Understanding how the environment impacts the evolution and spread of infectious disease is a major interdisciplinary challenge. Recent experimental work has found that under certain environmental conditions antagonistic co-evolution between hosts (bacteria) and parasites (phage) can exhibit fluctuating selection rather than a directional 'arms-race'. This has important implications for management strategies as such cycles mean the parasite is a 'moving target'. It is therefore crucial that we develop theory that can reveal the environmental conditions that promote co-evolutionary cycles. I shall first introduce an epidemiological model that reflects the infection process of the bacteria-phage system. Working within the framework of adaptive dynamics, I will then take a bifurcation approach to explore the environmental conditions that favour the creation of co-evolutionary cycles. Throughout, I shall link the findings from my mathematical models to those from experimental data.


: A study of the clinical picture of renal amyloidosis in 110 patients has shown a possibility of the existence of different variants of its course making it similar to the other nephropathies. Its diagnostic difficulty is determined by relative significance of "aggravated" anamnesis (in 22% of the patients it was absent at all, and its presence did not exclude the development of other renal diseases). Correct diagnosis can be established using kidney biopsy only as amyloidosis in the rectal mucosa and hepatic tissue is detected much less frequently.


One year after the official launch of the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings, initiatives linked to their implementation have been undertaken in over 20 countries ranging from Iran and Nepal to Kenya and Peru. In this article we present an overview of the activities that are currently underway to implement the guidelines. This article provides an overview of different strategies that have been used and presents some of the strengths and challenges of these implementation strategies.


The HIV/AIDS situation in Nigeria has undergone a lot of transformation following a long period that was plagued by superstition and denial. The HIV Sero Prevalence Sentinel Surveys were conducted among the antenatal clinic (ANC) attendees in Nigeria being considered to be a homogenous community of persons with steady sexual partners. Included in the survey were pregnant women aged between 15 to 49 years of age from rural and urban areas across all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The clinic attendance pattern at enrollment from one of the HIV/AIDS care clinics in the zone was also added, to highlight the burden of the problem. The recent survey revealed that the National prevalence of HIV stands at 4.1%, although there are centers that recorded prevalence rates far greater than the national average in many zones of the country. We later discussed the epidemiology of the disease in the northeast region with some peculiarities that encourage the spread of HIV/AIDS, especially related to this part of Nigeria.


BACKGROUND The practice-based research network (PBRN) is the basic laboratory for primary care research. Although most PBRNs include some common elements, their infrastructures vary widely. We offer suggestions for developing and supporting infrastructures to enhance PBRN research success. METHODS Information was compiled based on published articles, the PBRN Resource Center survey of 2003, our PBRN experiences, and discussions with directors and coordinators from other PBRNs. RESULTS PBRN research ranges from observational studies, through intervention studies, clinical trials, and quality of care research, to large-scale practice change interventions. Basic infrastructure elements such as a membership roster, a board, a director, a coordinator, a news-sharing function, a means of addressing requirements of institutional review boards and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and a network meeting must exist to support these initiatives. Desirable elements such as support staff, electronic medical records, multiuser databases, mentoring and development programs, mock study sections, and research training are costly and diffi cult to sustain through project grant funds. These infrastructure elements must be selected, confi gured, and sized according to the PBRN's self-defi ned research mission. Annual infrastructure costs are estimated to range from $69,700 for a basic network to $287,600 for a moderately complex network. CONCLUSIONS Well-designed and properly supported PBRN infrastructures can support a wide range of research of great direct value to patients and society. Increased and more consistent infrastructure support could generate an explosion of pragmatic, generalizable knowledge about currently understudied populations, settings, and health care problems. Ann Fam Med 2005;3(Suppl 1):S5-S11. DOI: 10.1370/afm.299.


Unsafe behavior of cyber-physical systems can have disastrous consequences, motivating the need for formal verification of these kinds of systems. Deductive verification in a proof assistant such as Coq is a promising technique for this verification because it (1) justifies all verification from first principles, (2) is not limited to classes of systems for which full automation is possible, and (3) provides a platform for proving powerful, higher-order modularity theorems that are crucial for scaling verification to complex systems. In this paper, we demonstrate the practicality, utility, and scalability of this approach by developing in Coq sound and powerful rules for modular construction and verification of sampled-data cyber-physical systems. We evaluate these rules by using them to verify a number of non-trivial controllers enforcing safety properties of a quadcopter, e.g. a geo-fence. We show that our controllers are realistic by running them on a real, flying quadcopter.


Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) generally require large-scale datasets for training. Since manually obtaining clean labels for large datasets is extremely expensive, unsupervised models based on domain-specific heuristics can be used to efficiently infer the labels for such datasets. However, the labels from such inferred sources are typically noisy, which could easily mislead and lessen the generalizability of DNNs. Most approaches proposed in the literature to address this problem assume the label noise depends only on the true class of an instance (i.e., class-conditional noise). However, this assumption is not realistic for the inferred labels as they are typically inferred based on the features of the instances. The few recent attempts to model such instance-dependent (i.e., feature-dependent) noise require auxiliary information about the label noise (e.g., noise rates or clean samples). This work proposes a theoretically motivated framework to correct label noise in the presence of multiple labels inferred from unsupervised models. The framework consists of two modules: (1) MULTI-IDNC, a novel approach to correct label noise that is instance-dependent yet not class-conditional; (2) MULTI-CCNC, which extends an existing class-conditional noise-robust approach to yield improved class-conditional noise correction using multiple noisy label sources. We conduct experiments using nine real-world datasets for three different classification tasks (images, text and graph nodes). Our results show that our approach achieves notable improvements (e.g., 6.4% in accuracy) against state-of-the-art baselines while dealing with both instance-dependent and class-conditional noise in inferred label sources.


Diamond wire saw is the leading technology for use in slicing hard brittle material. This paper provides a brief review of its research progress in the most recent years. According to the bonding material kinds of diamond wire saw, it can be classified into three main categories, i.e. metallic bonding materials, organic bonding materials, and resin bonding materials. In the past decade, several new major technical developments in fixed abrasive diamond wire saw have emerged. This paper investigates the related literature on four different types of fixed abrasive diamond wire saws, presents their manufacturing processes and machining performance, and compares the tension and anti-abrasion of the wire saws, removal efficiency of slicing, and their applications in silicon slicing.


The fluorous alkenes H2C[double bond, length as m-dash]CHRfn (Rfn = (CF2)n-1CF3; n = 8, 10) undergo the Mizoroki-Heck reaction with a variety of aromatic monobromides and polybromides such as 1,3- and 1,4-C6H4Br2, 1,3,5-C6H3Br3, 1,3,5-C6H3Br2Cl, 1,4-XC6H4Br (X = CF3, Rf8, COCH3, CN, 1,4-OC6H4Br), 1,2-O2NC6H4Br, 5-bromoisoquinoline, 5-bromopyrimidine, 3-bromo-5-methoxypyridine, and 3,5-dibromopyridine (sixteen examples, 78% average isolated yield). Typically, 1.2-2.4 equiv. of alkene are employed per Ar-Br bond, together with Pd(OAc)2 catalyst (4-5 mol%/Ar-Br bond), n-Bu4N+ Br- (0.8-1.0 equiv./Ar-Br bond), NaOAc (1.2-2.4 equiv./Ar-Br bond), and 3 : 1 w/w DMF/THF as solvent (120 °C). No effort is necessary to exclude air or moisture, and reactions may be conducted on >10 g scales. Only E isomers of the products Ar(CH[double bond, length as m-dash]CHRfn)m are detected. Thirteen representative examples are hydrogenated (Pd/C, balloon pressure H2), giving Ar(CH2CH2Rfn)m (92% average isolated yield).


High altitude platforms (HAPs) are one of the most promising alternative infrastructures for realizing next generation high data‐rate wireless communications networks. Considering the continuous demand for enhanced spectral efficiency, increased channel capacity, and improved link reliability, multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) technology is the leading candidate for future communications systems. The development of MIMO‐based communications networks depends on a proper characterization and modeling of the propagation channel. To enable the successful design and performance evaluation of broadband wireless HAP‐MIMO systems, this doctoral thesis focuses on modeling of HAP‐MIMO channels. Novel three‐dimensional (3‐D) geometry‐based reference models for Ricean fading channels are proposed that encompass narrowband and wideband HAPMIMO channel scenarios with line‐of‐sight (LoS) and non‐line‐of‐sight (NLoS) connections at L and S frequency bands licensed for mobile communications through HAPs. From these models, the statistical properties and the capacity performance are analytically and thoroughly studied in terms of various parameters, such as the elevation angle of the platform, the antenna array configuration, the Doppler and delay spread, and the 3‐D non‐isotropic distribution of the local scatterers. Using the theoretical expressions one can easily evaluate numerically the HAP antenna inter‐element spacing required to achieve uncorrelated responses in the HAP‐MIMO channel matrix. Moreover, novel 3‐D deterministic and statistical simulation models for HAPMIMO channels based on the reference narrowband and wideband models are developed by using the sum‐of‐sinusoids (SoS) method, which has been widely accepted by academia and industry. The efficiency, the accuracy, and the complexity of these models are thoroughly investigated with respect to the statistical properties. The results indicate that the proposed simulation models yield high performance and satisfactorily approximate the statistical properties of the reference models. Finally, a novel geometrical design approach to construct high‐capacity HAPMIMO communications systems in LoS propagation environments is proposed, considering the Ka and V frequency bands licensed for fixed broadband communications through HAPs. In these mm‐wave frequencies, the rain has a significant effect on the quality of the link. The potential channel capacity gain of the optimized LoS‐HAP‐MIMO architecture is investigated, under clear sky and rain conditions. The proposed models for HAP‐MIMO channels would provide other researchers a convenient framework and guidelines for the characterization, analysis, test, and design of future mobile and fixed HAP‐MIMO communications systems.


