Two novel K+ channel α subunits, named Kv9.1 and Kv9.2, have been cloned. The Kv9.2 gene is situated in the 8q22 region of the chromosome. mRNAs for these two subunits are highly and selectively expressed in the nervous system. High levels of expressions are found in the olfactory bulb, cerebral cortex, hippocampal formation, habenula, basolateral amygdaloid nuclei, and cerebellum. Interestingly Kv9.1 and Kv9.2 colocalized with Kv2.1 and/or Kv2.2 α subunits in several regions of the brain. Neither Kv9.1 nor Kv9.2 have K+ channel activity by themselves, but both modulate the activity of Kv2.1 and Kv2.2 channels by changing kinetics and levels of expression and by shifting the half-inactivation potential to more polarized values. This report also analyzes the changes in electrophysiological properties of Kv2 subunits induced by Kv5.1 and Kv6.1, two other modulatory subunits. Each modulatory subunit has its own specific properties of regulation of the functional Kv2 subunits, and they can lead to extensive inhibitions, to large changes in kinetics, and/or to large shifts in the voltage dependencies of the inactivation process. The increasing number of modulatory subunits for Kv2.1 and Kv2.2 provides an amazingly new capacity of functional diversity.


New environmental regulations require the shipping industry to reduce its sulphur emissions. The currently most environmentally friendly alternative for ship owners to comply with the regulations is the switch to LNG fuelled vessels which however also requires port developers to invest in the supply of LNG. In order to successfully implement the creation of an LNG infrastructure, various challenges have to be overcome. This study looks at the challenges of LNG as a ship fuel from a stakeholder perspective by conducting a port screening with the aim to assess the current development status of LNG projects and the drivers and impediments behind it. Furthermore, a qualitative research with expert interviews of the most important stakeholder groups gives insight on how stakeholders are involved in the various aspects of LNG development. While several challenges have impeded the introduction of LNG as ship fuel in the past years, by far the biggest issue in the soon future is the development of the oil price that lowers the feasibility of LNG ship fuel compared to oil-depending alternatives. The study also revealed that the potential of local industries and cargo owners to influence the implementation of LNG as ship fuel has been neglected so far. The successful creation of an LNG infrastructure relies on public funding programs. Therefore, policy makers need to have well-elaborated strategies and increase the general perception of LNG among local industries and legal authorities by pointing out the potential of LNG for the whole economy. The results can support policy makers on EU level in their decision of composing an LNG strategy and give interesting insight to involved actors about the stakeholder network. The study was limited to the Baltic Sea region, specifically Finnish and Swedish stakeholders. These might vary from other geographical contexts.


Power laws relating the different radar observables (from conventional or polarimetric radar systems) are commonly used in the processing of radar measurements (e.g., attenuation correction) and in their conversion into rain rate values (e.g., Z-R relationship). These power laws are usually established from measured raindrop size distributions (DSD) collected by disdrometers (at the ground level), that correspond to point-scale measurements. These power laws are then applied at the scale of a radar sampling volume (in the order of 1 km3). The DSD can be variable within a radar pixel, and this variability hence questions the representativity of power laws derived from point measurements and applied to radar observations. To investigate the small-scale variability of the DSD, a network of 16 disdrometers (Parsivel, 1st generation) has been deployed over EPFL campus in Lausanne, Switzerland, during 16 months. 36 rain events have been selected and classified in 3 groups of rain types: convective, transitional and stratiform. This set of events can reasonably be seen as representative of the local climatology. The spatially distributed DSD measurements from the disdrometer network are used to quantify the spatial variability and the spatial structure of the DSD within a typical radar pixel. The coefficients of the Z-R and the RKdp power laws are estimated at the point and the pixel scales. The influence of their variability within a radar pixel on the quality of the rain rate estimate is quantified and is shown to be potentially significant.


We diagnosed entrapment of the superficial peroneal nerve in 17 patients (19 legs) with a mean age of 41 years. In all cases, plain radiographs of the leg, nerve-conduction studies of the superficial peroneal nerve and measurement of the intramuscular pressure at rest after exercise were normal. Diagnostic tests for nerve compression during rest after exercise produced pain and clinical signs in all.We performed decompression of the superficial peroneal tunnel in 14 patients and local fasciectomy in three. Fourteen patients (80%) were free from symptoms or satisfied with the result.


