This paper argues that linguistic hierarchies are not real in any linguistic sense but are summaries of linguistic observation or typology. Position in any hierarchy is based on intrinsic properties, specjically complexity of linguistic substance. To illustrate, an example involving a change in degree of ergativity across dialects of Inuktitut is discussed. A hierarchy account would only record changes in the use of case, but would not be able to probe the subtle changes in case structure which are suggested by the facts. Under this view, case is not a position on a hierarchy but a syntactic construct, where different cases may have differing complexities (Bejar and Hall 1999). [n particular, accusative case has only a little k (or functional case), and cannot license an NP on its own, i.e., is structural. In contrast, a structure with a little k and a minimum lexical complement can license an NP, i.e., is oblique. The subtle interplay between accusative, partitive and instrumental case in different dialects is examined. It is argued that the Inuktitut
case marker MIK originates as an oblique case in western dialects, but has undergone grammaticalization in eastern dialects. Grammaticalization is seen here to be structure reduction.


CO2 laser - Metal Inert Gas (MIG) hybrid welding process was investigated in the butt welding of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy sheets of 3.0mm in thickness. Using a Design of Experiment (DoE) approach, bead on plate tests were planned with the aim to analyze the effect of laser and laser-MIG welding parameters on the bead shape, hardness profiles in the weld cross section and welding efficiency. Butt welds performed in correspondence of the bead on plate working conditions which assure the complete penetration of the samples, the absence of undercuts and the maximum welding efficiency, confirm the results of the bead on plate tests and highlights the gap bridging ability of the hybrid welding process.


Priorities and allocation are complex tasks in health care. Unspoken and also often unconscious priorities frequently occur. Research concerning how registered nurses (RN) priorities are limited. The aim of this study was to illuminate the meanings of RNs' lived experiences of priorities in surgery care. Narrative interviews were conducted with 10 RNs working in a department of surgery. The RNs interviewed had all worked for more than 5 years as RNs. A phenomenological-hermeneutic interpretation of the interviews was conducted. The findings revealed 3 themes: making a conscious allocation and priorities of care, doing unreflected good, and being qualified to determine. The RNs did not often comprehend their actions as prioritizing. They more often comprehended their nursing tasks as obvious and did not consider this as priorities. But in situations of ethical difficulty, the RNs reflected upon their priority and actions.


Abstract This paper explores the history of representing coalmining heritage in museums between the 1960s and 1980s. The process of representing industry in museums during a period of significant economic change was highly contested. Whilst political and economic leaders often expressed a desire to vanquish the 'old black industrial image', there was a growing popular concern to venerate and represent an industrial culture and landscape that appeared under threat. At the same time the curation of industrial heritage, with its focus on collective memory, associational life and culture, represented a clear break with an earlier regional museum inheritance characterised by singular philanthropic and antiquarian collections and institutional developments. After 1960, the creation of museums to represent coalmining brought these tensions and new agendas to the fore. This article suggests that by examining in detail the historical context in which they were created we can better understand the nuanced and complex process of musealisation and its relationship to the experience of economic change and deindustrialisation.


This paper investigates the design of low-voltage low-power switched-capacitor (SC) filters for high-frequency applications by using the clock-booster approach. In particular, our proposed SC filter architecture uses single-ended double-sampling integrator cells based on low-voltage operational transconductance amplifiers which take advantage of dynamic biasing and the clock-booster technique to drive the switch transistors. To validate its high-frequency capability, two low-pass elliptic SC filters respectively with a corner frequency of 6 and 8-MHz, were designed in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process. Both are suitable for telecom applications and can operate with a power supply as low as 1.5 V, while dissipating 11 mW. Measurements showed that for an output amplitude of 1 V/sub pp/, their total harmonic distortions were maintained well below -40 dB in their bandwidths. Comparisons with other SC filter implementations in the literature, which highlight the quality of our implementation are also provided.


1. 1. Rabbits were immunized with suspensions of lymph node cells from A/Jax mice.

2. 2. The resulting antiserum (RAMLS) contained antibodies to A/Jax lymph node cells, demonstrable as cytotoxins and agglutinins, and antibodies to other mouse tissues and mouse serum proteins demonstrable as precipitins.

3. 3. The RAMLS caused a specific lymphopenia when given to mice.

4. 4. Absorption of antibodies to nonlymphatic mouse tissues and to mouse serum proteins did not alter the cytotoxic or agglutinating effect of the RAMLS on lymphocytes and did not alter the in vivo lymphopenic effect.

5. 5. Chronic administration of RAMLS resulted in sustained lymphopenia during the period of serum treatment without significant morbidity or mortality.

6. 6. Mice chronically treated with RAMLS do not make antibody to rabbit γ-globulin as readily as those given normal rabbit serum.

7. 7. Histologic studies of mice chronically treated with RAMLS show depletion and destruction of tissue lymphocytes in lymphoid organs. A similar state of profound lymphocyte depletion can be achieved by a short, intensive course of RAMLS treatment.


Gel-forming mucin MUC5B is significantly deregulated in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), however, its role in tumor progression is not yet clearly understood. Here, we used an integrated computational-pipeline-initiated with gene expression analysis followed by network, functional-enrichment, O-linked glycosylation analyses, mutational profiling, and immune cell infiltration estimation to functionally characterize MUC5B gene in LUAD. Thereafter, clinical biomarker validation was supported by the overall survival (OA) and comparative expression profiling across clinical stages using computational algorithms. The gene expression profile of LUAD identified MUC5B to be significantly up-regulated (logFC: 2.36; p-value: 0.01). Network analysis on LUAD interactome screened MUC5B-related genes, having key enrichment in immune suppression and O-linked glycosylation with serine-threonine-rich tandem repeats being highly glycosylated. Furthermore, positive correlation of mutant MUC5B with immune cells in tumor microenvironment (TME) such as cancer-associated fibroblasts and myeloid-derived suppressor cells indicates TME-mediated tumor progression. The positive correlation with immune inhibitors suggested the enhanced tumor proliferation mediated by MUC5B. Structural stability due to genetic alterations identified overall rigid N-H-backbone dynamics (S2 : 0.756), indicating an overall stable mutant protein. Moreover, the low median OA (<50 months) with a hazard ratio of 1.4 and clinical profile of MUC5B gene showed high median expression corresponding to lymph node (N2) and tumor (T3) stages. Our study concludes by highlighting the functional role of O-glycosylated and mutant MUC5B in promoting LUAD by immune suppression. Further, clinical gene expression validation of MUC5B suggests its potential role as a diagnostic biomarker for LUAD metastasis.


The mechanism behind electrical memory behavior of carbazole-containing polyimides (PIs) in nanoscale thin films was investigated. For this investigation, a series of poly(3,3'-dihydroxy-4,4'-biphenylene-co-3,3'-bis(N-ethylenyloxycarbazole)-4,4'-biphenylene hexafluoro-isopropylidenedi-phthalimide)s (6F-HAB-HABCZn PIs) with various compositions was synthesized as a model carbazole-containing polymer system. The thermal properties, band gaps, and molecular orbital levels of the PIs were determined. Furthermore, the chemical compositions, as well as the nanoscale thin film morphologies and electron densities, were analyzed, providing detailed information on the population and positional distribution of carbazole moieties in thin films of the PIs. PI Devices were fabricated with aluminum electrodes and tested electrically. The PI thin film layers in the devices exhibited electrically permanent memory behavior, which was driven by trap-limited space-charge limited conduction and ohmic conduction. The permanent memory characteristics were found to be attributed to the incorporated carbazole moieties rather than from the other chemical components. Furthermore, the memory characteristics depended significantly on the population and positional distribution of carbazole moieties in the PI layer, as well as the film thickness. Considering that the backbone is not conjugated, the present results collectively indicate that the electrical switching behavior of the PI films is driven by the carbazole moieties acting as charge traps and a hopping process using the carbazole charge-trap sites as stepping-stones.


Psychology
In a remarkable set of studies, Powell and Carey marry two previously unlinked lines of research. Executive function refers to the ability to make decisions, such as being able to switch from pressing the keyboard down (up) arrow when seeing a down (up) arrow on the computer screen to pressing the up (down) arrow when seeing a down (up) arrow. A person's ability to carry out such a task diminishes after being forced to exercise self-control (for example, for a child, waiting to open a box of toys). Theory of mind involves predicting another's behavior on the basis of understanding that person's beliefs. After suffering through the delayed-gratification exercise, 4- and 5-year-old children displayed impaired theory-of-mind capabilities.

Cognition 164 , 150 (2017).


In recent years X-CT metrology becomes more popular as a promising geometrical measurement technique. In comparison to traditional tactile and optical metrology techniques, X-CT has the unique advantage: it is a non-destructive method which can measure the complete internal and external geometry without constraint. Although X-CT has a limitation on the measurement of surface texture due to limited resolution, it is qualified for that of most of additive processed surfaces, which are featured by high roughness surface texture comprising a number of topographical features, such as bumps, step markings and surface pores.
The X-CT generated data structures for the object surface, either point cloud or triangular mesh, differ from the grid structure of traditional methods. To enable X-CT data structures compatible with surface topography, two strategies are investigated: One is to interpolate scattered points into grid structure. The other one is to perform surface analysis on triangular mesh. The pros and cons of two different routes are discussed and compared. The application of the surface analysis techniques e.g. filtration, segmentation, parameterisation etc. following two different strategies are illustrated respectively.


