Pulsed discharge plasmas are considered to be important candidate sources of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation for application in future lithography tools for the high-volume manufacturing of computer chips. Two specific types of such plasmas have been the subject of research in this work: (1) a hollow-cathode triggered source, developed by Philips EUV in Aachen, Germany; and (2) a laser-ignited discharge in tin vapor, from the Institute of Spectroscopy (ISAN) in Troitsk, Russia. In the evolution of the discharge pulses of these and similar types of EUV sources, generally four different phases can be distinguished. After a device-dependent ignition phase, a strong current starts to flow ("prepinch phase"). A Lorentz force, associated with the electric current, causes a strong radial compression of the plasma ("pinch phase"). After this, in the decay phase, the plasma cools down, expands, and finally dies out. For the further development and optimization of discharge plasma EUV sources, a better understanding of the plasma properties and dynamics is needed; to obtain such understanding, time-resolved measurements of the plasma properties are indispensable. Optical diagnostics are strongly preferred because they provide a lot of information about the plasma while in general they cause little or no disturbance of the plasma itself. In this work, a number of different optical diagnostic techniques have been applied to both types of discharges; their results are summarized below. First of all, time-resolved imaging of the plasma, both in the EUV and in the visible light ranges of the spectrum, serves mainly to obtain basic, qualitative understanding of the evolution of the discharge pulse. The visible light images help to visualize the parts of the plasma that are not hot enough to emit EUV radiation. Plasma imaging has, for instance, helped to identify a preferential direction of expansion of the plasma along the axis of symmetry in both types of discharges, with supersonic velocities of roughly 4×104 m s-1. Also, time and space resolved spectra have been recorded for the EUV wavelength range. These have shown, together with EUV plasma imaging, that high ionization stages already exist in a ring-shaped plasma in the prepinch phase, before the onset of compression. The recorded spectra have further been compared to EUV spectra produced by a computer model. This comparison gives information about which plasma processes play a prominent role in the studied part of the discharge; detailed consideration of, among others, radiative deexcitation and the influence of both Doppler and Stark broadening on the opacity of the radiation, proved to be important to produce good reproductions of the experimentally obtained spectra. Furthermore, the "lagging" of the ionization stage populations compared to the instantaneous electron temperature, had to be taken into account in the form of an effective net ionization rate—hence, the ionization stage population was shown to be essentially non-stationary. Finally, doubly excited states were shown to play a role in determining the shapes of the EUV spectra of both discharges. Best matches between simulated and experimental spectra were obtained with electron temperatures near 25 eV and pinch electron densities of about 1×1025 m-3 and 3×1025 m-3 for the xenon and tin plasmas, respectively. These and other plasma parameters agree fairly well with the results of other diagnostic techniques. The Stark broadening of specific spectral lines of tin ions in the visible wavelength range has been measured as a function of time during the evolution of the tin vapor discharge. A cross-calibration has led to the determination of four new Stark broadening parameters for lines of doubly ionized tin. From the spectral line widths, information about electron densities for various parts of the plasma evolution have been derived. Finally, the Thomson scattering (TS) technique has been applied to the tin vapor discharge to determine space and time resolved electron temperatures and densities simultaneously. First experiments were performed with an existing TS setup. However, to obtain a better ratio between the TS signal and the background radiation, generated by the plasma itself, a new setup for sub-ns Thomson scattering has been designed and built. A laser with a shorter pulse duration, a camera with a shorter gate time, and improved synchronization between the two, together have enabled this signal-to-background ratio to be improved by more than an order of magnitude. This has greatly expanded the applicability of the TS technique to EUV generating discharge plasmas. In application to the tin vapor discharge, electron temperatures and densities of up to about 10 eV and 2×1023 m-3, respectively, have been found for the laser-induced ignition plasma. Once the electron density near the anode reaches a value of around 2×1022 m-3, an electric current can start to flow. In the subsequent high-current phase, both densities and temperatures increase fast, with temperatures reaching to about 30 eV after 100 ns. Especially in the beginning of this phase, the plasma exhibits a hollow radial temperature profile. Compression leads to the pinch phase, in which electron densities on the order of 3×1025 m-3 are achieved. After the end of the pinch phase, additional evaporation of tin from the cathode results in a cooler plasma with relatively slowly decreasing electron densities, from initially above 1024 m-3 to around 1021 m-3 after 4 µs. Nearly all densities, except for those in the pinch phase, have been confirmed independently by the Stark broadening results. The experiments described above have led, first of all, to a more complete understanding of the plasma evolution. Certain phenomena have been confirmed, others have been newly discovered—such as the aforementioned EUV emission from a ring-shaped plasma. Furthermore, extensive information, both temporally and spatially resolved, has been gathered on the electron temperatures and densities in the tin vapor discharge. Such data could serve as a benchmark for future computer simulations of the evolution of discharge plasmas.


The study is of the disciplinary systems within the prisons of England and Wales. It concerns the response of the courts to prison matters brought before them and examines the effects upon prison life of an increasing demand for adherence to the rules of natural justice. Statutory authorities for the imposition of punishment within prison are reviewed as is the complex interweaving of statute, statutory instrument and internal regulations. There is a comprehensive examination of those parliamentary debates, conferences, committees of inquiry, reports and judgments that have influenced change. Particular reference is made to the question of legal or other assistance for an accused prisoner who faces a disciplinary hearing within the prison. The paper contains an account of the subsystems of discipline said to operate within penal establishments whereby the pressures of institutional life may conspire to prevent a prisoner receiving that to which he or she knows he or she is entitled. The paper draws upon the developing case law, the literature in the field and on private sources. The last of these includes the voice of prisoners themselves who are able to say how, if at all, a growing awareness by staff of the requirements of natural justice has affected the regime under which they live.


Background: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second cause of cancer mortality in men. Although histopathological examination is the gold-standard for its diagnosis, tendency toward less invasive methods is growing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between choline plus creatine- to-citrate ratio in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) with the invasion of prostate cancer in a series of patients with prostate cancer. Methods: Totally, 200 patients with pathologically proven prostate cancer were enrolled in this cross-sectional study by a non-probability sampling method in H azrat R asul A kram H ospital in T ehran, I ran during 2009-2010 . Pathological staging was the gold standard for the diagnosis of prostate cancer while the patients underwent MRS for choline plus creatine- to-citrate ratio determination. MRS and pathological results were compared and analyzed. Results: The mean (±SD) values of choline plus creatine- to-citrate ratio in patients with Gleason scores less than 3 , 3 to 4 and greater than 4 were 245.8±146.8 , 427.1±173.6 and 427.1±173.6 , respectively (P<0.001) . The mean (±SD) values of choline plus creatine- to-citrate ratio in patients with PSA levels less than 4 , 4 to 10 and greater than 10 were 180.7±58.3 , 247±93.5 and 385.1±106.6 , respectively (P<0.001) . Conclusion: Choline plus creatine- to-citrate ratio determined by magnetic resonance spectroscopy has a significant relationship with the degree of invasion of prostate cancer and can be used for the staging of the disease.


We present spectroscopic and 11-band photometric redshifts for galaxies in the 100-μJy Subaru/XMM–NewtonDeep Field radio source sample. We find good agreement between our redshift distribution and that predicted by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Simulated Skies project. We find no correlation between K-band magnitude and radio flux, but show that sources with 1.4-GHz flux densities below ∼1 mJy are fainter in the near-infrared than brighter radio sources at the same redshift, and we discuss the implications of this result for spectroscopically incomplete samples where the K–z relation has been used to estimate redshifts. We use the infrared–radio correlation to separate our sample into radio-loud and radio-quiet objects and show that only radio-loud hosts have spectral energy distributions consistent with predominantly old stellar populations, although the fraction of objects displaying such properties is a decreasing function of radio luminosity. We calculate the 1.4-GHz radio luminosity function (RLF) in redshift bins to z= 4 and find that the space density of radio sources increases with lookback time to z≈ 2, with a more rapid increase for more powerful sources. We demonstrate that radio-loud and radio-quiet sources of the same radio luminosity evolve very differently. Radio-quiet sources display strong evolution to z≈ 2 while radio-loud active galactic nuclei below the break in the RLF evolve more modestly and show hints of a decline in their space density at z > 1, with this decline occurring later for lower-luminosity objects. If the radio luminosities of these sources are a function of their black hole spins then slowly rotating black holes must have a plentiful fuel supply for longer, perhaps because they have yet to encounter the major merger that will spin them up and use the remaining gas in a major burst of star formation.


Diesel spray experimentation at controlled high-temperature and high-pressure conditions is intended to provide a more fundamental understanding of diesel combustion than can be achieved in engine experiments. This level of understanding is needed to develop the high-fidelity multi-scale CFD models that will be used to optimize future engine designs. Several spray chamber facilities capable of high-temperature, igh-pressure conditions typical of engine combustion have been developed, but because of the uniqueness of each facility, there are uncertainties about their operation. The Engine Combustion Network (ECN) is a worldwide group of institutions using combustion vessels, whose aim is to advance the state of spray and combustion knowledge at engine-relevant conditions. A key activity is the use of spray chamber facilities operated at specific target conditions in order to leverage research capabilities and advanced diagnostics of all ECN participants. The first target condition, called "Spray A", has been defined with detailed ambient and injector conditions. For this paper, we describe results from the constant-volume pre-burn vessel at Eindhoven University of Technology. The executed measurements include a wide range of diagnostics to characterize "spray A" in reacting and non-reacting conditions in great detail. Observations of spray penetration, ignition, liquid length and flame lift-off location by using several high-speed imaging diagnostics are discussed and compared with other ECN participating institutes. Comparison Spray A data from the other participating institutes, as it was presented during the 2nd ECN workshop is gathered from the ECN website database [1]. It can be concluded that the obtained results from the standardized ECN spray diagnostics, show satisfactory similarity, despite of the challenge to reach similar boundary conditions (ambient and injector) in each of the unique facilities. The differences in results are within the measurement deviation and uncertainty or can be explained by the usage of (slightly) different injectors. Combining the results of the different measurement techniques provides an overall (time resolved) overview where the different phases of fuel injection are directly linked and summarized. The presented overview provides a direct input for (CFD) modeling validation.


