A protein corona, which forms on engineered particles as soon as they are introduced into biological environments, is known to provide particles with a "biological identity". Protein coronas derived from various biological environments have been demonstrated to alter the cell internalization mechanism, to diminish targeting ability and to induce nanoparticle aggregation. So far, most of these studies have challenged engineered particles with a static biological environment. However, the extracellular environment is highly dynamic due to the process termed "cell-conditioning", in which cells deplete and secrete biomolecules. In this work, we demonstrate that protein coronas formed on engineered particles from such cell-conditioned media affect the biophysical particle properties and protein adsorption differently to protein coronas derived from an unconditioned environment. When investigating particles with protein coronas formed in various biologically relevant environments for their interaction with immune cells, we observed differences in pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and immune cell apoptosis. We found that the particles either increased or mitigated the secretion of a specific cytokine, depending on the environment where the protein corona was formed. Our study suggests that the use of protein coronas could be useful to engineer drug carriers for elongated circulation, enhanced biocompatibility, and lower toxicity by triggering a specific immune response.


The antibody response to the Plasmodium falciparum major merozoite surface antigen (gp195) of congenic mouse strains differing in H-2 haplotype has been examined. All seven strains of mice were capable of producing gp195-specific antibodies. Generalized immune recognition of gp195 by mice of diverse H-2 haplotypes distinguished gp195 from the P. falciparum circumsporozoite protein and the 230-kDa and 48/45-kDa gamete surface antigens. However, the H-2 genetic locus appeared to influence the specificity of gp195-specific antibodies. Immunoblot patterns of mouse sera with parasite antigens revealed a complex pattern of reactivity with terminal and intermediate processing fragments of gp195. The majority of immunoblot bands observed were similar for all of the mouse strains; however, there were several strains that additionally recognized a few unique fragments or displayed more intense reactivities with specific processing fragments. These results suggest that while individuals of diverse major histocompatibility complex makeup are capable of recognizing the gp195 antigen, the recognition of specific gp195 B-cell and T-cell epitopes may be under control of the major histocompatibility complex.


Purpose: Current methods to treat glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are highly invasive, lead to poor quality-of-life and an abysmal patient survival rate thus making GBMs one of the most difficult-to-treat and deadliest form of all primary CNS malignancies. The targeted use of Topoisomerase-1 (Top1) poisons/inhibitors to sensitize or augment tumor cell killing is a long-standing and powerful tool in cancer therapy. A number of trials utilizing Top1 inhibitors to manage GBM have shown promise. We have uncovered a novel functional requirement for ATM (Mutated in Ataxia Telangiectasia) in resolving oxidative DNA breaks and Topoisomerase 1-DNA covalent complexes (Top1cc), a DNA-protein intermediate that can generate DNA breaks upon collision with the transcriptional machinery or DNA replication forks. These data have identified Top1cc as the first specific endogenous pathogenic neural DNA lesion associated with loss of ATM and heritable pediatric neurodegenerative disease. Furthermore, biochemical and genetic studies identified collaboration of ATM and TDP1 (Tyrosyl-DNA Phosphodiesterase 1) in the resolution of Top1cc during neurodevelopment. We hypothesize that co-inhibition of ATM and TDP1 will sensitize brain tumors to Top1-dependent chemotherapy by augmenting Top1cc levels and anti-tumor success. Methods: Genetic and biochemical methods to co-inhibit ATM and TDP1 and improve the efficacy of Top1 poisons include novel high-throughput cell-based DNA damage repair and viability assays and in vivo brain tumor regression assays using mouse xenograft models. Results: We have found that brain tumor cell killing via Top1-dependent inhibition is greatly enhanced through an ATM and TDP1 co-inhibition strategy. Induced genotoxic cell death occurs at lower chemotherapeutic drug doses as a result of sensitization to Top1cc. We are presently validating these results and performing in vivo studies. Conclusions: ATM and TDP1 co-inhibition represents an effective two-pronged approach to chemoradiosensitize CNS tumors. As TDP1 antagonizes Top1cc formation and efficacy of Top1 poisons such as the camptothecin (CPT) cohort of drugs, our findings will improve existing Top1-mediated anti-cancer strategies by enhancing tumor cell killing while reducing clinical doses and patient side-effects. Furthermore, these findings also suggest an alternative avenue in the clinical management of GBM. Citation Format: Matthew Packer, Ali Saleh, Sachin Katyal. Co-inhibition of ATM and TDP1 as a novel chemosensitization strategy against malignant brain tumors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on DNA Repair: Tumor Development and Therapeutic Response; 2016 Nov 2-5; Montreal, QC, Canada. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2017;15(4_Suppl):Abstract nr B27.


Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of football on sole peak pressure, average maximal pressure and pressure–time integral soles of professional female football players and healthy individuals. Methods: 22 female football players (18,80 ± 2,2 age) and 28 female volunteers (27,5 ±6,6 age) (as the control group)having no foot complaints were included in the study. In the research EMED-SF (Novel GmbH, Munich, Germany) plantar pressure analysis system was used. It was examined whether there was any statistically significant difference between the experiment and control group means using non-parametric Mann Whitney U test, the size of the linear relation between physical structure and variables of sole was examined by calculating Pearson's (r) coefficient. In the measurements 95% reliability range and P < 0.01 – 0.05 were accepted as significance level. Results: At the end of the measurements, it was found that there were significant differences between the female football players and control group in right foot 2 left feet 1 st , 2 nd ,3 rd ,4 th metatarsal heads sole 11 contact areas peak pressure and in the 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th toes, at average maximal pressure in right and left foot in 2 nd metatarsalheads and time pressure integral in right foot 2 nd and 3 rd metatarsalheads and left foot heel medial, heel lateral, 2 nd ,3 rd and 4 th metatarsalheads. Conclusion: In our findings, it was found that the pressure in football players' sole front interior regions was higher than both the control group and the other regions in their own feet. It was determined that the particularly the crampons used by the football players were insufficient to protect the sole and failed to prevent permanent sole pressure parameters. As a result, Football players' excessive pressing against their soles in forcing movements in long term exercises and matches are indicated to cause change in the sportsmen's sole pressure regions and values. BAYAN FUTBOLCULARDA AYAK TABANI BASINC DAĞILIMLARININ ARAŞTIRILMASI


This is a retrospective study of seven patients with 10 feet displaying nonparalytic congenital vertical talus treated at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis by open reduction without naviculectomy. Each of the 10 feet underwent an operation for open reduction of congenital vertical talus. The procedure included a peritalar soft tissue release, posterior release of the hindfoot with Achilles tendon lengthening, and transfer of the tibialis anterior tendon into the talar neck. Length of follow-up ranged between 2 and 11 years. Average follow-up time was 6 years and 9 months. Age at time of open reduction ranged from 8 months to 3 years. The clinical follow-up evaluation revealed three excellent, three good, and four fair results. Only one patient underwent a subsequent surgical procedure.


A 26 amino acid peptide has successfully been purified via recombinant expression as an intein fusion protein accompanied by cleavage without the need for any exogenous proteases or cofactors, thus offering a practical, inexpensive approach to produce isotopically labelled peptides.


There are only some cochlear and retro-cochlear lesions that could be detected using a simple measurement of otoacoustic emissions. A simple description of the various lesions that lead to hearing loss and disruption of emissions is presented, a basis for categorizing cochlear and retro-cochlear lesions is discussed, and the types of clinical symptoms likely to be associated with each type of lesion are outlined.


Abstract This study aims to integrate kinesthetic technology and collaborative learning into total physical response (TPR) and to investigate the effect of collaborative total physical response (CTPR) on English language acquisition by high school students. To accomplish this, we utilized Microsoft Kinects to develop Collaborative Kinesthetic English Learning (CKEL) system designed to accommodate students in pairs during collaborative English learning activities. Thus, we observed significantly improved learning outcomes in the experimental group relative to the control groups in both total score and vocabulary part of the post-test. However, tests carried out for learning different kinds of vocabulary based on CTPR were also analyzed, and the results showed no significant difference between verbs, nouns or adjectives. This experiment revealed that this system would possibly be helpful for English learning regardless of the kind of vocabulary targeted. Therefore, we concluded that CTPR is not only more helpful for English learning than the traditional individual TPR but also worth being employed and requires further exploration in facilitating English learning.


It is ten years since Kehl (2002) identified the increasing number of SOTL papers being produced by political scientists. As noted by Hamann et al (2009) and Whitman and Richlin (2007) this trend has developed further, with increasing levels of research and publishing activity in political science education being observed in a number of national contexts. This is reflected in the content of the International Political Education Database (IPED), hosted by the UK Political Studies Association Teaching and Learning Group, which includes over a thousand journal articles on teaching and learning in politics. The paper aims to provide an up-to-date survey of the scope of this literature, identify the key themes which have emerged as the focus of study. It argues that while this now constitutes an impressive body of academic literature, there remain areas that require further development. These include the need for: a greater consensus on what constitutes research quality within the field; a greater degree of scholarly debate within the literature; and greater reflection on the political nature of the teaching and learning of political science. Attention to these issues, it is argued, will support the further development of this field through the coming decade.


Notably, the majority of papillomaviruses associated with a high cancer risk have the potential to translate different isoforms of the L1 major capsid protein. In an infection model, the cutaneous Mastomys natalensis papillomavirus (MnPV) circumvents the humoral immune response of its natural host by first expressing a 30 amino acid extended L1 isoform (L1LONG). Although inducing a robust seroconversion, the raised antibodies are not neutralizing in vitro. In contrast, neutralizing antibodies induced by the capsid-forming isoform (L1SHORT) appear delayed by several months. We now provide evidence that, although L1LONG vaccination showed a strong seroconversion, these antibodies were not protective. As a consequence, virus-free animals subsequently infected with MnPV still accumulated high numbers of transcriptionally active viral genomes, ultimately leading to skin tumor formation. In contrast, vaccination with L1SHORT was completely protective. This shows that papillomavirus L1LONG expression is a unique strategy to escape from antiviral immune surveillance.


