With the shortage of traditional fossil fuels and global climate change worsening, the recycling and conversion of various types of waste biomass resources into bioethanol has received increasing interests around the world. This study used waste cotton as the biomass resource and applied microwave technology to improve the hydrolysis rate and efficiency. The effects of different parameters on the hydrolysis efficiency were investigated. Experimental results show that waste cotton has the highest cellulose content among common lignocellulosic biomass but it is difficult to convert waste cotton into reducing sugars by conventional hydrolysis methods. The hydrolysis efficiencies of waste cotton were all lower than 0.6% at room temperature (without microwave) even with different acid/alkali reagents and concentrations, but it can be greatly improved to 63% with the assistance of microwave technology. The optimal hydrolysis conditions for waste cotton were achieved with 30% HCl and 110 °C (microwave power 195 W) for 10 min. The hydrolysates were further fermented by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the best yield of bioethanol was 2500 mg L -1 .


Anesthetic provision of emergency surgery has a number of organizational and methodic features. The paper describes general principles in the organization of work of a team of emergency anesthetists. It also considers the problems of preoperative preparation, the choice of an anesthesiological procedure, and the tactics of intraoperative management of patients operated on, if there are emergency indications. Particular emphasis is laid on life-threatening stages of anesthesia.


Taylor Couette flow in bioreactor at different Re values is researched numerically by means of establishing a simplified model. Numerical results indicate that vortex appears earlier in the vicinity of bottom wall than in the vicinity of top free surface. As Re number increases, vortexes generate from both ends towards middle area of flow field and will fill the whole space when critical Re value is reached. Although all vortexes look the same in structure, intensities of them are widely divergent. The strength of vortex at bottom wall is more intensive than that at top free surface, while the vortex at middle position is the weakest.


Author(s): HU, XUE | Advisor(s): Buchinsky, Moshe | Abstract: These essays contribute towards our understanding of housing and labor economics. This dissertation is composed of three chapters. In the first chapter, I explore the impact of negative housing equity on households' geo- graphical mobility using data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The empirical analysis implies that addressing the endogeneity nature of homeowners' underwater mortgage status is crucial. Even with comprehensive controls for households' demographic characteristics and macro-level factors, omitted variable bias such as homeowners' attitudes towards their financial responsibility may still generate estimation bias that is quite large. After proper instrumenting for homeowners' underwater mortgage status using local shocks from housing and labor markets, the estimation results show that having underwater mortgages is associated with an average decline in mobility rate of about 17 percentage points. The second chapter investigates the role of housing choice and mortgage on employment transitions when there are uncertainties regarding income and house prices. Motivated by the empirical evidence on large employment-transition disparities between homeowners and renters, I develop and estimate a structural model in which mortgage obligations motivate homeowners to exert greater job-search efforts during unemployment spells. The model is used to understand individuals' response to housing and labor market shocks. I find that while the decline in house prices creates negative labor market externalities for renters, tightening mortgage constraints result in greater job search incentives for homeowners. With concurrent negative labor market shocks, the probability of transitioning out of unemployment for both renters and homeowners declines. Two policy experiments are conducted. The first shows that lower refinance cost discourages housing equity accumulation and is associated with a decline in the average employment rate. The second demonstrates that a lower down payment requirement encourages the transition into home ownership, which has positive labor market implications, especially for younger individuals. The first two chapters explore the relation between underwater mortgage and geographical mobility and impacts of mortgage debt obligation on employment incentives. Both analyses are based on individual-level data. The last chapter investigates the mysteries of regional housing market disparities from a macro perspective. This chapter shows that local economic conditions are correlated with deviations between house prices and rents in a price-rent model framework, suggesting that the demand for credit and housing is greater when a variety of local economic conditions are more supportive. Several different measures of local economic conditions are considered in this chapter: local unemployment rates, local unemployment rates relative to the natural rate of unemployment, local inflation rates, and measures of local perceptions of the cost of credit. This chapter attempts to offer explanations not as how or why house prices increased, but rather, given the myriad of national factors making home purchase easier and cheaper, where house prices increased. This approach also resolves a bit of a puzzle as to why the housing bubble was so pronounced in some areas and not others.


The present research aims to examine the coagulation process enhancement for dissolved organic matter (DOM) and The present research aims to examine the coagulation process enhancement for dissolved organic matter (DOM) and trihalomethane formatation potential (THMFP) removal from a raw water supply with low turbidity and specific ultraviolet absorption (SUVA). Coagulation conditions were optimized using polyaluminum chloride (PACl), PACl with dry cationic polymer (polymer), and PACl with polymer and powder activated carbon (PAC). DOM was measured in terms of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and ultraviolet absorption at a wavelength of 254 nm (UV-254). Results show that the optimal condition for PACl, PACl and polymer, and PACl with polymer and PAC coagulation were PACl 20 mg/L at pH 7, PACl 20 mg/L and polymer 0·1 mg/L, and PACl 20 mg/L with polymer 0·1 mg/L and PAC 10 mg/L, respectively. When the DOM contents in coagulated water were fractioned to be hydrophilic (HPI) and hydrophobic (HPO) groups, it was found that the coagulation process could effectively remove more DOC of HPO than DOC of HPI. The coagulation using PACl combined with polymer and PAC provided the highest level of DOC of HPI, DOC of HPO, Trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) of HPI, and THMFP of HPO removal efficiencies and were shown to be 65%, 75%, 77%, and 79%, respectively.


The emergence of new tools to image neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, and neuropeptides has transformed our understanding of the role of neurochemistry in brain development and cognition, yet analysis of this new dimension of neurobiological information remains challenging. Here, we image dopamine modulation in striatal brain tissue slices with near infrared catecholamine nanosensors (nIRCat) and implement machine learning to determine which features of dopamine modulation are unique to changes in stimulation strength, and to different neuroanatomical regions. We trained a support vector machine and a random forest classifier to determine whether recordings were made from the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) versus the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) and find that machine learning is able to accurately distinguish dopamine release that occurs in DLS from that occurring in DMS in a manner unachievable with canonical statistical analysis. Furthermore, our analysis determines that dopamine modulatory signals including the number of unique dopamine release sites and peak dopamine released per stimulation event are most predictive of neuroanatomy yet note that integrated neuromodulator amount is the conventional metric currently used to monitor neuromodulation in animal studies. Lastly, our study finds that machine learning discrimination of different stimulation strengths or neuroanatomical regions is only possible in adult animals, suggesting a high degree of variability in dopamine modulatory kinetics during animal development. Our study highlights that machine learning could become a broadly-utilized tool to differentiate between neuroanatomical regions, or between neurotypical and disease states, with features not detectable by conventional statistical analysis.


1. Abstract A full-w,we model is developed for electromagnetic scattering from buried and surface land mines (both conducting and plastic), taking rigorous account of the lossy, dispersive, and potentially layered properties of soil. The (polarimetric) theoretical results are confirmed via synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) measurements, performed using the US Army Research Laboratory's BoomSAR, with which fully polarimetric ultra-wide-band (501200 MHz) SAR imagery is produced. The SAR system is used to acquire a large database of imagery, including a significant distribution of naturally occumng clutter. Several techniques are used for mine detection with such data, including several detectors that are based on target features gleaned from the modeling, as well as a matched-filter-like detector that directly incorporates the target signatures themselves. In addition, the theoretical model is used to predict wave phenomenology in various environments (beyond the limited range '3f parameters that can be examined experimentally). Since the efficacy of radar-based subsurface sensing depends strongly on the soil properties, we perform a parametric study of the dependence of such on the target RCS, and on possible landmine resonances.


: The authors questionnaired 103 patients with hypertensive disease using 30 questions with simplified system of answers. The analysis showed that rural patients with hypertensive disease had their disease diagnosed during two years since the disease started only in 6% of cases. 36% of patients do not have an apparatus to measure blood pressure. 64% of hypertensive disease cases are diagnosed after patients present his/her complaints. Rural patients in 44.6% of cases received their treatment at home. In 74% of cases, patients consider that to be healthy they should receive antihypertensive therapy, but start the treatment in 61% of cases with raunatine and adelfane. Patients with hypertensive disease are rarely on beta-adrenoblockers (11.7%) and calcium antagonists (9.7%).


ABSTRACT Carbonate mineralogical studies of surface Bahamian periplatform ooze, containing pelagic calcite as well as bank-derived aragonite and magnesian calcite, were coupled with studies of the carbonate chemistry of the waters overlying these sediments. The presence of metastable aragonite and magnesian calcite in the periplatform ooze presents a unique opportunity to assess the relation between the extent of carbonate saturation in the water column and the disappearance of metastable carbonate minerals in an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where intermediate and deep waters are saturated with respect to calcite. Aragonite is present in the fine fraction of the surface sediment to a water depth of 4,800 m, but decreases sharply below 4,000 m. This is also the depth limit of the occurrence of pteropod tests and fragments in the coarse fraction of the sediment. The aragonite compensation depth should be (by extrapolation) between 5,000 and 5,200 m. The saturation depth with respect to aragonite was estimated to be located between 3,800 and 4,500 m. This corresponds fairly well with the depth of a sharp decrease of the fine aragonite as well as the depth of pteropod disappearance. Magnesian calcite in the fine fraction of the sediment decreases irregularly with depth and disappears between 3,700 and 4,000 m. The calculated saturation depth with respect to magnesian calcite (13 mole % MgCO3) is between 900 and 1,500 m. At this depth a significant drop in the concentration of magnesian calcite occurs. This decrease of magnesian calcite from 25 to 15 percent could be caused by both dissolution and the increasing distance of deeper waters from the banks. However, the higher values of specific alkalinity of the waters ranging between 750 and 2,000 m, when compared with the alkalinity values of the Sargasso Sea at the same latitude, are interpreted to be indicative that some dissolution of magnesian calcite occurs in the Bahamian basins at these water dept s. Our results show depressed levels, by 500 m or more, of the aragonite saturation depth in the water column as well as of the depth of aragonite disappearance in the surface sediment, when compared with open ocean studies in the Northwest Atlantic. In addition, our results indicate that fine magnesian calcite (12 to 13 mole % MgCO3) disappears 1,200 to 1,500 m above the extrapolated disappearance depth of aragonite. This observation is consistent with results for experimental studies, showing that aragonite is more stable in seawater than a magnesian calcite of 12 to 13 mole % MgCO3.


