Transformations in agri-food systems provide prospects for improving livelihoods of many farmers through enhanced participation in commercial agriculture. Indeed, various studies have been undertaken to establish factors that influence the level of market orientation in different areas. However, those studies do not show appropriate objective criteria to support decisions for either separating or merging data and the subsequent analyses for different sites. Consequently, policy inferences made from such studies may be misleading due to failure to statistically account for site-specific variations in data. This study fills the analytical gap evident in literature by using the Chow test and descriptive measures of statistical difference to compare the intensity of market participation among rural and peri-urban vegetable farmers in Kenya. Results show that there are significant differences in the percentage of output sold, distance from farm to market, and the unit price of sale for output between the Rural and Peri-Urban areas. These findings demonstrate the urgent need for appropriate statistical evidence to improve disaggregated analyses of agricultural market participation in different systems and environments. This would enable targeting of development strategies to effectively address the changing agricultural landscape; particularly enhancing food supply and ensuring better farm incomes. There is need to improve market information provision, develop farmers' business skills, improve roads and or support establishment of high value vegetable market outlets at different scales in Rural and Peri-Urban areas. Key words:


Health & Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) is designed for improving airworthiness, reliability and effective maintenance management of helicopter by analysis of detected / diagnosed operation data internal/external environment data collected from the helicopter. Vibration monitoring system plays as an important part of entireness integrated HUMS, which offers a considerable improvement to conventional monitoring techniques. This paper covers development solution of civil helicopter transmission train Vibration monitoring system. Vibration monitoring system (VMS) constantly checks the performance of safety-critical components, provides warnings in advance of potential equipment failures and collects valuable data for routine maintenance of the helicopters.


The United States, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is not going to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in the foreseeable future. Yet, a number of countries have decided to stay on the Kyoto track. Four main explanations for this apparent puzzle are considered. The first is that remaining Annex I countries still expect the Kyoto Protocol to reduce global warming sufficiently to outweigh the economic costs of implementation. The second is that the parties, by implementing the treaty, hope to induce non-parties to follow suit at some later stage. A third hypothesis is that EU climate institutions have generated a momentum that has made a change of course difficult. Finally, Kyoto's persistence may be linked to the European Union's desire to stand forth as an international leader in the field of climate politics. We conclude that the first two explanations have little explanatory power, but find the latter two more promising.


Commercial viewing was measured by a conjugate arrangement for 1 female and 3 male participants. Reinforcing qualities were evaluated according to screen variations and ratings. Subjects changed the screen clarity via knob pressing either making the screen more or less transparent, translucent or opaque based on commercial interest. Results were conducive to participant attentiveness or indifference to commercial viewing. Experimenter was able to identify the commercials that grasped and maintained the participants' viewing behavior. Conceptually this conjugate arrangement could enhance eye tracking technology to improve marketing and advertising strategies. This experiment yield results that suggest a more concrete analysis of consumer response to visual stimuli that maintains attending.


[Purpose] To examine the effects of sling exercise on the balance of post-stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 18 post-stroke patients (13 men; mean age, 55.3 years) were recruited, and randomly assigned them into sling exercise (n=10) and control exercise (n=8) groups. The Good Balance System was used for measurement of velocity (anteroposterior and mediolateral, mm/s), velocity moment (mm2/s) of the movement of the center of pressure, and distance (anteroposterior and mediolateral, mm) between the center of pressure and the center point. The changes in mediolateral velocity, anteroposterior velocity, and velocity moment were compared between two groups in addition to the comparison of distance between the center of pressure and the center point of postural sway. [Results] The sling exercise group showed more significant improvements in anteroposterior velocity, mediolateral velocity, velocity moment, anteroposterior distance, and mediolateral distance than the control exercise group. [Conclusion] Sling exercise improved post-stroke balance performance and could be used as a therapeutic strategy to improve post-stroke functional recovery.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to present the main contributions to peace, democracy, and the philosophy of education in Colombia, made by philosopher Guillermo Hoyos-Vásquez (Medellín, 1935 – Bogotá, 2013). The work of this Colombian philosopher stands out for its important contributions to political philosophy as the vital, supportive, and responsible exercise of thought concerning the public interest. Using Kant's concept of practical reason, Husserl's lifeworld [Lebenswelt], and Habermas's communicative action as starting points, Hoyos-Vásquez succeeded in going beyond these political philosophers by trying to apply their ideas in the midst of the difficult context of corruption, drug trafficking and armed conflict in Colombia over the past five decades. At the same time, Hoyos-Vásquez developed throughout his life a varied public activity as a thinker and educator, belying the myth of the theoretical distance between the philosopher and his/her political present or historical reality. The thought of Guillermo Hoyos-Vásquez, and his public action as an educator, represent a substantial contribution to contemporary political and educational philosophy, maintaining a close connection between theory and practice.


This guide offers links to information on residency opportunities, grants, and more for visual artists. To suggest additions to these lists, contact email@example.com.


Genomic analysis of lung adenocarcinomas has revealed that the MGA gene, which encodes a heterodimeric partner of the MYC-interacting protein MAX, is significantly mutated or deleted in lung adenocarcinomas. Most of the mutations are loss of function for MGA, suggesting that MGA may act as a tumor suppressor. Here, we characterize both the molecular and cellular role of MGA in lung adenocarcinomas and illustrate its functional relevance in the MYC pathway. Although MGA and MYC interact with the same binding partner, MAX, and recognize the same E-box DNA motif, we show that the molecular function of MGA appears to be antagonistic to that of MYC. Using mass spectrometry–based affinity proteomics, we demonstrate that MGA interacts with a noncanonical PCGF6-PRC1 complex containing MAX and E2F6 that is involved in gene repression, while MYC is not part of this MGA complex, in agreement with previous studies describing the interactomes of E2F6 and PCGF6. Chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing and RNA sequencing assays show that MGA binds to and represses genes that are bound and activated by MYC. In addition, we show that, as opposed to the MYC oncoprotein, MGA acts as a negative regulator for cancer cell proliferation. Our study defines a novel MYC/MAX/MGA pathway, in which MYC and MGA play opposite roles in protein interaction, transcriptional regulation, and cellular proliferation. Implications: This study expands the range of key cancer-associated genes whose dysregulation is functionally equivalent to MYC activation and places MYC within a linear pathway analogous to cell-cycle or receptor tyrosine kinase/RAS/RAF pathways in lung adenocarcinomas.


Background/Context Teacher preparation suffers from a lack of evidence that guides the design of learning experiences to produce well-prepared beginners. An increasing number of teacher educators are experimenting with practice-embedded approaches to prepare novices for ambitious instruction. This study examines the role of core instructional practices introduced during preparatory experiences in shaping novices' first-year teaching. Research design Employing a mixed-methods approach, we compare the first-year teaching of two groups of individuals with secondary science certification, one of which comprises graduates from a practice-embedded preparation program, and the other graduates from programs that did not feature practice-embedded preparation. A total of 116 science lessons taught by 41 first-year teachers were analyzed, focusing on the quality of student opportunities to learn (OTL) observed during the lessons. Research questions This study sought answers to two research questions: 1) What are the characteristics of students' OTL from first-year teachers, one group of whom learned a set of core instructional practices during their preparation program and the other group of whom were not exposed to core practices? 2) Who provides opportunities for students to engage in meaningful disciplinary practices as outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards, during the first year of teaching, if any? How did they create such opportunities? Findings Independent-sample t-tests showed that there are significant mean differences between the two groups (t=3.1∼8.9; p <.001), on four metrics associated with their students' opportunities to learn. In-depth qualitative case studies reveal two ways that core practices shape instruction in new teachers' classrooms: (a) they support novices in formulating an actionable curricular vision as advocated by the science education community, and (b) they appear to help novices notice, attend to, and build upon students' ideas in classrooms with the use of strategies and tools recommended by the program. Conclusions/Recommendations A focus on a set of strategic and intentional practices, designed to help teachers achieve rigorous and equitable learning goals, has potential as a curricular frame for teacher preparation. But the emphasis should be placed on the vision and pedagogical goals that underlie the core practices, rather than the ungrounded use of strategies or tools themselves.


With the development of cryogenics, the demand of cryogenic liquid increases constantly. However, there are some difficulties to control and to adjust the extraction of cryogenic liquid especially for liquid helium. Compared with the immersed pump, the ejector has huge advantages in pumping the cryogenic liquid from cryogenic Dewar, like stable operation and simple structure. Considering the similarity between liquid nitrogen and liquid helium and the high cost to conduct the liquid helium experiment, this paper reports a research on the cryogenic ejector in the nitrogen temperature range. The experiment platform customized for liquid nitrogen was set up and the experiment of injection was launched. The nitrogen gas, as the primary flow accelerating in the nozzle, injects the liquid nitrogen at the outlet of nozzle. Two flows blend in the mixing chamber and flow out from the diffuser. Based on the ideal gas assumption and energy conservation, the sound velocity can be derived from two kinds of equations, obtaining the critical condition of primary flow thermal properties. Depending on the properties and previous research experience, the structure of ejector is designed and established, which could effectively inject liquid nitrogen from the cryogenic liquid cylinder. The problems and challenges are analyzed. In conclusion, this paper introduces the design method of cryogenic ejector and builds a liquid nitrogen test instrument. This method makes the extraction of cryogenic liquid more convenient, which is of universal significance for the cryogenic research work.


