With the popularity of cars in many families, car driving safety is becoming more and more attention. Among the many problems abnormal tire pressure is to influence the car safety and car key to effective maintenance and maintenance. So real-time monitoring tire pressure has a very important significance. Currently, which has been widely applied in the automotive industry is a kind of known as TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) of automobile safety equipped with high-tech products. But the major shortcoming of this system is not reflected in the all-weather tire condition monitoring with the needs of realtime monitoring tire pressure, while the vehicle cannot be remote alarm. In order to better solve this deficiency, in this proposed a new type of tire pressure monitoring system design scheme based on nRF9E and GSM module. Program from two aspects of hardware and software introduced the structural characteristics and realization method of this new tire pressure monitoring system, especially a lot of space for the system's low-power design and implementation of key display tire positioning were highlighted. Through some reliable practice tests, proved that the system can not only real-time monitoring tire condition, but also can according to the abnormal situation of vehicle distance range alarm prompt. This message can communicate by means of GSM module timely feedback to the owners. Vehicle CAN network interface is to ensure the sustainability of such a system in a low power state operation. Reliability and safety aspects have been improved significantly.


OBJECTIVE
To assess primary care teams' perceptions of a health information exchange (HIE) event notification intervention for geriatric patients in 2 Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical centers.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We conducted a qualitative evaluation of an event notification alerting primary care teams to non-VHA hospital admissions and emergency department visits. Data were collected through semistructured interviews (n = 23) of primary care team physicians, nurses and medical assistants. Study design and analysis were guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).

RESULTS
Team members found the alerts necessary, helpful for filling information gaps, and effective in supporting timely follow-up care, although some expressed concern over scheduling capacity and distinguishing alerts from other VHA notices. Participants also suggested improvements including additional data on patients' diagnosis and discharge instructions, timing alerts to patients' discharge (including clear next steps), including additional team members to ensure alerts were acted upon, and implementing a single sign-on.

DISCUSSION
Primary care team members perceived timely event notification of non-VHA emergency department visits and hospital admissions as potentially improving post-discharge follow-up and patient outcomes. However, they were sometimes unsure of next steps and suggested the alerts and platform could be streamlined for easier use.

CONCLUSIONS
Event notifications may be a valuable tool in coordinating care for high-risk older patients. Future intervention research should explore the optimal amount and types of information and delivery method across sites and test the integration of alerts into broader care coordination efforts.


The surgical management of defects in the pelvic region is a great surgical challenge. Primary tumor recurrences have to be addressed and local infections require appropriate therapy such as rigorous debridement and antibiotic therapy. Plastic surgery provides tissue reconstruction by well perfused flaps and also reestablishment of anatomic structures in the ano-genital region. An early reconstruction also reduces the wound complications of adjuvant or post oncologic therapy and reduces the rate of wound healing problems.


We instituted procedures to check the identity of cord blood unit provided for transplantation by carrying out ABO and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing of the thawed units before transplantation. ABO typing is done using standard techniques. Rapid HLA class I serology is with monoclonal antibody trays (One Lambda Inc) using standard incubations. One mislabeled umbilical cord blood (UCB) unit was detected on the day of intended transplantation by repeat ABO typing of the thawed unit at our transplantation center. Because ABO typing will not detect all labeling errors, the rapid serologic class I HLA typing procedure was done on thawed units just before transplantation for all units without an attached segment. This procedure identified a second mislabeled unit. In a 6-year period, 2 of 871 (0.2%) cord blood units sent to us for transplantation were mislabeled and potentially would have been transplanted incorrectly. This error rate of 1 per 249 (0.4%) patients could have potentially devastating consequences.


Abstract The concepts 'Übersicht' (survey), 'Übersichtlichkeit' (surveyability) and 'Übersichtliche Darstellung' (surveyable representation) play a central role in Wittgenstein's later philosophy. As Peter Hacker already noticed in 1972, an adequate English translation of these terms has "given Wittgenstein's translators much trouble. They have chosen to translate it non-systematically in conformity with the demands of English style, thereby partially obscuring the significance and pervasiveness of the concept in Wittgenstein's work, e. g. 'command a clear view' (Übersehen PI, § 122); 'perspicious representation' (Übersichtliche Darstellung PI, § 122); 'synoptic account' (Übersichtliche Darstellung Z, § 273); 'Survey' (Übersicht Z, § 273); 'synoptic view' (Übersichtlichkeit Z, § 464); 'perspicuity' (Übersichtlichkeit RFM, p. 45);² 'capable of being taken in' (Übersehbar RFM, p. 81)3." (Hacker 1972: 113 f. fn. 3) Since then other translations have been added to Hacker's list, i.e. 'surview' for 'Übersicht' (Hacker's own choice) and 'overview' for 'übersehen' (cf. PI 2009: 122). In his discussion of the notion 'Übersichtliche Darstellung' Alois Pichler suggests that "synopsis" and "synoptic view" might be the best translations for what Wittgenstein had in mind using the terms 'Übersicht' and 'Übersichtliche Darstellung' (cf. Pichler 2004: 181). Recently the problem of how to adequately translate the German words in question into English is also discussed by Mathieu Marion (cf. Marion 2011: 138 f. fn. 4). In what follows I shall argue - like Marion, but probably for different reasons - that the terms 'survey' (Übersicht), 'surveyability' (Übersichtlichkeit) and 'surveyable representation' (übersichtliche Darstellung) most adequately represent what Wittgenstein had in mind. As might become clear only this consistency in wording allows to grasp the connections in meaning Wittgenstein implicitly hints at, wherever he uses the terms 'Übersicht' and 'Übersichtlichkeit' in different parts of his 'Nachlass' and different periods of his philosophical development.


In many parts of the world, water resources have been decreasing in urban areas where resources are unable to meet ever-increasing demands, even though water is considered a renewable resource. Supply side factors for increasing water scarcity in urban areas are shrinking or changing natural – hydrological - resources due to human activities, as well as climate change. Climate change exacerbates increased stress on water resources. Population growth, particularly rapid urbanisation with improving living conditions has been increasing water demand and furthermore, has been an influential factor that contributes to water scarcity in urban areas. Traditional solutions for water scarcity in urban areas have been to expand and to improve water supply through the construction of dams, and desalination and recycling plants that are costly and expensive options for developing countries. However, developing countries also have to address issues of water access equity and to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). For this reason, these urban areas are concerned with how to improve the efficiency of water end use and the efficacy of the water supply system.

Industrialised countries have proven that better urban water management, particularly demand side policies, can alleviate problems of urban water scarcity. Urban water demand side management policies aim to provide sufficient and safe water to all users through improving the efficiency of water use. Better urban water management policies are also needed in developing economies to meet the two main issues of inadequate water resources and the inequitable distribution of water. Increasing water scarcity, coupled with hydrological and financial limitations to the development of new resources, have catalysed a shift to demand management, which is a relatively new branch of the urban water resource management. These policies not only focus on inducing users' water consumption directly but also indirectly influence water saving habits for improving efficient water use.

There are no comprehensive studies available to provide precise and accurate information about the potential effectiveness of urban water demand side management in developing and transit economies. Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, faces a growing problem of water scarcity. Ulaanbaatar is typical of cities that are currently experiencing high and urbanising population growth, poorly regulated industrial expansion and associated increases in demand for domestic and industrial water. However, Mongolia's climate is characterised by low precipitation and high evaporation; groundwater supplies are diminishing, and the capital city is likely to face water scarcity problems in the next few years. Moreover, the city needs money to invest in essential infrastructure that would help address issues, such as the inequity of supply services between Ger and formal living areas and the fact that an estimated 20.4% of water is 'lost' through leakage. The aim of this study is to explore the potential efficacy of water price and non-price policies as a partial solution to some of these problems. The study looks at how to assess the sensitivity of water demand to price changes and to learn more about the water saving habits of residential and non-residential users. Furthermore, the investigations comprehensively involve various user groups: non-residential users including manufacturing, commercial and government user groups, and residential users including formal 'apartment' and informal 'Ger' settlement households.

The study area is data poor, which is quite typical of developing countries. Therefore, data had to be collected and in this study questionnaire surveys were used. After the first year's (2010) data collection, two water policy events occurred in the city. The price of water for apartment area users was increased and the government announced that 2011 would be a 'water year' with a concerted media campaign. For this reason, data were collected again in 2011 to check the effectiveness of the Government media campaign and for collecting more data from non-residential users.

The contingent behaviour method (CBM) – commonly used to estimate the non-market values of individuals – was adapted to business settings. It uses data that were collected from more than 375 non-residential water users in Ulaanbaatar, and estimates the price elasticity of water demand for three different user groups (manufacturing, commercial and governmental users). Non-residential water demand is shown to be relatively price inelastic with values ranging between -0.186 and -0.24. This inelasticity implies that prices would have to increase substantially to generate any significant reduction in water use (e.g. doubling prices would result in a 3.6 % reduction in water use), but that significant revenues could potentially be raised. The results also indicate that attempts to influence water saving habits (e.g. introducing water saving technologies or encouraging water conserving activities) through non-price policies may reduce non-residential water demand more than would increases in price.