: Altogether 162 cases of tonsillitis were registered in two military units during the period of May 11-16. The disease took an acute course with short-time fever, symptoms of acute intoxication, sore throat, pronounced inflammatory changes in tonsils and swelling of regional (submaxillary and anterocervical) lymph nodes. In some of the patients (1.1%) sickness and vomiting and in 0.2% diarrhea were registered. In 6.7% of the patients scarlatiniform eruptions were observed on days 2-3 of the disease. In the course of the bacteriological examination of the patients group A streptococci, serovar T II, were isolated. The dynamic study of paired sera showed a considerable increase in the number of patients with a high level of antibodies to streptolysin 0 and group A polysaccharide. All patients were fed at the same canteen. The factor of the transmission of this infection could be butter, stored without observation of the required temperature conditions and apportioned by the soldiers of the kitchen police. Experimental study revealed that group A streptococci are capable for proliferation and accumulation in butter.


In recent years, tens of thousands of young Africans have left the shores of Senegal and other West African countries in small boats headed for Spain's Canary Islands. Most have spent a week or more at sea, and unknown numbers have died in the attempt. Given the danger of the journey, we ask how it could become a large-scale social phenomenon. The analysis focuses on how prospective migrants assess and relate to the risks of migration. We show that risk taking is shaped by context-specific interaction of disparate factors. These include economic obstacles to reaching social adulthood, notions of masculinity, pride and honor, and religion, in the form of sufi Islam.


Daylight-artificial light integrated schemes encompassing soft computing models have been perceived as a lucrative option for lighting energy conservation. This thesis exploits the quintessence of design and real time implementation of adaptive predictive control strategy
for robust control of daylight-artificial light integrated scheme. To elicit daylight variations, occupancy detections, and user preferences an online self adaptive predictive control algorithm is structured for real time control of artificial lights and window blinds. The
developed model resolves the constraints of: (i) supplementing the daylight with artificial
light to meet the set point illuminance, (ii) minimizing the energy consumption, (iii) maximizing the visual comfort by controlling daylight glare, and (iv) retaining the
illuminance uniformity in the interior. In this perspective, the adaptive predictive model entails integration of: (a) An online Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference Scheme (ANFIS) daylight illuminance predictor in conjunction with artificial light intensity control algorithm for interior illuminance regulation, and (b) Fuzzy logic based window blind control algorithm
to eliminate glare and solar heat gain. Control algorithm modeled with real time sensor information administers an online process identification, prediction and parameter adaptation. The devised prototype controller is successfully implemented in a test chamber
(4m ×4m×2.3m). A real time user friendly simulator provides an online visualization of illuminance performance indicators and control of the process. The anticipated synergetic effects of online control algorithm validated in the test chamber highlights the benefits of the
scheme in terms of glare control, illuminance uniformity and energy efficiency. Nevertheless, the scheme is proved to be economically feasible for large centralized installations. The concept presented in this thesis contributes to the advances in Building Light Management
Systems for commercial buildings.


Multidisciplinary model-based water management is a complex process. Projects that have to follow this process may encounter many problems, related to miscommunication, malpractice, misuse of the model, insufficient knowledge of the modeled problems and overselling of model capabilities. This leads to model projects, which are not transparent and difficult to audit. The knowledge-based system consists of an ontological knowledge base (KB) with 'best modelling practices' for teams, which members have different disciplinary backgrounds and play different roles in a project, and a Modelling Support Tool (MoST). MoST generates and presents guidelines from the KB on what to do. MoST also monitors what team members do in an electronic model journal and facilitates converting model journals into model reports for various audiences and purposes. Water managers can benefit from MoST and its KB in different ways: (1) during project set-up in defining what has to be done and finding a team to do the job, (2) at regular intervals in evaluating what has been done and planning of what has to be done, and (3) to check project progress. Modelers are guided by MoST on what to do, get access to what other team members did and helped keeping records of their work in the project. Auditors can easily follow the audit trail left in a model journal and are helped to appraise modelling projects. Stakeholders and public can be informed and consulted using MoST. In this way MoST and its KB facilitate cooperating in modelling projects and improve their quality. Parts of the technology of MoST and its KB can be reused to support other types of (simulation) modelling or even other types of processes (i.e. not focusing on modelling)


The compact disc player is a synergy of optics, communication theory, digital signal processing, and control engineering. This familiar consumer product may be employed as a cost-effective laboratory instrument to teach the fundamentals of optical storage, error detection and correction, and optical communication. The compact disc audio system, from analog input, through optical storage and distribution, to audio reproduction, provides an excellent model of a complete real-world optical transmission and storage system. A series of experiments, which illustrate some of the more significant operational principles of the compact disc player, are presented in this contribution. Optical read-out and the physics of information density are explored through a set of experiments in optical storage. Error detection and correction are studied experimentally by evaluating the performance of the compact disc player's error control system. The design of an optical fiber communication system is studied by extracting the channel bit stream from a compact disc player, transmitting it over an optical fiber link, and then reinserting it back into the compact disc player for audio reproduction.


Four methods for determining substrate recoveries in studies concerned with the partition of substrate between sludge synthesis and respiration were investigated. An energy balance comparing chemical oxygen demand (COD) removed with the summation of oxygen uptake and the COD of the cells produced yielded average recoveries closer to 100% than any of the other three methods tested. The standard COD test was shown to yield highly reproducible values when used to determine the COD of activated sludge. Although the protein and carbohydrate content of the cells varied with cell age, a concomitant variation in cell COD was not noted.


A nematode survey was conducted in northern Egypt and a total of 240 soil and root samples were collected from the rhizosphere of the surveyed plants. Twenty-three genera of phytoparasitic nematodes were detected in the collected soil and root samples. In soil samples from Alexandria governorate, the sugar beet cyst nematode (Heterodera schachtii) was very common on sugar beet while the root-knot nematodes Meloidogyne incognita and M. javanica were very common on guava, olive trees and sugar beet. Helicotylenchus pseudorobustus, M. incognita, Pratylenchus sp., Rotylenchulus reniformis and Xiphinema sp. were observed in spearmint soil samples. The dagger nematode Xiphinema rivesi was found in orange soil samples from El-Nobarria, El-Beheira governorate. In lantana soil samples from El-Giza governorate, Aglenchus geraerti, Bitylenchus ventrosignatus, Coslenchus capsici, Helicotylenchus indicus and Malenchus bryanti were identified for the first time in Egypt. Survey results revealed new host plant records for most of the identified nematode species in Egypt.


Robot working space is an important kinematic indicator. After the modular service robot arm was introduced, DH coordinate system was used to build kinematics equations of 5-DOFs services robot arm. The whole working space model of the robot system was then established. Monte Carlo method was used to simulate the working space, which can straightforwardly and visually describe the working space of robot with high speed. It was indicated that the working points in the workspace of the robot were distributed compactly and uniformly, which can meet design requirements with high efficiency. The effectiveness of the working space model was testified by the simulation analysis on Matlab and experimental validation.


Atopic dermatitis (AD) is the initial step of the atopic march: the progression from AD to allergic rhinitis and asthma. There is a close association between skin barrier abnormalities and the development of AD and the atopic march. One of cardinal features of AD is that the lesional skin of the majority of AD patients is chronically colonized with Staphylococcus aureus with half isolates producing superantigen enterotoxin B (SEB). Although diverse roles of SEB in the pathogenesis and severity of AD have been recognized, whether SEB contributes to the dermal inflammation that drives lung inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) has not been examined. Here we show a novel role of S. aureus superantigen SEB in augmenting allergen ovalbumin (Ova) induced atopic march through an IL-17A dependent mechanism. When mice epicutaneously (EC) sensitized with allergen Ova, addition of topical SEB led to not only augmented systemic Th2 responses but also a markedly exaggerated systemic Th17/IL-17 immune environment. The ability of SEB in enhancing Th17/IL-17 was mediated through stimulating lymphocytes in spleen and draining lymph nodes to promote IL-6 production. Epicutaneous sensitization of mice with a combination of Ova and SEB significantly enhanced Ova-induced AHR and granulocytic lung inflammation than Ova allergen alone. When IL-17A was deleted genetically, the effects of SEB on augmenting lung inflammation and AHR were markedly diminished. These findings suggest that chronic heavy colonization of enterotoxin producing S. aureus in the skin of patients with atopic dermatitis may have an important role in the development of atopic march via an IL-17A dependent mechanism.


Leslie Howarth was born in Lancashire and studied at Accrington Grammar School and the University of Manchester, where he graduated in mathematics. Sydney Goldstein (FRS 1937) had a great impact on him, and he migrated with Goldstein to the University of Cambridge. There he studied for the Mathematical Tripos and then for a PhD under the guidance of Goldstein, gaining the Smith's Prize in the process. The 1930s were a golden age for fluid dynamics, both theoretical and experimental, partly because of the rapid rise of aviation in both Europe and North America. Howarth rapidly developed a formidable international reputation, producing a string of theoretical and computational papers at the cutting edge of research in the study of boundary layers in aerodynamics and fluid dynamics. In 1937–38 he spent a year in the USA at the California Institute of Technology, working with Theodore von Karman (ForMemRS 1946), during which they produced a remarkable paper of lasting importance in the theory of turbulence. During World War II Howarth worked for several UK government agencies, but afterwards he moved from Cambridge to the University of Bristol, where he developed a strong research school in theoretical fluid dynamics and applied mathematics.


