Abstract. A quasi chemistry-transport model mode (QCTM) is presented for the numerical chemistry-climate simulation system ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC). It allows for a quantification of chemical signals through suppression of any feedback between chemistry and dynamics. Noise would otherwise interfere too strongly. The signal is calculated from the difference of two QCTM simulations, a reference simulation and a sensitivity simulation. In order to avoid the feedbacks, the simulations adopt the following offline chemical fields: (a) offline mixing ratios of radiatively active substances enter the radiation scheme, (b) offline mixing ratios of nitric acid enter the scheme for re-partitioning and sedimentation from polar stratospheric clouds, (c) and offline methane oxidation is the exclusive source of chemical water-vapor tendencies. Any set of offline fields suffices to suppress the feedbacks, though may be inconsistent with the simulation setup. An adequate set of offline climatologies can be produced from a non-QCTM simulation using the setup of the reference simulation. Test simulations reveal the particular importance of adequate offline fields associated with (a). Inconsistencies from (b) are negligible when using adequate fields of nitric acid. Acceptably small inconsistencies come from (c), but should vanish for an adequate prescription of chemical water vapor tendencies. Toggling between QCTM and non-QCTM is done via namelist switches and does not require a source code re-compilation.


The purpose of this article is to present four content specific vignettes or open cases that can be used for research studies and in methods classes to foster conceptual understanding on teaching and learning. A discussion of why and how to use vignettes and the importance of content specific vignettes are presented. Two chemistry and two physics vignettes are described and included as appendices. In addition, tables are provided that give the pedagogical and content issues and problems associated with the vignettes. Correct content statements are also included so that these can be used in research studies and methods classes. Suggestions and implications are included to guide researchers in the potential areas of implementation.


Introduction: Shoulder pain is one of the most common complaints after cesarean section that sometimes may be serious and cause malfunction of mothers in breastfeeding and neonatal care. As one of the causes of shoulder pain is referred pain caused by diaphragm irritation due to existence of blood and amniotic fluid in the peritoneal cavity after surgery, we decided to investigate the comparison between placing surgical sponges on both sides of uterus and reverse trendelenburg position of 30 degree to reduce the incidence of shoulder pain after cesarean section with spinal anesthesia. Methods: This three blind clinical trial was conducted on 201 women undergoing cesarean section in Niknafas hospital of Rafsanjan, Iran in 2011. Women were randomly divided into three groups. Surgeries were performed by two surgeons equally in each group. In group A, spinal anesthesia was performed and 2 surgical sponges with a radio opaque line impregnated with normal saline were placed on both sides of uterus and operation continued in supine position with no angle with horizon line. In group B, patients were operated in reverse trendelenburg position of 30 degree to horizon line without placing surgical sponges. In group C, cesarean was performed without any surgical sponges and in supine position. Severity of shoulder pain was assessed 24 hours after surgery in right, left or both shoulders in all patients. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 18) and one way ANOVA, chi-square, Post-hoc tests and t-test. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Mean of pain severity had no significant differences between the three sites of pain (p=0.728). No significant differences were observed in pain severity between the three groups (p=0.111) and between the operations were performed by the two surgeons (p=0.430). Conclusion: According to no statistically significant difference between groups in pain severity, there might be another agent exclusive of blood and amniotic fluid that irritates diaphragm and cause shoulder pain.


The paper presents the analysis of various mathematical models for dynamics of isolated population and for competition between two species. It is assumed that mortality is continuous and birth of individuals of new generations takes place in certain fixed moments. Influence of winter upon the population dynamics and conditions of classic discrete model "deduction" of population dynamics (in particular, Moran-Ricker and Hassel's models) are investigated. Dynamic regimes of models under various assumptions about the birth and death rates upon the population states are also examined. Analysis of models of isolated population dynamics with nonoverlapping generations showed the density changes regularly if the birth rate is constant. Moreover, there exists a unique global stable level and population size stabilizes asymptotically at this equilibrium, i.e. cycle and chaotic regimes in various discrete models depend on correlation between individual productivity and population state in previous time. When the correlation is exponential upon mean population size the discrete Hassel model is realized. Modification of basis model, based on the assumption that during winter survival/death changes are constant, showed that population size at global level is stable. Generally, the dependence of population rate upon "winter parameters" has nonlinear character. Nonparametric models of competition between two species does not vary if the individual productivity is constant. In a phase space there are several stable stationary states and population stabilizes at one or other level asymptotically. So, in discrete models of competition between two species oscillation can be explained by dependence of population growth rate on the population size at previous times.


Summary The work reported is a part of the studies on the properties of pneumotoxin and its probable role in the pathology of lobar pneumonia. Previous investigators (Clough, Weil, Steinfield and Kolmer) working with dried, autolyzed or heat-killed pneumococci failed to elicit any constant reaction in cases of lobar pneumonia. The present authors used the endocellular hemolytic toxin of the pneumococcus freshly prepared for each test by dissolving the washed living organisms (type I) in solutions of sodium choleate. Guinea-pigs previously sensitized with sublethal doses of pneumotoxin or with the serum or lung exudate of dogs suffering from experimental lobar pneumonia, reacted to the intracutaneous injection of 0.1 cc. of the toxin by a local erythema and hemorrhagic edema in the subcutaneous tissue overlying the muscle. The skin reaction to heat-killed pneumococci was negative in most of these animals and when positive, was of a suppurative type, marked by less edema and more leucocytosis. Control animals gave uniformly negative results. Among human adult cases of lobar penumonia the reaction (which was characteristically that of a local edema and erythema) was elicited as early as the fifth and as late as the thirteenth day of the disease (two days before and six days after the crisis, respectively). In children it was demonstrable about the same time, but was negative immediately or one or two days after the crisis. Patients recovering by lysis reacted as late as the thirty-second day. In general, the test was positive in all active cases, that is, throughout the toxemia. Cases earlier than the fifth day of the disease were not available. Control patients, suffering with broncho-pneumonia or with acute or chronic infections not of pneumococcic origin, as well as healthy adults and children did not react. The reaction is regarded as indicative of a state of allergy to pneumotoxin. Sensitization to the toxin presumably takes place with its liberation (by the action of normal body enzymes upon pneumococci normally localized in the lung alveoli) at the time of the prolonged chilling due to exposure. Failure to elicit the reaction during convalescence indicates the establishment of a temporary immunity or the disappearance of the toxin. This skin test does not as yet seem to be of value as a method of serological type diagnosis but may aid in differential diagnosis between appendicitis or tuberculosis and pneumonia (especially in children). It is also of interest because of its bearing on the mechanism of the crisis. We wish to thank Drs. Stengel, Jenks, Allyn, McCrae, Weiss, Jones, Myer, Wagnez, Hare and other members of the staffs of the University, Children9s, Philadelphia General and Jefferson Hospitals for their courtesy and assistance to us during the conduct of these investigations.


The Saccharomyces STA2 and SGA genes, encoding the extracellular and intracellular sporulation-specific glucoamylase respectively, have been cloned and their transcription and regulation studied. The STA2 gene differs from the SGA gene in that it contains an extra piece of DNA, which encodes the domain for exportation of the extracellular glucoamylase. The STA2 gene produces a single 2.85 kb transcript. Transcription of the SGA gene is initiated from two different sites, yielding two transcripts of 1.95 and 2.40 kb. Transcription of both STA2 and SGA genes is repressed by the STA10 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.


Young able-bodied male Singaporeans are required to undergo national service. The majority are able to cope with military training without developing any psychological disorders. A small group, however, are unable to handle the rigours of military training. They are identified, diagnosed and managed appropriately so that they can continue to serve national service within their capability. Three types of psychological disorders are highlighted in this paper. Type 1 cases refer to those with psychotic and neurotic disorders and they are usually downgraded to serve in non-combat vocations. The severe psychotics are exempted from service. Type II cases refer to those with stress-related disorders which are temporary conditions amenable to treatment. Many of them can return to their previous functioning level once their stress-related problems are resolved. Type III cases refer to those who capitalise on their existing physical conditions by complaining or exaggerating their psychological symptoms hoping to prolong their medical condition so that they can get an easy way out. These cases, which are in the minority, require firm handling, limit-setting and counselling so that they can learn to address their problems appropriately without resorting to psychological symptoms. Emphasis is given to the diagnostic approach and treatment of all 3 types of disorders, particularly the stress-related disorders. The roles of unit personnel and family members in providing a corroborative account of the servicemen's behaviour, work performance and inter-personal relationship are given special emphasis in the management of soldiers with psychological problems.


The texts of this dossier analyze the role played by different political and social actors in the institutionalization of Special Education in Brazil during the civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985), with emphasis on the theoretical and political debates that influenced the agents' stance. The dossier also brings a paper that discusses the institutionalization of Special Education in Italy during the 1970s, thus contributing to the construction of comparisons and theoretical and methodological breakthrough in the area of Special Education History. It is hoped that the papers presented in this dossier raise questions and reflections on the proposals that have been gaining ground in Brazil, which are again focusing on assistentialist perspectives that link disability to the medical model, rather than on a social model and rights of this population.


Algebraic effect handlers, introduced by Plotkin and Power in 2002, are recently gaining in popularity as a purely functional approach to modeling effects. In this article, we give a full overview of practical algebraic effects in the context of a compiled implementation in the Koka language. In particular, we show how algebraic effects generalize over common constructs like exception handling, state, iterators and async-await. We give an effective type inference algorithm based on extensible effect rows using scoped labels, and a direct operational semantics. Finally, we show an efficient compilation scheme to common runtime platforms (like JavaScript) using a type directed selective CPS translation.


