Ocimum basilicum seed, commonly also known as Takhmaria in Gujarat.
The seed of O. basilicum traditionally used to treat diabetes. This activity is related to the presence
of flavonoids, the major compounds of the crude extract.

The present study was planned to examine the antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic potential
of Ocimum basilicum Linn seed, used as a traditional treatment for diabetes mellitus.

The methanolic extracts of O. basilicum seed (40 mg/kg) and isolated compound apigenin
(10 mg/kg) were administered orally for 15 days to streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat. Anti
diabetic activity, oral glucose tolerance test, change in body weight and lipid profile of diabetics rat
treated with methanolic extracts of O. basilicum seed and isolated apigenin were assessed and which
was further compared with normal, diabetic control and standard drug-treated rat. Histological examination
was carried out on 15 days of treatment.

Methanolic extract of O. basilicum seed (40 mg/kg) and apigenin (10 mg/kg) produced a
significant reduction in fasting blood glucose level (p<0.01) and (p<0.001) respectively in the
streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat. Significant differences were observed in oral glucose tolerance
test, serum lipid parameters and body weight for methanolic extract of O. basilicum and apigenintreated
diabetic rat as compared to diabetic, normal and standard drug-treated rat. The outcome of
the histological examinations of the pancreas treated with a methanolic extract of O. basilicum and
apigenin showed comparable regeneration of the cells, which were earlier necrosed by streptozotocin.
Methanolic extract of O. basilicum and isolated compound apigenin exhibit significant antihyperglycemic
and antihyperlipidemic activities in streptozotocin-induced diabetes in the rat.

From above findings, it can be concluded that the O. basilicum seed and isolated compound
apigenin must be considered as a potential candidate for the treatment of diabetes and lipidlowering
activities in streptozotocin-induced diabetes in the rat.


To enable wind turbine and the power converter have the ability to protect itself without disconnection to power grids during the fault, protection for crowbar and chopper should be designed properly. Optimal resistors value of crowbar and chopper are calculated under PVdq controller and Fmac controller according to the proposed index which embody the effect of rotor current, reactive power, converter capacitor voltage and the electrical torque. Simulation results obtained by using PSCAD show that DFIG should be designed with different optimal crowbar and chopper resistors under different controllers. Moreover, DFIG with Fmac controller has better fault ride-through capability than that with PVdq controller.


The two-sided market theory holds that consumer adoption and merchant acceptance of payment cards are interdependent. However, empirical evidence on such network externalities is scarce, especially for the merchant side. This paper addresses this issue by examining merchant card acceptance in France. We exploit shopping diary data to construct a novel and fine-grained measure of French consumers' payment preferences and match these with data from a nation-wide merchant survey. Controlling for (among other factors) cost, degree of competition, and customer characteristics, we find that the higher the probability that the average basket of a merchant is paid for by card in shops in the same sector and region, the higher the probability that the merchant will accept cards. In other words, we find that consumer preferences drive merchant card acceptance, which underpins the existence of network externalities on the merchant side of the payment card market.


Calcium-modulating cyclophilin ligand (CAML) is a ubiquitously expressed protein that is important during thymopoiesis. However, whether it serves a function in mature lymphocytes is unknown. In this article, we show that CAML is essential for survival of peripheral follicular (Fo) B cells. Conditional deletion of CAML in CD19-Cre transgenic mice caused a significant reduction in Fo cell numbers and increased rates of homeostatic proliferation. CAML-deficient Fo cells showed increased cellular turnover and normal proliferative ability. Although CAML-deficient Fo cells responded to AgR stimulation and to B cell activating factor, they displayed decreased survival and increased apoptosis following stimulation with LPS and IL-4 in vitro. Failure to survive was not due to aberrant B cell development in the absence of CAML, because induced deletion of the gene in mature cells resulted in a similar phenotype. These data establish an essential and ongoing role for CAML in the long-term survival of mature B cells.


Flow focusing consists in injecting a core liquid into another surrounding flowing sheath liquid. Here we investigate experimentally the influence of imposing pressure to generate coflow of two miscible liquids. We inject water in the central inlet of a cross-junction microfluidic device and different mixtures of glycerol-water in the two lateral inlets. A pressure generator is used to control the flows, and the established flow rates are monitored in both inlets. We draw a state diagram that delimits the regions of the coflow, the inner and outer back flows. We measure the width of the jet as a function of different control parameters: the inlet pressures, the flow rates, the viscosity contrast, and the channel aspect ratio. We show that the jet width can be controlled by tuning the internal to external pressure ratio solely, provided that the viscosity contrast is low. We discuss the possibility to use such a system to center particles in a channel.Flow focusing consists in injecting a core liquid into another surrounding flowing sheath liquid. Here we investigate experimentally the influence of imposing pressure to generate coflow of two miscible liquids. We inject water in the central inlet of a cross-junction microfluidic device and different mixtures of glycerol-water in the two lateral inlets. A pressure generator is used to control the flows, and the established flow rates are monitored in both inlets. We draw a state diagram that delimits the regions of the coflow, the inner and outer back flows. We measure the width of the jet as a function of different control parameters: the inlet pressures, the flow rates, the viscosity contrast, and the channel aspect ratio. We show that the jet width can be controlled by tuning the internal to external pressure ratio solely, provided that the viscosity contrast is low. We discuss the possibility to use such a system to center particles in a channel.


This paper mainly studies the basic principle of Adomian decomposition method and uses the principle to solve differential equations of fractional in order to get the approximate analytical solution in series form. The application of this method is extended to fractional order nonlinear convection diffusion equation of time. Using this method, the paper gets the solution of the equation and the solution satisfying the initial conditions. The result is the extension of the standard diffusion equation solved by former scholars. Compared with the standard methods, this numerical solution of this method can obtain approximate precision analytical solutions and the convergence is very fast. It does not require discretization and a large amount of computation.


Background: Management of the hip capsule has been a topic of recent debate in hip arthroscopic surgery. Postoperative instability after hip arthroscopic surgery has been reported and can lead to poor outcomes. Purpose: To determine the outcome of patients diagnosed with symptomatic instability after hip arthroscopic surgery at a minimum of 12 months and 24 months after revision surgery for capsular repair. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: In a cohort of approximately 1100 patients who underwent hip arthroscopic surgery, 33 patients (33 hips) developed symptomatic instability requiring a revision surgery. Two patients suffered anterior dislocations following their initial surgery. Radiographs were reviewed to evaluate for acetabular dysplasia. Three patients were lost to follow-up and 10 patients were excluded as they were <1 year out from the revision surgery. A total of 20 patients (18 female, 2 male) completed a preoperative and postoperative modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) and Hip Outcome Score (HOS) at a minimum of 12 months. Eleven of these patients had a minimum follow-up of 24 months. All patients filled out a Likert scale of perceived improvement in physical ability at final follow-up. Results: The mean age of the patients was 29.7 years (range, 15.2-55.5 years). The mean lateral center-edge angle was 25°, and the mean acetabular index was 7° before revision. All patients underwent interportal capsulotomy during the index arthroscopic procedure. After their index arthroscopic procedures, patients had minimal improvement at a mean of 19.1 months postoperatively on the mHHS (from 57.1 to 57.6; P = .423), HOS-Activities of Daily Living (ADL) (from 62.7 to 66.4; P = .260), and HOS-Sports (from 42.0 to 39.1; P = .800). For the patients with a minimum 1-year follow-up after revision surgery (n = 20; mean follow-up, 21.3 months), the mean mHHS (from 57.6 preoperatively to 85.8 at final follow-up; P < .001), HOS-ADL (from 66.4 to 85.7; P < .001), and HOS-Sports (from 39.1 to 79.8; P < .001) all improved significantly. The results were similar when looking at only the patients with a minimum 2-year follow-up after revision surgery (n = 11; mean follow-up, 26.1 months); the mean mHHS (from 56.0 preoperatively to 91.5 at final follow-up; P = .001), HOS-ADL (from 68.3 to 89.9; P = .009), and HOS-Sports (from 35.7 to 87.9; P = .001) all improved significantly. When comparing patients with isolated capsular repair to those with additional procedures performed, there were no differences between the groups (all P > .05). At final follow-up, all but 1 patient had improved overall physical ability levels. Conclusion: Revision hip arthroscopic surgery for capsular repair in patients with symptomatic instability after hip arthroscopic surgery provides good functional outcomes at a minimum of 1 and 2 years postoperatively.


A novel developmental system designed to facilitate the study of generative encoding-based evolutionary design is presented. An aim of this work is to explore the simplest system and genetic encoding capable of exhibiting phenomena akin to size regulation and self-repair in developmental biology. Here we show that in the absence of complicated developmental mechanisms such as ligand-receptor mediated cell signaling, asymmetric or mitotic spindle-based cell division, cell motility, or cellular forces a simple rule-like GRN encoding and a simple internal/external chemical exchange mechanism confer the ability to generate patterns that are size regulated, and able to self-repair when damaged. In addition, we analyze the mechanisms that achieve size regulation and self-repair.


We investigated the optical properties of Ge1−xSex and Ge1−x−ySexAsy amorphous films by using spectroscopic ellipsometry and Raman spectroscopy. The dielectric functions and absorption coefficients (α) of the amorphous films were determined from the measured ellipsometric angles (Ψ,Δ). We obtained the optical gap energies and the Urbach energies from the absorption coefficients and found a strong bowing effect in the optical gap energy of Ge1−x−ySexAsy, where the endpoint binaries were Ge0.50Se0.50 and Ge0.31As0.69. Based on the correlation between the optical gap energies and the Urbach energies, we attributed the large bowing parameter to electronic disorder. Using Raman spectroscopy, we measured the phonon modes and discussed the composition dependence of the phonon peak frequencies and lineshapes in terms of structural units. Based on the composition dependence of the phonons in Ge1−x−ySexAsy, we identified the phonon modes of Ge0.31As0.69. A resonant Raman phenomenon was observed in Ge0.40Se0.60 at a laser excitation of 514 nm (2.41 eV). We verified that this laser energy corresponded to the transition energy of Ge0.40Se0.60 by using the second derivative of the dielectric function of Ge0.40Se0.60.