The general solution for the wave propagation in an elastic half-space containing a spherical cavity obtained in an earlier paper is worked out in detail in the case of a compressional force of excitation over the cavity surface. Explicit approximate expressions are derived for the displacements due to the direct and the reflected body waves as far as terms representing waves arising from not more than three reflexions. As an example of more general time-dependence, the case of an exponentially decaying shock exciting the cavity surface is discussed and the results are illustrated by graphs showing the variation of the surface displacements at three selected points of the plane boundary.


Unlike a random, run-of-the-mill website infection, in a strategic web attack, the adversary carefully chooses the target frequently visited by an organization or a group of individuals to compromise, for the purpose of gaining a step closer to the organization or collecting information from the group. This type of attacks, called "watering hole", have been increasingly utilized by APT actors to get into the internal networks of big companies and government agencies or monitor politically oriented groups. With its importance, little has been done so far to understand how the attack works, not to mention any concrete step to counter this threat. In this paper, we report our first step toward better understanding this emerging threat, through systematically discovering and analyzing new watering hole instances and attack campaigns. This was made possible by a carefully designed methodology, which repeatedly monitors a large number potential watering hole targets to detect unusual changes that could be indicative of strategic compromises. Running this system on the HTTP traffic generated from visits to 61K websites for over 5 years, we are able to discover and confirm 17 watering holes and 6 campaigns never reported before. Given so far there are merely 29 watering holes reported by blogs and technical reports, the findings we made contribute to the research on this attack vector, by adding 59% more attack instances and information about how they work to the public knowledge. Analyzing the new watering holes allows us to gain deeper understanding of these attacks, such as repeated compromises of political websites, their long lifetimes, unique evasion strategy (leveraging other compromised sites to serve attack payloads) and new exploit techniques (no malware delivery, web only information gathering). Also, our study brings to light interesting new observations, including the discovery of a recent JSONP attack on an NGO website that has been widely reported and apparently forced the attack to stop.


Spatial knowledge, necessary for efficient navigation, comprises route knowledge (memory of the landmarks along a route) and survey knowledge (map-like). Available data on the retention in humans of spatial knowledge show that this does not decline systematically over months or years. Here, two groups of participants elaborated route and survey knowledge during navigation in a complex virtual environment before performing route and survey tasks. Both groups were tested 5 minutes after learning and 3 months later, while one group was also tested 1 week and 1 month later (repeated testing). Performance was similar in both groups on the first testing session, remained stable in the repeated tested group, but decreased in the non-repeated tested group, especially on route tasks. These results are the first to reveal a substantial and selective decline of spatial knowledge, occurring only if there is no possibility of reactivating knowledge along repeated testing.


In this paper, the powertrain sizing of a fuel-cell hybrid vehicle (FCHV) is investigated. The goal is to determine the fuel-cell system (FCS) size, together with the energy storage system (ESS) size, which leads to the lowest hydrogen consumption. The power source (FCS + ESS) capabilities should also respect the vehicle driveability constraints. Batteries and supercapacitors are considered as ESSs. The power management strategy is a global optimization algorithm respecting charge sustaining of the ESS. The impacts of the driving cycle (urban, outer urban, and highway), ESS technology, and vehicle driveability constraints on hydrogen consumption are analyzed in detail.


This book represents an innovative project in which parents, teachers and other professionals work collaboratively to observe children, understand them at a deep emotional level through their play and interaction with others, and facilitate their relationships with themselves as individuals and with others. The work described has been particularly important in nurturing children's creativity and fostering effective relationships between teachers, parents and children. The innovative nursery described has been an important preventative facility in promoting the wellbeing of young children. The Italian government has supported this highly esteemed project.


Practical implementation of minimally invasive biomedical applications has been a long-sought goal for microrobots. In this field, most previous studies only demonstrate microrobots with locomotion ability or performing a single task, unable to be functionalized effectively. Here, we propose a biocompatible shape memory alloy helical microrobot with regulative structure transformation, making it possible to adjust its motion behavior and mechanical properties precisely. Especially, towards vascular occlusion problem, these microrobots reveal a fundamental solution strategy in the mechanical capability using shape memory effect. Such shape-transformable microrobots can not only manipulate thrust and torque by structure to enhance the unclogging efficiency as a microdriller but also utilize the high work energy to apply the expandable helical tail as a self-propulsive stent. The strategy takes advantage of untethered manipulation to operate microsurgery without unnecessary damage. This study opens a route to functionalize microrobots via accurate tuning in structures, motions, and mechanical properties.


Colorectal cancer rates are increasing among Chinese Americans, and this trend seems to be reflected among Chinese Americans in Texas. Data from the Texas Cancer Registry indicates that colorectal cancer is among the top three most frequently reported cancers among Chinese Americans. Case control studies among Chinese Americans in other parts of the U.S. suggest that risk factors for colorectal cancer may include high body mass index, inadequate physical activity, low fruit and vegetable consumption, high saturated fat consumption, longer exposure to high fat diet, low fiber diet and tobacco use. The Asian American Health Needs Assessment (AsANA) study collected self reported risk factor data from over 400 Chinese and 400 Vietnamese randomly selected households in the Greater Houston area. The data showed that among Chinese Americans in Houston, 62% reported no leisure time physical activity, 19% were obese, and that as years in the US increased, the percent of Chinese with less than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day increased from 41% to almost 80%. Approximately 34% of Chinese adult males smoked cigarettes as compared to the Texas rate of 20%. The AsANA data also showed that only 25% of the Chinese respondents 50 years and older had had colorectal cancer screening as compared to 53% of Texas adults. Research is needed to identify cultural and access barriers to early detection and screening for colorectal cancer among Chinese Americans in Texas. In addition, culturally tailored educational programs and lifestyle interventions should be developed to educate this population on how to modify behaviors to reduce colorectal cancer risk. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):A90.


The study aimed to calculate the livelihood vulnerability of organic and non-organic rice farmers' households to climate change. The sample was determined by a census comprising 60 organic and 80 non-organic rice farmers who lived in Pematang Sawa Sub-district, Tanggamus Region, Lampung Province, Indonesia. The livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) was measured based on seven main indicators: natural disaster and climate variability, agriculture profile, food security, water security, food/rice consumption, educational attainment, and income. The results showed that organic rice farmers' households were more vulnerable in terms of natural disaster and climate variability, water security, food consumption, education, and income, while non-organic rice farmers' households were more vulnerable in terms of agriculture profile and food security. Using the LVI framework approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI-IPCC), non-organic rice farmers' households were found to be more vulnerable to climate change than organic rice farmers' households. To better observe the vulnerability of organic and non-organic rice farmers' households to climate change, future studies should be conducted in two distant locations (e.g., different regions or provinces) because different climate components could significantly influence the findings. Rice farmers' households could become less vulnerable by providing them with objective climate information that will encourage them to adopt the necessary climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Further support is needed in the form of resources aid programs, such as the provision of irrigation systems or pumping wells, as well as livestock aid to increase the farmers' income.


Many studies explore only use or non-use of capital budgeting methods, and not the factors that determine the selection of the method used in UAE or the region. The relationships between use and independent variables that affect the selection of the method have been studied. The study attempts to fill a gap in the existing literature of capital budgeting practice in the developed and developing economies. The study analyzes the questionnaire collected from 35 companies out of the 61 listed in DFM. The study found a sizable number of UAE companies that use capital budgeting techniques in their capital investment decisions. The widely used methods are: PB, NPV, and IRR by most of the UAE companies. The study also revealed that many financial and nonfinancial factors influence the selection of capital budgeting technique such as the size of the company, revenues, profitability, leverage level, expenditure, familiarity with the project, availability of cash, and the level of education of decision makers. Significant differences were found between the methods selected and the factors influencing the selection of the technique. It has been found that there is a positive association between most of the financial factors and the methods but negative with majority of the nonfinancial variables.


Abstract Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a novel and emerging mode of online learning. They offer the advantages of online learning and provide content including short video lectures, digital readings, interactive assignments, discussion fora, and quizzes. Besides stand-alone use, universities are also trying to integrate MOOC content into the regular curriculum creating blended learning programs. In this 12 tips article, we aim to provide guidelines for readers to integrate MOOC content from their own or from other institutions into regular classroom teaching based on the literature and our own experiences. We provide advice on how to select the right content, how to assess its quality and usefulness, and how to actually create a blend within your existing course.


The Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA) is adopted to find time-jerk synthetic optimal trajectory of a hexapod robot in the joint space. In order to get the optimal trajectory, cubic splines are employed and derived under the constraint condition of via points to assure overall continuity of velocity and acceleration. Taken both the execution time and minimax approach of jerk as objectives, and expressed the kinematics constraints as upper bounds on the absolute values of velocity and acceleration, the mathematic model of time-jerk synthetic optimal trajectory planning is built. Finally, SPEA is adopted to optimize the stair-climbing trajectory of a hexapod robot, the simulation results show that this method can solve the trajectory planning problem effectively, and the stair-climbing trajectory can meet the contradictory objective functions of high speed and low robot vibration well.


Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is developing at a faster rate than new antibiotics can be discovered. This study investigated the antimicrobial activity of several carbon-based derivative compounds alone and in combination with clinically relevant antibiotics against key ESKAPE pathogens Enterococcus faecium, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. Three compounds, graphite, graphene and graphene oxide, in conjunction with ciprofloxacin (CIP), chloramphenicol (CHL) and piperacillin/tazobactam (TZP) were examined using fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) testing. CIP combined with graphene demonstrated additive antimicrobial activity against E. faecium compared to individual application. Furthermore, CIP supplemented with graphene, graphene oxide or graphite showed additive activity with ∑FIC values of 1.0 against K. pneumoniae, whereas only TZP showed ∑FIC values <1.0 with graphene oxide. For E. coli, the antibiotic activity of CIP was enhanced with graphene, graphene oxide or graphite, whereas only graphite and graphene enhanced the activity of CHL and TZP respectively. Graphite and graphene oxide caused significant antagonism (∑FIC ˃ 4.0) in conjunction with TZP against E. coli. In conclusion, the results demonstrate the potential to supplement clinically relevant antibiotics with carbon-based graphene, graphene oxide derivative or graphite for use as an additive supplement for novel systemic or topical treatment solutions against key priority pathogens.


Staphylococcus aureus is among the most prominent pathogen in both community acquired and nosocomial infection. The epidemiology analysis of Staphylococcus aureus isolates will be required to ascertain the incidence, prevalence and diversity of strains. To investigate the epidemiological of S. aureus in Malaysia, a highly reliable typing method-Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA was applied to 50 S. aureus isolates obtained from 3 different hospitals in Malaysia namely Hospital Tunku Ampuan Afzan Kuantan, Hospital Besar Seremban and Hospital Miri Malaysia. The results obtained from this study showed that the isolates can be clustered into 8 different clones. All members of the respective clones are of the same origin. In addition, there were 2 clonal grouping of isolates for each hospital. However, the clonal groupings are not in accordance to the geographical distribution. To understand the epidemiology of these isolates in depth it is very important to have information about the patient's history. The Nei and Li's genetic distances obtained from this study ranged from 0.0803922-0.11111. Two genetic markers a band of size 500 bp when amplified with primer OPAE-14 and another marker band of size 750 bp amplified with primer OPAE-15 was identified and this band can be used as diagnostic marker for the rapid identification of S. aureus. Apart from the genetic markers, an epidemiological marker of 1200 bp was also identified for the Miri isolates. This marker can be used as the epidemiological marker for the identification of the isolates from Miri in the future outbreaks. From this study, RAPD has proved to be an useful aid to epidemiological investigations of S. aureus.


Current theory and empirical studies suggest that humans segment continuous experiences into events based on the mismatch between predicted and actual sensory inputs; detection of these "event boundaries" evokes transient neural responses. However, boundaries can also occur at transitions between internal mental states, without relevant external input changes. To what extent do such "internal boundaries" share neural response properties with externally-driven boundaries? We conducted an fMRI experiment where subjects watched a series of short movies and then verbally recalled the movies, unprompted, in the order of their choosing. During recall, transitions between movies thus constituted major boundaries between internal mental contexts, generated purely by subjects' unguided thoughts. Following the offset of each recalled movie, we observed stereotyped spatial activation patterns in the default mode network, especially the posterior medial cortex, consistent across different movie contents and even across the different tasks of movie watching and recall. Surprisingly, the between-movie boundary patterns did not resemble patterns at boundaries between events within a movie. Thus, major transitions between mental contexts elicit neural phenomena shared across internal and external modes and distinct from within-context event boundary detection, potentially reflecting a cognitive state related to the flushing and reconfiguration of situation models.


Accurate antenna beam models are critical for radio observations aiming to isolate the redshifted 21 cm spectral line emission from the Dark Ages and the Epoch of Reionization (EOR) and unlock the scientific potential of 21 cm cosmology. Past work has focused on characterizing mean antenna beam models using either satellite signals or astronomical sources as calibrators, but antenna-to-antenna variation due to imperfect instrumentation has remained unexplored. We characterize this variation for the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) through laboratory measurements and simulations, finding typical deviations of the order of ±10%–20% near the edges of the main lobe and in the sidelobes. We consider the ramifications of these results for image- and power spectrum-based science. In particular, we simulate visibilities measured by a 100 m baseline and find that using an otherwise perfect foreground model, unmodeled beam-forming errors severely limit foreground subtraction accuracy within the region of Fourier space contaminated by foreground emission (the "wedge"). This region likely contains much of the cosmological signal, and accessing it will require measurement of per-antenna beam patterns. However, unmodeled beam-forming errors do not contaminate the Fourier space region expected to be free of foreground contamination (the "EOR window"), showing that foreground avoidance remains a viable strategy.


America's wilderness areas represent pristine examples of untrammeled nature, invaluable biodiversity, and traditions of primitive outdoor recreation. These resources are vulnerable to mounting pressures, and as the human population continues to grow, anthropogenic impacts on wilderness areas continue to increase. Population growth, technology, and global climate change threaten to degrade wilderness quality. Traditional approaches to wilderness management, with their single directive approach, may be insufficient to protect against these threats (Carver, Tricker, & Landers, 2013; Cole & Hahn, 2006; Cole & Landres, 1996). This paper offers a new approach to wilderness management based on the management of biosphere reserves. Research suggests zoned management may protect wilderness from degradation. Wilderness managers may consider applying this flexible zoning system, designating Core Zones, Scientific Research Zones, Cultural/Historical Zones, Recreation Zones, and Buffer Zones. A wilderness zoning policy could effectively protect wilderness from the challenges of anthropogenic change (Haas, Driver, Brown & Lucas, 1987).


During development, in the course of which the single-celled egg generates a whole organism, cells become different from each other and form patterns of types of cells. It is these spatially defined cell-fate patterns that underlie the generation of complex organs. The mechanisms that establish these precise spatial patterning events depend on the implementation of diverse 'gene regulatory networks' (a consequence of functional interconnections between regulatory genes (transcription factors) and their target genes). Dissection of gene regulatory networks that control patterning of gene expression and differentiation would thus help us understand how cells generate a spatially defined pattern of cell fates during organ formation. Resources such as diverse spatial and temporal cell-fate markers, reverse genetics (RNAi), trans-genesis, and the ease of manipulation at the single-cell level make C. elegans a tractable system for studying the execution of cell-type-specific gene expression programs that occur during organogenesis. Consider the C. elegans vulva, a postembryonically derived organ that invariantly consists of seven distinct vulval cell types (vulA, vulB1, vulB2, vulC, vulD, vulE and vulF), each with its own unique gene expression profile. These features make the C. elegans vulva a particularly attractive model for dissecting the postembryonic gene regulatory networks involved in patterning and organ morphogenesis. This thesis focuses on elucidating the regulatory networks that control gene expression in the seven vulval cell types of C. elegans during organogenesis. The transcription factors lin-11(LIM), cog-1(Nkx6.1/6.2), and egl-38(Pax2/5/8) have been previously implicated as key regulators of gene expression in the vulva. Identification of additional regulatory factors is warranted, so as to rigorously dissect the mechanisms that specify the spatial fate patterns of terminally differentiated cell types. To this end, I systematically disrupted the gene activity of 508 transcription factors via RNAi and assayed the expression of ceh-2, a readout for vulB fate during the L4 stage. From this screen, I identified the tailless ortholog nhr-67 as a novel regulator of vulval gene expression. nhr-67 acts in combination with cog-1, egl-38, and lin-11 to execute accurate patterning of gene expression of their downstream targets. The pair-wise interactions between these regulatory genes are complex and vary among the seven cell types. One of the ways in which nhr-67 maintains cell identity is through restriction of inappropriate cell fusion events in specific vulval cells (namely vulE and vulF). The cell fusion defects observed in an nhr-67 RNAi background can be partially attributed to deregulation of fusogens. cog-1 and lin-11 (but not egl-38) mutants also show heterotypic fusion defects to different degrees. I also discovered a striking regulatory circuit that affects a subset of the vulval lineages: cog-1 and nhr-67 inhibit both one another and themselves. We argue that the 1° vulval cells (vulE and vulF) utilize this novel regulatory motif to rapidly switch fates in response to transient inputs. We also speculate that the built-in flexibility of this circuit acts as a failsafe mechanism (in the event of cell damage) in the vulE and vulF cells. We postulate that the differential levels and combinatorial patterns of lin-11, cog-1, egl-38, and nhr-67 expression are a part of a regulatory code for the mature vulval cell types


Northeast India and its adjoining areas are characterized by very high seismic activity. According to the Indian seismic code, the region falls under seismic zone V, which represents the highest seismic-hazard level in the country. This region has experienced a number of great earthquakes, such as the Assam (1950) and Shillong (1897) earthquakes, that caused huge devastation in the entire northeast and adjacent areas by flooding, landslides, liquefaction, and damage to roads and buildings. In this study, an attempt has been made to find the probability of occurrence of a major earthquake (M-w > 6) in this region using an updated earthquake catalog collected from different sources. Thereafter, dividing the catalog into six different seismic regions based on different tectonic features and seismogenic factors, the probability of occurrences was estimated using three models: the lognormal, Weibull, and gamma distributions. We calculated the logarithmic probability of the likelihood function (ln L) for all six regions and the entire northeast for all three stochastic models. A higher value of ln L suggests a better model, and a lower value shows a worse model. The results show different model suits for different seismic zones, but the majority follows lognormal, which is better for forecasting magnitude size. According to the results, Weibull shows the highest conditional probabilities among the three models for small as well as large elapsed time T and time intervals t, whereas the lognormal model shows the lowest and the gamma model shows intermediate probabilities. Only for elapsed time T = 0, the lognormal model shows the highest conditional probabilities among the three models at a smaller time interval (t = 3-15 yrs). The opposite result is observed at larger time intervals (t = 15-25 yrs), which show the highest probabilities for the Weibull model. However, based on this study, the IndoBurma Range and Eastern Himalaya show a high probability of occurrence in the 5 yr period 2012-2017 with >90% probability.