It is always hard to draw on the experience of completed projects to predict engineering cost, and the nonlinear characteristic of the influence factors of engineering cost increases the difficulty of prediction. Less efforts and higher accuracy are the objects pursued by related researchers. In this paper, the Cost Significant theorem is applied to simplify computing and the chaotic neural network is used to improve accuracy. The prediction model is rooted from the nonlinear dynamic chaotic system theory and two techniques employed are phase space reconstruction and chaotic neural network construction. The experiment results indicate that the model is suitable for estimating short-term engineering investment and the prediction accuracy is improved.


This article describes the rise of the term governance from its beginnings in the business world and the neoliberal economic thought through its application in urban renewal actions in the world's major cities. Over the analysis, we argue that it was the theoretical discourse of urban governance and competitiveness that for decades enabled the private property sector to direct the urban regeneration processes of greatest added value. Changes in transport infrastructures and the abandonment of old industrial facilities left large central segments of the city available for redevelopment in line with the theories of post-Fordist capitalism. The global economic crisis has paralysed many of these projects, which had entailed the investment of large sums of public money and yielded low social returns. At the same time, criticism has been levelled against governance and strategic planning. Here, I examine the processes of governance and competitiveness as an urban objective and recent examples of urban renewal in Spanish cities.


The abundant fruit hulls of tea-oil tree (Camellia oleifera) are still underutilized and wastefully discaded to pollute the environment. In order to solve this problem and better utilize the fruit hulls of C. oleifera, a microwave-assisted extraction system was used to extract their polyphenols using water as the extraction solvent. A central composite design (CCD) was used to monitor the effects of three extraction processing parameters – liquid:solid ratio (mL/g), extraction time (min) and extraction temperature (°C) – on the polyphenol yield (%). The results showed that the optimal conditions were liquid:solid ratio of 15.33:1 (mL/g), extraction time of 35 min and extraction temperature of 76 °C. Validation tests indicated that under the optimized conditions the actual yield of polyphenols was 15.05 ± 0.04% with RSD = 0.21% (n = 5), which was in good agreement with the predicted yield. Phenolic compounds in the extracts were analysed by HPLC, and gallic acid was found to be the predominant constituent. The total flavonoid content in the extracts was determined and high total flavonoid content was revealed (140.06 mg/g dry material).


This study highlights a group of masterpieces which are known as "stirrups" preserved in Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo. The study has clarified their function of helping people in riding horses, and supporting the horsemen's back stability. The study also deals with the linguistic semantics of stirrups, in addition to the beginning of their historical appearance and development, especially in terms of the role of Muslims as represented in AlMuhallab Ibn Abi Sufra in making them out of iron. The study also focuses on the iron that was used as a raw material in making the stirrups, the method of industry, by casting in a mold, and the decorative methods of engraving and gilding. This paper also clarifies the types of vegetal decorations on the stirrups, such as bouquets of roses, leaves and fruits of pomegranates, and the types of the geometric motifs which are represented in triangles, circles and pearl's beads, and zigzag decorations. This research also highlights the history of stirrups from the 13 th century A.H. to the 19 th century A.D., especially that they did not carry inscriptions referring to their history. Thus, they were compared with the miniatures of manuscripts and applied masterpieces which carried the same decorations. This paper focuses on three unpublished masterpieces, including three figures done by the researcher. The study concluded six new results in the field of Islamic Arts.


Super-enhancers (SEs) are large (2 to >100 kilobases) DNA elements that control cell identity and disease. These unusual elements are occupied by high levels of key transcription factors, co-activators and chromatin regulators. SEs are hot spots for sequence variations associated with many human diseases, including cancer. Surprisingly, SEs are transcribed at high levels into RNAs (seRNAs). However, little is known about the biogenesis, structural identity and function of these seRNAs. Preliminary evidence suggests that seRNAs are components of SE complexes, composed of chromatin, RNAs and transcription factors, which play critical roles in controlling expression of key master cell-type-specific transcription factors and disease-causing genes. Our main objectives are to characterize the biogenesis of seRNAs, to determine the composition of RNA-protein complexes associated with seRNAs and to investigate the functions of seRNAs in gene regulation. We are focusing on the c-MYC and RUNX1 SEs, drivers of two cancers originating from B and T cells of the immune system: multiple myeloma (MM) and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), respectively. By uncovering the biogenesis and functions of seRNAs at the molecular level, our results may identify novel targets for new therapies for MM and T-ALL, as well as other cancers. New ways to modulate the immune response may also be revealed by our studies. Citation Format: Yang Eric Guo, Richard Young. Biogenesis and regulatory functions of super-enhancer RNAs in cancer cells of the immune system. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; September 16-19, 2015; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(1 Suppl):Abstract nr A166.


Understanding the effects of monetary policy and its communication is crucial for a central bank. This paper explores a new approach to identifying the effects of monetary policy using high-frequency data around monetary policy decisions and other announcements that allows us to explore different facets of monetary policy, specifically: current policy action; signalling or forward guidance about future rates; and the effect on uncertainty and term premia. The approach provides an intuitive lens through which to understand how policy and its communication affected expectations for rates and risks during certain historical periods, and more generally. For example, it suggests that: (i) signalling/forward guidance shocks tended to raise expected future policy rates in the mid-2010s as the RBA highlighted rising risks in housing markets; (ii) COVID-19-era monetary policy worked mainly through affecting term premia rather than expectations for future policy rates, unlike pre-COVID-19 policy; and (iii) shocks to the expected path of rates are predictable based on data available at the time, which suggests that markets systematically misunderstand how the RBA reacts to data, highlighting the importance of clear communication. We also explore the macroeconomic effects of these different shocks. The effects of shocks to current policy are similar to those estimated in previous papers, and existing issues such as the 'price puzzle' remain, while the effects of other shocks are imprecisely estimated. Although the approach provides little new information on the macroeconomic effects of monetary policy, it does highlight the importance of these other facets of policy in moving interest rates and suggests additional work in this space could be valuable.


In many Low-Middle Income Countries, social protection policies are increasingly used as integral parts of development strategies to combat poverty and inequality. This study contributes to the effectiveness of social protection interventions by exploring unstudied social protection schemes and demonstrating how state and non-state approaches shape the production and distribution of social protection resources in Cameroon. Using a constructivist epistemology, the study traces the historical and institutional development of social protection and situates it within Cameroon's development context and global debates on social protection. The study is based on the underlying concepts of risk and vulnerability, and the World Bank's SRM framework and uses a qualitative-based and indigenous approach to generate findings. First, findings suggest that there is a proliferation of both state and non-state interventions that typically provide adhoc and patchwork assistance and resources to beneficiaries. These resources support individuals to manage basic risks and shocks within households but have limited coverage. Second, the study demonstrated that both political and bureaucratic stakeholders are crucial for the development of a viable social protection system in Cameroon. Bureaucratic stakeholders possess indepth knowledge about the structural and institutional challenges to delivering social protection resources, whilst political stakeholders outline technical and structural difficulties to delivering social protection including problems conceptualising risk and vulnerability. Third, the study challenges the premise of the World Bank's SRM framework which reinforces the role of the state as the main social protection provider by arguing that informal social protection interventions, such as BAMCULA and SN CHAUTAC, are equally crucial in alleviating poverty and inequality. Finally, the study contributes to the methodological advancement of social protection research especially in African settings, by proposing the incorporation of indigenous methods and highlighting that policymakers must have a clear vision and coherent principles regarding social protection.


Transition probabilities have been calculated for several lines in the gas phase, X-band e.s.r. spectra of SH and SO, and the results of the calculations have been used to estimate the absolute concentration of the two free radicals in the gas phase. The concentration of SO obtained in this manner has been compared with the results of experimental measurements that were made by titrating mixtures of SO and atomic oxygen with nitrogen dioxide. During the course of this study, the relative rate constants for reactions (a) and (b) were measured: [graphic omitted] ka/kb was estimated as 0.63 ± 0.06.


This study investigates potential shifts in relative language dominance in early sequential bilinguals across the primary school years. The subjects are thirty-eight Polish-English speaking children. A new test, the Child HALA (Dubiel & Guilfoyle, 2017), is introduced, which measures shifts in relative language strength by comparing lexical accuracy and response time between two languages. This test has been designed specifically for use with children, and is based on the HALA psycholinguistic tool (O'Grady, Schafer et al., 2009). The aim of this study is twofold. The first goal is to evaluate shifts in the relative language strength in both languages by examining changes in lexical accuracy and response time (RT). The focus is on the impact of word frequency on lexical accuracy and access, and the link between the frequency of language use and its relative strength and maintenance in bilinguals. The second aim is to examine the CHILD HALA's suitability, reliability and applicability in research on language acquisition and maintenance in young bilinguals. In particular, the objective is to evaluate whether the test will show a pattern of shifts in language strength comparable to the outcomes of previous research. The results show that the children's relative language dominance shifts from the initially stronger L1 Polish to the more dominant L2 English between the age of eight and eleven. The Child HALA test discovers reliable results across age groups and languages when compared with other studies that investigated lexical accuracy and access (Kohnert, Bates & Hernandez, 1999; Jia, Kohnert, Collado & Aquino-Garcia, 2006), and therefore may be considered as a reliable method in assessing language strength and maintenance in children. The results also support the earlier finding by O'Grady et al. (2009) and Tang (2011) of the response time measure being more sensitive and precise in the assessment of language strength than lexical accuracy alone. This study contributes to the broader field of bilingual language acquisition, and the Child HALA may be considered as a reliable method in assessing language strength and maintenance in young children.


