted in a five-factor solution explaining 53% of the variance. These factors were labeled Competency, Personal Instability/Despondency, Survival, Drug-Related, and Parenting Concerns. Alpha reliability coefficient was .90 for the total scale and .79 to .93 for the subscales. Construct validity was demonstrated by moderate correlations (r = .54) between the total CICC and the CES-D. The revised CICC can be used for clinical and research purposes to aid in assessing the concerns of minority impoverished women.


This paper aims to demonstrate the importance and usefulness of human dignity from the perspective of achieving of Advance Statements as a manifestation of the concerned person able to make gaugeable and valid in particular his intention to exercise the constitutional right to die with dignity and, from that, submits an objection to the thesis of human dignity held by Ruth Macklin. For this purpose, in the first topic, human dignity will be explored under the philosophical approach, from the perspective of medical ethics and its foundation in the Brazilian legal system. The second topic will demonstrate the Advance Statements as an instrument of materialisation of human dignity, specifically for patients in end-of-life stage. This writing will be directed according to the deductive method of qualitative approach, starting from general notions of human dignity, passing through the perspective of medical ethics and the study of Advance Statements, to present, finally, an answer to Ruth Macklin. The results confirmed the effectiveness of human dignity in face of inevitable death of terminally ill patients by formalizing of Advance Statements, proving, thus, the actual usefulness and relevance of human dignity. In the doctor-patient relationship, human dignity involves pain and suffering mitigation, respect for patients and for their autonomy in decision-making about where and they prefer stay in the last days before dying, right information about their illness and risks due to medical and health care interventions, access to therapies and treatments in order to mitigate their distress, offer the possibility to renounce, suspend and withdraw therapeutic techniques, not abandoning patients and respect for their beliefs.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the inclusion of an enzimatic complex in diets for Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) on performance, carcass chemical composition as well as water quality. The experiment was performed in 62 days. It was used two hundred reverted fingerlings (14.57 ± 1.24 g) distributed in a complete randomized design in 20 500 L-tanks with four treatments and five replicates, considering a box with 10 fish as a experimental unit. The fish were fed diets containing 0; 0.033; 0.066 and 0.099% of enzimatic complex. The diets were processed in peletized way and supplied four times a day (8:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.) The pH average values, electric conductivity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, total phosphorus, ammonia and water nitrate of the cultivation were not influenced by the inclusion of the enzimatic complexin the diet. The inclusion of enzymatic complex in the diet did not affect weight gain, survival, and specific growing rate; however, it affected diet consumption and food conversion, whose values were greater for fish fed 0.066% of enzimatic complex diet. No differences were observed on dry matter, humidity, crude protein, mineral matter, calcium and phosphorus in the fish carcass, nevertheless, the ether extract decreased linearly as the level of enzymatic complex increased. The utilization of enzimatic complex (amylase, protease, cellulase, lipase, pectinase, xylanase, β-glucanase and phytase) at the level of 0.066% for juvenile Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) worsens food conversion but does not influence performance and body composition of the fish.


This paper addresses the trade-off between time- and energy-efficiency for the problem of loading and unloading a ship. Container height constraints and energy consumption and regeneration are dealt with. We build upon a previous work that introduced a coordinate system suitable to deal with container avoidance constraints and incorporate the energy related modeling. In addition to changing the coordinate system, standard epigraph reformulations result in an optimal control problem with improved numerical properties. The trade-off is dealt with through the use of weighting of the total time and energy consumption in the cost function. An illustrative example is provided, demonstrating that the energy consumption can be substantially reduced while retaining approximately the same loading time.


This paper presents a novel jointly sparse signal reconstruction algorithm for the DOA estimation problem, aiming to achieve faster convergence rate and better estimation accuracy compared to existing l2,1-norm minimization approaches. The proposed greedy block coordinate descent (GBCD) algorithm shares similarity with the standard block coordinate descent method for l2,1-norm minimization, but adopts a greedy block selection rule which gives preference to sparsity. Although greedy, the proposed algorithm is proved to also have global convergence in this paper. Through theoretical analysis we demonstrate its stability in the sense that all nonzero supports found by the proposed algorithm are the actual ones under certain conditions. Last, we move forward to propose a weighted form of the block selection rule based on the MUSIC prior. The refinement greatly improves the estimation accuracy especially when two point sources are closely spaced. Numerical experiments show that the proposed GBCD algorithm has several notable advantages over the existing DOA estimation methods, such as fast convergence rate, accurate reconstruction, and noise resistance.


Simulations of physical processes are of great importance in many areas of research. Typically, time-dependent volume data with high resolution are generated in this context. Simulations are often repeated multiple times with different setup parameters, creating an ensemble data set containing several instances of volumetric data. The high-dimensional nature of ensemble data prevents the application of direct visualization methods and motivates automated techniques that support the visualization of the simulation results. This thesis deals with the analysis of spatiotemporal velocity data of a liquid flowing through a channel containing a cylinder. We present a method for the extraction of characteristic representations based on artificial neural networks. For this purpose two different types of representations are studied: time steps which contain the velocity vector field of the liquid flow at a specific point in time and isolines which mark velocity vectors of a certain length. In addition, results from different simulation runs are compared pairwise and their similarity is evaluated with a distance metric. Subsets of the simulation data, in form of the two representations, and the calculated distance values serve as input and target output for the supervised learning of the neural networks. For learning the distance metric, we present a convolutional neural network whose architecture is adapted to the significant size of the input data, the use of different amounts of representations and the symmetry of the metric. The trained networks are used to predict the distances between simulations of a separate evaluation data set. The resulting prediction accuracy serves as measure for the information content of the representations that were used for the training. In addition to the technique of extracting characteristic representations, we present methods for visualizing time steps and isolines over the entire time series of a simulation. The effectiveness of the extraction method is discussed in a comparison of visualizations resulting from those representations, which have achieved the highest and lowest prediction accuracy.