The improvement process by adding polymers and cement has been carried out to sub-base material used in the compaction processes, in order to observe their effects on the geotechnical properties of the sub-base such as compaction, unconfined compressive strength, shear strength, California bearing ratio and absorption ratio. It has been observed that there is a significant improvement in the geotechnical properties of the soil as the value of the maximum dry density increased from 2.144 to 2.220 g/cm3, while the value of the optimum moisture contents decreased from 6.3 to 5.2% with a percentage of 5 % of the first polymer (Polyvinyl Acetate & Polyol). It is also revealed that there is an increase in the value of the unconfined compressive strength after adding 5% of the first polymer and 5% cement to the sub-base sample, and then soaked in water for different periods of time, the result was 11550 kPa with a soaking period of 28 days. Also, the angle of the internal friction values increased in testing the direct shear strength from 35◦ to 45◦ by adding 5% of the first polymer, and cohesion occurrence among the particles of the material under the action of the polymer as a adhesive material, the value reached 200 kN/m2. The California bearing ratio increased from 49% to 64% by adding 5% of the first polymer, while the absorption ratio decreased considerably at the same ratio and material from 9.8% to 4.1%.


Our current sociodemographic reality, with a large number of older persons and other variables, leads to some changes in the population's demands for socio-health care. Thus, there is a demand for the stimulation of cognitive capacities, and this type of activities is carried in practically all the Day-Care Centers and Active Ageing Programs. In recent years, within Psychology of Ageing, the study of the emotional changes undergone by older individuals—the study of the so-called "Emotional Ageing"—has also reached a peak. Thus, the present project has the aim of combining both aspects, cognitive stimulation and the education of emotions. The general goal is to design and implement a Program of Cognitive Stimulation and Emotional Intelligence for older people with no cognitive impairment, in the center of the City of Almeria. It would only allow us to assess and analyze the relation between different concepts, such as Quality of Life, Emotional Intelligence, Life Satisfaction, Attention and Daily Memory, and also to confirm the improvement in the cognitive tasks of the program (time and correct responses) and the benefits for the above-mentioned variables of introducing both aspects—including the New Technologies—to the older people of the center of Almeria. This would also improve their activity and social integration, as well as provide them with equal opportunities [Acknowledgements: This work was carried out with the collaboration of the


The Legal Scholar's Guidebook is dedicated "to all the voices longing to be heard," previewing for readers the important values that the book champions of inviting more scholars to the table. The book is grounded in values of inclusivity and accessibility. It describes the analytic paradigms and organizational frameworks that govern traditional legal scholarship. The book implicitly reveals to readers something of a tension between conformity and inclusion. How do supervisors and mentors cultivate the development of new scholarly voices, particularly marginalized voices, within a context of reverent conformity to existing paradigms, methods, and schemas? In teaching scholarly writing, is the reverence and conformity to existing scholarship lifting up voices longing to be heard or is it conforming the voices longing to be heard with the dominant voices already being heard?

The Legal Scholar's Guidebook is savvy in its quest to help the voices longing to be heard, and in its efforts to help address the self-doubts that nag so many scholars. It introduces important concepts of inclusion and imposter syndrome, boldly addressing them head-on, which is worthy of great gratitude. It embeds guidance throughout each chapter to "squelch the imposter voice" that can compromise the production of scholarship. The solution to the "imposter syndrome" though may not be more instruction. Mentors can reinforce the problem if those mentors share a different pedigree, background, resume from the scholar, or if those mentors are confused or conflated with supervisors.

The Legal Scholar's Guidebook, when read during a global pandemic and amid a crescendo of calls for racial justice in our communities, calls for our self-reflection as a community of scholars. Conquering imposter syndrome requires a strong sense of authenticity and belonging. This requires an alignment between one's authentic values and identity and acceptance in a setting, institution, or task. For readers of this book in modern political, economic, and social times, it might be a springboard to deeper conversations about the chasms between the communities that feel like they belong in legal scholarship and those that do not. It might call for us all to strengthen the intentionality of our mentoring of students of color, nontraditional students, LGBTQ+ students, and women students. There has never been a better moment for us all to revisit how we produce and define "good" scholarship, the breadth of the scholarly voices we reproduce and consume, and the entrenched assumptions and hierarchies that shape our scholarly practices. In that sense, this guidebook might guide us all to a more inclusive and inviting place uplifting new scholarly voices.


The crystal structure of the RNA dodecamer 5'-GGCC(GAAA)GGCC-3' has been determined from x-ray diffraction data to 2.3-A resolution. In the crystal, these oligomers form double helices around twofold symmetry axes. Four consecutive non-Watson-Crick base pairs make up an internal loop in the middle of the duplex, including sheared G.A pairs and novel asymmetric A.A pairs. This internal loop sequence produces a significant curvature and narrowing of the double helix. The helix is curved by 34 degrees from end to end and the diameter is narrowed by 24% in the internal loop. A Mn2+ ion is bound directly to the N7 of the first guanine in the Watson-Crick region following the internal loop and the phosphate of the preceding residue. This Mn2+ location corresponds to a metal binding site observed in the hammerhead catalytic RNA.


This paper establishes inner bounds on the secrecy capacity regions for the general three-receiver broadcast channel with one common and one confidential message sets. We consider two setups. The first is when the confidential message is to be sent to two receivers and kept secret from the third receiver. Achievability is established using indirect decoding, Wyner wiretap channel coding, and the new idea of generating secrecy from a publicly available superposition codebook. The inner bound is shown to be tight for a class of reversely degraded broadcast channels and when both legitimate receivers are less noisy than the third receiver. The second setup investigated in this paper is when the confidential message is to be sent to one receiver and kept secret from the other two receivers. Achievability in this case follows from Wyner wiretap channel coding and indirect decoding. This inner bound is also shown to be tight for several special cases.


The performance of a Synchronous Reluctance Motor (SynRM) in terms of torque and power factor depends on the two-axis inductances and of the machine. The Axially Laminated Anisotropic (ALA) rotor should be proposed in an effort to increase the ratio and the difference to secure high torque density and high power factor. So, ALA rotor is suitable for high speed instruments. This paper deals with optimum design of Axially Laminated Anisotropic Synchronous Reluctance Motor (ALA-SynRM) and comparison of characteristics with induction motor. Coupled Finite Element Methodology (FEM) & Response Surface Methodology (RSM) have been used to evaluate optimum design solutions. Comparisons are given with characteristics of a same rated wattage induction motor and those of ALA-SynRM respectively.


Introduction : Without blood there may be no blood transfusion. Without donors there may not any blood. During vasovagal reaction there is chance of accidental fall and injury to blood donor. So improving the safety of the blood donation experience will reduce the donor injuries and increase the blood donation, donation frequency and donor satisfaction. Objective: This study was done to find out the incidence of blood donor reaction- vasovagal reactions among the blood donors attending at transfusion medicine department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital and to improve the donor's safety. Methodology: This study was done at Transfusion Medicine Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital in the period between January 2010 to December 2010. Total 21815 donors of 18 to 55 years of both sexes were selected after reviewing the questionnaire, physical and medical examination and written consent. Donors were observed for 30 minutes after donation. The needle site was covered with a bandage and the donor was directed to keep the bandage on for several hours. Result: In this study, out of 21815 donors 163(8.7%) developed reaction. In163 reactions, 72(44.18%) were in male and 91 (55.82%) were in female donors. Within 20179 male donors, adverse reactions occurred in 72 (0.35%) and within 1636 female donors, adverse reactions occurred in 91 (5.56%) The symptoms were agitation 23 (14.12%), pallor 31 (19.02%), sweating 29 (17.79%), nausea 21 (12.88%), vomiting 38 (23.21%), cold feeling 12(7.36%), loss of consciousness 9(5.52%),i.e. severe reactions were 9(5.53%) and mild to moderate reactions were154 (94.47%). Among the reactions 127 (0.89%) occurred in new donors, 32 (0.49%) occurred in occasional donors and 4 (0.37%) in periodic donors. Conclusion: Vasovagal reactions are more common in female and new donors. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmed.v22i2.13589 Bangladesh J Medicine 2011; 22: 47-50


Freshwater mussels of the order Unionida are currently one of the most imperiled groups of organisms in the North American faunal region. Accurate risk assessments and development of effective management strategies for remaining populations require knowledge of thermal limits in the face of increasing surface water temperature due to climate change and various anthropogenic factors. We conducted a systematic literature review of unionid mussels (order Unionida, families Margaritiferidae and Unionidae) in the North American faunal region to (1) summarize lethal thermal tolerance data by life stage and taxonomy, (2) discuss ecological and climate change implications of existing lethal tolerance data, and (3) identify needs for future research. We identified lethal tolerance estimates for only 28 of 302 species in the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae. The mean acute median lethal temperatures were 32.8 °C for glochidia (19 species), 35.0 °C for juveniles (13 species), and 36.3 °C for adults (4 species). Generally, glochidia were less tolerant than juveniles or adults of the same species—but there were several exceptions. Generally, Amblemini had the highest acute and chronic thermal tolerance of all tribes followed by Anodontini, Pleurobemini, Lampsilini, and Quadrilini. Acclimation temperature affected lethal tolerance endpoints in less than half (52 of 145) of comparisons within species. Lethal tolerance data for additional species, combined with a comprehensive database of in situ surface water temperatures, would be useful for modeling the frequency and duration of lethal limit exceedance in North America and identifying populations currently living at or near their upper lethal limits.


