Sending young children to boarding school may be considered a particularly British form of child abuse and social control. The trauma of the rupture with home may be followed by other ordeals such as emotional deprivation and, in extreme cases, physical and sexual abuse. The taboo on expressing emotion, which is common in such institutions, may lead to an encapsulation of the self. Consequently, the needs of the distressed child/self remain active, but unconscious, within the adult. This maybe disguised by an armoured, and very often socially successful, persona. The psychological interplay, between these two facets of the personality, may be detrimental to intimate relationships. In clinical practice the emotional conflict between a desire for intimacy and anticipated exile comes to the fore. Three examples demonstrate how within the transference this may lead to a dependent and erotic atmosphere, which abruptly changes to sever all connection. Changes in the frame, breaks in analysis, and confessions of emotional need are all points at which vigilance is required if such disturbance in analysis is not to end in its abrupt termination.


Previous research in the field of educational development has highlighted the importance of examination in the learning process. In most educational contexts tests and grades are the most important influences on the students' learning strategies. A well planned examination strategy is seen as contributing to better learning. A test of flexible examination forms was carried out in the Linnaeus University's teacher training program in Sweden. During a course in special needs education, 119 teacher trainees were given the opportunity to choose examination method at the start of the course. They were able to choose between four different examination methods and were in addition allowed to propose their own examination method.
After the students had been examined they completed an evaluation on their newly acquired and previous examination experience and with the key question being which form of examination was most beneficial to the learning process.
The results show that even if the students saw examination as an opportunity for learning and appreciated the option of freely choosing examination method, they did not choose the examination form according to its benefit for the learning process. On the contrary they chose the examination form that they expected to be the easiest path towards high grades.
Key words: assessment, assessment system, examination, flexible examination, learning process.


The burrows and tubes of infauna are complex and dynamic systems that promote sig- nificant heterogeneity in the ecological and geochemical properties of benthic systems. We experi- mentally evaluated the extent to which behaviors of macrofauna, including ventilation activity, the residence times of tubes in sediments and tube composition, influence the development and succes- sion of microbial communities which line macrofaunal burrows (i.e. the burrow microbial biofilm). Our experiments used a burrow mimic system, which allowed manipulation of some biological and environmental factors while holding other factors constant. The biofilm microbial community was assessed using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis, a sensitive measure of microbial biomass and a significant tool in the identification of some taxonomic and functional groups of microorganisms in marine systems. Results suggest that the burrow mimics supported the development of microbial assemblages with phospholipid signatures that were both similar to those found in natural burrows and responsive to experimental manipulation. Burrow mimic composition significantly affected PLFA signatures, within the range of compounds and concentrations observed in natural systems. Tubes that were coated with an organic polymer were characterized by lower microbial biomass than uncoated tubes and also exhibited a substantially different PLFA signature. The residence time of tube mimics in sediments also affected the PLFA signature. Tubes with a longer residence time were characterized by higher microbial biomass, and a distinct anaerobe signature, relative to tube mimics having shorter residence times. Thus, a distinct successional sequence was observed. Surprisingly, irrigation frequency, i.e. the rate at which burrows are renewed with fresh, oxic overlying water and rid of metabolic byproducts and other solutes from the host organism and surrounding sediments, had minor effects on PLFA signature within the burrow biofilm. Our results suggest that the proper- ties of the burrow microenvironment exert fundamental controls on microbial community composi- tion in burrow biofilms and are likely to influence biogeochemical processes over short length scales in nearshore systems.


This article compares the form of TV news reporting in the American "CBS Evening News" and the Swiss "Tagesschau" from their beginning until today. It draws particular attention to the 'culturality' of text types — a term that will be introduced in the first part. The analysis focuses on local, temporal and emotional closeness in news packages and illustrates how the two shows stage closeness in different and changing ways. Although a partial homogenization can be observed, the notion of a continuous americanization is rejected. The results will be analysed in the perspective of the TV news shows considering factors such as the text repertoire and overall format of the show. Discussing the results I will argue that the concept of 'journalistic culture' is helpful to conceptualize and understand the form of news. While the analysis cannot decide to what degree single influencing factors are at work, it further develops some common assumptions (like national characteristics of text types or the influence of commercialization).


The study of human population growth has been a field of active research for many years. While a great amount of this research has been to project future population patterns, this study is concerned rather with describing and quantifying populations which have or do exist in order to answer the much asked question "how many people have ever lived?". Firstly, the relevant history of man from when he first walked the earth until the present is studied in an attempt to estimate, as reliably as possible, the population size at different points in man's development. These estimates closely resemble those of Carr-Saunders, Willcox and the United Nations from 1650 to the present, but prior to this are different from previous studies. Models have been constructed to simulate the trends discovered in the above estimates and are discussed in the categories of: preagricultural, agricultural and industrial societies. From these models, the cumulative population of each period has been calculated. Finally, the results of this study are analysed with a view to determining the feasibility of long run population growth projections.


The decreasing of groundwater quality has been the major issue in Tangerang area. One of the key process is the interaction between groundwater and Cisadane river water, which flows over volcanic deposits of Bojongmanik Fm, Genteng Fm, Tuf Banten, and Alluvial Fan. The objective of this study is to unravel such interactions based on the potentiometric mapping in the riverbank. We had 60 stop sites along the riverbank for groundwater and river water level observations, and chemical measurements (TDS, EC, temp, and pH). Three river water gauge were also analyzed to see the fluctuations.
We identified three types of hydrodynamic relationships with fairly low flow gradients: effluent flow at Segmen I (Kranggan - Batuceper) with 0.2-0.25 gradient, perched flow at Segmen II (Batuceper-Kalibaru) with gradient 0.2-0.25, and influent flow at Segmen III (Kalibaru-Tanjungburung) with gradient 0.15-0.20. Such low flow gradient is controlled by the moderate to low morphological slope in the area. The gaining and losing stream model were also supported by the river water fluctuation data. TDS and EC readings increased more than 40$\%$ from upstream to downstream. At some points the both measurements were two times higher than the permissible limits, along with the drops of pH values at those areas.
This study shows the very close interaction between Cisadane river water and groundwater in the riverbank. Therefore the authorities need to be managed the areas with a very strict regulations related to the small and large scale industries located near by the river.


Ray Noorda, the former CEO of Novell Inc., first coined the term "coopetition" in 1992 to describe a common phenomenon in the computer industry: cooperation between competitors. This phenomenon is inconsistent with classical economic and business theory going as far back as Adam Smith, who viewed the production system as based on a separation between suppliers and buyers. Micro-economists have traditionally viewed the firm as buying raw materials and components from suppliers, producing finished goods, and selling those goods in competition with other firms to a different set of firms or consumers. However, starting in the 1990s, research on forms of cooperative relationships between competitors became very common. The most common types are (a) competing firms engaging in horizontal alliances along the same level of the value chain and (b) vertical cooperation along different levels of the value chain between suppliers and firms in the focal industry or between customers and firms.
 In the last 25 years, there has been a great increase in research on coopetition. In a systematic literature review conducted in 2014, one researcher found over 130 academic articles in more than 80 academic publications published since 1996. The majority of the research to date has been qualitative, with many cases studied conducted. A number of special issues in academic journals have been devoted to the topic in general or to special topics concerning coopetition. The Strategic Management Journal organized a special issue in 2018 on the interplay of competition and cooperation, and a number of workshops have been held on coopetition strategy and innovation.


The unequal enforcement of drug laws is a source of profound racial injustice. The Numbers in Black and White, published in 2013 by Release & LSE, showed how drug policing, particularly the use of stop and search, was driving ethnic disparities throughout the criminal justice system in England and Wales. The Colour of Injustice: 'Race', drugs and law enforcement in England and Wales updates and extends this earlier analysis, highlighting important areas of continuity and change. The policy context has changed dramatically, with central government paying much greater attention to ethnic disparities in criminal justice and the use of stop and search. Despite the avowed commitment to tackling discrimination, however, the underlying problem remains and, in some respects, has been magnified. Once again our research shows that drug law enforcement is driving racial disparities in the criminal justice system.


An adjustable aperture stop for use in controlling the direction and angular divergence of the beam of radiant flux emerging from a MacPherson 225 VUV monochromator is described. Such a stop facilitates measurements of specular reflectance vs angle of incidence and measurements of diffraction grating efficiency. A discussion of the degree of control exercised by the aperture over the beam cross section is given that is applicable to any monochromator fitted with an aperture stop. For this application, the distance from the grating to the aperture stop is larger than the grating focal length. The result is an imaging effect that provides sharper definition of the beam cross section when the aperture stop is between the entrance slit and grating than if the stop is between the grating and exit slit. This sharp definition persists up to distances of several meters beyond the exit slit and is useful when measuring the efficiency of concave diffraction gratings. A fixed direction of the beam from the MacPherson i strument can only be obtained with the aperture between the grating and exit slit which results in some loss of definition of the beam cross section. However, as long as the pathlength beyond the exit slit is restricted to a few tens of cm, the definition is sufficiently good for measurements of reflectance vs angle of incidence.


The global financial crisis (GFC) refocuses attention on the capacity of states to regulate global finance. In this article, I argue that states are augmenting their regulatory capacity by promoting the interpenetration of national economic surveillance systems. I develop this argument by exploring the recent efforts of powerful states to address a particular form of offshore regulatory escape: tax evasion. Previous analyses of offshore processes have been framed by strong assumptions about the geographic domains of states and markets. I present a new analytic framework that weakens these geographic assumptions and explains why some states are more able than others to address offshore tax evasion through unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral channels. The framework is applied to explain the mechanisms through which powerful states have reclaimed evaded taxes and forced global transparency standards on tax havens after the GFC. I conclude that the regulatory changes brought about by recent attacks on tax havens constitute an important remapping of the fiscal state. These attacks provide an interesting case study of the ways in which states are augmenting their capacity to regulate a range of cross-border financial flows.