Atomistic computer simulation methods have been employed to model the structure of the surfaces of (1016 4) calcite dolomite and magnesite Our calculations show that, under 3 32 3 anhydrous vacuum conditions, calcite undergoes the greatest degree of surface relaxation with rotation and distortion of the carbonate group accompanied by movement of the calcium ion. The magnesite surface is the least distorted of the three carbonates, with dolomite being intermediate to the two end members. When water molecules are placed on the surface to produce complete monolayer coverage, the surfaces of all three carbonate minerals are stabilized and the amount of relaxation in the surface layers substantially reduced. Of the three phases, dolomite shows the strongest and highest number of interfacial hydrogen bonds between water and the carbonate mineral surface. These calculations suggest that the equilibrium H2O] CO32~ H will favour the production of hydrogen carbonate ions most strongly for dolomite, less HCO3~] OH~ strongly for calcite, and least likely for magnesite.


It is generally agreed that communication is a critical technological factor in designing networked unmanned systems (NUS) that consist of a large number of heterogeneous assets/nodes that may be configured in ad-hoc fashion and that incorporate intricate architectures. In order to successfully carry out the NUS missions, communication among assets need to be accomplished efficiently. In contrast with conventional networks, NUSs have specific features that may render communication more complex. The main distinct characteristics of NUS are as follows: (a) heterogeneity of assets in terms of resources, (b) multiple topologies that can be fully-connected, (c) real-time requirements imposed by delivery timeliness of messages under evolving and uncertain environments, (d) unknown and random time-delays that may degrade the closed-loop dynamics performance, (e) bandwidth constraints reflecting differences in assets behavior and dynamics, and (f) protocol limitations for complying with the wireless features of these networks. The NUS system consists of clusters each having three nodes, namely, a sensor, a decision-maker, and an actuator. Inspired by networked control systems (NCS), we introduced a generic framework for NUSs. Using the fluid flow model (FFM), the overall dynamical model of our network cluster is derived as a time-delay dependent system. The following three main issues are investigated in this thesis, bandwidth allocation, an integrated bandwidth allocation and flow rate control, and congestion control. To demonstrate the difficulty of addressing the bandwidth allocation control problem, a standard PID is implemented for our network cluster. It is shown that in presence of feedback loops and time-delays in the network, this controller induces flow oscillations and consequently, in the worst-case scenario, network instability. To address this problem, nonlinear control strategies are proposed instead. These strategies are evaluated subject to presence of unknown delays and measurable/estimated input traffic. For different network configurations, the error dynamics of the entire controlled cluster is derived and sufficient stability conditions are obtained. In addition, our proposed bandwidth allocation control strategy is evaluated when the NUS assets are assumed to be mobile. The bandwidth allocation problem is often studied in an integrated fashion with the flow rate control and the connection admission control (CAC). In fact, due to importance of interaction of various components, design of the entire control system is often more promising than optimization of individual components. In this thesis, several robust integrated bandwidth allocation and flow rate control strategies are proposed. The third issue that is investigated in this thesis is the congestion control for differentiated-services (DiffServ) networks. In our proposed congestion control strategies, the buffer queue length is used as a feedback information to control locally the queue length of each buffer by acting on the bandwidth and simultaneously a feedback signaling notifies the ordinary sources regarding the allowed maximum rate. Using sliding mode generalized variable structure control techniques (SM-GVSC), two congestion control approaches are proposed, namely, the non degenerate and degenerate GVS control approaches. By adopting decentralized end-to-end, semi-decentralized end-to-end, and distributed hop-by-hop control approaches, our proposed congestion control strategies are investigated for a DiffServ loopless mesh network (Internet) and a DiffServ fully-connected NUS. Contrary to the semi-decentralized end-to-end congestion control strategy, in the distributed hop-by-hop congestion control strategy, each output port controller communicates the maximum allowed flow rate only to its immediate upstream node(s) and/or source(s). This approach reduces the required amount of information in the flow control when Compared to other approaches in which the allowed flow rate is sent to all the upstream sources communicating through an output port.


Raw starch degrading enzymes are enzymes that degrade polymers of raw starches to
smaller molecules of oligo saccharides. Fifty-two strains of endophytic fungi were
isolated from tropical plant trees in Malaysia and screened for raw starch degrading
enzyme activity. Twelve endophytic strains with the ability to degrade raw starches
as indicated by size of clear zone formed on Czapek-Dox medium were obtained.
Three strains were found to be good raw starch degrading enzyme producers based
on the ability to degrade raw starches. Raw sago, potato and rice starches were
found to be appropriate substrate for enzyme production. The three strains of
endophytic fungi were identified as Gibberella pulicaris using 18S rRNA sequences
and, Acremonium sp. and Synnematous sp. taxonomically, respectively. Comparison
of their degradative activity on raw and gelatinized starches, substrate specificity,
optimum pH and product of hydrolysis showed that Acremonium sp. had a broad
activity towards both small and large sized granules of raw starches
while G. pulicaris and Synnematous sp. were dependent on the granule size and structures of starches. The enzyme from Acremonium sp. is unique since it does not
depend on the granule size and structures of starches. The results showed that the
enzyme from G. pulicaris and Acremonium sp. were raw starch degrading
glucoamylase, an exo-acting enzyme which solely yielded glucose while enzyme
from Synnematous sp. was raw starch degrading a-amylase, an endo-acting enzyme
which yielded a mixture of glucose and maltose. Consequently, raw starch degrading
glucoamylase was more efficient than raw starch degrading a-amylase. Both
glucoamylase and a-amylase showed the highest degradation rate on raw rice starch.
Based on the substrate specificity, degradative pattern and product produced, the
Acremonium sp. was selected and pursued to produce raw starch degrading enzyme.
The optimum conditions for enzyme production based on carbon and nitrogen
sources were studied. Results showed that the highest raw starch degrading enzyme
activity was observed when the Acremonium sp. were grown in shake flask culture
of broth medium at 120 rpm, 30°C for 5 days and yielded glucoamylase activity of
67 U/ml. The enzyme was induced in broth medium by the addition of raw sago
starch as its carbon source and peptone and sodium nitrate as nitrogen sources.
Acremonium sp. showed maximum enzyme activity when grown at pH 5.0, 30°C for
5 days. The raw starch degrading enzyme was found to be inducible enzymes
depending on the amount of raw sago starch added to the culture medium. The raw
starch degrading enzyme from Acremonium sp. was purified to homogeneity by a
combination of ultrafiltration, DEAE-Toyopearl 650 S ion exchange and Sephadex
G-150 gel filtration. Pure raw starch degrading enzyme was shown to consist of two
sub-units of 22 and 39 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis and a single band on native-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The
optimum pH and temperature for hydrolysis of raw starches were 5.5 and 55°C,respectively. The enzyme was stable at pH range of 3.0 to 7.0 and at temperature up
to 60°C. The purified enzyme had Km values of 10.0 and 3.8 mg/ml and V max of 195
µmoles/ml/min and 391 µmoles/ml/min for amylose and amylopectin, respectively.
Pretreatment of sago starch at low pH and heating below gelatinization temperature
was found to increase the enzymatic hydrolysis.


In this survey we explore implementations of recently proposed distortion synthesis techniques, namely the Feedback Amplitude Modulation (1st and 2nd order cases) and Allpass filter coefficient modulation. These techniques are based on Periodic Linear Time-Varying systems, in which we operate by finding a suitable modulation function to obtain a desired spectrum. In order to illustrate this survey and encourage exploration of these new techniques we present examples in the Csound language.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of gonadectomy on collagen homeostasis in cranial cruciate ligaments of male rabbits.

ANIMALS
30 sexually immature (16-week-old) male New Zealand White rabbits.

PROCEDURES
Rabbits were randomly assigned to 5 groups of 6 rabbits each: sexually intact, placebo (control group); castrated, placebo; castrated, testosterone; castrated, dihydrotestosterone; and castrated, 17β-estradiol (E(2)). Control rabbits underwent a sham operation, and all other rabbits underwent gonadectomy. At the time of gonadectomy, the placebo and sex hormones were administered via slow-release pellets implanted subcutaneously as assigned. After 21 days of hormone supplementation, measurements were obtained of serum testosterone and E(2) concentrations, ligament collagen characteristics, and androgen receptor, estrogen receoptor α, and matrix metalloproteinase expression.

RESULTS
Following gonadectomy and hormone supplementation, the treatment groups differed in serum testosterone and E(2) concentrations to various degrees. Collagen concentrations were lower and fiber diameters higher in the absence of sex hormones, in association with the degrees of estrogen receptor a and androgen receptor expression. Although differences were detected among the groups in matrix metalloproteinase expression, these differences were not significant.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Sex hormones appeared to play a role in cranial cruciate ligament homeostasis in male rabbits. Physiologic changes triggered by the lack of sex hormones following gonadectomy in sexually immature rabbits may potentially predispose those rabbits to orthopedic injuries.


Diversity is largely accepted as a positive value in American society. Nevertheless, policies to encourage diversity, e.g. affirmative action, language policies and legalising illegal immigrants, are still largely disputed, and often understood as having contradictory and largely negative consequences. The implementation of diversity is still seen as a threat to meritocracy, national cohesion, and democracy. This paper analyses how excellence and diversity are discussed in two academic decision-making processes: admission at two elite public universities and the distribution of competitive research fellowships. We argue that excellence and diversity are not alternative but additive considerations in the allocation of resources. The administrators and academics we studied factor diversity in as an additional consideration when decisions are to be made between applicants of roughly equal standing.