Modeling the global markets is complicated due to the existence of uncertainty in the information available. In addition, the lithium supply chain presents a complex network due to interconnections that it presents and the interdependencies among its elements. This complex supply chain has one large market, electric vehicles (EVs). EV production is increasing the global demand for lithium; in terms of the lithium supply chain, an EV requires lithium-ion batteries, and lithium-ion batteries require lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. Realistically, the mass balance in the global lithium supply chain involves more elements and more markets, and together with the assortment of databases in the literature, make the modeling through deterministic models difficult. Modeling the global supply chain under uncertainty could facilitate an assessment of the lithium supply chain between production and demand, and therefore could help to determine the distribution of materials for identifying the variables with the highest importance in an undersupply scenario. In the literature, deterministic models are commonly used to model the lithium supply chain but do not simultaneously consider the variation of data among databases for the lithium supply chain. This study performs stochastic modeling of the lithium supply chain by combining a material flow analysis with an uncertainty analysis and global sensitivity analysis. The combination of these methods evaluates an undersupply scenario. The stochastic model simulations allow a comparison between the known demand and the supply calculated under uncertainty, in order to identify the most important variables affecting lithium distribution. The dynamic simulations show that the most probable scenario is one where supply does not cover the increasing demand, and the stochastic modeling classifies the variables by their importance and sensibility. In conclusion, the most important variables in a scenario of EV undersupply are the lithium hydroxide produced from lithium carbonate, the lithium hydroxide produced from solid rock, and the production of traditional batteries. The global sensitivity analysis indicates that the critical variables which affect the uncertainty in EV production change with time.


Rapid growth of the organic agricultural sector in the U.S. and implementation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's national organic standards in 2002 have lead to concerns that organic production could become increasingly concentrated on larger U.S. and international farms, disrupting the market access of small domestic organic producers. However, data on the U.S. organic agriculture show that the smallest-scale farms continue to hold a small but stable piece of the organic sector and that U.S. organic farm size has grown slowly. The amount of land under organic production worldwide is growing rapidly, particularly in developing countries producing commodities for export, many of which are not widely grown in the U.S. Small-scale producers using direct markets have likely been least impacted from increased organic imports, while producers of organic oilseeds and cotton have likely been most impacted. Federal and State government agencies and the private sector have launched initiatives to sustain small-farm participation in the U.S. organic sector. Programs to better serve organic producers in the U.S. and to differentiate organic and non-organic imports and exports are being developed at the federal level.


INTRODUCTION
Common mental disorders (CMD) are more frequent in women. Low reward and lack of visibility in performing housework are the determining factors for these psychological illnesses.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the association between housework overload and the occurrence of common mental disorders in women living in the urban zone of the municipality of Feira de Santana, Bahia.

METHODS
cross-sectional epidemiological study that included 2,057 women aged 15 years or over selected by random sampling in clusters. The housework overload indicator was created from the domestic activities of washing, ironing, cleaning and cooking, weighted according to the number of individuals living in the home. The common mental disorders were assessed using SRQ-20.

RESULTS
Women with a high housework overload had a higher prevalence of CMD than women with a low overload (45.6% versus 36.2%). Multiple logistic regression analysis confirmed the association between housework overload and CMD (PR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.05 - 1.44), adjusted for income, level of schooling and leisure activities.

CONCLUSION
The findings support the hypothesis that high housework overload is associated with mental disorders.


This dissertation empirically examines three different questions related to the behavior and performance of firms participating of international trade.In the first essay, I ask whether exporting allows firms to charge higher markups. To study this question, I use a unique dataset of Chilean manufacturing firms that contains product-level data on the price and average cost for all goods produced and exported. This allows me to compute direct markup measures, and to identify whether markups variation is accounted by different pricing policies or changes in the production cost. Although within firms the export markup premium is moderate -about 2%-, the study of the trajectories of markups before and after export entry reveals the presence of ongoing gains after export entry. While at the moment of export entry the markup of exported products is not different than the markup of domestic products, three periods after export entry the markup wedge increases to about 7-9%. A decomposition of the markup premium reveals that, within firms, the higher markups on exported products is accounted by both higher prices and marginal cost. In contrast, after export entry, prices and average cost tend to decrease. In the second essay -based on joint work with Nico Voigtlaender-, we revisit the old question of whether firms become more productive after export entry. While there is strong evidence for productivity-driven selection into exporting, previous research has mostly failed to identify export-related efficiency gains within plants. This non-result is typically derived from revenue productivity, which reflects price variation. Using a census panel of Chilean manufacturing plants, we first confirm the non-result for revenue productivity. We then compute plant-product level marginal cost as an efficiency measure that is not affected by prices. We find within-plant efficiency gains of 15-25%, the same order of magnitude as selection effects across plants. Evidence suggests that technology upgrading in combination with export entry is an important driver behind these gains.The final essay studies firms' quality patterns across destinations, when they produce products in different quality segments. I develop a quality model with non-homothetic quality demand and heterogeneity in consumers' income. The model features quality sorting of consumers according to their income level. This implies that firm's quality allocation depends not only on the average income of the country, but on the entire income distribution of the country. The main prediction of the model is related to the role of income inequality on within-firm quality patters. I find that in countries with a smaller middle classes, firms' tend to skew their exports towards products of higher quality. This effect tends to be weaker in countries with higher income. To illustrate the main predictions of the model, I use a unique dataset from the Chilean wine industry. This dataset allows me to construct measures of product quality, that are not affected by aggregation or markup issues. In line with the model's predictions, I find that firms tend export proportionally more high quality products to more unequal countries. However, I find this effect to be quantitatively important only in low and middle-income countries.


South Africa is experiencing an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills shortage and a limited number of scholars and students are pursuing ICT careers. The provision of a web-based ICT career information platform as an effective solution to the growing demand for skilled ICT employees is the focus of this study. The study is grounded in the network theory of social capital. The aim of the development of an ICT career portal was to provide ICT career information to scholars, students and the ICT industry. Scholars can obtain information about ICT career opportunities and determine if they qualify for specific degree/diploma programs. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected from students as well as Grade 9 – Grade 11 scholars from schools in the Port Elizabeth area. The results indicate that scholars became more aware of ICT careers and tertiary qualifications and students reported an increase in awareness of the number of careers and job opportunities in the ICT industry.


This thesis consists of three essays. The first essay (chapter two) examines short- and long-term persistence and predictability of earnings and cash-flow growth rates. Aggregate results show that the mean firm exhibits persistence in short-term earnings growth rates, but little persistence in growth at the long-run. More consistent with economic intuition, aggregate cash-earnings growth rates show some short-term mean-reversion and little persistence in the long-run. Consistent with the earnings smoothing theory, cross-sectional results show short-term persistence in earnings growth rates. Cash-earnings, which suffer less manipulation than accrual earnings, show short-term cross-sectional mean-reversion. Long-term growth rates show evidence of mean-reversion in both cases. Our most interesting findings are related to various examined attributes such as age, industry characteristics, listing exchange, and the number of analysts following the stock which are shown to have an impact on the growth persistence of individual firms. The second essay (chapter three) examines the increasing trend in idiosyncratic volatility of stock returns, which has been documented by Campbell et al. (2001). Using the Campbell (1991) return decomposition framework, we relate idiosyncratic volatility of returns to the volatility of changes in expected ROEs for one-, two- and three-year horizon forecasts (i.e., to the volatility of cash-flow news). The upward trend in idiosyncratic volatility documented by Campbell et al. (2001) is associated with a similar increasing trend in the volatilities of cash-flow news for the three forecast horizons. This relationship is persistent after correcting for analysts' forecast biases and is consistent for newly-listed and mature firms and for earnings (non-) announcement periods. Our findings support an informational explanation to the increasing trend in idiosyncratic volatility, and are consistent with the market efficiency hypothesis which implies that stock return volatility is caused by an increase in the uncertainty of fundamental variables. In the third essay (chapter four) we estimate the internal rates of return (IRR) for domestic and cross-listed Canadian firms, nine GICS sectors, and cap-based portfolios. Using the Fama and French (1999) methodology, we distinguish between the IRR on value or the cost of capital as expected by stakeholders and the IRR on cost that represents the implied real cost of investments. The real cost of capital [equity] over the period 1960-2003 is 5.90 [6.58] percent for the entire nonfinancial sector. The real return on such cost is 6.64 [7.78] percent indicating that, similar to the U.S., the Canadian corporate sector creates value. As expected, cross-listed firms enjoy, on average, lower costs of capital and equity than domestic firms. Although the cost of capital varies considerably across GICS sectors, value is created almost equally by all GICS sectors. IRR values on cap-based portfolios are consistent with the negative relationship between costs of capital and firm size. While both types of IRRs decrease on average after we correct for replacement costs and include extraordinary items, the IRR on cost remains higher than the IRR on value confirming the positive value creation hypothesis. Allowing for inflation illusion, our findings suggest that equity was undervalued during most of the sample period and that the misvaluation was lower for cross-listed firms


Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is the well-recognized infectious disease among the complex of Leishmaniasis (cutaneous, mucocutaneous, visceral) in tropical and subtropical countries. Treatments for VL are unsatisfactory till date and alarming rise of drug resistance is a serious problem. Vaccines to control VL have shown some promise, but none are in current clinical use. Therefore, urgent needs for new and effective anti-leishmanials are pre-requisite. To identify the potential factors, DNA microarray an advance, high throughput technology, has open the possibility of discovering new genes that can contribute to vaccine initiatives or serve as potential drug targets. It has been successfully applied to many of the protozoan parasites and identified some new genes as targets. Target discovery is the key step in the biomarker and drug discovery pipeline to diagnose. After the completion of genome sequencing of Leishmania major and L. infantum, advancement in microarray technologies provide new approaches to study the pattern of gene expression profile during differentiation and development of parasite. It has the potential to improve our understanding of pathogenicity, mechanism of drug resistance and virulence factors by identifying up/down regulated gene and characterizing the respective gene expression. Keeping these backgrounds in mind, we reviewed the data obtained from genome-wide wide expression profiling in Leishmania that focuses on applications of microarray in novel vaccine/drug targets discovery for VL and discuss the potential avenues for their future investigation. Ultimately this will be able to translate the findings into the development of novel therapeutic approaches and targets for VL. Keywords: Visceral Leishmaniasis, Microarray, Stage-specific, Gene expression profiling, Gene discovery, Novel vaccine/drug targets


Objectives: Previous reports showed that cosmetic cleansing oil for removing makeup, which contains mineral oil and surfactant, can deform some silicone hydrogel contact lenses (SHCLs) when applied directly to the lenses, although plasma-coated SHCLs (lotrafilcon A and B) were not affected. In the present study, we investigated hydrogel lenses and SHCLs in both wet and dry conditions. Methods: Several brands of hydrogel and SHCLs were immersed in a cleansing oil solution containing Sudan Black B for 5 min under wet and dry conditions. The lenses under the wet condition were simply picked up from the saline, whereas those under the dry condition were blotted with paper wipes. After immersing, the excess solution remaining on the lenses was removed by finger rubbing with a multipurpose solution. The lenses were then examined using a stereomicroscope, and their mean brightness was measured and compared. Results: The cosmetic cleansing oil was not absorbed by the hydrogel lenses under wet or dry conditions. However, four of seven brands of SHCLs absorbed the cosmetic cleansing oil under both conditions (dry and wet), whereas asmofilcon A absorbed it only under the dry condition. Lotrafilcon B and delefilcon A did not absorb cleansing oil even under the dry condition. Conclusions: Hydrogel lenses resist cosmetic cleansing oil. However, SHCLs have different degrees of resistance depending on the lens material. Some SHCLs absorbed cosmetic cleansing oil more under dry conditions than under wet conditions.


The article deals with the study of the process of tax policy formation in the context of European integration. The relationship and influence of European integration processes on the formation of tax policy is determined. The analysis of the impact of European integration on the country's tax policy and the main aspects that have an impact on the formation of tax policy were investigated. The article emphasizes the role of European standards and recommendations in construction an effective tax policy.Prospective directions of tax policy formation in connection with European integration processes are considered. The main problems of tax policy formation and aspects of the obligations defined by the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union are described, including: harmonization of tax legislation, efforts against tax evasion and tax avoidance, ensuring transparency and efficiency of the tax system. In addition, the article mentions the positive impact of European integration on the development of the business environment and the creation of conditions for investment attraction. Measures to be implemented to ensure a fair and efficient tax policy, as well as to reduce tax barriers to attract investment and prevent tax evasion are also defined. The main changes in the norms of tax legislation, which must be made in accordance with the requirements of the European Union, are considered. It is noted that the development and adoption of certain norms of tax legislation are insufficient, since it is also necessary to form the administrative potential of the tax administration. The challenges facing the country in adapting to European standards in the field of taxation are considered and described.According to the draft Plan for the Recovery of Ukraine, the main goals of tax policy formation are reflected, taking into account the requirements of Ukraine's integration into the European Union. The main areas of tax reform have been determined, including: formation of a favorable tax policy for economic growth; adaptation of the norms of tax legislation in accordance with the Association Agreement to the requirements of the European Union; improvement of tax administration to increase investment activity.


Satellite precoding is a promising technique to meet the target data rates of the future high throughput satellite systems and the costs per bit as required by 5G applications and networks, but it requires strict synchronization among the transmitted waveforms, in addition to accurate channel state information. Most of the published work about this topic consider ideal oscillators, but in practice, the output of an oscillator is not a single spectral line at the nominal frequency. This chapter proposes a model for the oscillator phase noise and analyzes the resulting received signal to interference plus noise ratio (SNIR) in a satellite communication system using precoding. Simulations of a communication satellite system with a two-beam transponder and two receivers were performed to compute the effective SNIR. This work uses a simulator which also considers practical impairments such as time misalignment, errors in the channel state information, interference, thermal noise, and phase noise masks for satellite oscillators. The precoding methods used for the analysis are zero forcing (ZF) and minimum mean square error (MMSE). The obtained results prove that there is a degradation in the performance due to the use of independent oscillators but this effect is compensated by the precoding matrix.


Tolerancing involves considerations from all phases of the life cycle of a product including design, manufacturing, assembly, and inspection. Along with minimum cost and maximum functionality and interchangeability, the practice of tolerancing urges a designer to choose an appropriate manufacturing (or inspection) process as well. This situation is formalized as a discrete optimization problem. For an optimum selection of tolerances from a given discrete model involving various manufacturing processes, minimization of manufacturing cost is achieved under the constraint of tolerance stack-up. A random variable and its standard deviation are associated with a dimension and its tolerance. This probabilistic approach enables a trade-off between performance and tolerance (cost). But it also suggests probabilistic optimization. With the aid of a notion called the reliability index [8], tolerance selection is formulated as an integer programming problem. A branch and bound algorithm for ensuring optimum selection is developed by exploiting the special structure of the constraints. To make the enumeration tree small, monotonic relations among the reliability index, cost, and tolerance are examined. The algorithm is tested with examples.


The corrosion behavior in NaCl solutions at different pH values of Al-Cu-Li/SiCp and Al-Cu/SiCp composites fabricated by co-spraying technique was studied. The corrosion behavior of the composites was also compared with the corrosion behavior of pure aluminum. Corrosion potential measurements and potentiodynamic polarization were used to elucidate the corrosion behavior of the composites. In addition the microstructure and morphology of the composites were studied through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the corrosion rate of Al-Cu-Li/SiCp and Al-Cu/SiCp composites was higher than corrosion rate of pure aluminum for all NaCl solutions tested. Both composites and pure aluminum showed the typical "U" behavior of the corrosion rate as a function of pH. The addition of lithium had little effect on the corrosion behavior of the composites.


Not so long ago Emilio Brentani was a promising young author. Now he is an insurance agent on the fast track to forty. He gains a new lease on life, though, when he falls for the young and gorgeous Angiolina-except that his angel just happens to be an unapologetic cheat. But what begins as a comedy of infatuated misunderstanding ends in tragedy, as Emilio's jealous persistence in his folly-against his friends' and devoted sister's advice, and even his own best knowledge-leads to the loss of the one person who, too late, he realizes he truly loves. Marked by deep humanity and earthy humor, by psychological insight and an elegant simplicity of style, As a Man Grows Older (Senilita, in Italian; the English title was the suggestion of Svevo's great friend and admirer, James Joyce) is a brilliant study of hopeless love and hapless indecision. It is a masterwork of Italian literature, here beautifully rendered into English in Beryl de Zoete's classic translation.


In a controlled prospective double blind trial patients with cholesterol gall bladder stones are treated with ursodeoxy-cholic acid (group A: UDCA 11.1 mg/kg per day; n = 16) and Ursomenth respectively (group B: a mixture of UDCA/menthol: 4.75 mg/kg per day each; n = 17). With same stone number and size (10-12 mm) there is a complete dissolution rate in group A of 38%, and of 53% in group B within 15-16.9 months. The response rate (complete + partial dissolution) amounted to 75% and 76% respectively. In group A there is one case of stone calcification, in group B none. Both preparations are free of unwanted effects. This suggests that the cyclic monoterpene menthol enhances the effect of UDCA and is of comparable effect to a mixture of six different terpenes used in former times.


Confronting the Occupation is a study of work, education, political-national resistance, family, and community relations in a Palestinian refugee camp under conditions of Israeli military occupation. It is based on extended field research carried out by an Israeli sociologist-anthropologist in Dheisheh camp, south of Bethlehem, between 1992 and 1996. Emphasis is placed on how men and women, families, and the local refugee community confront the occupation regime as they seek livelihoods, invest in the education of younger generations, and mount a political and often militant struggle. In the process, men lose their jobs in the Israeli labor market, women, old and young, enter the workforce, university graduates are compelled to migrate to the Gulf, and political cadres challenge harsh prison circumstances by establishing their own comprehensive counterorder. While directed against the occupation, patterns of coping and resistance adopted by Dheishehians introduced tensions and conflicts into family life, furthering the transformation of gender and generational relationships.


This past summer, a mysterious disease began to spread among sea stars on the west coast of North America, reaching farther and striking more species than ever before. Something similar seems to be happening on the east coast as well. To identify the pathogen, researchers are conducting experiments and searching for genetic clues. They are also watching for ecological impacts from the loss of these top predators.


Studies on immune reactions of the cellular and humoral types in late periods after administering antilymphocytic serum (ALS) showed that CBA mice preserve deficiency of humoral response to sheep red blood cells. Repeated administration of ALS aggravated depression of the humoral immune response and virtually did not affect the survival of allotransplants. The evidence obtained is discussed with due regard for ALS effect on immunity and for the role of diverse mechanisms of the rejection reaction.