In this paper, the non-data-aided (NDA) maximum likelihood (ML) symbol timing estimator in MIMO correlated channel is derived. It is found that the extended square nonlinear- ity estimator in (9) is just a special case of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the conditional Cramer-Rao bound (CCRB) and the modified Cramer-Rao bound (MCRB) are also established. Simulation results under different operating conditions (e.g., number of antennas and correlation between antennas) are given to assess the performances of the NDA ML estimator and it is found that the mean square errors (MSE)s of the NDA ML estimator i) are close to the CCRBs, but not the MCRBs; ii) are approximately independent of the number of transmit antennas; iii) are inversely proportional to the number of receive antennas and iv) correlation between antennas has little effect on the MSE performance.


In the book of Ruth there are numerous instances of disagreement in gender between a pronoun and its antecedent. Without discounting the various philological explanations that have been given for this disagreement, this article argues that the gender discord is also a literary device that makes an important contribution to the book's narrative design and its development of characters. The laconic style of Hebrew narrative usually offers no glimpse of characters' inner lives, but by recognizing the concentration of discordant forms in Naomi's speech, we can appreciate how they characterize her grief and her ambivalence toward Ruth. The discord also highlights the theme of gender reversal in the book of Ruth. However the examples of gender discord might be explained grammatically, they also play an integral role in the characterization of Naomi and her relationship with Ruth.


Using the Dark Souls series as an example, I examine how a frame of 'monster of excess' can be used to read giantness in digital games. The monster of excess finds a paradigmatic example in the giant, an age-old mythic figure still prevalent within digital games. Many elements are directly borrowed or translated from other artistic forms such as film and literature. But, in this paper, I focus on how excess is encoded ludically, and how that links with the more representational and aesthetic depictions of excess within the games. I find that elements such as the camera and the game's interface, along with the player-character are all affected by giantness, with giants seeming to exist in excess of the games' established frames.


: Social supports have been viewed as central to psychological well-being, but little attention has been directed to the capacity to form supportive relationships. Psychoanalytic perspectives suggest that the quality of adult relationships is derived from earlier childhood attachment experiences. The authors tested this thesis by correlating medical students' perceptions of their earlier relationships with their parents with the perceived quality of their current social support networks. The data suggest the need for a more complex and psychodynamically relevant conceptualization of social supports, which has implications for therapeutic interventions to ameliorate support deficits.


For many years, clinical ultrasound has dramatically improved patient care in industrialized countries. However, millions of people in low-resource geographies remain today without access to this life-saving diagnostic and treatment tool. Over the last five years, Imaging the World (ITW) has successfully incorporated obstetric ultrasound examination into routine antenatal care at lower level health clinics in rural Uganda by training health workers to perform high-quality, point-of-care ultrasound. The result: high-risk pregnancies are detected early and patients are directed for appropriate referral and treatment, thus improving outcomes for women, their babies and their families. To build on ITW's success and quickly and efficiently increase the number of trained ultrasonographers, ITW has introduced an obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound training curriculum into the three-year nursing program at the Uganda Nursing School Bwindi (UNSB) in rural Uganda. This innovative addition to nursing education includes hands-on and online components that will enable graduate UNSB nursing students to perform obstetric and gynecological ultrasound examinations. In this paper, ITW describes the design and implementation of the inaugural curriculum, including challenges encountered and solutions found. ITW also provides data concerning student participation, knowledge acquisition, and curriculum assessment. ITW believes its innovative ultrasound training curriculum, offered in association with a regional nursing school, provides a replicable model for enhancing health worker skills and improving patient outcomes in underserved communities around the world.


In the present studies, we investigated 4- and 5- to 6-year-old's ability to compare the distances covered by a direct route to a location and an indirect route to the same location. The distances ranged between 16 and 22 feet. The routes were visible from a single vantage point, and objects serving as landmarks were sometimes located along the routes. We found clear demonstrations of the two classic Piagetian distance errors--the direct-indirect error, in which children judge that a direct route and an indirect route cover the same distance, and the interposed object error, in which children judge that a route is shorter when it is segmented by an object located somewhere along the route. The interposed object error occurred because children focused on only one segment of the route, which was consistent with Piaget's explanation of the error. However, in contrast to Piaget, we found that about 40% of 4-year-olds could successfully avoid the direct-indirect error, and in addition, when the routes were visually displayed, they could also avoid the interposed object error. It is important that they also gave correct explanations for why the indirect route was longer, by referring to the fact that it was not straight. For these children at least, the interposed object error was due to difficulty they had representing routes, rather than to a misconception of distance. We suggest that future research should examine whether that may also be true for younger children.


Spider plant ( Cleome gynandra ), an herbaceous annual commonly used as a leaf vegetable across Sub-Saharan Africa is valuable as a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and protein. However, little work has been done to improve vegetative yield despite its nutritional value. Spider plant is considered a facultative long-day plant, and this study sought to screen for plants that do not flower during a long photoperiod, to improve vegetative yield. A total of 4536 spider plants from nine different advanced lines were evaluated in a greenhouse under 14-hour day/24 hr cycle daily for six months. From this initial screening, seeds were collected from isolated inflorescences of seven individuals selected for early flowering, six for intermediate flowering, and four for delayed flowering. These seeds were used to evaluate flowering cycles at the AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center, Eastern and Southern Africa research station, located in Arusha, Tanzania. Results indicated that among the selections compared, cultivar SP7-1 expressed significantly longer vegetative duration than SP1-1. Results from this study showed that flowering response in specific spider plant accessions was heritable and that slow bolting is a legitimate breeding objective to improve vegetative yield.


Casting lots was widely practiced in the ancient Near East as a method for making decisions. In the Bible, casting lots was a common method to determine the will of God when allocating land, determining duties, assigning guilt, selecting individuals for responsibility, and other matters. Additionally, there are instances in the Bible where the use of lots can be seen as an unbiased random allocation method or, possibly, an act of gambling. How might this ancient, biblical practice inform the modern use of artificial intelligence in business decisions? The authors begin with an exegesis of casting lots in the Bible, particularly on the question of whether casting lots was a form of gambling. The authors then compare the biblical practice of casting lots with the use of artificial intelligence in business decision-making. The authors argue that neither practice may fairly be defined as "gambling" of the kind forbidden by different Christian traditions. The authors identify a common ethical issue for casting lots and the use of artificial intelligence—the surrender of control over a decision, resulting in the potential to transfer moral responsibility for that decision. While the authors accept that casting lots resulted in a transfer of moral responsibility, they conclude that using artificial intelligence should not similarly allow for a surrender of moral responsibility.


We investigate how asymmetric information on final demand affects strategic interaction between a downstream monopolist and a set of upstream monopolists, who independently produce complementary inputs. We study an intrinsic private common agency game in which each supplier i independently proposes a pricing schedule contract to the assembler, specifying the supplier's payment as a function of the assembler's purchase of input i. We provide a necessary and sufficient equilibrium condition. A lot of equilibria satisfy this condition but there is a unique Pareto-undominated Nash equilibrium from the suppliers' point of view. In this equilibrium, there are unavoidable efficiency losses due to excessively low sales of the good. However, suppliers may be able to limit these distortions by implicitly coordinating on an equilibrium with a rigid (positive) output in bad demand circumstances.


The article deals with the results of analysis of electrophoretic mobility of erythrocytes and leukogram in patients with dyscirculatory encephalopathy on different stages of disease on application therapy with inclusion of stress-modulating pharmaceuticals into course of treatment. It is established that the electrophoretic mobility of erythrocytes makes it possible to evaluate the adaptive indicators blood in patients with dyscirculatory encephalopathy. The consideration of these indicators makes feasible the substantiation of inclusion of stress-modulating therapy into complex treatment of patients with chronic cerebrovascular inefficiency.


The health maintenance depends on the preservation of the homeostatic systems, such as nervous, endocrine and immune system, and a proper communication between them. In this regard, the circadian system, which promotes a better physiological system functions and thus well being, could be considered part of that homeostatic complex, since the neuroimmunoendocrine system possesses circadian patterns in most variables, as well as circannual or seasonal variations. With aging, an impairment of the homeostatic systems occurs and an alteration of circadian system regulation has been demonstrated. In the immune system, several function parameters, which are good markers of health and of the rate of aging, change not only with age (immunosenescence) but also throughout the day and year. Indeed, with advancing age there is a modification of immune cell circadian function especially in lymphocytes. Moreover, immune functions at early afternoon correspond to more aged values than at morning, especially in mature subjects (60-79 years of age). In addition, these mature men and women showed a significant impaired immune cell function, which is especially remarkable in the winter. It is noteworthy the role of immunomodulatory hormones, such as melatonin, in the regulation of biological rhythms and their involvement in the aging process. Furthermore, the evidence of a neuroimmune regulation of the circadian system and its disturbance with aging, highlights the importance of proinflammatory cytokines in this complex cross-talk. The biological rhythms disruption with age and some diseases (jet lag, cancer and seasonal affective disorder), could contribute increasing the immune system impairment and consequently the loss of health.