The Von Mises quasi-linear second order wave equation, which completely describes an irrotational, compressible and barotropic classical perfect fluid, can be derived from a nontrivial least action principle for the velocity scalar potential only, in contrast to existing analog formulations which are expressed in terms of coupled density and velocity fields. In this article, the classical Hamiltonian field theory specifically associated to such an equation is developed in the polytropic case and numerically verified in a simplified situation. The existence of such a mathematical structure suggests new theoretical schemes possibly useful for performing numerical integrations of fluid dynamical equations. Moreover it justifies possible new functional forms for Lagrangian densities and associated Hamiltonian functions in other theoretical classical physics contexts. AMS subject classifications: 76A02, 65M60, 37K05 PACS: 47.40.-x, 02.30.Jr, 11.10.Ef, 04.90.+e


Artificial immune systems (AIS) have become popular among researchers and have been applied to variety of tasks. Developing supervised learning algorithms based on metaphors from the immune system is still an area in which there is much to explore. In this paper a novel supervised immune algorithm based on clonal selection framework is proposed. It evolves a population of linear classifiers used to construct a set of classification rules. Aggregating strategies such as bagging and boosting are presented to work well with the proposed algorithm as the base classifier.


Strategic planning at school level is a new concept in the field of education in Saudi Arabia, where the educational system is centralised and directly controlled by the Ministry of Education. The aim of this research was to investigate the consequences of implementing a specially devised strategic planning model in individual schools in Saudi Arabia.

Twelve schools of average size were chosen as a representative sample: four elementary, four middle and four secondary schools. Interviews with senior management suggested a general lack of awareness of strategic planning at school level and some resistance to giving more autonomy to schools.

The Makhdoom Strategic Planning Model, which has a distinctive vision-led format, was proposed and adopted in the sample schools. Perceived benefits included participants choosing their own vision for the school, sharing views and contributing to the decision- making process. Problems were discovered and discussed during initial interviews, subsequent workshops, and final interviews with school staff: lack of information and resistance to change were identified as the main potential challenges to introducing the Model into schools. Some compromises would be needed to avoid conflict with the central system. Leadership from head teachers and the availability of a facilitator were important factors for success.

In addition to extending understanding of the value of strategic planning in the context of the Saudi Arabian education system at school level, this thesis presents an easily applicable, vision-led, 10-step Strategic Planning Model which can be used by managers in many other educational contexts.


Hierarchical scheduling frameworks (HSFs) provide means for composing complex real-time systems from well-defined, independently analyzed subsystems. To support resource sharing within two-level HSFs, three synchronization protocols based on the stack resource policy (SRP) have recently been presented, i.e. HSRP [1], SIRAP [2] and BROE [3]. This paper describes the first implementation presenting these three SRP-based synchronization protocols side-by-side in a HSF-enabled real-time operating system. We base our implementations on the commercially available real-time operating system μC/OS-II, extended with proprietary support for periodic tasks, idling periodic servers and two-level preemptive scheduling. Moreover, we investigate the system overhead of the synchronization primitives of each protocol. Transparent interfaces allow a protocol to be selected during integration time based on its relative strengths1.


Rae1p and Mex67p/Tap are conserved mRNA export factors. We have used synthetic lethal genetic screens inSchizosaccharomyces pombe to identify mutations in genes that are functionally linked to rae1 and mex67in mRNA export. From these screens, we have isolated mutations in a putative S. pombe homologue of theCandida albicans elf1 gene. The elf1 ofS. pombe is not an essential gene. When elf1mutations are combined with rae1-167 mutation, growth and mRNA export is inhibited in the double mutants. This inhibition can be suppressed by the multicopy expression of mex67suggesting that Mex67p can substitute for the loss of Elf1p function. Elf1p is a non-membrane member of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) class of ATPase and the GFP-Elf1p fusion localizes to the cytoplasm. Elf1p, expressed and purified from Escherichia coli, binds and hydrolyzes ATP. A mutant Elf1p that carries a glycine to aspartic acid (G731D) mutation within the Walker A domain of the second ATP site retains the ATP binding but loses its ATPase activity in vitro. This mutant protein no longer functions in mRNA export. Taken together, our results show that Elf1p functions as a mRNA export factor along with Rae1p and Mex67p in S. pombe.


Since democratization began in the mid-1980s, Taiwan's party system
 has been dominated by two parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the
 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). However, smaller parties have at
 times played an important role, bringing diversity into the system, stressing
 different issues and representing neglected communities. These small
 parties tended to be those that split off from the mainstream parties,
 while alternative social movement parties struggled to be electorally
 relevant. The picture changed recently with the rise of two different types
 of movement parties, the New Power Party (NPP) and the Green Party
 Taiwan/Social Democratic Party Alliance (GPT/SDP). In this chapter
 we examine the relationship of these new players with the mainstream
 party, DPP, offering some thoughts on how the relationship affected the
 development of these alternative parties.


BACKGROUND
To compare access time and cycle time between an "in-house" teleglaucoma program and in-person glaucoma consultation.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
This was a prospective comparative study of 71 patients seen through the teleglaucoma program (eligible patients were glaucoma suspects or early-stage open-angle glaucoma) and 63 patients seen via a traditional in-person exam with a physician present. Access time was calculated as the time from the patient being referred to the date of a booked visit for either a teleglaucoma or in-person exam. Cycle time was defined as the time from registration until departure during the visit to the hospital; it was calculated for the subset of patients from each study group who completed activity logs on the day of their visit.

RESULTS
The mean access time was significantly shorter for patients seen through teleglaucoma compared with in-person exam: 45±22 days (range, 13-121 days) (n=68) versus 88±47 days (range, 27-214 days) (n=63), respectively (p<0.0001). The cycle time was also reduced for patients seen through teleglaucoma, compared with in-person assessment: 78±20 min (range, 40-130 min) (n=39) versus 115±44 min (range, 51-216 min) (n=39), respectively (p<0.001). The mean percentage time spent in the waiting room was also significantly reduced for patients seen through teleglaucoma versus in-person assessments: 19±13% versus 41±24% (n=39), respectively (p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Teleglaucoma improves access to care and is a more efficient way of managing glaucoma suspects and patients with early-stage glaucoma compared with in-person assessment.


DOI: 10.7764/RDLC.16.1.167 Carbon fibers (CFs) in the cement mortars are used in order to improve characteristics properties of the composite materials such as mechanical properties. Moreover, the uniformity of fiber dispersion is significant aspect for improvement of the composites. Computed Tomography (CT) imaging is a fully nondestructive technique to view features in the interior of opaque solid objects to obtain digital information on their properties. In this study, firstly, flexural test was conducted were investigated for 4×4×16 cm samples incorporated with carbon fiber at 2- and 7-days curing. Secondly, the images that were obtained by using multi-slice CT technique. Finally, the compressive strength properties of the mortars mixed with carbon fiber were discussed. According to the test results, the dispersion and orientation of CFs in the samples have a remarkable impact on mechanical properties of the composites.


In vivo optical imaging has become an important research tool not only in research laboratories but also in clinical settings. New paradigms for studying the biological processes in tissue and for diagnosis and clinical management of human diseases (e.g. improved diagnosis, real-time guidance of interventions, monitoring of the efficacy of therapy, and brain optical imaging) are needed. This can be achieved through development of novel optical imaging and microscopy techniques for in situ in vivo interrogation of tissue and through advancing new methods for analysis, visualization and correlation of biochemical, structural and functional characteristics of complex biological systems. This topical issue presents recent advances in a wide variety of optical techniques with applications in neuroscience and in pre-clinical and clinical diagnostics. These include optical coherence tomography (OCT), photoacoustic tomography and microscopy, laser speckle angiography, scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM), optical spectroscopy (fluorescence and Raman), hyperspectral imaging, and second harmonic generation (SHG).


School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia Abstract: The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is high among migrants in high-income countries. The migration process could contribute to the high incidence of TB among them. Achieving TB elimination from these settings will be difficult unless countries address the burden of TB among migrants. The aim of this review was to describe the challenges of international migration on TB control in high-income, low TB incidence countries. Among migrants, there is a high prevalence of risk factors for TB, such as exposure to TB, HIV, malnutrition, substance use, delayed diagnosis, low education, poor health-seeking, the culture, stigma and marginalization. Discriminatory policies of TB care and social barriers such as language, cultural issues and unfriendly health services may also contribute to the high prevalence of TB among them. TB control among migrants in these settings is important as migrants are vulnerable to TB infection and disease, and implementing TB care among them is difficult; it is important to reduce the TB burden in migrants and the community at large and the high risk of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). TB elimination from high-income countries requires acquiring data and analyzing it to measure the burden, having migrant-sensitive health systems, having policy and legal frameworks and multicountry partnerships and conducting research.


The current review focuses on the construct of psychopathy, conceptualized as a clinical entity that is fundamentally distinct from a heterogeneous collection of syndromes encompassed by the term 'conduct disorder'. We will provide an account of the development of psychopathy at multiple levels: ultimate causal (the genetic or social primary cause), molecular, neural, cognitive and behavioral. The following main claims will be made: (1) that there is a stronger genetic as opposed to social ultimate cause to this disorder. The types of social causes proposed (e.g., childhood sexual/physical abuse) should elevate emotional responsiveness, not lead to the specific form of reduced responsiveness seen in psychopathy; (2) The genetic influence leads to the emotional dysfunction that is the core of psychopathy; (3) The genetic influence at the molecular level remains unknown. However, it appears to impact the functional integrity of the amygdala and orbital/ventrolateral frontal cortex (and possibly additional systems); (4) Disruption within these two neural systems leads to impairment in the ability to form stimulus-reinforcement associations and to alter stimulus-response associations as a function of contingency change. These impairments disrupt the impact of standard socialization techniques and increase the risk for frustration-induced reactive aggression respectively.


