Recent clinical trials have shown that vitamin C, at pharmacological concentrations (milligram to approximately gram), upon infusion into circulation, modulates vasodilation and vascular tone in humans. This also results in the elevated concentrations of vitamin C in circulation in the millimolar range. Here, it was hypothesized that vitamin C at pharmacological concentrations (millimolar) would induce oxidative stress and cause loss of redox-dependent cell viability in vascular endothelial cells (ECs). To test the hypothesis, bovine lung microvascular ECs (BLMVECs) in monolayer cultures were exposed to vitamin C (0-10 mM) for different time periods (0-2 h). Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed the intracellular formation of ascorbate free radical in a dose- and time-dependent fashion. Vitamin C also induced formation of intracellular reactive oxygen species in a dose-dependent fashion. It was observed that vitamin C induced morphological alterations and loss of cell viability in a dose- and time-dependent fashion, as measured by light microscopy and Alamar Blue redox cell viability assay, respectively. Vitamin C analogues failed to induce such changes. Vitamin C depleted cellular GSH levels in a dose-dependent fashion, suggesting that vitamin C altered thiol-redox status in BLMVECs. Antioxidants, intracellular iron chelator, and catalase protected cells against vitamin C-induced loss of redox-dependent cell viability, confirming the role of hydrogen peroxide and iron during redox cycling of vitamin C. These results, for the first time in detail, established that vitamin C at pharmacological doses induced oxidative stress and loss of redox-dependent cell viability in microvascular ECs.


Recent studies suggest that head and neck squamous cell carcinomas are very heterogeneous between patients; however the subclonal structure remains unexplored mainly due to studies using only a single biopsy per patient. To deconvolute the clonal structure and describe the genomic cancer evolution, we applied whole-exome sequencing combined with ultra-deep targeted sequencing on oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). From each patient, a set of biopsies was sampled from distinct geographical sites in primary tumor and lymph node metastasis. We demonstrate that the included OSCCs show a high degree of inter-patient heterogeneity but a low degree of intra-tumor heterogeneity. However, some OSCC cancers contain complex subclonal architectures comprising distinct subclones only found in geographically distinct regions of the primary tumors. In several cases we find mutations in the primary tumor that are not present in the lymph node metastasis. We conclude that metastatic potential in our population is acquired early in tumor evolution as evident by the ongoing parallel evolution in several primary tumors.


In Mediterranean ecosystems, abiotic factors are known to affect vertebrate population dynamics, but little is known about how these factors affect population dynamics of parasites. We conducted a 9-year investigation of the roles of temperature, precipitation, and vector abundance as determinants of transmission of the non-native canine heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis), a dangerous parasite of pets, among coyotes (Canis latrans), an important reservoir, in north-coastal California. Dates of heartworm transmission and total annual transmission were determined, respectively, from lengths and numbers of heartworms found in known-age coyotes. Vector host-seeking activity was assessed through weekly mosquito trapping. Within years, heartworm transmission occurred only when cumulative temperatures were sufficient to allow larval heartworms to develop to the infective stage (as predicted by an existing degree-day model), and when suitable vectors were available. Most (95%) heartworms infected their hosts between 1 July and 14 September. The onset of transmission periods always occurred after the peak in vector host-seeking activity and varied annually. Transmission periods ended before temperatures became limiting due to absence of vectors. The timing of host-seeking activity of the primary vector species, Ochlerotatus sierrensis, also was correlated with the onset of warming temperatures such that parasite and vector phenology were synchronized. For this reason (partly), the variation in timing of seasonal warming had no detectable effect on total annual transmission. Abundance of host-seeking Oc. sierrensis was positively correlated with annual precipitation, and annual heartworm transmission was positively correlated with abundance of host-seeking Oc. sierrensis. Annual transmission also was positively correlated with abundance of a less numerous vector species, Anopheles punctipennis, and was directly correlated with precipitation. This study demonstrates that multiannual variability in temperature, which affects seasonality of transmission, has little effect on annual transmission, but that precipitation is a driving force determining annual transmission. These findings imply that in California, and possibly other Mediterranean climate zones, it is especially important to preventively treat pets in summers following high-rainfall winters.


The chronic water shortage in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region is a perplexing issue, undoubtedly because various operational sectors, multi-institutions and stakeholders are inextricably interconnected. In the light of climate variability and the unprecedented population growth rate, the per capita water resources and biocapacity will continue plummeting, and the demand-gap will seriously expand. Existing water quantification agreements have been deemed inefficient to solve the problem of naturally diminishing water resources and thus require immediate re-assembling. Most scholarly endeavors, including key international organizations, NGOs, and "Think Tank" policy briefs have limitedly addressed water shortage in contexts of regional politics, mass media, and, importantly, from social psychology perspectives. Therefore, a thorough analysis and interdisciplinary approach is required to find a feasible and suitable framework of solutions and from a multi-perspective podium. A synthesis of cross-sectorial bottlenecks that are crucial to water management is presented, and a suite of practical recommendations are introduced to water authorities and governments. This study argues that in the shadow of the region's political instability, the clash of ideologies and its repercussions, and issues of national security and sovereignty, regional cooperation on water issues remain prognostications. In this essence, governments of MENA countries are urged to develop measures to substantially increase the water supply through innovative approaches. Such measures include enhancing the capacities of water harvesting, maximizing the storage capacities of the built dams, and deploying groundwater recharge techniques. Furthermore, seawater and brackish water desalination through clean energy technologies is a contemporary solution with socio-economic and multiple benefits. Multi-billion water projects might not be suitable approach in the absence of external funding and the aforementioned hurdles. Further research is required to address the social economics, and environmental aspects of desalination and the socio-economic feasibility of privatizing drinking water utilities and price polarization.


New self-healing material for concrete repair has been fabricated through microencapsulation of silica sol via interfacial polymerization of poly(urea-urethane). Smooth, uniform, and spherical capsules of 60–120 µm sizes were synthesized and optimized by studying the emulsification and polymerization steps of its synthesis. A hydrophile–lyophile balance (HLB) value of 3.0–5.0 and a rotational speed of 500 rpm were necessary to produce a stable emulsion system of silica sol in surfactants. The polymerization speed of 900 rpm and the methylene diisocyanate (MDI) monomer content of 15 wt % were both significant in getting the right size and smoothness of the microcapsules. With this method and cheap healing agents, industrial scale-up is highly possible. The viscoelastic properties of the microcapsules were examined, and further characterizations were carried out through scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. After healing the microcracks in concrete, the results showed that the significant increase of compressive and bending strengths manifested the self-healing ability of the microcapsules in concrete. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43090.


We propose a space-time coding strategy based on the use of families of matrices orthogonal in the trace of their product. The advantages of the proposed method are: i) possibility for symbol-by-symbol detection; ii) full diversity gain with respect to the noise; iii) full transmission rate, provided that the number of receive antennas is sufficiently higher than the number of transmit antennas; iv) direct extension to multiuser systems. The price paid for these advantages is the presence of ISI or multiuser interference (MUI). The method offers great flexibility in designing codes that provide the desired trade-off between BER, transmission rate and receiver complexity. We provide a theoretical analysis, supported by simulation results, showing how to balance transmission rate with BER, in the presence of (controllable) ISI. Finally, we generalize the method to the multiuser case.


Brain and spinal cord tuberculosis are one of the commonest neurological infection in developing countries. Its associated with high morbidity and mortality. Diagnosis is based on clinical features, cerebrospinal fluid and brain imaging. Combination of antituberculous drugs should be started as early as possible to prevent the complications. The patient's clinical stage at presentation is the most important prognostic factor. Surgical procedures are directed at management of the hydrocephalus. Focal lesions, intracranial tuberculomas, and tuberculous abscesses, are usually located in cerebral or cerebellar hemispheres, uncommonly in brainstem and very rarely in spinal cord. They do not usually require surgical intervention and respond well to antituberculous treatment, along with corticosteroids. All these fsctors pertaining to tuberculosis of brain and spine will be adressed in this review article. R E V I E W A R T I C L E


Fish mariculture from the genus Seriola spp. can present high mortalities due to parasites. In Mexico, the mortality yellowtail Seriola dorsalis caused by parasites is low, and there are no reports of massive mortality events. However, as the aquaculture activity of yellowtail intensifies, parasites will be increasingly conspicuous. Therefore, the present study is an aim to know S. dorsalis 's susceptibility to a monogenean infection mixed under RAS experimental conditions and their intensity and spatial distribution on the skin and gills. In this study, a parasitic mix induction was performed using two monogenean species such as Zeuxapta seriolae and Benedenia seriolae besides the Amyloodinium ocellatum , a dinoflagellate that was naturally presented. At the end of the experiment after 45 days, B. seriolae prevalence was 100% with a mean intensity of 122 parasites and showed a preference for the head and body of the fish. Zeuxapta seriolae prevalence was 100% with a mean intensity of 40 parasites preferentially found in the second branchial arch. In the case of A. ocellatum prevalence was of 100% with a mean intensity greater than 200 trophozoites per fish. The fish mortality reached 90% at the end of the experiment. During the infection, the fish weight decreased a 14% at the end of the experiment. Therefore, it will be necessary to carry out prophylactic and control strategies, to reduce the impact of these parasites under culture conditions.


This thesis investigates the legal compatibility of the establishment of an EU Terrorist Finance Tracking System with EU primary law.