Philip K Dick's visionary forerunner to the novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' that became the film Bladerunner, tells the story of Louis Rosen and his love for the daughter of his business partner and the truth about where his life-like androids might end up...Making an animatronic replica of Abraham Lincoln has never been easier. Finding someone to buy it is the hard part. Louis Rosen's firm, the Frauenzimmer Piano Company, builds electronic organs and upright pianos. Deciding to expand the business the firm get ambitious, building exact reconstructions of famous personalities. Sam K. Barrows, a lunar real estate tycoon wants to repopulate the moon with their creations, and he's the only one rich enough to buy them. As the Lincoln model develops a fault and Rosen begins to fall for the daughter of his business partner, things go from bad to worse and his mental health rapidly begins to deteriorate. 'We Can Build You' bears striking similarities in Dick's later novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' which was later transformed into Ridley Scott's extraordinary science fiction film classic 'Bladerunner'.


: Serum from 422 healthy subjects prior to and four weeks after multiple immunizations was studied for rheumatoid factors (RF) by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Increase in IgM RF was detected in 22% of subjects by ELISA, but was not detectable by a standard sheep-cell agglutination test. Immunization may be a cause of RF positivity by a sensitive assay such as ELISA; it is not likely to be detected by standard clinical methods.


The integral membrane zinc metalloprotease ZMPSTE24 plays a key role in the proteolytic processing of farnesylated prelamin A, the precursor of the nuclear scaffold protein lamin A. Failure of this processing step results in the accumulation of permanently farnesylated forms of prelamin A which cause the premature aging disease Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), as well as related progeroid disorders, and may also play a role in physiological aging. ZMPSTE24 is an intriguing and unusual protease because its active site is located inside of a closed intramembrane chamber formed by seven transmembrane spans with side portals in the chamber permitting substrate entry. The specific features of prelamin A that make it the sole known substrate for ZMPSTE24 in mammalian cells are not well-defined. At the outset of this work it was known that farnesylation is essential for prelamin A cleavage in vivo and that the C-terminal region of prelamin A (41 amino acids) is sufficient for recognition and processing. Here we investigated additional features of prelamin A that are required for cleavage by ZMPSTE24 using a well-established humanized yeast system. We analyzed the 14-residue C-terminal region of prelamin A that lies between the ZMPSTE24 cleavage site and the farnesylated cysteine, as well 23-residue region N-terminal to the cleavage site, by generating a series of alanine substitutions, alanine additions, and deletions in prelamin A. Surprisingly, we found that there is considerable flexibility in specific requirements for the length and composition of these regions. We discuss how this flexibility can be reconciled with ZMPSTE24's selectivity for prelamin A.


Clone-and-Own and software product lines are often used approaches when developing variational
software products. Nevertheless, both approaches have negative points which are inevitable when
developing variants. While clone-and-own often is not feasible in terms of synchronizing changes
into other variants, software product lines are costly when developing only a small amount of variants.
In this thesis, we tackle these problems through the creation of an annotation-based approach.
Our approach uses line-based feature mappings to implement variability language independent in
any textual documents. Feature mappings are recorded automatically during a source edit with as
few developer interactions as possible. As automatically feature mapping is hard without knowing
the intentions of developers, they select a feature context and a feature context mode which are then
used by in the feature mapping calculation. With the feature mapping assigned, developers can also
select patches to be synchronized to variants which also implement the calculated feature mapping.
In total, our approach mixes elements from clone-and-own and software product lines and enables
developer to work as efficient as possible with an acceptable cost-benefit ratio.


Polyembryonic caryopses that give rise to twin and triplet seedlings have been found in several inbred lines of pearl millet. Near-equal and unequal twins, fused and non-fused coleoptile types, and identical and non-identical triplets were encountered. Some evidence for the inheritance of polyembryony was accumulated. Inbreds differed markedly in frequency of polyembryonic caryopses, but thermal-neutron radiation, ethyl methane sulfonate, and diethyl sulfate treatment of the seed were not conclusively shown to increase the frequency of twin and triplet seedlings. Triploid and tetraploid types were recovered from the diploid pearl millet


Microbial communities of two oil reservoirs from Malaysia, denoted as Platform Bo and Platform Pe were studied using culture-independent approach. Environmental DNA was extracted and the universal amplified ribosomal region ( UARR) was target amplified for both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The amplified products were purified and cloned into pTZ57R/T vector to construct the 16S/18S rDNA library. Restriction endocucleases HhaI and MspI were used to screen the library. From that, 125 and 253 recombinant plasmid representative clones from Platform Bo and Platform Pe, respectively, were sent for DNA sequencing. Twenty-six operational taxonomic units (OTUs) consist of 20 genera detected at Platform Bo and 17 OTUs consist of 13 genera detected at Platform Pe. Marinobacter and Acinetobacter species co-occurred in both platforms whereas the rest are site-specific. Gammaproteobacteria accounted for 86.0% of the microbial community in Platform Bo, where OTUs affiliated to Marinobacter, Pseudomonas and Marinobacterium that were the most abundant. The major OTUs in the Platform Pe were with affinities to Achromobacter, followed by Stenotrophomonas and Serratia. The only archaeal isolates were detected in Platform Pe, which affiliated to Thermocladium. The singletons and doubletons accounted for about 50.0% of the OTU abundance in both platforms, which considerably significant despite their rare occurrence.


Abstract In this article we explain the development of anti-Mexican nationalist ideology among Arizona's legislative body and the development of counterpoints of action and resistance and the role the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University is playing locally, regionally, nationally, and transnationally in countering this ideology. It considers that such measures as Arizona SB 1070 law passed by the Arizona legislature in 2010 has historical antecedents early in the development of the Arizona territory in the 19th century. Once Mexican-origin populations became demographically and politically subordinated in the region at that time, numerous measures ensued, which attempted to subordinate much of the cultural, linguistic, and spatial heritage of the population since then. However, in spite of these processes that Mexican-origin populations simultaneously created and became a part of, countervailing linguistic, cultural, and public developments and innovations emerged. Issues of culture, language, and demography that arose by the 1980s provided new impetus leading to new versions of the old political and social histories. We discuss changing political demography resulting from the population increases of Mexican-origin populations in Arizona and fear of political power shifts from non-Mexicans as possibly a factor in the emergence of the most recent versions of anti-Mexican political behavior. We also discuss fresh winds of change in opposition to these developments that emanate from religious, secular, and educational institutions and seem to favor more rationale approaches to resolving issues of legality, migration, and culture. These developments create new cultural and social spaces to address the region's social and political problems.