The current study explored the extent to which a common measure of perceived implementation of critical features of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) predicted fidelity of implementation 3 years later. Respondents included school personnel from 261 schools across the United States implementing PBIS. School teams completed the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Self-Assessment Survey to self-assess fidelity of implementation in different PBIS settings (school-wide, nonclassroom, classroom, individual). These scores were then analyzed to assess whether certain items predicted the fidelity of PBIS implementation, as assessed through another fidelity of implementation measure, the School-Wide Benchmarks of Quality, 3 years later. Regression analyses indicated that self-reported fidelity of implementation of Classrooms Systems significantly predicted sustained implementation and student outcomes, as assessed through levels of Office Discipline Referrals. Within Classroom Systems, regular acknowledgment of expected behaviors, matching instruction to student ability, and access to additional support were the strongest predictors of sustained implementation. Results are discussed in terms of critical areas for focusing PBIS training to increase the likelihood of sustained implementation.


The development of telecom technology has a profound impact on the lives and activities of the people of the world. Smartphone usage became popular to young generation because of its educational and entertaining options by using the numerous apps. Among the young people, students are increasingly using Smartphone. But excessive Smartphone usage usually makes the students addicted to that subconsciously impacts on user's academic performance, daily activities, physical and mental health and withdrawal tendency, and social relationships. This study aims at identifying the factors that affect the level of Smartphone addiction of the students and its impact on their academic performance. A structured questionnaire has been developed to gather data from the students. A total of 247 questionnaires were collected from the business students of a university of Bangladesh. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) the data were analyzed. Results revealed five Smartphone addiction factors such as, positive anticipation, impatience and tolerance, withdrawal, daily-life disturbance, and cyber friendship. Tolerance and daily-life disturbance have significant impact on students' academic performance. This study suggests that the students should minimize the usage of Smartphone for achieving good academic performance.


SUMMARY This study focuses on gender differences in health profiles, and examines which health profiles drive gender differences in remaining life expectancy in women and men aged 65 and over in The Netherlands. Data from the first two cycles of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (n = 2,141 and 1,659, respectively) were used to calculate health profiles for individuals of 65–85 years. For both women and men, six profiles were found: I. cancer; II. "other" chronic diseases; III. cognitive impairment; IV. frailty or multimorbidity; V. cardiovascular diseases; and VI. good health. The further characterization of these types showed some gender differences. Remaining life expectancy for women was greater than for men in each health profile. A decomposition into health expectancies showed that both women and men could expect to live about 5 years in good health from age 66. The greatest gender differences in years spent with health problems were found for profile IV and for profile III. Their greater number of years spent in these health states have direct consequences for the type and cost of care women need.


A number of battery-driven sensor nodes are deployed to operate a wireless sensor network, and many routing protocols have been proposed to reduce energy consumption for data communications. This letter proposes a novel routing framework for multihop networks, which is based on transmission power control, nearest forwarding and packet progress toward a sink, in consideration of reducing the extra number of hops in the networks. The energy consumption for the topology employing the proposed forwarding is evaluated by simulation, and it is shown that the proposed scheme is more energy-efficient than the shortest-path tree constructed by Dijkstra's algorithm.


ABSTRACT The Imperial College of Science and Technology, a constituent college of the University of London in the 1960s, had the good fortune to be one of the first colleges in the United Kingdom to have access to digital computing facilities. This review traces the history of the application of computing in the Geochemical Prospecting Research Centre and its successor, the Applied Geochemistry Research Group, as computing moved from being a frontier research area to becoming a commonplace tool. The three principal areas in which it was involved comprised: the quality control, and thereby assurance, of analytical data; the production of pioneering atlases of regional geochemical variation in Northern Ireland (1973) and England and Wales (1978); and the application of methods introduced by workers in pattern-recognition and statistics to the interpretation of land-based and marine regional geochemical data.


Small volumes of garnet peridotite occur within large dunite bodies in the Western Gneiss Region of the Norwegian Caledonides. Previous Sm-Nd analyses of garnet peridotite yield Proterozoic ages close to the crystallization ages of the host gneisses. In situ (laser-ablation multicollector–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry) Re-Os analysis of sulfides in the garnet peridotites gives a range of Proterozoic and Archean model ages. An Archean (2.7–3.1 Ga) protolith age is supported by whole-rock Re-Os data for sulfide-free dunites from several bodies. The Archean ages imply a melt-extraction event in the lithospheric mantle that predates the growth of the known Proterozoic upper crust in the region.


Local government capacity--its ability to do what it wants to do--is often inadequate to protect groundwater from contamination. Yet many of the steps in the conventional prescription for groundwater protection call for activities that are virtually the exclusive province of local governments. Not the least of these is land use control--yet the boundary problem alone limits the ability of local governments to act adequately. As in many other problems, federations of local governments need to be supported by federal/state partnership programs. In this problem low capacity rural governments are a major potential. Several agencies with state and local networks stand poised to , or are already in the game. there are some good reasons to have a variety of agencies involved as is the case in most complex public issues. Local governments are accustomed to coordinating state and federal agencies. But improved results can be expected if one or more of these responding programs explicitly tailor their efforts to build local management capacity. A variety of tools are available and should be explored by educational and federal assistance agencies such as Cooperative Extension and the Soil and Conservation Service for research programs such as the U.S. Geological Survey., and action programs such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency


Current satellite operations involve labor-intensive command and control under constant supervision. At the moment, spacecraft actuator failures are addressed by uploading new instructions or by sending manned missions to rendezvous and apply in-orbit servicing which impart additional mission costs and resource expenditures. With the future trend of building small-satellite systems, established hardware redundancy solutions will becoming increasingly difficult to implement. This thesis addresses fault tolerant satellite attitude and formation control through the development of a fault observer and autonomous re-configurable control law. The proposed technique can estimate and track actuator faults and states in the presence of sensor measurements, model uncertainties and disturbances. Similarly, the fault recovery scheme can perform under the same conditions and can converge to desired states in the event the spacecraft becomes underactuated. Numerical orbital simulations and hardware-in-the-loop experiments verify the fault estimation technique both in theory and practice.


Aim: To compare the prevalence of dental caries, dental calculus, and enamel defects in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) and children with other chronic respiratory disorders. Methods: A cross sectional observational survey. One examiner (AN) undertook oral examinations to assess dental caries, periodontal health, and enamel defects in children attending respiratory outpatient clinics. Results: A total of 74 patients with CF (35 male; mean age 10.7 years, range 2.5–16.5) were compared with a control group of 106 patients with other chronic respiratory disorders (52 male; mean age 9.1 years, range 3.0–16.5). There were significantly more defects of enamel in the permanent teeth of CF patients, compared with the teeth of those children with other chronic respiratory disorders. In addition, non-significant trends towards a lower caries prevalence in both dentitions, increased numbers of sextants with calculus deposits, and a reduced number of healthy gingival sextants were observed in the patients with cystic fibrosis. Conclusions: Enamel defects, particularly enamel opacities, which can be disfiguring, are more common in CF patients. Early, regular dental visits may prevent such defects becoming dentally disabling and would also permit the removal of dental calculus deposits. The use of long term antibiotics and pancreatic enzymes may confer some protection against the development and progression of dental caries in patients with cystic fibrosis. The inclusion of a specialist paediatric dentist, as part of the multiprofessional team managing the care of these children, would be an advantage.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to find out the effect of prices and facilities on the decision to stay at the Best Western Premier The Hive Hotel. The population in this study were guests who stayed at the Best Western Premier Hotel The Hive Jakarta. The number of samples successfully processed was 88 people, using simple random sampling. This study uses quantitative research design with multiple linear regression testing and previously performed several classical assumption tests. From the results of the study it was found that the value of the determinant coefficient or number R is equal to 0.259, then the relationship between the variable price and facilities to the variable decision of the stay is positive and strong. This is because Rsquare must be more or equal to 0.6 and close to number 1. For t count equal to 2.336 and for t table value from the result n-k-1 is 1.663. Thus it can be concluded that for the value of t count 2.336 <t table 1.663 then, the price variable has a significant effect on the decision to stay, then in this test the first hypothesis (H1) is accepted. In the Facility variable, the value of t count is 0.02 and the value of t table is 1.663, the facility does not affect the decision to stay. Suggestions that can be conveyed from this study include the price can be adjusted to the benefits that guests get when staying at a hotel, so the hotel can pay attention to the affordability of prices with the benefits obtained. In addition, the hotel should add facilities or have entertainment available in the lobby, so that guests who are waiting for the time to check in at the lobby do not feel bored and can make additional value for the hotel. Key words : facilities, guest, hotel, prices, decision to stay


Objectives: In recent years, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging has emerged as an important tool in the identification and characterization of cardiac masses. No imaging data on cardiac masses are available from Pakistan. We aimed to review the clinical presentation, CMR findings, and outcome of patients referred for CMR due to suspicion of cardiac masses on echocardiogram or computed tomography (CT). Material and Methods: We reviewed all the patients referred for CMR at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from January 2011 to March 2020, with the suspicion of cardiac mass on echocardiogram and/or CT. Only those with the confirmed diagnosis of cardiac mass on CMR were included in the study. Results: A total of 27 patients were referred for CMR from January 2011 to March 2020, with the suspicion of cardiac mass on echocardiogram and/or CT. Four patients were excluded as no cardiac mass was found on CMR. Out of 23 cases, majority (n = 15, 65%) were female, age ranging from 3 months to 70 years, with a mean age of 40 ± 22 years. Shortness of breath was the main presenting symptom (n = 19, 83%). Echocardiogram was the initial imaging modality done in all the patients while CT was also performed in 6 patients (26%). Out of 23 patients, 4 (17%) were diagnosed to have thrombus on CMR. In two cases, it was in the left ventricle with evidence of myocardial infarction on late gadolinium images. Myxoma was the most common tumor diagnosed on CMR in 6 patients (26%) followed by rhabdomyoma (n = 3, 13%) and fibroma (n = 2, 8.7%). There were three malignant primary tumors of the heart based on CMR appearances and one with tumor thrombus extension of hepatocellular carcinoma in the right atrium from inferior vena cava. Two patients were diagnosed to have non-neoplastic lesions – one with large intracardiac hydatid cyst and one with possible large fungal vegetation. Among 23 patients, 9 patients (39%) underwent surgery, 5 with myxoma, 2 with rhabdomyoma, 1 with fibroma, and 1 with fibroelastoma. Findings on surgery and histopathology matched the CMR diagnosis in all the patients except the one with the CMR diagnosis of myxoma in which histopathology was consistent with thrombus. Conclusion: CMR can play an important role in confirming the presence or absence of a mass in the heart. It can also provide differentiation of non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions and among different types of neoplastic lesions with reasonable accuracy. However, the limitations of CMR must be recognized.


