The Paleoproterozoic southeastern Churchill Province (SECP) is located in the northeastern Canadian Shield of Labrador and Quebec. The SECP formed through the oblique collisions of the Archean Nain and Superior cratons with a third intervening Archean block, the core zone. The belt has a tripartite structure, comprising the Torngat Orogen (TO) formed by Nain craton – core zone collision in the east, the core zone in the centre, and the New Quebec Orogen (NQO) formed by Superior craton – core zone collision in the west. The SECP thus records transpressional development on the flanks of the Superior and Nain cratons as they indented northwards to form the larger Trans-Hudson – Nagssugtoqidian orogenic belt to the north. Principal stages of tectonic development were (1) 2.2–2.1 Ga crustal rifting of Nain and Superior cratons; (2) ca. 1.9 Ga subduction under eastern Nain craton; (3) ca. 1.87–1.85 Ga collision of Nain craton and core zone to form the TO; (4) 1.845–1.820 Ga sinistral transpression in the TO, and subduction under the western core zone; and (5) 1.82–1.77 Ga collision of Superior craton and core zone to form the NQO, in association with dextral transpression. Crustal-scale cross sections of the SECP have been developed from reflection and refraction seismic data. The western part of the NQO is dominantly west-vergent and associated with an imbricate thick-skinned thrust stack that ramps from the base of the crust. The core zone is characterized by a 35–40 km thick crust and pervasive east-dipping fabrics related to westerly thrusting. The TO is a narrow, doubly vergent belt, associated with a 48 km thick crust that forms a crustal root with a Moho relief of 12 km. The root is interpreted to result from attempted subduction of the core zone under the Nain craton, possibly as a result of mid-crustal wedging by the Nain craton. The TO was the site of intense convergence that resulted in excision of juvenile crust, possibly including tectonic removal of the axial magmatic arc. As a result, the middle to lower levels of the SECP consist largely of refractory Archean lithosphere. This may account for the lack of widespread post-collisional plutonism in the SECP and the preservation of the TO root.


Toothbrush has been a tool of cleaning the oral cavity since ancient times and this tool can be the path of spread for various diseases and microorganisms. The collective use of toothbrushes is common in developing and underdeveloped countries, under privileged people, hostels and some families. Transmission can occur even by usage of single person. Hence, a double blind, randomized comparative experimental trial was done on 40 children (12-15)years who were randomly selected to test different toothbrush disinfectants against Streptococcus mutans. The study lasted for a period of four months. The study was divided into 5 phases (Phase 1 - distilled water (control), phase 2 - 3% neem, phase 3 - 2% triclosan, phase 4 - 0.2% Chlorhexidine gluconate and phase 5 - 1% Sodium hypochlorite). The toothbrushes were collected after 5 days of brushing and subjected to microbial analysis (baseline data). The same procedure was repeated for different phases subsequently, in which the toothbrushes after collection were soaked for 12 hours in antimicrobial solutions of respective phases and subjected to microbial analysis. All the solutions showed thier effectiveness as toothbrush disinfectants.


Additive manufacturing (AM) with metal powder has made possible the fabrication of gas turbine components with small and complex flow paths that cannot be achieved with any other manufacturing technology presently available. The increased design space of AM allows turbine designers to develop advanced cooling schemes in high-temperature components to increase cooling efficiency. Inherent in AM with metals is the large surface roughness that cannot be removed from small internal geometries. Such roughness has been shown in previous studies to significantly augment pressure loss and heat transfer of small channels. However, the roughness on these channels or other surfaces made from AM with metal powder has not been thoroughly characterized for scaling pressure loss and heat transfer data. This study examines the roughness of the surfaces of channels of various hydraulic length scales made with direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). Statistical roughness parameters are presented along with other parameters that others have found to correlate with flow and heat transfer. The pressure loss and heat transfer previously reported for the DMLS channels studied in this work are compared to the physical roughness measurements. Results show that the relative arithmetic mean roughness correlates well with the relative equivalent sand grain roughness. A correlation is presented to predict the Nusselt number of flow through AM channels, which gives better predictions of heat transfer than correlations currently available. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4034555]


A total of 10566 specimens of 10 species of Ixodes ticks, such as Dermacentor marginats, D. reticulatus, D. niveus, Rhipicephalus rossicus, Ixodes ricinus, I. persulcatus, I. crenulatus, Haemaphysalis punctata, Hyalomma scupense, and H. marginatum, were collected and identified in the Saratov Region in 2002-2006. Dermacentor marginats and D. reticulatus were found to be the most dominant species. Rhipicephalus rossicus, Ixodes ricinus, and Hyalomma scupense were also constantly detected in the region. I. persulcatus considered earlier untypical of the Saratov Region was detected. The paper presents data on the confined geographical and environmental features of individual species of Ixodes ticks in the Saratov Region.


This paper reports estimates of the potential welfare effects of hypothetical increases in the petrol excise tax in New Zealand. Equivalent variations, for a range of household types and total expenditure levels, are obtained along with distributional measures. Household demand responses are modelled using the Linear Expenditure System, where parameters vary by total expenditure level and household type. The effects on inequality were found to be negligible, but the marginal excess burdens typically ranged between 35 and 55 cents per dollar of additional revenue.


The etiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is not yet known, but many factors such as defects in the immune system, oxidative stress, microbial content in the gastrointestinal tract, nuclear factor (NF)-κB, nitric oxide (NO), cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2), and leukotriene B4 (LB4) are thought to play a role in its pathogenesis. In traditional Iranian medicine (TIM), several medicinal plants are thought to be effective for the treatment of IBD. In this study, information on all of these remedies were derived from all available old sources such as documents or notes and books and were added to the information derived from modern medical databases covering all in vitro, in vivo and clinical trials. For some of these plants, only one or two mechanisms of action have been found such as in Cassia fistula, Lepidium sativum, and Bunium persicum. However, for some plants various mechanisms of action are known. For example, Commiphora mukul is effective in IBD due to its immunomodulatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties and it decreases NF-κB, NO and Cox-2. Another herb, Plantago ovata, has immunomodulatory, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and wound healing activities and decreases NO and LB4. Considering the mechanisms of action of these plants, the combination of some of them may be useful because of their many mechanisms of action such as Pistacia lentiscus, Bunium persicum, Solanum nigrum, Plantago ovata, Boswellia, Solanum nigrum, Plantago ovata and Commiphora mukul. For some of the herbal products used in TIM such as oleogum resin from Commiphora myrrha, seeds of Ocimum basilicum, seeds of Linum usitatissimum, gum resin of Dracaena cinnabari, seeds of Plantago major, seeds of Lallementia royleana, and seeds of Allium porrum, there is no or not enough studies to confirm their benefits in IBD. It is suggested that an evaluation of the effects of these plants on different aspects of IBD should be performed.


Tensile and compressive creep properties of Mg-5wt.%Al-1wt.%Sr alloy produced by gravity casting were investigated in this paper. Creep tests were carried out in the temperature range from 125 °C to 200 °C and stress range from 35 to 85MPa. The second creep rate in tension is significant different from that in compression, indicating that coarse-grained Mg-Al-Sr alloy exhibits tension/compression asymmetric behavior. Moreover, the activation energies and stress exponent in tension and compression are not the same, which suggest that creep mechanisms in tension and compression are different.


An Organic Computing system has the ability to autonomously (re-)organize and adapt itself. Such a system exhibits so called self-x properties (e.g. self-healing) and is therefore more dependable as e.g. some failures can be compensated. Furthermore, it is easier to maintain as it automatically configures itself and more convenient to use because of its automatic adaptation to new situations. Design and construction of Organic Computing systems are, however, challenging tasks. The Organic Design Pattern (ODP) is a design guideline to aid engineers in these tasks. This paper introduces a generic software framework that allows for easy implementation of ODP-based Organic Computing Systems. The communication and service infrastructure of the multi-agent system Jadex is leveraged to provide interaction facilities and services to the application. The concepts of ODP are provided as generic, extensible elements that can be augmented with domain-specific behavior. The dynamic behavior of an ODP system is implemented and a generic observer/controller facility is provided. A real-world case study shows the applicability of the proposed approach and the handling of the software.


The field of bioinformatics and computational biology has gone through a number of transformations during the past 15 years, establishing itself as a key component of new biology. This spectacular growth has been challenged by a number of disruptive changes in science and technology. Despite the apparent fatigue of the linguistic use of the term itself, bioinformatics has grown perhaps to a point beyond recognition. We explore both historical aspects and future trends and argue that as the field expands, key questions remain unanswered and acquire new meaning while at the same time the range of applications is widening to cover an ever increasing number of biological disciplines. These trends appear to be pointing to a redefinition of certain objectives, milestones, and possibly the field itself.


Due to lack of desirable mechanical properties of silicon substrate; the current trend of micro-fabrication technology is towards metallic materials. In this study, the electrochemical micromachining (EMM) technology is developed to fabricate micro-scale flow channels on thin metallic 316L stainless steel plate. The cathode electrode, the tool, is the mirror image of flow channels. It was produced by the MEMS and UV-LIGA technology and the size is 200μm in width and 500μm in height for the intension to fabricate a serpentine flow channel of 200μm in both depth and width. Because of the electrode size, the process control parameters and geometrical features surpassed conventional and CMOS methods. The flow channels on 0.6mm thick SS 316L plates were fabricated by EMM process within 30 seconds with effective area of 625mm2. The dimensions of flow channel were varying from 1504m to 5004m in width and about 2004m in depth. The results demonstrate the EMM technology produces good quality metallic flow channels efficiently.


Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection leads to chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, gastric adenocarcinoma. Is a worldwide spread infection, is been estimated that affects nearly half of world´s population; gold standard method for diagnosed is gastric tissue biopsy obtained during endoscopy. Proton bomb inhibitor, antimicrobial treatment in a double or triple scheme are the election treatments, however is been reported high antimicrobial resistance making complicated treat H. pylori infection. We propose 90 days ozonetherapy protocol which consist of parenteral ozonated saline solution treatment and oral intake of 1 mL ozonated olive oil (600 meqO2) BIOZON ® as unique treatment scheme to eradicate H. pylori infection. In our private medical office were admitted 21 patients (10 males, 11 females) with chronical dyspeptic symptoms, endoscopic study was ordering to verify H. pylori infection and initiate ozonetherapy treatment. Patients were cited every 15 days for parenteral ozonated saline solution treatment and gave them full treatment for ozonated olive oil (600 meqO2) BIOZON ®. Our results after finished protocol presented positives results on decreased dyspeptic symptoms (18 cases), remaining just casual burping-up and the negative endoscopic results of 66% of the ozone treated patients. We performed a short study who represent only an estimation of the positive role of ozonetherapy in H. pylori infection. Nonetheless it takes further investigation and large epidemiological studies to propose these protocol as only effective H. pylori treatment


Digital repositories acting as resource aggregators typically face different challenges, roughly classified in three main categories: extraction, improvement and storage. The first category comprises issues related to dealing with different resource collection protocols: OAI-PMH, web-crawling, webservices, etc and their representation: XML, HTML, database tuples, unstructured documents, etc. The second category comprises information improvements based on controlled vocabularies, specific date formats, correction of malformed data, etc. Finally, the third category deals with the destination of downloaded resources: unification into a common database, sorting by certain criteria, etc. This paper proposes an ETL architecture for designing a software application that provides a comprehensive solution to challenges posed by a digital repository as resource aggregator. Design and implementation aspects considered during the development of this tool are described, focusing especially on architecture highlights. Keywords-digital repositories; data integration; data warehousing; harvesting; aggregation


Carbohydrates are important feed stocks in synthesis of natural products and so attract the interest of many organic researchers throughout the world, most notably in the last 10 years. The work described within explores the manipulation of the glucose-derived glucal. The addition of a reactive substituted cyclopropane across the alkene has been employed synthetically for many years, the subsequent ring breaking/expansion has been identified in the lab as slow and needing the support of catalysts. We ask the question, "Will cyclopropanated carbohydrates undergo the slow ring breaking/expansion in the presence of proteins, and are we able to identify which of the two types of mechanisms the reaction is going through?" The cyclopropane will act as a warhead to bind to proteins through Ferrier like rearrangements, resulting in irreversible inhibition. To identify the potential of such compounds, a combination of techniques are used to identify potential pathways, protein targets and reactivity through structure activity relationships.  The key steps involved in finding out the potential of cyclopropanated carbohydrates are to determine biological activities through bio-assays, structure activity relationships, selective binding, chemical genetics and chemical proteomics. The bio-assays together with structure activity relationships provides evidence on which chemical mechanism is occurring when the biological target is interacting with the bioactive cyclopropanated carbohydrates. The most active compound, benzose (7), was subjected to chemical genetic analysis to determine the pathways and processes that are involved with the mode of action. The chemical genetic analysis was complimented by chemical proteomics to identify the direct biological target. Analogues of benzose were synthesised by the addition of azide groups to undergo a Huisgen Cyclisation within a cell lysate to facilitate binding to an alkyne-substituted matrix.


Molecular recognition is integral to biological function and frequently involves preferred binding of a molecule to one of several exchanging ligand conformations in solution. In such a process the bound structure can be selected from the ensemble of interconverting ligands a priori (conformational selection, CS) or may form once the ligand is bound (induced fit, IF). Here we focus on the ubiquitous and conserved Hsp70 chaperone which oversees the integrity of the cellular proteome through its ATP-dependent interaction with client proteins. We directly quantify the flux along CS and IF pathways using solution NMR spectroscopy that exploits a methyl TROSY effect and selective isotope-labeling methodologies. Our measurements establish that both bacterial and human Hsp70 chaperones interact with clients by selecting the unfolded state from a pre-existing array of interconverting structures, suggesting a conserved mode of client recognition among Hsp70s and highlighting the importance of molecular dynamics in this recognition event.


The geothermal fluids in seven Japanese geothermal systems are tested for attainment of aqueous and gaseous equilibrium. The pH of fluids in the geothermal reservoir is approximately buffered by the assemblage K-feldspar–K-mica–quartz. (Na+)/(K+) and (Na+)/√(Ca2+) activity ratios are thermodynamically approximated by reactions between albite and K-feldspar, and between albite and anorthite (or Ca-zeolites), respectively. The (Mg2+)/(K+)2 activity ratio of high temperature geothermal fluids of Japan can be, represented by the reaction involving Mg-chlorite and K-bearing silicate minerals, though at lower temperatures other reactions may be responsible. The geothermal fluids are also commonly saturated with respect to anhydrite and calcite. A small amount of steam loss in the reservoir does not significantly affect the aqueous composition of the fluids. The partial pressure of CO2 is controlled by the reaction involving calcite, K-bearing silicate minerals, and albite or Ca-zeolite in geothermal systems which are not affected by steam loss and dilution. Equilibrium between CH4, CO2 and H2 is attained at high temperatures but not maintained to lower temperatures in most Japanese geothermal systems. The H2/H2S ratio is probably equilibrated with Fe-bearing minerals. Gaseous compositions are very good indicators to identify processes in the geothermal reservoir, such as boiling and dilution. Lastly, the major aqueous composition and pH of Japanese neutral Na-Cl type geothermal fluid are predictable if two variables (e.g., temperature and one of the cation activities) are provided.


Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a commonly used imaging modality in the evaluation of glaucomatous damage. The commercially available spectral domain (SD)-OCT offers benefits in glaucoma assessment over the earlier generation of time domain-OCT due to increased axial resolution, faster scanning speeds and has been reported to have improved reproducibility but similar diagnostic accuracy. The capabilities of SD-OCT are rapidly advancing with 3D imaging, reproducible registration, and advanced segmentation algorithms of macular and optic nerve head regions. A review of the evidence to date suggests that retinal nerve fibre layer remains the dominant parameter for glaucoma diagnosis and detection of progression while initial studies of macular and optic nerve head parameters have shown promising results. SD-OCT still currently lacks the diagnostic performance for glaucoma screening.


Summary: Actinomycin D-resistant RNA synthesis was detected in the cellular (VM) fraction which contains large vesicles plus mitochondria from Agrocybe aegerita. It involved the RNAase-resistant complex of naked (unencapsidated) double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). The RNA polymerase assay showed [α-32P]UTP incorporation in dsRNAs of a size corresponding to the previously described naked M-dsRNAs and in single-stranded RNAs of related size, which are assumed to act as intermediaries in the replicative cycle of the dsRNA molecules. Moreover, the incorporation of ribonucleotides into large mitochondrial dsDNA fragments was detected in the dsRNA-containing strain. This result favours a mitochondrial location for the naked dsRNAs and their associated polymerizing enzyme(s). No replication of the encapsidated large L-dsRNA viral genome was detected in the VM fraction, supporting the hypothesis that the two types of dsRNAs observed in this A. aegerita strain are independent entities.


: The information concerning general pathological changes in hair cells of the spiral organ is reviewed. The conditions for the onset, morphological picture of dystrophy, necrosis, apoptosis typical for hair cells in respect to structural and functional features of the sensory epithelium of the spiral organ are outlined. Nonspecific morphological changes of the spiral organ neuroepithelium after the action of damaging agents of different origin (such ototoxic drugs as aminoglycoside antibiotics and others, intensive acoustic impacts, ageing of the acoustic analyzer) are emphasized.


OBJECTIVES To determine whether there is a significant correlation between age and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and to explain the wide literature variations in its value. METHODS Two different groups were studied; the first (n = 403) consisted of patients undergoing prostatectomies for symptomatic benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and the second (n = 192) of patients with no evidence of prostate cancer who required no treatment. RESULTS The correlation coefficient found in the surgical group was low (0.09) and was statistically insignificant while in the second group it was much higher (0.36) and had a high statistical significance (p < 0.001). This reflected the age difference between the two groups rather than the difference in clinical characteristics as proved by the gradual decrease in the value of the coefficient by the gradual exclusion of the younger age groups. The correlation became statistically insignificant for those older than 60 years. CONCLUSIONS It is concluded that the correlation between age and PSA is a variable one showing a gradual decline in its coefficient with the gradual increase in the age of the population studied. This implies a relatively orderly rise in PSA with age up to a limit of 60 years. Beyond this age, the relationship between age and PSA becomes disorderly. This pattern of relationship can easily be explained by the known rate of growth of BPH and would explain the literature variations.