This study also demonstrates also the potential efficacy of pricing and non-pricing policies on residential water demand. It uses data that were collected from a survey of nearly 960 residential water users from formal and informal settlement areas in Ulaanbaatar. The data collected in 2010 provide a pre-increase base and those from 2011 follow an observed increase in price. Water consumption in metered and non-metered homes was estimated using both the direct indication and conditional demand approaches and a CBM was then used to estimate the price elasticity of water demand for different types of users (formal settlement – apartment areas and informal settlement – Ger areas). The CBM indicates that consumption is relatively sensitive to small price changes among the households and that informal settlement households are likely to react to price changes much more. This study found that residential price elasticities, which were between -0.941 and -0.099 for non-metered households in 2011, were closer to observed responses when respondents had experienced actual recent price increases.


Decreasing demand and reduced budgets are driving changes to traditional crewing methods in the UK Fire and Rescue Service. Using an integration of two years' operational data within a novel framework, this paper assesses the impact of alternative crewing on operational effectiveness in one UK FRS. Changes in crewing patterns were implemented without substantial impact on overall operational effectiveness, but there may be a risk to wider operational resilience. The Overall Effectiveness of Fire Operations (OEFO) assessment tool can inform FRS decision making in an authentic way allowing stakeholder confidence in the outcomes, whilst being timely and not too complex or costly to evaluate. The OEFO approach is an important contribution to practice through its ability to assess public services at a time of challenging reform and demonstrates alterations can be made to crewing patterns to better match demand provided there is consideration of the potential wider impact.


Background The influence of ethnicity on family caregivers (FCG) of people severely affected by multiple sclerosis (PwMS) is unknown. Aim To compare experiences of White British (WB) and Black Caribbean (BC) FCGs of people with severe MS. Design Cross-sectional survey including ratings of caregiver burden and met/unmet needs. Open questions explored the cultural influence on the main effects of caring, its rewards and difficulties, and changes required to improve caregiving experiences. Setting/participants FCGs of BC and WB PwMS with Expanded Disability Status Scale ≥6 living in London. Results 39 FCGs representing 43 BC and 43 WB PwMS were interviewed. 23 WB 14 BC or 2 mixed ethnicity caregivers were recruited. More BC caregivers were females caring for parents/offspring who resided elsewhere. Self-reported caregiver burden was similar across groups. Unmet needs common to both groups included timely access to health/social services, requiring more information about MS and its effects, and greater involvement in planning treatment and care. However, BC FCGs differed from their WB counterparts; they possessed little knowledge of MS, its complications and were more reticent about caring roles which prevented them accessing necessary support. They also reported more financial concerns. Conclusion FCG's from both ethnic groups required greater responsiveness and support from formal services. We observed issues specific to FCGs of BC PwMS that caused distress. Health professionals must be mindful that those from ethnic groups may possess little knowledge or experience of living with MS and relevant services. They also need to sensitively advise on managing financial issues. References Koffman JS, Higginson IJ. Fit to care? A comparison of informal caregivers of first-generation Black Caribbeans and White dependants with advanced progressive disease in the UK. Health Soc Care Community 2003;11:528–536 Koffman J, Gao W, Goddard C, et al. Progression, symptoms and psychosocial concerns among those severely affected by multiple sclerosis: a mixed-methods cross-sectional study of Black Caribbean and White British People. PLoS ONE 2013;8:e75431


Drawing on the fields of education, memory and cultural studies, this article argues that, as important cultural memory products, government-sponsored museum education initiatives require the same attention that history textbooks receive. It investigates the performance of recent shifts in historical consciousness in the context of museum field trip sessions developed in England in tandem with the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. Analysis of fieldwork data is presented in order to illustrate some of the complexities inherent in the way difficult histories are represented and taught to young people in the twenty-first century, particularly in relation to citizenship education.


A polyethylene linear dissociated from a metal acetabular shell that could not be removed at the time of hip revision because the hexagonal hole in its screw head had become rounded off. A high-speed metal cutting burr was used to remove the screw and allow cup revision.


Optimal debt management can be thought of in three stages. First, if taxes are lump sum and the other conditions for Ricardian equivalence hold, then the division of government financing between debt and taxes is irrelevant, and the whole level of public debt is indeterminate from an optimal-tax standpoint. Second, if taxes are distorting, then the timing of taxes will generally matter; for example, it may be desirable to smooth tax rates over time. This consideration makes determinate the levels of debt at various dates, but does not pin down the composition of the debt, say by maturity. Finally, if there is uncertainty about real interest rates, levels of public outlay, GDP, and so on, then the relation of tax rates to states of nature becomes important. In some cases, optimal taxation dictates the smoothing of tax rates over states of nature, and this element may pin down the composition of the debt. For example, the maturity structure can be designed to insulate the government's financing costs from shifts in real interest rates. This paper studies dynamic optimal taxation in an equilibrium model that yields a form of tax smoothing as a basis for debt management. The main analysis uses a tractable form of the one-sector stochastic growth model. The type of taxation that yields the clearest results on tax smoothing is a proportional levy on consumption. In a simple benchmark case, optimal debt management entails the issue of indexed consols. More generally, payouts on debt would also be contingent on aggregate consumption and the level of government spending.


The authors report investigations carried out with a view to improving the method for the detection of diatomic plankters for the purpose of forensic medical expertise of death by drowning. The methods for studying diatomic plankton present in blood, pericardial fluid, and contents of the sphenoid bone sinus are proposed to be employed for the purpose of differential diagnostics of death by drowning. Specific approaches to sampling cadaveric materials, their preparation and examination by dark field and phase contrast microscopy are described. It was shown that the application of the proposed methods for the investigation of diatomic plankton in cadaveric biological fluids ensures preservation of all planktonic species and thereby significantly improves the quality of analysis and decreases the time needed to perform forensic medical expertise.


Knowledge of the equilibrium bed-concentration is vital to mathematical modeling of the river-bed deformation associated with suspended load but previous investigations only daelt with the reference concentra-tion of uniform sediment because of difficulties in observation of the bed-concentration.This work is a first at-tempe to develop a theoretical formula for the equilibrium bed-concentration of any fraction of nonumiform sedi-ment defined at the bed-surface.The formula is based on a stochastic-mechanistic model for the exchange of nonumiform sediment near the bed,and described as a function of incipient motion probability,non-ceasing probability,pick-up probability,and the ratio of the average single-step continuous motion time to static time.Comparison of bed-concentration calculated from the proposed formula with the measured data showed satisfac-tory agreement,indicating the present formula can be used for solving the differential equation governing the notion of suspended load.


The title coordination polymer, {[Ag2(C6H5N2O)(C6H6N2O)2]NO3}n, features a deprotonated N-(pyridin-4-ylmethylidene)hydroxylaminate anion and two neutral N-(pyridin-4-ylmethylidene)hydroxylamine molecules in the asymmetric unit. The anion connects three AgI atoms through its O and two N-donor atoms. One neutral ligand functions in a monodentate mode; the other functions in a bridging mode, binding though its two N atoms. The coordination geometry of the two independent metal atoms is T-shaped; the manner of bridging gives rise to a layer motif parallel to (100). In the crystal, the nitrate ion is disordered over two positions in a 1:1 ratio, and is sandwiched between adjacent layers. O—H⋯O hydrogen bonding is present between nitrate ions and layers, and also between adjacent layers.


Online, remote, data replication is critical for today's enterprise IT organization. Availability of data is key to the success of the organization. A few hours of downtime can cost from thousands to millions of dollars With increasing frequency, companies are instituting disaster recovery plans to ensure appropriate data availability in the event of a catastrophic failure or disaster that destroys a site (e.g. flood, fire, or earthquake).
 Synchronous and asynchronous replication technologies have been available for a long period of time. Synchronous replication has the advantage of no data loss, but due to latency, synchronous replication is limited by distance and bandwidth. Asynchronous replication on the other hand has no distance limitation, but leads to some data loss which is proportional to the data lag. We present a novel method, implemented within EMC Recover-Point, which allows the system to dynamically move between these replication options without any disruption to the I/O path. As latency grows, the system will move from synchronous replication to semi-synchronous replication and then to snapshot shipping. It returns to synchronous replication as more bandwidth is available and latency allows.


This paper compares lessons drawn from five case studies of large scale governance of common-pool resources: management of forests in Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Rhine River in western Europe, the Ozone layer (i.e. the Montreal Protocol), and the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (i.e. the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna). The goal is to assess the applicability of Ostrom's design principles for sustainable resource governance to large scale systems, as well as to examine other important variables that may determine success in large scale systems. While we find support for some of Ostrom's design principles (boundaries, monitoring, sanctions, fit to conditions, and conflict resolution mechanisms are all supported), other principles have only moderate to weak support. In particular, recognition of rights to organize and the accountability of monitors to resource users were not supported. We argue that these differences are the result of differences between small and large scale systems. At large scales, other kinds of political dynamics, including the role of scientists and civil society organizations, appear to play key roles. Other variables emphasized in common-pool resource studies, such as levels of dependence on resources, group size, heterogeneity, disturbances, and resource characteristics also receive mixed support, pointing to the need to reinterpret the meaning of common-pool resource theories in order for them to be applicable at larger scales.


This paper derives the spectral density function of aggregated long memory processes in light of the aliasing effect. The results are different from previous analyses in the literature and a small simulation exercise provides evidence in our favour. The main result point to that flow aggregates from long memory processes shall be less biased than stock ones, although both retain the degree of long memory. This result is illustrated with the daily US Dollar/ French Franc exchange rate series.


