Medicago ruthenica [(L.) Ledebour] is native to inner Mongolia where rhizosphere samples were collected for the isolation of 106 rhizobial cultures. Besides nodulating the original trap host, the isolates formed nitrogen-fixing symbioses with Phaseolus vulgaris. Only half of the isolates nodulated alfalfa (Medicago sativa), but these did not form nitrogen-fixing symbioses. Rhizobium tropici also formed nitrogen-fixing symbioses with Medicago ruthenica. A total of 56 distinctive multilocus electrophoretic types (ETs) were identified among 94 of the 106 isolates which were analysed for variation in electrophoretic mobility of 12 enzyme loci. One isolate (USDA 1920) possessed a unique ET, while the ETs of the other isolates formed two weakly divergent subgroups approximately equal in size. It was concluded from small subunit rRNA gene sequences of eight isolates of Medicago ruthenica that they belonged to the genus Rhizobium and not to the genus Sinorhizobium which is more commonly associated with Medicago. Genomic similarity, determined from DNA hybridization analysis, between USDA 1920 and the strain representing the remaining isolates (USDA 1844) was lower than 20%. Based upon these observations it was concluded that at least three genomic species of rhizobia form nitrogen-fixing symbioses with Medicago ruthenica. One of these genomic species is R. tropici, another is represented by the single isolate USDA 1920 and the name Rhizobium mongolense is proposed for the third genomic species represented by USDA 1844.


OBJECTIVE
To study the therapeutic effect of Astragalus injection (AI) in treating early stage diabetic nephropathy (DN) patients.

METHODS
The total of 136 early diabetic nephropathy patients were randomly divided into two groups, 50 cases in the conventional treated group and 86 in the AI treated group, the therapeutic course being 3 weeks. Levels of plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1), 24 hrs urinary albumin excretion rate (uAER), and platelet granule membrane protein (GMP-140), 6-keto-prostaglandin F1 alpha(6-keto-PGF1 alpha), and thromboxane B2(TXB2) before and after treatment were determined by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) respectively. Moreover, the above-mentioned criteria in 26 healthy subjects were also measured for control.

RESULTS
The plasma ET-1, GMP-140, TXB2 and uAER levels in DN patients were higher, but 6-keto-PGF1 alpha level was lower than those in healthy subjects. The above elevated criteria in DN patients could be lowered by AI treatment.

CONCLUSION
The pathogenesis and development of DN might be closely associated with the changes of plasma ET-1 level and platelet function. Astragalus could improve the above-mentioned changes in patients of early stage DN.


This paper presents a dynamic channel allocation (DCA) algorithm based on the time slot scoring method. The algorithm is designed for multimedia traffic in system which implements time division code division multiple access system (TD/CDMA). The algorithm tries to provide each service class appropriate quality of service (QoS). Simulations of a system using both fixed channel allocation (FCA) and DCA have been carried out in both speech-only and mixed services environment to investigate the benefits of DCA.


Ovarian cancer is the most common cause of death from gynecological cancers in developed countries. It is a common disease of older women at or above 63 years upon diagnosis. Thanks to advance in new treatments, mortality from ovarian cancer has declined in developed countries in the last decade. This decline in mortality rate is unevenly distributed across the age-spectrum. While mortality in younger women has decreased 21.7%, for elderly women it has declined only 2.2%. Even if ovarian cancer is clearly a disease of the elderly, older women are underrepresented in clinical trials, and scant evidence exists for the treatment of women older than 80 years. Moreover, older women are frequently undertreated, receive less chemotherapy and less combination of surgery and chemotherapy, despite the fact that this is considered the optimal treatment modality. This may be mainly due to the lack of evidence and physician's confidence in the management of elderly women with ovarian cancer. In this review, we focus on the management of older women with ovarian cancer, considering geriatric features tied to this population.


Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) within-boll yield components have changed throughout the last 30 yr of cultivar development. The question arises, how do within-boll yield components differ in contemporary high yielding cultivars? Nine commercially available cotton cultivars were over-seeded and hand-thinned to 10.8 plants m-2 in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Before machine harvest, plants from 6 m of one row were removed from each plot and hand-harvested by fruiting position. After hand-harvest, seed cotton from each fruiting position was ginned separately. Boll number, lint mass, seed number, seed mass, seed surface area, and fiber properties were determined for each fruiting position. These data were then used for within-boll yield component calculations. One of the top yielding cultivars in this investigation (DPL 33 B), characterized by a smaller seed mass, produced greater total seed surface area per unit of land area, but lower lint mass and fiber number per unit of seed surface area. The other two top yielding cultivars in this investigation (DPL 491 and STV 4892 BR), characterized by a larger seed mass, produced lower total seed surface area per unit of land area, but greater lint mass and fiber number per unit of seed surface area. These data indicate fiber number and lint mass per unit of seed surface area are linked to seed size, which should be considered when selecting for increased lint mass or fiber number per unit of seed surface area.


A cDNA encoding the T cell activation Ag CD26 was isolated from human PHA-activated T cells by using an expression cloning method. The nucleotide sequence obtained predicts a protein of 766 amino acids of type II membrane topology, with six amino acids in the cytoplasmic region. The predicted amino acid sequence of the Ag was 85% homologous to that of the dipeptidyl peptidase IV enzyme isolated from rat liver. Derivatives of the human leukemic T cell line Jurkat transfected with a CD26 expression plasmid were established. Characterization of the CD26 Ag expressed by the transfected Jurkat cells revealed that the Ag could be immunoprecipitated as a 110-kDa molecule similar to that found on peripheral blood T cells and that the Ag had dipeptidyl peptidase IV activity. Functional analysis of these Jurkat transfectants showed that cross-linking of the CD26 and CD3 Ag with their respective antibodies resulted in enhanced intracellular calcium mobilization and IL-2 production. These results provide direct evidence that the CD26 Ag plays a role in T cell activation.


Flow structure and convective heat transfer in a plane channel with in‐line mounted rectangular bars have been investigated for different bar sizes in the Reynolds number range corresponding to steady laminar flow to unsteady transitional flow. Numerical results are reported for the thermal entrance region with six in‐line mounted bars and for the case with spatially periodic mounted bars. Data for heat transfer and pressure drop are presented for 100≤Re≤1,000 and bar heights 0.24≤d/H≤0.48. The unsteady Navier‐Stokes equations and the energy equation have been solved by a finite‐volume code with staggered grids combined with SIMPLEC pressure correction. Flow and heat transfer characteristics in the different rows are strongly dependent on Re and d/H. The flow structure and temperature field around the sixth row are compared qualitatively well with those calculated with periodic boundary conditions, however, the comparison of mean Nusselt number and friction factor shows differences for high Reynolds numbers.


Abstract Experimental studies on full-scale straw-bale walls have demonstrated the adequacy of straw-bale wall systems for resisting lateral loads from wind or seismic actions. Critical to the performance of the wall system is the anchorage of mesh reinforcement to the bottom plate and to the roof bearing assembly or top plate. Reported in this paper are the results of experiments examining mesh strength, anchorage strength, and failure mode for a variety of reinforcement meshes (steel, plastic, and hemp) and anchorage details. Because of the potential for new wood preservative pressure treatments to cause corrosion, stainless steel staples driven pneumatically into pressure-treated sill plates were tested in addition to electro-galvanized staples driven pneumatically into untreated sill plates and a heavier gauge staple driven manually into an untreated sill plate. Recommended anchorage details are identified, considering not only the test results but also the many other factors that must be considered i...


The aim of this study is to investigate the thermal stress resistance properties of Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) to construct the optimized sterilization method for the soybean based foods. The samples of E. coli incubated on the soybean extract added LB medium (test sample) and normal LB medium (control sample) were subjected to high temperature stress of 60 ℃ .Soybean extract which is mainly consisted of protein, lipid and water was prepared to add the LB medium. Under high-temperature condition, the survival behaviors of E. coli inoculated by the control and test sample were indicated by the first-order kinetics. And the thermal resistance of E. coli was significantly enhanced by a soybean extract. Moreover the top, middle and bottom part of soybean extract were prepared by the additional centrifugation of soybean extract. Each part is characterized by lipid, phospholipid, and protein, respectively. The thermal resistance of middle part showed the quite similar behavior to that of whole soybean extract. However, those of top and bottom parts were obviously decreased faster than that of middle part. And a significantly increase of the weight of phospholipid in a cell incubated with the middle part was observed comparing with that of control sample. It is therefore very likely that the thermal resistance of E. coli is enhanced by the effect of phospholipid in soybean extract. Furthermore, under the high pressure stress of 150 and 200 MPa, the survival curve of middle part was obviously slower decrease than control sample. Consequently, results obtained in this paper, are successfully revealed that the addition of phospholipid in soybean extract is strengthened the cell membrane or surface structure of E.coli .


Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network is a sub class of MANETs (Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks). It`s a technology that provide secure driving environment by wireless communication between the vehicles. The technique of self-driving vehicle is more significant in today`s world. VANET converts each participating vehicle into wireless sensor nodes that allow vehicles to communicate among themselves. It creates a network of wide range. Due to non-centralized infrastructure, self-driving and Ad-Hoc nature of VANETs it`s vulnerable to various critical attacks that breach the security. One of the critical attacks is wormhole attack which mainly occur least two or more malicious nodes. It enables an attacker to capture packets at one location and tunnels them to another location forming a wormhole link in-between the legitimate nodes of the network. In this paper, secure routing protocol ANODR is implemented to prevent the wormhole attack in VANETs. The ANODR prevents strong adversaries from tracing a data packet flow back to its originator and for location privacy problem; ANODR ensures that adversaries/attackers cannot discover the real identities of authenticated transmitters. The performance of ANODR is evaluated on the basis of metrics like throughput, end-to-end delay, total packet received and jitters.