The capacity for anaerobic metabolism of endogenous and selected exogenous substrates in carbon- and energy-starved methanotrophic bacteria was examined. The methanotrophic isolate strain WP 12 survived extended starvation under anoxic conditions while metabolizing 10-fold less endogenous substrate than did parallel cultures starved under oxic conditions. During aerobic starvation, the cell biomass decreased by 25% and protein and lipids were the preferred endogenous substrates. Aerobic protein degradation (24% of total protein) took place almost exclusively during the initial 24 h of starvation. Metabolized carbon was recovered mainly as CO 2 during aerobic starvation. In contrast, cell biomass decreased by only 2.4% during anaerobic starvation, and metabolized carbon was recovered mainly as organic solutes in the starvation medium. During anaerobic starvation, only the concentration of intracellular low-molecular-weight compounds decreased, whereas no significant changes were measured for cellular protein, lipids, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids. Strain WP 12 was also capable of a limited anaerobic glucose metabolism in the absence of added electron acceptors. Small amounts of CO 2 and organic acids, including acetate, were produced from exogenous glucose under anoxic conditions. Addition of potential anaerobic electron acceptors (fumarate, nitrate, nitrite, or sulfate) to starved cultures of the methanotrophs Methylobacter albus BG8, Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b, and strain WP 12 did not stimulate anaerobic survival. However, anaerobic starvation of these bacteria generally resulted in better survival than did aerobic starvation. The results suggest that methanotrophic


Next-generation wireless networks need to support multiclass services with asymmetric bandwidth allocation between uplink and downlink to match the asymmetric traffic load brought by some data services. For the design of call admission control (CAC) policy in such networks, how to decrease the average system cost is a key issue. In this paper, we study the optimal admission policy for minimizing the system cost. We consider the CAC problem as a decision process. By modeling the admission control problem into a Markov decision process (MDP) and analyzing the corresponding value function, we obtain some monotonicity properties of the optimal policy. These properties suggest that the optimal admission control policy for the bandwidth asymmetry wireless networks should have a threshold structure and the threshold specified for a class of calls may change with the system state. Due to the prohibitively high complexity for computing the thresholds in a system with large state-space, we propose a heuristic CAC policy called call-rate-based dynamic threshold (CRDT) policy to approximate the theoretical optimal policy based on the insights we obtain from the modeling and the analytical study on the properties of the optimal policy. The CRDT policy is efficient and can be easily implemented. The numerical results show that the performance of average system cost of the proposed CRDT policy is close to that of the optimal policy from the MDP model and is better than that of some known existing CAC schemes, including those performing well in bandwidth asymmetry wireless networks


Uruguay's capital markets remain undeveloped despite the country's financial liberalization dating back to the 1970s, which was reinforced by passage of several additional laws in 1990s whose aim was to promote the local financial markets. The government is able to raise funds domestically in what is a liquid bond market, but private firms continue to fund themselves mostly out of retained earnings or else via bank loans and suppliers' credit. Moreover, when compared to others in Latin America, Uruguayan firms feature the highest ratios of liability dollarization, and corportate debt structures with the shortest maturities - currency and maturity mismatches that render them (and by extension, their creditors) extremely fragile. A deepening of the domestic capital market would probably alleviate this vulnerability of the Uruguayan economy. The financial fragility of Uruguayan firms amplified by corporate governance issues are the main impediments for the development of the capital markets. Given the current firm practices and the absence of sizeable institutional investors besides the Pension funds, the fixed income market will most likely remain a source of funding for very few firms.


Time-lapse-seismic-data assimilation has been drawing the reservoir-engineering community's attention over the past few years. One of the advantages of including this kind of data to improve the reservoir-flow models is that it provides complementary information compared with the wells' production data. Ensemble-based methods are some of the standard tools used to calibrate reservoir models using time-lapse seismic data. One of the drawbacks of assimilating time-lapse seismic data involves the large data sets, mainly for large reservoir models. This situation leads to high-dimensional problems that demand significant computational resources to process and store the matrices when using conventional and straightforward methods. Another known issue associated with the ensemble-based methods is the limited ensemble sizes, which cause spurious correlations between the data and the parameters and limit the degrees of freedom. In this work, we propose a data-assimilation scheme using an efficient implementation of the subspace ensemble randomized maximum likelihood (SEnRML) method with local analysis. This method reduces the computational requirements for assimilating large data sets because the number of operations scales linearly with the number of observed data points. Furthermore, by implementing it with local analysis, we reduce the memory requirements at each update step and mitigate the effects of the limited ensemble sizes. We test two local analysis approaches: one distance-based approach and one correlation-based approach. We apply these implementations to two synthetic time-lapse-seismic-data-assimilation cases, one 2D example, and one field-scale application that mimics some of the real-field challenges. We compare the results with reference solutions and with the known ensemble smoother with multiple data assimilation (ES-MDA) using Kalman gain distance-based localization. The results show that our method can efficiently assimilate time-lapse seismic data, leading to updated models that are comparable with other straightforward methods. The correlation-based local analysis approach provided results similar to the distance-based approach, with the advantage that the former can be applied to data and parameters that do not have specific spatial positions.


The nature of digital hydraulic systems may cause severe pressure pulsation problems. For example, switched inertance hydraulic systems can be used to adjust or control flow and pressure by a means that does not rely on dissipation of power, but they have noise problems because of the pulsed nature of the flow. An effective method to reduce the noise is needed that does not impair the system performance and efficiency. This article reports on an initial investigation of an active attenuator for pressure pulsation cancellation in a switched inertance hydraulic system. Using the designed noise attenuator, the pressure pulsation can be decreased effectively by superimposing an anti-phase control signal. A high-performance piezoelectric valve was selected and used as the secondary path actuator in terms of its fast response and wide bandwidth. Adaptive notch filters with the filtered-X least mean square algorithm were applied for pressure pulsation attenuation, while a frequency-domain least mean square filter was used for secondary path identification. A 'switched inertance hydraulic system' in a flow booster configuration was used as the test rig. Experimental results show that excellent cancellation was achieved using the proposed method, which has several advantages over passive noise control systems, being effective for a wide range of frequencies without impairing the system's dynamic response. The method is a very promising solution for pressure pulsation cancellation in hydraulic systems with severe noise or vibration problems.


ABSTRACT ANALYSIS THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE QUALITY TO THE PLANE PASSENGERS' SATISFACTION OF ADI SOEMARMO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SURAKARTA TIKA INDAH PUSPITASARI F3213068 The aim of this study is to find out what service dimensions that give influence to the passengers' satisfaction, from Tangible variable, Reliability variable, Responsiveness variable, Assurance and guarantee variable, and Empathy variable, whether they simultaneously give significant influence to the passengers' satisfaction, and which variable is the most influencing to the passengers' satisfaction of Adi Soemarmo International Airport Surakarta. This study uses quantitative descriptive method. The population of this study is plane passengers of Adi Soemarmo International Airport Surakarta, with 100 respondents. The data collecting technique uses questionnaire method, which is computed by 1 – 5 Likerts scale by using validity-test analysis technique and reliability, as well as multiple linear regressions. From the multiple regression analysis, it can be concluded that the Tangible factor has 0.465 regression coefficient value with 0.006 significance level, Reliability has 0.584 regression coefficient value with 0.000 significance value, and Responsiveness has 0.446 regression coefficient value with 0.000 significance value. All the three variables are the most influencing factors to the plane passengers' satisfaction of Adi Soemarmo International Airport Surakarta. From the simultaneous computation, it is obtained F-valued 333.511 with 0.000 significance value, so that the five variables simultaneously give influence to the satisfaction. From the beta (β) result, it shows that Reliability variable has the highest beta (β) value that is 0.584. So that, the Reliability variable gives the most dominant influence to the customers' satisfaction. Keywords: Passengers' Satisfaction, Tangible, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and guarantee, and Emphaty


Real-time voice communications capabilities over wireless medium, using the Wi-Fi standard IEEE 802.11, have become a potential bottleneck in emerging net-centric enterprise systems used by the DoD and Federal Government agencies. Depending on the priority and precedence of a particular message, mission success may depend on achieving optimal performance with respect to transmission, reception, and interpretation of the message. This paper explores successful interpretation of Wi-Fi messages from the end user perspective as defined through the metric Quality of Experience (QoE). QoE represents the perception of quality experienced by end users of a real-time system. The specific challenge examined herein is that of communicating real-time events using Wi-Fi running within net-centric enterprise systems. In this setting, time-sensitive events may require immediate problem determination and resolution. The paper also introduces a new approach for aggregating Wi-Fi messages across the enterprise, thereby enabling timely and effective interpretation and response to real-time events. Results for a disaster response scenario are presented that combine analysis and simulation measurements from a simulation running on the UK national supercomputing service, HECToR. The paper concludes by highlighting key benefits to the service provider's business from using this approach, such as supporting real-time information sharing over Wi-Fi within net-centric enterprise systems. This paper also provides recommendations for configuration of Wi-Fi QoS mechanisms to support priority and precedence in order to ensure timely response and mission critical communications from local to global operation centers.