Corticosteroid prophylaxis in cardiac surgery has been studied extensively for (cid:1) 30 years, but its potential benefits and risks remain inconclusive. Small sample sizes and a wide range of doses of corticosteroid used in different studies are the major confounders affecting the interpretation of these studies. We assessed the dose-response relationship of corticosteroid in adult on-pump cardiac surgery by meta-analyzing a total of 3323 patients from 50 randomized controlled trials. Corticosteroid prophylaxis was effective in reducing serum inflammatory markers, atrial fibrillation, and length of stay in the intensive care unit and hospital compared with placebo. The number of patients needed to treat to prevent 1 atrial fibrillation was estimated to be 10. No additional benefits were found on all outcomes beyond a total dose of 1000 mg hydrocortisone or equivalent. The use of corticosteroid prophylaxis was not associated with a change in hospital mortality or an increased risk of all-cause infection. The sample size of this meta-analysis has a power of 80% to exclude a 3.5% increase in infection risk if the infection rate of the control group is 5%. Hyperglycemia requiring insulin infusion, however, was common after corticosteroid prophylaxis, and very high doses of corticosteroid ( (cid:1) 10 000 mg hydrocortisone or equiv-alent) were associated with prolonged mechanical ventilation. The current evidence suggests that low-dose corticosteroid, (cid:2) 1000 mg hydrocortisone, is safe and effective in reducing the risk of atrial fibrillation after on-pump adult cardiac surgery. Large randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm the cost-effectiveness of corticosteroid in adult cardiac surgery. See p 1853. anti-SSB/La antibodies (or both) results in a 2% to 5% risk of complete AV block, with up to 30% risk of intrauterine mortality; thus, detection of the first signs of AV conduction prolongation (first-degree AV block) is manda-tory. We used a tissue velocity–based fetal kinetocardiogram for accurate measurement of AV conduction time. We assessed AV conduction in 109 normal fetuses to define the range for normal fetal AV conduction and measured AV conduction from gestational weeks 13 to 40 in 70 fetuses exposed to maternal anti-SSA/Ro and/or SSB/La antibodies. Median acquisition and measurement time was 3 minutes. First-degree AV block, defined as (cid:1) 2 z -score prolongation of AV conduction, was found in 6 exposed fetuses (8.6%). Dexamethasone was administered to their mothers. Fetal AV conduction returned to normal within 4 to 14 days. All fetuses, including these 6, were normal after delivery. None had or developed AV block at 2 to 7 years of follow-up. We believe that tissue velocity imaging is a robust and accurate method for early diagnosis of first-degree AV block in fetuses. Although dexamethasone appeared to have a positive effect on the 6 affected fetuses, the effect of dexamethasone was not the purpose of the present study. Further prospective studies are needed to assess of the role of dexamethasone in the treatment of fetal AV block. See p 1867. non–ST-segment elevation myocardial in the LIFE study and persisted after adjustment for the greater baseline severity and prevalence of ECG left ventricular hypertrophy and the higher prevalence of other cardiovascular disorders associated with ECG strain. The independent relation of new ECG strain to increased risk in the LIFE study despite aggressive blood pressure reduction suggests that the development of new strain on the ECG may be used to identify hypertensive patients with ECG left ventricular hypertrophy who require more aggressive antihypertensive therapy aimed at further risk reduction. Further research will be required to determine whether additional treatment IIb/IIIa after primary percutaneous coronary in with acute ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction. A high loading dose of clopidogrel is before primary percutaneous coronary intervention. role of abciximab investigated in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention if after clopidogrel loading. of the Reperfusion Alternatives Evaluation-3 (BRAVE-3) trial to assess whether upstream administration of abciximab reduces infarct size in patients with ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention after treatment with 600 mg clopidogrel. Left ventricular infarct size was measured by single-photon emission computed tomography with technetium-99m sestamibi performed before discharge. Of the 800 patients enrolled in this multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial, 401 patients were assigned to receive abciximab plus a reduced dose of heparin and 399 patients to receive placebo plus a full dose of heparin. Full restoration of flow in the infarct-related artery was achieved in comparable proportions of patients in both groups. Administration of abciximab was not associated with a reduction in infarct size. In addition, this drug not reduce the combined incidence of all-cause death, recurrent myocardial infarction, stroke, and urgent revascularization of the infarct-related artery over 30 days after randomization. abciximab administration might not be needed in patients with ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction percutaneous coronary after


Background: Previous studies found that low total cholesterol level was associated with a lower risk of high-grade prostate cancer. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) isoform is associated with total cholesterol level. The aim of this study was to explore associations of ApoE isoforms with prostate cancer risk. Methods: We assessed ApoE genotypes and risk of prostate cancer in a prospective case–control study nested among men who provided a blood sample in 1993–95 within the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. We identified 1,169 incident cases of prostate cancer and 1,233 controls in follow-up through 2004. Associations of ApoE isoform and prostate cancer incidence were evaluated by logistic regression models. Results: We found no statistically significant associations of ApoE variants with overall prostate cancer or Gleason sum ≤ 7 (3+4), Gleason sum ≥ 7 (4+3), clinically localized stage, or progression to metastasis or death. There was no evidence of effect modification by circulating total cholesterol or use of cholesterol-lowering drugs prior to diagnosis. Conclusions: ApoE variants were not associated with the risk of prostate cancer or aggressive disease. Impact: Our findings suggest that the mechanism of circulating cholesterol level affecting prostate cancer incidence may not rely on ApoE isoforms. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 24(10); 1632–4. ©2015 AACR.


Summary Natural inhibitors of coagulation or inflammation such as the serpins antithrombin (AT), heparin cofactor II (HCII), and 1-proteinase inhibitor (α1-PI) can be overwhelmed in thrombosis and/or sepsis. The reactive centre (P1-P1) variant α1-PI M358R inhibits not only procoagulant thrombin but also anticoagulant activated protein C (APC). We previously described HAPI M358R, comprising a fusion of HCII residues 1–75 to the N-terminus of a1-PI M358R that yielded increased anti-thrombin, but not anti-APC activity. We hypothesized that further alterations to the HAPI M358R reactive centre loop would yield additional refinements in specificity. The reactions with thrombin or APC of recombinant α1-PI M358R variants with or without the HCII extension were characterized electrophoretically and kinetically. Their extension of clotting times and inhibition of fibrin-bound thrombin were measured, and the survival of HAPI M358R in mice was determined. Replacing the P7-P3 and P2' residues of HAPI M358R with AT residues reduced APC inhibition rates by 140-fold, but those of thrombin less than two-fold;substituting the P16-P2 and P2'-P3' residues of HAPI M358R with HCII residues reduced APC inhibition rates by 180-fold, but those of thrombin 10.5-fold. Fused variants extended thrombin clotting times more effectively than unfused inhibitors, were at least as effective at inhibiting clot-bound thrombin, and remained intact in the murine circulation. The combination of modifications inside and outside the RCL resulted in a 1,360-fold increase in selectivity of HAPI M358R (AT P7-P3/P2') for thrombin versus APC relative to α1-PI M358R. Our results predict that this protein may be effective in limiting thrombosis in vivo.


In the circumstances of small processing facilities for smoked fish production, and a particularly good fishing season, there occurs the necessity for freezing the catch in order to process it and preserve it in this way, at times when the season is not so good. To this end, the goal of our research was to examine the effect of freezing fish on the selected parameters of cold smoked, vacuum-packed trout fillets. To conduct the experiment, two groups of trout were formed: the control one, out of fresh fish, and the experimental one, out of previously frozen fish. In the course of a three week period of smoked fish storage at the temperature of 4 o C the variation of the total number of bacteria, and the total number of lactobacilli were monitored. Also, at the end of processing, the content value of water and salt were determined, as well as the content value of salt in the water phase, and aw value (water activity). By testing the bacteriological status of two groups of products during the storage period, it was determined that the total number of both bacteria and lactobacilli was smaller in the samples produced from frozen fish. The average content value of water and NaCl, as well as the salt content value in the water phase, in the vacuum-packed, smoked fillets produced from frozen fish was statistically, considerably larger than the content value of water, salt, and salt content value in the water phase in the samples manufactured from fresh fish. Our research findings show that using the raw material that was previously frozen for producing smoked fish fillets is not only appropriate, but also recommended.


Current needs of people are continuously changing due to the rapid transformation of territories, which present more and more social, virtual, environmental and urban infrastructures, which are intersected and overlapped in different and not always sustainable manner. However, some points seem to be important for the well-being of people and sustainability of places. For these reasons, the needs of more healthy, happy and liveable places are increasing, and the studies on these fields are becoming always more important to identify both the intangible and tangible aspects capable of giving a scientific point of view on the above topics. If from a part many indexes have been created, from the other these change continuously and are created with different parameters, which can sometimes give rise to a nonunivocal interpretation. Furthermore, many studies are focused only on one aspect capable of giving health, happiness and liveability and do not consider the intangible aspects suitably. The most happiest city or the most liveable place or, again, the city which is considered the healthiest are data which are more and more used to increase attractiveness and competitiveness to an area of transformation or a whole city. The use of a correct method to collect and use these data suitably is currently a need to obtain a sustainability meant in the threefold meaning, namely, social, environmental and economic one. Starting from these premises, the aim of this study is to present the main research on these topics and illustrate the original Ecoliv@ble+ design method, which was created in order to identify urban health, liveability and happiness from the users' point of view and identify sustainable design interventions to enhance or create these factors. The emblematic case of False Creek area in Vancouver, British Columbia, interested by a long process of urban regeneration, and relative observation on the method conclude the article.


Crowd sourcing has become a widely adopted scheme to collect ground truth labels. However, it is a well-known problem that these labels can be very noisy. In this paper, we demonstrate how to learn a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) from noisy labels, using facial expression recognition as an example. More specifically, we have 10 taggers to label each input image, and compare four different approaches to utilizing the multiple labels: majority voting, multi-label learning, probabilistic label drawing, and cross-entropy loss. We show that the traditional majority voting scheme does not perform as well as the last two approaches that fully leverage the label distribution. An enhanced FER+ data set with multiple labels for each face image will also be shared with the research community.


Ethyl t-butyl ether (ETBE) is a motor fuel oxygenate used in reformulated gasoline. Knowledge of developmental and reproductive toxicity potential of ETBE is critical for making informed decisions about acceptance and regulations. This review discusses toxicology studies providing information about effects on reproduction and the conceptus. Seven GLP-compliant studies following widely accepted protocols have focused specifically on developmental and reproductive toxicity (DART) in rats and rabbits exposed to ETBE by gavage with doses up to 1,000 mg/kg body weight/day, the limit specified in standardized test guidelines. Other repeat-dose general toxicology studies have administered ETBE to rodents for up to 180 days, and included reproductive organ weights, histology, or other indications of reproductive system structure or function. DART potential of the main ETBE metabolite t-butyl alcohol and class-related MTBE has also been studied. More GLP-compliant studies exist for evaluating ETBE using well-established, currently recommended protocols than are available for many other chemicals used today. The database for determining ETBE DART potential is adequate, although not all study details are currently easily accessible for peer-review. ETBE does not appear to be selectively toxic to reproduction or embryofetal development in the absence of other manifestations of general toxicity. Studies using recommended methods for sample preservation and analysis have shown no targeted effect on the reproductive system. No embryofetal effects were observed in rabbits. Early postnatal rat pup deaths show no clear dose-response and have largely been attributed to total litter losses with accompanying evidence of maternal neglect or frank maternal morbidity. Birth Defects Res (Part B) 89:239–263, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


The study of unconscious processing requires a measure of conscious awareness. Awareness measures can be either subjective (based on participant's report) or objective (based on perceptual performance). The preferred awareness measure depends on the theoretical position about consciousness, and may influence conclusions about the extent of unconscious processing and about the neural correlates of consciousness. We obtained fMRI measurements from 43 subjects while they viewed masked faces and houses that were either subjectively or objectively invisible. We show that neural representations of objectively invisible faces and houses are limited to visual (shape-related) object properties, while subjectively invisible stimuli are processed up to more abstract, categorical levels of representation. These results demonstrate that the hypothesized extent of unconscious information processing is determined by the measurement approach. Furthermore, our data show that subjective and objective approaches are associated with different neural correlates of consciousness and thus have implications for neural theories of consciousness.