The World Trade Organization Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS Agreement) relies heavily on science and expert organizations to avoid and resolve trade disputes over measures enacted under the rationale of food safety or plant and animal health protection. However, the state of science for sanitary and phytosanitary risk analysis is highly uncertain, and the SPS Agreement leaves many science policy issues unsettled. The international agencies charged under the SPS Agreement with harmonizing standards and forging international scientific consensus face a daunting and politically-charged task. Two case studies are briefly developed. In the first case, the international scientific consensus strongly supports the U.S. challenge of the European Union's ban on cattle growth hormones, but the root causes of the dispute go much deeper. The case suggests that establishing a precedent for SPS measures based solely on "sound science" may be a slippery objective. In the second case, domestic avocado producers challenged a U.S. Department of Agriculture assessment which concluded that a partial lifting of the ban on Mexican avocado imports posed a negligible plant pest risk. Although the Department's phytosanitary risk assessment gained endorsement by independent scientists, a contributing factor to resolving this dispute was the threat of retaliation against U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico. A recent survey of current and proposed technical barriers to U.S. agricultural exports suggests that the trade impacts could approach $5 billion a year and that the most common SPS disputes in the future will be over biological hazardsparticularly plant pests and food-borne microbial pathogens. This poses a tremendous challenge, however, because the practice of risk assessment for biological stressors is much less developed than that for chemical substances. The paper concludes with some proposed criteria for evaluating the weight of scientific evidence in SPS risk assessment.


Purpose of review The aim of this article is to use evidence-based criteria to review recent publications on the evaluation and management of stress urinary incontinence in women. Recent findings Longitudinal studies suggest that a familial predisposition towards stress urinary incontinence may exist. There is mounting evidence that cesarean section may play a protective role against pelvic floor damage due to labor, but this continues to be investigated. Objective parameters in the evaluation of stress urinary incontinence, such as questionnaires, pad test, and urodynamic studies, continue to undergo refinements to become more clinically relevant outcome tools. Non-invasive and minimally-invasive therapies for stress urinary incontinence are expanding. The search continues for the optimal non-autologous material in the pubovaginal sling procedure. Despite concerns over the use of synthetic material and better defined early complications, midurethral slings continue to enjoy popularity with short-term and intermediate success. Summary Further research into the cause of stress urinary incontinence is necessary. There is still no unified protocol in the evaluation of the condition and its severity. Mid-urethral slings appear to be as efficacious as more established procedures (bladder neck suspensions, pubovaginal slings), but long-term results on safety and efficacy remain scarce.


Measurement of plasma levels of two secreted platelet proteins (beta- thromboglobulin and platelet factor 4) has been suggested as a means for detecting increased platelet activation in vivo. A crucial question in the measurement is the distinction between in vivo and in vitro secretion of the proteins. One approach to this distinction is the measurement of both proteins in each sample. These proteins are present in platelets in similar amounts and are released in similar quantities, but the plasma levels of beta-thromboglobulin exceed the plasma levels of platelet factor 4. This difference in plasma level is presumably due to more rapid removal of platelet factor 4 from the plasma level, and there is suggestive evidence that the rapid removal of released platelet factor 4 is due to its binding to endothelial cells. It appears that when there is increased release of beta-thromboglobulin and platelet factor 4 in vivo, there is an increase in the ratio of plasma beta-thromboglobulin to plasma platelet factor 4 compared to that found in normal individuals, whereas when in vitro release is responsible for elevated levels, the ratio decreases. Thus measurements of both proteins in each blood sample will allow distinction between in vivo release and artefactual in vitro release.


Sculptures and other artifacts are exposed on damages and it is hard to avoid them. For cultural heritage preservation new replicas of these objects should be done. For this purpose the best solution is to use non-touching methods, like photogrammetry and three-dimensional scanning, which will not do any harm to the object. Afterwards 3D digital model may be used and by applying of 3D printers the real copy may be done. The purpose of the report was to investigate methods on making detailed digital models on example of a sculpture from Nidaros Cathedral. The goal was to get as accurate – detailed model as possible. There is comparison on photogrammetric, 3D scanning methods and available 3D modelling tools. To make very detailed digital model of round, complex, and small objects – very big point cloud is needed. The point cloud has to be accurate with high resolution. To make such a point cloud from images any software needs a lot of time for computation. Also the data from scanning – if the point clouds include big amount of points – the time of computation also takes a lot of time. This is not because of low PC, but because of software limitations. Some scanners are able to make more dense point cloud with better accuracy as others. With higher resolution and better accuracy scanners become smaller, and also distance range is decreasing. Though, for small object it is required. Photogrammetry may produce also very good results, if only the material is non-reflective/shiny, or a glass. In the project photogrammetric software has been used, such as PhotoModeler Scanner and Topcon ImageMaster, where both are able to create 3D surface from photographs, taken by non-metric camera. Both softwares provide camera calibration. The results at the end were quite good, but the sculpture is quite shiny and reflects the light, and this situation is not required for image matching and creating 3D points. Therefore, the model results with a lot of noise. Also, the time needed for DSM creating was very long and this part still needs some improvement. Free software from Autodesk – Project Photofly 2.0 was also tested. The application creates mesh and may be used by non-experienced users. Nevertheless, the results are not so accurate or the resolution is lower, it still may be used in most common situations. From laser scanning, Konica Minolta VI-910 was used for data acquisition, but also very interesting hand held small scanner from Artec was used. Both are created for small range distances; nevertheless Artec seems to be better for smaller objects. It has better accuracy and higher resolution. In both cases, softwares recommended by the companies were used for modelling. Geomagic software was also used for post processing afterwards. Polygon EditingTool from Konica Minolta seemed not working properly with new Windows 7 x64 bits, but Artec was even able to use most of the processors cores for computations. The best model was achieved by applying small structured scanner from Artec with 0,5mm ofresolution and accuracy up to 0,1mm. The model created using Artec software works good, but in the author's opinion Geomagic software works better, where smoothing may be done inthe respect to curves.


In order to examine mechanical properties of a metallic glass Zr50Cu40Al10 in low temperature below room temperature, the temperature T dependence of mechanical resonance of ultrasonic wave are measured. The mechanical resonance frequency in an as-quenched sample shows an abrupt increase at 200K for longitudinal wave and 160 K for transverse wave with decreasing T. After this abrupt increase, the sound propagation cannot be detected below these temperatures but the wave propagation is restored with increasing T and there is an abrupt decrease at 260K for the both wave modes. The similar hysteresis is observed in temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity. These suggest a kind of structure instability of Zr50Cu40Al10 in low temperature region.


Given two $k$-graphs $F$ and $H$, a perfect $F$-tiling (also called an $F$-factor) in $H$ is a set of vertex-disjoint copies of $F$ that together cover the vertex set of $H$. Let $t_{k-1}(n, F)$ be the smallest integer $t$ such that every  $k$-graph $H$ on $n$ vertices with minimum codegree at least $t$ contains a perfect $F$-tiling.  Mycroft (JCTA, 2016) determined  the asymptotic values of $t_{k-1}(n, F)$ for $k$-partite $k$-graphs $F$ and conjectured that the error terms $o(n)$ in $t_{k-1}(n, F)$ can be replaced by a constant that depends only on $F$. In this paper, we determine the exact value of $t_2(n, K_{m,m}^{3})$, where $K_{m,m}^{3}$ (defined by Mubayi and Verstraëte, JCTA, 2004) is the 3-graph obtained from the complete bipartite graph $K_{m,m}$ by replacing each vertex in one part by a 2-elements set. Note that $K_{2,2}^{3}$ is  the well known  generalized 4-cycle $C_4^3$ (the 3-graph on six vertices and four distinct edges $A, B, C, D$ with $A\cup B= C\cup D$ and $A\cap B=C\cap D=\emptyset$). The result confirms Mycroft's conjecture for $K_{m,m}^{3}$. Moreover, we improve the error term $o(n)$ to a sub-linear term when $F=K^3(m)$ and show that the sub-linear term is tight for $K^3(2)$, where $K^3(m)$ is the complete $3$-partite $3$-graph with each part of size $m$.


Summary In the blowfly, Calliphora erythrocephala, transport of dye into or out of the retina, following injection into the eye or thorax, was investigated, mainly by microspectrophotometry and fluorimetry. After injection into the eye, Phenol Red, Trypan Blue, Lucifer Yellow and 9-amino-acridine were transported out of the retina; Procion Yellow and Rhodamine-123 stayed in it. The time constants of this transport process were in the range 45-80 min at 23°C, depending on the dye. When Lucifer Yellow was injected into the thorax, it was transported into the retina. The transport of these dyes across the retina was inhibited by nitrogen, ouabain and low temperature, indicating that active processes are involved.


Virgin and cultivated biotopes of the Sea of Azov area of Donetsk Province were investigated for parasite coenoses of small mammals. 469 animals and 210 nests were collected, Apodemus sylvaticus, Mus musculus, Microtus arvalis and Cricetulus migratorius being the most abundant species. In all 2940 larvae of trombiculids (18 species) were found on animals and in their nests (2846 specimens on animals and 94 specimens in nests). Two species, Hoffmannina theodori and Doloisia skljari, are new for science, the latter being the first find of the genus Doloisia member in the fauna of the USSR. The majority of parasites are collected from rodents inhabiting virgin biotopes (2328 specimens) while in cultivated biotopes 189 specimens were collected. More rich is the species composition of trombiculids in virgin biotopes (13 species) as compared to that in cultivated ones (5 species), Neotrombicula earis, N. japonica, N. autumnalis and N. vulgaris being mass species. 8 species of larvae are recorded from the nests of rodents. Seasonal dynamics of the abundance of mass species, their occurrence, index of abundance and infection intensity are shown.


