Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are vulnerable to sea-level rise and hydro-meteorological hazards. In addition to the efforts to reduce the hazards, a holistic strategy that also addresses the vulnerability and exposure of residents and their assets is essential to mitigate the impacts of such hazards. Evaluating the socioeconomic vulnerability of SIDS can serve the purpose of identification of the root drivers of risk. In this paper, we present a methodology to assess and map socioeconomic vulnerability at a neighbourhood scale using an index-based approach and principal component analysis (PCA). The index-based vulnerability assessment approach has a modular and hierarchical structure with three components: susceptibility, lack of coping capacities and lack of adaptation, which are further composed of factors and variables. To compute the index, we use census data in combination with data coming from a survey we performed in the aftermath of Irma. PCA is used to screen the variables, to identify the most important variables that drive vulnerability and to cluster neighbourhoods based on the common factors. The methods are applied to the case study of Sint Maarten in the context of the disaster caused by Hurricane Irma in 2017. Applying the combined analysis of index-based approach with PCA allows us to identify the critical neighbourhoods on the island and to identify the main variables or drivers of vulnerability. Results show that the lack of coping capacities is the most influential component of vulnerability in Sint Maarten. From this component, the "immediate action" and the "economic coverage" are the most critical factors. Such analysis also enables decision-makers to focus their (often limited) resources more efficiently and have a more significant impact concerning disaster risk reduction.


This paper presents an efficient and robust method for registration of terrain models created using stereo vision on a planetary rover. Our approach projects cwo surface models into a virtual depth map, rendering the models as they would be een from a single range sensor. Correspondence is established based on which point project to the same location in the virtual range sensor. A robust norm of the deviations in observed depth is used as the objective function, and the algorithm searches for the rigid transformation which minimizes the norm. An initial coarse search is done using rover pose information from odometry and orientation sensing. A fine search is done using Levenberg-Marquardt. Our method enables a planetary rover to keep track of designated science targets as it moves, and to hand off targets from one set of stereo cameras to another. These capabilities are essential for the rover to autonomously approach a science target and place an instrument in contact in a single command cycle.


This paper investigates the moderating effects of Sharia Supervision Boards (SSBs) on the links between board independence and risk committee (RC) independence and Islamic banks' (IBs) risk-taking in Malaysia from 2010 to 2015. The paper highlights four important findings: (1) SSB's expertise in Sharia and banking-related areas lower credit risk, (2) higher board independence is likely to reduce credit risk when SSBs consist of Sharia advisors with expertise in Sharia and banking-related areas, (3) higher RC independence is likely to reduce credit risk when SSBs consist of Sharia advisors with expertise in Sharia and banking-related areas and (4) the reducing effect of RC on credit risk is conditional upon higher participation of female Sharia advisors in SSBs. This study suggests that the resources in terms of valuable experience that SSB advisors bring to IBs combined with the typical oversight mechanisms such as board independence and RC as suggested by corporate governance literature are beneficial to control risk-taking in the Malaysian IBs. Further, this paper demonstrates that integrating agency theory and resource dependence view in a corporate governance study produces a more meaningful result.


Kinetics of the hydrolysis of 3-(2'-chloro-6'-fluorobenzyl) isocoumarin (1), 3-(4'-fluorophenyl)isocoumarin (3), 3-(2'- fluorophenyl)isocoumarin (5), 3-(2'-chlorophenyl)isocoumarin (7), and 3-(4'-chlorophenyl)isocoumarin (9) were studied spectrophotometrically in the presence of aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide. The rates of hydrolyses for these isocoumarins were compared. The data for isocoumarin (1) were further investigated to probe the reaction mechanism. The dependence of pseudo-first order rate constant kobs on hydroxide ion concentration is fitted by the expression kobs = ko + k1[OH] + k2 [OH]2, showing the formation of monoanionic and dianionic tetrahedral intermediates during the course of reaction. The magnitude of ko shows significant participation of solvent in the reaction mechanism.


South Street in Philadelphia, which once used to be a dynamic and vivid district with its cosmopolite structure, turned into an abandoned area in the late 1950s. Isaiah Zagar and his wife Julia had moved to this street following Zagar's depression in 1969, when the street was full of wrecked houses. Mosaic art was a form of rehabilitation for Zagar during his hard days. He started to cover the walls of his house and even some areas on the street with mosaic, and the facades of many buildings on the street became living canvases for Zagar's art. When the owner of the derelict house next to his studio, which was also applied mosaic art by Zagar, wanted to sell the house in 2002, Zagar strongly objected the idea. Thanks to the attempts of Zagar and a group of supportive local art lovers, the house was opened to the public visits as a museum by an organization called Philadelphia Magic Garden following the trials lasting over two years. After this development, Zagar felt more willing to continue to commit his art and energy to this museum and the city. He lived on the street for 50 years and created 200 mosaic works of art across the city, more than 70 of which are located on South Street. Today, Philadelphia is proud of this open air art gallery, and this exceptional public art environment is the symbol of the city. This paper aims to examine the original mosaic language created by Isaiah Zagar through material variety and methods used. It also presents Zagar's story of moving to the Street and his unique expression shaped by his previous life experiences. Key Words: Mosaic, Philadelphia's Magic Garden, Isaiah Zagar, Public Art, Outsider Art.


Connective tissues, the most abundant tissue type of the mature mammalian body, consist of cells suspended in complex microenvironments known as extracellular matrices (ECMs). In the immature connective tissues (mesenchymes) encountered in developmental biology and tissue engineering applications, the ECMs contain varying amounts of randomly arranged fibers, and the physical state of the ECM changes as the fibers secreted by the cells undergo fibril and fiber assembly and organize into networks. In vitro composites consisting of assembling solutions of type I collagen, containing suspended polystyrene latex beads (∼6 µm in diameter) with collagen-binding surface properties, provide a simplified model for certain physical aspects of developing mesenchymes. In particular, assembly-dependent topological (i.e., connectivity) transitions within the ECM could change a tissue from one in which cell-sized particles (e.g., latex beads or cells) are mechanically unlinked to one in which the particles are part of a mechanical continuum. Any particle-induced alterations in fiber organization would imply that cells could similarly establish physically distinct microdomains within tissues. Here we show that the presence of beads above a critical number density accelerates the sol–gel transition that takes place during the assembly of collagen into a globally interconnected network of fibers. The presence of this suprathreshold number of beads also dramatically changes the viscoelastic properties of the collagen matrix, but only when the initial concentration of soluble collagen is itself above a critical value. Our studies provide a starting point for the analysis of phase transformations of more complex biomaterials including developing and healing tissues as well as tissue substitutes containing living cells.


Introduction: Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a disease characterized by an enlargement of the heart muscle wall. The disease occurs in the last month of pregnancy up to 5 months postpartum, with no previous history of heart disease. The etiology of the disease is unclear. Early recognition of this case can lead to decrease in morbidiy and mortality. Case: A 20-year-old woman came to the Emergency Unit with a shortness of breath. There is a history of give birth about 4 months ago. Physical examination shows a regular heart rhythm accompanied by rhonchi sound in the basal aspect of lung. In the M-mode analysis of ECG showed left ventricular systolic ejection function is decrease (56.5%) while the right ventricle is normal. In the Hospital, patient get treated with diuretics, aldosterone antagonist, angiotensin II receptor blocker and fluid management. Patient gave good responsed to the therapy regiment. Discussion: The early clinical manifestations of PPCM are difficult to recognize. In the majority of patients, 78% of symptoms are found at 4 months after delivery, only 9% of patients show symptoms in the last month of pregnancy. Clinical symptoms include atypical chest pain, abdominal discomfort, signs of pulmonary edema, orthopnea and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. In the management of patients with PPCM is almost similar to management in other congestive heart disease.


Vibratory pile driver-extractor is broadly applied in civil constructions, but the friction vibration theory and dynamic characteristics of friction vibration are not studied well. In this paper, the vibration friction characteristics and dynamics of pile driving process are studied based on nonlinear dynamics and friction theory. A dynamic model of system is established firstly, and then nonlinear dynamic principle and working process are studied in details. The simulation results can provide useful guidance for both vibration friction research in engineering and design in the development of such machines.


The purpose of this research was to improve student learning outcomes in science grade V elementary schools with a Google meet assisted Project Based Learning (PjBL) learning model. The research conducted was a Classroom Action Research (PTK) with three cycles, with each cycle consisting of two meetings. The stages of each cycle are planning, implementing, observing and reflecting. Each meeting is carried out a pre test and post test to determine the progress of students. In the first cycle the students who completed after carrying out the post test were 74%. In the second cycle students who completed after carrying out the post test were 87%. In the third cycle students who completed after carrying out the post test were 90%. These results indicate that the Project Based Learning (PjBL) learning model can improve student learning outcomes, especially grade V science at SDN 2 Cilongok.


Understanding the drivers of growth in health care expenditure is crucial for forecasting future health care requirements and to ameliorate inefficient expenditure. This paper considers the detailed breakdown of hospital inpatient expenditures across the period 2007/08 to 2014/15. Decomposition techniques are used to unpick the observed rise in expenditure into a component due to a change in the distribution of characteristics, for example, greater prevalence of morbidity, and a component due to structural changes in the impact of such characteristics on expenditures (coefficient effects, for example, due to technological change). This is undertaken at the mean using standard decomposition techniques, but also across the full distribution of expenditures to gain an understanding of where in the distribution growth and its determinants are most relevant. Decomposition at the mean indicates a larger role for a structural change in characteristics rather than a change in coefficients. A key driver is an increased prevalence of comorbidities. When considering the full distribution we observe a decrease in expenditure at the bottom of the distribution (bottom two quintiles) but increasing expenditure thereafter. The largest increases are observed at the top of the expenditure distribution. Where changes in structural characteristics dominate changes in coefficients in explaining the rise in expenditure. Increases in comorbidities (and the average number of first diagnoses) across the two periods, together with increases in non-elective long stay episodes and non-elective bed days are important drivers of expenditure increases.