Currently, financial intelligence capacities for counter-terrorism purposes are outsourced to the United States which run a Terrorist Finance Tracking Program in order to detect 'terrorist monies' in international bank transfers. Known as the SWIFT II Agreement, this cooperation has been praised as a valuable tool for the EU's security and condemned for its fundamental rights intrusiveness. The thesis identifies the deficiencies of the United States' practice as opposed to the black letter words of the Agreement. Analysing the latest EU case law on the rights to privacy and data protection, SWIFT II is scrutinised against the criteria set out by the Court of Justice of the European Union. It is argued that the transatlantic cooperation fails to meet the high standards stipulated by the Court in various ways.

From the entry into force of the Agreement, the set-up of a European system was considered as a desirable alternative in order to restore fundamental rights compliance. Whilst the idea was dismissed in 2013 due to its cost-intensity and impact on EU fundamental rights, it has been reanimated in light of the numerous terrorist atrocities on European soil during the last three years. However, the EU Commission is now heading for a complementary scheme to SWIFT II. It is submitted that a European equivalent to the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program can be modelled in conformity with the Court's understanding of individual privacy and data protection. However, assuming that Europol was to be tasked with its operation, the thesis supports a restrictive interpretation of EU competence in matters of police cooperation and doubts that the EU could rely on the ordinary legislative procedure to do so.

Nevertheless, it is concluded that SWIFT II is practically immune to EU legal scrutiny and will perpetuate violating the rights enshrined in primary law unless renegotiated with regard to the criteria established in EU case law.


Micro-arc oxidation (MAO) is an effective approach to improve the properties of aluminium and its alloys by forming ceramic coatings on the surface. However, the oxide layers often have a porous surface structure, which limits their mechanical properties. In this work, in order to enhance the properties of the layers produced by micro-arc oxidation, AI2O3 coatings embedded with SiO2 nanoparticles were produced on 7A52 aluminium alloy by adding SiO2 nanoparticles into the electrolyte. With the addition of SiO2 nanoparticles in the electrolyte, the formation rate of AI2O3 coating enhanced considerably and the current density through sample surface became much higher than without SiO2 at the same voltage. Coatings were investigated with X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Vickers hardness test, and reciprocating friction and wear test. The XRF results showed that SiO2 nanoparticles were successfully embedded in the AI2O3 coatings. Compared with the AI2O3 coatings without SiO2 nanoparticles, the MAO AI2O3 coatings with SiO2 nanoparticles are much denser and harder, and the wear resistance is also improved significantly. The improvement can be attributed to the enhancement of the surface structure and morphology of the MAO AI2O3 coatings embedded with SiO2 nanoparticles.


Purpose: There are many techniques of harvesting vascularized skin flaps from penile skin for hypospadias repairs. Here, we review our experience with the use of longitudinal dorsal island flap (LDIF) for mid- and proximal hypospadias repairs and to assess the results and complications of onlay and tubularized repairs. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of all children with hypospadias operated by a single surgeon using the LDIF technique. The severity of hypospadias, technique, complications, and follow-up were assessed. Results: Over a 9.4-year period, 102 children (mean age 4.2 years, range 6 months to 11 years) were operated for primary hypospadias using the LDIF technique. All children had poorly formed urethral plates and hence were considered unsuitable for tubularized incised plate repair. The hypospadias was classified as midpenile, proximal penile/penoscrotal or perineal in 29, 64, and 9 children respectively. Onlay LDIF repair was done in 85 children, while in 17 children, tubularized LDIF repair was performed. At a mean follow-up of 1.8 years, complications occurred in 12 (12%) children. Complications were more common after tubularized repairs than onlay repairs (24% vs. 9.5%). All glans dehiscences occurred after onlay repairs, while meatal stenosis and diverticulum occurred after tubularized repairs. No child had urethral stenosis after onlay repair, and uroflow studies in 16 children demonstrated normal curves and flow rates. Conclusions: We report the use of LDIF for single-stage mid and proximal hypospadias repair with good success and an acceptable complication rate. Onlay repairs had fewer complications than tubularized repairs. Our results indicate that the specific advantages and versatility of LDIF make it a good option to consider in cases of hypospadias with poorly developed urethral plates where onlay or substitution urethroplasty is indicated.


The Raman spectra of nacre and cultured pearl from main pearl-culturing mollusks in China have been studied systematically in this paper. It shows that: 1) the Raman bands caused by organic matrix have not been observed in nacre from shell of pinctada maxima; 2) in nacre from shell of pinctada martensii and hyriopsis cumingii, besides the bands caused by aragonite mineral, two bands resulted from all-trans carotenoid are obviously observed, and the number of C=C double bonds in molecular of this carotenoid is predicted to be 10 based on the position of its Raman bands; 3) a number of complicated bands are observed in nacre from shell of peteria penguin, and we predicted that this bands perhaps are caused by metalloporphyrin compounds; 4) the relative concentrations of carotenoid and metalloporphyrin in nacre are closely associated with the color of nacre. The Raman spectra research on organic matrix in nacre and cultured pearl provides insight into the applications of them in cosmetics and food, as well as in application of pearl bleaching.


Bones are connective tissues mainly made of collagen proteins with calcium phosphate deposits. They undergo constant remodeling, including destroying existing bones tissues (known as bone resorption) and rebuilding new ones. Bone remodeling has been well-described in mammals, but it is not the case in fish. Here, we focused on the mobile phase of the bone vascular system by carefully preserving moisture in adult Atlantic herring intermuscular bones. We detected pore water with high ionic strength and soluble degraded peptides whose 1H-transverse relaxation times, T2s, exceed 15 milliseconds. With favorable T2s, we incorporated a solution state spinlock scheme into the INEPT techniques to unequivocally demonstrate collagen degradation. In addition, we detected a substantial amount of inorganic phosphate in solution with 31P-NMR in the considerable background of solid hydroxyapatite calcium phosphate by saturation recovery experiment. It is consistent with the idea that bone resorption degrades bone collagen and releases calcium ions and phosphate ions in the pore water with increased ionic strength. Our report is the first to probe the resorption process in the heterogenous bone microstructure with a rigorous characterization of 1H and 13C relaxation behavior and direct assignments. In addition, we contribute to the fish bones literature by investigating fish bone remodeling using NMR for the first time.


The aim of this research is to study the social interaction of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Eleven groups of Finnish children with ASD (N= 45) were observed in organized and unstructured learning situations. The purpose of this article was to identify how children with ASD interact with other children. Based on the results, children with ASD as interaction partners are described. In addition, this article sought to highlight the communication assets of the learners with ASD thus contributing to the discussion of the positive aspects of ASD. The qualitative study revealed that the children with ASD were able to establish interaction and simple play routines with other children.


Objective The aim of this study was to determine the validity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) diagnoses in patients participating in Finnish biobanks. Method We reviewed the electronic medical records of 500 Finnish biobank participants: 125 patients with at least one visit with a diagnosis of seropositive RA, 125 patients with at least one visit with a diagnosis of seronegative RA, and 250 age- and gender-matched controls. The patients were chosen from five different biobank hospitals in Finland. A rheumatologist reviewed the medical records to assess whether each patients' diagnosis was correct. The diagnosis was compared with the diagnostic codes in the Finnish Care Register for Health Care (CRHC) and special reimbursement data of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Results The positive predictive value (PPV) of CRHC diagnosis of RA (for seropositive and seronegative RA combined) was 0.82. For patients with a special reimbursement for anti-rheumatic medications for RA, the PPV was 0.89. The PPV was higher in patients with more than one visit. For one, two, five, and 10 visits, the PPV was 0.82, 0.85, 0.89, and 0.90, respectively, and for patients who also had the special reimbursement, the PPV was 0.89, 0.91, 0.93, and 0.94 for one, two, five, and 10 visits, respectively. In patients positive for anti-citrullinated protein antibodies, the PPV was 0.98. Conclusion These results demonstrate that the validity of RA diagnoses in Finnish biobanks was good and can be further improved by including data on special reimbursement for medication, number of visits, and serological data.


Background : Feeding intolerance, de�ned as the inability to digest enteral feeding, is a frequent diagnosis in very preterm infants. It is characterized by abdominal distension, delayed gastric emptying and increased frequency and severity of gastroesophageal re�ux (GER). As seen in the FortiLat trial, human milk forti�cation with the new donkey milk-derived human milk forti�er (DF) seems to improve feeding tolerance in these infants. The aim of this ancillary study of the FortiLat trial was to evaluate the effects of using the DF compared with bovine milk-derived forti�er (BF) on GER in VLBW infants. Methods : Over a total of 156 preterm infants enrolled into the FortiLat trial (gestational age <32 weeks and/or birth weight <1500 g) and randomized into BF-arm or DF-arm we selected all infants with clinical signs of GER and cardiorespiratory (CR) symptoms at day 21 of forti�cation. All the infants underwent CR and multichannel intraluminal impedance and pH (MII/pH) monitoring associated with gastric ultrasound to evaluate GER characteristics, GER-CR temporal associations and gastric emptying time. Results : 10 infants were enrolled, 5 in the DF-arm. At MII/pH infants enrolled into the DF-arm showed a lower GER frequency than BF-arm infants: 2.02(1.95-3.26) vs 4.82(2.84-5.94) GER/hour (p=0.036). No infant had a signi�cant symptom association probability index between GER and CR events. Half gastric emptying time was similar in DF and BF-arm infants: 45.03(42.74-47.02) vs. 48.57(44.73-48.77) min. (p=0.744) Conclusions : The use of donkey derived human milk forti�er reduced the GER frequency and consequently should be recommended in infants with feeding intolerance.