Nanometer scale patterning of the monohydride surface has been achieved by using an ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to selectively desorb the hydrogen. After preparing high-quality H-passivated surfaces in the UHV chamber, patterning is achieved by operating the STM in field emission. The field-emitted electrons stimulate the desorption of molecular hydrogen, restoring clean in the patterned area. This depassivation mechanism seems to be related to the electron kinetic energy for patterning at higher voltages and electron current for low-voltage patterning. The patterned linewidth varies linearly with tip bias, achieving a minimum of less than 10 Å at -4.5 V. The linewidth dependence on electron dose is also studied. For positive tip biases up to 10 V no patterning occurs. The selective chemical reactivity of the patterned surface has been explored by oxygen and ammonia dosing. For the oxygen case, initial oxidation of the patterned area is observed. Ammonia dosing, on the other hand, repassivates the surface in a manner different from that of atomic hydrogen. In both cases the pattern resolution is retained and the surrounding H-passivated areas remain unaffected by the dosing.


Beginner readers are taken on a trip back to medieval times to learn what it was like to be a knight and live in a castle. Part of the Usborne Reading Programme, developed with experts at the University of Roehampton, this title is full of information on how knights fought, what they did for fun and also includes short biographies of real-life knights and descriptions of some of the castles that can still be seen today. The book is accompanied by Internet links to carefully selected websites that reveal more about knights and castles.


ABSTRACT Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a globally marketed flavoring agent and cooking spice with a long history of human health benefits. The fungicide carbendazim (CBZ) is often detected in fruits and vegetables for human nutrition and has been reported to elicit toxic effects in different experimental animal models. The present study investigated the protective effects of 6-Gingerol-rich fraction (6-GRF) from ginger on hematotoxicity and hepatorenal damage in rats exposed to CBZ. CBZ was administered at a dose of 50 mg/kg alone or simultaneously administered with 6-GRF at 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg, whereas control rats received corn oil alone at 2 mL/kg for 14 days. Hematological examination showed that CBZ-mediated toxicity to the total white blood cell (WBC), neutrophils, lymphocytes, and platelets counts were normalized to the control values in rats cotreated with 6-GRF. Moreover, administration of CBZ significantly decreased the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione S-transferase as well as glutathione level in the livers and kidneys of rats compared with control. However, the levels of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde were markedly elevated in kidneys and livers of CBZ-treated rats compared with control. The significant elevation in the plasma indices of renal and hepatic dysfunction in CBZ-treated rats was confirmed by light microscopy. Coadministration of 6-GRF exhibited chemoprotection against CBZ-mediated hematotoxicity, augmented antioxidant status, and prevented oxidative damage in the kidney and liver of rats.


The acid mine drainage (AMD) was poured into five 500 ml glass beakers. The samples were dosed with synthetic af-PFCl of Ca(OH)2 and af-PFCl of CaCO3 polymers respectively. The samples were treated in a jar test and a shaker at 250 rpm for 2 min, and thereafter were allowed to settle for an hour after which the pH, conductivity and turbidity (TSS) were measured. A similar second set of experiments was conducted by placing the samples  in a shaker at 250 rpm for 2 min, after which three measurements were conducted after 1, 2 and 6 h. Similar third and fourth set of experiments was conducted dosing the AMD with 0.043 M of Ca2+ in Ca(OH)2, and  0.043 M Ca2+ in CaCO3 respectively. A fifth set of experiment was conducted by dosing the AMD sample with 0.021 and 0.043 M Ca2+ in Ca(OH)2 respectively and treated in a jar test, shaker and without mixing. The synthetic acid free PFCl of Ca(OH)2 or CaCO3 exhibited a high TSS removal efficiency. Both polymers also show a similarly identical TSS removal efficiency, which depict Fe3+ ions as the principal role player during destabilization-hydrolysis. Effective sedimentation of the turbid materials in the AMD sample with af-PFCl polymers of both Ca(OH)2 or CaCO3 occurs after 2 h of settling. The TSS removal values in the AMD sample which were treated in a shaker at 200 rpm are slightly lower than those treated in a jar test at 200 rpm. The residual TSS values in the AMD samples stirred at 350 rpm during rapid mixing are slightly higher compared to those stirred at 200 rpm rapid mixing.

 Key words: Drainage, shaking, settling, pH, turbidity.


ZnS thin film of thickness about 300nm was deposited by thermal evaporation under vacuum with base pressure 10-6 Torr on cleaned glass substrates. During the deposition, substrate was maintained at room temperature and the deposition was done at the optimized rate of 0.5nm/s. Detailed study of the structural and optical properties of the prepared thin film was carried out by means of XRD, AFM and UV-Vis spectrometry. From the XRD analysis, it is found that the film grown is polycrystalline in nature. The AFM images were captured for 2 μm x2 μm area and it revealed the uniform growth of the film. The optical properties were studied through UV-Visible transmittance spectra and the band gap energy was determined. Transmission spectra indicate a high transmission coefficient in the visible range. From Tauc plot, the band gap was found to be 3.45 eV.


Quantum key distribution (QKD) relies on quantum and classical procedures in order to achieve the growing of a secret random string -the key- known only to the two parties executing the protocol. Limited intrinsic efficiency of the protocol, imperfect devices and eavesdropping produce errors and information leakage from which the set of measured signals -the raw key- must be stripped in order to distill a final, information theoretically secure, key. The key distillation process is a classical one in which basis reconciliation, error correction and privacy amplification protocols are applied to the raw key. This cleaning process is known as information reconciliation and must be done in a fast and efficient way to avoid cramping the performance of the QKD system. Brassard and Salvail proposed a very simple and elegant protocol to reconcile keys in the secret-key agreement context, known as Cascade, that has become the de-facto standard for all QKD practical implementations. However, it is highly interactive, requiring many communications between the legitimate parties and its efficiency is not optimal, imposing an early limit to the maximum tolerable error rate. In this paper we describe a low-density parity-check reconciliation protocol that improves significantly on these problems. The protocol exhibits better efficiency and limits the number of uses of the communications channel. It is also able to adapt to different error rates while remaining efficient, thus reaching longer distances or higher secure key rate for a given QKD system.


Many public pension insurance schemes today use the pay‐as‐you‐go financing mechanism. This mechanism is vulnerable to an ageing population, which puts pressure on the intergenerational contract implicit in these schemes and raises the question as to how they might be eroded. This is not a new problem, and to put it into historical perspective, this article studies the intergenerational contract that formed the core of the Prussian miners' invalidity insurance in the nineteenth and the early twentieth century (1861–1920). With the so‐called Knappschaften, miners relied on what was probably the most comprehensive and advanced occupational pension system existing in Germany around the time when Bismarckian social insurance was established. Financed via the pay‐as‐you‐go mechanism, the miners' pension funds faced stress from their ageing memberships early on, and this potentially undermined their ability to maintain intergenerationally fair pensions. In order to examine whether or not the intergenerational contract among German miners showed signs of erosion, we look at the Knappschaftens' profitability, as measured by actual and promised internal rates of return. This article shows that the intergenerational contract indeed weakened over time unless miners' funds were large and continued to grow, and that a pension reform in 1906 served to stabilize generosity.


OBJECTIVES
We reviewed our experience with patients who had biochemical and histological features of primary biliary cirrhosis in the absence of antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA) to better understand this variant of the syndrome.

METHODS
During the period between 1976 to 1992, 597 patients with clinical and histological features of primary biliary cirrhosis were seen at the Mayo Clinic. Thirty-five (5.8%) of these patients were negative for antimitochondrial antibody and had normal cholangiographic studies. The records of these patients were reviewed for this study.

RESULTS
No difference was found between the two groups with respect to age, gender, or biochemical features. IgM and gamma-globulin levels were higher in the antimitochondrial antibody-positive than the antimitochondrial antibody-negative patients. What is more important, 96% of the AMA-negative patients who could be tested were positive for antinuclear antibody or anti-smooth-muscle antibodies. These tests were positive in only 56% of the antimitochondrial antibody-positive group (p < 0.05). The response of five of these patients to ursodeoxycholic acid appeared comparable to the response seen in antimitochondrial antibody-positive patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with histological features of primary biliary cirrhosis, whether antimitochondrial antibody positive or negative, are quite comparable with respect to clinical and biochemical features. Other autoantibodies, such as antinuclear or anti-smooth-muscle antibodies, are more common in the antimitochondrial antibody-negative group. These two conditions might be part of a spectrum that has been termed "autoimmune cholangitis" and that is characterized by chronic cholestasis, histological features of chronic nonsuppurative destructive cholangitis, and the presence of any of a variety of serum autoantibodies.


In this paper, we question if self-supervised learning provides new properties to Vision Transformer (ViT) [16] that stand out compared to convolutional networks (convnets). Beyond the fact that adapting self-supervised methods to this architecture works particularly well, we make the following observations: first, self-supervised ViT features contain explicit information about the semantic segmentation of an image, which does not emerge as clearly with supervised ViTs, nor with convnets. Second, these features are also excellent k-NN classifiers, reaching 78.3% top-1 on ImageNet with a small ViT. Our study also underlines the importance of momentum encoder [26], multi-crop training [9], and the use of small patches with ViTs. We implement our findings into a simple self-supervised method, called DINO, which we interpret as a form of self-distillation with no labels. We show the synergy between DINO and ViTs by achieving 80.1% top-1 on ImageNet in linear evaluation with ViT-Base.


4H-SiC MOSFET devices with low temperature dry thermal oxidation (1050 °C 1 h) and TEOS plasma enhanced CVD deposited oxides on 4H-SiC substrates have been analysed in this paper. MOSFET transistors have been fabricated on the 4H-SiC (0001) Si face. The mobility improvement (up to 38-45 cm2/Vs) is remarkable compared with standard oxidation (<10 cm2/Vs). In addition, very high (but controversial) field-effect mobilities of around 216 cm2/Vs have also been extracted for MOSFETs fabricated on the (11-20) face. Taking into account the threshold voltage and the sub-threshold slope (S), we can see that we have three different ways to increase the mobility. First, by using (11-20) face material as already proposed. Second, by reducing the interface trap density as done with the low temperature thermal oxidation plus deposited oxide. And third, under the most favorable conditions with adequate TEOS deposition conditions. In this last case, the mobility improvement seems to be related with the gate current leakage more than (or together with) an interface traps reduction of the gate insulator.