Rich Internet Applications that enable new ways of interaction with digital objects within multimedia scenes become important for educational communities. Such new ways of advanced human-computer interaction, in its different forms match the needs of formal education as well as lifelong learning in medicine, architecture, construction or cultural heritage management. This paper presents innovative multimedia annotation methods based on advanced human-computer interaction and (a)synchronous interpersonal collaboration features, focusing on e-learning activities. They have been implemented within eRAF (External Resource Annotation Framework) with the scope of going beyond the existing solutions by introducing new annotation types using external resources. Thus, anyone can easily annotate the own resources with additional information such as real-time handwriting, text and animation, or even audio/video sequences stored into public data repositories, or recorded ad-hoc, in order to create value-added interactive content.


Labelled testosterone- and oestradiol-binding molecules have been found in the cytosol and nuclei of lizard testes. DNA-cellulose affinity chromatography was used to separate putative sex-steroid-binding receptors (adhering molecules) and nonreceptor components (nonadhering molecules). A putative androgen receptor (Kd: 10(-10) mol l-1; 3-9 fmol g-1 tissue) was found mainly in the nuclei of testicular cells when actively undergoing spermatogenesis. This suggests that, as in higher vertebrates, testosterone is implicated in spermatogenetic step regulation (meiosis and spermiogenesis) in lizard testis. In the cytosol, testosterone-binding molecules (Kd: 10(-9) mol l-1; 384-784 fmol g-1 tissue) with several properties of androgen-binding proteins are present from autumn to spring. The behaviour of these molecules is consistent with the role assigned to androgen-binding proteins as androgen reservoir. A putative oestrogen receptor is present throughout the sexual cycle, except during the culmination phase (breeding). The putative oestrogen receptor may be involved in the regulation of the first spermatogenetic step (spermatogonia multiplication) and in the induction of post-reproductive refractoriness. This phase is present in temperate-zone lizards. These studies show that the evaluation of sex-steroid-binding molecules is useful in considering the relationships between sex hormones and spermatogenetic activity in the testes of lizards.


We study nonlinear dynamics on complex networks. Each vertex i has a state xi which evolves according to a networked dynamics to a steady-state xi*. We develop fundamental tools to learn the true steady-state of a small part of the network, without knowing the full network. A naive approach and the current state-of-the-art is to follow the dynamics of the observed partial network to local equilibrium. This dramatically fails to extract the true steady state. We use a mean-field approach to map the dynamics of the unseen part of the network to a single node, which allows us to recover accurate estimates of steady-state on as few as 5 observed vertices in domains ranging from ecology to social networks to gene regulation. Incomplete networks are the norm in practice, and we offer new ways to think about nonlinear dynamics when only sparse information is available.


The probability-density function (PDF) of the fluctuating output intensity of a two-beam interferometer, illuminated by a semiconductor laser, is described theoretically and experimentally. The PDF, while dominated by the laser phase noise, may be substantially modified both by the laser intensity noise and by the thermal noise and bandwidth limitations imposed by the detection system. Two regimes of operation are explored. In the coherent regime, for which the interferometer ' s differential delay τ is much smaller than the laser coherence time τc, the form of the PDF is highly sensitive to the mean phase difference between the interfering beams: The PDF is strongly asymmetrical for mean phase differences of 0 and π (experimentally reported here for the first time to our knowledge) but is symmetrical when the interferometer is in quadrature. In the incoherent regime, for which τ ≫ τc, the PDF is insensitive to such phase differences. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with a numerical simulation for which it is assumed that the laser phase noise is a Wiener process and for which the finite bandwidth of the detection system, as well as the effects of laser intensity noise and system thermal noise, is taken into account.


Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging brain-imaging technique which has been used to various areas. Previous studies have indicated that frequent deceiving would make deceiving easier. In this study, fNIRS was used to explore the effect of frequent degree of deceiving on the prefrontal cortical response to deception. Self-related questions were used in the experiment. The results showed different patterns of neural activation between non-frequent deceiving and frequent deceiving. In Channel 11 (in the left prefrontal cortex), non-frequent deceiving led to a greater neural activation than telling the truth, while this pattern did not appear in frequent deceiving. Our finding suggested that fNIRS has ability to detect deception under different situations.


Abstract. The study is devoted to the investigation of regional climate change in Northern Russia. Due to sparseness of the meteorological observation network in northern regions, we investigate the application capabilities of remotely sensed vegetation cover as indicator of climate change at the regional scale. In previous studies, we identified statistically significant relationship between the increase of surface air temperature and increase of the shrub vegetation productivity. We verified this relationship using ground observation data collected at the meteorological stations and Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data produced from Terra/MODIS satellite imagery. Additionally, we designed the technique of growing seasons separation for detailed investigation of the land cover (shrub cover) dynamics. Growing seasons are the periods when the temperature exceeds +5°C and +10°C. These periods determine the vegetation productivity conditions (i.e., conditions that allow growth of the phytomass). We have discovered that the trend signs for the surface air temperature and NDVI coincide on planes and river floodplains. On the current stage of the study, we are working on the automated mapping technique, which allows to estimate the direction and magnitude of the climate change in Northern Russia. This technique will make it possible to extrapolate identified relationship between land cover and climate onto territories with sparse network of meteorological stations. We have produced the gridded maps of NDVI and NDWI for the test area in European part of Northern Russia covered with the shrub vegetation. Basing on these maps, we may determine the frames of growing seasons for each grid cell. It will help us to obtain gridded maps of the NDVI linear trend for growing seasons on cell-by-cell basis. The trend maps can be used as indicative maps for estimation of the climate change on the studied areas.


In Science, Truth and Democracy, Kitcher moderates the strongest ontological realist thesis he defended in The Advancement of Science, with the aim of making compatible the correspondence theory of truth with conceptual relativity. However, it is not clear that both things could be harmonized. If our knowledge of the world is mediated by our categories and concepts; if the selection of these categories and concepts may vary according to our interests, and they are not the consequence of the existence of certain supposed natural kinds or some intrinsic structure of the world, it is very problematic to establish what our true statements correspond to. This paper analyzes the transformation in Kitcher�s realism and expounds the main difficulties in this project. Finally, a modality of moderate ontological realism will be proposed that, despite of keeping the sprit of the conceptual relativity, is strong enough to support the correspondence theory of truth.


Many RNA viruses have evolved the ability to inhibit host cell transcription as a means to circumvent cellular defenses. For the study of these viruses, it is therefore important to have a quick and reliable way of measuring transcriptional activity in infected cells. Traditionally, transcription has been measured either by incorporation of radioactive nucleosides such as (3)H-uridine followed by detection via autoradiography or scintillation counting, or incorporation of halogenated uridine analogs such as 5-bromouridine (BrU) followed by detection via immunostaining. The use of radioactive isotopes, however, requires specialized equipment and is not feasible in a number of laboratory settings, while the detection of BrU can be cumbersome and may suffer from low sensitivity. The recently developed click chemistry, which involves a copper-catalyzed triazole formation from an azide and an alkyne, now provides a rapid and highly sensitive alternative to these two methods. Click chemistry is a two step process in which nascent RNA is first labeled by incorporation of the uridine analog 5-ethynyluridine (EU), followed by detection of the label with a fluorescent azide. These azides are available as several different fluorophores, allowing for a wide range of options for visualization. This protocol describes a method to measure transcriptional suppression in cells infected with the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) strain MP-12 using click chemistry. Concurrently, expression of viral proteins in these cells is determined by classical intracellular immunostaining. Steps 1 through 4 detail a method to visualize transcriptional suppression via fluorescence microscopy, while steps 5 through 8 detail a method to quantify transcriptional suppression via flow cytometry. This protocol is easily adaptable for use with other viruses.