Multi-carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) is a promising multiple access scheme for the fourth generation mobile radio systems which aim to support services with wide range of data rates up to 100 Mbps. MC-CDMA exploits frequency diversity by transmitting chips of a bit over multiple subcarriers, making the communication system more robust to diverse frequency selective fading of the outdoor environment. Up to now, performance of multicarrier systems has been investigated mainly for indoor environment that is characterised by small delay spreads and low mobile speeds. We investigated performance of MC-CDMA system for outdoor environment. MMSEC combining technique was used. The results show that the system parameters, like Pn code length (i.e., number of subcarriers) and size of S-P conversion, can be varied in order to provide optimal system performance. Furthermore, in the case of no movement, an increase in the spectral efficiency can be attained by selecting the frequency band in a hybrid FDMA/MC-CDMA system depending on the frequency selectivity and the data rate.


X-ray reflectivity is sensitive to slight structural changes along the depth of layered materials in the order of sub-nanometers or even smaller. This property is extremely promising for the observation of buried interfaces, but the conventional X-ray reflectivity technique unfortunately lacks spatial resolution. The method looks at quite a large area, typically mm2~ cm2of the sample, and this often makes it difficult to analyze realistic problems in modern nano sciences and technologies. The present article discusses instrumentation for upgrading the X-ray reflectivity technique to give it a much higher spatial resolution. Recent preliminary results with high-energy white X-rays are reported.


In this work, we present a machine learning method to guide an ultrasound operator towards a selected area of interest. Unlike other automatic medical imaging methods, ultrasound imaging is one of the few imaging modalities where the operator's skill and training are critical in obtaining high quality images. Additionally, due to recent advances in affordability and portability of ultrasound technology, its utilization by non-experts has increased. Thus, there is a growing need for intelligent systems that have the ability to assist ultrasound operators in both clinical and non-clinical scenarios. We propose a system that leverages machine learning to map real time ultrasound scans to transformation vectors that can guide a user to a target organ or anatomical structure. We present a unique training system that passively collects supervised training data from an expert sonographer and uses this data to train a deep regression network. Our results show that we are able to recognize anatomical structure through the use of ultrasound imaging and give the user guidance toward obtaining an ideal image.


By effectively adjusting the appliance usage patterns of customers, demand response (DR) is expected to bring significant economic and environmental benefits to the future smart grid. Two kinds of appliances should be considered for DR, i.e. shiftable appliances such as dishwashers and laundry machines, and non-shiftable appliances such as lights and stoves. Although the shiftable appliances can be well controlled by energy management systems, the random usage patterns of non-shiftable appliances will result in uncertainties to electrical demands and thus, affect the efficiency and reliability of smart grid operation. A two-stage stochastic programming problem is formulated, for which the distribution system operation cost is minimised in the first stage, by considering various distribution system operation constraints. The scheduling of shiftable appliances is optimised in the second stage, by considering the random usage patterns of non-shiftable appliances. To reduce the computational complexity caused by a large number of home appliances in distribution systems, scenario reduction technique is applied to reduce the number of possible scenarios while still retaining the essential features of the original scenario set. Extensive simulations are performed to evaluate the proposed DR scheme in IEEE 33-bus and 119-bus test distribution systems based on real appliance usage pattern data.


An easy method to crystallize homogenous HAP at physiological pH as well as powders of HAP and CPP at low temperature are described. Platy and spherulitic crystals of HAP were crystallized at the physiological pH using single diffusion method. Well-defined platy crystals of hydroxyapatite were obtained at the physiological temperature and pH. These crystals were found to be pure and homogenous form of HAP without any contamination from the crystallizing medium. Spherulitic crystals of HAP of approximately 3 mm in diameter were obtained in the presence of Fe at 47 degrees C. A sol-gel technique involving agarose is described for the preparation of hydroxyapatite and calcium pyrophosphate. Pure form of HAP was synthesised at 85 degrees C and its sintering properties were also studied. At a temperature of 1200 degrees C, the material gets completely converted to alpha-calcium pyrophosphate. The samples were analysed by XRD, IR, TGA and SEM. The particle size of the synthesised powders was measured using the dynamic light scattering experiments.


Objective Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipoprotein (NGAL), a protein encoded by the lipocalcin-2 (LCN2) gene, has been reported to be involved in multiple processes of innate immunity, but its relationship with spinal cord injury (SCI) remains unclear. This study set out to determine whether NGAL played a role in the development of cognitive impairment following SCI. Methods At the Neck-Shoulder and Lumbocrural Pain Hospital, a total of 100 SCI patients and 72 controls were enrolled in the study through recruitment. Through questionnaires, baseline data on the participants' age, gender, education level, lifestyle choices (drinking and smoking) and underlying illnesses (hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and hyperlipidemia) were gathered. The individuals' cognitive performance was evaluated using the Montreal Cognitive Scale (MoCA), and their serum NGAL levels were discovered using ELISA. Results The investigation included 72 controls and 100 SCI patients. The baseline data did not differ substantially between the two groups, however the SCI group's serum NGAL level was higher than the control group's (p < 0.05), and this elevated level was adversely connected with the MoCA score (p < 0.05). According to the results of the ROC analysis, NGAL had a sensitivity of 58.24% and a specificity of 86.72% for predicting cognitive impairment following SCI. Conclusions The changes in serum NGAL level could serve as a biomarker for cognitive impairment in SCI patients, and this holds true even after taking in account several confounding variables.


A second, monoclinic, polymorph of the title compound, C(14)H(8)Cl(2), has been found. In addition to the structure of this monoclinic form, the structure of the previously described orthorhombic form [Desvergne, Chekpo & Bouas-Laurent (1978). J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. 2, pp. 84-87; Benites, Maverick & Fronczek (1996). Acta Cryst. C52, 647-648] has been redetermined at low temperature and using modern methods. The low-temperature structure of the orthorhombic form is of significantly higher quality than the previously published structure and additional details can be derived. A comparison of the crystal packing of the two forms with a focus on weak intermolecular C-H···Cl interactions shows the monoclinic structure to have one such interaction linking the molecules into infinite ribbons, while two crystallographically independent C-H···Cl interactions give rise to an interesting infinite three-dimensional network in the orthorhombic crystal form.


Today's artificial intelligence, largely based on data-intensive machine learning algorithms, relies heavily on the digital labour of invisibilized and precarized humans-in-the-loop who perform multiple functions of data preparation, verification of results, and even impersonation when algorithms fail. Using original quantitative and qualitative data, the present article shows that these workers are highly educated, engage significant (sometimes advanced) skills in their activity, and earnestly learn alongside machines. However, the loop is one in which human workers are at a disadvantage as they experience systematic misrecognition of the value of their competencies and of their contributions to technology, the economy, and ultimately society. This situation hinders negotiations with companies, shifts power away from workers, and challenges the traditional balancing role of the salary institution.


In Senegal one of the major problems is the informal nature of the majority of SME. This article aims to show the specificity of Senegalese SMEs; the analysis of challenges faced in the formalization of the latter, their weight in the economy particularly on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and lastly, recommendations to overcome the noted problematics. It will also help correct figures that give a support that 99% of Businesses in Senegal are informal. The data come from the survey of the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (2019), descriptive methodology is used.


Sunil Kumar , J.V. Desai , S. Mukherjee , P. K. Das # # Faculty of Engineering & Technology Mody Institute of Technology & Science Lakshmangarh, India * Department of Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India 1 firstname.lastname@example.com 2 firstname.lastname@example.com 3 firstname.lastname@example.com Abstract— Digital image forgery detection is one of the hot research area in the recent time. A lot of researchers are trying different tools to establish the authenticity of a given image. There can be many types of forgery performed on digital image. Watermarking is one of the traditional techniques to detect any type of tampering with the original image, but that has to be done at the time of capturing the image. Once an image has been captured without such technique, there is no alternate but to apply different blind forgery detection techniques. The present paper is an effort to explore Independent Component Analysis (ICA) as a tool to get clues about the tampering with original image. The results may provide further leads to the researchers working in the same area. Keyworddigital image forgery, ICA, image tampering, blind source separation


Savunese language later shortened (Sl) is a regional language used by East Nusa Tenggara people particularly Sabu and Raijua. The area of using Savunese language can be found in Ipi/Ende regency, Aimere/Ngada regency, Melolo/East Sumba regency, Kupang city, Kupang regency, Soe regency, Kefa regency andBelu regency; the functionof Savunese languageas introductory language for Savunese people in the overseas still functions properlybecause of traditional lifestyle of the group based on the origin and interest which is still very dominant. In this paper I attempt to appoint the mistery of the distinctivefeature of phoneme in Savunese language, is a concern to bring back the uniqueness of Savunese language which has undergone a lot of developments. The determination of consonant features according Optimization Theory based on the following criteria: (1) classification based on place of articulation , (2) classification based on the sound , (3) classification based on nasality , and (4) classification based on continuity (continuation). While the determination of vowel in Savunese language. Structural or transformational-generative idiologyuses high, mid, low, front, back, round, and non roundin classifying vowel. Unlike the Structural ideology, Generative ideology describes vowel by using distinctive features [high], [back.], [round.], and [low].