Most Japanese companies are facing difficulties caused from a long term recession of Japanese economy, plagued with such questions as how to accelerate decision making process, how to make proper judgments in decision, and how to predict the future trends of concerned industry, etc. There are two main causes of these difficulties now facing most Japanese companies using the traditional so-called "Japanese management style." The first notable characteristic is the "middle up down" decision-making process, which is supported by mutual consent of all belongings to numerous groups or organizations in the same company. The second is each group or organization has its own peculiar knowledge tacit to them, called "tacit knowledge." The pressing need for most Japanese companies is to quicken the decision-making process by furthering the advantages and reassessing the disadvantages of gaining access to knowledge or information of each or organization. In this paper, first, we clarified the basic structure of the traditional decision-making process in Japan. Then second, we described the mechanism of sharing information across the groups or organizations each having its own boundary. Finally, we discussed the use of IT to cross the boundary of groups to effectively to quicken and to share communications in the decision-making process in the future of Japanese industries.


We propose the analysis of the control systems associated with ornamental lighting applied to the architectural and monumental heritage from our teaching experience developed since 2017 at the University of Cordoba--Illumination Faculty of Philosophy of Cordoba, year 2017, and Center of Experimental Culture in the Plaza de la Corredera, year 2018--and the lighting project of the facade of the Hospital de Santiago de Ubeda, Jaen. The DMX system is the one which mostly fulfill the requirements of this kind of lighting. Its implementation is increasingly simple and is associated in many cases with the type of luminaire to be used and the particularity of differential wiring. This solution allows a personalized, creative, and dynamic control and the adaptation of the daily lighting to different events of singular character. It can be used as an instrument of economic revitalization of the tourist and commercial sectors, and of diffusion of the architectural and historical heritage values. The application of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data could allow the creation of a predictive model that helps the spectral design of light sources and an objective tool that contributes to the confluence of art and science.


BACKGROUND
Data on white matter changes in corticobasal degeneration syndrome (CBDS) are not yet available, whereas cortical gray matter loss is a feature of this condition. The structural abnormalities related to a key feature of CBDS (limb apraxia) are unknown.

OBJECTIVES
To measure selective structural changes in early CBDS using diffusion tensor imaging and voxel-based morphometry and to evaluate the structural correlates of limb apraxia.

DESIGN
Patient and control group comparison.

SETTING
Referral center for dementia and movement disorders.

PARTICIPANTS
Twenty patients with CBDS and 21 matched control subjects.

INTERVENTIONS
Clinical and standardized neuropsychological evaluations, including assessment of limb apraxia.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Gray and white matter changes in early CBDS.

RESULTS
Diffusion tensor imaging revealed decreases in fractional anisotropy in the long frontoparietal connecting tracts, the intraparietal associative fibers, and the corpus callosum. Fractional anisotropy was also reduced in the sensorimotor projections of the cortical hand areas. Voxel-based morphometry showed a prevalent gray matter reduction in the left hemisphere (in the inferior frontal and premotor cortices, parietal operculum, superotemporal gyrus, and hippocampus). The pulvinar, bilaterally, and the right cerebellar cortex also showed atrophy. Limb apraxia correlated with parietal atrophy and with fractional anisotropy reductions in the parietofrontal associative fibers (P < .01). The limb-kinetic component of apraxia correlated with reduction of hand sensorimotor connecting fibers.

CONCLUSIONS
The present integrative approach to in vivo structural anatomy combines hodologic imaging, describing patterns of white matter connections between cortical areas, with neuropsychological data. This provides new evidence of gray matter and fiber tract abnormalities in early-phase disease and contributes to clarifying the neural basis of apraxia in CBDS.


The article explores the role which literacy, roads, public education, telephones and electrification play in the development of the mass media. It contends that these predictor variables or media stimulators are important in influencing mass media development, but that this influence is disproportionately exerted by telephones and levels of literacy. The article concludes that in trying to bridge the mass communication gap between the developed and the less-developed countries, better results will be achieved in investing more on telephone services, literacy programmes, electricity systems and other extra-media stimulators along with media investment.


Great advances have been made in various 3D printing methods for ceramics. Fabrication of Si‐based ceramics using polymer‐derived ceramics (PDCs) is gaining popularity. Using this route, preceramic polymers can be shaped in the polymer state and then pyrolyzed to produce different types of ceramics. Cellular ceramics can be manufactured using this technique. Herein, the novel fabrication of cellular ceramics with a two‐step process using PDCs is reported. First cellular structures are 3D printed with fused filament fabrication (FFF) using thermoplastic polyurethane and impregnated with preceramic polymer polysilazane. Second, pyrolysis of the impregnated structure produces a self‐similar ceramic cellular structure. The impact of 1) catalysts, 2) curing environment, and 3) pyrolysis sequence optimization to form cellular ceramics with fully dense SiOC(N) struts are systemically evaluated. The resultant custom ceramic components can tolerate operating temperatures of 1500 °C and can be manufactured for less than 5% of the cost of competing methods. The ceramic material is shown to be biocompatible and promotes fast cell adhesion. Finally, early‐stage cell activation on the SiOC(N) structure is shown to be tunable by adjusting the porosity with this 3D printing to mimic the bone tissue geometry for bone regeneration.


In this Letter, we report on the near-surface modification of fused silica by applying a hydrogenous atmospheric pressure plasma jet at ambient temperature. A significant decrease in UV-transmission due to this plasma treatment was observed. By the use of secondary ion mass spectroscopy, the composition of the plasma-modified glass surface was investigated. It was found that the plasma treatment led to a reduction of a 100 nm thick SiO2 layer to SiOx of gradual depth-dependent composition. For this plasma-induced layer, depth-resolved characteristic optical parameters, such as index of refraction and dispersion, were determined. Further, a significant plasma-induced increase of the concentration of hydrogen in the bulk material was measured. The decrease in transmission is explained by the plasma-induced near-surface formation of SiOx on the one hand and the diffusion of hydrogen into the bulk material on the other hand.


Coordinated cell polarity fields are essential for plant and animal development. Several models
have been proposed for how these cell polarity fields are established. However, it remains unclear
how different models are related to each other and how coordinated cell polarity fields are
generated. Here, I present a hypothesis that both plant and animal cell polarity fields are based
on a common intracellular partitioning (IP) mechanism that spontaneously generates cell polarity
independently from pre-established asymmetries. I show how plant polarity fields may be
accounted for through an auxin-mediated indirect cell-cell coupling mechanism that coordinates
polarities established by IP, and provides an explicit molecular hypothesis that is consistent with
current experimental data. I show that this model behaves similarly to a flux-based model of plant
polarity in several scenarios, and that these models make testable predictions that differ from
those of published up-the-gradient models. To test the different plant models, I use
kanadi1kanadi2 (kan1kan2) mutant Arabidopsis leaves, which develop ectopic outgrowths, as a
simple system to study the dynamics of polarity reorientations. I compare contrasting model
predictions with observed polarity changes and patterns of auxin-related gene expression
preceding the development of ectopic outgrowths. Together with an analysis of wild-type leaves,
this reveals that indirect cell-cell coupling and flux-based models are more compatible than the
up-the-gradient model with patterns of auxin biosynthesis and import in leaves. I next show that
the CUC2 transcription factor is essential for kan1kan2 outgrowth development. Through
modelling and experiments, I show that CUC2-regulation of auxin biosynthesis most-likely plays an
important role in polarity reorientations. Finally, I present models for how epidermal and subepidermal
PIN polarity patterns may be coordinated and lead to changes in growth. This work
reveals the value of comparing different computational models with experimental data when
investigating mechanisms of polarity generation.


The world production of epoxidized vegetable oil, mainly epoxidized soybean oil, is continuously increasing because this product can have a wide range of applications. Non‐edible vegetable oils, recovered by the plants growing on marginal and polluted lands, represent a possible answer to industry versus food chain debate. Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L.) seed oil can be considered as an interesting and sustainable alternative to edible soybean oil to make plasticizers. In this work, a comparison between different epoxidation methods of cardoon oil is depicted and argued, focusing on strong points and weaknesses for each of them. It is found that cardoon seed oil can be successfully epoxidized through feasible existing technologies, by peracids and hydrogen peroxide equally. Moreover, it is demonstrated that a "greener" cardoon oil epoxidation process is possible, by using hydrogen peroxide in the presence of commercial γ‐alumina as heterogeneous solid catalyst. Practical Applications: The paper analyzes the advantages and the problems of different epoxidation methods in order to obtain a final product with high quality and answer the environmental, social, and economic sustainability requirements.