ABSTRACT The development of effective microbicides for the prevention of HIV-1 sexual transmission represents a primary goal for the control of AIDS epidemics worldwide. A promising strategy is the use of bacteria belonging to the vaginal microbiota as live microbicides for the topical production of HIV-1 inhibitors. We have engineered a human vaginal isolate of Lactobacillus jensenii to secrete the anti-HIV-1 chemokine RANTES, as well as C1C5 RANTES, a mutated analogue that acts as a CCR5 antagonist and therefore is devoid of proinflammatory activity. Full-length wild-type RANTES and C1C5 RANTES secreted by L. jensenii were purified to homogeneity and shown to adopt a correctly folded conformation. Both RANTES variants were shown to inhibit HIV-1 infection in CD4+ T cells and macrophages, displaying strong activity against HIV-1 isolates of different genetic subtypes. This work provides proof of principle for the use of L. jensenii-produced C1C5 RANTES to block HIV-1 infection of CD4+ T cells and macrophages, setting the basis for the development of a live anti-HIV-1 microbicide targeting CCR5 in an antagonistic manner.


BACKGROUND
The leucine-zipper c-fos has been implicated in the regulation of gene expression. We investigated the possible role of c-fos in the regulation of hepatic gene expression after sepsis. Based on previous data demonstrating that sepsis inhibits hepatic gene expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT), we hypothesized that c-fos may play a role in the inhibition of CPT gene expression after sepsis.

METHODS
We studied c-fos gene expression after peritoneal sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) or sham-CLP. To investigate the possible inhibitory role of c-fos on CPT gene transcription, we investigated the effect of c-fos on c-jun-driven CPT promoter-chloramphenicol acyltransferase reporter gene expression in a HepG2 hepatoma cell cotransfection model. To investigate the possible role of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in the regulation of c-fos in vivo, we treated either the sham-CLP group or the CLP group with either vehicle or cAMP.

RESULTS
Peritoneal sepsis in the rat model resulted in a four-fold increase in hepatic c-fos mRNA and c-fos protein. In the cotransfection model, c-fos significantly inhibited c-jun-induced chloramphenicol acyltransferase activity. Treatment with cAMP resulted in a 50% decrease in c-fos protein in either the sham-CLP or CLP group.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that (1) sepsis increases hepatic c-fos transcription and translation, (2) c-fos inhibits c-jun-induced CPT gene expression, and (3) cAMP probably does not directly mediate the increase in c-fos after sepsis.


The problem of optimally assigning the modules of a parallel program over the processors of a multiple-computer system is addressed. A sum-bottleneck path algorithm is developed that permits the efficient solution of many variants of this problem under some constraints on the structure of the partitions. In particular, the following problems are solved optimally for a single-host, multiple-satellite system: partitioning multiple chain-structures parallel programs, multiple arbitrarily structured serial programs, and single-tree structured parallel programs. In addition, the problem of partitioning chain-structured parallel programs across chain-connected systems is solved under certain constraints. All solutions for parallel programs are equally applicable to pipelined programs. >


Purified chestnut cystatin inhibited the growth of the phytopathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum graminicola, and Septoria nodorum, but not that of the saprophyte Trichoderma viride. Furthermore, the cystatin strongly affected the protease activity of B. cinerea but had no effect on the protease activity of T. viride. These results suggest that chestnut cystatin contributes to plant defense against phytopathogenic fungi.


The United States is an economically rich country whose production of consumer goods is high relative to the size of its population. It is therefore faced increasingly with the problem of what to do with these consumer goods when their utility, as judged by the consumer, has been exhausted. All "used" products (solid waste) are disposed of by one of two methods: recycling or collection and disposal by any of several different ways. Since the collection of solid waste involves routing refuse via various transport modes from the point of generation to the point of disposal, the object of this study is to develop an algorithm which may be used to define and schedule near optimal collection plans for refuse systems facing high seasonal variation in the quantity of solid waste generated.


Background The EINSTEIN DVT study was a large, open-label, randomised trial comparing rivaroxaban with the standard care (enoxaparin/vitamin K antagonist (VKA)) in patients with acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and without symptomatic pulmonary embolism. Rivaroxaban was evaluated for the treatment of DVT in a single-drug approach with a fixed-dose regimen without the need for initial heparinisation, routine laboratory monitoring or dose adjustment. Purpose To investigate patient-reported treatment satisfaction in a subset of patients from the EINSTEIN DVT study. Materials and methods More than 1400 patients from seven countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, UK and USA) were requested to complete a new, validated measure of treatment satisfaction: the AntiClot Treatment Scale (ACTS). At scheduled visits throughout treatment (day 15, months 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12) patients completed the ACTS, which consists of two scales: ACTS Burdens (12 items) and ACTS Benefits (3 items). For each scale, higher total scores indicate higher satisfaction. A prespecified repeated-measures regression analysis was used to compare ACTS scores in the intention-to-treat population. Results Patients reported higher treatment satisfaction in the rivaroxaban group compared with the enoxaparin/VKA group, with higher mean ACTS scores across visits. Mean ACTS Burdens scores were 55.2 versus 52.6 (p<0.0001) in favour of rivaroxaban; a consistent treatment effect over time was observed, with the difference in mean scores ranging from 2.2 at month 2 to 3.2 at month 12. Mean ACTS Benefits scores were 11.7 versus 11.5 (p=0.006), showing an improvement in satisfaction for the rivaroxaban group. There was no difference in mean ACTS Benefits scores at day 15, with the treatment effect for rivaroxaban becoming apparent at month 2 and later. Conclusions These data show that rivaroxaban provided improved treatment satisfaction for patients with DVT compared with enoxaparin/VKA, particularly in reducing patient-reported anticoagulation burden.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and the third-leading cause of malignancy-associated mortality worldwide. HCC cells are highly resistant to chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore, there are currently only two US Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs available for the treatment of HCC. The objective of the present study was to analyze the results of previously published high-throughput drug screening, and in vitro genomic and transcriptomic data from HCC cell lines, and to integrate the obtained results to define the underlying molecular mechanisms of drug sensitivity and resistance in HCC cells. The results of treatment with 225 different small molecules on 14 different HCC cell lines were retrieved from the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer database and analyzed. Cluster analysis using the treatment results determined that HCC cell lines consist of two groups, according to their drug response profiles. Continued analyses of these two groups with Gene Set Enrichment Analysis method revealed 6 treatment-sensitive molecular targets (epidermal growth factor receptor, mechanistic target of rapamycin, deoxyribonucleic acid-dependent protein kinase, the Aurora kinases, Bruton's tyrosine kinase and phosphoinositide 3-kinase; all P<0.05) and partially effective drugs. Genetic and genome-wide gene expression data analyses of the determined targets and their known biological partners revealed 2 somatically mutated and 13 differentially expressed genes, which differed between drug-resistant and drug-sensitive HCC cells. Integration of the obtained data into a short molecular pathway revealed a drug treatment-sensitive signaling axis in HCC cells. In conclusion, the results of the present study provide novel drug sensitivity-associated molecular targets for the development of novel personalized and targeted molecular therapies against HCC.


At last year the great scientific advances in genetics and molecular biology have led to a bigger knowledge about we nowadays call " Autoinflammatory syndromes", characterized by recurrent inflammatory episodes genetically determined and not mediated by autoinmmunity. In this group, they are included the hereditary periodic fever syndromes: familial mediterranean fever (FMF), hiper Ig-D syndrome (HIDS), TNF-receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS), Muckle-Wells syndrome (MWS), familial cold autoinflammatory syndrome (FCAS), CINCA syndrome. The past 6 year have witnessed the identification of genes causing these diseases. Some of these genes encode proteins with a common domain ( PYRIN domain). These protein are part of regulatory pathway of inflammation and apoptosis. The purpose of this article, is to carry out review of the genetic, clinical, molecular and rheumatologic aspect of these syndromes, in part unknow. Although they are not common, they are not absent in our diary clinical practise. Their study and research we will be able to obtain new knowledge that lead us to solve the complex inflammatory process.


The authors describe conductive tip atomic force microscope used for imaging carbon nanotubes at low temperatures. The instrument allows them to measure the tip-nanotube conductance while performing the topographic scan of the nanotubes on a nonconductive SiO2 substrate. For nanotubes weakly coupled to the contacting electrode, they observe the Coulomb blockade pattern in the tip-nanotube conductance. They reversibly modified the conductance pattern by applying the tip pressure.


This paper proposes a probabilistic approach for unsupervised modeling and recognition of object categories which combines two types of complementary visual evidence, visual contents and inter-connected links between the images. By doing so, our approach not only increases modeling and recognition performance but also provides possible solutions to several problems including modeling of geometric information, computational complexity, and the inherent ambiguity of visual words. Our approach can be incorporated in any generative models, but here we consider two popular models, pLSA and LDA. Experimental results show that the topic models updated by adding link analysis terms significantly improve the standard pLSA and LDA models. Furthermore, we presented competitive performances on unsupervised modeling, ranking of training images, classification of unseen images, and localization tasks with MSRC and PASCAL2005 datasets.


Baku, the center of the Russian and then Soviet oil industry, represented the raw economic potential of early Soviet industry. At the head of the industry was Alexandr Serebrovskiĭ, head of Azneft, the largest Soviet oil trust, and a pivotal figure in reviving Soviet oil production across the 1920s. His trip to the United States in 1924 and his subsequent plan to restore Baku's productive capacity via American technology and methodology would not only improve the industry's output but allow Azneft to directly compete with American oil companies on the international stage, thus demonstrating the latent potential of the Soviet Union for exportation. However, while this project seemed initially successful, it created a difficult fiscal legacy as Azneft became increasingly financially insolvent across the 1920s.