: To decrease the porosity and increase the strength of Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC), lower water-to-powder ratios and high contents of steel fibres are usually used, which lead to a reduced workability of fresh UHPC. In the present research, the effects of different superplasticizers and steel fibres on the fresh behaviour of UHPC were investigated. The initial and final setting times of the UHPC pastes containing 4 different superplasticizers (SP) were measured by Vicat needle tests. The effects of SP type and dosage on the spread flow were analysed for both paste and UHPC. The spread flows of UHPC with saturation dosages of SP were measured up to 2 hours to analyse the slump life and retention effect. Furthermore, the effects of 4 types steel fibres on the fresh behaviour of UHPC were investigated by using different fibre volume contents. The results show that the dispersing ability, retardation and retention effect of SP differed with different chemical constituents and structures, which greatly influenced the mixture's setting time, spread flow and slump life. The workability of UHPFRC was affected by the steel fibres' geometric characteristics and coating type, and it decreased continuously with the increase of the fibre content.


Non-invasive methods for estimating body composition to monitor nutritional status in goats have been less studied. Therefore, this study estimated the body composition and fat depots of pregnant goats by using indirect measurements, such as bodyweight (BW) and ultrasound measurements of the Longissimus muscle area (LMA) and kidney fat thickness (KFT). Forty-three pregnant goats were slaughtered at 50, 80, 110 and 140 days of gestation to determine the gross energy and fat content in the body, as well as to obtain the mass of renal fat, omental fat and non-carcass fat. After the slaughter, the mass of fat depots was recorded and the whole body of the each animal was ground to take samples for determining gross energy (using a bomb calorimeter) and fat (Soxhlet extraction with ether). Animals were weighed, and ultrasonographic measurements were taken at the time of slaughter. The LMA and KFT measurements were taken between the 12th and 13th rib and after the 13th rib space, respectively, and these measurements were used to estimate total gross energy, body fat content and the renal fat, omental fat and non-carcass fat mass. Multiple regressions were performed using Proc mixed of SAS. No significant correlation was observed between gross energy and body fat composition, the number of fetuses or the days of gestation. LMA and BW were positively related to body fat and gross energy contents. KFT and BW showed a positive correlation with renal fat depots, omental fat content and non-carcass fat mass. The estimated models revealed that the total body fat increased from 15.6% to 20.8% of bodyweight from 50 to 140 days of gestation. This report is the first study using kidney fat thickness as a tool to predict fat depots in goats. LMA, BW and KFT measurements will enable the development of models to aid in the monitoring of the nutritional status of goats during pregnancy.


Introduction: Chest deformation has been proposed as the best predictor of thoracic injury risk in frontal impacts. Finite Element Human Body Models (FE-HBM) can enhance the results obtained in physical crash tests with Anthropometric Test Devices (ATD) since they can be exposed to omnidirectional impacts and their geometry can be modified to reflect specific population groups. This study aims to assess the sensitivity of two thoracic injury risk criteria (PC Score and Cmax) to several personalization techniques of FE-HBMs. Methods: Three 30° nearside oblique sled tests were reproduced using the SAFER HBM v8 and three personalization techniques were applied to this model to evaluate the influence on the risk of thoracic injuries. First, the overall mass of the model was adjusted to represent the weight of the subjects. Second, the model anthropometry and mass were modified to represent the characteristics of the post-mortem human subjects (PMHS). Finally, the spine alignment of the model was adapted to the PMHS posture at t = 0 ms, to conform to the angles between spinal landmarks measured in the PMHS. The following two metrics were used to predict three or more fractured ribs (AIS3+) of the SAFER HBM v8 and the effect of personalization techniques: the maximum posterior displacement of any studied chest point (Cmax), and the sum of the upper and lower deformation of selected rib points (PC score). Results: Despite having led to statistically significant differences in the probability of AIS3+ calculations, the mass-scaled and morphed version provided, in general, lower values for injury risk than the baseline model and the postured version being the latter, which exhibited the better approximation to the PMHS tests in terms of probability of injury. Additionally, this study found that the prediction of AIS3+ chest injuries based on PC Score resulted in higher probability values than the prediction based on Cmax for the loading conditions and personalization techniques analyzed within this study. Discussion: This study could demonstrate that the personalization techniques do not lead to linear trends when they are used in combination. Furthermore, the results included here suggest that these two criteria will result in significantly different predictions if the chest is loaded more asymmetrically.


Late unilateral breast enlargement after the insertion of silicone gel breast implants is a very rare phenomenon. The present study reports five women who presented with this finding over the past 20 years. Three of these patients presented with late unilateral hematomas, which developed nine, 12 and 14 years, respectively, after initial breast augmentation, in the absence of any known trauma. These patients presented for treatment one, four and 12 months, respectively, after their breast enlargements initially appeared. Two of these patients had developed chronic expanding hematomas. Extensive histopathological analyses of the capsules of all three patients provided explanations for the etiologies and progressions of the findings in these patients. In each of the three patients, the etiology of the hematoma was consistent with erosion of a capsular artery. Numerous large vessels were seen within the wall of the capsules. In each case, there was a class IV capsular contracture, which could have increased the friction of the intact implant against the capsule, and there was both old (hemosiderin deposits) and new bleeding into the pocket from the capsules. This supports the concept that numerous episodes of bleeding had occurred in each case. Histopathology also demonstrated the progression of the hematomas. After four weeks, only liquefied hematoma was present, while after four months, there were both liquefied hematoma and blood clotting. The hematoma on the surface of the capsule was becoming organized peripherally, but not centrally. After 12 months, the hematoma was becoming very well organized compared with the hematoma at four months. In one of the two remaining cases, late infection was the cause of the breast enlargement. Histopathology of this capsule showed that the involved capsule was six times as thick as the other side. It also showed edema and infiltration by scattered mononuclear cells, polymorphonuclear cells, and irregular crenated and degenerating nuclei. In the final patient, chronic inflammation appeared to be the cause of the breast enlargement. The histopathology of this capsule was unique. Its inner surface showed re-epithelialization and metaplasia of the ductal epithelium to form stratified squamous epithelium with early surface keratinization. These findings are consistent with synovial metaplasia. Several areas of the fibrous portion of the capsule showed patchy loss of cellular staining with loss of nuclei, indicative of necrosis. This produced a 'washed out' staining appearance. This tissue was paucivascular and fibrotic, and showed areas of fibrinoid necrosis, suggestive of mechanical abrasion and increased pressure.


Gaussian mixture models (GMM) have been widely and successfully used in speaker recognition during the last decades. They are generally trained using the generative criterion of maximum likelihood estimation. In an earlier work, we proposed an algorithm for discriminative training of GMM with diagonal covariances under a large margin criterion. In this paper, we present a new version of this algorithm which has the major advantage of being computationally highly efficient. The resulting algorithm is thus well suited to handle large scale databases. To show the effectiveness of the new algorithm, we carry out a full NIST speaker verification task using NIST-SRE'2006 data. The results show that our system outperforms the baseline GMM, and with high computational efficiency.


To the Editor. —During the past several years, there has been an increasing interest in the clinical use of the dexamethasone suppression test (DST). Although the ultimate clinical value of the DST is far from clear information pointing to to its potential clinical application has been accumulating rapidly. In particular, the article by Carroll and associates 1 has further increased this interest. With the added publicity of the mass media, it is not unusual for psychiatrists in large institutions to receive telephone calls from outside psychiatrists and non-psychiatric physicians asking for procedures and interpretations of the DST. From that experience, I wish to make several statements of caution in regard to the clinical application of DST. 1. As far as can be ascertained, what Carroll et al called "plasma cortisol" concentration, measured by competitive protein-binding assay, 2 is in reality plasma


Two well-preserved mud mounds, approximately 50 m thick, in the Mount Hawk Formation (Upper Devonian, Frasnian) in western Alberta provide an unparalleled opportunity to study the microstructure of this reef type in detail for this time interval. This reveals that they are composed dominantly of peloidal sediments—more than a quarter of mud mound volume—along with dense micrite, particulate micrite, bioclasts, and stromatactis cavities. Five types of peloids are differentiated: bacterial, cyanobacterial, bioclastic, intraclastic, and pseudo-peloids. Bacterial peloids were generated by bacterial metabolic activities with possibly some contribution from organomineralization in areas within spicular networks. Three subtypes of cyanobacterial peloids are distinguished based on whether they are physically reworked calcified filaments, aggregates of calcified coccoids, or precipitated within stromatolite-forming cyanobacterial mats or biofilms. Bioclastic peloids are fully micritized fragments of skeletons and shells. Intraclastic peloids are eroded fragments of early-lithified matrix. Pseudo-peloids represent artifacts of poorly preserved sponge spicular networks reflecting the interplay between dissolution of spicules and organomineralization. The distribution of the various peloid types shows specificity in different microfacies. They prove to be valuable paleoecological indicators, and taken together suggest that the mud mounds accreted within the photic zone above storm wave base but below the fair-weather wave base, during deposition of a transgressive and perhaps highstand systems tracts. They are the products reflecting a dynamic balance between constructional versus destructive processes. Bacterial peloids combined with dense micrite constitute the framework, which in turn makes up close to 40% of the mud mounds. This indicates that microbial activities are responsible for the early-indurated framework. The onset of bacterial peloid formation in the bedded sediment immediately underlying the mud mounds further demonstrates that it may have been a necessary precursor to mud-mound initiation. Bacterial peloids appear to characterize most Paleozoic and Mesozoic reefal mud mounds as an essential framework element.