Our country is in crisis. The inequality and oppression that lies deep in the roots and is woven in the branches of our lives has been laid bare by a virus. Relentless state violence against Black people has pushed protestors to the streets. We hope that the legislative and executive branches will respond with policy change for those who struggle the most among us: rental assistance, affordable housing, quality public education, comprehensive health and mental health care. We fear that the crisis will fade, and we will return to more of the same. Whatever lies on the other side of this crisis, one thing is certain: one part of our government grapples with the individual consequences of inequality and oppression every day and will continue to do so with even more urgency in the future: state civil courts.

Even before the pandemic, as other branches of government failed to address inequality, state civil courts became the government actor of last resort for the tens of millions of Americans each year who suffer the consequences of these failures. Now, these same courts—for the first time in history—have quickly and nimbly changed the way they provide justice. Courts' improvisation in the face of a global public health crisis present an opportunity for social change. In contrast to burgeoning attention to state criminal courts, this role for state civil courts was hidden from those not directly involved and largely ignored by scholars. Now it is unavoidable. This essay lays out a framework for change that state civil courts should embrace as they reopen to the tidal wave of litigants.


Introduction Clinical recommendations for childhood asthma are often based on data extrapolated from studies conducted in adults, despite significant differences in mechanisms and response to treatments. The Paediatric Asthma in Real Life (PeARL) Think Tank aspires to develop recommendations based on the best available evidence from studies in children. An overview of systematic reviews (SRs) on paediatric asthma maintenance management and an SR of treatments for acute asthma attacks in children, requiring an emergency presentation with/without hospital admission will be conducted. Methods and analysis Standard methodology recommended by Cochrane will be followed. Maintenance pharmacotherapy of childhood asthma will be evaluated in an overview of SRs published after 2005 and including clinical trials or real-life studies. For evaluating pharmacotherapy of acute asthma attacks leading to an emergency presentation with/without hospital admission, we opted to conduct de novo synthesis in the absence of adequate up-to-date published SRs. For the SR of acute asthma pharmacotherapy, we will consider eligible SRs, clinical trials or real-life studies without time restrictions. Our evidence updates will be based on broad searches of Pubmed/Medline and the Cochrane Library. We will use A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews, V.2, Cochrane risk of bias 2 and REal Life EVidence AssessmeNt Tool to evaluate the methodological quality of SRs, controlled clinical trials and real-life studies, respectively. Next, we will further assess interventions for acute severe asthma attacks with positive clinical results in meta-analyses. We will include both controlled clinical trials and observational studies and will assess their quality using the previously mentioned tools. We will employ random effect models for conducting meta-analyses, and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation methodology to assess certainty in the body of evidence. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval is not required for SRs. Our findings will be published in peer reviewed journals and will inform clinical recommendations being developed by the PeARL Think Tank. PROSPERO registration numbers CRD42020132990, CRD42020171624.


A strain improvement program was developed to increase lipase production by Acinetobacter calcoaceticus D29, in which mutants were generated by Ultraviolet (UV) radiation and selected by resistance to 1.5% (w/v) sodium citrate. One of the mutant strains UN9 exhibited 48.69% more lipase activity than the original strain did. Although the UV random mutagenesis alone is an effective method for general strain improvement, our results showed that UV mutagenesis combined with selection for sodium citrate resistance is a more efficient strategy for screening mutant strains with enhanced lipase production.


Analyses on 1,576 clinical specimens from hospitalized patients were performed with the aim of determining the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp isolated in the Januário Cicco Teaching Maternity Hospital in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, in 2002 and 2003. The samples were collected, processed and identified according to standard procedures, for each clinical specimen. In vitro susceptibility profiles were obtained using the Kirby-Bauer method. 188 strains of Staphylococcus spp were isolated: 105 were identified as Staphylococcus aureus and 83 as coagulase-negative Staphylococcus. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated most often in secretions, whereas coagulase-negative Staphylococcus was most prevalent in blood cultures. The high (41.5%) prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp shows the need for immediate prophylactic measures aimed at impeding the dissemination of this phenomenon.


The study described in this report has been commissioned by Defra, BERR (formerly DTI) and CLG. It follows on from a report by the Hayes McKenzie Partnership to DTI in 2005 in which reports of low frequency noise emission from windfarms were investigated. Their report concluded that the complaints were not caused by low frequency noise, but by amplitude modulation of aerodynamic noise (AM) from the wind turbines. The term AM indicates aerodynamic noise from wind turbines, but with a greater than normal degree of regular fluctuation at blade passing frequency, typically once per second. The aims of this current study are to ascertain the prevalence of AM on UK wind farm sites, to try to gain a better understanding of the likely causes, and to establish whether further research into AM is required. The study was carried out in four parts, a survey of local authorities with windfarms in their areas, further investigation of sites for which AM was identified as a factor, a literature review and a survey of wind turbine manufacturers.

The survey of local authorities was in two parts, a scoping survey aimed at identifying problem sites, and a detailed survey to establish whether AM could have been a factor in causing complaints. The response to both parts of the survey was 100%, although full information was not available for all sites at the detailed stage. The results showed that 27 of the 133 windfarm sites operational across the UK at the time of the survey had attracted noise complaints at some point. An estimated total of 239 formal complaints have been received about UK windfarm sites since 1991, 152 of which were from a single site. The estimated total number of complainants is 81 over the same sixteen year period. This shows that in terms of the number of people affected, wind farm noise is a small-scale problem compared with other types of noise; for example the number of complaints about industrial noise exceeds those about windfarms by around three orders of magnitude. In only one case was the windfarm considered by the local authority to be causing a statutory nuisance. Again, this indicates that, despite press articles to the contrary, the incidence of windfarm noise and AM in the UK is low.

AM was considered to be a factor in four of the sites, and a possible factor in another eight. Regarding the four sites, analysis of meteorological data suggests that the conditions for AM would prevail between about 7% and 15% of the time. AM would not therefore be present most days, although it could occur for several days running over some periods. Complaints have subsided for three out of these four sites, in one case as a result of remedial treatment in the form of a wind turbine control system. In the remaining case, which is a recent installation, investigations are ongoing.

The literature review indicated that, although there has been much research into the general area of aerodynamic noise it is a highly complex field, and whilst general principles are understood there are still unanswered questions. Regarding the specific phenomenon of AM there has been little research and the causes are still the subject of debate. AM is not fully predictable at current state of the art. The survey of wind turbine manufacturers revealed that, although there was considerable interest, few have any experience of AM.

The low incidence of AM and the low numbers of people adversely affected make it difficult to justify further research funding in preference to other more widespread noise issues. On the other hand, since AM cannot be fully predicted at present, and its causes are not fully understood we consider that it might be prudent to carry out further research to improve understanding in this area.


Optical forces can be used to manipulate small particles through various mechanisms. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of optical forces acting on the nanoparticles located over a substrate using different manipulation techniques, as well as the conditions of the optimization of these forces. In particular, we study optical trapping, acceleration, and binding. Calculations are carried out using the exact multipole expansion method combined with Maxwell stress tensor formalism, providing a general framework to study optical forces on particles for arbitrary incident fields using closed-form expressions. The method takes into account multiple scattering between the particles and substrate and allows clear predictive abilities well beyond the dipole model. We consider the interaction of dielectric and metallic nanoparticles with various substrates. The presence of substrate is shown to have a significant impact on the nanoparticles' resonances and provides an additional degree of freedom in tailoring the optical forces. We explore different physical processes contributing to the optical force and their interplay on the mobility of the particle. It is established that engineering layered substrates can broaden the scope of trapping and acceleration and enhance the binding forces. It can also provide a high tunability of the acceleration direction. The analysis presented in this paper provides key physical insights to identify optimum setup for nanoparticles manipulation in various applications.