Are interpreters merely robots that transfer sentences from one language into another without looking at what is behind those utterances? Or, do they have a responsibility to ensure optimum communication between parties through transferring and explaining cultural nuances? This paper shall look at what some perceive as conflict between some codes of Ethics that insist on accuracy and faithfulness to the speaker (No additions or omissions) and what some interpreting theorists think regarding this issue; Bochner divides cultural mediators in interpreting into two types: synthesizers and translators; these types, and the need for both, would be discussed in detail. The paper shall look at why some scholars such as Seleskovitch, Hatim, and Mason defend the practice of interpreters as inter-cultural mediators through looking at the literature published on this topic so far. We shall also look specifically at taboo, its links to culture, and the need to explain its cultural nuances in detail, and the consequences of not interpreting the cultural background to some taboo terms, be that in courts or business meetings. The types of taboo shall be defined to ensure people realize it is not just sexual taboo we are discussing.


BACKGROUND
Traditional rehabilitation improves pain and function in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome. Neurocognitive rehabilitation has shown to be highly effective after surgical reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament. However, its effects in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome have not yet been established.

AIM
The aim of the study was to compare the effects of neurocognitive therapeutic exercise, based on proprioception and neuromuscular control, on pain and function in comparison to traditional therapeutic exercise in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome.

DESIGN
Single-blind randomized, non-inferiority clinical trial.

SETTING
Outpatient clinic of Geriatrics and Physiatrics, University Hospital.

POPULATION
Forty-eight patients with shoulder impingement syndrome (Neer stage I) and pain lasting for at least three months.

METHODS
Participants were randomly allocated (1:1) to either neurocognitive therapeutic exercise or traditional therapeutic exercise. Both treatments were provided one-hour session, three times a week for five weeks. The primary outcome measure was the short form of the Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Questionnaire (Quick-DASH questionnaire) for the assessment of physical ability and symptoms of the upper extremity.

SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES
Constant-Murley shoulder outcome score for the determination of range of motion, pain and strength; American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Society standardized shoulder assessment form for the evaluation of physical ability in daily-living tasks; a visual analogue scale for pain assessment at rest and during movements; Likert score for the estimation of participant satisfaction.

ENDPOINTS
before treatment, end of treatment, 12 and 24 weeks after the completion of each intervention for all outcome measures, except for the Likert score that was evaluated only at the end of treatment.

FOLLOW-UP
24 weeks.

RESULTS
At the end of treatment and at follow-up, both treatment groups experienced improvements in all outcomes measures relative to baseline values, except for the visual analogue scale at rest that was unaffected by traditional therapeutic exercise. For all outcome measures, changes over time were greater in the neurocognitive therapeutic exercise group relative to the traditional therapeutic exercise group. The level of satisfaction with treatment was higher for participants in the neurocognitive therapeutic exercise group.

CONCLUSION
Neurocognitive rehabilitation is effective in reducing pain and improving function in patients with shoulder impingement syndrome, with benefits maintained for at least 24 weeks.

CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT
skills and function of the shoulder can greatly benefit from neurocognitive rehabilitation.


The phase and intermetallic thickness of Cu-Zn5 and Cu5Zn8 has been investigated under liquid state aging using reflow method. Both intermetallics were formed by reacting Sn-9Zn lead free solder with copper substrate. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to see the morphology of the phases and energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) was used to estimate the elemental compositions of the phases. The morphology of the Cu5Zn8 phase was rather flat but when the soldering temperature and time increases, the morphology becomes scallop. Intermetallic thickness measurements show that the thickness of Cu-Zn5 decreases with increasing soldering time and temperature. Whereas, the thickness of Cu5Zn8 intermetallic increases with soldering time and temperature.


The performance of the sensors of a low cost Short Message System (SMS) based home security system equipped with motion sensor, smoke detector, temperature sensor, humidity sensor and light sensors has been studied. The sensors are controlled by a microprocessor PIC 18F4520 through the SMS having password. The operation of the home security has been tested on Vodafone- Fiji network for emergency and feedback responses for 25 samples. The GSM experiment showed that it takes about 8-10s for the security system to respond the occupant and relevant civil authorities in case of emergency. It takes about 18-22s for the occupant to switch and monitor lights and appliances and then get feedback from home depending upon the network traffic.


An artist's materials - from the broad brushstrokes of a Van Gogh oil painting, the sparkling gold leaf of a Byzantine mosaic, to the fragile translucence of a porcelain vase - are not just the results of their work. They are the physical embodiment of the artist's creative vision and a reflection of the historical context in which they were used. "Artists' Techniques and Materials" is an extensive and intriguing discussion of the materials and processes used in eight artistic media - painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, mosaics, ceramics, glass, and metalwork. Chapters look at each of the topics, with a discussion of the range of materials and techniques that have developed through the centuries. With its 400 full-colour illustrations, this volume is provides new insight into the creation of many of the world's greatest works of art.


In this paper, we propose a new method for task decomposition based on output partitioning. The proposed method is able to find the appropriate architectures for largescale real-world problems automatically and efficiently. By using this method, a problem can be divided flexibly into several sub-problems as chosen, each of which is composed of the whole input vector and a fraction of the output vector. Each module (for each subproblem) is responsible for producing a fraction of the output vector of the original problem. Hence, the hidden structure for the original problem's output units is decoupled. These modules can be grown and trained in sequence or in parallel. Incorporated with the constructive learning algorithm, our method does not require excessive computation and any prior knowledge concerning decomposition. The feasibility of output partitioning is analyzed and proved. Several benchmarks are implemented to test the validity of this method. Their results show that this method can reduce computation time, increase learning speed, and improve generalization accuracy for both classification and regression problems.


This study by using the random effects (RE) and robust least square estimates (RLS) examines the influence of two different types of FDI namely Greenfield (GF), Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) and energy consumption, on environmental performance of the eight selected economies in SAARC and ASEAN regions over the 2003-2014 period. Moreover, economic growth and population growth are used as controlled variables. The originality of this study is the use of Environmental Performance Index (EPI) to examine the effects of two different types of foreign capital inflows on the environment. According to the empirical outcomes of this study, GF and M&A investments have exacerbated the environmental performance in the selected eight SAARC and ASEAN countries, hence confirm the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) to be valid. In addition, energy consumption and population growth are also found to be serious havoc for the environmental performance in this case. Nonetheless, economic growth has improved the overall environmental performance in these countries. The study suggests the formulation and enforcement of strict environmental regulations to seek environment friendly and energy efficient GF and M&A investments. In addition, renewable energy use and population control policies are highly desirable in these countries for clean and healthy environment. Accordingly, these economies are recommended to develop policies to realize sustainable economic development for improved environmental performance.


Abstract Objectives: To examine and compare the pleiotropic effects on oxidative stress and metabolic signaling pathways of atorvastatin and pitavastatin in mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: We gave the transgenic (Tg) mice either atorvastatin or pitavastatin from 5–20 months (M) of age, and performed immunohistological analysis [4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE)-positive, advanced glycation end products (AGEs), low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDL-R)-positive neurons, apolipoprotein E (ApoE)-positive senile plaque (SP), and insulin receptor (IR)-positive endothelium], and biochemistry analysis (adiponectin and leptin). Results: The numbers of 4-HNE- and AGE-positive neurons and the sum of ApoE-positive SP size progressively increased with age in amyloid precursor protein (APP)-Tg mice, while the amount of IR-positive endothelium and the number of LDL-R-positive neurons decreased. Adiponectin and leptin serum levels were lower in APP-Tg mice than in non-Tg mice. Treatment with statins reduced the number of AGE-positive neurons from as early as 10 M, preserved the numbers of 4-HNE- and LDL-R-positive neurons and the amount of IR-positive endothelium at 15 M, and reduced the sum of ApoE-positive SP size and adiponectin serum level at 20 M. Discussion: Atorvastatin and pitavastatin reduced the level of oxidative stress, as revealed by the presence of 4-HNE and AGE, in AD mouse brains, and that treatment with statins improves insulin signaling and LDL-R/ApoE systems. The beneficial effects of these statins may be associated with direct pleiotropic effects on AD mouse brains, indirect effects through improving the serum adiponectin/leptin balance, or both.


In order to automatically select the gangue, this study obtained the difference and distribution regularity of the grayscale distribution by analyzing a large number of image data. By improving the multiple kernel Fisher discriminant analysis method, its approach is that the original training set is splited into a number of small sample sets, which in turn calculate projection mapping by using" voting strategy" discrimination for the samples. The experiments for face recognition show that the multiple kernel Fisher algorithm based on the diversity samples can improve the computing speed without reduction of classification correct rate.


The clinician should expect some loss of the dental alignment obtained during orthodontic therapy in the long term in cases in which the orthodontic retainer has been removed by the orthodontist or lost by the patient. In this situation, patients are often reluctant to wear braces again to re-treat anterior misalignment. This report describes the successful use of a simple and effective technique to correct mild changes in the incisor alignment after orthodontic treatment. An innovative and low cost procedure effectively solved the relapse of anterior misalignment in 1-2 months. The force used to realign the teeth is obtained through the use of a clear elastomeric thread tied to multistranded upper and lower retainers.