Objective The aim of this paper was to compare the efficacy and safety of S-1-based and capecitabine-based preoperative chemoradiotherapy regimens in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer through a retrospective matched-pair analysis. Materials and methods Between Jan 2010 and Mar 2014, 24 patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who received preoperative radiotherapy concurrently with S-1 were individually matched with 24 contemporary patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who received preoperative radiotherapy concurrently with capecitabine according to clinical stage (as determined by pelvic magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography) and age (within five years). All these patients performed mesorectal excision 4–8 weeks after the completion of chemoradiotherapy. Results The tumor volume reduction rates were 55.9±15.1% in the S-1 group and 53.8±16.0% in the capecitabine group (p = 0.619). The overall downstaging, including both T downstaging and N downstaging, occurred in 83.3% of the S-1 group and 70.8% of the capecitabine group (p = 0.508). The significant tumor regression, including regression grade I and II, occurred in 33.3% of S-1 patients and 25.0% of capecitabine patients (p = 0.754). In the two groups, Grade 4 adverse events were not observed and Grade 3 consisted of only two cases of diarrhea, and no patient suffered hematologic adverse event of Grade 2 or higher. However, the incidence of diarrhea (62.5% vs 33.3%, p = 0.014) and hand-foot syndrome (29.2% vs 0%, p = 0.016) were higher in capecitabine group. Other adverse events did not differ significantly between two groups. Conclusions The two preoperative chemoradiotherapy regimens were effective and safe for patients of locally advanced rectal cancer, but regimen with S-1 exhibited a lower incidence of adverse events.


The concept of Global North and Global South (or North-South relations in a global context) is used to analyze a grouping of states along with socio-economic development and political parameters. The Global South represents a term frequently used to identify the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. It is one of a family of names, including "Third World" and "Periphery", that determine territories outside Europe and North America, in most cases (though not all) low-income and often politically or culturally marginalized countries on one side of the so-called divide, the other side being the countries of the Global North (often equated with developed countries). As such, the term does not inherently refer to geographical south; for example, most of the Global South is geographically located within the Northern Hemisphere, and on the contrary, some countries from the Global North – particularly Australia, New Zealand, and the South African Republic are located in the Sothern Hemisphere. The determination as used by governmental and developmental institutions was first introduced as relatively open and value-free alternative to "Third World" and similarly, potentially "valuing" terms like developing countries. The States of the Global South have been described as newly industrialized or in the process of industrializing, and most of them appeared on the world political map as independent states as a result of the process of decolonization, which occured during the cold war period in the second half of the XX Century.In its turn, Global North correlates with the Western world—excluding Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Israel (among others)—while the South is largely associated with the developing countries (previously called «Third World") and the Eastern world. The two groups are often defined in terms of their differing levels of wealth, economic development, income inequality, democracy, political and economic freedom, as defined by freedom indices. Countries, that are generally considered as part of the Global North tend to be wealthier and less unequal; they have developed states, with strong democratic institutes, which export technologically advanced manufactured products and where the biggest part of the economically active population is employed in the service sector. Southern states are generally law-income developing countries with younger, more fragile democracies heavily dependent on primary sector exports and generally, they share a history of colonialism imposed on them by Northern states. In most of those countries, the biggest part of the economically active population is involved in the sector of agriculture. Nevertheless, the divide between the North and the South is at times challenged.
Based on the socio-economic parameters, as of the two decades of the 21st century, the share of the North—with one-quarter of the world population— comes four-fifths of the income earned anywhere in the world. 90% of the manufacturing industries are owned by the companies that are located in the North. Inversely, the South—with three-quarters of the world population—has access to one-fifth of the world's income. As nations become economically developed, most probably they will be associated with the concept of "North", regardless of geographical location; similarly, nations that do not qualify for "developed" status are in effect deemed to be part of the "South".


In many cases a retailer is not capable of settling an invoice immediately upon receiving it and is given an option by the supplier to settle the invoice within a definite period. The retailer can sell the goods before the deadline, accumulate revenue and earn interest. If the retailer is not able to meet his obligations within the deadline, he is charged an interest. This paper introduces a newly constructed model which enables a retailer to set an optimal price of goods under permissible delay in payments, and to determine the maximum term of payment. The model is based on the assumption of time-dependent demand and has been developed for non-deteriorating goods. The paper further analyzes a situation in which the retailer sell all the goods in time, and a situation in which the deadline was not met. Theoretical results are demonstrated by an illustrative example. The authors of the paper used methods of analysis and synthesis, and the method of mathematical analysis (differential calculus of multivariable functions, solution of ordinary differential equations).The model suggested in the paper can be expanded in the future. One option is generalization of the model, allowing for the lack of goods, bulk discounts, etc.


Digital Image Analysis is one of the fastest growing methods for determining particle size and shape. The Dynamic version of this technique as seen in the HORIBA Camsizer-L is gaining in popularity very rapidly. This instrument has been applied to many fields including glass beads, fertilizer, expanded polymers and soils and sediments. The capability to determine size and shape in one measurement in five minutes or less is very attractive. A logical extension of the work on soils and sediments is to migrate to samples originating from volcanic eruptions. This article will explore the proper measurement of these samples and how the data can be used to construct plume dispersal models.


How did life emerge from inanimate matter? The processes that led from complex organic molecules to the first self-replicating systems are no longer at play and we cannot easily reconstruct them because we do not have a geological record of the period when the transition from simple molecules to the very first forms of “life” have occurred. The presence of stable hydrosphere is considered as the first milestone in the timeline of the abiotic origin of life theory, with the second milestone being the massive accumulation of organic compounds necessary for the transition from organic chemistry to the biochemistry of life. But how Earth became so rich in complex organic molecules – up to the point that life spontaneously evolved from them - is still a matter of debate. At that stage, the abundance of liquid water, indeed, represents an obstacle for organic synthesis. Two theories have been suggested to solve this paradox, which are usually referred to as endogenous synthesis and exogenous synthesis scenarios [1]. But in both cases, prebiotic molecules (that is, molecules which are simple to be formed in abiotic processes but contain the functional groups typical of biological molecules or have the capability to easily evolve into them) are formed in gaseous media. Indeed, gas-phase prebiotic molecules have been observed in the upper atmosphere of Titan, the massive moon of Saturn, as well as in the interstellar clouds and cometary comae.