In this paper, a new micromachined overlay-coplanar-waveguide (OCPW) structure has been developed and its characteristics are studied in detail as a function of the line parameters. In OCPW, the edges of the center conductors are lifted by micromachining techniques and partially overlapped with the ground plane to facilitate low-impedance lines. The elevated center conductors help to reduce the conductor loss by redistributing the current over a broad area. Comparative experiments on low-loss and lossy substrates also confirm the screening effect from the substrate losses by confining the electric field in the air between the overlapped conductor plates. Compared with the coplanar-waveguide (CPW) lines, the OCPW lines show wider impedance range (25-80 /spl Omega/) and lower loss (<0.95 dB/cm at 50 GHz). The advantages of OCPW for low-Z/sub 0/ lines are utilized to realize a high-performance stepped-impedance low-pass filter at X-band. The OCPW filter shows distinct advantages over the conventional CPW filter in terms of size, loss, skirt, and stopband characteristics.


Objective Delta-like homolog 1 (DLK1) is a growth factor that is reduced in maternal sera in pregnancies with small for gestational age neonates. We sought to determine if DLK1 is associated with stillbirth (SB), with and without placental insufficiency. Study Design A nested case-control study was performed using maternal sera from a multicenter case-control study of SB and live birth (LB). SB and LB were stratified as placental insufficiency cases (small for gestational age <5% or circulatory lesions on placental histopathology) or normal placenta controls (appropriate for gestational age and no circulatory lesions). ELISA was used to measure DLK1. The mean difference in DLK1 was compared on the log scale in an adjusted linear regression model with pairwise differences, stratified by term/preterm deliveries among DLK1 results in the quantifiable range. In exploratory analysis, geometric means were compared among all data and the proportion of "low DLK1" (less than the median value for gestational age) were compared between groups and modeled using linear and logistic regression respectively. Results 234 SB and 234 LB were analyzed; 246 DLK1 values were quantifiable within the standard curve. Pairwise comparisons of case and control DLK1 geometric means showed no significant differences between groups. In exploratory analysis of all data, adjusted analysis revealed a significant difference for the LB comparison only (SB 71.9 pg/ml vs 99.1 pg/ml, p 0.097; LB 37.6 pg/ml vs 98.1 pg/ml, p 0.005). In exploratory analysis of "low DLK1", there was a significant difference between the odds ratio of having "low DLK1" between preterm cases and controls for both SB and LB. There were no significant differences in geometric means nor "low DLK1" between SB and LB. Conclusions In exploratory analysis, more placental insufficiency cases in preterm SB and LB had "low DLK1". However, low DLK1 levels were not associated with SB.


Background:
 Patients with transient ischemic attacks(TIAs) are at risk of developing ischemic stroke and therefore early management is of paramount importance. An alternative to the conventional physician-led assessment is nurse-led TIA clinic which can provide rapid access to evaluation and diagnostic investigations of TIA.

 Objective:
 To evaluate the efficacy of nurse-led TIA clinic in cardiovascular risk factors control and prevention of ischemic stroke

 Methods:
 A prospective study was conducted in a nurse-led TIA clinic in the United Christian Hospital of Hong Kong between January and July 2013. The referral sources included emergency room, medical wards and outpatient clinics. TIA patients were first screened by stroke nurse upon receiving the referrals, and then protocol-driven investigations and treatment were initiated quickly before further assessment by stroke physician. The efficacy endpoints were measured by healthcare utilization, changes in biomedical parameters, lifestyle modification and patients' satisfaction score at 3 months.

 Results:
 A total of 213 patients were referred to stroke nurse for screening.95 patients were recruited and managed first in the nurse-led TIA clinic. 85 patients were diagnosed to be TIA after review by stroke physician. At 3 months(n=33), there were 3 patients hospitalized for non-vascular events,1 patient for recurrent TIA and none for non-stroke vascular events. The 3-month mortality was 0%. For biomedical parameters,significant reduction in mean total cholesterol(p=0.001), mean low-density lipoprotein(p<0.001), mean systolic blood pressure(p=0.011) and mean diastolic blood pressure(p=0.002). 3(38%) out of 8 active smokers ceased smoking. There was no change in the mean BMI. The mean patients' satisfaction score was 9.1 out of 10(range 8 to 10)

 Conclusion:
 Nurse-led TIA clinic is efficient in triaging TIA referrals and providing early access to initial evaluation and diagnostic workup. Combined with physician's treatment, TIA patients can achieve significant improvement in cardiovascular risk factors control and low incidence rate of ischemic stroke at 3 months. Our TIA patients are satisfied with this modality of assessment pathway and this can serve as a model of care for future TIA services


After being excluded from the Swedish Social Democrat party in 1917, the Revolutionary Socialists founded the Social Democrat Left Party. From this point onwards, the Social Democratic hegemony and dominant position within the Swedish workers movement and political landscape was challenged. This thesis aims to investigate the power struggles between these two parties, the Revolutionary Socialists and the Social Democrats, and their desire to influence control of the unions. Taking cues from earlier research calling for a more localized look at this struggle, this thesis turns to a case study of union matters of the the Factory Workers Union Local 84, at Vasterviks Tandsticksfabrik, a match manufacturer and largest employer in the Swedish coastal town of Vastervik from 1925 to 1930. Organizational material including meeting protocols, annual reports and member registration lists from the local political parties, cooperative union organizations (VFS) and Local 84 serve as secondary data sources. These documents were then analyzed through the methodological and theoretical framework of power resources. The findings from this study were extensive. However, first and foremost, the results show Local 84 to be dominated by members of the Swedish Communist Party (SKP) during the length of the study period. Interestingly, the material also indicates strong collaborative ties between Social Democrats and non-party workers on issues surrounding local condition and everyday issues. The everyday class struggle against the factory owners was very successful for the communist leadership, resulting in broad confidence among the workers, in turn strengthening the communist representative's positions. Despite the claim that communists tended to resort to more conflict-laden measures, such as strikes or blockades, to achieve their demands, this study presents a different conclusion. The strategy of the communists in Local 84 was instead focused on collaboration beyond political boundaries in order to achieve their local and practical demands.


The Rare Sugars exist naturally and have many kinds (more than 50). They have good effect for health such as prevention of increasing the blood-sugar level after eating, suppression of fat accumulation, suppression of increasing the blood pressure, and anti- oxidative effect etc. It is in the spotlight for many people especially for those who are in the metabolic syndrome. There are few related papers concerning the marketing research and its utilization of this matter. In this paper, a questionnaire investigation is executed in order to clarify consumers' current condition and their consciousness, and to seek the possibility of utilizing the Rare Sugars. Hypothesis testing was executed based on that. Some interesting and instructive results were obtained.


The question about an appropriate structure for the electricity industry has been extensively discussed in scientific literature and experts studies. Since the beginning of electricity liberalization, it was apparent for its promoters that such a structure (in this paper referred to as the model structure or ideal structural model) for the electricity sector should involve a separation of its four sub-sectors, i.e., generation, transmission, distribution, and supply. With the exception of transmission, each sub-sector should consist of many stand-alone type companies. Given the high degree of vertical and horizontal integration of the electricity sectors, their procompetitive restructuring (i.e., de-integration) became a standard component of electricity sector reform packages. This paper provides a concise review of the origins and justification of the initial model structure for electricity liberalization, as well as an overview of the restructuring developments in the early years of electricity liberalization. Some attention is also devoted to the EU's unbundling initiatives. The core part of this paper discusses the first signs indicating the crisis of the initial structural canon. The paper concludes with some comments referring to the modified form for a model structure that is emerging. It involves vertical integration of generation and supply and allows a higher degree of horizontal concentration of the electricity competitive markets.


This paper describes the development of anteroposterior (AP) and vertical (VER) skeletal relationships. A mixed-longitudinal sample of 49 females and 50 males was followed during childhood and adolescence. Childhood growth changes were assessed from 6 to 10 years for females and 8 to 12 years for males. Adolescent changes were evaluated from 9 to 13 years for females and 11 to 15 years for males. Anteroposterior relationships were described by the horizontal distance between ANS and Pg. Vertical relationships were described by the vertical distance between Pg and Go. Subsamples were defined based on overall changes (AP and VER) that were either greater than or less than average. The results showed that AP and VER relationships were not stable during growth. AP relationships changed over time due to differential growth movements of the mandible (as opposed to the maxilla). There was greater potential for horizontal discrepancies to decrease during childhood than during adolescence. The potential for AP discrepancies to increase was greater during adolescence. The VER relationships increased in the majority of subjects. The subsample whose vertical discrepancies increased most showed less inferior movement of gonion and more inferior movement of pogonion. Inferior movements of Pg and Go were greater during adolescence than childhood.