This research proposes the on-stage costumes for the play Hamlet of Shakespeare performed by Yunheedan Guhri Pae - the Street Theater Troupe. Stage costumes have an important role in displaying the characteristics of each characters to the audience and has big visual effects. However, in order to design the costumes in the object viewpoints of the audience, the survey on the images of the characters who had actually watched the performance was taken place and proposed the costume design according to the results of the survey. Hamlet a: This result was applied to propose a sweater in black color, black leather pants and vest. Hamlet b: This result was applied to propose hooded coat in purple in middle level of brightness and color spectrum and yellow coat. For free image, loose pants in blue and vest in the same color tone were proposed. Gertrude a: This result was applied to use purple (violet) with reddish tone to propose the formation of a dress applying tailored suit. Gertrude b: This result was applied to propose purple gown and the one-piece dress with black laces. Ophelia a: This result was applied to propose feminine white dress and cape in purple color tone. Ophelia b: This result was applied to propose dyed and weaved clothes. Through the surveys as above, the images of each character was driven in adjectives, and using the results driven from the brightness, coloration, and color, color images were proposed. Only one costume cannot make up for the stage costumes and because it exists as an element of stage production, it is true that costumes are limited in some areas. However, that limit can become the motive of the costume. There is a limit, which the designer cannot produce the costumes as he or she had designed but I believe it is the center of the on-stage customers to display the characteristics of the characters according to the given concept. The limit of this research is the fact that because the costumes were designed so they fit the conditions already given, thus it was difficult to regard the process of designing and producing the costume as a project done according to the interaction. And in the future, if it is possible, I wish for the joint research with the people responsible for stage art to take place as a practical stage art. It was possible to produce practical costume since they were produced for actual performance and the production of costumes considering the dance steps, line of flow, and acting, was able to reduce the trial and error on stage. Through this research, I felt that the understanding and smooth interaction on diverse other areas not limited to the costume design should be taken place and believe that this was a research that proposes new research method since there had been only a few previous research regarding the on-stage costumes for actual performances. Therefore, this research had depended on the surveys given to the audiences to endow objectivity, however, I wish this research can contribute to defining effective process and methods for the on-stage costumes with more active researches with diverse methods and in diverse areas. I am sorry that the costume production for all the characters and all the scenes in Hamlet couldn't be done due to many limitations. As the following research assignment, I am planning on designing the costumes for all the scenes.


: Examinations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from clinical material from newborns and puerperae and from the environmental objects (washings off, water) have shown that 45.45% of these strains belonged to serotype 04, 24.55% to serotype 02, and 16.38% to other serotypes. Serotype 04 was the most incident in all the tested samples, it was detectable in newborns' biotopes and on environmental objects. Serotype 02 strains ranked second in incidence; they were detected in clinical material from the newborns but not on environmental objects.


CHILDREN with cystinosis rarely live beyond 10 years of age. 1-3 Because of their early death and the rarity of this disease it is not surprising that there have been no previous reports (to our knowledge) of appendicitis occurring in children with cystinosis. The occurrence of both disease processes in the same patient presented an interesting diagnostic problem. Report of a Case The patient (NIH-06-33-53) was a 3½ -yearold white boy who had cystinosis. The diagnosis was made when he was 20 months of age on the basis of the following findings: (1) renal tubular defects consistent with the Fanconi syndrome, (2) demonstration of cystine crystals in bone marrow aspirates, (3) refractile bodies in the cornea and conjunctivitis seen by slit-lamp examination, and (4) retinopathy typical of cystinosis. 4 A more detailed clinical description may be found elsewhere. 4,5 For the previous 18 months his diet had consisted of a


The conductance of the squid axon membrane under 'voltage-clamp' was measured by superposing a sinusoidal wave upon rectangular clamping voltage pulses. It was possible to determine the time course of the emf of the membrane under 'voltage-clamp' on a single photographic record showing the membrane current together with the simultaneously recorded membrane conductance. The properties of the membrane in the mixed state, in which only a portion of the axon membrane is in the excited state, were investigated by the same method. The property of the weak variable inward membrane current which preceded the appearance of discrete inward surges was investigated.


This paper documents the scalar imaging of an electrokinetic flow instability that is directly relevant to microfluidic systems that aim to handle and analyze heterogeneous sample streams. The instability occurs in simple T-junctions where two streams of different ionic concentration flow into a common channel. Using neutral dye visualizations, general qualitative behavior of the instability is documented including the formation of a wave in the stream/stream material line that originates at the junction of the two channels and propagates downstream. Several quantitative properties of this phenomenon are measured including wave speed and the extent of the perturbation boundary. This work is part of an ongoing project to identify the physics of this instability and determine the regime of stability, with an ultimate goal of developing methods to either enhance or suppress the instability.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


Drawing a box around an intended segmentation target has become both a popular user interface and a common output for learning-driven detection algorithms. Despite the ubiquity of using a box to define a segmentation target, it is unclear in the literature whether a box is sufficient to define a unique segmentation or whether segmentation from a box is ill-posed without higher-level (semantic) knowledge of the intended target. We examine this issue by conducting a study of 14 subjects who are asked to segment a boxed target in a set of 50 real images for which they have no semantic attachment. We find that the subjects do indeed perceive and trace almost the same segmentations as each other, despite the inhomogeneity of the image intensities, irregular shapes of the segmentation targets and weakness of the target boundaries. Since the subjects produce the same segmentation, we conclude that the problem is well-posed and then provide a new segmentation algorithm from a box which achieves results close to the perceived target.


Does the scientific "theory" that HIV came to North America from Haiti stem from underlying attitudes of racism and ethnocentrism in the USA rather than from hard evidence? Anthropologist-physician Paul Farmer answers in the affirmative with this, the first full-length ethnographic study of AIDS in a poor society. Farmer was present when the first case of AIDS was registered in the rural Haitian village of Kay, a peasant community rendered particularly vulnerable to AIDS, he maintains, by extreme poverty. With moving directness, Farmer tells what happened when this society was invaded by a mysterious and deadly plague. He follows the case histories of three afflicted individuals, linking their experience to large-scale forces that have shaped the AIDS pandemic. How, he asks, did HIV come to Haiti, and when did it arrive? How far has it spread? How is it transmitted, and who is at risk? What might explain the profusion of theories about a Haitian origin of AIDS? His search for answers reaches into the domains of epidemiology, history, and political economy. Farmer brings into sharp focus the relation of AIDS to poverty and racism, and the responsibility of scientists and policy makers to develop a more global awareness of this infectious disease that "runs along the fault lines of our international order".


This study, analyzed the students' communication performance and competence in the speaking class. This study also measured the students' communication apprehension level and its correlation with communication performance and competence. 30 students of second year students of SMK Pariwisata Kosgoro Cirebon took part in this study. The data were gathered through questionnaire, presentation test to get the score of communication performance and interview test to get the score of communication competence. The correlation study was used to investigate the relation of each variable. The result from the students' performance showed that 66,7% of the students scored below the school standard score (75) and 70% of the students scored below standard score in the interview test. The participants showed the highest apprehension to public speaking and the lowest apprehension to group discussion. Their level of apprehension showed that 43.3% students were in moderate level and 56,7% students were in high level of apprehension. It was also found that communication apprehension was negatively correlated with communication performance. While the result from the correlation between communication apprehension and competence showed that there was a very low positive correlation but, there was a high positive correlation between communication competence and performance.


Studies on on-road behaviour show that drivers don't follow recommendations and weather forecasts. Customization is here suggested to be of major importance for raising the awareness about weather. Along with developments on communication technologies, we are challenged to move on from traditional ways of collecting and distributing information. The paper suggests a weather information customization model for more reliable weather information. Customization was studied as weather warning messages - based on a user-centered perspective and taking the user's recent observations into account - were provided to 70 drivers in Stockholm through SMS, e-mail and Internet, during winter season 2008/09.


Challenging the sentimentalized and moralized view of comedy that prevails in modern criticism, Christopher Herbert outlines a theory of comedy as a mode whose dominant motive and function is the glorification of pleasure. Using this model, he presents a detailed study of Anthony Trollope that sharply contradicts the persistent image of this novelist as a conventional writer and complacent spokesman for middle-class pieties. The comic mode as Herbert describes it was antagonistic to the repressive moral ethos widely prevalent in Victorian England. Herbert shows how Trollope, under a mask of self-proclaimed conventionality, employed this mode in a steady, sometimes scandalous critique of the Victorian subversion of pleasure. Drawing on Trollope's unpublished notes on seventeenth-century drama and bringing to light many instances in the novels of direct borrowings from old plays, Herbert demonstrates the inventiveness and subtlety of Trollope's deployment of comic materials. Thematically organized around such subjects as Trollope's investigations of sex, his formal structures, and his principles of "realism," Herbert's study includes detailed readings of two of the nineteenth century's most ambitious exercises in comedy: "The Way We Live Now" and Trollope's neglected masterpiece, "Ayala's Angel." Of primary importance for readers of Trollope and students of comedy, Herbert's study will also prove valuable to those interested more generally in Victorian and modern fiction and the cultural history of the Victorian age.


In this letter, we propose and demonstrate a compact, low-cost, and easy to manufacture microstrip line with two open-circuit stubs to alleviate impedance mismatching of a packaged 40-Gb/s electroabsorption modulator integrated laser (EML) module. For comparison, two 1550-nm EML modules are fabricated, the only difference being that one of them is made with open-circuit stubs, while the other is not. It is revealed that the open-circuit stubs technique expands the 3-dB modulation bandwidth from 25.2 to 33.6 GHz, and the suppression of the input return loss below -10 dB in the range of the higher frequency of the sub-assembly with chip is also successfully demonstrated. Further evidence showing the advantage of the EML module with open-circuit stubs over the one without open-circuit stubs include the effective reduction in the RMS jitter of the eye diagram from 1.4 to 1.2 ps, as well as the improvement of the sensitivity, which changes from -8.3 to -9.5 dBm measured with the same receiver.