The comprehension of the chemical processes that lead from simple atomic/diatomic species to prebiotic complex chemicals is an important part of the study on the origin of life. The study of these preliminary steps might seem relatively simple compared to the characterization of the other unknown phenomena that have led to the first living organisms. Nevertheless, the formation mechanisms of many of the prebiotic molecules that we observe nowadays in proto-stellar clouds or comets/meteorites or planetary atmospheres are far from being understood, while a comprehension of those processes can certainly help to set the stage for the emergence of life to occur.

For this reason, in our laboratory we have started a systematic investigation of gas-phase reactions leading to simple prebiotic molecules within the Italian National Project of Astrobiology—Life in Space—Origin, Presence, Persistence of Life in Space, from Molecules to Extremophiles [2].

In particular, by combining an experimental and theoretical approach, we have investigated a series of bimolecular reactions under single collision conditions. The aim is to provide detailed information on the elementary reactions which are employed in photochemical models of planetary atmosphere and cometary comae [3]. In particular, we have investigated several reactive systems leading to the formation of nitriles (such as dicyanoacetylene) and imines (such as ethanimine), as well as reactive radicals that can further react in subsequent reactions. We have also investigated reactions involving nitrogen atoms and aromatic compounds (benzene, pyridine, toluene) to address the role of these compounds in the growth of N-containing aromatic compounds, a proxy of DNA and RNA bases. In this contribution, the main results concerning the reactions involving atomic nitrogen, N, or cyano radicals, CN, and cyanoacetylene, acrylonitrile, benzene, toluene and pyridine will be illustrated and the implications for prebiotic chemistry noted.

[1] C. Chyba and C. Sagan. Nature 1992, 355, 125.

[2] S. Onofri, N. Balucani, V. Barone et al. Astrobiology 2020, 20, 580. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2020.2247

[3] N. Balucani. Physics of Life Reviews 2020, 34–35, 136. DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2019.03.0061571-0645


We present a new energy harvesting technology that generates electrical energy from a user's interaction with paper-like materials. The energy harvesters are flexible, light, and inexpensive, and they utilize a user's gestures such as tapping, touching, rubbing and sliding to generate electrical energy. The harvested energy is then used to actuate LEDs, e-paper displays and various other devices to create novel interactive applications, such as enhancing books and other printed media with interactivity.


Parental effects (PE) can be adaptive and improve offspring performance when parents and offspring experience similar environmental conditions. However, it is unknown whether adaptive PE exist also in habitats where such similarity is unlikely due to strong temporal variation. In particular, we do not know whether PE can adapt offspring to fluctuating levels of neighbour competition in such habitats. Here, we tested for adaptive PE in terms of two key environmental factors in a semi‐arid annual system, competition and drought. While rainfall was stochastic in the study site, the competitive environment was partly predictable: higher plant densities followed after favourable (rainy) years due to high seed production. We therefore expected PE to adapt the offspring's competitive ability to these (predictable) fluctuations in plant densities, rather than to adapt the offspring's drought tolerance to the (unpredictable) occurrence of intensified drought. Parental plants of Biscutella didyma, an annual Brassicaceae, were raised under favourable watering and under drought conditions. Offspring performance was then tested under a full‐factorial combination of two neighbour regimes and six watering levels in the glasshouse. Offspring of parents grown under favourable conditions were stronger competitors. This was associated with a small shift in phenology but not with higher parental seed provisioning. Offspring from parents grown under drought showed no improved drought tolerance. Moreover, no PE were detectable when offspring were grown without neighbours. Our results suggest a novel path of adaptive PE: higher competitive ability was induced in offspring that were more likely to experience high neighbour densities. Together with the lack of adaptive PE towards drought tolerance, this emphasizes that a correlation between parental and offspring environment is crucial for adaptive PE to evolve. Our results also call for the inclusion of competitive effects in future PE studies. Synthesis. This study demonstrates the important role of adaptive PE for plant fitness (regarding competition) but also their limits (regarding drought) in temporally variable environments, based on the predictability of the respective environmental factor.


Water is an essential resource for life evolution. 75% of the whole earth is covered by water. The water sources that flow through the social periphery represent the development and awareness of that society. This paper focuses on investigating contaminants of different water sources within Bhojpur Municipality. The six different water samples, based on their different latitudes, were collected following all the guidelines. The physiochemical parameters and microbiological organisms like E. Coli were tested and analyzed. The results revealed that the physiochemical parameters were mostly found to be within the guideline and standardization of the World Health Organization (WHO), but in the Silichung water sample, the number of bacteria was found to be out of the WHO limit. Physiochemical parameters like total dissolved solids (TDS), total solids (TS), and chloride content were not found under the guideline of WHO. The dissolved oxygen (DO) content was found more in the water sample of Bahundhara, whereas Bhandari well sample had a low amount of DO among the other samples. The biological oxygen demand (BOD) level in Sera Khola sample was found more, while Silichung sample had a low amount of BOD, indicating Sera Khola water sample is a bit more polluted than others. On microbiological testing, the Silichung water sample was tested with Providencia spp, indicating not useful for drinking purposes. Thus, it reveals that the Silichung water should not take directly, which is rich in Providencia spp. Other physiochemical parameters of other samples were found to be within the range of WHO.


As a result of increased concern with energy consumption in the industrial world, it is only natural to look towards the building sector to seek significant improvements to meet expectations of the society. After all, the building sector consumes more energy than the transportation sector. Yet, the procedures that are used to define the thermal performance of, for example a wall, are typically based on the tests performed on dry materials, without consideration of air and moisture movements. In other words, these tests represent arbitrary rating conditions because we know that the energy performance of materials and building assemblies are affected by moisture and air flows. It is believed that to improve their energy performance one must have more precise means of evaluation of their field performance that would also include the consideration of air and moisture transfer conditions. In the first part of this article a background for the evaluation of thermal performance by traditional testing with calibrated boxes shows that use of these tests is limited. The average heat flow that they measure is sufficient to rate the wall assemblies but insufficient to calculate its thermal performance under field conditions. To include the effect of climate on thermal performance one must use computer models that are capable of simultaneous calculations of heat, air, and moisture transfer. Effectively, to characterize energy performance of the building enclosure one must simultaneously use assembly testing and modeling, i.e., an integrated methodology. In the second part of the article, this integrated testing and modeling methodology is applied to a few selected residential and commercial walls to highlight the magnitude of air flow effects on the steady-state thermal resistance. The integrated methodology proposed by Syracuse University includes several other aspects of hygrothermal performance evaluations. Those aspects will be addressed in later parts of this article series.