The use of polyethylene (PE) in electrical applications athigh voltages requires a certain resistance of the material topartial discharges (PDs). The space charge behaviour of PE isof great importance when PE is used as insulator inhigh-voltage DC cables. The long service lifetime ofhigh-voltage equipment makes the long-term properties of PEvery important. In this thesis the PD resistance was assessedby PD lifetime measurements and the space charge behaviour bypulsed electro-acoustic (PEA) measurements. The long-termproperties were assessed by accelerated ageing at elevatedtemperatures.The PD lifetime of a wide range of thermoplastic andcrosslinked PEs - including compounds containing aromaticvoltage stabilisers (fluoranthene, naphthalene, pyrene,o-terphenyl, vinylnaphthalene and anthracene) - were studied.The PD lifetime was essentially independent of molar mass,degree of crosslinking, crystallinity and crystal thickness. Avery brittle, monodisperse, low molar mass sample deviated byshowing a reduced PD lifetime. The added voltage stabilisershad no effect on the PD lifetime.Films of a range of PEs with different degrees ofcrystallinity were aged in air at 100oC, 115oC and130oC for periods up to 28 500 hours, and subsequentlytheir PD lifetime and space charge behaviour were measured. Thefilms were characterised by stress-strain measurements,differential scanning calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy andsize exclusion chromatography.Mere oxidation was not sufficient to cause a decrease in PDlifetime, unless the carbonyl content exceeded a certainthreshold value above which the PD lifetime decreased rapidlywith increasing concentration of carbonyl groups. It issuggested that the carbonylic groups enhance radical formationand thereby accelerate surface erosion, causing early PDbreakdown. The PD lifetime and the space charge behaviour werenot influenced by the effective antioxidant concentration.Oxidation facilitated charge injection and hetero-chargeformation, and the presence of polar groups in the polymermolecules decreased the mobility of the charges. The resultsalso indicate that the transport of the charges occurredprimarily in the non-crystalline components and that thepresence of large crystallites reduced the "migration" rate ofthe charges. Charge packages were formed at the cathode for oneoxidised high-voltage PE grade. It is suggested that thesepackages are due to charge separation and faster migration ofthe negative charges than of the positive charges. It is alsosuggested that volatile species cause the charge packagegeneration.Keywords:polyethylene, voltage stabilisers, thermaloxidation, carbonyl group content, carbonyl containing modelmaterials, partial discharges, corona, space charges, pulsedelectro-acoustic method (PEA).


Natural selection is expected to act strongly on immune system genes as hosts adapt to novel, diverse, and coevolving pathogens. Population genetic studies of host defense genes with parallel functions in model organisms have revealed distinct evolutionary histories among the different components-receptors, adaptors, and effectors-of the innate immune system. In humans, however, detailed evolutionary studies have been mainly confined to the receptors and in particular to Toll-like receptors (TLRs). By virtue of a toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain, TLRs activate distinct signaling pathways, which are mediated by the five TIR-containing adaptors: myeloid differentiation factor-88 (MyD88), myeloid differentiation factor-88 adaptor-like protein (MAL), toll/interleukin-1 receptor domain-containing adaptor protein inducing interferon (IFN)β (TRIF), toll/interleukin-1 receptor domain-containing adaptor protein inducing IFNβ-related adaptor molecule (TRAM), and sterile α- and armadillo motif-containing protein (SARM). Here, we have examined the extent to which natural selection has affected immune adaptors in humans, using as a paradigm the TIR-containing adaptors. To do so, we characterized their levels of naturally occurring genetic variation in various human populations. We found that MyD88 and TRIF have mainly evolved under purifying selection, suggesting that their role in the early stages of signal transduction is essential and nonredundant for host survival. In addition, the adaptors have been targeted by multiple episodes of positive selection, differing in timing and spatial location. MyD88 and SARM display signatures of a selective sweep that has occurred in all humans, whereas for the other three adaptors, we detected signatures of adaptive evolution that are restricted to specific populations. Our study provides evidence that the contemporary diversity of the five TIR-containing adaptors results from the intermingling of different selective events, swinging between constraint and adaptation.


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INTRODUCTION : We here present the surface models of two specimens of sloths(Mammalia, Tardigrada) coming from the Late Pliocene WareFormation (Cocinetas Basin, La Guajira, Colombia, see Table 1). Along with three additional sloth taxa found in the same Formation, these specimens document the great diversity of this Neotropical locality. Furthermore, they represent a sloth assemblage from a locality just a few hundred thousand years older than the classically recognized first main pulse of the Great American Biotic interchange, that is located few hundred kilometers away from the Isthmus of Panama, the most likely route of migration of terrestrial taxa. These specimens are hence important in the understanding of this majorpaleobiogeographic event.


Death related to prostate cancer is invariably due to the tumor metastasis (to lungs, skeleton and lymph nodes). Tumor cell metastatic behaviour is still poorly understood. The R3327 prostate tumor model in the male Copenhagen rat offers an opportunity to investigate the different aspects of metastatic processes in vivo and to evaluate effects of current and new treatment approaches. Lymphatic spread of cancer cells can be measured by determining volume of local load in successive draining lymph node stations. Surgical removal of primary tumor and inguinal lymph node shows that lymphatic metastasis in the R3327-MATLyLu tumor variant is a continuous progressive phenomenon, which starts already in early stages of tumor growth after subcutaneous transplantation. Spread to the lungs can be quantified by enumeration of macroscopically visible pleural lung colonies. Metastatic spread to the lungs can be mimicked by intravenous injection of monodispersed tumor cell suspension. Within 10 days pleural tumor colonies become visible. Effects of different agents and treatments like chemotherapeutic drugs, heparin, surgery and high energy shock wave (HESW) treatment have been described using these methods. Recently, metastasis to the vertebral column was induced by temporal occlusion of venous blood flow through the caval veins while injecting tumor cells in the lateral tail vein. The resulting osteoblastic metastatic lesions in the lumbar vertebrae and the concomitant spinal cord compression led in time to the loss of motoric and sensory function of the hind legs. These observations permit investigation of the mechanisms of bone metastasis based on biological functions, i.e. sensory and motoric function of the hind legs. Finally, it can be said that the various variants of the R3327 rat prostate tumor offer an appropriate model to study various aspects of prostate cancer and metastasis.


Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a fundamental biological molecule that is essential to all living organisms, performing a versatile array of cellular tasks. The function of many RNA molecules is strongly related to the structure it adopts. As a result, great effort is being dedicated to the design of efficient algorithms that solve the "folding problem": given a sequence of nucleotides, return a probable list of base pairs, referred to as the secondary structure prediction. Early algorithms have largely relied on finding the structure with minimum free energy. However, the predictions rely on effective simplified free energy models that may not correctly identify the correct structure as the one with the lowest free energy. In light of this, new, data-driven approaches that not only consider free energy, but also use machine learning techniques to learn motifs have also been investigated, and have recently been shown to outperform free energy based algorithms on several experimental data sets. In this work, we introduce the new ExpertRNA algorithm that provides a modular framework which can easily incorporate an arbitrary number of rewards (free energy or non-parametric/data driven) and secondary structure prediction algorithms. We argue that this capability of ExpertRNA has the potential to balance out different strengths and weaknesses of state-of-the-art folding tools. We test the ExpertRNA on several RNA sequence-structure data sets, and we compare the performance of ExpertRNA against a state-of-the-art folding algorithm. We find that ExpertRNA produces, on average, more accurate predictions than the structure prediction algorithm used, thus validating the promise of the approach.


The transport of a solute in a soil column is considered for zero-order kinetics. The visible displacement of the solute is affected by dispersion. The dispersion coefficient enters both the transport equation and the boundary condition. It is shown that the latter is the most important effect and a simple equation is proposed to describe solute transport, which takes into account the influence of dispersion in the boundary condition, but not in the transport equation. Validity and limitations of this equation are discussed in some detail by comparison with the complex but exact solution for zero-order kinetics.


The Highveld covers a quarter of South Africa's central plateau and is one of the most extensively investigated archaeological landscapes in Africa. Cattle-herding, farming communities first occupied these grasslands sometime between the 15th and the 17th centuries. A surge in the importance of cattle pastoralism among the so-called Late Iron Age populations of southern Africa seems to have caused this "grassland rush." With it came a boom in the construction of dry-laid, stone-walled structures, an innovation the success of which is evidenced by the tens of thousands of ruins visible on aerial imagery of the Highveld. In places their agglomeration reaches urban proportions. Sotho-Tswana culture dominated this grassland rush by assimilating the many Nguni- as well as Khoesan-speaking communities that had also moved into the Highveld. The Highveld's cultural landscape was rearranged by the southern African civil wars of the 1820s—the Difeqane, as it is known in the Tswana language. Shortly thereafter, the arrival of white settlers in the late 1830s heralded the beginning of the colonial period.
 Archaeologists in the Highveld have largely aimed to illustrate the historical record and oral traditions pertaining to the Sotho and Tswana communities. More usefully they can focus on questions that these records cannot answer. For example, archaeology can help to fill the many gaps in the records; it can investigate the history of things—such as the changing regional settlement patterns and the diffusion of technological innovations—about which the records are silent, and it can test hypotheses to explain the evolution of social and political complexity in the precolonial Highveld. In this way archaeology can help to balance the mostly "top-down" political view provided by the oral traditions and historical records with a "bottom-up" view of social, technological, and architectural developments among the precolonial farming communities of the Highveld.