The peace testimony of the early Quakers was developed in a context where war, killing and death were a major preoccupation. In this article I show how Margaret Fell and other early Quaker women encouraged a choice of life rather than a preoccupation with death. While both women and men Friends developed the peace testimony, in the case of the men, the language of war (albeit the 'Lamb's War') was retained, while many women (though not all) looked for language that was more nurturing and less violent. I suggest that it is the radical choice of life, not just the renunciation of violence, that is ultimately central to the peace testimony, especially in relation to its emphasis on justice and flourishing.


Selenium is an antioxidant that prevents oxygen radical from damaging cells from chronic diseases that can develop from cell injury and inflammation such as diabetes mellitus. The aim of the study is to investigate the possible protective effect of selenium yeast on cholesterol diet induced type-2 diabetes mellitus and oxidative stress in rats. Twenty male wistar rats were divided in to four groups of five animals each: Group 1: (Negative control) received standard animal feed only, Group 2:  received cholesterol diet (CD) only, Group 3: received CD and 0.1 mg/kg selenium yeast orally, Group 4: Received CD and 0.2 mg/kg selenium yeast orally for six weeks. At the end of the study period, the animals were sacrificed and the serum samples were collected and evaluated for estimation of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). The results showed a significant decrease in blood glucose level in the groups  co-administered CD and selenium yeast when compared to CD group only. Antioxidant enzymes status recorded significant decrease in SOD, CAT and GPx activities in CD and selenium yeast administered when compared to CD group only. In Conclusion, Selenium yeast administrations prevent free radical formations which are potent inducer of diabetes mellitus.


We propose an experiment that prevents social learning and allows to disentangle mechanisms of social influence. Subjects observe another individual's incentives, but not their behavior. We find conformity: when individuals believe that incentives make others contribute more, they also increase their contributions. Conformity is driven by individuals who feel socially close to their partner. However, when incentives don't raise others' contributions, individuals reduce contributions. This pattern cannot be explained by incentive inequality (Breza et al., 2017). We conclude that norm adherence is weakened when incentives are ineffective. Our results show that information about others' economic environment generates social influence


textabstractDementia is an increasing global issue, currently affecting an estimated 50 million people worldwide. This number is predicted to increase to 82 million by the year 2030, due to the ageing global population. Theoretically,
preventing late-onset dementia may seem extremely difficult as the greatest risk factor, age, is unmodifiable.
However, it is estimated that a third of dementia cases could potentially be prevented or delayed by removing
or reducing modifiable risk factors. Increasing evidence suggests that chronic stress, which may arise from
experiencing a traumatic event or daily stress, may be a potential risk factor for dementia. Whilst it may not play
a vital role in causing the syndrome, stress may contribute to the progression of cognitive decline, which is the
main symptom of dementia. The primary stress hormone, cortisol, may have detrimental effects on cognitive
brain regions when its levels are elevated for long durations. Preliminary evidence suggests that stress may
have different effects on brain structure and function, depending on the individual's age when exposed to the
stress. Stress during early and later life may lead to more permanent brain changes, which may contribute to
cognitive decline in later life. Limited evidence links chronic stress or major trauma at specific stages of the
lifespan, with cognitive decline and incidence of dementia. Whether or not an accumulation of stress across
the lifespan influences later life cognition and risk of dementia, still remains to be determined. Understanding
to what extent stressful events are risk factors for later-life cognitive decline and dementia will be crucial to the
implementation of targeted psychosocial interventions efforts.


This paper is primarily concerned with development of data protection legislation in the United Kingdom from the late 1960s through to the enactment of the 1984 Data Protection Act. Following a series of private members' bills calling for varying degrees of privacy legislation, the UK government commissioned two significant reports in the 1970s. The first, the Younger Report on Privacy (1972), established 10 principles for the handling of personal data that were to influence data protection statutes in Europe. The Lindop Report on Data Protection (1978) examined public- and private-sector computer systems, recommending a flexible legislative environment – with a set of broad principles guiding a data protection authority in its development of codes of practice aimed at various sectors of the economy. The far-reaching nature of those recommendations can now be appreciated in the work of the modern Information Commissioner's Office, 25 years after the publication of the Lindop Report. However, the momentum created by the two studies faded during the period 1979–82. Labour and Conservative governments respectively consulted further and objected to additional bureaucracy involved in creating a data protection authority. During this period of entropy, unpublished memoranda and correspondence demonstrated how former members of the Lindop Committee maintained the pressure on government, ensuring that their work was not forgotten. Eventually, overseas legislation and the need for the UK to maintain its position at the 'crossroads of the information highway' ensured that the UK, albeit grudgingly, enacted a Data Protection Act in 1984. By that time, the UK had lost the lead in defining data protection law and policy established by the Reports of Younger and Lindop. In highlighting findings from the Committees and efforts by dedicated individuals in lobbying successive governments in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the authors demonstrate the importance of preserving historical memory.


Mycobacterium tuberculosis relies on its own ability to biosynthesize coenzyme A to meet the needs of the myriad enzymatic reactions that depend on this cofactor for activity. As such, the essential pantothenate and coenzyme A biosynthesis pathways have attracted attention as targets for tuberculosis drug development. To identify the optimal step for coenzyme A pathway disruption in M. tuberculosis, we constructed and characterized a panel of conditional knockdown mutants in coenzyme A pathway genes. Here, we report that silencing of coaBC was bactericidal in vitro, whereas silencing of panB, panC, or coaE was bacteriostatic over the same time course. Silencing of coaBC was likewise bactericidal in vivo, whether initiated at infection or during either the acute or chronic stages of infection, confirming that CoaBC is required for M. tuberculosis to grow and persist in mice and arguing against significant CoaBC bypass via transport and assimilation of host-derived pantetheine in this animal model. These results provide convincing genetic validation of CoaBC as a new bactericidal drug target.


Over the last decades, advances in analytical and preparative chromatography have been driven by the development of new separation materials. The aim had been to achieve improved selectivity, resolution, speed, detection sensitivity and pre-concentration/sample handling capabilities. Of these factors, the manipulation of selectivity is a considerable challenge in separation science. A highly desirable approach to manipulate selectivity is to use a stationary phase with tunable surface properties so that the separation selectivity can be adjusted without the need to physically replace the column. This project addresses the synthesis of polymer-based stimuli-responsive materials, which offer significant potential to enhance separation selectivity through better control over the molecular properties of the adsorbent surface. The novel stationary phases have been developed based on the guiding principles of 'green chemistry' for liquid chromatographic and electrochromatographic separations of low and high molecular weight analytes using immobilised stimuli-responsive polymers (SRPs). Di-substituted triazine-based macromolecules were synthesised with poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as polyelectrolyte SRPs. The diblock copolymer poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate)-block-poly(acrylic acid) (PDMAEMA-b-PAA) was then tethered to silica particles. Batch-binding experiments were conducted to determine the static adsorption isotherms for unmodified silica, aminopropyl silica (APS) and PDMAEMA-b-PAA modified onto APS particles, termed APS-(PDMAEMA-b-PAA). A series of acidic, basic and neutral analytes were used as probes at different pH values ranging from 5.0-8.0 and at temperatures below (20 °C) and above (65 °C), the lower critical phase transition temperature of PDMAEMA-b-PAA. The results revealed the experimental conditions under which analyte binding occurred. The target analytes had very few non-specific interactions with the bare silica and APS particles, but showed binding with the polymer-modified silica particles. The APS-(PDMAEMA-b-PAA) modified particles were subsequently packed into stainless steel columns and evaluated in a high-performance liquid chromatography format. This novel SRP exhibited significant temperature, pH and/or ionic strength responses during the separation of the selected analytes, this was attributed to the analyte's hydrophilic or hydrophobic property. Subsequent studies with an extended array of analytes including proteins have documented the versatility of the novel SRP. A thermodynamic assessment of the retention of ionisable analytes on the polyelectrolyte APS-(PDMAEMA-b-PAA) stationary phase was also performed. The thermodynamic fingerprints provided important information regarding the properties of the SRP-modified stationary phase as well as the adsorption mechanisms, which were found to be multi-modal for most analytes. PDMAEMA-b-PAA was also immobilised onto the inner walls of an aminopropyl coated open tubular silica capillary. This novel polymer coated capillary contained weakly charged functional groups from PAA and PDMAEMA, enabling the generation of electroosmotic flow. The magnitude and direction of the electroosmotic flow was adjustable by changing the pH of the running buffer electrolyte. The baseline separation of a group of acidic and basic analytes with aqueous buffers of various pH values documented the zwitterion characteristic of the SRP-modified surface in the capillary electrochromatographic separation. In conclusion, novel stationary phases composed of a diblock copolymer, grafted onto silica particles or silica capillaries were designed, synthesised, characterised and used for analytical separations. These modified surfaces possessed tunable characteristics for the separation of chemical and biological compounds. Separations of analytes were performed without organic solvents, involving a temperature, ionic strength and/or pH switch under environmentally-friendly 'green' conditions.


The expansion of the GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat in the non-coding region of the chromosome 9 open-reading frame 72 (C9orf72) gene is the most common cause of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (c9FTD/ALS). Recently, it was reported that an unconventional mechanism of repeat-associated non-ATG (RAN) translation arises from C9orf72 expansion. Sense and anti-sense transcripts of the expanded C9orf72 repeat, i.e. the dipeptide repeat protein (DRP) of glycine-alanine (poly-GA), glycine-proline (poly-GP), glycine-arginine (poly-GR), proline-arginine (poly-PR) and proline-alanine (poly-PA), are deposited in the brains of patients with c9FTD/ALS. However, the pathological significance of RAN-translated peptides remains unknown. We generated synthetic cDNAs encoding 100 repeats of DRP without a GGGGCC repeat and evaluated the effects of these proteins on cultured cells and cortical neurons in vivo. Our results revealed that the poly-GA protein formed highly aggregated ubiquitin/p62-positive inclusion bodies in neuronal cells. In contrast, the highly basic proteins poly-GR and PR also formed unique ubiquitin/p62-negative cytoplasmic inclusions, which co-localized with the components of RNA granules. The evaluation of cytotoxicity revealed that overexpressed poly-GA, poly-GP and poly-GR increased the substrates of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), including TDP-43, and enhanced the sensitivity to a proteasome inhibitor, indicating that these DRPs are cytotoxic, possibly via UPS dysfunction. The present data indicate that a gain-of-function mechanism of toxic DRPs possibly contributes to pathogenesis in c9FTD/ALS and that DRPs may serve as novel therapeutic targets in c9FTD/ALS.


