In Malaysia, the application of various assisted reproductive technologies (ART), particularly reproductive cloning, in goat production system, is still at the infancy stage. Thus, this pioneering study was conducted with the aim to produce cloned caprine embryos through intraspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (intraspSCNT) and interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (interspSCNT) techniques using caprine ear skin fibroblast cell as donor karyoplast as well as developing a protocol for caprine SCNT (intraspSCNT and interspSCNT). The caprine intraspSCNT and interspSCNT (caprine karyoplast-bovine cytoplast) studies were carried out using caprine and bovine oocytes obtained from the abattoir-derived ovaries or via laparoscopic ovum pick-up (LOPU) technique on superstimulated does. The collected oocytes were subsequently cultured in in vitro maturation (IVM) medium according to the optimised duration. The matured oocytes were then subjected to enucleation process. This was followed by the transfer of caprine ear skin fibroblast cell into the enucleated oocytes. The couplets were electrofused and chemically activated before in vitro cultured in CO2 (5%) incubator at 38.5°C in humidified atmosphere for 8 days. The cloned blastocyst was stained with Hoechst 33342 dye for blastomere enumeration. The data were presented as mean±SEM and were analysed using one-way ANOVA. The significant differences among treatments were further analysed by DMRT and P<0.05 was considered significant.
In Experiment 1, the effect of different sources of gonadotrophin (PMSG versus pFSH) on caprine superstimulatory responses was evaluated. Both PMSG and pFSH employed in the designated regimes have relatively similar potential to stimulate caprine ovaries for oocyte retrieval via LOPU with the average oocyte yield of 11 and 12 oocytes per doe, respectively. However, the efficacy of PMSG could not surpass the pFSH, particularly when it was employed in the repeated ovarian stimulation and oocyte
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retrieval protocols. This was indicated by the lower number of oocyte yielded from PMSG treated group than pFSH (P<0.05) group at the third OR cycle.
In Experiment 2, the effect of different sources of caprine oocytes (LOPU- versus abattoir-derived ovaries) on the oocyte yield, grades and maturation performance was investigated. Oocyte retrieval from LOPU source produced better quality oocytes (Grades A and B) (39 to 40%) compared to abattoir source (18 to 32%), even though the oocyte yield was lower in LOPU. Correspondingly, caprine oocytes from LOPU gave higher maturation rate than abattoir-derived ovaries (79.6% versus 69.7%, respectively) when the optimised IVM duration was used. The optimum IVM durations for caprine oocytes retrieved from LOPU- and abattoir derived-ovaries determined in this laboratory setting were 18 to 22 hours and 22 to 26 hours, respectively.
In Experiment 3, production of cloned bovine and gaur embryos via intraspSCNT and interspSCNT approaches was carried out as a preliminary study for caprine SCNT research. Both cloned bovine and gaur embryos could be produced in vitro up to hatched blastocyst stage with no significant difference (P>0.05) in their developmental rate (18.6% and 19%, respectively).
In Experiment 4, improvement on the in vitro cloned caprine embryos production by considering the effects of maturation duration, activation treatment and in vitro culture protocol was carried out. Caprine oocytes from superstimulated does which was matured at 18 to 22 hours gave a significantly (P<0.05) higher maturation rate, enucleation rate and IVD rates (2-cell to morula stage) than oocytes which was matured at 23 to 27 hours after intraspSCNT. Both activation protocols [(7% EtOH + CD-CHX) and (CaI + 6-DMAP)] had comparable efficiency in inducing the development of caprine reconstructed embryos. KSOMaa basal medium supported the in vitro development of cloned caprine embryos better than mSOFaa in the one-step culture system as cloned blastocyst could only be developed when cultured in KSOMaa as in
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this study. Increasing glucose supplementation to 2.78 mM in KSOMaa medium at Day 2 of in vitro culture (IVC) enhanced the cloned caprine blastocyst rate (19.9%) and promoted hatching of blastocyst (15.6%).
In Experiment 5, the efficacy of producing cloned caprine embryos using intraspecies SCNT (intraspSCNT) versus interspecies SCNT (interspSCNT) approaches was evaluated. Both intraspSCNT and interspSCNT approaches enabled production of cloned caprine blastocyst with the rate of 17.3% and 8.3%, respectively. However, the efficiency of interspSCNT approach was still low compared to the intraspSCNT approach. No pregnancy was detected after the attempt of embryo transfer on the cloned caprine embryos.
In a nutshell, the present study resulted in several novel findings in Malaysia animal reproduction research scenario. This includes the success in producing cloned caprine embryos up to hatched blastocyst stage through intraspSCNT and interspSCNT (caprine karyoplast-bovine cytoplast) approaches using caprine ear skin fibroblast cell; the discovery of a new IVC system that could support the caprine embryos in vitro development to blastocyst stage (using KSOMaa at Day 0 to Day 2 and increasing the glucose supplementation to 2.78 mM in KSOMaa for Day 2 to Day 8 of in vitro culture); protocols for caprine intraspSCNT and interspSCNT were developed and could be served as references for future studies related to goat somatic cell nuclear transfer in this laboratory.


Sea level measurements from tide gauges at Miami, Florida, and Cat Cay, Bahamas, and bottom pressure measurements from a water depth of 50 meters off Jupiter, Florida, and a water depth of 10 meters off Memory Rock, Bahamas, were correlated with 81 concurrent direct volume transport observations in the Straits of Florida. Daily-averaged sea level from either gauge on the Bahamian side of the Straits was poorly correlated with transport. Bottom pressure off Jupiter had a linear coefficient of determination ofr2 = 0.93, and Miami sea level, when adjusted for weather effects, had r2 = 0.74; the standard errors of estimating transports were � 1.2 x 106 and � 1.9 x 106 cubic meters per second, respectively. A linear multivariate regression, which combined bottom pressure, weather, and the submarine cable observations between Jupiter and the Bahamas, had r2 = 0.94 with a standard error of estimating transport of � 1.1 x 106 cubic meters per second. These results suggest that a combination of easily obtained observations is sufficient to adequatelv monitor the daily volume transport fluctuations of the Florida Current.


We consider a generalization of the "dual" approach to distributional learning of contextfree grammars, where each nonterminal A is associated with a string set XA characterized by a finite set C of contexts. Rather than letting XA be the set of all strings accepted by all contexts in C as in previous works, we allow more flexible uses of the contexts in C, using some of them positively (contexts that accept the strings in XA) and others negatively (contexts that do not accept any strings in XA). The resulting more general algorithm works in essentially the same way as before, but on a larger class of context-free languages.


We have developed the double tubed coaxial line type microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) system to fabricate hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films. We have studied the influence of Ar+ ion bombardment during a-Si:H film growth and clarified that the ion bombardment causes film surface heating effect and ion implanting effect. It is not sufficient to discuss only whether films are of good quality or not, when the ion bombardment energy is increased. In this study, we show that the effect of ion bombardment can be separated into the film surface heating effect and the ion implanting effect and discuss the influence of each effect on the film properties. We also show that the film surface temperature can be expressed as a function of the sheath voltage. It is clarified that a film with low dangling bond density can be fabricated at low temperatures if there is no ion bombardment.


AbstractThis article explores the influence of Spinozism on the deep ecology movement (DEM) and on new materialism. It questions the stance of supporters of the DEM because their ecosophies unwittingly anthropomorphise the more-than-human-world. It suggests that instead of humanising the 'natural' world, morality should be naturalised, that is, that the object of human expression of ethics should be the more-than-human world. Moreover, the article discusses Deleuze's Spinozism that informs new materialism and argues that stripping the human of its ontological privilege does not deprive the human animal from its ethico-normative distinctiveness. Implications of the discussion for an education aimed at cultivating (post)human sensibilities are explored.


Atheromatous emboli to the small vessels of the feet usually cause painful, cyanotic areas on the distal portions of the extremity. Complete resolution of the symptoms is the rule, and recurrent episodes are common. Atheromatous emboli to the major vessels of the leg often cannot be distinguished from emboli originating from other sources, unless characteristic gross or microscopic features are present in the embolous material. If the embolus contains atheromatous debris or if the origin is uncertain, aortic arteriograms are indicated to determine if an ulcerated lesion may have been the source. Apparently, two mechanisms of embolization exist; they are fragmentation with distal embolization of atheromatous material and embolization of plateletfibrin thrombus material from ulcerated plaques. Endarterectomy of the involved segment of aorta has been uniformly successful in preventing recurrent episodes of embolization.


SUMMARY: Washed suspensions of Entodinium caudatum grown in vitro and incubated anaerobically in the presence of penicillin and neomycin for up to 6 hr incorporated 14C-adenine, guanine and uracil into the cell. The 14C was distributed between the cell pool of the protozoa and the nucleic acid. 14C-Thymine was incorporated only into the pool. There was some interconversion of the nucleic acid bases: guanine was converted to adenine and uracil to cytosine. Adenine and guanine were broken down in the medium to a mixture of hypoxanthine and xanthine, and uracil and thymine were reduced to their dihydro-derivatives. E. caudatum suspensions also incorporated purine and pyrimidine bases, ribose and phosphate from bacterial nucleic acid into protozoal nucleic acid and evidence was obtained that the former was degraded as far as individual nucleotides before incorporation into the latter. No evidence was obtained for the synthesis of protozoal ribose from other carbohydrates.


The influence of Cd molar fraction on the terahertz generation from Zn1-xCdxTe has been studied. The optimal Cd compositions have been obtained as x=0.10 at lambda=820 nm and x=0.65 at lambda=850 nm.