The genus Albugo with A. candida as the type species causes white blister rust disease in economically important crops. Recently, molecular approaches revealed the high degree of genetic diversity exhibited within A. candida complex. However, before any taxonomic division of the complex at the species level, the correct status of A. candida on Capsella bursapastoris, from which it was originally described, should be determined. A worldwide study of white rust pathogens on C. bursa-pastoris was performed on 36 specimens, using morphological analysis and sequence analysis from the cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (COX2) region of mtDNA, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rDNA, and D1 and D2 regions of the nrDNA. Specimens were obtained from Asia (India, Korea, Palestine), Europe (England, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland), North and South America (Argentina, Canada, USA), and Oceania (Australia). The molecular data indicated strong support for a species partition separating Korean and other continental specimens. There were 7.25, 17.4, and 4.8% sequence dissimilarity between the two groups in COX2, ITS, and 28S regions, respectively. The surface ornamentation of oospores of Korean specimens was morphologically distinguished from previously known characteristics of A. candida. Therefore, Albugo koreana sp. nov., collected from C. bursa-pastoris in Korea, is described here. The concept of A. candida sensu stricto is discussed and a type specimen determined for this species.


The notion of 'silence' in Politics and International Relations has come to imply the absence of voice in political life and, as such, tends to be scholastically prescribed as the antithesis of political power and political agency. However, from Emma Gonzales's three minutes of silence as part of her address at the March for Our Lives, to Trump's attempts to silence the investigation into his campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, along with the continuing revelations articulated by silence-breakers of sexual harassment, it is apparent that there are multiple meanings and functions of political silence – all of which intersect at the nexus of power and agency.

Dingli and Cooke present a complex constellation of engagements that challenge the conceptual limitations of established approaches to silence by engaging with diverse, cross-disciplinary analytical perspectives on silence and its political implications in the realms of: environmental politics, diplomacy, digital privacy, radical politics, the politics of piety, commemoration, international organization and international law, among others. Contributors to this edited collection chart their approaches to the relationship between silence, power and agency, thus positing silence as a productive modality of agency.

While this collection promotes intellectual and interdisciplinary synergy around critical thinking and research regarding the intersections of silence, power and agency, it is written for scholars in politics, international relations theory, international political theory, critical theory and everything in between.


The volume integral equation method, usually implemented via the method of moments (MoM), is a popular approach to many scattering problems, like when inhomogeneous bodies are embedded within planarly layered media and made to interact with given sources, as henceforth considered. When the layered media are isotropic, the construction of the impedance matrix of the MoM, the bottleneck of the method, can be fast since one is able to accelerate the calculation of the 1-D Sommerfeld integrals [1]. This is due to the fact that the dispersion relations of the isotropic media enable to calculate the integral along the azimuth direction in closed form. But, if the uniaxial media are with optical axes parallel with the interfaces, e.g., [2, 3], or if the media are biaxially anisotropic, the above fast methods do not apply anymore. This results in possibly high computational cost to ensure accuracy when dealing with the 2-D inverse Fourier transform (IFT). However, we might still circumvent it, with the rectilinear mesh as done in
traditional practice in volume integral equation methods, achieving e±cient construction of the impedance matrix. In a pioneering contribution [4], a method that uses the continuous Fourier transform and a win- dowing technique is proposed to analyse metal patches within an isotropic multi-layered structure, which can be used to avoid the conventional 2-D IFT. By the generalized Poisson summation formula and the windowing technique, the relation between the discrete Fourier spectrum and the continuous Fourier spectrum of the spatial response is re-derived, which, by using it, enables to efficiently and accurately calculate the response of the multilayer on a rectilinear mesh. When the continuous Fourier spectrum of the response of the laminates to the current basis function is available, which can be stably and efficiently calculated by the new recurrence relations proposed in our previous contribution [5], we use such a fast method to construct the impedance matrix of the MoM involving uniaxial layered media whose optical axes lie parallel to their planar interfaces. Numerical tests confirm the efficacy of the proposed method.
REFERENCES
1. Alparslan, A., M. I. Aksun, and K. A. Michalski, "Closed-form Green's functions in planar layered media for all ranges and materials," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 58, 602–613, 2010.
2. Burke, S., "Eddy-current induction in a uniaxially anisotropic plate," J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 68, 3080–3090, 1990.
3. Wasselynck, G., D. Trichet, B. Ramdane, and J. Fouladagar, "Microscopic and macroscopic electromagnetic and thermal modeling of carbon ¯ber reinforced polymer composites," IEEE Trans. Magn., Vol. 47, 1114–1117, 2011.
4. Catedra, M. and E. Gago, "Spectral domain analysis of conducting patches of arbitrary geometry in multilayer media using the CG-FFT method," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 38, 1530–1536, 1990.
5. Zhong, Y., M. Lambert, D. Lesselier, and X. Chen, "Electromagnetic response of anisotropic laminates to distributed sources," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 62, 247–256, 2014.


This study aimed to explore the possibility of substituting the conventional concrete mixture with the concrete with debris of aggregate. Specifically, this study sought to measure if there were significant difference in compressive and flexural strengthens between a conventional concrete and a concrete with debris as an aggregate. Experimental design was implemented in the study and it involved 3 samples for 7, 14, and 28 days for flexural and compressive strength test for both conventional concrete and concrete with debris as an aggregates. The mixture ratio used was 1:2:4 of cement, sand, and gravel, respectively. Each sample underwent the flexural and compressive test at Qualitest Solutions and Technologies Incorporated. Findings indicated that the samples were comparable and have no significant difference. Therefore, debris as aggregates is also suitable for use as a beam and slab, for flexural strength samples, and as column for the compressive strength samples.


Analysing the performance of cell phones and other wireless connected devices to mobile networks are key when validating if the standard of the system is achieved. This justies having testing tools that can produce a good overview of the data between base stations and cell phones to see the performance of the cell phone. This master thesis involves developing a tool that produces graphs with statistics from the trac data in the communication link between a connected mobile device and a base station. The statistics will be the correlation between two parameters in the trac data in the channel (e.g. throughput over the channel condition). The tool is oriented on analysis of link adaptation and by the produced graphs the testing personnel at Ericsson will be able to analyse the performance of one or several mobile equipments. We performed our own analysis on link adaptation using the tool to show that this type of analysis is possible with this tool. To show that the tool is useful for Ericsson we let test personnel answer a survey on the usability and user friendliness of it.


Groundnut leaf miner (GLM) [Aproaerema modicella (Deventer)] is a serious problem for soybean cultivation in Uganda causing yield losses of up to 100%. The use of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivars resistant to GLM attack is an important strategy in the integrated pest management program. The aim of this study was to determine the environment × genotype interaction influence on the soybean resistance traits to GLM attack. Eighteen soybean genotypes were evaluated for resistance to GLM attack. The experiment was set up using randomized complete block design replicated three times under natural pest infestation in Budaka (Eastern) and Arua (Northern) districts in Uganda. Data were subjected to analysis of variance, Pearson's phenotypic correlation and cluster analysis. Highly significant (p < 0.001) differences among the genotypes were recorded for all the studied traits, except the number of pupae per plant which was significant (p < 0.05). GLM incidence and severity had significant negative correlations with rainfall and relative humidity. However, there were significant positive correlations between minimum temperature and GLM incidence as well as severity for most of the genotypes. Soybean genotypes VI046160 and VI046167 could be used as parents in breeding for resistance to GLM pest. Areas with high rainfall and humidity would be recommended for soybean production to minimize infestation by GLM.

 Key words: Grain yield, Gelechiidae, incidence, Lepidoptera, natural infestation, severity, weather parameters.


The hierarchical hidden Markov model (HHMM) is an extension of the hidden Markov model to include a hierarchy of the hidden states. This form of hierarchical modeling has been found useful in applications such as handwritten character recognition, behavior recognition, video indexing, and text retrieval. Nevertheless, the state hierarchy in the original HHMM is restricted to a tree structure. This prohibits two different states from having the same child, and thus does not allow for sharing of common substructures in the model. In this paper, we present a general HHMM in which the state hierarchy can be a lattice allowing arbitrary sharing of substructures. Furthermore, we provide a method for numerical scaling to avoid underflow, an important issue in dealing with long observation sequences. We demonstrate the working of our method in a simulated environment where a hierarchical behavioral model is automatically learned and later used for recognition.


In Minimum Quantity Lubrication machining, cutting fluid is provided as mist. Mist with different velocity and diameter may lead to different cooling, lubrication effect and cutting quality. Thus, cutting quality is highly influenced by spray characteristics in MQL machining. In this study, the mathematics model of mist flow was set up first. Then spray characteristics were tested by a 3-Dimensional Particle Dynamic Analyzer. In order to study the influence of spray characteristics on cutting quality, precision turning of 45 steel was performed by a CNC Super Precision Machine Tool. The results indicate that the lowest surface roughness was obtained by supplying more cutting fluid at proper position for spraying distance of 20mm.


Abstract This study analyses the psychological impacts on victims of the Fukushima Disaster four years after it occurred, using a large-scale survey covering 16,686 families living in and evacuated from Fukushima prefecture. A high level of stress, including signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), was found in more than 40 per cent of the respondents. We analyze, using multiple logistic regression analysis, the relationship between post-traumatic stress and several socio-economic and political issues. The psycho-social and economic distress of 'compulsory' and 'voluntary evacuees' appears broadly similar, and strikingly different from 'tsunami evacuees'. Distinct from 'compulsory evacuees', 'voluntary evacuees' are mainly 30s to 40s young women who felt in danger of radiation exposure, now struggling with tense family relationships and economic difficulties. Based on our quantitative and qualitative data, the collective suffering of the victims is argued to be the result of 'structural violence'. The structural violence destroyed the living environment and was exacerbated by government policies of return and compensation. Traumatic experiences at the evacuation places and the need to hide their evacuee status hindered victims from integrating into social activism, leading to neglect isolation and social exclusion. Chronic post-traumatic stress due to structural violence is demonstrated in case studies.


