Archean greenstones represent a large percentage of worlds total gold endowment and are actively mined on every continent barring Antarctica. Greenstone-hosted gold deposits often have complex deformation and alteration histories, and a general deposit model remains controversial. The aim of this thesis is to improve our understanding of gold mineralisation in Archean greenstone belts, based on a comprehensive case study of the world-class Geita Hill deposit in Tanzania. Geita Hill is one of the largest gold deposits within the Geita Greenstone Belt in north-western Tanzania and has been mined as an open pit since 2002. The deposit is hosted within a greenschist facies metamorphosed and complexly deformed sedimentary package dominated by ironstone and intruded by diorite dykes. The gold mineralisation is spatially associated with the Geita Hill Shear Zone which, is a NE-trending, moderately west dipping deformation zone of discontinuous shear fractures. Detailed structural studies have defined a deformation history for the deposit, providing an opportunity for an in-depth study of the hydrothermal alteration and fluids associated with gold mineralisation.

The first component of this thesis builds a paragenetic framework for the Geita Hill deposit. The regional metamorphism is characterised by biotite + chlorite + actinolite + K-feldspar + magnetite ± pyrrhotite ± pyrite indicating upper greenschist facies metamorphism. The gold-related alteration overprints the regional metamorphism and is characterised by silicification and sulfidation fronts that end within one meter of the mineralised zone. Locally, the silicification and sulfidation of the wall rock occurs along a series of mineralised quartz veins which have a sub-vertical dip and tend E-W. Paleostress analysis of the mineralised shear fractures of the Geita Hill Shear Zone suggests vertical maximum compressive stress (σ₁) and northerly extensional stress (σ₃) consistent with the orientation of the mineralised quartz veins and indicating N-S extension. The composition of the mineralised quartz veins is characterised by quartz + biotite + K-feldspar + pyrite, which also overprints the metamorphic mineral assemblage. Gold is closely associated with secondary pyrite and occurs as free gold and gold tellurides (sylvanite, calaverite and nagyagite). It occurs mainly as inclusions in pyrite and as invisible gold in pyrite but gold inclusions in biotite and along quartz grain boundaries are also present. The gold-bearing pyrite is associated with secondary biotite and K-feldspar. Two distinct textural styles of auriferous pyrite can be distinguished: inclusion rich subhedral pyrite and inclusion free euhedral pyrite. It is common for the inclusion rich pyrite to have thick rims of inclusion free pyrite. The mineralising alteration is overprinted by barren, multi-phase quartz-carbonate, and carbonate-chlorite veins. This alteration is characterised by the assemblage calcite + siderite + chlorite ± quartz ± pyrite ± barite.

The thesis then builds on the paragenetic framework through silicate and sulfide geochemistry. Biotite was identified as a primary mineral both in the metamorphic assemblage and gold-related hydrothermal alteration assemblage. The study of silicates was conducted through detailed core logging, petrography, SEM mineral identification of alteration assemblages, SWIR measurements and microprobe analyses of biotite in order to identify the nature of the mineralising fluid and its spatial effect across the Geita Hill deposit. Results show that the mineralised assemblage is slightly more oxidized (pyrite + magnetite) compared to the metamorphic background (pyrrhotite + magnetite). The intense sulfidation within the ore zone resulted in the formation of Mg-rich biotite, which grades into more Fe-rich biotite away from the ore zone. This change in biotite composition can be detected using short wavelength infrared spectra, though a shift in the Fe-OH 2250 nm absorption feature to lower wavelengths. This shift is also correlated with an increase in gold grade within the mineralised zone. Halogen chemistry of the biotite implied the presence of multiple hydrothermal fluids during mineralisation, suggesting that within the ore zone a metamorphic fluid in equilibrium with the host rock was overprinted by and mixed with an infiltrating fluid that was enriched in fluorine.

Study of the sulfides in the deposit was conducted through laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis of pyrite and magnetite grains. The gold distribution correlates well with Te, Ag, Bi and Pb consistent with its occurrence as micro- and nano-inclusions of gold bearing telluride minerals. As, Co and Ni distribution in pyrite grains hosted in quartz veins is patchy, whereas in pyrite grains from ironstone and diorite these elements show zoning characteristic of growth pattern. Elements including As, Ni, Co, Cu and Zn appear to be dominantly locally derived, and remobilised into the pyrite during sulfidation. The concentrations of these elements are highly lithologically controlled, and they are not consistently incorporated into the pyrite after initial stages of growth. Au, Ag, Te, Sn, Bi and Pb appear to be dominantly externally derived, and closely correlate in all varieties of pyrite. The Se content is typical of pyrite from Archean gold deposits (~30ppm) and reflects to an average temperature of ~340°C for the mineralising fluid on the basis of temperature dependent incorporation into pyrite.

Lastly, the gold-bearing hydrothermal fluids were studied directly through detailed microthermometry and raman microspectroscopy, and three principle fluids were identified: (1) A low salinity, carbonic-rich (XCO₂ > 0.8) fluid with minor N₂ (XN₂/(XCO₂ + XN₂) 20 wt.%; NaCl/(NaCl+CaCl₂) mass ratio > 0.45), aqueous brine that was interpreted to be magmatic in origin; and (3) A low salinity (NaCl < 5 wt.%) aqueous fluid that was interpreted to be meteoric in origin. Preserved fluid assemblages imply mineralisation occurred at pressures of less than 2 kbar, likely from 1.4 to 1.7 kbar, at temperatures of approximately 350 °C. C-O-H fluid modelling of the carbonicrich fluid has constrained ƒO₂ fluid to 1.5-1.8 log10 units above ƒO₂ FMQ corresponding to absolute values of 10- 30.5 bar. The gold was likely transported in the high salinity brine as Au-bisulfide complexes with tellurium, potentially introduced as a vapour. Deposition of Au was triggered via interaction of gold-bearing fluids with the relatively reduced Fe-rich host rocks and the low salinity CO₂-rich fluid.


Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings represent a vital component of the assessment of sleep physiology, but the methodology presently used is costly, intrusive to participants, and laborious in application. There is a recognized need to develop more easily applicable yet reliable EEG systems that allow unobtrusive long-term recording of sleep-wake EEG ideally away from the laboratory setting. cEEGrid is a recently developed flex-printed around-the-ear electrode array, which holds great potential for sleep-wake monitoring research. It is comfortable to wear, simple to apply, and minimally intrusive during sleep. Moreover, it can be combined with a smartphone-controlled miniaturized amplifier and is fully portable. Evaluation of cEEGrid as a motion-tolerant device is ongoing, but initial findings clearly indicate that it is very well suited for cognitive research. The present study aimed to explore the suitability of cEEGrid for sleep research, by testing whether cEEGrid data affords the signal quality and characteristics necessary for sleep stage scoring. In an accredited sleep laboratory, sleep data from cEEGrid and a standard PSG system were acquired simultaneously. Twenty participants were recorded for one extended nocturnal sleep opportunity. Fifteen data sets were scored manually. Sleep parameters relating to sleep maintenance and sleep architecture were then extracted and statistically assessed for signal quality and concordance. The findings suggest that the cEEGrid system is a viable and robust recording tool to capture sleep and wake EEG. Further research is needed to fully determine the suitability of cEEGrid for basic and applied research as well as sleep medicine.


Households provide their members with both financial support and caring services. In sole parent households, the functions of earning money and caring for children fall to one individual. Current government policy favours work force participation as the solution to the higher poverty rates in lone parent families, but this may have a mirror effect on their ability to provide care. There is a great deal of research into the financial impacts of sole motherhood, but very little into the amount of time that sole parents' devote to care of their children, and what this means for their total (paid and unpaid) work commitments. In this paper I address this research gap. I analyse the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 1997 (over 4000 randomly selected households), to compare sole and couple parents' overall time commitments to paid and unpaid work and to investigate whether time spent with children in lone parent and couple-headed families differs in type or quantity.


Online tests and classes are becoming widely adopted systems in academic institutions. This is quite a recent phenomenon whereby I have had the opportunity to experience the transition of using these online systems in geography classes. From teaching in a traditional classroom setting to using online systems such as ETUDES at the community college level (teaching at two community colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District) or CLE (teaching classes at UCLA) for hybrid as well as online classes within a matter of a couple of years, I have been able to witness the advantages and disadvantages of both systems. Online classes and exams are becoming a prevailing practice in education. Because they are being used more widely, it is imperative to assess student learning behavior based on how they perform on varying test structures in order to improve the system of testing. I discuss the positive effects of using data visualization and specific techniques I used to detect patterns of learning behavior for students taking in-class and online exams.


The current study was conducted with an aim to know the effect of adding different concentrations of pomegranate peels alcoholic extract (PPAE) on the traits of Awassi ram semen stored at 5°C. Eight ejaculations from three Awassi rams were collected, mixed and diluted with TRIS extender. The semen samples were divided into four equal parts, and then the alcoholic extract of pomegranate peels was added at concentrations of 0, 100, 200 and 300 mg/ 1 ml of extender, which represented each of the treatments C, T1, T2 and T3, respectively. The samples were stored at 5 ° C and semen examinations were performed during periods 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours after collection. Semen traits included calculation percentage of individual motility, viability, abnormalities, plasma membrane integrity, and sperm acrosome integrity. The results indicated that treatment T3 better than control group C in the percentage of individual sperm motility for all preservation periods. The results also showed that treatment T3 were significantly higher than control group C in the percentage of sperm viability for the 72-hour period, reaching 75.25 ± 3.90 and 54.00 ± 7.42%, respectively. The results showed that there were no significant differences in the percentage of sperm abnormalities for all treatments and for all periods. The results showed an improvement in the percentage of plasma membrane integrity and acrosome integrity for T3 treatment compared with control group C during for periods 24, 72 and 96 hours of preservation. We conclude from the present study that the addition of PPAE at a concentration of 300 mg/ 1 ml of TRIS extender improved most parameters of preserved semen of Awassi rams during different preservation periods.