The motivation to perform this study was to generate the fundamentals to use oats for bread-making applications. This will offer consumers a healthier alternative product to wheat bread in their daily diet, because oat foods, especially through their high amount of soluble fibre (notably beta-glucans) contribute to the reduction of blood cholesterol levels and of blood glucose rise after the meal. Oats also have a high content of (poly-) unsaturated fatty acids that contribute to maintaining normal blood cholesterol levels. One specific target group that would benefit from the development of good quality oat bread are people with celiac disease (CD). Oats is widely consumed by them, even though its safety has been subject of some debate for a long time. Two peptides from oat avenins can be recognized as T cell epitopes by few CD patients, and differential signals of gluten-specific monoclonal antibodies and in-vitro T cells to oat varieties have suggested the existence of differences in immunogenicity. These health and food safety issues have been addressed in the General Introduction. Bread is consumed all over the world. So far, production of large-volume bread is only possible with wheat. The quality of existing oat bread is below to what consumers are used to with wheat bread. This is partly due to the lack of knowledge regarding the functionality of oats for other purposes than porridge and breakfast cereals, which are the most common applications. These applications do not represent a big technological challenge as bread does, because bread-making requires a system able to hold gas during proving and baking. In wheat, this is conferred by gluten proteins that form a viscoelastic network with the capacity to expand and to maintain itself after expansion. Oats lack gluten proteins with network-forming capacity. Current oat bread applications rely on batter systems and on the use of additives to increase viscosity for stabilization of gas cells. This thesis consists of two parts. The first part concerns the safety of oats for people with celiac disease (Chapter 2). This was studied by cloning and sequencing avenin genes from 13 Avena species with combinations of the three genomes (A, C, D) that are also present in the hexaploid cultivated A. sativa. We identified up to 10 avenin genes in a single hexaploid oat plant. Avenin proteins clustered in four groups of which two contained the two avenin CD epitopes. All Avena species examined harbored avenins of these two groups, so it is unlikely to find oat cultivars that are devoid of the avenin CD epitopes. None of the internationally agreed gluten CD epitopes from wheat, rye and barley were found to be present in oat avenins. Some epitope variants with two and three amino acid substitutions occurred, but they were predicted to not resist proteolysis in the gastro-intestinal tract and will therefore not be of clinical relevance. Perfect recognition sites of antibodies R5 and G12 (which are used in commercial gluten detection kits) were also not present in avenins. Thus, monoclonal antibody signals to oat are probably due to cross-reactivity or promiscuous recognition of avenin peptides, and such signals should not be interpreted as differences in immunogenicity of oat varieties for CD patients. The second part of this thesis focussed on the study of the technological properties of oats. Oats have been used as an addition to wheat-based dough or in an oat-based batter system. However, while for wheat the dough-making parameters necessary to obtain good quality bread have been defined through a long history of research, this is not the case for oats. To fill this gap, this thesis studied the technological properties of oats using a systematic approach. First, we developed a dough testing system that allowed us to assess the dough-making properties of oat flour in a standardized way (Chapter 3). For this we used wheat as a model. We reproduced various quality profiles of wheat flour using combinations of oat flour and vital gluten. Then, we selected a dough system made of 87.2% oat flour and 12.8% gluten as our standard dough test system. This dough system was sensitive to differences among oat cultivars. Thus, having developed a tool that could detect differences regarding dough-making properties among oat cultivars, the next step was to try to explain those differences in terms of compositional factors. We decided to start our exploration with beta-glucans, because these fibres are one of the oat components that attract interest because of their health benefits. We studied the impact of beta-glucans on dough rheology (Chapter 4) following two strategies: (i) using the developed standard dough system containing gluten; and (ii) by removing the gluten from the system and replacing these proteins by alternative network-forming compounds. In both systems, beta-glucans affected dough rheology. Increasing their concentration resulted in an increase of dough stiffness and in a reduction of dough extensibility. Beta-glucans negatively influenced the elastic properties that additional wheat gluten conferred to oat dough. Low beta-glucan ( Chapter 5 addressed the effect of particle size distribution on dough-making properties. We found that oat meal is not the best material for bread-applications because it produces a very stiff and short dough. Re-milling did not change this pattern. In contrast, complete removal of the bran from the oat meal did improve dough-making properties, which indicated that dough rheology was negatively impacted by the bran. Large and medium size bran particles were more harmful than fine bran particles. Large and medium bran contained 8% beta-glucans, while fine bran contained 1.6% only. We concluded that oat meal is not appropriate for bread applications. Fractionation of the milled product is an interesting alternative to produce low-beta-glucan flour for bread-making purposes, and the bran can be used to enrich other food products with beta-glucans. This chapter also addressed whether kilning and milling methods applied to oat grains could affect bread-making purposes. Infrared (IR) and steam kilning both affected dough-making properties of oat grains in the standard dough system. The effect of steam kilning was on water absorption only. Non-kilned and steam-kilned grains showed similar extensibility behavior. In contrast, IR kilning affected water absorption and harmed completely the dough extensibility properties of oat grains. Flour from IR kilned grains made a very stiff and short dough. Thus, IR kilning is definitely not suitable for bread applications. Finally, in Chapter 6, we addressed the need for good quality gluten-free oat bread. As further research is required for better understanding of the oat dough system, we studied the rheological properties of oat flour relevant for leavening with gluten alternatives. Whey protein particles (WPP) had appeared to be successful in enhancing viscoelastic properties of wheat starch dough, allowing loaves with specific volumes of ca 3.7 mL/g. We studied whether WPP could have a similar positive effect on oat flour dough. WPP increased the resistance to extension and the gas retention capacity of oat flour dough. However, in our small scale baking experiments, WPP did not increase loaf specific volume and had a negative effect on gas production. On the other hand, WPP improved crumb texture. WPP are promising as a structuring agent in oat dough, but the process should be further optimized. In the General Discussion we pay attention to the food safety issue of oats for people with coeliac disease. Our analysis across the genus Avena of avenin genes and proteins produced an important new and supporting argument to the safety of oats, as they appeared to contain none of the generally agreed celiac disease-related gluten epitopes from wheat, barley and rye. With this analysis we also could explain the positive signals for the presence of gluten (as described in the literature for several oat varieties on the basis of the R5 and the G12 antibody assay and on T cell tests) as being the result of cross-reactivity or promiscuity, without having clinical relevance. The data in this thesis therefore support the advice to gradually introduce the consumption of oats into the daily diet of people with coeliac disease. Further, we discuss the results and the consequences of our technological research on oat flour dough. It appeared that beta-glucans have a serious negative effect on the rheology of the oat dough, which indicates the need for further research on improvement of the balance between optimum application of beta-glucans for health (high amounts and of high molecular weight is better) and for baking quality (low amounts and of low molecular weight is better). Also the pre-treatment of oat flour (notably kilning and milling) and the application of whey protein particles to replace gluten require further optimization. Here the developed standard oat flour dough model system will be a useful tool.


The geographical mobility of young Europeans takes place within institutional realms that frame young people´s educational and vocational situations. These institutional framings provide unequal preconditions for going abroad. Starting from an action-oriented theoretical approach, the aim of this work was to explore young people´s international moves within different mobility settings. Based on 52 qualitative interviews with mobile youth from three mobility fields in three countries (students from Luxembourg, employees in Norway and Luxembourg and apprentices from Germany), the dynamic concept of context-sensitive mobility-related modes of action (MRMA) was developed. The applied analytic framework reflects the fact that individual perceptions and actions relating to going abroad differ greatly according to the young people's specific current educational/vocational situations. Moreover, the comparative approach sheds light on different dimensions of inequality caused by these framing systems.


The amount of the penalty under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), for almost all taxpayers subject to it, even in 2014, will significantly exceed $95. And, the plain language of section 5000A, coupled with the law governing assessable penalties, suggests that the ACA penalty, far from being toothless, may well turn out to be the tooth fairy's gift to the Commissioner, left under his pillow by Congress. With nothing more than a cursory notice and demand, and without any pre- or post-assessment hearings, the Commissioner can move straight to collection by applying overpayments of prior, current, and future tax years. He may also find it easier to lift the statute of limitations for the ACA penalty than for an income tax. Certainly, any taxpayer challenge to the imposition of the ACA penalty will require payment in full and a suit for refund. While regulations may, in time, supply some procedural safeguards, a simple legislative fix will yield quicker and better results. Similar statutory language has been deployed in the past to guarantee procedural protections to corporate insiders and raiders subject to excise taxes on excessive payments. Surely, ordinary taxpayers confronting the ACA individual mandate deserve as much.


ABSTRACT For many years, the Canadian government has pursued energy and environmental policies that have difficulty co-existing. Ottawa has encouraged projects intended to expand the extraction and export of the country's single biggest commodity, fossil fuel, while at the same time seeking to restrict Canada's carbon footprint, an imperative characterized by the term "leave it in the ground." Events have rendered that policy contradiction untenable. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the Kremlin's efforts to weaponize energy, have shown the folly of allowing complete globalization of energy production. And no country is in a better position to step up than Canada, with its abundance of resources. Canada's reserves of natural gas rival Russia's. And yet Canada does not have a single liquefied natural gas export facility. Similar for critical minerals processing, without which technology manufacturing cannot exist. China currently has the global market cornered, while Canada's engineering capability and regulatory regime goes untested. In this commentary, I urge Canada to pursue energy realpolitik – to overcome the obstacles of federal-provincial jurisdiction, reconcile restrictions on carbon with the plain need for energy, and partner with the United States, while it is still possible.


Creating the lab catalog is a multi-disciplinary crash course in laboratory science, writing, publishing, marketing, business administration, and graphic design. These eight steps will take you from start to finish in completing a showcase catalog.


VERMICOMPOST APPLICATION AS A FERTILIZER SOURCE AND SUBSTRATE AMMENDMENT FOR SEEDLINGS AND TRANSPLANTS: PRACTICAL APPLICATION AND MICROBIAL ACTIVITY ANALYSIS Stephanie Alexandra Brace, PhD Cornell University 2017 Fertility management of seedlings/transplants can be difficult especially when they are grown in an organic production system. Transplants are grown in small containers with substrates that usually contain a low nutrient holding capacity. Organically supplied nutrients are primarily slow release and depend on biological processes to convert organically bound nutrients into a plant available form. Temperature influences both microbial activity and plant growth. Little information is currently available on the effect of vermicompost additions on microbial activity and subsequent plant performance in soilless substrates. Commercially produced vermicompost (VC) is a worm processed form of compost that can be used to provide fertility in organic systems. The source and method for producing VC are extremely variable. Therefore, the objective of this work was to test performance of seedlings/transplants in response to fertilizers, temperature, and sources of vermicompost. In addition, the microbial activity in vermicompost will be determined. Germination and transplant experiments were conducted using various quantities, sources and application methods of VC. Seeds of pepper 'Calwonder' (Capsicum annuum L.), tomato 'Rutgers 39' (Solanum lycopersicum L.), petunia 'Celebrity White F1' (Petunia x hybrid) and snapdragon 'Rocket Mix F1' (Antirrhinum majus L.) were included. Topdressing VC instead of incorporating led to higher fresh weight (FW) of tomato, pepper, petunia, and snapdragon. The source of VC had significant effect on plant growth of tomato and peppers in seedling and transplant stages. Vermicompost extract (VCE) applied at 5 applications per week was adequate to produce marketable seedlings of the four species above. A trial was conducted to compare the performance of several different granular organic fertilizers on 10 cm containers of 'Celebrity' tomato transplant growth at average daily temperatures of 10, 15, or 20 °C. The results indicate that the fertilizers perform well at 15 and 20 °C, but plant growth and nutrient availability was reduced at 10 °C. Results indicate that at 15 and 20°C Sustane, Verdanta, and Microstart can be substituted for conventional synthetic fertilizers for quality plant growth and decreased leaching. In another trial, VC, autoclaved VC and Sustane were applied in six combinations to determine if the microbial community in VC facilitated nitrogen mineralization. Plant growth and microbial parameters were measured at 2 week intervals for 6 weeks. By week 6, the FW of trts with VC or autoclaved vermicompost (AVC) applied performed better than the control. Very little difference in plant growth was found between VC or AVC treatments. Microbial activity measurements found that most of the activity of the microbes was concentrated in week 0 and 2. Respiration decreased in week 4 and then increased in week 6. The microbial activity was greatest in the first 2 weeks and coincided with the highest levels of N in the substrate and leachate.