Malaria, carried by Anopheles mosquitoes, infects up to 500 million people each year and kills 1 million, most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. Dengue fever, a viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, is now endemic in more than 100 countries and strikes an estimated 50 million people per year. Major international efforts to control, prevent, or eradicate these diseases are in place, but traditional methods such as vaccines and insecticides have met with limited success. Now scientists are exploring the use of so-called selfish DNA to bioengineer mosquitoes that will take over vector populations, eventually suppressing the diseases altogether.

Selfish DNA is defined as a segment of the genome with no apparent function other than to ensure its own replication. Such elements—which include transposons and homing endonuclease genes—are unique in that they can replicate themselves within a genome and are not necessary for the reproductive success (or "fitness," in evolutionary terms) of the host organism. Selfish genes may be the ideal vehicles to deliver knockout blows to vector-borne diseases.

"You can do this in two ways," says Fred Gould, a professor of entomology at North Carolina State University. "One is to have the selfish DNA element be neutral—that is, it just inserts itself into the population and doesn't actually lower the fitness of the organism, but it carries with it . . . an antipathogen gene. So you wind up with a population that looks the same and has the same fitness, but can't transmit the disease. The other approach is to actually have these selfish genes drive through a [vector] population and decrease its fitness, so that their density goes down."

Some of these methods have shown success in the laboratory, but they are all still many years away from field deployment. Hoping to accelerate that process, Gould and 2 colleagues organized a conference held 5–7 December 2007 at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham, North Carolina. Part of NESCent's mission is to host "catalysis meetings"—intensive interactive sessions that bring together diverse groups to spark new ideas and new collaborations in emerging fields.

"Selfish DNA and the Genetic Control of Vector-Borne Diseases" gathered approximately 30 researchers whose work ranges from basic to applied science, and whose focus ranges from the molecular to the population level. "Having people with really specific expertise in the basic sciences talking to people who are trying to apply these things gave good insights," says Gould. "There was a deep interdisciplinary interaction, and it wasn't just superficial or lip service."

Participants discussed some of the enormous challenges that remain to be overcome before any of these strategies will be ready for large-scale deployment. Among these are perfecting the models and determining the optimal combination of gene drive systems (i.e., methods of effectively introducing the desired gene into the population) and effector genes (which encode the antipathogenic element) to maximize vector control and minimize the development of resistance by the pathogens.

So when might we realistically expect to see mosquitoes modified with selfish DNA deployed in the field? "We've been saying ten years for the last ten years," says Anthony James, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of California, Irvine, and principal investigator for a large, multicenter research project into several of the applications being developed for genetic control of dengue virus transmission. "It's such an adjustable horizon because as we get closer to something actually working, the size and scope of the challenges actually change." The risk, says Gould, is that a prematurely deployed system would fail to control the disease, resulting in a rebound effect by resistant disease strains and perhaps permanently closing the window on all genetic control strategies.

Another question is whether the public can—or indeed should—accept the idea of releasing genetically modified organisms into the environment, let alone insects that are encouraged to spread, invade, and supersede native populations. Says Gould, "I think it's important to stress that there are a million children a year dying of malaria, and preventing that is a much bigger benefit than the risk of a single gene moving into another Anopheles species—the risks of genes moving and disrupting habitats are small."


In the era of cloud computing, the securities of cryptography schemes play more attention in key-dependent plaintexts. Preserving the confidentiality and integrity of the message transmitted between the components of the cloud environment is one of the most important goals of Message Authentication Code (MAC). Furthermore, the MAC protocol suffers from several malicious attacks such as forgery attack, Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack; reflect attack, and key recovery attack. In this paper, an efficient MAC scheme based on data hiding technique of image is proposed. This scheme is embedded the bits of MAC using least significant-bit (LSB) to enable a large message capacity. Furthermore, our proposed scheme overcomes above aforementioned issues. Additionally, our proposed scheme includes many security characteristics like user's message anonymity, data integrity for user's message, session key agreement, and one time message code for each user's session. Security analysis and experimental results illustrate that our proposed scheme can withstand the common security attacks as well, and has a good performance of message authentication code.


In order to accommodate high data-rate applications, there is a significant interest in extending space-time (ST) coding, originally proposed for frequency-nonselective channels assumed known to the receiver, to unknown multipath channels. In this paper, we consider the problem of blind channel identification and linear multiuser receiver design for ST coded CDMA (code-division multiple-access) systems operating in frequency-selective fading channels. We investigate the identifiability conditions and present a subspace-based blind channel estimator for such systems. We discuss various linear multiuser detection schemes that can be used in conjunction with the proposed channel estimator for symbol demodulation in ST coded CDMA systems. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed channel estimator and linear detectors in multipath Rayleigh fading channels.


This study analyzed socio-spatial inequalities in the adequacy of Ministry of Health data systems on live births (SINASC) and deaths (SIM) for estimating infant mortality at the municipal level in Brazil. Data from 2000-2002 for all municipalities were analyzed according to population size and geographic region. Five indicators were considered: age-standardized mortality rate; ratio of reported-to-estimated live births; relative mean deviation of the mortality rate; relative mean deviation of the birth rate; and proportion of deaths with undetermined causes. Adequacy criteria were established statistically for eight Brazilian States in which vital statistics were adequate. The results showed important socio-spatial inequalities: in general, the proportion of adequate vital statistics was higher in the Central-South of the country and in larger municipalities. The live birth data system received the best evaluation for three items. The mortality data system requires both a reduction in underreporting and improved data on cause of death in order to orient health programs focused on decreasing inequalities in infant mortality in Brazil.


The large, heavy and rigid form of traditional electric, hydraulic and pneumatic actuators is ill-suited to actuating rehabilitation devices worn on the body. Many alternative actuators have a more promising form, but do not share the reliability and availability of their counterparts. We propose the Peano muscle as solution. It is a soft, sheet-like fluid-powered actuator invented in 1959 by Mettam [1] that potentially shares the form, fabrication and materials of everyday clothing. Hence, it can give clothing the ability to move the body, whether for assistance or rehabilitation. As a relatively unexplored actuator, the Peano muscle lacks models that account for its material and geometry properties. We present and validate the MECHanical Approximation Lumped Parameter (MECHALP) model for accurately predicting the static force generation of Peano muscles. Its accuracy and physics-based nature makes it a useful tool that is foundational for the design and control of Peano muscle actuated rehabilitation wearables. This chapter explains the limitations of current actuators compared to the relevant requirements of rehabilitation devices; presents the concept of the Peano muscle as a promising rehabilitation actuator; and describes the MECHALP static model and its validation.


An
in-silico drug repurposing study was carried out to search for
potential COVID-19 antiviral agents. A dataset of 1615 FDA-approved
drugs was docked in the active site of SARS CoV-2 Main protease. A
subset of the top scoring hit compounds was subjected to follow-up
molecular dynamics simulations to further characterise the predicted
binding modes. The main findings are that the drugs Aliskiren,
Capreomycin, Isovuconazonium, emerge as novel potential inhibitors.
We also observed that Ceftolozane, Cobicistat, Carfilzomib and
Saquinavir are well-ranked by our protocol, in agreement with other
recent in silico drug repurposing studies, however MD simulations
shows only potential for the three first, as Saquinavir exhibited an
unstable binding mode. As many HIV-protease inhibitors has been
reported as active and not active, Atazanavir and Lopinavir were
included in the data set in order to rationalize the findings. In
addition, our protocol ranked favourably Dronedarone suggesting that
this recently reported SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor targets SARS-CoV-2 Main
protease.


Extreme hydrological events in the Danube river basin may severely impact human populations, aquatic organisms and economic activity. One often characterizes the joint structure of extreme events by using the theory of multivariate and spatial extremes and its asymptotically justified models. There is interest, however, in cascading extreme events and whether one event causes another. We argue that an improved understanding of the mechanism underlying severe events is achieved by combining extreme value modelling and causal discovery. We construct a causal inference method relying on the notion of the Kolmogorov complexity of extreme conditional quantiles. Tail quantities are derived by using multivariate extreme value models, and causal‐induced asymmetries in the data are explored through the minimum description length principle. Our method CausEV for causality for extreme values uncovers causal relationships between summer extreme river discharges in the upper Danube basin and finds significant causal links between the Danube and its Alpine tributary Lech.


Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), a type
of severe cutaneous adverse drugs reaction, are an immune-mediated hypersensitivity
reaction. Common high risk drugs causing SJS and TEN are aromatic antiepileptic
drugs (AEDs) particularly Carbamazepine (CBZ), Phenytoin (PHT) and Lamotrigine
(LTG). CBZ is a widely prescribed first-line treatment for epilepsy in Malaysia and
therefore is the main causal drug for SJS/TEN cases. A strong association was
discovered between HLA-B*15:02 and CBZ-induced SJS/TEN in Taiwan Han Chinese,
subsequently the association was replicated in other populations in Southeast Asia
including Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Vietnam, India and Malaysia. Malaysia
population is composed of heterogeneous multi-ethnic demographic from Austronesia
(Malay), Southern India and Southern China. Studies from Malaysia reported the
association in Malay and Chinese ethnic groups with one study on Malay CBZSJS/
TEN that found HLA-B*15:02 in 75% of the cases compared to 15.7% in general
Malay population. While another study included a mixture of Malay and Chinese CBZSJS/
TEN cases all of which were positive for HLA-B*15:02 but without appropriate
drug tolerant control. Furthermore, no study was performed in Malaysia's Indian ethnic
group. Ethnicity specific HLA-A and -B allele association conferring susceptibility to
CBZ, PHT and LTG-induced SJS/TEN was investigated in Malaysia three major ethnic
groups in this study. AEDs-SJS/TEN cases and AEDs tolerant controls were recruited
from two hospitals across Malaysia and HLA-A and -B genotyping were performed. The
carrier frequencies of specific HLA-A and -B alleles were compared between 36 AEDs-
SJS/TEN cases and 273 AEDs-tolerant controls, stratified by ethnicity and causal drugs.
Significant association between HLA-B*15:02 and CBZ-SJS/TEN was detected in the three major ethnic groups: Malay (87.5% versus 12.5%; p = 2.00 x 10-8; Odds ratio
(OR) = 49.0; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 9.4-256.8), Chinese (66.7% versus 12.3%;
p = 0.0047; OR = 14.3; 95% CI = 2.4-86.0) and Indian (33.3% versus 3.5%; p = 0.042;
OR = 13.8; 95% CI = 1.5-125.0). Combined analysis of all ethnic groups showed a
significant association with ORCMH of 26.6 (95% CI 12.8-55.3; PCMH = 2.31 x 10-26). For
HLA-A, association of HLA-A*31:01 with CBZ-SJS/TEN was discovered in Indians for
the first time (p = 0.023; OR = 10.4; 95% CI = 1.6-65.8). This allele was not found in
Malay and Chinese CBZ-SJS/TEN groups. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated
that HLA-A*31:01 has an independent effect after conditioning for HLA-B*15:02 (P =
0.019; OR 11.7; 95% CI 1.5-9.1). No association was found in PHT and LTG-SJS cases
for the three ethnic groups, probably due to limited sample size. In conclusion, this
study replicated the association between HLA-B*15:02 and CBZ-SJS/TEN in Malay,
Chinese and Indian populations in Malaysia and further demonstrated a new association
between HLA-A*31:01 and CBZ-induced SJS/TEN in Indians.


The intrinsic connection between inflammation and cancer promotion is well established and is especially strong in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), the second most common cause of cancer-related death in Western countries.1 2 The administration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in controlled studies reduces the incidence of colon cancer in patients with familial adenoma polyposis, confirming the link between inflammation and colon cancer.3 Several lines of evidence indicate that chronic inflammation predisposes the tissue to cancer by inducing gene mutation, inhibiting apoptosis or stimulating angiogenesis and cell proliferation. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at increased risk of developing CRC and, in particular, an association between IBD and the development of colitis-associated cancer (CAC) has been reported. Although the severity and extent of disease and the duration of inflammation seem to be major factors associated with the development of CAC in patients with IBD, the molecular determinants of this link have only recently started to be elucidated. Studies have highlighted the presence of leucocyte infiltration and inflammatory mediators in the tumour microenvironment, indicating that immune cells are major players in tumour promotion.2 4

Preclinical models of CAC are helping to clarify the mechanisms underlying cancer-related inflammation. The direct role of the adaptive immune response in promoting CAC is becoming more evident.2 Although T cell responses fuel the inflammatory process and orchestrate the microenvironment surrounding tumours by contributing to the proliferation, migration and survival of cancer cells, activation of the adaptive immune system also …


The first IEEE International Conference on Circuits and Computers, (ICCC 80) was held at the Rye Town Hilton Inn, in Port Chester, New York between October 1–3, 1980. The total number of attendees was about 1,200. The total number of papers presented was about 270 from authors from 30 countries. The industry attendance was over 70 percent of the total. For a first conference, ICCC 80 was a great success. As a matter of record I was told that no IEEE Conference had reached 1,200 at their first meeting. The subject of VLSI was a major factor in the success of ICCC 80.


A 64-year-old female presented with fever and weight loss, accompanied by normochromic normocytic anaemia with high erythrocyte sedimentation rate. She developed severe cor pulmonale. Ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy revealed a non-matched perfusion defect of the entire right lung with impaired perfusion on the left side. The CT scan of the thorax revealed an intravascular mass which completely blocked the right pulmonary artery with incomplete obstruction of the pulmonary trunk. Treatment with anticoagulants was started but failed. The presumably thrombotic mass was removed by thoracotomy; the histopathological diagnosis was: sarcoma of the pulmonary artery, incompletely resected. Postoperatively, the condition of the patient showed initial improvement, but she later developed fatal mediastinitis. Pulmonary artery sarcoma is a rare cause of cor pulmonale. Diagnosis is usually only established at operation, curative resection is uncommon and the prognosis is therefore poor--most patients die within months after the diagnosis has been made.


Abstract. Radiative transfer models (RTMs) are of utmost importance for quantitative remote sensing, especially for compensating atmospheric perturbation. A persistent trade-off exists between approaches that prefer accuracy at the cost of computational complexity, versus those favouring simplicity at the cost of reduced accuracy. We propose an approach in the latter category, using analytical equations, parameterizations and a correction factor to efficiently estimate the effect of molecular multiple scattering. We discuss the approximations together with an analysis of the resulting performance and accuracy. The proposed Simple Model for Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (SMART) decreases the calculation time by a factor of more than 25 in comparison to the benchmark RTM 6S on the same infrastructure. The relative difference between SMART and 6S is about 5% for spaceborne and about 10% for airborne computations of the atmospheric reflectance function. The combination of a large solar zenith angle (SZA) with high aerosol optical depth (AOD) at low wavelengths lead to relative differences of up to 15%. SMART can be used to simulate the hemispherical conical reflectance factor (HCRF) for spaceborne and airborne sensors, as well as for the retrieval of columnar AOD.


Teaching and Practicing Spiritual Disciplines Online: The Downloadable Spiritual Retreat Todd A. Spencer Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2015 The goal of this doctoral project is to accompany congregants of First United Methodist Church, Colorado Springs (hereafter, FUMC) in an audio-based, downloadable personal retreat as a means of learning and practicing spiritual practices of disengagement. Serving as a spiritual director in a large mainline congregation reveals just how fragmented and distracted people can be by their mobile technology devices and by their perpetual busyness. The historical presence of a military culture and mindset in and around FUMC adds another layer of complexity for the human soul seeking the freedom and transformation of Christ. In light of these challenges, FUMC has recently begun an online ministry in the form of a podcast that leads the listener through Lectio Divina exercises. The purpose of this project is to deepen and widen the online spiritual formation ministry of FUMC. The participants in the project will be invited to download to their mobile devices an audio-based series of spiritual teachings on solitude, silence, meditation, and prayer that the participants will then take to the retreat center of their choice. The retreat experience will be enhanced by meetings with a spiritual director both before and after the retreat. The project is divided into three parts. Part One will include an introduction and share the context and culture of FUMC and of Colorado Springs, including a description of the expanding popularity of FUMC's Lectio Divina podcast. Part Two will present a theology of the with-God life, drawing upon the works of John Wesley, Dallas Willard, Mark Scandrette, and Henri Nouwen. Part Three will include the implications of this kingdom theology expressed in the goals and strategies of the spiritual retreat. This section will also explain the target audience, the leadership and training, and the process of evaluating the success of the project. Content Reader: Keith Matthews Words: 297 Dedicated to Debi, Lukas, and Ethan and to Dr. Dennis Jowaisas Your love and faith has changed me in countless ways


This article reports on the ways that a group of third-year undergraduate art and design students conceptualise the pedagogy they experience on their course. This study is part of broader research funded by the Group for Learning in Art and Design (GLAD) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) that employs qualitative interviewing approaches to explore the ways that a small sample of art and design students studying in two English post-1992 universities interpret and understand the questions in the National Student Survey (this is a questionnaire that UK students complete during the final year of their undergraduate studies). The analysis suggests that the students' conceptions of art and design pedagogy might be best understood as a form of 'reverse transmission' that places the students as active co-producers of their learning. The study reflects on the centrality of project centred learning in art and design and explores the challenges concerning the nature and scope of the art and design lecturers' role, particularly in the context of the UK's increased student fee regime.


Submarine slump folds are common in turbidites of the Izumi Group (Upper Cretaceous), south of Osaka in southwest Japan. Structural analysis of the folds indicates predominantly eastward movement of the slump sheet. However, it is noteworthy that this direction is generally opposite to westward paleocurrents obtained from sole marks, but it coincides with the direction of younging of the strata and the plunge direction of macroscopic synclines in the Izumi Group. The paleoslope inferred from the slump folds is believed to have been caused by the eastward migration of the depocenter of the Izumi sedimentary basin. This slumpi ng is thought to have followed tilting of the beds deposited by the westward current. The migration of the depocenters and tilting are associated with left-slip faulting on the bounding Median tectonic line.


This paper reviews the main developments leading to the actual financial and debt crisis. It starts with the expansionary monetary policy experiment in the US in 2002, which led to a bubble in stock markets and real estate markets. When the bubble burst, the latter provoked the subprime crisis. Banks holding subprime assets made substantial losses. Especially investment banks relying on refinancing in the capital market got in trouble. When Lehman Brothers failed the interbank markets collapsed and it was only due to the collective action of central banks and government that the financial system could be stabilized. The government involvement raised the public debt in many countries to unsustainable heights transforming the financial crisis into a public debt crisis. In Europe the weaker Euro member countries, burdened with both high public debt and high foreign debt, experienced steeply rising risk premia. In order to avoid a default of a member country as well as a default of their own banks, the stronger Euro countries made available guaranties, which will, in the longer run, diminish their own credit rating. The paper concludes with the skeptical note, that both the banking crisis and the public debt debt crisis may be with us for a long time to come.