The alpha-striated tropomyosin 3' untranslated region (TM UTR) promotes differentiation of fibroblasts into cells resembling skeletal muscle. To investigate the mechanism of this observation, RNA harvested from transfected primary fibroblasts was used for semiquantitative RT-PCR with primers specific for muscle transcription factors, showing that myoD and myogenin transcripts are detected in these cells, but that differentiation after TM UTR expression is independent of a detectable increase in these transcripts. Double immunofluorescent staining with antibodies to myoD family members and to titin confirms that muscle differentiation in TM UTR-transfected fibroblasts is independent of production of any transcription factor in this family. In contrast, the muscle transcription factor myocyte enhancer factor 2 (mef-2) is strongly expressed after transfection of fibroblasts with the TM UTR. The increase in mef-2 protein is due to an increase in the steady-state level of its mRNA, as shown by Northern analysis. The expression of p21 ordinarily observed in skeletal myogenesis before the expression of muscle-specific proteins is not seen in fibroblasts induced to differentiate by the TM UTR. These results demonstrate that post-transcriptional regulation of myoD family members is seen in fibroblasts, and that the TM UTR induces muscle differentiation independent of the myoD transcription factors and without expressing proteins characteristic of terminal withdrawal from the cell cycle. Finally, an increase in the steady-state level of mef-2 transcripts appears in the proximal pathway of myogenic activation in response to expression of the TM UTR. These results imply that fibroblasts can utilize an additional differentiation route upon TM UTR expression resulting in mature muscle other than that requiring myoD family members.


A series of four Ru(II) complexes of the form [Ru(bpy)2(C(^)N)](2+) (where C(^)N is a bidentate pyridine-functionalized imidazolylidene- or benzimidazolylidene-based N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligand and bpy is 2,2'-bipyridine) have been synthesized using a Ag(I) transmetalation protocol from the Ru(II) precursor compound, Ru(bpy)2Cl2. The synthesized azolium salts and Ru(II) complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and electronic absorption and emission spectroscopy. The molecular structures for two benzimidazolium salts and three Ru(II) complexes were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The complexes display photoluminescence within the range 611-629 nm, with the emission wavelength of the benzimidazolylidene containing structures, slightly blue-shifted relative to the imidazolylidene containing complexes. All complexes exhibited a reversible, one-electron oxidation, which is assigned to the Ru(2+/3+) redox couple. When compared to [Ru(bpy)3](2+), complexes of imidazolylidene containing ligands were oxidized at more negative potentials, while those of the benzimidazolylidene containing ligands were oxidized at more positive potentials. All four complexes exhibited moderately intense electrochemiluminescence (ECL) with the obtained ECL spectra closely resembling the photoluminescence spectra. The ability to predictably fine-tune the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level of the Ru(II) complexes via the flexible synthetic strategy offered by NHCs is valuable for the design of ECL-based multiplexed detection strategies.


Ultra-fine aluminum nitride has been synthesized by the evaporation of aluminum powder at atmospheric-pressure nitrogen plasma in a hot-wall reactor. The average size of aluminum nitride particle is 0.11 μm measured by scanning electric mirror (SEM), and the purity is at least over 90% evaluated by X-Ray diffraction (XRD). The conversion of Al powder to aluminum nitride is strongly depended on the injection of NH3. Typical experimental parameters such as the feed rate of raw material, the flow rate of ammonia and the position of injecting aluminum powder into the reactor are given.


Background The American Heart Association 2020 Impact Goals aimed to promote population health through emphasis on cardiovascular health (CVH). We examined the association between nondietary CVH metrics and patient‐reported outcomes among a nationally representative sample of US adults without cardiovascular disease. Methods and Results We included adults aged ≥18 years who participated in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey between 2006 and 2015. CVH metrics were scored 1 point for each of the following: not smoking, being physically active, normal body mass index, no hypertension, no diabetes mellitus, and no dyslipidemia, or 0 points if otherwise. Diet was not assessed in Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Patient‐reported outcomes were obtained by telephone survey and included questions pertaining to patient experience and health‐related quality of life. Regression models were used to compare patient‐reported outcomes based on CVH, adjusting for sociodemographic factors and comorbidities. There were 177 421 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey participants (mean age, 45 [17] years) representing ~187 million US adults without cardiovascular disease. About 12% (~21 million US adults) had poor CVH. Compared with individuals with optimal CVH, those with poor CVH had higher odds of reporting poor patient‐provider communication (odds ratio, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.05–1.24), poor healthcare satisfaction (odds ratio, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.08–1.22), poor perception of health (odds ratio, 5.89; 95% CI, 5.35–6.49), at least 2 disability days off work (odds ratio, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.30–1.48), and lower health‐related quality of life scores. Conclusions Among US adults without cardiovascular disease, meeting a lower number of ideal CVH metrics is associated with poor patient‐reported healthcare experience, poor perception of health, and lower health‐related quality of life. Preventive measures aimed at optimizing ideal CVH metrics may improve patient‐reported outcomes among this population.


WHOSE DRIVE IS IT ANYWAY? USING MULTIPLE SEQUENTIAL DRIVES TO ESTABLISH PATTERNS OF LEARNED TRUST, ERROR COST, AND TRUST REPAIR WHILE CONSIDERING DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME DIFFERENCES AS A PROXY FOR DIFFICULTY Scott Mishler Old Dominion University, 2019 Director: Dr. Jing Chen Semi-autonomous driving is a complex task domain with a broad range of problems to consider. The human operator's role in semi-autonomous driving is crucial because safety and performance depends on how the operator interacts with the system. Drive difficulty has not been extensively studied in automated driving systems and thus is not well understood. Additionally, few studies have studied trust development, decline, or repair over multiple drives for automated driving systems. The goal of this study was to test the effect of perceived driving difficulty on human trust in the automation and how trust is dynamically learned, reduced due to automation errors, and repaired over a seven-drive series. The experiment used 2 task difficulty conditions (easy vs. difficult) x 3 error type conditions (no error, takeover request or TOR, failure) x 7 drives mixed design. Lighting condition was used as a proxy for driving difficulty because decreased visibility for potential hazards could make monitoring the road difficult. During the experiment, 122 undergraduate participants drove an automated vehicle seven times in either a daytime (i.e., "easy") or nighttime (i.e., "difficult") condition. Participants experienced a critical hazard event in the fourth drive, in which the automation perfectly avoided the hazard ("no error" condition), issued a takeover request ("TOR" condition), or failed to notice and respond to the hazard ("failure" condition). Participants completed trust ratings after each drive to establish trust development. Results showed that trust improved through the first three drives, demonstrating proper trust calibration. The TOR and automation failure conditions saw significant decreases in trust after the critical hazard in drive four, whereas trust was unaffected for the no error condition. Trust naturally repaired in the TOR and failure conditions after the critical event but did not recover to previous levels before the critical event. There was no evidence of perceived difficulty differences between the daytime and nighttime conditions. Thus, a consistent lack of trust differences was found between lighting conditions. This study demonstrated how trust develops and responds to errors in automated driving systems, informing future research for trust repair interventions and design of automated driving systems.


Purpose: This study examined the diagnostic accuracy of a composite clinical assessment measure based on mean length of utterance (MLU), lexical diversity (D) and age (Klee, Stokes, Wong, Fletcher, & Gavin, 2004) in a second, independent sample of 4year-old Cantonese-speaking children with and without Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Method: The composite measure was calculated from play-based, conversational language samples of 15 children with and 14 children without SLI. Scores were dichotomized and compared to diagnostic outcomes using a reference standard based on clinical judgment supported by test scores. Results: Eleven of 15 children with SLI and 8 of 14 children with typical language skills were correctly classified by the dichotomized composite measure. The measure's sensitivity in this second sample was 73.3% (95% CI 48% to 89%); specificity was 57.1% (95% CI 33% to 79%); positive likelihood ratio was 1.71 (95% CI 0.87 to 3.37); and negative likelihood ratio was 0.47 (95% CI 0.18 to 1.21). Conclusions: The diagnostic accuracy of the composite measure was substantially lower than in the original study, suggesting that it is unlikely to be informative for clinical use in its present form. The value of replication studies is discussed.


In this study, interlimb coordination in the cockroach during slow walking (2–7 steps/s) is described for a variety of substrate conditions. During normal free-walking, the animal utilizes an alternating tripod gait (both ipsilateral and contralateral phase close to 0.50). The protraction/retraction ratio varies linearly with walking speed. When tethered on a supported ball, the ipsilateral phase ranges from 0.32 to 0.46 at walking speeds of 2-7 steps/s, and contralateral phase is constant at 0.53. Protraction/retraction ratios are normal in this case. Blind free-walking animals use a gait which is indistinguishable from normal, but the protraction/retraction ratio is constant over speeds of 2-7 steps/s. When walking down an inclined plane (45°), the gait resembles ball-walking, with an average ipsilateral phase of 0.43 and contralateral phase of 0.53. These alterations of gait under different substrate conditions can be related to the animal9s responses to loading, gravity, and steering control system.


Conservatory measures in the matter of trustee Rochelle Pont Budd and trustee firm J. Lukca & Associes Inc. given to TD Canada Trust--St-Laurent, Montreal (July 4, 2006).