Ratings are important for building up trust among different parties. Since the arrival of the internet era in the 1990s, countless online rating systems have emerged. For example, Amazon.com established a rating system for books and other products in 1995. Today online rating can be found everywhere, be it e-commerce sites, social networks, and information or recommendation platforms. In most cases, users provide the input to these systems which is then aggregated and directed to appropriate recipients. The increasing relevance of these rating systems forms a new distinct research field with a growing need for research on the design, effects, and validity of rating systems. Hence, we contribute to the body of knowledge by conducting a thorough analysis of the state of the art of online rating systems. We especially focus on the functional design options by analyzing 102 different systems with the help of a criteria catalog of 237 criteria. In this paper, we discuss an excerpt of our findings and present a morphological box that categorizes functional design options for online rating systems.


The ability to use technology has become a survival skill in our society. This paper discusses technology trends related to the demands of the Information Age, the increasing availability of information and assistive technologies, and the impact of recent civil rights legislation mandating that persons with disabilities be given equal access to technologies that can enhance functional performance. Occupational therapists must become competent in the application and integration of these technologies into reasonable accommodation interventions if we are to meet the changing needs of persons with disabilities. To address this need for technology training, a multitiered set of technology competencies specifically designed for occupational therapy practitioners was authored by the American Occupational Therapy Association Technology Special Interest Section and reviewed by occupational therapists with technology expertise. The process of developing these competencies and recommendations for implementing them within occupational therapy educational programs are discussed.


▼ Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a critical regulator of angiogenesis and is involved in tumor development. To date, the role of VEGF in benign diseases of the thyroid is not well known. The purpose of the present study is to determine the expression of VEGF and its receptors in primary cultures of human thyrocytes. Methods: 50 patients with uninodular (n = 11), multinodular (n = 15), recurrent goiter (n = 14) and Graves' disease (n = 10) were enrolled. Nodular and corresponding paranodular tissue was obtained after surgery and investigated. RNA and protein were extracted from primary thyrocyte cultures. PCR, western blot and ELISA were performed to evaluate VEGF isoforms and VEGF receptor 1 and 2. Results: Signifi cantly increased transcription and protein expression of VEGF and its receptors were detected in nodular tissue of uninodular and recurrent goiter compared to the corresponding normal tissue. Active secretion of VEGF by thyrocytes was confi rmed by ELISA. In multinodu lar goiter, no diff erence could be found between nodular and corresponding paranodular tissue in terms of expression of VEGF or its receptors. Furthermore, we found the highest levels of VEGF and its receptors in tissue obtained from patients with Graves' disease. Conclusion: Increased expression of VEGF and its receptors might be crucial in the proliferation of thyrocytes and therefore may contribute to the development of goiter and goiter recurrence. T hi s do cu m en t w as d ow nl oa de d fo r pe rs on al u se o nl y. U na ut ho riz ed d is tr ib ut io n is s tr ic tly p ro hi bi te d.


Abstract A procedure to identify sets of operational rules for gated spillways for optimal flood routing management of artificial reservoirs is proposed. The flood retention storage of a dam having a gated flood spillway is divided into 15 sub-storages whose surface elevations are identified as critical levels. The most suitable operation set for the downstream conditions and for the dam can be chosen from many derived operation sets. The spillway gates are operated in an optimum way for any floods from very small magnitudes to the probable maximum flood (PMF), without having to forecast the actual magnitude of the incoming flood hydrograph. Decision floods are formed by dividing the PMF into 15 sub-hydrographs by 5 and 10% increments in the ranges 5–50% and 50–100% of the PMF, respectively. Many potential spillway gate openings from closed to fully open are chosen initially. As a result of a series of routing simulations of 15 decision floods, a set of 15 gate openings is determined such that all floods from very small magnitudes to the PMF may be routed without overtopping the dam crest. Next, a few more 15-stage operation rules are determined such that the gate openings of the initial stages are decreased as their critical levels are increased stepwise, with the objective of attenuating smaller floods more effectively and releasing higher outflows for larger floods close to and including the PMF. The developed model is applied to the Catalan and Aslantas dams in Turkey, both of which serve for flood mitigation as well as hydropower generation. Citation Haktanir, T., Citakoglu, H., and Acanal, N., 2013. Fifteen-stage operation of gated spillways for flood routing management through artificial reservoirs. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (5), 1013–1031. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor A. Montanari


This paper critiques whether H. P. Lovecraft's Old Weird standards remain relevant to the ways in which women writing the New Weird resist and/or transform the Lovecraftian weird tale ideal. Lovecraft explains that there must be particular attention taken in order to achieve the great desideratum of Weird Fiction: Lovecraftian aura of cosmic horror achieves the strange reality of the unreal. This elevation of Lovecraft has produced a scholarship that tends to discuss an Old canon exclusively authored by men, silencing the work of women writers within the genre, and sidelining women's dystopias as examples of masculine authority and fear. The aim of this discussion is to identify women's grotesque bodies within the New as depicted by Angela Carter's The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972). Through this, I aim to reveal how women writers are rewriting Old phallogocentrism in a way that achieves generating a critical and creative feminist dystopia.


The transcriptional co-regulators YAP and TAZ pair primarily with the TEAD family of transcription factors to elicit a gene expression signature that plays a prominent role in cancer development, progression and metastasis. YAP and TAZ endow cells with various oncogenic traits such that they sustain proliferation, inhibit apoptosis, maintain stemness, respond to mechanical stimuli, engineer metabolism, promote angiogenesis, suppress immune response and develop resistance to therapies. Therefore, inhibiting YAP/TAZ- TEAD is an attractive and viable option for novel cancer therapy. It is exciting to know that many drugs already in the clinic restrict YAP/TAZ activities and several novel YAP/TAZ inhibitors are currently under development. We have classified YAP/TAZ-inhibiting drugs into three groups. Group I drugs act on the upstream regulators that are stimulators of YAP/TAZ activities. Many of the Group I drugs have the potential to be repurposed as YAP/TAZ indirect inhibitors to treat various solid cancers. Group II modalities act directly on YAP/TAZ or TEADs and disrupt their interaction; targeting TEADs has emerged as a novel option to inhibit YAP/TAZ, as TEADs are major mediators of their oncogenic programs. TEADs can also be leveraged on using small molecules to activate YAP/TAZ-dependent gene expression for use in regenerative medicine. Group III drugs focus on targeting one of the oncogenic downstream YAP/TAZ transcriptional target genes. With the right strategy and impetus, it is not far-fetched to expect a repurposed group I drug or a novel group II drug to combat YAP and TAZ in cancers in the near future.


Background: Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) develops in two stages namely early stage when trypanosomes are found in the blood and late stage when trypanosomes are found in the central nervous system (CNS). The two environments are different with CNS environment reported as being hostile to the trypanosomes than the blood environment. The clinical symptoms manifested by the disease in the two environments are different. Information on whether blood stream are pathologically different from CNS trypanosomes is lacking. This study undertook to compare the inter-isolate pathological differences caused by bloodstream forms (BSF) and central nervous system (CNS) of five Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense (Tbr) isolates in Swiss white mice. Methods: Donor mice infected with each of the five isolates were euthanized at 21 days post infection (DPI) for recovery of BSF trypanosomes in heart blood and CNS trypanosomes in brain supernatants. Groups of Swiss white mice (n = 10) were then infected with BSF or CNS forms of each isolate and monitored for parasitaemia, packed cell volume (PCV), body weight, survivorship, trypanosome length, gross and histopathology characteristics. Results: Amplification of SRA gene prior to trypanosome morphology and pathogenicity studies confirmed all isolates as T. b. rhodesiense.  At 21 DPI, CNS trypanosomes were predominantly long slender (LS) while BSF were a mixture of short stumpy and intermediate forms. The density of BSF trypanosomes was on average 2-3 log-scales greater than that of CNS trypanosomes with isolate KETRI 2656 having the highest CNS trypanosome density. Conclusions: The pathogenicity study revealed clear differences in the virulence/pathogenicity of the five (5) isolates but no distinct and consistent differences between CNS and BSF forms of the same isolate. We also identified KETRI 2656 as a suitable isolate for acute menigo- encephalitic studies.


SUMMARY: In addition to R outgrowths, strains of Lactobacillus casei growing on a carbohydrate-free medium also formed smooth secondary colonies situated on the primary colonies. These secondary colonies arose after about 6 days of incubation and were of two types: when centrally situated they formed papillae; when near the margin of the mother colony they often spilt over and formed fan-shaped outgrowths adjacent to the parent colony. Cultures of several different species of Lactobacillus were examined; secondary colony formation was confined almost exclusively to strains of L. casei. The fan-shaped outgrowths were pure cultures of organisms possessing a shorter generation time than those comprising the mother colony. An inverse relationship existed on crowded and sparsely inoculated plates between numbers of papillae and fan-shaped outgrowths/colony observed. The distribution of colonies bearing different numbers of secondary colonies did not follow a Poisson distribution; the random origin of fast-growing variants could not be established. On subculture the fast-growing variants produced colonies with a slightly different morphology from that of the wild-types. This difference was stable and persisted through numerous subcultures. In the presence of small quantities of fermentable carbohydrates secondary colony formation was not observed and this possibly explains how the wild type competes successfully with fast-growing variants in natural environments.