We thank you for the opportunity to respond to the comments made by Ware et al. (2014) on our recently published article "The Need for Human Breast Cancer Resistance Protein Substrate and Inhibition Evaluation in Drug Discovery and Development: Why, When, and How?" (Poirier et al., 2014). The relevance of breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) in drug discovery and development is clearly an important topic and we are pleased to see that our article raises further interest and discussion. In our article, we primarily focused on a number of key aspects around the in vitro assessment of BCRP interactions (substrate and inhibition), supported by our own data. In the Discussion, we then aimed to put the in vitro results into context with in vivo data for BCRPmediated interactions. For the latter purpose, an extensive survey of the literature was conducted and the relevant information currently available for BCRP-mediated interactions was summarized in our Table 1 (Poirier et al, 2014). It should be noted that in addition to sulfasalazine, we reviewed 13 other BCRP substrates to put the in vitro BCRP results into context and to see an overall picture of its clinical relevance—the main focus of our article. Furthermore, we wanted to highlight that BCRPmediated drug-drug interactions (DDIs), as for other transporters, can rarely be tracked to a single mechanism; they are often confounded by multiple interactions with other transporters and/or drug-metabolizing enzymes. This is a common paradigm in the scientific/drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics community. We acknowledge the specific points raised by Ware et al. (2014) concerning BCRP-sulfasalazine interaction studies and regret if our article might furnish the impression that sulfasalazine may not be a suitable substrate for in vivo DDI studies for BCRP inhibition. This was not our intention, nor did we make such concrete statements in our article. Furthermore, we had cited all of the relevant references concerned with sulfasalazine, including the references cited by Ware et al. (2014). In our Table 1 (Poirier et al., 2014), we indicated that the range for the sulfasalazine area under the curve changes from ,2to 4-fold for pharmacogenetic studies and up to 3.2-fold for DDI studies. We discussed the diverging (animal to human) and partly controversial data of sulfasalazine interactions with cautiousness and without making firm recommendations, stating that "It might therefore be a possibility that the mechanism of the sulfasalazine/curcumin interaction is not only an inhibition of BCRP but also an inhibition of the bacterial degradation of sulfasalazine in the intestine." This sentence was only partly cited by Ware et al. (2014); by omitting the first part of the sentence, a wrong impression might be given. On the basis of the current scientific knowledge, final answers and recommendations about the conduct and extrapolation of BCRP inhibition data are difficult to give. This was likewise not the intention of our article, in which we discussed BCRP-mediated transport assessment in drug development through new in vitro results as well as relevant published clinical studies. In agreement with Ware et al. (2014), we recommend integrated, case-by-case approaches for BCRP evaluation, using all preclinical and clinical tools available.


This study employed stated-preference methods to elicit individuals' program participation preference towards different financial incentive attributes. The results of this study show promise for the use of carefully designed incentive programs to raise participation in weight loss programs. Results show that a fungible payment form is important for the incentive to be effective in reach (i.e., cash and grocery gift-cards are preferred over gym passes and waivers of insurance co-payments). Furthermore, immediate payment is preferred over delayed payment.


Narrowband emitter identification is used to correctly identify unknown narrowband emitters from the results of direction finding (DF). In this paper, we modeled the set of azimuth angles by a mixture of Gaussian densities, and divided narrowband emitter identification into two different stages. In the first stage, a competitive stop expectation-maximization (CSEM) algorithm was developed, which was based on Shapiro-Wilk test and minimum description length variant (MDL2) criterion. The CSEM only employed the estimated azimuth angles at all the signal-occupied frequency bins as feature parameters, while the frequency information implied in each cluster was not exploited sufficiently. So based on the implied frequency information, a postprocessing algorithm was introduced in the second stage. The experimental results show that the CSEM algorithm is more robust, and it has an increased capability to find the underlying model while maintaining a low execution time. By adopting CSEM and postprocessing algorithm in narrowband emitter identification, we are able to identify narrowband emitters with high correctness.


The paper presents the implementation of a quantum cryptography protocol for secure communication between servers in the cloud. As computing power increases, classical cryptography and key management schemes based on computational complexity become increasingly susceptible to brute force and cryptanalytic attacks. Current implementations of quantum cryptography are based on the BB84 protocol, which is susceptible to siphoning attacks on the multiple photons emitted by practical laser sources. The three-stage protocol, whose implementation is described in this paper, is a departure from conventional practice and it obviates some of the known vulnerabilities of the current implementations of quantum cryptography. This paper presents an implementation of the three-stage quantum communication protocol in free-space. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first implementation of a quantum protocol where multiple photons can be used for secure communication.


Many domain adaptation methods are based on learning a projection or a transformation of the source and target domains to a common domain and training a classifier there, while the performance of such algorithms has not been theoretically studied yet. Previous studies proposing generalization bounds for domain adaptation relate the target loss to the discrepancy between the source and target distributions, however, do not take into account the possible effects of learning a transformation between the two domains. In this work, we present generalization bounds that study the target performance of domain adaptation methods learning a transformation of the source and target domains along with a hypothesis. We show that, under some conditions on the loss regularity, if the domain transformations reduce the distribution distance at a sufficiently high rate, then the expected target loss can be bounded with probability improving at an exponential rate with the number of labeled samples.


English speaking is an important skill for students; however, many English majors at universities in Vietnam in general and non-majors in particular have problems in speaking English. Therefore, the aim of the research is to improve English speaking performance for non-English majors by organizing activities for students to design posters and speaking based on the posters that have been designed. The specific objectives are to investigate the current situation of speaking performance among non-English majors at Thai Nguyen University of Education as well as organize activities for students to design posters and speak based on the designed posters, and then evaluate the impacts of posters-based speaking activities on the speaking performance of non-English majors. To conduct the study, a mixed method research design, which combines qualitative method and quantitative methods, was used along with the survey. There were all 20 non-English majors from Maths class at Thai Nguyen University of Education, who were invited to take part in the research. All of these students were required to take part in the speaking pre-test and post-test as well as pre- and post-questionnaire about their opinions of using poster designing activities. The results show that designing posters plays a significant role in improving and enhancing English speaking performance for non-English majors. Students' feedback concerning the use of posters designed in speaking classes are, in general, also quite optimistic. Besides, the research proposes some suggestions for minimizing the drawbacks of using posters designing activities to enhance the potentiality of this method and make it more interesting, meaningful and effective.


Motivated by the need to address the challenges of global climate change, this paper develops and implements a project-based life-cycle framework that can be used to estimate the carbon footprint for typical construction work items found in reconstruction, rehabilitation, and capital preventive maintenance projects. Through applying existing life-cycle assessment methods and inventories, the proposed framework considers the life-cycle emissions of products and processes involved in the raw material acquisition and manufacturing phase and in the pavement construction phase. The framework also estimates emissions from vehicular use and maintenance operations during the service life of the pavement. The Project Emission Estimator (PE-2), a web-based tool that implements the project-based life-cycle framework, can be used to benchmark the carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint of highway construction projects. This paper suggests ways contractors and state transportation agencies can implement the PE-2 to benchmark and help reduce the CO2 footprints of highway construction projects.


We have measured the blood flow to skin and muscle in normal subjects, asymptomatic dialysis patients, and dialysis patients, and dialysis patients who complained of cold hands (symptomatic patients) in whom a radiocephalic fistula had been constructed. Mean skin blood flow in asymptomatic dialysis patients was identical to that in normal subjects. Skin blood flow in the fistula hand of symptomatic dialysis patients was greatly reduced but it was normal in the contralateral hand. Muscle blood flow at rest was lower in dialysis patients than in normal subjects, but was reduced still further in the fistula hand of symptomatic patients. Muscle hyperaemia in response to exercise was greatly impaired in the fistula hands of all patients, irrespective of symptoms. The haemodynamic consequences of arteriovenous fistulae may be a cause of pain, paraesthesiae, muscle wasting or claudication in dialysis patients.


Cryan et al. used mice deficient for the norepinephrine (and epinephrine) biosynthetic enzyme dopamine β-hydroxylase (Dbh—/—) to determine that the acute behavioral effects of different classes of antidepressants were dependent on norepinephrine and not only on changes in serotonergic or dopaminergic signaling. Drugs that were not selective but inhibited the reuptake or metabolism of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine were effective in heterozygous littermates, but not in Dbh—/— mice, at decreasing immobility in the tail suspension test, an assay for the acute effects of antidepressant drugs. Two of the three drugs in the serotonin selective reuptake class were not effective in decreasing immobility in the tail suspension test in Dbh—/— mice. Only citalopram, which is the most selective and does not increase norepinephrine concentrations in vivo, was effective in the Dbh—/— mice. Restoration of norepinephrine by administration of the precursor L-threo-3,4-dihydroxyphenylserine (L-DOPS) restored responsiveness to norepinephrine selective reuptake inhibitors and the serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors. Thus, most antidepressants appear to have a requirement for noradrenergic signaling, with the exception of citalopram, which appears to bypass this requirement. J. F. Cryan, O. F. O'Leary, S.-H. Jin, J. C. Friedland, M. Ouyang, B. R. Hirsch, M. E. Page, A. Dalvi, S. A. Thomas, I. Lucki, Norepinephrine-deficient mice lack responses to antidepressant drugs, including serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101, 8186-8191 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Neonatal handling is an experimental paradigm for early experiences. It affects the programming of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function, known to be sexually dimorphic. Recently leptin, a hormone related to energy balance and secreted mainly by adipocytes, has been implicated in the stress response. We thus determined the effect of neonatal handling on plasma concentrations of corticosterone and leptin of male and female rats under basal conditions and after two consecutive chronic stressors: chronic forced swimming stress and chronic restraint. Handling resulted in lower basal corticosterone levels in both males and females and in a more efficient HPA response, with a large corticosterone surge following the first chronic stressor and a return to basal levels following the second. Handling also resulted in decreased plasma leptin concentrations in males, thus abolishing the sex difference in leptin levels. Furthermore, handling increased body weight while it decreased food intake under basal conditions. Food intake and body weight gain during chronic forced swimming was lower in handled than in non-handled males, while in females these parameters were not influenced by handling. In both males and females, handling resulted in decreased food intake and increased body weight loss during chronic restraint stress. Body weight loss during chronic restraint stress, which is considered an index of maladaptation and 'depression', was particularly pronounced in the handled females. Our results also showed that non-handled females had higher corticosterone and lower leptin levels than males under basal conditions and following each of the two chronic stressors. The present work suggests that early experiences, such as the mother–infant relationship, interact with endogenous factors, such as gonadal hormones, to determine the organism's response to stressful stimuli during adulthood.


