Partnership working is critical to delivery across the public sector but can often feel frustrating and ineffectual for those involved. This article focuses on four areas crucial for effective partnership working: ensuring that there is a clear justification for the partnership; involving service users and communities in ways that are empowering and sustainable; developing good governance arrangements; and developing effective performance management arrangements. Throughout the article, the contrasting experiences of crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs) and youth offending teams (YOTs) are used to illustrate key points.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to know the frequency and the clinical characteristics of urinary infection by non typhi Salmonella in our area in Spain.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The clinical histories of patients with urinary infection by non typhi Salmonella diagnosed in the Hospital General del Guadalajara from January 1990 to July 1999 were reviewed.

RESULTS
During the period studied nine patients with urinary infection by non typhi Salmonella were diagnosed, representing 0.056% of the urinary infection diagnosed in our hospital over the same period. All the patients presented underlying disease and five were undergoing immunosuppressor treatment. Four patients presented urological disease. The most frequent serogroup was Salmonella enteritidis (7 cases). All the episodes were symptomatic. The same microorganism was isolated in stools in four patients. The evolution was favorable in five of the nine cases. Recurrence was observed in two patients and secondary bacteremia in one. Six patients required antibiotic treatment over two or more weeks. The mean length of treatment was of 2.5 weeks.

CONCLUSIONS
Urinary infection by non typhi Salmonella is predominantly observed in patients undergoing immunosuppression or with urological disease. Prolonged antibiotic treatment is recommended due to its bad evolution.


We explore the extent to which Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) spectra taken at low spectral resolution can be used in quantitative studies of organic molecular emission from disks surrounding low-mass young stars. We use Spitzer IRS spectra taken in both the high- and low-resolution modules for the same sources to investigate whether it is possible to define line indices that can measure trends in the strength of the molecular features in low-resolution data. We find that trends in the HCN emission strength seen in the high-resolution data can be recovered in low-resolution data. In examining the factors that influence the HCN emission strength, we find that the low-resolution HCN flux is modestly correlated with stellar accretion rate and X-ray luminosity. Correlations of this kind are perhaps expected based on recent observational and theoretical studies of inner disk atmospheres. Our results demonstrate the potential of using the large number of low-resolution disk spectra that reside in the Spitzer archive to study the factors that influence the strength of molecular emission from disks. Such studies would complement results for the much smaller number of circumstellar disks that have been observed at high resolution with IRS.


Organic aggregates currently play a prominent role, mainly for their unique optoelectronic properties in the aggregated state. Such properties can be related to the aggregates' structure and the molecular packing mode. In the literature, we have well-established models of H and J aggregates defined based on the molecular exciton model. However, unconventional aggregates, the most unrecognized forms, have been generating interest among researchers recently. Within unconventional aggregation, aggregation-induced emission systems (AIE) are considered. In the present work, we discuss the effect of the forming of unconventional aggregation together with the change in dye concentration on the surface energy characteristics of the materials. All materials were prepared as hybrid biocompatible thin films where the matrix is TiO2 or TiO2/carbon nanowalls (CNWs) with the incorporated dye in the form of 1,8-diazafluoren-9-one (DFO). Using the time-resolved emission spectra and the determination of surface parameters from contact angle measurements, we indicated the correlation between the changes in such parameters and the concentration of DFO dye in two types of TiO2 and TiO2/CNW structures. To examine the propensity of DFO for aggregation, the internal energy of the dye was assessed in several aggregate structures using Quantum chemistry calculations. The results emphasize that DFO is an attractive structure in the design of new fluorophores due to its low molecular weight, the presence of a nitrogen atom that provides good coordination properties, and the ability to form hydrogen bonds. Our studies show that when using suitable matrices, i.e., rigid media, it forms the preferred forms of aggregates in the excited state, characterized by high emission efficiency in the band maximum of around 550 nm.


Necturus gallbladder epithelial cells exhibited volume regulatory swelling when exposed to a hypertonic mucosal bathing solution. The initial, osmotically induced shrinkage was followed by a rapid increase in cell volume back to the control value despite continuing hypertonicity of the mucosal perfusate. This volume regulatory increase occurred by osmotic water flow accompanying the transient cellular uptake of NaCl from the mucosal bathing solution. Volume regulatory increase required Na+ and Cl- in the mucosal bath; it was inhibited by amiloride or 4-acetamido-4'-isothiocyanostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid but not by bumetanide or ouabain. The K1/2 for Na+ was 2.8 mM, the K1/2 for Cl- was 1.9 mM, and maximum velocity of fluid flow into the cell for both ions was greater than 10 x 10(-6) cm/s. Both volume regulatory increase and transepithelial fluid absorption involve NaCl flux across the apical membrane into the cells, but the nature of the NaCl fluxes differ in the two processes. During volume regulatory increase NaCl enters the cells by parallel Na+-H+ and Cl(-)-HCO-3 exchanges, whereas during transepithelial fluid absorption NaCl enters the cell by the coupled flux of NaCl.


: The role of twice-weekly plasma unconjugated estriol determinations in the prediction of fetal dysmaturity was studied in 663 patients seen at the Postdates Clinic of the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center. The correlation between estriol and gestational age was - 0.055. According to the criteria of the Postdates Clinic protocol, sensitivity, specificity, predictive values of positive results, and those of negative results of estriol determinations in predicting fetal dysmaturity were 44.4, 80.6, 32.9, and 87.1%, respectively. The major deficiency of this test for the detection of fetal dysmaturity was in the less-than-ideal predictive value of a negative result: 13% of patients who had normal estriol values had dysmature infants. When estriol was less than 12 ng/ml and the value fell more than 20% from the previous level, the predictive value of fetal dysmaturity was 56%. In these circumstances, the termination of pregnancy is a reasonable consideration. Until a more sensitive test for fetal dysmaturity is developed, plasma unconjugated estriol determination will retain its role as a screening test in managing postterm pregnancies in a large obstetric population.


Ultrasonic sensors are widely used in various applications due to advantages of low cost, simplicity in construction, mechanical robustness, and little environmental restriction in usage. But the main purposes of the noncontact sensors are rather narrowly confined within object detection and distance measurement. For the application of object recognition, ultrasonic sensors exhibit several shortcomings of poor directionality which results in low spatial resolution of an object, and specularity which gives frequent erroneous range readings. To resolve these problems in object recognition, an array of the sensors has been used. To improve the spatial resolution, more number of sensors are used in essence throughout the various devices of the sensor arrays. Under the disguise of a fixed number of the sensors, the array can be shifted mechanically in several steps. In this paper we propose a practical sensor resolution enhancement method using an electronic circuit accompanying the sensor array. The circuit changes the transmitter output voltage in several steps. Using the known sensor characteristics, a set of different return echo signals provide enhanced spatial resolution. The improvement is obtained without the cost of the increased number of the sensors nor extra mechanical devices.


INTRODUCTION: In contrast to animal species in which linear relationships exist between hormonal status and sexual behaviour sexuality in human population is not determined so simply by the level of sexual steroids. The article analyses female sexuality in the light of hormonal status. ADMINISTRATION OF SEXUAL STEROIDS DURING PREGNANCY AND SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION: High doses of gestagens, especially those with high androgen activity, widely used against miscarriages may lead to tomboys, but without differences in sexual orientation. However, it has been observed that the frequency of bisexual and lesbian women is higher in women with congenital adrenogenital syndrome. HORMONES SEXUAL DESIRE AND SEXUALITY DURING MENSTRUAL CYCLE: It has been established that sexual desire, autoeroticism and sexual fantasies in women depend on androgen levels. There are a lot of reports claiming that sexual desire varies during the menstrual cycle. HORMONAL CONTRACEPTION AND SEXUALITY: Most patients using birth control pills present with decreased libido. But, there are reports that progestagens with antiandrogenic effect in contraceptive pills do not affect sexual desire. HORMONAL CHANGES IN PERI- AND POSTMENOPAUSAL PERIOD AND SEXUALITY: Decreased levels of estrogen and testosterone in older women are associated with decreased libido, sensitivity and erotic stimuli. SEXUALITY AND HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY: Hormonal therapy with estrogen is efficient in reference to genital atrophy, but not to sexual desire. Really increased libido is achieved using androgens. Also, therapy with dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and tibolone have positive effects on female libido. CONCLUSION: Effect of sexual steroids on sexual sphere of women is very complex. The association between hormones and sexuality is multidimensional, as several hormones are important in regulation of sexual behaviour. Still, it should be pointed out that sexuality is in the domain of hormonal, emotional-motivational and social factors.


This research aimed to improve critical thinking ability and reduce misconception on ecology material in the students of X MIPA 1 of SMA Negeri 5 Surakarta in the school year of 2014/2015 through the application of e-module based on Problem-Based Learning. This study was a Classroom Action Research conducted in two cycles, each of which consisting of four stages: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The subject of research was the students in X MIPA 1 of SMA Negeri 5 Surakarta in the school year of 2014/2015 consisting of 30 students. Techniques of collecting data used were essay test to measured critical thinking skill, open ended reasoning of two-tier diagnostic test to measure misconception, observation and interview as the data proponents. Data validation was conducted using triangulation methode. The data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative technique consists of three components: data reduction, data presentation, and taking the conclusion. Target of the research is an increase of 20% on critical thinking aspects and reduce misconception 20% on ecology concepts at the end of the cycle. The result of research showed that there were an increase in critical thinking ability and a decrease in misconception. The improvement of critical thinking ability included six aspects: interpretation of 20.83%, analysis of 20.42%, evaluation of 40.00%, conclusion of 39.17%, explanation 32.50%, and self regulation of 25.83%. The decreased misconception included four important concepts in ecology: population of 34.45%, community of 43.06%, food chain and web of 34.07%, and science, environment, technology and community ( salingtemas ) ecology of 28.15%. Considering the result of research, it could be concluded that the application of e-module based on Problem-Based Learning could improve critical thinking ability and reduce the students' misconception in ecology material. Keywords: e-module based on Problem Based Learning, critical thinking, misconception.