The authors describe a tool called TAP, which is defined to aid the programmer in discovering the causes of timing errors in running programs. TAP is similar to a postmortem debugger, using the history of interprocess communication to construct a timing graph, a directed graph where an edge joins node x to node y if event x directly precedes event y in time. The programmer can then use TAP to look at the graph to find the events that occurred in an unacceptable order. Because of the nondeterministic nature of distributed programs, the authors feel a history-keeping mechanism but always be active so that bugs can be dealt with as they occur. The goal is to collect enough information at run time to construct the timing graph if needed. Since it is always active, this mechanism must be efficient. The authors also describe experiments run using TAP and report the impact that TAP's history-keeping mechanism has on the running time of various distributed programs. >


Ah, the flower of southern womanhood: gracious, lovely, and charming. Many features of southern culture have changed greatly over time. In one way, though, the South retains its distinctiveness: it remains the region of the country least hospitable to the election of women to office. The reasons for this are intricately, and inextricably, bound to those notions of southern womanhood. Even after virtual explosions of women's electoral activity in the mid-1970s and 1980s, and the "Year of the Woman" in 1992, the South has not yet contributed her share of stateswomen to the public realm. By 1997 eight of the ten states with the lowest percentages of women in state legislatures were former Confederate or border states, with Alabama ranking fiftieth (see Table 1). West Virginia, a border state, was among the "highest of the lowest," and another border state, Maryland, broke into the national top ten. Of the states usually thought to comprise the "South"--most often defined as the eleven former states of the Confederacy--only Florida is in the top twenty-five. None of the remaining southern states does well, if by "well" we mean having elected a meaningful number of women. North Carolina, for example, ranks thirty-second in the nation, with six out of fifty North Carolina senators who are women, and only 23 women in a 120-member state house. Texas, despite the very visible presence of elected women like former governor Ann Richards, U.S. senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, or Houston's five-term former mayor Kathy Whitmire, nonetheless ranks thirtieth, with a state legislature that is only 18.2 percent female. States with much higher percentages of women in their state legislatures, in contrast, are all, with the noted exception of Maryland, to be found in New England, the West, or the upper Midwest. Washington's state legislature is almost 40 percent female, making it number one; and the "worst of the best," the Connecticut legislature, is still more than a quarter female. Table 1. The "Best" and "Worst" States for Women's Electoral Success, 1997 Proportion of Women (%) in the Ten "Best" State Legislatures Washington 38.1 Arizona 37.8 Colorado 35.0 Nevada 33.3 Vermont 31.7 New Hampshire 31.1 Minnesota 30.3 Maryland 29.8 Kansas 29.7 Connecticut 28.9 Proportion of Women (%) in the Ten "Worst" State Legislatures West Virginia 14.9 Tennessee 13.6 Alaska 13.3 South Carolina 12.9 Pennsylvania 12.3 Mississippi 11.5 Louisiana 11.1 Oklahoma 10.1 Kentucky 9.4 Alabama 4.3 Proportion of Women (%) by Party in the Eleven Former States of the Confederacy Democrats 70.1 (183) Republicans 29.9 (78) Source: Center for the American Woman and Politics, National Information Bank on Women in Public Office Fact Sheet (March 1997). Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University. The partisan breakdown of women state legislators was calculated by the author. Table 2. Women in Southern State Legislatures, 1997 Senate Dem Rep (% Female) Alabama 2 0 (5.7) Arkansas 0 1 (2.8) Florida 2 4 (15.0) Georgia 6 1 (12.5) Louisiana 2 0 (5.1) Mississippi 3 0 (5.8) North Carolina 4 2 (12.0) South Carolina 2 1 (6.5) Tennessee 3 0 (9.1) Texas 1 2 (9.7) Virginia 6 1 (17.5) House Dem Rep (% Female) Alabama 4 0 (3. …


In this paper we present a blind low frequency watermarking scheme on gray level images, which is based on DCT transform and spread spectrum communications technique. We compute the DCT of non overlapping 8x8 blocks of the hostimage, then using the DC coefficients of each block we construct a low-resolution approximation image. We apply block based DCT on this approximation image, then a pseudo random noise sequence is added into its high frequencies. For detection, we extract the approximation image from the watermarked image, then the same pseudo random noise sequence is generated, and its correlation is computed with high frequencies of the watermarked approximation image. In our method, higher robustness is obtained because of embedding the watermark in low frequency. In addition, higher imperceptibility is gained by scattering the watermark's bit in different blocks. We evaluated the robustness of the proposed technique against many common attacks such as JPEG compression, additive Gaussian noise and median filter. Compared with related works, our method proved to be highly resistant in cases of compression and additive noise, while preserving high PSNR for the watermarked images.


This paper discusses the multi-wavelength scanning Raman lidar being built at Lidar Division, CEILAP (CITEDEF-CONICET) in the frame of the Argentinean Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) collaboration to measure the spectral characteristics of the atmospheric aerosol extinction profiles to provide better transmission calculations at the future CTA site. This lidar emits short laser pulses of 7-9 ns at 355, 532 and 1064 nm at 50 Hz with nominal energy of 125 mJ at 1064 nm. This wavelengths are also used to retrieve the atmospheric (air, aerosol and clouds) backscattered radiation in the UV, VIS and IR ranges. Raman capabilities were added in the UV and VIS wavelengths to retrieve the spectral characteristics of the aerosol extinction and the water vapor profile. Due to the expected low aerosol optical depth of the future site, the short observation period as well as the extension of the observation, an enhanced collection area is required. This system uses six 40 cm f/2.5 newtonian telescopes to avoid dealing with bigger mirror deformation, aberration issues and higher costs that imply the use of a single mirror with the same collection surface. In addition, dismounting of single mirrors for replacement or recoating will affect slightly the performance but not the operation. The additional alignment procedure has been solved by an automatic mirror alignment to follow the line of sight of the observation during the acquisition period. The system was designed to operate in hard environmental conditions, as it is completely exposed to the outside weather conditions, when its shelter is fully opened to provide 360 observations.


In the July issue of
 Cellular Microbiology, researchers provide a better understanding of how the whooping cough bacterium,
 Bordetella pertussis, causes the intense gasping cough that gives the disease its name. Using a tissue culture system in which the microbe causes the same type of damage as in humans, the researchers found that two toxic substances produced by
 B. pertussis
 work together to kill the ciliated cells in the epithelial lining of the respiratory tract that sweep away mucus. The toxins don9t work directly, however. Instead, they incite neighboring cells to produce a noxious molecule, nitric oxide, which kills the ciliated cells by an as yet unknown mechanism. With the mucus-clearing cells destroyed, coughing provides the only way to clear the airways--a result that also helps spread the bacteria to new victims.


There are growing demands to ensure animal health and, from a broader perspective, animal welfare, especially for farmed animals. In addition to the newly developed welfare assessment protocols, which provide a harmonised method to measure animal health during farm visits, the question has been raised whether data from existing data collections can be used for an assessment without a prior farm visit. Here, we explore the possibilities of developing animal health scores for fattening pig herds using a) official meat inspection results, b) data on antibiotic usage and c) data from the QS (QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH) Salmonella monitoring programme in Germany. The objective is to aggregate and combine these register-like data into animal health scores that allow the comparison and benchmark of participating pig farms according to their health status. As the data combined in the scores have different units of measure and are collected in different abattoirs with possibly varying recording practices, we chose a relative scoring approach using z-transformations of different entrance variables. The final results are aggregated scores in which indicators are combined and weighted based on expert opinion according to their biological significance for animal health. Six scores have been developed to describe different focus areas, such as "Respiratory Health", "External Injuries/ Alterations", "Animal Management", "Antibiotic Usage", "Salmonella Status" and "Mortality". These "focus" area scores are finally combined into an "Overall Score". To test the scoring method, existing routine data from 1,747 pig farm units in Germany are used; these farm units are members of the QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH (QS) quality system. In addition, the scores are directly validated for 38 farm units. For these farm units, the farmers and their veterinarians provided their perceptions concerning the actual health status and existing health problems. This process allowed a comparison of the scoring results with actual health information using kappa coefficients as a measure of similarity. The score testing of the focus area scores using real information resulted in normalised data. The results of the validation showed satisfactory agreement between the calculated scores for the project farm units and the actual health information provided by the related farmers and veterinarians. In conclusion, the developed scoring method could become a viable benchmark and risk assessment instrument for animal health on a larger scale under the conditions of the German system.


In order to investigate the functional effects of mitral valve surgery, echocardiograms showing left ventricular dimension were recorded and digitised in 14 normal subjects and 129 patients after mitral valve surgery. Measurements were made of peak rate of increase of dimension (dD/dt) and duration of rapid filling, studies on left ventriculograms in 36 patients having shown close correlation between these values and changes in cavity volume. In 14 patients with mitral stenosis, peak dD/dt was reduced to 7-2 +/ 1-5 cm/s, and filling period prolonged to 330 +/- 65 ms, compared with normal (16-0 +/- 3-2 cm/s, and 160 +/- 50 ms, respectively), and after mitral valvotomy, these values improved significantly (10-4 +/- 2-7 cm/s and 245 +/- 55 ms). Characteristic abnormalities were found in 67 patients with mitral prostheses. Values for the Björk-Shiley (10-5 +/- 4-2 cm/s and 180 +/- 80 ms) and Hancock (10-3 +/- 3-7 cm/s, 245 +/- 80 ms) values were similar, and both superior to the Starr-Edwards (7-4 +/- 3-0 cm/s, 295 +/- 105 ms). Results after mitral valve repair in 30 cases were not significantly different from normal (14-4 +/- 5-0 cm/s, 170 +/- 50 ms). Values outside the 95 per cent confidence limits for the valve in question allowed diagnosis of value malfunction in 18 cases. The method is value in comparing different operative procedures and in following up patients after mitral valve surgery.