Several studies suggest that memory suppression in humans occur as an active process of executive control, mediated by regions of prefrontal cortex, which is a substrate for ovarian hormones. However the effect of ovarian hormones on this process is not known. In order to address this question, we utilized the quantitative analysis of ovarian hormones in combination with think (T) /no think (NT) paradigm in a within-subject design study. We compared the rate of memory control between the follicular (low estrogen and progesteron) and mid-luteal (high estrogen and progesteron) phases of regularly cycling healthy women. Our data demonstrate that during midluteal phase, 63.6 % of subjects are able to 'suppress' or actively forget (significantly less % recall below the baseline) previously learned word pairs in the 'NT condition; i.e., not to think the target word associated with the cue word'. However during the follicular phase there was no effect of 'NT condition' on the active forgeting of word pairs below the baseline as assesed by the memory test applied after the T/NT procedure. Thus, our results indicate the modulatory effect of ovarian hormones during the process of active forgetting.


Introduction Human rights are the basic rights we inherit as humans regardless of race, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. These rights protect human dignity and are interdependent. However, in this modern, democratic, rights conscious society we often face conflict between these rights. The fundamental nature of rights means that it becomes immensely difficult to have a balance where all rights can be given the protection they deserve. Exploring one focused area of rights, this chapter will discuss the conflict between freedom of religion and freedom of expression. International law instruments are often not clear on the extent of these two rights and how different societies with different groups and values apply them differently. The volume of attention which freedom of expression gets, being a qualified right, means that right to religion often doesn't get privileged treatment. Perhaps this is due to different religious faiths, standards, views and perspectives. The dilemma that is faced balancing these two equally important fundamental rights would have been easier if there were universal standards in place to draw the boundaries of these rights. The conflict between Freedom of religion and freedom of expression (hereafter 'the conflict') can take many forms. This chapter will analyse the apparent conflict between published content that gives offence to religious sentiments, defames a religion and is potentially blasphemous to the religion, it will also consider how this has impact on religious tourists travelling to the UK and other European countries.


Mosquitoes are the most important single group of insects acting as vector for many tropical and subtropical diseases. U sing insecticides of plant origin to  interrupt the life cycle , vector borne diseases can be controlled .  Artocarpus lakoocha Roxb. popularly known as  Monkey Jack or  Lakuch is ethnobotanically used to treat fever, purge, skin ailments and also as an appetizer.  T he present study investigated the pharmacognostical and  larvicidal activity  of leaves and fruits of  A. lakoocha against  Anopheles stephensi, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus larvae. As a step towards standardization of crude drug, the powder microscopy, physico-chemical analysis, TLC studies and HPTLC profiles of active pet ether extract were established. The larvicidal potential of  successive solvent extracts were screened and expressed as LC 50 values. The pet ether extract of leaves and fruits were significant with LC 50 241.36, 624.88, 1162.86 and 1180.95, 1286.69, 1398.69 µg/mL on the three species, respectively compared to other extracts. The results indicate that the triterpenoids and phytosterols present in the pet ether extract exerted a dose dependent larvicidal activity and the malarial vector, An. stephensi was more susceptible to the pet ether extract.


Different layouts can characterize different aspects of the same graph. Finding a "good" layout of a graph is thus an important task for graph visualization. In practice, users often visualize a graph in multiple layouts by using different methods and varying parameter settings until they find a layout that best suits the purpose of the visualization. However, this trial-and-error process is often haphazard and time-consuming. To provide users with an intuitive way to navigate the layout design space, we present a technique to systematically visualize a graph in diverse layouts using deep generative models. We design an encoder-decoder architecture to learn a model from a collection of example layouts, where the encoder represents training examples in a latent space and the decoder produces layouts from the latent space. In particular, we train the model to construct a two-dimensional latent space for users to easily explore and generate various layouts. We demonstrate our approach through quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the generated layouts. The results of our evaluations show that our model is capable of learning and generalizing abstract concepts of graph layouts, not just memorizing the training examples. In summary, this paper presents a fundamentally new approach to graph visualization where a machine learning model learns to visualize a graph from examples without manually-defined heuristics.


to Wider Antibody Testing Dried blood spot testing could allow wider, population-level testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2) antibodies, according to a study by British researchers. Currently, testing for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies requires a phlebotomist to collect a patient's venous blood. In addition to being impractical on a large-scale basis, clinicians and patients could be exposed to the virus during sample collection. However, patients can collect their own capillary blood at home with a fingerstick and mail the dried sample to a clinical center. To determine whether this is a viable alternative, the scientists collected dried blood spots and venous blood samples from 80 healthy volunteers, including 31 samples from individuals who previously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. The researchers tested the blood spot samples for antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and compared the results with matched blood samples that had undergone PCR testing. Dried blood spot test results were comparable with those of PCR testing, with a 98.1% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Therefore, dried blood spot testing could be a feasible method that enables wider population-based SARS-CoV-2 testing and reduces testing-associated risks for vulnerable populations, senior author Matthew O'Shea, MBChB, DPhil, honorary clinical lecturer at the University of Birmingham's Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "[T]he simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the dry blood spot method could improve the effectiveness of sampling in lowand middle-income countries, among groups where venepuncture is culturally unacceptable or in geographically dispersed populations," added study coauthor Adam Cunningham, PhD, professor of functional immunity at the University of Birmingham. Partnership to Make 120 Million COVID-19 Rapid Tests Available A global partnership plans to make 120 million coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapid antigen tests available in lowand middle-income countries, according to an announcement from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator. The easy-to-administer tests can provide results in 15 to 30 minutes and can be used outside of health care settings. Through an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Abbott and SD Biosensor will make the tests available at a cost of no more than $5 each. The WHO's Global Fund has provided $50 million from its COVID-19 Response Mechanism to help countries begin purchasing the tests. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and Unitaid, a nongovernmental organization, began a rollout of the tests in up to 20 African countries in October 2020. The WHO and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics are supporting research to determine best practices for using the tests in lowand middle-income countries. "High-quality rapid tests show us where the virus is hiding, which is key to quickly tracing and isolating contacts and breaking the chains of transmission," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said in a statement. "The tests are a critical tool for governments as they look to reopen economies and ultimately save both lives and livelihoods." The partnership comes at a critical time as data suggest that the COVID-19 response costs lowand middle-income countries a staggering $52 billion every 4 weeks, which could escalate to $62 billion if transmission increases.


The crankshaft of a 37.5-hp, 3-cylinder oil engine was examined. The engine had been dismantled for the purpose of a general overhaul and in the course of this work the crankpins were chromium-plated before regrinding. The engine was returned to service and after running for 290 h the crankshaft broke at the junction of the No. 3 crankpin and the crankweb nearest to the flywheel. A typical fatigue crack had originated at a number of points in the root of the fillet to the web. In its early stages it ran slightly into the web but turned back to the pin when it encountered the oil hole. The shaft had been made from a heat-treated alloy steel. The thickness of the plating was approximately 0.025 in. and numerous cracks were visible in it, several of which had given rise to cracks in the steel below. The primary cause of the crankshaft failure was the plating of the crankpins. The presence of the grooves alone would result in considerable intensification of stress in zones which are normally highly stressed, while the crazy cracking introduced a multiplicity of stress-raisers of a type almost ideal from the point of view of initiating fatigue cracks.


Value addition of bulk curl tear cut (CTC) black tea is important to meet emerging customer needs and address challenges in a competitive beverage market. Spicing of the tea is one way of value addition but little or no research has been done on the biochemical effect of blending tea with spices and consumer acceptability. A study was conducted to determine the effect of spices on consumer acceptability; pricing and anti-oxidant capacities of black CTC tea consumed in the Kenyan market. Six spices and a spice mix including; ginger, lemon grass, nutmeg, cinnamon, rosemary and tea masala were used to develop aerated spice tea. The spice mix-tea masala comprised of ginger, cinnamon, cardamoms, cloves, black pepper and nutmeg. The threshold levels of spice-tea blends for commercial purposes were demonstrated using three highly rated spices i.e. cinnamon, lemon grass and ginger. Economic costing was done using the cinnamon spiced-tea. The results showed that black tea had the highest antioxidant activity of 92.66% against that of the highest spice cinnamon 89.89%. Antioxidant activity of spiced tea significantly (P<=0.05) decreased with the quantity of added spice. Spices significantly (P<=0.05) increased consumer preference of the black tea and the preferred spice-mix ratios also differed. Some spices were preferred more than others as shown by the three best rated spice-tea mixes including; cinnamon at 10% lemon grass at 5% and ginger at 15% which had mean scores of 6.74, 6.35 and 6.58 respectively on a hedonic scale.


In April 1919, the publication of the first part of the edited collection Det andliga nutidsläget och kyrkan ("The Contemporary Spiritual Condition and the Church") caused an intense debate within the Church of Sweden and in the daily press. The editors of the book were driven by ideals of open and honest dialogue about religious and ethical reformation in a time of deep spiritual distress and invited contributions from academia and lay people as well as clergy. Some of the contributions have been analyzed in previous research, as examples of contemporary theological debates. This article presents an analysis of the contributions of the books and of the most salient themes in the debate, covering 192 newspaper articles between April 1919 and May 1920. The analysis contributes to previous research by the additional new material concerning how theological issues were connected to contemporary political and cultural debate. This concerns the implications of modernization in contemporary Sweden, such as individualization, social justice, and secularization. Furthermore, the debate in the newspapers, previously not thoroughly researched, highlights how the book became a locus for issues such as participation of the laity in theological debate, and the role of the Church as a public authority in a secular, modernized society. These themes present fruitful openings for further research on the role of Christian actors in new forms of public debate shaping modernity in Sweden.