This work is based upon conclusions drawn from the research project: "A Profile of vocational occupational counselling and placement and employment services" in La Plata and greater La Plata (Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina). This research was carried out between 1998 and 2002 and explored four axes or systems: Health – Labour-Social Policies and Education.. In the case of this last axis, reference was made to information about school counselling teams (psychologists, psycho-pedagogues, social workers, etc.) who should have the responsibility for the counselling task, and moved their activity towards the attention of urgencies requested by educational institutions, to cope with current psycho-social problems, losing sight of the importance of counselling from a prevention perspective, for avoiding possible risk situations. Results achieved within this context (La Plata, capital of the Province of Buenos Aires, Ensenada and Berisso), due to the strategic importance of the region in the national context, allowed us to establish meaningful relationships, correlations and projective inferences in other social and regional spheres.


Schleichera oleosa (Lour) Oken, family Sapindaceae, is medium to large sized tree widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics of India. In the present study, physicochemical parameters, fluorescence, phytochemical constituents and thin layer chromatogram of the leaves of the plant were investigated. The total, acid-insoluble, water-soluble and sulphated ash values and the moisture content of the leaf powder of Schleichera oleosa were found to be 9.06, 7.16, 5.73, 13.5 and 5.21 %, respectively. The fluorescent characteristics of the leaf powder with various chemical reagents were examined under visible light and UV light. Percent yields of petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, ethanol and aqueous leaf extracts were 3.26, 1.35, 1.70, 7.73 and 4.21 % respectively. A significant amount of phenolic and flavonoid content was detected. Preliminary phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, glycosides, phenols, saponins and steroids in ethanol and aqueous extracts. The ethyl acetate, ethanol and aqueous extracts were subjected to TLC for identification of bioconstituents, which revealed various colored phytochemical compounds with different Rf values in different solvent systems. The results indicated that the leaves contain an appreciable number of bioactive compounds and presence of these phytochemicals especially the phenols and flavonoids could be the reason behind the use of S. oleosa in ethnomedicine for the management of various ailments. These results could help in standardization, identification and in carrying out further research on S. oleosa leaf-based herbal drugs.


Introduction and Background: Current mental health policy is committed to the involvement of service users both in mental health service delivery and in the education of health care professionals. However, this is an under-researched area that requires further attention to understand the potential effect of service user involvement on student's clinical practice and the influence it has on student's perceptions of service users and mental illness.

Aims and Objectives: The aim of the current study was to establish the extent, and examine the perceived effect of service user involvement in undergraduate mental health nurse education in the Republic of Ireland. The objectives were to: (1) establish the national extent of service user involvement in the education of undergraduate mental health nurses; (2) examine students' experiences of service user involvement in their education; and (3) examine service users' experiences of being involved in undergraduate mental health nurse education.

Design: The current study adopted a two phased sequential mixed methods design. In phase one a national survey was conducted with all 12 Departments of Nursing in educational institutions in the Republic of Ireland to establish the national extent of service user involvement in undergraduate mental health nursing programmes. In phase two semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 students and four service users to explore their experiences of service user involvement.

Main Findings: The findings from the national survey indicate that the extent of service user involvement in Irish undergraduate mental health nursing programmes varies to a large degree. Some nursing departments welcome service user involvement not only in the theoretical delivery of their nursing programmes but also in areas of curriculum development and programme evaluations. In contrast, other departments have no service user involvement at any level, with no future plans to incorporate it in any aspect of their programme. The key qualitative findings indicated that the experience of service user involvement shifted the students' focus away from the constraints imposed by a diagnosis, and recognised the service user as a person with a wealth of expertise acquired through their personal experiences. Following the integration of both data sets the following four sub-themes also emerged, 'learning from experiential knowledge delivered through narrative', 'From practical to personal', 'From illness to wellness -a beacon of hope' and 'Progression of practice'. The super ordinate theme that emerged was 'Service User Involvement: A Journey towards Recovery Orientated practice'.

Conclusion: This study highlights that service user involvement in undergraduate mental health nurse education has the potential to be an influential factor in student's ability to adopt a recovery orientated approach to clinical practice. Contemporary mental health policy strongly stipulates that recovery orientated practices need to be adopted by mental health nurses. The current study indicates how the vision for recovery orientated practices could potentially be achieved through the involvement of service users in professional education.