. An engineering geological approach to analysed geo-hazards affecting engineering and planning design decisions is presented. The methodological procedures include hazard identification, hazard assessment, site vulnerability, economic cost, environmental impact, risk assessment, social acceptability, decision analysis and engineering design criteria. The practical application of the Engineering Geological Methodology (EGM) is shown in several case studies: dam safety problems due to slope instability and induced seismicity during reservoir filling; seismic hazard assessment in regions with insufficient seismic data and tectonic information; and large scale geo-hazards due to giant landslides and related tsunamis. The EGM approach can provide fundamental criteria for engineering decisions and territorial planning. Social acceptability should be included in the decision analysis being evaluated according with the hazard level of the geological process and the corresponding risk of the affected elements. Examples of geo-hazards and their social acceptability are presented.


Diclofenac (DF) is widely used in the treatment of pain and fever. Despite it therapeutic benefits, it triggered hepatorenal injury. Thus, the present study investigated the protective roles of kolaviron (KV) against DF-induced hepatic and renal toxicity in rats. The rats were allotted into groups: control group received propylene glycol and treatment groups received DF, which induced hepatorenal toxicity in rats and different doses of KV that prevented systemic toxicity of DF in rats. Twenty-four hours after the last treatment, all the rats were killed. Pro-inflammatory levels, markers of liver and kidney functions, oxidative stress, hematological indices, and histopathological alterations were evaluated. Diclofenac caused significant increase in the plasma levels of creatinine and urea and activities of liver enzymes, including bilirubin level, pro-inflammatory markers, and plasma prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). It also caused significant alteration in renal and hepatic PGE2, antioxidants, lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde), and hematological indices. These toxic effects were confirmed by histological studies and levels of inflammatory infiltration (myeloperoxidase). However, KV significantly prevented or reduced the adverse effects of DF in the plasma, liver, and kidney of the rats pretreated with KV before DF administration. This study showed the efficacy of KV as hepatic and renal protector in DF-induced hepatorenal toxicity through reduction of oxidative stress and suppression of inflammation.


The possibility that alteration in stimulatory guanine nucleotide-binding protein (Gs) expression may contribute to the blunting of renal parathyroid hormone (PTH)-stimulated adenylate cyclase in aged rats was examined. Using rat cDNA probe, we identified a Gs alpha-subunit (Gs alpha) of 1.9 kb. Age did not alter the size of Gs alpha mRNA. The level of Gs alpha mRNA [normalized to poly(A)+ RNA] was decreased 23%, which was consistent with our previous report that Gs alpha protein decreased in senescence. In contrast, mRNA level of Gi alpha 2 increased with age. Level of beta-actin mRNA did not change with age. Nuclear runoff assay was performed to determine the transcription rate of Gs mRNA. Synthesis of poly(A)+ RNA and total RNA was reduced 39% and 37%, respectively, in nuclei prepared from old kidney, which suggested a general decline in RNA synthesis capacity in old rats. Our results also showed the transcription rate of Gs alpha mRNA in aged rats was reduced 89%, a decrease far exceeding that observed for total RNA or poly(A)+ RNA. We concluded that the decrease in steady-state level of Gs alpha mRNA was specific and probably was due to a reduction in the transcription activity. Thus alteration in Gs transcription may contribute, at least in part, to the impaired renal adenylate cyclase activation in aged rats.


Severe floods occur in several coastal area of Vietnam and causes both properties and causalities. It is important to guide local households in selecting risk management strategies according to their capacity to reduce significant damage (Molinari et al). Insurance was recently recognized as one of the possible non structural measures to mitigate losses and damages from natural disasters (UNISDR, 2015). Despite the huge effect on citizens' life from flood risk and believable higher damages caused by flood in the future due to climate change, it is surprising that there is no flood insurance program in Vietnam. This paper investigates the vulnerability of households to flood and suggests a conceptual framework to implement possible scenarios of flood insurance programs for Central Vietnam. We implement 2D simulations of the physical hazard in term of flooding, velocity, depth and duration, and then combined the flood hazard maps, exposure and vulnerability maps to obtain risk maps. We calculate major flood damages, regarding housing damages and paddy rice damages, for five different return periods (10, 20, 50, 100, 200 years). Based on 386, out of 400 responses to 35 questions in a questionnaire directly related to flood risk and preparedness, the vulnerability curve for direct tangible costs to building structure, building contents, and paddy rice were assessed. We also find that, in the long term, with a proper flood insurance premium, three actors (Vietnam Government, insurance companies, and local households) could all achieve their targets. Local households are insured by insurance contracts against flood losses with a reasonable insurance premium. Vietnam Government might reduce its budget for subsidising local households after flooding by transferring flood risk to insurance companies. Insurance companies might make profits in long term as this market has a potential growth in Vietnam. One more important contribution of this paper is that this measure could guide land planning toward decisions which tend to minimize the total flood losses


Marie Cosnay's Villa Chagrin (2006), the third title in a body of work that now includes eleven books, may not be a roman-fleuve in the strict sense of that term (indeed it may not even be a novel), but a river most certainly runs through it, from first page to last. That river is the Adour, as seen from its right bank, across from Bayonne, in a place called Saint-Esprit. At some seventy-five pages, this text is certainly no Jean-Christophe, no Chronique des Pasquier. Nonetheless, it flows in full spate, picking up and melding along its way an impressive variety of narrative currents: the story of the painter Bram van Velde and his companion, Marthe Arnaud-Kuntz; an examination of the nature of disaster, conceived both as a collective phenomenon and as a personal one; a love story wherein absence looms far larger than presence; a meditation on the image and the fate of the image in representation; a parable of writing and its uses; and more besides. Like the Adour, Villa Chagrin is very fluid, very dynamic. Its author, a classicist by profession, is well placed to understand why a river seemed so apt to Heraclitus as a figure of time; and just like a river, this novel (for that is what I shall call it) is mutable in astonishing ways. Michel Charles has argued eloquently for a vision of the literary text as an artifact constantly in motion, one that is difficult to apprehend in any way other than on the run, as it were. (1) That way of looking at textuality is particularly productive in the case of a work such as Cosnay's, wherein a powerful continuity is achieved through a narrative technique that seems, on the face of it at least, constantly interrupted. The multiple diegetic threads that I mentioned contribute to that sense of interruption. More telling still is the fact that Cosnay structures her novel like a diary, with dated entries and a progressive intercalated narration. Maurice Blanchot reminded us long ago that any discourse at all relies in some measure on interruption for its coherence, (2) and in that perspective it is easier to understand how Cosnay enlists multiplicity in the service of singularity. The image of the river is also helpful in that regard, as is Michel Charles's characterization of literary textuality as "essentiellement un long discours, ou le recit apparait par intermittence" (199). One important consideration that such a manner of conceiving a work of literature suggests is that any reading we bring to it must strive to be as mobile as the text itself--a tall order, certainly, and one that inevitably calls us to attention. The incipit of Villa Chagrin invokes both time and space, and appears to situate the narrative instance precisely: "Le 15 novembre je suis rest& a la maison, evitant la brume sur l'Adour et le flot cotonneux apercu la veille vers sept heures quarante cinq quand j'allais dans l'invisible, roulant vers le lieu le plus familier de la ville" (9). Yet that invocation relies significantly on imprecision for its effect, and the narrator insists upon phenomena ("la brume," "le flot cotonneux," "l'invisible") that serve to thematize the notion of imprecision. It is a technique that Marie Cosnay will exploit throughout her novel, and one that is deeply imbricated in the fluvial images that teem therein. Those images are extremely various, and they serve a variety of purposes. From time to time, Cosnay personifies the river, in order to underscore the narrator's state of mind, either by identification or by contrast: "Le fleuve etait imperturbable" (10). It is a thing both alive and reactive, whose spirits and modes of being change continually: "Non loin de la villa Chagrin, a Saint-Esprit, je regardais l'Adour. Il clegueulait un peu. Des ponts successifs le barraient. La brume est venue" (35). Like the narrator and every other human that she puts on stage, the river has traversed a significant span of both time and space in order to arrive at the here and the now: "Ville oil la riviere joint le fleuve qui sur deux cents kilometres a parcouru jusque-la les monts rougis de bruyere" (10). …


Metabolic stress causes an increased Fas-FasL (receptor-ligand pair) expression in Neural Stem
Cells (NSCs) leading to Fas-induced apoptosis. In this study, we discuss
the exposure of NSCs to different metabolic treatments that provoke cellular
stress responses. We demonstrate that challenging cultured NSCs to ethanol
(ETOH) increased cellular death via Fas-mediated apoptosis. Moreover, we
establish that NSCs cultured under low lipid conditions, in which they were
deprived of essential fatty acids, demonstrated increased cellular survival
rates suggesting an increased ability for these lipid-starved cells to endure
a stressed environment. This was further confirmed by exposing NSCs to low
glucose levels and observing a decrease in percent death in low lipid NSCs.
When stressed, NSCs have increased reactive oxygen levels and are susceptible
to apoptosis. These findings indicate that under starved and stressed
conditions, and in the presence of Fas Ligand (FasL), NSCs pursue fatty acid
oxidation by burning fat as fuel. This may be the key to better understand the
metabolic states of brain tumors and the characteristics of cancer.