It has been observed that IEEE 802.11 commercial cards produced by different vendors show a different behavior in terms of perceived throughput or access delay. Performance differences are evident both when the cards contend alone to the channel, and when heterogeneous cards contend together. Since the performance misalignment does not disappear by averaging the environmental factors (such as propagation conditions, laptop models, traffic generators, etc), it is evident that the well known throughput-fairness property of the DCF protocol is not guaranteed in actual networks. In this paper we propose a methodological approach devised to experimentally characterize the IEEE 802.11 commercial cards thus understanding and predicting their performances in different network scenarios. We set up some specific experiments using a custom test equipment, able to classify the card behavior not only in terms of figures which are evident to the user perspective (such as the throughput), but also in terms of low-level channel access operations and delays. Our approach is able to detect potential hardware limits or not-standard MAC implementations, which severely affect the contending card performance


The article deals with the results of study of the intracellular metabolism of neutrophils in 96 patients including 56 (58.3%) patients with ischemic heart disease. It is established that in patients with ischemic heart disease as compared with patients without ischemic heart disease occurs the increase of neutrophils ' producing of active forms of oxygen against the background of decrease of intracellular activity of catalase and increase of concentration of lactate in phagocytes. Under severing of ischemic heart disease from unstable stenocardia to cardiac infarction the activation of oxygen-depending metabolism of neutrophils conditioned by increase of concentration of immune complexes circulating in blood was not compensated by increasing of intracellular activity of enzymes of system of antioxidant defense. The maximum activation of NAD(F)N-oxidase of neutrophils (production of superoxide anion-radical) was detected in patients with cardiac infarction with Q-wave. This condition was accompanied by maximal increase of concentration of lactate in phagocytes up to twice higher exceed the level of indicators in patients without ischemic heart disease. It can be assumed that in conditions of acute hypoxia occurring under myocardium ischemia in patients with ischemic heart disease, the lactate production increases in neutrophils hence the triggering of development of intracellular acidosis, impact of oxygen-depending factors and phagocytes destruction.


1 A single-blind randomized study of the effects of a 3-adrenoceptor antagonist with intrinsic sympathomimetic activity (pindolol 0.4 mg i.v., n = 10) and a drug lacking this property (metoprolol 5 mg i.v., n = 11) on local wall motion abnormalities was carried out in 21 patients with coronary heart disease and anterior wall hypokinesia. 2 The drugs produced similar changes in left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and end diastolic volume index (EDVI) but differed in their effects on heart rate and ejection fraction. Pindolol did not exert any marked effect on heart rate or ejection fraction whereas after metoprolol treatment both were significantly decreased. 3 Shortening of the hypokinetic wall segments was improved by both drugs. Shortening of the non-hypokinetic contralateral segments was unchanged after pindolol administration but was decreased after metoprolol. 4 The differing effects of f-adrenoceptor antagonists on regional wall motion appear to be dependent on the presence or absence of intrinsic sympathomimetic activity.


Several studies have noted modest interrater reliability of clinical electroencephalogram (EEG) interpretations. Moreover, no study to date has investigated a means to improve the observed interrater agreement. The purpose of the present study was to examine (i) the interrater reliability of EEG interpretations among three raters (two psychiatrists and one pediatrician); and (ii) how to improve the reliability by establishing a consensus guideline for EEGinterpretation. Three raters, two psychiatrists and a pediatrician, interpreted 100 consecutive EEG recorded at Tajimi General Hospital. After discussing the results of the first trial, the raters established a consensus guideline for EEG interpretation. They then interpreted 50 consecutive EEG recorded at Nagoya City University Hospital following this guideline. Kappa for global judgment of EEG abnormality in three grades (abnormal/borderline/normal) was 0.42 on the first and 0.63 on the second trial. Kappa significantly improved by using the guideline (P = 0.004). It is suggested that discussing and establishing the consensus guideline among the raters offers a feasible method to improve interrater reliability in clinical EEG interpretations.


Objective: Of pediatric patients with Crohn disease, 20% to 30% undergo surgery within 10 years. Although disease relapses and reoperations are common, long-term functional outcomes and quality of life (QoL) are unclear. Methods: In 2010, we reviewed the hospital records of all pediatric patients with CD who had undergone intestinal resections during childhood in 2 major tertiary care hospitals between 1985 and 2008 and mailed out questionnaires that asked about health outcomes and QoL. We compared the QoL of the patients and a group of matched controls randomly chosen from the Population Register Centre. Results: In total, 36 children had undergone bowel resection a median of 10 years earlier and had at least 2 years of follow-up. Disease activation (verified at endoscopy) requiring medical or surgical treatment occurred in 94% (median 1.8 years after primary resection). At least 1 surgical complication occurred in 77%, and 54% underwent re-resection. The patients reported a median stool frequency of 3 stools during the day and zero at night, with 33% being totally continent. Overall, 96% were completely or moderately satisfied with the outcome of the surgery. The QoL was comparable between the patients and controls, but school or work absences diminished the QoL of the patients. Conclusions: Surgery for pediatric-onset CD is risky even under expert care. Disease relapses and bowel re-resections are common during the first decade after primary surgery. In the long term, however, bowel function is acceptable and the QoL is comparable between patients and their peers.


The aim of this paper is to shed new light on the tonal grammar of Icelandic and to complement the tone inventory as previously described in the literature (Árnason 1998). Specifically, types of pitch accents and edge tones and their combinations in neutral declaratives and questions, and in utterances containing narrow focus are addressed. Two pitch accent types (H* and L*) and two edge tones (H- and L-) are identified, for which evidence has not been found in previous research. Moreover, the paper shows for declaratives, that along with downstep, Icelandic has upstep across Intonational Phrases. Upstep applies to a series of pitch peaks. It may occur in neutral declaratives and in utterances with final narrow focus. Overall, the results of this study provide a substantial addition to our knowledge of Icelandic intonational phonology.


During the last decade the decrease in the size of computing machinery, coupled with the increase in their computing power have lend to the development of the concept of mobile computing. Effects of this new vision can be seen currently in the flourishing numbers of mobile telephones and portable computing units. In the current work we investigate some issues concerning the security of databases and database systems in the mobile computing environment. We present a scheme for end-to-end secure data transfer between one mobile computing element to another based on a recent protocol for key distribution. Secure data transfer is crucial as a foundation to providing other more complex interactions between the various mobile computing elements. Following this we also present an extension to the scheme, applicable for the storage of data in a mobile database, allowing for remote accessibility of the data in a secure manner. Disciplines Physical Sciences and Mathematics Publication Details Thomas Hardjono and Jennifer Seberry, Information security in mobile databases, Sixth Australasian Database Conference, Glenelg, South Australia, February, 1995. This conference paper is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/infopapers/1121 [246] Rep Tho~as Hardjono and Jennifer Seberry, Information security in mobile databases, Szxth Australasian Database Conference, (R Sacks and J Zobel, (Eds.)), 17(2), conference held at Glenelg, South Australia, February, 1995. Information Security in Mobile Databases


We are giving our young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. John Gardner Student Power. From all sides, requests or demands for more student involvement in academic decisions are heard. To many medical teachers the notion that inexperienced students can make more than a token contribution to curriculum decisions is absurd. If given his choice, the student would avoid the rigorous course work that is the foundation of medical problem solving; he would also select easy and unchallenging schedules and leave himself excessive free time for moonlighting or loafing—or so it seems. Consistent with this expected student behavior and along with most other elements of the higher education establishment, medical educators have traditionally behaved in an autocratic and paternalistic way. They have defined what, how fast, and when the student should learn. As a logical consequence, almost all educational innovations have involved


Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) is a ligand-activated nuclear hormone receptor highly expressed in the gastrointestinal tract. We have shown that FXR agonists improve disease in multiple chronic IBD models (Adoptive transfer (AT) colitis, Mdr1a-/- colitis, and SAMP1/YitFc ileitis) with efficacy similar to anti-IL-12/23. To explore the mechanisms by which FXR agonists reduce colitis in these models and the relevance to human IBD, we identified the genes and pathways regulated by FXR in the AT colitis mice, and compared them with the gene expression profile in human IBD patients.

 Colitis was induced by transplanting CD4+CD45RBhi T-cells to C.B-17 SCID mice. Mice were treated with vehicle (n=10), an FXR agonist (p.o. daily, n=10) or anti-IL-12p40 (i.p., weekly, n=5) in therapeutic mode (started 21 days post AT) for 4 weeks. Efficacy was assessed by colon histopathology of inflammation, erosion, gland loss and hyperplasia (0–5 each). RNAseq was performed on colon RNAs (n=5–7 samples/group). Genes differentially regulated by the FXR agonist were compared with published FXR ChIPSeq data (Thomas et al 2010 Hepatology) and a IBD patients' gene expression dataset (GSE73661) to identify FXR target genes associated with human IBD. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to identify enriched pathways.

 Direct FXR target genes were identified by comparing genes upregulated by the FXR agonist in the AT mice with FXR ChIPSeq data. Further comparison with GSE73661 identified FXR target genes relevant to human IBD. The majority of these genes are down-regulated in diseased mice and IBD patients compared to healthy controls. Importantly, in GSE73661 dataset, those genes were upregulated in patients that responded to therapy, while remained down-regulated in refractory patients. The function of those genes includes reducing inflammation, improving gut healing and transporter activities. Further pathway analysis by GSEA identified a number of inflammatory pathways significantly upregulated in AT mice and IBD patients, many of which show reduction with the FXR agonist treatment. Of note, TNFα/NF-κB and IL-6/STAT3 pathways, targeted by approved IBD therapies, were significantly elevated in AT mice but reduced by the FXR agonist or anti-IL-12/23.