Stream-breeding amphibians are an important link between terrestrial and aquatic habitats, and frogs and tadpoles may be important contributors to ecosystem functioning in their habitats. Amphibian declines due to fungal disease have affected many frog assemblages, especially in upland rainforest sites, leading to reduced abundance and diversities of stream-dwelling tadpoles. This raises the question of what role tadpoles play in streams and what the impact of their declines might be. In the Australian Wet Tropics bioregion, some frog species have declined or disappeared, but others have persisted, and tadpoles can still be seasonally abundant, possibly having important effects on stream ecosystems.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of tadpoles in the ecology of Wet Tropics streams using inferences from natural populations and manipulative experiments. Monthly surveys of streams near Paluma and Tully showed that tadpole and invertebrate assemblages fluctuated seasonally, with abundances highest in spring and summer, reflecting the main reproductive period. Variability of flow was the most important environmental influence on the animals in both locations, explaining up to 25% of the variation in the tadpole assemblages and up to 40% in the invertebrate assemblages. There were no indications of major interactions between tadpoles and invertebrates.

The role of tadpoles in stream processes, including leaf litter breakdown and sediment removal, was tested using field experiments in artificial stream channels. Litoria serrata tadpoles and invertebrates interacted during leaf processing, most likely through direct physical activity by invertebrates that facilitated tadpole feeding, but there was no evidence of effects of nutrient regeneration by tadpoles. Mixophyes coggeri tadpoles did not contribute to leaf processing, but they were important in sediment removal, which benefits smaller consumers. Stable isotope analysis was used to determine the trophic position of tadpoles and their place in the food web in Paluma and Tully streams. Tadpoles assimilated mainly biofilm and algae, but they were generalist feeders that used different food sources depending on nutrient quality and availability. The food web structure was simpler in the Paluma riffles, where tadpoles of two species disappeared in the early 1990s, suggesting that tadpoles increase food web complexity.

The study showed that the loss of tadpoles from a stream, or from a particular habitat within a stream, affects overall benthic assemblage composition, food web structure and stream ecosystem functioning. Tadpoles of different species can have different functional roles and it is therefore important to consider the identity of species lost, as well as the effects of reduced diversity, during amphibian declines resulting from disease, climate change or land-use changes. Although tadpoles are only abundant during part of the year, their peak occurs in the spring-summer period when invertebrates are also most abundant, so their influence on the ecosystem is likely to be substantial and may well carry over to the cooler season.


Mangrove red snapper (Lutjanus argentimaculatus) is an important marketable species throughout the Indo-Pacific region. It is a euryhaline species; it can tolerate freshwater, brackishwater and marine water. Modular culture is the common system in snapper production in the Philippines. Stocking density is 4,000 fry per cropping; there could be 2 croppings per year. Brief details are given of investment costs and returns for culture in brackishwater pens.


Just over 8 per cent of young people aged 15 to 24 years, out of 1.7 million tested in 2013, tested positive
for genital Chlamydia trachomatis (Public Health England, 2014a). This sexually transmitted bacterial
infection is asymptomatic in 70 per cent of women, although it may cause vaginal discharge, post-coital
bleeding, dysuria, lower abdominal pain, deep dyspareunia and cervicitis (Lazero, 2013). More than 50 per
cent of men with chlamydia are asymptomatic when tested in community settings. Two-thirds of the sexual
partners of people diagnosed with chlamydia also have this infection. If untreated, chlamydia infection can
persist for years (Public Health England, 2014b). Complications of untreated chlamydia, such as infertility
and pelvic inflammatory disease, are estimated to cost more than £100 million a year (Lazero, 2013).


In order to deal with various imprecise opinions and preferences of decision makers in group decision-making process, this paper proposes a fuzzy group decision-making approach. The approach has three advantages from existing approaches. First, it can handle simultaneously group members' fuzzy preferences for alternative solutions, fuzzy judgments for solution selection criteria and fuzzy weights for their roles in group decision-making to arrive a group consensus decision. Second, it allows group members to generate selection criteria for the best solution rather than assume them to be given before a group meeting. The third is that it uses general fuzzy number to express linguistic terms which is used to describe the fuzziness of individual preferences, judgments and weights in group decision-making. It therefore accepts any forms of fuzzy number, including triangular fuzzy number, rectangle fuzzy number and continuous fuzzy number, when applying the group decision-making approach.


This study characterised the bacterial flora of a commercially produced Stilton cheese in an effort to determine the contribution of non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) to its aroma profile. A total of 123 microbial strains previously isolated from different sites (outer crust, blue veins and white core) of the cheese sample obtained at the end of ripening (~8 weeks) were recovered in MRS and BHI broths and preliminarily identified using conventional microbiological methods in order to establish population diversity and to screen out yeasts and moulds. Organisms identified with partial 16S rDNA sequence analysis were Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumanii and Psychrobacter spp., with the genus Lactobacillus being the dominant (75%) group detected in all the sampled sites. Cluster analysis of pulse-field gel electrophoresis patterns associated the Lactobacillus isolates according to their site of isolation.

Lb. plantarum isolates, two from each of the cheese sites, were evaluated for tolerance to heat stress and to different levels of salt, acid and relative humidity (RH) in order to ascertain whether the stress conditions associated with the isolation site could select the phenotype of microbial species recovered. The D72°C values revealed that isolates obtained from the outer crust were more heat sensitive suggesting they may have colonised the cheese post-pasteurisation. All the isolates were sensitive at pH range 3-4 but could grow at pH range 4.5-5. Similarly, isolates could grow at 3.5-5% (w/v) sodium chloride but were suppressed at 10%. Lactobacilli from the outer crust were the most halo-tolerant growing at 8% sodium chloride. For all strains, survival was low at 33-54% RH when cells were suspended in sterile de-ionised water but survived better at 33% RH in maximum recovery diluent (MRD) suggesting cellular protection by MRD.
Lb. plantarum isolates from each site (outer crust=7; blue veins=19; white core=24) were tested for antimicrobial activity against Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staph. aureus, Salmonella Typhimurium, Clostridium sporogenes, Lb. pentosus and Lactococcus lactis using the plate agar overlay and paper disc diffusion assays. All the 59 Lactobacillus isolates were tested for plantaricin EF genes using PCR. The nature of antimicrobial activity was examined using cell-free supernatants treated to neutralise acids and/or hydrogen peroxide. Treatment with proteinase K was used to ascertain whether activity was due to bacteriocin (putative plantaricin) production. On solid medium, the isolates had antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, each isolate showing activity against more than one species. Lb. pentosus, Ps. aeruginosa, E. coli and L. monocytogenes were the most sensitive whereas Cl. sporogenes was the most resistant spp. Activity against these organisms was mainly attributed to acid, and to a less extent, hydrogen peroxide and plantaricin production. Whereas Lb. plantarum isolates had a high prevalence of plantaricin EF genes, there was weak evidence for plantaricin production in liquid medium assays. Plantaricin production was only demonstrable among Lb. plantarum isolates from the veins and core against Lb. pentosus, implying the phenomenon was largely dependent on the genotype/strain of Lb. plantarum and was only active against closely related lactic acid bacteria.

Subsequently, the effect of growth and survival dynamics of the different genotypes of the organism on the volatile aroma profiles of milk was examined. Individual isolates, one from each of the cheese sites, were co-cultured with acid-producing Lc. lactis (APL) and non acid-producing Lc. lactis (NAPL) in UHT milk under simulated cheese ripening conditions. During early fermentation (0-48 h, 30oC), the isolate obtained from the blue veins stimulated more growth of Lactococcus strains in mixed culture when compared to single cultures and to Lactobacillus isolates obtained from other sites in mixed culture. The volatile profiles of all Lb. plantarum strains grown alone were not significantly different (p>0.05). The type and levels of volatiles detected in mixed culture depended on the genotype/strain of Lb. plantarum inoculated as well as the acidification capability of Lc. lactis with which it was co-cultured. Co-culture of Lactobacillus isolates with APL resulted in increased aldehyde and alcohol production, whereas with NAPL only acetoin synthesis was enhanced. Salt addition had minimal effect on the volatile profiles. During further incubation (12 weeks, 18oC), growth of Lb. plantarum strains was better in salted samples inoculated with NAPL. The NAPL strain remained stable at 7 log10 CFU/ml throughout, while the APL rapidly declined from 9 to less than 5 log10 CFU/ml. The highest level of alcohols, organic acids and acetoin was detected from samples inoculated with the pure culture of the Lactobacillus isolate obtained from the blue veins. Co-culture of the isolate with APL enhanced acid and alcohol production, whereas its co-inoculation with NAPL increased acetoin synthesis. As Lb. plantarum is an incidental organism in cheese, its presence is unpredictable; it was therefore concluded that occurrence of different genotypes of the organism could be a major contributory factor to the variations in the cheese quality characteristics from batch to batch.


Water management in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is numerically modeled by considering the 2D, non-isothermal steady flow assumptions. Governing equations are solved in all cell layers including cathode and anode electrodes by finite volume method using a single-region approach. The effect of gas cross-over through the membrane is studied on cell performance. This consideration, not only improves the general accuracy of modeling but also makes it possible to model energy losses due to direct reaction of reactant gases. The effect of some key variables such as liquid water diffusivity, current density, membrane thickness, etc. on PEMFC conditions such as the amount of saturated liquid water, power density, cell temperature, cross-over efficiency and so on are examined. It was observed that the amount of saturated liquid water on the anode side is considerably important. This observation addresses needs for further investigation of liquid water behavior in the anode electrode. The amount of liquid water saturation in both the cathode and anode electrodes is increased with increasing the current density. The results showed that at the current density of 0.2 A/cm2, cross-over effect causes about 10% reduction in cell efficiency and by decreasing the current density this effect is enhanced.