The article presents an analysis of results of 24 384 endoscopic examinations of the upper gastrointestinal tract in population of the Leningrad oblast with symptoms of gastric dyspepsia during the period from 2007 to 2011. The detection of the columnar-celled metaplasia was 1.1%, adenocarcinoma of the esophagus--0.045%. Esophageal adenocarcinoma occurred in 3.95% of cases of the column-celled esophagus. Barrett's esophagus was revealed in males more often than in women (56.5% and 54.5% respectively). The peak incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma in males was at the age from 46 to 60 years (36.4% of patients), in females--from 61 to 75 years (27.3% of patients). Intestinal metaplasia was detected in 72.7% of cases with esophageal adenocarcinoma: The diagnosis of long and short segment of column-celled esophagus revealed no significant difference in the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma.


We report the development of a novel fluorescence biosensing strategy based on branched-rolling circle amplification (RCA) coupled with nicking endonuclease signal amplification (NESA) for the ultrasensitive and highly specific detection of miRNA. This biosensor relies on target miRNA-triggered quadratic RCA and endonuclease-assisted cyclic nicking of a molecular beacon (MB). The specific binding between target miRNA and hairpin probe 1 (HAP1) leads to a change in the conformation of HAP1, releasing an exposed DNA segment that can hybridize with circular probe 1 and subsequently induce a primary RCA reaction. The generated RCA product combines specifically to hairpin probe 2 (HAP2), resulting in unfolded HAP2 and liberating a new exposed DNA segment that can initiate quadratic RCA. Then MB hybridizes with the tandem repeated DNA segments produced by quadratic RCA, forming the specific nicking site of the nicking endonuclease. Therefore, the nicking endonuclease cleaves MB into two pieces, liberating a strong fluorescence signal. Meanwhile, the quadratic RCA products initiate the next cycle of hybridization and cleavage, thereby acquiring a significantly increased fluorescence signal. Using the branched-RCA coupled with the NESA strategy, an ultrasensitive miRNA-155 assay method has been developed with a wide linear range from 5 aM to 500 fM and a low detection limit of 3.9 aM. This work is, to our knowledge, the first report that branched-RCA coupled with NESA has been used for the fluorescence assay of miRNA. The developed biosensing strategy might hold great potential for detecting miRNA and for early diagnosis in miRNA-related diseases.


Cities are important drivers of productivity, innovation, and economic growth. To achieve their full economic potential, cities must deliver high-quality public services to their residents and businesses. This is very important for Latin American cities given rapid urbanization and the deepening of decentralization reforms in many countries. The extent to which they can carry out all of these responsibilities depends at least partially on their fiscal health, ability to meet their service, infrastructure, and financial obligations with the revenue available to them. This study assesses the fiscal health of 80 main cities in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, from 2010 to 2017, and explores the factors that drive it. A primary purpose is to provide a methodology for cities to assess their own fiscal health, given available data. As such, it helps to determine whether fiscal distress is building up in selected large cities across the region and to understand whether and how financial solvency, public service delivery, and the maintenance and expansion of urban infrastructure may be compromised.


Fibronectin content was determined in plasma and granulation tissues of burnt wounds in burnt patients as well as in plasma and wound exudate of patients operated on for large postoperative abdominal hernia and in whom for several days after surgery the continuous discharge of the wound exudate through the drainage tubes was observed. The same data were observed in fibroblast cultures and nutritional medium in which they have been cultured. It was established that dynamic determination of plasma fibronectin in burn disease allows to estimate the adequacy of the treatment to timely predict probability of development of complications and the outcome of the disease, while determination of fibronectin content in the granulation tissues of burn wounds indicates optimal terms for transplantation of fibroblasts and autotransplants as well as a significant increase of the effectiveness of surgical treatment for victims with spacious burns.


Peroxisome proliferators are a diverse group of chemicals that include several therapeutically used drugs (e.g., hypolipidemic agents), plasticizers and organic solvents used in the chemical industry, herbicides, and naturally occurring hormones. As the name implies, peroxisome proliferators cause an increase in the number and size of peroxisomes in the liver, kidney, and heart tissue of susceptible species, such as rats and mice. Long-term administration of peroxisome proliferators can cause liver cancer in these animals, a response that has been the central issue of research on peroxisome proliferators for many years. Peroxisome proliferators are representative of the class of nongenotoxic carcinogens that cause cancer through mechanisms that do not involve direct DNA damage. The fact that humans are frequently exposed to these agents makes them of particular concern to government regulatory agencies responsible for assuring human safety. Whether frequent exposure to peroxisome proliferators represents a hazard to humans is unknown; however, increased cancer risk has not been shown to be associated with long-term therapeutic administration of the hypolipidemic drugs gemfibrozil, fenofibrate, and clofibrate. To make sound judgments regarding the safety of peroxisome proliferators, the validity of extrapolating results from rodent bioassays to humans must be based on the agents' mechanism of action and species differences in biologic activity and carcinogenicity. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha), a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, has been found to mediate the activity of peroxisome proliferators in mice. Gene-knockout mice lacking PPARalpha are refractory to peroxisome proliferation and peroxisome proliferator-induced changes in gene expression. Furthermore, PPARalpha-null mice are resistant to hepatocarcinogenesis when fed a diet containing a potent nongenotoxic carcinogen WY-14,643. Recent studies have revealed that humans have considerably lower levels of PPARalpha in liver than rodents, and this difference may, in part, explain the species differences in the carcinogenic response to peroxisome proliferators.


I study the asset pricing implications of cumulative prospect theory on portfolio discounts. I extend Barberis and Huang (2008) and show that a portfolio consisting of lottery-like stocks should trade at a discount due to diversification. This discount can be partially mitigated if lottery-like stocks tend to produce extreme payoffs at the same time. I utilize three empirical settings to support this theoretical prediction: the closed-end fund puzzle, the announcement returns of mergers and acquisitions, and conglomerate discounts. My findings support cumulative prospect theory from an alternative perspective and provide a novel and unifying explanation for three seemingly unrelated phenomena.


Intergeneric crossing of the actinomycetes Streptoverticillium mycoheptinicum and Streptomyces coelicolor yielded recombinants which were mostly nonviable and unstable despite a relatively high frequency (10(-2)-10(-4)) at which their colonies appeared. The rare viable and stable recombinants were prototrophs. The structure of antibiotics in the hybrid cell may be modified as follows from the differences in the antibiotic activity of the LIA-973 hybrid and the parent strains.


The season of upheaval brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic is a critical occasion for libraries to revisit their organizational strategies. Strategy includes two complementary dimensions: alignment with the environment and the pursuit of competitive advantage. Rapid changes in the environment call for practicing strategic thinking iteratively rather than engaging in a fixed rhythm of multi-year planning. An effective library strategy displays four key attributes: (1) It responds to the concerns of diverse stakeholders. (2) It is flexible enough to adapt to emerging conditions. (3) It enacts organizational mission but can also help to reshape it. (4) It integrates with organization development to achieve success with and through people.


The two biggest problems that often experienced in machining cast iron are poor machinability and high hardness. Up to now, many researchers have investigated machining performance and how to find optimum condition in machining ductile cast iron. This study aims to investigate the machining performance of ductile cast iron and carbide cutting tool using FEM. Performances were evaluated by changing the cutting tool geometries on the machining responses of cutting force, stress, strain, and generated temperature on the workpiece. Deform-3D commercial finite element software was used in this study. Ductile cast iron FCD 500 grade was used as the work piece material and carbide insert DNMA432 type with WC (Tungsten) was used for the cutting tool. The effects of rake and clearance angles were investigated by designing various tool geometries. Various combination of carbide insert geometries were designed using Solid Work to produce +15, +20 and +30 deg for rake angle and 5, 7, 8 and 9 deg for clearance angle. Machining condition for the simulations were remained constant at cutting speed of 200 m/min, feed rate of 0.35 mm/rev, and depth of cut of 0.3 mm. The results of effective-stress, strain and generated temperature on both chip and material surface were analysed. The results show that by increasing the rake angle (α), it will improves the machining performance by reducing the cutting force, stress, strain and generated temperature on surface of workpiece. But, by increasing the clearance angle (γ), it will not affect much to the cutting force, stress, strain and generated temperature on chip.


: Increased body temperature stimulates hyperventilation in man but little is known about its effects on ventilatory responsiveness to hypoxia. Hence this study examined the effects of hyperthermia on hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR), hypercapnic ventilatory response (HCVR), and oxygen consumption (VO2). Six fasting subjects had these variables measured under basal conditions and at two levels of hyperthermia. Hypoxic ventilatory response was measured as the shape paramater A of the VE/PAO2 curves. Since hyperthermia produces hyperventilation and, therefore, hypocapnia, HVR was measured at the hyperthermic (hypocapnic alveolar CO2 tension (PACO2) and at the basal (normothermic) PACO2. Hypoxic ventilatory response (A) increased when measured at basal PACO2 levels, from 113 +/- 8.8 (S.E.M.) to 189 +/- 21.8 at 0.7 degrees C. and 240 +/- 34.0 at + 1.40 degrees C. (P less than 0.005). HVR measured during hyperthermic hypocapnia also increased at each temperature level but did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.1). Hypercapnic ventilatory response, as measured by the slope S of VE/PACO2 lines, increased significantly at each temperature elevation (P less than 0.025). We conclude that raising body temperature causes a significant augmentation of ventilatory responses to hypoxia (during normothermic PACO2 conditions) and to hypercapnia.