To promote cultural understanding, the authors attempted to discover how Taiwanese students develop digital stories, personal narratives told through words and images in response to quests to find artwork within the virtual world of Second Life [SL]. The undergraduate one-semester course occurred in Chiayi, Taiwan, in "real life," or life as we usually experience it, face-to-face. Through participant observation, the authors planned, taught, documented, analyzed, and interpreted results of the digital storytelling project. Participant observation in the virtual context included gathering data to identify themes that students used frequently within the stories, interpreting the stories, and determining implications. In the beginning, the undergraduate stories were mostly travelogues and some animal transformations. Frequent themes in Taiwanese undergraduates' digital stories were identified, including such descriptors as "lonely," "funny," and "dream." These psychological transformative themes revealed students' real-life concerns of finding a purpose in life, alleviating loneliness, overcoming fear of the unknown, raising awareness of social enterprises, and struggling to survive in a competitive environment. Implications call for collaboration and social action in negotiating multiple perspectives, respecting and embracing diverse or contrary opinions, creating double entendre examples, and delving deeper into the historical roots of cultural practices.


This paper presents a novel method of employing "smart objects" for problem solving in virtual environments. Smart objects were primarily used for behavioral animation in the past. The paper demonstrates how to use them for AI and planning purposes as well. We formally define which operations can be performed on a smart object in terms of their requirements and their effects. A planner uses this information to determine the correct sequence of actions needed to achieve a goal. This approach enables intelligent agents to solve problems requiring a collaboration of several agents and complex interactions with objects.


Archaeological excavations were undertaken in June and July 1996 on the site of the proposed A15 Werrington to Glinton Bypass by the Archaeological Field Unit, Cambridgeshire County Council. These excavations were funded by WS Atkins Consultants on behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council's Environment and Transportation Department. The 1996 excavations followed archaeological evaluation of the site in 1994 which revealed domestic and agricultural features dating to the Roman period. Excavations recovered further evidence of several phases of Romano-British settlement and exploitation at this important Fen edge location.

The earliest cut feature on the site is a Romano-British enclosure dating to the 1st century AD. This enclosure is similar to other rural settlement sites recovered within the Lower Welland Valley area and provides further evidence for a pastoral exploitation of this area based on small, enclosed farmsteads. During the late 1st to late 2nd centuries the construction of a larger enclosure ditch along the same eastern boundary, indicates redefinition of the site but with the concentration of settlement activity remaining to the west of the excavated area. Within the excavated area there is no evidence of continuity from the Iron Age into these earliest Roman phases, however two Iron Age /Romano British Brooches recovered from in the fills of later contexts and possibly indicative of the curation of artefacts and the presence of Iron Age activity within close proximity.

The late 2nd and early 3rd centuries of Romano-British activity saw the imposition of a complex system of land division across the site related to Roman development of the Fens at this date and to the construction of The Carr Dyke 1.8 km to the east of the Glinton site. The construction of The Carr Dyke cut off Fen edge settlements from upland resources, and the animal remains at Glinton during this phase reflects a change away from a pastoral dominated economy to an arable system. Spruce pollen recovered from this phases also indicates introduction of this tree into the Fens at this period possibly in connection with attempts to colonise the Fen edge.

Following from these Fen edge developments, the main phase of Romano-British activity at the Glinton bypass dates to the 3rd century. A stone lined well was constructed within an area of structure related gullies in the central area of the excavation, whilst further construction gullies were recovered in the north west corner of the site and a large midden area occupied the northern area. This midden provided evidence for large-scale crop processing suggestive of arable production for exportation. This important evidence supports the idea of a hierarchy of specialised consumer/producer sites both within the Welland Valley area, which perhaps incorporated more distant sites such as Durobrivae and Stonea Camp. There is however no evidence for the importation of higher status goods onto the site, and the ceramic assemblage continues to be dominated by local domestic wares.

Cessation of settlement across the site occurred in the late 3rd century AD although midden material continued to accumulate for a short period indicating continued secondary crop processing within the vicinity prior to the complete cessation of activity. This collapse is related to changing environmental and organisational conditions within the region at the end of the 3rd century

During the medieval period the area formed part of the open fields of Glinton and this phase is represented on the site by medieval ridge and furrow running east west across the site.


A new kind of 3(n) feed-forward programmable optical fiber true delay line was proposed. Theoretical analysis was presented on its delay performance and expandability. Experimental demonstration was given to show the implementation of such delay lines using SOAs and Farady rotation mirrors. Delay step as small as 0.5 ps with precision of about 0.03 ps was achieved. Measurement was performed to verify the feasibility and results are given.


Virtually all malignant gliomas become drug-resistant and recur after initial treatment, recurrent tumors are fatal within two-years, and no therapies exist that cure gliomas. The recognition that subpopulations of primitive cells with an oligodendrocyte precursor-like (OPC-like) phenotype capable of resisting standard therapy and contributing to recurrence, frames the question of whether adjuvant therapies designed to modify or eliminate OPC-like cells could slow the progression of glioma. Agents that force the differentiation of treatment-resistant OPC-like glioma cells, a phenomenon that requires cessation of proliferation, are compelling candidates for targeting OPC-like GSCs. Recently, it was observed that OPC proliferation was driven by activation of the M1, M3 and M4 muscarinic receptors. In another report, a large-scale drug screen designed to seek drugs to induce OPC differentiation in the context of multiple sclerosis identified a muscarinic receptor antagonist, benztropine (a.k.a. Cogentin), as a promoter of OPC differentiation and cell cycle exit. We have conducted studies in glioma cell lines supporting a role for benztropine in suppressing the development of drug-resistance to the standard glioma chemo-therapeutic temozolomide (TMZ). Upon treatment with TMZ, we identified the emergence of an OPC-like subpopulation of glioma cells identifiable by the co-expression of CD44, CD15 and PDGFRa. Treatment with pre-inhibitory doses of benztropine significantly reduced the TMZ IC50 in all glioma lines examined in association with blocking emergence of the CD44/CD15/PDGFR-positive subpopulation. Ongoing studies are designed to determine the tumor initiating potential of the CD44/CD15/PDGFR-positive subpopulation and whether benztropine will suppress the development of TMZ resistance in animal models of glioma. Citation Format: Damian A. Almiron Bonnin, Joseph M. Howard, Alison L. Young, Mark A. Israel, Matthew C. Havrda. The muscarinic receptor antagonist, benztropine, blocks the expansion of a temozolomide resistant subpopulation of glioma cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2047. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-2047


Serological studies in 110 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have shown that autoantibodies to DNA and RNA had subspecificity to adenosine (30.9%), cytidine (79%), guanosine (44.5%), thymidine (20%) and uracil (56.3%). It was also observed that DNA antibodies are heterogenous and that antibody with specificity for both the native confirmation as well as exposed nucleoside of the denatured molecule were present in sera of most of the patients with SLE. There was also alteration in the pattern of antibody to nucleoside in some patients who were treated with steroids or immunosuppressive drugs.


In recent years, it has gradually become popular to use discrete-event simulation as a tool for analyzing the hardware architecture of shared-memory multiprocessors. A complete and detailed machine simulation environment can be utilized to evaluate the performance of a completed prototype hardware architecture in an operating system and application software. This paper describes the development, operation, and future development of a parallel machine simulation environment which has the ability to execute programs. At present, a shared-memory multiprocessor simulator has been developed that can execute 80x86 programs. On the other hand, we have focused on parallel discrete-event simulation to reduce the simulation time. The simulator works through Ethernet to connect multiple workstations to solve problems. Some workstations are used for calculations while the others are used for memory management. Thus, it is easy to get a parallel machine simulation environment. This simulator can provide an environment which can be used to execute application programs, and to simulate different system architectures by adjusting parameters. In addition it can calculate the run time for an application program so as to evaluate the possibility of executing the application program in a real system. The source code for the simulator can be downloaded from ftp://loon.cs. tku.edu.tw/pub/86sim.tgz.


Clustering techniques have been used by many intelligent software agents in order to retrieve, filter, and categorize documents available on the World Wide Web. Clustering is also useful in extracting salient features of related web documents to automatically formulate queries and search for other similar documents on the Web. Traditional clustering algorithms either use a priori knowledge of document structures to define a distance or similarity among these documents, or use probabilistic techniques such as Bayesian classification. Many of these traditional algorithms, however, falter when the dimensionality of the feature space becomes high relative to the size of the document space. In this paper, we introduce two new clustering algorithms that can effectively cluster documents, even in the presence of a very high dimensional feature space. These clustering techniques which are based on generalizations of graph partitioning, do not require pre-specified ad hoc distance functions, and are capable of automatically discovering document similarities or associations. We conduct several experiments on real Web data using various feature selection heuristics, and compare our clustering schemes to standard distance-based techniques, such as hierarchical agglomeration clustering, and Bayesian classification methods, AutoClass.