The classical development of neural networks has primarily focused on learning mappings between finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces. Recently, this has been generalized to neural operators that learn mappings between function spaces. For partial differential equations (PDEs), neural operators directly learn the mapping from any functional parametric dependence to the solution. Thus, they learn an entire family of PDEs, in contrast to classical methods which solve one instance of the equation. In this work, we formulate a new neural operator by parameterizing the integral kernel directly in Fourier space, allowing for an expressive and efficient architecture. We perform experiments on Burgers' equation, Darcy flow, and the Navier-Stokes equation (including the turbulent regime). Our Fourier neural operator shows state-of-the-art performance compared to existing neural network methodologies and it is up to three orders of magnitude faster compared to traditional PDE solvers.


All types of dental amalgams contain mercury, which partly emits mercury vapor. Dental amalgams corrode after being placed. When we rub or polish dental amalgam, droplets rich in mercury are formed on the surface, showing that mercury is not strongly bonded to the base or alloy metals. To determine the mercury content in various fluids related to the use of dental amalgam we investigated sewage samples, amalgam obturation flushing, amalgam removal flush, amalgam polishing flush, water containing residual unused new amalgam left for two weeks, and saliva of patients with more than four old amalgam obturations. We applied Atomic coupled plasma emission spectral analysis. From our studies we can conclude that the least amount of free mercury is detected in the sewage and mouthwash when an amalgam is being placed, followed by saliva of patients with more than 4 obturations, water in which amalgam has been kept for two weeks, mouthwash when amalgam is removed, and the biggest amount of mercury is released when polishing old amalgam obturations. The most dangerous to human health is polishing old obturations, followed by removal, while the least amount of mercury is released when such obturations are placed. Our research shows that if you are a dentist, even if you do not use dental amalgam, you are exposed to mercury vapor when you are working in the mouth of a patient with this material.


A multiwavelength analysis of M31's globular clusters and their low mass X-ray binaries by Mark B. Peacock Globular clusters (GCs) are dense groups of thousands to millions of stars. They are often very old systems with ages similar to those of their host galaxies and the early Universe. These clusters provide unique laboratories for astrophysical research and have been used by countless studies to improve our understanding of the Universe. In particular, they are ideal locations for studying stellar evolution and the formation and evolution of galaxies. They also provide unique locations for studying individual exotic objects, such as X-ray binaries. In this study, I investigate the properties of GCs in the nearby spiral galaxy, M31. This galaxy hosts the largest GC population in the Local Group. This, combined with its relative proximity to us, makes it an important bridge between studies of Galactic and extragalactic GCs. However, previous catalogues of these clusters have suffered from significant inhomogeneity and contamination from both stars and galaxies. In this contribution I present new, homogeneous, optical and near infra-red photometry of the M31 GC system. In addition to this, the structural parameters for over half of the known clusters are determined through fitting point spread function convolved King models to their density profiles. This photometry is used to remove significant contamination from non-cluster sources in previous cluster catalogues and to confirm a large population of young clusters in the M31 cluster system. Determining the properties of these clusters is very important in investigating both this, and other, GC systems. It is also of great benefit in investigating the exotic objects hosted by these clusters. I combine these data with archived XMM Newton observations, to study the low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in M31's clusters. LMXBs are known to be relatively common in GCs and, through studying the properties of the GCs which host them, it is possible to investigate the effects of cluster environment on the formation and evolution of these systems. From this work, I demonstrate that the presence of LMXBs is proportional to the stellar collision rate of a GC. This provides good observational evidence that these LMXBs are formed through dynamical interactions. These data are also used to consider the morphology of horizontal branch stars in M31's GCs. Published GALEX ultraviolet observations of these clusters are used as a probe into their hot stellar populations. From this work, I propose a relationship between the core density of these clusters and their ultraviolet colour. This result suggests that the formation of (FUV bright) extreme horizontal branch stars may be enhanced in dense stellar environments through stellar interactions


ABSTRACT Lacustrine sediments from six pluvial lake basins on the southern High Plains, Texas contain illite, montmorillonite, interstratified illite-montmorillonite, kaolinite, glauconitic mica, and in two basins, sepiolite. Sepiolite, illite-montmorillonite, and glauconitic mica are authigenic; some of the montmorillonite is derived from volcanic ash, but most of the lacustrine clay is detrital and representative of ancient soils of the Llano Estacado. Increase in kaolinite and montmorillonite with depth and corresponding decrease in illite is indicative of a Pleistocene pluvial period antedating Tahoka Clay time (14,000 to 22,000 years B. P.). Lacustrine strata of post-Tahoka age, formed in a closed lake environment, consist of illite, illite-montmorillonite, montmorillonite, sepiolite with gypsum, sodium sulfate, glauconitic mica, and dolomite.


In the course of enterprise information construction, the phenomenon of looking for novelty merely and demanding for perfection blindly appears. That will lead the insufficiency use of information technical equipment and the wasted of information resources. In view of these problems, this dissertation proposed the indicators system to evaluate the information resources allocation efficiency and use case study to verify.


State of the art and current issues related with the RC and PSC structure system for the German magnetic levitation train "Transrapid" were investigated. The German magnetic levitation train adopted a new kind of a structure to enable high-speed transportation, which allows the use of the space over a ground. The loading from Transrapid is light-weight compared with a regular train due to load distribution to a supporting structure. Therefore, Transrapid is considered an economical and efficient transportation system, and is also an environmentally-sustainable structure. In this paper, the structural design and construction technology specific to a magnetic levitation train were discussed, and structural considerations related with an actual operation of the train were pointed out. In addition, the future research area of a magnetic levitation train was proposed.


Introduction: Actinomycosis is a rare, slow, progressive disease that mimics neoplasia. Actinomycosis infections of the bone are even rarer and are seen mostly in immunocompromised patients. Case presentation: A 50 year old male underwent total glossectomy with vein preserving neck dissection and pectoralis major myocutaneous flap reconstruction through a lateral mandibulotomy approach followed by external beam radiotherapy for T3N0M0 carcinoma of the anterior tongue. Two years later he developed an orocutaneous fistula with exposure of dead mandibular bone. The dead bone was excised and histopathology revealed it to be actinomycosis, patient was started on oral penicillin and is disease free at present. Conclusion: Osteonecrosis of the mandible is a rare complication of radiotherapy and bisphosphonate therapy. Super infection with actinomycosis is rare. Removal of the dead bone and treatment with oral penicillin is the treatment of choice.


Shoot apexes were aseptically excised out of the mother Cymbidium plant and preliminarily cultured with Knudson′s C medium. The Protocorms formed on the cultures were cut into pieces of appropriate size and the cut pieces were subcultured 12 times. At each time, cutting and selection of pieces were made to assure the cultures of uniform quality from the morphological and physiological viewpoints. After the preliminary subculture, the cultures obtained were excised again to prepare uniform propagules of 1.5mm in size. The propagules were cultured in vitro with tentative media which were supplemented with coconut milk, agar, or sucrose, and otherwise adjusted to differential pH values.(1) In the Knudson′s C basal solution containing 15g/l agar, protocorms proliferated best when 10 to 25% coconut milk was added; and highest increase in fresh weight was attained when 10% coconut milk was added.(2) On the solid culture medium, protocorms proliferated best in the lots of 0.8 and 1.2% agar, and highest increase was obtained in the lot of 1.2% agar.(3) In both Knudson′s C and Kyoto solutions, the addition of 2% sucrose caused highest increases in fresh weight. As a basal medium, Kyoto solution seemed somewhat better than Knudson′s C solution.(4) Increase in fresh weight was highest at pH 5.0 and 5.5 in Kyoto solution.(5) It can be inferred that there are appreciable differences between preferable culture conditions for both protocorm proliferation and formation of shoot and root primordia in the protocorm.


A 30 year-old gravida 2 para 1 presented for a routine anatomy scan at 20 weeks' gestational age. The examination demonstrated a singleton fetus with normal cardiac activity and fetal movement. Heterogeneous, single, ipoecogenic lesion was noted in the left lobe of the liver, on the left of umbilical vein, measuring 9 × 9 in size. No other fetal abnormalities were detected. Maternal serum alpha fetoprotein levels was markedly elevated. Scan at 30 weeks again demonstrated this liver lesion, increased to 13 mm in diameter, with several cystic areas and punctate calcifications. Color and pulsed Doppler demonstrated a highly vascular lesion, with both arterial and venous signals. There were no secondary signs of cardiac failure or fetal hydrops or polyhydramnios. The fundamental findings suggested the diagnosis of hepatic hemangioendothelioma. A female fetus was delivered via Cesarean section at 38 weeks' gestation. Postnatal radiologic studies supported the diagnosis of hepatic hemangioma. Treatment by corticoids reduced the tumor by vasocostriction.


There has long been controversy about the process for dealing with a defendant who is unfit to plead to a criminal charge. Although an unfit accused cannot be convicted of an offence, the current law requires a "trial of the facts" to establish whether s/he, "did the act or made the omission charged" (Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964, s.4(A)2). The accused is entitled to an acquittal if this cannot be proved to the criminal standard (s.4A(4)) but may be subject to coercive orders, including hospital detention, if it is (s.4A(3) and s.5). The leading case of R v Antoine [2000] 1 AC 340 established that the mental element of the offence was not relevant at this stage of the process so that the Crown only had to prove the conduct associated with the offence. This has been subject to extensive academic and professional criticism, including most recently the Law Commission identifying risks of, "considerable unfairness", "lack of consistency" and "problems of coherence". Overall it was said to be "demonstrative of a fundamental unfairness in the current law." (Law Commission, Unfitness to Plead: An Issues Paper, 2 May 2014.)
In R v Wells [2015] EWCA Crim 2 the Court of Appeal considered and rejected four appeals based on claimed restrictions on the accused's ability to raise defences during the trial of the facts process. While applying the Antoine approach, the Court of Appeal noted the Law Commission's critique and recognised that the current formulation generates of number of problems. The Court emphasised the flexibility in the current law and intriguingly suggested that further protections for the accused could be devised so long as the Crown is not required to prove all the ingredients of the offence.
This paper will test the limits of the current law to establish whether a coherent and fair process is feasible given a flexible approach to Antoine or whether, as suggested by the Law Commission and others, a new statutory regime is required which brings back consideration of mens rea.


