Guidelines for introduction and ex situ cultivation of species from genus Alchemilla, known by its curative properties for a variety of health disorders are presented for the fi rst time. Subject of the study are the rare and protected Bulgarian species Alchemilla achtarowii Pawl., A. jumrukczalica Pawl. and A. mollis (Buser.) Rothm., which showed high antioxidant activity in our recent research. Transplant material from natural populations grown in two live collections in the regions of Vitosha Mt. (1404 masl) and West Rhodopes Mt. (1500 masl) (Bulgaria) was used. The growth and development rate of the new plants was assessed according to the method of phenological observations. Nine morphometrical indices were studied and the biological productivity of the species was determined in ex situ conditions. The quantities of fl avonoids (calculated as % quercetin) and tannins (calculated as % pyrogallol) during the different phenological stages of ex situ plant development were assessed via spectrophotometric methods. Several differences between the species in the two experimental stations were summarized as dependent on the ecological conditions. All results of the study were used to elaborate methodological instruction for successful cultivation of the species in fi eld conditions.


A laser ablation/ionization mass spectrometer system is described for the direct analysis of solids, particles, and fibers. The system uses a quadrupole ion trap operated in an ion-storage (IS) mode, coupled with a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS). The sample is inserted radially into the ring electrode and an imaging system allows direct viewing and selected analysis of the sample. Measurements identified trace contaminants of Ag, Sn, and Sb in a Pb target with single laser-shot experiments. Resolution (m/{Delta}m) of 1500 and detection limits of approximately 10 pg have been achieved with a single laser pulse. The system configuration and related operating principles for accurately measuring low concentrations of isotopes are described.


Thermal vibration characteristics of the composite thin-cylindrical shell embedded with shape memory alloy (SMA) fibers are investigated. The shape memory alloy material behavior is programmed in the form of an ABAQUS user subroutine code (UMAT), and this program is successfully verified by using the response of pseudoelasticity and the shape memory effect (SME) at various temperatures and stress levels. Based on the ABAQUS UMAT code, the natural frequency of the composite thin-cylindrical shell embedded with SMA wires under thermal load and mechanical load is calculated respectively. Then the effects of the SMA wire temperature and the content on the thermal vibration characteristics of the structure are discussed. Numerical simulation results show that the temperature and the volume content of the SMA wires increase the stiffness and buckling critical load of the structure.


The influence of parents' savings behaviour on that of their children has often been remarked. This paper attempts to explain this "poids d'Anchise" via a unique French dataset collected by DELTA and TNSSofres in 2002, which contains both savings and subjective information for two or three generations of the same family. Parents' and children's risk and discounting preferences are significantly positively intergenerationally correlated. The correlation coefficients are around 0.25, so that the two preferences are nonetheless far from identical. In addition, the elasticity of children's wealth with respect to that of their parents is around 0.22. This correlation is corrected for the influence of age on wealth, and concerns only co-existing generations, that is before the most significant intergenerational transfers have taken place. The analysis of the raw correlations with a series of explanatory variables reveals that over 40% of this elasticity can be explained by the permanent incomes of the two generations. Each of education and preferences separately account for about 20%, and previous intergenerational transfers for about 13%. When permanent income is controlled for, the contribution of savings preferences is around 13%. The transmission of preferences therefore plays a non-negligible role in the intergenerational transmission of wealth inequalities, but is far from being the most important factor.


This study by Ghinassi et al. aims to document the representation of midlatitude Rossby wave activity in state-of-the-art climate models of the PRIMAVERA project. The authors find that overall the models reasonably well represent the climatological mean wave activity (LWA). Increasing the resolution of the models generally improves the representation of the stationary LWA but not necessarily of the transient LWA. Further, it is found that an improvement of the models can only be observed when both the oceanic and atmospheric resolution is changed. For models where only the atmospheric resolution was changed a worsening of the models' ability to represent the LWA is detected. The study is well written and the figures are clear. However, I have some major and in my view important comments which need to be addressed. Once these comments (which may change the interpretation) have been addressed I am happy to provide a more detailed review. Just to make sure, I am generally very positive about the work. Thus, I highly encourage the authors to submit a revised version of the manuscript to WCD.


Using art to reconnect with others-and oneself. I'd been visiting Martha for weeks, hut nothing much had come of it. I talked; she stared out the window. She didn't seem upset, but I didn't think she was really listening. I thought she was simply enjoying the sound of my voice. So I started to ramble. I talked about whatever came into my head. One day, I mentioned something about Christmas. She pulled her head away from the window and looked directly at me. I asked her, "What did you do for Christmas when you were young?" To my great surprise, Martha began to sing in what I later learned was Swedish. She sang a song that had been a family tradition, three complete verses, with the chorus in between. Her face appeared lit from within. Over the past decade while working in the arts with people who have dementia, I've witnessed several such miracles, as I consider diem to be. People who have edited themselves into silence for fear of saying the wrong thing, or shut themselves clown to avoid contact they cannot understand, can use the arts to reconnect with themselves and the people who care for them. And perhaps most important, the arts offer a chance for people with dementia to connect with the people who have forgotten themtheir communities at large. The arts offer great value to people with dementia and warrant tremendous hope for the future. 'THE ARTS' AND 'DEMENTIA' DEFINED I would like to define these two broad concepts before I remark on their mutual benefits. First, by the term the arts, I mean any medium used for creative expression, including not just paint (visual arts) and costumes (dramatic arts), but words (poetry, storytelling), plants (gardening), food (cooking), fabric (weaving, fiber arts), clay (pottery), and the human body (dance). If it can be used to convey meaning, it is a tool for creative self-expression. Second, by the term dementia, I refer to the umbrella category of deteriorated mentality that includes Alzheimer's disease, multi-infarct dementia, Pick's disease, Parkinson's disease, and vascular dementia. The latest figures suggest that these conditions affect up to 75 percent of older adults living in skilled nursing facilities and up to 50 percent of all people 85 years of age and older. We are also now learning more about dementia as it affects younger people, including those with multiple sclerosis, Down's syndrome, or AIDS. People with dementia can use creative expression, no matter the cause of the dementia and no matter where they live-at home with a home health aide or family members or in communal living arrangements such as assisted living centers and skilled nursing facilities. WHAT THE ARTS BRING To people with dementia, the arts bring tools that enable them to express themselves and their vision of the world and are particularly powerful tor this group because the arts operate on an emotional level. One needn't have control of rational language to write a poem, create a dance, or take a photograph. Where rational language and tactual memory have failed people with dementia, the arts offer an avenue for communication and connection with caregivcrs, loved ones, and the greater world. More specifically, researchers have tried to understand exactly how the arts benefit people with dementia, focusing mainly on quality of life, particularly by reading the faces of people with dementia to assess their interest, engagement, and pleasure, and by observing any reductions in what are called "problem behaviors" such as wandering, verbal outbursts, or aggressiveness. While such studies have found the arts to be effective, the numbers of people studied (sample sizes) are too small for the studies to be conclusive. In general, there are very few control studies of the effect of the arts on people with dementia in which arts programs are compared with other types of activities. 'MEDICAL' vs 'SOCIAL' ARTS PROGRAMS Two basic and overlapping modes of arts programs are being used for people with dementia-medical and social programs. …


ABSTRACT The East Asian peace has lasted since 1979, but regional and global rivalries, unresolved historical grievances, and new nuclear weapons threaten its continuation. In order to reduce these risks, confidence-building measures and crisis management mechanisms are needed. How can the states in Northeast Asia develop such measures, given their high level of mutual distrust? Should confidence-building measures come first, or does confidence-building depend on prior trust-building? This paper explores insights from the academic literature on trust, highlighting the role of trust entrepreneurs, who are willing to open their minds to the possibility of new relationships. Five steps are identified which can lead away from mistrust. The first is to replace enemy images with a recognition of a shared security dilemma. The second is to signal a willingness for change. The third is to persist even when signals are not returned. The fourth is to enter dialogue. The fifth is to pursue steps that embed further cooperation. This approach is applied to confidence-building, trust-building, and security building in Northeast Asia. A pathway forward is sketched, starting with confidence building between the two Koreas, leading on to a peace treaty, a nuclear weapon free zone, and co-operative security arrangements in the region.


The vast amounts of data to be processed by today's applications demand higher computational power. To meet application requirements and achieve reasonable application performance, it becomes increasingly profitable, or even necessary, to exploit any available hardware parallelism. For both new and legacy applications, successful parallelization is often subject to high cost and price. This chapter proposes a set of methods that employ an optimistic semi-automatic approach, which enables programmers to exploit parallelism on modern hardware architectures. It provides a set of methods, including an LLVM-based tool, to help programmers identify the most promising parallelization targets and understand the key types of parallelism. The approach reduces the manual effort needed for parallelization. A contribution of this work is an efficient profiling method to determine the control and data dependences for performing parallelism discovery or other types of code analysis. Another contribution is a method for detecting code sections where parallel design patterns might be applicable and suggesting relevant code transformations. Our approach efficiently reports detailed runtime data dependences. It accurately identifies opportunities for parallelism and the appropriate type of parallelism to use as task-based or loop-based.


An estimated 2%-4% of the working population could be affected by sleep disordered breathing, in particular by obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. The main symptom is excessive daytime sleepiness, caused by sleep interruptions induced by respiratory events. The level of sleepiness varies according to the severity and duration of the disease: from a slight decrease in vigilance to an almost total inability to keep alert for more than a few hours. In addition, there is an increase in cardiovascular risks and dysmetabolic disorders, which has a variable incidence in the affected population. Even less severe clinical conditions can lead to a reduction in the power of concentration, attention and working performance. The recent trend of research aims at verifying the association between risk factors and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in order to identify those subjects at real risk, to determine the actual level of sleep-disordered breathing which should be treated and whether the less serious disturbances, so frequent in the general population, represent a real threat to health.