The RIT numerical relativity group is releasing a public catalog of black-hole-binary waveforms. The initial release of the catalog consists of 126 recent simulations that include precessing and nonprecessing systems with mass ratios q=m1/m2 in the range 1/6⩽q⩽1. The catalog contains information about the initial data of the simulation, the waveforms extrapolated to infinity, as well as information about the peak luminosity and final remnant black hole properties. These waveforms can be used to independently interpret gravitational wave signals from laser interferometric detectors and the remnant properties to model the merger of black-hole binaries from initial configurations.


Sanguinarine, derived from the root of Sanguinaria canadendid, has been shown to possess antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Here we compared the antiproliferative and apoptotic potential of sanguinarine against human epidermoid carcinoma (A431) cells and normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs). Sanguinarine treatment was found to result in a dose-dependent decrease in the viability of A431 cells as well as NHEKs albeit at different levels because sanguinarine-mediated loss of viability occurred at lower doses and was much more pronounced in the A431 carcinoma cells than in the normal keratinocytes. DNA ladder assay demonstrated that compared to vehicle-treated control, sanguinarine treatment of A431 cells resulted in an induction of apoptosis at 1-, 2-, and 5-mM doses. Sanguinarine treatment did not result in the formation of a DNA ladder in NHEKs, even at the very high dose of 10 mM. The induction of apoptosis by sanguinarine was also evident by confocal microscopy after labeling the cells with annexin V. This method also identified necrotic cells, and sanguinarine treatment also resulted in the necrosis of A431 cells. The NHEKs showed exclusively necrotic staining at high doses (2 and 5 mM). We also explored the possibility of cell cycle perturbation by sanguinarine in A431 cells. The DNA cell cycle analysis revealed that sanguinarine treatment did not significantly affect the distribution of cells among the different phases of the cell cycle in A431 cells. We suggest that sanguinarine could be developed as an anticancer drug.


The early stage of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is caused by the tyrosine kinase Bcr-Abl. Imatinib mesylate (also known as STI-571 and Gleevec), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has shown encouraging results in CML clinical trials and has become a paradigm for targeted cancer therapeutics. Recent reports of resistance to imatinib argue for further development of therapies for CML. During studies of signal transduction, we observed that the pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine src tyrosine kinase inhibitor PD173955 inhibited Bcr-Abl-dependent cell growth. Subsequently, a related compound, PD180970, was reported as a potent inhibitor of Bcr-Abl. We have compared the potency of these two compounds and four other analogues with imatinib on Bcr-Abl-dependent cell growth, cytokinedependent cell growth, and tyrosine kinase inhibition. PD173955 inhibited Bcr-Abl-dependent cell growth with an IC50 of 2–35 nM in different cell lines. Fluorescence-activated cell-sorting analyses of cells treated with PD173955 showed cell cycle arrest in G1. PD173955 has an IC50 of 1–2 nM in kinase inhibition assays of Bcr-Abl, and in cellular growth assays it inhibits Bcr-Abl-dependent substrate tyrosine phosphorylation. Of the six pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine analogues studied, PD166326 was the most potent inhibitor of Bcr-Abl-dependent cell growth. PD173955 inhibited kit ligand-dependent c-kit autophosphorylation (IC50 25 nM) and kit ligand-dependent proliferation of M07e cells (IC50 40 nM) but had a lesser effect on interleukin 3-dependent (IC50 250 nM) or granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (IC50 1 M)-dependent cell growth. These compounds are potent inhibitors of both the Bcr-Abl and c-kit receptor tyrosine kinases and deserve further study as potential treatments for both CML and for diseases in which c-kit has a role.


To the Editor.— Pericardial mesothelioma occurs in 1 per 40 million population per annum 1 and is manifested most commonly as constrictive pericarditis, 2 but occasionally as hemorrhagic or cholesterol pericarditis, 3 constriction of great vessels, 4 and myocardial infarction. 5 Reported here is an unique case masquerading acute rheumatic fever with mitral stenosis. Report of a Case.— A 24-year-old woman had suffered from several episodes of sore throat, easy fatigability, and low-grade fever since January 1974. On June 18, 1974, she was hospitalized for recurrent sore throat, low-grade fever, and retrosternal pain and was found to have tachycardia, loud pericardial friction rubs, an increased ESR (93 mm/hr), elevated antistreptolysin O titer (166 Todd units), and slight cardiomegaly on chest x-ray film. She was treated for acute rheumatic fever with cardiac involvement with aspirin and prednisone with much improvement and was discharged on July 6. She returned shortly with the same


We present the fourth list with results of the Hamburg/SAO Survey for Emission-Line Galaxies (HSS hereafter, SAO - Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russia). The list is a result of the follow-up spectroscopy conducted with the 6m SAO RAS telescope in 1998, 1999 and 2000. The data of this snap-shot spectroscopy survey confirmed 127 emission-line objects out of 176 observed candidates and allowed their quantitative spectral classification. We could classify 76 emission-line objects as BCG/HII galaxies or probable BCGs, 8 - as QSOs, 2 - as Seyfert galaxies, 2 - as super-associations in a subluminous spiral and an irregular galaxy, and 37 as low-excitation objects - either starburst nuclei (SBN), or dwarf amorphous nuclei starburst galaxies (DANS). We could not classify 2 ELGs. Furthermore, for 5 galaxies we did not detect any significant emission lines. For 91 emission-line galaxies, the redshifts and/or line intensities are determined for the first time. Of the remaining 28 previously known ELGs we give either improved data on the line intensities or some independent measurements. The candidates were taken from three different samples selected by different criteria. Among our first priority candidates we achieved a detection rate of emission-line objects (ELGs + QSOs) of 68%, among which 51% are BCGs. Observations of a random selected sample among our second priority candidates showed that only ~10% are BCGs. We found that the confirmed BCGs have usually a blue colour ((B-R) < 1.0) and a non-stellar appearance in the APM database. Our third sample is comprised of second priority candidates fulfilling these criteria derived from the APM. Follow-up spectroscopy of a small subsample indicates that the expected detection rate for BCGs is ~40%.


Knowledge of miRNA expression and function in specific cell types in solid organs is limited because of difficulty in obtaining appropriate specimens. We used laser capture microdissection to obtain nine tissue regions from rats, including the nucleus of the solitary tract, hypoglossal motor nucleus, ventral respiratory column/pre-Bötzinger complex, and midline raphe nucleus from the brain stem, myocardium and coronary artery from the heart, and glomerulus, proximal convoluted tubule, and medullary thick ascending limb from the kidney. Each tissue region consists of or is enriched for a specific cell type. Differential patterns of miRNA expression obtained by deep sequencing of minute amounts of laser-captured cells were highly consistent with data obtained from real-time PCR analysis. miRNA expression patterns correctly clustered the specimens by tissue regions and then by primary tissue types (neural, muscular, or epithelial). The aggregate difference in miRNA profiles between tissue regions that contained the same primary tissue type was as large as one-half of the aggregate difference between primary tissue types. miRNAs differentially expressed between primary tissue types are more likely to be abundant miRNAs, while miRNAs differentially expressed between tissue regions containing the same primary tissue type were distributed evenly across the abundance spectrum. The tissue type-enriched miRNAs were more likely to target genes enriched for specific functional categories compared with either cell type-enriched miRNAs or randomly selected miRNAs. These data indicate that the role of miRNAs in determining characteristics of primary tissue types may be different than their role in regulating cell type-specific functions in solid organs.


For deep linear networks (DLN), various hyperparameters alter the dynamics of training dramatically. We investigate how the rank of the linear map found by gradient descent is affected by (1) the initialization norm and (2) the addition of L2 regularization on the parameters. For (1), we study two regimes: (1a) the linear/lazy regime, for large norm initialization; (1b) a "saddle-to-saddle" regime for small initialization norm. In the (1a) setting, the dynamics of a DLN of any depth is similar to that of a standard linear model, without any low-rank bias. In the (1b) setting, we conjecture that throughout training, gradient descent approaches a sequence of saddles, each corresponding to linear maps of increasing rank, until reaching a minimal rank global minimum. We support this conjecture with a partial proof and some numerical experiments. For (2), we show that adding a L2 regularization on the parameters corresponds to the addition to the cost of a Lp-Schatten (quasi)norm on the linear map with p = 2 L (for a depth-L network), leading to a stronger low-rank bias as L grows. The effect of L2 regularization on the loss surface depends on the depth: for shallow networks, all critical points are either strict saddles or global minima, whereas for deep networks, some local minima appear. We numerically observe that these local minima can generalize better than global ones in some settings.


Rugby is New Zealand's national sport. From the grand tour by the 1888 Natives to the upcoming 2015 World Cup, from games in the North African desert in World War II to matches behind barbed wire during the 1981 Springbok tour, from grassroots club rugby to heaving crowds outside Eden Park, Lancaster Park, Athletic Park or Carisbrook, New Zealanders have made rugby their game. In this book, historian and former journalist Ron Palenski tells the full story of rugby in New Zealand for the first time. It is a story of how the game travelled from England and settled in the colony, how M?ori and later Pacific players made rugby their own, how battles over amateurism and apartheid threatened the sport, how national teams, provinces and local clubs shaped it. But above all it is a story of wing forwards and fullbacks, of Don Clarke and Jonah Lomu, of the Log of Wood and Charlie Saxton's ABC, of supporters in the grandstand and crackling radios at 2 a.m. The story of rugby is New Zealand's story. Rooted in extensive research in public and private archives and newspapers, and highly illustrated with many rare photographs and ephemera, this book is the defining history of rugby in a land that has made the game its own.