We present new evidence on how heterogeneity in banks interacts with monetary policy changes to impact bank lending, at both the bank and U.S. state levels. We use a new policy measure identified from narratives on FOMC intentions and real-time economic forecasts. This policy measure eliminates some of the movements in the actual federal funds rate that are endogenous to expected economic conditions. We find much stronger dynamic effects, and greater heterogeneity, in U.S. bank lending responses to the new monetary policy measure compared with the standard measure based on realized federal funds rate changes. Our findings suggest that studies using realized monetary policy changes confound monetary policy's effects with those of changes in expected macro fundamentals. In fact, estimates from identified monetary policy changes lead to a reversal of U.S. states' ranking by credit's sensitivity to policy.We also extend Romer and Romer (2004)'s identification scheme, and expand the time and balance sheet coverage of the U.S. banking sample.


This paper analyzes long-term equilibrium relationships between a group of macroeconomic variables and the Karachi Stock Exchange Index. The macroeconomic variables are represented by the industrial production index, the consumer price index, M1, and the value of an investment earning the money market rate. We employ a vector error correction model to explore such relationships during 1973:1 to 2004:4. We found that these five variables are cointegrated and two long-term equilibrium relationships exist among these variables. Our results indicated a "causal" relationship between the stock market and the economy. Analysis of our results indicates that industrial production is the largest positive determinant of Pakistani stock prices, while inflation is the largest negative determinant of stock prices in Pakistan. We found that while macroeconomic variables Granger-caused stock price movements, the reverse causality was observed in case of industrial production and stock prices. Furthermore, we found that statistically significant lag lengths between fluctuations in the stock market and changes in the real economy are relatively short.


A good organization is supported by good management and employees who have adequate knowledge and skills in carrying out functions and games. The organization provides a management system that makes it easy for members of the organization to run the system so that their performance is easily controlled. Employees with adequate quality and competence can bring the organization in a more advanced direction. They continue and have a desire to grow and develop into individuals needed by the organization in achieving its goals. The development of technology and industry today has resulted in many adjustments and system changes in management. In the new normal era where all work activities have been directed to be online-based, many organizations conduct a training needs analysis to obtain information on what training is suitable to be held in improving the performance of the organization and its employees. This study describes the theory of training needs analysis for organizations through operational analysis. And this study aims to obtain information about what is needed in analyzing training needs for organizations through operational analysis. The research method used is a qualitative method using a literature review approach. The results of this study were selected as a training needs analysis tool using the operational analysis approach of the Irwin Goldstein method which sets 4 indicators, namely: knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics or often abbreviated as KSAOs


Rhyolitic lavas, pyroclastic, and high-level intrusive rocks form an important component of a bimodal tholeiitic basalt-rhyolite association of early Ordovician (Llanvirn) age exposed in North Pembrokeshire, on Ramsey Island, in the Fishguard area, and on Mynydd Preseli. In the same region, a 400 m thick tholeiitic layered differentiated sill, the St David's Head intrusion, considered to be co-genetic with this association, comprises a series of units ranging from basic (olivine + orthopyroxene-bearing gabbros) through intermediate (granophyric gabbro) to acidic (aplite) compositions. Consideration of the major and trace element concentrations in these various intrusive units suggests that they are related largely through a crystal fractionation process. The principal fractionating phases were clinopyroxene and plagioclase feldspar, with olivine and orthopyroxene in the more mafic compositions, substantial Fe-Ti oxide and minor apatite in the intermediate compositions, and minor apatite and titanite in the most evolved compositions. A comparison between the composition of a typical aplite from the St David's Head intrusion and compositions of the various silicic rocks from the bimodal suites in North Pembrokeshire suggests these latter rocks have also been derived from a more basic tholeiitic magma via crystal fractionation. Potential parental magmas are the various basaltic lavas and related doleritic intrusions of the Fishguard Volcanic Complex. However, certain silicic lavas and intrusions from the Porth Maen Melyn area appear not to have been derived from a tholeiitic parental magma, but rather have a calc-alkaline type chemistry, similar to older lavas of the Trefgarn Volcanic Group exposed a short distance to the south of Fishguard. These findings support the contention that large volume silicic units in bimodal associations can be derived by crystal fractionation, despite the obvious geochemical discontinuity, and the apparently anomalous volume relationships commonly present.


Phosphate uptake as a function of external medium concentration has been determined for mycelium grown in the laboratory, segments of cords collected from the field and cords in the field for a range of wood-decay basidiomycetes. Hofstee plots in all cases can be interpreted as indicating the presence of two uptake systems. Uptake of phosphate by mycelium is reduced by increasing the concentration of phosphate in the growth medium from 10 μM to 10 mM. The major portion absorbed by cords in the field remains within the segment exposed to radioactive solution, suggesting conversion of the phosphate to an immobile form unavailable for translocation.


Luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) are enshrouded by a large amount of dust produced by their active star formation, and it is difficult to measure their activity in optical wavelengths. We have carried out Paα narrow-band imaging observations of 38 nearby star forming galaxies including 33 LIRGs listed in the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample catalog with the Atacama Near InfraRed camera on the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) 1.0 m telescope (miniTAO). Star formation rates (SFRs) estimated from the Paα fluxes, corrected for dust extinction using the Balmer decrement method (typically AV ∼ 4.3 mag), show a good correlation with those from the bolometric infrared luminosity of the IRAS data within a scatter of 0.27 dex. This suggests that the correction of dust extinction for the Paα flux is sufficient in our sample. We measure the physical sizes and surface densities of infrared luminosities (ΣL(IR)) and the SFR (ΣSFR) of star forming regions for individual galaxies, and we find that most of the galaxies follow a sequence of local ultra-luminous or luminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) on the L(IR)–ΣL(IR) and SFR–ΣSFR plane. We confirm that a transition of the sequence from normal galaxies to U/LIRGs is seen at L(IR) = 8 × 1010 L☉. Also, we find that there is a large scatter in physical size, different from normal galaxies or ULIRGs. Considering the fact that most U/LIRGs are merging or interacting galaxies, this scatter may be caused by strong external factors or differences in their merging stages.


In our study "Neuronal and Behavioural Pain Processing: A Comparison Between a Strong Brand and a Generic Medication Placebo using the Example of Aspirin vs. 1A Pharma", we investigated the expectation effects associated with brands by labelling two different placebo interventions. We tested the hypothesis, whether a strong brand can influence the impact of an inert substance. We studied the potential differences between the two placebos on a behavioural and neural level inducing the stimulus with noxious heat pain using Medoc. The research objective was to unveil, whether recipients can be influenced through expectations, verbal suggestions and the brand itself.
We applied a two by two design with two identical placebo interventions that differed in their labelling. One group was told that they will receive 500 mg of "Aspirin" (original brand), while the other group was told that they will receive a popular ASA generic ("1A Pharma"). At the beginning, we established the individual pain levels of each subject with the numeric rating scale. Then we measured pain intensities before and after the intervention. The intervention was the administration of the placebo. We investigated behavioural as well as neural differences and looked for corresponding activated brain regions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Those participants, who were administered the original brand in the placebo intervention, showed a decrease in pain intensity. The generic group did not show any significant pain decrease. At the neuronal level, during the native condition, we observed activations of the anterior insula in both groups. After the intervention, the participants showed activations of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. The direct comparison of the two placebo conditions – the branded placebo vs. the generic – showed higher activations for the bilateral dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. During the anticipation phase we observed activations of hippocampal, parahippocampal and adjacent brain areas for the generic group, only.

These results suggest that only the original brand appears to evoke a behavioural response measured in terms of pain reduction. On a neuronal level, the activations were significant for the original brand only. Comparing the two placebo interventions, expectations seem to be significantly enhanced by the trusted brand, which appears to boost the placebo effect. Our results suggest that the underlying neural mechanisms of this placebo response are based on fronto-cortical neural networks.


AI-manipulated videos, commonly known as deepfakes, are an emerging problem. Recently, researchers in academia and industry have contributed several (self-created) benchmark deepfake datasets, and deepfake detection algorithms. However, little effort has gone towards understanding deepfake videos in the wild, leading to a limited understanding of the real-world applicability of research contributions in this space. Even if detection schemes are shown to perform well on existing datasets, it is unclear how well the methods generalize to real-world deepfakes. To bridge this gap in knowledge, we make the following contributions: First, we collect and present the largest dataset of deepfake videos in the wild, containing 1,869 videos from YouTube and Bilibili, and extract over 4.8M frames of content. Second, we present a comprehensive analysis of the growth patterns, popularity, creators, manipulation strategies, and production methods of deepfake content in the real-world. Third, we systematically evaluate existing defenses using our new dataset, and observe that they are not ready for deployment in the real-world. Fourth, we explore the potential for transfer learning schemes and competition-winning techniques to improve defenses.