Metastatic seeding or iatrogenic implantation of numerous types of primary central nervous system tumors, typically along cerebrospinal fluid pathways, is a frequently described albeit rare phenomenon and has never been reported in association with vestibular schwannoma (VS). The authors present a case of inadvertent surgical implantation of VS into the cerebellar hemisphere during resection of a recurrent VS in the cerebellopontine angle and internal auditory canal. A 42-year-old man presented with a 2.5-cm right VS that was removed without complication via a retrosigmoid approach. Routine imaging performed 5 years later revealed a 1.5-cm recurrence of the VS that was subsequently removed by reopening the retrosigmoid craniotomy. Five years later--10 years after initial presentation--follow-up imaging revealed a 1-cm recurrence of the VS and a separate 2.2-cm tumor in the inferior cerebellar parenchyma with surrounding edema. Both tumors were removed without complication by reopening the previous retrosigmoid craniotomy. Histological evaluation of these tumors revealed features typical of VS and similar to those of the tissue obtained from the two prior resections. Given the similarities among these tumors in pathological appearance and mitotic index, the presence of the intraparenchymal cerebellar schwannoma was probably due to intraoperative iatrogenic implantation.


Ricci collineations and Ricci inheritance collineations of Friedmann–Robertson–Walker spacetimes are considered. When the Ricci tensor is non-degenerate, it is shown that the spacetime always admits a 15-parameter group of Ricci inheritance collineations; this is the maximal possible dimension for spacetime manifolds. The general form of the vector generating the symmetry is exhibited. It is also shown, in the generic case, that the group of Ricci collineations is six-dimensional and coincides with the isometry group. In special cases the spacetime may admit either one or four proper Ricci collineations in addition to the six isometries. These special cases are classified and the general form of the vector fields generating the Ricci collineations is exhibited. When the Ricci tensor is degenerate, the groups of Ricci inheritance collineations and Ricci collineations are infinite-dimensional. General forms for the generating vectors are obtained. Similar results are obtained for matter collineations and matter inheritance collineations.


Although current demands for therapeutic mAbs are growing quickly, production methods to date, including in vitro mammalian tissue culture and transgenic animals, provide only limited quantities at high cost. Several tumor-associated antigens in tumor cells have been identified as targets for therapeutic mAbs. Here we describe the production of mAb BR55-2 (IgG2a) in transgenic plants that recognizes the nonprotein tumor-associated antigen Lewis Y oligosaccharide overexpressed in human carcinomas, particularly breast and colorectal cancers. Heavy and light chains of mAb BR55-2 were expressed separately and assembled in plant cells of low-alkaloid tobacco transgenic plants (Nicotiana tabacum cv. LAMD609). Expression levels of plant-derived mAb (mAbP) were high (30 mg/kg of fresh leaves) in T1 generation plants. Like the mammalian-derived mAbM, the plant mAbP bound specifically to both SK-BR3 breast cancer cells and SW948 colorectal cancer cells. The Fc domain of both mAbP and mAbM showed the similar binding to FcgammaRI receptor (CD64). Comparable levels of cytotoxicity against SK-BR3 cells were also shown for both mAbs in antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity assay. Furthermore, plant-derived BR55-2 efficiently inhibited SW948 tumor growth xenografted in nude mice. Altogether, these findings suggest that mAbP originating from low-alkaloid tobacco exhibit biological activities suitable for efficient immunotherapy.


Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a promising new therapeutic modality having demonstrated clinical efficacy in the treatment of cancer. While ADCs have better exposures than their constitutive chemotypes, it is important that they maintain the favorable pharmacokinetics of their antibody backbones. Previous work incorporating PEG into the drug-linker as a sidechain helped to mask the hydrophobicity of the chemotypes, resulting in improved ADC exposures in rats compared to ADCs with non-PEGylated drug-linkers. The current studies were aimed at understanding the effect of PEG chain length on ADC efficacy, tumor and tissue distribution in tumor bearing mice. Efficacy and biodistribution of radiolabeled ADCs with 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 PEG units in the drug-linker as a side chain were investigated in SCID mice bearing a subcutaneous xenograft of L540cy tumor cells. A non-PEGylated ADC was used as control. Antibody based radioactivity in plasma, tumor, liver, lung, kidney, spleen and brain were measured over 14 days. MMAE, the free drug released from the ADC, was measured by mass spectrometry. Reduction in tumor weight was determined as a measure of efficacy. Compartmental analysis of the plasma exposure data was conducted to understand the change in rate constants with change in PEG chain length. ADCs with side chain PEGylated drug-linkers had greater plasma and tumor exposures than the non-PEGylated control ADC. Increasing PEG chain length in the linker led to increased plasma and tumor exposures, and lower plasma clearances. Tumor distribution was binary with ADCs with 2 and 4 PEG units in the linker showing similar tumor exposures while the ADCs with 8, 12 and 24 PEG units providing similar but significantly higher tumor exposures. ADCs with 8, 12 and 24 PEG units in the linker had significantly higher tumor to plasma exposure ratios than ADCs with 2 and 4-PEG units in the drug-linker. The reduction in tumor weights was also binary. ADCs with 2 and 4 PEG units provided a 35-45% decrease in tumor weights while ADCs with 8, 12 and 24 PEG units in the linker provided 75-85% reduction in tumor weights. The non-PEGylated control ADC decreased the tumor weights by 11%. In general, PEGylated ADCs increased the extent of tissue distribution, but the tissue to plasma ratios remained the same indicating that the increased tissue exposures was a function of increased plasma exposures. However, PEGylated ADC tumor exposure increased beyond that expected based solely on the increase in plasma exposure. Incorporation of PEG as a side chain into the drug-linker improved the tumor disposition of ADCs with little alteration in tissue disposition. ADCs with 8, 12 and 24 PEG units in the drug- linker showed preferential uptake into tumor, but not the tissues as evidenced by tumor (or tissue) to plasma exposure ratios. Over all, the ADCs with 8, 12 and 24 PEG units in the linker provided the optimal combination of tumor distribution, efficacy and tissue distribution. Citation Format: Nagendra V. Chemuturi, Martha Anderson, Julia Cochran, Thomas Pires, Josh Hunter, David Meyer, Jason Neale, Alice Chin, Paul Pittman, Cindy Balasubramanian, Francisco Zapata, Jessica Simmons, Robert Lyon, Steve Alley. Effect of PEG chain length on antibody-drug conjugate tumor and tissue distribution in tumor bearing xenograft mice [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4075. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4075


The toxic effect of chromium on the histology of gill and liver of Labeo rohita fingerlings was studied. The fingerlings were exposed for 10, 20 and 30 days in 10% sublethal concentration of 96 h LC50 of chromium (3.5 ppm). The gills exposed to sublethal concentration of chromium showed mild histological alterations during 10 days of exposure. However after 30 days, fusion of gill lamellae, hypertrophy and degeneration of epithelium were prominent. Liver lesions consisted of vacuolation, degeneration of hepatocytes and disintegration of cell boundaries of hepatocytes. These changes occurred predominantly in the 30 days exposure.


We present an end-to-end methodological framework for causal segment discovery that aims to uncover differential impacts of treatments across subgroups of users in large-scale digital experiments. Building on recent developments in causal inference and non/semi-parametric statistics, our approach unifies two objectives: (1) the discovery of user segments that stand to benefit from a candidate treatment based on subgroup-specific treatment effects, and (2) the evaluation of causal impacts of dynamically assigning units to a study's treatment arm based on their predicted segment-specific benefit or harm. Our proposal is model-agnostic, capable of incorporating state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms into the estimation procedure, and is applicable in randomized A/B tests and quasi-experiments. An open source R package implementation, sherlock, is introduced.


Reliable doping is required to realize many devices based on semiconductor nanowires. Group III-V nanowires show great promise as elements of high-speed optoelectronic devices, but for such applications it is important that the electron mobility is not compromised by the inclusion of dopants. Here we show that GaAs nanowires can be n-type doped with negligible loss of electron mobility. Molecular beam epitaxy was used to fabricate modulation-doped GaAs nanowires with Al0.33Ga0.67As shells that contained a layer of Si dopants. We identify the presence of the doped layer from a high-angle annular dark field scanning electron microscopy cross-section image. The doping density, carrier mobility, and charge carrier lifetimes of these n-type nanowires and nominally undoped reference samples were determined using the noncontact method of optical pump terahertz probe spectroscopy. An n-type extrinsic carrier concentration of 1.10 ± 0.06 × 10(16) cm(-3) was extracted, demonstrating the effectiveness of modulation doping in GaAs nanowires. The room-temperature electron mobility was also found to be high at 2200 ± 300 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) and importantly minimal degradation was observed compared with undoped reference nanowires at similar electron densities. In addition, modulation doping significantly enhanced the room-temperature photoconductivity and photoluminescence lifetimes to 3.9 ± 0.3 and 2.4 ± 0.1 ns respectively, revealing that modulation doping can passivate interfacial trap states.