Abstract This article develops quasi-likelihood estimation for generalized varying coefficient partially linear models when the response is not always observable. This article considers two estimation methods and shows that under the assumption of selection on the observables the resulting estimators are asymptotically normal. As an application of these results this article proposes a new estimator for the average treatment effect parameter. A simulation study illustrates the finite sample properties of the proposed estimators.


Objective. This study examines 1) the way that children with chronic conditions are cared for at home and assisted by technology affects maternal employment and child care; 2) the social and clinical factors associated with the decision of a mother to quit employment to care for a child at home; and 3) the way in which care at home and the decision of a mother to quit a job affects maternal mental health. Design. The 6-month postdischarge status of 70 mothers of children assisted by technology (study group) was compared with the 6-month postdischarge status of 58 mothers of children (matched for age and gender) hospitalized for acute illnesses (comparison group). Between January and December 1993, we gathered information on sociodemographic status, employment status and changes in employment, severity of the child's condition, child care and nursing services at home, family support, and maternal mental health. Results. One third of mothers in the study group reported that they quit employment to take care of a child at home with only 37.1% remaining employed outside the home, compared with 69.0% of comparison group mothers. Single caretakers were 15 times more likely to quit employment compared with mothers in two-parent families. Availability of child care had an independent effect on a mother's decision to quit a job, whereas the severity of the child's condition did not. Child care hours were significantly lower in study group families and were provided mostly by relatives compared with day-care facilities and regular babysitters in comparison families. Family support was highest among employed mothers in both the study and the comparison groups and lowest in study group mothers who were neither employed currently nor before the child's illness or who had quit employment to care for the child. Family income was significantly lower in families with a child assisted by technology. Families in the study group had 20-fold higher uncompensated health care costs than did the comparison group. Mothers caring for a child assisted by technology reported less good mental health than did comparison group mothers, and employment seems to mediate this relationship. Conclusions. Caring for a child assisted by technology seems to create barriers to maternal employment diminishing family resources at a time when financial needs actually may increase. Lack of family support and child care services increase the likelihood that mothers of children assisted by technology will stay out of the labor force. Remaining employed buffers the negative effects of care at home on maternal mental health. Health policies for children with chronic health problems should address issues of financial burdens and the labor force participation of their caretakers. chronic illness, home care, technology assisted, family support, employment, quality of life, child care.


In this study, we determined the most appropriate Hamiltonian that is needed for present calculations of nuclei in the A≅130 region by the view of projection of IBM-2 parameters onto IBM-1. The interacting boson model has been widely used for describing the quadrupole collective states of the medium heavy nuclei and no distinction is made between proton and neutron variables when the first version of the model (IBM-1) is applied. So, triaxiality can be described explicitly, through the introduction of cubic terms in the boson operators. However, the microscopic foundations state certainly that it is very important to describe the proton and neutron variables explicitly. This is also a generalized definition of the second version of the IBA-model (IBM-2 model). Using the best-fitted values of parameters in the Hamiltonian of the IBM-2, we have calculated energy levels and B(E2) values for a number of transitions in 144,146,148,150,152,154Nd. The results were compared with the previous experimental and theoretical data and it is observed that they are in good agreement. Many B(E2) values that are still not known so far are stated and the set of parameters used in these calculations is the best approximation that has been carried out so far. It has turned out that the interacting boson approximation (IBA) is fairly reliable for the calculation of spectra in the entire set of 144,146,148,150,152,154Nd isotopes.


With the advancement in the knowledge of surgical procedures and cell micromanipulation, there is a demand for a handheld instrument to perform micromanipulation. Hence, this paper presents a 3-DOF handheld mechanism for micromanipulation driven by three piezoelectric actuators. Flexure-based joints are utilized because of its advantages like the nonexistence of backlash and assembly errors. However, it is difficult and expensive to make such compact mechanism using traditional machining methods. In addition, the traditional machining methods are limited to simple design. To reduce the cost of fabrication and also to allow more complex designs, Objet (a rapid prototyping machine) is proposed to be used to build the mechanism. With regards to the handheld applications, the size of the mechanism is a constraint. Hence, a parallel manipulator design is the preferred choice because of its rigidity and compactness. For the illustration of an application, the mechanism is designed with an intraocular needle attached to it. Possible applications of this design include enhancement of performance in microsurgery and cell micromanipulation. Experiments are also conducted to evaluate the manipulator's tracking performance of the needle tip at a frequency of 10 Hz.


Fullerenes are among the most attractive carbon nanomaterials and have wide-spread applicationsincluding electronics, automobile, aircraft, and energy. C60 has a tendency to form stable colloidal aggregates (also known as, nano-C60 or nC60) in most aqueous conditions, making the nC60 form an important staring point and a fundamental model for comparing all fullerene impact studies. nC60 has been shown to induce toxicity in numerous cell cultures and whole animal systems. However, contradictory reports in the literature make it difficult to interpret the mechanism by which fullerene toxicity is induced. nC60 suspensions are demonstrated to rely on the [6,6]-closedepoxide (C60O) derivative of the fullerene for stability. It is important to investigate the role of C60O in the observed oxidation behavior of fullerene aqueous suspensions. Our goal of this project is focused on the synthesis, separation, and isolation of C60O using semi-preparative high performance liquid chromatography, and preparation of colloidal suspensions. In the present study, we have successfully synthesized oxides of fullerene by ozonating solutions of C60 in toluene under ambient conditions. Excellent separation between C60, C60O, and C60O2 was achieved by using a mixture of toluene/n-hexane mobile phase in a Nacalai Cosmosil Buckyprepsemi-preparative column. Separated compounds were successfully isolated and analyzed by UVVis spectroscopy. The wavelengths of maximum absorbance were determined to be 336, 328, and315 nm for C60, C60O, and C60O2, respectively and are in agreement with literature reported values. Ultimately, successful synthesis of aqueous suspensions of C60O was achieved, and the colloid composition was confirmed to be purely C60O. Aqueous colloidal suspensions of C60O have an average hydrodynamic diameter of 140 ? 20 nm, with a PDI of 0.28 ± 0.05. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of successful synthesis of colloidal suspensions of pure C60O.


Abstract This study explores the role that language plays in the academic and social transition of Haitian children and parents to urban U.S. schools across multiple school settings, demographic groups, and languages. Semistructured individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with groups of 12 Haitian American teachers, 12 Haitian parents of grade school children, and 12 Haitian students who had gone to school both in Haiti and in the US. Using the theoretical constructs of linguistic identity and actor networks, we describe three themes that emerged from our analysis of language use: (1) an affinity for multiple languages, (2) a desire to be multicultural, and (3) a responsibility to help others in the community. These themes point to potent bridges for aiding Haitian students as they adapt to urban U.S. schools, as well as indicating sources of potential linguistic and cultural conflict.


Urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis is a deadly disease with an unclear tumorigenic mechanism. We conducted gene expression profiling on a set of human tumors of this type and identified a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT activation expression signature in 76.9% (n = 13) of our samples. Sequence analysis found both activating mutations of PIK3CA (13.6%, n = 22) and loss of heterozygosity at the PTEN locus (25%, n = 8). In contrast, none of the other subtypes of kidney neoplasms (e.g., clear-cell renal cell carcinoma) harbored PIK3CA mutations (n = 87; P < 0.001). Immunohistochemical analysis of urothelial carcinoma samples found loss of PTEN protein expression (36.4%, n = 11) and elevation of phosphorylated mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR; 63.6%, n = 11). To confirm the role of the PI3K/AKT pathway in urothelial carcinoma, we generated mice containing biallelic inactivation of Pten in the urogenital epithelia. These mice developed typical renal pelvic urothelial carcinomas, with an incidence of 57.1% in mice older than 1 year. Laser capture microdissection followed by PCR confirmed the deletion of Pten exons 4 and 5 in the animal tumor cells. Immunohistochemical analyses showed increased phospho-mTOR and phospho-S6K levels in the animal tumors. Renal lymph node metastases were found in 15.8% of the animals with urothelial carcinoma. In conclusion, we identified and confirmed an important role for the PI3K/AKT pathway in the development of urothelial carcinoma and suggested that inhibitors of this pathway (e.g., mTOR inhibitor) may serve as effective therapeutic agents.


Clinical diphtheria is essentially an intoxication. The diphtheria bacillus is able, while growing superficially on the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, to elaborate toxin, but only rarely does it invade the deeper tissues or blood stream. Zinsser and Bayne-Jones 1 expressed the opinion that although this organism had been isolated from the liver and spleen post mortem, the occurrence of septicemia due to the diphtheria bacillus during life had never been proved. Andrewes and his associates, 2 however, in their report on diphtheria to the Medical Research Council, discussed the results obtained by a group of workers in Hamburg who studied the disease from 1909 to 1913 and concluded that there were 2 authentic cases of bacteremia due to pure Corynebacterium diphtheriae on record. Roedelius 3 succeeded in isolating diphtheria bacilli from the blood in pure culture from 2 patients in this series of cases. The positive cultures


This article presents a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art for vehicle ad hoc networks. We start by reviewing the possible applications that can be used in VANETs, namely, safety and user applications, and by identifying their requirements. Then, we classify the solutions proposed in the literature according to their location in the open system interconnection reference model and their relationship to safety or user applications. We analyze their advantages and shortcomings and provide our suggestions for a better approach. We also describe the different methods used to simulate and evaluate the proposed solutions. Finally, we conclude with suggestions for a general architecture that can form the basis for a practical VANET.