The performance of a cryogenic system that monitors the extracranial magnetic field simultaneously at 14 positions over the scalp has been evaluated to determine the accuracy with which neuronal activity can be located within the human brain. Initially, measurements were implemented on two model systems, a lucite sphere filled with saline and a model skull. With a magnetic field strength similar to that of a human brain, the measurement and analysis procedures demonstrated a position accuracy better than 3 mm, for a current dipole 3 cm beneath the surface. Subsequently, measurements of the magnetic field pattern appearing 100 ms after the onset of an auditory tone-burst stimulus were obtained in three human subjects. The location of the current dipole representing intracellular ionic current in active neurons of the brain was determined, with 3-mm accuracy, to be within the cortex forming the floor of the Sylvian fissure of the individual subjects, corresponding closely to the Heschl gyrus as determined from magnetic resonance images. With the sensors placed at appropriate positions, the locations of neuronal sources for different tone frequencies could be obtained without moving the recording instrument. Adaptation of activity in human auditory cortex was shown to reveal long-term features with a paradigm that compared response amplitudes for three tones randomly presented.


In this paper, recent results on band A emission in chemical vapor-deposited diamond films have been analyzed within a vibronic model. The blue-band A (2.8 eV) spectra from undoped diamond films grown by two different techniques have been simulated using the same phonon density distribution g(Omega) and Huang-Rhys factor (S). The same g(Omega) at higher S gives a good fit with the green band A (2.32 eV) as well. This model provides a reasonable alternative approach to the long standing donor-acceptor pair recombination model.


Developing applications considering reactiveness, scalability and re-usability has always been at the center of attention of robotic researchers. Behavior-based architectures have been proposed as a programming paradigm to develop robust and complex behaviors as integration of simpler modules whose activities are directly modulated by sensory feedback or input from other models. The design of behavior based systems, however, becomes increasingly difficult as the complexity of the application grows. This article proposes an approach for modeling and coordinating behaviors in distributed architectures based on port arbitration which clearly separates representation of the behaviors from the composition of the software components. Therefore, based on different behavioral descriptions, the same software components can be reused to implement different applications.


This book is the second in a series of volumes which cover the topic of aerospace actuators following a systems-based approach. This second volume brings an original, functional and architectural vision to more electric aerospace actuators. The aspects of signal (Signal-by-Wire) and power (Power-by-Wire) are treated from the point of view of needs, their evolution throughout history, and operational solutions that are in service or in development. This volume is based on an extensive bibliography, numerous supporting examples and orders of magnitude which refer to flight controls and landing gear for various aircraft (fixed or rotorwing, launchers) in commercial, private and military applications. The topics covered in this set of books constitute a significant source of information for individuals and engineers from a variety of disciplines, seeking to learn more about aerospace actuation systems and components.


H-Y (male) antigen was visually located on mouse sperm by electron microscopy, by use of the indirect hybrid antibody method and tobacco mosaic virus as the visual marker. Labeling was achieved by centrifugation of the sperm through a discontinuous gradient consisting of alternating layers of immune reagents and wash solutions. Treated sperm were examined topographically by preparation of platinum-carbon replicas. Antigen was located mainly on the acrosomal cap of the sperm head.


the daursky State Biosphere Reserve (SBR) in southern Siberia includes the torey Lakes, the largest lakes in the Trans-Baikal region. The Torey Lakes support tens of thousands of breeding waterbirds and about a million waterbirds during migration. Peak numbers of birds staging during fall coincide with grain harvest. Crop fields around the Torey Lakes attract 50,000 to 70,000 waterbirds, primarily cranes with lesser numbers of waterfowl, causing significant crop damage in fields near Daursky SBr. Investigations of the problem have been ongoing since 1992. Field consultation by Cornely and Bouffard in 2001 resulted in recommendations to reduce depredations. The consultation was initiated by The International Crane Foundation with funding from The Trust for Mutual Understanding, and with support from the Daursky State Biosphere Reserve and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Implementation of the recommendations resulted in a significant reduction of crop damage. Changes in management practices implemented included moving main grain fields 10-15 km from roost sites, cultivation of lure crops near roost sites, and leaving fallow fields uncultivated to facilitate the growth of green bristlegrass (Setaria viridis), a preferred food item of cranes. The program is currently supported by the cooperative farms without government subsidies, as the lure crop program costs about one tenth of the previous damage. ProcEEDINGS of thE North AmErIcAN crANE WorkShoP 10:65–70


Background: We have hypothesized that different factors are involved in the severity of ACD and AD because some but not all patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) present with allergic conjunctival disease (ACD) including severe types such as atopic keratoconjunctivitis (AKC) with/without giant papillae. We previously reported that plasma miR-628-3p was up-regulated in AD with severe ACD, but not in severe AD without severe ACD or in our healthy controls. In this study, to investigate the pathogenesis of AD with and without severe ACD, we performed comprehensive plasma miRNA analysis and studied the function of some miRNAs which were significantly up-regulated in ACD. Methods: Transcriptomics analysis of miRNA was performed using the microarray platform from the plasma of nine individuals (AD, severe ACD, controls: n = 3 each). To confirm up-regulation of the 12 miRNAs of the eight miRNA groups we focused on, we performed quantitative miRNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays using 80 plasma samples (AD: 23, severe ACD: 17, controls: 40). To study the function of the eight miRNAs which were significantly up-regulated in ACD, we transfected their mimic to THP-1 cells, a monocyte cell line, and performed comprehensive gene expression analysis of them. The up-regulation of gene expression of interest in transfected THP-1 cells with the hsa-let-7a-5p miRNA mimic was confirmed by quantitative RT-qPCR assay. Results: Quantitative miRNA PCR assays showed that hsa-let-7a-5p, hsa-let-7days-3p, hsa-let-7e-5p, and hsa-miR-151a-5p were significantly up-regulated in both AD-ACD + and AD-ACD - as were hsa-miR-130a-3p, hsa-miR-151a-3p, has-miR-27b-3p, and hsa-miR-146a-5p in AD-ACD + but not in AD-ACD - . The functions of each miRNA were investigated by comprehensive gene expression analysis of THP-1 cells transfected with each miRNA mimic. Of the eight miRNAs, hsa-let-7a-5p, hsa-let-7e-5p, has-miR-27b-3p, and hsa-miR-146a-5p mimic-transfected THP-1 cells showed the up-regulation of CXCL10 (IP-10; interferon gamma-induced protein 10), which might be one of the innate immune-related genes. Quantitative RT-qPCR assays of transfected THP-1 cells with the hsa-let-7a-5p miRNA mimic showed that the 17 genes up-regulated more than 10-fold in the comprehensive gene expression analysis, and TLR3, RIG-I, and MDA5, important innate immune-related genes, were significantly up-regulated. TNFSF13B, AIM2, USP41, STAP1, GBP4, CCL8, and IFI27, reportedly down-regulated by the hsa-miR-628-3p mimic, were also significantly up-regulated in the transfected cells. Conclusion: Hsa-let-7a-5p, which was significantly up-regulated in AD-ACD + and AD-ACD - , could positively regulate the important innate immune-related genes such as TLR3, RIG-I, and MDA5. It is possible that in an allergic disease such as atopic keratoconjunctivitis and/or dermatitis, innate immune responses might be positively regulated by hsa-let-7a-5p in the plasma.


Terence Donovan was one of the foremost photographers of his generation among the greatest Britain has ever produced. He came to prominence in London as part of a postwar renaissance in art, fashion, graphic design and photography. Alongside David Bailey and Brian Duffy, photographers of a similar working-class background and outlook, Donovan was a new force in fashion photography. Together, they captured and helped create the Swinging 60s. They socialized with celebrities and royalty, and found themselves elevated to stardom in their own right. Gifted with an unerring eye for the iconic image, Donovan was also master of his craft, a technical genius who pushed the limits of what was possible with a camera. And yet despite his fame and status, there has never been a publication devoted to his fashion work, for he allowed none to be released during his lifetime. "Terence Donovan Fashion" is thus the first time his fashion pictures have been collected together in book form. Arranged chronologically, from the gritty monochromatic 1960s and 1970s to the vibrant and colourful 1980s and 1990s, the book reveals how his constant invention and experimentation not only set him apart from his contemporaries, but also influenced generations to come. Contributions from some of the many designers, models and art directors who worked with him provide fascinating insights into his practice. Compiled by the artists widow Diana Donovan and former art director of "Nova magazine" and Pentagram partner David Hillman, who worked closely with Donovan for over a decade, and including an illuminating text by Robin Muir, ex-picture editor of "Vogue", and foreword by Grace Coddington, creative director of "American Vogue" and advisor to the project, "Terence Donovan Fashion" is indisputably a landmark in the history of fashion photography.


Recent scholarship suggests that the gay/lesbian idyllisation of rural places is an urban construct, constituted through metropolitan sensibilities, communities and imaginaries. We extend this work through examining the construction of Daylesford, Victoria, as a 'gay/lesbian rural idyll'. Daylesford annually hosts ChillOut, Australia's largest rural gay/lesbian festival, which underpins its idyllisation. Utilising data drawn from fieldwork conducted at the 2006 festival and commentaries circulated in the gay/lesbian media, we argue that not only is Daylesford idyllised in the Australian gay/lesbian imaginary, but that rurality and urbanity are hybridised in its framing as a 'gay/lesbian rural idyll'. This is manifested in several ways: discursively, as the 'gay capital of country Victoria'; spatially, through enabling proximity to Melbourne; materially, as a rustic setting for upmarket stores/services typically associated with the cosmopolitan inner-city. We thus show how the 'gay/lesbian rural idyll' is an urban construct not only in the gay/lesbian imaginary, but also when spatialised in a rural place.


In this study, wood plastic composites (WPC) material were fabricated with wood flour and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). To improve the interfacial compatibility between the wood flour and the PVC, silane method (SM) and tianate method(TM) were used to treat the wood flour, maleic anhydride copolymerized PVC with dicumyl peroxide. The effects of wood flour content, surface treatment on the mechanical properties of WPC materials were investigated. Fracture surfaces of tests specimens were analysis by SEM. Test results indicate that WPC material with wood flour treated by SM or TM together with PVC copolymerized showed good mechanical properties.