This paper presents a synthesis of an original case study that investigated the social, economic, and ecological characteristics of the Pacific golden chanterelle (Cantharellus formosus) harvest in British Columbia, with an emphasis on northern Vancouver Island. It draws on the experience of wild mushroom harvesters and buyers, current forest mycological research, and global trade data. The wild mushroom resource contributes directly to rural economies and is part of the natural capital of the region. Wage expectations are generally low, but many people pick mushrooms for personal use and recreation, regardless of profit. Sustainability of chanterelle harvests is tied to forest management practices; the absence of any regulatory or policy framework for addressing the management requirements for chanterelles creates uncertainty about future supplies. Shorter timber harvest rotations are implicated in the loss of habitat and harvesting opportunities; however, there is reason to believe that timber and chanterelles can be managed compatibly, albeit with some tradeoffs. Available inventory information can be used to identify the best habitats that should be managed on longer rotations. Alternatively, compatible management strategies could include green-tree retention focussed on the best chanterelle habitat; commercial thinning that maintains a sufficient density of chanterelle host trees, and manipulating younger stands to enhance production at an earlier age. Global trade data indicate a slight decline in the value of the Canadian chanterelle harvest in recent years; however, the industry is relatively young and characterized by fluctuations in production and markets, and there is reason to be optimistic for the future of the industry on Vancouver Island.


Sites of infection and inflammation are profoundly hypoxic, requiring neutrophils to function under low oxygen tensions. Although neutrophils are well adapted and can rely on glycolytic metabolism, hypoxia still impairs the neutrophil oxidative burst, reduces bacterial killing and delays apoptosis.1 As neutrophil proteases have been implicated in lung diseases such as COPD, we hypothesised that hypoxia might also promote neutrophil degranulation, with an enhanced potential for neutrophil-mediated tissue injury. Neutrophils isolated from healthy volunteers were subjected to normoxia (20 kPa) or hypoxia (3 kPa) and subsequently activated with GM-CSF (10 ng/ml) and the bacterial tri-peptide fMLP (100 nM). A549 cells and ciliated human primary bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells were exposed to neutrophil supernatants, the extent of cellular damage was determined by MTT assay (A549 cells), EM ultrastructure and cleaved caspase 3 staining. Ciliary function was also investigated using video microscopy in the ciliated NHBE cells. Hypoxic incubation for 4 hours resulted in a 3–5 fold increase in neutrophil degranulation; this was evident for active elastase, MPO, MMP-9 and lactoferrin and hence occurred from all granule sub-types. Supernatants from hypoxic neutrophils induced 50% more cell death in A549 cells compared to supernatants from normoxic neutrophils. NHBE cells exposed to supernatants from hypoxic versus normoxic neutrophils suffered more cellular damage (EM; images were scored for cytoplasmic blebbing, vacuole formation and dead cells), an increase in LDH activity (from 35.7 ± 6 to 50.2 ± 0.7 nmol/min/ml, was indicative of cell death), increased cleaved caspase 3 staining was shown to be an indicator of apoptosis and there was a substantial increase in the proportion of dyskinetic and immotile cilia. In conclusion; hypoxia induced a destructive neutrophil phenotype with delayed apoptosis, impaired bacterial killing and increased release of histo-cytotoxic proteases. This phenotype may be important for understanding the mechanisms of chronic inflammatory diseases like COPD. Funded by the British Lung Foundation and NIHR Cambridge BRC. References McGovern, N. N. et al. Hypoxia selectively inhibits respiratory burst activity and killing of Staphylococcus aureus in human neutrophils. J. Immunol. Baltim. Md 1950 186, 453–463 (2011).


Porous TiNi shape-memory alloy (TiNi SMA) bodies were produced from the (Ti+Ni) powder mixture by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) method. Various processing variables such as ignition temperature and heating schedule were used to control the pore structure. Relationship between pore structure and mechanical property was also investigated. An in vivo test was performed to evaluate bone tissue response and biocompatibility of porous TiNi SMA. It showed no apparent adverse reactions such as inflammation and foreign body reaction. Bone ingrowth was found in the pore space of all implanted blocks. Introduction Titanium-nickel intermetallic compound is well known as one


Application of the topical anesthetic cream to the antecubital fossa 60 minutes before insertion of the peripherally inserted central catheters resulted in significant vasoconstriction and/or vasospasm in 24 patients. Catheter insertion was difficult in all 24 patients. Advancement of the peripherally inserted central catheter was impossible in six patients. Of the 51 patients that did not have the topical anesthetic pre-catheter insertion, there were no difficulties in placing the lines, nor were there any vasoconstriction and/or vasospasm. This group included 66 adults and 9 children.


X10 is a Java-like programming language that introduces new constructs to significantly simplify scale-out programming based on the Asynchronous Partitioned Global Address Space (APGAS) programming model. The fundamental goal of X10 is to enable scalable, high-performance, high-productivity programming of large scale computer systems for both conventional numerically intensive HPC workloads and for emerging "Big Data" workloads. X10 is implemented via source-to-source compilation; the X10 compiler takes as input X10 programs, applies high-level transformations primarily targeting X10's APGAS constructs, and outputs either C++ or Java source code that is further compiled to yield an executable program. ROSE is a multi-lingual compiler infrastructure for optimizing HPC applications using source-to-source transformations. It supports widely used programming models for parallel and distributed computing and provides a rich set of optimizations for serial programming models. In this paper, we report our early experiences connecting the X10 and ROSE and compilers to enable X10 programs to benefit from ROSE's suite of optimizations. To demonstrate the applicability of our approach, we compiled the LULESH proxy application with the combined toolchain and obtained a 10% performance improvement.


Aim: This study was designed to explore the associations between an ambient scent environment and residents' wellness in long-term care facilities. Background: The number of older adults living in an institutional setting has been steadily but slowly increasing. Because of a higher chance of having psychological disorders among people living in institutional settings than people living in noninstitutional settings, providing a supportive institutional setting is critical to enhance their wellness. The theory of supportive design suggests healthcare facilities can lower people's stress levels via three conditions (i.e., perceived control, social support, and positive distractions). Method: A single-blind and placebo-randomized controlled study investigated the impacts of ambient scent environment, as a positive distraction, on residents' depression levels. The recruited residents (N = 58) were randomly assigned into either the intervention group, which received a 1% dilution of lavender scent for 2 weeks nearby their bedside or the placebo group, which received a nonscent for 2 weeks. Results: Their depression levels were measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale. Based on the t tests, both intervention and placebo groups had improvement in depression, indicating a placebo effect of lavender scent. Further regression analyses explored the interaction effects of built environments (e.g., building, distance to a ventilation system, and square footage). However, no statistically significant impact of the built environment was found. Conclusion: Despite a placebo effect of ambient scent environment and nonsignificant built environment on depression, this study has valuable implications of being a positive distraction during the healing process as developed by the Theory of Supportive design.


This paper examines the issue of professional advocacy for parents in England following the local authority issuing the Letter Before Proceedings when the concerns about the welfare of a child are so serious the local authority are considering applying for a care order. We explore the tensions of providing a legal advocacy service for parents – drawing on a study of 57 cases, scrutinised as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Cafcass Pre-Proceedings Pilot (Broadhurst et al. 2012) and explores the contribution of legal representation for parents. The pre-proceedings meeting can be pivotal in terms of the direction of the case, the impression created at the meeting, and the action parties take afterwards. The importance of advocacy for parents was highlighted in the study both to facilitate parents' understanding of the issues, and to afford a level of protection of their rights. It is noteworthy that in 16 out of 82 pre-proceedings meetings no advocate was present, and in general fathers were less likely to be represented (although as reported the exact pattern appears more complex). Where advocates were present, contributions to the pre proceedings meeting varied from no input, to seeking points of clarification, and in 4 cases there was evidence of active 'brokering' on behalf of their clients.


This fictional piece, extracted from the ore of truth, draws parallels between desire for the butch and the liminal spaces of Europe's remote north. Beginning in a remote Arctic mining town, shifting to a space of attenuated desire closer to home, and finally confronting the landscape itself, I explore both the differences and the alignments that fire the femme-butch dynamic. Woman and landscape have often been read together, but the butch woman in the landscape is not a woman, and not a man: she is irreducible to mother or destroyer, discoverer or coloniser. Her territory is always complicated, unknown, yet deeply familiar to me. In it I am uncomfortable, frustrated, excited, adventurous, restricted, brave, timid, awed, touched, overwhelmed, rejected, moved, held. These qualities always exist together: endlessly, pleasurably irresolvable. Alongside the femme, the butch is both opposite and mirror, ultimately showing the same self-protection, the same subtleties of retreat and hunger and protection and passion, recast in the masculine. With her I stand in the threshold, right at the centre of knowing and not-knowing; in the midst of a landscape of intimacy and distance, emotion and physicality, love and separation.


Covid-19 pandemic, the consequence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), is one of the main causes of worldwide mortality. The manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 are extensively variable and array from asymptomatic infection to multiorgan failure. The primary mechanism for SARS-CoV-2 infection is the binding of the virus to the membrane bound form of ACE2, which is mostly expressed in the lungs, heart, and kidneys. The presence of comorbidities made patients at a higher risk of developing severe form of Covid-19. Several studies have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 infection have adverse effects on multiorgan. Strategies for proper diagnosis and management of multiorgan effect of Covid-19 have not been established due to the emergence of new variants. However, until more studies are carried out, treatment approaches have to be made on personalized basis depending on the specific organ damage to reduce the overall mortality rate.


In this paper we introduce the Academic Citation Typing (ACT) Platform, a highly scalable online tool that takes as its input any full text research paper and which then enables rapid annotation and classi cation of in-text citations according to purpose and in uence. In contrast to previous work, we employ rst authors as annotators. Our evaluation shows that these authors are able to quickly classify the citations within their own papers. Over 200 authors have thus far annotated their papers using the ACT platform. This approach has already enabled the collection of the largest dataset of citations annotated according to their purposes and in uence on the citing paper. Furthermore, this process is ongoing and the dataset will continue to expand following this initial phase.