This register-based follow-up study focuses on the association between workplace characteristics and recruitment of people with a history of sickness absence. The aim was to study whether recruitment differs with regard to workplace sector, number of employees, gender composition, educational level and average age, and whether these workplaces recruit differently with regard to gender and diagnosis. Swedish workplaces with five employees or more in 2012 were chosen (n = 138 081). The results showed that workplaces most likely to recruit people with a history of sickness absence were those characterized by being in the public and non-profit sector, being female-dominated, having few employees, a high proportion of low educated employees and a high average age. The likelihood of recruiting people with different diagnoses was, with a few exceptions, similar between various types of workplaces. Recruitment of men and women with a history of sickness absence was similar between the different workplaces.


In this paper, a novel RF MEMS switch driven by combs with low insertion loss is presented. The developed SPST RF MEMS switch with a lateral resistive contact and gold structure layer on a silicon substrate has been fabricated by surface micromachining process. The RF performance of the switch indicates an insertion loss below 0.30 dB at 20 GHz, a return loss better than 20 dB and isolation greater than 30 dB. Good RF characteristics have been achieved by the large contact area and a lateral Au-to-Au resistive contact.


We analyzed ribosomal AT-L30 proteins from 11 type strains of wall chemotype IV actinomycete species which lack mycolic acids. The electrophoretic mobilities of the AT-L30 preparations from these strains, as determined by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, revealed that the genera Actinopolyspora, Amycolatopsis, Amycolata, Pseudonocardia, Saccharopolyspora, and Saccharomonospora can be separated from each other on the basis of the relative electrophoretic mobilities of their AT-L30 proteins. Overlapping relative electrophoretic mobilities were observed only for the genera Amycolata and Pseudonocardia. The electrophoretic mobility of protein AT-L30 from Actinopolyspora mortivallis was similar to the electrophoretic mobility of Actinopolyspora halophila protein AT-L30 but not to the electrophoretic mobilities of the AT-L30 proteins of the reference genera. Our results confirm the taxonomic status of A. mortivallis as a species of the genus Actinopolyspora and illustrate the efficacy of ribosomal protein analysis in actinomycete taxonomy.


[1] We describe and present a new model of global subduction zone geometries, called Slab1.0. An extension of previous efforts to constrain the two-dimensional non-planar geometry of subduction zones around the focus of large earthquakes, Slab1.0 describes the detailed, non-planar, three-dimensional geometry of approximately 85% of subduction zones worldwide. While the model focuses on the detailed form of each slab from their trenches through the seismogenic zone, where it combines data sets from active source and passive seismology, it also continues to the limits of their seismic extent in the upper-mid mantle, providing a uniform approach to the definition of the entire seismically active slab geometry. Examples are shown for two well-constrained global locations; models for many other regions are available and can be freely downloaded in several formats from our new Slab1.0 website, http://on.doi.gov/d9ARbS. We describe improvements in our two-dimensional geometry constraint inversion, including the use of 'average' active source seismic data profiles in the shallow trench regions where data are otherwise lacking, derived from the interpolation between other active source seismic data along-strike in the same subduction zone. We include several analyses of the uncertainty and robustness of our three-dimensional interpolation methods. In addition, we use the filtered, subduction-related earthquake data sets compiled to build Slab1.0 in a reassessment of previous analyses of the deep limit of the thrust interface seismogenic zone for all subduction zones included in our global model thus far, concluding that the width of these seismogenic zones is on average 30% larger than previous studies have suggested.


Abstract Background: The prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in Cyprus is largely unknown. The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of COPD in Cyprus through a spirometry population- based program and to identify certain disease characteristics in the Cypriot population. Methods: The study was performed in 1,233 randomly selected individuals covering representative urban and rural areas. Inclusion criteria were: age ≥ 35 years old and lifetime smoking history of at least 100 cigarettes. Participants answered a detailed questionnaire and underwent spirometry before and after the inhalation of 200 μg of salbutamol. COPD diagnosis and severity were based on criteria developed by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Diseases. Results: The overall prevalence of spirometry diagnosed COPD subjects was 4.9% (5.1% in men vs 3.5% in women). Mild COPD was found in 33.3% of COPD individuals, moderate in 45%, severe and very severe COPD was found in 20% and 1.7%, respectively. Physician diagnosis was reported in 48.3% of spirometry diagnosed COPD subjects, whereas 55.9% were asymptomatic. Age (p = 0.000), increased tobacco consumption (p = 0.001) and cough with phlegm (p = 0.048) were found to have a synergistic effect on the diagnosis of COPD. Conclusions: Results suggest that COPD is an important health problem in Cyprus. Programs that raise public awareness focusing on prevention, early detection and treatment are needed. Under-diagnosis of COPD raises the need for spirometry screening programs in high risk individuals and guideline implementation for the management of the disease.


Multi-agent systems in complex, real-time domains require agents to act effectively both autonomously and as part of a team. This dissertation addresses multi-agent systems consisting of teams of autonomous agents acting in real-time, noisy, collaborative, and adversarial environments. Because of the inherent complexity of this type of multi-agent system, this thesis investigates the use of machine learning within multi-agent systems. The dissertation makes four main contributions to the fields of Machine Learning and Multi-Agent Systems.
First, the thesis defines a team member agent architecture within which a flexible team structure is presented, allowing agents to decompose the task space into flexible roles and allowing them to smoothly switch roles while acting. Team organization is achieved by the introduction of a locker-room agreement as a collection of conventions followed by all team members. It defines agent roles, team formations, and pre-compiled multi-agent plans. In addition, the team member agent architecture includes a communication paradigm for domains with single-channel, low-bandwidth, unreliable communication. The communication paradigm facilitates team coordination while being robust to lost messages and active interference from opponents.
Second, the thesis introduces layered learning, a general-purpose machine learning paradigm for complex domains in which learning a mapping directly from agents' sensors to their actuators is intractable. Given a hierarchical task decomposition, layered learning allows for learning at each level of the hierarchy, with learning at each level directly affecting learning at the next higher level.
Third, the thesis introduces a new multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm, namely team-partitioned, opaque-transition reinforcement learning (TPOT-RL). TPOT-RL is designed for domains in which agents cannot necessarily observe the state changes when other team members act. It exploits local, action-dependent features to aggressively generalize its input representation for learning and partitions the task among the agents, allowing them to simultaneously learn collaborative policies by observing the long-term effects of their actions.
Fourth, the thesis contributes a fully functioning multi-agent system that incorporates learning in a real-time, noisy domain with teammates and adversaries. Detailed algorithmic descriptions of the agents' behaviors as well as their source code are included in the thesis.
Empirical results validate all four contributions within the simulated robotic soccer domain. The generality of the contributions is verified by applying them to the real robotic soccer, and network routing domains. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates that by learning portions of their cognitive processes, selectively communicating, and coordinating their behaviors via common knowledge, a group of independent agents can work towards a common goal in a complex, real-time, noisy, collaborative, and adversarial environment.


This essay considers select translations of Dante's Divine Comedy through the lens of pedagogical value while emphasizing the merit of holistic reading across the full scope of the poem and across multiple translations to gain additional insights into the original work.


Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are known to form from dissolved precursors released by phytoplankton and bacteria. Many benthic suspension feeders also have been shown to produce significant amounts of TEP under field and laboratory conditions. Although TEP from phyto- plankton have been implicated in enhancing aggregation and sedimentation of suspended material, the role of TEP from suspension feeders in aggregate formation is still unknown. In order to deter- mine if TEP produced by suspension feeders enhance the formation of marine aggregates, organic matter from actively feeding blue mussels Mytilus edulis and sea vases Ciona intestinalis held in recirculating chambers was collected. Control water was collected from chambers without animals. Animal-conditioned and control water were then mixed with 1 of 2 non-sticky particles (silica-amino beads or diatomaceous earth). The suspensions were transferred to 250 ml bottles, which were placed on a roller table to generate aggregates. Particle aggregation was quantified by examining the size distribution of particles over time by means of an electronic particle counter (particles between 6 and 90 μm), and by counting large (greater than ca. 100 μm) aggregates under a microscope at the end of the experiment. We found that significantly more aggregates formed in the animal-conditioned water than in control water after 48 h, for both species and both kinds of added particles. The number of large aggregates that formed was related to TEP concentration, and not related to total or dissolved organic carbon. Our results suggest that suspension feeders produce significant quantities of TEP that can enhance particle aggregation.


Purpose: To assess the pathological and the oncologic outcomes of the Prostate Cancer (PCa) missed by 6 and 12-core biopsy protocols by using a reference 21-core scheme. Materials and methods: Between 2001 and 2009, all patients who had PCa detected in an initial 21-core TRUS biopsy scheme and were treated by a radical prostatectomy (RP) were included. Patients were sorted in 3 groups according to the diagnosis site: sextant (6 first cores; group 1), peripheral zone (12 first cores; group 2) or midline/transitional zone (after 21 cores; group 3). Demographics, pathological features in biopsy and RP specimens and follow-up after RP were analyzed. The 5-year progression free survival (PFS) was studied in the 3 groups. 9.2% were respectively diagnosed in group 1, 2 and 3. Among PCa diagnosed in midline/transition zone cores, 42 % were intermediate or high risk. Unfavorable disease was more frequently reported in group 1 in terms of extraprostatic extension (p=0.001), high Gleason score (p=0.001) and progression (p=0.001). No significant difference was observed between group 2 and 3 in terms of pathological features in RP specimens and oncologic outcome. The 5-year PFS was 89.7% and not significantly different in patients diagnosed with a 12-core scheme compared to those diagnosed only with 21-core scheme (p=0.332). Conclusions: Our findings emphasize that PCa diagnosed only in a 21-core protocol is at least as aggressive as PCa detected in a 12-core scheme. This study invalidates the widespread idea sustaining that cancers diagnosed by more than 12 biopsies are less aggressive.