India's North-Eastern part, comprising of seven states, is a lowly developed, tribal population dominated region in India. Inspite of the common Mongoloid origin and lifestyle of majority of the population residing here, sharp differences exist in the status of their socio-economic development. The present paper, through a state-wise analysis, makes an attempt to find out the extent of this disparity, especially on the socio-economic front. It illustrates the situations prevailing in health, education, economic and social cohesion sector. Discussion on the implications of such disparity on social stability finds that the causes of frequent insurgency activities, that have been penetrating the region for a long time, thereby creating communal conflicts, can be traced in the economic deprivation and disparity. In the last section, the paper makes policy prescription and suggests how by taking care of disparity and deprivation both poverty and the problem of communal conflicts can be controlled. Keywords—Disparity, Development, Deprivation, Communal Conflicts.


This article presents a detailed study on the influence of winegrape variety, skin hardness of fresh berries, and withering thermo-hygrometric conditions on the dehydration kinetics of the grape. Although some works focused on the changes in the weight loss rate during grape dehydration under different environment conditions for several varieties, the combined effect of the skin mechanical properties and the thermo-hygrometric conditions has not been previously considered. The skin break force was confirmed as the varietal marker. Furthermore, its role in the selection of the withering conditions was assessed. The fresh grape berries were classified into two groups (soft and hard) according to the skin break force, and four off-vine withering conditions were evaluated. The softer skins facilitated the dehydration process increasing the weight loss rate, but the increase was significant only at low temperatures. The increase in temperature and/or decrease in relative humidity was beneficial to the grape dehydration process. A weight loss of about 50% after 12 days of withering was achieved at an air temperature of 28°C and relative humidity of 40%. Under the same dryer environmental conditions, a certain varietal effect on the dehydration kinetics was observed because a faster weight loss occurred for those grapes characterized by lower values of skin break force. These results suggest that the grape dehydration rate, influencing the quality of dessert wines, should be planned considering the skin hardness of fresh berries and the withering conditions. The skin break force represents a new variable that should be considered in modeling the withering process and in selecting, prior to harvest, the most appropriate vineyard for the dessert wines desired.


In the 18th century, utilitarian writers highlighted the importance of a sense of obligation, an understanding of others, and the ability to think critically (Daniels, Bizar, & Zemelman, 2001; Kant, 1785/2008). Additionally, scholars stressed the importance of leadership (Burns, 1978). Teacher instruction in the 19th century incorporated many of these values (Kliebard, 2004). However as the common school developed in the early 19th century there was a shift from these values toward a common curriculum meeting industrial needs (Tyack, 1974). As the 20th century ended, significant federal and state legislation further funneled school curriculum to focus on very specific instruction with a dominance of math, reading and writing (Au, 2007; Kossakoski, 2000). However, a review of current research and school practices highlighted the need to restore an education that includes 21st century competencies such as an understanding of others, critical thinking, leadership and a sense of obligation (Darling-Hammond, 2010; New England Association of Schools and Colleges, n.d.). This study examines the role of the four specific competencies, "an understanding of others", "critical thinking", "leadership", and "a sense of obligation" in the public schools of New Hampshire. The scope of the research is limited to the perspective of New Hampshire education leaders (superintendents, principals, and school board members) and focuses on three primary questions concerning the four competency areas. First, is there a congruency between what is currently taught and what should be taught in regards to these four competencies? Second, what institutional factors might limit the instruction in these four areas? Third, how is this instruction incorporated into the existing curriculum? Additionally, the impact of school and educator characteristics on the three questions is considered in the study. The findings from the analysis provide insights into the research question. As perceived by superintendents, principals and school board members, there is a significant lack of congruence between what "is" taught and what "should be" taught in our schools regarding these four competencies. School leaders believe we have a significant need to increase the instruction in the four competencies. In fact, educators are from twice to almost four times more likely to believe schools should be teaching a competency at a significant or mastery level, as compared to how schools are currently teaching the competency. Superintendents lead these three groups in the perception of the magnitude of disparity between what is taught and what should be taught. School leaders also identify an increased inequity for low-income students and students in underperforming schools for teaching these competencies. These schools face limitations that block the teaching of the four competencies. Research on New Hampshire education leaders' perceived difference between what is being taught and what the respondents believe should be taught regarding these four competencies may lead to change.


A thesis submitted to the College of Arts and Social Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Arts (Economics), 2005


Gold complexes have emerged as the catalysts of choice for various functionalization reactions of C-C multiple bonds due to their inherent carbophilic nature. In a parallel space, efforts to realize less accessible cross-coupling reactivity have led to the development of various strategies that facilitate the arduous Au(i)/Au(iii) redox cycle. The interplay of the two important reactivity modes encountered in gold catalysis, namely carbophilic activation and Au(i)/Au(iii) catalysis, has allowed the development of a novel mechanistic paradigm that sponsors 1,2-difunctionalization reactions of various C-C multiple bonds. Interestingly, the reactivity as well as selectivity obtained through this interplay could be complementary to that obtained by the use of various other transition metals that mainly involved the classical oxidative addition/migratory insertion pathways. The present review shall comprehensively cover all the 1,2-difunctionalization reactions of C-C multiple bonds that have been realized by the interplay of the two important reactivity modes and categorized on the basis of the method that has been employed to foster the Au(i)/Au(iii) redox cycle.


Role of Extracellular Sialic Acid in Regulation of Neuronal and Network Excitability in the Rat Hippocampus. Isaev D, Isaeva E, Shatskih T, Zhao Q, Smits NC, Shworak NW, Khazipov R, Holmes GL. J Neurosci 2007;27(43):11587–11594. The extracellular membrane surface contains a substantial amount of negatively charged sialic acid residues. Some of the sialic acids are located close to the pore of voltage-gated channel, substantially influencing their gating properties. However, the role of sialylation of the extracellular membrane in modulation of neuronal and network activity remains primarily unknown. The level of sialylation is controlled by neuraminidase (NEU), the key enzyme that cleaves sialic acids. Here we show that NEU treatment causes a large depolarizing shift of voltage-gated sodium channel activation/inactivation and action potential (AP) threshold without any change in the resting membrane potential of hippocampal CA3 pyramidal neurons. Cleavage of sialic acids by NEU also reduced sensitivity of sodium channel gating and AP threshold to extracellular calcium. At the network level, exogenous NEU exerted powerful anticonvulsive action both in vitro and in acute and chronic in vivo models of epilepsy. In contrast, a NEU blocker (N-acetyl-2,3-dehydro-2-deoxyneuraminic acid) dramatically reduced seizure threshold and aggravated hippocampal seizures. Thus, sialylation appears to be a powerful mechanism to control neuronal and network excitability. We propose that decreasing the amount of extracellular sialic acid residues can be a useful approach to reduce neuronal excitability and serve as a novel therapeutic approach in the treatment of seizures.


Small enterprises play an important role in the betterment of society. Therefore, developing competitiveness of small enterprises is one of the government policies in Indonesia. In order to accomplish that goal, there is a need to know how the process of management in successful small enterprises is being done. Quality management is a way that enterprises manage their product quality. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a concept of quality management that managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer. A successful small enterprise is assumed implements TQM concept to build its competitive advantage.This research is aimed to elaborate how a sucessful small enterprise implements TQM in order to build its competitive advantage and was done in a sucessful small shoes enterprise in Cibaduyut Industrial Cluster Bandung.Keywords: Total Quality Management, Competitive advantage, Small industries


Respiratory sensations conveyed by airway sensory nerve fibres are poorly understood, yet they contribute significantly to morbidity in pulmonary disease. Our viral tracing studies identified a previously unknown airway sensory circuit in the brain projecting through an obscure medullary site known as the paratrigeminal nucleus (Pa5). The Pa5 is located in the dorsal lateral medulla and is commonly defined as a collection of interstitial cells in the dorsal tip of the spinal trigeminal tract. The Pa5 has been previously implicated in baroreceptor function and somatosensory processing. Astonishingly, very little investigations have been made to understand its role in airway afferent processing. We therefore investigated the anatomical connectivity of the Pa5, its involvement in initiating and controlling respiratory reflexes as well as in more complex respiratory behaviours including evoked cough.

Conventional neuroanatomical tracing was conducted to determine the input and output connectivity of the Pa5. Firstly, retrograde tracing confirmed, in the guinea pig, that vagal afferents from the jugular versus the nodose ganglia project specifically into the brainstem primary afferent termination sites. That is the nodose vagal ganglia project almost exclusively to the nucleus of the solitary tract (nTS), while the jugular vagal ganglia project predominately to the Pa5. Furthermore, anterograde tracing was employed from the guinea pig Pa5, showing that this nucleus has extensive projections throughout the cardiorespiratory column, including the nTS, reticular nuclei, pre-botzinger nucleus and in particular the parabrachial and Kolliker-Fuse nuclei in the pons. We have shown functional significance of these projections by implicating the Pa5 in the initiation and control of laryngeal-evoked respiratory reflexes. Initially we found that laryngeal-evoked
respiratory slowing was significantly attenuated by blocking the Pa5 using the GABAA agonist muscimol (stimulus evoked change in breaths/min pre-muscimol was 40.9±3.5 breaths/min pre-muscimol vs. 21.4±2.9 post-muscimol, p=0.001), while this pharmacological modification in the nTS had no effect on the laryngeal-evoked respiratory slowing. Importantly, this novel finding showed that the Pa5 has a role in respiratory reflexes that is independent of the nTS. Furthermore, injection of glutamate receptor antagonists into the Pa5 were able to prevent respiratory slowing evoked by laryngeal stimulation (change in respiratory rate at the maximum response 40.3±4.1 breaths/min vs. 17.3±3.1 breaths/min; p=0.0002), while peptide receptor antagonists resulted in significantly smaller effects.