Two of the strongest education systems and economies worldwide, the United States and Germany, have been among the key sources for models in skill formation emulated globally.1 Public and private investments in skill formation have increased in both countries. Yet these systems maintain contrasting emphases: general and academic education in the U.S. and specific vocational training, in particular occupations, in Germany. Both countries continue to learn from each other as they compete in global education and labor markets—and continue their extensive bilateral cooperation. While both are meritocratic democracies with federal political structures, the educational institutions of Germany and the United States, especially those of vocational education and training, are quite different.2 This challenges the direct transfer of educational models.3 Yet there exists great interest among firms, politicians, and educators in praxis-oriented, workplace-based, occupationally-focused education and training as it has developed over decades in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. This is because it has become the backbone of robust export-driven economies and protected these societies from the economic crisis and high unemployment rates that the U.S. has recently suffered. Thus, the German model in vocational education and training, especially dual apprenticeship, has been widely discussed, most recently by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address, in which he envisioned implementing elements of the German dual model to address the skills gap and unemployment in the U.S. economy.


For Ti40Zr25Ni8Cu9Be18 metallic glass, nanocrystal forms in the as-cast amorphous matrix during fast cooling from supercooled liquid, and precipitates from amorphous matrix during heating process. The thermal stability of the nanocrystals during homogeneous temperature is influenced by deformation temperature. At relative low deformation temperature (below Tx-40K), the nanocrystal is very stable. Contrarily, nanocrystal exhibits low thermal stability at relative high deformation temperature (above Tx-40K). Moreover, nanocrystal precipitated during heating process possesses better thermal stability than nanocrystal existed in as cast condition at the same deformation temperature.


The evaluation of cancer patients' recovery is still under the big subjectivity of physicians. Many different systems have been successfully implemented for physical activity evaluation, nonetheless there is still a big leap into Performance Status evaluation with ECOG and Karnofsky's Performance Status scores. An automatic system for data recovering based on Android smartphone and wearables has been developed. A gamification implementation has been designed for increasing patients' motivation in their recovery. Furthermore, novel and without-precedent algorithms for Performance Status (PS) and Physical Activity (PA) assessment have been developed to help oncologists in their diagnoses.


Background: The prevalence of low back pain in adolescents is close to that found in the adult population. In view of the relationship between low back pain and the resistance of the spine stabilizing muscles, studies have sought to identify the ability of specific motor tests to predict this condition. Objectives: Our objective was to verify the predictive ability of three motor tests related to musculoskeletal fitness to identify adolescents with low back pain. Methods: The sample consisted of 150 adolescents, of both sexes, aged between 15 and 19 years. The Nordic questionnaire validated for Brazilian adolescents was applied to identify those with low back pain. Subsequently, three motor tests (one-minute sit-up test, Sorensen test and lateral plank test) were applied. Statistical analysis involved the ROC curve, to identify the Area Under the Curve (AUC), assuming a 95% confidence interval. Results: It was observed in males that all the tests had a low AUC (between 0.56 and 0.57), without statistical significance (p > 0.05). For females, AUC ranged from 0.62 to 0.66, with statistical significance (p < 0.05) for the cut-off points identified in the one-minute sit-up test (≤ 24 repetitions) and Sorensen test (≤ 28 seconds), however, without significance (p > 0.05) for the lateral plank test. Conclusion: Motor tests of abdominal and paravertebral muscle resistance were not predictors of low back pain in male adolescents. Despite the low accuracy, the cut-off points identified in the one-minute sit-up test and Sorensen test, can be used with some caution to predict low back pain in female adolescents.


We present a channel model for a coherent optical orthogonal frequency-division-multiplexed (CO-OFDM) system including linear fiber dispersion effects and noises from optical amplifiers and intercarrier interference induced by laser phase noise. Based upon this model, we derive maximum-likelihood (ML) phase estimation and channel estimation for the CO-OFDM system. Both computer simulation and transmission experiment of the CO-OFDM system show that the ML decision-feedback following pilot-assisted phase estimation gives the optimal performance.


Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which is a measure of leaf greenness (chlorophyll content), is considered to be correlated with crop productivity. This study was conducted to examine genotypic variations for NDVI at different growth stages and its relationship to yield in winter wheat under terminal heat stress. Thirty winter wheat genotypes were evaluated at two locations in 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 in Uzbekistan. The NDVI was recorded at booting, heading, milk and dough stages. The wheat genotypes differed significantly for NDVI at each stage. Grain yield ranged from 3.9 to 6.1 t/ha. Wheat genotypes differed in per cent decline in NDVI from booting to dough stage. However, several high-yielding genotypes maintained higher NDVI than low-yielding genotypes when heat stress was evident. The findings suggest change in NDVI during heat stress could be a measure of tolerance. The positive correlation of NDVI with grain yield suggests that it could be used as an indirect selection criterion for identifying physiologically superior, high-yielding wheat lines under terminal heat stress.


I am a citizen of the United States, and I am suffering and may die because of human rights violations in my country. I work with the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (www.economichumanrights.org) and help represent the millions of people in my country who otherwise would have no voice. I sit on the board of directors of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign and I am president of Music for Health Care. These organisations believe that health care is a human right, and we work closely with local and national organisations in the pursuit of health care for all.

My home state of Tennessee is the model for a national political campaign to dismantle vital social programmes for sick and poor people throughout the US. And whatever the model is for the US unfortunately becomes the model for the world.

> These are the largest cuts in US history, and deaths have already occurred as a result

There has been a tendency to believe that poverty, hunger, homelessness, and lack of health care are nearly non-existent in the US. After all, the US is …


A potential upgrade of the SuperKEKB e$^+$e$^-$ collider with a polarized electron beam
 will open a new program of precision electroweak physics at the centre-of-mass energy of the $\Upsilon$(4S) and is currently being considered.
 These measurements include $\sin^2\theta_W$ obtained via left-right asymmetry measurements of
 e$^+$e$^-$ transitions to pairs of electrons, muons, taus, charm and b-quarks.
 The precision obtainable at SuperKEKB will match that of the LEP/SLC world average but at the centre-of-mass energy of 10.58~GeV,
 thereby probing the neutral current couplings with unprecedented precision at a new energy scale sensitive to the running of the couplings.
 World average measurements of the individual neutral current vector coupling constants to b- and c-quarks and muons in particular will be
 substantially improved and the residual $3\sigma$ discrepancy between the SLC $A_{LR}$ and LEP $A_{FB}^b$
 measurements will be addressed. This paper will include a discussion of the necessary upgrades to SuperKEKB.
 This program opens an exciting new window in searches for physics beyond the standard model


The field of hybrid organic-inorganic materials has reached a stage of ripeness that is beginning to make possible extraordinary new developments. On the one hand the field has witnessed a trend towards the design of functionality in hybrids materials, while broadening spectacularly the variety of hybrid combinations explored. On the other hand, improved understanding and control of the chemistry, processing and microstructure of these versatile nanocomposite systems announce a new landscape of opportunities in dealing with increasingly complex chemistries and materials.


Nine types of ocellar interneurones with arborizations in the ocellar tract have been identified in the cockroach, Periplaneta americana . These neurones are classified into (1) five types of 'PS-neurone', which project into the posterior slope, (2) two types of 'OL-neurone', which project into the lobula and medulla of the optic lobe, and (3) two types of 'D-neurone', which descend to the thoracic ganglia. When recordings were made in the ocellar tract, all types of neurones exhibited similar responses: a tonic hyperpolarization during illumination and one or a few transient depolarizations at the end of illumination. However, these neurones are classified into several physiological types from the responses recorded in their axons or terminal regions.


Experiments have investigated the behavior of explosive emission cathode gyrotrons using cylindrically symmetric coaxial diodes with centrally located knife-edged cathode and conical anode. Voltage probes and current shunts were exploited to monitor the diode electrical behavior when driven by a 3 /spl mu/s 1/e time Marx power supply (up to 150 kV). Temporal reference signals permitted comparison of the diode's electrical evolution with the simultaneously measured microwave output signal from the gyrotron. The microwave output pulse duration was found to depend on the diode gap spacing (in the range 16-27 mm), the cavity magnetic field (range 1.3-3.3 T) and the cathode material, the termination being caused by the decay of the accelerating potential across the diode and the disruption of the diode geometry. The ratios of the cathode flare expansion velocities for graphite, copper and stainless steel cathodes were estimated as (1:(1.3/spl plusmn/0.2):(2.2/spl plusmn/0.5)) with a corresponding change in the duration of the microwave output signal [((590/spl plusmn/17):(414/spl plusmn/25):(325/spl plusmn/10)) ns at 2.6 T]. Preliminary results are reported of recent experiments which have compared the optical emissions from the diode region during pulsed gyrotron operation with the simultaneously recorded diode electrical behavior and the gyrotron microwave output.


The photoredox activation of organic substrates with visible light is a powerful methodology that generates reactive radical species under very mild conditions. When combined with another catalytic process in a dual catalytic system, novel, visible-light-promoted transformations have been realized that do not proceed using either catalyst in isolation. In this minireview, the state of the art in organic reactions mediated by dual catalytic systems merging photoredox activation with organo-, acid or metal catalysis is discussed.