When lecturers seek to improve their teaching skills they may initially demand mere performance tips, but what they can come to value more is understanding processes of learning. This was investigated during workshops for lecturers at three Universities in Uganda at which participants were asked to write down what they hoped to gain from the workshops, and then on completion of the workshops they were asked to write what had interested them most and what actions they planned to take. The responses were coded in NVIVO and analysis reveals that expectations were met and also that many found the workshops gave them new views on learning. Alerted by this attempt to "mind the gap" (between expectations and outcomes), lecturers in other Higher Education disciplines may want to implement similar formative assessment of their teaching (and their students' learning) by coding pre-course statements on expectations as well as in-course or post-course evaluative responses.


Time division multiple access (TDMA) is a classic approach to multiple access in digital cellular wireless communications systems. The authors summarize a number of frequency and time slot allocation techniques for enhancing the capacity and flexibility of TDMA-based systems. They also describe how the problems of fading, delay spread, time variability and interference affect TDMA systems, and how they may he countered and even exploited by appropriate techniques of detection, diversity, coding, adaptive equalization and slow frequency hopping (FH). It is worth emphasizing that the use of one of these techniques, slow random FH, results in a system that is in effect a hybrid of TDMA and code division multiple access (CDMA). >


We present a mathematical model for pre-fusion interaction between an influenza virus and a healthy cell. Our model describes the role played by hemagglutinin (HA) protein clusters in bringing the viral membrane into close contact with the host cell membrane as a first step of the fusion process between the two membranes. The viral membrane is modelled as a lipid bilayer with bending rigidity. Using the calculus of variations, we compute the deformation of the viral membrane under the influence of HA protein clusters. Our numerical results support the hypothesis of dimple formation in the fusion site proposed in the literature. The asymmetric nature of the protein molecules due to various reasons such as tilting is the primary cause for the dimple formation. We discuss the effects of spontaneous curvature, the protein cluster radius, fusion-site size and the bending moment exerted by the protein cluster. We also examine the effects of membrane tension and the presence of a host cell on the dimple shape. Our results support previous experimental observations.


Wooden elements may be subjected to mechanical, environmental or biological alterations during their service life. The most susceptible parts of wood structural members are the exposed surfaces since they are subjected to ageing, weathering and/or decay. Knowledge of the influence of weathering factors and polymer degradation mechanisms is essential for understanding the weathering process of wood. The goal of this study was to investigate the degradation of thin wooden samples exposed to short-term weathering. Tests were performed through the European summer (July), which according to previous research is considered as the most severe period for weathering of wood micro-sections. Fourier transform near infrared spectroscopy was used for evaluation of chemical changes of wood samples. Three approaches for data evaluation are presented in this paper: (1) direct spectral interpretation, (2) a concept for calculation of a weathering index Wind and (3) kinetics of lignin changes in relation to the exposure direction for selected wavelengths. Observation of the effects of weathering will allow better understanding of the degradation process. The southern exposure site was slightly more affected by weathering than other sites. Results of this research will be used for future determination of the weather-dose response model and could be essential for predicting the future performance of timber facade elements.


SUMMARY: Five of eight strains of Saccharomyces bailii and one of 13 strains of S, bisporus were found to harbour DNA plasmids, pSB1 and pSB2 plasmids were isolated from S. bailii strains IFO 0488 and IFO 1047, respectively, and pSB3 and pSB4 from S. bisporus strain IFO 1730. All four plasmids resemble 2-μm DNA of S, cerevisiae in that (i) their molecular sizes are about 6 kb, (ii) each molecule possesses a pair of inverted repeats, (iii) they exist as a mixture of two isomers and (iv) their copy numbers in the native host are similar. None of them showed homology with 2-μm DNA or with each other by Southern hybridization under moderately stringent conditions, but pSB4 hybridized with the pSR1 DNA, which was found previously in a strain of S. rouxii. Each of the pSB plasmids has DNA sequence(s) effective for autonomous replication in S. cerevisiae. In S. cerevisiae, pSB3 and pSB4 showed intramolecular recombination but neither supported isomerization of 2-μm DNA.


Abstract The article presents an aerodynamic concept of UAV in the gyrodyne configuration, as a more efficient one than the currently used UAV airframe configuration applied for monitoring tasks of power lines and railway infrastructure. A sample task which is realised by conceptual gyrodyne based on monitoring aerial power lines was characterised and described. The assumed idea of UAV was shown in comparison to the currently used aircraft configuration presented in the introduction. Referring to momentum theory, hover efficiency of the multicopter and the helicopter was evaluated. In relation to the helicopter, an initial draft of the airframe conception accompanied by a description of advantages of the gyrodyne configuration was exposed. Problems related to the gyrodyne configuration were emphasised in the summary.


This study presents novel coplanar waveguide (CPW) power splitters comprising a CPW T-junction with outputs attached to phase-adjusting circuits, i.e., the composite right/left-handed (CRLH) CPW and the conventional CPW, to achieve a constant phase difference with arbitrary value over a wide bandwidth. To demonstrate the proposed technique, a 180/spl deg/ CRLH CPW power splitter with a phase error of less than 10/spl deg/ and a magnitude difference of below 1.5 dB within 2.4 to 5.22 GHz is experimentally demonstrated. Compared with the conventional 180/spl deg/ delay-line power splitter, the proposed structure possesses not only superior phase and magnitude performances but also a 37% size reduction. The equivalent circuit of the CRLH CPW, which represents the left-handed (LH), right-handed (RH), and lossy characteristics, is constructed and the results obtained are in good agreement with the full-wave simulation and measurement. Applications involving the wideband coplanar waveguide-to-coplanar stripline (CPW-to-CPS) transition and the tapered loop antenna are presented to stress the practicality of the 180/spl deg/ CRLH CPW power splitter. The 3-dB insertion loss bandwidth is measured as 98% for the case of a back-to-back CPW-to-CPS transition. The tapered loop antenna fed by the proposed transition achieves a measured 10-dB return loss bandwidth of 114%, and shows similar radiation patterns and 6-9 dBi antenna gain in its operating band.


It is shown that in a Karman vortex street flow, particle size influences the dilute particle dispersion. Together with an increase of the particle size, there is an emergence of a period-doubling bifurcation to a chaotic orbit, as well as a decrease of the corresponding basins of attraction. A crisis leads the attractor to escape from the central region of flow. In the motion of dilute particles, a drag term and gravity term dominate and result in a bifurcation phenomenon.


Creatine and its phosphorylated form play a central role in the energy metabolism of muscle and nerve tissues. l-Arginine:glycine amidinotransferase (AT) catalyses the committed step in the formation of creatine. The mitochondrial and cytosolic forms of the enzyme are believed to derive from the same gene by alternative splicing. We have expressed recombinant human AT in Escherichia coli with two different N-termini, resembling the longest two forms of the enzyme that we had isolated recently from porcine kidney mitochondria as a mixture. The enzymes were expressed with N-terminal histidine tags followed by factor Xa-cleavage sites. We established a new method for the removal of N-terminal fusion peptides by means of an immobilized snake venom prothrombin activator. We identified cysteine-407 as the active-site residue of AT by radioactive labelling and isolation of labelled peptides, and by site-directed mutagenesis of the protein.


This evaluation examined the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of protracted relief and recovery operation 10454.0 "Food Assistance for Relief and Recovery in Post-Conflict Liberia". The objective of the evaluation was twofold: i) to determine the degree to which project objectives had been achieved; and ii) to draw lessons from which to enhance performance in the next phase of the operation. The evaluation was carried out by a team of external consultants who conducted field research from 2 to 19 November 2008. The evaluation found that there was a clear need for food aid in Liberia and that school feeding, which accounted for approximately three quarters of project commodities, was an appropriate activity that channelled substantial quantities of food to remote rural areas under difficult operational conditions. However, the evaluation also found that the operation design was weak: it sought to achieve too much in a situation where capacity to implement programmes was extremely limited at all levels, and the main activities did little to address the main causes of food insecurity and vulnerability in the country. The operation design could have been more closely linked to the findings of the 2006 comprehensive food security and nutrition survey, and could have considered transition issues and exit strategies more fully. The operation became measurably more efficient during the period under review, owing to a series of management initiatives that resulted in better accountability at all levels and lower operational costs. However, although service delivery improved, monthly delivery targets were rarely met, and project outputs were generally below planned levels, owing to poor rural transport infrastructure and severe damage caused by rainy seasons. It was difficult to assess the operation's effectiveness, because an adequate monitoring and evaluation system was not in place, but the evaluation found that the impact was generally positive and significant. There was widespread agreement that the school feeding activity had been important in helping to: i) revitalize the education system in rural areas; and ii) encourage the return and resettlement of displaced people. Many participants in food for work had invested a portion of their wages in income-generation ventures, which had led to sustained increases in household income. WFP's capacity-building efforts had helped to bring food security and nutrition issues to the forefront of policy discussion in Liberia. Future interventions should seek to address the causes of food insecurity and vulnerability directly. Interventions should be more clearly focused, to bring them into line with prevailing implementation capacities, and should address issues of transition and the phase-out of activities. Protracted relief and recovery operation and school feeding guidance should identify more clearly the different types of transition and appropriate indicators to guide the timing of the transition process. Nutrition activities should be refocused to address chronic malnutrition through an expanded mother-and-child health programme.