OBJECTIVE
To present the common features of periocular tinea to aid physicians in future diagnosis and therapy of this condition, because superficial fungal infections on the face are often misdiagnosed owing to the diverse morphologies that they manifest. This is especially true of dermatophytoses involving the periocular region.

METHODS
A retrospective review was performed of patients with a diagnosis of periocular tinea who were seen between January 2003 and September 2009 in the pediatric dermatology clinic at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

RESULTS
Ten cases of periocular tinea were identified (6 male patients and 4 female patients). Common features included prolonged misdiagnosis (all 10 cases), a normal ophthalmologic examination (all 10 cases), and inappropriate corticosteroid application (7 cases). Loss of the eyelashes occurred in all 10 patients. No cases had evidence of other tinea infections on examination. Only 2 cases had the central clearing classically associated with tinea corporis. Seven patients had a potassium hydroxide preparation and/or culture positive for fungal elements. Lesions improved with topical and oral antifungal treatment in all cases, and patients were able to regrow their eyelashes.

CONCLUSION
Periocular tinea should be considered in the differential diagnosis for periocular inflammation, especially in those patients refractory to therapy for more common conditions. Loss of the eyelashes is characteristic of these fungal infections, similar to the hair loss that occurs in kerions associated with tinea capitis.


Blockchain technology is reshaping the video streaming industry by changing how humans create, distribute and consume videos. Leveraging blockchain technology, some emerging video streaming platforms aim to eliminate the centralized video streaming servers by building peer-to-peer content distribution architectures and cryptocurrency-based payment systems. On these blockchain-based platforms, the source video streams are required to be transcoded into multiple versions to meet heterogeneous user demands, which is a computationally intensive and energy consuming process. Meanwhile, the block size of the blockchain has significant impacts on the performance of blockchain-based video streaming systems. In this article, we propose a novel MEC-enabled transcoding framework for blockchain-based video streaming while an adaptive block size scheme is designed for the underlying blockchains. The system architecture of the proposed framework is presented to enable coordination of different aspects. Then we address the video transcoding and block size issues by using the ADMM method, and smart contract is used to facilitate distributed optimization among non-trusting entities. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed framework.


Author(s): Morriss-Andrews, Herbert Alexander | Advisor(s): Shea, Joan-Emma | Abstract: Protein aggregation involves self-assembly of normally soluble proteins or peptides into supramolecular structures. This process is particularly important due to its involvement in several amyloid diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Type II diabetes. Several fibrillization mechanisms have been proposed, including a condensation-ordering mechanism where ordered fibril structures emerge from disordered oligomers and a dock-lock mechanism where a growing fibril induces attached polypeptides to organize individually into fibril-compatible conformations.We present a series of computational studies using a coarse-grained peptide aggregate model that exhibits a rich diversity of structures: amorphous/disordered aggregates, beta-barrels, multi-layered fibrils, and aggregates of mixed type. Our model has a tunable backbone stiffness that governs the propensity to form fibrils in bulk solution. In this work, we investigate how this beta-sheet propensity couples with the properties of a surface template to influence the mechanism of aggregation. Here, we focus on peptide aggregation in the presence of three templates: a solid surface, the surface of a pre-existing aggregate seed, and a lipid bilayer. Aggregation on solid hydrophilic or hydrophobic surfaces frequently occurs in many experimental setups. We find that the solid surface strongly biases toward the formation of fibrillar aggregates. Peptide-peptide interactions and surface attraction couple cooperatively on a solid surface to influence the binding/aggregation transition. Aggregation and binding occur almost simultaneously since the surface's crystal symmetry enforces a preferred direction of bound fibril growth, thus accelerating the process.Seeding peptides with compatible aggregates removes the nucleation barrier for aggregation. We find that the aggregation mechanism is strongly dependent on the beta-sheet propensity of both the seed and bulk peptides. Additionally, bulk peptides that exhibit polymorphism can have multiple pathways to aggregation depending on which class of aggregate they initially form. We find that a fibrillar seed can induce amorphous-prone peptides into fibrillar structures via a condensation-ordering mechanism, thus sequestering potentially cytotoxic oligomers into a more inert form.We simulate aggregation on lipid bilayers in an effort to approximate the complexity of the cellular milieu. While aggregation in vivo would occur in the presence of membrane surfaces, few simulation studies have been conducted on this combined system due to its computational complexity. We have determined that a membrane surface, like a crystal surface, biases toward fibrillar aggregates. However, membrane undulations disturb multi-layered fibrils into non-planar beta-sheet structures, such as beta-barrels. The presence of fibrils on the membrane also affects its fluid properties, creating a hexagonally packed lipid ordering underneath the fibrils, locally increasing its bending modulus and aligning lipid tilt to the orientation of the peptides. Thus peptide aggregation and membrane fluidity affect each other's structure and dynamics.The key general features of a surface that control its modulation of peptide aggregation are its structural order and fluidity. An ordered, rigid template biases more strongly toward fibrillar structures and restricts the set of aggregation pathways and morphologies. The dynamic nature of a fluid surface biases less toward fibrils and enhances the range of aggregation dynamics.


We analyze if female athletes differ from male athletes in their competitive behavior, using data from high jump and pole vault competitions. We estimate if female athletes use risky strategies as often as male athletes and whether or not their returns to risky strategies differ. Returns to risky strategies are identified via an instrumental variable approach where we use other athletes' declarations as instruments for individual risk taking. We find that women use risky strategies less often than men, although their returns are significantly greater than men's. We also find that women's returns to risky strategies do not differ between relatively low and relatively high risk situations, whereas male athletes' returns decrease in the level of risk. Our results show considerable differences between male and female professional athletes which are likely to be a lower bound of overall gender differences in risk-taking behavior.


There is presented an experience of the examination of 517 cases including sportsmen and ballet dancers, 15-45 olds, suffering from low back pain syndrome. 265 patients were diagnosed with osteochondrosis, 105 cases--with spondylolis, 92--with facet syndrome, and 55 cases--with pelvic ligaments ligamentopathia. Based upon the analysis of the results of examination diagnostic algorithm and differential diagnostics of these diseases were developed. The use of the proposed algorithm in patients with dissimilar variants of low back pain syndrome showed its informational content. It permits to make a right diagnosis and apply an adequate therapeutic approach.


Speech intelligibility is a crucial element in oral communication that can be influenced by multiple elements, such as noise, channel characteristics, or speech disorders. In this paper, we address the task of speech intelligibility classification (SIC) in this last circumstance. Taking our previous works, a SIC system based on an attentional long short-term memory (LSTM) network, as a starting point, we deal with the problem of the inadequate learning of the attention weights due to training data scarcity. For overcoming this issue, the main contribution of this paper is a novel type of weighted pooling (WP) mechanism, called saliency pooling where the WP weights are not automatically learned during the training process of the network, but are obtained from an external source of information, the Kalinli's auditory saliency model. In this way, it is intended to take advantage of the apparent symmetry between the human auditory attention mechanism and the attentional models integrated into deep learning networks. The developed systems are assessed on the UA-speech dataset that comprises speech uttered by subjects with several dysarthria levels. Results show that all the systems with saliency pooling significantly outperform a reference support vector machine (SVM)-based system and LSTM-based systems with mean pooling and attention pooling, suggesting that Kalinli's saliency can be successfully incorporated into the LSTM architecture as an external cue for the estimation of the speech intelligibility level.


A Comparison of Typically Developing and Developmentally Delayed Threeand FourYear Olds on Imitation and Emulation in Two Testing Conditions: Immediate and Delayed Amanda Charlene Philp Two testing conditions (immediate and delayed) were used to test for the presence of imitation and emulation in typically developing and developmentally delayed children, including children with autism spectrum disorder, ranging in age from 2.8-years old and 4.0-years old, in two experiments, Experiment I (n=20), Experiment II (n=30). Using a mixed within-between design, I compared the performance of the two groups across various tasks in two testing conditions and analyzed their performance. The participants were selected because they fit the criteria of 1) being between the age of 2.5 and 4 years of age at the onset of the study, 2) had gross motor and generalized imitation in repertoire, and 3) observational learning was present. The independent variable was the test interval in both experiments across both testing conditions, immediate and delayed. The dependent variables were the unconsequated responses during the test interval (Experiment I and II). The embedded dependent variable in Experiment II was the number of 5s intervals participants interacted with a puzzle box in the free play setting. Responses were defined as imitation (copy the specific actions with point-to-point correspondence), or emulation (bring about the model's goal by the observer's own methods and means, no point-to-point correspondence but same end result). In the first experiment I found that although typically developing preschoolers often imitate in the short term, they were more likely to emulate in the long term when not shown again how to use the items. In contrast the participants with autism spectrum disorder were more likely to imitate across both testing conditions. My findings support evidence that typically developing children naturally shift from imitation to emulation and that children are in fact emulators in contrast to research that suggests otherwise. For those children with autism, Experiment I, supports evidence that they are potentially missing a developmental cusp (emulation). Experiment II sought to replicate the findings in Experiment I and differed in that 1) more tasks were added, 2) more participants were used, and 2) a free play observation session was added. The results from Experiment II supported the results from Experiment I, in that, all participants (typically developing and those with autism) were more likely to imitate in the short-term immediate testing condition; however, typically developing children naturally shifted to an emulative response given a delay, whereas, those children with autism continued to emit imitative behaviors given a delay, signifying that children with autism are missing the developmental cusp of emulation. The findings support the notion that emulation is a developmental cusp and that children with autism often are missing this developmental cusp.