Intriguingly, while injection of glutamate into the Pa5 resulted in respiratory slowing and in some cases apnoea, mimicking the laryngeal-evoked reflex, the direct release of neuropeptides by capsaicin microinjection into the Pa5 resulted in the paradoxical increase in respiratory rate. This unique response could be blocked by Substance P receptor antagonists but not by glutamate receptor antagonists, suggestive of two types of Pa5 postsynaptic neurons. Additional anatomical characterisation of the Pa5 revealed the existence of two phenotypically distinct subtypes of Pa5 neurons. That is, one expressing the neurokinin 1 receptor and the other expressing calbindin. Furthermore, dual retrograde tracing from nuclei important for respiratory rhythm and modulation and were shown to receive direct projections from the Pa5 (i.e. the ventrolateral medulla and pontine nuclei) revealed that less than 7% of Pa5 neurons were dual labelled and therefore revealed that Pa5 neurons project differentially throughout the cardiorespiratory column.
Given the complex processing capability of the Pa5, it seemed plausible that this nociceptive region may be important in complex respiratory behaviours, such as evoked cough and the perception of airway irritations. We developed an assay in which we can study the conscious perception of an airway irritation using behaviours (enhanced grooming, moving and chewing), in addition to the standard assessment of evoked cough. Conscious unrestrained guinea pigs were aerosolised bradykinin (a jugular and nodose C-fibre stimulant) and adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP, a nodose selective stimulant). While bradykinin evoked both dose dependent increases in cough (8.9±2.7 at 1mg/ml and 25.7±3.7 at 3mg/ml) and behaviours (20.7±45.8 behaviour duration during saline vs., 350.4±46.7 total behaviour duration, p=0.04), ATP only evoked responses at the highest dose (22.7±5.6 coughs and 81.3 behaviour duration during saline vs. 404±109.5 total behaviour duration). These distinct cough and behavioural profiles are suggestive that jugular and nodose airway afferents differentially process respiratory sensations. This was further supported by showing that targeted toxin lesions (substance P-Saporin, 10ng/100nl) of the Pa5 resulted in decreased bradykinin evoked cough compared to controsl (i.e. 7.2±2.8 coughs control vs. 0±0 coughs lesion at 1mg/ml and 19.2±4.1 coughs control vs. 10.4±3 coughs lesion at 3mg/ml, p=0.02 and p=0.009 respectively). Alternately, lesioning NK1 receptor expressing neurons in the Pa5 had no effect on ATP evoked cough, in turn implicating NK1 receptor expressing Pa5 neurons specifically process jugular C-fibre evoked cough. Together these data are the first to reveal a complexity of airway afferent processing in the Pa5. Better understanding this putative airway somatosensory system may help identify therapeutic targets to alleviate respiratory discomfort in disease.


Fibroadenoma of the vulva is an uncommon lesion. It has been suggested that they originate from vulvar mammary like other glands. A few examples of benign and malignant vulvar tumors arising from such glands have been reported. A 32-year-old woman was referred with a subcutaneous mass at the vulva. The patient treated by simple excisional surgery with adequate peripheral margin. Histological findings showed the characteristic features of fibroadenoma of vulva. Confirmatory IHC for GCDF_15 was performed which its result was positive. Up to our knowledge, only nineteen cases of vulvar fibroadenoma have been reported in English literature.


Laboratory and greenhouse experiments were conducted on a lateritic sandy loam soil mixed hyperthermic, Ultic Haplustalf to determine the influence of several (natural and synthetic) soil conditioners at different concentrations on soil aggregation, porosity, soil water retention, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and crop growth. The conditioners were applied in solution at the rates of 0.05, 0.10, and 0.20% by spraying the solution, followed by mixing with the soil to facilitate aggregation. Only polyvinyl alcohol with borax and guar gum, guar gum + borax, and guar gum alone significantly increased the water-stable aggregates (2-4 mm diameter), reduced macropores (>30 μm), increased water retention capacity, and decreased hydraulic conductivity of the soil. The effect of increased concentration was not similar for all conditioners. In general, increasing the concentration further improved the soil physical properties. Conditioners significantly increased total dry matter of the plants. The maximum increase was obtained with guar gum + borax-treated soil, and the minimum under polyvinyl alcohol with guar gum and borax and lignosulphonate treatments. The natural conditioner guar gum with borax (1 ppm) and polyvinyl alcohol were superior to synthetic or natural conditioners alone


In this experiment, we use a Fourier transform spectrometer to measure the emission spectrum of a white superluminescent diode. The spectrometer is based on a Michelson interferometer with a super luminescent diode as a light source and a stepper-motordriven mirror that reflects light on both sides. Another interferometer, with a HeNe laser as a light source, sharing the movable mirror is used for a calibration of the frequency scale. When characterized with a green HeNe laser, the spectrometer shows a spectral resolution of 0.4 nm. In our experiments, we found that the superluminescent diode emits in the blue and yellow parts of the spectrum, and that the emission bandwidths are 18.1(4) nm and 143.1(4) nm respectively.


Pomegranate, Punica granatum L. (Punicaceae), as a medicinal and nutritional ancient fruit, has an outstanding medical history throughout the world. Each of compartments of pomegranate has interesting pharmacological activity. Juice, leaf, flower, and peels of pomegranate possess potent antioxidant properties, while juice, peel and oil are all weakly estrogenic activity. Pomegranate seeds have ethnomedical indication and high conjugated α-linolenic acids (CLn) contents. Pomegranate seed oil (PSO) with high amount of punicic acid (PA), a conjugated isomer of α-linolenic acid, has variety of pharmacological properties. The main properties are as follows; antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, nephroprotective, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, anti-cancer, enhancing the immune system, enhancing carbohydrate metabolism and reducing insulin resistance. Based on some studies, effects of PSO on lipid profile are controversial and consistency of data is rare to find yet. Therefore, this review is aimed to highlight the PSO's composition and beneficial effects on human health and represent the mechanisms involved in its


The initial deciphering of entire genomes from several mammalian species including human, chimpanzee and macaque has now been accomplished and the massive datasets are publicly available in the form of high-quality draft sequences. As a direct result, the development and commercialization of an ever-increasing number of sensitive tools to measure global gene expression (the 'transcriptome') is providing unique opportunities to evaluate and compare biological systems. One particularly important application is to use tissues derived from macaque models of toxicity and disease to infer responses in their human counterparts. Understanding the similarities and differences in how macaques and humans respond, at the functional genomic level, to perturbations in their environments has significant relevance in biomedical research.

Keywords:

macaque;
microarray;
transcriptome;
gene expression;
genome


The computational complexity/efficiency of the method of auxiliary sources (MAS) is significantly reduced at high frequency (high induction number >40) for electromagnetic induction problems. At the same time the small penetration-depth approximation (SPA) is very accurate at high frequency/induction numbers. A hybrid algorithm, combining the MAS with SPA, is efficiently implemented. Numerical experiments are performed for a highly conducting and permeable sphere and a prolate spheroid under a time varying primary magnetic field. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is able to produce very accurate results with low computational requirements.


Pacific geoduck aquaculture is a growing industry, however little is known about how geoduck respond to varying environmental conditions, or how production might be impacted by low pH associated with ocean acidification. Ocean acidification research is increasingly incorporating multiple environmental drivers and natural pH variability into biological response studies for more complete understanding of the effects of projected ocean conditions. In this study, eelgrass habitats and environmental heterogeneity across four estuarine bays were leveraged to examine low pH effects on geoduck under different natural regimes, using proteomics to assess physiology. Juvenile geoduck were deployed in eelgrass and adjacent unvegetated habitats for 30 days while pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and salinity were monitored. Across the four bays pH was lower in unvegetated habitats compared to eelgrass habitats, however this did not impact geoduck growth, survival, or proteomic expression patterns. However, across all sites temperature and dissolved oxygen corresponded to growth and protein expression patterns. Specifically, three protein abundance levels (trifunctional-enzyme β-subunit, puromycin-sensitive aminopeptidase, and heat shock protein 90-α) and shell growth positively correlated with dissolved oxygen variability and inversely correlated with mean temperature. These results demonstrate that geoduck are resilient to low pH in a natural setting, and other abiotic factors (i.e. temperature, dissolved oxygen variability) may have a greater influence on geoduck physiology. In addition this study contributes to the understanding of how eelgrass patches influences water chemistry.


Populations of the common dog-whelk Nucella lapillus (L.) are declining or have already disappeared at many sites on rocky shores around the United Kingdom (Bryan et al. 1986). There is conclusive evidence that this is caused mainly by tributyltin (TBT) compounds leached from ships' antifouling paints (Bryan et al. 1987). These compounds impose male sexual characters (or imposex) on female N. lapillus. Other stenoglossan gastropods including Nassarius obsoletus Say (Smith, 1981a) and Ocenebra erinacea (L.) (Féral & Gall, 1982) are similarly affected by TBT. The intensity of expression of imposex in N. lapillus can generally be related to the sea water concentration of TBT. The appearance of a small penis and the partial development of a vas deferens first occurs at TBT concentrations below 0.5 ng/1 (as tin), although reproduction appears to be unaffected at this level. At 1–2 ng Sn/1 penis size is markedly increased and in some females proliferation of vas deferens tissue overgrows the genital papilla, thus sterilizing the animal. At slightly higher concentrations virtually all females become sterilized and at around 10 ng Sn/1 oogenesis is suppressed and spermatogenesis initiated (Gibbs, Pascoe & Burt, 1988). Since development is direct and there is no planktonic stage, N. lapillus has a very limited capacity for dispersion: thus the sterilization of females heralds the almost certain decline of so affected populations (Gibbs & Bryan, 1986).