Increasing globalization has changed a company's responsibility towards the environment and society. Therefore, public private partnerships (PPP) have been set up trying to tackle global issues such as extreme poverty, child labour and environmental problems. This thesis tries to clarify to what extent PPPs can contribute to international development. At first the concepts of CSR and PPPs are introduced to later understand the importance of development agencies' PPP programmes, as these are used to further engage business in development. With the help of the case study "Cotton Made in Africa" which is part of the German PPP programme develoPPP.de it is shown how private and public partners can jointly work together to tackle international grievances. Though, it is also highlighted which steps still need to be taken to increase development impact.


The clinical signs of tansy ragwort poisoning are variable and in 5 cases included diarrhea, tenesmus, ascites, bloody feces, icterus, paresis, CNS involvement, rectal prolapse, poor appetite and weight loss. It is thus apparent that the disease can be confused clinically with many others, and tansy ragwort poisoning should be considered in animals exhibiting ascites, diarrhea and rectal prolapse. Several cases of tansy ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) poisoning occurring from 1969 to 1976 are reported to illustrate the numerous clinical pictures that might confront a practitioner. The disease is sporadic in this area. The poisonous principles in tansy ragwort are pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which cause gradual alteration and necrosis of liver cells with replacement by fibrous tissue. The development of signs in all of these cases could be attributed to failure of one or more liver functions.


Plasma spray processing is a low-cost, rapid manufacturing technique that is widely used industrially for fabrication of thermal barrier and wear- and corrosion-resistant coatings. Because the technique can be used to rapidly deposit coatings of high melting temperature materials with good substrate adhesion, it has also been applied to the production of individual component layers in tubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), and more recently, in planar SOFCs. The use of plasma spray processing for the fabrication of fuel cell components presents unique challenges, due to the high porosities required for the electrode layers and fully dense coatings required for electrolytes. Application of plasma spray processing for the manufacture of solid oxide fuel cells is discussed, with consideration of potential advantages of the technique compared to standard SOFC wet ceramic processing routes. Major challenges faced in the adaptation of the processing method to solid oxide fuel cell manufacture are discussed, along with current research approaches being used to overcome these challenges. Recent developments in the use of the technique for the rapid onestep manufacturing of direct oxidation SOFC anodes are discussed, for composite material combinations that cannot be co-sintered due to widely divergent melting points. The impacts of plasma sprayed coating properties on solid oxide fuel cell performance are considered, and implications of the use of the technique on overall stack and system manufacturing costs are discussed.


ABSTRACTPurpose of Review: Assessment of the patient with a first seizure is a common and important neurologic issue. Less than 50% of patients who have a first unprovoked seizure have a second seizure; thus, the evaluation should focus on determining the patient's risk of seizure recurrence.Recent Findings: A number of population studies, including some classic reports, have identified the relative risk factors for subsequent seizure recurrence. The 2014 update of the International League Against Epilepsy definition of epilepsy incorporates these findings, and in 2015, the American Academy of Neurology published a guideline that analyzed the available data.Summary: Provoked or acute symptomatic seizures do not confer increased risk for subsequent unprovoked seizure recurrence. Multiple seizures in a given 24-hour period do not increase the risk of seizure recurrence. Remote symptomatic seizures, an epileptiform EEG, a significant brain imaging abnormality, and nocturnal seizures are risk factors for seizure recurrence. Antiepileptic drug therapy delays the time to second seizure but may not influence long-term remission.


Purpose: The aim of this article is to assess real changes taking place on regional labour markets in Poland over the last ten years. The starting point for the analysis was 2008 – the time of the economic crisis – and it was compared to 2018, a year marked by a significant improvement in the economy, including the labour market. Design/Methodology/Approach: To assess the initial and current situation on regional labour markets, the authors use variables obtained from CSO resources, diagnosing the situation in individual Polish voivodships. The identified set of variables served to create a synthetic indicator reflecting the situation on regional labour markets in Poland as a derivative of the condition of the economy. In order to conduct a comparative analysis of regional labour markets, the authors made rankings of voivodships for the two analysed periods with the use of the Hellwig method. The next stage of the study involved an estimation of the multiple regression model, which explains how the identified factors (determinants) affect the position of voivodships in the context of their employment potential. The authors adopted a ratio of the employed per 1,000 inhabitants as a dependent variable, while the variables determining the demand for labour were considered as independent variables. Findings: A ten-year comparison period adopted for the analyses showed that the economic crisis did not have a major impact on economic and labour market changes in Polish regions. Practical Implications: The proposed research methodology is universal and can be used to assess regional labour markets in other countries. Originality/Value: The conducted research allowed for the identification of factors influencing the situation on the labour market and the assessment of changes taking place on regional labour markets.


Not just since the beginning of the sub prime crisis in the US we are aware, the Real Estate Industry plays a crucial role in modern economies. In Germany n although the biggest export nation of the world with a strong industrial sector n real estate stocks make up some 88% of the total capital stock. Compared to the economic importance, the real estate industry plays a minor role within the pressure groups in Germany and properly throughout the world. This paper analyses the reasons for the week lobbying of the Real Estate Industry, looks the mayor changes that took place within the market, and describes the new evolutions in Germany, and the EU.


We study patterns of variation among the 20 endogamous groups of Dhangars, a caste-cluster from Maharashtra State of India, who are semi-nomadic shepherds and cattle herders. To understand patterns of variation, we subjected the data on fourteen anthropometric measurements of about 2,500 adult males and data on 6 genetic markers, published among 13 of the 20 Dhangar castes, to R-matrix analysis, Harpending and Ward model of regression of heterozygosity on the distance from centroid of the populations, spatial autocorrelation analysis and Mantel statistics of matrix correspondence of the distances--geographic, anthropometric and genetic. Results of multiple regression analysis suggest a high degree of association between allele frequencies and the geographic longitude and latitude; R2 value suggests that about 70% of the variance in RH7 and ACP can be assigned to geographic distribution of groups. In case of anthropometry, this association with body size is found to be even stronger. Results of spatial autocorrelation analysis, as suggested by Moran's (I), are somewhat complementary to those based on multiple regression analysis. Mantel test indicates significant association between anthropometric distances and the geographic distances, not between geographic and genetic distances. The extent of differentiation of Dhangar sub-castes is much higher in anthropometric traits (F(ST) = 0.068) when compared to the genetic markers (F(ST) = 0.023). Yet, the F(ST) value obtained forgenetic markers is larger than the average for the Indian populations, based on similar class of markers. The positioning of the groups in the multivariate space reflects primarily geographic proximity of the groups with reference to anthropometric dimensions while no tangible pattern is evident forgenetic markers. The plot of average heterozygosity of the groups versus their distance from the gene frequency centroid seems to reflect population size variation, rather than group variation in external gene flow.


Abstract Ascidian spicules are reported for the first time from the upper Eocene (Paleogene) biosiliceous marls and mudstones of the Blanche Point Formation in the St. Vincent Basin, southeastern Australia. The spicules that belong to the family Polycitoridae are identified as a Recent species Cystodytes cf. dellechiajei, and Cystodytes sp. and spicules of the family Didemnidae are indentified as representing genera Lissoclinum, Didemnum, and Polysyncraton. Five other different morphological spicule types which can be classified only at the family level also belong to the Didemnidae. This study demonstrates that ascidians had a very wide distribution by the late Eocene and that ascidian fauna was already of a modern character.


The literature on the Kibbutz is large and sprawling. This stands in marked contrast to the intimacy and proximity of the individuals who have actually participated in the life of the Kibbutz. In this quite remarkable work, David Mittelberg succeeds in capturing the specific life styles and aspirations of the Kibbutzniks. And he does so by integrating this within the broad and rich traditions of the sociology of culture and religion. "Strangers in Paradise "provides a massive amount of current data on Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers, division of labor by sex and language of origins, demographic characteristics of Kibbutz hosts and recruits, and a variety of attitude measures far beyond any other work in the literature. But what gives special value to this effort is its unusual utilization of the phenomenological tradition - from Simmel to Schutz, to Berger and Luckmann - along with recent efforts in organization and negotiation theory - from Blau to Goffman - in order to explicate this massive data. A special element in this volume is the central place accorded to voluntarism in an open culture. For Mittelberg, membership in the Kibbutz is at its core a voluntary act of individuals who commit their lives, or a portion thereof, to a collective movement in a strange land. This is a study then in "intentional communities" rather than Utopian organizations. The synthesis of the concrete and the abstract, the empirical and the theoretical, will establish Mittelberg's volume as a new standard in Kibbutz studies.


An epididymis-specific, secretory glutathione peroxidase (GPX5) has been proposed previously to play a role in protecting mammalian sperm membranes from the deleterious effects of lipid peroxidation, which, if not contained, can lead to reduced fertilizing capacity. Here we report the cDNA cloning of human GPX5 and show that the majority of transcripts contain a 118 nt frame-shifting deletion, arising, most likely, from inappropriate excision of exon 3 during processing. Antisera raised against recombinant human GPX5 cross-reacted with rat and macaque (Macaca fascicularis) epididymal proteins of the size expected for full-length, active GPX5. However, no similar reactivity could be demonstrated in any of the human samples tested.