Abstract The thermodynamic model of the two-feldspar thermometer has been revised. From recent enthalpy and volume measurements in the (Na,Ca)- and (K,Ca)-feldspar binaries, new interaction parameters have been derived and previous ones have been updated. Entropy parameters have been fitted to the phase equilibrium data of Seck (1971) and Elkins and Grove (1990). The two data sets could be suitably combined into one. Ideal Ab, Or, and An activities have been expressed in terms of both the molecular mixing and Al-avoidance models. Two-feldspar pairs from high-grade metamorphic rocks that cooled slowly under dry conditions suffer from a distinct type of retrograde resetting. Whereas the original An content in both the plagioclase and the alkali feldspar is preserved because the intercrystalline Ca + Al ↔ (Na,K) + Si diffusion is sluggish, Na and K may be freely exchanged between phases. Mathematical reversal of the Na-K exchange at constant An yields the temperature at which the two feldspars originally coexisted. The shifts in Ab and Or contents obtained from the reversal reflect the relative plagioclase/alkali feldspar proportions observed in thin sections. Good agreement between calculated and measured ratios was found for feldspar pairs from Sri Lankan granulites. This observation represents a successful test of the reliability of the calculated Ab-Or shifts. In contrast to dry metamorphic rocks, similar application of chemical constraints is not indicated in the case of volcanic rocks. Then the two-feldspar thermometer delivers three, usually incongruent temperatures: T(Ab), T(Or), and T(An). From the abundance of temperatures, Fuhrman and Lindsley (1988) suggested adjusting compositions within assumed chemical uncertainties (e.g., ±2 mol%) so that congruent temperatures could be obtained. However, the result is not unique. Depending on minute variations in the starting compositions, the temperatures may vary by several tens of degrees. In addition, temperatures vary to a similar extent depending on the type of search algorithm. Therefore, we advise users to completely abandon this practice. Instead, a statistical procedure is suggested: Two-feldspar compositions are randomly generated according to Gaussian distributions with their means at the observed compositions and standard errors chosen according to the quality of the chemical analysis. This procedure returns normally distributed temperatures [T(Ab), T(Or), T(An)] together with means and standard deviations. From the overlap of the three Gaussian curves the question of equilibrium or non-equilibrium crystallization of feldspar pairs may be addressed.


Abstract. This paper presents an experience of 3D modeling starting from laser scanning data and following two alternative approaches: the first one, called "Advanced 3D modeling", based on an original meshing algorithm, while the second make use of Revit BIM software.The case study in Palace Ettoreo in Sacile (Pordenone, Italy), constructed in Renaissance Venetian style in the 16th century: it has a trapezoid plan and is developed on three floors, with the ground one endowing a portico on two façades.The palace has been surveyed by two terrestrial laser scanners: a Riegl Z420i for 5 external scans and a FARO Photon 120 for 53 internal scans; also a topographic surveying of 270 targets have been carried out. The final TLS cloud has 1,4 billions of points.The Advanced 3D modeling has produced a "smart" mesh, allowing also to model the elements with deformations (out of plumb, bulges and troughs). Moreover, this model drastically reduce the stored data: the whole palace is modeled by 111.496 polygons only.The modeling with Revit follows the classical flowchart where the principal architectonical elements are gradually composed: this HBIM process has required a strong manual work in exploiting the available parametric objects and/or in the definition of new objects.Comparing the two models with respect the points cloud, both have evidenced advantages and limitations: therefore, the best solution is a process involving their combination. At the beginning, the Advanced 3D modeling is performed onto the points cloud, so well exploiting the segmentation tools and the smart meshing of the surfaces preserving any geometrical irregularity. Such obtained model allows metrical and morphological evaluation on the various structural and architectonical elements. Afterwards, this very light model becomes the entry data for the modeling in BIM environment, where also the shape of irregular elements are so imported.


Starting from the assumption that the description of works of art in Herondas' Mimiamb 4 (like the other ekphraseis in Theocritus, Posidippus or Apollonius) shows an important connection with the literary program of the poet, the article investigates in particular the affinity between Herondas and the official painter of Alexander the Great, Apelles, whose realistic accuracy in portraying everything was famous in antiquity. Herondas, like Apelles, was a victim of his enemies'envy. Furthermore, as Apelles seemed not to appreciate Antiphilus, a painter who invented the caricatures called "Grylloi", so Herondas seems not to accept the caricatural element in his verses (the article offers a new allegorical interpretation of Gryllos in Mimiamb 1). Maybe the ancient poet Hipponax, another important model for Herondas, could have had the same attitude fighting against the sculptor Boupalos, who, according to the tradition, showed a comic figure of Hipponax himself to laugh.


As cities have become home for 50% of the world"s population, urban systems have definitely caught public attention. The urban metabolism can be improved by transforming their linear behavior into a more circular one. This paper is based on a project initiated by the Division of Environmental Technology and Management at Linkoping university, financed by Vinnova: Megatech. The aim is to study the megacities of Cairo and Mexico City in order to understand some of the problems they are facing. By improving their energy and material flows behavior, these megacities can benefit from the reduction of their dependence on fossil fuels and virgin materials; the protection of part of their social, economic and productive systems from external factors (e.g. political drawbacks, shortage/distribution problems, international prices); an increased effectiveness of their planning activities-as they would be based to a large extent on their own resources-and the reduction of their environmental burden. An in situ study will take place with the participation of local stakeholders. Information about environmental problems will be collected and potential solutions will be analyzed and suggested. A tentative model is presented, showing how the reinsertion of the outflows into the urban system could benefit these cities" overall environmental performance.


The syntheses and physical properties of {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]X (X=Br and Cl) are summarized. The {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]Br salt is the highest {Tc} radical-cation based ambient pressure organic superconductor ({Tc}=11.6 K), and the {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]Cl salt becomes a superconductor at even higher {Tc} under 0.3 kbar hydrostatic pressure ({Tc}=12.8 K). The similarities and differences between {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]Br and {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu(NCS){sub 2} ({Tc}=10.4 K) are presented. The X-ray structures at 127 K reveal that the the S{hor_ellipsis}S contacts shorten between ET dimers in the former compound while the S{hor_ellipsis}S contacts shorten within dimers in the latter. The difference in their ESR linewidth behavior is also explained in terms of the structural differences. A semiconducting compound, (ET)Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]{sub 2}, isolated during {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]Cl synthesis is also reported. The ESR measurements of the {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]Cl salt indicate that the phase transition near 40 K is similar to the spin density wave transition in (TMTSF){sub 2}SbF{sub 6}. A new class of organic superconductors, {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu{sub 2}(CN){sub 3} and {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu{sub 2}(CN){sub 3}-{delta}Br{delta}, is reported with {Tc}`s of 2.8 K (1.5 kbar) and 2.6 K (1 kbar), respectively.


Residual feed intake (RFI), defined as the difference between an animal's actual feed intake and expected feed intake over a specific period, is an inheritable character of feed conversion efficiency in dairy cows. Research has shown that a lower RFI could improve the profitability of milk production. This study explored variation in RFI by comparing the differences in body size, milk performance, feeding behavior, and serum metabolites in 29 Holstein cows in mid lactation. The cows were selected from a total of 84 animals based on their RFI following feedlot tests. Selected cows were ranked into high RFI (RFI >1 SD above the mean, n=14) and low RFI (RFI<1 SD below the mean, n=15). The low RFI cows (more efficient) consumed 1.59 kg/day less dry matter than the high RFI group (P<0.01), while they produced nearly equal 4% fat-corrected milk. The milk : feed ratio was higher for the low RFI group than for the high RFI group (P<0.05). The levels of milk protein (P<0.01), total solids (P<0.05), and nonfat solids (P<0.05) were also higher for the low RFI group, whereas milk urea nitrogen was lower (P<0.01). The daily feeding duration was shorter for the low RFI group than for the high RFI group (P<0.01). No significant differences were found in levels of glucose, β-hydroxybutyrate, prolactin, insulin, IGF-1, growth hormone or ghrelin, but the level of neuropeptide Y was higher (P<0.01) and levels of leptin and non-esterified fatty acid (P<0.05) were lower for the low RFI group than for the high RFI group. There were substantial differences between cows with different RFI, which might affect the efficiency of milk protein metabolism and fat mobilization.


Nowadays, the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) approach has become one of the most advanced engineering methods used for mobile robots to build maps in unknown or inaccessible spaces. Update maps before a certain area while tracking current location and distance. The motivation behind writing this paper is mainly to help us better understand about SLAM and the study situation of SLAM in the world today. Through this, we find the optimal algorithm for moving robots in three dimensions.


An improved face detection and recognition method based on information of skin color is proposed in this paper. Color is a powerful fundamental cue of human faces. Skin color detection is first performed on the input color image to reduce the computational complexity. Morphological operations are used and it gives a prior knowledge for face detection. Face is detected by Adaboost algorithm. AdaBoost learning is used to choose a small number of weak classifiers and to combine them into a strong classifier deciding whether an image is a face or not. Then, by using principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm, a specific face can be recognized by comparing the principal components of the current face to those of the known individuals in a facial database built in advance. Keywords—PCA; Adaboost; Morphological; insert.


Bacterial expression of mouse gene Erk-1 yielded an active kinase with the same substrate specificity shown for ERK1 protein purified from rat cells. Although rat gene ERK1 is believed to encode a serine/threonine kinase based on sequence data and known ERK1 substrate phosphorylation sites, bacterially-produced mouse Erk-1 (bt-Erk-1) autophosphorylated on tyrosine in addition to serine and threonine residues. The bt-Erk-1 protein also had the capacity to reactivate the ribosomal protein S6 kinase (S6KII). Furthermore, treatment of bt-Erk-1 with either serine/threonine-specific phosphatase 2A or tyrosine-specific phosphatase 1B significantly decreased its kinase activity. These findings predict that autophosphorylation may play an important role in Erk-1/ERK1 regulation.