We address the issue, in cognitive agents, of possible loss of previous information, which later might turn out to be correct when new information becomes available. To this aim, we propose a framework for changing the agent's mind without erasing forever previous information, thus allowing its recovery in case the change turns out to be wrong. In this new framework, a piece of information is represented as an argument which can be more or less accepted depending on the trustworthiness of the agent who proposes it. We adopt possibility theory to represent uncertainty about the information, and to model the fact that information sources can be only partially trusted. The originality of the proposed framework lies in the following two points: (i) argument reinstatement is mirrored in belief reinstatement in order to avoid the loss of previous information; (ii) new incoming information is represented under the form of arguments and it is associated with a plausibility degree depending on the trustworthiness of the information source.


The number of rice mills in Uganda increased rapidly during the past decade, in response to increasing demand for milling services. However, despite the notable improvement in access to milling services, recent studies have shown that some farmers still sell rice in unmilled form which attracts lower prices. This study was undertaken to examine why some rice farmers still sell un-milled rice in the advent of improved access to milling services. Descriptive statistical methods of data analysis were used to characterize rice-growing households by the form in which they sell rice, before fitting a Tobit model to determine the factors influencing the proportion of rice sold as grain after milling. The returns (gross margins) to rice-milling were also estimated. The study findings show that rice production is profitable regardless of the form in which it is sold; and the majority of households invest in milling all or part of their rice before sale. However, although milling households incurred higher costs, they also had higher gross margins, implying that selling milled rice is more profitable than selling paddy. The price of milled rice, volume of harvested rice, household size and group membership have significant and positive relationships with the proportion of rice sold as grain; while distance to the nearest rice mill is negatively and significantly associated with the proportion of rice sold as grain.


The Jurassic Navajo Sandstone on the Colorado Plateau of Utah may be considered for sequestration of CO2, because it is thick, widely distributed, has a high porosity and permeability, is typically horizontal to gently folded, is favorably located with respect to seal strata, and underlies many large point sources of CO2. However, faulting common on the Colorado Plateau may provide pathways for leakage of the CO2 similar to present-day geysers and CO2-charged springs. Natural groundwater present in the Navajo Sandstone includes a range of low-salinity, moderate-salinity with high bicarbonate, and high-salinity waters. Higher salinity waters may have moved from deeper strata under artesian pressures or originated from solution of evaporite in pre-Jurassic rocks. These characteristics make the Navajo Sandstone an excellent analog for examining the geochemistry of CO2 injection into deep saline aquifers. The storativity of CO2 in solution is a function of the solubility of CO2 in these waters, which is dependent on salinity, temperature, and pressure. Geochemical modeling shows that the coolest, least saline water can contain the most CO2 in solution. Dissolving CO2 in the water lowers the pH, so that no minerals precipitate, and the Navajo Sandstone contains only small amounts of mineral that may consume the H+. The reaction of the acidic water produced by dissolving CO2 with K-feldspar and minor clays and calcite in the sandstone throughout 500 yr consumes little H+ and produces only small amounts of product minerals. The Navajo Sandstone likely would not store significant CO2 as mineral precipitate, and thus, stored volumes of CO2 would be limited by its solubility in the in-situ water and storage as free CO2 in pore space.


Significant gains both for the individual patient and for the community can be made by preventing relapse and new depressive episodes. The depth of depression and the presence of other psychiatric problems are the most significant determinants of the duration of a depressive episode. The number of previous depressive episodes and age at first depression are the most significant determinants of the risk of future depression. However, the presence of interpersonal and social problems, other psychiatric or physical disorders, and the type of depression (e.g. depression as one "pole' in a bipolar disorder, dysthymia) are also factors of importance. The aim of maintenance treatment (i.e., continued treatment after the patient's recovery) is to prevent recurrence of the depressive episode, whereas the purpose of preventive treatment is to impede the occurrence of new depressive episodes.


With the utilization of a novel synergistic approach, we constrain the vertical distribution of water vapor on Mars with measurements from nadir-pointing instruments. Water vapor column abundances were retrieved simultaneously with PFS (sensing the thermal infrared range) and SPICAM (sensing the near-infrared range) on Mars Express, yielding distinct yet complementary sensitivity to different parts of the atmospheric column. We show that by exploiting a spectral synergy retrieval approach, we obtain more accurate water vapor column abundances compared to when only one instrument is used, providing a new and highly robust reference climatology from Mars Express. We present a composite global dataset covering all seasons and latitudes, assembled from co-located observations sampled from seven Martian years. The synergy also offers a way to study the vertical partitioning of water, which has remained out of the scope of nadir observations made by single instruments covering a single spectral interval. Special attention is given to the north polar region, with extra focus on the sublimation of the seasonal polar cap during the late spring and summer seasons. Column abundances from the Mars Climate Database were found to be significantly higher than synergistically retrieved values, especially in the summer Northern Hemisphere. Deviances between synergy and model in both magnitude and meridional variation of the vertical confinement were also discovered, suggesting that certain aspects of the transport and dynamics of water vapor are not fully captured by current models.


Cross cultural education and cross-cultural learning are two mutually integrated and relatively independent logical systems. There are differences in purpose, motivation, path and result, and they are contradictory to each other at some times. The differences between music education and music learning in the system structure begin with motivation, and appropriateness is an important principle to effectively reconcile educational motivation and learning motivation. In the international cooperation projects among music colleges and universities in the 21st century, the appropriateness of crosscultural education motivation is usually measured by the identity of teaching objects, the value standard of teaching content and the practical significance of teaching purpose. Based on the perspective of cross-cultural music learning, this paper examines the appropriateness of educational motivation in international cooperation projects of music colleges and


Two schools of thought exist in terms of handling mobility in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). One is the traditional connection-based model, which views node mobility as undesirable and tries to either remove (through recovery schemes) or mask (through tolerant schemes) the effect of mobility. The other is the mobility-assisted model, which considers mobility as a desirable feature, where routing is based on the store-carry-forward paradigm with random or controlled movement of mobile nodes (called ferries). It is well known that mobility increases the capacity of MANETs by reducing the number of relays in routing. Surprisingly, only two models, diameter hop count in the connection-based model and constant hop count in the mobility-assisted model, which correspond to two extremes of the spectrum, have been systematically studied. In this paper, we propose a new routing model that deals with message routing, as well as trajectory planning, of the ferries that carry the message. A logarithmic number of relays are enforced to achieve a good balance among several contradictory goals, including increasing network capacity, increasing ferry sharing, and reducing moving distance. The model considers the dynamic control of ferries in terms of the number of ferries, trajectory planning of ferries, and node communication and synchronization. The effectiveness of the proposed model is evaluated analytically, as well as through simulation


The paintings in question have been part of the Byzantine and ChristianMuseum's collection since 1918 (figs. 1-2). The first painting (fig. 1) representsthe "Tale of Susanna" (Old Testament), the young Jewish girl who refusedto succumb to the lust of two aged judges, who then falsely accused her ofadultery. The other one (fig. 2) represents "Eros" sitting on a column accompaniedby two other persons, a woman (bottom right) and a man (bottom left).They are supposed to be in love with each other, and they are just about tobe devoured by dragons. Both panels were painted as a couple on "November7, 1825" by the priest Agapios (mid-18th c.-1829), the so-called "Defterevon(second priest in the rank) of Siphnos". (Siphnos: the small Aegean island,where Agapios worked during most of his life).Using two different "languages", the two paintings as a couple representa combined attack against human passion and carnal desire. Moreover, both ofthem but especially "Eros" represent an innovative (iconographic and stylistic)trend in Greek painting of the time, also evident in other works. Some of these works are similar (like those now in view) in their attitude against social tendencies,criticized as non-ethical or spiritually dangerous (figs. 5, 6).From the 1770's onwards Greek Enlightenment has been celebrating therole of passion in human activity. During the same period, erotic literature inprose or in verse cultivated on the basis of Enlightenment's standards, wasemerging and was gaining a numerous audience in the greater centers of theOttoman Empire. There is a manuscript of the beginning of the 19th c., nowin the Benaki Museum (figs. 7, 8), where erotic verses are combined with patrioticones indicating the passion or love for one's country. An image of "Eros",which is also contained in this manuscript (fig. 8), gives us the opportunity(when compared to Defterevon's panel), to indicate that other representationalpossibilities of the passion of love, placing the emphasis on the positive ratherthan the negative aspects of this passion, were indeed present at the time.Although it is obvious both in written and iconographical sources that apart of the Greek Orthodox Church was very frustrated with such a positivetreatment of the passion of love (fig. 9), the pro-love tendency, going togetherwith some changes in political thought, left in the following decades its traces,obvious in the liberal spirit which came to contest the traditional spirit of theChurch. But the fact that Enlightenment was defeated within Greek societylong before 1825 does not permits us placing the two panels in the context ofthe general reactionary activity of the Church.So, the examination of the historical situation in the island of Siphnosaround 1825 proves inevitable in order to achieve a full estimation of themeaning of these two paintings. Many issues were at risk at the time whenGreek Revolution burst out (1821), driven forward by a huge economic crisis.The most prominent issue, which in a way incorporated all the others, was thestrife between old and new economic, political, and ideological powers in Greeksociety. This strife is also evident at Siphnos. The local aristocracy of the "oldregime", without being explicitly "anti-revolutionary", yet was very anxiousin its efforts to maintain at any cost the political status that was enjoying longbefore. On the other hand, the basic scope of the main revolutionary powers,i.e. the Greek bourgeoisie, was to give life to a new national and liberal countryin which the central authority of the state would (and should) overcome allprevious local and centrifugal authorities.Internal quarrels emerging on the island of Siphnos (mostly around 1823-1825) must be placed in the wider perspective of the revolutionary period'sGreek civil war. The leading actors of these local quarrels were from one sideNikolaos Chrysogelos, a mid-range scholar and native of Siphnos, who hadtook the initiative of the island's revolutionary activity in 1821, and from theother side the famous Siphnian family of Baos with its allies, who was at the top of the island's aristocracy long before 1821. In March 1825, immediatelyafter the end of the civil wars, Chrysogelos was officially denounce thepriest and Economic Administrator (Oikonomos) of the local Church, NikolaosBaos, that exercising his power beyond given authority at the period betweenOctober-December 1824 "he had divided married couples, he had marriedadulterers for money".This specific episode, examined in detail in our study, leads us to concludethat (in strong possibility) Chrysogelos himself (or at least some people of hisentourage) commissioned the two paintings in order to prove "immoral" theformer local authorities and so to diminish their political influence in the island.In the light of these events, the position taken by the two works becomesclearer. Political relations between local aristocratic powers and Constantinopledo exist in the wide frame of a common-shared ideology, which one could becall "phanariotic". This ideological frame includes also pro-love ideas, whichwas expressed through the phanariotic love-songs. According to some testimony,Nikolaos Baos' father, Apostolos Baos, had had some knowledge on musicacquired in Constantinople, at the time when he had been a pupil of Petros ofPeloponnessos, a very famous versifier and composer of erotic songs.The point of the two panel's suspension needs now an answer. In February1825, after a proposal made by Chrysogelos, the Revolutionary Governmentdecided to open again the School of the Holy Sepulcher in Siphnos, renamedas "Common Greek School". In our view, both panels were to be suspended inthis building, which now was the most prominent civic building on the island,a symbol of the newly established powers and their ideological predominance.