 Activation of FXR directly induces IBD-dysregulated genes that can suppress inflammation, promote gut healing and transporter functions. In addition, FXR activation reduced TNFα/NF-κB and IL-6/STAT3 pathways in AT colitis model. These findings support further development of novel FXR agonists as a potential oral therapy for IBD.


This study re-examines social mobility in Victorian Britain, focusing on the experiences of the actor Henry Irving (1838-1905). Irving rose from 'humble' beginnings to become one of the most respected men in Victorian society, and was the first actor to receive a knighthood. The Victorians celebrated the possibilities of social mobility, or 'self-making' as they termed it, through independence, diligence and thrift, pointing to exemplary figureheads such as Irving. But self-making was a cultural fantasy, and this study tracks Irving's experiences to investigate the realities of his unusual achievement. I explore life in the rural and urban places where Irving lived, and position him within cultures of education, theatre, and artistic bohemia. In this way I signal the importance of such contexts in modulating experience, behaviour, and bodily comportment. I demonstrate that the Victorians interpreted status through the effect of the presence of the body in social interaction and understood society as consisting of two groups, the polite and the vulgar. As Irving left behind the lower middle-class social circles of his youth that conditioned and constrained his bodily practices, and entered new social circles, he changed the way he spoke, presented himself and moved his body. Without this bodily reconditioning, I argue, Irving would not have achieved what he did. This is not just a biographical narrative of one individual's life. Rather, it is a study of the importance of the particular in historical analysis. It is about how the individual negotiated wider processes, practices and ideas in Victorian Britain, and the ways in which these factors shaped his experience. I show how a focused analysis of one man, his body, his life experiences and his representation in auto/biography can yield new insights into power relations, cultures of class, and social mobility in the Victorian period.


This book presents the first detailed and comprehensive study of information highlighting in advanced learner language, echoing the increasing interest in questions of near-native competence in SLA research and contributing to the description of advanced interlanguages. It examines the production and comprehension of specific means of information highlighting in English by native speakers and German learners of English as a foreign language, presenting triangulated experimental and learner corpus data as corroborating evidence. The study focuses on learners' use of discourse-pragmatically motivated variations of the basic word order such as inversion, preposing, and it - and wh -clefts, an underexplored field in SLA research to date.The book also provides a critical re-assessment of the study of pragmatics within SLA. It has largely been neglected to date that L2 pragmatic knowledge includes more than the sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic abilities for understanding and performing speech acts. Thus, the book argues for an extension of the scope of inquiry in interlanguage pragmatics beyond the cross-cultural investigation of speech acts. It also discusses pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching and will be of interest to applied linguists and SLA researchers, language teachers and curriculum designers.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the dramatically changed role of Russia in the global economy since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, as the Soviet institutions collapsed and were either reformed or replaced in a new Russian institutional landscape. The paper presents a fact-based and balanced view of Russia's evolving role in the global economy, as distinguished from the sometimes one-sided view presented by some Western commentators. The authors establish that the two countervailing views are fundamentally based on different cultural perspectives about institutions, primarily the roles of business and government.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper is developed as a perspectives article drawing upon the decades of academic and business experience of all three authors with Russian business, management and the economy. The paper focuses on the structure of Russian institutional change and places it within the historical context of the challenges of various periods of time from the late 1980s to the present. The authors posit that cultural foundations complicate that institutional evolution.

Findings
Russia will remain a major player in world markets for energy, raw materials and armaments for the near future at least. Principal institutional questions facing Russia have to do with how to reduce the country's overall dependence on raw material exports, with its vulnerability to world market fluctuations, and how to modernize Russian economic and political institutions. The degree of success in addressing these questions will depend largely upon the ability of the new and reformed economic institutions to show the flexibility to respond to changes in the global order, on whether political considerations will continue to supersede economic issues, and how markedly cultural traditions will continue to impede positive changes.

Research limitations/implications
The entire system of international trade is under question, disrupted by the growing nationalism that is threatening the globalization that became institutionalized over decades in the wake of the Second World War. Russia's future role is partially dependent upon how new patterns of international trade develop in response to the current disruption of established trade regimes, and by how political conflicts are expressed economically. The authors observe that Russia's historical and cultural traditions, especially acquiescence to a highly centralized government with a strong autocratic leader, limit the country's options. The authors explore how Russia's reactions to Western sanctions have led to a new strategic approach, moving away from full engagement in the global economy to selective economic, and sometimes political, alliances with primarily non-Western countries, most notably China. The authors contrast Russia's situation with that of China, which has been able to make substantial economic progress while still embracing a strong, centralized political institutional structure.

Originality/value
Many Western analysts have viewed Russian institutional evolution very critically through the lens of Western politics and sanctions, while Russia has continued along its own path of economic and institutional development. Each view, the authors argue, is based upon differing cultural perspectives of the roles of business and government. As a result, a distinct difference exists between the Western and Russian perspectives on Russia's role in the world. This paper presents both points of view and explores the future of Russia's position in the world economy based upon its evolving strategy for national economic policy. The authors contrast the situations of Russia and China, highlighting how Western-centric cultural views have affected perceptions of each country, sometimes similarly and at times with decided differences.


Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of depressive disorders and symptoms and their correlates in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and caregiver spouses and to identify dimensions of resilience as well as distress. Methods: Fifty-six patients with ALS and 31 caregivers were interviewed on one occasion, and 20 patients were subsequently reinterviewed during a scheduled medical visit at an ALS center. Major measures included the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Schedule of Attitudes Toward Hastened Death, quality of life, spirituality, and degree of hopelessness. The ALS Functional Rating Scale, spirometry measures of forced vital capacity, and the Karnofsky Performance Index were used to assess physical status. Results: Neither patients nor caregivers displayed significant psychopathology with respect to either current depressive disorders or scores on symptom scales. Depressive symptoms and psychological distress were not related to time since diagnosis, degree of disability, or illness progression during the period of observation. More interest in hastened death was associated with greater distress, but willingness to consider assisted suicide was not. Among caregivers, perceived caregiver burden was significantly associated with finding positive meaning in caregiving. Concordance between patient and caregiver distress was high, suggesting that attention to the mental health needs of caregivers may alleviate the patient's distress as well. Conclusions: Clinical depression or significant depressive symptomatology is not an inevitable or common outcome of life-threatening illness, even in the presence of major disability.


Sustained casing pressure (SCP) is considered a well integrity problem. The approach of this study is to look at SCP as environmental risk due hydrocarbon release. Currently, the risk is qualified by the value of surface pressure (Pcsg) that may cause failure of casing head. However, the resulting rate of gas emission to the atmosphere is not considered. Also not considered is a possibility of breaching the casing shoe due transmission of Pcsg downhole.
The objective of this study is to develop methods for maximum possible air emission rates (MER) and risk of subsurface well integrity failure due SCP. Mathematical models and software are developed for computing MER, casing shoe strength (CSS) determined by leak-off test (LOT), and casing shoe pressure load resulting from SCP (SCPd). The models are used to find controlling parameters, identify the best and least-desirable scenarios, and assess environmental risk.
It is concluded that emission potential of SCP wells with high wellhead pressure (Pcsg) can be quite small. The CSS model study reveals the importance of data recorded from LOT; particularly the time after circulation was stopped the non-circulation time (∆ts). Ignoring ∆ts would result in underestimation of the ultimate CSS. The error is caused by the cumulative effect of thermally induced rock stresses, which strongly depend on ∆ts. The study displayed SCPd being controlled by the annular fluid properties which are subject to change in long time through mud aging; and mostly being overestimated.
Comparison of surface versus subsurface failure scenarios yielded cases where the casing shoe demonstrates more restrictive failure criterion (CSS) than the burst rating of wellhead (MAWOP). Risk of casing shoe breaching (RK) is quantified using the CSS and SCPd models and application of risk analysis technique (QRA). The CSS distribution followed log-normal trend due the effect of ∆ts, while the SCPd distribution maybe of various shapes dependent on the annular fluid size and properties that are not well known. Possible scenarios of casing shoe breaching are statistically tested as a hypothesis of two means. The study produced engrossingly variant outcomes, RK changing from 1 to 80 percent.


A numerical study of the flow characteristics inside a U-type circular tube is carried out in this paper. The numerical simulations carried out by using a Navier-Stokes code which is commercially available. Before detailed numerical simulations, validation of present numerical approach is made by comparing numerical solutions with experimental data. Numerical simulations are performed to study the effect of curvature on the flow characteristics inside a U-type tube. Numerical solutions show that a significant effect on the secondary flow structure in the cross section of the tube, especially in the curved section is shown when the curvature ratio, ratio of curvature to tube diameter, is smaller than about 3.5. As the curvature ratio decreases below 3.5, a counter rotating vortex is found below the primary vortex in the cross section of the tube. Another dramatic change of the flow structure is the formation of streamwise separation zone when the curvature ratio is decreased below 1.25.


Dental treatment uses materials such as resin that emit unpleasant volatile odors. These odors have been suggested to cause emotional distress and vomiting in patients, leading to the negative recall of dental treatments due to their smell. This study aimed to evaluate brain correlates of the stress response when sniffing the odor of dental treatment materials. Using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and a visual analog scale (VAS) of odor unpleasantness, we evaluated the degree of discomfort in 18 healthy subjects when sniffing resin odor. We measured the activity of the prefrontal cortex when subjects sniffed resin and used a T&T Olfactometer (Daiichi Yakuhin Sangyo. Ltd) to generate C-5 (unpleasant) and D-5 (pleasant) odors. The VAS and fNIRS activity level in the prefrontal cortex were C5>resin>D5 in magnitude. Thus, there was a tendency for prefrontal cortex activity to register the strength of unpleasantness of odors, including those emitted in dental procedures. We conclude that odors used in dental treatment elicit a stress-associated neural response. Therefore, odor protection in dental clinics is important for relieving the stress of patients under treatment.