Objectives: This research was carried out to identify the synergistic effect of dexmedetomidine and ketorolac on neuropathic pain alleviation. Methods: The anti-allodynic effect of intrathecal dexmedetomidine and ketorolac was investigated in rats after L5 spinal nerve ligation (SNL). Mechanical allodynia was assessed using Von Frey filaments. Every day for 3 consecutive days, beginning on the 10th day after SNL, behavioral tests were carried out at 1, 2, and 4 hr after drug injection. Results: Significant increases in ipsilateral paw withdrawal thresholds (PWTs) were observed 1, 2, and 4 hr after drug injection in the groups of rats which received intrathecal injection of either dexmedetomidine (group D) or ketorolac (group K), compared to group S (P < 0.05). And group DK, which received simultaneous intrathecal injection of both dexmedetomidine and ketorolac, showed statistically significantly higher ipsilateral PWTs than groups D and K, which received only one of them (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The results of this research demonstrated the anti-allodynic effect of dexmedetomidine and ketorolac on neuropathic pain induced by SNL in rats. They also suggest that synergistic analgesia can be induced by the simultaneous injection of dexmedetomidine and ketorolac, and that combination therapy is an effective approach to treating chronic neuropathic pain syndrome.


Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is premised on the belief that developing a relationship with customers is the best way to gain their loyalty. It is argued that loyal customers are more profitable than non-loyal customers. Recently, academic researchers have questioned some of the key premises that are used to support CRM in general, and relationship marketing and customer loyalty programs in particular. This article critically examines the assumptions that underpin CRM and presents the results of research that is skeptical of its value. CRM should only be adopted after a careful appraisal of its cost-effectiveness.


Blockchains, or distributed ledgers, are innovative information and
 communication technology (ICT) solutions that are emerging within various
 sectors and industries across the globe. This distributed ledger technology
 (DLT) is already widespread in certain sectors, mainly in the banking
 industry, often through corresponding banking, or syndicating and
 peer-to-peer (P2P) loans. Outstandingly, blockchain technology has the
 capability to enhance the transparency and authenticity of transactional
 processes throughout the whole supply chain. Another significant benefit
 that Blockchain technology provides, mainly coming from its transparent and
 decentralized nature, is the capability to decrease the information
 asymmetries among the collaborating partners. Through e.g. the
 digitalization of transactional mechanisms, decentralization of authority,
 Internet of Things (IoT) and asset management enabling as well as smart
 contracting, the improvement of the business's day-to-day operations is
 firmly forecasted. Importantly, the digitalization of the energy and other
 sectors will cause major alterations in current structures, and thus, it
 will require business model innovation. It is claimed that the decentralized
 nature of blockchain, mainly due to a reduction of middlemen could
 revolutionize current market structures and supply chains.Importantly,
 blockchain application is systematically growing across different
 industries, for instance in healthcare, voting systems, manufacturing,
 supply chain management, or luxury goods. It has also gained the attention
 of the energy industry, where digitalization is already visible in solutions
 such as smart meters and smart grids, electric e-mobility, vehicle-to-grid
 (V2G), energy cryptocurrencies and tokens, etc. This has resulted in the
 introduction of a novel concept of the Internet of Energy (IoE) in the
 academic literature. This literature analysis serves to determine the impact
 of blockchain on the imminent business models based on the renewable energy
 sector. The outcomes of this curiosity study provide numerous theoretical
 and managerial implications that can foster the widespread blockchain
 technology diffusion in global energy systems.


The impacts of ten previous crop rotations (cereals, legumes and fallow) on Fusarium foot and root rot of durum wheat were investigated for three cropping seasons in a trial established in 2004 in Northwest Tunisia. Fungi isolated from the roots and stem bases were identified using morphological and molecular methods, and were primarily Fusarium culmorum and F. pseudograminearum . Under low rainfall conditions, the previous crop affected F. pseudograminearum incidence on durum wheat roots but not F. culmorum . Compared to continuous cropping of durum wheat, barley as a previous crop increased disease incidence more than fivefold, while legumes and fallow tended to reduce incidence.  Barley as a previous crop increased wheat disease severity by 47%, compared to other rotations. Grain yield was negatively correlated with the incidence of F. culmorum infection, both in roots and stem bases, and fitted an exponential model (R 2 = -0.61 for roots and -0.77 for stem bases, P <0.0001). Fusarium pseudograminearum was also negatively correlated with yield and fitted an exponential model (R 2 = -0.53 on roots and -0.71 on stem bases, P < 0.0001) but was not correlated with severity.


Summary. The effects of water deficit on plant growth, physiology and dry matter accumulation in the eggplant (Solanum melongena L. cv., Teorem F1) grown in pot were studied under out door conditions. Water stress was imposed by irrigating the plants with 80%, 60% and 40% of water needed to reach pot capacity (PC) in the soil. Control plants were irrigated 100% of PC. Water deficits increased leaf temperature up to 3-4 o C compared to the control. The water stress resulted in significant decreases in chlorophyll content, electrolyte leakage (EL), leaf relative water content (LRWC) and vegetative growth. Severe water stress (40% of PC) reduced plant height by 46%, stem diameter by 51%, total dry weight by 43% and relative leaf expansion rate (RLER) by up to 75%. The root to shoot ratio was 2.1 times higher in waterstressed plants, showing that water stress in eggplants alters the pattern of dry matter distribution favoring the roots. Plants grown under high water stress had less fruit yield and quality than those in the control treatment. Water deficit also inhibited the uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium within the plant. The decrease in fruit yield, quality and plant growth induced by water deficit was a consequence of a reduction in both RLER and transpiration.


Genetic variation at the major histocompatibility (MHC) class I loci was examined in captive and wild samples of three subspecies of tiger (Bengal, Panthera tigris tigris; Siberian, P. t. altaica; Sumatran, P. t. sumatrae) by Southern blot analysis using the domestic cat probe FLA 24. All captive populations showed at least moderate variability compared to other felids. Captive tigers were, on average, significantly more variable than wild tigers, but this was not consistent among subspecies. Significant geographic genetic population structure was found at the MHC class I loci among both captive and wild tigers. Phylogenetic analysis of both captive and wild tigers placed Sumatran tigers basally. In a combined phylogenetic analysis, captive and wild tigers of the same subspecies occurred near one another, indicating that the structure of the captive populations reflects that of the wild populations.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the economic contribution of irrigation to productivity of horticultural crops in semi-arid areas/districts of Kirinyaga and Murang'a Kenya, and to evaluate economic variables such as income, employment in relation to gender issues. A random sample of 140 small-scale farmers was. interviewed using a structured pretested questionnaire for cropping season 199111992. Ninety percent of small-scale farmers were growing irrigated horticultural crops. 11ze average family size was 4. 0 persons. Furrow irrigation was used by 65 % of farmers. Other irrigation systems such as sprinklers, bucket and general flooding were also used. Forty seven percent of respondents were males and 38 % were females. 11ze average income from horticultural production was Ksh. 35,363 and Ksh. 15,279 for female and male farmers respectively. 11ze wage rate was the same for male and female ranging between Kshs. 25 to Kshs. 35 per day. The decision making on growing horticultural crops, expenditure, marketing and food reserved for home consumption were jointly made. 111e major problems expressed were water shortage, markets, extension services, and capital and credit facilities. In conclusion, the small-scale irrigation scheme is contributing by ensuring household food security and sustainable development in the rural areas. 11ze study made recommendations that problems encountered be addressed by, for instance, providing credit facilities and extension services.


INTRODUCTION: Creatine is one of the supplements most used by athletes in order to increase protein synthesis and consequently muscle mass and strength. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effects of creatine intake on the performance and lean body mass of Wistar rats. METHODS: Male Wistar rats were allocated into one of the four groups: sedentary without creatine (S); Sedentary with creatine (SC); exercise without creatine (E); and exercise with creatine (EC) and received water and chow ad libitum. Those animals in SC and EC groups ingested creatine daily (0.430 g/kg body weight for 7 days and 0.070 g/kg body weight for the following 6 weeks). Animals from E and EC groups underwent a progressive vertical jump regimen (5 x 10 jumps with 1 min. resting interval) in a tank filled with water at 30 ± 1oC, 5 days/wk for 7 weeks. Performance was assessed by taking the time to perform 5 x 10 vertical jumps. The contents of water, fat and protein of the rat's muscles and bones were measured. RESULTS: The performance was not affected by creatine intake (P > 0.05). Animals supplemented with creatine had an increased percentage of protein and a reduced percentage of fat (P 0.05). CONCLUSION: Creatine supplementation did not affect performance of the animals. Nevertheless, it altered the lean body mass. Creatine supplementation as well as the power training program, independently, raised the protein percentage of the muscles and bones and reduced the fat percentage, with no alteration in the water percentage.


Pollen viability and storage is of great interest to cannabis breeders and researchers to maintain desirable germplasm for future use in breeding or for biotechnological and gene editing applications. Here, we report a simple and efficient cryopreservation method for long-term storage of Cannabis sativa pollen. Additionally, we have deciphered the bicellular nature of cannabis pollen using DAPI staining. We have also standardized a pollen germination assay to assess the viability of cannabis pollen, and found pollen collected from different principal growth stages exhibits different longevity. Finally, we developed a long-term storage method which includes pollen combination with baked whole wheat flower and desiccation under vacuum for cryopreservation. By using this method, we were able to maintain germination viability in liquid nitrogen after 4 months, suggesting potentially indefinite preservation of cannabis pollen.