On 14 July European development ministers met in Sopot, Poland. Among a host of development related matters Central Asia was on the agenda and European Union Special Representative Pierre Morel and Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs were invited to give political and development assistance oriented background to the European ministers. The Polish Presidency wants to devote special attention to EU development assistance to this often over-looked region, which the EU has traditionally viewed predominantly through a foreign policy lens. Development strategies to Central Asia need to be discussed in the context of the five year old political strategy, set to be reviewed this coming autumn.


The paper discusses the interest of the multi-objective optimization approaches for the design of complex energy systems and the basics of the original evolutionary algorithm used. The specific problems linked to the design of the concentrators of solar tower power plants are then introduced to illustrate the objective of the work presented. The first analysis deals with the optimization of the x-y positioning of each of the 500 rectangular reflectors of an existing predesigned field. In spite of the large number of variables (1000) the algorithm successfully calculated an optimum positioning of each concentrators and the main induced variations are shown. The second part of the paper describes a new program, which was made and coupled with the same algorithm to optimize the whole design in a two-objective approach (specific energy cost versus investment cost). The main hypothesis made, to keep the number of variables within a reasonable domain, was to distribute identical reflectors along a set of concentric ellipses around the tower. The interest of the method is illustrated for one given period with the Pareto curve showing all the optimum solutions (lowest specific energy cost at any given investment). The investment cost includes the cost of the heliostats themselves, the cost of land, the cost of the tower, etc. Variables include the x-y positioning, the height of the support and the dimensions of each rectangular reflectors as well as the height of the tower and the number of reflectors. These decision variables being given for each solution, the extracted energy is calculated by a program of CIEMAT [Sanchez, Romero, 2003]. Details of the design parameters are illustrated for selected optima along the Pareto curve References M. Sanchez, M. Romero Optimisation of heliostat field layout in central receiver systems based on yearly normalized energy surfaces. ISES, 2003, Goteborg


Information Search in Decisions from Experience: Do Our Patterns of Sampling Influence Our Decisions? Thomas Hills University of Basel Ralph Hertwig University of Basel Abstract: Does the way we sample information from the environment influence the decisions we make, even when the information we obtain would otherwise be equivalent? In past research, this question has been difficult to answer because the information we obtain is often confounded with its consequences. We investigate this question by analyzing data in a paradigm where exploration comes prior to consequential decision-making, in the binary choice paradigm of decisions from experience. By investigating the relationship between patterns of information sampling and subsequent decisions, we find that individuals who switch more between options are less sensitive to the sample means and more likely to make decisions based on the outcome of pairwise comparisons, especially recent outcomes—choosing options that win most of the time. We further show that such pairwise strategies are associated with the underweighting of rare events.


Oh, why can t the deaf community be more like a family? is the plaint of a character in Raymond Luczak s title play "Whispers of a Savage Sort." It also goes far in characterizing the main thread that runs through his remarkable collection of work offered in this new volume. "Whispers of a Savage Sort and Other Plays about the Deaf American Experience" presents a progression of plays that depict Deaf people in situations well-known by the community s members. Written to be signing-driven, these plays feature Deaf characters from the various strata of Deaf society. Each play centers on different yet equally familiar issues. "Snooty" brings to life the difficulties of surviving the social pecking order in a deaf residential school. The main character s only escape is a rich fantasy life in which he is in control. "Doogle" confronts its characters with the intrusion of technological communication devices parallel to the virtually forced intimacy of such a small, close community. Brought into stark focus by the specter of AIDS, "Love in My Veins" explores how trust, betrayal, and ultimately forgiveness can transform a Deaf couple s love for each other in a Deaf community. The collection s eponymous "Whispers of a Savage Sort" reveals the relentless damage that rumor and innuendo can do to a diverse group of Deaf individuals. The emotions, identities, and consequences created by Luczak in these dramas illuminate the Deaf American community in fascinating detail rarely seen in any medium today."


This thesis looks at how Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) be carried out to help society move towards sustainability. It starts by introducing the reader into the essential concepts about Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD), Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), TVET, and the barriers to integrating ESD into TVET. It also provides information about the case study conducted in a TVET organization in Ireland which is integrating ESD into TVET. The thesis presents the key aspects that TVET organization need to have in order to successfully support SSD and it also provides a definition of success which is developing a workforce skilled for sustainability where sustainability is defined by the four sustainability principles. After presenting the key aspects, it looks at the strengths and weaknesses, in the lens of the key aspects, of the case study and three other TVET organizations. It later provides with recommendations based on the challenges found integrating ESD into TVET and the presented key aspects in order for TVET organizations to reach the vision of success.


Background: Public involvement is health research policy in the UK and internationally. There is a need to establish a robust evidence base on the impact of public involvement on research processes and outcomes. Purpose: To review examples of public involvement in the design and conduct of clinical trials, to synthesise the contributions of the public, as well as the identified tensions and facilitating strategies. Method: Systematic literature search and narrative review. Results: Nine papers were identified, covering the following topics: breast-feeding, antiretroviral and nutrition interventions; paediatric resuscitation; exercise and cognitive behavioural therapy; breast cancer; stroke; chronic suppurative otitis media; Paget's disease; and shared decision-making in patient consultations. Six papers reported on public involvement at the trial design stage, while three reported on public involvement at the design and conduct stages of clinical trials. It was found that the public contributed at the consultation, collaboration and publicly-led levels of involvement. Four main public contributions to trial design were identified: review of consent procedures and patient information sheets; suggestion of additional trial outcomes; review of trial data collection procedures; and recommendations on the timing and location of follow-up data collection. Two main contributions that the public made to the conduct of trials were identified: scrutiny of the conduct of the trial through membership of the Trial Steering Committee; and delivering the trial protocol after completing relevant training. Numerous tensions and facilitating strategies were identified. Limitations: Papers on public involvement in the design and conduct of clinical trials may have been overlooked due to the difficulty of searching for, and identifying, papers in this area. Only English publications were searched for and the review focused on evidence in peer-reviewed journal articles only. Conclusions: The issues raised here should assist researchers in developing and conducting clinical trials with the involvement of the public.


In this work, both unscented transform (UT) and frequency analysis techniques are used for calculating potential wind power of OMU - Dedebuzagi hill based on a year wind data. UT technique reduces process time since it uses only a few samples of probability density function of random variables into system. Weibull distribution with three parameters is used for predicting wind power. The wind power values for measurement site are then compared to another proposed method called frequency analysis.


Adult intussusception of the bowel is a rare clinical entity, and its management remains debated. The timing of treatment is not yet standardised, and no guidelines exist. We report a case of an 83-year-old woman presenting to the emergency department of our hospital with a history of increasing abdominal pain in the right iliac fossa. A contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan showed the presence of a large ileocolic intussusception with evidence of the terminal ileus invaginated within the right colon and the ileocolic vessels dragged and trapped into the intussusception. A colonoscopy confirmed the ileocolic invagination with a large right colonic lesion as leading point, and a partial pneumatic (carbon dioxide) and hydrostatic reduction was achieved. Subsequent laparoscopic right colectomy was performed according to oncological principles. A totally minimally invasive approach of this rare condition has been achieved but the literature lacks about the correct management of this entity.


The diagnosis of Lyme disease in 18 patients has been proved by detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato when using immunoelectron microscopy or detecting its nucleic acid by PCR in the plasma or the cerebrospinal fluid. The positive results occurred in the plasma or in the cerebrospinal fluid in the period of 4-68 months after an antibiotic treatment. The typical clinical manifestations of Lyme disease were observed in 9 patients and non-specific symptoms in another 9 patients. According to presented results we can recommend repeated examination using PCR of the plasma and other biological specimens in the individuals with persistent or recurring complaints after an acute form of Lyme disease and its antibiotic treatment. Also examination of the cerebrospinal fluid with non-specific symptoms and simultaneously displayed pathology electroencephalogram and/or magnetic resonance imaging findings can be advantageous.