Seventy-four confirmed small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients received alternating combination chemotherapy with CAV and PVP. The CAV comprised of cyclophosphamide 800 mg/m2 on day 1, adriamycin 50 mg/m2 on day 1 and vincristine 1.4 mg/m2 on day 1, administered every 3-4 weeks. The PVP comprised cisplatin 80 mg/m2 on day 1 and etoposide 75 mg/m2 on day 1-5 administered every 3-4 weeks. Of these 74 patients, 63 (85.1%) achieved complete or partial responses with 16 (21.6%) obtaining a complete response. The median survival time was 13.2 months: 10.4 months in patients with extensive disease (ED), 16.3 months in those with limited disease (LD). A three-year disease-free period was achieved in eight patients (11.2%: 4.8% with ED, 16.8% with LD). The median duration of response was 28.3 weeks: 20.1 weeks with ED and 44.0 weeks with LD. The most commonly encountered side effects were nausea, vomiting, alopecia and myelosuppression but all were tolerable. We consider CAV-PVP to be an effective combination regimen for treating SCLC.


In this paper, a transient 3-dimensional thermal model for the selective laser melting process, based on the finite volume method, has been developed, which takes into account the phase change and powder to bulk material transition. A parametric study has been performed for the temperature field as well as the melt pool dimensions, and the results show the impact on melt pool size. Also, in this paper, a straightforward metallurgical model has been coupled to a thermal model, which uses the temperature gradient and the cooling rate on the melt pool borders at the onset of solidification to determine whether the grains have columnar or equiaxed morphology. Furthermore, the effect of process parameters on the size of grains and subsequently the yield stress has been studied via empirical equations. The results show that low speed along with high laser power (higher laser energy density) will cause low cooling rates and prompt the formation of large grain. This would consequently give rise to lower tensile strength, as compared to lower laser energy density where smaller grains are formed due to higher cooling rates. SLM – Thermal model – Finite volume method – grain morphlogy – parametric study


The study provides an overview of the privatization world, identifying key economic, political and institutional factors that have caused variations in the intensity of privatization across countries from different regions of the world. To assess the future path of the privatization policy, the study investigates the dynamics of the private sector and identifies key economic conditions and institutional frameworks that have contributed to the size of the private sector. Using data on private sector employment as a share of total employment to proxy the size of the private sector, it is found that foreign inflow of funds, privatization transactions, total stocks traded activity, credit to private sector and institutional quality are significant factors that have enhanced the size of the private sector around the world. Secondly, the study re-visits some of the leading hypotheses on determinants of public sector size and tests the effect of institutional quality and political competition on public sector size. Dynamic panel estimation techniques reveal that improved law and order and high levels of institutional quality reduce the size of the public sector. The study shows that increased level of political competition also limits the size of public sector spending. The last chapter of the thesis estimates the effect of privatization policies on economic growth, where it is found that both revenues generated from privatization of state firms and the numbers of privatization transactions have a positive impact on economic growth. The results from the growth chapter also reveal that increased level of public sector size has a negative impact on economic growth which is proxied by GDP per capita growth. The growth chapter also provides evidence of a U shaped quadratic relationship existing between economic growth and public sector size. The results of the growth chapter provide a strong case for the positive macro-economic impact of privatization policies therefore acting as a public policy adviser I would strongly recommend governments around the world to continue on the path of privatization.


Due to the fact that noise emitted by aero engines became a very important issue especially during the last few years, acoustic measurements were carried out downstream of the low-pressure turbine in a two-stage two-spool test turbine. The aim of these analyses was to determine the influence of small geometry changes in the flow path of the rig under engine-relevant conditions, which usually occur during the operation of an engine. These geometry changes include steps in the flow path and different rotor tip gaps, both generated by a non-uniform warming of different parts of the engine. In order to evaluate the noise emissions, the outflow duct downstream of the second rotor was instrumented with an acoustic measurement section, which uses a circumferentially traversable microphone array located at the outer endwall. The acoustic field is characterized by azimuthal modes gained by traversing the microphone array over 360 degrees. Therefore, the spectra and emitted sound pressure levels are compared regarding different geometry changes.


A gentic instability in Phycomyces is described that appears to be associated with a single nuclear gene, dar. The wild type is able to take up riboflavin and its toxic analogue, deaza-riboflavin, from nanomolar concentrations in the medium. The mutants are unable to take up riboflavin and are resistant to deaza-riboflavin. Forward and reverse mutation rates are estimated to be 4 x 10(-5) and 2 x 10(-3) per nuclear division. Independently arisen dar mutants do not complement in heterokaryons. The mutant alleles are almost completely recessive. The phenotype of spores is not determined cell-autonomously, but is strongly influenced by the allele ratio among the nuclei in the sporangium of origin.


Stability and change in patterns of health service use over a 3-year period were determined for a sample of elderly people in an urban area who claimed one of five types of health service provider as a primary source of health care--a hospital, a private physician, a network model health maintenance organization (HMO), a hospital-based group practice program (G-HMO), or a preferred provider organization (PPO). Despite certain differences in use rates for individual services, the total volume of ambulatory service use was equivalent for all five groups as was the relative rank order of use of specific ambulatory services for four of the five groups. People who claimed a hospital as their primary care source had the most unique use patterns over a full range of health care services, characterized by extremely low rates of physician visits and the highest rates of visits to hospital outpatient clinics across three time periods. G-HMO members used health-related services more frequently than did all others. PPO members, at baseline, had lower rates of total and mean hospital days than other source group members except hospital users. People who changed principal source of care during the study period were most likely to report a hospital as their care source initially. Although there is much consistency in hospital and ambulatory use across groups, the persistence of certain use patterns for members of some groups suggests that health care systems can leave an imprint on the health service use of people for whom they provide regular care.


PURPOSE
The logic behind the application of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists in combination with tamoxifen in premenopausal women is that LHRH agonists on the one hand suppress the tamoxifen-induced stimulation of the pituitary-ovarian function and, on the other hand, seem as effective as surgical castration. This meta-analysis combines all randomized evidence to compare the combined treatment with LHRH agonist alone with respect to overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response in premenopausal women with advanced breast cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Four clinical trials randomizing a total of 506 premenopausal women with advanced breast cancer to LHRH agonist alone or to the combined treatment of LHRH agonist plus tamoxifen were identified. Meta-analytic techniques were used to analyze individual patient data from these trials.

RESULTS
With a median follow-up of 6.8 years, there was a significant survival benefit (stratified log-rank test, P = .02; hazards ratio [HR] = 0.78) and progression-free survival benefit (stratified log-rank test, P = .0003; HR = 0.70) in favor of the combined treatment. The overall response rate was significantly higher on combined endocrine treatment (stratified Mantel Haenszel test, P = .03; odds ratio = 0.67).

CONCLUSION
The combination of LHRH agonist plus tamoxifen is superior to LHRH agonist alone in premenopausal women with advanced breast cancer. Therefore, if a premenopausal woman with advanced breast cancer is thought to be suitable for endocrine treatment, it is proposed that the combination of a LHRH agonist plus tamoxifen be considered as the new standard treatment.


This paper describes the active object-oriented database system ACOOD, developed at the universities of Skövde and Exeter. ACOOD adds active functionality on top of the commercially available OntosDB. The active behaviour is modelled by using Event-Condition-Action ( ECA) rules.ACOOD offers all essential functionality associated with an active database. The semantics and user interface have been clearly defined in order to produce a prototype that can be used to develop database applications. The historical background of active databases and the development of ACOOD are covered in the paper together with a detailed description of the latest, redesigned version of the system. There is also a discussion of experience gained through the work with ACOOD and a comparison with similar systems.


Text-difficulty analysis belongs to traditional qualitative research methods. School textbook analysis represents an important discipline, the results of which are applied by successful publishers to produce better textbooks for the market. In this study the authors focus on chemistry textbooks for lower secondary schools. Since these textbooks have not been analysed yet, the present article covers an unexplored area. Biology and geography lower-secondary textbook analyses are presented for comparison. The authors found out that the overall textbook difficulty exceeds recommended values making the textbooks inadequate to pupils' perception level. This may well be one of the reasons of low popularity of the school subject. Authors further discuss pros and cons of the chosen methodology and suggest further necessary steps in this field.


- Extensive and point wise coverage of subject in simple manner. - include various endodontics related mishaps . -extensive coverage of topics like access related mishaps, bmp related mishaps, irrigation related mishaps, obturation related mishaps etc. - contribution by dedicated, outstanding, experienced clinicians and eminent teachers. - highly beneficial to undergraduate, postgraduates, general practitioners.


The bibliographic research online is an useful means of recovering information in all the subjects, particularly in the field of biomedicine. In fact, this instrument allows researchers to get information in a rapid, complete and up-to-date way. The aim of the present review is to describe the usefulness of the bibliographical research online in the field of the genetic osteopathies. These are rare disorders: so, their own rarity makes the bibliographical research online necessary to carry out a large and effective comparison of experiences. The obtained results are amply reported in the manuscript. For instance, we verified that chondrodysplasias are the diseases most represented in the literature, while melorheostosis the disorder less mentioned. Moreover, we evidenced that some hereditary disorders of connective tissue, such as Marfan's syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, are strongly influenced by race, sex and age.


the project to evaluate the wear mechanism of selected high alloy tool steels, 440C, 440XH, and M62, fabricated by powder metallurgy (PM) techniques via the hot isostatic press (HIP) process, and compare these results to two conventionally produced wrought alloys, 52100 and M50. Samples from the five candidate metals were characterized microstructurally via optical and scanning microscopy methods. A micro-pit wear testing machine was purchased and used to simulate bearing loads in a wind turbine gear box The candidate samples were subsequently heat treated in accordance with industrial protocols and machined into wear test specimens suitable for the micro-pit wear testing machine. . Wear testing produced surfaces that were subsequently analyzed for wear and damage using both optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy methods. Optimized rolling-sliding experiments with a relatively small slip ratio (5%) and higher load (650N) exhibited signs of abrasive wear on all specimens, but not all specimens had the same degree of micro-pitting damage. The conventional wrought 52100 steel had the most severe micro-pitting, consisting of distorted craters, many of which were connected by micro-cracks. Cross-sectional examination showed multiple micro-cracks extending into the alloy microstructure from the same pit. The depth of the cracks was several times the depth of the micro-pit. Type 440XH had the least amount of micro-pitting damage under similar test conditions. Micro-pits on 440HX were more localized and the micro-cracks associated with them tended to avoid carbides during propagation. Abrasive processes were observed on all the test specimens and were produced by debris from mico-pitting. The combination of micro-pitting in conjunction with abrasive processes could work together to worsen the surface damage, diminishing bearing service life.