Soil microorganisms often play a strong ecological and economic role in agricultural production systems. In this study the agro-biological response to inoculation or co-inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), rhizobacteria (Azospirillum brasilense, Ab), and reduced dose of inorganic fertilizer (IF) on maize (Zea mays L.) crop was evaluated under f ield conditions. This study was conducted within the experimental f ield La Bandera in the municipality of Actopan, Veracruz, Mexico, property of the School of Agricultural Science, Universidad Veracruzana, Campus Xalapa (FCA-UV). The evaluated treatments were: T1: (Traditional management of the producer (control group), TM) with total inorganic fertilization (100% IF); T2: (inoculation of the AMF); T3: (inoculation of Ab); T4: (co-inoculation of AMF + Ab); T5: (inoculation of AMF + 50% IF); T6: (inoculation of Ab + 50% IF); and T7: (co-inoculation of AMF + Ab + 50% IF), analyzing plant height (cm), length and width of the flag leaf (cm), stem diameter (mm), arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization percentage, colony forming units (CFU) and total maize grain production (kg). These variables were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the post-hoc Fisher's Least Signif icant Difference (LSD) test with a signif icance level of 5% (α = 0.05) for comparison of means. The results indicated signif icant differences between the treatments (Fisher's LSD, P ≤ 0.05) for height, flag leaf length and width with increments of 75.59, 75.43, and 28.68% in the AMF + Ab + 50% IF treatment compared to the control group. For stem diameter (44.73%) and grain weight (74.21%), the Ab + 50% IF treatment showed increased presence of CFU·mL-1 (198). The positive interactions between AMF and Ab had a higher percentage of mycorrhizal colonization (62.7%) compared to the other treatments. The best results were observed in the majority of the variables evaluated where these microorganisms interacted in reduced fertilization dose (AMF + Ab + 50% IF).


Many medical schools struggle to identify an appropriate system to award faculty rank to non-tenured physician faculty. A key element needs to be balanced recognition of teaching and scholarly activities. At the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM), clinical teaching is accomplished predominantly by volunteer physician faculty whose major responsibilities are patient care and teaching. In addition to our system for awarding rank to faculty in a tenure track, NEOUCOM devised a system for awarding faculty rank to volunteer, non-tenure physician faculty that equitably recognizes teaching, service, and scholarly activity with assigned "units" of accomplishment for each criterion. We now have an effective two-track system for our non-tenure physician faculty that objectively assesses and recognizes academic productivity in all three areas and standardizes requirements for promotion. This paper discusses 3 years of experience with this two-track system and its effect on the rank of physician faculty in the Department of Family Medicine.


It is required of sand casting magnesium used for aircraft industry to be, among others, increasingly creep-resisting. This paper describes microstructure and properties of chosen magnesium sand casting alloys, intended for usage at ambient and elevated temperature. The first part describes the most popular magnesium alloy Mg-9Al-1Zn (AZ91), which, due to the presence of Mg17Al12 phase in its structure, can be used only up to the temperature of ~120°C. The second part describes Mg-5Y-4RE-Zr (WE54) alloy, which can be used at the temperature of up to ~250°C. Unfortunately, its usage is very limited due to high price. The third part characterizes Mg-3Nd-1Gd-Zr (EV31A) alloy, which has properties similar to Mg-5Y-4RE-Zr alloy, but lower price. This paper also discusses the potential applications of these alloys.


: Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) seems to be less frequent and to play a lesser role in the death of cirrhotic patients than previously acknowledged. The purpose of this work was: 1) to study the cause of death of cirrhotic patients 2) to determine the prevalence of AH among these patients and 3) to describe the clinical and laboratory features of cirrhotic patients with AH. The data were collected from a series of 107 necropsies in cirrhotic patients without hepatocellular carcinoma. The statistical analyses were carried out with an IRIS 80 computer. Severe liver failure with jaundice and encephalopathy, hemorrhage and uncontrolled infection with septic shock represented 84 p. 100 of the causes of death in patients with cirrhosis. Seventy-nine out of 107 patients (74 p. 100) had no AH (group 1), and 28 (26 p. 100) had AH (group 2): AH was mild in 15 cases and severe in 13 cases. All patients with AH died from a complication directly related to their liver disease while 21.5 p. 100 of patients without AH died from a complication not related to cirrhosis. The clinical and laboratory features of the patients without AH and cirrhosis differed from those of patients without AH by: a more frequent presence of fever (p less than 0.01), the absence of important weight loss (p less than 0.001), the total absence of abstinence (p less than 0.05), a higher value of ASAT/ALAT ratio, of serum levels of total bilirubin (p less than 0.01) and conjugated bilirubin (p less than 0.05), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (p less than 0.001) and total cholesterol (p less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Simple Summary Advanced image analysis, specifically radiomics, has been recognized as a potential source of biomarkers for cancers. However, there are challenges to its application in the clinic, such as proper description of diseases where multiple lesions coexist. In this study, we aimed to characterize the intra-tumor heterogeneity of metastatic prostate cancer using an innovative approach. This approach consisted of a transformation method to build a radiomic profile of lesions extracted from [18F]FMCH PET/CT images, a qualitative assessment of intra-tumor heterogeneity of patients, and a quantitative representation of the intra-tumor heterogeneity of patients in terms of the relationship between their lesions' profiles. We found that metastatic prostate cancer patients had lesions with different radiomic profiles that exhibited intra-tumor radiomic heterogeneity and that the presence of many radiomic profiles within the same patient impacted the outcome. Abstract Advanced image analysis, including radiomics, has recently acquired recognition as a source of biomarkers, although there are some technical and methodological challenges to face for its application in the clinic. Among others, proper phenotyping of metastatic or systemic disease where multiple lesions coexist is an issue, since each lesion contributes to characterization of the disease. Therefore, the radiomic profile of each lesion should be modeled into a more complex architecture able to reproduce each "unit" (lesion) as a part of the "entire" (patient). This work aimed to characterize intra-tumor heterogeneity underpinning metastatic prostate cancer using an exhaustive innovative approach which consist of a i) feature transformation method to build an agnostic (i.e., irrespective of pre-existence knowledge, experience, and expertise) radiomic profile of lesions extracted from [18F]FMCH PET/CT, ii) qualitative assessment of intra-tumor heterogeneity of patients, iii) quantitative representation of the intra-tumor heterogeneity of patients in terms of the relationship between their lesions' profiles, to be associated with prognostic factors. We confirmed that metastatic prostate cancer patients encompassed lesions with different radiomic profiles that exhibited intra-tumor radiomic heterogeneity and that the presence of many radiomic profiles within the same patient impacted the outcome.


This paper presents the methodology to analyze flow duration characteristics and performance prediction technique for small hydro power(SHP) Plants and its application. The flow duration curve can be decided by using monthly rainfall data at the most of the SHP sites with no useful hydrological data. It was proved that the monthly rainfall data can be characterized by using the cumulative density function of Weibull distribution and Thiessen method were adopted to decide flow duration curve at SHP plants. And, the performance prediction technique has been studied and development. One SHP plant was selected and performance characteristics was analyzed by using the developed technique, Primary design specfications such as design flowrate, plant capacity, operational rate and annual electricity production for the SHP plant were estimated, It was found that the methodology developed in this study can be a useful tool to predict the performance of SHP plants and candidate sites in Korea.


Multipitch estimation techniques are widely used for music transcription and acquisition of musical data from digital signals. In this paper, we propose a flexible harmonic temporal timbre model to decompose the spectral energy of the signal in the time-frequency domain into individual pitched notes. Each note is modeled with a 2-dimensional Gaussian mixture. Unlike previous approaches, the proposed model is able to represent not only the harmonic partials but also the inharmonic attack of each note. We derive an Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm to estimate the parameters of this model and illustrate the higher performance of the proposed algorithm than NMF algorithm [9] and HTC algorithm [10] for the task of multipitch estimation over synthetic and real-world data.


Numerous approaches can be implemented to carry out on-farm Extension demonstrations in aquaculture. The design and approach used are often governed by the problem or question that needs to be addressed as well as budgetary constraints within Extension programs. West Alabama is home to a unique inland marine shrimp industry that uses a low-salinity artesian groundwater source to raise shrimp. Demonstration and technology transfer have been carried out on commercial shrimp farms for nearly 20 years using low-budget on-levee tank systems operated by Extension personnel using this unique water source. On-farm tank demonstrations can be an effective tool for Extension professionals working in aquaculture, especially where unique circumstances exist.


As a full cell system with attractive theoretical energy density, challenges faced by Li-O2 batteries (LOBs) are not only the deficient actual capacity and superoxide-derived parasitic reactions on the cathode side but also the stability of Li-metal anode. To solve simultaneously intrinsic issues, multifunctional fluorinated graphene (CFx, x = 1, F-Gr) was introduced into the ether-based electrolyte of LOBs. F-Gr can accelerate O2- transformation and O2--participated oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process, resulting in enhanced discharge capacity and restrained O2--derived side reactions of LOBs, respectively. Moreover, F-Gr induced the F-rich and O-depleted solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film formation, which have improved Li-metal stability. Therefore, energy storage capacity, efficiency, and cyclability of LOBs have been markedly enhanced. More importantly, the method developed in this work to disperse F-Gr into an ether-based electrolyte for improving LOBs' performances is convenient and significant from both scientific and engineering aspects.


This paper studies the effect of sovereign risk on capital flows from rich to poor nations in the context of a two-country model where Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) creates positive externalities in domestic production. We show that if externalities are large, a developing country never expropriates foreign assets, and behaves as under perfect enforcement of foreigners' property rights, jumping to the steady state in one period. If externalities are absent, a developing country always expropriates foreign assets and, then, there are no capital flows in equilibrium, as occurs in autarky. If externalities are of a medium size, our model can account for scarce capital flows from rich to poor nations, as well as other key features of the data, such as rising-over-time patterns of foreign capital and FDI in developing countries. In addition, the model offers an economic rationale for the FDI restrictions observed across nations.