This paper proposes a model-based iterative learning control (MB-ILC) for industrial robot manipulators. The proposed MB-ILC modifies the desired trajectory but not the control input signals, and thus it is possible to keep the existing controllers unchanged that are designed to make the manipulator stable. To achieve stability of the MB-ILC algorithm in the iteration domain, two filters are used. One is the inverse of the transfer function of an estimated control system and the other is a causal filter to compensate the inversed transfer function of a non-causal filter. However the control system is non-causal system, we used causalizing technique in order to avoid non-causal problem. Experimentations with a 6 DOF industrial robot manipulator moving in a straight line show that a good convergency of lateral errors as well as steady state error. Moreover, vibrations that were observed in using some of other ILC algorithms were not observed in the experiments.


Oviposition preference by European corn borers, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), for or against transgenic corn would influence amounts of refuge required for resistance management. The objective of this research was to determine if various Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn transgenic events influence O. nubilalis oviposition. All commercially available events (currently 5) were evaluated, plus 1 experimental event. Results from 3 independent studies are reported, including 3 field-cage experiments with vegetative corn, 2 field-cage experiments with reproductive corn, and 2 field experiments with natural O. nubilalis on reproductive corn. In each case, Bt corn hybrids are compared with their near isogenic hybrids by counting numbers of egg masses on each plant type. More extensive comparisons were made in 3 of the experiments by determining the number, size, and location of egg masses on the corn hybrids. Moths laid more egg masses on Bt corn than on non-Bt corn in 1 cage experiment. These results, however, were not found in any of the other experiments. There is evidence that suggests cage effects influence moth oviposition more than Bt protein. Four of the 5 cage experiments and 2 field experiments indicate that the tested Bt events do not influence O. nubilalisoviposition. Larval injury to isogenic corn during the vegetative stage did not influence adult oviposition during the corn reproductive stage when compared with Bt corn and noninjured isogenic corn. Based on these experiments, suggestions are made for future studies that use natural O. nubilalis rather than O. nubilalis in cages.


Over the last few years, large language models (LLMs) have emerged as the most important breakthroughs in natural language processing (NLP) that fundamentally transform research and developments in the field. ChatGPT represents one of the most exciting LLM systems developed recently to showcase impressive skills for language generation and highly attract public attention. Among various exciting applications discovered for ChatGPT in English, the model can process and generate texts for multiple languages due to its multilingual training data. Given the broad adoption of ChatGPT for English in different problems and areas, a natural question is whether ChatGPT can also be applied effectively for other languages or it is necessary to develop more language-specific technologies. The answer to this question requires a thorough evaluation of ChatGPT over multiple tasks with diverse languages and large datasets (i.e., beyond reported anecdotes), which is still missing or limited in current research. Our work aims to fill this gap for the evaluation of ChatGPT and similar LLMs to provide more comprehensive information for multilingual NLP applications. While this work will be an ongoing effort to include additional experiments in the future, our current paper evaluates ChatGPT on 7 different tasks, covering 37 diverse languages with high, medium, low, and extremely low resources. We also focus on the zero-shot learning setting for ChatGPT to improve reproducibility and better simulate the interactions of general users. Compared to the performance of previous models, our extensive experimental results demonstrate a worse performance of ChatGPT for different NLP tasks and languages, calling for further research to develop better models and understanding for multilingual learning.


This thesis suggests that the pension systems in the advanced
capitalist countries of Canada, Britain and the United States are on the
verge of a crisis and that the problems associated with the marginalization
and immiseration of the elderly, the universal and specific limitations of
employer-based occupational pension plans and the underdevelopment of the
state pension system are inherently and organically linked to the structure
of private pension fund power.
The impending pension crisis in these countries is explained by
four converging structural considerations: first, the inadequate level of
retirement income of the elderly; second, the increasing proportion of
elderly in the population and the costs associated with an aging population;
third, the general and particular limitations of the private pension system;
fourth, under conditions of advanced capitalism, the corporate sector and
state appropriating the occupational and state pension systems as a source
of investment and social capital respectively to meet their finance
requirements.
The pension system now occupies a strategic position in advanced
capitalist economies. The increasing economic power of pension funds is
based on their role as financial intermediaries and institutional investors,
with significant control over the economic surplus and reserve capital. The
structure of pension fund power exhibits itself through formal and informal
linkages to financial capital. The private pension system's investment and
capital accumulation function has been transformed from a latent to a
manifest function to supply the investment requirements of the economy
and private sector. The private pension industry, characterized by a high
degree of concentration and centralization of capital, increasingly
facilitates the systemic fusion of the finance and industrial sectors of
advanced capitalist economies. The symbiotic relationship between the
corporate sector and private pension industry is identified as the primary
economic and political obstacle to reforming and expanding the state
pension system in the countries studied.
It is concluded that the dynamic of the conflicting structural
interests underlying the pension crisis may generate a heightened awareness
of power and politics in capitalist countries by transcending the traditional
limitations of economism and welfarism. The pension issue, both in the
short and long-term, may generate increased social tension manifesting
itself through intergenerational, sectoral, political and industrial relations
conflict. This may result in increased politicization and progressive
alternative economic strategies based on the pension system's investment
and capital accumulation function. Public policy towards aging and pensions
identifies personal problems and structural issues which may have
significance in terms of power, politics, and social change in the future.


To teach acoustical principles using only basic high school mathematics, acoustical phenomena should be emphasized rather than theory. Phenomena should be illustrated with simple demonstration experiments and with videotapes of phenomena that cannot be demonstrated live in the classroom. The voice source can be represented in the time domain by a waveform and in the frequency domain by a spectrum. Students should have early exposure to both representations and learn to appreciate their complementarity. Sound spectra and glottal waveforms resulting from different types of phonation are illustrated.


This article explores how the processes of writing and writers emerge and transform in two examples of Swedish early childhood educational writing practices. Students' writing is a multifaceted activity involving a myriad of interconnected elements; however, to make sense of what is going on, more knowledge is needed about the connectivity, the movement and the unpredictability inherent in these activities. Taking a posthuman and nomadic perspective, the article studies how text and writer are co-constituted through the interrelations between human elements and non-human elements. The article concludes that conceptualizing writing as nomadic provides a way to view young children's educational writing as sites of experimentation, thus guiding the pedagogical attention to the productive potential of the writing situation.


: The effect of high concentrations of circulating acetoacetate on the uptake and utilization of glucose-U-14C was investigated in brain of fed and 7-day fasted sheep. Uniformly 14C-labeled glucose and nonlabeled acetoacetate were infused via the jugular vein while blood samples were being taken from the carotid artery and dorsal sagittal sinus. Samples were analyzed for CO2 and its specific activity, glucose and its specific activity, ketone bodies, lactic acid, plasma-free fatty acids, and plasma-immunoreactive insulin. During 1 hour of infusion of 5 mM of acetoacetate/kg/hour, there was a significant decrease (P less than 0.05) in blood glucose concentration and a significant (P less than 0.05) decrease in the uptake of glucose by the brain. Significant (P less than 0.001) arteriovenous differences across the brain in ketone body concentration were observed in both fed and fasted sheep. Also, a significant increase in plasma-immunoreactive insulin and lactate and a decrease in plasma-free fatty acids were observed. These results indicate that hyperketonemia induced hypoglycemia and reduced the uptake of glucose. It also increased the uptake of ketone bodies and increased lactate production by the ovine brain.


The familiar critical claim that propositions of international law cannot be both objective and normative casts a long shadow over international legal theory. The claim relies on the conjunction of two ideas: first, that the truth-conditions of any proposition of international law will include some element of evaluative judgement (about the right or the good) that gives the proposition its normative character, and, second, that evaluative judgements cannot be objectively true or false. International lawyers have two main strategies for defending their discipline against this sceptical challenge. A more modest strategy would accept that legal objectivity and normativity are incompatible and attempt to sidestep the sceptical critique by abandoning the claim to normativity. A second and more ambitious strategy would resist the sceptical challenge by disputing the plausibility of its attack on the objectivity of evaluative judgements. This strategy would rely on the claim that objectivity and normativity are not mutually incompatible and that the aim of producing an account of international law that displays both features is realistic. My aim in this paper is to show that there exists at least one version of this second strategy that can succeed against the sceptical challenge. I argue that scepticism about values is incoherent and, therefore, that the opposition between the objectivity and the normativity of international law is illusory. Setting such scepticism aside will allow international lawyers to concentrate fully on the substantive normative questions that drive theories of international law and on the values that provide the best account of its content.


In December 2003, Congress passed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) giving US consumers the right to request free annual credit reports. In compliance with this legislation three major US credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) began offering free copies of their credit file disclosures to all consumers. The FACTA initiative, as overseen by the Federal Trade Commission, is significant for several reasons: (1) it mandated private companies to offer some of their products and services for free and (2) it was one of the first and largest initiatives by the federal government aiming to alleviate the rising concerns with identity theft. Despite this goal, to date, no data regarding the public response to FACTA has been provided by the FTC or the credit reporting agencies themselves. This paper presents the results of a nationally representative survey of US consumers' responses to FACTA. This research also provides the first look at the FACTA initiative as well as the motivations for US consumers to request copies of their credit reports. We discuss the factors impacting consumers' awareness and usage of FACTA. We also identify the factors leading to the consumer opt-in decision to request free credit reports using FACTA. Such information can help us understand the impact of this legislation.