The increased use of composites in aerospace components is expected to continue into the future. The large scale use of composites in aerospace necessitates the development of composite-appropriate nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods to quantitatively characterize defects in as-manufactured parts and damage incurred during or post manufacturing. Ultrasonic techniques are one of the most common approaches for defect/damage detection in composite materials. One key technical challenge area included in NASA's Advanced Composite's Project is to develop optimized rapid inspection methods for composite materials. Common manufacturing defects in carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites include fiber waviness (in-plane and out-of-plane), porosity, and disbonds; among others. This paper is an overview of ongoing work to develop ultrasonic wavefield based methods for characterizing manufacturing waviness defects. The paper describes the development and implementation of a custom ultrasound simulation tool that is used to model ultrasonic wave interaction with in-plane fiber waviness (also known as marcelling). Wavefield data processing methods are applied to the simulation data to explore possible routes for quantitative defect characterization.


A low phase noise and highly tunable 5.15-GHz LC VCO is presented and analyzed. The phase noise achieved is -97 and -118 dBc/Hz at 100 KHz and 1 MHz offsets respectively from the carrier frequency of 5.15 GHz, with 2.5 V power supply voltage and giving a low power consumption of 11.4 mW by considering the proposed oscillator topology, which exhibits less power consumption than the traditional VCO using the classical differential transconductor pair. A broad tuning range has been achieved by means of standard mode PMOS varactors. The tunability of the designed VCO covers 780 MHz, from 4.42 GHz up to 5.2 GHz. The proposed VCO is fully operational under variable conditions including temperature and supply voltage variations.


Introduction: Exercise tolerance gradually declines with sedentary ageing, which contributes to reduced quality of life. With ageing, slower pulmonary oxygen uptake kinetics manifest as a consequence of impairments along the oxygen transport and utilisation pathways. Consequently, there is a mismatch between metabolic demand and O2 delivery, and the oxygen deficit is exacerbated during exercise. Strategies that target the vascular endothelium and skeletal muscle are therefore required to respectively improve O2 delivery and utilisation. Flavonoids may provide therapeutic value through their interaction with cellular processes associated with energy metabolism, but their exact effects on vascular endothelial and skeletal muscle cells are yet to be fully described. Objective: The overall objective of this thesis is to investigate whether flavonoid supplementation impacts VO2 kinetics and exercise tolerance in vivo, and to examine whether flavonoids modulate vascular endothelial and/or skeletal muscle cell (control and aged) function as it relates to energy metabolism, in vitro. Methods: Three models were used to achieve the thesis objectives: 1) Randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled trial to investigate whether flavonoid supplementation modulates VO2 kinetics and exercise tolerance in physically inactive middle-aged adults. 2) human vascular endothelial cell model to investigate the effects of flavonoids on RONS production, mitochondrial function and cells signalling. 3) Replicative ageing skeletal myoblast/myotube model to investigate the impact of ageing on the effects of micromolar concentrations of flavonoids on RONS production, mitochondrial function, cell signalling and metabolic signatures. Results: Model 1: Cocoa-flavanol supplementation sped phase II VO2 kinetics by 15% during moderate-intensity exercise in physically inactive middle-aged adults, but did not alter exercise tolerance. Model 2: In vascular endothelial cells, antimycin A augmented ROS emission, which was modulated by flavonoids in a dose-dependent manner. However, flavonoids did not impact mitochondrial respiration. EPI treatment augmented NRF2 expression and genes associated with mitochondrial remodelling. NRF2 induction in vascular endothelial cells appeared downstream of increased ERK1/2 signalling and may relate to increased NO bioavailability. Model 3: Ageing attenuated coupling efficiency and OXPHOS in myotubes, but not myoblasts, whilst increasing mitochondrial ROS production. Flavonoid treatment did not rescue age-related mitochondrial dysfunction. However, flavonoids upregulated NRF2 in skeletal muscle cells, and in the presence of EPI, NRF2 induction appeared downstream of increased AMPK signalling, but independent of NO bioavailability. Replicative ageing significantly altered the metabolic signatures of myoblasts and myotubes, which were only partially affected by flavonoid treatment. Conclusion(s): Cocoa-flavanols speed VO2 kinetics during moderate intensity exercise, but do not enhance exercise tolerance. The speeding of VO2 kinetics with cocoa flavanols in vivo may relate to the action of flavonoids on vascular endothelial and skeletal muscle cellular processes. Flavonoids differentially impact mitochondrial ROS production and gene expression profiles in skeletal muscle and vascular endothelial cells. However, flavonoids do not play a major role in modulating mitochondrial respiration, regardless of cell type. EPI in-particular may afford mitochondrial adaptations via induction of NRF2 and ERK1/2 or AMPK signalling in vascular endothelial and skeletal muscle cells, respectively, potentially through the effects of hormesis. In the context of sedentary ageing, flavonoid supplementation may enhance quality of life through effects on VO2 kinetics, and the modulation of RONS production and adaptive responses at the cellular level.


User 1 This paper1 presents a multimodal interface featuring fusion of multiple modalities for natural human-computer interaction. The architecture of the interface and the methods applied are described, and the results of the real-time multimodal fusion are analyzed. The research in progress concerning a mission planning scenario is discussed and other possible future directions are also presented.


Branched broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa), a parasitic weed that was the focus of a $1.5 million eradication effort four decades ago in California, has recently re-emerged in tomato fields in several Central Valley counties. Processing tomatoes are important to the California agricultural economy; the state produced over 90% of the 12 million tons of tomatoes grown in the United States in 2018. Branched broomrape is listed as an "A" noxious weed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA); discovery of broomrape in California tomato fields leads to quarantine and crop destruction without harvest, resulting in significant economic loss to growers. In countries where broomrape is common, yield reductions caused by this parasitic weed can range from moderate to 80%, depending upon the infestation level, host and environmental conditions. Developing a detailed understanding of the biology of this weed under local conditions is an important step towards developing effective management plans for California. In this review, we discuss branched broomrape in the context of California production systems, particularly of tomato. We also discuss the potential management practices that could help to prevent or reduce the impacts of branched broomrape in tomatoes and other host crops.


A method for sealing the pump-out hole of vacuum glass comprises: first preparing metal layer which is bonded with the glass plate at the outside surface of the glass plate around the pump-out hole; and air-tightly welding the sealing element and the metal layer around the pump-out hole by metal brazing technology after pumping. A structure and a device for sealing the pump-out hole of vacuum glass are also provided. The method can seal the pump-out hole reliably and firmly; the sealing structure is stable and has long service life; the welding between the sealing element and the metal layer can be completed instantly and the properties of the glass materials will not be affected.


ABSTRACT What does utopian thinking have to offer students and scholars of mobility? Could 'mobile utopias' assist us in envisioning futures – including those of mobility – differently? Do utopias provide a unique opportunity to examine the relationship between mobile societies and lives and the environments against which these are formed? By providing different ways of reading and arguing within different theoretical frameworks and doing so in relation to the contexts their contributions engage, the articles included in this special issue explore the limits of what the mobile utopias of the future might be, their social and spatial dimensions, and their totalizing, fragmentary, or, personal definitions. As a whole, the issue contributes to the intellectual project of how to turn utopia into a method, as Levitas, Jameson, Harvey, and others have long encouraged us to do. With a few exceptions, utopias have not received the attention they deserve from mobilities scholars. Our aim in putting together this special issue is to redress this balance and invite further reflection on what utopian thinking might offer current debates in mobilities scholarship. This Introduction draws connections across approaches, foci, methods, geographies, and sources, including those deployed in the issue's six articles, in the interest of excavating possible hopeful orientations through critique. Central to this is the recognition of the significance of critiquing the images of mobility which circulate widely (think of drones) and of the necessity to listen attentively to voices overlooked by mobility futures which stand far removed from the reactions and feelings of people in their everyday worlds. Ours is an invitation both to pay close attention to what utopian thinking does – rather than what utopia is – and to help us carve out a new intellectual space where to reflect on the how, when and where mobilities and utopias meet, now, but also in the past, and in the future.


Abstract. Based on GIS and RS technology, this paper analyzed the land use change in Da'an city from 1995 to 2010. land-use ecological evaluation index was constructed to evaluate the land-use ecological risk of Da 'an city dynamically, and the land-use ecological risk level map was made, and then the distribution and change of the land-use ecological carrying capacity pattern of Da'an city were analyzed qualitatively. According to the evaluation results of ecological carrying capacity, the ecological environment of Da'an city has deteriorated in fifteen years. in 1995, the poor ecological environment area is mainly distributed in the northeast area of Da'an city, and the area is small, while the area of the central and southern areas is large; In 2010, the western region also appeared environmental degradation, the northeast environment deterioration is serious, the dominant area is reduced, and a small amount of deterioration in the central and southern regions. According to the study of this paper, in the future, we should strengthen the comprehensive management of this part of the area, strengthen vegetation coverage, reduce soil erosion, ensure the effective improvement of ecological environment.


The demand for artificial blood vessels to treat vascular disease will continue to increase in the future. To expand the application of blood-compatible poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate) (pMEA) to artificial blood vessels, control of the mechanical properties of pMEA is established using supramolecular cross-links based on inclusion complexation of acetylated cyclodextrin. The mechanical properties, such as Young's modulus and toughness, of these pMEA-based elastomers change with the amount of cross-links, maintaining tissue-like behavior (J-shaped stress–strain curve). Regardless of the cross-links, the pMEA-based elastomers exhibit low platelet adhesion properties (approximately 3% platelet adherence) compared with those of poly(ethylene terephthalate), which is one of the commercialized materials for artificial blood vessels. Contact angle measurements imply a shift of supramolecular cross-links in response to the surrounding environment. When immersed in water, hydrophobic supramolecular cross-links are buried within the interior of the materials, thereby exposing pMEA chains to the aqueous environment; this is why supramolecular cross-links do not affect the platelet adhesion properties. In addition, the elastomers exhibit stable adhesion to human umbilical vein endothelial cells. This report shows the potential of combining supramolecular cross-links and pMEA.