Perma-Zyme is an enzymatic stabilizer. To test the feasibility of adding Perma-Zyme to tabia used to protect ancient earthen ruins, the 28d unconfined compression strength, permeability and color-difference were tested to determine the difference between the tabia and tabia treated with Perma-Zyme. The experimental results show that the 28d unconfined compression strengths of specimens treated with Perma-Zyme are higher than those without Perma-Zyme, and the color-difference(DE*) between the tabia and tabia mixed Perma-zyme is larger than 3(suggested color tolerance Chinese standardized GB/T 15608-2006), and the permeability coefficient of tabia mixed Perma-Zyme is smaller than that without Perma-Zyme, i.e., has better impermeability. Box dimension values of SEM images(with different scale bars) of samples were computed by box-counting method. Box dimension values of SEM images of the same sample are different on different scale bars. The analysis shows that SEM microstructure of the tabia sample treated with Perma-Zyme is finer and denser than the one without Perma-Zyme.


Due to the increasing presence of renewable inertia-less energy sources, power electronics interfaces are required to exploit their flexibility in order to support the overall grid quality of service. One way to achieve this, is that power converters are capable of actively track active and reactive power-setpoints, that are computed by suitable centralized or decentralized control schemes. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm which enables the control of a boost converter to achieve arbitrary active-power reference tracking for photovoltaic plants, not operating in maximum power point tracking (MPPT) mode.


This report presents a review of the major U.S. federal and state means-tested programs, including a review of how they operate, common features, and rules governing eligibility. The review covers the nature of the target recipient population, the nature of the benefits (cash or in-kind), whether the program is an entitlement, as well as financial and nonfinancial eligibility rules and benefit determination. Each of the features is compared to that of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The review reveals that SSI has many common features with other transfer programs, and that many other differences follow naturally from its particular goals and aims. However, large differences between SSI and other programs exist in financial eligibility rules. The current upper income limits for SSI are in the approximate range of 75 to 80 percent of the poverty line for single and married-couple recipients, respectively, below the 100- to 130-percent of the poverty line income limits for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the 130- to 185-percent limits for school food programs, the 185 percent limits for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the 138-percent limits for Medicaid, and the 100-percent limits for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Another significant difference is in resource and asset tests in SSI, which have been held constant in nominal dollars since 1989 and hence have been becoming more restrictive in real terms over time. Most other transfer programs have been moving in the opposite direction, reducing the restrictiveness of their asset tests, exempting additional items from countable assets, and in many cases eliminating asset tests entirely.


A second cluster of COVID-19 cases imported from Europe occured in Vietnam from early March 2020. We describe 44 SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positive patients (cycle threshold value <30) admitted to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi between March 6 and April 15 2020. Whole SARS-CoV-2 genomes from these patients were sequenced using Illumina Miseq and analysed for common genetic variants and relationships to local and globally circulating strains. Results showed that 32 cases were Vietnamese with a median age of 37 years (range 15–74 years), and 23 were male. Most cases were acquired outside Vietnam, mainly from the UK (n = 15), other European countries (n = 14), Russia (n = 6) and countries in Asia (n = 3). No cases had travelled from China. Forty-one cases had symptoms at admission, typically dry cough (n = 36), fever (n = 20), sore throat (n = 14) and diarrhoea (n = 12). Hospitalisation was long with a median of 25 days, most commonly from 20–29 days. All SARS-CoV-2 genomes were similar (92–100% sequence homology) to the reference sequence Wuhan_1 (NC_045512), and 32 strains belonged to the B.1.1 lineage. The three most common variants were linked, and included C3037T, C14408T (nsp12: P323L) and A23403G (S: D614G) mutations. This group of mutations often accompanied variant C241T (39/44 genomes) or GGG 28881..28883 AAC (33/44 genomes). The prevalence of the former reflected probable European origin of viruses, and the transition D614G was dominant in Vietnam. New variants were identified; however, none could be associated with disease severity.


We compare the mean-over-variance ratio of the net-kaon distribution calculated within a state-of-the-art hadron resonance gas model to the latest experimental data from the Beam Energy Scan at RHIC by the STAR collaboration. Our analysis indicates that it is not possible to reproduce the experimental results using the freeze-out parameters from the existing combined fit of net-proton and net-electric charge mean-over-variance. The strange mesons need about 10-15 MeV higher temperatures than the light hadrons at the highest collision energies. In view of the future $\Lambda$ fluctuation measurements, we predict the $\Lambda$ variance-over-mean and skewness-times-variance at the light and strange chemical freeze-out parameters. We observe that the $\Lambda$ fluctuations are sensitive to the difference in the freeze-out temperatures established in this analysis. Our results have implications for other phenomenological models in the field of relativistic heavy ion collisions.


Garfield field, an old (1948) stratigraphic trap in central Kansas, produced 10 million bbl of oil from Cherokee (Desmoinesian, Pennsylvanian) conglomerate reservoirs and from Mississippian carbonate and sandstone reservoirs. The primary reservoir rock at Garfield conglomerate pool is the Pennsylvanian basal conglomerate (PBC), unique in that it accumulated as an unstratified alluvial-fan deposit, in a subtle structural depression that may be coincident with a microplate boundary. Each of these conditions is uncommon in the northern Mid-continent. The PBC at Garfield pool is composed of pebbles, cobbles, and boulders of reworked Mississippian chert and limestone in a matrix of porous, fine-grained sandstone and sandy shale. Microporosity in the chert cobbles has access to the borehole through the porous sandstone matrix. The sandstone matrix was the product of reworking of the original shaly sand matrix and older sandstones from the substrate during short-term Desmoinesian marine transgressions of the alluvial-fan surface. Ultimately, Marmaton transgressive onlap smoothed and buried the fan surface. A near-modern alluvial fan at Rocky Flats in central Colorado provides an ideal analog for the PBC deposit at Garfield pool. The Rocky Flats fan is nearly identical in scale, areal distribution, and thickness, and its constituents are remarkably similar to conglomerate zones, which produce hydrocarbons at Garfield pool. Future exploration in north-central Kansas and southern Nebraska should focus on the occurrence of conglomerate deposits in similar depositional settings where coincident with structural depressions.


Patient safety leadership walkrounds are designed to assist healthcare leaders to improve patient safety. At 2gether Foundation Trust, walkrounds have been developed in mental health settings. They ensure that executives are informed firsthand about the safety concerns of frontline staff, while ensuring staff are listened to and supported when issues of safety are raised. Patient safety and quality improvements have been implemented over time through this process.


An approach is proposed for real-time coordination of signal phase timings for a network. Currently, network coordination is done using off-line methods, such as MAXBAND, PASSER II, and TRANSYT, which are based on average traffic volumes for various movements. On-line approaches such as SCOOT adapt off-line methods by constantly inputting updated average volumes computed from detector data over the last decision horizon. REALBAND first identifies platoons and predicts their movement in the network (i.e., their arrival times at intersections, their sizes, and their speeds) by fusing and filtering the traffic data obtained, from various sources, in the last few minutes. An approximate traffic model, APRES-NET, is used to propagate the predicted platoons through the network for a given time horizon. The signals are set so that the predicted platoons are provided appropriate green times to optimize a given performance criterion. If two platoons demanding conflicting movements arrive at an intersection at the same time, then either one or the other will be given priority for green time, or one of them is split to maximize the given measure of performance. This study discusses how such conflicts are resolved and the corresponding algorithmic procedure of REALBAND.


As per Schedule 4B of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
the important government function of delivering water supply to communities
rests with municipalities. This function must be executed, however, within a
constitutionally designed system of cooperative government, which renders it
necessary to understand the role of every sphere of government in giving
people sustained access to adequate water supply services. It is also
important to understand the dynamics at play and the consequences that
would follow if a municipality failed to deliver water supply services. The
widespread challenges in South Africa with regards to water and sanitation in
local communities serve to underscore the significance of an enquiry into
such matters.
The body of constitutional -, local government -, water - and environmental
law in South Africa describes the duties of local government in relation to the
supply of water to communities. This study unpacks these duties of local
government and the role of local government vis-a-vis provincial and national
government, while it also considers the intergovernmental response
measures available to provincial government, specifically to address the
issue of the so-called "failing municipal water supply services".
The more obvious intergovernmental response measures in the event of
failing municipal water supply services at the disposal of provincial
government appear to be particularly intrusive, and may make severe inroads
into the autonomy of local government. In this study, following a discussion
of failing municipal water supply services, an intergovernmental response
measure model is proposed in which the options available to provincial
government to act upon a municipality's failure to provide water are
presented. The model ranges from the least intrusive measures (such as
supervision) to the most intrusive measures (such as intervention and judicial
action).
The study concludes with recommendations with respect to the order in
which measures should be applied in order to ensure cooperative
intergovernmental relations whilst ensuring that municipalities provide
sufficient water to their communities in a sustainable manner.


Automatic evaluation for open-ended natural language generation tasks remains a challenge. Existing metrics such as BLEU show a low correlation with human judgment. We propose a novel and powerful learning-based evaluation metric: Perception Score. The method measures the overall quality of the generation and scores holistically instead of only focusing on one evaluation criteria, such as word overlapping. Moreover, it also shows the amount of uncertainty about its evaluation result. By connecting the uncertainty, Perception Score gives a more accurate evaluation for the generation system. Perception Score provides state-of-the-art results on two conditional generation tasks and two unconditional generation tasks.