In this article Adam Łazowski argues that withdrawal of the UK from the EU is not good business for British business. It analyses two available modalities of EU withdrawal: a unilateral exit and a consensual divorce. Arguably neither of the two will free the UK from EU law. For that to happen, the British authorities would have to engage in the time consuming and resource thirsty exercise of clearing the UK legal orders from EU law. This, combined with uncertainty as to future relations with the EU, is destined to affect the UK business community and unlikely to bring desired efficiencies.


A causal role for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutagenesis in mammalian aging is supported by recent studies demonstrating that the mtDNA mutator mouse, harboring a defect in the proofreading-exonuclease activity of mitochondrial polymerase gamma, exhibits accelerated aging phenotypes characteristic of human aging, systemic mitochondrial dysfunction, multisystem pathology, and reduced lifespan. Epidemiologic studies in humans have demonstrated that endurance training reduces the risk of chronic diseases and extends life expectancy. Whether endurance exercise can attenuate the cumulative systemic decline observed in aging remains elusive. Here we show that 5 mo of endurance exercise induced systemic mitochondrial biogenesis, prevented mtDNA depletion and mutations, increased mitochondrial oxidative capacity and respiratory chain assembly, restored mitochondrial morphology, and blunted pathological levels of apoptosis in multiple tissues of mtDNA mutator mice. These adaptations conferred complete phenotypic protection, reduced multisystem pathology, and prevented premature mortality in these mice. The systemic mitochondrial rejuvenation through endurance exercise promises to be an effective therapeutic approach to mitigating mitochondrial dysfunction in aging and related comorbidities.


The regulation of telecommunications, railroads, and other network industries has been based on mandatory unbundling and facilities sharing - entrants have the option to lease part or all of incumbents' facilities if and when they desire, at rates determined by regulators. This flexibility is of great value to entrants, but because investments are largely irreversible, it is costly to supply by incumbents. However, pricing formulas used by regulators to set lease rates for capital do not compensate incumbents for this flexibility, so that incumbents are effectively forced to subsidized entrants, discouraging further investments. This paper shows how pricing formulas used to set lease rates can be adjusted to account for the transfer of option value from incumbents to entrants, and estimates the average size of the adjustment for land-based local voice telecommunications in the U.S.


Anomalously high values of power α (1.6 < α < 12) are found in power laws in conductance versus energy relationships in carbon-nanotube peapod quantum dots, encapsulating a chain of C60 molecules. This power is controllable by the applied back gate voltage. Atomic-like behaviors with doubly degenerate ground states are also found by single electron spectroscopy. They reveal that a portion of power originates from the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid via the occupied electronic levels, which originate from the subbands unique to the peapods. This observation also clarify that the encapsulated C60 molecules do not directly contribute to the above quantum phenomena in peapods.


Abstract. In recent decades several pasture legumes have been available in southern Australia as potential alternatives to the most widely used annual pasture legume Trifolium subterraneum. Little is known about their soil phosphorus (P) requirements, but controlled environment experiments indicate that at least some may differ in their P fertiliser requirements. In this study, pasture legume varieties, including T. subterraneum as the reference species, were grown at up to four sites in any one year over a 3-year period (in total, seven site × year experiments) to measure herbage growth responses in spring to increased soil P availability. A critical soil test P concentration (corresponding to 95% maximum yield) was estimated for 15 legumes and two pasture grasses. The critical soil P requirements of most of the legumes did not differ consistently from that of T. subterraneum, indicating their soil fertility management should follow the current soil test P guidelines for temperate Australian pastures. However, the critical P requirement of Medicago sativa was higher than that of T. subterraneum, but remains ill-defined because extractable soil P concentrations in these experiments were often not high enough to permit a critical P estimate. Three forage crop legumes (Trifolium incarnatum, Trifolium purpureum, Trifolium vesiculosum) and two pasture legumes (Ornithopus compressus, Ornithopus sativus) had lower critical soil test P concentrations. It may be feasible to manage pastures based on these species to a lower soil test P benchmark without compromising yield.


Since the 1980s, scholars have come to appreciate the role clergy have in shaping the political attitudes and behaviour of the faithful. Through their leadership in self-selecting religious contexts, they are well positioned to translate religious values into political values. Given their potential as opinion leaders, this study investigates the dynamics of clergy opinions. Focusing on clergy in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, it assesses the influence of psychological factors on economic and cultural attitudes, while controlling for the influence of contextual and personal characteristics. This is done using a question-order experiment embedded in an original survey. There are three key findings: (1) clergy attitudes are sensitive to cognitive primes that elevate the salience of interpersonal and institutional concerns; (2) clergy are sensitive to the perceived preferences of their institutional superiors; and (3) social-psychological factors affect how clergy report their political opinions. This means that the social-psychological dimension should be considered important alongside existing frameworks for understanding clergy politics.


Brinjal or eggplant is a very important crop (vegetable) of sub-tropics and tropics of India. This plant is highly infested by, Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). It is a polyphagous pest in nature, the adult and grub stages cause severe damage to the plants by feeding on its leaves, flowers and vegetables and create a heavy economic loss. Though the beetles could be controlled using synthetic pesticides, indiscriminate use of pesticide in the field causes problems such as pest resistance, environmental and health hazards etc. These pave way for the development of effective ecofriendly pest control measures. Plant based essential oils are used against these insect pests, as they constitute a rich source of bioactive components and reported to have many biological properties. Recently, essential oils were formulated as nanoemulsion and was developed for their effectiveness and eco-friendly nature. In this study, the oil in water (O/W) nanoemulsion of Mentha piperita were prepared by ultrasonication method at different concentrations and examined for the stability study. The stable nanoemulsion was characterized by DLS and was reported to consist with a mean droplet size of 10.84 nm, PDI was 0.1 and zeta potential was -45 mv which proved the good stability of the nanoemulsion. To assess the efficacy of the formulated nanoemulsion, and bulkemulsion, it was screened against the adult beetles, Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata at different concentrations for 96 hours and the resulted LC50 value of nanoemulsion was 15.84 % which was found to be very effective than the LC50 value of bulkemulsion, which was 60.25 %. Hence from the results obtained, Mentha piperita nanoemulsion may be used as an organic pesticide because of its higher efficacy against the adult beetles, Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata.


This guide provides resources relevant to legal issues commonly faced by artists and the music industry, such as copyright, licensing, and antitrust law.


This equipment features a radio-nuclide (barium 137) generator directly connected to a pneumatic injector, and two similar detectors on the outside of the pipe connected to an electronic counter giving a direct reading of the values from which the rate of flow is derived. In developing these measurement methods, use was made mainly of such medium-period radio-nuclides as iodine 131, bromine 82 and sodium 24, With the following main purposes in view : (i) To find applications for short pipes (i.e. up to 80 diameters) ; (ii) Experimental confirmation of mathematical approaches ; (iii) Design and development of equipment for simple use. A barium 137 generator was developed, which has added considerable interest to the measurement of pipe flows by injection of radio-active salts. It relies on the natural caesium → barium 137 relationship, with the "parent" caesium 137 being fixed to a highly-selective ion- exchange resin. Washing this resin in water carries the barium 137 bred by the disintegrating caesium away, but without moving the latter. As barium 137 has a period of about 2.5 minutes, much higher radio-activity can now be fed into the pipe, for 100 minutes later finds it reduced to only 2-40 times its original value. This even makes repetitive closed-circuit tests feasible. In view of these promising results, the author's team developed an injector fitting the generator jointly with Societe Saint-Gobain-Techniques Nouvelles-who had supplied the generator-in order to climinate any need to manipulate the radioactive solution between preparing it and feeding it into the pipe. A brief description of the method now follows, in order to seriate the principal questions considered in the study : In order to determine the rate of flow in a pipe at least 50 diameters long and whose cross-sections are known, a radio-active solution is injected and its times of passing two specific cross-sections A and 13 are detected from outside the pipe. The most important points considered in describing the method are the following : (i) Injection ; (ii) Distance of point of injection from first detection section ; (iii) Distance between the two detection sections ; (iv) Detection. The mathematical approaches are specifically dealt with in a three-part Appendix, as follows: The tirst part shows that, knowing the abscissa of the temporal centre of gravity of the curve corresponding to the passage of the radio-active solution, the rate of flow in the pipe can be asceriained by outside observation. The second part discusses deformation due to the detector filters. The third part leads to the estimation of discharge mor where interpretation is based on one particular geometrical point only. The heading "injection" ((i) above) covers the injector and its operation. Heading (ii) refers to a study of turbulent diffusion phenomena and the "efficient mixing" length where detection is outside the pipe, and especially the determination of I∞ from observed I2 and I2 values. The distance between detection sections (heading (iii)) does not enter into the method error calculations. It determines the accuracy of radio-active solution passage time measurement at the two sections. Heading (iv) comprises the analysis of the two following data abstraction methods : (a) Plotting of curves and determination of a point with about the same characteristics as the centre of gravity as regards measurement. (b) Bringing the centre of gravity of the radio-active "cloud" into evidence by direct processing of observed data. The discussion of (a) shows the difficulties of using a single geometrical point and defines one of them, and Table 1 lists the results obtained from 110 injections in successive groups of 10. Under (b), the calculator associated with the detectors is described, sub-groups are listed, and the development tests involved are reviewed. Finally, the advantages, applications and potential development scope of the method are discussed.