Summary Identified neurones in the leech Whitmania pigra have a stable morphology with bilaterally symmetrical branching arborizations, and with axons on both sides arranged symmetrically in the connectives. Each anterior pagoda cell (AP) receives electrical and/or chemical synaptic input from mechanoreceptive cells on both sides of the body. 1 The position in the body can be discriminated by the postsynaptic responses of the APs: as a rule, the responses to input from contralateral receptive neurones are stronger than those to input from ipsilateral ones, and the neurone with its receptive field on the dorsal side produces a stronger response than the neurone with a ventrally sited receptive field. APs integrate postsynaptic potentials and spikes. There are no connections between the two AP cells and so it is possible that positional discrimination depends upon a circuit comparing the inputs. After the body wall has been cut round and rotated by 180°, the mechanoreceptive cells and annular erector motoneurones reinnervate the body wall strictly according to their original orientation, and repair is bilaterally synchronous. This eliminates a role for target cell guidance, particularly in the adult leech. When an extra Retzius cell is implanted into cultured ganglia, synapses develop between the host and the implanted neurone. Such synapses generally show lower coupling ratios or PSP fluctuations. However, the specific electrical connection between the Retzius cells shows a normal coupling ratio.


This volume addresses a theme long essential to feminist and liberationist theology: in what can we hope, and what role should hope play in our actions and our lives? It provides a constructive set of proposals and fills a crucial gap in theological resources as well-known contributors address the theme from their different contexts and fields.


Assessment is an essential element in learning processes. It is therefore not unsurprising that almost all learning management systems (LMSs) offer support for assessment, e.g., for the creation, execution, and evaluation of multiple choice tests. We have designed and implemented generic support for assessment that is based on assignments that students submit as electronic documents. In addition to assignments that are graded by teachers, we also support assignments that can be automatically tested and evaluated, e.g., assignments in programming languages, or other formal notations. In this paper, we report about the design and implementation of a service-oriented approach for automatic assessment of programming assignments. The most relevant aspects of our "assessment as a service" solution are that on the one hand the advantages of automatic assessment can be used with a multitude of programming languages, as well as other formal notations (as so-called backends); on the other hand, the features of these types of assessment can be easily interfaced with different existing learning management systems (as so called frontends). We also report about the practical use of the implemented software components at our university and other educational institutions.


A pot experiment was carried out at the researcher's net house of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh from November 2003 to February 2004 to find out the effects of different animal manure on yield, quality and nutrient uptake by mustard cv. Agrani. The experiment comprised of two levels of cage system poultry manure, deep litter system poultry manure, cow dung and bio-gas slurry viz. 10 and 20 ton ha -1 , one control and one chemical fertilizer @ recommended dose. Cage system poultry manure @ 20 ton ha -1 significantly increased the seed and straw yield of mustard and cow dung showed lower performance. In straw and seed the highest uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S was obtained from cage system poultry manure @ 20 ton ha -1 . Protein and oil content was also found higher in this treatment. Seed yield was found to be significantly and positively correlated with branch and effective pod per plant. Protein and oil contents of mustard seeds were increased with increasing level of animal manures though their effects were not significant. A positive and significant correlation was observed between protein and oil contents of mustard cv. Agrani. The overall results suggest that cage system poultry manure @ 20 ton ha -1 gave best performance among the parameters studied.


1. If epidural analgesia enables the mother to be delivered in a comfortable manner, alert and receptive to her newborn, does this not enhance mother-infant bonding and thus benefit the child? 2. Is there any evidence whatsoever of lasting adverse effects of epidural analgesia on the child? Dr Thomas also refers to a report 1 that forceps delivery and malposition of the fetal head were five and three times more common respectively under epidural analgesia than they were in its absence. Other studieshave reported a low frequency of instrumental deliveries. In any case, I would suggest that no cause-and-effect relationship has been proven and that epidural analgesia is most appropriate where, for example, the fetus is in an occipitoposterior position or where forceps rotation and delivery is indicated. Epidural analgesia is considered protective to the infant in conditions such as breech presentation.s multiple pregnancy": 5 and pre-eclampsia. The caesarean-delivered infant also appears to be in better condition where epidural analgesia has been used, provided the patient is tilted to avoid postural hypotension. In all these situations regional analgesia is beneficial both to the mother and to the infant. In other conditions where an epidural anaesthetic is provided upon request, the tangible benefits to the mother must be weighed against the veryuncertain and unproven adverse effects on the child. I believe, therefore, that the trend towards more widespread use of epidural analgesia is both legitimate and desirable.


Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in men and women. Incidence rate of lung cancer is keep increasing year after year. Lot of progress has been made in field of lung cancer therapy to prolong lifespan of patients, but it is still inadequate. In our previous study, novel alkylating agent BO-1012 in combination with arsenic trioxide shown to have very good therapeutic efficacy in lung cancer H460 Xenografted mice. Meanwhile, we also observed activation of survival and DNA repair protein molecules in cells treated with BO-1012. In further development of drug up on modification in functional group of BO-1012, we observed enhanced lethal effect of BO-1509 in lung cancer cells. To overcome activation of survival and DNA repair protein we combined BO-1509 with PI3 kinase inhibitor LY294002. Synergism being found between two drugs in several lung cancer cells like H460, CL-1-5, CL-25 and CL-83 in culture. Furtherome, alone at doses of 5 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg BO-1509 by iv for five times reduce tumor burden 50% and 70% in H460 and CL-1-5 xenografted mice respectively. But when it combined with PI3 kinase inhibitor (LY294002) 40 mg/kg injected by ip for 10 times, tumor burden reduced 85% in H460 and 86% in CL-1-5 xenografted mice. Initial finding suggests that synergism between BO-1509 and PI3 kinase inhibitor may be due to inhibitory effect of PI3 kinase on Mre11 and Nbs1 proteins of MRN complex which play important role in homologous repair pathway. Mre11 and Nbs1 protein were found to be elevated upon treated with of BO-1509 in H460 cells. PI3 kinase inhibitor also prevents BO-1509 activated nuclear localization of Rad51 in H460 and CL-1-5 cells which is confirmed by using confocal microscopy. Based on H2AX foci formation assay, half of double strand break (DSB) in cell induced by BO-1509 get repaired by 72 h, while cells treated in combination of BO-1509 with PI3 kinase inhibitor still maintain DSB damage, which may enhance the lethal effect of BO-1509 to H460 and CL-15 cell. Complete blood profile, biochemical enzyme analysis and histopathology of major organ suggest no significant toxicity in mice treated with BO-1509 alone or in combination with PI3 kinase inhibitor. In conclusion the combination with PI3 inhibitor increases the efficacy of BO-1509 by suppressing the DNA repair and survival factor. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2011 Nov 12-16; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2011;10(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B66.


It has been acknowledged that the physiological effects of dietary fiber are an exceedingly complex matter which requires a multidisciplinary research effort. The increased scientific involvement of the medical community, nutritionists, chemists and physicists is not only warranted but it has become mandatory. This is because we are entering a more advanced research phase in which the observed . in vivo effects should not be only recorded, but they should be systematically correlated with the physicochemical and analytical properties of the individual dietary fibers. The Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry of the American Chemical Society has recognized this for some time, and has asked us to organize another International Symposium, similar to one in 1982, which would address the latest developments in this field. We decided to ask a cross section of leading experts from industrial and academic research institutions to assess the state of the art in dietary fiber, namely in the areas of the physiological effects, physicochemical attributes, and in existing and proposed analytical methods. We also felt that chemistry and physical chemistry should playa greater role in fiber research to complement and better explain the existing . in vivo data. There is a large volume of animal and human physiological and nutritional data available. Unfortunately, the generated information is frequently confusing. One reason is that this research is not conducted with well characterized compounds, but rather with loosely defined complex mixtures or entities.