My interest in human behavior on the Internet was stimulated while observing my friends surf the World Wide Web. I began to wonder how people act online and what goes on in their mind. I wanted to see if there are people who show signs of normal or addictive behavior and how it differs from more general Internet behavior. There is a wealth of issues regarding the Internet, including safety, security, social networking, business, research, design, information, and addiction. From informal observation it is apparent that many people approach the Internet with some anxiety. It can be defined as a feeling of fear and apprehension felt by individuals when using computers or considering the use of a computer. When we use the Internet we are relating with others. For example, 70% of Internet users build relationships through communication, relationships, social involvement, networking, meetings, or gatherings. Those whose everyday life involves more communication have more social resources-larger social networks, close relationships, community ties, enacted and perceived social support, and extraverted individual orientation, and they are likely to have better psychological functioning, lower levels of stress, and greater happiness. By contrast, those who communicate little and have fewer social resources-social isolation, living alone, the absence of a close relationship, the breakdown or loss of a close relationship, low levels of real and perceived social support, and introversion are more likely to have poor psychological functioning, to feel lonely, and to experience higher levels of depression. Understanding the psychology of the Internet also includes various information gathered from Web browsing, such as getting information on health and science issues to chatting, dating and viewing pornography. When investigating these possibilities I found that previous researchers have not yet compared uses of the Internet with the types of human behaviors and their consequences.


More than fifty years ago, Allen Forte rightly predicted that the theories of Heinrich Schenker would have a profound impact on music theory pedagogy. In particular, Schenkerian analysis benefits Fernhören ("distance-hearing"), which relates not only to musical connections severed by chronological remoteness, but also to the conceptual space that extends from the composition itself to its background structure. This essay examines one underutilized method for strengthening Fernhören. Using the fundamental structure of an unnamed composition as a starting point, a note or two at a time will be added to the background, working through the middleground and toward the foreground. This procedure is not a methodology for analyzing the tonal structure of music, but instead demonstrates a way to explain a finished analysis. In doing so, the contrapuntal and melodic motivation behind each new pitch is clarified, the aural connection between CUTLER: HOW TO BUILD A DEVELOPMENT SECTION GAMUT 3/1 (2010) 125 nonconsecutive events as well as various levels of structure is strengthened, and the identity of the composition becomes evident. Furthermore, this approach addresses the fallacy that Schenkerian analysis represents nothing more than a unidirectional exercise in reduction. This article is part of a special, serialized feature: A Music-Theoretical Matrix: Essays in Honor of Allen Forte (Part II).


Clare Counihan interviews Nomusa Makhubu about how her body of work—three series of photographs, Inquietude, Self-Portrait Project 2007/2013, and The Flood—fits into the context of contemporary, post-apartheid South African art. All three series suggest the uneasy relationship between present and past. Makhubu reflects on the impossibility of avoiding politics in South African art, photography's role in the invention of ethnicity in colonial southern Africa, and the practices of contemporary artists and artists' collectives in South Africa that are challenging conventional, sometimes elitist, modes of art as a (racialized) marketplace.


Nowadays, a variety of domains take advantage of rule based systems. In practice, such systems are continuously evolving by acquiring new knowledge and including more rules. The automation of the rule bases management has therefore become a must. Such a task becomes more fluent when based on the analysis of dependencies between the rules. This research work, introduces three main novelties while tackling the issue of rules dependencies detection. First, it amends the existing work. Second, it presents a new technique based on following the knowledge flow defined by the ontology. Third, it propounds a new way to represent the rules dependencies. To check the correctness and performance of our work, a prototype is developed and applied on three different ontologies from different fields.


Introduction: The main components of olive oil include oleic acid, phenolics compounds (hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, and oleuropein) and squalene. Studies have demonstrated that the phenolic compounds of olive oil have positive effects on certain physiological parameters, such as plasma lipoproteins, oxidative damage, inflammatory markers, platelet and cellular function and antimicrobial activity. This study aimed to review studies on the health benefits of olive oil. Related articles in English were searched in Pubmed, Science direct, Google scholar, Springer, Wiley Online Library and Elsevier in human, animal, in vitro and in vivo studies. Results showed a lower incidence of coronary heart disease (by antithrombotic properties and improving lipid profiles, vascular function, blood pressure and oxidative stress) and certain cancers (mainly breast, colorectal and prostate cancers). Olive oil was found to lead to modification of immune and inflammatory responses. Oleocanthal, a phenolic compound in virgin olive oil, has possesses anti-inflammatory properties similar to ibuprofen. Olive oil also appears to have a role in bone mineralization. In studies on rats, tyrisol, hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein significantly increased bone formation and can hence be used as effective remedies in the treatment of osteoporosis symptoms. The beneficial effects of olive oil are attributed to its monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and phenolic compounds.


Focus in the manufacturing plant is generally deemed to be an important element of success in manufacturing strategy. Yet, little work has been completed in the measurement of plant focus and a dearth of empirical evidence exists to support the broad popularity of this concept. This paper presents a plant focus measurement approach and reports the results of a field study that uses a site visit research design to apply the focus measure to a multi-industry sample of manufacturing plants. Regression analysis is used to study the relationships between the plant focus variable and the environmental variables of plant size, number of product lines, plant age, number of processes, and type of processes. Although highly intuitive, these relationships have undergone very little empirical study in the literature. Our study provides evidence of a strong logarithmic relationship between our plant focus measure and the number of product lines. Support is also demonstrated in that our measure of plant focus is linked to the number and type of manufacturing processes. However, the variables of plant age and plant size do not appear related to the plant focus measure. The literature-based multicriteria focus measure can be used by managers and researchers as an objective, formal, and generalizable approach for assessing plant focus, for identifying areas in the plant that detract from focus, and for tracking focus improvement efforts over time.


The author combines summaries of various modem methods of biblical studies such as literary criticism, form criticism, textual criticism and structuralism with the biblical theological constructs of revelation, inspiration, and history as interpreted by evangelicals. Chapter One is an apologia for &dquo;an evangelical Old Testament Criticism&dquo; which the author suggests is a via media between &dquo;the traditional conservative who rejects critical method out of a conviction that the Bible is a word of God&dquo; and &dquo;the traditional


: One hundred and forty-five young patients (aged 18-40 years) with acute myocardial infarction are reported. In 14 of these infarction was due to unusual cause of which infective endocarditis was the most common. One hundred of the patients underwent review of risk factors 2-4 months after infarction: 29% had a previous history of angina, 11% were hypertensive, 85% were smokers during the year before infarction and 5% were ex-smokers, while 31% had a family history of ischaemic heart disease among first-degree relatives and 27% were obese. Seventy-two per cent had serum cholesterol values of greater than 5,7 mmol/l, 63% had fasting serum triglyceride values of greater than 1,7 mmol/l and 29% were hyperuricaemic. Only 2% had none of the following major risk factors: serum cholesterol greater than 6,5 mmol/l, serum triglycerides greater than 1,7 mmol/l, a history of cigarette smoking, a history of hypertension or blood pressure greater than 160/95 mmHg. We conclude that there should be a high index of suspicion for unusual causes of acute myocardial infarction in patients in this age group and that one or more of the major risk factors are an almost invariable finding in patients with infarction of atheromatous origin.


BgeeDB is a collection of functions to import into R re-annotated, quality-controlled and re-processed expression data available in the Bgee database. This includes data from thousands of wild-type healthy samples of multiple animal species, generated with different gene expression technologies (RNA-seq, Affymetrix microarrays, expressed sequence tags, and in situ hybridizations). BgeeDB facilitates downstream analyses, such as gene expression analyses with other Bioconductor packages. Moreover, BgeeDB includes a new gene set enrichment test for preferred localization of expression of genes in anatomical structures ("TopAnat"). Along with the classical Gene Ontology enrichment test, this test provides a complementary way to interpret gene lists. Availability: https://www.bioconductor.org/packages/BgeeDB/


Arase satellite has been successfully launched into the orbit. The Arase project is focuses on understandings of plasma acceleration / loss / transport mechanisms taking place in the inner magnetosphere. Since energy of particles is ranges over several orders in geospace, Arase carries several particle instruments in order to cover wide energy range, from 10eV/q to 200keV/q (ions), and from 10eV to 10MeV (electrons). LEPi (Low-energy particle experiments ion mass analyzer) is one of the instruments onboard Arase, which is an energy-mass spectrometer designed to measure the ions with energies from ~0.01keV/q up to 25keV/q. When the instrument passes the initial checkout phase after launch, it will start regular observations. We will present the current status of LEPi.


PURPOSE
In the phase III study AVF2107g, bevacizumab (BV) demonstrated a survival benefit when added to irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin (IFL) in first-line metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In a parallel phase III study, Intergroup N9741, oxaliplatin plus fluorouracil and leucovorin (FOLFOX) also demonstrated a survival benefit compared with IFL. As these two superior therapies have differing mechanisms of action, we explored whether the improved survival associated with the superior therapy was dependent on tumor response.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
For these retrospective, exploratory analyses, patients were defined as responders or nonresponders by whether complete or partial response was achieved with first-line therapy.

RESULTS
Compared with IFL alone, BV plus IFL and FOLFOX each demonstrated statistically significant improvements in progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) regardless of objective tumor response. BV-treated nonresponders had a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.63 (P = .0001) for PFS and 0.76 (P = .0188) for OS compared with IFL-treated nonresponders. FOLFOX-treated nonresponders had an HR of 0.75 (P = .0029) for PFS and 0.74 (P = .0030) for OS compared with IFL-treated nonresponders.