Objective To estimate the incidence of laboratory-confirmed, invasive bacterial infections (IBIs) by week of age in infants over a 7-year period. Design Analysis of prospective national surveillance data for England. Setting National Health Service hospitals in England. Patients Infants aged <1 year who were hospitalised with IBI. Main outcome measures IBI incidence by week of age, incidence rate ratio (IRR) at 8, 12 and 16 weeks compared with the first week of life, and the main pathogens responsible for IBI. Results There were 22 075 IBI episodes between 2010/2011 and 2016/2017. The lowest annual cases were in 2011/2012 (n=2 799; incidence, 412/100 000 population), increasing year-on-year to 3 698 cases in 2016/2017 (incidence, 552/100 000 population). The incidence was highest in the first week of life and then declined rapidly. In 2016/2017, compared with the first week of life, weekly IBI incidence was 92% lower at 8 weeks (IRR 0.08; 95% CI 0.06 to 0.10) and 96% lower at 16 weeks of age (IRR 0.04; 95% CI 0.03 to 0.06). In 2016/2017, Escherichia coli was the most prevalent pathogen responsible for IBI (n=592, 16.0%), followed by group B Streptococci (n=493, 13.3%), Staphylococcus aureus (n=400, 10.8%) and Enterococci (n=304, 8.2%). The other pathogens were individually responsible for <5% of total cases. There were differences in age distribution of the pathogens with increasing age. Conclusion IBI incidence declines rapidly after the first week of life, such that infants have a very low risk of IBI by the time they are eligible for their routine immunisations from 8 weeks of age.


Police patrol is a complex process. While on patrol, police officers must balance many intersecting responsibilities. Most notably, police must proactively patrol and prevent offenders from committing crimes but must also reactively respond to real-time incidents. Efficient patrol strategies are crucial to manage scarce police resources and minimize emergency response times. The objective of this review paper is to discuss solution methods that can be used to solve the so-called police patrol routing problem (PPRP). The starting point of the review is the existing literature on the dynamic vehicle routing problem (DVRP). A keyword search resulted in 30 articles that focus on the DVRP with a link to police. Although the articles refer to policing, there is no specific focus on the PPRP; hence, there is a knowledge gap. A diversity of approaches is put forward ranging from more convenient solution methods such as a (hybrid) Genetic Algorithm (GA), linear programming and routing policies, to more complex Markov Decision Processes and Online Stochastic Combinatorial Optimization. Given the objectives, characteristics, advantages and limitations, the (hybrid) GA, routing policies and local search seem the most valuable solution methods for solving the PPRP.


To establish the fourth lot (Control 0001) of the Endotoxin 10,000 Reference Standard of the National Institute of Health Sciences (the Japanese Pharmacopoeia Endotoxin 10,000 Reference Standard), a candidate standard (CS) was prepared and then evaluated. The potency of the CS was assayed against USP Endotoxin Reference Standard (Lot G-1) and defined as containing approximately 20,000 endotoxin units (EU) per vial by a collaborative study in which 5 laboratories participated. Based on the results, the CS was authorized to be the fourth lot of the Endotoxin 10,000 Reference Standard containing 20,000 EU per vial.


We estimate the upper bound for the l∞-norm of the volume form on H × H × H seen as a class in H c (PSL2R × PSL2R × PSL2R;R). This gives the lower bound for the simplicial volume of closed Riemennian manifolds covered by H × H × H. The proof of these facts yields an algorithm to compute the lower bound of closed Riemannian manifolds covered by ( H )n .


A simple extraction technique has been developed for seven macrolide antibiotics in milk. The procedure involves a modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe method based on acetonitrile extraction, followed by the addition of a mixture of salts (sodium sulfate, sodium chloride, and potassium carbonate) not yet reported in literature. The method was validated for tylosin and was selective, free of matrix effect, and linear in the range of 0.78-18.75 ng/mL in the final extract, corresponding to 0.125-3 times the maximum residue limit. The limit of detection, limit of quantification, decision limit, and detection capability were, respectively, 0.84, 2.79, 58.4, and 71.7 μg/kg. The overall average recovery at 25, 50, and 75 μg/kg ranged from 89-97%. Repeatability and intermediate precision expressed by relative standard deviations were below 10.5 and 12%, respectively. The extension of the validation for spiramycin, throleandomycin, oleandomycin, roxithromycin, erythromycin, and clarithromycin is under consideration since the procedure proved to be able to efficiently extract all studied macrolides, with recoveries from 74-104% at 50 μg/kg for tylosin, erythromycin, spiramycin, and oleandomycin and 20 μg/kg for throleandomycin, roxithromycin, and clarithromycin.


Variations in the Latitudes of Berlin, Potsdam, Prague and Strassburg. It is known that the four observatories named are making simultaneous determinations of their latitudes (by Talcott's method) for the detection of short-period variations in this element. During the first half of 1889 no variations were found. The observations of the last half of the year seem to show that there has been a diminution of the latitude at all these observatories, amounting to about half a second of arc. The work is to be continued. The observatories of Pulkowa, Copenhagen, Upsala and Lund are engaged in observations to determine the long-period changes of latitude, if such exist.