6. Other health effects; general; allergies; babies; bacteria; balance and mobility; bladder; bone growth; bone healing; brain changes; cardiovascular changes; chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS); CNS effects; depression; diabetes; ear effects and hearing; emotionality; epilepsy and seizures; eye effects; gastric effects; growth; hand and arm effects; headaches; heart; hormone effects; immune system; kidney damage; life span; liver; migraines; mouth; multiple sclerosis; neuropathic pain; nose; pain perception; personality changes; physical activity; salivary gland effects; skin; sleep; stress; tendonitis; tinnitus; other effects; drug and other interactions; complexities of study design that may result in finding 'no effects'; animal, insect and plant experiments and effects; indirect effects; protective effects


Background/Aims: There is a critical need for more noninvasive biomarkers to identify nephritis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Recent studies in a model mouse and an adult SLE patient cohort suggest that anti-basement membrane antibody levels correlate well with lupus activity and kidney injury. The purpose of this study was to assess the anti-basement membrane reactivity in pediatric SLE (pSLE) patients with or without nephritis. Methods: Auto-antibodies to basement membrane antigens were assessed using an anti-matrigel ELISA. Endpoint titers were measured in pSLE patients and healthy children, as well as in autoimmune and non-immune mice, with good reproducing capabilities. Findings were also analyzed with respect to the presence or absence of nephritis, dsDNA antibodies, and other manifestations of pSLE. Results: MRL/lpr mice developed high-titer anti-matrigel antibodies, whereas C57BL/6 mice did not. In a cohort of 21 pSLE patients and 22 pediatric controls, high-titer anti-matrigel IgG, IgM and IgA antibody levels were specific for pSLE. High-titer anti-matrigel IgG3 levels could distinguish with good sensitivity the 13 pSLE patients with a history of nephritis from the 8 non-renal pSLE patients. High-titer anti-matrigel IgG, IgA, IgM or IgG3 did not correlate with positive anti-double stranded DNA, but defined an overlapping subset of patients. Conclusion: The addition of anti-basement membrane antibody testing to serologic testing in pSLE may help to monitor disease activity or to define important subsets of patients with risks for specific disease manifestations.


Background: Peripheral bronchopleural fistula (BPF) and empyema from necrotising infections of the lung and pleural is difficult to treat resulting in increased morbidity and mortality rates. The aim of this study was to show the effectiveness of the Latissimus Dorsi muscle (LDM) flap and patch closure techniques in the management of recalcitrant peripheral BPFs with the aid of thoracotomy. Materials and Methods: Five patients with BPF and empyema out of 26 patients who were initially treated for empyema thoracis by single or multiple chest tube insertions and/or ultrasound-guided drainage were prospectively identified and followed up for 2 years, postoperatively. The postoperative hospital stay, dyspnoea score, function of the ipsilateral upper limb and any deformity of chest wall were assessed at follow-up visits by asking relevant questions. Results: The mean age was 46.8 years (23-69 years) (4 males and 1 female). The cause of the BPF in 18 patients was Mycobacterium tuberculosis and 8 was pneumonia. The mean total months of the chest tube insertions was 1.5 months (range 2.5-6 months) prior to the thoracotomy and closure of fistula procedures performed on the 5 patients (with LDM flap in 4 patients and pleural patch in 1 patient). The complications recorded were: subcutaneous emphysema, residual pus and haemothorax in three patients. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 20.8 days (13-28 days);There was improved dyspnoea score to 1 or 2 in the 5 (19.2%) patients. There was no recurrence of BPF or residual pus in all the patients; no loss of function or deformity of the chest wall. Conclusion: The use of LDM Flap was effective in treating peripheral BFP without any adverse long-term outcome.


In Japan, the visually impaired including total blindness and amblyopia is approximately 310,000 people statistically, and only 12.7% of them can read Braille. It means that most of blind people relay on sound information, however, there are only a few reports on the actual condition of taking medications for visually impaired patients. In the area of medicine, more than 50% of drugs are providing with Press Through Package (PTP) in Japan, there is no rule for appropriate information against blind people. Some pharmacy use touch sealed or sound barcode as a service for blind patients, it is extremely uncommon. Since PTP is most common package, some idea of sound information for visually impaired patients is necessary. Innovative Dot PTP, visually impaired patients are able to hear sound information using infrared ray radiation scanner pen, with which they just touch the PTP. After giving instruction of Dot PTP for subjects, we study usefulness and usability of innovative Dot code with PTP both interview and objective information. Simultaneously, we did interview to collects information of difficulty. We interviewed visually impaired patients about taking medications. Using Dot PTP, instruction and sensory evaluation item are explained for subjects who has visually impairment. After using Dot PTP, subjects evaluated several items with NRS. The results of interview and NRS are studied. Many visually impaired patients answered "Sometimes, I can't find which medicine to take." An instruction of Dot PTP is evaluated understandable for most of visually impaired patients. Sound information are able to give appropriate information of drug taking for blind subjects. Dot PTP is able to produce in current productive procedure with miner change of machine and systems. Considering aging the society, cost-effective service tool like Dot PTP could contribute universal design in the society.


Objective. To characterize and determine the prevalence of the different types of gender-associated violence in the city of Durango, Mexico. Material and methods. With a transversal design, 384 women residents of the city of Durango, either living with or having lived with someone before, were interviewed. The sample was proportionately distributed in 6 city sectors which were randomly chosen and representative of the high middle and low socioeconomic levels. Sixty-four interviews were conducted in each city sector. The questionnaire consisted of 184 closed and 22 open questions, including identification, sociodemographic and reproductive data, as well as specific questions on physical, emotional and sexual violence. Results. Median age of the studied group was 41.5 years, ranging from 12 to 48 years. Prevalence of domestic violence was: sexual 42%; physical 40%; emotional 39%. Conclusions. The problem of violence, in its different forms, is a highly prevalent factor wich jeopardizes the welfare of the family nucleus. Higher prevalence values of domestic violence were detected in the presence of factors such as violence antecedents, alcoholism and/or drug consumption by some member of the family. Alvarado-Zaldivar G, Salvador-Moysen J, Estrada-Martinez S, Terrones-Gonzalez A, Prevalencia de violencia domestica en la ciudad de Durango. Salud Publica Mex 1998;40:481-486.


A major challenge of screen-camera visual multiinput multi-output (MIMO) communications is to increase the achievable throughput by reducing nonlinear channel effects including perspective distortion, ambient lights, and color mixing. To mitigate such nonlinear effects, an existing transmission method uses linear or simple nonlinear equalizations in decoding operations. However, the throughput improvement from the equalization techniques is often limited because the effects are composed of a combination of various nonlinear distortions. In addition to the above issue, the existing studies consider specific environments, such as indoor and static communications, although screen-camera communications can be used for a variety of applications including outdoor and mobile scenarios. In this study, we propose 1) deep neural network (DNN)- based decoding for screen-camera communications to increase the achievable throughput and 2) Unity 3D-based evaluation methodology to synthetically learn the DNN for being robust against many different screen-camera environments. The DNN finds the best nonlinear kernels for equalization from numerously captured images, and then decodes original bits from newly captured images based on the trained nonlinear kernels. In the Unity-based evaluation tool, we can easily capture numerous photo-realistic images in different screen-camera scenarios to learn the impact of perspective distortion, screen- to-camera distance, motion blur, and ambient lights on the throughput since Unity-based environment can freely set programmable screens, cameras, and ambient lights on a 3D space. As an initial proof of concept, we demonstrate that the proposed DNN-based decoder scheme improves the achievable throughput by up to 148% compared to existing methods by equalizing nonlinear effects.


To determine our setting's IDAI rates, infecting microorganisms, and their resistance patterns to achieve standardization and make comparisons among other Turkish and developed country hospitals all over the world. Materials and methods: The numbers of total patient days, ventilator days, central catheter days and, urinary catheter days in the ICUs were recorded and IDAI rates were calculated. Clinical specimens were obtained from patients, cultivated at appropriate culture media, and infecting microorganisms and resistance patterns were determined. Results: Totally 1450 invasive device-associated infection episodes were determined (16.4% of patients) with a rate of 21.12/1000 days. Ventilator associated pneumonia rate was 22.05/1000 ventilator days and most common microorganism was Acinetobacter baumannii. Central catheter associated blood stream infection rate was 9.14/1000 central catheter days and the most common infecting organism was A. baumannii. Catheter associated urinary infection rate was 10.12/1000 urinary catheter days and the most common pathogen was Candida species. MRSA rate decreased from 89.6% in 2006 to 61.8% in 2009 (P < 0.001). ESBL production rates were between 70.7% and 45.6% in Escherichia coli and 66.7% and 55.9% in Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates. Vancomycin resistance among Enterococci was between 34.3% and 21.7% in these years. Conclusion: Our hospital infection rates were found to be similar to those of country data but higher than those in developed nations. Considering the high infection and resistance rates to most of the available antibiotics, it is highly urgent that infection control measures be taken and more effective antibiotic control policies be adopted.


Traditional patterns of leadership in the Church of England are changing. The demands of mission in post-Christendom, and renewed attention to the theology of social trinitarianism have focussed attention on the health of the local congregation as the place where the future of the church will be determined. Aware of the damage that disharmony can cause, the Diocese of Chelmsford has supported this research which examines how good relationships between lay and ordained leaders may be fostered, as a contribution to the equipping of congregations for mission.
A process of facilitated conversations was held with lay and ordained leaders at the end of a ministerial vacancy, after an appointment had been made. These were analysed in the light of both theological and sociological perspectives on the nature of priesthood and of the local church, and of my own experience as a parish priest and training officer in the church.
The process of facilitated conversations enabled differences of attitude and understanding to be articulated. Of particular note was a strong preference for, or reaction against, the use of familial language to describe the local congregation. These differences could be categorised as a contrast between the views held by those who had received no academic training in theology and those who had. A revised pattern of meetings is proposed in the light of these results and the feedback received.
The conclusion is that relationships between the lay leaders and the newly appointed priest will benefit from facilitated conversations at the outset of this new period of ministry about the nature of the priestly role and the local church. A good relationship, marked by improved mutual understanding and respect between leaders, will better enable the parishes of the Diocese of Chelmsford to re-envision the missionary task.