Nowadays, one of the main problems facing the city of Barcelona is climate change, which intensifies the urban heat island effect (UHI), as well as generating high levels of air and noise pollution. These environmental problems have a negative effect on the urban ecosystem and the living standards of its inhabitants. Greenery is able to counteract their effects, by capturing airborne dust, absorbing CO2, thus favouring better thermal regulation, increasing biodiversity and improving the quality of life of the population. This research intends to develop new forms of naturalization in Barcelona, introducing greenery not only in inhabited buildings in order to create long term benefits for the community, but also proposing new ways of constructing on top of the roof tops of existing buildings by means of industrialized attic flats. The majority of these penthouses are located in the Eixample District, the most crowded neighbourhood in the metropolitan area of Barcelona and the district which is probably most exposed to urban pollution. For this reason, the investigation seeks to innovate technical solutions that incorporate vegetation into the architectural projects of La Casa por el Tejado, taking benefit of the available surfaces such as roof-tops and party walls. The article will address different ways to implement greenery in La Casa por el Tejado's projects through modular industrial solutions that require minimum maintenance and provide a study of benefits, opportunities and obstacles found in the application of vegetation, a description of the key factors to overcome these barriers, as well as how the implementation of greenery could introduce positives changes in the living dynamics of people and the city.


Propagule pressure is a leading determinant of population establishment. Yet, an experimental understanding of how propagule size and number (two principal parts of propagule pressure) determine establishment success remains incomplete. Theoretical studies suggest that the timing between introduction events, a component of propagule number, can influence establishment success. However, this dynamic has rarely been explored experimentally. Using Escherichia coli engineered with an Allee effect, we investigated how the timing of two introduction events influences establishment. For populations introduced below the Allee threshold, establishment occurred if the time between two introduction events was sufficiently short, with the length of time between events further reduced by reducing growth rate. Interestingly, we observed that as the density of bacteria introduced in one introduction event increased, the time between introduction events that allowed for establishment increased. Using a mathematical model, we provide support that the mechanism behind these trends is the ability of the first population to modify the environment, which can pave the way for establishment of the second population. Our results provide experimental evidence that the temporal distribution of introduction events regulates establishment, furthering our understanding of propagule pressure and may have implications in invasion biology and infectious disease.


Previous research suggests that liars are not aware that they tend to decrease their movements during deception. Moreover, it is unclear how liars will behave if someone informs them about their behavioral rigidity during deception, and to what extent several processes (tension, attempted behavioral control, and cognitive effort) are associated with deception. In the present experiment, subjects were interviewed twice. During one interview, they told the truth, and during the other interview, they lied. In the information-present condition, before both interviews, subjects were told that deception is usually associated with a decrease in movements. In the information-absent condition, no information was given. The results revealed that whereas subjects believed that they increased their movements during deception, a decrease in movements, in fact, occurred. Provision of information about deceptive behavior had no effect. The results also showed that a decrease in movements was associated with attempted control and cognitive load processes, and occurred independently from the tension experienced by deceivers.


Abstract The aim of this study was to contribute with knowledge about how a sense of home and belonging is enacted and can be supported in everyday life, with a particular focus on the relationships that connect everyday life and the environment in nursing home contexts. The concepts 'a sense of home' and 'belonging' were chosen with the ambition to grasp values grounded in experiences and everyday practices, with an openness for various aspects that can support an enjoyable life and comfort for nursing home residents. The study focused on communal areas, e.g. dining room, kitchen, corridors and gardens, that serve as arenas where nursing home residents' everyday lives expand beyond the private room. Ethnographic methods were applied to identify and explore situations where a sense of home and belonging were enacted in nursing homes that had been acknowledged as good examples of nursing home environments. Through the analytic process, four qualities were identified: (a) a cornerstone for stability and everydayness, (b) the beating heart, (c) spatial dynamics, and (d) magnetic places. Following from the chosen methodology, the findings provide a situated understanding of how communal areas in nursing homes can invite a sense of home and belonging for the residents.


In situ analysis and visualization have mainly been applied to the output of a single large-scale simulation. However, topics involving the execution of multiple simulations in supercomputers have only received minimal attention so far. Some important examples are uncertainty quantification, data assimilation, and complex optimization. In this position article, beyond highlighting the strengths and limitations of the tools that we have developed over the past few years, we share lessons learned from using them on large-scale platforms and from interacting with end users. We then discuss the forthcoming challenges, which future in situ analysis and visualization frameworks will face when dealing with the exascale execution of multiple simulations.


Self-attention networks (SANs) with selective mechanism has produced substantial improvements in various NLP tasks by concentrating on a subset of input words. However, the underlying reasons for their strong performance have not been well explained. In this paper, we bridge the gap by assessing the strengths of selective SANs (SSANs), which are implemented with a flexible and universal Gumbel-Softmax. Experimental results on several representative NLP tasks, including natural language inference, semantic role labelling, and machine translation, show that SSANs consistently outperform the standard SANs. Through well-designed probing experiments, we empirically validate that the improvement of SSANs can be attributed in part to mitigating two commonly-cited weaknesses of SANs: word order encoding and structure modeling. Specifically, the selective mechanism improves SANs by paying more attention to content words that contribute to the meaning of the sentence.


This paper reviews X-band ocean microwave backscatter data from the LOGAN (LOw Grazing ANgle) experiment conducted on the Chesapeake Light Tower by the Naval Air Warfare Center. The data were collected under varied wind, sea, and swell conditions that provide some new insights into low-grazing-angle backscatter phenomena. Transient backscatter peaks called "sea spikes" have long been associated with deep-water breaking waves; however, they have yet to be fully reconciled with backscatter and hydrodynamic theories. New analysis techniques have been applied to the LOGAN data that take advantage of the unique characteristics of sea spikes and their dynamics. High-resolution Doppler spectra are organized relative to the space-time centroids of the sea-spike clusters and conditionally averaged by RCS strength. The mean Doppler variation of the strongest sea spikes then map the breaking-wave structure just as Doppler histories measured at moderate grazing angles map the dynamics of the dominant linear surface-wave components. While breaking waves are manifest to some degree in backscatter data at all grazing angles, a non-Bragg-scatter mechanism accentuates the crest scattering at low grazing angles. The phenomena potentially can be exploited for remote ocean sensing and imaging.


Convex PCA, which was introduced by Bigot et al., is a dimension reduction methodology for data with values in a convex subset of a Hilbert space. This setting arises naturally in many applications, including distributional data in the Wasserstein space of an interval, and ranked compositional data under the Aitchison geometry. Our contribution in this paper is threefold. First, we present several new theoretical results including consistency as well as continuity and differentiability of the objective function in the finite dimensional case. Second, we develop a numerical implementation of finite dimensional convex PCA when the convex set is polyhedral, and show that this provides a natural approximation of Wasserstein geodesic PCA. Third, we illustrate our results with two financial applications, namely distributions of stock returns ranked by size and the capital distribution curve, both of which are of independent interest in stochastic portfolio theory.


The effect of 60Co gamma irradiation on the activity of valyl-tRNA synthetase isolated from chick embryo brain was studied. The enzyme activity exponentially decreased in the dose range 10--200 krad. The first step of the enzyme action, i.e. the amino acid activation, was found to be less sensitive to irradiation than the whole reaction, the formation of valyl-tRNA, 2-Mercapto ethanol and/or glycerol had a significant radioprotective effect. The lesion caused by radiation in the enzyme was also influenced by its concentration during exposure (dilution effect). According to gel-electrophoretic experiments, no chain rupture occurred in the enzyme molecule. Not even a change in Km was observed; however, the maximum velocity of the reaction was found to decrease with increasing radiation dose.


Abstract— Bandar Lampung, capital city of Lampung such as
gate of Sumatera with 902,885 population in 2012, having
120,554 passenger cars. Like other major cities in Indonesia,
especially during peak hour, congestion is commonly visible in
several main roads. Traffic jams of course will lead to a
considerable loss in terms of the value of time, fuel consumption,
air pollution, noise and some other qualitative aspects. This
research tries to calculate how the losses incurred as a result of
congestion in terms of fuel consumption and time value. A survey
carried out for six days in the peak time morning, noon and
afternoon to calculate the traffic volume, speed, travel time and
delay in one main road of this city along . Fuel consumption for
each vehicle type is obtained from interviews and secondary data
from vehicle dealers. The type of vehicles that are reviewed are
some brands of private cars with 2 types of diesel and gasoline
also public transport, without reviewing a motorcycle. After we
obtain travel time per each liter fuel consumption and delay, we
reach fuel consumption in traffic jam. From the analysis results
showed that the loss is due to congestion based on fuel
consumption is around Rp. 4.751.432.140,- per year. While the
value of time obtained by the method of income approach and
stated preference generate each value Rp. 16.903 per hour and
Rp. 18.417 per hour. Financial losses from value of time is
calculate by multiply time of traffic jam, traffic volume and value
of time. Using Income Approach, the loss is due to congestion
based on time value is around Rp. 3.607.076.443,- per year. The
total cost of the losses due to congestion in terms of fuel
consumption as well as value of time is Rp. 8.358.508.583 per
year. It takes only a few sample in main road which is less than 5
km only. We can imagine the loss due to all of city area with
many road segments that was crowded. This financial value is
also only results from congestion due to fuel consumption and
value of time, not counting from air pollution, noise and other
aspects resulting from the raise of traffic volume. If engineering
improvement such as traffic management not done to reduce
private vehicles growth, the quality of urban communities's life
will be declining and environmental damage getting worse for
future generations.
Keywords— fuel consumption; time value; traffic jam;
financial losses; stated preference


Purpose
The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention of professors, technical-administrative servants and outsourced workers of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO).

Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted analyses of variance, with the multiple comparisons made using Tukey's post hoc tests, as well as regression analyses. The sample of 297 workers included 115 faculty members, 86 technical-administrative servants and 96 outsourced employees.

Findings
The results showed that the job satisfaction of outsourced workers was significantly higher than that of the public servants. On the other hand, professors presented the highest level of affective commitment, significantly higher than technical-administrative employees and outsourced workers. Turnover intention of outsourced workers was lower than that of technical-administrative employees, despite the stability of the latter group.

Practical implications
From a practical standpoint, the results may guide the development human resource management policies and practices aligned with the reality and the needs of public servants and outsourced employees, thus fostering their job satisfaction, commitment and retention.

Originality/value
This study is relevant given the increased use of outsourced labor in the public administration and the relative paucity of empirical studies with this group of workers, as evidenced by the review of the national literature. Moreover, as the theme of outsourcing is quite controversial, the authors hope this new evidence contributes to the debate.


Partasasmita R, Iskandar J, Rukmana. 2017. Naga people's (Tasikmalaya District West Java, Indonesia) local knowledge of the variations and traditional management farm of village chickens. Biodiversitas 18: 834-843. There is a strong maintain on the traditional Sundanese traditions among the village people West Java in the modern agricultural and the livestock farming. For example, they have not adopted modern of race chickens with high external inputs, including chicken breeders, chicken foods, vitamins, antibiotics, and various modern medicines. Ordinarily, the consequence of this in a situation the village people have traditionally farmed the various village chickens based on local knowledge and strongly embed by culture. Recently, however, the traditional farming of the village chickens in many villages of West Java, has dramatically affected by rapid development of the introduction of commercial the modern race-chickens farming. As a result, the diversity of village chickens has dramatically decreased. In addition, the production system of the village chicken farm has extremely depended on external inputs. This paper discusses on local knowledge of Naga people of Tasikmalaya, West Java on variations and cultural practice among the Naga people in the managing of the village chicken farm. The method used in this study was mixed of qualitative and quantitative with the ethnozoological and ethnobiological approach. The result of the study shows that Naga people of Tasikmalaya, West Java has well-recognized variations of the village chickens which is based on the folk classification at the level specific and varietal. Until recently, the Naga people have traditionally managed the village chickens in the sustainable system due to economically viable, ecologically appropriate, and adaptable to socio-cultural traditions.


Over the last few years, ecological concern and global warming has initiated a considerable interest in using natural materials to produce green products and reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions by all possible means. Kyoto protocol has further highlighted this issue by which many countries including India has committed to reduce combined CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions. India and China are becoming important players in the Global GHG arena. The CO2 emission in these countries increased by 9% and 6% respectively in 2011, relative to the previous years of their share in global CO2 emission now equals that of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In the present scenario, natural fibers have excellent potential to reduce not only CO2 emissions but also save non-renewable resources by substituting glass fiber reinforcements in plastic composites. Traditionally, glass fibers/wool has been extensively used as building insulation material and reinforcement in auto sector thermoplastics. However, environmental performance of glass fiber mat thermoplastics (GMTs) has several drawbacks due to extensive energy consumption and potential health risks during production and handling. Glass fibers cause severe abrasion to process equipment and their composites may transform into sharp splints during collision causing extra injuries to passengers. Moreover GMTs are non-recyclable and their incineration generates clinker like mass that is hard to dispose off except land filling.
There are many potential natural resources, which India has in abundance. Most of it comes from the forest and agriculture. Wood apple (Aegle marmelos) belongs of family rutaceae is highly reputed medicinal tree. Its fruit is commonly known as the "Stone apple" or "Bael". It is an indigenous fruit of India and found abundantly in sub-Himalayan forest, Bengal central, south India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, and Thailand. The peel of the fruit is very hard. Wood apple shell contains 39.54% cellulose, 26.06% hemicellulose, and 30.86% lignin. Coconut (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the palm family. The coconut palm is used for decoration as well as for culinary and non-culinary uses; virtually every part of the coconut palm has some human use. Coconut shell is non-food part of coconut, which is hard lignocellulosic agro-waste. Coconut shell consists of 30.04% cellulose, 20.16% hemicellulose, and 25.76% lignin.If the density (low) of these materials is taken in to consideration, then its specific stiffness and strength are comparable to the respective quantities of glass fibers. The wood apple shell and coconut shell composites can be very cost-effective material especially for pipe lines carrying coal dust, slurries, desert structure, low cost housing, boats/sporting equipment, partition boards, doors and window panels.
As far as composite industries are concerned in recent period, carbon has been one of the outstanding elements that have revolutionized science of materials. Carbon provides the materials with excellent properties for a wide range of industrial applications. From carbon we receive the strongest fibers (carbon fibers), to one of the best solid lubricants (graphite), one of the best electrically leading materials (graphite electrodes), the best structural material for high temperature tribological application (carbon–carbon composites), one of the best porous absorbers (activated carbon), an essentially non-crystalline impermeable material (vitreous carbon), the hardest material (diamond), and now the most fascinating material, the fullerenes. All these forms are made by meticulously choosing the raw materials and processing conditions Over the last century the production of carbon black (CB) is found to be relatively very expensive, which is produced by incomplete combustion of oil feed stocks. As a result the focus is now shifting towards agricultural waste products which are found to be good source of raw materials for the production of CB. This CB is produced by the pyrolysis of coal, wood, coconut shell, oil palm shell, jute, banana, bamboo, and other lignocellulosic biomass based materials which are carbonaceous in nature and rich in organic materials. Such agricultural by-products are usually inexpensive, for which the effective utilization has not been tried so far. It is unlikely that the use of products made from renewable resources will provide a complete solution to the pressing problems of industrial society.
The activated carbon was introduced for the first time industrially in the first part of the 20th century, Activated carbon is a trade name for a carbonaceous adsorbent, which can be prepared from a large number of carbonaceous raw materials including agricultural and forestry residues by either a physical method or a chemical method. The most commercial products are made from agricultural waste such as coconut shell, bamboo, wood, sawdust, hard shell, nut shells and fruit pits. Therefore the present research work has been under taken with an objective to produce carbon and activated carbon from the natural waste (wood apple shell and coconut shell) in the laboratory by utilizing the method of pyrolysis process. It is also planned to use these raw, carbon and activated carbon as reinforcing material in polymer composite of different weight fraction 5, 10, 15 and 20wt%. Direct usage of natural filler alone in polymer composite is inadequate in satisfactorily tackling all the technical needs of a fibre reinforced composite. It is reported that if natural fibre are carbonized to remove the waste material (volatiles and moisture) and increase the carbon percentage the strength of the composites are increased.
In this work an attempt has also been made to prepare carbon and activated carbon from wood apple shell and coconut shell. Efforts are made to study the effect of carbonization temperature on the tensile strength, flexural strength, tensile modulus and flexural modulus of the composite. Experiment is also carried out to study the erosive wear behavior of the composite developed. Effect of different parameters like impingement angle and velocity on the erosive wear behavior of carbon and activated carbon composite has also been studied and reported in the thesis. The test results indicate that there is an increase in both tensile and flexural and as well as the modulus for raw, carbonous and activated carbon of wood apple and coconut particulate filled composites. The trend observed for both wood apple and coconut particulate are almost same and the trend is raw


In the past decade, outbreaks of new diseases have brought much fear in the people worldwide. Many lives were lost due mainly to the late detection of these diseases as well as the lack of knowledge to prevent or cure them. To allow fast response to curb the spread of such infections, real-time sensors with high sensitivity and selectivity are required. With the advancement in technology and the need for miniaturization, biosensors based on electrochemistry has proven to be a powerful detection method due to the ease-of-use, low instrumentation cost, possible non-labeling and fast target detection. In an electrochemical detection, the sensitivity of the biosensors is mostly affected by the accessibility of the specific target towards the recognition site of the receptors immobilized on the electrode surface. To reduce the steric hindrances of the target molecules to the receptors, in this case the single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) probes, short organic spacer groups are normally used to modulate the ssDNA probe density on the electrode. In this report, a ternary sensing surface optimized using DNA-based spacer group for the detection of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been created. As compared to commonly-used organic spacer group, such as 2-mercaptoethanol (ME), 3-mercaptop-1-propanol (MP) and 6-mercapto-1-hexanol (MCH), thymine-based spacer groups (T9) displayed a 10-fold improvement of signal-to-noise in discriminating between complementary DNA (cDNA) and non-complementary DNA (NcDNA) hybridization. Analysis from Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM-D) and electrochemistry showed a sensing surface of excellent selectivity, optimized at a ratio of 1:1 (probe:T9). On this surface, the ssDNA probes are aligned by the T9 spacer groups and thereby capable of maximizing cDNA hybridization and differentiating with non-specific NcDNA binding. Single-mismatch (SMM) detections have shown to be possible at this optimized ratio, with the ability to differentiate between the SMM at different positions. By creating similar sensing surfaces on gold-deposited microelectrodes, an improvement of the S/N by a factor of 8 was observed compared to the detection using planar gold electrodes, showing capabilities of creating a highly selective and sensitive biosensor with microelectrodes. Attempts were also made to create binary sensing surfaces and comparisons were made with using shorter thymine spacer groups (T6) on both planar and microelectrodes. While all DNA-based spacer lengths were capable of modulating probe density and reducing steric hindrances, sensing surfaces created using the longer T9 spacer groups performed better in terms of S/N at their respective optimized ratio. Improvement in detection was observed for neutral PNA strands as compared to negatively-charged DNA strands at the same optimized ratio using microelectrodes.