Many studies in air, soil, and water research involve observations and sampling of a specific location. Knowing where studies have been previously undertaken can be a valuable addition to future research, including understanding the geographical context of previously published literature and selecting future study sites. Here, we introduce Literature Mapper, a Python QGIS plugin that provides a method for creating a spatial bibliography manager as well as a specification for storing spatial data in a bibliography manager. Literature Mapper uses QGIS' spatial capabilities to allow users to digitize and add location information to a Zotero library, a free and open-source bibliography manager on basemaps or other geographic data of the user's choice. Literature Mapper enhances the citations in a user's online Zotero database with geo-locations by storing spatial coordinates as part of traditional citation entries. Literature Mapper receives data from and sends data to the user's online database via Zotero's web API. Using Zotero as the backend data storage, Literature Mapper benefits from all of its features including shared citation Collections, public sharing, and an open web API usable by additional applications, such as web mapping libraries. To evaluate Literature Mapper's ability to provide insights into the spatial distribution of published literature, we provide a case study using the tool to map the study sites described in academic publications related to the biogeomorphology of California's coastal strand vegetation, a line of research in which air movement, soil, and water are all driving factors. The results of this exercise are presented in static and web map form. The source code for Literature Mapper is available in the corresponding author's GitHub repository: https://github.com/MicheleTobias/LiteratureMapper


Nonplanar log-periodic-type antennas are attractive as wideband reflector feeds since they can be arranged to provide an axially symmetric radiation pattern that is stable over a wide bandwidth with near constant input impedance. However, these antennas have a frequency-dependent phase center that causes de focusing and degrades reflector antenna performance when used in wideband systems. This letter presents a technique, which includes radiation pattern as well as defocusing effects, to predict an upper bound for reflector system performance when a nonplanar log-periodic feed is used, resulting in useful design guidelines. Predicted results compare favorably with physical optics simulations.


The prevailing situation in the global economy calls for innovative productivity investment approaches aiming to prevent further labour force reductions and to restore manufacturers' competitiveness. The purpose of this research initiative has been to motivate production managers to invest in productivity improvements by establishing a framework that explains how shop floor productivity improvements provide financial benefits. The research initiative has employed an iterative research process that is based on case study research and interviews. Productivity is, however, a broad term concerning materials, energy consumption, human skills and capabilities, production technology and capital. This thesis presents an explanatory framework that focuses on shop floor productivity, i.e. productivity concerning activities and resources used to refine, assemble and transform materials into finished goods. The explanatory framework bears upon a set of productivity analysis tools and techniques that are used to decompose shop floor work content into parts that can be analysed. The framework emphasizes the importance of efficient utilization of a firm's current resources before investing in new technology for solving capacity issues. Several stakeholders can use the information provided by this framework. For instance, it can be used for increasing operators' awareness of the economic impact of quality losses, rework or idling production lines. Also, the framework can be used to increase production managers' and the treasury department's awareness of the production system's inherent capacity limitations and how the production system's current capacity is used to ensure and provide customer satisfaction. And finally to prevent unnecessary technology investments in situations in which utilization improvements with small investment means provide better economic payoff compared with capital-intensive technology investments. Three improvement actions have been proposed based on the explanatory framework presented in this thesis. These are real capacity improvements, production policy improvements and inventory policy improvements. Each proposal refers to improvements of a production system's existing resources with small or non-monetary investments that in a direct fashion contribute to improved financial performance.


The issue of finding optimal signal routes is one of the main challenges within the framework of optimal networks. This study aims at illustrating the development of a new, mixed-integer mathematical model for solving the static routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem in optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks and presents the comparison of results obtained by heuristics and CPLEX commercial software. The objective function of the mathematical model is to minimise the blocking probability by maximising the number of successfully connected lightpaths. In this paper two WDM networks with full wavelength conversion nodes were tested. The proposed heuristics are the variable neighbourhood search (VNS) and tabu search (TS). Firstly, the authors compare the results obtained by these two heuristics and CPLEX on a low-complexity WDM network, aiming to determine whether these heuristics may yield results which approximate optimal results. Secondly, having illustrated that the heuristics provide satisfactory results, the authors run these heuristics on a high-complexity WDM network. The results indicate minor differences in blocking probability and show that in majority cases, VNS spends ten times less CPU time as opposed to TS. In conclusion, the authors argue that VNS heuristic is appropriate for resolving this static RWA problem.


Method: analysis of various different informational sources which are connected with research problems. Results: main interactive taeching technologies in high school were characterized. Interactive technologies development and implementation level were determined on the basis of analysis of scientific guidances and works. Interactive learning is considered as one of the main ways of increasing the motivation to study and the quality of geographical education, preparation of enthusiastic and creative professionals, who will be able to find solutions for unusual situations. The scientific novelty of this article is in adaptation of interactive teaching methods to studying "The local lore" course, which form the base for the future improvement of studying process in high school. The practical significance of the research is in increasing of efficiency of studying the specialists in geography through development and implementation of interactive t eaching technologies into studying process. The materials could be used by specialists in the teaching geography sphere in high school.


Abstract. The forecasting process includes several aspects. The scientific aspects include (i) a priori observations, like statistics of weather attributes during recent years, variation of earlier atmospheric pollen amounts, and general correlations between weather factors and pollen frequencies. (ii) The present‐day observations are made closer to the flowering season, and they include e.g. the development of the present and forecasted weather, the development of the flower buds, and information obtained from other countries. The practical aspects include effective television, radio and newspaper service, necessary education and information, rapid data analysis and transfer systems, and good national and international cooperation.


Upcoming weak lensing surveys will probe large fractions of the sky with unprecedented accuracy. To infer cosmological constraints, a large ensemble of survey simulations are required to accurately model cosmological observables and their covariances. We develop a parallelized multi-lens-plane pipeline called UFALCON, designed to generate full-sky weak lensing maps from lightcones within a minimal runtime. It makes use of L-PICOLA (Howlett et al. [1]), an approximate numerical code, which provides a fast and accurate alternative to cosmological N-Body simulations. The UFALCON maps are constructed by nesting 2 simulations with mass resolution of about 5 × 1012 and 2 × 1013 h−1 M⊙ covering a redshift-range from z=0.1 to 1.5 without replicating the simulation volume. We compute the convergence and projected overdensity maps for L-PICOLA in the lightcone or snapshot mode. The generation of such a map, including the L-PICOLA simulation, takes about 3 hours walltime on 220 cores. We use the maps to calculate the spherical harmonic power spectra, which we compare to theoretical predictions and to UFALCON results generated using the full N-Body code GADGET-2. We then compute the covariance matrix of the full-sky spherical harmonic power spectra using 150 UFALCON maps based on L-PICOLA in lightcone mode. We consider the PDF, the higher-order moments and the variance of the smoothed field variance to quantify the accuracy of the covariance matrix, which we find to be a few percent for scales ℓ ∼ 102 to 103. We test the impact of this level of accuracy on cosmological constraints using an optimistic survey configuration, and find that the final results are robust to this level of uncertainty. The speed and accuracy of our developed pipeline provides a basis to also include further important features such as masking, varying noise and will allow us to compute covariance matrices for models beyond ΛCDM.