Throughout most of the 20th century, Mexico was known as an exceptional case of successful and continuous one-party rule in the Americas. That came to an end in 2000, when Vicente Fox took the presidency away from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), initiating the last phase of the transition to democracy. Competition ensued, and the 2006 election that led Felipe Calderon to the presidency--keeping the National Action Party (PAN) in power--was the most closely contested one in modern times. The race could be described in many ways, but equitable is an adjective that few would dare use. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Despite the almost psychotic claims of fraud by the losing candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, it was clear by 2006 that the electoral rules had succeeded in fulfilling the task they were designed to accomplish: minimizing the possibility of fraud. Hence many concerns were raised about equity in the electoral competition, an issue that had always been present, but had rarely addressed head. on. The aftermath of the election changed the situation, setting the stage for a widely--although not always deeply--discussed electoral reform. The changes resulted in amendments to the constitution and the refurbishing of the current electoral law. Though in Mexico, the newest electoral reform falls short of improving equity in any substantial form. Furthermore, the new rules are likely to weaken the already feeble electoral connection between voters and elected officials, thus making the latter even less accountable to the electorate. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Long History of Electoral Reforms Elections have been regulated in one form or another in Mexico since before it was an independent nation. In 1963, the Federal Electoral Law was reformed to regulate the existence of so-called party congressmen, allowing parties other than PRI to have representatives in Congress. The 1977 Federal Law for Electoral Organizations and Processes (LOPPE, its acronym in Spanish) formalized the random selection of citizens to serve at polling places and included representatives of political parties in the Federal Electoral Commission. The 1987 Federal Electoral Code (CFE) increased the representation of political parties in the Federal Electoral Commission and forced the results of each polling place to be made public as votes were counted in situ. The 1990 Federal Code for Electoral Institutions and Procedures (COFIPE) was crafted in response to the suspected fraud in the 1988 presidential election. It created the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) as a decentralized entity in charge of organizing federal elections, still coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior. COFIPE was reformed in 1992 to introduce an identification card with voter's photographs. It was subsequently reformed in 1993 to regulate the existence of electoral observers, and again in 1994 to increase the weight of citizen councilors on IFE's General Council. The subsequent 1996 reform granted IFE autonomy, making it an entity run by citizens, and created the Federal Electoral Court as a specialized branch of the judiciary. A reform in 2002 introduced gender quotas for candidacies; the 2005 reform gave Mexicans abroad the right to vote. In a nutshell, the first generation of electoral reforms in contemporary times (1963-1987) sought to make the electoral system more inclusive and grant greater legitimacy to the electoral process and its outcomes. In contrast, the second generation (1990-1996) sought to eliminate electoral fraud and make elections more transparent. The third generation (2002-2005) contributed additions to the prevailing scheme, making electoral institutions more inclusive by forcibly incorporating those groups that had been excluded from candidacies and voting. With these achievements in place, the Mexican government must now guarantee equitable electoral competition. The 2006 Election The 2006 federal election took place under electoral laws that successfully minimized the chances of mass fraud. …


As survival rates for childhood cancer have improved, there has been increasing focus on identifying and addressing adverse impacts of cancer and its treatment on children and their families during treatment and into survivorship. The Behavioral Science Committee (BSC) of the Children's Oncology Group (COG), comprised of psychologists, neuropsychologists, social workers, nurses, physicians, and clinical research associates, aims to improve the lives of children with cancer and their families through research and dissemination of empirically supported knowledge. Key achievements of the BSC include enhanced interprofessional collaboration through integration of liaisons into other key committees within COG, successful measurement of critical neurocognitive outcomes through standardized neurocognitive assessment strategies, contributions to evidence‐based guidelines, and optimization of patient‐reported outcome measurement. The collection of neurocognitive and behavioral data continues to be an essential function of the BSC, in the context of therapeutic trials that are modifying treatments to maximize event‐free survival, minimize adverse outcomes, and optimize quality of life. In addition, through hypothesis‐driven research and multidisciplinary collaborations, the BSC will also begin to prioritize initiatives to expand the systematic collection of predictive factors (e.g., social determinants of health) and psychosocial outcomes, with overarching goals of addressing health inequities in cancer care and outcomes, and promoting evidence‐based interventions to improve outcomes for all children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer.


Advances in imaging technology and computer communications have provided
users with a variety of new services that use images, including video conferencing,
videophones, multimedia system and High Density television. To fully utilize such a
high tech communication system, image compression techniques play an important role
in transmission and storage of information.
In this project, an image compression format and algorithm has been analyses. A
system has been created for user to convert or display image file format.
The ScanJet 11C Scanner was used to scan the image. The image was coded into
BMP, TIFF files, and GIF decoded and displayed on the screen. Some of the experiment was done twice with two different types of images to ensure that the results
were accurate. The Algorithms used to compress and decompress the image ware Run
Length Encoding (RLE) algorithm and Lampel-ziv and Welch (LZW) algorithm.
One system was developed for users to convert the image file format to enable
them to view the size of each image and to display image.
From the study, it can be concluded that LZW algorithm is better than RLE
algorithm in term of percentage compression. Beside that, the quality of image that can
be produced by LZW algorithm and RLE algorithm is almost the same.


In "Biased? Probably Not: How the Rule in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. Affects Texas Administrative Law Judges and the Elected Appellate Judiciary," author Adam Whitten describes the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Caperton, which requires judicial recusal when there is a likelihood of bias. Whitten then expands on the facts and history of the case, and follows with a discussion of the dissenting opinion and the case in light of other similar cases such as Citizens United. Additionally, Whitten discusses the authority and duty of Texas Administrative Law Judges and the role of the elected judiciary. The author proposes several solutions to the problems with judicial bias, including the elimination of agency hearing officers in contested cases and amending the government code to allow the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to hear cases involving State Office of Administrative (SOAH) judges. Whitten also describes a possible amendment to the circumstances for recusal which focuses on campaign contributions to the elected judiciary.


A mediaeval court physician at work: Ibn Jumayʿ's commentary on the Canon of Medicine Daniel S. Nicolae, St Cross College, D. Phil. thesis, Trinity Term 2012 Ibn Jumayʿ's (d. c. 594/1198) commentary on the Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037) occupies an important place in the history of medicine for it is the first Canon commentary written by a physician and thus stands at the start of a tradition extending over 500 years. In addition, it is a so-far neglected source for our understanding of mediaeval Islamic medicine. The present thesis analyses the commentary with the aims of (1) determining the methods by which the court physician composed his treatise and (2) understanding why Ibn Jumayʿ undertook to prepare a commentary on one of the most thorough medical compendia of the middle ages. Chapter One presents the biography of Ibn Jumayʿ, reveals that his religion had little impact on his writings and surveys his library which played a pivotal role in the composition of the commentary. Chapter Two investigates Ibn Jumayʿ's methodology in the entire commentary; it reveals that with his philological and source-critical methods Ibn Jumayʿ wanted to establish an authoritative reading of the Canon and to demonstrate the high degree of his erudition. Chapter Three focuses on selected passages in the commentary in form of three case studies. Ibn Jumayʿ's comments on anatomy/dissection, assorted materia medica and headaches demonstrate the court physician's reverence for ancient authorities and his quest to revive and refine their teachings. Chapter Four contextualises Ibn Jumayʿ's methods and agenda by comparing them to those of other relevant scholars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The thesis concludes by arguing that Ibn Jumayʿ's commentary was part of his revival of the art of medicine and his attempt to gain power in the medical tradition by attaching his name to one of the greatest scholars of his time — the raʾīs Ibn Sīnā.


This thesis describes an action research study assessing the effectiveness of an organisational intervention for work-related stress incorporating participatory principles. The study, set in the call centre business of a UK utilities company, aimed to contribute evidence of the effectiveness of the HSE Management Standards approach in managing work-related stress. The study developed and utilised a two-stage action research framework that guided the research and intervention design and informed the choice of the research methodology. This approach, comprising macro and micro intervention cycles, collected research data at three intervals over the 12-month timeline. The study deployed mixed methods using process evaluation principles with intervention (n=185) and control groups (n=205). The intervention comprised a stress risk assessment based on the Management Standards, delivered to the intervention group through management training. The results showed that the intervention did not reduce employee work-related stress or improve their psychological wellbeing. The process evaluation indicated that the intervention failed to translate an initial change in attitudes, values and knowledge into meaningful changes in psychosocial working conditions. Exposure to non-work stressors was found to be three times more influential on psychological wellbeing than work stressors, with social support from managers having a protective influence on both work-related stress and psychological wellbeing. The study identified the challenges of implementing an organisational intervention for stress in a dynamic, change-affected working environment with high employee turnover, where the inherent nature of the work inhibits the formation of social support networks. Despite the perceived stressful nature of this setting, the study identified that non-work stressors had a predominant influence on psychological wellbeing. The identification of the importance of social support from managers aligns with findings from previous studies, with this study differentiating between personal support and work support, and the importance of a manager's work knowledge, availability and visibility.


Bulk samples of pure Mg and Mg-Gd alloys were prepared by high-pressure torsion (HPT). The HPT made samples exhibit ultra fine grained (UFG) structure with grain size around 100 nm. Results of microstructure investigations of the UFG samples obtained by positron lifetime (PL) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) are presented. In particular, lattice defects introduced by HPT were characterized. The data obtained at atomistic level are compared with macroscopic properties given by microhardness measurements.


The asymptotically distribution-free (ADF) test statistic depends on very mild distributional assumptions and is theoretically superior to many other so-called robust tests available in structural equation modeling. The ADF test, however, often leads to model overrejection even at modest sample sizes. To overcome its poor small-sample performance, a family of robust test statistics obtained by modifying the ADF statistics was recently proposed. This study investigates by simulation the performance of the new modified test statistics. The results revealed that although a few of the test statistics adequately controlled Type I error rates in each of the examined conditions, most performed quite poorly. This result underscores the importance of choosing a modified test statistic that performs well for specific examined conditions. A parametric bootstrap method is proposed for identifying such a best-performing modified test statistic. Through further simulation it is shown that the proposed bootstrap approach performs well.