Facial expression is a standout amongst the most imperative features of human emotion recognition. For demonstrating the emotional states facial expressions are utilized by the people. In any case, recognition of facial expressions has persisted a testing and intriguing issue with regards to PC vision. Recognizing the Micro-Facial expression in video sequence is the main objective of the proposed approach. For efficient recognition, the proposed method utilizes the optimal convolution neural network. Here the proposed method considering the input dataset is the CK+ dataset. At first, by means of Adaptive median filtering preprocessing is performed in the input image. From the preprocessed output, the extracted features are Geometric features, Histogram of Oriented Gradients features and Local binary pattern features. The novelty of the proposed method is, with the help of Modified Lion Optimization (MLO) algorithm, the optimal features are selected from the extracted features. In a shorter computational time it has the benefits of rapidly focalizing and effectively acknowledging with the aim of getting an overall arrangement or idea. Finally the recognition is done by Convolution Neural network (CNN). Then the performance of the proposed MFEOCNN method is analyzed in terms of false measures and recognition accuracy. This kind of emotion recognition is mainly used in medicine, marketing, E-learning, entertainment, law and monitoring. From the simulation, we know that the proposed approach achieves maximum recognition accuracy of 99.2% with minimum Mean Absolute Error (MAE) value. This results are compared with the existing for MicroFacial Expression Based Deep-Rooted Learning (MFEDRL), Convolutional Neural Network with Lion Optimization (CNN+LO) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) without optimization. The simulation of the proposed method is done in the working platform of MATLAB.


Despite gender similarities in math and science achievement, women continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers. Increasingly, researchers are looking to gender differences in STEM attitudes as the root of this disparity. Theoretical support for the importance of STEM attitudes comes from several theories within educational, social, and vocational psychology, including Eccles' expectancy-value theory, which maintains that education-related choices are shaped by attitudes—namely, expectations of success and task value as well as self-concept. Yet, the studies testing this model generally have not taken into account the intersection of gender and ethnicity. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by describing gender differences in math and science attitudes and achievement among 367 White, African American, Latino/Latina, and Asian American 10th grade students in neighborhood public high schools from a large northeastern city. Male and female adolescents earned similar end-of-year grades in math and science, whereas Asian American students outperformed students from the other ethnic groups in math and science. Self-report data from paper-and-pencil surveys indicate significant gender differences in that male adolescents reported greater math self-concept and expectations of success and female adolescents reported more science value; gender differences did not vary across ethnic groups. Attitudes were strong predictors of achievement, consistent with hypotheses. To our knowledge, ours is the first study to examine math and science attitudes and achievement at the intersection of gender and ethnicity across four major ethnic groups. We discuss implications for efforts aimed at improving the representation of women in STEM.


Forty-three new hybrid bracharia lines were evaluated for forage accumulation and nutritive value in Northeast Thailand from 2006 to 2011 in experiments at 2 sites, using Mulato II hybrid brachiaria as a standard for comparison. The parameters evaluated were wet and dry season dry matter (DM) accumulation, leaf:stem ratio, crude protein (CP) concentration and fiber level [acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF)]. No lines consistently displayed superior dry season forage accumulation and leaf:stem ratio over Mulato II. In the wet seasons, 14 lines produced more DM than Mulato II but in only one wet season each. Mulato II produced forage with high leaf:stem ratio in all seasons. Many lines did have significantly higher CP concentrations and lower levels of ADF and NDF than Mulato II, but their forage accumulation and leaf:stem ratio were inferior. Four lines (BR02/1718, BR02/1752, BR02/1794 and BR02/0465) were granted Plant Variety Rights in 2011. Keywords: Cayman, Cobra, crude protein, dry matter yields, forage regrowth,  Mulato II. DOI: 10.17138/TGFT(3)83-93


Aim of this work is to compare two different total knee prostheses that differ in the shape of the Polyethylene (PE) insert, trying to optimize the shape of the best one, in order to reduce the stress peaks. The study procedure has been divided into the following steps. First step has been the threedimensional shape acquisition of the two prostheses by means of a COMET5 3D scanner. The morphology of two prototypes of the prostheses has been acquired by elaborating multiple Moirè fringe pattern projected on their surfaces. Second step consisted of the manipulation of these data in a CAD module, that is the interpolation of raw data into parametric surfaces, reducing singularities due to the typical scattering of the acquiring system. Third step has been the setting up of FEM simulations to evaluate the prostheses behaviour under typical loading conditions. The CAD model of the prostheses has been meshed into solid finite elements. Different flexion angles configurations have been analysed, the load being applied along the femoral axis. FEM analyses have returned stress fields in the PE insert and, in particular, in the stabilizing cam which function is to avoid dislocation. Last step has been the integrated use of CAD-FEM to modify the shape of the stabilizing cam of the best prosthesis, in order to reduce the stress peaks in the original prosthesis without compromising the kinematics of the joint. Good results have been obtained both in terms of stress and contact pressure peaks reduction.


Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a hybrid imaging technology which combines the best of optical (contrast) and ultrasound (resolution) imaging. PA imaging uses intrinsic contrast agents in the body like blood (hemoglobin), melanin, etc. But the contrast from the intrinsic contrast agents might not be sufficient for different applications. So, external contrast agents are needed for improving the contrast of PA images. Organic dyes, inorganic dyes, and nanomaterials can be used as photoacoustic contrast agents. The major issue with using external contrast agent is that they often need FDA approval to be used for in-vivo studies. Availability of FDA approved contrast agents for PA imaging is very limited. In this work, we present the feasibility of using food and food-based dyes as photoacoustic contrast agents. We use commonly used foods like coffee, tea, chocolate and food colorants as contrast agents. We use alpinion's E-CUBE dual mode ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging system with mobile Nd:YAG laser pumped by OPO laser to demonstrate the efficiency of the contrast agents. The contrast agents were compared with methylene blue. Out of the many different agents we tested, coffee, chocolate and few other dyes proved as efficient photoacoustic contrast agents. We performed photoacoustic spectroscopy to identify at which wavelength the dye performed best. We also tested the contrast agents for imaging sentinel lymph nodes in rats and the results are very similar to methylene blue. This will enable the transition of photoacoustic imaging to the clinics more easily.


: Thermorheological behavior of Alaska pollock (AP) and Pacific whiting (PW) surimi was evaluated during gelation at different moisture contents (80% to 95%). The temperature sweep data (storage modulus, G′, compared with temperature) for both surimi clearly indicated G' minima. Unlike for the PW surimi, the minimum values of the AP surimi was moisture-content dependent and there was a linear relationship between logarithm of concentration and reciprocal absolute temperature at gelation. The activation energy (Ea) for aggregation after gelation temperature at each moisture content was calculated by a nonisothermal kinetic model for both AP and PW Surimi. The Ea values increased with moisture content of the system and ranged from 172.8 to 232.9 kJ/mol. Based on the assumption that melting temperature for a thermo-reversible gel may be considered equivalent to gelation temperature for thermo-irreversible gels, an Arrhenius-type model was used to estimate the enthalpy of cross-links formation for AP surimi to be 300.3 kJ/mol.


. The article present proposed diagnostic procedures of the EDC 1.2.9 system made it possible to carry out tests and compare the results with the results provided by the manufacturer. As part of the research prior to diagnostic tests, verification tests of Siemens and Bosch pumps were carried out. Experimental study, test procedures making it possible to check particular elements of the EDC system were developed. The developed research program included the fuel system and tests were conducted for: the air intake system, engine sensors, vehicle sensors, the exhaust fumes emission system, transmitters and system elements on the controller connection. The second system, which was subject to experimental testing, was the injection system Common Rail (CR), on which tests of three sets of injectors were conducted. The following values were recorded: engine rotational speed, driver injection dose, pre-injection time, fuel dose in the main injection, fuel dose correction, the adjustment of idle running for the first, second, third and fourth cylinder. The conducted diagnostic tests make possible to predict the state of particular EDC systems reliability.


The present study, using a Portuguese sample, is aimed at understanding how the media shapes the fear of crime experiences. Concretely, we explored how individuals interpret the content transmitted by the media and how these perceptions influence the fear of crime contextually situated. It was also our aim to explore if the area of residence (rural and urban), as well as certain sociodemographic characteristics (such as gender), were important in the way meanings are attributed to the media in experiences of insecurity. In total, 20 semi-structured interviews were undertaken (n = 12 women; 13 from rural areas and 7 from urban areas). Among the relevant results found in the present study, one of the conclusions we can highlight is that it is not possible to establish a clear relationship between media consumption and insecurity feelings. Indeed, media do not totally shape the fear of crime experiences, as a panoply of meanings has emerged, which makes their influence differential. Thus, aspects such as the sensationalism, the location of the reported crime, the realism of the news and the proximity to the event are examples of factors that emerged with great relevance in this investigation. In short, this study allowed the authors to reach a depth and diversity of meanings of insecurity, through several approaches that were the basis for their understanding and confirms the relevance of studying this theme from experiences and discourses using qualitative research.