System-level exploration of a novel Network-on-Chip (NoC) architecture with run-time communication bypassing is presented. Fine-grained DVFS (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling) is an effective power reduction technique. We propose run-time reconfigurable interconnect on each inter-router channel to minimize the latency and energy overhead. When two routers are running on the same frequency, FIFO-channel is bypassed by direct interconnect. Distributed algorithm is designed for per-core DVFS. Proper power delivery and clocking scheme are integrated. Simulation shows significant energy and latency saving.


B21 Objectives We carried out a nonrandomized trial to determine how participation in physical activity interventions (dragon boat paddling team versus a group walking program) impacted on physical and psychological outcomes. We report preliminary findings comparing the pre-post intervention differences on cancer-related quality-of-life (QoL). Participants and Methods 83/92 (90%) of participants who enrolled in the study completed an eight-week paddling (n=46) or walking (n=37) intervention. The 27-item FACT-G Scale was administered both pre- and post-intervention. We examined pre-post test differences in mean scores for the total FACT-G scale and four subscales. Results In the total study population, participation in a physical activity intervention was associated with significant post-intervention improvements in overall FACT-G QoL scores (post-test mean 84.5 vs. pretest mean 82.5; p=0.03). This included significant gains on the physical (p=0.02) and functional (p=0.01) QoL FACT-G subscales. These overall findings were consistent within both the paddling and walking interventions; no significant between-group differences were observed. However, the increase in the functional subscale mean score was statistically significant for the paddling (p=0.02) but not the walking (p=0.19) intervention. Conclusions Participation in a physical activity program, regardless of the type of program, increased overall cancer-related QoL in cancer survivors. This impact was most notable for QoL related to the physical and functional domains. These preliminary findings indicate that participating in a short-term physical activity program can lead to significant improvements in cancer-related QoL. Supported by NCI R03CA128482. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2008;1(7 Suppl):B21.


In this talk we will discuss a European Research Council funded collaborative effort to build a Python library for undertaking academic research in historical-comparative linguistics. Our aim of implementing quantitative methods, specifically in Python, is to transform historical-comparative linguistics from a primarily handcrafted scientific scholarly endeavor, performed by individual researchers, into a quantitative and collaborative field of research, involving linguists, mathematicians and computer scientists.


Over the last thirty-five years, headphones have been linked to a range of worrisome listening trends: from ostensibly encouraging antisocial behaviour, to putting listeners at risk of permanent hearing loss, to increasing otherwise avoidable pedestrian injuries and deaths. Efforts to address these issues have typically fallen into one of two categories. One approach has been to lobby for the strict regulation or banning of headphones in environments where they might pose a heightened risk. A second approach has been to advocate better public education on the potential dangers involved. Yet
neither approach — blaming technology or blaming behaviour — has been particularly effective in developing long-term solutions to these problems. According to recent studies, instances of headphone-relating hearing loss and pedestrian accidents continue to be on the rise, and the cultural stereotype of headphone listening as a quintessentially "antisocial" listening practice remains as strong as ever.
Drawing on Peter-Paul Verbeek's (2005; 2006; 2011) post-humanist moral philosophy of technology, this dissertation develops a different framework: namely, a design-oriented approach to what
I call "the moral problem of headphones." My premise is that in order to address the problem of headphones in a meaningful way we must begin, not by isolating technology or behaviour and treating them as underlying "causes," but by forging a deeper understanding of how headphone-related devices, listening strategies, and moral values are mutually shaped. By examining three historical moments in which headphones took on clear moral significance — (1) the introduction of broadcast radio in the 1920s, (2) the proliferation of television and hi-fi in the 1950s and 1960s, and (3) the rise of the
"personal stereo" in the early 1980s — this thesis demonstrates that headphone-related technologies, listening practices, and moralities are not immutable but have changed over time. It does so in service of a greater argument that our ability to make headphone listening safer and more responsible depends not on our ability to commit more strongly to, or oscillate more freely between, "bad technology" and "bad behaviour" perspectives, but to better engineer good headphone–listener "relations" through smarter moral design.


Abstract Fears raised about future food security have increasingly politicised the food system, challenged traditional notions of an urban/rural divide and highlighted the growing disconnection between people and their food. In Canberra, the issue of food has spawned both national policy responses as well as new personal engagements most overtly expressed in a 'turn to the local' through growing one's own food, purchasing it at farmers' retail outlets and, perhaps most significantly, shopping at farmers' markets. In all of these practices, we can glimpse new articulations of human/nature relationships grounded in notions of well-being. Through a focus on the farmers' markets this research draws on analysis of ethnographic and organisational data to examine the multiple ways in which the staging of this food-based exchange can construct and facilitate more productive engagement with practices of ecological well-being which move beyond notions of caring for the environment. Through the Capital Region Farmers Market, we explore the potential for embodied engagement in the food system to actively (re)connect people to the communities, land and the environment which yields their food. In so doing, we investigate the potential of these sites to promote more ethical ecological understandings and practices.


Based on the data available in the literature, the paper describes the present idea on the role of imbalance of trace elements (in addition to iodine deficiency) in the development of endemic goiter. It also characterizes the effects of selenium, cobalt, copper, zinc, iron, and manganese on the thyroid structural and functional state.


Transfer and Generalization of Learned Manipulation between Unimanual and Bimanual Tasks Trevor Lee Successful grasping and dexterous object manipulation relies on the ability to form internal representations of object properties that can be used to control digit kinetics and kinematics. Sensory cues and sensorimotor experience enable the updating of these internal representations. Aside from the weight of the object, the center of mass of the object results in object torque that needs to be represented and compensated for. In order to counter object torque, digit forces and centers of pressure are modulated to generate a compensatory moment to prevent object roll. Generalization studies can be used to examine whether this learning is represented on a low effector-specific level or a high task-specific level. Previous studies have shown that the internal representation of object torque does not generalize after object rotation or contralateral hand switch suggesting an effector level of representation. However, it has been shown that switching from two to three digits and vice versa does lead to full generalization suggesting a high level representation in certain circumstances. Thus, an understanding of whether learned manipulation would generalize when adding or removing the number of degrees of freedom and effectors would provide more information on these levels of representation. We asked 30 participants to lift a visual symmetrical object with an asymmetrical center of mass. Participants lifted the object 10 times in one grasp type (right hand unimanual, bimanual, or left hand unimanual). Following that, they switched to another grasp type and lifted the object another 10 times. Through various different orders of these transfer blocks, we examined their ability to generalize between unimanual and bimanual grasping by comparing the preand post-transfer trials. Our results show the partial generalization of learned manipulation when switching between unimanual and bimanual grasps. This is shown from the reduction in peak roll after transfer compared to novel trials and the generation of compensatory moments in the appropriate direction (but insufficient magnitude) after transfer. Moreover, after transfer to the right hand unimanual and bimanual grasps, moment generation was driven by digit center of pressure modulation while transfer for left hand unimanual grasps was driven by load force modulation. In addition, we also show failed generalization after contralateral hand switch as evidenced by large post-transfer rolls and minimal moments. We suggest that learned manipulation of object torque is a high level of representation but that this representation can only be accessed by either digit kinematics or kinetics, depending on the hand used.


The Pioneer Venus orbiter gamma burst detector is an astrophysics experiment for monitoring cosmic gamma-ray bursts. It is included in this planetary mission to provide a long baseline for accurately locating the sources ofthese bursts in order to identify them with specific astronomical objects. Responses to 14 gammaray burst events were examined; these events were verified from data acquired by other systems. Preliminary locations are proposed for three events, based on data from the Pioneer Venus orbiter, ISEE C, and Vela spacecraft. These locations will be improved, and additional locations will be determined by including in the analyses data from Helios B and the Russian Venera 11, Venera 12, and Prognoz 7 spacecraft.


A demographic revolution is taking place in Europe and worldwide. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, the number of people aged 60 and over is growing faster than any other age group. This change in the population structure affects disease patterns and is deemed to cause an increase in the demands on healthcare systems. This raises concerns about the ethics of healthcare delivery (among others). What criteria should direct healthcare distribution? Is it right to meet the demands of an ageing population, to the detriment of the younger strata of population?This paper has been written thanks to the support of the European Union, which has sponsored my project on ageism with a Postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellowship. More details on this project are available at the website http://les.man.ac.uk/simona/. I thank Prof. John Harris for our discussions on the topic and for his comments on this paper.


Several occupations are male-dominated while others are women-dominated, and gender-based segregation shows great resistance to change. Researchers attribute it to secular stereotypes, socialization practices and gender-constructed roles. This paper attempts to establish an economic rationale behind these theories. In this paper, women have greater difficulty to conciliate the labor market with the household and for that reason have a higher cost of effort. We found that when the marginal cost of effort is increasing with effort, production tends to be organized in more competitive ways in which men are more competitive. In those cases, the economic forces push men towards these more competitive occupations, which are also the ones with higher returns. On the other hand, when the marginal cost of effort is decreasing with effort, production is organized in less competitive ways and women tend to provide higher effort than men. In those cases, the economic forces push women towards these less competitive occupations, which are also the ones with lower returns. These findings may help researchers and decision-makers better understand the economic mechanisms behind men and women occupational choices, e.g., in STEM, and designing policies that can allow men and women to have the same labor market opportunities.