Murine bone marrow and adherence-separated spleen cells cultured on hydrophobic, gas-permeable Teflon foils (petriperm dishes) can be shown to synthesize and secrete erythropoietin (Epo) and colony-stimulating activity (CSA) simultaneously into the surrounding medium. The Epo activity in the supernatants of primary cultures as measured by the fetal liver erythroid colony-forming technique, from adherent and nonadherent spleen cells, increases over the first 7 days in culture, followed by a plateau until 14 days. Use of the macrophage-specific cytotoxic agent, crystalline silica, as a tool to release residual Epo contained in these cells produces a similar time-Epo activity curve to that found in the primary supernatants. This, together with functional and morphological examination of the cells, indicates that macrophages are responsible for this activity. The total Epo activity released from adherent and nonadherent spleen cells at plateau levels was estimated to be 25 mU/ml culture/day. Weekly subcultivation of bone marrow and adherence-separated spleen cells initiated from primary cultures demonstrated a massive increase in both Epo activity and CSA above that obtained for the primary cultures. Subcultivation could be continued for at least 6 wk. These results, together with the reversible inhibition of Epo and CSA production by cycloheximide, demonstrate that these molecules are synthesized by the macrophage. The evidence supports the hypothesis that the macrophage is involved not only in extrarenal Epo production, but also in the possible short-range regulation of hemopoiesis.


Objective: Although preeclampsia (PE) is one of the most important problems affecting pregnant women, etiologic factors in its development are still unclear. We aimed to investigate the expression levels of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in preeclamptic and healthy control placentas. Patients and methods: Placental tissue samples were obtained after delivery from patients diagnosed with PE and from normal-term pregnants and analyzed for COX-2, TNF-α and iNOS expression by immunohistochemistry. Results: A strong expression of COX-2 was observed in syncytiotrophoblast cells of preeclamptic placentas, which was significantly higher than that of normal placentas (p = 0.005). A mild expression of TNF-α in both normal and preeclamptic syncytiotrophoblasts was seen (p = 0.435). In addition, a strong expression of iNOS in normal syncytiotrophoblasts was found, but the intensity of the iNOS expression was highly reduced in preeclamptic placentas (p = 0.001). No correlation was detected between COX-2, TNF-α and iNOS expression levels. Conclusion: The findings of a decrease of iNOS expression and an increase of COX-2 expression in placenta suggest the existence of functional roles of iNOS and COX-2 in the pathophysiology of PE, probably by contributing to the reduced placental blood flow and increased resistance to flow in the fetomaternal circulation.


The recent study by Frances et al. (1) presented an interesting experimental study in which the authors demonstrated that constitutive expression of human cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in hepatocytes protects against adiposity and inflammation and hence insulin resistance induced by a high-fat diet, as demonstrated by decreased hepatic steatosis, adiposity, plasmatic and hepatic triglycerides, and free fatty acids; increased adiponectin/leptin ratio; and decreased levels of proinflammatory cytokines together with an enhancement of insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. The authors concluded that COX-2 could be a potential therapeutic target against obesity-associated metabolic dysfunction. For this reason, we wish to share the results of two studies conducted by our research team. In 2001, we carried out a randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial in which the objective was to identify the effects of COX-1 and -2 inhibition on insulin sensitivity in 21 young, healthy, nonobese male volunteers. Pharmacological COX-1 inhibition was performed with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) at a low dose, and COX-2 selective inhibition was performed with celecoxib. After randomization, subjects received an oral morning dose of ASA 100 mg (n 5 7), celecoxib 200 mg (n 5 7), or placebo for the control group (n 5 7) for 15 days. Before and after the intervention, an insulin tolerance test (ITT) was performed to assess insulin sensitivity, and the constant for the serum glucose disappearance rate (KITT) was calculated. The KITT calculated with the ITT was higher after celecoxib than at baseline (4.8 6 0.9 vs. 4.3 6 0.6%/min, P 5 0.04), indicating improvement in insulin sensitivity (2). On the basis of the results of the previous study, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in 12 overweight or obese male volunteers was performed. Six subjects received celecoxib 200 mg and six other subjects received a placebo (control group) orally in the morning for 4 weeks. Before and after the intervention, insulin sensitivity, C-reactive protein and homocysteine levels, and metabolic profile were estimated. To assess insulin sensitivity, the euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp technique was performed. The insulin sensitivity after celecoxib was significantly higher compared with the basal estimation (3.8 6 1.2 vs. 2.8 6 1.2 mg/kg/min; P 5 0.028) (3). We agree with Frances et al. (1) that COX-2 is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of insulin resistance and that more in-depth human studies should be performed in larger populations with longer interventions and with different COX-2 inhibitors.


Forms part of a group of images depicting scenes at St. Joseph's Hospital, 703 Main Street, Paterson, New Jersey on September 14, 1994.


The act of remembering is a means of bringing the past alive and an imaginative way of dealing with loss. It has been the subject of much recent scholarship and is of particular relevance at a time of widespread transnational migration. This book is a valuable and original contribution to the field of diaspora studies. Based on in-depth oral narratives of forty Vietnamese women, it deals with themes both universal and specific to this diaspora: divergent memories in families, the significance of homeland, the return to Vietnam, cross-cultural relationships, intergenerational tensions, and the issues of silence and unspoken trauma among Vietnamese refugees. It is the first study to apply memory and trauma theories to a substantial base of oral narratives by Vietnamese women in the West. Nguyen argues that understanding of these narratives provides not only an insight into the way Vietnamese women have dealt with loss, but also illuminates the experience of the wider Vietnamese diaspora and other refugees.


The reactionof soft drink bottleswaste with ethylene di amine (EA)and ethylene glycol (EG)in the presence of sodium acetate and manganese acetate as a catalyst, the depolymerization products was separated,characterized, and evaluated as corrosion inhibitors of C-steel alloy in 1M phosphoric acid corrosive medium using simple chemical technique(weight loss) and electrochemical technique (open circuit potential)at different concentration of the used inhibitors derived from soft drink waste. The effect of temperature on the corrosion inhibition efficiency was studied;the inhibition efficiency increase with increasing the concentration of the inhibitors and decreases with increasing the temperature, the inhibition occurs through adsorption of the inhibitor molecules on the metal surface without modifying the mechanism of corrosion process. The adsorption of the inhibitor on Steel surface was found to follow the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Thermodynamic function of activation and adsorption was computed.


Frogs in the family Ranidae are diverse in Asia and are thought to have dispersed to the Sahul Shelf approximately 10 million years ago, where they radiated into more than a dozen species. Ranid species in the intervening oceanic islands of Wallacea, such as Hylarana florensis and H. elberti from the Lesser Sundas and H. moluccana from eastern Wallacea, are assumed to belong to the subgenus Papurana, yet this has not been confirmed with molecular data. We analyzed mitochondrial DNA of Hylarana species from five islands spanning the reported ranges of H. florensis and H. elberti and compared them to confirmed Papurana species and closely related subgenera within Hylarana. We find that the Lesser Sunda H. florensis and H. elberti form a clade that is sister to the rest of the Australo-Papuan Papurana assemblage. Species delimitation analyses and divergence time estimates suggest that populations of H. florensis on Lombok may be distinct from those on Flores at the species level. Likewise, populations of H. elberti on Sumba and Timor may be distinct from each other and from those on Wetar, tshe type locality of H. elberti. Samples from Babar Island thought to be members of H. elberti in fact belong to the wide-ranging H. daemeli, which occurs in northern Australia, across New Guinea, and on the neighboring island of Tanimbar. These results suggest that the Lesser Sundas may have served as a stepping-stone for colonization of the Sahul Shelf and that species diversity of Papurana frogs is underestimated in the Lesser Sundas.


Two tortoise species native to the American southwest have experienced significant habitat loss from development and are vulnerable to ongoing threats associated with continued development. Mojave desert tortoises Gopherus agassizii are listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act, and Sonoran desert tortoises G. morafkai are protected in Arizona (USA) and Mexico. Substantial habitat for both species occurs on multiple-use public lands, where development associated with traditional and renewable energy production, recreation, and other activities is likely to continue. Our goal was to quantify development to inform and evaluate actions implemented to protect and manage desert tortoise habitat. We quantified a landscape-level index of development across the Mojave and Sonoran desert tortoise ranges using models of potential habitat for each species (152485 total observations). We used 13 years of Mojave desert tortoise monitoring data (4732 observations) to inform the levels and spatial scales at which tortoises may be affected by development. Most (66-70%) desert tortoise habitat has some development within 1 km. Development levels on desert tortoise habitat are lower inside versus outside areas protected by actions at national, state, and local levels, suggesting that protection efforts may be having the desired effects and providing a needed baseline for future effectiveness evaluations. Of the relatively undeveloped desert tortoise habitat, 43% (74030 km2) occurs outside of existing protections. These lands are managed by multiple federal, state, and local entities and private landowners, and may provide opportunities for future land acquisition or protection, including as mitigation for energy development on public lands.


The structural and dielectric properties of barium/strontium substituted Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 were examined in compositions of general formula (Ba0.4Sr0.6TiO3)x(Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3)1−x. An average classic cubic perovskite structure is maintained from x = 0.5 to 1.0. The temperature dependence of dielectric properties of studied compositions shows relaxor-ferroelectric behaviour attributed to the existence of polar nano-regions. Ferroelectric measurements under variable temperature demonstrated two transitions, from normal ferroelectric to relaxor-ferroelectric and relaxor-ferroelectric to paraelectric, at the dipole freezing temperature, Tf, and temperature of maximum permittivity, Tm, respectively. The obtained value of Tf coincides with the onset of linear thermal expansion of the cubic unit cell parameter obtained from high resolution powder neutron diffraction data. Careful analysis of the neutron diffraction data revealed no significant change in the average cubic structure from −263 to 150 °C. However, changes in the Gaussian variance component of the neutron peak shape, reveal three distinct regions with transitions at about −100 and 100 °C corresponding to the beginning and end of the dielectric dispersion seen in the permittivity and loss spectra. This variation in the Gaussian variance parameter is attributed to the activity of the polar nano-regions. The composition (Ba0.4Sr0.6)0.5(Bi0.5Na0.5)0.5TiO3 was found to exhibit the maximum recoverable energy storage density, with a value of 1.618 J cm−3 and 76.9% storage efficiency at a field of 17 kV mm−1.