ABSTRACT How does the internet affect the radicalisation of extreme-right lone actor terrorists? In the absence of an established theoretical model, this article identifies six mechanisms seen as particularly relevant for explaining online radicalisation. Having first reviewed a larger set of relevant lone actor terrorists, the study traces these mechanisms in three selected cases where the internet was reportedly used extensively during radicalisation. The findings show that the internet primarily facilitated radicalisation through information provision, as well as amplifying group polarisation and legitimising extreme ideology and violence through echoing. In all three cases, radicalisation was also affected considerably by offline push-factors that through their presence made extreme online messages more impactful. The results challenge the view that offline interaction is necessary for radicalisation to occur but also the view that online influence itself is sufficient.


Environmental regulations influence the prosperity and sustainability of organisations and households. According to the traditional belief, they constitute an additional, unwanted cost which lowers competiveness of economic operators and the entire sectors, although they might be socially desirable. The issue can be, however, approached from a different perspective, namely from the viewpoint of the induced innovation theory – authored by J.R. Hicks in 1932, later developed and presented in 1991 by M.M. Porter, later known as Porter hypothesis. It states that a company affected by more stringent environmental regulations is often forced to use simple reserves and to implement fundamental technological, organizational and product innovations, which can, all in all, offset the higher costs of adhering to the more severe environmental policy. Consequently, its competitiveness does not have to drop, sometimes it can even grow. Porter hypothesis already has strong theoretical grounds, but empirical verification of its accuracy is still an open issue. In general, today it is assumed that it is completely true (it checks out in the so-called strong version), only in some, rather restrictive conditions. This conclusion – as evidenced in the paper – is also applicable to the food sector, including agriculture.


Education in segregated settings for pupils with intellectual disability (ID) has often been portrayed as a unified form of schooling. There is a risk of providing a simplified picture of these settings and of what pupils with ID need to learn. This is generally stipulated in policy documents, leaving room for staff in school to interpret curricula and form learning environments. The aim of this study is to explore how four different learning environments are constructed in segregated settings where pupils with ID are educated in Sweden. The study was conducted as a multiple case study, using observations and interviews with teachers and pupils in four special classes for pupils with ID (SCIDs). Drawing on curriculum theory, the four learning environments, in the results named as Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta class, respectively, appeared to be characterized by different ideas of schooling, labelled as knowledge‐mediating, socializing, functional life skills and caring as well as teacher‐centred classrooms. The study contributes to a deepened understanding of the complexity of education for pupils with ID in segregated settings.


Platelets modulate the process of cancer metastasis. However, current knowledge on the direct interaction of platelets and tumor cells is mostly based on findings obtained in vitro. We addressed the role of the platelet fibrinogen receptor glycoprotein IIb (integrin αIIb) for experimental melanoma metastasis in vivo. Highly metastatic B16-D5 melanoma cells were injected intravenously into GPIIb-deficient (GPIIb-/-) or wildtype (WT) mice. Acute accumulation of tumor cells in the pulmonary vasculature was assessed in real-time by confocal videofluorescence microscopy. Arrest of tumor cells was dramatically reduced in GPIIb-/- mice as compared to WT. Importantly, we found that mainly multicellular aggregates accumulated in the pulmonary circulation of WT, instead B16-D5 aggregates were significantly smaller in GPIIb-/- mice. While pulmonary arrest of melanoma was clearly dependent on GPIIb in this early phase of metastasis, we also addressed tumor progression 10 days after injection. Inversely, and unexpectedly, we found that melanoma metastasis was now increased in GPIIb-/- mice. In contrast, GPIIb did not regulate local melanoma proliferation in a subcutaneous tumor model. Our data suggest that the platelet fibrinogen receptor has a differential role in the modulation of hematogenic melanoma metastasis. While platelets clearly support early steps in pulmonary metastasis via GPIIb-dependent formation of platelet-tumor-aggregates, at a later stage its absence is associated with an accelerated development of melanoma metastases.


The Herzer model suggests that superior magnetic properties can be observed in magnetic alloys provided a suitable microstructure consisting of soft magnetic nanometre size precipitates separated by nanometre size distances is obtained. In order to explore new magnetic alloy compositions which can satisfy the Herzer model, we studied selected alloys in which we wished to obtain suitable microstructures, one such alloy has the composition Fe40Ni38B18Mo4. This alloy is amorphous as received, the heat treatment schedule required to obtain nanoprecipitates was designed based on DSC, resistivity and x-ray results. Heat treatment at temperatures between 420 0C and 500 0C and different heat times was carried out on the amorphous ribbon. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) results of the early stage of crystallization behavior showed that soft magnetic precipitates of nano-size were indeed observed within the amorphous matrix. The crystal structure, composition analysis and thermal stability of the precipitates were studied by XRD, EDS and TEM. These results will be presented and the implication of these results to the production of new soft magnetic alloys will be emphasized.


This paper handles a short comparative study between concrete music and text-sound composition through the musical analysis of Lars-Gunnar Bodin's Semikolon - Seance IV (1965). The aim of this study is to show some similarities between those two genres from historical and musical points of view. In the former, the research will show how musique concrete and text- sound composition were born at the crossroads of early creative approaches in music and in literature based on the remarkable contribution of record- ing devices. The latter will discuss with the help of musical analysis of Bodin's Semikolon, how text-sound composition and concrete music adopt- ed some parallel philosophical concepts during the process of composition.


By using RAPD method, a total of 28 primers were screened for discrimination among Candida albicans isolates. Seven of these primers were selected because they presented reproducible DNA banding patterns for all the strains of C. albicans. The same genetic profile was obtained by RAPD method using OPG 14 (5'-GGATGAGACC-3') while the OPG 17 (5'- ACGACCGACA-3') demonstrated capacity to differentiate the isolates of C. albicans in 4 genotypes. According to the results obtained, we concluded that by using these primers, the RAPD analysis may be useful in providing genotypic characteristics for C. albicans in epidemiological investigation.


Abstract. Lithogenic elements such as aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), rare earth elements (REEs), thorium (232Th and 230Th, given as Th) and protactinium (Pa) are often assumed to be insoluble. In this study, their dissolution from Saharan dust reaching Mediterranean seawater was studied through tank experiments over 3 to 4 d under controlled conditions including controls without dust addition as well as dust seeding under present and future climate conditions (+3 ∘C and −0.3 pH). Unfiltered surface seawater from three oligotrophic regions (Tyrrhenian Sea, Ionian Sea and Algerian Basin) were used. The maximum dissolution was low for all seeding experiments: less than 0.3 % for Fe, 1 % for 232Th and Al, about 2 %–5 % for REEs and less than 6 % for Pa. Different behaviors were observed: dissolved Al increased until the end of the experiments, Fe did not dissolve significantly, and Th and light REEs were scavenged back on particles after a fast initial release. The constant 230Th/232Th ratio during the scavenging phase suggests that there is little or no further dissolution after the initial Th release. Quite unexpectedly, comparison of present and future conditions indicates that changes in temperature and/or pH influence the release of Th and REEs in seawater, leading to lower Th release and a higher light REE release under increased greenhouse conditions.


Monitor lizards are unique among ectothermic reptiles in that they have a high aerobic capacity and distinctive cardiovascular physiology which resembles that of endothermic mammals. We have sequenced the genome of the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), the largest extant monitor lizard, and present a high resolution de novo chromosome-assigned genome assembly for V. komodoensis, generated with a hybrid approach of long-range sequencing and single molecule physical mapping. Comparing the genome of V. komodoensis with those of related species showed evidence of positive selection in pathways related to muscle energy metabolism, cardiovascular homeostasis, and thrombosis. We also found species-specific expansions of a chemoreceptor gene family related to pheromone and kairomone sensing in V. komodoensis and several other lizard lineages. Together, these evolutionary signatures of adaptation reveal genetic underpinnings of the unique Komodo sensory, cardiovascular, and muscular systems, and suggest that selective pressure altered thrombosis genes to help Komodo dragons evade the anticoagulant effects of their own saliva. As the only sequenced monitor lizard genome, the Komodo dragon genome is an important resource for understanding the biology of this lineage and of reptiles worldwide.


Aims: To study and co-relate chromosomal abnormalities and dermatoglyphics in infertile female patients with PCOS.
Method: 16 cases of PCOS and 16 normal females as controls were selected. Chromosomal study was done using whole blood culture method and GTG Banding in genetic laboratory. Palmar and Plantar Dermatoglyphics were studied using "Roller ink method" using Kore's duplicating ink and analyzed using Henry's system.
Result: Incidence of chromosomal abnormalities is 81.25% (13/ 16 cases). Distribution of chromosomal abnormalities is as follows.
• Numerical Chromosomal abnormality (47,XXY Female)- 06.25%
• Autosomal translocation [t(14;7)(q21→31;q36)]- 06.25%
• Microdeletions like, (2)(q12) homo - 50%, (2)(q12) hetero - 25%, (10)(q25) hetero - 12.5%

In dermatoglyphics, statistically significant findings are, absence of elliptical whorl pattern in finger tip patterns of both hands and absence of tibial loop in area V of ball region of left foot in patients as compared to controls.

Conclusions: Absence of elliptical whorl pattern in finger tip patterns of both hands and tibial loop in area V of ball region of left foot in dematoglyphics while microdeletions (2)(q12);(10)(q25) in chromosomal study are significant findings in PCOS which are co-related and can be used as marker. Chromosomal abnormalities might be the cause of failures in ARTs in such cases. This would be of great help to infertility clinicians for screening and to get a guideline to decide line of treatment while to the patients to reduce psychosocial and financial stress during treatment.