The high levels of HIV/AIDS and violent crime in South Africa mean that millions of children are being forced, and will continue to be forced, to deal with the death of a parent/primary caregiver in their early and middle childhood years. Acknowledging that does not lessen the apprehension and uneasiness which lingers in formal and informal discussions of children, death, dying and grief, nor does it ameliorate the fact that childhood bereavement is becoming a normative childhood experience in South Africa. It is vital, therefore, to understand what are South African children's experiences of bereavement and grief, and to explore what impacts are likely to be exerted on their development. Children do not grieve in the same way; and children's grief is influenced by factors such as environment, unique experiences, developmental level, personality, age and gender. Family, too, is important because it is still the primary institution of society, and it influences substantially how children understand death, bereavement and grief. The school, too, has an impact on childhood grief. The majority of school-going children in South Africa are in primary school grades. Attending primary school corresponds with (most often) middle childhood, which is a critically important developmental stage. The experience of bereavement and grief during middle childhood is challenging precisely because it occurs in such a sensitive emotionally, cognitively and socially developmental period. Childhood grief experienced in that period can have long-term consequences. Important, too, is the fact that school-going children will, more than for younger children, not only experience grief privately but will grieve in public settings such as the school setting. This study, therefore, was concerned with exploring and gaining insight into the dynamics of bereavement and grief as experienced by children, who were in middle childhood, and enrolled in the primary school system. An exploratory design was chosen to explore the issue. A purposive sample was drawn from the school's list of scholars, and included 25 children attending Grades Five to Seven (Senior Primary Phase) at a co-educational, English-medium, state school. Data were collected both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative primary data collection, involving in-depth interviews, was chosen because it allowed the researcher to explore the issue from the children's own perspectives. Each child was interviewed by the researcher over two to three sessions. Quantitative secondary data collection, involving key demographic and academic information extracted from the school's records, was included, and that helped triangulate and contextualise the data collected in the interviews. This study found that children in middle childhood do experience a diverse range of grief responses to the death of their parents/primary caregivers in the school environment, among other places, and some of those grief responses were challenging. Although respondents experienced different and confusing emotions; and although some had had their grief acknowledged by significant others, while others had not, all were able to engage in honest, clear discussions about death and grief. Respondents reported experiencing a range of secondary losses associated with the initial loss on their daily lives, and that was especially so for girl children. Respondents did know how to access support services but had not done so. The respondents also expressed a need to be encouraged to remember and memorialize their dead parent/primary caregiver. The study found, too, that the more prepared and supported the bereaved child was prior to that death, the better s/he coped with the event. Understanding children's bereavement can help those individuals and organisations, which are responsible for children's optimal development, provide children with the necessary support to prevent the child's bereavement and grief from becoming a lasting trauma.


Abstract To assess the value of individual students' subscores on the Major Field Test in Business (MFT Business), I examined the test's internal structure with factor analysis and structural equation model methods, and analyzed the subscore reliabilities using the augmented scores method. Analyses of the internal structure suggested that the MFT Business measures a unidimensional construct, which does not support reporting individual students' subscores. Augmented score analyses revealed that the observed total score could approximate the true subscore more accurately than the observed subscores, which do not support reporting individuals' subscores either. The results from these two approaches provided consistent evidence in support of the current practice of not reporting individuals' subscores on the MFT Business. The relationship between the two approaches is discussed, followed by a recommendation of an alternate method for future research. Key words : subscore, augmented score, internal structure, reliability


Big data is both a product and a function of technology and the ever-growing analytic and computational power. The potential impact of big data in health care innovation cannot be ignored. The technology-mediated transformative potential of big data is taking place within the context of historical inequities in health and health care. Although big data analytics, properly applied, hold great potential to target inequities and reduce disparities, we believe that the realization of this potential requires us to explicitly address concerns of fairness, equity, and transparency in the development of big data tools. To mitigate potential sources of bias and inequity in algorithmic decision-making, a multipronged and interdisciplinary approach is required, combining insights from data scientists and domain experts to design algorithmic decision-making approaches that explicitly account and correct for these issues.


To achieve green cutting of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V with water steam cooling and lubricating, a 600-800w minitype generator is developed. Compared to dry and water-based emulsion, the using of water steam decreases the main cutting force and the cutting temperature respectively; enhances the machined surface appearance. And it can help to chip forming and breaking. Water steam application also improves Ti-6Al-4V machinability and prolongs the tool life. The excellent cooling and lubricating action of water steam could be summarized that water molecule has polarity, small diameter and high speed, can be easily and rapidly to proceed adsorption in the cutting zone. The results indicate that the using of water steam has the potential to attain the green cutting of titanium alloy.


The mechanisms of the phase transformations between the spinel (γ) and modified spinel (β) polymorphs of Mg2SiO4 have been studied experimentally between 15 and 20 gigapascals and 800� to 950�C. The γ to β transformation occurs by a shear mechanism, whereas the β to γ transformation involves grain-boundary nucleation and interface-controlled growth. These contrasting mechanisms are a consequence of the number of independent slip systems that are available in the respective crystal structures. This result leads to the prediction that in subduction zones and perhaps also rising plumes in the Earth's mantle, the γ to β transformation should be accompanied by a transient reduction in strength.


The late twentieth century has seen profound changes in the character of the international economic order. According to the authors of this study, Canada has failed to come to terms with those changes. Our industrial policy is diffuse, ad hoc, and sectoral. Michael Atkinson and William Coleman argue that in order to analyse Canada's industrial policy effectively, particular attention must be given to industry organization, state structures, and systems of interest intermediation at the sectoral level. To make such an analysis they introduce the concept of policy network, and apply it to three types of industrial sectors: the research-intensive sectors of telecommunications manufacturing and pharmaceuticals; the rapidly changing sectors of petrochemicals and meat processing; and the contracting and troubled sectors of textiles, clothing, and dairy processing. Through the lens of these sectors Coleman and Atkinson shed considerable light on the intersection of political considerations and policy development, and offer a new base on which to move forward in planning for economic growth.


As fMRI data is high dimensional, applications like connectivity studies, normalisation or multivariate analyses, need to reduce data dimension while minimising the loss of functional information. In our study we use connectivity profiles as a new functional feature to aggregate voxels into clusters. This offers two major advantages in comparison with the current clustering methods. It allows the analyst to deal with the spatial correlation of noise problem, that can lead to bad mergings in the functional domain, and it is based on the whole data independently of a priori information like the General Linear Model (GLM) regressors. We validated that the resulting clusters form a partition of the data in homogeneous regions according to both spatial and functional criteria.


Three dimensional solid-modeling revolution has reached the design mainstream. In this paper, the parameterized design method of tubesheet and principle of automatic tube layout for shell-and-tube heat exchanger were investigated. Parameterized modeling and automatic engineering drawing creating for heat exchanger tubesheet were realized by the development of SolidWorks based on VB (Visual Basic), Microsoft Access and API (application programming interface) provided by SolidWorks. The software system has achieved prearranged development goals, namely simplifying designing procedure, greatly saving the time that designer used to draw a chart and significantly reducing probability of mistakes. When modifying design parameters, it has direct-viewing, accurate and highly effective merits, which is good for companies to reduce the design period and to gain broad market acceptance. At the same time, this software has good adaptability, human-computer interaction and expansibility and it will be benefit to the development of the three dimensional modeling of heat exchanger. Moreover, the research method of tubesheet auto-drawing is suitable for other equipment design software developments.


The current pain management interventions are emphasizing on conscious regulation of pain-related behaviors and emotions. In contrast, novel interventions like priming-based ones suggest that behaviorand emotion-regulation happens without conscious selection. Based on the perceptual symbol systems theory, this study investigated the impact of nonconscious exposure to a visual symbol of healing, upright posture, on the perception of pain. A sample of 71 students (44 females, 27 males) from the University of Tehran completed two coldpressor tests (aiming at producing acute pain in lab), examined either visual symbol effect of control stimuli. One of the most prominent symbols of healing is an upright state of body (vs. down state of body). In an organized timing during coldpressor test completion, the visual symbol of healing and the neutral stimulus were presented to the subjects and in both tests using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), an online and repetitive assessment of pain intensity with specific time intervals was employed. The results showed that participants who were exposed to a visual symbol of healing reported experiencing more relief from pain than those who were examined with a neutral stimulus. These findings support the explanation proposed by perceptual symbols systems theory about the mechanisms underlying the physical changes caused by psychological processes. Also, the possible effectiveness of using a brief priming-based intervention in dealing with acute pain is supported by the results.


A method to measure water content in porous media, such as solis and grains, was developed as a real time nondestructive test. The method was based on piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers as a sensor system. Transmiters and receivers was developed to administrate the sensors system and ultrasonic signal. Transmiters and receivers are placed facing each other and located inside the porous media 10 cm apart. The method was evaluated in two porous meda, namely a column 30 cm coarse sand and a paddy rice variety Fedearroz 50, in order to evaluate the sensors system performance in two different porous media with different water holder capacity. Tools were developed for data acquisition, capacity of 16 analog signal, 12 bits resolution. Electronic circuits, C++ OPP programming and Matlab were used. The results showed a monotonically increment of millivolts as a response of the transducer as the water content was decreasing


The article provides the assessment of the quality of life of the population resident at the radioactively contaminated areas of the Yemilchyno, Malyn, Korosten, Narodychi, Olevsk, Luhyny and Ovruch raions of the Zhytomyr region. The basis for the study and assessment of the quality of life of the population of radioactively contaminated administrative raions of the Zhytomyr region were the statistical data of the Main Directorate of Statistics in Zhytomyr Region, the Health Directorate of Zhytomyr Region State Administration, as well as our own results of a sociological survey. It was established that for the period between 2002 and 2018, the population of radioactively contaminated areas decreased by 24.7% (maximum values are representative of Malyn and Korosten raions). Natural population decline rates in rural settlements exceeded the corresponding values for urban settlements from 1.4 (Malyn raion) to 13 times (Olevsk raion). There is also the aging of the population, the largest share of the elderly (65 years old and older) –21.7% and 20.8% are resident in the Korosten and Narodychi raions. The values of birth rates (7.5 (Ovruch raion)–13 (Olevsk raion) per 1,000 of present population) did not have a positive effect on the demographic situation as a whole because of the high mortality rate exceeding the birth rate by 1.1 (Olevsk raion)–2.9 times (Malyn raion). The main causes of death are diseases of the circulatory system (75.4%), cancer (10%) and external factors (7.3%). It was noted that there is a deterioration of the health of the local population; they pointed out that diseases related to the ChNPP accident include cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the circulatory, nervous and endocrine systems, diseases of bones and joints, headaches. The living conditions of the population resident at the radioactively contaminated areas of Zhytomyr region are unsatisfactory, which is confirmed by both objective data and subjective assessments of the residents themselves. The housing stock is outdated and it needs renovation. In order to improve the quality of life of the population of radioactively contaminated territories in the Zhytomyr region, it is necessary to reform the state policy, to provide financial support for their revival and creation of normal living and reproduction conditions for the population.
Key words: Radioactively