This essay uses court records to trace the federal government's attempts to regulate homosexuality among immigrants in the mid-twentieth century, asserting that such attempts illustrate the state's struggle to make homosexuality visible, to produce a homosexuality that could be both detected and managed. I focus on the process by which two competing paradigms for understanding homosexuality (status and conduct) were consolidated into a single model in which homosexual identity could be deduced from homosexual acts. Federal officials and the courts initially treated homosexuality as a form of conduct, most commonly deporting homosexual aliens for having committed crimes of moral turpitude. Later, these same government entities relied on status provisions, deporting immigrants charged with homosexuality as aliens "afflicted with psychopathic personality." While the "psychopathic personality" terminology supported the notion that the homosexual was a kind of person rather than a set of behaviors, it also depended upon psychiatrists to support the claim that homosexuals were by definition psychopathic. When many psychiatrists distanced themselves from that idea, the government refused psychiatric opinion that differentiated psychopaths from homosexuals by arguing that these terms connoted legal-political rather than medicalized identity categories. While this conception arose out of a conservative impulse by immigration officials and the courts to fix homosexuality as identity so that it could be regulated (by bureaucrats rather than psychiatrists), I argue that the emphasis on legal-political identity categories licensed a conception of the homosexual as a kind of citizen that had some emancipatory as well as repressive effects.


Background Shoulder pain is a common symptom following laparoscopic surgery. This systematic review was undertaken to assess updated evidence regarding the effectiveness and complications of the pulmonary recruitment maneuver (PRM) for reducing shoulder pain after laparoscopic gynecologic surgery. Methods A number of databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating PRM for reducing shoulder pain were searched up to June 2019. Two authors independently selected potentially relevant RCTs, extracted data, assessed risk of bias, and compared results. Network meta-analyses were employed to simultaneously compare multiple interventions. Effect measures were presented as pooled mean difference (MD) or risk ratio (RR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results Of the 44 records that we identified as a result of the search (excluding duplicates), eleven RCTs involving 1111 participants were included. Three studies had an unclear risk of selection bias. PRM with a maximum pressure of 40 cm H2O was most likely to result in the lowest shoulder pain intensity at 24 hours (MD −1.91; 95% CI −2.06 to −1.76) while PRM with a maximum pressure of 40 cm H2O plus intraperitoneal saline (IPS) appeared to be the most efficient at 48 hours (MD −2.09; 95% CI −2.97 to −1.21). The estimated RRs for analgesia requirement, nausea/vomiting, and cardiopulmonary events were similar across the competing interventions. Conclusion PRM with 40 cm H2O performed either alone or accompanied by IPS is a promising intervention for alleviating shoulder pain within 48 hours following gynecologic laparoscopy.


Summary
Travel times are generally stochastic and spatially correlated in congested road networks. However, very few existing route guidance systems (RGS) can provide reliable guidance services to aid travellers planning their trips with taking account explicitly travel time reliability constraint. This study aims to develop such a RGS with particular consideration of travellers' concern on travel time reliability in congested road networks with uncertainty. In this study, the spatially dependent reliable shortest path problem (SD-RSPP) is formulated as a multi-criteria shortest path-finding problem in road networks with correlated link travel times. Three effective dominance conditions are established for links with different levels of travel time correlations. An efficient algorithm is proposed to solve SD-RSPP by adaptively using three established dominance conditions. The complexities of road networks in reality are also explicitly considered. To demonstrate the applicability of proposed algorithm, a comprehensive case study is carried out in Hong Kong. The results of case study show that the proposed solution algorithm is robust to take account of travellers' multiple routing criteria. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed solution algorithm can determine the reliable shortest path on real-time basis for large-scale road networks. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract Introduction: Immunological markers have been described during COVID-19 and persist after recovery. These immune markers are associated with clinical features among SARS- CoV-2 infected individuals. Nevertheless, studies reporting a comprehensive analysis of the immune changes occurring during SARS-CoV-2 infection are still limited. Objective: To evaluate the production of proinflammatory cytokines, the antibody response, and the phenotype and function of NK cells and T cells in a Colombian family cluster with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Materials and methods: Proinflammatory cytokines were evaluated by RT-PCR and ELISA. The frequency, phenotype, and function of NK cells (cocultures with K562 cells) and T-cells (stimulated with spike/RdRp peptides) were assessed by flow cytometry. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were determined using indirect immunofluorescence and plaque reduction neutralization assay. Results: During COVID-19, we observed a high proinflammatory-cytokine production and a reduced CD56bright-NK cell and cytotoxic response. Compared with healthy controls, infected individuals had a higher frequency of dysfunctional CD8+ T cells CD38+HLA-DR-. During the acute phase, CD8+ T cells stimulated with viral peptides exhibited a monofunctional response characterized by high IL-10 production. However, during recovery, we observed a bifunctional response characterized by the co-expression of CD107a and granzyme B or perforin. Conclusion: Although the proinflammatory response is a hallmark of SARS-CoV-2 infection, other phenotypic and functional alterations in NK cells and CD8+ T cells could be associated with the outcome of COVID-19. However, additional studies are required to understand these alterations and to guide future immunotherapy strategies.


Objective Antibodies elicited by seasonal influenza vaccines mainly target the head of hemagglutinin (HA). However, antibodies against the stalk domain are cross-reactive and have been proven to play a role in reducing influenza disease severity. We investigated the induction of HA stalk-specific antibodies after seasonal influenza vaccination, considering the age of the cohorts. Methods A total of 166 individuals were recruited during the 2018 influenza vaccine campaign (IVC) and divided into groups: <50 (n = 14), 50–64 (n = 34), 65–79 (n = 61), and ≥80 (n = 57) years old. Stalk-specific antibodies were quantified by ELISA at day 0 and day 28 using recombinant viruses (cH6/1 and cH14/3) containing an HA head domain (H6 or H14) from wild bird origin with a stalk domain from human H1 or H3, respectively. The geometric mean titer (GMT) and the fold rise (GMFR) were calculated, and differences were assessed using ANOVA adjusted by the false discovery rate (FDR) and the Wilcoxon tests (p <0.05). Results All age groups elicited some level of increase in anti-stalk antibodies after receiving the influenza vaccine, except for the ≥80-year-old cohort. Additionally, <65-year-old vaccinees had higher group 1 antibody titers versus group 2 before and after vaccination. Similarly, vaccinees within the <50-year-old group showed a higher increase in anti-stalk antibody titers when compared to older individuals (≥80 years old), especially for group 1 anti-stalk antibodies. Conclusion Seasonal influenza vaccines can the induction of cross-reactive anti-stalk antibodies against group 1 and group 2 HAs. However, low responses were observed in older groups, highlighting the impact of immunosenescence in adequate humoral immune responses.