A series of double‐blind hospital based studies comparing fluvoxamine with other antidepressants in depressed patients is reviewed. Overall there were no significant differences in terms of efficacy between fluvoxamine and the comparators (amitriptyline, dothiepin, lofepramine and mianserin). Fluvoxamine was shown to be associated with a low incidence of anticholinergic, cardiovascular or sedative effects. This profile of activity, together with low toxicity in overdosage, has established the place of fluvoxamine in the treatment of depressive illness.


This paper deals with noun incorporation data from Northern Athapaskan languages, which have not hitherto been analyzed formally. Based on semantic characteristics of noun incorporation and on incorporation from oblique and subject positions, we claim that this phenomenon does not obey the syntactic rules posited by Baker (1988). A theory which seeks to constrain noun incorporation in terms of grammatical relations is not adequate for explaining it in Northern Athapaskan. A functional approach (Givon 1984, 1985), which is sensitive to the semantics and pragmatics of incorporation, is found to be more adequate. We argue that noun incorporation is a functionally motivated process at the interface of morphology and syntax that changes linguistic coding from independent and salient to dependent and nonsalient.


Abstract Ultrasound imaging modality is a tool used in clinical practice and is being introduced gradually in the undergraduate curriculum of several medical schools worldwide. This study aims to assess medical students' perception regarding the integration of ultrasound training as part of undergraduate education. A questionnaire was given to first-year medical students after a 2-hour-long session, which was developed to introduce them in the fundamental physics theory and function of ultrasound equipment in the clinical practice. Analysis of the results indicated that students acknowledged that ultrasound training would improve their knowledge of internal medicine (P = 0.027) and of different diagnostic modalities (P = 0.019), and enhance their medical decision making (P = 0.0004). Moreover, students found beneficial the ultrasound education regarding correlating clinical knowledge with basic sciences (P = 0.0004). The study pointed out that the majority of first-year students have the opinion that the integration of ultrasound training in the medical program is valuable in medical education and patient care. However, work is needed to determine how to provide an optimal learning environment and to assess the competency of the training sessions.


New information technologies have opened up a world of inexhaustible possibilities in teaching. Using such technologies in technical teaching has become indispensable due to the nature of current resources in industrial design and production. This work consists of preparing didactic material (educational software) aimed at teaching fluid mechanics, particularly analysing tube, tank and pumping systems, initially aimed at civil engineering students from the Universidad Santo Tomas in Bogota. Such materials have been successfully developed and used in their formal programmes by several universities around the world during the last few years. The didactic software mentioned in this work was constructed using Visual Basic programming language. This has resulted in a very useful educational tool, leading to effective teacher-student communication which is suitable for both the classroom and students' personal work (Angel y Bautista, 2001; Aguiar, 2002).


The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007 provides a broad, holistic definition of Indigenous intellectual property. The preamble took the view that 'respect for indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices contributes to sustainable and equitable development and proper management of the environment.' Article 31 (1) provides a broad recognition of Indigenous intellectual property:'Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.'Article 31 (2) stipulates: 'In conjunction with indigenous peoples, States shall take effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these rights.'


This course may be taken for Continuing Education Credits by registering with the Disaster Management Center at the University of Wisconsin using the form attached at the end of this lesson. In addition, enrollment in this course contributes to attaining a Certificate in Disaster Management from the Disaster Management Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Inquiries should be directed on the attached form or by E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


The authors demonstrate an erbium-doped optical power limiting amplifier (OLA), study its noise characteristics, and discuss its application in the protection rings of a four-fiber, SONET self-healing interoffice ring network. System and network considerations are also presented. The feasibility of the network was tested by a system experiment using an OLA for up to 200-km conventional single-mode fiber transmission at a bit rate of 1.244 Gb/s (OC-24 line rate). >


Background Accelerated atherosclerosis associated with chronic inflammation is one of the major complications of systemic inflammatory diseases. Takayasu arteritis (TAK) is a rare, systemic large-vessel vasculitis predominantly affecting the aorta and its major branches. The prevalence of atherosclerotic risk factors and cardiovascular (CV) disease in patients with TAK has not been well defined. Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of CV risk factors and the incidence of CV events (CVE) in patients with TAK. Methods Patients fullfilling the American College of Rheumatology criteria for TAK from Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA and Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey were included in this retrospective cohort study. Data on cardiovascular risk factors at the time of TAK diagnosis and incident CVE during follow-up were abstracted from the medical records. Patients with TAK were compared to age, sex and calendar year–matched controls from the same geographic region without TAK. The 2008 Framingham 10-year general cardiovascular risk score (FRS) was used for the evaluation of CV risk at the time of TAK incidence/index date. For patients without lipid profiles, the office-based FRS, which does not require lipid values, was computed according to previously published algorithms. Results A total of 175 patients with TAK and 175 non-TAK controls were included in the study (115 from Mayo Clinic, 60 from Marmara University for each group). Among patients age ≥30 years at index date (107 TAK,109 non-TAK), complete data to calculate FRS were available in 93 (87%) TAK and 91 (83%) non-TAK subjects. Hypertension diagnosis and lipid lowering treatment were significantly more frequent in the TAK group compared to non-TAK). Prior to the incidence/index date, the occurrence of CVE was significantly higher in the TAK group The overall Framingham 10-year CV risk score was significantly higher in the TAK group compared to non-TAK at incidence/index date (Table 1).)After excluding patients with prevalent CVE, 18 TAK and 3 non-TAK patients developed CVE during a mean follow-up of 7.4 years in TAK and 7.9 years in non-TAK groups. The cumulative incidence of CVE was 16.4% at 10 years in TAK group vs. 6.0% in non-TAK group and the risk of CVE was increased among patients with TAK (hazard ratio: 4.52; 95% CI: 1.29, 15.78 adjusted for age, sex and country). Conclusions CV risk factors are more common in patients with TAK, and the Framingham 10-year cardiovascular risk score is higher in patients with TAK at the time diagnosis compared to non-TAK subjects of similar age and sex. The cumulative incidence of CVE was also significantly higher during follow-up in the TAK group. Patients with TAK should undergo careful assessment of CV risk factors, and an aggressive risk modification approach is warranted. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The Internet has grown to be hugely popular and used by people of all different backgrounds and professions. Individual web pages are created by just about everyone whether or not they have any development experience or not. PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is one of the more popular scripting languages used by beginners and advanced users. It is an attractive alternative to Java for the novice user but little do they know there are some frightening vulnerabilities that can be exploited by clients looking to cause problems or gain access to private information or resources that cannot be tied to them. A few of these exploits include remote and local file inclusion or execution. Through these basics types of vulnerabilities a malicious client could gain complete access to a web server. To avoid these attacks a web developer needs to take care when writing PHP scripts. The most common mistake made by developers is to unknowingly expose internal variables to clients or when access is needed not properly sanitizing them to ensure the values make sense for the context in which they are being used. If un-sanitized variables are used in conjunction with certain PHP function calls private files can be accessed or remote files can be uploaded and executed. A few of the more dangerous PHP functions calls are _GET[] or passthru(). These functions need to be used with care or disabled by the system administrator to avoid problems with badly written PHP scripts. To aid in the detection of potential vulnerabilities the authors of this paper implemented a Vulnerability Detection Tool (VDT). The tool is a java based program which takes a set of user defined rules then uses these rules to parse through the contents of every file in a web development directory. If a defined rule is violated a report giving the filename, line number, and severity is displayed in the progress window of the GUI. Readers are encouraged to evaluate the tool, provide feedback to the authors, and when so motivated submit improvements to the tool.


: Chronic external otitis may be divided into several diagnostic categories. Disposition for psoriasis, seborrhoeic and atopic eczema are main endogenous reasons. Exogenous pathogens for external otitis are microbes and allergens. There are numerous interrelations by coincidence of dispositional diseases, e.g. psoriasis and atopic eczema and by combination of exogenous and endogenous pathogens. This holds good for the yeast Pityrosporum ovale vs. orbiculare in seborrhoeic eczema and for the susceptibility to contact (type IV) and respiratory (type I) allergy in atopic individuals as well. Mycotic and bacterial, especially gram negative external otitis are linked to predisposing factors like eczema, long-term microbicidal therapy, hot and humid environment. Contact allergic external otitis may occur during long lasting local therapy with various substances including vehicles, the most common allergen being neomycin. Mucosal allergic reactions (Type I) in the upper respiratory tract may impair ventilation of the Eustachian tube and middle ear and therefore epithelial migration, as a drainage mechanism of the auditory canal. Examination should include functional assessment of the Eustachian tube and middle ear and allergy testing (patch, prick test). Preparations for local therapy should contain a limited number of constituents and avoid common allergens. Surgical procedures to reestablish ventilation of the middle ear are also a therapy for chronic external otitis.