Abstract This paper investigates the fire barrier and heat insulation properties of newly developed low cost ceramic mouldable composites using a modern small scale testing method which exposes testing panels to the fire on one surface. At the same time, the temperature on the unexposed surface was measured and recorded constantly. Compared to glass/phenolic laminates and other polymer composites, it was observed that the low cost ceramic composites could withstand much longer time in the fire and were much more stable during fire testing without being structurally damaged under the severe thermal heat environment. The indications of the fire penetration give a promising applications future for these materials in construction, transportation, aerospace, etc. as high temperature thermal insulation and heat barriers.


The accuracy of sensor measurements is critical to the design of high performance control systems since sensor uncertainties can significantly deteriorate achievable closed-loop dynamical system performance. Sensor uncertainty can arise due to low sensor quality, sensor failure, or detrimental environmental conditions. For example, relatively cheap sensor suites are used for low-cost, small-scale unmanned vehicle applications that can result in inaccurate sensor measurements. Alternatively, sensor measurements can also be corrupted by malicious attacks if dynamical systems are controlled through large-scale, multilayered communication networks as is the case in cyber-physical systems. This paper presents several adaptive control architectures for stabilization of linear dynamical systems in the presence of sensor uncertainty and sensor attacks. Specifically, we propose new and novel adaptive controllers for state-independent and state-dependent sensor uncertainties. In particular, we show that the proposed controllers guarantee asymptotic stability of the closed-loop dynamical system when the sensor uncertainties are time-invariant and uniform ultimate boundedness when the uncertainties are time-varying. We further discuss the practicality of the proposed approaches and provide a numerical example to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed adaptive control architectures.


Within the REACH Regulation (EC/1907/2006), the substitution principle for chemicals classified as Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) for either human health or environmental risks has been implemented in order to support their replacement by suitable alternatives. Considering the thousands of chemicals to be tested within the frame of REACH, animal testing by internationally-accepted guidelines sounds unreasonable in terms of the required time, costs as well ethical issues. Hence, REACH recommended also the use of alternative methods to animal experimentation although no validated in silico or in vitro tools were available when regulation entried into force.
To search for suitable alternatives to SVHC having an Endocrine Disruptor (ED)-like Mode-of-Action (MoA) by means of an integrated, tiered in silico-in vitro approach, the EU-granted project LIFE-EDESIA (contract no. LIFE12 ENV/IT/000633) is combining computational-based tools and cell-based bioassays, in order to develop a no-animal testing procedure to screen for chemicals having less or no toxicity in terms of endocrine disruption-like activities.
A general view of the no-animal testing approach implementing REACH and the substitution principle will be given, emphasising ligand-nuclear receptor (NR) assessment by molecular docking (one of the LIFE-EDESIA in silico approaches) and the use of clinical biomarkers in in vitro toxicology to detect ED-like adverse effects in cell-based bioassays.


The sand exploration results in ponds, which are formed by groundwater. The supply of nutrients (especially nitrogen and phosphorus) in these environments leads to greater growth of aquatic plants – eutrophication, which can cause interference to the different uses of these ponds. This study aimed to identify the main causes of eutrophication of these environments and propose a management plan to ensure its future use and maintenance of water quality. The experiment was carried out between the cities of São José dos Campos and Jacarei (SP-Brazil) (S 23° 12" 54' e W 45° 57" 47'). The topographic map indicates the flow of water during the rainy season and the places with the greatest possibility of drag of nutrients through laminar erosion. The analysis of water showed the variation in levels of nitrogen (increase) and phosphorus (decrease). This variation occurred in the area of higher elevation to lower elevation. The climatological water balance indicated overland flow and water holding in the soil concentrated in the months of January, February, March and April. The results indicate that the water stored in soil, and environment's topography may influence on the process of eutrophication of the sand mining pool


Biased-noise qubits are a promising candidate for realizing hardware efficient fault-tolerant quantum computing. One promising biased-noise qubit is the Kerr cat qubit, which has recently been demonstrated experimentally. Despite various unique advantages of Kerr cat qubits, we explain how the noise bias of Kerr cat qubits is severely limited by heating-induced leakage in their current implementations. Then, we show that by adding frequency-selective single-photon loss to Kerr cat qubits we can counteract the leakage and thus recover much of their noise bias. We refer to such Kerr cat qubits combined with frequency-selective single-photon loss as colored Kerr cat qubits as they are protected by a colored dissipation. In particular, we show how a suitably engineered lossy environment can suppress the leakage and bit-flip errors of a Kerr cat qubit while not introducing any additional phase-flip errors. Since our scheme only requires single-photon loss, it can be readily implemented by using passive and linear elements. Moreover, our frequency-selectivity technique can be generally applied to energy-gap protected qubits whose computational basis states are given by near degenerate ground states of a Hamiltonian with a non-zero energy gap between the ground and excited state manifolds.


The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the delivery of
banking products and services has triggered a new wave of financial innovation
electronic banking technology; more commonly referred to as e-banking technology.
A review of banking literature has revealed that it is gaining widespread adoption in
the banking industry across developed countries. The case, however, is different in
less developed nations, such as Libya, where despite recently acknowledging the
benefits of e-banking technology in improving their services, banks have not adopted
this innovation within their banking delivery strategy. Instead, they continue to
provide most of their banking services and products using traditional banking
delivery channels, notably paper-based branch networks. According to recent Libyan
governmental reports, bank staffs resistance to banking technologies has been a
major barrier preventing the adoption of e-banking projects in Libyan banks.
A critical appraisal of the literature on adoption and diffusion of banking ICTs shows
that various factors have emerged as influential in the perception of bank staff
regarding the adoption of new banking systems. However, critics argue that the
factors identified are only valid in Western countries where e-banking is a
commonplace. Consequently, the absence of any observable evidence regarding the
applicability of these factors in developing countries, such as Libya, initiated the need
for this study to identify the potential influences that may prevail. This study has
helped to bridge this gap by addressing the question of how bank staff in developing
countries such as Libya, perceive the adoption of e-banking strategy, and what factors
inhibit them from developing a positive attitude towards the adoption of this strategy,
a step necessary to understand what will make the introduction of e-banking projects
in Libya effective.
A combination of research strategies (literature review and case study design) was
used to meet the aim of this study. The literature review was undertaken to identify
the key factors affecting bank staffs attitude towards the adoption of banking
technologies, with the aim of developing a conceptual base for the study. Two case
studies were used to further investigate and evaluate those factors in the Libyan
context. Drawing on the findings from the literature review and the case study
organisations, a framework of factors inhibiting bank staffs adoption of e-banking
technology in Libya was developed that can guide future e-banking implementation
projects in Libyan banks. Moreover, the framework has applicability for other Arab
countries as they share the same culture and banking infrastructures.


The novelties of the contemporary international order require a rethinking of the normative foundations of criminal justice. Although one can understand the relevance of basic principles such as the rule of law and, in particular, the value of a fair trial in the domestic context, when one looks at criminal courts operating beyond the bounds of the traditional nation-state specifically to the courts founded in the wake of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg--the justification for recourse to these principles is far more elusive. In this paper I will argue that several traditional arguments for basic normative principles of criminal justice, in particular the right to a fair trial, are problematic in the international context and thus these principles require a different sort of justification than one would find domestically. The Nuremberg Legacy There is no doubt that, with the benefit of over six decades of hindsight, we can say that the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (IMT) was an event of world-historical importance. It was the first successful international criminal court, and has since played a pivotal role in the development of international criminal law and international institutions. In many ways, therefore, it represents a paradigm shift in international law. It had a seminal influence on the two ensuing ad hoc international tribunals (for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda), the various "mixed tribunals" (for Sierra Leone, East Timor, and Cambodia), as well as the new International Criminal Court (ICC). No scholars of international criminal law could claim serious understanding of their disciplines if they did not study the IMT seriously and in depth. Over the last six decades, the word "Nuremberg" has become synonymous with humankind's highest ideals and aspirations--a measuring stick against which all subsequent humanitarian ventures have been measured. The IMT has held such influence and garnered such praise for a number of reasons. The arguments presented before the court by Hartley Shawcross and Justice Robert Jackson and others possess a gravity that denotes their genuine historical import and the final opinions of the court show a thoughtfulness that is surprising given the strong public sentiments and political pressures that were brought to bear on the tribunal. Passions were put aside during the proceedings and for the most part reason was allowed to prevail. Nonetheless, despite the numerous significant features of the IMT, the vast majority of scholars of international criminal justice point to one feature of the IMT as essential to its enduring influence: the IMT is deservedly famous because it was, for all intents and purposes, a fair trial. (1) In fact, the influence of this aspect of the IMT in international criminal justice has been so pervasive that the contemporary conception of international trials has become synonymous with the idea of a fair trial. It is assumed that any other sort of criminal tribunal, such as a "show trial," is, by that fact alone, an illegitimate enterprise. An unfair international trial, one that does not give defendants the vast majority of rights that they would be afforded in a domestic court in a country such as the U.S. is, ipso facto, not a real trial. Virtually all recountings of the Nuremberg tribunal take great pains to point out that the trial was fair and present this as prima facie evidence that the trial was a good thing and a valuable contribution to human civilization. This concern for the fairness of international courts as the central condition of legitimacy is the most significant influence of the Nuremberg Tribunal, even if this point is largely taken for granted by many scholars of international criminal justice. (2) However, in this paper I want to take a somewhat skeptical approach to evaluating the idea of a fair international criminal trial. My concern is not primarily with what rules would constitute a fair trial in the international context (although this, too, is a problematic issue), but rather with a concern that is somewhat deeper. …