Accountability, autonomy, and choice play a leading role in recent school reforms in many countries.
This report provides new evidence on whether students perform better in school systems that have such
institutional measures in place. We implement an internationally comparative approach within a rigorous
micro-econometric framework that accounts for the influences of a large set of student, family, school, and
country characteristics. The student-level data used in the analysis comes from the PISA 2003 international
student achievement test that encompasses up to 265,000 students from 37 countries.
Our results reveal that different facets of accountability, autonomy, and choice are strongly associated
with the level of student achievement across countries. With respect to accountability, students perform
better where policies are in place that aim at students (external exit exams), teachers (monitoring of
lessons), and schools (assessment-based comparisons). The combined achievement differences amount to
more than one and a half PISA grade-level equivalents.
Students in schools with hiring autonomy perform better on average, while they perform worse in
schools with autonomy in formulating their budget. School autonomy over the budget, salaries, and course
contents appears to be more beneficial when external exit exams hold schools accountable for their
decisions.


The formation of tool marks in single-point diamond turning is a fundamental study of the effect of materials swelling and recovery on surface roughness on a machined surface. A series of orthogonal face cutting tests has been conducted among plate aluminum alloy, oxygen-free high conductivity copper and electroless nickel phosphorus under the same cutting conditions by the use of facet tools with different front clearance angles. The results show that the regular width of the undulating pattern in tool marks could be explained by side swelling and the micro-waviness within a tool mark is caused by burnishing and recovery.


The increase of the population of large German cities between 2000 and 2014 indicates a reurbanisation process in line with the concept of the "growing city". This exploratory investigation will analyse the influence of internal and external migration on the population development of the German urban system by applying descriptive and statistical methods, going beyond the mere observation of selected cities.This paper shows that reurbanisation in Germany has resulted from various age- and citizenship-dependent combinations of spatial population movements, which in turn express different location advantages and disadvantages. The structural change towards a knowledge economy, the expansion of education, and changing living concepts on the demand versus new urbanistic planning concepts on the supply side strengthen the affinity of different population groups for urban living. This new attractiveness of cities seems to be most distinct among young adults' motives for living in cities or not. Furthermore, the dynamics of these processes are also dependent upon conditions on the national and international levels. Thus, before the economic and financial crisis 2009 the balances of internal migration of the German as well as foreign population had a decisive influence on the dynamics, in-migration surpluses from abroad rose considerably after 2009. With the rising numbers of asylum seekers, state-controlled residence allocations as well as migrant networks are increasingly important for the population development of cities. At the same time, especially in cities with at least 500,000 inhabitants, ongoing growth is creating shortages on the housing and real estate markets, which tend to counteract the population growth. * This article belongs to a special issue on reurbanisation.


There has been extensive research on dimensionality reduction techniques. While these make it possible to present visually the high-dimensional data in 2D or 3D, it remains a challenge for users to make sense of such projected data. Recently, interactive techniques, such as Feature Transformation, have been introduced to address this. This paper describes a user study that was designed to understand how the feature transformation techniques affect user's understanding of multi-dimensional data visualisation. It was compared with the traditional dimension reduction techniques, both unsupervised (PCA) and supervised (MCML). Thirty-one participants were recruited to detect visual clusters and outliers using visualisations produced by these techniques. Six different datasets with a range of dimensionality and data size were used in the experiment. Five of these are benchmark datasets, which makes it possible to compare with other studies using the same datasets. Both task accuracy and completion time were recorded for comparison. The results show that there is a strong case for the feature transformation technique. Participants performed best with the visualisations produced with high-level feature transformation, in terms of both accuracy and completion time. The improvements over other techniques are substantial, particularly in the case of the accuracy of the clustering task. However, visualising data with very high dimensionality (i.e., greater than 100 dimensions) remains a challenge.


This paper reviews the manifestations and achievements of Modi government's "Issue-by-Issue" diplomacy with China since 2016. It discusses the causes and development of India's attitude towards China and analyses India's thinking behind its diplomacy with China. In this paper, an attempt has been made to find out the thinking's influence on India's attitude towards its participation in the Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI). Based on these discussions and analyses, the study concludes that India is suspicious of the BRI. Moreover, whether China can dispel India's suspicion actually does not depend on China's policy orientation towards India and its effects, rather it depends on the specific dividends that the BRI can achieve in other countries in South Asia.


This paper presents a verification approach specific for expressing and verifying the services of routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). The proposed approach performs a powerful verification on routing protocols, and is sufficient to confirm correctness of protocols when used in most situations. The case study with a routing protocol for MANETs found a flaw in the protocol, showing the effectiveness of this approach.


Levator ani syndrome (LAS) is a functional disorder of the pelvic floor muscles in which recurrent and persistent distressing pain is felt in the anus without detectable organic pathology. Eighty one percent of coccygodynia was alleviated by the levator massage when the massage motion was repeated 10 to 15 times on each sid e of the pelvis daily for 5 or 6 days. The authors encountered the LAS patient for whom successive visit to pain clinic was economic burden. Therefore, the authors managed the patient by intermittent levator massage with caudal block, once a week for 3 times, resulting in two years of pain free status. Intermittent levator massage with caudal block may be as effective as successive levator massage and induce longer painless period in the management of LAS. (Korean J Anesthesiol 2009; 57: 137∼9)


Introduction: The prevalence of gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) has been increasing worldwide. Earlier it was thought that GERD prevalence in Asian countries is lower compared to western countries. But recent studies have shown that it's on par with the west. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of gastro esophageal reflux disease among medical students and the risk factors associated with it. Materials and Method: The study was done as a cross sectional study using the Gastro esophageal Reflux Disease – Health Related Quality of Life (GERD-HRQL) questionnaire developed by Velanovich et al among Medical College students in Chennai during February to March 2017. Results: Out of the 263 medical students who participated in this study, 92 (35%) were male and 171 (65%) were female. 25 % of study population had a positive family history of GERD, while majority (63.9%) of study participant's skipped meals. A large majority of them preferred eating outside (82.9%) and liked eating spicy foods (81.4%). The prevalence of GERD in the study population was 14.4%. The association between GERD and family history, history of drug intake, skipping meals, alcohol consumption, and smoking was found to be statistically significant. (p<0.05) Conclusion: There is high prevalence of GERD in this population. There is a need for more population-based studies on GERD in India to provide insight into the various risk factors which increase the chance of developing gastro esophageal reflux disease.


Several identical X band cavity stabilized MESFET and HEMT oscillators are presented. Their phase noise and some other noise data are reported. Under exactly the same oscillating conditions, the MESFET oscillators exhibit the best phase noise performance not only because of their lower low frequency noise but also because of a better linearity which provides a smaller LF noise conversion in the microwave frequency range.


Many studies in machine learning try to investigate what makes an algorithm succeed or fail on certain datasets. However, the field is still evolving relatively quickly, and new algorithms, preprocessing methods, learning tasks and evaluation procedures continue to emerge in the literature. Thus, it is impossible for a single study to cover this expanding space of learning approaches. In this paper, we propose a community-based approach for the analysis of learning algorithms, driven by sharing meta-data from previous experiments in a uniform way. We illustrate how organizing this information in a central database can create a practical public platform for any kind of exploitation of meta-knowledge, allowing effective reuse of previous experimentation and targeted analysis of the collected results.


International Law Journal are proud to dedicate the second issue of the Journal's thirty-fourth volume to one of the school's most distinguished and productive teachers and scholars, Roger J. Goebel, the Alpin J. Cameron Professor of Law and Director of the Center on European Union Law, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday. A native of Indianapolis, Professor Goebel received his undergraduate education at Manhattan College, where he was awarded an A.B. degree in June 1957. (It is significant to note that on March 25, 1957 the Treaty of Rome was concluded, establishing the European Common Market and that it would be to its successor organization, the European Union, that Professor Goebel would devote most of his scholarly research and teaching.) Professor Goebel spent the next four years at the New York University School of Law, where he was the Articles Editor of the New York University Law Review, receiving his J.D. degree in 1960 and his LL.M. degree in 1961. During the 1961–62 academic year, Professor Goebel was aFulbright Fellow at the University of Tubingen, Germany. Upon his return to the United States, he taught for a year at the University of California at Berkeley and then joined the highly regarded international law firm of Coudert Brothers, becoming a partner of the firm in 1969. He served in the firm's Paris and New York offices from 1963 to 1983. He was a Visiting Professor on the faculties of the New York University School of Law (1978– 79) and the Seton Hall University School of Law School (1979–80; 1983–84). It was Fordham Law School's good fortune to have Professor Goebel join its faculty in 1984. He has brought to the school his broad experience as a greatly respected international law practitioner, as well as his expertise on the European Union, both of which he has shared generously with students and faculty colleagues. All have benefited from his lucid insights and wise counsel. Over the years, he has taught the following courses: EU Law, EU Business and Trade Law, EU Monetary and Banking Law, EU Corporate Governance and International usiness Contracts, as well as the courses in Corporations and Agency and Partnership. While at Fordham, his extensive publications have included the widely adopted Cases and Materials on European Union Law, written with Bermann, Davey and Fox, now in its 4th edition, and Rights, Liability and Ethics in International Law Practice, coauthored with the late Dean Mary Daly and now in its 2nd edition (2004). Professor Goebel's reputation as an outstanding teacher and scholar brought him recognition from abroad. He served as the Jean Monnet Visiting Professor at the University of Bonn, Germany (1995), as Visiting Professor at the University of Paris I (Spring 1999), and as Fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (2003). In the United States, he is on the advisory boards of the American Law Institute and the Common Market Law Review. From 1997 to 2000, he was president of the American Foreign Law Association. Not the least of Professor Goebel's activities has been his devoted work with the Fordham International Law Journal for which he has been a Faculty Advisor since 1994 (Volume 17). Editors have consulted him about authors and articles and have always valued his clear thinking and sage advice, particularly when trying to untangle knotty problems that arise on occasion. We salute Roger J. Goebel as he marks three-quarters of a century, thanking him for his enormous contribution to Fordham Law School, its students, and its faculty. We wish him good health and many, many more years of productive scholarship and teaching.