Spanning nearly 500 years of cultural and social history, this book examines the ways that literature and surveillance have developed together, as kindred modern practices. As ideas about personhood-what constitutes a self-have changed over time, so too have ideas about how to represent, shape, or invade the self. The authors show that, since the Renaissance, changes in observation strategies have driven innovations in literature; literature, in turn, has provided a laboratory and forum for the way we think about surveillance and privacy. Ultimately, they contend that the habits of mind cultivated by literature make rational and self-aware participation in contemporary surveillance environments possible. In a society increasingly dominated by interlocking surveillance systems, these habits of mind are consequently necessary for fully realized liberal citizenship.


The development and optimization of high‐performance anode materials for alkali metal ion batteries is crucial for the green energy evolution. Atomic scale computational modeling such as density functional theory and molecular dynamics allows for efficient and adventurous materials design from the nanoscale, and have emerged as invaluable tools. Computational modeling cannot only provide fundamental insight, but also present input for multiscale models and experimental synthesis, often where quantities cannot readily be obtained by other means. In this review, an overview of three main anode classes; alloying, conversion, and intercalation‐type anodes, is provided and how atomic scale modeling is used to understand and optimize these materials for applications in lithium‐, sodium‐, and potassium‐ion batteries. In the last part of this review, a novel type of anode materials that are largely predicted from density functional theory simulations is presented. These 2D materials are currently in their early stages of development and are only expected to gain in importance in the years to come, both within the battery field and beyond, highlighting the ability of atomic scale materials design.


This study aims to determine the cost of production at CV Pelangi Advertising company. The company is engaged in the rental of advertising services which offer a point of location for the use of business people. This research uses qualitative method that is by obtaining company data then compare the method used. Company data used are all cost components that have occurred in 2017 then formulated to be able to make an estimate of cost of production in 2018. The method used to compare the calculation of cost production is company method and full costing method. The results shows that there was a difference between company method and full costing method, where the result of full costing method is bigger. This is because the company method there are several methods that have not been entered so that will affect the calculation of cost of production. Thus the company should use the method of full costing in calculating the cost of goods manufactured.

Keywords : company method, full costing method, cost of production


Epidermal homeostasis depends on a balance between stem cell renewal and terminal differentiation. The transition between the two cell states, termed commitment, is poorly understood. Here we characterise commitment by integrating transcriptomic and proteomic data from disaggregated primary human keratinocytes held in suspension for up to 12h to induce differentiation. We find that cell detachment induces a network of protein phosphatases. The pro-commitment phosphatases – including DUSP6, PPTC7, PTPN1, PTPN13 and PPP3CA – promote differentiation by negatively regulating ERK MAPK and positively regulating AP1 transcription factors. Their activity is antagonised by concomitant upregulation of DUSP10. Boolean network modelling of phosphatase interactions identifies commitment as an inherently unstable biological switch between the stem and differentiated cell states. Furthermore, phosphatase expression is spatially regulated both in vivo and in vitro. We conclude that an auto-regulatory phosphatase network maintains epidermal homeostasis by controlling the onset and duration of commitment.


Spin-transfer torques can switch magnetizations via a current passing through a magnetic tunnel junction, an effect that is being pursued as the switching mechanism in spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory. Three-terminal devices are also possible. One mechanism is to have a free layer that contains a domain wall that can be manipulated by spin-transfer torques and moved between two configurations that can be read by a separate connection. An alternate approach uses the recent development of spin-orbit torques, which offer an efficient way of manipulating the magnetization of a tunnel junction by current passing through an adjacent layer. These torques allow for the separation of reading and writing currents through three-terminal devices structures. This paper presents the basic principles of spin-orbit torques, the distinguishing features of spin-orbit-torque-induced magnetization dynamics as compared to magnetization dynamics driven by conventional spin-transfer torques. From the application point of view, it presents the pros and cons of spin-orbit-torque-based three-terminal devices including magnetic random access memories. Then, it discusses domain-wall-based three-terminal devices and the advantages and disadvantages of each.


Background We aimed to reveal sex differences in depression comprehension by reanalyzing data from a previous study of patients who were administered antidepressants. Methods A total of 424 outpatients were enrolled in the study. Participants were provided an original self-administered questionnaire that comprised eight items: depressive symptoms, course of depression, cause of depression, treatment plan, duration of antidepressant use, how to discontinue antidepressants, side effects of antidepressants, and psychotherapy. Each item consisted of the following two questions: "Have you received an explanation from the doctor in charge?" and "How much do you understand about your treatment?" The level of patients' comprehension of these questions was rated on a scale of 0–10 (11 anchor points). Symptoms were evaluated using the Quick Inventory for Depressive Symptomatology, Japanese version, and other scales. Patients were divided on the basis of sex, regardless of whether they were in remission. Results Compared with male patients, female patients with depression exhibited lower levels of depression and did not receive adequate psychoeducation from their physicians. While depression comprehension of female patients might not necessarily be associated with remission, male patients in remission received more explanations about depression and understood more compared with female patients. Conclusion Depression comprehension of male patients might be associated with remission, and psychoeducation should be sex-oriented to improve treatment responses.


Abstract The authors discuss the effects of the electrophysical (IR- and SHF-heating) and conventional methods for frying low-calorie semi-finished minced meat (chops with methyl cellulose addition) intended for treatment and prophylactic nutrition of schoolchildren on the biological value of proteins: the amino acid score, the protein qualitative index, the coefficient of the amino acid score difference, and the coefficient of the efficacy of lysine and protein availability. It has been established that the electrophysical methods of heating, especially the frying of the products by means of IR-radiation favour an improvement of a number of the parameters as compared to the conventional way of frying.


Understanding whether and how connections between agents (networks) such as declared friendships in classrooms, transactions between firms, and extended family connections, influence their socio-economic outcomes has been a growing area of research within economics. Early methods developed to identify these social effects assumed that networks had formed exogenously, and were perfectly observed, both of which are unlikely to hold in practice. A more recent literature, both within economics and in other disciplines, develops methods that relax these assumptions. This paper reviews that literature. It starts by providing a general econometric framework for linear models of social effects, and illustrates how network endogeneity and missing data on the network complicate identification of social effects. Thereafter, it discusses methods for overcoming the problems caused by endogenous formation of networks. Finally, it outlines the stark consequences of missing data on measures of the network, and regression parameters, before describing potential solutions.


To examine how competition influences resource allocation in 4- to 6-year-olds, children were assigned to one of two conditions. In the experimental condition children colored a picture for a coloring contest whereas in the control condition they colored a picture to decorate a wall. Subsequently, all children participated in a resource allocation task with another child who was introduced as another participant in the coloring contest or who would also be coloring a picture for the wall. Finally, children were asked how many crayons (out of eight) they wanted to provide to the other child. In the resource allocation task, children made decisions about how to allocate stickers to self and other across four trial types: cost and no cost variations of both advantageous and disadvantageous inequality trials. Children were less prosocial in the experimental condition than in the control condition but only in disadvantageous inequality trials involving a cost. Children in the experimental condition withheld more crayons compared to children in the control condition. These results suggest that competition not only decreases prosocial behavior directly linked to the competition but also decreases generosity when provided with an unrelated resource allocation opportunity.


Feature extraction is a critical step in the task of action recognition. Hand-crafted features are often restricted because of their fixed forms and deep learning features are more effective but need large-scale labeled data for training. In this paper, we propose a new hierarchical Nonlinear Orthogonal Adaptive-Subspace Self-Organizing Map(NOASSOM) to adaptively and learn effective features from data without supervision. NOASSOM is extended from Adaptive-Subspace Self-Organizing Map (ASSOM) which only deals with linear data and is trained with supervision by the labeled data. Firstly, by adding a nonlinear orthogonal map layer, NOASSOM is able to handle the nonlinear input data and it avoids defining the specific form of the nonlinear orthogonal map by a kernel trick. Secondly, we modify loss function of ASSOM such that every input sample is used to train model individually. In this way, NOASSOM effectively learns the statistic patterns from data without supervision. Thirdly, we propose a hierarchical NOASSOM to extract more representative features. Finally, we apply the proposed hierarchical NOASSOM to efficiently describe the appearance and motion information around trajectories for action recognition. Experimental results on widely used datasets show that our method has superior performance than many state-of-the-art hand-crafted features and deep learning features based methods.


We address the problem of segmenting multiple object instances in complex videos. Our method does not require manual pixel-level annotation for training, and relies instead on readily-available object detectors or visual object tracking only. Given object bounding boxes at input, we cast video segmentation as a weakly-supervised learning problem. Our proposed objective combines (a) a discriminative clustering term for background segmentation, (b) a spectral clustering one for grouping pixels of same object instances, and (c) linear constraints enabling instance-level segmentation. We propose a convex relaxation of this problem and solve it efficiently using the Frank-Wolfe algorithm. We report results and compare our method to several baselines on a new video dataset for multi-instance person segmentation.


Abstract It is no secret that the diabetes community has been yearning for good news for quite some time. One outstanding issue undermining effective diabetes management has been the lack of demonstrable effects of glycemic interventions on cardiovascular (CV) outcome in people with type 2 diabetes. This, however, seems to have changed recently after the publication of the Empa-Reg Outcome Trial. The study reported an impressive reduction in CV deaths that was observed within weeks of treatment with the diabetes agent, Empagliflozin. The results exceeded all expectations and was quickly embraced by a wide and receptive diabetes audience. Fans and admirers of the study have since set out to accommodate the new findings to reshape our diabetes practice guidelines. However, before everything becomes cast in stone, I believe there's another side to the story of the Empa-Reg Outcome trial that the diabetes community needs to hear. Here, I debate the merits of the study and present the case as to why I think we might be led down the garden path by accepting this study at mere face value.