A greenhouse experiment involving four levels of B (0, 5, 10 and 20 mg B kg-1 as boric acid, H3BO3), and three levels of Ca (0, 100 and200 mg Ca kg-1 calcium chloride, CaCl2) were conducted on wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L. 'Gerek-79'). Boron toxicity symptomsstrongly occurred at 10 and 20 mg B kg-1 levels with and without applied Ca. Without applied calcium, boron toxicity symptoms werealso weakly expressed at 5 mg B kg-1 level. Growing wheat plants with application of high levels of Ca partially alleviated the toxicitysymptoms. Shoot and root dry weight of plant was strongly depressed and decreased by applied boron; however, Ca applications reducedthe inhibitory effect of B on the plant growth. Shoot and root boron concentrations and boron uptake were increased with increasingB application, but decreased with Ca applications. Controversially, applied calcium increased calcium concentrations and uptake anddecreased boron concentrations and uptake. Most of total boron and calcium were localized in the cell wall of plant. While applied boron increased the concentration of B on the cell wall, it decreased the concentration of Ca on the cell wall. In addition, applied calciumincreased the cell wall calcium concentration, whereas decreased the cell wall boron concentration. It was determined that boron toxicitycould be alleviated by addition of calcium in plant growing media.


The knowledge that data lies close to a particular submanifold of the ambient Euclidean space may be useful in a number of ways. For instance, one may want to automatically mark any point far away from the submanifold as an outlier or to use the geometry to come up with a better distance metric. Manifold learning problems are often posed in a very high dimension, e.g. for spaces of images or spaces of words. Today, with deep representation learning on the rise in areas such as computer vision and natural language processing, many problems of this kind may be transformed into problems of moderately high dimension, typically of the order of hundreds. Motivated by this, we propose a manifold learning technique suitable for moderately high dimension and large datasets. The manifold is learned from the training data in the form of an intersection of quadric hypersurfaces -- simple but expressive objects. At test time, this manifold can be used to introduce a computationally efficient outlier score for arbitrary new data points and to improve a given similarity metric by incorporating the learned geometric structure into it.


The article deals with reasons for the choice of GDL Court Books collection preserved at Vilnius University Library (VUL) as digitization and research object. It presents VUL experience with digitization projects, need for creation of additional digitization projects values and services. The article aims to reveal specific features of database of digitized manuscripts as a result of and resource for scientific research. It analyses criteria for selection of this particular collection: importance for researchers in history, language and culture, outcomes of intensive use, means for improvement and (or) stabilisation of physical conditions of the collection, etc. Digitization activities and their development in VUL are based on idea, that digitization is not only production of imagages. Digitized documents should be supplied with metadata produced by collaborative efforts of researchers and librarians, that enable multiaspect access to information and data as well as possibility to use these enriched documents as a source for further investigation and research. Preparation of documents for digitization is an important though often undervalued stage of each digitization project. Implementation of simple procedures such as informed choise of equipment, microbiological prevention and dust cleaning could warrant preservation of documents and safety of staff. Conservation decisions are part of this preparatory stage as well. They often depend on attitudes towards documents authenticity preservation, however in any case on this stage it is possible to reveal important information about the history of digitized documents, even discover new documents and (or) their fragments. Due to specificity of Court Books' contents and form, description of documents, contained in the Books are presented using Text Encoding Innitiative (TEI P5) Manuscript description schema that makes it possible to use originally spelled and structured personal names and place-names, to record interpersonal relations, links between persons and places, etc. Possibility to use already approved and functioning controlled tool – BAVIC thesaurus for creation and use of Court Books database could be helpfull in solving problems of personal and place names as well as chronology diversity, to avoid duplication of activities and to integrate new database into common Lithuanian infrastructure of digitized cultural heritage objects.


BACKGROUND/AIM
To contribute to personalisation of treatment for patients with carcinoma of the urinary bladder, 11 factors were analyzed for survival.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Data from 61 patients receiving definitive irradiation for carcinoma of the urinary bladder were retrospectively evaluated, namely gender, age, T-stage, N-stage, grading, pack years, smoking during irradiation, upfront transurethral resection of the bladder tumour (TURBT), equivalent dose in 2-Gy fractions (EQD2), chemotherapy and Karnofsky performance score (KPS).

RESULTS
On univariate analysis, female gender (p=0.007), <40 pack years (p=0.029), not smoking during irradiation (p=0.037), TURBT (p=0.007) and KPS >70 (p<0.001) led to improved survival; EQD2 >55 Gy showed a trend (p=0.065) for such association. On Cox regression, gender [risk ratio (RR)=2.81; p=0.039], TURBT (RR=4.44; p=0.033) and KPS (RR=3.45; p=0.018) remained significant.

CONCLUSION
This study identified independent predictors of survival in patients irradiated for carcinoma of the urinary bladder and contributes to creation of personalised treatment programs.


Does the rise of China inexorably anticipate the onset of global instability or even a great power war? Today, routine comparisons are made between a rising China with that of Germany over 100 years ago. Organski, in his original explication of power transition theory, however, was far more cautious. Despite predicting the remarkable rise of China nearly 60 years ago in his book (1958), World Politics, Organski was circumspect in predicting a great power war involving China and the United States. This article examines the development of power transition theory by a variety of scholars since Organski. We draw on these developments of power transition theory to analyze the implications of the rise of China. We also introduce the other articles that compose this Special Issue of International Area Studies Review on power transition theory and the rise of China.


Governments in new democracies launch social policies with the purported goal of alleviating the effects of poverty among the most vulnerable households, usually low income families with children. However, this goal is can be thwarted by the clientelistic distribution of social policies' benefits because politicians seek to maximize political support and children do not vote. Based on the main Argentine household survey and on personal interviews with 120 brokers, this paper shows that brokers collect information on family size and age composition and allocate temporary public works programs that are in excess demand discriminating against families with children not old enough to vote.


Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope (IACT) arrays such as VERITAS are used for ground-based very high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. This is accomplished by the detection and analysis of the Cherenkov light produced by gamma-ray-initiated atmospheric air showers. IACTs also detect the Cherenkov light emitted by individual muons. Identification of these muons is useful because their Cherenkov light can be used to calibrate the telescopes. Muons create characteristic annular patterns in the cameras of IACTs, which may be identified using parametrization algorithms. One such algorithm, the Hough transform, has been successfully used to identify muons in VERITAS data. Details of this technique are presented here, including results regarding its effectiveness.


The rules of intake, which determine how educational institutions are accessed, play a significant part in generating intergenerational educational inequalities. Different rules may allow parental resources to compensate for students' lack of resources (such as academic ability) or to multiply and boost only those students who are in a position to use such additional resources. In this paper, we study compensation and multiplication of resources in the context of the Finnish higher education system. Entrance exams and a dual model (universities and polytechnics) make this system unique compared to many other Western countries and hence suitable for this study. Using high-quality register data, we studied the interaction between parental education and school achievement in the transition to higher education. We found that well-performing students are likely to access university if their parents have higher education, and to polytechnics, if their parents have basic or secondary education. Poorly performing students whose parents have higher education are likely to access polytechnics, but poorly performing students whose parents do not have a tertiary-level education are not likely to access higher education at all. Overall, our results suggest that compensatory advantage operates in accessing lower-threshold institutions and multiplicative advantage in accessing highly selective institutions.


Syntactic foams are light weight particulate composites that use hollow particles (microballoons) as reinforcement in a polymer resin matrix. High strength microballoons provide closed cell porosity, which helps in reducing the weight of the material. Due to their wide range of possible applications, such as in marine structures, it is desirable to modify the physical and mechanical properties of syntactic foams in particular to achieve both high specific compressive strength and high energy absorption with minimal or no increase in density. Based on a literature review, it was found that marine applications of syntactic foams mainly focus on mechanical properties, on light weight as buoyancy aid materials, and on enhanced thermal
insulators in the deep water pipeline industry. In order to achieve all these characteristics, attention needs to be placed on the determination of the effects on wall
thickness, on the radius ratio ( ) of glass microballons and on the presence of porosity in syntactic foams. The size of these parameters can be calculated and compared with
observation by using SEM micrograph machine.

In this study, the specific mechanical properties, particularly compressive and tensile properties with 2-10 weight percentages (wt.%) of glass microballoons, are
investigated and discussed. It is shown that the mechanical properties, particularly compressive and tensile strength, decreased when glass microballoons with vinyl ester
resin were added. The effect of porosity and voids content mainly contributed to a reduction of these results and this is discussed further in this study. Tensile and
compressive characteristics of the vinyl ester matrix syntactic foam were investigated and it was revealed that tensile strength was 70-80 % higher than compressive strength when glass content was reduced.