In this work, a flexible and efficient flow microreactor has been developed for the synthesis of an aromatic amine via a Buchwald–Hartwig reaction, a key bond-forming reaction in the synthesis of a wide range of naturally-occurring and pharmaceutically active targets. The microreactor, coupled with a highly active palladium N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalyst, enabled the full conversion of the reagents within twenty minutes, even at very low catalyst concentrations. In addition to the classical two-feed design, a novel, more flexible four-feed flow system was developed with a configuration optimised to avoid clogging, which is one of the main problems in microreactors and in continuous flow reactive systems in general. We report the effect of flow rate, temperature and catalyst loading on conversion degree. In particular, a slight increase in temperature allowed faster conversion even at low catalyst loadings, likely due to the highly efficient heat transfer provided by the confined microreactor geometry.


Our world is an interconnected collection of economic and computational systems. Within such a system, individuals optimize their actions to achieve their own, perhaps selfish, goals; and the system combines these actions with its basic laws to produce an outcome. Some of these systems perform well, e.g., the national residency matching program which assigns medical students to residency programs in hospitals, e.g., auctions for online advertising on Internet search engines; and some of these systems perform poorly, e.g., financial markets during the 2008 meltdown, e.g., gridlocked transportation networks. The success and failure of these systems depends on the basic laws governing the system. Financial regulation can prevent disastrous market meltdowns, congestion protocols can prevent gridlock in transportation networks, and market and auction design can lead to mechanisms for allocating and exchanging goods or services that yield higher profits or increased value to society. The two sources for economic considerations are the preferences of individuals and the performance of the system. For instance, bidders in an auction would like to maximize their gains from buying; whereas, the performance of the system could (i.e., from the perspective of the seller) be measured in terms of the revenue it generates. Likewise, the two sources for computational considerations are the individuals who must optimize their strategies, and the system which must enforce its governing rules. For instance, bidders in the auction must figure out how to bid, and the auctioneer must calculate the winner and payments from the bids received. While these calculations may seem easy when auctioning a painting, they both become quite challenging when, e.g., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auctions cell phone spectrum for which individual lots have a high degree of complementarities. These economic and computational systems are complex. The space


How to allocate the proportion of money to invest into the stock market to earn optimal profit at lower risk? To answer the question, this study uses the Kelly Criterion to help develop a methodology to determine the optimal proportional investment strategies for ETFs, based on the forecasting results of the Generalized Auto Regressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) and the Glosten-Jagannathan-Runkie GARCH (GJR-GARCH) models, which together consider the volatility of fund indices. We use six different GARCH and GJR models to forecast volatilities, and five different estimated long-term returns in Kelly Criterion to calculate final profit; then we determine the profitable investment strategies. The necessary inputs for the GARCH, GJR, and Kelly Criterion are the closing prices of the S&P 500 Index. While we use the closing prices of the S&P 500 Index from 1950 to 2011 as the inputs of the methodology, we analyze mainly the forecasting results from the representative years from 1981 to 2011. The methodology seems to be robust, as optimal investment strategies can be deduced from it.


In view of the wide attention received by the suggestion that the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) over the last 8000 years is anthropogenic rather than natural in origin [Ruddiman, 2003], this claim should be carefully examined.The basis for the claim is that following each of the three preceding glacial terminations, the CO2 content of the atmosphere peaked early on and then underwent a steady decline. By contrast, following the end of the last glacial period, while it also peaked early the decline bottomed out around 8000 years ago, and since then the atmospheric CO2 content has steadily risen.

By analogy with previous interglaciations, Ruddiman estimates that in the absence of human activity, the CO2 content of the atmosphere would have dropped to 240 ppm. Instead it has risen to 280 ppm. In a recent article, Ruddiman [2005] proposes that this 40 ppm human-induced rise prevented the onset of another ice age.


The role of banks in the economic development of a nation is very vital, including Islamic banking. Therefore, this article is conducted to create an Islamic bank effectively and efficiently to compete in the global economy. This study uses SWOT analysis to provide an overview of the historical development of Islamic banks and present an analysis of the development of sharia-Islamic banks in Muslim countries. bank syariah; analisis SWOT; negara Muslim


Professor Coolsen has made a substantial contribution to the development of a history of marketing thought by an intensive analysis of the marketing concepts contained in the writings of Edward Atkinson, David Ames Wells, and Arthur and Henry Farquhar. The works of Atkinson which were drawn upon most were: Distribution of Products, 1885; Industrial Progress of the Nation, 1889; and Taxation and Work, 1892. Those of Wells were Recent Economic Changes, 1889, and Practical Economics, 1885. The autobiography of Arthur Farquhar, The First Million the Hardest, 1922, and Economic and Industrial Delusions, 1891, written jointly by the Farquhar brothers, contained the major theories of those authors. The common ground for all of the publications was a background belief in free enterprise and a campaign against government intervention especially in the matter of high protective tariffs. Edward Atkinson wrote from the experience of a financial executive for several cotton textile mills. It was he who organized and promoted the International Cotton Exhibition in Atlanta in 1881. David Wells had been the chairman of the United States Revenue Commission. Arthur Farquhar was a manufacturer of farm implements, and Henry Farquhar was a government statistician. Atkinson feared the adverse influence of high import duties on our markets abroad, particularly for cotton. As an argument against import restrictions he built up a substantial statistical evidence to show the greater importance of domestic trade as compared with foreign trade. Arthur Farquhar sold a significant portion of the output of his farm implement factory abroad and argued for less protection because it would mean a lower cost for his raw iron and steel requirements, some of which was imported. The high tariff issue, however, may have simply represented a legislative effort to combat a basic problem of the times growing from periodic excess capacities of farm and factory and a secular decline in prices following the Civil War to the end of the nineteenth century. In retrospect, the problems of those days have a striking similarity to some of the trends since the middle of the fifties, with the recent pressure on prices exerted by the ability to produce more than markets can absorb. Even now there is an increasing interest in some quarters for the protection of higher tariffs.


We present the case of a 59-years-old woman with a history of abdominal pain and iron-deficiency anemia. Upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy turned out negative and further investigation with wireless videocapsule showed an inflammatory stricture in the middle of the small bowel with retention of the videocapsule. Treatment with budesonide was initiated and allowed the spontaneous evacuation of the videocapsule. Retrograde motorized spiral enteroscopy was performed and confirmed an ulcerative stricture 60 cm proximal to the ileocaecal valve. Clinical, iconographic, endoscopic and histological results were compatible with a rare entity described as cryptogenic multifocal ulcerative stenosing enteritis (CMUSE). After the diagnosis budesonide was replaced by azathioprine 100 mg/d as an immunosuppressor. However, azathioprine induced mild pancreatitis and a second course of.


The usefulness of alprazolam (minor tranquilizer) used in combination with metoclopramide plus methylprednisolone for the prevention and control of emesis induced by chemotherapies, including 5-day continuous intravenous infusion of cisplatin (25 mg/m2/day) for advanced lung cancer, was evaluated using a double-blind randomized crossover design. In our study, 34 cases could be evaluated. No nausea was observed in 14 patients given alprazolam and 4 placebo (p < .01). The mean number of vomiting episodes was significantly smaller in the alprazolam group (1.31±2.61 vs 2.89±4.59 times) (p < .01). The mean duration of nausea and vomiting was significantly shorter in the alprazolam group (p < .001 and p < .01). From these findings, it can be concluded that the coadministration of alprazolam is effective in preventing and controlling chemotherapy-induced emesis due to 5-day continuous intravenous infusion of cisplatin in which mental and psychological factors are involved.


Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) has been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of cough, indigestion, circulatory problems and pain. The associated anti-inflammatory effect of this agent is achieved via the inhibition of Nf-ĸB signaling, a property that has been demonstrated to effectively control the symptoms of various skin disorders, including atopic dermatitis. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of Sea Buckthorn in reducing the production of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activated nitric oxide (NO) by inhibiting the Nf-κB pathway, as measured by the symptoms of atopic dermatitis (AD) occurring secondarily to inflammation and immune dysregulation. Our data demonstrate that Sea Buckthorn significantly decreased the LPS-induced production of NO (p<0.001). Atopic dermatitis was induced by repeated application of 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene to the dorsal skin of mice. Topical application of 5% Sea Buckthorn extract improved the symptoms of AD, specifically reducing disease severity scores, scratching behaviors and epidermal thickness. When compared to the control group, animals treated with Sea Buckthorn exhibited increased serum IL-12 levels and decreased serum TNF-α, IL-4 and IL-5 levels. Such a modulation of biphasic T-helper (Th)1/Th2 cytokines may result in a reduction in serum IgE levels. Our findings suggest that mechanism of action of Sea Buckthorn in the treatment of AD is associated with a marked anti-inflammatory effect as well as an inhibition of Th2-mediated IgE overproduction via the modulation of biphasic Th1/Th2 cytokines. Such results suggest that topical Sea Buckthorn extract may prove to be a novel therapy for AD symptoms with few side effects.


Attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation have been employed to study the spectral properties of imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) with different anions. ILs based on 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium cation with different anions, OH(-), CF(3)CO(2)(-), HSO(4)(-), H(2)PO(4)(-), Cl(-), PF(6)(-), and BF(4)(-), are investigated in the present work. It has been shown that the C(2)-H stretching vibration of the imidazolium ring is closely related to the electron density of H-bonding between the two closest cations and anions for pure ILs. The electron density of H-bonding between cation and anion with different anions decreases in the order [OH](-) > [H(2)PO(4)](-) > [HSO(4)](-) > [CF(3)CO(2)](-) > [Cl](-) > [BF(4)](-) > [PF(6)](-). For aqueous ILs, with increasing water content, the aromatic C-H stretching vibration of the imidazolium cation showed systematic blue-shifts. Especially for BmimOH, the nu(C(2))(-H) undergoes a drastic blue-shift by 58 cm(-1), suggesting that the formation of the strong hydrogen bonds O-H...O may greatly weaken the electron density of H-bonding between the cation and anion of ILs.


We present the results of numerical calculations on the single photon double photoionization of H{sub 2} for energies between 130 eV and 240 eV. We find that our results are in excellent agreement with experimental observations. However, our interpretation of the observed interference pattern at these energies is that it is due to mixing of parallel and perpendicular components through circularly polarized light rather than due to classical double slit diffraction.


Italy has a historical and architectural heritage which consists mainly of buildings built in different historical period. These buildings are today characterized by some aspects of functional distribution and comfort, which need rehabilitation. This is related to the change thinking on a more comfortable distribution of spaces, and improving the sustainability of buildings. These issues have spurred the study of methods to improve the distribution of spaces, the performance of indoor comfort and the energy efficiency in the full respect of materiality and aesthetics of the building. Therefore, the aim of this rehabilitation is improving the indoor comfort, the energy efficiency and the environmental performance of existing buildings, but it is also to choose more carefully the most environmentally sustainable materials for the restructuring. In this work, a case study of rehabilitation of a historical school building sited in the city of Palermo in Italy is reported.


A 73-year-old male was referred to our department for the surgical excision of a solid mass of the chest wall involving the 10th left costal arc and diagnosed by Computed Tomography (CT) scan [Figure 1] during follow-up after removal of a gastrointestinal carcinoid. Six years before, the patient underwent ileocolic resection for a neuroendocrine tumor of the distal ileum infiltrating the appendix and involving mesenteric lymph nodes. Four hepatic metastases were also resected during the same intervention (pT3N2M1). Follow-up, consisting of annual 111 Indium octreotide scan (Octreoscan) and liver ultrasound every six months, was substantially uneventful for five years. On September 2010, the patient occasionally discovered a localized swelling of the left thoracic wall. CT scan confirmed a neoplastic lesion of 6 cm of diameter invading the 10th left rib. The patient did not present diarrhea, flushing, or any other symptom suggestive of "carcinoid syndrome."


Innovation has become one of the most important and effective ways of obtaining and sustaining competitive dominance in the market place over the past number of years. No longer can organisation depend the traditional performance metrics such as quality and efficiency in order to gain advantage over their competitors. This is true not only for large enterprises but also for small to medium enterprises. Innovation has traditionally been seen as key for those large enterprises that have money to invest and can afford to take risky investments. However, innovation plays an important role for the small to medium enterprises as the large companies often outsource many of their sub processes to them such as manufacturing. The main contribution of this paper offers a discussion of innovation management and collaboration; the paper will present the key differences between large enterprises and small to medium enterprises in relation to the innovation process; finally the paper will aim to identify areas of future research around this area that will contribute to the future competitive advantage of Irish SME's in the national and international market place.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the effects of acupuncture with different filiform needles on structure of fascial connective tissues, cellular activity, arrangement and content of collagen fibers in acupoint area of rats.

METHODS
A total of 32 SD rats were randomly divided into a blank group, a thin needle group, a medium needle group and a thick needle group, 8 rats in each one. Except for the blank group, rats in the remaining groups were treated with horizontal acupuncture at "Zhongwan" (CV 12) towards Conception Vessel with different filiform needles, and twirling mild reinforcing-reducing method was applied, once a day. Rats in the blank group were treated with identical anesthesia, grasping and fixation. After 3-day intervention, the fascial connective tissue of acupoint area was collected. HE staining, immumohistochemical staining of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and MASSON staining were adopted to observe the morphology of fascial connective tissues, expression of PCNA in cells and arrangement and expression of collagenous fiber.

RESULTS
After acupuncture in each group, the consistency of morphology of fascial connective tissues and arrangement of collagenous fiber were changed; the expression of PCNA protein in the fascial connective tissue in each group was significantly increased (P<0. 01, P<0. 05). The area distribution of collagenous fiber were changed, and that in the thin needle group was insignificantly increased compared with that in the blank group (P>0. 05), and that in the medium needle group and thick needle group were reduced compared with that in the blank group (both P<0. 05).

CONCLUSIONS
Acupuncture with different filiform needles can change the local tissue morphology of acupoints, strengthen cell activity and adjust the exyression of collagenous fiber protein, which may be one of the cellular biomechanics principles of the acupuncture therapy's "regulating meridians" effects. However, the stimulation is produced by different fifiform needles, and the complex relationships exist between cells and collagen fibers.


Retraction of 'Red luminescent manganese-doped zinc sulphide nanocrystals and their antibacterial study' by Prashant K. Singh et al., J. Mater. Chem. B, 2014, 2, 522-528.


The role of citizens' intitiatives figures prominantly in contemporary debates on constitutional change. A basic question is why are initiatives necessary in a representative democracy where candidates must already compete for the right to control policy? This Paper offers one answer to this question. In a representative democracy, the bundling of issues, together with the fact that citizens have only one vote, means that policy outcomes on specific issues may diverge far from what the majority of citizens want. In such circumstances, allowing citizens to put legislation directly on the ballot permits the 'unbundling' of these issues, which forces a closer relationship between policy outcomes and popular preferences. To the extent that it is condsidered socially undesirable for outcomes on specific issues to stray too far from what the majority wants, this creates a role for citizens initiatives.


We discuss several connections between discrete and
continuous random trees. In the discrete setting, we focus on
Galton-Watson trees under various conditionings. In particular,
we present a simple approach to Aldous' theorem giving the convergence
in distribution of the contour process of conditioned Galton-Watson trees
towards the normalized Brownian excursion. We also briefly discuss
applications to combinatorial trees. In the continuous setting,
we use the formalism of real trees, which yields an elegant
formulation of the convergence of rescaled discrete trees
towards continuous objects. We explain the coding of
real trees by functions, which is a continuous version of
the well-known coding of discrete trees by Dyck paths.
We pay special attention to
random real trees coded by Brownian excursions, and in a
particular we provide a simple derivation of the marginal
distributions of the CRT. The last section is an introduction
to the theory of the Brownian snake, which combines the
genealogical structure of random real trees with independent
spatial motions. We introduce exit measures for the
Brownian snake and we present some applications to
a class of semilinear partial differential equations.


Interview with Cece Cox, Executive Director of Resource Center of Dallas and longtime activist in the LGBT community. The interview includes Cox's personal experiences of childhood in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, her college years at Northwestern University, and coming out the family, friends, and co-workers. Cox talks about the awareness of her sexual orientation, the supportive reactions of family, her decision to move to Dallas, Texas for a job, her involvement in the Dallas LGBT community, thoughts on Texas Penal Code 21.06-the Sodomy Law, the struggle for gay men to receive AIDS treatment at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas Gay Alliance's activism in AIDS treatment and care as well as in the struggle for equal treatment and human rights. Additionally, Cox talks about her impressions of Don Baker, Judge Jerry Buchmeyer and his decision to overturn penal code 21.06, changes in Dallas's LGBT community, family life, and Resource Center Dallas's history and services. The interview also includes an appendix with articles, Vol. 4, No. 2 of the THRF News newsletter, and a certificate of incorporation for the Foundation For Human Understanding.


This study was designed to describe the compilation of doctoral students' knowledge, skill, and abilities as they progressed toward a degree in agricultural education. A census of beginning, middle, and end of program doctoral students at Texas A&M University was conducted. An 85% response rate was achieved. Data for the study were collected by mailed questionnaire and online through the Internet. Study findings showed that as doctoral students progressed toward a degree, their Foundations Knowledge, Applications Knowledge, International Knowledge, Social Skills, Content Skills, Process Skills, Complex Problem-Solving Skills, Systems Skills, Resource Management Skills, Verbal Abilities, Idea Generation and Reasoning Abilities, Auditory and Speech Abilities, Attentiveness Abilities, and Perception Abilities increased. Recommendations for validating and authenticating study findings are provided. This study provides a model for benchmarking competencies and provides a taxonomy from which to study and understand/consider agricultural education competencies.


This half term, we'll imagine what it was like to be evacuated and live with a family other than our own. Using different source materials, we'll learn about evacuation and write letters to our families 'back home'. We'll plot the Second World War's events on a timeline and learn about rationing, Pearl Harbour and the Battle of Britain. From a range of maps, we'll identify safe and dangerous places during the war and make persuasive posters to support the war effort. After reading an extract from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, we'll write our own diaries. From a range of sources, we'll find out about children and school during the war and learn about discrimination that existed at the time. We'll learn about what it was like during the Blitz and think about how soldiers might have felt. In D&T, we'll make Anderson shelters and cook delicious wartime food.