This study investigated the involvement of private veterinarians in surveillance activities and the veterinary workforce's contribution to the Australian animal health surveillance system. The perception that there is overall a decreased engagement by veterinarians in surveillance outcomes at a time when there is increased need for bolstering of surveillance systems was investigated. Three key questions were considered: (1) What is the current contribution of private veterinarians to the Australian surveillance system? (2) What is the veterinary professions capacity to assume a more prominent role in surveillance? (3) What is the interest and ability of the veterinary profession in Australia to undertake this surveillance role now and into the future? Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 17 private veterinarians with data analyzed qualitatively to identify key themes. Results demonstrate that private veterinarians are aware of their responsibilities and are engaged in surveillance activities at both formal and informal levels. The key challenges associated with current and future contributions were related to workload, remuneration, conflicts of interest and clarity over how responsibility for surveillance is shared amongst those involved in the system. The study has demonstrated that even amongst an engaged population, barriers do need to be addressed if private veterinarians are to be tasked with increasing their involvement in animal health surveillance activities.


Organizations and markets are more similar than institutionalized ideas have us believe. A generic similarity is that they are both organized forms of co-ordination in society, and as such often subject to re-organization. However, conversely to formal organizations, the topic of why and how markets are re-organized has generally been neglected by organizational scholars. In this article, we 1) adopt an open system perspective on market re-organization, and 2) specifically analyze how other markets drive re-organization of the individual market.Empirically, the article demonstrates how new or existing markets come into close relation to other markets as a response to their perceived failures or other problems. We refer to the prior type of market as 'intervention markets', i.e. markets that intervene in the function of other markets. The individual markets studied – a financial market in our first case and, foremost, power production markets in our second case – were all re-organized as a way to manage the pressure of intervention markets. However, the intentions behind the re-organizations differed: exclusion of the intervention-market (an advisory market) in the first study, and adaptation to it (the EU market for emission allowances) in the latter.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate local control and survival in patients with spinal metastases who were treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) using a CyberKnife, with or without a prior history of irradiation, and to identify prognostic factors predicting them. Between August 2008 and November 2012, 59 spinal metastatic lesions in 39 patients were treated with SBRT. Fourteen lesions (23.7%) were re-irradiated to treat recurrence after prior radiotherapy. Patients were treated with a median radiation dose of 27 Gy (range, 18-35 Gy) in a median of three fractions (range, one to five) using the CyberKnife Xsight Spine tracking system. Median planning target volume of the 59 spinal metastatic lesions was 37.4 cm3 (range, 0.9-301.4 cm3). Radiation was prescribed to the median 80% isodose line that encompassed at least 90% of the tumor volume. The revised Tokuhashi scoring system and the Tomita scoring system were adopted to predict survival of patients. Local progression was defined as tumor progression by imaging, or if other therapy such as surgery or re-irradiation was given after SBRT, as salvage treatment. The median follow-up period was 7.4 months (range, 1.1-42.5 months). Four of 59 (6.8%) lesions experienced local progression, and all of them occurred within 1-year. Two of four local progressions occurred in re-irradiated tumors, which received 21 Gy in three fractions. With respect to treatment site-specific survival (TSS), better performance status and no visceral metastases were associated with a superior outcome (p = 0.011 and p = .001, respectively). With respect to overall survival (OS), better performance status was marginally related to superior outcome (p = 0.096). The revised Tokuhashi scoring system and the Tomita scoring system predicted OS and TSS in patients treated with SBRT. Two patients developed vertebral compression fractures at 1.2 and 1.4 months after SBRT with no evidence of tumor progression. There was no radiation-induced myelopathy. SBRT with a CyberKnife is a safe and effective treatment modality to achieve local control in spinal metastases patients, including those with a previous history of conventional RT. SBRT should be considered for those patients with a relatively indolent primary tumor, good performance status, and no visceral metastases. Survival of these patients can potentially be prolonged by long-term control of spinal metastases.


In adsorbers with a bed height equal to the diameter of activated carbon particles the course of stepwise adsorption of ethanol from a stream of air and the course of stepwise desorption of ethanol by a stream of air with a lower content of ethanol compared with adsorption or by a stream of pure air were examined. The stepwise measurements were performed at a concentration of ethanol in air ranging from 0 to 0.35 mol m−3, which corresponds to the concentration of ethanol on activated carbon from 0 to 4180 mol m−3. From experimentally measured data effective diffusion coefficients De were calculated for each adsorption and desorption step. The calculated values of De are ranging from 1.182x10−10 to 6.308x10−10 m2 s−1. These values are dependent on the adsorbate concentration. From experimental data also values of De were calculated for each time of the stepwise adsorption and desorption. These values were used for the determination of the dependence of De on the adsorbate concentration: De = −4.7424x10−21q3 + 5.6130x10−17q2 − 5.9684x10−14q + 1.7647x10−10 By comparison of the obtained values of the e ective di usion coecient with values calculated by models it follows that during the transport of ethanol in particles of activated carbon Supersorbon HS4 both Knudsen di usion and surface di usion are decisive.


Post-reforms goverment authority in Indonesia were no longer centralized. Decentralization then emerged as dispersion of the central goverment affairs to the regional goverment. This article discusses the incompatibility of the Geothermal Power Plant (PLTPB) project issued by the district / city government but was issued by the provincial government using the normative-analysis method. Government concurrent affairs are divided into two affairs; compulsory and optional. The existence of PLTPB in Banyumas district is one of the democratic matters of choice. One of  PLTPB problems is that the regent of Banyumas do not aware of PLTPB policy.  It can be seen that there is no synchronization and harmonization between the provincial and district /city governments. Negative impacts ranging from destruction of residents' land to river pollution are not handled. The authority of these provisions must be taken over by the regency / city government and there must be countermeasures against affected people so that good governance will be created.


This paper analyses the impact of a specific type of banking regulation on operations in foreign currency, defined as currency-based capital flow management measures (CB-CFMs), on cross-border banking flows in a sample of 18 countries over the period 2005 to 2013. The results show that the introduction and tightening of these measures in the post-crisis period contributed to a reduction of the external debt of banks, controlling for capital flow management measures, domestic macro-prudential regulation, and a large set of push and pull factors. The examination of external debt by maturity and instruments suggests that these measures are more effective in curbing short-term debt and interbank borrowing, which are also the components that contracted more sharply in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. Further analysis could look at the benefits these measures bring in terms of financial stability, and evaluate the costs of capital account openness against the risks that CB-CFMs aim to address.


In our earlier work, data fusion with specific application to underwater tracking environment is explored. The target can be tracked using array bearings while it is moving with constant velocity and maneuvering occasionally. In this paper, it is shown that if data fusion is carried out using the bearing measurements available from towed array along with hull mounted array's bearings, then tracking of a continuously moving target can be carried out easily. This algorithm is independent of ownship maneuver for the observability of the process. Song and Speyer's and Galkowski and Islam's modified gain algorithms are utilized with some modifications for estimation. Monte Carlo simulation is performed and results are shown for various typical geometries.


Griliches' k-shift, a crucial parameter in the welfare evaluation of technological change, is shown to be equal to the radial rate of technological change plus a vector of commodity bias parameters obtained from the distance function. The analysis permits decomposition of sectoral productivity growth into productivity growth by commodity. The k-shifts estimated for wheat, corn, soybeans, and beef in U.S. agriculture indicate a decrease in the marginal cost of production of corn, soybeans, and wheat during the 1950-1993 years.


In this article the main aspects of embroidery in inclusive education of children with special educational needs (SEN) are considered: 1) cultural and educational; 2) professional rehabilitational; 3) therapeutic educational. It is disclosed in details the third aspect which is implemented through studying Ukrainian embroideries (vyshivanka): types of ornaments, embroidery techniques, colors, symbols, regional features, etc. The main attention is focused on practical use of embroideries for the purpose of formation of prerequisites to the development of a written language of younger schoolchildren with special educational needs in the New Ukrainian school. Now there is a revaluation of values, overcoming the settled stereotypes, medical, defectological rudiments on the education of people with special educational needs, including children, which becomes the basis of a new legal, scientific and methodological, organizational and substantive support for their education. However, if the normative-legal component of this process is currently sufficiently developed in Ukraine, the scientific-methodical and organizational-substantive components still require significant theoretical-experimental research and practical development, that determine the relevance of finding innovative ways of practical implementation of inclusive education. As a result of the analysis of scientific works of scientists it was found that among the main principles of development of national education is the definition of directions and means of its transformation into the social elevator of a world sample. Awareness of importance of realization the outlined bases in practice stimulates the development of new non-standard approaches to development of children with SEN in terms of inclusion, including the formation of speech by samples of Ukrainian embroideries, which allows to combine this process with national-patriotic education. Therefore, the interdisciplinary research is based on the advanced achievements of foreign and domestic science and practice in the field of inclusion, as well as logopedics based on a neuropsychological approach to understand the functioning of written language. In fragments from an author's methodical system game techniques, tasks, exercises for development of the highest mental processes, grapho-motor skills, optical-spatial orientation, components of a speech system are presented. Phonetic-phonemic processes, lexical-grammatical structure and coherent speech can be integrated both into the system of correctional-developmental classes of a speech therapist and into the work of a teacher and a teacher's assistant at the lessons within inclusive classroom. The prospects of a research consist of development and application of elements of the methodology in high school, and also its approbation at the Ukrainian schools of diaspora for the purpose of studying the native language.