Acid-driven multiphase chemistry of isoprene epoxydiols (IEPOX), a key isoprene oxidation product, with inorganic sulfate aerosol yields substantial amounts of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) through the formation of organosulfur. The extent and implications of inorganic-to-organic sulfate conversion, however, are unknown. Herein, we reveal that extensive consumption of inorganic sulfate occurs, which increases with the IEPOX-to-inorganic sulfate ratio (IEPOX:Sulfinorg), as determined by laboratory and field measurements. We further demonstrate that organosulfur greatly modifies critical aerosol properties, such as acidity, morphology, viscosity, and phase state. These new mechanistic insights reveal that changes in SO2 emissions, especially in isoprene-dominated environments, will significantly alter biogenic SOA physicochemical properties. Consequently, IEPOX:Sulfinorg will play a central role in understanding historical climate and determining future impacts of biogenic SOA on global climate and air quality.


cancer; however, it would be impractical to use this modality outside a clinical trial at this stage1. Sentinel node biopsy is applicable for clinically node-negative disease and can be used to examine the status of internal mammary nodes. However, in patients with clinically positive axillary nodes, or in those in whom the sentinel node is in the axilla and is metastatic on histopathology, the status of internal mammary nodes still remains unknown. The question remains how the authors would evaluate the internal mammary nodes. The status of these nodes could be used to plan postoperative radiation therapy; it is true that irradiation of the chest wall includes the internal mammary nodes to some extent, but a boost to this region might help, if the nodes are known to be involved. D. Pandey Department of Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India DOI: 10.1002/bjs.5129


A well‐known librarian said recently that a good staff was a happy staff. Presumably in such a case the administration and staff organisation would be running smoothly, and everybody concerned would naturally find happiness in that. But there is more to it than organisation and administration. If the personal element is considered, as it should be, the relationship on a social level would also naturally make for pleasant conditions. How can the general ideal be reached? It seems obvious that there is a social side to it, but there's no doubt that one senior of ill‐conditioned temperament can spoil things for everybody. It is suggested that every effort should be made by librarians to cement happy relationships in every way possible. Successful library service does not depend merely on the circulation; there is also the aspect of happy fellowship in the service. These notes are intended to be suggestive to that end.


Sandy dust weather occur frequently in arid and semi-arid areas. It is important to actually detect the sandy dust grain concentration or the visibility of the sandy dust weather for weather forecasting. In this paper, based on numerical calculation of the effective detection distance of different radar detecting the sandy-dust weather with different strength, a scheme to detect sand/dust weather applying existed meteorological radar stations is proposed in this paper. The scheme can 10 be efficient to detect sandy dust weather, for it makes a good supplement to the current deficiencies in detecting sandy dust weather and it's a cost-saving detection way by using the existed meteorological radars. In addition, the effect of charges carried by sand/dust grains and the relative humidity on the effective detection distance of radar is also investigated, and it shows that these effects will not change the proposed scheme. It will be promising to detect the sandy dust weather in the way of disastrous weather precaution by using this scheme. 15


Purpose – This study examined gender differences in Mathematics and Integrated Science achievement among the Junior Secondary School students with particular interest on the interaction effect of gender and school type on students' achievement. Method – The study adopted an ex-post facto research design and generated data from an inventory from the statistics unit, Ministry of Education, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria Public Junior Secondary Schools (JSS). The inventory requested among other things, data on the Junior Secondary School Certifi cate Examinations (JSSCE) in Mathematics and Integrated Science over a two year period. Findings – The study revealed that, signifi cant difference was detected in students' Science achievement; no signifi cant difference between male and female students in private and public schools; a strong interaction effect were detected between gender of the students, the type of school attended and achievement of students in Mathematics and Integrated Science; the average achievement gap of male and female students irrespective of the school type is statistically signifi cant in both Mathematics and Integrated Science, also, the strength of relationship between the gender of the students and the type of school attended is slightly stronger in Integrated Science than Mathematics. Value – The possible implications for the study is discussed and addressed to the government and other stakeholders in education.


What are the impediments to and stimuluses for transitions from violent civil conflict to peace? This dissertation investigates factors that influence civil conflict resolution. There are four key findings. First, democratisation reforms are likely to prompt peace talks with rebel groups. There are costs associated with recognising internal armed challengers as legitimate bargaining partners that deter governments from initiating peace talks. Democratic reform periods provide a window of opportunity for peace negotiations because factors that make institutional reform more likely also encourage peaceful resolution of conflict. The emergence of democratic institu- tions changes the state preferences by increasing the influence of the median citizen vis-`a-vis the authoritarian elite. Second, fragmented conflicts are harder to resolve because they are likely to be over a multidimensional issue space. Multiparty decision making that involves two or more salient issues are likely to have cyclic collective preferences, which render armed conflict a viable instrument for pursuing political goals. Third, involvement of the United Nations (UN) mitigates the adverse impact of conflict fragmentation over peaceful resolution. UN involvement changes the incentives and opportunities of actors to founder a possible bargain. The UN fa- cilitates a path-dependent peace process and brings institutions that induce an equilibrium by overcoming the problems that arise due to cyclic collective preferences. Finally, the military manpower supply system of a state influences its civil conflict processes. How a state recruits rank-and-file members of the military forces is a central institutional arrangement that influences the incentives and opportunities of relevant actors. Compared to all-volunteer forces (AVFs), conscription is an impediment to conflict termination because the cost some individuals incur by being subject to conscription decreases the opportunity cost of rebellion, increases grievances and insulates influential sections of the population from the cost of conflict. As a result, conflict termination becomes less likely.


The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the attempts to limit its spread have resulted in profound economic impacts, and a significant contraction in the global economy is expected. This paper provides some of the first evidence on the socioeconomic impacts of and responses to the pandemic among households and individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa. To do so, reduced-form econometric methods are applied to longitudinal household survey data from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda -- originating from the pre-COVID-19 face-to-face household surveys and from the novel phone surveys that are being implemented during the pandemic. The headline findings are fourfold. First, although false beliefs about COVID-19 remain prevalent, government action to limit the spread of the disease is associated with greater individual knowledge of the disease and increased uptake of precautionary measures. Second, 256 million individuals -- 77 percent of the population in the four countries -- are estimated to live in households that have lost income due to the pandemic. Third, attempts to cope with this loss are exacerbated by the inability to access medicine and staple foods among 20 to 25 percent of the households in each country, and food insecurity is disproportionately borne by households that were already impoverished prior to the pandemic. Fourth, student-teacher contact has dropped from a pre-COVID-19 rate of 96 percent to just 17 percent among households with school-age children. These findings can help inform decisions by governments and international organizations on measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and reveal the need for continued monitoring.


The objective of this paper is to analyze the perception of future graduates in Business Administration and Management on the conceptualization, constitution and regulation of the work groups in the university classrooms. To achieve this objective, the Questionnaire for the Analysis of Cooperative Work in Higher Education (ACOES) will be used. The results show that the respondents consider that cooperative learning helps them to develop their social skills and is as an opportunity to get to know their peers. In addition, cooperative learning gives them the ability to reach agreements with different opinions and the ability to understand the ideas of other colleagues. Likewise, the main problem is the lack of coordination between the different subjects. Regarding the formation of the groups, the respondents prefer to form them by applying friendship criteria. Finally, the respondents consider that the groups should be permanents and formed by 4 or 5 members.


Insulin administration remains vital to the treatment of diabetes and although there have been advances in insulin delivery, evidence suggests that many people with diabetes on insulin therapy have suboptimal glycemic management. Recent advancements in insulin administration techniques include connected insulin devices, such as connected insulin pens and pen caps. In this review, we provide an overview of the literature on the use of connected insulin pens and pen caps to further elucidate the clinical benefits and drawbacks of these devices. We discuss the development of these devices, outlining the characteristics of insulin pens and pen caps with regulatory approvals. These devices have different features that can ease the burden of diabetes management, including automatic recording of insulin dose information, tracking of insulin-on-board, bolus calculators, and missed dose alerts. Despite the advantages of connected pens and pen caps, a small percentage of insulin users are currently using these devices, due to many factors, including lack of health-care professional awareness, initial training for prescribers, and setup of the device. Overcoming these barriers and publishing more data demonstrating the glycemic outcomes associated with these systems could improve diabetes management for people living with diabetes. As health-care systems become increasingly digital, connected insulin pens have the potential to allow a data-driven approach to diabetes management for people who are not interested in, cannot afford, or do not have intensive insulin regimens that might warrant use of insulin pumps or automated insulin delivery systems.


Countries routinely translate official statements and state media articles from native languages to English. Over time, these articles provide a window into what each government is trying to portray to the world. The FOCUSdata Project provides years' worth of text and language sentiment ratings for hundreds of thousands of articles from state media and ministry of foreign affairs' websites from North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. Information is an important foreign policy tool and national security strategists analyze how it influences the attitudes and behaviors of foreign audiences. This article introduces the FOCUSdata Project and shows how the sentiment data provide unique abilities to analyze Russia's and Iran's reactions to US policies and events and NGO human rights campaigns. Evaluating countries' official narratives improves understanding of government signals to outside actors, reactions to crises and foreign policy tools, and interests regarding (un)favorable developments. Governments' sentiment provides unique explanatory power.


Abstract Probabilistic logic programs are logic programs in which some of the facts are annotated with probabilities. This paper investigates how classical inference and learning tasks known from the graphical model community can be tackled for probabilistic logic programs. Several such tasks, such as computing the marginals, given evidence and learning from (partial) interpretations, have not really been addressed for probabilistic logic programs before. The first contribution of this paper is a suite of efficient algorithms for various inference tasks. It is based on the conversion of the program and the queries and evidence to a weighted Boolean formula. This allows us to reduce inference tasks to well-studied tasks, such as weighted model counting, which can be solved using state-of-the-art methods known from the graphical model and knowledge compilation literature. The second contribution is an algorithm for parameter estimation in the learning from interpretations setting. The algorithm employs expectation-maximization, and is built on top of the developed inference algorithms. The proposed approach is experimentally evaluated. The results show that the inference algorithms improve upon the state of the art in probabilistic logic programming, and that it is indeed possible to learn the parameters of a probabilistic logic program from interpretations.