Complex relationships of high arity across modality and context dimensions is a critical challenge in the Emotion Recognition in Conversation (ERC) task. Yet, previous works tend to encode multimodal and contextual relationships in a loosely-coupled manner, which may harm relationship modelling. Recently, Graph Neural Networks (GNN) which show advantages in capturing data relations, offer a new solution for ERC. However, existing GNN-based ERC models fail to address some general limits of GNNs, including assuming pairwise formulation and erasing high-frequency signals, which may be trivial for many applications but crucial for the ERC task. In this paper, we propose a GNN-based model that explores multivariate relationships and captures the varying importance of emotion discrepancy and commonality by valuing multi-frequency signals. We empower GNNs to better capture the inherent relationships among utterances and deliver more sufficient multimodal and contextual modelling. Experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms previous state-of-the-art works on two popular multimodal ERC datasets.


Abstract Type curves are derived analytically for radial flow in rough horizontal fractures toward a well. The basic assumptions are that there is no turbulent flow near the borehole and the well storage is ignored. The basis of the methodology is to write explicit expressions for the continuity and cubic law flow equations, which are combined using a Boltzmann transformation leading to a simple ordinary differential equation for groundwater movement. Solutions are presented as a set of type curves for different fracture apertures. It is observed that the solutions provide a method of uniquely identifying fracture hydraulic parameters when the fracture is smooth, but pose ambiguity for rough fracture parameter estimations. However, large time portions of these type curves appear as straight lines on semi-logarithmic paper, which provides a unique way for rough fracture parameter determination. Identification of the fracture parameters, namely, the aperture and relative roughness, is possible in a unique manner with the use of these lines and the dimensionless time drawdown concept. The cubic law is the asymptotic behaviour, either for large times or large fracture apertures. Prior to this asymptotic part, there is a non-cubic portion which gives rise to systematic deviations from the cubic law. The technique presented is useful, especially for evaluating pumping tests from a single major fracture isolated by packers.


-The economic growth of the country depends upon the quality and quantity of the plant production. The diagnosis of the diseases is needed at an earlier stage before it becomes worse. Proper preventive care will increase the production of fruits and vegetables. Thus, automated recognition of diseases in plant plays a vital role in agricultural yields. Several image processing approaches have been developed for disease diagnosis in a short span. In this work, various machine intelligence techniques include SVM, Back Propagation network, Naïve Bayesian are analyzed and observed and concur Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) based neural network performs better and gives high accuracy. The experimental results validate that the proposed model achieved a test accuracy is found that to around 93% for alternaria alternate, anthracnose, black spot, bacterial blight, cercospora leaf spot diseases in fruit and leaf.


Being trajectory tracking key for safe mobile robot navigation, Fuzzy Logic (FL) has been useful in tackling uncertainty and imprecision to realize robust and smooth trajectory tracking. In this paper, we present the Z-number based Fuzzy Logic control for trajectory tracking of differential wheeled mobile robots. The unique point of our approach lies in the ability to encode constraint and reliability in multi-input and multi-output rules, whose antecedent universe considers only the instantaneous measurements of distance and the orientation gaps, and whose consequent universe is computed by the interpolative reasoning and the graded mean integration approach. As a consequence, not only our approach avoids the complexity of encoding error gradients, but also is advantageous to model versatile control rules able to cope with missing observations and noisy inducements on actuators. Our experiments using both physics-based simulations and real-world tests based on a Pioneer 3DX robot architecture have elucidated the superior efficacy and the feasibility of the proposed controller regarding accuracy, robustness, and smoothness compared to other well-known related frameworks such as Fuzzy Logic Type 1, Fuzzy Logic Type 2 and Fuzzy Logic with PID. Our results provide unique insights to realize generalizable algorithms aided by FL and Z-number towards robust trajectory tracking.


A novel surface imprinting material based on modification of silica gel had been successfully synthesized. Propazine was chosen as template, and hydrogen bond was used as interaction between template and monomer. FT-IR and elemental analysis support the structure of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) layer. The thickness of imprinted layer calculated front pore size was 0.3 nm. It had been demonstrated that the vinyl functional monomer layer of the silica surface could not only copolymerize with monomer and crosslinker effectively, but also force the template into the polymer shells, and thus formed selective binding site. Competitive rebinding test was carried out in aqueous media, and MIP was found as a more effective sorbent than non-imprinted polymer (NIP) toward four triazines pesticides.


Many methods for interfacing PV system with utility grid have been reported in the literature. In this paper, a power electronic interface using boost converter and line commutated inverter is proposed with maximum power point tracking (MPPT), for the first time. This paper presents the design, simulation and implementation of a simple power electronic interface for grid connected PV array using boost converter and line commutated inverter. The controller extracts maximum power from the solar array and feeds it to the single-phase utility grid. A closed loop scheme employing a PI controller has been modeled in the power system blockset platform and the complete system has been simulated. A prototype of the proposed system is built in the laboratory and simulated results are experimentally verified.


Cytochrome P450 enzymes affected by artemisinin antimalarials – pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic aspects With more than 500 million cases and at least 1 million deaths each year, malaria is a major global health problem. The main problem with malaria control is the emerging drug resistance among parasites causing the infection. Consequently, there is an urgent need for new drugs. The artemisinin endoperoxide antimalarials are highly effective, well tolerated and have become the most important class of drugs in the treatment of malaria. The parent compound, artemisinin, exhibits remarkable time-dependent pharmacokinetics, resulting from a pronounced capacity for auto-induction. Artemisinin has also been shown to influence the cytochrome P450 (CYP) mediated metabolism of other drugs, increasing the risk of drug–drug interactions. The artemisinin antimalarials are recommended to be used in combination treatment. It is therefore crucial to elucidate which principal CYP enzymes are affected by these drugs. Using the cocktail approach it was demonstrated that several principal CYP enzymes were affected by the antimalarials artemisinin, dihydroartemisinin, artemether, arteether and artesunate in healthy volunteers. Metabolic changes were moderate but in several cases shared by all five endoperoxides studied, suggesting a class effect. At therapeutic doses artemisinin appeared to be associated with the strongest capacity for enzyme induction and inhibition. The time-dependent metabolism of artemisinin was described in both healthy volunteers and malaria patients by a previously developed pharmacokinetic auto-induction model. Further results indicate artemisinin to induce the activity of CYP2A6 in healthy subjects, but to which extent could not be demonstrated. Problems with studying induction of CYP2A6 using available probe compounds were highlighted. Pharmacogenetic data of genes coding for principal CYP enzymes involved in antimalarial treatment obtained in healthy Vietnamese volunteers, were in general agreement with reports from other Asian populations. Artemisinin is suggested to be an alternative marker to assess the activity of CYP2B6. Further studies are needed to investigate the metabolic fate of artemisinin, and evaluate its potential use as an in vitro and in vivo CYP2B6 probe. In conclusion, this thesis has contributed with pharmacokinetic and metabolic information on the artemisinin antimalarials, useful in the development of new derivatives and combination treatments. The potential of these drugs to affect CYP enzymes has to be considered in order to reduce the risk of drug-drug interactions and achieve optimal treatments of malaria.


Rationale: The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 2017 is based on an ABCD assessment tool of symptoms and exacerbation history and grade 1 – 4 of air fl ow limitation severity, facilitating classi fi cation either into 4 groups (ABCD) or 16 groups (1A-4D). We aimed to compare the GOLD 2011, GOLD 2017 ABCD, and GOLD 2017 1A-4D classi fi cations in terms of their distribution and prediction of mortality and hospitalizations. Methods: In the GenKOLS study, 912 COPD patients with FEV1 less than 80% of the predicted answered questionnaires and performed lung function testing in 2003 – 2005. The patients were recruited from a hospital patient registry (n=662) and from the general population (n=250), followed up until 2011 with respect to all-cause and respiratory mortality, and all-cause and respiratory hospitalizations. We performed logistic regression and receiver operating curve (ROC) analyses for the different classi fi cations with estimations of area under the curve (AUC) for comparisons. Results: Mean age at baseline was 60 years (SD 11), 55% were male. Mean duration of follow-up was 91 months. By GOLD 2011, 21% were classi fi ed as group A, 29% group B, 6% group C, and 43% as group D, corresponding percentages for GOLD 2017 were: 25%, 52%, 3%, and 20%. The GOLD 2011 classi fi cation had higher AUC values than the GOLD 2017 group ABCD classi fi cation for respiratory mortality and hospitalization, but after inclusion of air fl ow limitation severity in GOLD 2017 groups 2A – 4D, AUC values were signi fi cantly higher with GOLD 2017. Conclusion: In a clinically relevant sample of COPD patients, the GOLD 2017 classi fi cation doubles the prevalence of group B and halves the prevalence of groups C and D as compared to the GOLD 2011 classi fi cation. The prediction of respiratory mortality and respiratory hospitalization was better for GOLD 2017 2A – 4D taking air fl ow limitation severity into account, as compared to GOLD 2017 ABCD and GOLD 2011.