CONCLUSION
In both AVF2107g and N9741, objective response did not predict the magnitude of PFS or OS benefit from the superior therapy; nonresponders, despite a poorer prognosis than responders, achieved extended PFS and OS from BV plus IFL or FOLFOX compared with IFL. On the basis of these data, tumor response in metastatic colorectal cancer is not a necessary factor for a therapy to provide benefit to an individual patient.


In tourism promotion, tourist destination visual attraction becomes a weapon to attract attention for tourism influencers through their social media. But visual ethical problem appears when photograph has been edited or manipulated by them. Thus, "what does visual communication ethic from influencer in tourism promotion like?". This research based on concepts of utilitarian ethics, visual communication ethics, and tourism visual communication. For its methodology, this research uses positivistic paradigm, descriptive research, and utilitarian ethical evaluation method. Research findings obtained the quantification of harmful consequences and good consequences for tourism influencers photograph manipulation, and two alternative acts for tourism influencers visual communication ethics.


Accounts from over 90 survivors and 56 witnesses of the 2005 London bombings were analysed to determine the relative prevalence of mass behaviors associated with either psychosocial vulnerability (e.g. 'selfishness', mass panic) or collective resilience (e.g. help, unity). 'Selfish' behaviors were found to be rare; mutual helping was more common. There is evidence for (a) a perceived continued danger of death after the explosions; (b) a sense of unity amongst at least some survivors, arising from this perceived danger; (c) a link between this sense of unity and helping; and (d) risk-taking to help strangers. We suggest a novel explanation for this evidence of 'collective resilience', based on self-categorization theory, according to which common fate entails a redefinition of self (from 'me' to 'us') and hence enhanced concern for others in the crowd.


This doctoral portfolio consists of three different pieces of work related to the paradox of the 'wounded healer'. It aims to reflect my journey as a practitioner-researcher. The different pieces show different aspects of this journey. The portfolio contains an original piece of research, an advanced client study and process report and thirdly a journal article.

Jung (1951) introduced the archetype of the wounded healer to promote using personal experiences of healing to enhance empathy in the healing relationship. For therapists, this paradox describes the discrepancy of an acknowledgement of woundedness, while containing the client's hopes and expectations of being healed, by projecting a sense of wholeness (Gerson, 1996; Groesbeck, 1975; Miller & Baldwin, 2013). Street (2005) refers to this when he describes the therapists' life as the journey of a white knight, using his super powers on his way to the Holy Grail.

Some suggest that the therapist's wounds are a source of creativity (Adler, 1985) or sense of humanity (Martin, 2011), while others note the potential of pathology (e.g. Barnett, 2007) or power abuse (Guggenbuhl-Craig, 1971). Whichever way, the therapeutic work is always influenced by the therapists' wounds and life changes (Gerson, 1996) and adds to the therapists' personal 'mythology' (Guggenbuhl- Craig, 1995, p. 75).


We report on the influence of surface-related states on the relaxation of carriers within single (Ga,In)N/GaN quantum wells. Two identical samples that differ only in the thickness of the top GaN cap layer were studied. Photoluminescence and pump-probe measurements reveal significant variations in the quantum well integrated emission and the carrier relaxation decay times in the two samples, when probing both the ground and excited states of the wells. The variations are attributed to the presence of an efficient nonradiative relaxation channel associated with the proximity of the quantum well excitations to the surface-related states in the thin-cap sample.


Abstract Fire resistance of structures, systems and components (SSC) is widely identified as a fundamental issue for fire risk assessment at nuclear power plants (NPP). It is currently supported by several national or international ambitious experimental programs. Fire risk assessment at NPPs is performed under a series of hypothesis, e.g. the fire load. A problem will arise if tests used for conformity assessment do not appropriately represent the hypothesis selected during the fire risk analysis. In this case, SSCs may possibly be not meeting the expectations related to their fire resistance capacity supposed by the fire risk analysis. Ways of tackling this issue involve a regulatory approach and adapted requirements for components. While the widespread regulatory approach consists in seeking enveloping scenarios and conservative assumptions, a better knowledge of SSCs behaviour under for NPPs typical situations may be also desirable. The Institute for Energy of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) at Petten (NL) launched a questionnaire with the aim of gathering opinions of regulatory bodies and their technical support organisations and manufacturers in Europe on this topic. Major goal was to estimate the relevance of the issue according to the perception of the specialists. The present paper collects the answers given by seven entities (AREVA, GRS, iBMB, IRSN, SJUB, SUEZ-TRACTEBEL, and VTT) and makes suggestions for addressing the issues identified by the participants.


The common approaches to retention revolve around "bolt-on" solutions that focus on providing support to students in order to aid their adjustment to the university culture. There remains little evidence of the effect of such solutions on bottom line retention. The research presented was carried out by a practitioner as part of an action research project that focused on changing the institutional culture in the classroom. Large lectures were replaced with smaller seminars and performance in terms of student attainment and retention compared. It was found that the seminar system produced significantly better performance in students especially those with lower UCAS points and this additionally resulted in an improvement in retention.


Introduction: The use of pharmacological agents in the treatment of anxiety disorders have fallen out of favor as their unwanted side-effects have become evident. These presenting challenges call for an inward look into harnessing the full potential of medicinal plants that abound around us. Aim: This study aimed at evaluating the anxiolytic activity of ethanolic fruit extract of Sarcocephalus latifolius in mice. Materials and Methods: The prepared extract at 200, 400, and 600 mg/kg as well as 2.5 mg/kg of diazepam reference standard was administered orally. Anxiolytic activity of the extract was explored using elevated plus-maze and open-field models. Result: In the elevated plus-maze, the extract possessed insignificant (P > 0.05) anxiolytic effect by decreasing the time spent in open arms and entries into the open arms. However, the time spent in the closed arms increased significantly in the extract treated groups compared to the reference standard. In the open-field model, no significant (P > 0.05) locomotor activity was observed in the extract groups. The number of locomotion was less in the extract groups compared the reference standard having the highest locomotive activity. Furthermore, there were reduction in the number of rearing at extract doses of 400 and 600 mg/kg compared with the normal saline and reference standard. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the ethanolic fruit extract of S. latifolius lack anxiolytic activity.


In Mexico, plants with crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) are part of the Mexican culture, have different uses and are even emblematic. Unfortunately, only a small fraction of the Mexican CAM plants has been studied physiologically. For this review, the following questions were considered: What ecophysiological studies have been conducted with CAM species native to Mexico? What ecophysiological processes in Mexican CAM plants are the most studied? What type of ecophysiological studies with CAM plants are still needed? A database of scientific studies on CAM plant species from Mexico was documented, including field and laboratory works for species widely distributed, and those studies made outside Mexico with Mexican species. Physiological processes were grouped as germination, photosynthesis, and water relations. Most studies were done for CAM species of Cactaceae, Bromeliaceae, Asparagaceae and Orchidaceae, andmost ecophysiological studies have been done on germination of cacti. Field and laboratory studies on photosynthesis and water relations were mostly for terrestrial cacti and epiphytic bromeliads. There were few physiological studies with CAM seedlings in Mexico and few studies using stable isotopes of water and carbon of CAM plants in the field. More field and laboratory studies of physiological responses and plasticity of CAM plants to multiple stress factors are required to model plant responses to global climate change. In general, more physiological studies are essential for all CAM species and for species of the genus Clusia, with C3-CAM and CAM members, which can become ecologically important under some climate change scenarios.


It is essential to know the movement of droplets in time and space (i.e. flux) when measuring and/or predicting spray drift in agricultural application. A study was performed to assess the flux measurements of a phase Doppler system against a standard monofilament system in a wind tunnel. The primary objectives of the study were to compare flux from a new phase Doppler system against 1.7 mm cotton and 2.0 mm nylon strings at varying wind speeds (1.4, 4.2, 8.3, 12.5, and 16.7 m · s) and spray exposures times (5, 10, 15, 30, and 60 s) with an overarching hypothesis that the active, phase Doppler is able to accurately measure the flux regardless of exposure and spray mass whereas the static string samplers are limited to a maximum retention. The phase Doppler did measure linearly as expected, however strings did not reach a point in which they loss mass; conversely, they appeared to overload with saturation. These findings are believed to be among many variables which influence the variability of previous mass balance studies.


Abstract. Lutfia FN, Isnansetyo A, Susudarti RA, Nursid M. 2020. Chemical composition diversity of fucoidans isolated from three tropical brown seaweeds (Phaeophyceae) species. Biodiversitas 21: 3170-3177. Fucoidan is a polysaccharide with high sulfate content, found in the cell walls matrix of brown seaweed. Its bioactivities vary depending on the algae species and the chemical structure. The aims of this research were to extract, purify, and characterize fucoidan from three Indonesian brown seaweed, Sargassum sp., Turbinaria sp., and Padina sp. The extraction was carried out using acid method followed by precipitation with ethanol and CaCl2, while its purification using DEAE-cellulose ion-exchange chromatography. Characterization was performed by FTIR and 1H-NMR spectroscopic analyses. Chemical components of fucoidan determined were total carbohydrates, sulfate residue, uronic acid residue, and monosaccharide components. The results revealed that the Turbinaria sp. produced highest yield of fucoidan (4.8% dry matter), followed by Sargassum sp. (2.7% dry matter) and Padina sp. (2.6% dry matter). The carbohydrate contents of Sargassum sp., Turbinaria sp. and Padina sp. fucoidan were 64.55±0.12%, 67.42 ± 0.03% and 62.90 ± 0.04% with sulfate residues of 0.013% ± 4.71; 19.47±0.002% and 0.016%±8.81; and uronic acid residues of 25.19±0.03%; 12.69±0.03% and 12.91±0.01%, respectively. Sargassum sp., Turbinaria sp., and Padina sp. fucoidans consist of fucose and some other minor monosaccharides.