The political economy approach to food systems steers away both from approaches that focus on biogeochemical flows and the embeddedness of food systems in the biosphere, and from classical economists' approaches that address the role of prices in relating supply and demand. This article discusses what is specific to the political economy analysis, which places power at the centre of its inquiry; and it lists the challenges this approach faces in its attempt to contribute to the reform of food systems.


Therapeutic advances have resulted in an epidemiological shift in the predominant causes of hospitalization for patients with HIV/AIDS. An emerging cause for hospitalization in this patient population is cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, data are limited regarding how this shift affects different racial groups. The objective of this observational, retrospective study was to evaluate the association between race and hospitalization for CVD in African Americans and whites with HIV/AIDS and to compare the types of CVD-related hospitalizations between African Americans and whites with HIV/AIDS. Approximately 1.5 million hospital discharges from the US National Hospital Discharge Surveys for the years of 1996 to 2008 were identified. After controlling for potential confounders, the odds of CVD-related hospitalization in patients with HIV/AIDS were 45% higher for African Americans than whites (odds ratio [OR]=1.45, 95% CI, 1.39-1.51). Other covariates that were associated with increased odds of hospitalization for CVD included chronic kidney disease (OR=1.43, 95% CI, 1.36-1.51), age≥50 years (OR=3.22, 95% CI, 2.94-3.54), region in the Southern United States (OR=1.17, 95% CI, 1.11-1.23), and Medicare insurance coverage (OR=1.71, 95% CI, 1.60-1.83). Male sex was not significantly associated with the study outcome (OR=0.99, 95% CI, 0.96-1.02). Compared to whites with HIV/AIDS, African Americans with HIV/AIDS had more hospitalizations for heart failure and hypertension, but fewer hospitalizations for stroke and coronary heart disease. In conclusion, African Americans with HIV/AIDS have increased odds of CVD-related hospitalization as compared to whites with HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, the most common types of CVD-related hospitalizations differ significantly in African Americans and whites.


An improved chemical liquid vaporized infiltration process was developed to fast densify carbon/carbon (C/C) composites. A disc-shaped carbon felt was chosen as preform, whose upper and lower sides were fixed and heated simultaneously by two flat surfaces of two heat sources, and the precursor was heated by the third heat source separated. By this method, carbon felts (bulk density ~0.2 g/cm3) were densified to C/C composites with density of 1.29, 1.61 and 1.72 g/cm3 when prepared for 3h at 900°C, 1000°C and 1100°C, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveals that the carbon fibers of the composite are surrounded by ring-shaped pyrocarbon. The deposition process is analyzed by dividing the reactor into four regions associated with specific functions and the reasons for the rapid fabrication are proposed as the short convection and diffusion path for the precursor and the existing thermal gradients across the preform.


This study investigated multiple facets of Ecosystem Services (ES), utilising the New Forest National Park as the study site. The scope of the thesis begins with assessment of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), before exploring a range of ES in the SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) in the National Park and finishing with an investigation into the implications of climate change on ES provision. CES are often highlighted as being important, though are often under-represented in ES assessments. The practical difficulties and varied methods available have been suggested to contribute to the lack of uptake of CES assessment. Stated methods of assessment (participatory GIS and stated surveys) and a behavioural method (GPS tracking) were used to ascertain differences in results. Stated response methodologies are suggested to be utilised for aesthetic assessment and behavioural monitoring methodologies for recreational assessment. Measured aesthetic and recreation values were utilised in a wider assessment of ES in the SSSI area within the National Park. Thus, the role of Protected Areas in conserving ES and biodiversity (which underpins many ES) were investigated. Multiple methods of mapping ecosystem services were adopted, including the use of the spatially explicit modelling tool InVEST, and GIS techniques. The SSSI was found to have a higher provisioning level of ES than the non-SSSI within the National Park. With this discovery for the National Park, a final analysis of the provisioning of ES with the impact of climate change was investigated within the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) within the National Park, to ascertain whether a decline could be seen. Low, medium and high climate change scenarios were used to model land change and by extension, ES provisioning change. A spatial multi-criteria analysis showed that the National Park will change extensively in species composition and thus show a decrease in ES provision in the future across all climate change scenarios investigated. Therefore, it is important that management strategies consider the uncertain impact of climate change in any decision making processes.


The pneumococcal surface protein PspA, a cell-wall-associated surface protein, is a promising component for pneumococcal vaccines. In this study, the distribution of the PspA family was determined in a panel of invasive and clinically important pneumococcal isolates from adults over 50 years of age, collected between 1995 and 2002. One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven recent isolates from invasive pneumococcal disease were obtained from seven Western countries, together with clinical data. An ELISA-based serological method was standardized in order to determine the PspA family and clade distribution. Molecular tests were used when isolates were non-typable by ELISA (PspA family typing by PCR). Only 42 (2.3 %) isolates were non-typable by ELISA and PspA family typing by PCR was performed. Finally, 3 isolates were considered as non-pneumococcal and 1844 were classified as follows: 749 (40.6 %) were PspA family 1, 1078 (58.5 %) were PspA family 2, 13 (0.7 %) were PspA family 1 and 2 and 4 (0.2 %) remained non-typable. The cross-reactivity of antibodies to PspAs of different clades was confirmed. In conclusion, inclusion of PspA family 1 and family 2 in future pneumococcal vaccines would ensure broad coverage of pneumococcal strains infecting people over 50 years of age.


An emergent constraint (EC) is a popular model evaluation technique, which offers the potential to reduce intermodel variability in projections of climate change. Two examples have previously been laid out for future surface albedo feedbacks (SAF) stemming from loss of Northern Hemisphere (NH) snow cover (SAFsnow) and sea ice (SAFice). These processes also have a modern-day analog that occurs each year as snow and sea ice retreat from their seasonal maxima, which is strongly correlated with future SAF across an ensemble of climate models. The newly released CMIP6 ensemble offers the chance to test prior constraints through out-of-sample verification, an important examination of EC robustness. Here, we show that the SAFsnow EC is equally strong in CMIP6 as it was in past generations, while the SAFice EC is also shown to exist in CMIP6, but with different, slightly weaker characteristics. We find that the CMIP6 mean NH SAF exhibits a global feedback of 0.25 ± 0.05 W m−2 K−1, or ~61% of the total global albedo feedback, largely in line with prior generations despite its increased climate sensitivity. The NH SAF can be broken down into similar contributions from snow and sea ice over the twenty-first century in CMIP6. Crucially, intermodel variability in seasonal SAFsnow and SAFice is largely unchanged from CMIP5 because of poor outlier simulations of snow cover, surface albedo, and sea ice thickness. These outliers act to mask the noted improvement from many models when it comes to SAFice, and to a lesser extent SAFsnow.


Abstract. Emiliania huxleyi (strain B 92/11) was exposed to different nutrient supply, CO2 and temperature conditions in phosphorus controlled chemostats to investigate effects on organic carbon exudation and partitioning between the pools of particulate organic carbon (POC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). 14C incubation measurements for primary production (PP) and extracellular release (ER) were performed. Chemical analysis included the amount and composition of high molecular weight (>1 kDa) dissolved combined carbohydrates (HMW-dCCHO), particulate combined carbohydrates (pCCHO) and the carbon content of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP-C). Applied CO2 and temperature conditions were 300, 550 and 900 μatm pCO2 at 14 °C, and additionally 900 μatm pCO2 at 18 °C simulating a greenhouse ocean scenario. Enhanced nutrient stress by reducing the dilution rate (D) from D = 0.3 d−1 to D = 0.1 d−1 (D = μ) induced the strongest response in E. huxleyi. At μ = 0.3 d−1, PP was significantly higher at elevated CO2 and temperature and DO14C production correlated to PO14C production in all treatments, resulting in similar percentages of extracellular release (PER; (DO14C production/PP) × 100) averaging 3.74 ± 0.94%. At μ = 0.1 d−1, PO14C production decreased significantly, while exudation of DO14C increased. Thus, indicating a stronger partitioning from the particulate to the dissolved pool. Maximum PER of 16.3 ± 2.3% were observed at μ = 0.1 d−1 at elevated CO2 and temperature. While cell densities remained constant within each treatment and throughout the experiment, concentrations of HMW-dCCHO, pCCHO and TEP were generally higher under enhanced nutrient stress. At μ = 0.3 d−1, pCCHO concentration increased significantly with elevated CO2 and temperature. At μ = 0.1 d−1, the contribution (mol % C) of HMW-dCCHO to DOC was lower at elevated CO2 and temperature while pCCHO and TEP concentrations were higher. This was most pronounced under greenhouse conditions. Our findings suggest a stronger transformation of primary produced DOC into POC by coagulation of exudates under nutrient limitation. Our results further imply that elevated CO2 and temperature will increase exudation by E. huxleyi and may affect organic carbon partitioning in the ocean due to an enhanced transfer of HMW-dCCHO to TEP by aggregation processes.