Climate change is the greatest global health threat of the 21st century, with numerous direct and indirect human health consequences. Local governments play a critical role in communities' response to climate change, both through strategies to reduce emissions and adaption plans to respond to changing climate and extreme weather events. Australian local government environmental health officers (EHOs) have the relevant skills and expertise to inform and develop adaptation plans for health protection in the context of climate change. This study used an online survey followed by phone interviews of local government management to determine the extent to which EHOs are involved in adaptation planning in health protection climate change plans. Questions were also asked to determine whether local councils are aware of EHOs' capability to contribute and to gauge the willingness of management to provide EHOs with the workload capacity to do so. The findings demonstrated that although climate adaptation and mitigation planning is occurring in local government, it is not including or considering the public health impacts on the community. Primarily, it was found that this oversight was due to a lack of awareness of the health impacts of climate change outside of a disaster or emergency scenario. Currently, EHOs are an untapped source of knowledge and skills that can contribute to climate change adaption planning. To support this, a framework of local environmental health practice was developed to assist the reconceptualization of the scope of practice required for the planning and response to climate change.


Notwithstanding the apparent exit of the United Kingdom, the European Union ("EU") has grown in membership and power since its modest beginnings after World War II, now rivaling the U.S. in economic strength. With the goal of promoting the security and prosperity of all the citizens of the countries that belong to it, the EU is pressing ahead to adopt laws that will promote their political and financial integration. Along those lines, it has also recently acknowledged a deficiency in the legal systems of its member states when it comes to allowing collective actions for victims of various types of economic harm. To address that, the EU is now developing guidelines for such procedures that can redress those injuries.

In the area of securities fraud, establishing such measures has taken on more importance after both a spate of financial frauds by European companies and a significant decision from the United States Supreme Court, Morrison v. National Australia Bank. That ruling cut back on the jurisdiction of American courts to adjudicate these claims against foreign defendants—even when a significant amount of the wrongdoing has occurred in the U.S.

This EU initiative to develop a collective jurisprudence to redress securities fraud also supports another goal that would foster European economic well-being. It would promote a shift in the financing of businesses there from debt to equity. That would particularly help small- and medium-size firms by giving confidence to investors in those enterprises that if they were cheated they would have an effective means to remedy that wrong.

As it is now, such stock frauds can typically involve a large number of investors, many of whom have relatively small holdings. Individual actions in those situations are not only too expensive to maintain but are often inadequate to compensate all their victims and deter future misconduct. The availability of effective collective remedies would help Europeans overcome their reluctance to make equity investments and therefore provide more flexible capital structures to businesses.

The European Commission10 ("Commission") is therefore trying to fashion legal tools to address that problem. This involves enhancement of the EU's mechanisms for stockholder litigation—what one commentator defines as "an umbrella term for various forms of suit and a range of claims brought by shareholders against the company in which they hold shares or against its directors and officers."

The EU's proposals in that regard seek to encourage what it calls "collective actions,"—its analog to U.S. class actions—where many stockholders with small claims can join together and adjudicate them in one suit. Without such a corrective mechanism, the costs of litigation would be too great for those individuals, and they would not be able to counter the substantial resources that the defendants typically have.

The EU's proposals, however, lack features that have made American class actions so effective. The Commission is reluctant to embrace that model because of what it calls our "abusive practices." Chief among them are contingent fees that compensate lawyers who represent shareholders harmed by these frauds.

In addition, the Europeans appear determined to hold on to several rules that discourage lawyers from taking these cases. One is "loser pay," which makes those who are unsuccessful in litigation liable for the legal fees of their counterparties who prevail. The potential of that heavy extra charge is a disincentive for lawyers who would take these cases. Another is that only plaintiffs who directly consent to be parties can be part of these actions (opt-in), as opposed to the more generous opt-out practice which includes all victims of the common fraud as plaintiffs unless they specifically choose not to participate.

This Article will therefore offer comment on those deficiencies in the developing European model and encourage our friends across the Atlantic to take a more realistic approach to their reforms. The American experience with securities class actions certainly has its detractors and may have had some failings which have now been corrected. All and all, however, the U.S. approach has served our economy well by protecting investors, checking corporate wrongdoing, and affording compensation to defrauded investors.

First, this Article will give a brief overview of the historic problems that European companies have had with an over-reliance on debt financing. It will then discuss how reforms like better redress for fraud can change that by giving equity investors a stronger belief that they will get a fair shake. The EU's proposals are a step in the right direction to address that concern, and the Article will go on to describe the current state of their development. After that, it will use an American perspective to point out their shortcomings with the goal of highlighting the benefits of the U.S. model to European policymakers.


Effective agricultural knowledge exchange is important for increased access to agricultural knowledge. However, studies conducted in Tanzania indicate that access to agricultural knowledge among agricultural stakeholders is inadequate. This chapter investigates how to strengthen the exchange of agricultural knowledge can be strengthened. Specifically, the chapter assesses how agricultural knowledge flows, determines how communication channels are chosen and analyses critical factors for effective agricultural knowledge exchange. The study involved different agricultural stakeholders identified through stake- holders ' analysis. Random and non-random sampling techniques were used in drawing the sample for the study. The study involved 371 respondents. Key findings indicate that agricultural knowledge sharing, exchange, transfer and dissemination which facilitate the flow of agricultural knowledge. Findings indicate that availability and accessibility of the communication channels, ICT infrastructure, affordability of communication tariffs and ownership of communication tools influenced the choice of communication channels. Likewise, membership in professional groups, accessibility of knowledge sources, affordability of tariffs for, access to agricultural extension services, availability of knowledge and ICT infrastructure influence the flow of agricultural knowledge. It is concluded that effective agricultural knowledge flow increases knowledge accessibility, usage and crea- tion. It is recommended that each agricultural stakeholder should be involved in conducting relevant agricultural knowledge roles so as to enhance the accessibility, shar- ing, exchange, dissemination and usage of agricultural knowledge. 13.4%) had secondary education; 38 (12.1%) had informal education; few (14, 4.5%) had adult education; while none had tertiary education. With respect to the level of education by sex of respondent, findings indicate that 112 (73.2%) male farmers as opposed to 108 (67.1%) female farmers had primary education, and 27 (17.6%) male farmers as opposed to 15 (9.3%) female farmers had secondary education. Findings also indicate that seven (4.6%) of the male farmers as opposed to seven (4.3%) of the female farmers had adult education, and the other seven (4.6%) male farmers as opposed to 31 (19.3%) female farmers had informal education.


A comprehensive understanding of the pathology of spinal cord injury (SCI) in non-human primates may facilitate greatly the development of new strategies to promote recovery in humans with SCI. Relatively few studies, however, have been conducted to systemically examine pathological changes in the monkey, a non-human primate, after SCI. We report axonal, glial, and fibrotic responses in the spinal cord of monkey Macaca fascicularis after a thoracic (T) 8-9 lateral hemisection. We examined these changes at three regions--i.e., the lesion epicenter, the peri-lesion area, and the lateral white matter of the intact, contralateral hemicord at 7 (subacute) and 30 (early chronic) days post-injury. The lateral hemisection resulted in a marked axon and myelin loss, along with tissue loss, at the lesion epicenter at both time points. Unexpectedly, axonal loss and myelin degeneration, along with reactive gliosis and microglia/macrophages activation, were also observed in the contralateral spared hemicord, indicating a spread of the initial damage to the contralateral side. In addition, activated microglia/macrophages were found both within the injury epicenter and the peri-lesion area, indicating that they participate in injury-induced immune responses that may exacerbate the secondary damage. In contrast to rodents, substantial reactive astrocytic responses at the lesion border were not observed in the monkey. Conversely, a deposit of robust fibrotic scar was observed at the injury epicenter, which filled the space originally created by the hemisection. Thus, understanding the pathology of monkey SCI may provide clinically relevant information in designing repair strategies targeting specific problems associated with human SCIs.


Environmental exposure to tobacco smoke contributes to the onset of several lung diseases, e.g. chronic bronchitis and asthma, including an increase in airway reactivity. We have investigated the effect of a new mucoactive compound, CO 1408, on airway hyperreactivity and lung inflammation induced in guinea-pigs by passive cigarette smoke exposure. Animals were exposed to cigarette smoke in a Plexi-glass box, three times a day for four days. Airway reactivity to histamine was assessed ex-vivo in lung parenchymal strips. As a measure of lung inflammation, the number of leucocytes was evaluated in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids and histological sections. Passive smoke exposure potentiated histamine-induced contraction in lung parenchymal strips, a phenomenon associated with an increase in proinflammatory cells in the BAL fluids and enhanced eosinophil infiltration into parenchymal tissues. Pretreatment with oral CO 1408 at 400 mg.kg-1 but not 100 mg.kg-1, completely prevented the cigarette smoke-induced airway hyperreactivity. 400 mg.kg-1 CO 1408 also inhibited the increase in cell numbers in the BAL fluids, but not eosinophil recruitment in parenchymal tissues. The present data indicate the ability of CO 1408 to modulate smoke-induced airway hyperreactivity and, to some extent, lung inflammation, an effect which might be of value in the therapy of obstructive pulmonary diseases.


legs was beneficial, and he was able to walk occasionally without assistance. Autonomic function tests were performed after weaning from mechanical ventilation.-' A catheter was inserted into the left radial artery, and vital signs were monitored. Head up tilting to 600 resulted in a blood pressure fall from 134/99 to 51/48 mm Hg. The basal plasma noradrenaline concentration was normal. A rise of plasma vasopressin in


One of the recent aspects in the cancer research is about the investigation of the etiological role of long noncoding RNAs as a new regulator for the expression of proto-oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes in cancer. Among them HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) is increasingly indicated to be deregulated in different cancers such as AML. According to the important regulatory role the gene in the developing and prognosis of the hematological malignancies we investigate whether there is an association between rs12826786, rs1899663, and rs4759314 common polymorphisms of the gene with AML patients. The results have shown no relation between any of the analyzed Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and AML either in genotypic frequencies or in haplotype analysis. The data derived from the present study suggested that pathogenic role of the HOTAIR to increase the susceptibility of AML should be considered from other aspects and further analysis are needed to explore the exact mechanism underlying the pathogenesis.