Since the beginning of the 1990s, it has been widely expected that the implementation of the European Single Market would lead to a rapid convergence of Europe's financial systems. In the present paper we will show that at least in the period prior to the introduction of the common currency this expected convergence did not materialise. Our empirical studies on the significance of various institutions within the financial sectors, on the financing patterns of firms in various countries and on the predominant mechanisms of corporate governance, which are summarised and placed in a broader context in this paper, point to few, if any, signs of a convergence at a fundamental or structural level between the German, British and French financial systems. The German financial system continues to appear to be bank-dominated, while the British system still appears to be capital market-dominated. During the period covered by the research, i.e. 1980 – 1998, the French system underwent the most far-reaching changes, and today it is difficult to classify. In our opinion, these findings can be attributed to the effects of strong path dependencies, which are in turn an outgrowth of relationships of complementarity between the individual system components. Projecting what we have observed into the future, the results of our research indicate that one of two alternative paths of development is most likely to materialise: either the differences between the national financial systems will persist, or – possibly as a result of systemic crises – one financial system type will become the dominant model internationally. And if this second path emerges, the Anglo-American, capital market-dominated system could turn out to be the "winner", because it is better able to withstand and weather crises, but not necessarily because it is more efficient.


If rape is evaluated as a serious wrong, can it also be defined as non-consensual sex (NCS)? Many do not see all instances of NCS as seriously wrongful. I argue that rape is both properly defined as NCS and properly evaluated as a serious wrong. First, I distinguish the hurtfulness of rape from its wrongfulness; secondly, I classify its harms and characterize its essential wrongfulness; thirdly, I criticize a view of rape as merely 'sex minus consent'; fourthly, I criticize mistaken attempts to discount the wrongfulness of rape for those who do not value sex; fifthly, I contrast two models for weighing interests, according to one of which rape is not seriously wrongful; finally, I sketch a defence of the view that our sexual integrity ought to be a central interest of ours.


Objective. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Nd:YAP laser to seal dentinal tubules at different parameters. Material and Methods. 24 caries-free human wisdom impacted molars were used. The crowns were sectioned transversally in order to totally expose the dentin. The smear layer was removed by a 1 min application of EDTA. Each surface was divided into four quadrants, but only three quadrants were irradiated at a different output power setting (irradiation speed: 1 mm/sec; optical fiber diameter: 320 µm; tangential incidence of beam and in noncontact mode). Samples were smeared with a graphite paste prior to laser irradiation. All specimens were sent for SEM analysis. Pulp temperature increases in additional twenty teeth were measured by a thermocouple. Results. Morphological changes in dentin surfaces depend on the value of used energy density. Higher energy densities (2 W–4 W; 200–400 mJ; pulse duration: 100 m sec.; and 10 Hz) induce higher dentin modifications. Our results confirmed that Nd:YAP laser irradiations can lead to total or partial occlusion of dentin tubules without provoking fissures or cracks. Measurements of pulp temperature increases showed that Nd:YAP laser beam can be considered as harmless for pulp vitality for following irradiation conditions: 2 W (200 mJ) to 4 W (400 mJ) with an irradiation speed of 1 mm/sec; fiber diameter: 320 micrometers; 10 Hz; pulse duration: 100 m sec; noncontact mode and in tangential incidence to exposed dentin. The perpendicular incidence of the laser beam on exposed dentin may injure pulp vitality even at low output power of 3 W. Conclusions. Nd:YAP laser beam was able to seal the dentin tubules without damaging dentinal surfaces and without harming pulp vitality. Nd:YAP laser is effective and may be safely used for future in vivo treatments of dentinal hypersensitivity under certain conditions.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

The PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway is frequently activated in many human cancers and mTOR has been clinically validated as an effective anti-cancer target by rapamycin analogs such as CCI-779, RAD001 and AP23573. We discovered OSI-027, a potent and selective small molecule mTOR kinase inhibitor that inhibits both mTORC1 and mTORC2 unlike rapamycin and its analogs that inhibit only mTORC1. We profiled several human cancer cell lines to compare the mechanistic and functional effects of rapamycin and OSI-027. Rapamycin completely inhibited phosphorylation of S6 (surrogate for S6K1) and only partially inhibited phosphorylation of 4E-BP1 while OSI-027 completely inhibited phosphorylation of both S6 and 4E-BP1. Furthermore, rapamycin only decreased phosphorylation of AKT (S473) in 13% of cell lines and increased phosphorylation of AKT (S473) in 62% of cell lines after 24h treatment. In contrast, OSI-027 significantly reduced phospho-AKT (S473) in all cell lines tested. OSI-027 showed broad-spectrum anti-proliferative activity against both rapamycin-sensitive and -insensitive cell lines. Rapamycin only induced apoptosis in a small subset of tumor cell lines whereas OSI-027 induced apoptosis in the majority of tumor cell lines tested. These in vitro advantages of OSI-027 relative to rapamycin translated to greater tumor growth inhibition in xenograft models in vivo. These results demonstrate that OSI-027, a dual mTORC1/mTORC2 kinase inhibitor provides superior activity across a broad range of preclinical cancer models compared to rapamycin. Accordingly, OSI-027 has been advanced into Phase I clinical trials.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4487.


Young chickens were vaccinated against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) with inactivated-virus given via the intratracheal route. Variables studied were effect of vaccine adjuvant, age, and immune status of the chickens. Virus was inactivated with betapropiolactone added to infective chicken embryo allantoic fluids. Challenges of immunity were made with 104-5 bird-lethal-dose-50% of homologous virus given intramuscularly. Inactivated virus alone failed to induce immunity in susceptible 1-day-old chickens but induced respective protection levels of 71% and 50% in 7-day-old and 14-day-old chickens. Inactivated virus with adjuvant induced respective protection levels of 96, 100, and 71% in susceptibles that were 1, 7, and 14 days old at vaccination. Passively immune chicks vaccinated at 1 day were not immunized at a level comparable to that of susceptible vaccinates during a 65-day period. Specific hemagglutination-inhibiting antibodies were induced by this method of vaccination.


Seat belts and other child restraining devices remain underutilized immunizing agents that could greatly reduce the morbidity and mortality of automobile accidents. On rare occasions, they cause injury, and this report describes one such unusual case. Report of a Case .—A 2½-year-old girl was strapped in an adult seat belt in the middle front seat. Although her mother normally used a child safety harness in the rear seat, the car was filled with adults and other children she was taking home. The car had been parked in the summer sun for several hours with the windows closed. As the mother fastened the belt around her daughter, the child cried and the mother noticed some reddening of the skin where it was in direct contact with the undersurface of the buckle. Only when arriving home did she notice the burns, which later vesiculated. The Figure shows three parallel second-degree burns on


INTRODUCTION
Lutzomyia sand flies are involved in the transmission of the parasite Leishmania spp. in America. The taxonomy of these vectors is traditionally based on morphological features of the adult stage, particularly the paired structures of the head and genitalia. Although these characters are useful to distinguish most species of Lutzomyia, morphological identification may be complicated by the similarities within subgenera and species group.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the utility of mitochondrial serine transfer RNA tRNA Ser for taxonomic identification of Lutzomyia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Seven sand fly species, each representing one of the 27 taxonomic subdivisions in genus Lutzomyia, were analyzed including L. trinidadensis (Oswaldoi group), L. (Psychodopygus) panamensis, L.(Micropygomyia) cayennensis cayennensis, L. dubitans (Migonei group), L. (Lutzomyia) gomezi, L. rangeliana (ungrouped) and L. evansi (Verrucarum group). The mitochondrial tRNA Ser gene, flanked by the cytochrome b and NAD dehydrogenase subunit one genes, was extracted, amplified and sequenced from each specimen. Secondary structure of the tRNA Ser was predicted by comparisons with previously described homologous structures from other dipteran species.

RESULTS
The tRNA Ser gene ranged in size from 66 base pairs in L. gomezi to 69 base pairs in L. trinidadensis. Fourteen polymorphic sites, including four insertion-deletion events, were observed in the aligned 70 nucleotide positions. The majority of the substitutions were located in the dihydrouridine, ribothymidine-pseudouridine-cytosine and variable loops, as well as in the basal extreme of the anticodon arm.

CONCLUSION
Changes of primary sequence of the tRNASer provided useful molecular characters for taxonomic identification of the sand fly species under consideration.