One hundred and fifty stool sampling were collected from clinical sources responsible of causing diarrhea in adults as well as children. The identification of Aeromonas hydrophila isolates depended on common methods of identification dependent on biochemical characteristics and culture, then vitek2 compact system was used. Eight Aeromonas hydrophila isolates were gained and revealed various productivity of metalloprotease; the isolate number 8 was the maximum effective in metalloprotease production. The eight isolates were examined with Polymerase Chain Reaction to prove enzyme gene presence, the results revealed that all isolates were positive for ahMP genes; metalloprotease was completely purified via a number of steps, which included ammonium sulphate precipitation, dialysis, ion exchange and gel chromatography. Cytotoxicity effect of metalloprotease studies on cancer and normal cell lines, The results showed the purified metalloprotease as effective cytotoxic effect on liver hepatocellular cancer cells (HepG2) compared with no effect on normal liver cell line (WRL-68) indicating less cytotoxic effect.


One key challenge in Social Network Analysis is to design an efficient and accurate community detection procedure as a means to discover intrinsic structures and extract relevant information. In this paper, we introduce a novel strategy called (COIN), which exploits COncept INterestingness measures to detect communities based on the concept lattice construction of the network. Thus, unlike off-the-shelf community detection algorithms, COIN leverages relevant conceptual characteristics inherited from Formal Concept Analysis to discover substantial local structures. On the first stage of COIN, we extract the formal concepts that capture all the cliques and bridges in the social network. On the second stage, we use the stability index to remove noisy bridges between communities and then percolate relevant adjacent cliques. Our experiments on several real-world social networks show that COIN can quickly detect communities more accurately than existing prominent algorithms such as Edge betweenness, Fast greedy modularity, and Infomap.


PURPOSE
Rho-associated coiled-coil-containing protein kinase (ROCK) is a downstream target of Rho GTPase signaling and regulates the assembly of stress fibers. Previous reports indicate that Rho/ROCK signaling is involved in the regulation of several cellular processes, some of which may be cell-type specific and are probably critical to corneal stromal cell activation. The present study identified ROCK-regulated gene expression in corneal stromal cells.

METHODS
Corneal stromal cells derived from eyes of three different donors were cultured to yield the following designated phenotypes: baseline fibroblasts (DMEM with 10% serum), activated fibroblasts (10% serum+bFGF+heparin), and myofibroblasts (1% serum+TGF-beta 1). Cells were exposed to the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632 or vehicle for 12 hours, and transcript levels altered by ROCK inhibition were identified with oligonucleotide microarrays (GeneChips; Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA).

RESULTS
In these phenotypes, Y-27632 caused marked (twofold or more) increases or decreases in 14/4, 12/3, and 15/10 transcripts. In both fibroblast groups Y-27632-treatment increased expression of endothelin receptors and of parathyroid hormone-like hormone. The upregulation of alpha-smooth muscle actin in myofibroblasts was attenuated by Y-27632. Combining data from all groups identified ROCK-supported (Y-27632 inhibitable) expression of 10 transcripts, including ribonucleotide reductase M2, the cyclin B1-CDC2-CKS2 system, and four mitotic spindle-associated proteins.

CONCLUSIONS
ROCK inhibition causes broad inhibition of DNA synthesis and mitosis and causes changes that are different between (bFGF-activated) fibroblasts and (TGF-beta 1-induced) myofibroblasts. Thus, Rho/ROCK signaling regulates both common and distinct downstream events in corneal stromal cells activated (differentiated) to fibroblast or myofibroblast phenotype.


Synergistic combinations of anti-cancer compounds can provide therapeutic benefits by producing better efficacy at potentially lower doses. SR16388, a novel steroidal compound that inhibits estrogen and estrogen-related receptors, has previously been shown to inhibit the proliferation and viability of diverse human cancer cell lines in vitro and to reduce the growth of several types of human xenograft tumors in mice, including, NSCLC and androgen-independent prostate cancer. We examined the two-drug combination effects of SR16388 in cell culture systems using a panel of approved cancer drugs with different mechanisms-of-action. Sixty cancer cell lines were treated with compounds alone or in combination for three days and CellTiter-Glo® Luminescent Cell Viability Assay (Promega Corp.) was used as the endpoint to measure cell viability. Combinations of SR16388 with anti-mitotic drugs Paclitaxel or Vincristine demonstrated synergistic effects on cell killing in multiple cell lines. These synergistic effects were further evaluated by calculating combination-index values using CalcuSyn software (Biosoft, Cambridge, UK)". Studies are ongoing to elucidate the mechanisms that may lead the synergistic interaction of SR16388 and these antimitotic drugs. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2011 Nov 12-16; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2011;10(11 Suppl):Abstract nr C178.


ABSTRACT Retroviruses utilize an unspliced version of their primary transcription product as an RNA template for synthesis of viral Gag and Pol structural and enzymatic proteins. Cytoplasmic expression of the gag-pol RNA is achieved despite the lack of intron removal and the presence of a long and highly structured 5′ untranslated region that inhibits efficient ribosome scanning. In this study, we have identified for the first time that the 5′ long terminal repeat (LTR) of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MPMV) facilitates Rev/Rev-responsive element-independent expression of HIV-1 gag-pol reporter RNA. The MPMV RU5 region of the LTR is necessary and directs functional interaction with cellular posttranscriptional modulators present in human 293 and monkey COS cells but not in quail QT-6 cells and does not require any viral protein. Deletion of MPMV RU5 decreases the abundance of spliced mRNA but has little effect on cytoplasmic accumulation of unspliced gag-pol RNA despite complete elimination of detectable Gag protein production. MPMV RU5 also exerts a positive effect on the cytoplasmic expression of intronless luc RNA, and ribosomal profile analysis demonstrates that MPMV RU5 directs subcellular localization of the luc transcript to polyribosomes. Our findings have a number of similarities with those of reports on 5′ terminal posttranscriptional control elements in spleen necrosis virus and human foamy virus RNA and support the model that divergent retroviruses share 5′ terminal RNA elements that interact with host proteins to program retroviral RNA for productive cytoplasmic expression.


Background The first crash tests of five brands of the most popular small cars from India were released by Global NCAP in early 2014 showing that very unsafe cars are being marketed in India. This prompted an in-depth look into the advertisings behind the vehicles sold in India and their role in promotion of safety features Methods We surveyed the print advertisements and TV commercials for safety content, and the pricing policy for offering safety technology, of six major automobile manufacturers of India. The observations were coded on a numerical scale and graded based on the safety features advertised, along with the selling price at which these features are available. Results For TV advertisements scores ranged from 0.83 to −1.3 (on a scale of +1 to −8). Similarly for print advertisements scores ranged from 1.5 to 0 (on a scale of +4 to −3). Mainly because features like airbags and ABS were not offered in the base model of vehicles under UD $ 12000. These safety features were available in higher end models of the same vehicle usually bundled with high end trims which had a price difference of US $ 1500–2000 from the base model. As a positive sign though most TV commercials showed adult passengers wearing seat belts and children were usually shown in the backseat. Conclusions Our study show that at present the Indian manufacturers are not promoting safety issues or their safety technology in any significant manner in their print advertisements or TV commercials. When safety features are offered as options they force the consumer to spend more than US $ 1500 extra. Reliable industry sources inform us that these features should not cost more than US $ 250 or less. The Global NCAP results inform us in a graphic manner that very unsafe cars are being marketed in India in the knowledge of the manufacturers and government officials. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Indian Government to announce strict crashworthiness standards for cars sold in India.


Abstract. Semi-arid areas where grazing is the main land use exhibit a "three-phase-mosaic" pattern of dominant surface patches: shrubs, trampling routes, and intershrub areas. This pattern differs from the "two-phase mosaic" seen in grazing-free semi-arid areas. The patches might create a positive feedback process in which enhanced infiltration beneath shrubs minimizes overland flow from under their canopies, thereby strengthening the sink–source mechanism by which overland flow generated between shrubs rapidly infiltrates into the soil beneath them, where it deposits soil particles, litter, nutrients and organic matter, thereby enhancing infiltration by changing the local microtopography, and improving soil properties. To analyze sink–source relationships among the patches in grazed areas in rangelands of the semi-arid northern Negev region of Israel, we constructed small runoff plots, 0.25–1.0 m2 in area, of five types: shrub (Sarcopoterium spinosum), intershrub, route, route–shrub combination, and intershrub–shrub combination. The shrubs always occupied the downslope part of the plot. Overland flow and sediment deposits were measured in all plots during 2007/8 and 2008/9. The combined plots yielded much less overland flow and sediments than intershrub, routes and shrub ones, indicating that the shrubs absorbed almost all the yields of the upper part of their plots. The shrubs generated less runoff and sediments than routes and intershrubs; runoff flows from the routes and intershrubs were similar; sediment yield was highest in the intershrubs. Thus, runoff yield exhibited a two-phase mosaic pattern, and sediment yield, i.e., soil erosion, a three-phase mosaic pattern.


This study examined socioeconomic disparities in medical provider visits for elderly people enrolled in two Medicare managed care plans. Controlling for health and demographic differences, elderly people of lower income had fewer primary care visits and those with lower education had fewer specialist visits. The number of emergency room visits was not significantly related to socioeconomic status (SES). People of low SES reported having more financial barriers to receiving care and greater difficulties navigating the managed care system than people of high SES. Further, elderly people of low SES had different degrees of belief in the efficacy of the medical system and of lifetime experiences with a usual source of medical care prior to Medicare, both of which were associated with differential use of medical providers.