Search-based optimization methods have been used for software engineering activities such as software testing. In the field of software testing, search-based test data generation refers to application of meta-heuristic optimization methods to generate test data that cover the code space of a program. Automatic test data generation that can cover all the paths of software is known as a major challenge. The paper establishes a new cost function for automatic test data generation, which can traverse the non-iterative paths of software control flow graphs. This function is later compared with similar cost functions proposed in other articles. The results indicate the superior performance of the proposed function. Still another innovation in this paper is the application of the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm in automatic test data generation along with the proposed cost function. Automatic test data generation is implemented through the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm as well as the Genetic and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithms for three software programs with different search space sizes. The algorithms are compared with each other in terms of convergence speed, computational time, and local search. Test data generated by the proposed method has achieved better results than other algorithms in finding the number of non-iterative paths, the convergence speed and computational time with growing the searching space of the software's control flow graph.


Omental flaps, with their associated rich and pliable vascular arcades, are frequently used in clinical practice for the reconstruction of complex and irregular defects. There is little experimental evidence, however, to prove that omental flaps can be a useful tool for the defects. Using a gastric-wall defect model, we performed histological and immunocytochemical examinations. We created an omental flap lining a 2.0-mm defect perforating the center of the anterior wall of a rat stomach. We examined the tissue response during gastric wall regeneration by H&E and Masson trichrome stains. We also performed immunocytochemical studies for the detection of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), factor VIII-related antigen, fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). One day after the operation, the omental flap was found to firmly adhere to the gastric serosa surrounding the defect. An extensive inflammatory response occurred from Day 1 to 3 with dilated vessels in the omentum. From Days 3 to 7, a significant number of PCNA-positive cells, FGF-2-positive cells and VEGF-positive cells were observed at the edge of the mucosa and within the granulation tissue. On Day 4, in place of extensive inflammation, an exuberant granulation tissue response was observed from the omentum. The defect had been covered by stratified villi by Day 7. This study demonstrated that an omental flap came to rapidly adhere to the defect serving as a source of extensive inflammation and granulation for the rich and pliable vascular arcades.


musical worth than on stultifying mechanical drills: not only will your practicing be more stimulating and musically rewarding, but at the same time you will be preparing yourself admirably for any future playing of the masterpieces by learning the hard parts first. The 250 excerpts are divided among 20 chapters, each devoted to a particular technical problem, such as single-finger passages, arpeggios, repeating notes, trills, staccati, skips, double thirds, octaves, chords, dual and multiple rhythms. Each chapter is prefaced by very brief textual matter, and occasional fingerings are given. In addition to the excerpts reproduced, a list of additional examples, by title of composition only, is appended to each chapter. The only quarrel of this reviewer is with Mr. Aronson's apparent fondness for the Liszt concertos, at the expense of some other works, notably the Grieg concerto. Twelve excerpts, for instance, are given from the Liszt E-flat, which is also cited three times alone as an additional example and ten times along with the coincerto in A; no excerpts appear from the Grieg concerto, and it is cited as an additional example only three times. For one who has a particular distaste for Lisztian froth, this is a bitter pill to swallow, but it does not in the least reduce the value of the book as an excellent and very welcome technical aid. -M. K.


The problem of robust nonlinear energy-to-peak filtering for nonlinear descriptor systems with model uncertainties is addressed. The system is assumed to have nonlinearities both in the state and output equations as well as norm-bounded time-varying uncertainties in the realization matrices. A generalized nonlinear dynamic filtering structure is proposed for such a class of systems with more degrees of freedom than the conventional static-gain and dynamic filtering structures. The L2-Linfty filter is synthesized through semidefinite programming and strict LMIs, in which the energy-to-peak filtering performance in optimized.


The continued reliance on the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism to settle disputes amongst WTO members is testimony to its strength. However, with the DSM getting bogged down by delays and other shortcomings, the current system of prospective remedies may not fully serve the needs of the Members. It is in this context that I revisit the idea of provisional measures in the DSM. In furtherance of Mexico's proposal, I provide three justifications for incorporating provisional measures in the DSM. First, given the systemic delays in the final resolution of a WTO dispute, provisional measures would strengthen the security and predictability of the WTO's DSM. Second, even though it is states who are parties to the WTO and the driving force behind it, the ultimate beneficiaries are the private parties. It is they who stand to lose out the most in case of an inefficient dispute settlement mechanism. Provisional measures would benefit the private sector the most. Third, the DSM is akin to a world (trade) court, like other world courts. To be an effective adjudicative mechanism, a system of provisional measures would greatly benefit the DSM. To further substantiate my arguments, I cite the disputes of the Norway-Trondheim and EU-Seizure of Generic Medicines. Even though provisional measures are off the table for now in the DSU review, it is hoped that there could be another opportunity to reconsider it.


This paper focuses on time division half-duplex relays, and focuses on finding lower and upper bounds on the capacity limits on general discrete memoryless half-duplex relays following a decode-and-forward policy. This paper is motivated by the importance and practicality of half-duplex relays to the development of future ad hoc wireless systems. For the Gaussian case, the achievable region obtained employs a dirty-paper precoding strategy.


In the past decade, black walnut (Juglans nigra) trees throughout western North America have suffered from widespread branch dieback and canopy loss, causing substantial tree mortality (2,3). The fungus, Geosmithia morbida, vectored by the walnut twig beetle (WTB), Pityophthorus juglandis, has been associated with this devastating disease known as Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD) (2,3). In August of 2012, branch samples from TCD symptomatic black walnut trees (5 to 10 cm in diameter and 15 to 30 cm long) were collected on the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GRSM) in Cataloochee Cove (35°37.023' N, 83°07.351' W) and near the Big Creek Campground (35°45.290' N, 83°06.473' W), in Haywood County. Five symptomatic trees near the Big Creek Campground and three from Cataloochee Cove displayed typical TCD signs including progressive crown thinning, branch flagging, and branch dieback; however, insect holes were not observed. Samples were double bagged in Ziploc plastic bags, sealed in a 19-liter plastic bucket, and transported to the University of Tennessee. Outer bark was removed from the samples and small, elliptical, necrotic cankers were observed. Wood chips (3 to 4 mm2) from cankers were excised and placed on 1/10 strength potato dextrose agar amended with 30 mg/liter streptomycin sulfate and 30 mg/liter chlortetracycline HCL and incubated on a 12-h dark/light cycle at 22°C for 5 to 7 days. Fungal isolates were tentatively identified as G. morbida by using culture morphology, and characteristics of conidiophores and conidia (2). The isolated fungus from the Cataloochee Cove location was grown in 1/10 strength potato dextrose broth at room temperature for 2 weeks. Isolates from Big Creek Campground were contaminated and were not analyzed further. Fungal colonies were tan to light yellow. Conidia were tan, subcylindrical, and catenulate. Conidiophores were multibranched, verticillate, and verrucose. To verify the morphological data, DNA was extracted from fungal mycelia using DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA) according to the manufacturer's published protocol. Isolates from Cataloochee Cove were characterized using ITS1 and ITS4 universal primers (4). The putative G. morbida isolate (GenBank Accession No. KC461929) had ITS sequences that were 100% identical to the G. morbida type isolate CBS124663 (FN434082.1) (2). Additionally, fungal DNA from Cataloochee Cove was amplified using G. morbida-specific microsatellite loci (GS04, GS27, and GS36) (1). PCR products were analyzed with the QIAxcel Capillary Electrophoresis System (Qiagen) and were similar to those previously published (2). To date, all confirmed cases of TCD in the native range of black walnut have been in urban areas, along rural roadsides and/or fence rows. The report in North Carolina is the first finding of G. morbida, the causal agent of TCD, in a forest setting. References: (1) D. Hadziabdic et al. Conserv. Genet. Resources 4:287, 2012. (2) M. Kolarik et al. Mycologia 103:325, 2011. (3) N. Tisserat et al. Plant Health Progr. doi:10.1094/PHP-2011-0630-01-BR, 2011. (4) T. J. White et al. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. M. A. Innis et al., eds. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1990.


A simple and relatively rapid method is elaborated for development of electrophoregram in PAAG by silver binding directly with protein. This permits avoiding the gel staining, considerably improves the quality of staining and promotes better reproducibility of the results. Sensitivity of the method permits detecting 1 ng of protein in the band.


Internet memes are increasingly used to sway and manipulate public opinion. This prompts the need to study their propagation, evolution, and influence across the Web. In this paper, we detect and measure the propagation of memes across multiple Web communities, using a processing pipeline based on perceptual hashing and clustering techniques, and a dataset of 160M images from 2.6B posts gathered from Twitter, Reddit, 4chan's Politically Incorrect board (/pol/), and Gab, over the course of 13 months. We group the images posted on fringe Web communities (/pol/, Gab, and The_Donald subreddit) into clusters, annotate them using meme metadata obtained from Know Your Meme, and also map images from mainstream communities (Twitter and Reddit) to the clusters. Our analysis provides an assessment of the popularity and diversity of memes in the context of each community, showing, e.g., that racist memes are extremely common in fringe Web communities. We also find a substantial number of politics-related memes on both mainstream and fringe Web communities, supporting media reports that memes might be used to enhance or harm politicians. Finally, we use Hawkes processes to model the interplay between Web communities and quantify their reciprocal influence, finding that /pol/ substantially influences the meme ecosystem with the number of memes it produces, while The_Donald has a higher success rate in pushing them to other communities.