Displaying believable emotional reactions in virtual characters is required in applications ranging from virtual-reality trainers to video games. Manual scripting is the most frequently used method and enables an arbitrarily high fidelity of the emotions displayed. However, scripting is labor intense and thus greatly reduces the scope of emotions displayed and emotionally affected behavior in virtual characters. As a result, only a few virtual characters can display believable emotions and only in pre-scripted encounters. In this thesis we implement and evaluate a light-weight algorithm for procedurally controlling both emotionally affected behavior and emotional appearance of a virtual character. The algorithm is based on two psychological models of emotions: conservation of resources and appraisal. The former component controls emotionally affected behavior of a virtual character whereas the latter generates explicit numeric descriptors of the character's emotions which can be used to drive the character's appearance. We implement the algorithm in a simple testbed and compare it to two baseline approaches via a user study. Human participants judged the emotions displayed by the algorithm to be more believable than those of the baselines.


Question: Species can persist in landscapes with recurring disturbances either by migrating to places suitable for the moment or by enduring the threatening conditions. We investigated to what extent boreal forest bryophytes survived an intense forest fire in situ and whether bryophytes had started to recolonize the area 7-8 years later.

Location: Tyresta National Park, eastern Sweden.

Methods: We recorded bryophytes in 14 burnt and 12 forest reference plots (50 × 50 m). In each plot we investigated 15 random 1-m2 micro-plots. In plots in the burnt area we also examined micro-plots at locations of all fire refugia, and in case of the forest references, of 10 potential refugia.

Results: We found on average three small refugia per 50 × 50-m plot; each containing on average 4.8 forest bryophytes, a level similar to that of micro-plots in the references, but significantly higher than in random micro-plots in the burnt plots (1.5 species). Many refugia were located in rocky areas, but few were in wet sites. The burnt area remained dominated by a few fire-favoured species, even if recolonization of forest bryophytes had begun. There was, however, no significant correlation between number of refugia and number of forest species in random micro-plots, leaving open the question of the importance of refugia as regulators of early succession.

Conclusion: We conclude that small-scale refugia can also occur for sensitive species such as forest bryophytes, and that the refugia in our case were frequently found on rocky or mesic rather than wet sites. The role of such refugia in recolonization, however, warrants further investigation.


The correct and precise laboratory diagnosis of human malaria is still a challenge because the reference method, the Giemsa-stained thick blood smear (TS), has limitations that present problems for malaria control. Because of these problems, several studies have attempted to develop alternative methods for malaria diagnosis. Many of these studies focus on molecular diagnosis methods and have led to the development of some alternatives to TS. However, their limitations include high cost, protocol complexity and variable quality of DNA sources and reagents. Nested PCR has been shown to be a good method in this respect and it can be improved by using a high-quality source of DNA. In this study we evaluated two methods for the obtainment of DNA from dried blood samples on filter paper: 1) washing and 2) saponin/chelex-100. The second method showed higher sensitivity and specificity compared to the first, as it detected more infections, whether single or mixed, as well as Plasmodium malariae infections. Based on these results, we present this method as the protocol of choice for DNA obtainment. Nested PCR using saponin/chelex-100 for DNA extraction could be an alternative or complementary diagnosis method for human malaria parasites, but it is not appropriate for routine use.


Background: The American family structure has changed in the past few decades due to a rise in the divorce rate and unmarried women with children. Research suggests a salary disparity between men and women, especially for those women after pregnancy. However, these studies were confined to individuals within traditional families, and there is a lack of information of income disparity and poverty status between single mothers and fathers. The current study explored the disparities in single-parent families based on the household income and the poverty status using a set of nationwide censor data. Methods: The current study used data from the 2011 and 2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 1135). Multivariate regression models were used in the analysis. Results: The demographic characteristics of the weighted population showed that taxable income, total income, and poverty status were higher for single fathers than mothers, while non-work income was higher for single mothers than fathers. Single mothers were much more likely to be at the crisis category than single fathers. Multivariate analyses showed that gender, age, marital status, years of experience, and geographic region had effects on taxable income, and only gender, marital status, and region had effects on poverty status. Conclusions: The results suggest that vulnerable group of single mothers was acknowledged according to income and poverty status. Age, marital status, years of experience, and region would be the critical factors for predicting the income and poverty status for single parenthood.


The present research examines whether people use racial contact to signal positive and negative social attributes. In two experiments, participants were instructed to fake good (trustworthy/competent) or fake bad (untrustworthy/incompetent) when reporting their amount of contact with a range of different racial groups. In Experiment 1 (N = 364), participants faking good reported significantly more contact with White Americans than with non-White Americans, whereas participants faking bad did not. In Experiment 2 (N = 1,056), this pattern was replicated and was found to be particularly pronounced among those with stronger pro-White bias. These findings suggest that individuals may use racial contact as a social signal, effectively "whitewashing" their apparent contact and friendships when trying to present positively.


Background: Establishing a paediatric early warning system in a paediatric Emergency Department (ED) is a complex process and more so with the COVID-19 pandemic. PUMA (PEWS Utilisation & Morality Avoidance) is a qualitative system assessment survey tool which assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the patient care safety processes and systems within a department. This model draws together evidence from two theoretically informed systematic reviews. Methods: The Sidra Medicine ED Quality group surveyed online 200 staff from the department of physicians/nursing team focussing on processes of monitoring patients and documentation, communication amongst the team and with parents, staff empowerment, situational awareness, escalation processes and response to the deteriorating child in the three broad domains of Detect, Prepare, and Act, with a further seven smaller domains (monitor, record, interpret, review, prepare, escalate, and evaluate). Survey analysis enabled to review current practice, identify areas that are working well and areas for improvement. Results and implications: The online survey helped achieve a 85% return rate and identify seven areas for improvement in the system. The spider diagram illustrates the areas of strength and weakness in the seven domains with respect to Detect, Prepare, and Act. We collaborated with the Cerner team, created an automatic documentation of vital signs from triage and treatment areas to the patient's Electronic Medical Record by associating patient's cardiac monitors to reduce manual errors and for the timely monitoring of vital signs. A one-day "Back to Basics Training" refresher course for the nursing team was conducted. A senior nurse, as a watcher in the triage and treatment area, identified children at high risk of deterioration. A Pediatric ED Situational Awareness Tool (PEDSAT) was developed locally and is in trial to help manage sick children effectively. Conclusion: PUMA, a novel system assessment tool, empowered our ED to tailor a quality program with an aim to deliver effective and efficient patient care.


Governments across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) face challenges in extending and maintaining infrastructure to serve their populations, especially as climate change and ecosystem degradation endanger communities and infrastructure assets across the region. To help address these challenges, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) aims to increase its support of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) in accordance with the banks 2020 Environmental and Social Sustainability Mainstreaming Action Plan. This Issue Brief serves two main functions. First, it describes IDB's growing focus on NBS and provides a tour of IDBs main offerings regarding NBS project support and investment. Second, it serves as a baseline of IDBs activities related to NBS from which the bank and partners can build upon moving forward. Going forward, IDB will ramp up support for clients to incorporate NBS considerations and opportunity analysis in country agreements and throughout all stages of project preparation, from investment identification to execution.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the use of pneumococcal vaccination in a general medicine ambulatory clinic and the effect of a quality assessment monitor on use.

DESIGN
A prospective 8-month (October 1990 through May 1991) survey and 8-month (October 1989 through May 1990) retrospective survey of use of pneumococcal vaccination in the clinic.

SETTING
A general medicine clinic where patients are seen for their first internal medicine clinic visit at The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa.

PATIENTS
One thousand sixty adult patients who presented to the clinic during the study interval.

INTERVENTIONS
The use of the form constituted an intervention.

RESULTS
Use of pneumococcal vaccination was increased more than 5 times over the baseline level following implementation of the quality assessment monitor.

CONCLUSIONS
Underuse of pneumococcal vaccination occurred in this general medicine clinic, and the introduction of a quality assessment monitor constituted an intervention that significantly increased the use of pneumococcal vaccination.


Objective: To report the psychometric properties of the COmprehensive Score for financial Toxicity (COST) patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), an 11-item scale previously validated among patients diagnosed with cancer and receiving chemotherapy. Methods: Data come from a cross-sectional survey (n = 2755 response rate of 87%) of participants in a remote digital health coaching intervention collected between January 2017 and February 2019. Results: COST demonstrated very good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .89) and good convergent validity. Lower financial toxicity was associated with improved physical and mental well-being HRQOL measures after controlling for covariates (b = 0.13, P < .0001; b = 0.28, P < .0001, respectively). Supplemental analyses indicated that the COST instrument loaded on 2 factors. Conclusions: The COST measure of financial toxicity has good internal consistency and predictive validity in a sample of patients with chronic conditions. However, contrary to previous research examining the psychometric properties of COST in a sample of individuals with cancer, which found COST to be unidimensional, our analyses indicated that the COST measure of financial toxicity is multidimensional in a sample of individuals with chronic conditions. In particular, the items that asked about "general financial wellbeing" loaded on the second factor while "illness-related financial wellbeing" loaded on the first.