Background: 68Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computerized tomography (68Ga-PSMA PET/CT) is part of the initial workup of patients with intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer provided by the Israeli national health services. Objectives: To assess the incidence of metastatic spread in consecutive patients with newly diagnosed cancer, and the potential added value of 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT to the staging imaging algorithm. Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed intermediateand high-risk prostate cancer were referred for initial staging by 68GaPSMA PET/CT between May 2016 and April 2017. Blood prostatespecific antigen (PSA) levels, clinical history, imaging reports and histopathological reports (including Gleason scores) were obtained. Maximal standardized uptake values (SUVmax) were determined for the primary lesions detected within the prostate. Results: The study included 137 consecutive patients with intermediateand high-risk disease who underwent 68GaPSMA PET/CT staging. Of these, 75 had 68Ga-PSMA uptake in both prostate lobes, 57 had unilateral uptake, and 5 patients had no uptake. SUVmax in the primary tumor correlated significantly with PSA levels. Thirty-five patients had increased uptake compatible with metastatic disease involving lymph nodes, bone, and viscera. Twenty-seven patients had available bone scintigraphy results: 18 (69%) of their 26 bone metastases detected by 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT were missed on bone scintigraphy. Conclusions: 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT shows promise as a sole wholebody imaging modality for assessing the presence of soft tissue and bone metastases in the setting of prostate cancer. IMAJ 2019; 21: 100–104 positron emission tomography/CT (PET/CT), 68Ga-prostatespecific membrane antigen (PSMA), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), prostate cancer 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT Staging of Newly Diagnosed Intermediateand High-Risk Prostate Cancer


The mobility of clusters on a semiconductor surface for various values of cluster size is studied as a function of temperature by kinetic Monte Carlo method. The cluster resides on the surface of a square grid. Kinetic processes such as the diffusion of single particles on the surface, their attachment and detachment to/from clusters, diffusion of particles along cluster edges are considered. The clusters considered in this study consist of 150–6000 atoms per cluster on average. A statistical probability of motion to each direction is assigned to each particle where a particle with four nearest neighbors is assumed to be immobile. The mobility of a cluster is found from the root mean square displacement of the center of mass of the cluster as a function of time. It is found that the diffusion coefficient of clusters goes as D = A(T)Nα where N is the average number of particles in the cluster, A(T) is a temperature-dependent constant and α is a parameter with a value of about –0.64 < α < –0.75. The value of α is found to be independent of cluster sizes and temperature values (170–220 K) considered in this study. As the diffusion along the perimeter of the cluster becomes prohibitive, the exponent approaches a value of –0.5. The diffusion coefficient is found to change by one order of magnitude as a function of cluster size.


Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) such as demonstrators are integral to higher education teaching. However, undergraduate student perceptions on the impact of demonstrators to their teaching and learning is understudied. Similarly, demonstrator perceptions on the quality and value of their teaching also remains largely unexplored. We addressed both students' and demonstrators' perceptions of demonstrator teaching and learning within undergraduate Biology practical sessions at a UK research intensive university. We combine quantitative and qualitative data to explore students' ideas around where their learning and feedback comes from, and the effectiveness of demonstrators during their practical sessions. This was paired with analogous data from demonstrators derived from the same concepts, thereby helping to assess their dynamic. Most students considered demonstrators to be important for teaching and learning in the laboratory setting by delivering high quality pedagogy, creating a positive learning environment and by being their primary source of feedback. Conversely, a small number of students raised issues regarding demonstrator consistency and lack of knowledge when compared with a lecturer. Students largely considered demonstrators to have sufficient knowledge and to be more approachable than lecturers. Demonstrators also recognised their valuable contribution to teaching and learning and largely mirrored the ideas undergraduate students had about effective demonstrators. Many demonstrators believe they need to be allocated more paid time to fully prepare for teaching and maximise their potential. Finally, we reflect on lessons learnt from both students and demonstrators regarding how demonstrators can improve their teaching and how universities can support this.


This paper discussed the area and yield of private rubber industry in Mengla County of Yunnan Province. The private rubber industry in Mengla County has such problems as lack of specialized technical personnel, poor technical training effect, and short production life of rubber trees. Finally, it came up with recommendations, including establishing and improving specialized technical service stations in townships, strengthening specialized technical management organizations, providing specialized technical management personnel, realizing specialization of technical training, and establishing standard rubber farmer cooperatives.


Purpose

Medeiros et al. (2001) estimate 3.5 million cases of foodborne illness in the USA annually are associated with inadequate cooking of animal foods or cross-contamination from these foods. Past research shows home food handling practices can be risk factors for foodborne illness. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the communication of food safety guidance, specifically safe endpoint temperatures and cross-contamination risk reduction practices, in popular cookbook recipes.

Design/methodology/approach

Recipes containing raw animal ingredients in 29 popular cookbooks were evaluated through content analysis for messages related to safe endpoint temperature recommendations and reducing cross-contamination risks.

Findings

Of 1,749 recipes meeting study criteria of cooking raw animal ingredients, 1,497 contained a raw animal that could effectively be measured with a digital thermometer. Only 123 (8.2 percent) of these recipes included an endpoint temperature, of which 89 (72.3 percent) gave a correct temperature. Neutral and positive food safety behavior messages were provided in just 7.2 percent (n=126) and 5.1 percent (n=90) of recipes, respectively. When endpoint temperatures were not included, authors often provided subjective and risky recommendations.

Research limitations/implications

Further research is needed on the effect of these results on consumer behavior and to develop interventions for writing recipes with better food safety guidance.

Practical implications

Including correct food safety guidance in cookbooks may increase the potential of reducing the risk of foodborne illness.

Originality/value

Popular cookbooks are an underutilized avenue for communicating safe food handling practices and currently cookbook authors are risk amplifiers.


Neuronal storage diseases are inborn errors of metabolism characterized by widespread intraneuronal storage and progressive neurological dysfunction, including mental retardation, movement disorders, and seizures. Most of these disorders are associated with specific defects in particular lysosomal enzymes. Moreover, a wide array of genetic defects has been documented. The immense progress made during the past three decades in understanding the primary molecular and enzymatic defects in this family of diseases stands in sharp contrast to the modest advances made in delineating pathogenetic mechanisms and treatment strategies. Although these disorders result from highly selective defects in metabolic pathways, they ultimately are complex conditions characterized by a plethora of seemingly unrelated secondary molecular and cellular abnormalities. Studies of children and animals affected by these diseases have revealed that significant changes in neuronal connectivity occur in the cerebral cortex. These include not only degenerative changes in axons and synapses of inhibitory neurons, but also a regrowth of dendrites and new synapse formation involving pyramidal neurons. The latter finding indicates that neurons in the cerebral cortex undergo significant "rewiring" during the height of the disease process. This regrowth of primary dendrites and formation of new synapses as part of a neurological disease is unprecedented. Understanding the causes and consequences of these changes in cortical synaptic connectivity in neuronal storage diseases may provide insight not only into the precise mechanisms underlying mental retardation in these diseases and their reversibility, but also into processes governing dendritic elaboration and synapse formation in the normal developing nervous system. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


Robotic motion planning algorithms such as Probabilistic Roadmap Methods (PRMs) have been successful in simulating the protein folding process by building a roadmap, or model, of the folding landscape. This roadmap is constructed by sampling protein conformations and connecting them together with energetically feasible transitions. In this work, we propose an adaptive method to dynamically select an appropriate connection method from a set of connection method candidates. Our framework, Adaptive Neighbor Connection (ANC), learns which strategy to use by examining their success and cost over time. Thus, it frees the user of the burden of selecting the best strategy and allows this selection to change over time. We compare ANC to 6 other distance-based connection methods on a set of 7 wellstudied proteins. We show that ANC builds roadmaps quickly with high quality folding pathways.


Aging has been associated with a series of pathophysiological processes causing general decline in the overall health of the afflicted population. The cumulative line of evidence suggests an important role of oxidative stress in the development and progression of the aging process and metabolic abnormalities, exacerbating adipocyte dysfunction, cardiovascular diseases, and associated complications at the same time. In recent years, robust have established the implication of Na/K-ATPase signaling in causing oxidative stress and alterations in cellular mechanisms, in addition to its distinct pumping function. Understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms and exploring the possible sources of pro-oxidants may allow for developing therapeutic targets in these processes and formulate novel intervention strategies for patients susceptible to aging and associated complications, such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. The attenuation of oxidative stress with targeted treatment options can improve patient outcomes and significantly reduce economic burden.


Obesity is a multifactorial disease caused by the interaction of genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors. Common single nucleotide polymorphisms in the recently-described Fat Mass and Obesity-Associated (FTO) gene have been related to body weight and fat mass in humans and genome-wide association studies in several populations have indicated that the FTO rs9939609 variant is associated with obesity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the association of the FTO rs9939609 variant with obesity among 324 multi-ethnic Malaysians (98 Malays, 158 Chinese, 68 Indians) who attended the Kampar Health Clinic, Perak. With the overall minor A allele frequency (MAF) of 0.199, the distribution of genotypes and alleles was significantly different among ethnicities (MAF highest among Malays), but no association was found for obesity, related anthropometric measurements and gender. Subject with allele A had marginally but significantly higher waist circumference (p=0.015), thus the FTO rs9939609 allele was associated with central obesity [p=0.034 by Chi-square analysis; Odds Ratio (OR)=1.680 (CI=1.036, 2.724; p=0.035)]. However, this association was abolished when adjusted for age, gender and ethnicity (OR=1.455, CI=0.874, 2.42; p=0.149). In conclusion, the MAF of the FTO rs9939609 SNP was low as in other Asian populations and there was no evidence for an involvement of this SNP in obesity and obesity-related traits in this multi-ethnic Malaysian study group.


New York State should pass laws that regulate pre-employment drug testing in order to maximize fairness, accuracy, and efficiency while recognizing employers' needs to maintain a drug-free workplace. Drug testing, when done properly, is quite accurate and has standardized procedures to ensure fairness. A pre-employment drug test can be an effective way for an employer to check on factors influencing whether an applicant will be productive or continuously tardy or have attitude problems. While New York State already has strong laws regulating drug testing, additional laws should be passed to further the goal of maintaining a drug-free workplace and strengthen the efficiency of pre-employment drug testing.