Background: Enterobacter sakazakii is a gram negative, facultative anaerobic, straight rodshaped bacterium that belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae. It is also considered an emerging opportunistic pathogen, responsible of cases of neonatal infections including sepsis, meningitis, necrotizing enterocolitis ad bacteremia. The goal of this study was detection of Enterobacter salazakii in neonates with sepsis by PCR on 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 405 blood specimens that were taken from hospitalized neonates suspected to sepsis in Ahvaz Abuzar Hospital in 2011. From each neonate 0.5 ml blood sample was taken and placed in CBC tubes containing EDTA at -20 0 C for polymerase chain reaction. For detection of Enterobacter sakazakii, PCR was performed on DNA for amplification of 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Results: In all 405 neonates blood samples' PCR reactions for Enterobacter sakazakii 16S ribosomal RNA gene were negative. Blood cultures were positive for Streptococcus agalactiae in 8 (1.4 %) patients. Conclusion: Because Enterobacter sakazakii is an opportunistic pathogen with high pathogenicity power, more investigation on high risk groups is required. For detection of infection caused by this organism using of different diagnostic methods with high specificity and sensitivity is necessary.


The paper examines the Third Mission of universities from the point of view of company collaboration in the prototype development process. The paper presents an implementation of university-enterprise collaboration in prototype development described by means of process modeling notation. In this article, the focus is on modeling the software prototyping process in a research context. This research paper introduces prototype development in a university environment. The prototypes are made in collaboration with companies, which offered real-world use cases. The prototype development process is introduced by a modeling procedure with four example prototype cases. The research method used is an eight-step process modeling approach. The goal was to find instances of activity, artifact, resource, and role. The results of modeling are presented using textual and graphical notation. This paper describes the data elicitation, where the process knowledge is collected using stickers-on-the-wall technique, and the creation of the model is described. Finally, the shortcomings found in our existing practices and possibilities for improving our prototype development processes and practices are discussed.


Vibrations play a critical role in many photochemical and photophysical processes in which excitations reside on the electronically excited state. However, difficulty in assigning signals from spectroscopic measurements uniquely to a specific electronic state, ground or otherwise, has exposed limitations to their physical interpretation. Here, we demonstrate the selective excitation of vibrational coherences on the ground electronic state through impulsive Raman scattering, whose weak fifth-order signal is resonantly enhanced by coupling to strong electronic transitions. The six-wave mixing signals measured using this technique are free of lower-order cascades and represent correlations between zero-quantum vibrational coherences in the ground state and single-quantum coherences between the ground and electronic states. We believe that this technique has the potential to shed much-needed insight onto some of the mysteries regarding the origin of long-lived coherences observed in photosynthetic and other coupled chromophore systems.


My research examines within-nation differences as well as cross-national differences in socially stratified outcomes, specifically the distribution of household incomes. I build on the considerable empirical evidence suggesting that group memberships are important factors in shaping one' s life course and in determining the level of social inequality. I examine seven years of longitudinal data from Germany and the United States, 1991-1997 to demonstrate that gender issituated within other salient social categories such as race and marital status. These qualitative distinctions form status-based groups that organize the social hierarchy in which individual action is both enabled and constrained.


For the interpretation of the signal discovered in the Higgs searches at the LHC it will be crucial in particular to discriminate between the minimal Higgs sector realized in the standard model (SM) and its most commonly studied extension, the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The measured mass value, having already reached the level of a precision observable with an experimental accuracy of about 500 MeV, plays an important role in this context. In the MSSM the mass of the light CP-even Higgs boson, Mh, can directly be predicted from the other parameters of the model. The accuracy of this prediction should at least match the one of the experimental result. The relatively high mass value of about 126 GeV has led to many investigations where the scalar top quarks are in the multi-TeV range. We improve the prediction for Mh in the MSSM by combining the existing fixed-order result, comprising the full one-loop and leading and subleading two-loop corrections, with a resummation of the leading and subleading logarithmic contributions from the scalar top sector to all orders. In this way for the first time a high-precision prediction for the mass of the light CP-even Higgs boson in the MSSM is possible all the way up to the multi-TeV region of the relevant supersymmetric particles. The results are included in the code FEYNHIGGS.


This paper investigates the question of ownership of collective memories in the age of digitized archiving. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (henceforth Unesco) philosophy of preserving the world cultural heritage has boosted research on African oral literatures. The emphasis on the documentation of endangered cultures of Africa is salutary but also raises some critical questions. The central question this contribution addresses is that of the authorship-ownership of cultural heritage that is being archived in the framework of digital humanities. In essence, the notion of "collective memories" entails that of collective authorship and collective belonging as these memories are passed on from one generation to the other without the claim of singular ownership. A significant example in this line of thought has been the observation by the cultural giant Amadou Hampâté Bâ who ironically pointed out that the real author of The Fortunes of Wangrin (1973), which is attributed to him, is actually the storyteller Wangrin – the cunning interpreter – and members of the whole literary tradition that Wangrin embodied. In the preface of a recently published volume on La question de l'auteur en littératures africaines (Jérôme Roger 2015: 16) the author asks the following pertinent question: how can African literature, both oral and others, invite scholars to rethink the relationship between the anonymity of sources, versions and variants of stories and the constraint for an author's name imposed by editors? The question has more weight in view of the massive digitization of African oral literatures that mostly takes place in institutions with more economic prestige and which are located outside the African continent. Therefore, the interrogation centres on the role of power with regard to the form in which these (hi)stories are published, where, how and to whom they are accessible, and to the habit of researchers to name people from whom they receive the bulk of knowledge which they transcribe and translate into the academic jargon "informants" instead of giving them more credit by referring to them as research partners or even by recognising them as co-authors. In this vein, the paper rounds up by exploring the possibility of reversing the customary auctorial perspective by bringing into the discussion the idea of "researchers as griots" suggested by (Merolla, Ameka & Dorvlo 2013).
KEYWORDS: ARCHIVING AND SILENCING, MEMORICIDE, TEACHERS ON THE FIELD, SELFISH ALTRUISM, RESEARCHERS AS GRIOTS


In this paper we first study patterns of separation and divorce among natives and migrants of different origin in Belgium. Second we link the divorce to internal mobility and test whether previous documented residential mobility patterns of divorced also apply for migrant populations. This study is novel in at least three respects. First of all only few studies have addressed levels and characteristics of divorce among migrant groups compared to the majority group population. We even go beyond a simply dichotomy and address the diversity in divorce among different origin groups living in Belgium. Second, our analyses not only cover divorce among married couples but we will just as well address separation among unmarried cohabiting couples. Third, we test what mobility patterns are predominant after divorce/separation among migrants and the majority group. Our multivariate analyses include factors of importance at the individual, couple and neighbourhood level and cover both levels and direction of moves. The analyses are based on the 2001 Belgian census, linked with population register data for 2006. All individuals who were part of a couple in 2001 are studied and we assess the levels of breakup of married and unmarried unions four years and three months later (in 2006). The data have rich information on individual and couple characteristics that will be taken into account in the multivariate analyses. For migrant origin we distinguish between six different (regions of) origins including both European and nonEuropean migrants. We analyse the level of mobility linked to the divorce and study the direction of the residential moves of the partners as well as its determinants in more detail.


This paper presents an environment as life conditions and as a source of risks and crisis. Contemporary changes in environment from point of view possible influence on security situation, on health threat, life and life environment and property are characterized. There is identified possible approach to define and to classify of security in second part. We deal with explanation of military and non-military security. At last part there are define key problems of theory and praxis crisis management: theoretical and methodological approaches, principles and rules for managing of social systems in crisis situations, process of crisis management as a cycle application of functions considering the prevention, preparation, mitigation, response and the recovery processes.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the effect of practice characteristics on the diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems in primary care.

DATA SOURCE
National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) 1991-1994.

STUDY DESIGN
We examine the effect of visit characteristics and practice characteristics on rates of diagnosis of mental health problems, rates of referral, and rates of use of psychotropic medications. We characterize each primary care physician's practice using information about the ways in which that physician treated patients who did not have mental health problems.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
We find that median visit duration has a small, statistically insignificant effect on the rate of diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems. Physicians with large HMO caseloads are slightly more likely to diagnose mental health problems, but less likely to prescribe psychotropic medications, than are physicians who see few HMO patients. Practice style and specialty are important determinants of diagnosis and, to a lesser extent, of treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Physicians specialty and practice style are more strongly related to mental health diagnosis and treatment than are system characteristics such as visit duration and insurance composition.


The increasing aging population in the coming decades will result in many complications for society and in particular for the healthcare system due to the shortage of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities. To remedy this problem, researchers have pursued developing remote monitoring systems and assisted living technologies by utilizing recent advances in sensor and networking technology, as well as in the data mining and machine learning fields. In this article, we report on our fully automated approach for discovering and monitoring patterns of daily activities. Discovering and tracking patterns of daily activities can provide unprecedented opportunities for health monitoring and assisted living applications, especially for older adults and individuals with mental disabilities. Previous approaches usually rely on preselected activities or labeled data to track and monitor daily activities. In this article, we present a fully automated approach by discovering natural activity patterns and their variations in real-life data. We will show how our activity discovery component can be integrated with an activity recognition component to track and monitor various daily activity patterns. We also provide an activity visualization component to allow caregivers to visually observe and examine the activity patterns using a user-friendly interface. We validate our algorithms using real-life data obtained from two apartments during a three-month period.