The hepatitis B virus (HBV) and other members of the hepadnaviridae replicate by reverse transcription of an RNA intermediate, pregenomic RNA (pgRNA). pgRNA is also translated into core protein and polymerase (reverse transcriptase) protein. Before being reverse transcribed, pgRNA is sequestrated from the cytoplasm by being packaged, together with polymerase, into subviral particles composed of core protein. For pgRNA to be encapsidated, its 5′ end is folded into a stem–loop structure, known as the encapsidation signal or epsilon (ɛ). This stable bipartite stem–loop structure contains a bulge and an apical loop. Besides encapsidation, ɛ is involved in the activation of polymerase, in template restriction and in the initiation of DNA synthesis by reverse transcription. HBV DNA encoding ɛ forms part of the template that is translated into the precore/core fusion protein that is in turn post‐translationally modified to produce hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg). The DNA encoding ɛ may be recombinogenic. Mutations within ɛ can affect its function and sequence conservation within ɛ in natural isolates is therefore high. ɛ could provide a practical target for antiviral therapy.


This paper summarizes the contributions of ABSEL's membership to the development of experiential learning and experiential exercises during the decade of the 1970s. It overviews papers written on experiential learning and experiential exercises by ABSEL contributors during each year of the decade, and for the decade as a whole. Further, it categorizes each experientially-related paper by the paper's major focuses to provide a systematic means of assembling literature reviews for related future research projects in various topical areas of experiential learning/experiential exercises. Also, year-by-year and decade-long statistics on types of delivery systems (i.e., regular paper session, workshop or demonstration, tutorial, panel or roundtable presentation) and extensiveness of published manuscripts (i.e., full paper, condensed paper) are provided. Finally, year-by-year and decade-long comparative statistics related to the number of proceedings papers written on the three primary pedagogies supported by ABSEL (i.e., experiential learning/ experiential exercises, simulation games, and cases) also are included.


Background—Fragmented QRS (fQRS) has been shown to predict cardiac events in select patient populations. Whether fQRS improves patient selection for primary prevention patients eligible for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy remains unknown. Methods and Results—In a prospective, multisite cohort of 842 patients with left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction ⩽35%) representing both ischemic and nonischemic etiology, the presence of fQRS on ECG was assessed using standardized criteria. The association between fQRS and all-cause and arrhythmic mortality was evaluated overall and stratified by ICD status using multivariable Cox regression models, adjusted for demographic, clinical, and treatment variables. Fragmented QRS was present in 274 (32.5%) patients, and there were 191 (22.7%) deaths during a mean follow-up of 40±17 months. Rates of all-cause mortality did not differ between the fQRS+ (19.7%) and fQRS− (24.1%) groups; adjusted hazard ratio, 0.88; 95% confidence interval, 0.63–1.22; P=0.43. Additionally, rates of arrhythmic mortality were similar between the fQRS+ (9.9%) and fQRS− (12.7%) groups: adjusted hazard ratio, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.49–1.31; P=0.38. Subgroup analyses found no association between fQRS and mortality when the cohort was further stratified by ICD status, etiology of left ventricular dysfunction, wide (≥120 ms) versus narrow (<120 ms) QRS duration, or fQRS myocardial territory. Conclusions—In this prospective, multisite cohort of primary prevention patients with left ventricular dysfunction, the presence of fQRS on ECG was not associated with a higher risk of either all-cause or arrhythmic mortality. These findings do not provide evidence that fQRS would be effective in risk stratifying primary prevention patients eligible for ICD therapy.


Akara results from frying of fermented batter which after frying gives a dome –like shape, it has a brown crust and burnt material at the edges. Information on the existence of a mechanical device with capability for frying akara and carrying out turning operations appears to be very scarce. An empirical analysis of the traditional akara frying process was carried out in order to solve the above problem. The effect of different batter concentration (11g/ml, 13g/ml and 17g/ml) and spoon diameter-depth ratio (184.108.40.206,4.2) on the physical characteristics, frying time and frying rate of akara was investigated. The physical characteristics which include crust thickness, level of shrinkage, oil consumption, akara weight, density, surface area and extent of burnt material formation. Data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using Excel and SPSS. The results showed that crust thickness, level of shrinkage, oil consumption, and burnt material increased with increase in concentration, frying time, weight, density and surface area also increased with increase in concentration.  The result also indicates that crust thickness, level of shrinkage, oil consumption, weight, density, surface area, burnt material, frying time, decreases with increase in spoon diameter-depth ratio. Statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that all the processing variation and their interaction had significant effects on the physical characteristics of akara at 1% of significance. The model yielded coefficients that enabled the akara physical characteristics to be predicted with high coefficient of determination.


In order to be relevant and efficient, Maritime Education and Training (MET) has to constantly evolve to meet changing industry and social demands that are influenced by many factors including development of technology, cost to industry and MET institutions, changes in legislation for safety, security requirements, and environmental concerns, etc. Although International Maritime Organisation (IMO) continues to play an active role in prescribing the competencies and standards for training and certification of seafarers through various conventions and associated national legislation, the shipping world is yet to implement a comprehensive and uniform global standard for MET. There are many factors that contribute to this discrepancy in standards across the maritime world, including: varying education backgrounds of seafarers from different countries and regions; cultural, ethnic and demographical diversities of seafarers; affordability of MET facilities; and reluctance to break away from the deep rooted traditions and practices. This paper explores the above issues across the regions and looks into strategies to standardise MET across the maritime world, with parallels drawn with the aviation industry standards and practices. Interestingly, it is noted that the maritime industry is able to standardise practices across boundaries in operations, such as the containerisation of break bulk cargo that revolutionised cargo operations, significantly improving speed, efficiency and safety. A similar approach is discussed, referred to as the 'Containerisation of MET' in an attempt to unify the standards and processes inherent to maritime education, training and assessment to achieve one global standard. Although the proposed containerisation of MET would take a few years to achieve its goal worldwide, if properly designed and implemented will result in globalising MET, providing seafarers with the: ability to study modules in locations anywhere around the world; complete modules while sailing, without adverse downtime; and appear for assessments anywhere in the world. The benefits for the respective certification authorities are that the results of assessments will be
accessible and accepted by all participating institutions through secure web based portals and the
certificates issued will be verified by each administration through Port State Control MOU's.


Deep generative models have been widely used in several areas of NLP, and various techniques have been proposed to augment them or address their training challenges. In this paper, we propose a simple modification to Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) by using an Isotropic Gaussian Posterior (IGP) that allows for better utilisation of their latent representation space. This model avoids the sub-optimal behavior of VAEs related to inactive dimensions in the representation space. We provide both theoretical analysis, and empirical evidence on various datasets and tasks that show IGP leads to consistent improvement on several quantitative and qualitative grounds, from downstream task performance and sample efficiency to robustness. Additionally, we give insights about the representational properties encouraged by IGP and also show that its gain generalises to image domain as well.


We previously developed a luminescent Synechococystis sp. strain PCC 6803 cyanobacterial bioreporter that is used as a real‐time whole‐cell sensor to assess nitrate assimilatory capacity in freshwaters. Applying the bioreporter assay to Lake Superior, a system whose nitrate levels have increased 6‐fold since 1900, we investigated factors that constrain nitrate utilization in this oligotrophic system. Clean sampling methods were used to collect water from Lake Superior during spring and summer 2004, and nitrate utilization was measured by monitoring bioreporter luminescence. Bioreporter response was monitored during experiments in which the lake water was amended with nutrients and incubated under light regimes simulating integrated spring and summer mixing depths. These studies demonstrated that nitrate utilization was enhanced at most stations following addition of phosphorus (P). Moreover, at many stations, addition of iron (Fe) enhanced the P effect. Strength‐of‐effect statistical analysis provided the individual contribution of P and Fe toward stimulating bioreporter response. In general, distance from shore and season were not good predictors of nitrate assimilatory capacity. Manipulation of light flux during bioreporter experiments also showed that light intensities experienced during spring mixing are likely insufficient to saturate the rate of nitrate utilization. Overall, these data suggest that P‐limited algae are deficient in their ability to assimilate nitrate in Lake Superior. Furthermore, we suggest that a secondary limitation for Fe may occur that further constrains nitrate drawdown. Lastly, during spring, light fluxes are sufficiently low to prevent maximal nitrate utilization, even in the absence of nutrient limitation.


In many countries where English is used as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL), the classroom is the main context for students' exposure to the target language (L2); however, English teachers have a tendency to use the mother tongue (L1) excessively. As a result, the appropriate use of L1 in language classrooms remains as a major problem. This study investigates Turkish EFL teachers' perspectives on the use of L1, and functions that the teachers' use of L1 serves in foreign language classrooms. Mixed method research design was adopted using a questionnaire and semistructured interviews. English teachers (n=43) responded to the Use of L1 Questionnaire and semistructured interviews were held with eight volunteer teachers working in Beyza private schools in a province in Turkey. Quantitative data from the Likert scale questionnaire items was analysed using descriptive statistics to reveal frequency, mean and standard deviation scores, and inductive content analysis was applied for the analysis of qualitative data. The findings have demonstrated that most teachers avoid or limit the use of L1 systematically and give priority to using L2 in EFL classrooms. Findings also suggest that L1 can be used as a facilitating tool for explaining difficult grammar and vocabulary items, managing classrooms, giving instructions, checking for comprehension and establishing a friendly classroom environment.