A Gram-staining-positive, non-spore-forming actinobacterium, strain JC311T, isolated from marine green alga of the genus Ulva was studied to examine its taxonomic position. On the basis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies, strain JC311T was shown represent a member of the genus Ornithinimicrobium and to be closely related to Ornithinimicrobium pekingense LW6T (98.6 %), Ornithinimicrobium kibberense K22-20T (98.3 %) and Ornithinimicrobium humiphilum HKI 0124T (98.1 %). However, strain JC311T showed less than 22 % DNA reassociation value (based on DNA-DNA hybridization) with O. pekingense JCM14001T, O. kibberense JCM12763T and O. humiphilum KCTC19901T. The predominant menaquinone of strain JC311T was MK-8(H4). The peptidoglycan contained l-ornithine as the diagnostic diamino acid. The polar lipid profile consisted of the lipids diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, glycophospholipid, aminophospholipid, phospholipid and two unidentified lipids. The major fatty acids iso-C16 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, iso-C17 : 1ω9c and iso-C17 : 0 were consistent with the fatty acid patterns reported for members of the genus Ornithinimicrobium. The distinct genomic, morphological, physiological and chemotaxonomic differences from the previously described taxa support the classification of JC311T as a representative of a novel species of the genus Ornithinimicrobium, for which we propose the name Ornithinimicrobium algicola sp. nov., with the type strain JC311T ( = KCTC 39559 T =  LMG 28808T).


The study investigated the potentials of alkaloidal fraction of leaf and stem of Crotalaria retusa with a view to understanding its mechanism of allelopathy in bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) seedlings. The study involved collection of C. retusa (leaves and stems), identification, dried, pulverized and extracted with methanol to yield methanolic extract (MECR). Crude alkaloid fraction was prepared from MECR by a procedure that consisted of acidification, basification and extraction with chloroform. Brown beans were grown in varying concentrations (0, 50 and 100 µg/ml) of crude alkaloid fraction with strychnine (10 µg/ml) as reference alkaloid. Leaves and stems of the seedlings were collected for biochemical analyses which included determination of percentage germination and evaluation of biochemical parameters. The results showed that percentage germination of bean seeds reduced with increasing concentrations of alkaloid fraction. The activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase) increased with alkaloid concentration in the leaves and stems of bean seedlings. The levels of metabolites (proline, reduced glutathione and ascorbic acid) increased significantly (p ≤ 0.05) in the stems and leaves of treated bean seedlings. However, there was reduction in the total protein and sugar contents of the leaves and stems of bean seedlings which implied stress. Alkaloidal fractions of C. retusa elicit significant allelopathic effects on germination of bean seedlings by reducing its germination rate. The alkaloid also affected some metabolites in bean seedlings which are markers of environmental stress. The study revealed that the mechanisms of action of the alkaloid fraction of C. retusa involved the induction of oxidative stress that resulted in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that caused metabolic derangement in the bean seedlings.

 Key words: Alkaloidal fraction, allelopathy, strychnine, basification, extract, antioxidant enzymes.


The seafloor subsides as it moves away from mid-ocean ridges, and the rate of subsidence can largely be explained by thermal isostasy. There exists, however, an important difference between theoretical predictions and the observed rate for normal seafloor, even if we restrict ourselves to relatively young seafloor with ages less than 70 Ma. Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain this discrepancy, one with the incomplete thermal contraction due to the strongly temperature-dependent viscosity of oceanic lithosphere, and the other with dynamic topography originating in radioactive heating in the convecting mantle. These two mechanisms are not mutually exclusive. As the degree of incomplete thermal contraction can be bounded by theoretical consideration, we may be able to use the observed discrepancy to infer the amount of radioactive heating in the convecting mantle. We will present a unified theoretical model that can treat these two effects simultaneously and quantify how the rate of seafloor subsidence is controlled by different processes. SIT08-P06 Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2016


The objective of this paper is to review likely trends in key drivers of productivity with a view to suggesting the rate of productivity growth that is likely to be required to maintain the competitiveness of Australian agriculture both within the Australian economy and relative to the agricultural sectors of other economies. The paper also canvasses prospect for achieving this level of productivity performance over the period to 2030.Growth in agricultural productivity has slowed over the last two decades and a significant proportion of this slowdown in growth can be attributed to the stagnation in public investment in agricultural R&D since the late 1970s. The prospect that rate of growth of TFP could stay at less than 1.0% rather than recover to a long term rate of 2.0% is obviously quite concerning for the future competitiveness of agriculture both domestically and internationally. It would seem that to maintain TFP growth in the 2.0 – 2.5% per year range, investment in agricultural R&D has to be returned to a level of 3.0% of agriculture's GVP (or 5% of GDP), a major challenge for government and industry.


Castle 3.0 presents familiar and unfamiliar objects in relation to ideas of life-cycles, eroticism and structures of museum display and knowledge. Male and female figures are represented through CGI (Computer Generated Graphics) in the form of Jean-Paul Gaultier perfume bottles. The female "bottle" is a virtual digital reproduction of an item found in the Art of Living displays at Norwich Castle Museum. A virtual model of a tiger echoes the taxidermic Bengal tiger in the natural history gallery below. The CGI tiger also appears in an imaginary embryonic state, a simple, but impossible furball. The objects are digitally real, but physically dematerialised. Virtual skins that appear to contain fluids and liquids whose objectives are life, death and eroticism. Like museum displays they represent knowledge of life through the signifiers of death.


Frame semantics is a linguistic theory that has been instantiated for English in the FrameNet lexicon. We solve the problem of frame-semantic parsing using a two-stage statistical model that takes lexical targets (i.e., content words and phrases) in their sentential contexts and predicts frame-semantic structures. Given a target in context, the first stage disambiguates it to a semantic frame. This model uses latent variables and semi-supervised learning to improve frame disambiguation for targets unseen at training time. The second stage finds the target's locally expressed semantic arguments. At inference time, a fast exact dual decomposition algorithm collectively predicts all the arguments of a frame at once in order to respect declaratively stated linguistic constraints, resulting in qualitatively better structures than naïve local predictors. Both components are feature-based and discriminatively trained on a small set of annotated frame-semantic parses. On the SemEval 2007 benchmark data set, the approach, along with a heuristic identifier of frame-evoking targets, outperforms the prior state of the art by significant margins. Additionally, we present experiments on the much larger FrameNet 1.5 data set. We have released our frame-semantic parser as open-source software.


A semiconductor amplifier and an edge-emitting LED are operated in a single-mode-fiber connected configuration to demonstrate a broad-linewidth 1.3-/spl mu/m transmitter. The output from the LED is increased by a 13.5-dB chip gain through the amplifier to 2.3-mW while maintaining a broad 3-dB spectral width of 600 /spl Aring/ from the LED. A 600-Mb/s modulation speed was demonstrated, with open eye-patterns from the amplifier, with direct current modulation applied to the LED. A theoretical analysis shows that the LED-amplifier gain is about 7 dB less than the peak amplifier gain for a narrow-line signal due to the broad spectrum and wavelength offset of the LED. The 1.3-/spl mu/m LED-amplifier may be useful as a transmitter for fiber access networks to avoid optical beat interference noise, or as a broadband source for wavelength sliced WDM networks. The device has the potential to be monolithically integrated for wavelengths at 1.3 and 1.5 /spl mu/m.<<ETX>>


: The Xishuangbanna region is one of the orchid hotspots in China. To understand the characteristics and trends of the orchid trade in the region, we surveyed six public markets in 2015. We identified and recorded 107 orchid species, belonging to 38 genera. Among them, 87.9% of the species were epiphytic. Apart from Dendrobium officinale , all species were collected in the wild. Among the 106 wild-harvested species, 93.4% were originally distributed to Xishuangbanna, and represented a quarter of the total species found in the area. The record frequencies of most species were very low. Only 14 species were recorded more than ten times, suggesting that the collection and trade of wild orchids was not systematic. Most of the sellers were local people. Collecting wild orchids for sale was not their main economic activity, and none of them collected or traded orchids across international borders. The highest abundance of orchids was recorded between April and June. Dendrobium species were traded the most. In total, 35 Dendrobium species were identified, representing 32.7% of all the recorded species. Dendrobium species had also the highest recorded frequencies. Although recently the area has seen rapid development of commercial cultivations of medicinal Dendrobium orchids, this development does not seem to have reduced the harvesting pressure on wild Dendrobium species and on the contrary, may have encouraged it. Based on market surveys, we make several conservation suggestions targeting orchids in the area.


We determine what aspects of the density field surrounding galaxies most affect their properties. For Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies, we measure the group environment, meaning the host group luminosity and the distance from the group center (hereafter "groupocentric distance"). For comparison, we measure the surrounding density field on scales ranging from 100 h-1 kpc to 10 h-1 Mpc. We use the relationship between color and group environment to test the null hypothesis that only the group environment matters, searching for a residual dependence of properties on the surrounding density. Generally, red galaxies are slightly more clustered on small scales (~100-300 h-1 kpc) than the null hypothesis predicts, possibly indicating that substructure within groups has some importance. At large scales (>1 h-1 Mpc), the actual projected correlation functions of galaxies are biased at less than the 5% level with respect to the null hypothesis predictions. We exclude strongly the converse null hypothesis: that only the surrounding density (on any scale) matters. These results generally encourage the use of the halo model description of galaxy bias, which models the galaxy distribution as a function of host halo mass alone. We compare these results to proposed galaxy formation scenarios within the cold dark matter cosmological model.


Thyristor-controlled series capacitors (TCSC) have dynamic characteristics that differ drastically from conventional series capacitors especially at frequencies outside the operating frequency range. Therefore suitable models are needed to properly study the applications of TCSC on a utility power system. An accurate analytical model of the TCSC which is valid in the frequency range from 0 Hz to twice the operating frequency is presented. The model incorporates the thyristor triggering logic, the synchronization system, and higher level control loops such as power oscillation damping loop. This model is suited for linearized analyses of a power system using frequency domain methods such as eigenvalues. It is particularly valuable in studying subsynchronous resonance (SSR) enables the utility industry to better evaluate interactions between TCSC and other devices.