Target costing is determining the expected cost of a product based on competitive prices, so that the product will be able to obtain the expected profit. This study aims to find out the process of cost control service using target costing system and its impact on corporate profits. The research was conducted on the CV. Mahakam Jaya Safety which is located in the village of Sungai Pinang in Jl. A proclamation no. 78 Samarinda. CV. Mahakam Jaya Safety is one of the companies engaged in services which service tube fire extinguishers or a fire extinguisher. Pursuant to the results of research conducted, the authors conclude that the presence of target costing, the company can exercise control over the cost better than the method which has been used by the company. Proven by an increase in profits from the company.


Radial growth characteristics of a high-elevation shrub species, sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), were investigated at four sites in a river valley at altitudes ranging from 3,333 to 3,820 m a.s.l. close to the terminus of the July First Glacier in the western Qilian Mountains of northwestern China. Radial growth of the sea buckthorn was significantly and positively correlated with the mean monthly temperature in June of the current growing season. Based on the fact that fluctuations in the shrub's radial growth and the glacier's equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) are affected by climatic variables, a tree-ring width chronology of the four sites was used to reconstruct the ELA from 1950 to 2003. The resulting ELA model explained more than 55.3% of the variance in the ELA of the July First Glacier series. On a decadal time scale, the cumulative-departure curve of the reconstructed ELA series showed an increasing trend from the 1950s to the mid-1960s, followed by a descending trend from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. The ELA appears to have remained stable from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, but has displayed dramatic variations during the past decade.


A need for low‐carbon world has added a new challenging dimension for the long‐term energy scenarios development. In addition to the traditional factors like technological progress, demographic, economic, political, and institutional considerations, there is another aspect of the modern energy forecasts related to the coverage, timing, and stringency of policies to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. Modern tools for the energy scenario development provide a good basis for the estimates of the required changes in the energy system to achieve certain climate and environmental targets. While the current scenarios show that a move to a low‐carbon energy future requires a drastic change in energy investment and the resulting mix in energy technologies, the exact technology mix, paths to the needed mix, price, and cost projections should be treated with a great degree of caution. The scenarios do not provide exact predictions, but they can be used as a qualitative analysis of decision‐making risks associated with different pathways. If history is any guide, energy scenarios overestimate the extent to which the future will look like the recent past. As future costs and the resulting technology mixes are uncertain, a wise government policy is to target emissions reductions from any source, rather than focus on boosting certain kinds of low‐carbon energy. WIREs Energy Environ 2017, 6:e242. doi: 10.1002/wene.242


Recent literature suggests that coaches play a significant role in creating a climate that fosters self-determined motivation among athletes. Coaching style influences athlete perception, motivation, and performance. Research supports that an autonomy-supportive coaching style is an effective motivational tool for coaches, whereas a controlling coaching style is ineffective. Previous research has shown that an autonomy-supportive interpersonal style increases self-determined motivation among athletes. However, previous research typically includes only one interpersonal coaching style. In addition, there is minimal research looking at needs satisfaction mediating the relationship between coaching behavior and athlete motivation through the SDT continuum. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of autonomy-supportive and controlling coaching behaviors with high school athletes' motivation as well as needs satisfaction. High school athletes from the Western region of North Carolina (n=162) completed the Coach Behavior Scale in Sport, Controlling Coach Behavior Scale, Behavior Regulation in Sport Questionnaire, and the Basic Needs Satisfaction Sport Scale. Correlations and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze relationships among coaching behaviors, needs satisfaction, and motivation. The hypotheses were 1) autonomy-supportive coaching behavior is positively related to higher forms of self-determined motivation and needs satisfaction, 2) controlling coaching behavior is negatively related to self-determined forms of motivation and needs satisfaction, and3) needs satisfaction mediates the relationship between coaching behavior and athlete motivation. As predicted, autonomy-supportive coaching behavior was positively and significantly correlated with higher forms of self-determined motivation (intrinsic: r=.463; integrated: r=.512; and identified: r=.558), whereas controlling coaching behavior was positively and significantly correlated with more extrinsic forms of motivation (external: r=.411 and amotivation: r=.279). Autonomy-supportive coaching behavior was positively correlated with all three needs (competence: r=.479, autonomy: r=.583, and relatedness: r=.582), and in turn, the three needs positively predicted higher forms of self-determined motivation. Multiple regression results indicate that the relationships of autonomy-supportive and controlling coaching behaviors with motivation are partially mediated by perceived needs satisfaction, but the relationships differed for different forms of motivation. Evidence for mediation was strongest for intrinsic motivation, and for integrated motivation and identified motivation, autonomous coach behavior added to the prediction suggesting the relationship was not fully mediated by needs satisfaction. For external regulation, controlling coaching behavior was a strong direct predictor with no evidence of mediation. The results indicate that autonomy-supportive coaching behavior predicts need satisfaction and enhances athlete motivation whereas controlling coaching behavior reduces self-determined motivation. Therefore, coaches are advised to use strategies that promote autonomy, such as providing options, giving athletes opportunities to make decisions, and allowing athletes to feel involved.


Edmund Burke is often considered an arch-critic of enthusiasm in its various religious and secular forms. This article complicates this understanding by situating Burke's writings against the backdrop of eighteenth-century treatments of enthusiasm as a disturbance of the imagination. The early Burke, this article shows, was actually sympathetic to attempts by the Third Earl of Shaftesbury and others to rehabilitate enthusiasm for politics and rescue it from popular derision. Next, the author reveals how Burke firmly resisted attempts to frame anti-Protestant violence in Ireland in terms of religious delusion or enthusiasm, and was alert to the political dangers posed by policies legitimated by that framing. Finally, the article calls into question the close association often posited between the enthusiasm Burke saw in the French Revolution and earlier religious enthusiasms of the seventeenth association often posited between the enthusiasm Burke saw in the French Revolution and earlier religious enthusiasms of the seventeenth century.


Background Unintentional drowning remains a leading cause of injury-related death, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In 2004, approximately 388 000 people died from drowning, of which 96% occurred in LMIC. In 2001, the Taipei city government launched a school-based swimming programme aimed to reduce drowning. An evaluation of the impact of the swimming programme provides a better understanding to further prevent this global public health burden. Research Objectives 1. to examine the impact of a comprehensive school-based swimming programme on drowning; 2. to explore the association between urbanisation and drowning. Methods (1) Difference in differences (DID) is used to examine the impact of swimming programme on drowning; (2) time-series panel approach is used to assess the association between urbanisation and drowning mortality among 23 jurisdictions from 1980 to 2001. Results Swimming education was associated with a faster decline in drowning among policy-intervened groups. A 'cross-over' change, of which a policy-targeted group declined faster (from 6.7 to 1.7/100 000) and becomes lower in drowning compared to a non-intervened group (from 5.7 to 3.7/100 000, p value 0.023). Urbanisation was associated with the decline of drowning after controlling for medical services and household disposable income (p value=0.03 in fixed effect, multivariate regression model). Medical service was not associated with the drowning decline in Taiwan. Significance/Contribution to the Field This study provides empirical evidence supporting a protective effect of a school-based swimming programme. It explained urbanisation as a background influence on drowning in the last few decades before any deliberate intervention was promoted.


A loss of grassy cover accompanied by the development of bare soil patches, are the most notable forms of rangeland degradation in grasslands of South Africa. Concerns are growing over the threat of loss of nutritious perennial grass species and the lack of regrowth of the bare patches. Grazing and different rangeland tenure systems -communal and freehold, which is equal to continuous and rotational grazing system - are considered to be of major importance for rangeland degradation. The continuous grazing system is seen to be more affected, but the development of bare patches is not restricted to communal land. We hypothesized that (1) soil properties of bare patches in South Africa´s grasslands are not different in different tenure systems, and (2) soil properties differ with size of bare patches, where big patches are more degraded.
To test this, we sampled soils at communal and commercial land in the Thaba Nchu area of South Africa with the following design: we selected three farms per tenure system, 6 randomly chosen plots (100x100m) per farm, and within these plots we sampled 5 bare patches of different sizes (0-10 cm) per plot, where the soil sample (3 replicates) were taken out of the middle of the bare patch. Additionally, soils of adjacent grass were sampled. The results showed that in total, there were more bare patches in continuous grazing systems, evaluated by aerial pictures, but we couldn´t find any differences in bulk density and carbon stocks, between the tenure systems. Additionally, and surprisingly, we found no significant differences in soil organic carbon stocks between bare soil samples and grass samples. There was no clear relationship between bare patch size and nutrient contents. Other nutrients like phosphor were significantly enlarged at the bare patch compared to the grass samples. According to our results, we conclude, that the bare patches seem to develop in different pathways: i) along tracks of grazing animals, (ii) around termite hills, where the termite construction seems to be an initial starting point of bare patches and (iii) on staying and lying places of the grazing animals, which aslo explain the higher nutrient contents at the bare patches.


Green-leaf volatiles are commonly emitted from mechanically and herbivore-damaged plants. Derived from the lipoxygenase pathway, these compounds may serve as attractants to predators and parasitoids of herbivores, prevent the spread of bacteria and fungi, and induce several important plant defense pathways. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the major volatile released upon mechanical wounding of the leaves is the GLV ester, (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl acetate. We have characterized a member of the BAHD acyltransferase gene family At3g03480 which catalyzes the formation of (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl acetate from acetyl-CoA and (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol. The encoded acetyl CoA:(Z)-3-hexen-1-ol acetyltransferase (CHAT) has the ability to accept several medium-chain-length aliphatic and benzyl-derived alcohols, but has highest catalytic efficiency with (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol. The highest expression of CHAT occurs in the leaves and stems. Upon mechanical damage, the (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl acetate emission peaked after 5 min and declined to pre-damage levels after 90 min. However, CHAT gene transcript levels increased much more slowly with the highest levels detected between 3 and 6 h after wounding. An increase in CHAT enzyme activity in vitro followed the transcript increase, with levels peaking between 10 and 12 h after wounding. Plants expressing either an RNAi cassette for the CHAT gene or plants harboring a T-DNA insertion in the CHAT coding region had greatly reduced (Z)-3-hexen-1-yl acetate emission, showing that the CHAT enzyme is responsible for the in planta production of this ester.