Despite the general idea that a compact and uncharged layer is more desirable to form a highly selective biosensor based on electrochemistry, I have…


OBJECTIVE
--There is strong evidence that developmental dyslexia is both familial and heritable, but the mode of genetic transmission has remained unclear. In this article, we examine specific genetic hypotheses about the mode of transmission of developmental dyslexia by performing complex segregation analyses.

DESIGN
--A family study method was applied, whereby the relatives of dyslexic probands were examined for dyslexia. The families studied represent four independently ascertained samples.

SETTING
--The four samples of families were primarily from rural and suburban communities of Colorado, Washington State, and Iowa.

PARTICIPANTS
--A total of 204 families and 1698 individuals in the four samples combined.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
--The complex segregation program, POINTER, was used to test competing genetic hypotheses of how a categorical trait (dyslexia) is transmitted in families.

RESULTS
--The results were consistent with major locus transmission in three of four samples and with polygenic transmission in the fourth. In these three samples, the estimates of penetrance for the AA, Aa, and aa genotypes (where A is the abnormal allele) were, respectively, 1.000, 1.000, and 0.001 to 0.039 in males, and 0.560 to 1.000, 0.550 to 0.897, and 0.000 in females. The estimated gene frequency of the major locus was between 3% and 5%.

CONCLUSIONS
--Sex-influenced, additive, or dominant transmission occurs in a significant proportion of dyslexic families. Other evidence indicates, however, that dyslexia is etiologically heterogeneous and that there is genetic heterogeneity even among families selected for apparent dominant transmission. Thus, while no single major locus may account for all of dyslexia, it is important to pursue potential major loci for dyslexia using linkage techniques.


Risk equations to predict diabetes-related complications and mortality in most type 2 diabetes simulation models were based on data from the UK Prospective Diabetes Study. Two recently completed U.S. diabetes trials, the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes and the Action for Health in Diabetes and their follow-up studies with >15,000 participants and >7 years follow-up, provide a unique source for developing new risk equations. We estimated parametric hazard models for cardiovascular, neuropathy, nephropathy, vision, and hypoglycemia complications and mortality in persons with type 2 diabetes using longitudinal data from the trials. We included demographic variables, time-varying risk factors, and histories of complications. Variable selection was based on backwards stepwise regression and expert opinion. We estimated 17 complication and 3 mortality equations. HbA1c was selected in all but one complication/mortality equation, with hazard ratios ranging from 1.09 for stage 3 chronic kidney disease to 1.85 for amputation per 1% increase. Other risk factors were selected less frequently. For mortality, smoking was the risk factor with the largest hazard ratio. At least one lagged complication was selected for every complication/mortality equation. Previous congestive heart failure was associated with increased risk for 13 complications, with hazard ratios as high as 2.6 for amputation. Other lagged complications selected for over half of the complications included microalbuminuria, previous revascularization, macroalbuminuria, and previous stroke. Congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, and stroke increased mortality in persons with current or previous cardiovascular disease. Kidney-related complications also increased mortality. Our equations can be used in type 2 diabetes simulation models to estimate costs, outcomes, and cost-effectiveness of interventions for type 2 diabetes, particularly in U.S.-based models. Disclosure T.J. Hoerger: Research Support; Self; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. M. Kaufmann: None. S. Neuwahl: None. H. Shao: None. H. Chen: None. M. Laxy: None. Y.J. Cheng: None. S.R. Benoit: None. A.M. Anderson: None. T. Craven: None. P. Zhang: None. Funding Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (200-2016-92270)


The voltage drop incurred within the vigour supply in brand new VLSI chips to is a major hindrance referred to as vigor-provide noise. In sub one-volt give voltage, noise of very few enormous quantities millivolts factors circuit malfunction. The motive for energy provide noise is the quick and simultaneous transistor switching. At the same time the good judgment sign switching is unfold across the entire clock cycle, the switching of the clock tree and the sequential circuits are occurring at the same time, causing excessive local present peaks. The clock related transistor switching is the fundamental contributor to power give noise. This paper proposes to spread the switching of clock tree drivers in an try to decrease the peakcurrent, while preserving the clock sign pleasant and low skew at the some distance finish tree's leaves where the sequential circuits are related. A strategy of mobilephone switching characterization was oncdeveloped for fast computation of peak-current and other indicators parameters. This computation is embedded in a branch and certain tree traversal. We endorse a novel optimization algorithm centered on clock tree delay-invariant branch transformation, replacing low-threshold by means of excessive-threshold and smaller measurement drivers. The algorithm used to be applied in forty nanometers design. We completed a reduction of 50% of clock-tree peakcurrent..


The transmission reach of signals in optical transmission systems is limited. To go beyond these transparent reach limits, signal regeneration is necessary to re-amplify, reshape, and retime the optical signals. Translucent optical networks are a type of optical transport network specifically devised to address such a concern by allowing for sparse but strategic signal regeneration in the network. Translucent optical networks seek a graceful balance between network design cost and service provisioning performance, and can achieve performance comparable to that of an all-electronic switching network, but requiring far fewer signal regenerators. Despite massive progress, there are many outstanding issues regarding the implementation of translucent networks planning and operation. This article reviews a range of translucent optical networks and discusses various research issues, particularly involving network planning, lightpath routing and wavelength assignment, and network survivability. We also suggest other potential research topics such as traffic grooming, fault detection, and multicasting for translucent networks.


BACKGROUND
A recent consensus statement from the European Group on Graves' Orbitopathy recommends referring all patients with thyroid eye disease (TED), except the mildest cases, to a specialist multidisciplinary clinic.

OBJECTIVE
To study the patients' experiences of accessing services for the treatment of TED in the UK.

METHODS
A postal questionnaire survey of 395 members of two patients support organisations for TED in the UK, the TED Charitable Trust and the British Thyroid Foundation.

RESULTS
The response rate was 67%. The majority of responders were females (91%) and aged above 45 (74%). There were delays in the diagnosis and referral. In 26% of responders, the time lapsed from the first symptoms to the diagnosis of TED for over 12 months. There was a wide variation in the type of clinic and healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of TED. Only 25% of the responders attended a specialist TED clinic. Out of these, 33% waited over 6 months from the first consultation with a doctor to being seen at a specialist TED clinic. Only 56% of responders were satisfied with the treatment they received for TED. More responders who had attended a specialist TED clinic were satisfied with the treatment than those who had not attended a specialist clinic (67 vs 52%, P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
Only a minority of patients with TED are treated at a specialist TED clinic in the UK. Those patients who are treated at a specialist TED clinic are more likely to be satisfied with the treatment.


Monolithic Zr65Al7.5Ni10Pd17.5 and Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu17.5 hardly had plastic deformability in tension at room temperature, although Zr65Al7.5Ni10Pd17.5 showed a large plastic strain in compression. A depressed zone that is the evidence of viscous flow deformation (so-called viscous flow depression zone; VFD-zone) was observed for Zr65Al7.5Ni10Pd17.5 around the edge at the point of failure on its specimen surfaces. However, no VFD-zone was seen for Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu17.5. Thus, a clear difference in tensile plastic behavior was found between Zr65Al7.5Ni10Pd17.5 and Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu17.5. A structural change in the vicinity of the fracture surface of Zr65Al7.5Ni10Pd17.5 was measured by micro-beam X-ray diffractometry (MB-XRD). We may be able to discuss the room temperature plasticity of Zr65Al7.5Ni10Cu17.5-xPdx bulk metallic glasses correlating with the phase stability of the amorphous and icosahedral quasi-crystalline phases.


This guide presents resources useful in the study of classical art and archaeology and pertinent to the Fordham Museum collection.


Nowadays, wireless devices cover numerous wireless communication standards where almost for each one, a dierent frequency band has been allocated. There is a strong motivation towards SoC (System-on-Chip) solutions, where everything is integrated inside a chip to reduce the cost and form-factor of wireless devices. In radio-frequency receivers, due to the existence of large out-of-band blockers and a limited dynamic range, band-select ltering of the input signal is essential. Currently, most of the frontend circuitry of transceivers can be integrated on-chip. However, it is not possible to build integrated high-performance bandpass lters even after more than a decade research on this very topic. The inherent losses associated with on-chip inductors lead to lters having relatively high insertion losses, limited dynamic range and low outof- band rejection. For this reason, nowadays, most wireless systems utilize individual o-chip lters rather than fully integrated bandpass lters. This increases the size and cost. Moreover, most current wireless devices have several standards which leads to the exploitation of numerous o-chip bandpass lters which further exacerbate the size and cost issues.


The objective of this paper is to evaluate the role of the Appellation of Origin system on the international wine market, given i) the Geographic Indications international legal protection system, ii) the main aspects of world wine demand evolution and iii) the strategic choices of firms on the international market. On the demand side, we show through descriptive statistics and economic literature review, the increasing wine consumers' appreciation of reputation and origin attributes. On the supply side, we identify the main quality strategies implemented on the international wine market and show an increasing role of origin in firms' strategic choices worldwide. Finally, a direct survey on Italian Appellations of Origin concerning the AO registration on the international market shows an increasing risk of an imperfect use of geographical place names. The main consequences are identified for both producers and consumers. Firstly, a misperception of products' quality attributes can arise and menace the effectiveness of AO as informative tool. Secondly, the free riding phenomenon may arise and affect the AO collective reputation with a consequently long term demand drop. A public authority intervention is envisaged in order to reduce market distortions related to an imperfect use of geographical place names.