CdO has been studied for decades as a prototypical wide band gap transparent conducting oxide with excellent n-type ability. Despite this, uncertainty remains over the source of conductivity in CdO and over the lack of p-type CdO, despite its valence band maximum (VBM) being high with respect to other wide band gap oxides. In this article, we use screened hybrid DFT to study intrinsic defects and hydrogen impurities in CdO and identify for the first time the source of charge carriers in this system. We explain why the oxygen vacancy in CdO acts as a shallow donor and does not display negative-U behavior similar to all other wide band gap n-type oxides. We also demonstrate that p-type CdO is not achievable, as n-type defects dominate under all growth conditions. Lastly, we estimate theoretical doping limits and explain why CdO can be made transparent by a large Moss-Burstein shift caused by suitable n-type doping.


The stability of an in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) medical device reagent is the ability to maintain the performance characteristics over a defined time interval. The stability studies are performed to demonstrate that the product remains viable under the specified storage condition until the claimed time period. Since, stability of the IVD cannot be directly assessed through accuracy, performance attributes or customer testing; it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to evaluate the performance of the product by identifying critical factors affecting the stability through developing stability plan, stability protocol and conducting real-time stability studies, accelerated stability studies, in-use stability studies and transport simulated stability studies.


Many control systems are multivariable. Coupling dynamics in a multivariable system make it essentially more difficult to control than a single-variable system. In this paper, two adaptive schemes are developed for compensation of unknown nonsmooth nonlinearities at the input of a known multivariable linear plant: one with a state feedback design and the other with an output feedback design, based on a multivariable parameter estimation algorithm for coupled error models. Unlike their single-variable counterparts, some of the multivariable adaptive actuator nonlinearity compensation problems still remain unsolved if the linear plant is also unknown.


In this paper, we describe a multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm (MOPSO) that incorporates the concept of the enhanced epsiv-dominance. We present this new concept to update the archive. The archiving technique can help us to maintain a sequence of well-spread solutions. A new particle update strategy and the mutation operator are shown to speed up convergence. To compare with the state-of-art MOEAs on a well-established suite of test problems, our new approach is simple constructed, and results indicate that it works effectively and has steady-state performance. It is confirmed from the results that the proposed method outperforms other methods


A hemagglutinating and hemolytic lectin (PSL) has been isolated from carpophores of the parasitic mushroom Laetiporus sulfureus by affinity chromatography on Sepharose. Its molecular weight, as determined both by gel filtration and by electrophoresis in non-denaturing conditions, is about 190,000 and its structure is tetrameric, with two distinct types of subunits (about 60,000 and 36,000). It appeared homogeneous on HPLC gel filtration but exhibited microheterogeneity on isoelectric focusing. Hapten inhibition assay indicated that the Laetiporus lectin is specific for N-acetyllactosamine residues and that hemagglutinating and hemolysis activities are supported by the same site.


BACKGROUND
The objective of this pilot clinical trial was to evaluate the anti-gingivitis and anti-plaque effects of a dentifrice containing bioactive glass (NovaMin) compared with a placebo control dentifrice in a 6 weeks clinical study.

METHODS
The study design was a randomized, double-blinded, controlled clinical trial. One hundred volunteers took part in the study and were matched for plaque index (PLI), gingival bleeding index (GBI), age and gender. The protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethical Committee of the University. The subjects received a supragingival prophylaxis to remove all plaque, calculus and extrinsic stain. Following the baseline examination, subjects were instructed to brush with their assigned dentifrice and toothbrush. The PLI and GBI were determined for the baseline and 6 weeks. The data were analysed using a repeated-measures anova conducted on the two dependent measures to compare the effect between the test and control group.

RESULTS
Ninety-five subjects finished the study. The results showed that the PLI (baseline=1.54, 6 weeks=1.29) and GBI (baseline=1.14, 6 weeks=0.47) were significantly reduced, respectively, over the 6 weeks period in the test group (p<0.001 for each measure). There was a 58.8% reduction in gingival bleeding and a 16.4% reduction in plaque growth. There was no difference of the PLI (baseline=1.60, 6 weeks=1.57) and GBI (baseline=1.18, 6-week=1.02) over the 6 week period in the control group.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrated that a dentifrice containing NovaMin significantly improves oral health as measured by a reduction in gingival bleeding and reduction in supragingival plaque compared with a negative dentifrice over the 6 weeks study period.


The quantum approach to the theory of endoergic associative ionisation reactions of atoms within the framework of the multichannel quantum defect method taking account of configurational interaction between the Rydberg and valence dissociative states is developed. It has been shown that the total cross section of the AI reaction near the ionisation threshold is proportional to the energy E measured from the ionisation threshold ( sigma AI approximately E). The effect of the resonant quasidiscrete valence states on the ionisation spectrum is studied. As an example, the AI cross section for the reaction N+O to NO++e- is calculated. The temperature dependence of the AI thermal rate coefficients over a broad temperature range has been considered. The effect of a strong monochromatic radiation field on the AI reactions has been discussed.


Fungi have the ability to produce essential fatty acids of the omega-3 family, what is of great scientific interest, since these microorganisms are capable of developing under varied conditions, making their production a viable alternative. Fatty acids are of great importance in human food due to their beneficial effects to the organism, such as reduction in the development of cardiovascular problems and other chronic-degenerative diseases. Currently, the main food source of omega-3 fatty acids is saltwater fish, but there are concerns about potential health risks, including environmental contaminants, such as some metals, as well as ecological issues related to the extinction of some species. Therefore, interest in the biotechnology area has been increasing with the aim of extracting bioactive compounds from certain fungi species, besides using these species to produce biomass, food, and energy, among others.