In this paper fiber reinforced laminated composite for engine mount model are investigated by finite element method. Static analysis is carried out to find out the maximum displacement point or node on the bottom plate, on which the displacement is optimized. Different ply orientation and combinations of 0°/45°, 0°/90° and 0°/45°/90° are then studied under sinusoidal and dynamic load conditions to examine the effect of ply orientation on the structure's displacement transportation, and to get the optimized ply orientation combination, which inherit least displacement from the excitation on the top plate. The result shows that the laminate with ply orientation of 0°/90° is the best as the Z-displacement on the bottom is considered.


Widgren, M. 2015. Linking Nordic landscape geography and political ecology. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 00, 00–00. ISSN 0029-1951 The article analyses and compares two schools of landscape research – post-war European landscape history and Nordic landscape geography – and compares them with political ecology. Each of them developed within a specific political, environmental, and intellectual context. European landscape history developed as curiosity-driven research, but in the shadow of previous ideological misuse of settlement history. Political ecology developed in the context of the Sahel crisis and provided a radical answer to Malthusian simplifications of the desertification and land degradation. In contrast to that, Nordic landscape geography grew as an intellectual critical reaction to a European situation in which post-productivist landscape policies were on the agenda. The article also speculates on challenges ahead and suggests that the epoch when we understand European landscapes mainly from a post-productivist standpoint may be over.


textabstractIn studying firm behavior, economists tend to have an under-socialized view of the
firm, while sociologists tend to have an over-socialized view of the firm. Socialization
in this respect refers to the extent to which a firm is embedded in- and affected by its
relational environment. On the one extreme, economists building on transaction costs
economics assume the market to be an anonymous environment where firms can
behave opportunistically without repercussions. On the other extreme, sociologists
argue that the market consists of a dense web of existing and previous transactions in
which a firm is embedded, and that this embeddedness is defining the range of
strategies a firm can pursue or even perceive1. While the former view mainly
considers the impact of behavior on a static environment and the latter focuses on the
impact of environment on firm behavior, this thesis provides a co-evolutionary
perspective, wherein firm behavior and environmental structures affect each other
mutually. This dynamic perspective on innovation strategies of firms allows us to take
into accounts both ongoing and previous transactions, which together constitutes a
firm's relational environment. We study how firm behavior is affected by its network
position and how network structures change as a result of firm behavior. We shall
focus on the biopharmaceutical industry. Besides the network of collaborations, the
environment in which a typical biopharmaceutical firm operates consists of a number
of other elements as depicted in figure 1.1. This figure shows the main environmental
elements to which a firm in the pharmaceutical industry is subject to.


Half-hourly estimates of solar radiation were obtained from satellite data for the Yaqui Valley in Sonora, Mexico for the period November 1998 to March 1999. Estimates were made on a 50 km grid using the Global Energy and Water-Cycle Experiment Surface Radiation Budget (GEWEX/SRB) algorithm applied with GOES-East data and, on a 4 km grid, using a highresolution development of the GEWEX/SRB algorithm with GOES-West data. The resulting values were compared with field measurements made at two field sites. On average, using the presently specified calibration of the  radiometers on the two satellites, the values derived from GOES-East data are 18% greater than field measurements, while those from GOES-West are 9% lower. If these systematic differences reflect the current poor calibration of the satellite sensors, the estimates obtained from each satellite may be corrected to agree with the surface data. After re-calibration, significant random differences between the hourly satellite estimates and surface observations remain because the satellite provides an instantaneous area-average estimate, while the field observation is a time-average single-point measurement. These discrepancies are reduced when daily-average  values of solar radiation are compared. The error between the satellite and ground measurements is lower for the high-resolution estimates than it is for the low-resolution estimates, and there is an enhancement of spatial detail with the high-resolution data, making the latter preferable for hydrological applications. Previous research demonstrated the capacity for estimating potential evaporation in the area from dailyaverage solar radiation using a locally calibrated version of the Makkink equation. Locally relevant crop factors also have been derived for wheat and cotton.


How do Russian Orthodox Christians frame their understanding of semiotic ideologies of worship? That is to say, how do worshippers interpret liturgical language 'signs' and how do these interpretations colour their views as to which language is 'right' for the Church? There are to be found two semiotic ideologies of worship in Moscow. There are traditionalists for whom the liturgical language is embodied; it becomes the language of God through its vocalisation and enactment. Then, there are those who believe that Church Slavonic is not an indelible part of Russian Orthodox life and that in terms of its semiotic status its relation to the world it represents is an arbitrary one. Those who invoke the former, folk understandings of semiotic praxis perceive the Holy language as an icon or experiential portal that makes the presence of God more presupposable. Conceptions of language and linguistic register vary intra-culturally. Fieldwork showed how different perceptions of form map onto consciousness, raising questions of intentionality as assumptions about who is speaking (God or the priest) are bound up with the form that is used.

Keywords: liturgical language, embodiment, semiotic ideology, worship, icon


The phase states and phase transitions of some lipids, lipid mixtures of blood and tissues of some animals and human were examined by the method of scanning calorimetry (DSC-2, "Perkin--Elmer"). It was determined that in monohydrated and in hydrated systems, cholesterol produces a liquefying effect on the total phospholipids of the brain and blood. In complex multicomponent lipid systems changes of the phase states and of temperatures of the phase transitions of some lipids were discovered. The role of these phase transitions and miscibility of lipids for functioning of the cellular membranes and of the key-enzymes in the process of changes of lipoproteins of the blood (LCAT) is being discussed, as well as the connection of the phase transitions of cholesterol esters of the blood with atherosclerosis.


Author(s): Chapon, Maxime | Advisor(s): Cheng, Genhong | Abstract: The innate and adaptive immune responses are intertwined systems that require complex regulation to achieve an efficient protection from pathogens and diseases. Upon sensing of a foreign attack through specialized receptors, cells activate the transcription of cytokines such as type-I interferons to emit a danger signal and regulate their function. The strength and complexity of this signal is dependent on the type of pathogen recognition receptor (PRR) engaged. These signals can then skew the type of antigen-specific adaptive immune response that is created. In the past decade, there has been a renewed interest in using the immune system to fight cancer. A better understanding of how one can use the innate immune signals to trigger an efficacious adaptive immune response would help improve novel immunotherapies.One of the tools used to trigger such immune response is oncolytic viruses, such as Herpes Simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). HSV-1 has evolved proteins able to regulate the type-I interferon response to enhance its ability to reproduce and limit attacks from the immune system. In this work, we examine the entire HSV-1 genome to determine which genes are responsible for this phenotype and characterize a novel interferon regulating protein, UL42.Another promising pathogen that has been used to provoke anti-tumoral responses is the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes (Lm). Lm infection leads to a strong CD8 cytotoxic T-cell response which can be retargeted towards cancerous antigens. Here, we describe how we developed a construct to express neoantigens in Lm to trigger an antigen-specific immune response. Our results indicate that this strategy was successful in vitro but did not translate in vivo, possibly because of poor expression of the construct.The antigen-specific T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire can vary in diversity (breath) and individual clonal characteristics such as avidity or differentiated cell type. The extent to which the innate immune response regulates the selection of the TCR repertoire in response to a specific pathogen is poorly understood. Herein, we use an in vivo mouse model to investigate how different PRR ligands can affect the selection of this repertoire. Our results suggest that ligands for distinct toll-like receptors (TLR) might contribute to the selection of different TCR variable fragment families. We did not detect any difference in the complexity of the repertoire following stimulation with different TLR ligands but suggest this might be due to technical limitations associated with our in vivo model.


This meta-analysis, including six studies (13 effect sizes) and 164 adolescents, examined the effectiveness of individually oriented treatment (which means that the intervention contained at least an individual component, possibly in combination with group and/or family therapy) with CBT-elements for adolescents with severe aggression problems. A large and homogeneous overall effect size was found (d = 1.139) indicating consistency across studies. The included studies examined the effect of three interventions, namely, mode deactivation therapy (MDT; four studies), stress-inoculation therapy (1), and the cell-phone program (1). This multilevel analysis demonstrated that only few individually oriented interventions have been developed and evaluated, while four of the included studies used a weak research design. Effective individually tailored interventions for youths with severe aggression problems (who are unsuitable for group treatment) are scant. There may be added value if group interventions are supplemented with more individually tailored evidence-based interventions.


Environmental sustainability influenced social and economy sustainability. Without sustainably productive environment to provide resource foundation, it would difficult having sustainable society. Sustainable economy depends on sustainable raw material, energy and environmental resources. This work discussed about environmental sustainability in marine especially utilizing sea water as raw material for salt. This work started to investigate raw material characteristics and salt quality. The raw material characteristics represented high concentration for sodium, chloride, calcium and polluted by trace metal. According SEM-EDX result, salt contains lead and cooper. Salt farmer income is influenced by the salt quality, the higher its quality the bigger income received. Indirectly, economy in coastal was influenced by sea water quality. This is what encourages the research to achieve marine environmental sustainability in coastal area. The aims of this study are to review and categorize indicator for marine environmental sustainability into Driver-Pressure-States-Impacts-Response (DPSIR) and provide strategies suggestion for support environmental sustainability.  DPSIR indicators are utilizing sea water, wastewater discharge into sea, increasing of sea water ion concentration, mangrove growth disruption, regulation for salt wastewater disposal direct to the sea. Recovery magnesium from salt wastewater is potential strategy to protect marine environment and to support economy-social sustainability.