Here, we have synthesized novel chelation-free Zn(II)-complexes ( 1 - 3 ) [ZnCl 2 L 2 ] of monodentate ligands with L= 2- isopropylimidazole ( L1 ), 2- methylbenzimidazole ( L2 ), and 2- methylbenzoxazole ( L3 ) and evaluated their antibacterial, antioxidant and DNA binding activities. The chelation-free properties of these coordination complexes were confirmed by UV-Vis spectroscopy, 1 H-NMR spectroscopy, single X-ray crystallography, and elemental analysis. Complexes 1 - 3 exhibited substantial antibacterial activity against all antibiotic susceptible bacteria within a concentration range of 100-200 µg/ml while free ligands L1 and L2 exhibited weak antibacterial activity considerably concentration above 200 µg/ml. Also, both complexes 2 and 3 were twice more active against methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA ) than complex 1 . Furthermore, we found that complexes 1 - 3 showed DNA binding activity with E. coli plasmid DNA (pDNA) and calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA), which may be a plausible mechanism for their antibacterial activity. We also investigated the antioxidant activity of complexes 1 - 3 and found that complex 2 exhibited potential antioxidant activity compared to complexes 1 and 3 . All these results suggest that the chelation-free Zn(II)-complexes can be the future candidates for more advanced biological studies.


The large-scale ocean circulation, dynamics, and air-sea exchanges are investigated, based on observational datasets including Argo and satellite altimetry, and viewed in the framework of modern theoretical ideas. Initially, the wind-driven interannual variability of the subtropical North Pacific is described. Using the extensive Argo dataset, it is seen that the North Pacific gyre varies in the strength of its interior circulation and in its spatial orientation, on interannual timescales. Also, satellite altimetry shows variations in sea surface height that are consistent with Argo steric height changes, and enabled a temporal extension of the 2004-2011 Argo study back to 1993. The next part of the thesis is focused on annual steric variability, including diabatic changes in the surface layer due to air-sea buoyancy fluxes and adiabatic changes due to wind-forced advection, which are dominant in the subsurface ocean. The annual signal in subsurface (200-2000 db) steric height zonally averaged over a season shows good agreement with the wind-forced vertical advection contribution, both in the global ocean and in different basins. This study, the first on global scale, also shows that the annual vertical advection extends deep into the water column. Next, the global pattern of climatological monthly heat and freshwater fluxes at the ocean surface is estimated using Argo temperature and salinity profile data for the period 2004 to 2013. The air-sea flux estimates from Argo are described in global maps and basin-wide integrals, in comparison to atmospheric reanalysis data and to air-sea flux products based on observations. This ocean-based estimate of surface fluxes is consistent with property variations in the subsurface ocean and indicates greater amplitude for the climatological monthly heat flux values in the subtropics compared to other products. Similarly, the combination of Argo freshwater flux and reanalysis evaporation, suggests greater amplitude for climatological monthly precipitation in the tropics. Finally, this thesis describes the mean field of the North Pacific subtropical gyre using Argo T/S and trajectory data. The gyre is deeper than 1975 db and than the densest ventilated isopycnal, and it is deepest in the northwest subtropics. In the east, its axis tilts northeast with increasing pressure


Fandhy Dony Wicaksono, 2017, 49124381 N, " Optimalisasi Pelaksanaan Bongkar Muat Oil Product di MT. Patra Tanker 3 ", Diploma IV , Nautika, Politeknik Ilmu Pelayaran Semarang, Counselour : (I) Sahabuddin Sunusi (II) Yustina Sapan.
Oil production rising rapidly from oil fields, refineries and depots - oil depot in Indonesia. It makes participation of oil tankers becomes more vital than ever. Loading and discharging equipment on the tanker must always be in good condition in order to support the process of loading and discharging. Optimization of loading and discharging must be supported by good communication between the ship at the loading or discharging port. This research is focused on the process of loading and discharging at MT. Patra Tanker 3 which is frequently delays due to human factors and factors of equipment and efforts to optimize the loading and discharging activities. The research methodology that author use is a descriptive qualitative method. The author presents the data according to the results of the observation as authors did the sea project, interviews with the officers of MT. Patra Tanker 3 and literature study that the author obtained from books, internet and literature relating to loading and discharging process of oil product. Based on the research that the author carried out, it can be seen that the constraints that occur when loading and discharging process in MT. Patra Tanker 3 are the lack of understanding, knowledge and awareness of the crew about the dangers and how the loading and unloading procedures in accordance with the standards as well as safe. In addition the process of loading and discharging at MT. Patra Tanker 3 are constrained by a cargo pump is not functioning optimally. From these problems, it's necessary to give the entire crew training regarding the loading and discharging process in accordance with the procedures and also the operation of loading and discharging equipment is right and how to taking care of the loading and discharging equipment. Besides, the ship's crew also had to check periodically for loading and discharging equipment.
Keywords : Oil Product, Loading, Discharging, descriptive qualitative.


Transfer of Zn(II) ions from a mixed sulphate and thiocyanate solution through a supported liquid membrane (SLM) containing CYANEX 925 in kerosene as carrier has been studied as a function of stirring rate, [H], [CYANEX 925], [SCN], [H2SO4] and ammonia solution concentrations. The experimental results show that the transfer of Zn(II) ions increases with the increase in stirring rate, thiocyanate concentration in the feed and concentration of NH4OH used as the stripping solution. The transfer experiments of Zn(II) from its admixture with Co(II) indicated that Zn(II) could be extracted more than Co(II) by CYANEX 925; the transfer rate increased with time. The investigated SLM system could be used for removal of Zn(II) from an aqueous mixed thiocyanate/sulphate medium of [H] = 0.01. In addition, the present system is selective for Zn-Co separation from aqueous mixed thiocyanate/sulphate medium. This selectivity was found to decrease with time and a maximum value of 25 is reached after 60 min. Repeated transfer of Zn(II) individually and from its admixture with Co(II) through the same membrane film with reasonable efficiency indicate that the used SLM is stable and durable.


Abstract Genomics programs in the weed science community have not developed as rapidly as that of other crop, horticultural, forestry, and model plant systems. Development of genomic resources for selected model weeds are expected to enhance our understanding of weed biology, just as they have in other plant systems. In this report, we describe the development, characteristics, and information gained from an expressed sequence tag (EST) database for the perennial weed leafy spurge. ESTs were obtained using a normalized cDNA library prepared from a comprehensive collection of tissues. During the EST characterization process, redundancy was minimized by periodic subtractions of the normalized cDNA library. A sequencing success rate of 88% yielded 45,314 ESTs with an average read length of 671 nucleotides. Using bioinformatic analysis, the leafy spurge EST database was assembled into 23,472 unique sequences representing 19,015 unigenes (10,293 clusters and 8,722 singletons). Blast similarity searches to the GenBank nonredundant protein database identified 18,186 total matches, of which 14,205 were nonredundant. These data indicate that 77.4% of the 23,472 unique sequences and 74.7% of the 19,015 unigenes are similar to other known proteins. Further bioinformatics analysis indicated that 2,950, or 15.5%, of the unigenes have previously not been identified suggesting that some may be novel to leafy spurge. Functional classifications assigned to leafy spurge unique sequences using Munich Information Center for Protein or Gene Ontology were proportional to functional classifications for genes of arabidopsis, with the exception of unclassified or unknowns and transposable elements which were significantly reduced in leafy spurge. Although these EST resources have been developed for the purpose of constructing high-density leafy spurge microarrays, they are already providing valuable information related to sugar metabolism, cell cycle regulation, dormancy, terpenoid secondary metabolism, and flowering. Nomenclature: Leafy spurge, Euphorbia esula L. EPHES, arabidopsis, Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh


: The article provides data on HIV-infection prevalence in Primorsky region as well as on characteristics of HIV-infection epidemic process, distribution of HIV-infected persons by sex, age, routes and factors of transmission. Rise of HIV-associated tuberculosis incidence is registered in Primorsky region in recent years. HIV-infected persons have increased risk of tuberculosis progression. Prognosis for HIV-infection and HIV-associated tuberculosis incidence for the next years was done.


In a collaborative effort to study the effects of migratory and domestic waterfowl on the water quality of urban playa lakes, the Lubbock Christian University Natural and Physical Sciences departments have isolated Escherichia coli from playa lake water and the feces of migratory Canada geese and resident waterfowl. In previous studies, it was determined that forty isolated samples were resistant to at least one antibiotic. In this study, samples of the antibiotic resistant E. coli were further analyzed for the presence of Shiga-like toxin producing genes (stx 1 and stx 2 ) and the presence of enterohemolysin. Methods for determining the presence stx 1 and stx 2 include isolation of genomic DNA followed by Polymerase Chain Reaction. The PCR product was then sequenced using Beckman Coulter's genomic services. Sequences produced from the shiga toxin primers were compared to known gene sequences, which allowed for positive identification of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). Methods for determining the presence of enterohemolysin consist of growing isolates on tryptic soy agar medium supplemented with 5% sheep's blood and, after incubation, observing the plates for hemolysis. E. coli producing Shiga-like toxin and enterohemolysin can cause various gastrointestinal complications including hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), acute renal failure, and end stage renal disease. If the isolated organisms contain the shiga toxin genes of stx 1 or stx 2 and/or enterohemolysin, then the E. coli present at Lubbock playa lakes is potentially pathogenic. Urban playa lakes are often used for recreational activity, and the presence of antibiotic resistant STEC would be of significant clinical importance.