An NEIO approach is used to measure seller market power in the French Comte cheese market, characterised by government-approved supply control. The estimation is performed on quarterly data at the wholesale stage over the period 1985-2005. Three different elasticity shifters are included in the demand specification, and the supply equation accounts for the existence of the European dairy quota policy. The market power estimate is small and statistically insignificant. Monopoly is rejected, as well as weak forms of Cournot oligopoly. Results appear to be robust to the choice of functional form, and suggest little effect of the supply control scheme on consumer prices.


This paper presents an assessment of the applicability of using RADARSAT-2-derived soil moisture data in the Hydrologic Modelling System developed by the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC-HMS) for flood forecasting with a case study in the Sturgeon Creek watershed in Manitoba, Canada. Spring flooding in Manitoba is generally influenced by both winter precipitation and soil moisture conditions in the fall of the previous year. As a result, the soil moisture accounting (SMA) and the temperature index algorithms are employed in the simulation. Results from event and continuous simulations of HEC-HMS show that the model is suitable for flood forecasting in Manitoba. Soil moisture data from the Manitoba Agriculture field survey and RADARSAT-2 satellite were used to set the initial soil moisture for the event simulations. The results confirm the benefit of using satellite data in capturing peak flows in a snowmelt event. A sensitivity analysis of SMA parameters, such as soil storage, maximum infiltration, soil percolation, maximum canopy storage and tension storage, was performed and ranked to determine which parameters have a significant impact on the performance of the model. The results show that the soil moisture storage was the most sensitive parameter. The sensitivity analysis of initial soil moisture in a snowmelt event shows that cumulative flow and peak flow are highly influenced by the initial soil moisture setting of the model. Therefore, there is a potential to utilize RADARSAT-2-derived soil moisture for hydrological modelling in other snow-dominated Manitoba watersheds.


Exposure of the ovaries of Triturus cristatus to actinomycin D at a concentration of 100 µg/ml causes characteristic changes in the peripheral nucleoli and other nuclear organelles in oocytes of 0.6-1.1 mm diameter. Viewed with the light microscope untreated oocytes contain nucleoli that stain uniformly with a variety of dyes. They also appear homogeneous tmder phase-contrast optics. After 2 or 4 h of in vivo incubation with actinomycin D, oocyte sections stained with Haidenhain9s haematoxylin or viewed under phase-contrast optics show nucleoli composed of 2 regions. The more heavily stained or contrasted zone is crescent-shaped and directed away from the nuclear membrane. Neither sections stained with azure B bromide nor gallocyanin chrome alum show this feature. Ribonuclease digestion does not eliminate or alter it. Autoradiography with [ 3 H]uridine indicates that all recently synthesized RNA is lost from the nucleolus during actinornycin D treatment. The zonation is not therefore a reflexion of RNA distribution. During recovery from actinomycin D poisoning there is a reduction in the degree of zonation shown by nucleoli which re-establish a normal appearance some 48 h after treatment. Electron microscopy of peripheral nucleoli in oocytes sampled during this treatment indicates that the zonation is not associated with reorganization of ultrastructural components. During incubation with actinomycin D the coarse granules (20 nm diameter) are completely lost from the nucleolus. There is associated shrinkage of the nucleolus which after treatment is found to consist entirely of fibrils (5 nm thick) and small granules. The reappearance of the coarse granules during recovery is completed in about 48 h. It is thought that the loss of the granular component during treatment represents the movement of the 30-S precursor and the 18-s ribosomal unit from the nucleolus. Some 20-30 µm inside the nucleus of untreated oocytes is a region containing many spheroidal bodies, less than 1.0 µm diameter. They have been termed micronucleoli and consist of granules 2.5-5 nm in diameter and fibrils of similar thickness. Actinomycin D treatment causes these components to segregate and eventually (within 24 h of treatment) the granular component is extruded. This component reappears during the second day after treatment. It is postulated that these micronucleoli represent the sites at which the 30-S ribosomal precursor undergoes its final maturation. The segregation of components induced by actinomycin D is probably the morphological manifestation of an abnormal metamorphosis of this precursor. Treatment with actinomycin D also induces the immediate formation within the nucleus of crystalline bodies composed of lamellae 16 nm wide, 4 nm thick and with a centre-to-centre spacing of 8-10 nm. They are not present 24 h after treatment. They are thought to represent a protein fraction normally associated with periods of intense RNA synthesis.


The dry-rot fungus Serpula lacrymans causes enormous structural damage by decaying construction timber thereby resulting in tremendous financial loss. Dry-rot fungi decompose cellulose and hemicellulose and, if the wood remains wet, are often accompanied by a succession of bacteria and other fungi. Bacterial-fungal interactions have considerable impact on all interaction partners ranging from antagonistic to beneficial relationships. However, little is known about possible interaction partners of S. lacrymans. Here we show that S. lacrymans has many co-existing, mainly Gram-positive bacteria. By investigating differences in the bacterial community associated with fruiting bodies, mycelia and rhizomorphs, we provide evidence of preferential colonization of S. lacrymans tissues by certain bacterial phyla. Bacteria isolated from fruiting bodies and mycelia were dominated by Firmicutes, while bacteria isolated from rhizomorphs were dominated by Proteobacteria. Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes were found in lower abundances. In situ fluorescence hybridization (FISH) analysis revealed that bacteria were not present biofilm-like, but occurred as independent cells, sometimes also attached to fungal spores. In co-culture, single bacterial isolates caused growth inhibition of S. lacrymans and vice versa. Additionally, certain bacteria induced pigment production in the fungus. Our results provide first insights for a better understanding of the holobiont S. lacrymans and give hints that bacteria are able to influence the behavior, e.g. growth and secondary metabolite production, of S. lacrymans in culture. Importance Serpula lacrymans is a very effective dry-rot causing fungus, specialized in degradation of coniferous timber in houses. The initial colonization is favored by water damage, and after establishment, the fungus starts to destruct cellulose and hemicellulose. It is among the most feared wood-rotting fungi in the built environment as the remediation of S. lacrymans damaged buildings is expensive and tedious. After improper renovation, the possibility of a recolonization by S. lacrymans is likely. As bacteria influence fungal establishment on wood, the need to investigate the bacterial community associated with S. lacrymans is apparent. The significance of our research is in identifying and characterizing bacteria associated with S. lacrymans. This will allow the assessment of their influence on fungal life style, leading to a broader understanding of the properties that make S. lacrymans so extraordinarily aggressive at decaying wood compared to other indoor wood destroyers.


This paper fundamentally investigates the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) theory in all optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems which employ intensity modulation-direct detection (IM-DD) scheme. We propose a low-complexity PAPR reduction scheme based on phase pre-emphasis. Simulations show that the proposed scheme brings about a 3.74 dB PAPR reduction and better nonlinear impairment tolerance in a 16x10Gb/s IM-DD all optical OFDM system.


The external layer in a building has a paramount role under the building's energy behaviour point of view. The ventilated facade is a passive system installed on buildings to improve the global energy behaviour. The ventilated facade performance is described. Ventilated facade is mainly based on convection and radiation. This contribution focuses on the convective effect due to buoyancy driven respect to wind forces in the ventilated gap and their influence on the building thermal behaviour. To do so, several computational fluid dynamics models are undertaken with 1.5m/s, 0.5m/s and 0.2m/s wind velocities and a wind temperature of 298K and 300K. In the modelled conditions, the temperature of the external face of the facade was decreased due to the ventilated facade effect at 0.2m/s. 35% of the temperature reduction was due to natural convection buoyancy-driven effect and the rest due to wind-driven effect. With higher wind velocities (1.5m/s) the temperature reduction due to the convective effect was negligible. According to these simple trials, it can be concluded that the buoyancy driven forces have influence only below a certain threshold of wind velocity. The paper helps to better understand the behaviour of the ventilated facade installed in a building and allow designers to quantify the influence of the facade on the global building energy balance.


The emergence of social networking sites, particularly Facebook, encouraging the emergence of a new paradigm in e-commerce, known as social commerce (s-commerce). S-commerce business model is currently a trend in the commercial world. Based on literature studies that have been done, we obtained two factors in the behavior and interaction of social networking site Facebook users that affect a person's intention to make purchases through social media, there is social support and relationship quality. This study aims to conduct research on the relationship between social commerce intention, social support, and relationship quality, through a questionnaire survey conducted online to Facebook users by using purposive sampling method. Data results of the questionnaire that has been collected, then analyzed quantitatively by using PLS. From the analysis and quantitative testing can be concluded that social commerce intention on Facebook as a medium s-commerce is affected by relationship quality on social media itself (in this case Facebook), and are not directly affected by the social support that occurred on social media Facebook . However, it is known that social support on Facebook has a direct influence on the quality of the relationship quality between the user and Facebook as a medium of s-commerce.


Objectives: To investigate patients' experiences of health and social care services in long-term neurological conditions in England. Method: Cross-sectional survey of 5209 patient members of the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MND, n = 890), Multiple Sclerosis Society (MS, n = 2345) or Parkinson's UK (PD, n = 1974). A questionnaire on patient experiences of health and social care was completed by 2563 (49%) (505 MND, 1157 MS and 901 PD). Results: A mixed picture of experiences of health and social care in MND, MS or PD was found with few problems reported for some aspects of services such as obtaining information about medication (n = 117, 6.1%). In contrast, problems with planning and integration of care were reported frequently, with 78.0% of patients not having a care plan and 61.9% reporting that services do not collaborate well in planning care. Other problems included delays with diagnosis, information about medication side effects, and management of conditions whilst in hospital. Significant differences between the three conditions were found for most aspects of care, with MND patients generally reporting fewer problems. The findings highlight which areas of health and social care need to be improved and monitored. While a larger sample size was obtained than in other studies, possible limitations include the sampling frame and the 49% response rate. Conclusion: Planning and integration of care are key areas that require improvement.