The fabrication of syntactic foam sandwich composites is also investigated and discussed in this study. It was found that mechanical properties such as compressive, tensile and flexural strength were varied with different amounts of glass microballoon content as core material. The compressive strength of the sandwich panels was significantly affected by a low density core foam, particularly 2 wt.% of glass microballoon, as well as their modulus of elasticity and maximum stress value. The
tensile failure of the syntactic foam sandwich panels was also significantly affected by lower glass microballoon content (2 wt.%) and the core failure was clearly observed
compared to other failure modes, such as cohesive and adhesive failure modes. The flexural shear testing or three-point bending (TPB) of the syntactic foam sandwich
panels indicated a higher strength when the glass microballoon content was increased in the core materials compared to the un-symmetrical shear failure mode.

The investigation into water absorption in room temperature (T: 25 oC) and a higher temperature (70 oC) have been investigated in this study to check the sustainability and
reliability of syntactic foam for marine applications that were immersed in three different types of water (FW-Fresh water, DD-Double Distil water and SW-Salt water). Water absorption rates varied due to the effect of the density of syntactic foam as a result of the pores and void containment attributed to a higher glass microballoon
content. The diffusion rate or coefficient D, could be estimated by using Fick's law, which also predicted that the equilibrium stage could be achieved better at high
temperature conditions when compared to room temperature. The diffusion rate also varied when immersed with different water conditions, for example SW being slower than FW and DD waters due to the effect of the pores' activity. The mechanical properties of syntactic foam, when immersed in different types of waters at room temperature and under hygrothermal conditions, also varied with the duration at 30
days and at 60 days. It can be seen that the modulus of elasticity for both compressive and tensile properties showed decreases when more glass microballoon content was
added, and when immersed for a long duration such as 60 days.

The thermal stability of syntactic foam is also investigated in this study. The compressive and tensile specimens were subjected to a hygrothermal analysis to
determine the glass transition temperature, Tg and thermal expansion, of syntactic foams. In this parametric thermogravimentric analysis (TGA) study, the results for Tg
of syntactic foam with different (wt.%) of glass microballoon showed an increase after a hygrothermal process in which three different types of water were compared with dry specimens. Within the TGA/DTGA curve it was also found that Tonset, Tpeak, and Tend, showed varied temperatures when more glass microballoon content in syntactic foam was added. Moreover, their composition properties, such as their weight loss residue as well as their temperature residue, also decreased until all specimens changed properties in the ash coal type. The thermomechanical analysis (TMA) on kinetic energy was conducted according to the first-order reaction Broido method, which is commonly used in polymer composites that have been discovered. In this study, it is revealed that the parameter, such as activation energy (Ea), decreased when the degradation temperature increased. Within this finding, Ea was varied and depended on the (wt.%) of glass microballoon in syntactic foam. The lower activation energy
was required to complete the decomposition process. A linear expansion study was done, especially with a focus on the thermal dimension stability of syntactic foam, and
the result showed a decrease when more glass microballoon in syntactic foam was added. The lower thermal stability at a higher temperature could be very useful for an
insulator product, particularly in marine and aerospace engineering applications. The linear dimension stability, also called coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE),
decreased when the glass microballoon content increased. The modification of Turner's model was applied in this study for a comparison of CTE in three different
temperatures: 30 oC, 50 oC, and 70 oC for syntactic foam. The modification included parametric study involvement with the effect of radius ration, porosity and voids content in syntactic foam. As a result, the porosity content contributed much more to the CTE value, especially gap of ratio, which was different from the matrix porosity.

In order to achieve a better quality of syntactic foams, the study also investigated the stress intensity factor (SCF) by modelling particularly from the tensile specimens, K around holes at the microballoons. The prediction of strain value between local strains from the experimental strain gauge was compared with the finite element analysis
(FEA) simulation when their varied load in longitudinal and transverse axes was applied to a tensile and flexural sandwich panel's syntactic foam. For the tensile
specimen, the determination of the SCF used one strain gauge, which was attached near the hole in the middle of the extensometer length. The results show that the SCF
values were comparable between experiments with extensometer and strain gage (SG) values, with percentages ranging from 0.40 % to 1.36 %. A comparison and a
prediction were made between experimental values and the FEA analysis results. It could be estimated that the experimental values of around 90 % and 70 % followed the
FEA values for SG1 and SG2, respectively. An investigation on the strain value for flexural sandwich panel syntactic foam was also carried out using the FEA approach to predict the properties' behaviour in this study. It was found that the micro strain for SG1 in the FEA approach was 17% higher than the experimental value, even though they were at the same loading setting. However, the prediction for the micro strain of SG2 was only 2.7 % different, which was considered a good agreement to predict the properties of a syntactic foam core sandwich panel for different loading values.


The system of vegetable crops production required large amounts of mineral fertilizers. One of the possible alternatives to assure the economic and environmental sustainability of this production system would be the use of promoting growth plant rhizobacteria (PGPR). However, care is needed to select a microorganism to be used in crops that are usually consumed raw, so human health is not at risk. It was important to search for PGPR, as rhizobium, that already were broadly used as inoculants for leguminous plants for several decades, without risks to human health. PGPR can promote growth and development of plants through direct and indirect mechanisms, by production and secretion of chemical substances in the rhizosphere. The direct mechanisms were involved with the uptake of nutrients by the plants (nitrogen, phosphorus and essential minerals) through phosphate solubilization, production of siderophores and growth regulators. The indirect mechanisms were involved with the decrease of inhibitory effects from various pathogenic agents related with biological pest control, thereby favoring plant growth. Nevertheless, due to its ability to promote beneficial effects to plants, effective bacterial colonization was extremely important. Some bacteria that colonized the rhizoplane may penetrate the plant roots and some strains may move to the aerial part, with decreased bacterial density, compared with colonizing populations in the rhizosphere or roots. It can be concluded that Rhizobia promotes plant growth using different mechanisms as biological nitrogen fixation and production of different plant growth regulators (e.g. auxins). Therefore, new studies with Rhizobia characterization and observation about its different mechanisms of promoting plant growth should be performed. Such information would be useful for the identification of plants with potential to increase agricultural production due to the benefits of using plant growth promoter's rhizobia.

 Key words: Growth promotion, vegetable crops, rhizobacteria, growth regulators.


Chronic progressive lymphedema (CPL) is a well-known problem in the Belgian draft horse. However, tools for clinical diagnosis have not been standardized. Therefore, the exact disease prevalence and the possible CPL risk factors have not been investigated in the Belgian breed yet. The aim of the present study was to assess a uniform CPL clinical examination method to increase diagnostic objectivity as well as to determine the occurrence and severity of lesions. Using univariate and stepwise multivariable logistic regression models, the association of factors, such as age-gender interaction, coat color and season, with CPL occurrence was examined. In this study, it was demonstrated that CPL is highly prevalent in the Belgian draft horse: 60.66% of the horses of the total sample were affected, including a large proportion of young horses ( = 3 years). In the latter, the lesions were more explicit as CPL is a chronic disorder. In some horses (i.e. 14% of the yearlings), mild clinical symptoms appeared at approximately the age of one, while distinct onset of the disease occurred from the age of three onwards. The factors age-gender interaction, coat color and season, which are significantly associated with CPL occurrence, were identified and quantified. In this study, a standardized diagnostic protocol is proposed that will enhance future data collection and furthermore will offer a foundation for quantitative genetic research. Ultimately, it will help to reduce CPL occurrence in the Belgian draft horse by means of selection.


This study aims to describe the following conditions of job satisfaction, employee engagement, and organizational commitment in XMG's real estate agents. Firstly, the job satisfaction (X) is described within these nine influential factors, such as: pay, promotion, supervision, benefit, rewards, operating conditions, coworkers, nature of work, and then communication. Then, the employee engagement (Y) is described within these ten influential factors, such as: career development, training, leadership, work environment, recognition, management, alignment, infrastructure, performance measurement, and communication. Lastly, the organizational commitment (Z) is described within these categories, such as: affective commitment, continuance commitment, and then normative commitment. The analytical tool used to describe in this study is the standard statistical analysis with mean, standard deviation, mode, and median in each of the influential factors. The population for this study is the entire real estate agents in XMG, which is 42 people, and the sample size is 32 people determined by using non-probability purposive sampling in which only those who have worked since before March 2017. Based on the results of the analysis, it has been described that the job satisfaction is qualified as moderately high, where the highest satisfaction is seen in the nature of work factor, and the lowest is in the pay factor. Then, the employee engagement has been described and qualified as moderately high, where the highest engagement came from the leadership factor, and the lowest is in communication factor. Lastly, commitment has been qualified as moderately high which the highest form commitment is affective commitment and the lowest form of commitment is continuance commitment.


This paper presents the design and development of an augmented reality (AR) app to enhance learning Mandarin among university students using a user-centered design life cycle (UCDL). A survey was conducted to investigate the difficulty of learning Mandarin and the thoughts of using technology to assist the students in learning the language. Fortyfive students participated in the survey. The results show that participants have difficulty learning to speak, write, read, or listen in Mandarin, with writing was found to be the most difficult (M = 3.49, SD = .94). The majority of the participants (n = 39, 87%) reported having never seen or used an AR education app. However, most (n = 36, 80%) also said that they are interested in using an AR app to learn Mandarin. A low-fidelity prototype of an AR app to assist students in learning Mandarin was designed. An expert usability evaluation was conducted with three experts. Thirty-three usability problems were found, and further changes to the low-fi were designed. A usability evaluation of the low-fi with a group of students will be conducted followed by the app's development. A final round of usability testing of the final app will also be conducted.