ABSTRACT Background: The non-invasive reduction of subcutaneous abdominal fat became popular. Radiofrequency, non-contact, selective-field device Vanquish® has been developed to selectively induce deep fat tissue heating to reduce waist circumference. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of clinical, radiological results of the radiofrequency, non-contact, selective-field device treatment. Methods: Twelve healthy individuals with no underlying medical problem were treated with five sessions of radiofrequency treatment to reduce abdominal subcutaneous fat. 45-minute sessions were performed with an 1-week interval. For efficacy evaluation, patient's abdominal circumferences and body weight were measured, and photographs were taken at baseline and each follow-up visit for 12 weeks. One subject was examined with computed tomography (CT) before the first session and six weeks after the first CT scan, and we measured the volume of subcutaneous fat layer. Any adverse effect was assessed during the entire study period. Results: Reduction in abdominal circumferences was noted in most participants (10 of 12 patients). No serious adverse effect was reported. Volume reduction of abdominal subcutaneous fat layer was confirmed in a subject who took CT scan. Conclusions: Our study shows that the selective-field radiofrequency treatment seems to be safe and efficient for reduction of abdominal subcutaneous fat.


The precise orbits for all GPS satellites computed at the
Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) and the broadcast
orbits computed by the Air Force's GPS Master Control
Station in Colorado Springs both depend on the DMA
World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS 84) coordinates of
their respective tracking networks - five sites for the Air
Force and an additional five sites for DMA. These
coordinates were derived in the mid-1980s from Transit
Doppler surveys. Starting in 199 1, DMA adjusted these
coordinates in their precise orbit computations to
account for plate motion effects. The Air Force
continued to use the unadjusted coordinates. Much
evidence has been obtained over the past few years of a
significant positive height bias in these coordinates. For
these and other reasons DMA decided to replace the
existing coordinates with GPS-realized WGS 84
coordinates.
An improved set of WGS 84 coordinates for all ten
tracking sites has been derived by the Naval Surface
Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division using carrier phase
observations processed simultaneously with carrier
phase observations collected at twenty-two globally
distributed Rogue receiver sites during the 1992
International GPS Geodynamics (IGS) Campaign. Eight
of the IGS sites were chosen as fiducial sites. The
specifics of how these improved coordinates were
derived and the evaluations performed related to the
generation of the DMA precise orbits are presented in
this paper.


The aim of this cross-sectional study was to characterize newborns that underwent cardiac surgery in a private hospital, a reference center in neonatal cardiac surgery, in the city of Sõ Paulo. Data were collected from medical reports from July, 2001 to December, 2005. Newborns with gestational age of more than 35 weeks were included in the study. Newborns that died on the first 48 postoperative hours and with other malformations were excluded. Most of the neonates were term, weighted 2500 grams or more, and underwent surgery in the first week of life. There were 24 different diagnoses identified and 14 different types of surgery performed. In the first post-operative day, all newborns had invasive devices for vital signs monitoring or for treatment and life support, which shows not only the complexity of the treatment but the need for planning and organizing health services in order to provide adequate care for these patients.


On pig farms, a high proportion of the cost of production comes from feed costs. However, the use of alternative ingredients such as legume seeds may help to reduce this cost. In fact, legume seeds are an important source of essential amino acids (EAA) and can therefore be an alternative to oilseed meals. However, the accurate use of these legume seeds requires a precise knowledge of the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of EAA, which may vary depending on its botanical variety. A meta-analysis was performed on a database compiling data from 41 studies published between 1981 and 2013 and 178 dietary treatments. Models of prediction of the SID of EAA as well as the dietary concentration of digestible standardized EAA (dEAA) were obtained, based on the chemical composition of ingredients reported in the publications. The effect of the type of legume seeds (faba bean, lupin, pea and soya bean), surgical procedures (T-cannula, re-entrant cannulas, post valve T-cannulas and ileo-rectal anastomosis), and BW of pigs (BW⩽25 kg BW>25 kg) were also tested in each model. Results showed that dietary CP and crude fibre (CF) were, respectively, the best predictors of each EAA SID for faba bean, lupin and pea (R 2=0.42 to 0.89) and soya bean (R 2=0.32 to 0.77). For the dEAA content, the best prediction models included dietary CP and ADF for faba bean, lupin and pea and soya bean, respectively, with R 2 ranging from 0.66 to 0.98. Models developed in this study allow predicting the digestibility of EAA in these alternatives feedstuffs.


Domain adaptive semantic segmentation aims to train a model performing satisfactory pixel-level predictions on the target with only out-of-domain (source) annotations. The conventional solution to this task is to minimize the discrepancy between source and target to enable effective knowledge transfer. Previous domain discrepancy minimization methods are mainly based on the adversarial training. They tend to consider the domain discrepancy globally, which ignore the pixel-wise relationships and are less discriminative. In this paper, we propose to build the pixel-level cycle association between source and target pixel pairs and contrastively strengthen their connections to diminish the domain gap and make the features more discriminative. To the best of our knowledge, this is a new perspective for tackling such a challenging task. Experiment results on two representative domain adaptation benchmarks, i.e. GTAV $\rightarrow$ Cityscapes and SYNTHIA $\rightarrow$ Cityscapes, verify the effectiveness of our proposed method and demonstrate that our method performs favorably against previous state-of-the-arts. Our method can be trained end-to-end in one stage and introduces no additional parameters, which is expected to serve as a general framework and help ease future research in domain adaptive semantic segmentation. Code is available at https://github.com/kgl-prml/Pixel- Level-Cycle-Association.


: This paper discusses the results of experiments conducted with a view to determining the hidden effects of epoxy composites, which cannot generally be ascertained through the use of various toxicological, biochemical, immunological, allergic, morphological, and cytological methods of examination. To discover possible hidden effects of epoxy filling materials experimental use was made of the following methods: hunger diet, ethylalcohol supply, and composite extract supply. Shifts in functions of the organism were evaluated by the following criteria: weight dynamics of animals, histamine content of the blood, and eosinopenic reaction of the blood. The data obtained by the authors shows that it is possible for functional straining to be used as a method of discovering possible hidden harmful effects of dental polymers.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to measure the attitude and practice of Kuwaiti patients in Kuwait with regard to safe disposal of unwanted medicines. Subjects and Methods: Three-hundred patients or their family members waiting for prescriptions at public general hospitals in Kuwait completed a questionnaire soliciting their practice with regard to medication use and disposal, and their opinion of the best way to dispose of unwanted medicines. Results: Almost half of the respondents (45.4%) obtained medicines on prescription more than 3 times a year and almost all had unwanted medicines in the home. Reasons for possessing unused medication were mostly due to a change of medication by the doctor (48.9%), or self-discontinuation (25.8%). Their most common method of disposal was to throw unwanted medicines in the trash (76.5%) or flush them down the drain (11.2%). Half (54.0%) thought that a system of taking medicines to pharmacies for safe disposal would be favorable. Conclusion: The study indicates that the need for an appropriate method for disposal of unwanted medication exists in Kuwait. Hence, guidelines on safe disposal of unwanted medicines are required and an organized method of collecting unused medication needs to be introduced.


Minihepcidins are hepcidin agonists that have been previously shown to reverse iron overload and improve erythropoiesis in mice affected by non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia. Given the extreme anemia that occurred with the previous model of transfusion-dependent thalassemia, that model was inadequate for investigating whether minihepcidins can improve red blood cell quality, lifespan and ineffective erythropoiesis. To overcome this limitation, we generated a new murine model of transfusion-dependent thalassemia with severe anemia and splenomegaly, but sufficient red cells and hemoglobin production to test the effect of minihepcidins. Furthermore, this new model demonstrates cardiac iron overload for the first time. In the absence of transfusions, minihepcidins improved red blood cell morphology and lifespan as well as ineffective erythropoiesis. Administration of a minihepcidin in combination with chronic red blood cell transfusion further improved the ineffective erythropoiesis and splenomegaly and reversed cardiac iron overload. These studies indicate that drugs such as minihepcidins have therapeutic potential for patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia.


The fate of utopian thought in modernity is paradoxical. On the one hand, the utopian horizon of the future opens up in an unprecedented way in the late eighteenth century. On the other hand, there is a widespread suspicion of concrete utopian representation. Even those who take utopian writing seriously, whose own projects are in some way utopian, like Fredric Jameson in his recent Archaeologies of the Future, prize abstract utopian form over determinate utopian content. Contemporary critical theory is characterized by a "utopianism without utopia" and this attitude, I argue, has its genesis in forms of representation and critique developed in the Romantic period. By examining four different utopian spaces explored in Wordsworth's "Female Vagrant," I show that the poem functions as an allegory of the fate of utopian representation in modernity, both exposing the tragic insufficiencies of abstract utopianism and offering its own exemplary experiment in concrete utopian representation.


Owing to shifting market demands, it is important to convert ethylene to propylene. One attractive way to achieve this conversion is the dimerization of ethylene to 1‐butene, followed by isomerization to 2‐butene and subsequent metathesis of 2‐butene/ethylene olefin. Our contribution focuses on combining the first two steps. Herein, we report a highly selective tandem dimerization/isomerization of ethylene to 2‐butene catalyzed by homogeneously dissolved cationic nickel complexes. These catalysts can be efficiently immobilized by using the supported ionic liquid phase technology. Such supported ionic liquid phase materials have been tested under continuous gas phase conditions and demonstrated attractive catalytic performance with respect to both catalyst stability and productivity after the optimization of support, ionic liquid, ligand, and process parameters. The limited thermal stability of the nickel complexes and olefin condensation at too low temperatures require a careful thermal management of the fixed‐bed reactor.