Introduction: There are numerous results showing the significant effects of hyperthermia in oncology. Despite of the advantages, hyperthermia is not yet widely accepted by the medical community. Why is it so? There are multiple sources of the healthy skepticism: the dose (temperature) and treatment protocolsdo not work reliably; no definite reference point exists for comparisonof various applied heating techniques; multiple unwanted hot-spots could be created by the radiation techniques; any proper focus of the incident energy serves as a heat-source heating up its surroundings, risking the promotion of accelerated tumor-growth and dissemination; the artificial focus is not able to follow the natural shapes and the natural movements of the tumor. Method: Facing the above challenges we applied nano-heating technologyselecting and heating the membrane of the malignant cells purely by the electromagnetic effects without any extra nano-particle applications. The technology (oncothermia [1]) is impedance controlled capacitive coupling; no plane-wave radiation dominates as in other capacitive (radiative) solutions. The method uses strict impedance matching current source of 13.56 MHz carrier frequency with time-fractal modulation. The surface power-density of the signal is limited by the toxic (blistering) limit 0.5 W/cm 2 . The nano-selection is based on the metabolic, adherents and organizing differences of the malignant cells. The cell-killing mechanisms are proven in silico, in vitro and in vivo experiments.The efficacy and the active molecular changes are measured immunehistochemically and by protein and DNA arrays. Results: Strong synergy of the temperature and the applied electric field is proven, which dominantly kills the malignant cells by apoptotic way. The macro- and micro-morphology, the β-catenin nuclear re-localization, the activated early and late apoptotic pathways (Caspase 3; TUNEL) as well as the DNA defragmentation by time show the apoptosis. E-cadherin-β-catenin complex is reconstructed bythe oncothermia treatment. This coupling can contribute to the mechanical integrity and suppresses the metastatic activity. The nano-range energy-liberation could be precisely controlled without considerable wasted energy. The reestablished adherent connections by the nano-manipulation prevents the further dissemination risk and the immune-reactions are active in far-away distances from the treatment localization.The method has extended preclinical and clinical applications. Conclusion: Oncothermia shows its definite advantages in local cell-killing and in blocking of the metastatic processes too. It is a feasible method for the reliable and controllable basic of the modern hyperthermia demands in oncology[1].


Off-farm employment has been an integral part of the emerging structure of production agriculture in the South. Government farm program payments, farm structure, and strong non-farm economy have important impact on labor allocation, farm and non-farm labor, decision of farm operators. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the determinants of off-farm labor supply for farm operators in the Delta States. Results show that off-farm work, educational level, presence of teenager, and farm tenure positive and significant impact on ff-farm labor supply by farm operators. On the other hand, farm size, household wealth, decoupled and couple farm program payments, and degree of farm diversification have a negative and significant impact on off-farm labor supply by farm operators. the semiparametreic functional formulation of the farm size and household wealth variables were found to perform better than the linear functional form.


The case is woven around the decision dilemma faced by the second generation managing director of Ujwal Bharati Pharmaceuticals, a mid-size business. He had to decide whether to retain his non-family CEO or not. There are other issues related to corporate and family governance covered in the case as well. This case was written in the context of the major efforts made by Indian family businesses in recent years to professionalize their operations. This is particularly so among mid-size businesses. In this case, while the director appreciates the need to professionalize and successfully recruit non-family professionals, he is not able to retain them. The director's major dilemma is not only to delegate but to simultaneously find a way of making use of his time. Indirect opposition to changes from the old guard causes problems and the board, consisting of professionals, is ineffective. The director's elder brother, without any male heir, is non-interfering and the director's only son is not well-groomed for the position. The case is best suited for a session on professionalization of management of a growing company but is also appropriate for courses such as family businesses, organizational behavior, strategy implementation and entrepreneurship.


Biodegradation of organic compounds during transport in aquifer systems has become an important issue in applying bioaugmentation to a target area. In this study, we conducted a set of laboratory column experiments for various patterns of solutes, that is, KCl only, toluene only, toluene and bacterium Pseudomonas putida, to investigate how the processes of sorption, biodegradation, and bacteria affect the fate of toluene during transport through quartz sand. The column experiments revealed that (i) sorption of toluene onto sand occurred irreversibly with a mass loss of 35% without any retardation, (ii) biodegradation also occurred but to a lesser extent (∼21%) than the irreversible sorption, and (iii) for the case of toluene and bacterium, a rather long tailing was present in the effluent concentraion curves of bacterium and toluene. The tailing of bacterial curve can be explained by the secondary energy minimum of DLVO theory. The tailing of toluene curve was attributed to the sorption of toluene onto bacterial cells during transport which was evidenced by the separate biosorption test. This implies that sorption does not affect directly the microbial activity, and the bacterium Pseudomonas putida can impact toluene transport positively (mass loss via biodegradation) as well as negatively (mass added via enhancement) upon simultaneous introduction into the aquifer. These results would provide valuable information on the design of bioaugmentation scheme for bioremediation of groundwater contaminated with BTEX compounds. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2011


Background: Prediction of in-orthosis curvature at pre-orthosis stage is valuable for the treatment planning for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, while the position of spinal curvature assessment that is effective for this prediction is still unknown. Objectives: To compare the spinal curvatures in different body positions for predicting the spinal curvature rendered by orthosis. Study design: A prospective cohort study. Methods: Twenty-two patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (mean Cobb angle: 28.1°± 7.3°) underwent ultrasound assessment of spinal curvature in five positions (standing, supine, prone, sitting bending, prone bending positions) and that within orthosis. Differences and correlations were analyzed between the spinal curvatures in the five positions and that within orthosis. Results: The mean in-orthosis curvature was 11.2° while the mean curvatures in five studied positions were 18.7° (standing), 10.7° (supine), 10.7° (prone), –3.5° (prone bending), and −6.5° (sitting bending). The correlation coefficients of the in-orthosis curvature and that in five studied positions were r = 0.65 (standing), r = 0.76 (supine), r = 0.87 (prone), r = 0.41 (prone bending), and r = 0.36 (sitting bending). Conclusion: The curvature in recumbent positions (supine and prone) is highly correlated to the initial in-orthosis curvature without significant difference. Thus, the initial effect of spinal orthosis could be predicted by the curvature in the recumbent positions (especially prone position) at the pre-orthosis stage. Clinical relevance Prediction of in-orthosis correction at pre-orthosis stage is valuable for spinal orthosis design. This study suggests assessing the spinal curvature in recumbent position (especially prone position) to predict the initial in-orthosis correction for optimizing the orthosis design.


The SOFIA analytic recommender system helps non-expert users to select analytics (algorithms and their implementations) to fulfill a data mining task in an effective manner. The recommender is a novel framework that applies an ontology-driven approach to recommend a ranked list of analytics to fulfill a task based on the characteristics of the given dataset. SOFIA relies on an ontological representation of data science principles evolved by the data science community; it does not require training examples nor actual deployment of candidate analytics on given datasets.


There is a growing understanding, internationally, that effective leadership has an influence on the quality of early childhood education programs. The leadership research agenda has expanded accordingly but despite this expansion there is little empirical research on the emergence and development of leadership in early childhood education. The article focuses primarily on the methodological challenge of studying the phenomena of emerging and developing leadership. We describe the innovative methods for data generation that were used to address these challenges for an Australian study of leading within early childhood education sites. We explain in detail two of the methods—a field observation tool and the Dialogic Café. Some findings, that serve to highlight the benefits of the method, are shared. We conclude by advocating for the use of innovative methods to understand the phenomenon of emerging leadership and development in early childhood education sites.


Microbial pathogens cause enormous losses to agriculture and forestry, but current combined culturing- and molecular identification-based detection methods are too slow for rapid identification and application of countermeasures. Here, we develop new and rapid protocols for Oxford Nanopore MinION-based third-generation diagnostics of plant pathogens that greatly improve the speed of diagnostics. However, due to high error rate and technical biases in MinION, the Pacific BioSciences Sequel platform is more useful for in-depth amplicon-based biodiversity monitoring (metabarcoding) from complex environmental samples. ABSTRACT Culture-based molecular identification methods have revolutionized detection of pathogens, yet these methods are slow and may yield inconclusive results from environmental materials. The second-generation sequencing tools have much-improved precision and sensitivity of detection, but these analyses are costly and may take several days to months. Of the third-generation sequencing techniques, the portable MinION device (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) has received much attention because of its small size and possibility of rapid analysis at reasonable cost. Here, we compare the relative performances of two third-generation sequencing instruments, MinION and Sequel (Pacific Biosciences), in identification and diagnostics of fungal and oomycete pathogens from conifer (Pinaceae) needles and potato (Solanum tuberosum) leaves and tubers. We demonstrate that the Sequel instrument is efficient for metabarcoding of complex samples, whereas MinION is not suited for this purpose due to a high error rate and multiple biases. However, we find that MinION can be utilized for rapid and accurate identification of dominant pathogenic organisms and other associated organisms from plant tissues following both amplicon-based and PCR-free metagenomics approaches. Using the metagenomics approach with shortened DNA extraction and incubation times, we performed the entire MinION workflow, from sample preparation through DNA extraction, sequencing, bioinformatics, and interpretation, in 2.5 h. We advocate the use of MinION for rapid diagnostics of pathogens and potentially other organisms, but care needs to be taken to control or account for multiple potential technical biases. IMPORTANCE Microbial pathogens cause enormous losses to agriculture and forestry, but current combined culturing- and molecular identification-based detection methods are too slow for rapid identification and application of countermeasures. Here, we develop new and rapid protocols for Oxford Nanopore MinION-based third-generation diagnostics of plant pathogens that greatly improve the speed of diagnostics. However, due to high error rate and technical biases in MinION, the Pacific BioSciences Sequel platform is more useful for in-depth amplicon-based biodiversity monitoring (metabarcoding) from complex environmental samples.