The problem in this thesis is feminism in education, occupation and social as seen in Maya Angelou's poems. Feminism is the struggle of movement women rights in economic, education, occupation, politic, social and different culture with men. In these poems, having the theme like struggle rights of women, women rights in self-confidence, hidden beauty, although the skills of her own feels more superior than men
The finding in this analysis is 1). Angelou wants to voice the women must be more educated that can stand in patriarchal society, in basically women must get the rights equality in education like men. 2). Angelou wants to voice the women must get rights equality in occupation, like equality wages between men and women. 3). Angelou wants to voice nobody can do insult in physical or non-physical. In basically, degree of human its same front of Allah and society.
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The Gladstone region, as one of the most industrially intense regions in. Australia, uses significant quantifies of fresh water. Awoonga Dam, situated on the Boyne River, is the only major source of water in the region. The current typical annual usage is 53 GL (Porteous, 2006) and approximately 80 per cent of the water is used by heavy industry (Gladstone Area Water Board, 2004). Until relatively recently, there has been ready and easy access to raw water for industrial use. The recent drought, which resulted in severe water restrictions in 2002 and 2003, emphasised the importance of water for a dominant industrial region like Gladstone. Although now in the process of changing, the typical contractual arrangements in the past have provided little financial incentive for efficient water use. From research undertaken on potential water reuse opportunities, several key questions have emerged related to water management in an industrial region such as Gladstone. This paper highlights these key questions, presents findings from recent regional strategies and assesses the potential for water reuse. Even though there is no clear-cut financial incentive for reusing water, there could be stronger regional and risk mitigation drivers for doing so. Initiatives to incorporate adaptive capacity through collaborative industrial synergies would allow for robustness and resilience in water security, leading to long-term sustainable water management across the Gladstone region.


Bacteremia is a hallmark of invasive Streptococcus suis infections of pigs, often leading to septicemia, meningitis, or arthritis. An important defense mechanism of neutrophils is the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, we report high levels of ROS production by blood granulocytes after intravenous infection of a pig with high levels of S. suis-specific antibodies and comparatively low levels of bacteremia. ABSTRACT Bacteremia is a hallmark of invasive Streptococcus suis infections of pigs, often leading to septicemia, meningitis, or arthritis. An important defense mechanism of neutrophils is the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, we report high levels of ROS production by blood granulocytes after intravenous infection of a pig with high levels of S. suis-specific antibodies and comparatively low levels of bacteremia. This prompted us to investigate the working hypothesis that the immunoglobulin-mediated oxidative burst contributes to the killing of S. suis in porcine blood. Several S. suis strains representing serotypes 2, 7, and 9 proved to be highly susceptible to the oxidative burst intermediate hydrogen peroxide, already at concentrations of 0.001%. The induction of ROS in granulocytes in ex vivo-infected reconstituted blood showed an association with pathogen-specific antibody levels. Importantly, inhibition of ROS production by the NADPH oxidase inhibitor apocynin led to significantly increased bacterial survival in the presence of high specific antibody levels. The oxidative burst rate of granulocytes partially depended on complement activation, as shown by specific inhibition. Furthermore, treatment of IgG-depleted serum with a specific IgM protease or heat to inactivate complement resulted in >3-fold decreased oxidative burst activity and increased bacterial survival in reconstituted porcine blood in accordance with an IgM-complement-oxidative burst axis. In conclusion, this study highlights an important control mechanism of S. suis bacteremia in the natural host: the induction of ROS in blood granulocytes via specific immunoglobulins such as IgM.


On-orbit maintainability is one of the most important methods to extend the lifecycle of the space station, as it ensures the safety of astronauts and minimizes operating costs. Based on this, maintainability verification plays an extremely significant role in on-orbit maintenance and can verify the correctness and validity of the on-orbit maintainability. By conducting a comparative analysis and reviewing best practices both at home and abroad, this paper embarks on the mission of the China manned space station, combined with the requirements of objects, test items, and environment that need to be verified. The authors propose a ground testing by-step classification methodology and a simplified zero-gravity simulation separated space platform to accommodate the validation of the entire process on the orbital replaceable units.


Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry(DEXA) has been widely applied to measure the bone mineral density(BMD) and soft-tissue composition of the human body. However, the use of DEXA is greatly limited for lowZ materials such as soft tissues due to their weak absorption, while X-ray phase-contrast imaging(XPCI) shows significantly improved contrast in comparison with the conventional standard absorption-based X-ray imaging for soft tissues. In this paper, we propose a novel X-ray phase-contrast method to measure the area density of low-Z materials, including a single-energy method and a dual-energy method. The single-energy method is for the area density calculation of one low-Z material, while the dual-energy method aims to calculate the area densities of two low-Z materials simultaneously. Comparing the experimental and simulation results with the theoretical ones, the new method proves to have the potential to replace DEXA in area density measurement. The new method sets the prerequisites for a future precise and low-dose area density calculation method for low-Z materials.


This article argues for placing the personal pursuit of pleasure at the heart of training processes. The article draws on the work of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who developed descriptors of the subjective experience of enjoyment – a state he named 'Optimal Experience' or 'flow'. It maps these descriptors against the work of Barba, Zarrilli and Meyerhold and draws extensively on the author's own practice as a psychophysical trainer of performers. The author suggests how a detailed understanding of what pleasure is, and how it is achieved, offers trainees a rigorous perspective to help structure, reflect on and take responsibility for their own engagement with training. Finally the author suggests that the paradigm shift that can result from a trainee's acknowledgement of the intrinsic pleasure of her work on herself shifts the roles in the training space – the trainer becoming guide and the trainee becoming autodidact.


The present study is an attempt to evaluate the cost benefit analyses of two main crops cultivated in district Anantnag of Kashmir valley. In order to satisfy the objectives of the present study a primary survey was conducted in which information were collected about the production cost, market price, perception of farmers about the cultivation, and other necessary aspects of the rice and mustard crops.  The study has revealed that cultivation of rice is comparatively more profitable than the cultivation of mustard. It also shows that the production cost of rice is comparatively higher than that of mustard. The study also indorses that more number of hired labours are required for the cultivation of rice than the mustard on land area of same size. The low supply of this hired labour in other districts is considered an important factor of conversion of land from cultivation of rice in to apple fields. The low supply of the rural labour has occurred due to the structural changes in our economic system as a large group of the rural labour force has adopted non –farm activities to earn their lively hood. The result of Chi-square also shows that there is significant difference between the profitability of Rice and Mustard production.


: The gamut of neurological symptoms observed in Lyme disease is outlined on the basis of 45 case histories. The Borrelia infection of the nervous system manifests itself primarily at the spinal roots and the cranial nerves. Signs of spinal cord and brain involvement were found in well over a third of the patients studied. These may be taken as the result of the infection spreading to parenchymatous structures or as vessel reactions and infections. Long-lasting exhaustion and residual focal deficits are possible late sequelae. Cases of chronic meningoencephalitis, demyelinisation processes and damage to the cerebrovascular system are discussed.


Among worldwide, agriculture has the major responsibility for improving the economic contribution of the nation. However, still the most agricultural fields are under developed due to the lack of deployment of ecosystem control technologies. Due to these problems, the crop production is not improved which affects the agriculture economy. Hence a development of agricultural productivity is enhanced based on the plant yield prediction. To prevent this problem, Agricultural sectors have to predict the crop from given dataset using machine learning techniques. The analysis of dataset by supervised machine learning technique(SMLT) to capture several information's like, variable identification, uni-variate analysis, bi-variate and multi-variate analysis, missing value treatments etc. A comparative study between machine learning algorithms had been carried out in order to determine which algorithm is the most accurate in predicting the best crop. The results show that the effectiveness of the proposed machine learning algorithm technique can be compared with best accuracy with entropy calculation, precision, Recall, F1 Score, Sensitivityand Specificity.


We construct invariants of relative K-theory classes of multiparameter dependent pseudodifferential operators, which recover and generalize Melrose's divisor flow and its higher odd-dimensional versions of Lesch and Pflaum. These higher divisor flows are obtained by means of pairing the relative K-theory modulo the symbols with the cyclic cohomological characters of relative cycles constructed out of the regularized operator trace together with its symbolic boundary. Besides giving a clear and conceptual explanation to all the essential features of the divisor flows, this construction allows to uncover the previously unknown even-dimensional counterparts. Furthermore, it confers to the totality of these invariants a purely topological interpretation, that of implementing the classical Bott periodicity isomorphisms in a manner compatible with the suspension isomorphisms in both K-theory and in cyclic cohomology. We also give a precise formulation, in terms of a natural Clifford algebraic suspension, for the relationship between the higher divisor flows and the spectral flow.


Oncogene-induced senescence (OIS), the proliferative arrest en- gaged in response to persistent oncogene activation, serves as an important tumor-suppressive barrier. We show here that fi nite lifespan human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC) undergo a p16/ RB- and p53-independent OIS in response to oncogenic RAS that requires TGF- β signaling. Suppression of TGF- β signaling by expression of a dominant-negative TGF- β type II receptor, use of a TGF- β type I receptor inhibitor, or ectopic expression of MYC permitted continued proliferation upon RAS expression. Surprisingly, unlike fi broblasts, shRNA-mediated knockdown of ATM or CHK2 was unable to prevent RAS-mediated OIS, arguing that the DNA damage response is not required for OIS in HMEC. Abrogation of TGF- β signaling not only allowed HMEC lacking p53 to tolerate oncogenic RAS but also conferred the capacity for anchorage-independent growth. Thus, the OIS engaged after dysregulated RAS expression provides an early barrier to malignant progression and is mediated by TGF- β receptor activation in HMEC. Understanding the mechanisms that initiate and maintain OIS in epithelial cells may provide a foundation for future therapies aimed at reengaging this proliferative barrier as a cancer therapy.