The field of animal vocal communication has benefited greatly from improved understanding of vocal production mechanisms and specifically from the generalization of the sourcefilter theory of speech production to non-human mammals. The application of the sourcefilter theory has enabled researchers to decompose the acoustic structure of vocal signals according to their mode of production and thereby to predict the acoustic variation that is caused by anatomical or physiological attributes of the caller. The sourcefilter theory states that vocal signals result from a two-stage production, with the glottal wave generated in the larynx (the source), being subsequently filtered in the supralaryngeal vocal tract (the filter). This theory predicts that independent indexical information such as body size, weight, age and sex can be contained in both the glottal wave (mostly characterized by its fundamental frequency), and the spectral envelope of the radiated vocalization (mostly characterized by the vocal tract resonances or formant frequencies). Additionally, physiological fluctuations in emotional or motivational state have been found to influence the acoustic characteristics of signals in a reliable and predictable manner that is perceptually available to receivers. While animal vocalizations contain some dynamic attributes, their static attributes are sufficient to provide an effective means of acoustic individual discrimination both within and across call types. In this paper, we draw together a wealth of experimental work conducted within the sourcefilter framework over the last decade and we review how such experiments have elucidated the communicative value of animal vocalizations.


Incorporate educational media sites into the classroom. Audio and video authoritative sites. Subject matter includes history and literature to social welfare, politics and healthcare.


In two patients, a man aged 55 years (patient A) and a man aged 67 years (patient B), severe immediate (type I) and severe delayed (type IV) local reactions to injections of human insulin, respectively, were diagnosed. There had been no previous treatment with insulin of animal origin. The diagnosis of type I allergy was based on the typical early local reaction with biphasic course, the positive immediate skin test and the raised specific IgE level against insulin. The diagnosis of type IV allergy was based on the characteristic late local reaction after 12 hrs, the delayed positive skin test and the negative specific IgE. The first attempt to desensitise patient A in 10 days was not successful, but he was desensitised successfully in 25 days. Patient B recovered spontaneously.


ABSTRACT Derivatives of the widely used laboratory strainStaphylococcus aureus NCTC8325, which are naturalrsbU mutants, were shown to be unable to produce RsbU, a positive regulator of the alternative sigma factor ςB. The lack of RsbU prevented the heat-dependent production of ςB-controlled transcripts and resulted in reduced H2O2 and UV tolerance, enhanced alpha-hemolysin activity, and the inability to produce the alkaline shock protein Asp23. After 48 h of growth, rsbU mutant strains failed to accumulate staphyloxanthin, the major stationary-phase carotenoid. Transcription of Asp23 was found to be exclusively controlled by ςB, making it an excellent target for the study of ςB activity in S. aureus. Reporter gene experiments, using the firefly luciferase gene (luc+) fused to the ςB-dependent promoter(s) ofasp23, revealed that ςB is almost inactive in 8325 derivatives. cis complementation of the 8325 derivative BB255 with the wild-type rsbU gene from strain COL produced the rsbU+ derivative GP268, a strain possessing a ςB activity profile comparable to that of the rsbU+ wild-type strain Newman. In GP268, the heat inducibility of ςB-dependent genes, Asp23 production, alpha-hemolysin activity, pigmentation, and susceptibility to H2O2 were restored to the levels observed in strain Newman, clearly demonstrating that RsbU is needed for activation of ςB in S. aureus.


Novel Ba1/3Mn1/3Co1/3Fe2O4 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using the glycol thermal route. The X-ray diffraction study confirmed a well defined spinel phase structure of the sample. The microstrain was investigated based on the Williamson–Hall plot. Crystallinity, shape and size of the nanoparticles were studied using high resolution transmission electron microscopy and high resolution scanning electron microscopy. Brunauer–Emmet–Teller measurement revealed that the sample has a high surface area of 116 m g . The Barrett–Joyner–Halenda test showed that the sample is mesoporous. The magnetization was found to increase from 66.5 0.3 emu g 1 at 300 K to 84.4 0.5 emu g 1 at 4 K. Furthermore, the electrochemical sensing properties of Ba1/3Mn1/3Co1/3Fe2O4 nanoparticles were investigated using cyclic voltammetry. A glassy carbon electrode was modified using the synthesized Ba1/3Mn1/3Co1/3Fe2O4 nanoparticles. The modified electrode demonstrated excellent electrocatalytic activity towards didanosine, an anti-HIV drug. A linear response to the drug concentration was obtained in the range from 0.001 to 5.0 mM with a detection limit of 1.0 nM. The electrode was highly stable, reproducible and was successfully used to determine trace amounts of didanosine in human urine samples.


We performed a literature review to examine to what degree the zooplankton dynamics in different regional marine ecosystems across the Atlantic Ocean is driven by predation mortality and how the latter is addressed in available modelling approaches. In general, we found that predation on zooplankton plays an important role in all the six considered ecosystems, but the impacts are differently strong and occur at different spatial and temporal scales. In ecosystems with extreme environmental conditions (e.g. low temperature, ice cover, large seasonal amplitudes) and low species diversity, the overall impact of top-down processes on zooplankton dynamics is stronger than for ecosystems having moderate environmental conditions and high species diversity. In those ecosystems, predation mortality was found to structure the zooplankton mainly on local spatial and seasonal time scales. Modelling methods used to parameterize zooplankton mortality range from simplified approaches with fixed mortality rates to complex coupled multispecies models. The applicability of a specific method depends on both the observed state of the ecosystem and the spatial and temporal scales considered. Modelling constraints such as parameter uncertainties and computational costs need to be balanced with the ecosystem-specific demand for a consistent, spatial-temporal dynamic implementation of predation mortality on the zooplankton compartment.


An acute upper gastrointestinal bleed (AUGIB) often represents a life-threatening event and is recognised universally as a common cause of emergency hospitalisation. Large observational studies have improved our understanding of the disease characteristics and its impact on mortality but despite significant advancement in endoscopic management, mortality remains high, particularly in elderly patients and those with multiple comorbidities. Skilled assessment, risk stratification and prompt resuscitation are essential parts of patient care, with endoscopy playing a key role in the definitive management. A successful outcome partly relies on the clinician's familiarity with current guidelines and recommendations, including the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidelines published in 2012. Validated risk stratification scores, such as the Blatchford and Rockall score, facilitate early discharge of low-risk patients as well as help in identifying those needing early endoscopic intervention. Major advances in therapeutic endoscopy, including more recently, the development of non-toxic proprietary powders (Hemospray and EndoClot), have resulted in the development of effective treatments of bleeding lesions, reduction in rebleeding rates and the need for emergency surgery. The role of proton-pump inhibitor therapy prior to endoscopy and the level of optimum red cell transfusion in the setting of AUGIB remain fields that require further research.


This paper examines both the short and long-term impacts a tidal barrage has on sediment transport, under tidal conditions in the Mersey Estuary and Liverpool Bay, and hence morphological changes. The TELEMAC model suite is used for the numerical prediction, including the 2D hydrodynamic model (Telemac-2d) coupled with the sediment transport model (Sisyphe) and the wave propagation model (Tomawac). A new scheme has been developed to simulate the operation of a barrage within the estuary, with comprehensive hydrodynamic calibration using most recent field data. The preliminary model results indicate that the construction of a tidal barrage across the narrows of the Estuary for ebb mode energy generation significantly alters the natural movement of the tide: effectively reducing the tidal range and increasing the low water level upstream of the structure. Due to the strong flows in the vicinity of the barrage, increased erosion is expected in the narrows. Barrage operation procedures are predicted to alter the siltation rate under the complex spring-neap tidal cycle. Long-term changes due to the interaction of a barrage and tidal asymmetry are also under consideration with further examination of model results within both the Mersey and Dee Estuaries and outer Liverpool Bay.


Lovastatin is a potent competitive inhibitor of the rate-limiting enzyme of cholesterol synthesis, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (NADPH) [HMG-CoA reductase; (S)-mevalonate:NADP+ oxidoreductase (CoA-acylating), EC 188.8.131.52]. We determined the subcellular distribution of HMG-CoA reductase at high resolution by means of immunoelectron microscopy on ultrathin frozen liver sections of rats treated with lovastatin and cholestyramine. High concentrations of reductase were located on the outer (cytoplasmic) surfaces of smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) membranes induced in hepatocytes by acute drug administration. The enzyme was specifically localized over the whorled SER membranes and was absent from nonwhorled SER, rough endoplasmic reticulum, and peroxisomes. Intense HMG-CoA reductase labeling was only observed in hepatocytes containing high levels of HMG-CoA reductase activity; no staining was detected in untreated livers. These observations show that HMG-CoA reductase is induced as an integral component of the SER membranes that form in rat hepatocytes subsequent to lovastatin treatment and suggest that the formation of SER whorls in rat hepatocytes is due to mechanism-based effects of lovastatin.


This study investigates whether family ownership and control, and corporate governance are associated with earnings quality, and whether family influence in firms weakens the association between corporate governance and earnings quality. This study uses a panel sample of 527 publicly traded firms over the period 2003-2008 from the Malaysia Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia). Identifying family firms as firms in which family members hold a significant portion of shares and possess control over the board of directors, this study finds that family firms have significantly higher earnings quality. The results remain unchanged, even after using alternative measures of earnings quality and family influence. This study also finds that the earnings quality of firms in Malaysia is positively associated with the size and independence of the audit committee and negatively associated with the size of the board of directors. However, these relationships exist only for nonfamily firms. These results on the corporate governance variables suggest that the effectiveness of corporate governance could be mediated by family influence. Using multivariate regressions that include interaction variables for corporate governance and family firms, the study finds that the relationship between corporate governance and earnings quality is mediated by family ownership and control. The result is consistent with the argument that the monitoring role of corporate governance reduces when there is substantial control by family owners in a firm. Overall, this study concludes that family ownership and control drives higher quality earnings for firms regardless of their corporate governance structure.