The authors investigate the employment consequences of minimum wage regulation for women in 16 OECD countries during 1970 to 2008. The treatment follows that of Neumark and Wascher's (2004) cross-country study using panel methods to estimate minimum wage effects among teenagers and young adults, although they focus on prime-age females—a group often neglected in the minimum wage literature. Moreover, their analysis covers a longer time interval and deploys time-varying policy and institutional regressors. They report average effects consistent with minimum wages causing material employment losses among the target group and, less conclusively, elevated joblessness as well. Their cross-country findings agree with Neumark and Wascher on the role of some individual labor market institutions and policies, but the authors do not observe the same patterns in the institutional data: specifically, prime-age females do not exhibit stronger employment losses in countries with the least regulated markets.


Globalisation is one of the defining phenomena of today's economy, albeit one that is loosely defined and prone to exaggeration. For many, globalisation is an opportunity, affording scope on the supply side for increased specialisation, enhanced diffusion of technology, and a competitive spur to innovation and productivity growth. Yet for others, globalisation is perceived to be a threat to the values, institutions and policies that have underpinned post-war Europe's success and way of life, in short to social Europe. This study examines the social impact of globalisation for the EU economies and the policy challenges that arise. It starts by looking at the conceptual background, then provides an extensive empirical analysis of the different facets of globalisation and its social dimension, and moves on to discuss policy issues. The study's key message is that the EU as a whole will gain from globalisation, but that these gains will not be uniformly distributed across individuals, regions and countries. Nor will they accrue automatically, but will instead depend on successful adaptation and well-judged policy responses. In particular, the EU has to balance its efforts to boost competitiveness and to transform its economy by adopting and implementing policies that smooth the adjustment process and offer sufficient protection to those vulnerable to the changes and uncertainties that globalisation will bring.


The reaction of LiN(SiMe(3))(2) with 1 equiv of HOCH(2)CMe(3) (HONep) in toluene led to the formation of [Li(mu3-ONep)](8) (1). The complex adopts a novel dual-edge fused hexagon-square prismatic structure with a C(2v) axis of rotation that relates the top and bottom eight-membered rings. Substituting the noncoordinating solvent toluene for a Lewis basic solvent (THF or py) led to the isolation of compounds of the general formula [Li(mu3)-ONep)](4)(solv)(3), where solv = THF (2) or py (3). The cube structures of 2 and 3 have one Li which is not solvated because of steric crowding of the ONep ligands. Multinuclear solid-state ((6)Li, (7)Li, and (13)C) MAS and solution-state ((1)H, (7)Li, and (13)C) NMR studies were undertaken to verify the identity of the bulk powder and to determine the solution behavior of these compounds.


Quantitative studies have, for the first time, been carried out on the single lung in a case of unilateral pulmonary aplasia, in which the other lung was represented by a rudimentary bronchial stump. The patient died at the age of 3 months. The lung was enlarged to almost twice the normal volume, filling the intrathoracic cavity. The bronchial generations were reduced in number. Pulmonary artery branches were also too few, the supernumerary being more reduced than the conventional; muscle had extended abnormally far into peripheral arteries. The alveolar number was twice the normal for one lung, that is, it represented the normal total for age; alveolar size was rather less than normal. The hypoplasia of airways and blood vessels represents an early intrauterine disturbance in lung growth, caused perhaps by the same factor that inhibited the development of the second lung; the increased alveolar multiplication probably reflects increase in available space during fetal life.


BACKGROUND: The sentinel lymph node biopsy is the gold-standard technique for axillary staging in patients with early breast cancer, and its identification can avoid an unnecessary axillary lymph node dissection. The incidence of breast cancer is increasing each year; concomitantly, cosmetic transaxillary breast augmentation is gaining much more followers. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a literature review in order to evaluate if transaxillary breast augmentation can modify the lymphatic drainage and impair the identification of sentinel lymph node. METHODS: Review of the literature. CONCLUSION: The majority of the studies tend to exclude the hypothesis that the transaxillary breast augmentation could affect the identification of sentinel lymph node in the future.


Approximately 40% of patients seen in major headache clinic suffer from chronic daily headache. Of a series of 630 patients with chronic daily headache, 489 were diagnosed with transformed migraine, 84 with chronic tension-type headache, and 57 with new daily persistent headache. Of these patients, 73% overused symptomatic medication, particularly analgesics and ergotamine, and as a result, suffered from drug-induced headache or rebound headache


Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET) is an autonomous system of mobile hosts connected by wireless links. The nodes in these networks have several constraints such: limited bandwidth, transmission range and mobility. Another parameter that significantly affects the network performance is the limited battery power of the nodes. This paper proposes a novel routing protocol that considers two parameters: Hop count and Total Transmission loss. On the basis of these two route metrics an optimal path is proposed. The proposed protocol is implemented in MATLAB 2013a and our result also shows that our proposed protocol is better than other standard protocols such as MTPR (Minimum Total Transmission Power Routing) and AODV (Ad-hoc On demand Distance Vector routing).


The synthesis of two anthraquinone phosphoramidites is described. In both cases the anthraquinone moiety is attached via a linker to the 5-position of a uracil base, allowing incorporation at any thymidine position in an oligonucleotide sequence. Anthraquinone-modified oligonucleotides have potential applications as triplex stabilizers and fluorescence quenchers.


Federated learning (FL) can collaboratively train deep learning models using isolated patient data owned by different hospitals for various clinical applications, including medical image segmentation. However, a major problem of FL is its performance degradation when dealing with data that are not independently and identically distributed (non-iid), which is often the case in medical images. In this paper, we first conduct a theoretical analysis on the FL algorithm to reveal the problem of model aggregation during training on non-iid data. With the insights gained through the analysis, we propose a simple yet effective method, federated cross learning (FedCross), to tackle this challenging problem. Unlike the conventional FL methods that combine multiple individually trained local models on a server node, our FedCross sequentially trains the global model across different clients in a round-robin manner, and thus the entire training procedure does not involve any model aggregation steps. To further improve its performance to be comparable with the centralized learning method, we combine the FedCross with an ensemble learning mechanism to compose a federated cross ensemble learning (FedCrossEns) method. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments using a set of public datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed FedCross training strategy outperforms the mainstream FL methods on non-iid data. In addition to improving the segmentation performance, our FedCrossEns can further provide a quantitative estimation of the model uncertainty, demonstrating the effectiveness and clinical significance of our designs. Source code is publicly available at https://github.com/DIAL-RPI/FedCross.


Equine herpesvirus types 1 and 4 (EHV-1 and EHV-4) labelled with [14C]glucosamine were purified from infected cell culture medium and profiles of their structural proteins were obtained that enabled identification of the major glycoproteins. Nine glycosylated polypeptides were identified for each virus. Preparations of the purified viruses each contained a glycoprotein which was linked by disulphide bonds, as determined by diagonal gel electrophoresis under reducing/non-reducing conditions. High Mr forms of this glycoprotein were detected for EHV-1 when the sample was not heated. The EHV-1 protein consisted of three polypeptides of Mr 108K, 76K and 58K and the EHV-4 protein consisted of three polypeptides of Mr 112K, 74K and 61K. Western blotting and immunoprecipitation with monoclonal antibodies confirmed that the EHV-1 gB homologue migrates with an apparent Mr of 108K (140K under non-reducing conditions) but is cleaved to give glycoproteins of 76K and 58K which are held together by disulphide bonds. The EHV-4 gB homologue consists of a 112K glycoprotein which is cleaved to give glycoproteins of 74K and 61K which are also linked by disulphide bonds.


: Five patients with chromomycosis have been treated by liquid nitrogen application. The evolution of disease has been of one to twenty five years, with 4 patients with verrucous patches and one patient with sarcoid-like lesion. In all cultures grows-up Fonseca pedrosi. The authors believe that this method of treatment has advantage to be more economic, to avoid hospitalization and surgical acts with anesthesia, and also could be realized at ambulatory level. The efficacy of this method has been proved by the follow-up the patients during a period between two to four years, without any recurrency.


In this study, the authors propose a novel algorithm for removing complex shadows from textured surfaces within a single image. Previous shadow removal methods have attempted to solve this problem under a range of criteria, such as the type and number of light sources and shadow structure. Some methods require that the shadow umbra and penumbra be well defined. They have been shown to work best when the umbra is relatively large and when the penumbra is of a limited size and shape. However, these methods can fail if the shadow shape or form diverges from the norm. Many methods also require user intervention to locate whole or parts of the shadow. The authors propose a flexible shadow removal model which is capable of functioning without these limiting assumptions, or the need for user intervention. It is also capable of dealing with shadows cast on a wide range of textured surfaces. It uses a directional differential filter along with directional smoothing to find the shadow and a thin plate reconstruction model to remove shadows from an image surface. Results have shown that the proposed algorithm generates high-quality shadow-free images over a range of scenarios, such as multiple light sources, occlusions and textures.