What is the impact of carrying a heavy defence burden on the country's economic development and growth? Views expressed in the literature1 argue that national defence is a consumption good which reduces economic growth by reducing saving and capital investment. A number of empirical studies have investigated the possible trade-offs between defence spending and other government expenditures like health and education. Empirical evidence concerning the relationship between defence spending and economic growth for developed countries is not inconsistent with the view that defence reduced the resources available for investment and hurts economic growth. See, for example, Benoit (1973). The evidence for developing countries, however, has not been entirely consistent or conclusive.2 Benoit (1978), using data on 44 less developed countries (LDCs) for the period 1950–65, found a strong positive association between defence spending and growth of civilian output per capita. Fredericksen and Looney (1982), using data for the period 1960–78 on a large cross-section, concluded that increased defence spending assists economic growth in resource-rich countries and not in resource-constraint ones. Using a sample of 54 LDCs pertaining to the period 1965–73, Lim (1983) found that defence spending hurts economic growth. Biswas and Ram (1986) in a sample of 58 LDCs for time-periods 1960–70 and 1970–77, using conventional and augmented growth models, concluded that military expenditures neither help nor hurt economic growth to any significant extent.


Data mining and knowledge discovery has attracted a lot of research interest in the last decade. Although there is extensive research in this area, we argue that most of the work is not as useful, since the datasets that they are dealing with and the methods that they proposed to solve the problems are more like `toy examples' compared to the much more complicate real-world scenario. We have observed the following two problems that widely exist in most of data mining research. First, parameters will hurt the potential of spreading the ideas in the research community. In a lot of works, there are usually several parameters to tune in the proposed method. We claim that the parameter turning can kill the usefulness of an algorithm and reduce the number of citations. Second, the prevalently existed assumptions about the data further limit their application to solve the real-world problem. We strive to mitigate the above two problems. The contribution of this dissertation is as follows:First, we demonstrate a parameter free framework using MDL to discover the intrinsic features of the data. With the intrinsic cardinality and dimensionality of the time series, we can further understand the underlying meaning of the data, before consulting the domain experts. In addition, the intrinsic features can be used as dimensionality reduction and have huge applications in the various lower bounding techniques. Second, we show a time series classification framework that has none of the prevalent assumptions. We propose to use the data editing technique to automatically build a data dictionary. In addition, our classification framework has the capability to say `I do not know' at a certain point when classifying the incoming queries that does not belong to any concept in the training data. Our results show that a small fraction of all the data can achieve even better classification results than using all the data. In the last, we propose a dynamically weighted multi-dimensional classification framework, which can smartly choose the weight of each data dimension. The results over extensive datasets from various domains show that our framework is more accurate and robust to the occluded data.


In the  following article, we examine the positions of the decision makers of Estonia on multiple and European  citizenship.  The  Estonian  case  ofers  good  opportunities  to  discuss  the  structuring  of  the feld of citizenship in the context of a country that is building up a European style nation-state but that has  to  simultaneously adjust  to  the changes  in  statehood usually  characterised as globalisation and Europeanisation. The article  is based on a survey conducted  in 2003-2004  in eight countries: Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Portugal and United Kingdom. We will frst briefy characterise the  socio-historical context of Estonian citizenship policies,  then discuss the  results of  the empirical research, relate these to wider trends and draw some conclusions.


Recognition of key concepts of structural and functional anatomy of the cerebellum can facilitate image interpretation and clinical correlation. Recently, the human brain mapping literature has increased our understanding of cerebellar anatomy, function, connectivity with the cerebrum, and significance of lesions involving specific areas.Both the common names and numerically based Schmahmann classifications of cerebellar lobules are illustrated. Anatomic patterns, or signs, of key fissures and white matter branching are introduced to facilitate easy recognition of the major anatomic features. Color-coded overlays of cross-sectional imaging are provided for reference of more complex detail. Examples of exquisite detail of structural and functional cerebellar anatomy at 7 Tesla MRI are also depicted.The functions of the cerebellum are manifold with the majority of areas involved with non-motor association function. Key concepts of lesion-symptom mapping which correlates lesion location to clinical manifestation are introduced, emphasizing that lesions in most areas of the cerebellum are associated with predominantly non-motor deficits. Clinical correlation is reinforced with examples of intrinsic pathologic derangement of cerebellar anatomy and altered functional connectivity due to pathology of the cerebral hemisphere. The purpose of this pictorial review is to illustrate basic concepts of these topics in a cross-sectional imaging-based format that can be easily understood and applied by radiologists.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers and one of the leading causes of cancer death in the Western world. The disease arises from the accumulation of mutations in oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes and mismatch repair genes during progression from normal colon epithelium to adenoma and metastatic carcinoma. The majority of colorectal cancers arise in sporadic form. About one-third of patients with CRC have a family history of cancer and elevated risk for this malignant disease. However, only 5% of CRC arise from a germline mutation in high penetrant genes, adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene and DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes. The most common hereditary CRC syndrome is Lynch syndrome defined by hereditary germline mutations in one the of MMR genes. The term hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), previously used interchangeably with Lynch syndrome, now refers to a broader spectrum of familial CRC disorders that can mimic some clinical features of Lynch syndrome, but without germline mutations in MMR genes characteristic for Lynch syndrome. Distinguishing between the HNPCC disorders is important for clinicians, as the approach to surveillance for patients and their family members differs according to risk for CRC associated with each syndrome. This mini review will give some information about the most frequent molecular genetics changes in sporadic and hereditary colorectal cancer and its molecular stratification due to its heredity, somatic mutations and microsatellite instability.


This quasiexperimental field study explored the effect of noise attenuation on urinary cortisol excretion (sampled three times, at 6:30 and 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM) and reported fatigue and postwork irritability among 35 healthy industrial workers chronically exposed to high ambient noise levels (> 85 dB [A]) without using ear protectors. The results indicated that under conditions of chronic noise exposure the cortisol level at the end of the workshift was high and almost reached the morning level. This elevation in cortisol excretion was accompanied by high levels of accumulated fatigue and postwork irritability. Attenuating the noise reaching the eardrum by 30 to 33 dB, by fitting the same workers with earmuffs for a period of 7 working days, resulted in a significant improvement in both psychological and physiological stress reactions. Besides decreasing noise intensity, no other changes were made, either to ongoing work activities or to the other characteristics of the ambient noise. The cortisol level declined steadily during the workshift and exhibited the normal cortisol diurnal rhythm. At the end of the workshift, this level was significantly lower (P < .05) than that observed under the chronic noise-exposure condition. There was also a concomitant reduction in reported fatigue (P < .05) and postwork irritability (P < .01). These findings demonstrate the "net" contribution of ambient noise to elevating stress reactions to regular work demands.


How to control cell behavior at cell-biomaterial interfaces is a critical task in today's implant science, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Various biomaterial surface modification techniques, either chemical or topographical, have been introduced to induce optimal regulation of cell behavior. Among them, topographic control of cell behavior has long been recognized, for example, cells align to the anisotropic direction of ridge and groove topographies(contact guidance). In this review, cell sensing and response to substratum surface topographies will be reviewed in terms of anisotropic vs. isotropic topographies and microscale vs. nanoscale topographies. It is clear that anisotropic topographies induce morphological cell reaction(cell orientation) and then downstream cell responses. On the other hand, isotropic topographies do not induce contact guidance while influencing collective cell functions(such as degree of adhesion, proliferation rate, degree of differentiation, etc). For both topographies, there exist threshold topographic scales from which specific cell sensing and response occur. Clear understanding of cell response to substrate topographies would be very helpful for developing novel regenerative medicine protocols.


Abstract The study investigated the suitability of waste rubber powder (WRP) use as filler in adhesive formulation for plywood application. Melamine Urea Formaldehyde (MUF) was employed as resin for formulating the wood adhesive. To improve chemical properties and bonding quality of adhesive, WRP was treated by different chemicals like 20% nitric acid, 30% hydrogen peroxide and acetone solution. The treated WRP were analysed by XRD and it showed that inorganic compounds were removed and carbon was remained as major component under the treatment of 20% HNO3. The treatment improved the mechanical properties like shear strength and formaldehyde emission of plywood (high shear strength and low formaldehyde emission). The physico-chemical interaction between the wood, resin and filler was investigated using fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) technique and the interactions among N-H of MUF and C=O of wood and WRP were identified. The morphology of wood-adhesive interface was studied by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and light microscope (LM). It showed that the penetration of adhesives and fillers through the wood pores was responsible for mechanical interlocking. Therefore, chemically treated WRP proved its potential use as filler in MUF based adhesive for making plywood.