Direct energy conversion from ocean waves requires some method of rectifying the oscillatory motion to produce a unidirectional output. The Wells turbine accomplishes this with horizontally mounted symmetric blades, which produce a net torque output when combined with an oscillating water column. Previous studies have been conducted, which investigate the effects of blade profile, turbine solidity, stator tip gap clearance, and a number of guide vane designs intended to improve performance. Both experimental and computational methods have been employed, with computational models typically relying on commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code and assuming steady-state flow conditions. In this work, the open-source code foam-extend is used to study the transient behavior of a Wells turbine, with both a standard rigid blade and a blade with a flexible trailing edge. A validated model is established, and the effects of various Young's Moduli are tested and their flow fields analyzed. Significant performance gains are realized, with a nearly 17% increase in output torque in some cases.


Emerging economies are characterized as having underdeveloped financial markets. Furthermore, many of these economies have employment protection laws that make it costly for firms to fire workers. Understanding the interaction between these features is key for evaluating financial and labor policy reforms since they have a direct impact on the allocation of resources and aggregate productivity. This paper quantifies the effect on aggregate productivity of an improvement in financial development in economies with firing costs. I develop a small open economy model with heterogeneous firms that face collateral constraints and have to pay firing costs. I calibrate the model using census plant-level data from the manufacturing sector in Chile. I find that aggregate productivity increases by 2.5 percent following a financial reform that makes Chile's level of financial development comparable to that of the United Kingdom. Ignoring firing costs underestimates the impact of the reform, predicting an increase in productivity of 0.3 percent. Acknowledging firing costs introduces two reasons why the financial reform has a stronger impact. First, firms with high past employment hoard labor and, as a result, demand more capital, which makes them more likely to be financially constrained. Second, an increase in wages following the reform increases the effective firing cost and hence discourages firms with low past employment from hiring. As a result, these firms demand less capital than they would if there were no firing costs and are less likely to be financially constrained. Finally, I study the effect on productivity of the interaction between these two frictions when evaluating labor and financial reforms. I do this for a range of economies with plausible initial levels of financial development and firing costs.


Computational Intelligence (CI) has emerged as a rapid growing field over the past decade. Its various techniques have been recognized as powerful tools for intelligent information processing, decision making and knowledge management. "Advances of Computational Intelligence in Industrial Systems" reports the exploration of CI frontiers with an emphasis on a broad spectrum of real-world applications. Section I Theory and Foundation presents some of the latest developments in CI, e.g. particle swarm optimization, Web services, data mining with privacy protection, kernel methods for text analysis, etc. Section II Industrial Application covers the CI applications in a wide variety of domains, e.g. clinical decision support, process monitoring for industrial CNC machine, novelty detection for jet engines, ant algorithm for berth allocation, etc. Such a collection of chapters has presented the state-of-the-art of CI applications in industry and will be an essential resource for professionals and re searchers who wish to learn and spot the opportunities in applying CI techniques to their particular problems.


The 2007 Groves Conference on Marriage and Family in Detroit offered family scholars and practitioners an opportunity to focus on the social, economic, and environmental issues facing families. Despite the many injustices plaguing families in Detroit and the larger world, explicit attention to social justice issues in the family field is rare. This edited volume highlights the scholarly and applied work presented at the conference by Groves members, many of whom are accomplished activists themselves.


Abstract Remaining service life of a petrochemical plant reformer tube, which has been exposed to water vapour at 540° C for 22 years under an internal pressure of 88 bar, was analysed via the Larson-Miller approach. Samples machined from the exposed and the original tubes were subjected to stress rupture tests at various stress levels and temperatures to determine the variation of the Larson-Miller parameter with the applied stress. At a service temperature of 540° C, the remaining service life decreased with increasing applied stress. For the stress of 42 MPa, which corresponded to the hoop stress generated on the tube during service, it was estimated that the tube has completed about 50 % of its actual service life.


Abstract:The Sri Parvata Arama, or the Buddhavanam, is a Buddhist theme park near the banks of the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir in Telangana. Sponsored by the state government, this park features at its center a full-scale replica of the Amaravati stupa. While this replica stupa might seem to revivify the largely destroyed stupa at Amaravati, this article also examines how the Buddhavanam engages with a wide-ranging visual archive in order to create a home at which every imaginable visitor—foreign and local—will encounter familiar imagery. The stupa's sculptural adornment primarily takes inspiration from limestone sculptures that once adorned ancient Buddhist sites along the Krishna River Valley. However, additional scenes on the stupa are drawn from disparate sources: reliefs carved from photographs of M. K. Gandhi, B. R. Ambedkar, and the current chief minister of Telangana appear alongside stone versions of paintings from the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang and Alchi in Ladakh. This article examines how this replica stupa and the surrounding theme park allow the new state of Telangana not only to articulate its claim to the Buddhist heritage that is now shared with the state of Andhra Pradesh but also to participate in a boom in statesponsored religious monuments across India.


The present study examined the genetic diversity and population structure of Plasmodium falciparum in western Kenya by analyzing the polymorphism of 12 microsatellite loci and two antigen loci. Malaria in highland areas is unstable and epidemic whereas malaria in lowland areas is endemic. Transmission intensity and malaria prevalence are substantially lower in the highlands than in the lowlands. Despite that the highland parasite populations exhibited reduced number of alleles, lower expected heterozygosity, and infection complexity in comparison to the surrounding lowland population, genetic diversity of the highland populations remained high in comparison to parasites from other meso-endemic regions. More than 70% of infections from western Kenya highland study sites were mixed genotype infections. Small but statistically significant genetic differentiation between highland and lowland populations was detected. These findings are discussed in the context of human travel and local transmission in the study area.


Individual‐level demographic outcomes should be predictable upon the basis of traits. However, linking traits to tree performance has proven challenging likely due to a failure to consider physiological traits (i.e. hard‐traits) and the failure to integrate organ‐level and whole plant‐level trait information. Here, we modelled the survival rate and relative growth rate of trees while considering crown allocation, hard‐traits and local‐scale biotic interactions, and compared these models to more traditional trait‐based models of tree performance. We found that an integrative trait, total tree‐level photosynthetic mass (estimated by multiplying specific leaf area and crown area) results in superior models of tree survival and growth. These models had a lower AIC than those including the effect of initial tree size or any other combination of the traits considered. Survival rates were positively related to higher values of crown area and photosynthetic mass, while relative growth rates were negatively related to the photosynthetic mass. Relative growth rates were negatively related to a neighbourhood crowding index. Furthermore, none of the hard‐traits used in this study provided an improvement in tree performance models. Synthesis. Overall, our results highlight that models of tree performance can be greatly improved by including crown area information to generate a better understanding of plant responses to their environment. Additionally, the role of the hard‐traits in improving models of tree performance is likely dependent upon the level of stress (e.g. drought stress), micro‐environmental conditions or short‐term climatic variations that a particular forest experiences.


ABSTRACT British American Tobacco Cambodia (BATC) has dominated the country's tobacco market since its launch in 1996. Aggressive marketing in a weak regulatory environment and strategies to influence tobacco control policy have contributed to an emerging tobacco-related public health crisis. Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents, issues of BATC's in-house newsletter, civil society reports and media demonstrate that BATC officials have successfully sought to align the company with Cambodia's increasingly controversial political and business leadership that is centred around the Cambodian People's Party with the aim of gaining access to policy-makers and influencing the policy process. Connections to the political elite have resulted in official recognition of the company's ostensible contribution to Cambodia's economic and social development and, more significantly, provided BATC with opportunities to petition policy-makers and to dilute tobacco control regulation. Corporate promotion of its contribution to Cambodia's economic and social development is at odds with its determined efforts to thwart public health regulation and Cambodia's compliance with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.


Introduction and aim. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global medical problem. HLA –DRB1 alleles have an important role in immune response against HCV. The aim of this study is to clarify the contribution of HLA –DRB1 alleles in HCV susceptibility in a multicentre family-based study. Material and methods. A total of 162 Egyptian families were recruited in this study with a total of 951 individuals (255 with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), 588 persons in the control group(-ve household contact to HCV) and 108 persons who spontaneously cleared the virus (SVC). All subjects were genotyped for HLA -DRB1 alleles by SSP-PCR and sequence based typing (SBT) methods. Results. The carriage of alleles 3:01:01 and 13:01:01 were highly significant in CHC when compared to that of control and SVC groups [OR of 3 family = 5.1289, PC (Bonferroni correction ) = 0.0002 and 5.9847, PC = 0.0001 and OR of 13 family = 4.6860, PC = 0.0002 and OR = 6.5987, PC = 0.0001 respectively]. While DRB1*040501, DRB1*040101, DRB1*7:01:01 and DRB1*110101 alleles were more frequent in SVC group than CHC patients (OR = 0.4052, PC = 0.03, OR: OR = 0.0916, PC = 0.0006, OR = 0.1833, PC = 0.0006 and OR = 0.4061, PC = 0.0001 respectively). Conclusions. It was concluded that among the Egyptian families, HLADRB1*030101, and DRB1*130101 alleles associated with the risk of progression to CHC infection, while DRB1*040101, DRB1*040501, DRB1*7:01:01and DRB1*110101 act as protective alleles against HCV infection.