Andre Gunder Frank and Marta Fuentes have suggested that social movements of protest tend to cluster during periods of economic downturns. With this in mind, can we examine world history over the long-term to enable us to provide a more insightful understanding of the transformative potential of social movements during times of socioeconomic, ecological and political disruptions as Frank and Fuentes suggested over a decade ago? This article examines the rise of two social movements that have emerged during different periods of world history when the world system was/is in crisis: Christian monasticism and Bioregionalism. Besides viewing Christian monasticism as a religious movement that arose in reaction to the turbulent conditions towards the end of the Roman Empire, I want to argue that Christian monasticism can also be conceived as a social institution formed in reaction to the excessive consumption, economic exploitation and ecological crisis that occurred prior to and during the Dark Ages of Antiquity. Almost 1,700 years later, our current era of socioeconomic, political and ecological crises has also sparked movements expounding alternative world-views and lifestyle options. One such anti-systemic movement is Bioregionalism which is a direct contrast to our contemporary world-view that underscores the themes of globalization, technologization of life and hyper consumption. Therefore, along a similar vein to early Christian monasticism's reaction to institutionalized religion then, Bioregionalism as a life-practice also plays a similar role in the contemporary crisis era. Both of these social movements can be considered as part of the family of social movements that have occurred in world history that Frank and Fuentes (1989, 1990) have written about in the late 20th century.


We explore the relative importance of eustatic versus tectonic factors in sculpting, preserving, and modifying coastal landforms. The study area is a 30-km coastal reach in southern Oregon. Using degree of soil development as a means of correlating wave-cut platforms along the coast, we document that surface uplift rate is variable in a shore-parallel sense, variability being a function of differential vertical displacement of crustal blocks along faults and flexures in the upper plate of the Cascadia subduction zone. A consequence of this variability is that in areas of moderate uplift rate (0.7-0.9 m/k.y.), flights of up to seven emergent wave-cut platforms are preserved along the interfluves of coastal drainages, whereas in areas of low uplift rate (0.05-0.2 m/k.y.), only one wave-cut platform commonly exists, within a few meters of present sea level. Preservation of shore platforms in both areas is the result of the inter-action of tectonic uplift and eustatic sea-level changes operating on a high-energy coast subject to platform planation. Platform reoccupation can be a consequence of late Pleistocene eustatic sea-level changes operating on low-up-lift-rate coasts. Particularly in the cases of the ∼200 ka and ∼125 ka high sea stands, reoccupation by the later highstand is probable when coastal uplift rates are about 0.2 m/k.y. The same eustatic history, operating on a higher-uplift-rate section of the coast, results in multiple emergent platforms and no instances of reoccupation. Coastal drainage basins in the size range of 5-10 km2 have different hypsometries, reflecting whether platforms in coastal basins are preserved over a range of altitudes or only near sea level. The hypsometric differences are thus a product of differences in uplift rate. The dominant mechanism of base-level fall varies between the two areas: coastal retreat during sea-level highstands drives baselevel fall in lower- uplift-rate basins, whereas tectonic uplift mainly drives base-level fall in moderate-uplift-rate basins, even though the magnitude of coastal retreat may be about the same in the two areas. Where coastal retreat largely provides the mechanism for base-level fall, steep coastal drainages discharge their debris onto coastal piedmonts ("benches"), and the resultant alluvial fans prograde over marine deposits. In southern Oregon, the alluvial fan-building episode was relatively short, about 2-20 k.y. in duration. Fan aggradation ceased as a consequence of fan entrenchment, most likely brought on by buildup and steepening of the fan over time.


The iodine-atom-transfer 8-endo cyclization of alpha-carbamoyl radicals was investigated experimentally and theoretically. With the aid of Mg(ClO4)(2) and a bis(oxazoline) ligand, N-ethoxycarbonyl-substituted N-(pent-4-enyl)-2-iodoalkanamides underwent 8-endo cyclization leading to the formation of only the corresponding 3,5-trans-substituted azocan-2-ones in excellent yields Similarly, the BF3 center dot OEt2/H2O-promoted reactions of N-ethoxycarbonyl-N-(2-allylaryl)-2-iodoalkanamides afforded exclusively the benzazocanone products with a 3,5-cis configuration in high yields The bidentate chelation of substrate radicals not only significantly improved the efficiency of cyclization but also resulted in the change of stereochemistry of azocanone products from 3,8-trans to 3,8-cis Theoretical calculations at the UB3LYP/6-31G* level revealed that the cyclization of N-carbonyl-substituted alpha-carbamoyl radicals occurs via the E-conformational transition states without the presence of a Lewis acid. On the other hand, the cyclization proceeds via the Z-conformational transition states when the substrates form the bidentate chelation with a Lewis acid In both cases, the 8-endocyclization is always fundamentally preferred over the corresponding 7-exo cyclization The complexed radicals having the more rigid conformations also allow the better stereochemical control in the iodine-atom-abstraction step To further understand the reactivity of alpha-carbamoyl radicals, the competition between the 8-endo and 5-exo cyclization was also studied The results demonstrated that the 8-endo cyclization is of comparable rate to the corresponding 5-exo cyclization for alpha-carbamoyl radicals with fixed Z-conformational transition states As a comparison, the 8-endo mode is fundamentally preferred over the 5-exo mode in the cyclization of INIH-amide substrates because the latter requires the Z-conformational transition states, whereas the former proceeds via the more stable E-conformational transition states.


Photoemission current imaging at the nanoscale is demonstrated by combining an atomic force microscope with laser excitation. Photoelectrons emitted from the sample are collected by the tip while the tip-sample distance is precisely controlled by their van der Waals force interaction. We observe pronounced photoemission current contrast with spatial resolution of 5 nm on a cesium covered Au(111) surface. This high spatial resolution can be attributed to the strong dependence of the local potential barrier on the tip-sample distance. Our experiments provide a method for photoelectron imaging with high spatial resolution and extend the functionality of state-of-the-art scanning probe techniques.


The expectation in the United States and most Western democracies is that journalists will provide information the public needs to carry out the duties of citizenship and that the media will provide a forum for the circulation of ideas and opinions. Klaidman and Beauchamp Th' newspaper ... comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable ... Finley Peter Dunne These quotations are gospels of journalism. From Klaidman and Beauchamp is drawn the theoretical ideal of the mission of the press as expressed in liberal democratic theory. From Dunne is drawn the ethic of what working journalists on deadline in a newsroom have traditionally believed they actually should be doing. But in a postmodern era of increasing media conglomeration, infotainment, ambush interviews, subservience to the need to produce ideal demographics to advertisers, the remaking of journalists as celebrities, sources as manipulators, "news" dictated by marketing surveys, private lives as public fodder, journalists as paratroopers invading the site of a story, and entertainment masquerading as news, journalism has witnessed an increase in thoughtlessness and a decline in thoughtfulness. Some might argue that journalism has lost its traditional moral compass, that it no longer afflicts the comfortable but rather afflicts those who need comfort. It is a journalism in which Hard Copy, the National Enquirer, and Inside Edition are becoming exemplars rather than aberrations. In this journalism, critical thinking and reflection are absent. How can they be restored? This article offers criticism of journalism as a professional practice of doing rather than thinking, briefly surveys scholarship on infusing journalism curriculum with critical thinking instruction, and offers a higher standard through the notion of reflective judgment. It also makes specific recommendations for curriculum additions to increase undergraduates' performance as critical thinkers and creators of reflective judgments that help readers and viewers understand the social, cultural, economic, and political worlds they inhabit. Curriculum correctives Criticisms from various quarters impugning the abilities of the press to fulfill both theoretical and traditional roles suggest correctives of some sort are needed in the professional practice of journalism. Several correctives could be considered: (a) Adjusting journalistic practices themselves within their current social, cultural, and professional contexts; (b) Taking no action at all; (c) Abandoning the practice of journalism as a principal conduit of information to the public; and (d) Redefining the nature of journalism itself. Both reasonable and unreasonable critics of journalistic performance would undoubtedly argue that a no-action alternative is unacceptable. Yet from whatever point on the political, social, and cultural spectrum these critics flay journalistic practices and performance, the arguments would suggest that the press as currently constituted ill serves society. Surgical removal of journalism from a commingling of social practices that constitute western society and culture would also be unthinkable. The role of the press is deeply imbedded in liberal democratic theory and praxis to the extent that any such attempt would require reconstitution of relationships among those same social practices. That leaves two plausible and possible alternatives -- either adjusting journalistic practices or redefining the nature of journalism itself (The latter would require redefining the role that the press as an institution serves among other social, political, cultural, and economic institutions, to say nothing of redefining the presspublic relationship). Curriculum reform cannot be ignored in attempts to regenerate journalism as a productive means of providing information necessary and sufficient to bring the public to that point at which it may take a well-considered action or reach a sound judgment on matters of public policy. …