In area development the implementation of sustainability measures is often considered difficult and subject to devaluation of the original ambitions. One of the main reasons for this concerns the costs and benefits of those measures. Some measures require high initial investments, while the return on those investments sometimes takes up to several decades. Another reason is that some measures require investments of stakeholder A, while stakeholder B receives the benefits, and stakeholder C will be confronted with the negative environmental impacts. In such cases making decisions is not always easy. This paper presents the first outcomes of a Climate KIC PhD study. The goal of the study as a whole is to support climate proof area development by systematically analyzing the role of costs and benefits of measures in the design, development and decision making process, and – based upon the results – by formulating recommendations for improvement. Questions to be answered include, how should the various stakeholders, as mentioned above, be taken into account? Besides this, the study tries to find answers related to impacts beyond the geographical boundaries and/or the timeframe of a project. The first part of the study concerns an evaluation of two Dutch reference cases in which sustainability has been one of the leading goals. The first case is the (re)development of a large part of the city of Delft. The second case concerns Schiphol Trade Park, a new industrial area to be developed the coming years nearby Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.


Tuberculous pleuritis (TP) is one of the most common extra-pulmonary tuberculosis form. Because of tuberculous pleurisy is hard to diagnose due to slow course of disease and lack of specificity in symptoms and diagnostic methods. In that reason, we need multidisciplinary approach and efficient biomarkers. Acid-fast bacilli (AFB) staining, cultures and pathophysiological biopsy finding from the majority of patients are positive only in less than 10%. Löwenstein culture results need time about 6-8 weeks what delays diagnosis. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is biomarker with high sensitivity and specificity (more than 90%) and considered as gold standard of biomarkers in the diagnosis of TP. It is very hard to distinguish malignant from TP with lymphocyte predomination, but in patient with malignant pleural effusion the level of ADA is decreased, opposite from TP. ADA in pleural punctate is a fast, simple, efficient and economical way for clarification the etiology of the pleural effusion as tuberculous pleurisy. Also, many studies have proved the role of ADA in the response to treatment for tuberculosis at follow up period


: A study was made of the regularities of formation of lenticular opacity in mice exposed to 9 GeV protons and 60Co-gamma-rays. The RBE coefficients, calculated by the nonparametric method, were found to depend upon dose and time after irradiation. It was shown that after small radiation doses (0.25 to 0.50 Gy) the RBE coefficients increased from 1 to 8 with increasing period of observation. With higher doses (up to 5.0 Gy) the RBE coefficient increase in time was less pronounced.


Abstract The phylogenetics and phylogeography of the Jamaican fruit-eating bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) were examined based on analysis of DNA sequence variation in the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene for 176 individuals representing all 13 subspecies of A. jamaicensis (sensu Simmons 2005). Results document that A. jamaicensis (sensu Simmons 2005) comprises 3 monophyletic assemblages that are separated phylogenetically by the presence of A. obscurus, A. lituratus, and A. amplus. According to the mitochondrial DNA sequence variation, A. jamaicensis, A. schwartzi, and A. planirostris are appropriate species-level names for these lineages. Haplotypes identifiable as A. jamaicensis were absent east of the Andes Mountains in South America; haplotypes of A. schwartzi were documented throughout the Lesser Antilles and from northern Venezuela, and haplotypes of A. planirostris were identified east of the Andes Mountains in South America, north of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, and from the southern Lesser Antilles. Haplotypes of Artibeus jamaicensis, A. schwartzi, and A. planirostris were identified sympatrically on Carriacou, a small island in the southern Lesser Antilles that is ecologically monotypic. The magnitude of genetic divergence separating A. jamaicensis, A. planirostris, and A. schwartzi essentially equals the magnitude of genetic divergence distinguishing A. lituratus, A. obscurus, and A. jamaicensis. Studies of the nuclear genome will be required to understand the biological implications of these patterns in the mitochondrial genome.


A 28-year-old white male presented with a palpable abdominal mass and a grossly elevated beta human chorionic gonadotrophin. He refused investigations to establish the pathology and was treated with cisplatin combination chemotherapy. After an initial fall in his marker, it rose while he was on chemotherapy. The tumour was resected which confirmed the presence of a retroperitoneal germ cell tumour (extra-gonadal). He received further adjuvant chemotherapy and is subsequently clear of disease after being off treatment for more than 5 years. Total resection is not usually considered possible in patients with persistent positive markers after induction chemotherapy. This case shows that surgery should be considered as the results of salvage chemotherapy are poor in these patients.


: The intensity of free-radical processes upon long-term omeprazole-induced hypoacidity in the rat pancreas was investigated. Significant violation of oxidative-antioxidative balance in pancreatic tissue upon gastric hypochlorhydria was established: overproduction of superoxide anion, quantitative changes of lipid functional groups, increased level of lipid peroxidation products, augmentation of xanthine oxidase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione transferase activity, as well as depletion of catalase, glutathione peroxidase activity and reduced glutathione content. The inflected expression of Cckbr gene in the rat pancreas upon these conditions was also observed, thus suggesting an increased risk of pathological changes development in the gland. Abovementioned parameters were only partially restored to control values in the case of simultaneous administration of multiprobiotic "Symbiter" with omeprazole, thus indicating the ability of this preparation to efficiently counteract the development of oxidative damages in pancreatic tissues upon long-term hypoacidic conditions.


This guide is designed to be a companion to the CAS Tuesday Teach-in events. Links to related readings and background information will be posted there in preparation for each event.


An overview of research on the microstructure of foreign exchange (FX) markets is presented. We begin by summarizing the institutional features of FX trading and describe how they have evolved since the 1980s. We then explain how these features are represented in microstructure models of FX trading. Next, we describe the links between microstructure and traditional macro exchange-rate models and summarize how these links have been explored in recent empirical research. Finally, we provide a microstructure perspective on two recent areas of interest in exchange-rate economics: the behavior of returns on currency portfolios, and questions of competition and regulation.


Access to information about the future direction of the exchange rate can be extremely valuable in the foreign exchange market. Evidence presented in this article suggests that Canadian dealers are more likely to provide interday liquidity to foreign, rather than Canadian, financial customers, since foreign financial flows can be more informative about future movements in the exchange rate. The author reveals a statistical relationship between the supply of liquidity provided by non-financial firms and that provided by dealing institutions across time, and across markets, and suggests that the relationship between the positions of commercial clients and market-makers, and the role played by dealers in interday liquidity provision, has been understated in the market microstructure literature.


ABSTRACT Little is known about the fitness and virulence consequences of single-nucleotide substitutions in RNA viral genomes, and most information comes from the analysis of nonrandom sets of mutations with strong phenotypic effect or which have been assessed in vitro, with their relevance in vivo being unclear. Here we used site-directed mutagenesis to create a collection of 66 clones of Tobacco etch potyvirus, each carrying a different, randomly chosen, single-nucleotide substitution. Competition experiments between each mutant and the ancestral nonmutated clone were performed in planta to quantitatively assess the relative fitness of each mutant genotype. Among all mutations, 40.9% were lethal, and among the viable ones, 36.4% were significantly deleterious and 22.7% neutral. Not a single case of beneficial effects was observed within the level of resolution of our measures. On average, the fitness of a genotype carrying a deleterious but viable mutation was 49% smaller than that for its unmutated progenitor. Deleterious mutational effects conformed to a beta probability distribution. The virulence of a subset of viable mutants was assessed as the reduction in the number of viable seeds produced by infected plants. Mutational effects on virulence ranged between 17% reductions and 24.4% increases. Interestingly, the only mutations showing a significant effect on virulence were hypervirulent. Competitive fitness and virulence were uncorrelated traits.


Section 32 of the Resource Management Act requires councils to evaluate the alternative options. Pure, fully monetised cost benefit analysis ("CBA") is in theory the ideal preferred approach for evaluations, but it is at one extreme of a whole spectrum of related approaches based on the level of detail and quantification or monetisation. In practice, few if any s32 analyses are fully monetised, and in fact many if not most are either purely qualitative (descriptions or matrices) or a mix of qualitative and quantitative (numerical or scoring). However, there are other examples across the entire spectrum.


Laser trapping of molecules and proteins in solution at room temperature is made possible by irradiating 1064-nm continuous-wave (CW) laser with power around 1 W. Although conventional small molecules are not trapped at the focal point, molecules that can form clusters upon assembling and proteins whose size is close to 10 nm are gathered, giving unique assembly structure. Glycine in H2O shows crystallization, urea in D2O gives a millimeter-sized giant droplet, and cobalt oxide-filled ferritin protein confirms assembly followed by precipitation. Solute concentration, solvent, and laser power are important factors for determining trapping and assembling phenomena, and the laser focal position is very critical. These unique behaviors are realized by setting the irradiation at the air/solution surface, inside the solution, and at the glass/solution interface. Laser trapping-induced crystallization, liquid/liquid phase separation, and precipitation are compared with the previous results and considered. After summarizing the results, we describe our future perspective and plans.


Abstract Migratory fish populations, like salmon, have dramatically declined for decades. Because of their extensive and energetically costly breeding travel anadromous fish are sensitive to a variety of environmental threats, in particular infrastructure building in freshwater streams and food declines in the ocean. Here, we analyze the effects of these two threats combined. Unexpectedly, we find that low marine food availabilities favor, as opposed to threaten, the ecological success of endangered populations. This counterintuitive effect results from an aspect of individual energetics that individuals switching to higher food levels reach larger sizes with concomitant larger migration costs but have lower energy densities. Surprisingly, the decline of food levels in the ocean after the completion of dams may thus mitigate the risk of extinction of migratory fish populations. This highlights the need of a mechanistic understanding integrating individual energetics, life history, and population dynamics to accurately assess biological consequences of environmental change.