Those who study secondary science teachers are often concerned with preservice or in-service teacher development. Science teacher educators have acknowledged that this focus is limited, as the induction years of beginning teachers are an important component of teacher development. This mixed methods study focuses on the induction years of beginning content specialists, with the intention of adding to the literature in this underexamined area. The secondary science teachers in this study were followed during their first and second year of teaching in order to understand the changes in their beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and practices as a group, and as they participated in different induction programs. Analysis by induction program revealed that first year teachers who participated in science specific induction programs strengthened their beliefs, PCK, and practices. By the end of the second year, regardless of program, most of the teachers shared similar beliefs and PCK. However, the teachers in the science specific induction programs continued to enact more interactive learning environments that had more investigations and laboratories than did their peers in the other induction programs. For those who work with beginning science teachers, this study suggests that the induction of science specialists is an important area of work. It also explores the complex process of induction, and calls for more research into how beginning secondary science teachers learn and what types of induction experiences can best support beginning science teachers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 1199–1224, 2011


Ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of SrTiO3–modified (0, 3, and 5 mol%) 0.8Bi1/2Na1/2TiO3–0.2Bi1/2K1/2TiO3 lead-free piezoceramics were investigated as a model system in an attempt to lay a guideline for developing lead-free piezoelectric materials with large strains. Two guidelines, one for the choice of base composition and the other for the choice of chemical modifiers, were assumed from our current understanding of the mechanism involved. Dielectric permittivity of both poled and unpoled samples was measured and compared, leading to a conclusion that the frequency-independent anomaly (TF-R) is the temperature at which induced-ferroelectric order converts back to relaxor state. The correlation between TF-R and depolarization temperature (Td) was shown by the comparison with Td determined by thermally stimulated depolarization current measurements, whereas the ferroelectric-relaxor transition temperature TF-R was determined using poled samples. A large unipolar strain of 0.36% (Smax/Emax = 600 pm/V) at a driving field of 6 kV/mm was obtained at room temperature for a SrTiO3 content of 5 mol%. Temperature-dependent measurements of both polarization and strain from room temperature to 200°C revealed that the origin of the large strain is due to a reversible field-induced ergodic relaxor-to-ferroelectric phase transformation.


Firewalls are crucial elements that enhance network security by examining the field values of every packet and deciding whether to accept or discard a packet according to the firewall policies. With the development of networks, the number of rules in firewalls has rapidly increased, consequently degrading network performance. In addition, because most real-life firewalls have been plagued with policy conflicts, malicious traffics can be allowed or legitimate traffics can be blocked. Moreover, because of the complexity of the firewall policies, it is very important to reduce the number of rules in a firewall while keeping the rule semantics unchanged and the target firewall rules conflict-free. In this study, we make three major contributions. First, we present a new approach in which a geometric model, multidimensional rectilinear polygon, is constructed for the firewall rules compression problem. Second, we propose a new scheme, Firewall Policies Compression (FPC), to compress the multidimensional firewall rules based on this geometric model. Third, we conducted extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results demonstrate that the FPC method outperforms the existing approaches, in terms of compression ratio and efficiency while maintaining conflict-free firewall rules.


1. Arteriovenous eosinophil differences across the spleen were measured in 10 dogs during the development of adrenal-mediated eosinopenia. In 7 instances the stimulus was epinephrine, in 2 ACTH, and in 1 operation alone. 2. In no case was significant net splenic uptake of eosinophils indicated. In 3 out of 7 epinephrine experiments and in 1 ACTH experiment, a significant net splenic output of eosinophils was found. For all 10 experiments averaged, the splenic output of eosinophils was significant. 3. Arteriovenous neutrophil and hematocrit differences were insignificant and were independent of simultaneous eosinophil differences. 4. It is concluded that the spleen is not a significant site of uptake on destruction of eosinophils during the development of adrenal-mediated eosinopenia. Under certain conditions, it actually extrudes eosinophils into the general circulation at a time when other factors are causing eosinophil disappearance. 5. The results suggest but do not establish the presence of a discriminatory splenic mechanism for the control of blood cells, capable of storing cells of one type while it releases others into the circulation.


We estimate the causal effect of income on happiness using a unique dataset of Chinese twins. This allows us to address omitted variable bias and measurement errors. Our findings show that individual income has a large positive effect on happiness, with a doubling of income resulting in an increase of 0.26 scales or 0.37 SDs in the four-scale happiness measure. We also find that income matters most for males and the middle-aged. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for various biases when studying the relationship between socioeconomic status and subjective well-being.


Measures of brain activity through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or Electroencephalography (EEG), two complementary modalities, are ground solutions in the context of neurofeedback (NF) mechanisms for brain-rehabilitation protocols. Though NF-EEG (real-time neurofeedback scores computed from EEG) have been explored for a very long time, NF-fMRI (real-time neurofeedback scores computed from fMRI) appeared more recently and provides more robust results and more specific brain training. Using simultaneously fMRI and EEG for multimodal neurofeedback sessions (NF-EEG-fMRI, real-time neurofeedback scores computed from fMRI and EEG) is very promising to devise brain rehabilitation protocols. However using fMRI is costly, exhausting and time consuming, and cannot be repeated too many times for the same subject. The original contribution of this paper concerns the prediction of multimodal NF scores from EEG recordings only, using a training phase where both EEG and fMRI synchronous signals, and therefore neurofeedback scores, are available. We propose a sparse regression model able to exploit EEG only to predict NF-fMRI or NF-EEG-fMRI in motor imagery tasks. We compare different NF-predictors steming from the proposed model. We show that one of the proposed NF-predictors significanlty improves over what EEG can provide alone (without the learning phase), and correlates at 0.74 in median with the ground-truth.


Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is becoming the chosen modulation technique for wireless communications. OFDM can provide large data rates with sufficient robustness to radio channel impairments. Many research centers in the world have specialized teams working in the optimization of OFDM for countless applications.The transmit signals in an OFDM system can have high peak value s in the time domain since many subcarrier components are added via an IFFT operation. Therefore, OFDM systems areknown to have a high PAPR (Peak -to-Average Power Ratio), compared with single-carrier systems. In fact, the high PAPR is one of the most detrimental aspects in the OFDM system, as it decreases the SQNR (Signal -to-Quantization Noise Ratio) of ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) and DAC (Digitalto-Analog Converter ) while degrading g the efficiency of the poweramplifier in the transmitter. The PAPR problem is more important in the uplink since the efficiency of power amplifier is critical due to the limited batter y power in a mobile terminal.This research paper discusses several techniques that are being used to reduce the PAPR in an


Denis Parsons Burkitt was born in Lawnakilla near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in 1911 and spent his early boyhood there. He graduated M.B. from Trinity College Dublin in 1935, passed the Edinburgh F.R.C.S. examination three years later, and served during the Second World War as a surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) in East Africa. On demobilization, Denis joined the Colonial Medical Service and went to Uganda to become what he described as 'a simple bush surgeon', but while working there he made observations on a hitherto unrecognized cancer of children which now bears his name, Burkitt's lymphoma, with profound consequences for human oncology. In 1964, Denis transferred to a new appointment funded by the U.K. Medical Research Council (MRC) to work on geographical pathology in Uganda, but in the aftermath of Ugandan independence he moved his activities to London in 1966 and became interested shortly after this in the effects of diet on disease. As a result, he remained throughout the rest of his life a leading proponent of the importance of dietary fibre in the prevention and treatment of a wide range of human pathologies. Denis Burkitt came from a deeply religious family with a strong tradition of service in the Empire; these influences not only determined the way he lived, but were also responsible for the pattern of his career and, indeed, for the manner in which he made his scientific contributions. He was the elder of two brothers who both became surgeons.


Some properties of cold neutral salt extracts of fresh guinea pig dermis have been described in terms of viscosity, electrophoresis and sedimentation patterns, partial composition, the collagen content, conditions for extraction of collagen, and the effect of certain enzymes. Viscosity of the extracts depended on the collagen in solution as demonstrated by removal of this protein by precipitation or enzymatic degradation. The intrinsic viscosity of the crude 0.45 M extract, as well as that of the isolated collagen was 14.5, identical with that for collagen dissolved by dilute acid, indicating the same high asymmetry ratio for both. Electrophoresis of the skin extracts revealed a slow moving, high, sharp, poorly diffusing boundary in addition to a pattern superficially resembling that of serum. The ultracentrifuge pattern revealed a slowly sedimenting, hypersharp boundary following a large rapidly diffusing peak. The slow moving boundaries in both patterns were abolished by collagenase or heat precipitation of the collagen fraction. Hyaluronidase had no effect on either pattern. Neutral sulfate, chloride, and phosphate extracted more collagen than did thiocyanate. Very little collagen was extracted at 37°C. as compared with that removed at 3°C. A two stage fractionation procedure employing dilute trichloroacetic acid and ethanol is described for the isolation and purification of soluble collagen from crude extracts.


Effects of three levels of nitrogen fertilization and three locations were studied with three replications of each treatment to determine their relationships to the amino acid content and distribution in sorghum grain. Levels of 17 amino acids were determined in each sample. Protein and 17 amino acids were significantly increased by nitrogen fertilization. Distributions of the amino acids were significantly affected. Proportions of glutamic acid, proline, alanine, isoluecine leucine and phenylalanine were greater in protein of grain grown with highest nitrogen fertilization; proportions of lysine, histidine, arginine, threonine, and glycine were lower. Location significantly affected distribution of certain amino acids which may have been due to a different hybrid at one location or to difference in protein levels of grain grown at different locations, or to both.