Introduction After breast cancer surgery, many women may present quality of life (QOL) impairment due to the presence of discomfort as dysesthesia in the anterolateral region of the chest, armpit and/or medial part of the arm caused by intercostobrachial nerve injury (ICBN). Objective: To investigate the effects of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) on dysesthesia intensity at the intercostobrachial nerve (ICBN) dermatome and QOL in women after breast cancer surgery. Methods: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled clinical trial was conducted. Women undergoing axillary lymphadenectomy (AL), with dysesthesia on ICBN dermatome were included. Patients were divided into active and placebo TENS groups. TENS was applied with a frequency of 100 Hz, pulse duration of 100 µs and amplitude at the highest sensory intensity tolerable for 20 minutes during 20 sessions, three times a week, on alternating days. In the placebo TENS group, electrical current was delivered only during the first 45 seconds of application. Skin sensitivity was assessed by esthesiometry. Dysesthesia intensity was assessed with a visual analogue scale (VAS) and QOL with the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the specific EORTC QLQ-BR23 which is the Breast Cancer Module. Results: VAS decreased significantly over the 20 sessions in the active TENS group (p<0.006) and no difference was found between groups. There weren't significant differences in EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-BR23 after 20 sessions or between groups. Conclusion: TENS decreased dysesthesia intensity in the ICBN dermatome after breast cancer surgery, but did not improve quality of life.


ACTINOMYCOSIS can be successfully treated with penicillin or, when possible, with a combination of penicillin and excisional surgery. Specific diagnosis is often simple and depends mainly upon an awareness of this entity and its differentiation from a similar disease, nocardiosis, which is unaffected by penicillin but responds readily to the sulfonamides. The actinomycetes are anaerobic to microaerophilic gram-positive organisms with branching, filamentous mycelia and are more closely related to the true bacteria than to the true fungi. They have the distinction of being the only fungi which are capable of causing systemic infection and which cannot grow aerobically on ordinary culture mediums at room temperature. Various species and types have been described. Actinomyces bovis generally causes bovine disease, A. Israeli, human disease, and A. baudetti, disease in dogs and cats. There are minor differences in the appearance of the colonies of the species, and definite separation can be made by


Research findings were reported from an investigation of new gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers (PAs) targeting the highest output power and the highest efficiency for class-A operation in W-band (75-110 GHz). W-band PAs are a major component of many frequency multiplied submillimeter-wave LO signal sources. For spectrometer arrays, substantial W-band power is required due to the passive lossy frequency multipliers-to generate higher frequency signals in nonlinear Schottky diode-based LO sources. By advancing PA technology, the LO system performance can be increased with possible cost reductions compared to current GaAs PAs. High-power, high-efficiency GaN PAs are cross-cutting and can enable more efficient local oscillator distribution systems for new astrophysics and planetary receivers and heterodyne array instruments. It can also allow for a new, electronically scannable solid-state array technology for future Earth science radar instruments and communications platforms.


A gas container and a method of producing the gas container, where liner constituting members can be appropriately joined to each other to improve productivity. The gas container has a resin liner constructed by joining the liner constituting members to each other, at least a part of each liner constituting member having a hollow circular tube like form, and has a reinforcement layer provided on the outer periphery of the resin liner. A joining portion of one of the liner constituting members and a joining portion of the other constituting member are circumferentially joined by laser welding.The joining portion of the one liner constituting member is formed from a laser transmitting resin and the joining portion of the other liner constituting member is formed from a laser absorptive resin.


Once the condensation of water vapor in moist air around a thin airfoil occurs, liquid droplets nucleate. The condensation process releases heat to the surrounding gaseous components of moist air and significantly affects their thermodynamic and flow properties. As a results, variations in the aerodynamic performance of airfoils can be found. In the present work, the effects of upstream Mach number and thickness ratio of airfoil on the transonic flow of moist air around a thin airfoil are investigated by numerical analysis. The results shows that a significant condensation occurs as the upstream Mach number is increased at the fixed thickness ratio of airfoil(


A retrospective study was performed on 18 consecutive patients with A-pattern esotropia and no apparent oblique muscle dysfunction, mechanical restriction, paresis, or previous muscle surgery. All patients underwent graded bilateral medial rectus recession for their esotropia with simultaneous vertical upshift to treat the A-pattern. The quantitative relationship between amount of upshift, amount of A-pattern correction, preoperative A-pattern, and preoperative esotropia was examined. We found that the amount of A-pattern correction was closely correlated with the size of the A-pattern preoperatively (r = 0.83), independent of amount of upshift. While the change in A-pattern did correlate with the amount of the upshift (r = 0.60), it was not a significant independent predictor of the surgical response. The amount of recession had little influence on the effectiveness of the procedure in correcting the vertical incomitance, and the transposition did not seem to affect the correction of the basic esotropia, adversely. We conclude that medial rectus recession with vertical upshift of the muscle insertions is an effective procedure for correcting the vertical incomitance in A-pattern esotropia, and that the amount of A-pattern correction achieved is determined primarily by the size of the preoperative A-pattern and not the amount of upshift.


The effects of inoculum size and treatment delays on the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) were evaluated in a murine model of Clostridium perfringens myositis in which the infection was treated with an HBO regimen identical to that used for humans. The efficacies of treatment with penicillin, metronidazole, or clindamycin--alone or in combination with HBO--were also assessed. Survival was inversely related to the size of the bacterial inoculum used for challenge, and delays in treatment markedly reduced the efficacies of all single and combination regimens. When animals were challenged with > 10(8) colony-forming units, survival was significantly higher among those treated with clindamycin or metronidazole than among those treated with penicillin. HBO alone did not improve survival at any inoculum tested. However, when administered early, HBO plus metronidazole or penicillin demonstrated significant additive efficacies in animals challenged with > or = 10(9) organisms. Clindamycin was more effective at the higher inocula than penicillin, metronidazole, or HBO, and its superior efficacy was not further enhanced by adjunctive therapy with HBO.


Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease that has a significant impact on the economy and livestock productivity of affected countries. Based on unpublished reports, serotype O has been incriminated as the sole serotype present in Oman. The present study was conducted in the Dhofar region of the Sultanate of Oman between August 2003 and March 2004 with the objective of determining the seroprevalence against FMDV in Dhofari cattle. Sera samples were collected from 395 cattle in 19 different herds. Sera underwent screening using a Liquid Phase Blocking ELISA to determine the antibody response to the serotypes O, A, C, Asia 1, Sat1, Sat 2, and Sat 3. The overall seroprevalence of FMD was 52.1% (n=206). Of the seropositive animals, 77.7% were positive for type O and 22.3% for type A. There was no significant variation in seroprevalence among different sex and age groups; however, there was a tendency towards a higher incidence of seropositive in older animals. This study confirmed that FMDV is widespread in the Dhofar region. Furthermore, it is the first report of serotype A and an animal testing seropositive for O and A in the Sultanate of Oman.


Variations in phytochrome status in grasses were provoked by end of day red and far-red treatments and above canopy irradiations. Lolium perenne L. and Lolium multiflorum Lam. plants developed more tillers when illuminated with higher red/far-red ratios. These results show that branching of grasses is controlled by phytochrome activity in a way similar to that in dicotyledon plants.


It is assumed that a folktale is what we inherit from the past, narrating a remote or an a-historical past event . However, a kaba, a traditional Minang(kabau) storytelling 2. which is generally and generically classified as a folktale 3 . shows a different picture. Some kabas might be inherited from the past as they are available in manuscript form and/or are supposed to be recorded from an oral tradition, relating an event in a-historical past narrated by an anonymous storyteller. However, there are also kabas with different character. They are neither inherited from the past nor recorded from the traditional oral tradition . Some appeared, for the first time, in printed form while others were commercially published in audio-cassette - a new kind of orally transmitted storytelling, benefiting the introduction of the new technologies, the printing since 1920s and the audio since 70s - flourishing since 70s - respectively . Although some kabas in printed or audiocassette form might relate events supposed to take place in a remote past, re-narrating the story of old kabas, however most of them are relating contemporary or immediate past events . They are no longer author-less as authors' names - in kabas in audio-cassette it is replaced by the name of the storyteller - are printed on the cover of the printed kabas or on the label of audio cassettes . Although a kaba - its form resembles that of a pantun - is formally and stylistically a traditional literature . supposed to be inherited from the oral tradition - it is per- * Pakar Sastra . pernah menjadi guru besar di Universitas Malaya . Humaniora Volume Xll. No . 2/2000 petuated by kabas published in cassette form after an intermezzo with kabas in printed form - it however has an ability to express new ideas, relating either the contemporary or the past events . It is then proper to treat it, its history and its "message" 4 as the history of ideas of Minang intellectuals 5 . As they might also express their idea in Malay or Indonesian novels 6 , we can assume that there is a possible "confrontation" between the idea expressed in kabas and that in novels . However, nobody so far thought in that direction as they ,simply took for granted the presentness of a novel and the pastness of a kaba. A kaba is simply regarded as belonging to the past, dealing with a past phenomenon . A novel, on the other hand, is regarded as belonging 'to the present, dealing with a present phenomenon .


Rose nonviolent resistance group in Germany during Hitler's regime. The poems primarily alternate between a "Before" section, wherein Sophie is forced to support the regime ("Voluntary, they say, and yet/ we didn't volunteer") while plotting with her brother to circulate treasonous pamphlets, and a "The End" section that depicts Sophie's interrogation and ensuing trial. The poems provide glimpses into Sophie's life and the laws that ruled it, comprising letters to her lover, decrees by Hitler, and perspective switches to Sophie's investigators and lawyers. The verses pack an emotional punch, and the chronological segmentation effectively leads up to the moment when twenty-one-year-old Sophie faces her execution as a martyr for her cause, juxtaposing her bold statements in her interrogation—"My heart, beating/ so confidently moments ago,/ whimpers, withers, dies,/ but my voice gathers/ courage:/ Nein"—with her earlier, increasingly refined radicalism. This will be a highly accessible pathway into conversations about the role of women in war and resistance and a deeper dive for those who encountered Sophie in Freedman's We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler, BCCB 4/16); it would be an insightful addition to any curriculum about resistance in World War II. End matter contains a dramatis personae with short biographies, a glossary of German words, an author's note about the legacy of the White Rose, and a list of selected sources. NB


We compare the Visitor pattern with the Interpreter pattern, investigating a single case in point for the Java language. We have produced and compared two versions of an interpreter for a programming language. The first version makes use of the Visitor pattern. The second version was obtained by using an automated refactoring to transform uses of the Visitor pattern to uses of the Interpreter pattern. We compare these two nearly equivalent versions on their maintenance characteristics and execution efficiency. Using a tailored experimental research method we can highlight differences and the causes thereof. The contributions of this paper are that it isolates the choice between Visitor and Interpreter in a realistic software project and makes the difference experimentally observable.