The discipline of discrete event simulation may be utilized to model many physical systems such as digital hardware, queueing networks, telephone networks, simulated warfare, and banking transactions. Where the entities of a physical system exe- cute independently and interact asynchronously, an asynchronous distributed event-driven simulation algorithm may enable the simulation of the system to execute on a parallel processor. This has the potential to significantly reduce the total simulation time. YADDES is the first algorithm that is characterized by 1) acceptable performance, 2) freedom from deadlock, and 3) probably correct, for circuits where the interactions between the entities constitute a cyclic dependence. Given their complex, asynchronous nature, an important issue associated with all asynchronous distributed algorithms is their correctness, i.e., the generation of accurate output for given input stimulus, under all possible conditions. This paper presents a mathematical proof of correctness and reports the performance of YADDES on the Armstrong parallel processor at Brown University.


ABSTRACT Television viewing is an important leisure activity for older adults. The aim of the current study is to provide insight into the meanings of television in older adults' lives, by analysing change and continuity in their television viewing. A qualitative study was conducted that included in-depth interviews on television viewing among a diverse sample of Dutch people aged 65 years and older (N=86). The interview study shows that television has a variety of meanings for older adults. The meanings of television viewing changed in response to changes in everyday life, but this did not happen unidirectionally. Retirement, physical changes and changes in household composition led to increases as well as decreases in television viewing. Watching more television was experienced in both positive and negative ways. After a loss in the interpersonal sphere, television viewing can play a valuable role in adaptation processes, but it was also experienced as an activity that needs to be avoided. With regard to television content we found that some programmes gained importance when people age, whereas other programmes became less important or attractive. These changes in television viewing occurred for only part of the sample and some interviewees experienced continuity in the status of viewing and in their content preferences. The results are discussed in the context of recent literature on leisure constraints, leisure as coping, and adaptation strategies.


Date of Award 12-2018 Document Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Department Educational Leadership Higher Education Committee Member Pamela Havice, Committee Chair Committee Member Tony Cawthon Committee Member Cynthia Deaton Committee Member William Havice Abstract This qualitative study sought to understand how high-achieving, non-firstgeneration, female, undergraduate students viewed the influence parents and families had on their career decisions. This study's six participants were students in the same honors college at a large, four-year, public university in the Southeast United States. Data from a pre-interview survey, initial interview, in-depth interview, and interview observation protocols were used to understand participants' career decision-making processes and the influence their parents and families had on those processes. Thematic coding was used to identify three common themes found among participants: (a) parent and family support (b) family influence on career decision-making process; and (c) career experiences of women. Within each theme, several sub-themes also emerged. This study served as a way to gain information about and understand career decision-making of high-achieving, nonfirst-generation, female, undergraduate students, an understudied population of students, and to contribute new information to the body of knowledge. The findings of this study provided insight into the influence families have on the career decisions of this particular population. Additionally, the findings offered a greater understanding of how gender identity impacts career experiences of high-achieving, female undergraduate students. Recommended Citation Maxwell, Katryna Bower, "High-Achieving, Non-First-Generation, Female, Undergraduate Student Views of Family Influence on Career Decisions" (2018). All Dissertations. 2262. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2262  Download


Discussion and author's closure of paper 41–106 by J. H. Goss, presented at the AIEE summer convention, Toronto, Ontario, Can., June 16–20, 1941, and published in AIEE TRANSACTIONS, 1941 (August section), pages 811–14.


In extensive bone defects, tissue damage and hypoxia lead to cell death, resulting in slow and incomplete healing. Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) can give rise to all specialized lineages found in healthy bone and are therefore uniquely suited to aid regeneration of damaged bone. We show that the cultivation of hESC-derived mesenchymal progenitors on 3D osteoconductive scaffolds in bioreactors with medium perfusion leads to the formation of large and compact bone constructs. Notably, the implantation of engineered bone in immunodeficient mice for 8 wk resulted in the maintenance and maturation of bone matrix, without the formation of teratomas that is consistently observed when undifferentiated hESCs are implanted, alone or in bone scaffolds. Our study provides a proof of principle that tissue-engineering protocols can be successfully applied to hESC progenitors to grow bone grafts for use in basic and translational studies.


Background: Community-oriented oral health programs are seldom found in India. When primary health care systems were in the 1980s, dentistry was not adequately included. This has left oral health far behind other health services. Objectives: To find the availability of dental professionals, infrastructure, equipment, and treatments provided in health centers of Mangalore taluk. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among medical officers and dentists working in all the health centers of Mangalore taluk, using an interview schedule, the oral health care availability inventory (ORAI). Results: Among 23 health centers of Mangalore taluk, dental services were available at six health centers (26%) [two community health centers (CHCs) and four primary health centers (PHCs)]. Mouth mirrors, dental explorers, and extraction instruments were available at six health centers [two CHCs (100%) and four PHCs (19%)]. No health centers provided orthodontic tooth corrections, removal of impacted teeth, oral biopsies, and fabrication of removable dentures. Conclusions: Availability of dental services was limited in the health centers, and a vast majority of the rural population in Mangalore taluk did not have access to dental care.


IL-12 is a pluripotent cytokine that interacts with NK and T cells to play a central role in the initiation and maintenance of Th1 responses and IFN-gamma production. Because of the interactive relationship between IL-12 and IFN-gamma response to infectious organisms, a study was undertaken to examine the role of IL-12 in the immune regulation of human visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Human (Hu) VL is associated with immune dysfunction and the appearance of IL-10 mRNA, not present in healed individuals. We found that PBMC from treated VL patients produced both IL-12 p40 and IFN-gamma in response to in vitro stimulation with Leishmania donovani. The production of both IL-12 p40 and IFN-gamma were interdependent and were abrogated by the addition of exogenous Hu rIL-10. In contrast, PBMC from active VL patients did not produce IL-12 p40 or IFN-gamma in response to L. donovani lysate. Neutralizing anti-IL-10 mAb led to the enhancement of IFN-gamma production by active VL PBMC cultured with L. donovani lysate, and this enhanced IFN-gamma production was blocked by anti-IL-12 mAb. The addition of exogenous Hu rIL-12 to PBMC from active VL patients resulted in the augmentation of IFN-gamma in response to L. donovani lysate. Therefore, treatment of active VL patient PBMC with anti-IL-10 or IL-12 shifted the response toward a Th1-type response with the production of IFN-gamma. These results indicate that IL-12 may play an important role in the regulation of the cellular immune responses in Hu VL.


Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) binding protein 5 (IGFBP-5) mRNA was studied in intestines of rats with peptidoglycan-polysaccharide enterocolitis by Northern analysis and in situ hybridization. IGFBP-5 mRNA was increased 2.4 +/- 0.5-fold in inflamed rat colon compared with controls and was highly expressed in smooth muscle. Cultured rat intestinal smooth muscle cells were used to study the regulation of IGFBP-5 and type I collagen synthesis. IGF-I (100 ng/ml) increased IGFBP-5 mRNA (1.9 +/- 0.1-fold) and collagen type alpha1(I) mRNA (1.6 +/- 0.2-fold) in cultured smooth muscle cells. IGF-I induced a dose- and time-dependent increase in IGFBP-5 in conditioned medium by Western ligand blot and by immunoblot. IGF-I did not affect the IGFBP-5 mRNA decay rate after transcriptional blockade. Cycloheximide abolished IGFBP-5 mRNA. In conclusion, IGFBP-5 mRNA is expressed by intestinal smooth muscle and is increased during chronic inflammation. IGF-I increases IGFBP-5 and collagen mRNAs in intestinal smooth muscle cells.


The Puntius filamentosus (Valenciennes) group of medium-sized (< 115 mm SL) cyprinids from southern India and Sri Lanka is reviewed. The group is characterised by adult males of most species developing filament-like extensions to the branched dorsal-fin rays and the distinctive ontogenic colour pattern of three black bars on the side of the body. Puntius singhala (Duncker), P. arulius (Jerdon), P. srilankensis (Senanayake) and P. tambraparniei (Silas) are considered valid species within this group. The name Puntius assimilis (Jerdon), hitherto in the synonymy of P. filamentosus, is re-validated and P. lepidus Day, and P. maderaspatensis (Jerdon) are treated as junior synonyms of P. assimilis and P. filamentosus, respectively. A new species, P. exclamatio, is described from the Kallada River, southern Kerala State; adults of this species differ from all other Indian and Sri Lankan Cyprinidae by their unique colour pattern: a black blotch 2-3 scales wide commencing on and above scale 6 or 7 of lateral-line series; and another horizontally-elongate, black, tear-shaped blotch about 1½ scales high commencing on lateral line slightly anterior to or above anal-fin origin, on about lateral-line scale row 13 and continuing to base of caudal fin. Puntius filamentosus is shown to have a wide distribution throughout the lowlands of southern India, while P. assimilis is known from disjunct populations in the Netravati River, southern Karnataka State, and the Chalakudy and Kallada Rivers, Kerala State. Puntius singhala and P. srilankensis are endemic to Sri Lanka.