UNLABELLED
The isolated effects of hypothermia on hemostasis have not been investigated in healthy humans. We cooled 16 anesthetized patients scheduled for elective intracranial surgery to 32 degrees C body core temperature and assessed prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time, thrombelastogram (TEG), closure time, and platelet count at 36 degrees C, 34 degrees C, and 32 degrees C body core temperature after the induction of anesthesia but before surgical intervention. Activated partial thromboplastin time, hematocrit, and closure time did not change, whereas PT and platelet count decreased during cooling. Platelet count decreased without a decrease in hematocrit; hence, a dilution by administered fluids seemed unlikely. The small decrease of platelet count is probably clinically irrelevant in patients with normal platelet count and function. The small decrease in PT indicates an alteration of the extrinsic pathway of coagulation. TEG measurements showed a delay of clot formation in temperature-adjusted measurements but showed no change if the test temperature was 37 degrees C. This indicates that hypothermia reduces plasmatic coagulation and platelet reactivity. However, the clot strength is not altered by hypothermia. All coagulation variables remained within the normal ranges. Our results may indicate that moderate short-term (4-h) hypothermia has only minor adverse effects in healthy humans. We can make no statement about the effects of hypothermia of longer duration.

IMPLICATIONS
This study investigated the isolated effects of hypothermia in healthy anesthetized humans. We found only minor effects of body temperature reduction to 32 degrees C on assessed coagulation variables, indicating only minor effects in otherwise healthy humans.


Gray markets arise when an intermediary buys a product in a lower-priced, often emerging market and resells it to compete with the product's original manufacturer in a higher priced, more developed market. Evidence suggests that gray markets make the original manufacturer worse off globally by eroding profit margins in developed markets. Thus, it is interesting that many firms do not implement control systems to curb gray market activity. Our analysis suggests that one possible explanation lies at the intersection of two economic phenomena: firms investing to build emerging market demand, and investments conferring positive externalities (spillovers) on a rival's demand. We find that gray markets amplify the incentives to invest in emerging markets, because investments increase both emerging market consumption and the gray market's cost base. Moreover, when market-creating investments confer positive spillovers, each firm builds its own market more efficiently. Thus, firms can be better off with gray markets when investments confer spillovers, provided the spillover effect is sufficiently large. These results provide a perspective on why firms might not implement control systems to prevent gray market distribution in sectors where investment spillovers are common (e.g., the technology sector) and, more broadly, why gray markets persist in the economy.


Escherichia coli were isolated at concentrations of about 10(2)/ml from the fluid obtained after thawing each of five frozen chicken carcasses. Between 13 and 89% of the E. coli were resistant to mercury(II) or to at least one of eight antibiotics tested. Multiple resistance was more common than single resistance, and resistances to tetracycline, streptomycin, sulfathiazole, or chloramphenicol were more frequently encountered than was resistance to ampicillin or mercury(II). Resistance to kanamycin, gentamicin, or trimethoprim occurred rarely. Upwards of 30% of the E. coli apparently carried conjugative plasmids and could transfer at least one of their resistance determinants to E. coli K-12. Twenty-five conjugative R plasmids obtained in this way were characterized within strain K-12 by a variety of phenotypic criteria. Twenty could be assigned to the incompatibility groups Inc X, Inc N, Inc FI, or Inc I alpha.


For many people, Wikipedia represents one of the primary sources of knowledge about foreign cultures. Yet, different Wikipedia language editions offer different descriptions of cultural practices. Unveiling diverging representations of cultures provides an important insight, since they may foster the formation of cross-cultural stereotypes, misunderstandings and potentially even conflict. In this work, we explore to what extent the descriptions of cultural practices in various European language editions of Wikipedia differ on the example of culinary practices and propose an approach to mine cultural relations between different language communities trough their description of and interest in their own and other communities' food culture. We assess the validity of the extracted relations using 1) various external reference data sources (i.e., the European Social Survey, migration statistics), 2) crowdsourcing methods and 3) simulations.


The main objective of this paper was to compare growth traits and heterosis of body parameters of two varieties of Archachatina marginata (var. ovum and var. saturalis) and their crosses under experimental conditions. Three hundred (300) juvenile snails (Archachatina marginata), one hundred (100) each of A. marginata var. ovum, A. marginata var. saturalis and their crosses with mean body weights of 12.40 ± 0.58 g were used for the study. The snails were randomly allotted using completely randomized design into three (3) treatment varieties. Results from the study showed significant variety effect (P<0.05) on final body weight and average weight gain. The crossbred variety recorded the highest average weight gain compared to the other two varieties. No significant (P>0.05) variety effect was observed on daily weight gain, total feed intake, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio. The crossbred variety recorded the highest final body weight and final shell width, indicating heterotic effects on these two bodies and shell parameters. Significant variety effects (P<0.05) were observed on body weight, shell length and shell "mouth" length. The low heterotic values obtained for body weight and the shell parameters supported the assertion that growth traits have low heterotic values which may be due to their high heritability. Though, low and positive heterotic values were obtained for all parameters studied, the crossbred variety recorded the highest heterotic values, which indicated that it may have heterotic advantage over the purebred varieties.


Abstract Background: Studies investigating serum vaspin and adiponectin levels in patients with prolactinoma are inconclusive. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum vaspin and adiponectin levels in patients with prolactinoma and healthy controls. Methods: A total of 42 prolactinoma patients (Group 1, 21 patients; Group 2, 21 patients) and 30 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. Group 1 consisted of newly diagnosed patients who were never treated or had not received a dopamine agonist (DA) within 6 months prior to screening. Group 2 consisted of prolactinoma patients who were on DA treatment for at least 6 months at the time of screening. The control group (group 3) consisted of healthy controls. Results. Patients with prolactinoma had higher homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance and lower quantitative insulin sensitivity check index values in comparison to healthy controls (p < 0.001 for both). Serum levels of adiponectin and vaspin were also significantly lower in prolactinoma patients when compared to the control group (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). Following adjustment for confounding factors, the respective odds ratios for prolactinoma in patients in the lower subgroup compared with those in the higher subgroup for adiponectin and vaspin were 2.733 (0.621–12.035; p > 0.05) and 5.041 (1.191–21.339; p < 0.05). Conclusion: This is the first study to demonstrate the presence of low vaspin levels in patients with prolactinomas. Further studies are needed to help establish the roles of vaspin and adiponectin in prolactinoma patients.


OBJECTIVE: Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) influence immune function and inflammation; however, the influence of maternal DHA supplementation on infant morbidity is unknown. We investigated the effects of prenatal DHA supplementation on infant morbidity. METHODS: In a double-blind randomized controlled trial conducted in Mexico, pregnant women received daily supplementation with 400 mg of DHA or placebo from 18 to 22 weeks' gestation through parturition. In infants aged 1, 3, and 6 months, caregivers reported the occurrence of common illness symptoms in the preceding 15 days. RESULTS: Data were available at 1, 3, and 6 months for 849, 834, and 834 infants, respectively. The occurrence of specific illness symptoms did not differ between groups; however, the occurrence of a combined measure of cold symptoms was lower in the DHA group at 1 month (OR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.58–1.00). At 1 month, the DHA group experienced 26%, 15%, and 30% shorter duration of cough, phlegm, and wheezing, respectively, but 22% longer duration of rash (all P ≤ .01). At 3 months, infants in the DHA group spent 14% less time ill (P < .0001). At 6 months, infants in the DHA group experienced 20%, 13%, 54%, 23%, and 25% shorter duration of fever, nasal secretion, difficulty breathing, rash, and "other illness," respectively, but 74% longer duration of vomiting (all P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: DHA supplementation during pregnancy decreased the occurrence of colds in children at 1 month and influenced illness symptom duration at 1, 3, and 6 months.


1. Introduction to Supply Chain Management. Information Systems and Supply Chain Management. Inventory Management across the Supply Chain. Supply Chain Relationships. Challenges Facing Supply Chain Managers. Purpose of the Book. 2. The Role of Information Systems and Technology in Supply Chain Management. Introduction. The Importance of Information in an Integrated Supply Chain Management Environment. Interorganizational Information Systems. Information Requirements Determination for a Supply Chain IOIS. Information and Technology Applications for Supply Chain Management. Summary. 3. Managing the Flow of Materials across the Supply Chain. Introduction. Understanding Supply Chains. Reengineering Supply Chain Logistics. The Importance of Time. Performance Measurement. Summary. 4. Developing and Maintaining Supply Chain Relationships. A Conceptual Model of Alliance Development. Developing a Trusting Relationship With Partners in the Supply Chain. Resolving Conflicts in a Supply Chain Relationship. Summary. 5. Cases in Supply Chain Management. Case One Consumable Computer Supplies. Case Two Computer Hardware and Software. Case Three Upscale Men's Shoes. Case Four Biochemicals. Case Five Solectron. 6. Future Challenges in Supply Chain Management. Sharing Risks in Interorganizational Relationships. Managing the Global Supply Chain. The "Greening" of the Supply Chain. Design for Supply Chain Management. Intelligent Information Systems. When Things Go Wrong. Index.