In this paper, we address the problem of designing multirate codes for a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) system by restricting the receiver to be a successive decoding and interference cancellation type, when each of the antennas is encoded independently. Furthermore, it is assumed that the receiver knows the instantaneous fading channel states but the transmitter does not have access to them. It is well known that, in theory, minimum-mean-square error (MMSE) based successive decoding of multiple access (in multi-user communications) and MIMO channels achieves the total channel capacity. However, for this scheme to perform optimally, the optimal rates of each antenna (per-antenna rates) must be known at the transmitter. We show that the optimal per-antenna rates at the transmitter can be estimated using only the statistical characteristics of the MIMO channel in time-varying Rayleigh MIMO channel environments. Based on the results, multirate codes are designed using punctured turbo codes for a horizontal coded MIMO system. Simulation results show performances within about one to two dBs of MIMO channel capacity.


Thyroglossal duct cyst is the most common upper neck midline lesion in children. Approximately 1% of thyroglossal duct cyst undergoes malignant transformation. Calcification which is a marker of malignancy almost always points out to papillary thyroid carcinoma. Benign case of calcified thyroglossal cyst maybe undiagnosed or under reported. We report a case of a 5 year old girl with a benign calcified thyroglossal duct cyst, a fourth case in world literature. Here the differences between a benign and malignant thyroglossal duct cyst are discussed.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Intradialytic hypoxemia has been recognized for decades, but its associations with outcomes have not yet been assessed in a large patient cohort.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
Our retrospective cohort study was conducted between January of 2012 and January of 2015. We recorded blood oxygen saturation every minute during hemodialysis in patients with arteriovenous access. A 6-month baseline period with at least 10 treatments with oxygen saturation measurements preceded a 12-month follow-up. Patients were stratified by the presence or absence of prolonged intradialytic hypoxemia defined as oxygen saturation <90% for at least one third of the treatment time. Demographic, laboratory, and treatment data and hospitalization and mortality rates were compared between the groups. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to assess baseline predictors of all-cause mortality during follow-up.

RESULTS
In total, 100 (10%) of 983 patients had prolonged intradialytic hypoxemia. These patients were older (+3.6 years; 95% confidence interval, 0.8 to 6.3), had longer dialysis vintage (+1.2 years; 95% confidence interval, 0.3 to 2.1), and had higher prevalence of congestive heart failure (+10.8%; 95% confidence interval, 1.6 to 20.7) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (+13%; 95% confidence interval, 5 to 21.2). They also resembled an inflammatory phenotype, with lower serum albumin levels (-0.1 g/dl; 95% confidence interval, -0.2 to 0) and higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (+1; 95% confidence interval, 0.5 to 1.6). They had lower hemoglobin levels (-0.2 g/dl; 95% confidence interval, -0.4 to 0) and required more erythropoietin (+1374 U per hemodialysis treatment; 95% confidence interval, 343 to 2405). During follow-up, all-cause hospitalization (1113 hospitalizations; univariate hazard ratio, 1.46; 95% confidence interval, 1.22 to 1.73) and mortality (89 deaths; adjusted hazard ratio, 1.98; 95% confidence interval, 1.14 to 3.43) were higher in patients with prolonged intradialytic hypoxemia.

CONCLUSIONS
Prolonged intradialytic hypoxemia was associated with laboratory indicators of inflammation, higher erythropoietin requirements, and higher all-cause hospitalization and mortality.


In this paper we address the problem of grounding distributional representations of lexical meaning. We introduce a new model which uses stacked autoencoders to learn higher-level embeddings from textual and visual input. The two modalities are encoded as vectors of attributes and are obtained automatically from text and images, respectively. We evaluate our model on its ability to simulate similarity judgments and concept categorization. On both tasks, our approach outperforms baselines and related models.


The ROZ/IPD Property index was established in 1994 to publicize an independent index on directly held real estate in the Netherlands. The real estate universe is split into the sectors: retail, offices, industrial, residential and mixed use/other. The residential sector consists of almost 50 % of the total investment universe. The residential investments became popular due to the subsidiaries given by the Dutch government. Since 1990 investors have wanted to reduce their investments and also to improve their portfoliois quality. The quality improvement has been achieved due to the sale of old properties and the purchase or development of new properties. There are two common methods of sales: full-sales and part-sales. Full-sales are determined as sales of complete apartment blocks. Part-sales are determined as sales of individual units to the current tenant or sale to an individual buyer when a tenant leaves. An important motivation for part-selling is the high return of those activities. In the past, several studies have been carried out on full-sales, but no quantitative study has been carried out on the characteristics of part-sales. In the past, until approximately 1995, part-selling was considered to be inappropriate for decent property investors. Currently, however, many institutional investors are selling individual units. Since 2000, approximately A 250 million of the total amount of A 18 billion residential investments has been disinvested every year by those institutional investors*. In the UK and the USA this isnit a usual property investment activity, but in other European countries like France, it is. In this paper the returns on part-sales will also be analysed using data from the ROZ/IPD property index. The returns will be compared against the returns of all residential investments in the Netherlands. Besides this comparison also the drivers of the return on the part-sales will be examined. * ROZ/IPD property index


Heterochromatic pericentromeric heteromorphism in the short arm of chromosome 18 (18ph+) has been described already. Information about the banding characteristics of the marker chromosome 18 describes this variant as a moderately G-dark region, extending onto the proximal part of the short arm of chromosome 18 (Dallapiccola et al., 1986), or as a dark G-band portion, similar to the staining characteristics of lqh+ and 16qh+ regions (Hoo and Robertson, 1987). The heterochromatic 18p + heteromorphism described by our group showed a G-banding pattern which did not suggest a pericentromeric ph+ heteromorphism but resembled a real tandem duplication of the euchromatic portion of 18p, similar to the case described by Wolff et al. (1991). Perhaps better than the photograph presented in the original letter, the diagrammatic representation in Fig. 1 shows the two additional bands, G-light and G-dark respectively, which were observed in the proximal part of 18p. The aim of our report was only to emphasize the demonstration by CBG banding of the heterochromatic nature of the supplementary chromosomal material showing a banding pattern resembling euchromatin.


The article offers an overview of modern historical data on the origins, causes of World War II, the decisive role of the USSR in its victorious end, and also records the main results and lessons of World War II.Hitler's Germany was the main cause of World War II. Nazism, racial theory, mixed with far-reaching geopolitical designs, became the combustible mixture that ignited the fire of global conflict. The war with the Soviet Union was planned to be waged with particular cruelty.The preconditions for the outbreak of World War II were the humiliating provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty for the German people, as well as the attitude of the "Western democracies" to Russia after 1917 and the Soviet Union as an outcast of world development. Great Britain, France, the United States chose for themselves a policy of ignoring Moscow's interests, they were more likely to cooperate with Hitler's Germany than with Soviet Russia. It was the "Munich Agreement" that became the point of no return to the beginning of the Second World War. Under these conditions, for the USSR, its own security and the conclusion of a non-aggression pact with Germany began to come to the fore, defining the "spheres of interests" of the parties in order to limit the advance of German troops towards the Soviet borders in the event of German aggression against Poland. The non-aggression pact gave the USSR just under two years to rebuild the army and consolidate its defensive potential and pushed the Soviet borders hundreds of kilometers westward. The signing of the Pact was preceded by the failure in August 1939 of the negotiations between the military missions of Britain, France and the USSR, although Moscow took the Anglo-French-Soviet negotiations with all seriousness.The huge losses of the USSR in the summer of 1941 are explained by the following circumstances: before the war, a large-scale modernization of the Red Army was launched, a graduate of a military school did not have sufficient experience in managing an entrusted unit by June 22, 1941; the Red Army was going to bleed the enemy in border battles, stop it with short counterattacks by covering units, carry out defensive operations, and then strike a decisive blow into the depths of the enemy's territory, so the importance of a multi-echeloned long-term defense in 1941 was underestimated by the command of the Red Army and it was not ready for it; significant groupings of the Western Special Military District were drawn into potential salients, which was used by the Germans at the initial stage of the war; Stalin's fear of provoking Hitler to start a war led to slowness in making the most urgent and necessary decisions to bring troops to combat readiness.The Allies delayed the opening of the second front for an unreasonably long time. They, of course, achieved outstanding success in the landing operation in France, however, the enemy's losses in only one Soviet strategic operation in the summer of 1944 ("Bagration") are not inferior, and even exceed, the enemy's losses on the second front. One of the goals of "Bagration" was to help the Allies.Soviet soldiers liberated Europe at the cost of their lives. At the same time, Moscow could not afford to re-establish a cordon sanitaire around its borders after the war, so that anti- Soviet forces would come to power in the border states. The United States and Great Britain took all measures available to them to quickly remove from the governments of Italy, France and other Western states all the left-wing forces that in 1944-1945 had a serious impact on the politics of their countries.