To the Editor.— The 34th most common prescription drug in the United States in 1983 was timolol maleate eyedrops (Timoptic). Although unusual and less known systemic side effects are often not recognized as being associated with a patient's eyedrops, the National Registry of Drug-Induced Ocular Side Effects, at Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, has received over 1,700 case reports of adverse reactions secondary to topical ophthalmic timolol, and 63% of these reports concern systemic effects. Systemic β-blockade has been demonstrated secondary to both systemic and topical ophthalmic administration of β-adrenergic blockers. Sexual dysfunction has been reported in patients using oral β-blockers for angina pectoris or hypertension. 1-3 In addition, the registry has compiled 28 complaints of various sexual dysfunctions noted in 25 patients following usual doses of topical ocular timolol. Impotence was reported by 18 patients, decreased libido in nine patients, and decreased ejaculate volume in one patient. Five of


Following on the success of The Bike Book, E-Bike Revolution takes us inside all aspects of this growing phenomenon - from smart technology and advanced design to the top visual trends. With power, distance and speed, these handy vehicles will soon change urban mobility forever. As well as sports and urban models, e-bikes now come in folding options for convenience, and luxury versions for stylish comfort. Manufacturers offer riders so many great choices these days; suitable for difficult hilly terrain, longer distances, blustery winds and - of course, far less expensive and polluting than even the smallest car.


Folic acid (pteroylglutamic acid, FA), known as a water soluble vitamin of B complex family,
plays an important role in the human body. However, excess intake of FA would mask the vitamin B12 deficiency
symptoms which may lead to other health risks. Therefore, it is very important to develop a method for the sensitive and
selective determination of FA in natural sources, fortified foods and multivitamin preparations.

An electrochemical sensor was fabricated for the analysis of FA, which was based on electropolymerized
molecularly imprinted poly (o-aminophenol) film and reduced graphene oxide decorated with Au nanoparticles
composites (rGO-AuNPs). Transmission electron microscope, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy and differential pulse voltammetry were utilized for the characterization of the imprinted polymer film.

Under the optimized experimental conditions, the proposed sensor exhibited two distinct linear responses ranging
from 0.02 to 0.8 μmol L-1 and 0.8 to 10 μmol L-1 towards the concentrations of FA, and the detection limit was found to
be 2.8 nmol L-1 (S/N=3). The molecularly imprinted film proposed was also found to exhibit comparatively high
selectivity toward folic acid against structurally similar analogues, and the preparation of the sensor was simple and
reproducible.

 In this work, a molecularly imprinted film fabricated on a rGO-AuNPs modified electrode was developed
for the sensitive and selective determination of FA. Furthermore, the method was applied to the detection of FA in infant
formula milk, multivitamin tablets and blood serum sample with satisfactory results.


In this paper we propose an adaptive square-shaped trajectory (ASST)-based service location method to ensure load scalability in wireless sensor networks. This first establishes a square-shaped trajectory over the nodes that surround a target point computed by the hash function and any user can access it, using the hash. Both the width and the size of the trajectory are dynamically adjustable, depending on the number of queries made to the service information on the trajectory. The number of sensor nodes on the trajectory varies in proportion to the changing trajectory shape, allowing high loads to be distributed around the hot spot area.


ABSTRACT This study investigated the use of Facebook as a medium for, and process of, teachers' informal professional learning regarding mathematical and pedagogical knowledge. Facebook responses to four inter-related posts about mathematics examples from Facebook users (N = 117) were captured and systematically analysed using content analysis. The data were examined through the lens of the five characteristics of the Effective Professional Development framework. The results identified different types of responses to the four Facebook posts including the opening of learning opportunities, rich mathematical and pedagogical discussions, respondents' appreciations and direct impacts of the posts, as well as the acknowledgement of the misalignment between the proposed ideas and current teaching practices in Indonesia. These responses provided evidence that all five characteristics of the framework were apparent and highlighted the role of Facebook in supporting teacher informal professional learning within the Indonesian context. The limitations of such social networking-based research and implications for teacher professional development are provided.


With the growing environmental crisis affecting our globe, ideas to weigh economic or social progress by the 'energy input' necessary to achieve it are increasingly gaining acceptance. This question is intriguing and is being dealt with by a growing number of studies, focusing on the environmental price of human progress. Even more intriguing, however, is the question of which factors of social organization contribute to a responsible use of the resources of our planet to achieve a given social result ('smart development'). In this essay, we present the first systematic study on how migration — or rather, more concretely, received worker remittances per GDP — helps the nations of our globe to enjoy social and economic progress at a relatively small environmental price. We look at the effects of migration on the balance sheets of societal accounting, based on the 'ecological price' of the combined performance of democracy, economic growth, gender equality, human development, research and development, and social cohesion. Feminism in power, economic freedom, population density, the UNDP education index as well as the receipt of worker remittances all significantly contribute towards a 'smart overall development', while high military expenditures and a high world economic openness are a bottleneck for 'smart overall development'.


The development of the Internet grows very fast. With an increase in information technology is a very significant time for an alternative to the public in accessing information. Various things uploaded and accessed via the Internet anytime, anywhere. Therefore, the author wrote a thesis entitled "Build a Website Encyclopedia of "Alam Gaib" Within Islamic Aqeedah Using PHP and MySQL". The author was inspired to write this title because many Internet service users who are looking for information about the "alam gaib" although not all users understand their meaning. This website will explain about what is contained in the "alam gaib", along with arguments from the Quran or Al-Hadith. Presentation of information is based on the Islamic Aqeedah for a novice user does not fall into the wrong meaning or sense of the wrong "alam gaib" meaning which circulating in the community. The website will be built using PHP scripts and MySQL as the database. Based on the above issues the authors hope that the website will be built to provide convenience and advantage for users who are looking for information on the Internet about the "alam gaib"..


Killer yeasts are microorganisms, which can produce and secrete proteinaceous toxins, a characteristic gained via infection by a virus. These toxins are able to kill sensitive cells of the same or a related species. From a biotechnological perspective, killer yeasts have been considered as beneficial due to their antifungal/antimicrobial activity, but also regarded as problematic for large-scale fermentation processes, whereby those yeasts would kill species off starter cultures and lead to stuck fermentations. Here, we propose a mechanistic model of the toxin-binding kinetics pertaining to the killer population coupled with the toxin-induced death kinetics of the sensitive population to study toxic action in silico. Our deterministic model explains how killer Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells distress and consequently kill the sensitive members of the species, accounting for the K1, K2 and K28 toxin mode of action at high or low concentrations. The dynamic model captured the transient toxic activity starting from the introduction of killer cells into the culture at the time of inoculation through to induced cell death, and allowed us to gain novel insight on these mechanisms. The kinetics of K1/K2 activity via its primary pathway of toxicity was 5.5 times faster than its activity at low concentration inducing the apoptotic pathway in sensitive cells. Conversely, we showed that the primary pathway for K28 was approximately 3 times slower than its equivalent apoptotic pathway, indicating the particular relevance of K28 in biotechnological applications where the toxin concentration is rarely above those limits to trigger the primary pathway of killer activity.


The formation and annealing of radiation-induced defects in MOS structures exposed to 710 MeV Bi ions and 305 MeV Kr ions radiation with a fluency of 10^9 and 10^10cm^2 have been studied by capacitance methods. Electrical activity of the defects has braought increase of interface trap density Dit and a sharp decrease in the generation parameters tr and τg. The parameters of nine deep levels were detected in the investigation MOS structures. Eight of these levels were radiation defects.


The pentagram map that associates to a projective polygon a new one formed by intersections of short diagonals was introduced by R. Schwartz and was shown to be integrable by V. Ovsienko, R. Schwartz and S. Tabachnikov. Recently, M. Glick demonstrated that the pentagram map can be put into the framework of the theory of cluster algebras.
In this paper, we extend and generalize Glick's work by including the pentagram map into a family of discrete completely integrable systems. Our main tool is Poisson geometry of weighted directed networks on surfaces developed by M. Gekhtman, M. Shapiro, and A. Vainshtein. The ingredients necessary for complete integrability -- invariant Poisson brackets, integrals of motion in involution, Lax representation -- are recovered from combinatorics of the networks. Our integrable systems depend on one discrete parameter $k>1$. The case $k=3$ corresponds to the pentagram map. For $k>3$, we give our integrable systems a geometric interpretation as pentagram-like maps involving deeper diagonals. If $k=2$ and the ground field is $\C$, we give a geometric interpretation in terms of circle patterns.


We consider the problem of determining the structure of high-dimensional data, without prior knowledge of the number of clusters. Data are represented by a finite mixture model based on the generalized Dirichlet distribution. The generalized Dirichlet distribution has a more general covariance structure than the Dirichlet distribution and offers high flexibility and ease of use for the approximation of both symmetric and asymmetric distributions. In addition, the mathematical properties of this distribution allow highdimensional modeling without requiring dimensionality reduction and thus without a loss of information. The number of clusters is determined using the Minimum Message length (MML) principle. Parameters estimation is done by a hybrid stochastic expectation-maximization (HSEM) algorithm. The model is compared with results obtained by other selection criteria (AIC, MDL and MMDL). The performance of our method is tested by real data clustering and by applying it to an image object recognition problem.


Extracted from text ... Text Sonya OlivierAfricon
Managing a precious resource
WATER
WATER AND SANITATION are among the most critical challenges facing the African continent today. Whether it is due to water scarcity, lack of infrastructure, organisational constraints or community-based issues, there are severe backlogs in the provision of these basic services.
Africon's expertise in the arena of water and sanitation dates back 50 year and covers the technical, social and institutional aspects of water and sanitation. The company's multidisciplinary range of services in this regard is comprehensive, and includes surface and groundwater management, infrastructure provision, and expertise in the area of ..