Abstract. Atmospheric concentration measurements are used to adjust the daily to monthly budget of fossil fuel CO2 emissions of the Paris urban area from the prior estimates established by the Airparif local air quality agency. Five atmospheric monitoring sites are available, including one at the top of the Eiffel Tower. The atmospheric inversion is based on a Bayesian approach, and relies on an atmospheric transport model with a spatial resolution of 2 km with boundary conditions from a global coarse grid transport model. The inversion adjusts prior knowledge about the anthropogenic and biogenic CO2 fluxes from the Airparif inventory and an ecosystem model, respectively, with corrections at a temporal resolution of 6 h, while keeping the spatial distribution from the emission inventory. These corrections are based on assumptions regarding the temporal autocorrelation of prior emissions uncertainties within the daily cycle, and from day to day. The comparison of the measurements against the atmospheric transport simulation driven by the a priori CO2 surface fluxes shows significant differences upwind of the Paris urban area, which suggests a large and uncertain contribution from distant sources and sinks to the CO2 concentration variability. This contribution advocates that the inversion should aim at minimising model–data misfits in upwind–downwind gradients rather than misfits in mole fractions at individual sites. Another conclusion of the direct model–measurement comparison is that the CO2 variability at the top of the Eiffel Tower is large and poorly represented by the model for most wind speeds and directions. The model's inability to reproduce the CO2 variability at the heart of the city makes such measurements ill-suited for the inversion. This and the need to constrain the budgets for the whole city suggests the assimilation of upwind–downwind mole fraction gradients between sites at the edge of the urban area only. The inversion significantly improves the agreement between measured and modelled concentration gradients. Realistic emissions are retrieved for two 30-day periods and suggest a significant overestimate by the AirParif inventory. Similar inversions over longer periods are necessary for a proper evaluation of the optimised CO2 emissions against independent data.


meso-2,3-Dimercaptosuccinic acid is a suitable chelating agent for routine pharmacotherapy of lead poisoning in children. Administration of meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid presumably permits complexation of lead in vivo, allowing excretion through urine or feces. Quantification of the lead is achieved independently from the analysis of meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid and metabolites from the monobromobimane assay. To date, no direct chemical characterization of the Pb species excreted in urine has been successful. Pharmacokinetic correlation of lead excretion with excretion of meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid and metabolites has been utilized as an indirect method to draw conclusions regarding the identity of the active chelating agent. In this study, we hypothesized that the Pb-coordinated thiols are not reactive with respect to monobromobimane, and thus, the active chelator contained in the lead complex escapes detection. We performed variations of the assay and found that (1) the fluorescence detector response for the meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid-monobromobimane adduct was clearly attenuated as a function of added Pb, (2) when meso-2, 3-dimercaptosuccinic acid and monobromobimane were mixed prior to the addition of lead, the lead had no effect on detector response, (3) the addition of dithiothreitol does not affect the ability of Pb to react with meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid and verifies that oxidation of meso-DMSA had not occurred, and (4) the addition of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid to the assay reverses the result found in point 1, presumably through trans chelation of the Pb-DMSA complex. Indirect quantification of the Pb-DMSA complexes found in urine might be accomplished through modification of the standard monobromobimane assay for analysis of meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid.


In most patients with spinal cord compression due to epidural metastasis, the initial symptom is progressive back pain with an axial or radicular distribution, but early symptoms are often nonspecific. Since the key prognostic factor is the neurologic status at the time of presentation, and since early complaints are often nonspecific, a high index of suspicion is needed to diagnose this complication early.


This book captures and communicates the wealth of architecture experience Capgemini has gathered as a member of The Open Group a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium formed by major industry players in developing, deploying, and using its Integrated Architecture Framework (IAF) since its origination in 1993. Today, many elements of IAF have been incorporated into the new version 9 of TOGAF, the related Open Group standard. The authors, all working on and with IAF for many years, here provide a full reference to IAF and a guide on how to apply it. In addition, they describe in detail the relations between IAF and the architecture standards TOGAF and Archimate and other development or process frameworks like ITIL, CMMI, and RUP. Their presentation is targeted at architects, project managers, and process analysts who have either considered or are already working with IAF they will find many roadmaps, case studies, checklists, and tips and advice for their daily work.


Background: Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the world. The receptor tyrosine kinase MET is constitutively activated in many gastric cancers and its expression is strictly required for survival of some gastric cancer cells. Thus, MET is considered a good candidate for targeted therapeutic intervention in this type of tumor, and MET inhibitors recently entered clinical trials. One of the major problems of therapies targeting tyrosine kinases is that many tumors are not responsive to treatment or eventually develop resistance to the drugs. Perspective studies are thus mandatory to identify the molecular mechanisms that could cause resistance to these therapies. Results: Our in vitro and in vivo results demonstrate that, in MET-addicted gastric cancer cells, the activation of HER (Human Epidermal Receptor) family members induces resistance to MET silencing or inhibition by PHA-665752 (a selective kinase inhibitor). We provide molecular evidences highlighting the role of EGFR, HER3, and downstream signaling pathways common to MET and HER family in resistance to MET inhibitors. Moreover, we show that an in vitro generated gastric cancer cell line resistant to MET-inhibition displays overexpression of HER family members, whose activation contributes to maintenance of resistance. Conclusions: Our findings predict that gastric cancer tumors bearing constitutive activation of HER family members are poorly responsive to MET inhibition, even if this receptor is constitutively active. Moreover, the appearance of these alterations might also be responsible for the onset of resistance in initially responsive tumors. Background Many efforts have been focused in better understanding the mechanisms of malignant transformation, resulting in the identification of molecules playing a crucial role in tumor growth. The race to discover compounds that specifically inhibit these targets is giving promising results, and many of these drugs successfully entered clinical trials , opening the era of the "targeted therapies" [1]. Cancer is a multigenic disease arising from the accumulation of different alterations of genes controlling cell proliferation and/or apoptosis [2]. However, recent studies in preclinical models demonstrated that tumor cells may be dependent on a single oncogene for their prolifer


The vaginal microbiota of healthy women consists of a wide variety of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria, dominated by the genus Lactobacillus. The activity of lactobacilli is essential to protect women from genital infections and to maintain the natural healthy balance of the vaginal ecosystem. This role is particularly important during pregnancy because vaginal infection is one of the most important mechanisms for preterm birth. The most common vaginal disorder is bacterial vaginosis (BV). BV is a polymicrobial disorder, characterized by a depletion of lactobacilli and an increase in the concentration of other bacteria, including Gardnerella vaginalis, anaerobic Gram-negative rods, anaerobic Gram-positive cocci, Mycoplasma hominis, and Mobiluncus spp. An integrated molecular approach based on real-time PCR and PCR-DGGE was used to investigate the effects of two different therapeutic approaches on the vaginal microbiota composition. (i) The impact of a dietary supplementation with the probiotic VSL#3, a mixture of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus strains, on the vaginal microbial ecology and immunological profiles of healthy women during late pregnancy was investigated. The intake was associated to a slight modulation of the vaginal microbiota and cytokine secretion, with potential implications in preventing preterm birth. (ii) The efficacy of different doses of the antibiotic rifaximin (100 mg/day for 5 days, 25 mg/day for 5 days, 100 mg/day for 2 days) on the vaginal microbiota of patients with BV enrolled in a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled study was also evaluated. The molecular analyses demonstrated the ability of rifaximin 25 mg/day for 5 days to induce an increase of lactobacilli and a decrease of the BV-associated bacteria after antibiotic treatment, and a reduction of the complexity of the vaginal microbial communities. Thus, confirming clinical results, it represents the most effective treatment to be used in future pivotal studies for the treatment of BV.


Dialects are one of the parallels that have long been established between human language and animal communication. We discuss the potential functional parallels between human and animal dialects, arguing that in both cases different mechanisms and functions may be at stake where large geographical versus very localized (e.g. social) variations are concerned. Birdsong studies in particular, but also recent studies of mammal vocalizations, show that the use of the term "dialect" to refer to within-species vocal variations in animal species is more than a metaphor and that animal dialects offer a possibility to explore the causes and functions of linguistic variation and change, one of the challenges in exploring the origin of diversity of language families. We present here an original view, as our approach was not "primate-centered," and take into consideration "homoplasy" (analogy) as a potential mechanism to explain that different taxa have evolved the same functional response to social constraints.


A guide to library resources for doing research in women's, gender, and sexuality studies. You'll find indexes to the popular and scholarly literature, as well as film, images, statistics, and research databases.


Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a vitamin-like substance, and a natural intermediate of electron transport chain (ETC) of mitochondria which can accepts and donates electrons from complex I to complex II. CoQ10 shares a biosynthetic pathway with cholesterol, therefore it can be a potential target of the widely available lipid-lowering agents. The lipid lowering drugs such as statins, are widely administered to individuals who have high cholesterol levels and potential risk for cardiovascular diseases. Statins do not cause serious adverse effects in human however its long-term administration can cause a variety of myopatic complaints.This article reviews the a) clinical benefits of CoQ10 b) association between administration of statin and CoQ10 deficiency and c) involvement of CoQ10 in statin-associated myopathy.