We investigate the lepton pair production with the Drell-Yan process in relativistic heavy ion collisions by computing the double differential cross section dσ/dM2dy and dσ/dM2dxF at the next-to-leading order in p+Au and Au+Au collisions with = 200 GeV at RHIC. The resulting nuclear modification factors RpAu and RAuAu show strong sensitivity to the cold nuclear matter (CNM) effects and could probe the CNM effects at a very wide region of the longitudinal momentum fraction x. The variation of R with the invariant mass M, the rapidity y and the Feynman variable xF is shown and we find that the nuclear modification factor for the double differential cross section could be smaller than 0.4 in some kinematic regions of high-energy nucleus-nucleus reactions at RHIC.


ACCURACY OF TRANSFER RNA SELECTION IN PROTEIN SY The ribosome is a rapid magnificent molecular machine that plays an important role in proteinsynthesis and it consists of RNA and protein. The 70S bacterial ribosome comprises twosubunits, 30S and 50S. The 30S small subunit of the bacterial ribosome contains a protein calledS12, encoded by the rpsL gene. The function of this S12 protein is to help arrange the mRNAcorrectly to the ribosome and to interact with transfer RNA (tRNA) to initiate translation.Mutations in the rpsL gene generate phenotypes like resistance, dependence or pseudodependenceto the antibiotic streptomycin in bacteria. It is believed that mutations in the rpsLgene can increase the accuracy of tRNA selection in protein synthesis.The ribosome conducts the selection of tRNA in two steps: the initial selection and theproofreading step. During these multiple steps, the ribosome chooses the cognate aminoacyltRNAsin a ternary complex with EF-Tu and GTP and accommodates in the A site of ribosome.Therefore, the accuracy of the ribosome in selection of cognate aminoacyl-tRNA is crucial for the production of functional polypeptide sequences. Here, three different Escherichia coli strains; wild type MG1655, streptomycin restrictive (SmR) strain res222, and a streptomycin pseudo-dependent (SmP) strain w3110 are used, for studying the accuracy of tRNA selection inprotein synthesis. The mutant SmR shows hyper-accurate phenotype, which means, it has lowerpeptide bond formation efficiency and higher accuracy than the wild type. SmP shows pseudodependentto streptomycin phenotype which means it has higher peptide bond formation efficiency in the presence of antibiotic streptomycin. I have estimated the accuracy of tRNA selection in protein synthesis with enzyme kinetics. The kinetics data of these experiments display that mutant streptomycin restrictive is hyper-accurate and lower peptide bond formation efficiency than the wild type. SmP for the near cognate reaction in presence of antibiotic streptomycin has higher peptide bond formation efficiency than the SmP in absence of antibiotic streptomycin. SmP in presence antibiotic streptomycin has lower accuracy than the SmP in absence of antibiotic streptomycin.


Background Whether tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) have an influence on radiographic progression in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) remains controversial. Objectives To investigate the impact of TNFi use on spinal radiographic progression in AS. Methods Patients fulfilling the modified NY Criteria for AS (as assessed by central reading) in the Swiss Clinical Quality Management Cohort with at least 2 years of clinical and radiographic follow-up were included. Spinal X-rays were taken every 2 years and scored independently by 2 blinded readers according to the modified Stoke Ankylosing Spondylitis Spine Score (mSASSS) in chronological time order. Average score of the readers was used. Radiographic progression was defined as an increase by ≥2 mSASSS units over 2 years. The relationship between TNFi use before a 2 year X-ray interval and progression within the interval was investigated using binomial generalized estimating equation models with adjustment for potential confounding and multiple imputation of missing covariate data. Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) was regarded as a potential intermediate variable mediating the effect of TNFi on radiographic progression. It was added to the model as a time-varying variable in a sensitivity analysis. Results A total of 420 patients with AS contributed to data for 597 x-ray intervals in adjusted analyses (1–5 intervals per patient); BL characteristics: male sex 66%, HLA-B27 81%, mean (SD) age 40.4 (10.9) years, disease duration 13.9 (9.8) years, mSASSS 6.4 (12.4), ASDAS 2.8 (1.1)). 39% of the patients were already on TNFi at first X-ray. Mean mSASSS progression in 2 years was 0.9 (2.7) units. The multivariable model (Table) shows that prior use of TNFi reduced the odds of progression in the next 2 year interval by 49% (odds ratio (OR) 0.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28–0.92, p=0.03). BL mSASSS and male sex also significantly affected progression. Adding ASDAS as a covariate to the model decreased the estimated effect of TNFi on progression: OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.36–1.17, p=0.15. In this model, a decrease in ASDAS by 1 unit would lower the odds for progression by 0.62 (p=0.001).Table 1. Longitudinal multivariable analysis of radiographic progression Variable OR 95% CI P value TNFi use prior to X-ray interval 0.51 0.28–0.92 0.03 NSAID use at start X-ray interval 0.81 0.40–1.63 0.55 mSASSS at start X-ray interval 1.06 1.04–1.07 <0.001 Male gender 3.01 1.56–5.77 0.001 Disease duration 1.01 0.99–1.04 0.38 Current smoking 0.94 0.55–1.61 0.83 HLA-B27 0.99 0.46–2.12 0.98 Nb of exercise sessions per week 0.93 0.80–1.08 0.35 Peripheral arthritis 1.00 0.56–1.79 1.00 Conclusions TNFi seem to reduce radiographic progression in patients with AS and this effect is mediated, at least in part, by a decrease in disease activity. Acknowledgements Supported by the Stiftung für Rheumaforschung and a research grant from the investigator initiated studies program of MSD. Disclosure of Interest C. Molnar: None declared, A. Scherer: None declared, X. Baraliakos: None declared, M. de Hooge: None declared, R. Micheroli: None declared, P. Exer: None declared, R. Kissling: None declared, G. Tamborrini: None declared, L. Wildi: None declared, M. Nissen: None declared, P. Zufferey: None declared, J. Bernhard Consultant for: Merck Sharp & Dohme, Pfizer, Roche, U. Weber Consultant for: Abbvie, R. Landewé: None declared, D. van der Heijde: None declared, A. Ciurea Consultant for: Abbvie, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, UCB


The lithium absorption energies and electronic structures of boron- or silicon-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) were investigated using first-principles calculations based on the density-functional theory. As B and Si doping carbon nanotubes, the lithium atom adsorption energies decrease. The effects of B and Si doping are different on the lithium atomic adsorption. B-doping forms an electron-deficient structure in SWCNT. While the Si-doping forms a highly reactive center. The calculations suggest that boron- and silicon-doping in SWCNT will improve Li absorption performance.


The Secretaria de Fomento Agropecuario del Estado de Coahuila created at the express request of rural producers, the program of agricultural and rural extension, in order to lead the field a comprehensive system of technical assistance, supported by technology that generate research institutions , and backed by highly trained technicians, committed to sustainable rural development. Among the main objectives of the program in the case of crops, is raising yields and improve their quality, and in the case of livestock, increase productivity and maintain the health of cattle ranches. The extension program, began in 2006 with two specific programs: one in Cotton, in the laguna region, and another in Bovine, in 23 municipalities of the entity; for 2007, are integrated eight programs more: apple, melon, walnut, corn, wheat, fodder, as well as the program in goats and leveling of land, with which it is achieved meet all municipalities of the state, while there are answers to the demands of producers. To date, the launching of the program of agricultural extension begins to bear fruit, allowing producers and partners feel responsible for their own development and the communities where they live.


SUMMARY Diabetes is characterized by the loss, or gradual dysfunction, of insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells. Although β-cells can replicate in younger adults, the available diabetes therapies do not specifically target β-cell regeneration. Novel approaches are needed to discover new therapeutics and to understand the contributions of endocrine progenitors and β-cell regeneration during islet expansion. Here, we show that the regulators of G protein signaling Rgs16 and Rgs8 are expressed in pancreatic progenitor and endocrine cells during development, then extinguished in adults, but reactivated in models of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Exendin-4, a glucagon-like peptide 1 (Glp-1)/incretin mimetic that stimulates β-cell expansion, insulin secretion and normalization of blood glucose levels in diabetics, also promoted re-expression of Rgs16::GFP within a few days in pancreatic ductal-associated cells and islet β-cells. These findings show that Rgs16::GFP and Rgs8::GFP are novel and early reporters of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-stimulated β-cell expansion after therapeutic treatment and in diabetes models. Rgs16 and Rgs8 are likely to control aspects of islet progenitor cell activation, differentiation and β-cell expansion in embryos and metabolically stressed adults.