ABSTRACT The standard opsonophagocytosis killing assay (OPKA) for antibodies to pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide was modified to permit an evaluation of the protection-mediating antibodies to pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA). We found that by increasing the incubation time with the complement and phagocytes from 45 min to 75 min, the protective activity was readily detected. In another modification, we used a capsule type 2 target strain that expressed PspA but not pneumococcal surface protein C (PspC). With these modifications separately or in combination, rabbit antisera to the recombinant α-helical or proline-rich domains of PspA mediated >50% killing of the target strain. The ability of normal human sera to mediate the killing of pneumococci in this modified OPKA correlated with their levels of antibodies to PspA and their ability to protect mice against fatal infection with a type 3 strain. Passive protection of mice against pneumococci and killing in the modified OPKA were lost when normal human sera were adsorbed with recombinant PspA (rPspA) on Sepharose, thus supporting the potential utility of the modified OPKA to detect protective antibodies to PspA. In the standard OPKA, monoclonal antibodies to PspA were strongly protective in the presence of subprotective amounts of anti-capsule. Thus, the currently established high-throughput OPKA for antibodies to capsule could be modified in one of two ways to permit an evaluation of the opsonic efficacy of antibodies to PspA.


We present a new method for detecting descriptive community patterns capturing exceptional (sequential) link trails. For that, we provide a novel problem formalization: We model sequential data as first-order Markov chain models, mapped to an attributed weighted network represented as a graph. Then, we detect subgraphs (communities) using exceptional model mining techniques: We target subsets of sequential transitions between nodes that are exceptional in that sense that they either conform strongly to a specific reference or show significant deviations, estimated by a quality measure. In particular, such a community is described by a community pattern composed of descriptive features (of the attributed graph) covering the respective community. We present a comprehensive modeling approach and discuss results of a case study analyzing data from two real-world social networks.


A microscopic many-body theory for the nonlinear optical response of semiconductors is reviewed. The importance of Coulomb interaction induced carrier correlations is demonstrated in excitonic pump-probe spectra. The influence of excitonic and biexcitonic contributions to coherent pump- induced absorption changes at the exciton frequency are discussed. Absorption changes induced by incoherent exciton and unbound electron-hole populations are studied.


This paper focuses on the notion of localised agricultural and agro-food system as unit of analysis (LAFS). LAFSs appear to be as quite resilient and dynamic systems. As we will see, the analysis of exports in the last years can provide enough evidence of their strong resilience and capability to respond to economic crisis. This dynamics does not seem understandable by only using either classical variables (size of farm holdings, intensity of capital investment, human capital, rate of technological progress, etc.) or geographical factors (soil fertility, irrigation, plain versus mountain location, etc.). Organisation is a key variable to explain their diverse economic performances. Between the market and the hierarchic structure there are so many possible types of organisational modes, which strictly depend from the strategies set up by economic agents. The analysis provides evidence of diffused dynamism of these systems, both in terms of demographic characteristics, labour productivity and exports in international markets. Relevant differences among these local systems can be explained by geographical location (especially between North and South Italy) and infrastructural endowments. But relevant differences, according to recent studies on governance of rural areas, are also as far as cooperation and integration variables are concerned. To explore the nature of these variables, a parallel survey was implemented in 20 Italian areas to identify and reconstruct the institutional maps of the food chain supply (farming system, food industry, type of distribution and market channels), the main actors working in it and the main forms of vertical and horizontal integration/cooperation. This allowed to understand the structure of the food chain supply and which kind of governance is characterising agriculture and agro-food sector in these rural areas. The survey allows conceptualising four possible modes of rural integration/cooperation, depending from the organisation that has been set up within the single LAFS: 1) LAFSs with lack of governance; 2) LAFSs with contractual arrangements dominated by the processing industry and/or by the large-scale retail; 3) LAFSs with contractual arrangements involving effective cooperative structures and/or producers organisations; d) LAFSs where Consortia of cooperatives and/or producers Organisations were able to bring in innovative forms in marketing phase.


We -- the users turned creators and distributors of content -- are TIME's Person of the Year 2006, and AdAge's Advertising Agency of the Year 2007. We form a new Generation C. We have MySpace, YouTube, and OurMedia; we run social software, and drive the development of Web 2.0. But beyond the hype, what's really going on? In this groundbreaking exploration of our developing participatory online culture, Axel Bruns establishes the core principles which drive the rise of collaborative content creation in environments, from open source through blogs and Wikipedia to Second Life. This book shows that what's emerging here is no longer just a new form of content production, but a new process for the continuous creation and extension of knowledge and art by collaborative communities: produsage. The implications of the gradual shift from production to produsage are profound, and will affect the very core of our culture, economy, society, and democracy.


Permanent canines are thought to play a pivotal role in obtaining an ideal occlusion. Dentists occasionally encounter patients who lack canines and are therefore missing a key to harmonious guidance during functional mandibular excursions. This case report describes the substitution of maxillary first premolars for congenitally missing canines in the context of an orthodontic treatment plan. A boy, age 10 years and 11 months, with a chief complaint of crooked teeth was diagnosed with Class II division 2 malocclusion associated with a high mandibular plane angle and deep overbite. A stable occlusion with a satisfactory facial profile and functional excursions without interference were achieved after a comprehensive two-stage orthodontic treatment process. The resulting occlusion and satisfactory facial profile were maintained for 12 months. These results indicate that substituting the first premolars for the canines is an effective option in treating patients with missing canines while maintaining functional goals.


Laboratory tests were conducted to determine suitable battery charges for recharging Sonnenschein dryfit A200 36Ah gel cell batteries. Five commercially made chargers were tested on a standardised pair of batteries and were individually assessed for their ability to satisfy Australian Standards. From these results it was possible to select the chargers usable on Sonnenschein A200 dryfit 36Ah gel cell batteries. The effect of charging regime on battery cycle life was not included.


The increased interest in the study of Law & Economics in Brazil only very recently has opened an important opportunity to discuss with scientific methodology rather than solely using the philosophical traditional legal dialect the effects of abstract concepts which are endlessly debated and have been the cause of legal uncertainty detrimental to development. In this scenario, this paper discusses the effects of the concept social function of property rights born in the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. The variation of interpretations of Social Function of property rights that has created effects detrimental to the performance of the country's national economy is explored in the text. The paper also discusses the relationship between the social movements (guided by MST) and land owners marked by confrontation as a result of the uncertainty, lack of association of decisions to its effects and the ambiguity of law. Overall, the main objective of the paper is to analyze the different channels through which the three powers view the concept and how this has effected the behavior of economic agents and, indirectly, economic development. The paper also provides a greater analysis of the problems resulting from the current understanding of productivity . It concludes offering recommendations towards the importance of a more efficient system of property rights in Brazil able to provide order, peace and certainty in the social and economic realms resulting in efficient incentives for the best use of the property.


This paper contains a review of the literature covering history, surgical techniques, results, and postoperative complications of radial keratotomy. Radial keratotomy is a relatively new surgical technique which is used to reduce or eliminate myopia. It is considered to be a controversial surgery because long term safety is not known. This paper gives special attention to postoperative visual acuties and possible long term complications.


This study was funded by the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. In accordance with AB 2985, our analysis highlights the characteristics of the workforce most at risk of wage and hours violations, describes the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) efforts to enforce these violations, and presents a set of recommendations to improve enforcement strategies. To complete the study we relied on the synthesis of state documentation, publicly available data on the workforce, and state administrative data. When appropriate, and the available data permit, we compare the environment and operations in California to Illinois, New Jersey, and Washington, and compare workers and firms associated with complaints and enforcement to noncomplaint/ enforcement workers and firms.


Cover's algorithm yields an iterative portfolio choice for maximizing expected log investment return where the distribution function of the stock market vector is known. In the case that the stock market vectors form a stationary ergodic sequence with unknown distribution, by stochastic approximation and nonparametric regression estimation the algorithm is modified for iterative estimation of a log-optimal portfolio selection function of the last observed vectors (fixed d ∈ ℕ) on the basis of an observed training sequence of vectors. Under a boundedness and a mild -mixing condition, a strong consistency result is established.


BACKGROUND
Diabetic complications are the major contributor in mortality of diabetic patients despite controlling blood glucose level. In the journey of new drug discovery, animal models have to play a major role. A large number of chemical-induced and genetically modified animal models have been investigated to induce diabetic complications but none of them was found to be mimicking the pathophysiology of the human. Therefore the search and identification of the appropriate animal model become essential.

OBJECTIVE
In the present review we have made an attempt to understand the pathophysiology of diabetic complication in the neonatal streptozotocin-diabetic rat model and tried to identify the targets for therapeutic agents. The review will help the researchers to explore the animal model to induce diabetic complications, to identify targets and further to find lead molecules for treatment or prevention of diabetic complications.

METHODS
We have compiled the available research work from 1974 by using prominent databases, organized the available information and analyzed the data to improve the understanding of the pathophysiology of streptozotocin-induced diabetic complications in neonates of rats.

RESULTS
The neonatal streptozotocin-diabetic rat model is frequently used and well-established animal model for type 2 diabetes mellitus. We have found that this model has been used to study the pathogenesis of various micro and macrovascular diabetic complications and also investigated for its effects on the liver, thymus gland, and brain. The underlying pathophysiology for complications had a resemblance to the human.

CONCLUSION
The neonatal streptozotocin-diabetic rat model may demonstrate symptomatic diabetic complications due to persistent hyperglycemia at the age of approximately 18-24 weeks. Critical interpretations of available research work showed that researcher can explore split dose STZ (90-100mg/kg b.w) model to induce Type 2 DM in neonates of rats at 2nd or 3rd postnatal day.