Cg1458 was recently characterized as a novel soluble oxaloacetate decarboxylase. However, sequence alignment identified that Cg1458 has no similarity with other oxaloacetate decarboxylases and instead belongs to the FAH (fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase) family. Differences in the function of Cg1458 and other FAH proteins may suggest a different catalytic mechanism. To help elucidate the catalytic mechanism of Cg1458, crystal structures of Cg1458 in both the open and closed conformations have been determined for the first time up to a resolution of 1.9 Å (1 Å=0.1 nm) and 2.0 Å respectively. Comparison of both structures and detailed biochemical studies confirmed the presence of a catalytic lid domain which is missing in the native enzyme structure. In this lid domain, a glutamic acid-histidine dyad was found to be critical in mediating enzymatic catalysis. On the basis of structural modelling and comparison, as well as large-scale sequence alignment studies, we further determined that the catalytic mechanism of Cg1458 is actually through a glutamic acid-histidine-water triad, and this catalytic triad is common among FAH family proteins that catalyse the cleavage of the C-C bond of the substrate. Two sequence motifs, HxxE and Hxx…xxE have been identified as the basis for this mechanism.


Abstract
Social discipline has experienced a profound crisis, that Michel Foucault has theorized. In the area of salaried work, this crisis indicates an important change in how control is achieved by modulation, reintroducing constraint and domination through « objectives and results », but it also liberates initiative. The progressive generalization of this type of control depends on the tendencies it is designed to contain. At the heart of the trend towards modulation are new developments relative to individual action that we can evoke in the expression « to work is to accomplish. » It is in a context of the social relations of service, implied by the ethic of « rendering service, that this orientation is most strongly revealed.


This paper addresses frequency regulation and the economic dispatch problem of an Autonomous Renewable Grid (ARG) primarily composed of Multi Renewable Energy Agents (MRAs), interfaced through DC/AC inverters. A large number of MRAs that have an inherent fluctuating nature and frequent disturbances in inter-connected systems require fast and robust control to stabilize the frequency and to maintain cost-effective operation of an ARG. To address the above control challenges, Distributed Averaging Integrator (DAI) based control schemes were proposed in various research works. The main flaws of such schemes were slow convergence, sluggish response, poor transient performance and a difficult selection of an appropriate damping-factor. The proposed approach introduces a Distributed Sliding Mode Control (DSMC) based solution for fast convergence and improved transient response. The DSMC control is based on a distributed sliding surface, designed using a combination of local information and information from neighboring MRAs. The control is implemented locally at each MRA and achieves the asymptotic global consensus. Finally, the convergence of the proposed control scheme is proved mathematically, and performance is validated using the MRA system which has been implemented using MATLAB/Simulink. The results of the proposed control technique are compared with conventional DAI control, which shows that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional scheme in terms of fast convergence, considering renewable resources as distributed generation.


As the Department of Defense (DoD) begins to develop and deploy net-centric services within the global information grid (GIG), new and emerging technologies will be used to achieve the goal of a unified network transport using a variety of IP-based terrestrial, wireless and satellite technologies. Included within this vision is the global information grid bandwidth expansion (GIG-BE) and the transformation communications system (TCS) satellite network. While the mission of upgrading many DoD terrestrial networks under GIG-BE has entered into the initial phases of planning and deployment, TCS is still many years away from operational use. However, there is a need for IP-based satellite networks in the warfighter community today. To fulfil this immediate need, as well as prepare for future enhanced TCS capabilities, the DoD has developed an IP modem functional capabilities document. This document provides the minimum set of functional capabilities that ensure interoperability among modems supporting IP services. Using this FCD as a guide the DoD will perform a best of breed evaluation to select the next generation DoD IP modem. This paper describes potential DVB-RCS implementations within the new GBS IP architecture and outlines various two-way user pull/publish DVB-RCS capabilities. This includes using DVB-RCS within a distributed forward and return link architecture and synchronization of both forward and return Link subsystems. Discussion of DVB-RCS enabled applications will not only include typical IP-based services such as voice over IP (VoIP) and video teleconferencing (VTC) but will also include distributed information sharing across user terminals, tactical rebroadcast of information, and information publishing from deployed and disadvantaged locations. Additional related technologies are also discussed in the context of implementation over DVB-RCS transport networks including MPEG-4, reliable multicasting, and peer-to-peer networking


In the past few years, increasing interest has been shown in using Java as a language for performance-oriented distributed and parallel computing. Most Java-based systems that support portable parallel and distributed computing either require the programmer to deal with intricate low level details of Java which can be a tedious, time-consuming and error-prone task, or prevent the programmer from controlling locality of data. In contrast to most existing systems, JavaSymphony - a class library written entirely in Java - allows to control parallelism, load balancing and locality at a high level. Objects can be explicitly distributed and migrated based on virtual architectures which impose a virtual hierarchy on a distributed/parallel system of physical computing nodes. The concept of blocking/nonblocking remote method invocation is used to exchange data among distributed objects and to process work by remote objects. We evaluate the JavaSymphony programming API for a variety of distributed/parallel algorithms which comprises backtracking, N-body, encryption/decryption algorithms and asynchronous nested optimization algorithms. Performance results are presented for both homogeneous and heterogeneous cluster architectures. Moreover, we compare JavaSymphony with an alternative well-known semi-automatic system.


Drawing on work with Indian and Japanese patients, a prominent American psychoanalyst explores inner worlds that are markedly different from the Western psyche. A series of fascinating case studies illustrates Alan Roland's argument: the "familial self," rooted in the subtle emotional hierarchical relationships of the family and group, predominates in Indian and Japanese psyches and contrasts strongly with the Western "individualized self." In perceptive and sympathetic terms Roland describes the emotional problems that occur when Indians and Japanese encounter Western culture and the resulting successful integration of new patterns that he calls the "expanding self." Of particular interest are descriptions of the special problems of women in changing society and of the paradoxical relationship of the "spiritual self" of Indians and Japanese to the "familial self." Also described is Roland's own response to the broadening of his emotional and intellectual horizons as he talked to patients and supervised therapists in India and Japan. "As we were coming in for a landing to Bombay," he writes, "the plane banked so sharply that when I supposedly looked down all I could see were the stars, while if I looked up, there were the lights of the city." This is the "world turned upside down" that he describes so eloquently in this book. What he has learned will fascinate those who wish to deepen their understanding of a different way of being.


Bacillus anthracis is an obligate pathogen and a causative agent of anthrax. Its major virulence factors are plasmid-coded; however, recent studies have revealed chromosome-encoded virulence factors, indicating that the current understanding of its virulence mechanism is elusive and needs further investigation. In this study, we established a silkworm (Bombyx mori) infection model of B. anthracis Sterne. We showed that silkworms were killed by B. anthracis and cured of the infection when administered with antibiotics. We quantitatively determined the lethal dose of the bacteria that kills 50% larvae and effective doses of antibiotics that cure 50% infected larvae. Furthermore, we demonstrated that B. anthracis mutants with disruption in virulence genes such as pagA, lef, and atxA had attenuated silkworm-killing ability and reduced colonization in silkworm hemolymph. The silkworm infection model established in this study can be utilized in large-scale infection experiments to identify novel virulence determinants and develop novel therapeutic options against B. anthracis infections.


THE PROBLEM of the roentgen diagnosis of retroperitoneal tumors in infants and children is simplified by the fact that these tumors are almost exclusively one of three types: (1) renal embryoma (Wilms tumor), (2) neuroblastoma, and (3) unattached embryoma (teratoma). Other retroperitoneal tumors, such as rhabdomyosarcoma and lymphoma, occur in children rarely, but the numerous other tumor types commonly encountered in adults are virtually unknown in these young patients. Thus when an infant or child with evidence of abdominal mass is presented for roentgenologic study, the various diagnostic procedures should be carried out with the purpose of demonstrating the features of one of these three retroperitoneal tumors. TYPES The nature of these tumors can be briefly summarized. Renal Embryoma (Wilms Tumor). —This is the usual renal tumor of early life. It comprises 20% of neoplasms in children. Although first described by Gairdner in 1828, Wilms's classic description has linked his


The influence of cutting parameters viz. cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut, tool geometry viz. rake angle, clearance angle and nose radius on turning of AISI 304 stainless steel, AISI 52100 bearing steel and AISI D2 tool steel with advanced cutting tools like multicoated carbide, cermet and alumina inserts are investigated experimentally. The machining performance (i.e. output parameters) considered in this article are surface roughness, flank wear and tool-shim interface temperature. Experiments are conducted according to Taguchi's orthogonal array and ANOVA is performed to evaluate the significance of each of the input parameters on each of the output parameters. It is found that variation in work materials, and tool materials have significant effect on flank wear apart from cutting speed. Tool cutting edge geometry like nose radius and clearance angle influenced surface roughness apart from the cutting parameters. Variations in work material, cutting fluids and nose radius have considerable influence on tool-shim interface temperature


ATP-activated P2X3 receptors of sensory ganglion neurons contribute to pain transduction and are involved in chronic pain signaling. Although highly homologous (97%) in rat and human species, it is unclear whether P2X3 receptors have identical function. Studying human and rat P2X3 receptors expressed in patch-clamped human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells, we investigated the role of non-conserved tyrosine residues in the C-terminal domain (rat tyrosine-393 and human tyrosine-376) as key determinants of receptor function. In comparison with rat P2X3 receptors, human P2X3 receptors were more expressed and produced larger responses with slower desensitization and faster recovery. In general, desensitization was closely related to peak current amplitude for rat and human receptors. Downsizing human receptor expression to the same level of the rat one still yielded larger responses retaining slower desensitization and faster recovery. Mutating phenylalanine-376 into tyrosine in the rat receptor did not change current amplitude; yet, it retarded desensitization onset, demonstrating how this residue was important to functionally link these two receptor states. Conversely, removing tyrosine from position 376 strongly down-regulated human receptor function. The different topology of tyrosine residues in the C-terminal domain has contrasting functional consequences and is sufficient to account for species-specific properties of this pain-transducing channel.