Ukraine has repeatedly shifted between the two sub-types of semi-presidentialism, i.e. between premier-presidentialism and president-parliamentarism. The aim of this article is to discuss to what extent theoretical arguments against premier-presidential and president-parliamentary systems are relevant for understanding the shifting directions of the Ukrainian regime. As a point of departure, I formulate three main claims from the literature: 1) "President-parliamentarism is less conducive to democratization than premier-presidentialism." 2) "Semi-presidentialism in both its variants have built-in incitements for intra-executive conflict between the president and the prime minister." 3) "Semi-presidentialism in general, and president-parliamentarism in particular, encourages presidentialization of political parties." I conclude from the study's empirical overview that the president-parliamentary system – the constitutional arrangement with the most dismal record of democratization – has been instrumental in strengthening presidential dominance and authoritarian tendencies. The premier-presidential period 2006–2010 was by no means smooth and stable, but the presidential dominance weakened and the survival of the government was firmly anchored in the parliament. During this period, there were also indications of a gradual strengthening of institutional capacity among the main political parties and the parliament began to emerge as a significant political arena. (Published: April 2016) Citation: Thomas Sedelius (2016) »Ukrainas konstitutionella sicksackande: Regimforandring och partiutveckling under semipresidentialism». Nordisk Ostforum 30 [1] 18–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.17585/nof.v30.389


INTRODUCTION
Minor percentage of wooden foreign bodies is radio-opaque. High Resolution Ultrasonography (HRUSG) though existing is sparsely used as a primary imaging modality for diagnosis and localization of retained foreign body.

AIM
To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of High Resolution Ultrasonography (HRUSG) in diagnoses and localization of retained foreign body.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A prospective study with registered 46 patients with history of foreign body injury which were initially imaged with conventional radiography was enrolled. Later patients were subjected for high resolution USG of the diseased part with a linear transducer. Surface marking was done for all subjects to assist the surgical exploration. Ultrasound findings were correlated with surgical exploration and histopathological findings.

RESULTS
Out of 46 patients, forty one showed foreign body with foreign body inflammatory reaction in the form of abscess and/or granulation tissue on high resolution ultrasonography. No foreign body was detected in five patients but they showed focal hypoechogenicity which represented abscess and/or haematoma. On surgical exploration, two out of 41 patients did not reveal foreign body where as rest were found to have foreign body with foreign body inflammatory reaction. Sensitivity and negative predictive value of the current study is 100%.

CONCLUSION
High resolution USG is not only an efficient modality in diagnosing and localizing the foreign body in soft tissue, but can also be utilized for guiding the foreign body removal.


We report on the development of a rapid nested PCR protocol for the detection of Pneumocystis carinii DNA in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens in which the protocol included the use of a commercially available DNA extraction kit (GeneReleaser). GeneReleaser enabled us to obtain amplification-ready DNA within 20 min without requiring the purification of the DNA. The nested PCR was performed with the primers pAZ102-E, pAZ102-H, and pAZ102-L2 (A. E. Wakefield, F. J. Pixley, S. Banerji, K. Sinclair, R. F. Miller, E. R. Moxon, and J. M. Hopkin, Lancet 336:451-453, 1990.). Results were obtained in about 4 h with the adoption of denaturation, annealing, and extension steps shortened to 20 seconds. The sensitivity of the nested PCR was tested with a P. carinii cyst suspension and was found to be less than one cyst (one to eight nuclei). The detection limit was the same with the use of GeneReleaser or proteinase K-phenol chloroform for DNA extraction. The nested PCR assay was prospectively compared with staining with Giemsa and methenamine silver stains for the detection of P. carinii in 127 BAL samples from 105 human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients investigated for acute respiratory illness. Twenty-five BAL specimens (20%) were positive by staining and the nested PCR and 25 (20%) were negative by staining and positive by the nested PCR. These 25 BAL specimens with conflicting results were obtained from 23 patients, 82% of whom were receiving prophylactic therapy against P. carinii pneumonia (PCP). Only two patients were diagnosed with possible PCP. The final diagnosis was not PCP for 20 patients who were considered to be colonized or to have a low level of infection. This colonization is not of clinical importance but is of epidemiological importance. Our rapid, simple, and sensitive amplification protocol may be performed in clinical laboratories for the routine diagnosis of PCP with BAL specimens.


This paper describes a greedy algorithm for audio source separation of repeated musical patterns. The problem is understood as retrieving from a set of mixtures the part that is redundant among them and the parts that are specific to only one mixture. The key assumption is the sparsity of all the sources in the same multiscale dictionary. Synthetic and real life examples of source separation of hand cut repeated musical patterns are exposed. Results shows that the proposed method succeeds in simultaneously providing a sparse approximant of the mixtures and a separation of the sources.


The constitutive active/androstane receptor (CAR) controls genes involved in xenochemical metabolism. Although numerous cofactors have been reported to be involved in CAR-mediated transactivation, unknown and poorly defined proteins recruited by CAR have yet to be characterized. In this study, a novel CAR-interacting protein, cell cycle and apoptosis regulator 1 (CCAR1), was identified by coimmunoprecipitation analysis using human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells expressing FLAG epitope–tagged CAR. We demonstrated that CCAR1 can act as an enhancer-dependent coactivator of CAR. First, we showed that overexpression of CCAR1 enhanced CAR-induced reporter gene activity with triplicate consensus direct repeat 4 motif (DR4-Luc), xenobiotic-responsive enhancer module (XREM)-enhancer of CYP3A4 (XREM-Luc), and phenobarbital-responsive enhancer module of UDP-glucuronosyltransferases 1A1 (UGT1A1) (gtPBREM)-enhancer of UGT1A1 (gtPBREM-Luc)-driven reporter plasmids but not PBREM-enhancer of CYP2B6 (PBREM-Luc)-driven reporter activity. Furthermore, we showed that knockdown of CCAR1 suppressed CAR-induced UGT1A1 mRNA expression but did not affect CAR-induced CYP2B6 mRNA expression in HepTR/CAR and HepaRG cells. Moreover, CCAR1 could be recruited to the gtPBREM of the UGT1A1 enhancer by CAR but not to the PBREM of the CYP2B6 enhancer. Moreover, we showed that CCAR1 can act as a secondary coactivator by cooperating with the p160 family of steroid receptor coactivators (SRCs). These findings demonstrated CCAR1 to be a novel transcriptional cofactor for CAR and provided insight regarding the mechanism of CAR-mediated gene-selective transactivation.


The heme enzyme myeloperoxidase (MPO) participates in innate immune defense mechanism through formation of microbicidal reactive oxidants. However, evidence has emerged that MPO-derived oxidants contribute to the propagation of inflammatory diseases. Because of the deleterious effects of circulating MPO, there is a great interest in the development of new efficient and specific inhibitors. The implementation of dynamic combinatorial libraries allowed to obtain several compounds derived from aromatic hydrazone with high activity on MPO. These inhibitors were found to be reversible and irreversible MPO inhibitors at the nanomolar level. Docking experiments highlighted the interaction between the most active ligands and MPO, and further kinetic studies defined the mode of inhibition of these compounds. In vivo evaluation in rats injected by carrageenan showed that one dose of irreversible inhibitors is able to suppress the activity of MPO after inducing inflammation.
On the other hand, paroxetine and p-aminobenzoic acid hydrazide are irreversible MPO inhibitors. The hydrazide group was identified as responsible for the irreversible activity. In addition, hydroxamic acid derivatives are good reversible inhibitors and the hydroxamate group is very similar to the hydrazide one in electronic density and ability to make bonds. Thus, starting from paroxetine, benzoic acid hydrazide, and hydroxamic acid, a new series of compounds has been  designed and synthesized. These compounds have shown very high activity on MPO with IC50 of 12-900 nM. Investigations on the mechanism of action has demonstrated that these compounds are irreversible MPO inhibitors. To see if these inhibitors impair the innate immunity, the effect of the compounds were tested on the neutrophils. The results showed that these inhibitors inhibit only the released MPO into the extracellular fluids.
Finally, hydrazide and hydrazine derivatives were tested as anti-bacterial agents. Surprisingly, all hydrazone derivatives showed high activity against Gram (-) bacteria and low activity on Gram (+). In contrast, hydrazide derivatives showed very high potency against Gram (+) but no effect was found on Gram (-).


Fram Strait is the only deep ocean connection between the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas. It therefore plays a crucial role in the oceanic exchanges between the Arctic and the lower latitudes. The West Spitsbergen Current and the East Greenland Current are relatively well-studied boundary currents transporting warm water poleward respectively cold water equatorward. The central Fram Strait is dominated by the so-called Atlantic Water Recirculation. This is warm water of Atlantic origin that flows as far north at the approximate latitude of Fram Strait before it turns westward and then back equatorward. Moorings measuring temperature and current velocity have been maintained in Fram Strait from 1997 to the present. Here we use this data set as well as other available information to study the nature of the recirculation. Particular focus is devoted to its temporal variability on daily to interannual time scales. The role of eddies in the flow is examined in comparison to the steady components.


Cyber attacks are increasing in volume, frequency, and complexity. In response, the security community is looking toward fully automating cyber defense systems using machine learning. However, so far the resultant effects on the coevolutionary dynamics of attackers and defenders have not been examined. In this whitepaper, we hypothesise that increased automation on both sides will accelerate the coevolutionary cycle, thus begging the question of whether there are any resultant fixed points, and how they are characterised. Working within the threat model of Locked Shields, Europe's largest cyberdefense exercise, we study blackbox adversarial attacks on network classifiers. Given already existing attack capabilities, we question the utility of optimal evasion attack frameworks based on minimal evasion distances. Instead, we suggest a novel reinforcement learning setting that can be used to efficiently generate arbitrary adversarial perturbations. We then argue that attacker-defender fixed points are themselves general-sum games with complex phase transitions, and introduce a temporally extended multi-agent reinforcement learning framework in which the resultant dynamics can be studied. We hypothesise that one plausible fixed point of AI-NIDS may be a scenario where the defense strategy relies heavily on whitelisted feature flow subspaces. Finally, we demonstrate that a continual learning approach is required to study attacker-defender dynamics in temporally extended general-sum games.