In this paper, we compare two powerful kernel-based learning machines, support vector machines (SVM) and relevance vector machines (RVM), within the framework of hidden Markov model-based speech recognition. Both machines provide nonlinear discriminative classification ability: the SVM by kernel-based margin maximization and the RVM using a Bayesian probabilistic framework. The hybrid systems are compared on a vowel classification task and on the continuous speech Alphadigits corpus. In both cases, the RVM system achieves better error rates with significantly fewer parameters.


With an eye towards applications such as the selective sensing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or micro-scale thrust generation, inkjet printing was explored as a means to selectively deposit functional materials. The work detailed herein explores a series of fundamental steps to gain expertise related to the piezoelectric inkjet printing of functional materials. The successful printing of nanothermite was demonstrated with two unique printing techniques. Furthermore, the integration of this material with an ignition mechanism was shown to create a fully printed igniter energetic system. These advancements support future work related to the printing of other energetic materials necessary to create tunable reactive systems. This knowledge was then translated into the development of resonant mass sensing devices that are selectively functionalized using inkjet printing. This approach to functionalization allowed for the precise deposition of receptive chemistries on devices resulting in selective, highly-sensitive devices that successfully detected biomarkers secreted after traumatic brain injuries and harmful VOCs. This work implemented oscillator-based sensors to achieve a low-cost, low-power sensor platform with redundant elements. Furthermore, the predictive capabilities of these devices were explored using least squares and linear regression modeling.


How do some little angels turn into bigoted little monsters? This is a study of how people's prejudices towards one another develop from an early age. Based on empirical research of children aged five to 11, it explores the nature of categorization and stereotypes - from groups to nations.


The objectives of the research are to knowthe procedures of CLT method
in speakingclass, theproblems faced by the English's teacher in implementing
those characteristics and also to know the English's teacher overcome the
problems on their teaching speaking.The data collection method used in this
research was interview, documentation and observation. The data collected
were analyzed by non-statistical method or use a descriptive technique.Based
on the analyses and the finding, the writer concluded that the procedures of
CLT method in speaking class are about the techniques of teaching speaking
(present the material, question and answer related to the student's personal
experience, oral practice of each utterance of the dialog segment to be
presented that day). The problems faced by the teacher in implementing CLT
characteristics are: lack of the students' participation in communication
practice, lack of the students' motivation to learn and managing the time and
activities of learning, the teacher sometimes found difficulties in managing
the time because of new curriculum "curriculum 2013".The ways of
English's teacher overcome the problems on their teaching speaking are:
making a strategyor activity that is believed that the students can involve all
together, such as discussion group, the teacheralways motivate their students
to be active in learning process, it is the way of the teacher to overcome the
problem of the luck of the student's motivation and participation in learning
process, and managing time and activities of learning process based on lesson
plan. The teacher tends to be conservative on their lesson plan.


An experimental challenge trial was performed according to the guidelines recommended by the National Mastitis Council (NMC). A 0.1% iodine teat dip (Quartermate with I-Tech) was examined. This product gave an 87.9% reduction of new intramammary infections with Staphylococcus aureus and a 66.5% reduction for Streptococcus agalactiae compared with a negative control. Teat end and teat skin characteristics remained excellent throughout the trial.


Fourier transforms have been used in the analysis of landscapes that exhibit the influence of cyclic structures or other morphogenetic controls. Two‐dimensional Fourier transforms have been most successful when modeling features with a high frequency over the sample space. This research focuses on applications of 2D discrete Fourier transforms for karst and spur and groove coral reefs, using ArcGIS geoprocessing tools extended with Python NumPy numerical methods. Ten‐meter digital elevation data from Puerto Rico and Kentucky holokarst landscapes and five‐meter bathymetry from more unidirectional spur and groove coral reefs at Midway Atoll were analyzed. Our method identifies the dominant contributing waves in frequency space, and analyzed power contributions by 5° and 15° azimuth bins. A limiting factor in this analysis is the spatial extent of consistent morphology in the landscape. In contrast to time‐domain Fourier analysis, dominant landform frequencies can thus be of low magnitude, creating an imprecise estimate of wave morphometry and direction since this is derived from the combination of inverted x and y frequency values, and the limited frequency grain inherent in the discrete model degrades precision in the solution. Simulated karst and spur & groove landscapes were used to evaluate the grain of waveform orientation solutions.


Summary.  Likelihood inference for discretely observed Markov jump processes with finite state space is investigated. The existence and uniqueness of the maximum likelihood estimator of the intensity matrix are investigated. This topic is closely related to the imbedding problem for Markov chains. It is demonstrated that the maximum likelihood estimator can be found either by the EM algorithm or by a Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure. When the maximum likelihood estimator does not exist, an estimator can be obtained by using a penalized likelihood function or by the Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure with a suitable prior. The methodology and its implementation are illustrated by examples and simulation studies.


Most methods for learning object categories require large amounts of labeled training data. However, obtaining such data can be a difficult and time-consuming endeavor. We have developed a novel, entropy-based ldquoactive learningrdquo approach which makes significant progress towards this problem. The main idea is to sequentially acquire labeled data by presenting an oracle (the user) with unlabeled images that will be particularly informative when labeled. Active learning adaptively prioritizes the order in which the training examples are acquired, which, as shown by our experiments, can significantly reduce the overall number of training examples required to reach near-optimal performance. At first glance this may seem counter-intuitive: how can the algorithm know whether a group of unlabeled images will be informative, when, by definition, there is no label directly associated with any of the images? Our approach is based on choosing an image to label that maximizes the expected amount of information we gain about the set of unlabeled images. The technique is demonstrated in several contexts, including improving the efficiency of Web image-search queries and open-world visual learning by an autonomous agent. Experiments on a large set of 140 visual object categories taken directly from text-based Web image searches show that our technique can provide large improvements (up to 10 x reduction in the number of training examples needed) over baseline techniques.


This report reviews the major developments in recent understanding of bloom-causing chrysophytes in both marine and freshwater environments. It also points out information deficiencies and suggests lines of future research.